a mug shot

Some things just make me smile. Even the little things add up and make a whole lotta happy.

Like this mug...

...it was a birthday present from Julia a few years ago. Almost every morning I fill it with coffee or tea. It either hangs out on the table as I do my morning chores, waiting for me to pass by and take a sip, or sits next to me as I read a note or two from friends.

Isn't it funny how something as small as a special coffee mug can help make your day that much better?

It has a spot in my suitcase...it's comin' with me!

_________

We leave in 2 1\2 weeks! We have to be out of the house next weekend - how weird is that??

:)

It's true

I think it's time for a liittle update on what's been happening around here! :) I still plan on doing a post on showing you the blog designs I've been working on, even though that's old news by now.

Let's see....

We had these guys here for two weeks. They helped teach classes, we passed out fliers, talked, laughed, ate, played football, and just had a great ol time! Yay for new friends!

~~~

We also...............booked our tickets.Yes, to move back to the States. 

We leave on April 25th. Four weeks, 5 days.

I thought I was so ready for this, and I am...but it's much more bittersweet than I even thought it would be.

I'm so excited to get out and be "back"...around people and being able to do things. At the same time, I'm a bit nervous. We've been here for so long, we each have out little comfort zone, and the thought of starting completely over somewhere is a little intimidating, I have to admit. 

~

I'm so excited to see what God has planned for us. There are good things in our future, I'm sure.  Please keep us in your prayers as we move!

Iringa

Here are just a few pictures that I hope you'll enjoy!

 Driving down to Iringa.  I think Panya wanted to be the figurehead...

This is how Don and Axe spent their time.

This is how Panya spent her time.

Or this...(what a cutie!)

Since there was no AC, we had all the windows rolled down the entire trip.  It was a liiiittle windy! 

 This is our backyard.  Note the handy little spigot in the middle there...

 The front yard!  Isn't it pretty up there?  The scenery is definitely different than in the North.  

Heh heh.  We have two mango trees, and the dogs snack on the fallen fruit all day long.  Panya has a fat little mango belly!

Going running with deh boys! 

We made it

Thank you all so much for the prayers - we've made it safely down to Iringa, and have been getting everything sorted out.

I hardly know what day it is right now, everything seems pretty jumbled up, but let's see if I can give you a bit of what's happened!

A truck came last Tuesday afternoon, and we were able to get everything loaded up, and the truck locked.  We had sleeping bags out still, so we slept at our house that night and got up early Wednesday morning and started driving!   

Mom and Dad were in the Land Cruiser pulling the trailer that had our suitcases and sleeping bags, etc. in it, and the boys and I were in the Wagon with the dogs.  Don and Axe were in the very back and they did great, except for getting really hot.  They made it through the trip without dying - yes!  I was in the middle seat with the ice chest and Panya.  She was really good too, just went back and forth between laying down and looking out my window.  She liked to growl at giraffes and impala we passed!

We got to Iringa at probably around 10pm, and slept at an inn.

The next morning we got to our house, and started getting everything unpacked!  Since then, we've pretty much been doing the same things - unpack, carry boxes, unpack, take apart empty boxes...ask other family members "Do you want this?" every few minutes.  Heh heh.

We worshiped with the brethren here on Sunday; the building is about 20 minutes from our house.  Mwakalonge preached a good sermon, and the people were friendly.  

Hopefully we'll get internet up at the house in a few days.  It'll be nice when things get settled in enough to get back into a regular schedule.

Has anyone made any goals for the New Year?  I've written down a few general guidelines for myself.  They're not resolutions, since I've been doing them anyway, but New Year's is a convenient time to look at goals, etc. you have.

Here are a few of mine:

 - Daily Bible study and prayer time

 - Drink at least a couple of glasses of water a day 
(I usually drink a litre or two a day, but this is just so if I don't drink that much in a day, I at least get something!)

 - Exercise 3 times a week\train to run a 10K
(Hopefully more, but this is so I don't set myself up for disaster, haha) 

So there we have it, hope you all are having a great week!

 ~

 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

Philippians 4:4
 

 

An update...and the Christmas spirit

It's been quite a while since I posted last, but I was waiting until I had some more news to share before I actually did one. 

