Cyberbones

Wordless Wednesday - Help

2012-01-25T18:44:00.002+01:00

Wordless Wednesday -- Look What Zo Found Now...Eeek!

2012-01-18T09:31:00.003+01:00

Wordless Wednesday -- Where'd You Go?

2012-01-11T19:16:00.002+01:00

Ain't Worth the Clean-up

2012-01-03T14:39:00.005+01:00

What does making bread in a food processor have in common with Christmas? You got it! Right now I'm thinking both things just ain't worth the clean-up.

We have officailly reached the point where I am sick of all the Christmas decorations and they really gotta come down. Soon. Like yesterday. Traditionally we leave the stuff up until the kids go back to school. This year the kids don't head back until the 9th. I don't think I can hang in there that long. However trying to pack up all those breakable things with three wild children trying to help guarantees something, usually something of great sentimental value, will be broken beyond repair. So I guess Christmas stays for one more week, but I am really looking forward to having it all packed away, and the house cleaned, and put back to rights. I am not looking forward to all the work. No matter how I look at it I have at least two days of work getting it all boxed up. Sigh. Currently I'm not convinced that it was all worth it, that's a lot of cleaning up to do.

One of the best presents I received this year was a much longed for food processor. It's a thing of beauty. A sliver Cuisinart all shiny and new just waiting for me to try out everything it can do. Most things it does wonderfully. Nearly instant strawberry ice cream, fantastic. Bread crumbs, perfect! Chopping vegetables to make the mirepoix for the black-eyed peas for our New Year's Day party, so easy and so fast. I can't wait to make a carrot cake just to see how well it does shredding all those carrots. The one thing I have found that it doesn't do well well is knead bread dough.

Now I know this seems obvious to some, it is after all a food processor, not a bread machine. But here's the thing. It came with a dough blade, and there are recipes for bread in the cookbook that came with it. It should make bread dough. I figured I had to try it out at least once. In fairness it did seem to do a good job of kneading the dough, but holy cow what a mess. That was the first and last time I'm trying that. It just ain't worth the clean up. The dough managed to work itself into every hard to clean crack of that machine, I spent more time cleaning that thing than if I had just mixed and kneaded the dough by hand. And to top it off I had to hold the base while it was kneading the dough or it started to walk across the counter.

Now unless I am really in the mood to mess with bread dough all I want to do is dump all the ingredients in a machine and go have a cup of coffee while the machine does the hard stuff. Then I can just yank the dough out, shape into a loaf, and bake it up. I do not want to have to baby sit the machine to keep it from committing suicide by walking off the edge of the counter. Sadly my bread machine disappeared during our first international move 6 years ago, I really miss that machine. Happily my KitchenAid stand mixer does a pretty good job of handing the messy part of making bread. I guess I will stick with the KitchenAid unless of course I get a bread machine for Mother's Day. (Yes Babe, that was a hint!)

Not Exactly Wordless Wednesday - I'm An Elf!

2011-12-21T08:46:00.004+01:00

Wordless Wednesday - Wood Hoopoes

2011-12-14T15:37:00.003+01:00

We Survived

2011-12-10T17:44:00.005+01:00

Last week David went to Frankfurt for training. I didn't blog about it at the time because according to Donna's sacred rules of FS blogging rule #2 it is better to blog about events afterward rather than announcing to the world in general that David will be flying internationally on Friday on Ethiopian Air and that the boys and I will be home alone all week. So I held my peace and mentally wrote smart-a**, tongue in cheek, dark humor type posts dealing with driving in Malawi and my reaction to Dave texting me pictures of his dinner at Koh Samui, my favorite Thai restaurant. Hmmmph! They would have been funny posts, in a very sarcastic way, but then yesterday happened. We survived is probably the best I can say and I am thankful to be able to say that. So what happened? Well pull up a chair, have a sit, and let me tell you. This is going to take a while so choose a comfortable chair.

Sometime before 5 in the morning on Friday I was awoken for the second day in a row to the sound of a smoke alarm complaining of a low battery. You know the sound a slow steady and yet oh so loud BEEP.......BEEP.......BEEP......BEEP.....David's reaction to this is usually to pull the offending alarm, remove it's battery thereby shutting it up, and go back to sleep. Sadly I am not as tall as Dave so even with the tallest stepladder in the house I can't reach the alarm. I took a deep breath and acknowledged that sleep was over and I might as well get up. I was more than a bit pissed because maintenance had been out the day before to look at the alarms and replace batteries after the beeping woke me up at 4:15 on Thursday. Turning on the light I was relieved to see the alarm was a little later today and it was almost 4:45 so that wasn't too bad. I was planning to make popovers for the kids last day of school before the holidays and needed to get up early anyway.

Popovers cooking, drinking a hot cup coffee in the quiet peace before the kids awoke I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had stayed up late making cupcakes for Grayson's party, slicing mounds of vegetables and making homemade ranch dip for Colin and Alonzo's parties. I had left the kitchen a mess the night before but that wasn't going to be a problem. I had plenty of time to clean the kitchen, take a shower, make cookies for the Christmas party at the ambassador's in the afternoon, and if all went well I would even have time to give myself a pedicure before Dave's plane landed at 12:30 so that my toes would be pretty at the party. Things did not go well.

It started off well enough. The popovers popped beautifully and the kids were happy to have their favorite breakfast treat on a school day. I managed to get everyone dressed and out the door with backpacks, water bottles, party treats, and 100 kwacha each to pay for being out of uniform. Yes the school makes you pay if you were civilian clothes on special party days, seriously.

I glanced at my watch it was now about 5 minutes before the bus should arrive. We were slightly ahead of schedule. I decided I had just enough time to call in to complain about the beeping. Yes the alarm was still beeping. BEEP....BEEP.....BEEP....after a bit you just tune it out, or go crazy, whichever. I told the kids to wait by the gate and I would be right out. I called the poor soul that mans the phones after hours for the umpteenth time in a week. I could almost hear him thinking "You again!" Dave goes out of town and everything breaks, usually after hours. While I was on the phone I hear a blood curdling shriek. Recognizing Alonzo's voice I ignored him because this child will scream like a banshee and swear he is bleeding to death from a paper cut so I figured if he was screaming he was still well enough to breathe and breathing is a good thing. Right?

By the time I hang up he has stumbled in the house and is laying on the floor sobbing. I look him over, don't see any blood, and he did make it into the house on his own power so he couldn't be hurt too badly. Right? Without a whole lot of sympathy I ask what's wrong and he sobs louder. If there are words in the sobbing I can't tell it. His brother appears to tell me he fell out of a tree. Big deep breath, I can feel my head trying to explode.

"Where are you hurt?" I manage to asks with out screaming "Why the BEEP were you up a tree when I said to wait by the gate?" although I promise you I thought it, loudly. He sobs something that might have been a word.

The bother chimes in "I think he broke his arm." Great, just dandy.