Most of you already know that our family will be moving to southern Tanzania to finish out our five year commitment.  There's been a lot of work done up here in the North, but there's been hardly any done down South.  We're really hoping to be able to encourage and share the Gospel with the people in Iringa.

Dad, Mom, Mr. Carey, and Mwakalonge (a graduate from the school who will be working with us) got back this morning after being in Iringa for nine days.  It took longer than initially thought, but they were able to find a house for us!  The houses are simple, but nice, and perfectly suitable for what we need.  We're hoping to go down on January 3rd.  Hopefully, some pictures will come soon! :)

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas!  I need to get back to playing Christmas music...it helps me get in the Christmas spirit.  And I need to get back to making Christmasy foods (without charring the end of my finger like I did when I made almond roca...).  It helps the Christmas spirit.  Unfortunately, Christmasy foods also helps you get the Christmas waistline.  Just joking, I don't really gain weight during the holidays.  I just wanted to say "Chrismas" a few more times.

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas?

Don't look at me like that!

Look at that face!  {And this is nothing compared to when she wrinkles her forehead and looks all worried.} I can't resist it!

Now that I have that off my chest...

Dad and Jacob left for Nairobi at about 3am this morning,  so Jake can get some dental work done.  Hopefully they'll be back either tonight or tomorrow morning.

I'd like to thank Mum for sharing the link for my last post on facebook!  Since you all enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd give you a couple more quotes from when we did pilates next.

TV: "Make sure you engage your abdominals for this segment..."

Us: "This sure is a good neck exercise!"

...

TV: "...Now, rest with your head face-down on the mat..."

Me: "*bonk* I can't - that squishes my nose!"

I feel like I should inform you that we do spend some time working out when we work out.  

I need to come up with a halloween costume.  We're having the Gees over for a party, and everyone has to dress up!  Bwahaha, we'll see what everyone comes up with. 

 ~

Don't forget to go check out Cookie Monster for some new recipes!

Home again

A "we made it back safely" post is long overdue, but here it is.  *ahem*

Here we are in TZ again, safe and sound!  We've been getting back to normal, starting with cleaning the house up and getting everything back in order.  

I got my puppy.  Her name is Panya, and she's the cutest little thing!  She's almost exactly four months old.  I don't have any good pictures of her at the moment, but hopefully I will soon!

Hope y'all have had a wonderful week! 

Goodbye, America

How strange that we're flying back to Africa tomorrow morning!  This has been a great furlough with lots of things that've happened.  Julia got married, we went to Polishing the Pulpit, visited lots of friends, and went to Roundhouse!  Roundhouse is definitely always the highlight of any visit.  It gives a tiny, little taste of what Heaven must be like one day.  

I don't have too much to say, just please pray that we have a safe journey!

Love,

Here we are, back in Knoxville; right now we're staying with the Apples.  They're so kind and generous to us!

Pretty much at this point, we're just waiting until Roundhouse is over, then we'll head back home.  Last week we got in things like dentist appointments.  It turns out that we even have great hygiene.  *ding!*  Mr. Dentist, yes, I have been flossing...I don't want to have my teeth rotted out by the time I'm 45.  

Before I close out this little blurb, I just want to say one word: Vanilla Cupcake.

 Yes, please!

These are $4 at Walmart and smell really good.  I mean reeaally good!

These are exactly what I smell like after I use the lotion or body spray.

I love smelly-good things!

:)

Lonesome Pine, I hear ya calling

We were able to go to a bluegrass festival on the September 2nd, and it was so much fun!  We got to see Donna Hughes, Blue Highway, the Josh Williams Band, and (drum roll, please!) the Tony Rice Unit.  If you haven't heard Tony Rice, look him up on Youtube or some such.  My favorite thing of his is Shenandoah.

The great thing about Bluegrass is that the bands usually sound their best when they're performing live.  You can't say that about really any other genre.  

We got there early in the afternoon in time to hear Donna Hughes, and after that we listened to Josh Williams for an hour, then Blue Highway.  Blue Highway's banjo picker smiled at me about 5 times.  Through the sea of the wild, screaming fans!  Ok, so that's not true.  Out of the handful of people that were scattered here and there at that time, he happened to look our way and smile.  I won't even mention when their bass player grinned at me, either.