I manage to get him to stand up and stop sobbing quite so loudly. I ask if he wants to stay home and go to med to which he responds between gasping sobs "I d-d-don't want to m-m-miss the p-p-party." and to which I thought, but didn't say, "Then you should a stayed out of the BEEPing tree."

I tell him if he wants to go to the party he has to stop crying and go get on the bus which apparently arrived as he fell out of the tree and is now honking a bit impatiently. Can't really blame the driver there. I get the boy loaded on the bus and head back in for more coffee, I really need more coffee. That wasn't going to happen. About the time I finish stirring in the cream the doorbell rings. SIGH! I set the cup down without taking a sip and go see what's up. It's the guard telling me the bus is back. Of course it is. Alonzo is crying again and now no longer cares about the party. He wants to go to med. Great that means I will have to drive. I don't drive here, ever. The steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car, the cars are on the wrong side of the road. Toss in my total lack of a sense of direction, all the pedestrians, gas lines, minibuses, and non-working traffic lights and we have a problem Houston.

I call med to let them know what is up and then manage to get to the embassy with killing myself, the car, or any pedestrians. Whew. We meet with the folks at med who send us off to Partners in Hope for x-rays. Having never heard of this place nor having any idea where it is I manage to convince them it is important, that in the interest of not wrecking the car and creating more work for med, that I have someone from motor pool drive us. Good call! Motor pool drops us off. The x-rays are taken, payed for (with money I had to borrow from med), and processed. Film in hand I call motor pool to send a car to retrieve us and we head back to med. Med looks at the film and confirms the kid is broken. They are surprised he wasn't casted there and ask what the doctor said.

"Ummm....I didn't see a doctor, just the technician who took the x-ray. When he was done he gave me the film and said to go back so I did." Apparently I was supposed to see a doctor and misunderstood what I was supposed to do when he said "Go back" I was supposed to go back to the front desk or possibly go back to sitting in the chair in the waiting room, but I was not supposed go back to the embassy. CRAP!

Med quickly reassures it will be OK and then they spend a few minutes formulating a new plan. They also reassure me that they have contacted the management officer (MO) and the community liaison officer (CLO) who have made arrangements for my kids to go home with the CLO's kids so they will be fine after school. Not to worry.

The new plan is for me to go to ABC Clinic for casting. We call for another car from motor pool and are promptly told there are no drivers available. By this time I am thinking if I can just hang in there until 12:30 Dave will be home and I can have a nervous breakdown while he deals with all of this. I have never missed the ER at Methodist Children's Hospital so much in my life. One stop shopping for all you emergency needs.

After a quick call to the MO he manages to produce a driver and car from somewhere. I didn't ask where, but I almost wept in gratitude, and we are off. I meet with a lovely British doctor who reviews the films and talks to me and Alonzo about how we should cast this. Then we meet with the guy who actually does the casting. He has a different plan called a backslab. He and the doctor disappear for a bit and eventually reappear to tell me he will be getting a full cast to above the elbow. Ok that's great. At this point I just want it to be done so we can go home. The doctor leaves to see another patient and the guy doing the casting does a backslab cast anyway. This is just a piece of plaster that runs along the back of the arm like a splint and is held on by an ace bandage, it is not a full cast.

The doctor returns, takes in the situation, and decides that maybe this is fine. Alonzo needs to return on Wednesday anyway when the orthopedic doctor comes his visit to make sure all is well.

We are finally on our way back to way back to the embassy when I get a text from Dave. YAY! He's back! I tell him to meet me at the embassy. He tells me he is in Lubumbashi. WHERE??? He is supposed to be here NOW! How can I have a nervous breakdown if he isn't here to take over? Besides we have to be at a party at the ambassador's residence in like three hours, I am still at Med with a broken kid, I still need to make cookies, I've only had one cup of coffee today, I never did have breakfast, and I getting pretty light headed

Med finally releases us after feeding us both yummy granola bars from a personal stash. I manage to get lost between the embassy and the CLO's house which wouldn't be so bad, but it's not that far from the embassy, and she lives really close to my house. And still I managed to get lost. The kid in the backseat with the broken arm is the one who has to give me directions to get me unlost. When I said I had no sense of direction I wasn't kidding.

I walk in the house and my friend looks at me and ask if we have eaten. I say no and she starts cooking quesadillas even though she is in the middle of coordinating the Christmas party at the ambassador's residence that will take place in just over two hours. We all need friends like that! I inhale my quesadilla and so does Alonzo, I don't know that last time food tasted that good. I collect my children and manage to make it home with our getting lost again.

Fast forward two hours I have managed to unearth some snickerdoodles from the freezer, those will have to do for our cookie contribution. The kids are cleaned up to a level that is mostly presentable, and I am dressed and almost ready to go. I get a text from Dave saying he has landed, in Lilongwe this time, and should make it home in time for the party. Things are looking better. Finally.

We have a nice time at the party. Alonzo enjoyed showing off his war wounds. We sing carols and take pictures with Santa Claus. When we arrived at the party Dave handed me glass of wine and told me to relax. I did. When he noticed I was out of wine he handed me a cup of hot mulled wine and managed to keep that cup full the remainder of the party. Do you remember what I have to eat today? One granola bar and one quesadilla. Drinking on an empty stomach is a bad idea. Drinking on an empty stomach at a party at the ambassador's house is a really bad idea. I don't think I did or said anything too stupid, at least I hope not, I'm not exactly sure. If I did please don't tell me, I don't want to know. My head was really spinning when we left.

I thought the day was done with us. The kid was broken, my husband ended up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when I needed him at home, I had to drive, and yet we had still made it to the party, even if I was a little drunk. We had survived. HA!

The day wasn't over yet. I sat down to send my mom an e-mail and realized three things:

The alarm was still beeping and I never called to cancel the maintenance guys who probably showed up only to find I wasn't home and they were wasting their time. David fixed that by yanking the alarm down and removing it's batteries. Silence, blessed silence.
The internet was down, nothing unusual in that, and hopefully it would be up soon.
The computer was dead. The nice, relatively new iMac with the 21inch screen, the computer the kids use for homework, the computer we use for Skype, that computer was deader than a doorknob.

What a perfect way to end a perfectly crappy day, but we survived.

Wordless Wednesday - The Camera Shy Turaco

2011-12-07T09:16:00.004+01:00

Wordless Wednesday - Why Women Live Longer Than Men

2011-11-30T17:45:00.002+01:00

Oh Baby Baby, It's A Wild World

2011-11-26T17:34:00.005+01:00

It's Saturday night. The weekend is only half over. So far this weekend has seen a pied crow with an apparently broken wing, the return (yet again) of Squirtle the Bell's Hingeback Tortoise, several lizards, a white tree frog with orange feet, two millipedes, a brownish tree frog with red feet, assorted bugs, a blue headed agama, and last but not least, the African pygmy hedgehog currently eating a cricket in my kitchen. Thankfully there have been no spiders or snakes, yet.