    Anyway, we went back to the van and had a bite to eat (mine consisted mainly of peanut butter), then looked around at the vendors until it was time for Tony Rice to have a signing session of his biography.  The boys went to look at knives, and I went to look at purses and bags.  {Who would've guessed that?}  I got a really cute purse - the perfect size that doesn't look huge, but is bottomless, sort of like the Mary Poppins bag!  It's a good thing I'd already decided to buy it anyway, because the lady started telling me what a pretty bag it was, and how great it would look on my arm.  *snort* Sorry, but that's not the way to make me buy something.  Way to be sly...

We headed to the place where Tony Rice would be doing the book signing, and waited.  Dad and the boys got in line (they were third), and Mom and I sat on a bench right outside the open window.  After a while of waiting, and people passing by and saying over and over to each other "Is he here yet?", a big blue truck pulled up.  A guy who was talking away on his cell phone suddenly said, "He's here!" and snapped it shut.

    Meanwhile, my head was whipping around in every direction just in case he came from a side I wasn't expecting.  Then...I saw him.  {And his wife that looked like Cruela DeVill} I heard the gravely voice, and he started slowly walking towards us.  He walked so close in front of me, I could've squeaked out a toe and tripped him.  Then he looked right at me (grinning like an idiot, no doubt), and his mustache twitched.  I was starstruck.  He kept walking, and I saw his nasty little ponytail that looked like it got caught in the garbage disposal, and then it lessened just a bit.  He went inside and sat at a little table, and started signing books.  When it was Luke's turn, he handed Tony his guitar and asked if he would mind signing it.  I hear from a very reliable source that Tony rasped "myeah, if you want me to deface it".  Luke was starstruck too.  

    After the guitar and book were signed, we went back to the car so Luke could put it away.  We all oohed and aahed at it for a while, then headed back to our seats and listened to more Blue Highway, Josh Williams, and Donna Hughes.

It was 10pm when it was finally time for the Tony Rice Unit.  It was amazing!  They didn't play that many songs, but the songs they did play were long.  For example, they did Nine Pound Hammer, and the instrumental break was so long that when they finally wrapped it up with the last verse, people had pretty much forgot that was the song they were doing.  

We finally got back to the hotel after 12, and all had to look at the signature on the guitar for a while before we could go to bed. :)

Jake and Luke having fun listening

Tony Rice

"*stutter stutter* Would you mind signing my guitar?"

 

Blue Highway

Josh Williams Band

The Tony Rice Unit!

Goodbye, California

This last month we've been in California spending time with family.  It's been really fun, and great to visit with everyone!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the Jackson {my mum's side} clan, but I did get some pictures of when we spent time with the Jensen side of the family.

 8 of the 12 cousins!

(Back row, from left to right: Jacob, Luke, Andy, Marcus

Front row, left to right: Amy, me, Emily, Laura) 

One day, we decided to drive up to Yosemite National Park since it was only about two hours away.  It was so beautiful!  I was so glad we could spend time together looking at God's creation.  (Minus the time we spent riding the stinky shuttle with the grumpy driver lady honking the whole time and complaining about traffic having to stop for pedestrians crossing the road...and making terrifying sounds over the mic to stop a baby from crying. But that's another story...)

Everything was massive! 

It was a good day. :)

-*-

Right now, we're on our way to Tennessee to go to Polishing the Pulpit.  I'm really excited about going, I've heard alot of good things about it!

Day in San Francisco

Sunday before last, we went to San Francisco to visit a couple of our supporting congregations and stay with Dad's sister and her family.  Monday we went to the city and had a fun family day!

 We spent our day at Fisherman's Wharf walking around and looking in shops

 This was at lunchtime.  We watched for a little bit while this guy cooked crabs then broke them up

There were lots of places to choose from!  

We looked in the Hard Rock!  We came out pretty quickly though, because things were so expensive...but we did get our picture in front of it!

_

**It was a fun day**

Oh the things we will do, you and I!

Time for an update!  Things have been going really well over here.  We're in California staying with Mom's parents right now, and it's been really nice to spend time with them.  The boys and I spent the night at Uncle Jared and Aunt Sandy's with Nicholas and Matthew a few nights ago, and last night I spent the night at Jason and Jill's with the girls.  It was fun!  They're all really sweet. :)

Mum's been working on her lessons for a ladies' day she's doing here Saturday, and I've been working on a little talk I'm going to give about our work and my perspective on it.  I'm really excited to hearing Mom's lesson!