I am not sure why my kids spend so much time watching Animal Planet or NatGeo Wild. They are far more entertaining, and often more terrifying than anything I've yet seen on either channel. Currently the boys are watching Austin Stevens chase hyenas around Africa. I have no idea why, and it seems like a spectacularly bad idea to me, but the boys seem to be into it.

Colin wants to have an animal TV show when he an adult. Considering what my daily life looks like I am betting he could just make that happen. He has a plan. He will go to the Coast Guard academy getting his degree in biological-environmental sciences. This part of the plan may or may not be heavily influenced by Dad. Then after he serves his time as an officer he will return to college to get his masters in herpetology, then he figures he should be ready for his own television show.

Update on assorted animals: The pied crow did not have a broken wing. We think possibly one of the guards had thrown a rock at him, and he was stunned, but not really hurt. Dave was able to walk right up to the bird and pick him up. We took him to the wildlife center but when David opened the basket it simply flew away. David was pretty surprised. Most of the lizards, both frogs, and the millipedes were released unharmed. A couple of lizards did become snake food because snakes need to eat too. The hedgehog will be released before bedtime even if I have to do it myself. Squirtle has yet again taken up residence in the large konde, oh yay. Sarcasm intended. I am sure that tomorrow will bring more animals. At least my life is rarely boring.

I spoke too soon. While I was editing pictures for this post the cry went up "SNAKE!!" and now all the boys, including David, are outside with the guard looking for a snake, in the garden, in the dark, in Malawi. This seems like an even worse idea than chasing hyenas around Africa but there you have it, a future Animal Planet star in the making. I really hope they DON'T find it. Nope, my life is rarely boring.

Happy Thanksgiving (Otherwise known as the obligatory "I am thankful for" post)

2011-11-23T18:24:00.003+01:00

I wasn't feeling particularly thankful for much when I woke up this morning. In fact I was feeling down right grumpy. As I sat and drank my coffee I mulled over all the reasons I wasn't feeling quite in the mood for Thanksgiving.

We have had no hot water since I returned from my trip to Kenya last week. The last hot shower I had was in Nairobi. On Friday. Five days of taking "camp baths" isn't making me too cheery. I probably don't smell great either. Deodorant and perfume only go so far. Late today the water heater was pronounced "fixed" (again) but I will believe it when I step into a piping hot shower (hopefully) later tonight.
We don't have a turkey for Thanksgiving tomorrow. This is my first ever Thanksgiving without turkey. What is Thanksgiving without Turkey? They don't call it Turkey Day for nothing. But even I draw then line at $70+ for a turkey. For that price I want lobster with champagne and I don't want to cook it. Or do dishes either. We are having chicken instead. Chicken Day. Doesn't quite have the proper ring does it?
My kids have school all week, including tomorrow. School on Thanksgiving. That's just wrong. They will be playing hooky. Sorry school, they are skipping you tomorrow.
I am missing my family. Thanksgiving is the day we always get together as an extended family. Uncles and Aunts and Cousins. Fried turkey and baked turkey and spiral sliced ham. Dressing and giblet gravy. Side dishes and desserts by the dozen. Chaos and noise and laughter and long games of washers. All of it is only an ocean away.
And my biggest reason I wasn't feeling it this morning is this is our first Thanksgiving without Dakota. It has been almost a year since he left home for bootcamp, but I still miss him everyday. Tomorrow perhaps most of all. It feels as if there is a hole in our family.

I was prepared to put on a happy face for the kids. I want them to only have good memories about the holidays and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so I want it to be special to them too. I drew up the menu, and set to work doing the prep work. When you can't go buy chicken stock in a box or refrigerated pie dough cooking a proper Thanksgiving dinner can a take bit longer than it might otherwise. Also we are having guests tomorrow and I hate to be in the kitchen when there are guests in the house. I would be rather sit and visit. So today I did as much of the prep work as possible and while I worked I put on the radio station from back home and sang along to one country song after another.

Then something strange happened I began to realize how much I have to be thankful for. So here is the obligatory Thanksgiving Day "I am thankful for" list that bloggers all over America, or where ever Americans have landed worldwide, are busy publishing on blogs, FB, twitter, or whatever their social media of choice may be.

First I am thankful for my Mom. Mom taught me to cook and to garden. Thank you Mom, because of you we will have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Tonight my kids ate their very first artichokes which we grew from seed in our very own garden. Even better two out of three kids liked them. Dave did too, I think.
I am thankful for the internet without which we would be in big trouble because all my cookbooks disappeared 3 international moves back. (Please God let them be in storage, Amen.) Thanks to the internet I can find recipes for virtually anything, except gratineed potato gnocchi in sage cream and that's not on the menu for Thanksgiving anyway.
I am doubly thankful for the internet as it lets me make great friends all one the world. I mentioned earlier that I was in Kenya last week. Well I was there for a very bloggy meet up with Naoma and Alexandra. I can't even tell you how thankful I am to have such wonderful women welcome me into their homes. What an amazing gift.
I am thankful for my husband. I love him more than words can express. When I called him at 2, after he spent his entire lunch hour picking up "a few things" I still needed for tomorrow, to tell him I forgot to put sugar on the list and he would have to go back to the store on the way home he didn't even bat an eye. He just said "OK no problem." He not only brought home sugar he also brought Pringles. Salt and vinegar Pringles, just for me. Now that's love.
I am thankful for my kids. They are loud. They are noisy. They fight all the blessed time. They usually stink. But they are mine and love them.
I am thankful for friend near and far. You enrich my life in more ways than I count.
I am thankful for my husband's iPad and specifically a little app called Tunein. With that app I can stream radio stations from around the world, but especially my favorite country music station from home which for some reason will not stream on my computer. That taste of home made me feel so much better today, although it did leave me with the lingering feeling I should call Dave to warn him of a pile up in 410 so he wouldn't get caught in traffic.
I am thankful for laughter. Just a little while ago the boys came through the kitchen and complained about my choice of music. Why didn't I listen to something more interesting, something better, something not so old. They left with their various music players blaring The Beatles All You Need Is Love, The Beach Boys California Girls, and Glee's version of Raise Your Glass. Snort! Giggle Giggle.

Happy Thanksgiving, Where ever you are!

Wordless Wednesday - Kitengela Glass

2011-11-23T13:34:00.002+01:00

Good Friends Who Make you Laugh Are The Best!

2011-11-21T19:15:00.003+01:00

One of my best friends anywhere, on any continent, is Monica over at A Day in the Life. We were friends long before either of us had ever heard of a blog, never mind began authoring our respective blogs. We were pregnant together (there's a bonding experience for you) and raised our babies together before Dave and I decided to up and move our family all over the world. Our two boys are still best friends and spend every second together when we are home. Last summer I overheard the two boys plotting for Colin to live with them, or for M. to come live with us for high school. Maybe Monica and I can just send the two of them off to boarding school together.

One of the reasons I adore Monica is she gets my quirks, and has a few of her own. One of my quirks is the fear that someday something will creep up the drain pipe, into the toilet bowl, and bite me on the butt while I am happily doing my business. I know it seems irrational, but everyone has heard the urban legend of finding a snake in the toilet and I'm not convinced it's just a legend. In fact I cannot go to the toilet in the middle of the night without turning on the light and checking the bowl before I sit down. A habit that drives poor husband nuts since it is now combined with the fear that a black mamba is lurking just waiting to kill me. Hey! I live in Malawi, it's not that far fetched. Anyway I have to turn on the lights before I can set foot in the bathroom, which means that every time I go to the bathroom at 2 in the morning he gets a woken up by a blast of light as I scan the room for a wet mamba slithering out of the toilet bowl. It's good thing he loves me!

As it turns out Monica has the same quirk. The toilet thing, not the mamba, so far as I know she doesn't have major snake issues. Who knew toilets were so scary? If you want a good laugh go read her newest post "Why is there a machete in the crapper?" I laughed harder than I have in ages. Another thing I adore about Monica is she is one funny chick who can almost always make me laugh. No, I am not going to spill the beans, you will have to go read the post if you want the answer to her question. I am, however, going to add to her toilet issues just a bit.

Today I was cleaning the toilets and after I finished brushing out the bowl I flushed the toilet. Seems pretty standard, right? Clean, scrub, flush. Except this time when I flushed something long and black started coming out of one of the little holes at the top of the bowl, you know the little holes where the clean water comes from? Yes, I know that those holes are too flipping small for a mamba to come slithering out of, but when I saw something moving I screamed down the house. Dave and just arrived home from work and came running. This would have been a great except he took one look and started laughing. It wasn't a mamba. It wasn't even a snake. It was a worm. A worm. In my toilet. It came out of the clean water holes. In my toilet. I may never go to the bathroom again.

Even better I am going to have to apologize to the kids. They know darn well I am scared of something crawling up and biting me on the bum. I have found several worms in toilets over the past few months. I blamed the kids. It seemed reasonable, after all they are the ones who carry horrible spiders around the house, and leave little plastic bugs and rats in dark corners to scare me. The last time I found a worm one I told all three boys that if I found another one they were all grounded for week. They all swore up and down it wasn't them. SIGH! I hate when I have to apologize for accusing them of doing something they didn't do.

In a bizarre twist Karey, a good friend of both Monica and I, recently found a squirrel in her toilet. A squirrel. In her toilet. I am laughing just typing that. Squirrels are funnier than snakes and worms. I really hope she jumps on Monica's band wagon and blogs it. Please Karey??

Oh and one more thing. As I read this post out loud to Dave before I hit publish he informed me that it was two worms, not just one. Two worms in my toilet. Count me doubly horrified!

Wordless Wednesday - Another Snake

2011-11-16T16:48:00.003+01:00

Wordless Wednesday - ??????

2011-11-08T15:40:00.000+01:00

Wordless Wednesday - Carmine Bee Eaters

2011-11-02T07:02:00.001+01:00

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T09:13:00.003+01:00

Wordless Wednesday - Artichokes In My Garden

2011-10-26T10:25:00.002+02:00

The BEST Thing About Kindle

2011-10-21T16:11:00.004+02:00

I love to read. I am sooo addicted to books. Not really the best thing when you have to pack up every few years and move, and every thing you and and family owns has to weigh less than 7200 pounds. As anyone who has ever been to college can attest, books are heavy. Very heavy. So you would think the best thing about my kindle is that this little electronic gizmo that weighs only fourteen ounces (including cover) has more than two hundred books on it. Two hundred books and only 14 ounces? That is COOL, but it's not the best thing about my kindle.

You might think the best thing about the kindle is the near instant ability to get new books. I will freely admit that it is wonderful to finish a book and be able to click on Amazon (assuming the internet is working) and get the sequel without having to drive to a bookstore (if there is such a thing near you) or waiting weeks for the Amazon box to show up in the mail. Getting books in minutes instead of weeks is is GREAT, but it isn't the best thing.

My husband thinks the best thing about the kindle is his ability to surprise me with new books anytime, even when he isn't home, as long as he has access to Amazon. I LOVE fact that my husband understand and supports my literary addiction. That's one of the reasons I married him, he spoils me rotten. Admit it you are jealous and wish you had found him first, sorry he is mine and I'm not sharing him. Or the kindle. But it's not the best thing about the kindle.

So what is the best thing about my kindle? It is one little feature that is really on Amazon not the kindle itself. If I try to buy a book I have already bought in kindle format, Amazon warns me and reminds me when I bought it. If you don't think that is awesome you have obviously never gone book shopping with kids, quickly grabbed a likely book by a favorite author and realized hours later, half way through chapter one, that it was a book you already owned, just with new cover art. Deja vu in a really sucky way.

When I was cleaning out my bookshelves before we moved out Frankfurt I sorted my books by author and suddenly realized how many duplicate titles were in my library. I had at least a couple dozen titles for which I had two (or more) books. Yes, some books I had three copies of, and I think I had four copies of Dragon Singer by Anne McCaffrey. I blame Dakota for at least a few of those doubles because we have similar taste in Sci Fi/Fantasy books, but most were my mistakes. Do you know how much money a couple dozen books adds up to? I could have spent that money on books I didn't already have. So you see the BEST thing about my kindle is never accidentally buying the same book two (or three) times.

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Birthday Grayson

2011-10-19T09:05:00.001+02:00

Rules of the House

2011-10-13T15:45:00.003+02:00

I'm an only child. I am a girl. The rules of the house when I was growing up were a bit different the the rules I find myself making around the boy filled Cyberbones household.

House Rule #9422 If you are not at the beach or a swimming pool you must wear a shirt.

Could someone explain to me why little boys feel the need to run around all flipping day long with their scrawny little plucked chicken chests hanging out? When I was a teenager I thought guys ran around shirtless to impress girls with their manliness. Well I'm telling you I am the only girl in this house and I'm not impressed. Put some clothes on already!

Wordless Wednesday - Elephant Crossing

2011-10-12T07:31:00.003+02:00

This and That and Where to Next

2011-10-11T08:19:00.005+02:00

I picked up the computer hoping to check my e-mail. The internet has been flaking out all weekend. I haven’t been able to get e-mail since Friday (it’s Monday) but at times I can get to Facebook (if I wait 10 minutes for it to load). Earlier today I received a phone call from Dakota who apparently had the good timing to catch the only 20 minute interval in 3 days that would support the Vonage line, but I still can’t access my e-mail. Bah humbug! I also can’t get to Cyberbones so I am typing this in word hoping I can upload it later.