The boys and I have been trying to go running every day.  I really like to run!  If I had a good place to run at home, I'd get a training schedule to build up my endurance.  It's amazing how fatty all the foods are here - it's easy to forget!  Anyway, traveling around in the car, and sitting most of the time doesn't do too much to make you feel great.


Last week we went to San Francisco to visit a couple congregations that support us, then on Monday we walked around the city.  It was really nice to have a family day!

Next week we'll go up to Angel's Camp and spend a week or so with Dad's side of the family, so that should be fun.


I've talked to Julia a couple times, and she and Lee are doing really well.  They've been getting settled in, and she's been doing all sorts of wifey things. :)


Hope everyone is having a great week!


{Remember to take a look at Cookie Monster for new recipes, and feel free to leave a comment!}

 **Edit**

I just thought it would be really cool to mention that I've been getting hits from Brazil, and today from France! {I really want to visit France one day...}
~
Obrigado
&

Merci bien!
~

About to board the big bird. {aka - about to leave for the States}

We've had a wonderful Sunday so far!  We went to Arusha for worship this morning, came back home and had a nice lunch, and have been packing away and trying to get things ready to leave tomorrow.  Tomorrow?  Is that what I said?  Sure enough!     

Hmm, it seems like Lee and Julia were just spreading the word that they were engaged, and we were saying to people "See you in 7 months!"...and now we leave tomorrow.  I'm really excited about seeing alot of people - family and close friends, but another part of me wants to stay right where I am!  I suppose that's a good thing though that I love where I am.  :)

I'm not sure if I'll have time to do a post tomorrow.  Tomorrow's the day where we change sheets, pack the last minute things {like my old toothbrush that's so frayed it looks like it's saying, "I surrender!"} into our bags, and try to get all the remnants of laundry done.  :)

So please pray that we'll have be safe while traveling, and Lord willing I'll probably see many of you soon! :D

Here we go again

It's been much too long since I've posted.  Again.  *Scuffs foot*  This is going to have to be a short, update post, though.  :)

- 

 We went to the Mwakabanje's house for supper tonight.  They're a wonderful family, and I love them so much.  Christopher's wife, Julia is a great cook, and we all left feeling like we might need a gurney!  

- 

Julia leaves day after tomorrow.  Day after tomorrow... as in tomorrow, she'll leave tomorrow.  How did it come so fast?  And we leave three weeks after she does - Yikes!  

-

My recipe blog, Cookie Monster, has gotten a face lift, you should go check it out!  Poor little neglected thing...I'll have to put up a new recipe soon.  Maybe the ravioli recipe??

-

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

And you thought I changed my blog design alot before! :)

Lydia gets here tomorrow ~ Oh hooray!  :)  I love company that isn't "company".  You know, the "Oh good, you're here...you can help us make up your bed!" kind.  {Hehe!}, so maaaaybe not quite like that, but it's the general idea.  

-

Please pray that her travel is smooth and that she arrives safely. 

:)

-

I had been trying to find a program similar to photoshop I could download for free, because my mac didn't come with anything at all besides Preview.  I could do a couple things on it, but barely anything.  Sooooo *dun dun duuun*, I downloaded Gimp! {Thanks to recommendations from Kristen Jenkins and kevinandamanda.com.}  It's really neat!  I'm actually able to make headers and all that for my blog, and I can even design and make entire blog backgrounds!  {*excitement*}

- 

(Have you ever noticed that having a cute blog makes you feel like actually writing on it more often?)

Well hello February! When did you get here?

Oh February, what will you bring?  

-*-*-*-

Well, in about half an hour we're going to town to do some last minute shopping for snacks, etc. before Lee and Julia leave, going to eat supper, then going to the airport.  Julia's going back with Lee this month to spend some time there and meet his family.  It's been so great having Lee here.  It's been wonderful to get to  know him, and have him be with our family.

-*-*-*-

Lee, thank you so much.  Thank you for being what my sister needs...thank you for making her happy.

-*-*-*-

~(And what a *cute* couple they make!)~ 

:D

-*-*-*-

This month should be great!  Hopefully, I'm going to be able to get alot of things done.  I don't have enough time at the moment to reveeeal all my plans {insert evil chuckle}, but in my next post,  I'll fill you all in.  Oh yay!

-*-*-*-

Ok, it's off to town I go! 

:)

 

Please keep Lee and Julia in your prayers as they travel!

-*-*-*-