I am hiding in my bedroom with a throbbing headache and backache hoping this isn’t the onset of malaria or the stomach bug that Dave has had since last week. I took tylenol and it isn’t working at all, maybe I will try Motrin next. I decided to take a nice hot bath hoping that it would ease some of the muscle pain. I started the tap running, retrieved my cup of tea, and returned to find the water in the tub was a shade or two darker than than the tea in my cup. Ewww! Dave suggested that I look at it as a mineral bath and climb in anyway. After the initial yuck factor I did take my bath and the hot water did help the backache, a little bit anyway. Moments like this I am ready to pack it up and head out of Africa.

Debating the topic of where to next, next as in where to live after Malawi, has become the newest hobby in the Cyberbones household. Real Post Reports is probably the most visited site on our internet. See a show on TV about Istanbul, head to Real Post Reports and check out Turkey. Get an e-mail from a friend new serving in Dubai and loving it, run look up the UAE. There is no single favored post, instead it is more the post of the day. You can pretty much measure how the day is going by where we want to go next. On a good day we are looking at exotic sounding hardship posts. Does anyone want to come visit us on Mauritius? Has anyone even heard of Mauritius? On a bad day we are looking at any place that is closer to home, has fewer mosquito born illnesses, and more access to Starbucks. Starbucks will be a major bidding consideration this next time. Have I ever mentioned there is NO Starbucks in Malawi? I really need a caramel macchiato people!

Yesterday Dave was in the living room folding clothes and absently staring at the computer screen saver, which is just random pictures from our iphoto files. Several pictures in a row of Germany flipped by and Dave muttered “I could go back there.” Wow, not something I thought I would ever hear him say. I stared at him until he finally shrugged and said “What? It was easy to live there.” Of course today he is all “Let’s go to Italy.” Probably because we celebrated Columbus day by watching Under the Tuscan Sun over coffee this morning while the kids were at school.

Alonzo’s only request is that where ever we go it should have a commissary. Apparently he is having Pop-tart withdrawal issues, and I didn’t include any in our consumables. Bad mommy! The other day we watched a show about Korea. When it was over he looked at me and asked very seriously, “Does Seoul have a military base with a commissary. “Yes” I answered. “OK Let’s got to Seoul.” Hmmm....I may need to look that up, wonder how the schools are? I am with him though, a commissary is sounding darn good to me right now, frozen pizzas, Pop-tarts, squishy white bread, and mac and cheese...yummy!

Colin simply wants to go to Tokyo because that is where his best friend from Germany moved to, failing that he wants to go back to Germany or maybe Jakarta. I think he may be tired of new experiences and is looking for the familiar.

Grayson seems to care the least, probably because he thinks he is Indonesian and can’t remember living in the states anyway. As far as he is concerned we move every few years. That’s just what our family does. Poor confused kiddo.

As for me I just want to go someplace easy. Some place without really loud birds that wake you up before 6 am every flipping morning. Why can’t the wildlife understand I’m NOT a morning person? Someplace where I don’t have to go to every store in town to do my weekly grocery shopping and still come home without some stuff because those items are simply out of stock everywhere. Butter anyone? Some place where a Coca Cola shortage would be ludicrous. Yes, we are having a Coke shortage, and yes I realize that sounds trivial but some days I just want an ice cold Coke! Besides if a country can run out of Coke you can imagine what other things we run out of. So yes DC sounds lovely and so does Frankfurt. But then again so do Taipei, Mexico City, Bangkok, and Hong Kong. All that awesome food just waiting to be eaten.

All this speculation is a bit premature. We don’t get our bid list until sometime next July or August, and even after we submit our bids it will be wait, wait, and wait some more to find out where we are going. Still playing the “what if” game seems to be hard to resist. I think it is part of human nature to want to plan for the future and that can be hard to do when you have no idea of what continent you will be living on in 2 years time.

Nice hot mineral-bath spa treatment anyone?

Wordless Wednesday - Tree Frog

2011-10-05T15:17:00.002+02:00

Homework Woes

2011-10-04T20:23:00.006+02:00

*Rant Alert, don't say I didn't warn you.

I hate homework. I mean I really hate it. As a kid I hated it, in fact I often refused to do it. As a teacher I hated assigning homework, I did because district policy required it, but I didn't like it, and refused to count it as anything more than a completion grade. As a parent my relationship with homework has hit a whole new low. Homework is public enemy number one in the Cyberbones household causing daily battles and disrupting the family peace.

As a former student, former teacher, and current parent of school aged kiddos I am familiar with all the reasons for assigning homework. It (supposedly) reinforces the skills covered during the day. It (is supposed to) promote responsibility. It (theoretically) teaches study skills and time management. And it is often one of the only ways that parents know what the kids are learning at school.

Now I don't know about you, but except for when I was a teacher, I simply didn't work on work outside of the work place. Work was for work, home was for family, chores, hobbies, romance, love and laughter, food and fun, but it wasn't for work. I say except as a teacher because the dirty little secret of teaching is that for every assignment you give to your students you have assigned the grading of that work to yourself, as homework, multiplied by the number students you assigned the work to. If you LOVE homework teaching may be the gig for you. If we as adults generally aren't willing to spend our leisure time on work, why do we expect kids to?

Of course I think there is a time and place for homework. I actually don't have huge problems with older kids having regular homework, although I think it is best reserved for special projects and studying for tests. But daily homework in kindergarten or first grade?? Seriously? How is giving a 6 year old homework at all helpful? Is it teaching time management or responsibility when he can't tell time or even read the instructions for himself? If you want me as a parent to know what is being taught try sending newsletters and weekly packets of graded work. That would be a lot more effective and I would have an idea of how he is actually doing in class so the report card wouldn't come as such a surprise.

I know that I should write a conclusion summing up all the points I have made into a nice concise paragraph but as this is a rant I find myself either repeating myself or going off on a tangent. I will instead simply thank you for your attention and go see if the oldest boy is finished with his homework and send him off to bed.

Possibly the Best Present Ever!

2011-09-30T20:29:00.004+02:00

Today I received the news that this year Dave is giving me what is possibly the best birthday present EVER! Now usually he tries to sneak around and surprise me but this time I was in on the planning from the minute it was even a possibility. So what is so great? Airplane tickets out of here, and not just any tickets, but tickets to go hang out with some really great women!

Want a hint? I'm heading to Kenya. That's right! I'm going to get a chance to hang out with Alexandra and Naoma! WooHoo! They are beyond awesome for inviting me, and of course Dave is just the best husband for making this possible.

Wordless Wenesday -- Hippo Attitude

2011-09-28T05:58:00.000+02:00

Can't Sit Still

2011-09-16T11:28:00.004+02:00

Now that Alonzo is back in school I am back to trying to write everyday. Writing has long been a dream of mine. I read more than anyone I know with the possible exception of my mom, so writing seems a natural extension of that love. I haven't always loved writing. I can remember as a young child making up stories, writing them down, and being so proud. Then around junior high some teacher with an over fondness of red ink convinced me I was a terrible writer. It was only when I was teaching and took some inservices about how to teach writing, that I rediscovered that I actually LIKE writing, quite a lot as a matter of fact. Whether I am any good at it remains to be seen, but I am going to give it a try.

We have taken Dakota's old room and transformed it into an office. It has my favorite rug, a simple writing desk with no drawers for me to clutter up and a comfy, if incredibly ugly, Drexel Horrible arm chair to curl up in when I need to be someplace other than the desk. It even has bookshelves for lots of books and my leather storage ottoman containing a couple of soft blankets for when I curl up in the chair. It is a really nice place to work.

There is only one problem. Well two really, but we will deal with them one at a time. The first problem is I seem to have to suddenly developed ADHD. Is there such a thing as adult onset ADHD? I wonder because I seem categorically unable to sit and focus on one thing for more than a few minutes. I am constantly jumping up to go investigate some noise, to take care of some bit of housework, or get a snack, or get a drink, or get a sweater, or go to the toilet, or.....in short I am acting a lot my 5th grader when it is time to do homework. I didn't do this in college, or when I was teaching, so now that I have a chance to follow my dreams why am I sabotaging myself?

Is this sudden onset of inattention due to the brain-draining effects of having four children? It is a common lament among parents, especially those with more than one child, that the childrearing destroys brain cells rendering formerly well educated, erudite women capable of speaking only in Dr. Seuss rhymes and unable to remember anything of importance for more than 30 seconds.

Or am I instead suffering from the multitasking effects of the digital age? I am as guilty as anyone else of having my laptop in my lap most nights as I sit in front of the TV, half watching some show while I surf the net, answer e-mails, and checking in on Facebook. Perhaps I am merely so in the habit of doing twenty things at once, even during my leisure time, that I no longer remember how to sit and focus on one thing. Whatever the issue is I need to get over it, and quickly.

The other problem isn't really a problem, in fact I think it may eventually become part of the solution. You see I went and signed up for a online writing course. Not a college course, it's more of a workshop really - only one month long, taught by a published author, sponsored by one of the regional chapters of Romance Writers of America (RWA). The trouble is last night I received my first official writing assignment and every time I look at it I break out in a cold sweat. The feeling is strangely reminiscent of the speech class I took in college. The thought of actually letting someone else read my writing makes me want to hurl.

And yes, I totally get that I have been writing all sorts of nonsense here on Cyberbones for a number of years now and lots of people have read it. I know they have because they have commented. I even have 61 people who are fond enough of my writing to declare themselves public followers. All of that is irrelevant. I can write here because I'm not asking you tell me if my writing is any good. I'm not asking for you to grade my work, or check my grammar, even though I know at least one person who reads and occasionally comments is a copy editor. Please don't tell me if I am abusing the humble comma. No wait do tell me, I need to know. No, no I don't! Let me live in ignorance. If I ever manage to write something that I think is good enough to pursue publication then I will worry about things like punctuation. Until then I just need to find the confidence to sit down and write every day. Hopefully this class will give me push in the right direction, assuming of course that I manage to sit still long enough to get some thing written and submitted to the instructor.

In the course of writing this one blog post I have folded two loads of laundry, watched a movie (Letters to Juliet - I LOVE Chick Flicks!), answered the phone three times, made a sandwich, braided my hair, and swept the floor. I think I have a problem.

Wordless Wednesday - EEEEEKKK!

2011-09-14T10:01:00.002+02:00

Wordless Wednesday - Look Mom A Lizard!

2011-09-07T07:51:00.002+02:00

Don't Leave the Door Open!

2011-09-06T12:32:00.005+02:00

"Were you raised in a barn?" I can remember Mom asking that whenever I would leave the door open. Ironically we did have a barn, and I spent a great deal of time out in the barn. I probably could have answered rather honestly "Yes" but it wasn't really worth pissing off my mom just for the pleasure of being a smart aleck.

Mom was worried about the flies coming inside. It took my cow wandering into the living room and leaving a cow patty on the rug before I learned to make sure the the door was securely closed. It isn't easy to get cow flop out of the rug. In fact we got rid of the carpet very soon after the cow incident, the smell lingered inspire of my best efforts to clean the mess.

When I fuss at my kids to close the door I'm not worried about flies or even passing livestock. I am more worried about malaria carrying mosquitos, deadly snakes (think mambas and cobras) , and horrifyingly large spiders. Yet in sprite of those very real threats the door is left propped wide open, more often than not, so that any passing critter can just come right in and make itself at home.

Today the dreaded home invasion finally occurred. The boys were off to school, Dave was off to work, and I thought I was alone in the house. As I walked down the hall past the bedrooms I was startled by a sudden noise and a flash of movement. After the intial moment of panic I realized that what I was seeing couldn't possibly be a mamba. I decided to investigate instead of running screaming out the door. What I found was a bird caught inside of Grayson's bedroom. The poor thing was frantically beating at the glass trying to find a way out into the garden.

At first I had no idea what was in Grayson's room.

When it stopped throwing it's self against the window I was able to tell a Heuglin's Robin had made it's way into the house and couldn't figure out how to get back out.

I was able to catch it without hurting it, although I could feel it's heart beating very very fast. The poor thing was terrified.

Once I had it out in the garden it stared at me intently as if to say, "Turn me loose already!"

When I opened my hand it flew away with even looking back. Hopefully it has learned that human houses are no place for birds.

Labor Day

2011-09-05T17:06:00.002+02:00

We in the Cyberbones clan celebrated Labor Day by reinstating evening chores for all three cyberkids. Chores = Labor and it is Labor Day after all. I think it was a perfectly appropriate way to celebrate. The kids are less than pleased with this arrangement. Chores had slowly slipped by the wayside when we had a maid, but now that Mom is the primary maid and housekeeper again the kids are back on KP duty in the kitchen every night. They say I am mean and cruel. I think they will survive and hopefully learn a little something from it.

Oh Happy Day!

2011-09-03T19:32:00.005+02:00

Yesterday was a great day. No, I didn't win the lottery or find a diamond in the backyard. Our second consumables shipment arrived. YAY! Pace picante, mac and cheese, shampoo, toilet paper, canned tunafish, corn chips. All the things that make life good, OK so not ALL the things, but a lot of them for sure. This is what our kitchen looked like at 2 o'clock.

A smallish mountain if boxes. I convinced Dave to take the boys and go to softball without me. By the time they retuned the boxes were gone and our formerly almost empty pantry was restocked and ready to go for the next year. It looks good.

We ordered our consumables from ELSO rather than spend our limited time in the states this summer shopping and dealing with shipping. For the most part it worked great. We didn't order many things that outdate or go stale easily, like chips or cereal. We had heard from others that they often arrived near to expiration date. I am happy to say that nothing was anywhere near to expiration date.

The only problem we had was a few things that were out of stock and so were CANCELLED from our order. Things like hairspray and children's tear free no tangle shampoo. Things that are hard/impossible to find here and if you do you will pay 10+ dollars for a itty bitty bottle. Sigh! Things that can't be shipped from Amazon because we are a pouch post and they are liquid or in the case of hairspray, flammable. HUGE SIGH! Dave is going back though his in-box to see if he missed an message asking if we wanted to make a substitution, because the first thing we heard of it was when we got an e-mail that said "Your order has been shipped here is a copy of your invoice." For the next year I will have to deal with messy hair and children crying because of "burning-eye" shampoo and tangled hair. Just dandy! At least I can drown my sorrows in bottle of picante sauce.

Tied in Knots

2011-08-31T19:37:00.002+02:00

Who says whoooooo?

2011-08-26T12:36:00.005+02:00

A few minutes ago the doorbell rang. It was Lyson one of our gardeners. He had this to give to the boys.

In case you can't tell that is a very pissed off baby owl. If you get too close he hisses, growls, and clacks his beak. He hasn't said whooo even once.

I quizzed Lyson to make sure he hadn't raided a nest. He hadn't, Mr. Crow had though. We have a mated pair of pied crows living in a tall tree in our yard. I rather like them, they are great fun to watch and handsome birds to boot. I never realized until we moved here that crows were hunters. I just thought they raided farmers crops. The roof of our house is littered with small bones from their prey. Every once in awhile they will drop something before they get a chance to eat. That's what happened to this little owlet. Somehow the crow ended up dropping him instead of eating him. Closer although very cautious inspection reveals that he probably has a broken leg and who knows what other injuries. We will take him to the wildlife center when David gets home and turn him over to the experts give him a chance of survival.

I'm Back!

2011-08-23T19:50:00.003+02:00

We are back in Malawi, the kids are back in school and I am back blogging. The protests I mentioned in my last post lasted two days and resulted in 18 deaths. Everything has been calm since we have been back and I hope it remains that way. There were scheduled demonstrations last week, the kids school was canceled for two days and many businesses around town shut down. After all of that the demonstrations didn't happen.

It has been a rough transition back to post. We arrived to find that an entire swarm of honey bees had set up house keeping in our bedroom. Thank goodness the gardener noticed the bees coming and going from a vent in our bedroom wall. He managed to get word to the embassy and they sent someone out to spray the morning we arrived back. When we walked in to the master bedroom we found thousands of dead and dying bees and a chunk of honeycomb the size of my hand, just wax, no honey. I was so jet lagged and astounded that it didn't even occur to me to take a picture. To give you an idea of the sheer number of bees it took 3 very full dust pans to remove the bulk of the dead bees and I'm still finding dead bees in strange places. Interestingly the day we arrived at our house for the very first time there was a giant swarm of bees hanging in a tree by the driveway. You know I think Africa is trying to kill me, and and bees are it's weapon of choice.

Heavy Heart

2011-07-20T16:11:00.003+02:00

I picked up the computer this morning to do a quick check in before heading out to the river with some friends. I simply intended to hit facebook, glance at my regular blog reads, and try to get a Wordless Wednesday posted. Instead I find this
http://intomalawi.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/july-20th/
and this
http://gwynethsadventures.blogspot.com/2011/07/day-of-protest.html
and this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14217148

News of riots in Lilongwe is unsettling to say the least. I feel like I should say something profound but really I simply hope all our friends back in Lilongwe are safe.

Wordless Wednesday - Didn't Happen

2011-07-14T15:13:00.003+02:00

Sorry there was no Wordless Wednesday this week. David bought a brand new super fancy camera. In fact it is so fancy that it is a snob and refuses to talk to my beat up ancient MacBook. Hopefully at some point Apple technology will work with new Nikon technology and I will have lots and lots of pictures to post. David says he is sure he can find a work around for the problem, then he will have to teach me how to do it. In the mean time we are super busy enjoying our time at home with family and friends.

Quick Update

2011-07-10T21:20:00.000+02:00

I will get back in the swing of blogging soon. Right now we are on vacation, very busy and enjoying every minute of it. In the mean time at least Wordless Wednesday will make it up each week.

The Cyberbones clan finally all made it to the states for R&R. So far the boys and I vacationed at Aunt Teri's house in Kentucky for two lovely weeks, while Dave remained behind in Malawi hard at work. The kids had lots of cousins to play with and fun was had by all.

Last weekend we all arrived in Texas with me driving in from Kentucky to Texas, special thanks to my nephew who reminded me which side of the road to drive on, and ran interference when the kids stared fighting. Alonzo drove in a day later with his cousin Jennifer and her son. Meanwhile David flew in from Malawi, and Dakota flew in from South Carolina. It was wonderful to have all my babies together again, even if my oldest baby is taller than me these days. This week has been crazy busy reuniting with friends and catching up with family.

Today Dakota had to return to South Carolina, apparently the Navy wants him back, go figure. Tomorrow the 3 younger boys will start zoo camp. They are really excited. I'm excited too, shopping without kids! Yay! Lunch at a restaurant, without kids. Heaven!

I sort of feel sorry for the camp counselors. Picture this:

"Kids this is a kudu"

"We saw those in Zambia and ate kudu steaks in Botswana. Mmmmm.....Kudu...yummy!"

"Ummmmm.....Yeah.....Moving on. This is a baboon spider from Africa"

"My mom hates those, she screams when I let them loose in the kitchen."

"Okaaaaay. Let's move on to Southeast Asia. This is a gibbon."

"My brother saw those when he went white water rafting in Sumatra."

So how long before I get a call about my kids making up stories? I'm betting sometime in the first day. And Lord help the counselor that tries to talk birds with Colin. I quit trying to look birds up in the book several months back. I just ask Colin, it's a lot quicker, he has them all memorized.

Well I gotta go do some laundry, this is the first time all week we made it home before dark, and if I don't get it done the kids may be going to camp naked.

Wordless Wednesday - Earring

2011-07-06T17:05:00.001+02:00

Fabric Shopping - Area 2

2011-06-25T13:51:00.005+02:00

Dave here - Today I went to “Area 2” to do some fabric shopping. I didn’t think to take my camera out while I was at the fabric store, but I did get some pictures around the area. After I got home, I took some pictures of the fabric I bought for Shannon. I think she will like what I got. I can’t wait to take Shannon there so she can see all the fabric herself.

Enjoy the Pictures

Wordless Wednesday - Frat Brothers

2011-06-22T18:04:00.001+02:00

Day trip to Kumbali

2011-06-19T13:17:00.008+02:00

Dave here *- I decided to head out to Kumbali today and see what there was to see and drop off some seeds at the permaculture center. This post will have a lot of pictures on it because a picture is worth a thousand words. When I arrived at Kumbali, I noticed a lot of color in the trees. The last time I saw this much color was when they were having the quilt show a few months back. To my surprise one of the local shops was hanging their batiks to be sold. I am told that they do this every Sunday.

After looking to see where there was to see. I headed down the path for a walk. If Shannon is reading this she will know what path it is as we have been there together before. I was met with a surprise and horror.

The surprise was a colony of ants making their way from one side of the path to the other. It was a sight to see. If you look closely at the picture you will notice that the ants have made a tunnel in which to transport their eggs from one location to the other. It was really cool.

The horror was the sight of the fields all burnt. I was hoping to say for a few hours but the smell of the freshly burnt areas was killing me. I walk through the burnt area hoping to see some small homles critter but only came a cross a stump that was still smoldering. It was obvious that the fire had just finished.

I was all equipped to sit around and get some good bird pictures, but I was only able to get one. I thought it came out very well. I am posting the one of it flying for Colin. It was a lucky shot as most of my flying picture are.

My trip ended back at the batiks to pick up a little surprise for Shannon. I think she will really like what I got her.

*note - Shannon Requires me to tell everyone that it is me posting so people will not think that it is her.

Flight nightmares

2011-06-16T12:22:00.004+02:00

By this time tomorrow I will be at the airport waiting to board the flight that will take me and the boys back to the states. OK, so we will be waiting board the flight to South Africa where we will switch planes to board the flight that will take us back to the states. I'm ridiculously nervous. It's my first time flying solo with the kids. Always before I've had Dave and Dakota or Teri and Dakota to help corral the three little one on international flights. This time it's just me. And the three boys. SIGH! Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

Just about the time I thought I was all organized and had everything under control David decided to caution me to make sure I got on the right flight, there are three leaving at about the same time. Apparently some guy a few weeks ago got on the wrong flight and ended up in Nairobi instead of Johannesburg. His luggage and connecting flight were all in Johannesburg, South Africa but this poor guy was stranded in Nairobi, Kenya. I have no idea how he got home. The buzzing in my ears as I had a total panic attack drowned out the sound of Dave's voice. I thought this was why your tickets are always checked right before you board, to make sure you don't end up on the wrong flight. Then again this IS Malawi.

I hardly slept at all last night worrying about ending up stuck in Nairobi instead of winging my way home to the states. Then I had a flash of brilliance, I actually sorta-kinda know people in Nairobi, in a bloggy sort of way. So you FS bloggers in Kenya if you get a totally hysterical e-mail from me sometime tomorrow afternoon could you pretty please come rescue me from the airport? Thank you! I knew I could count on you. Now does anyone know any bloggers in Addis Abada?

Lunar Eclipse 2011

2011-06-15T21:49:00.004+02:00

Tonight just after I finally got all three kids in bed, I sank down onto the couch with my laptop to check my e-mail and read a few blogs. I noticed the Google Doodle for the day was of a full moon. I clicked on it to see what the deal was. I was thinking vampires or werewolves. Hmmm...maybe it's time to lay off the Laurel K. Hamilton books. No, never mind that's not going to happen.

Turns out it had nothing to do with the supernatural and everything to to do with the natural. Tonight was the longest and darkest lunar eclipse of the century and we were in the perfect place to view it. It would be only visible in it's entirety from Africa and Central Asia. Dave and I ran outside and found it was already underway. We got the two older boys out of bed and the four of us sat in the driveway watching the slow motion drama of an unfolding lunar eclipse. It was a first for Dave and the boys. I remember seeing one with mom years and years ago, I probably wasn't much older than Alonzo. It was really cool to experience it with my own kids. I hope someday they get to share the experience with their own kids.

David set up the tripod and camera to document the whole thing. I peeked at the pictures and it looks like he got some good shots but we won't really know until we load the pictures onto the computer to get a good look at them. That's not happening until tomorrow because it is 10 o'clock, he kids are back in bed, and I am enjoying a glass of wine.

There is still an eclipse going on out there, but having watched the moon slowly disappear I am not hanging around outside for another hour and half to watch it reappear. Honestly if tomorrow wasn't the last day of school I would have been happy to sit out there freezing my butt of as long as the boys wanted to, but there is school tomorrow so off to bed they had to go.

Wordless Wednesday - Elephants

2011-06-15T08:21:00.002+02:00

He's Eleven

2011-06-14T22:15:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was Alonzo's birthday. He is 11. How the heck did that happen? Surely he was only like 6 last year. Although there was no party I believe he had a great day. Dave was able to to take most of the day off, he had few things at work that couldn't be avoided, but was able to get back home quickly so he and Alonzo could hang out together.

We went to African Habitat gift shop where he picked out a a cool little statue of a woodpecker, then out to lunch for pizza. For dinner he requested Dad's special chicken nuggets, the ones that taste like Chick-Fil-A only better, and fresh green beans cooked so they taste like the canned ones. I am guessing I'm not the only one missing convenience foods. I make almost everything we eat here from scratch. My sister-in-law called to ask what kind of foods we were missing so she could stock the pantry for our visit and my answer was anything that comes in a cardboard box from the freezer section. Fish sticks and tator tots, Yummy!

Most of the day was spent playing video games. He played by himself, against dad, and with his bothers. This is a rare treat, I am usually the video game nazi queen. If the sun is shining no video games, if it is a school night no video games, if you are fighting with your brother no video games. To have all day access to the video games is a huge deal around here. The highlight of the day was finally beating a few of Dad's high scores on some of Wii fit Plus games. Dad's not worried, he says now he has something to do while we are in the states, reclaim his titles.

Of course no birthday is complete without cake and presents. Alonzo asked for a snake cake. If you do a google search for snake cakes you will come up with some very cool cakes, but I am in Africa and the confectioners sugar, or icing sugar as they call it here, is much coarser than the stuff in the states. It doesn't make great decorators frosting. It is always gritty no matter what I do. One of these days I am going to have to try making cooked buttercream where you whip hot boiled sugar syrup into eggs so I don't have to worry about finding or ordering decent confectioners sugar. It is supposed to be great stuff, but a birthday cake is no place for experimentation so I played it safe. I triple sifted the sugar and did the best I could. I opted out of a sculpted cake that I might otherwise try and stuck with a basic chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and used Wilton's decorator frosting to create a snake. The texture of the frosting was still gritty but the end product lived up to the expectations of a happy 11 year old.

After stuffing his face full of cake he finally got around to checking his e-mail where he got happy birthday messages from family and found an e-mail from dad.

Happy Birthday !!!!

They will be waiting for you at Uncle Danny’s house

Yep! Alonzo will soon be the newest member of the Cyberbones toe shoe club.

Slightly Confused

2011-06-10T17:32:00.004+02:00

Grayson is wandering around the house singing very loudly and off key "Country roads take me home to the place where I live."

In an attempt to share a bit of musical interesest with his baby boy David pulled up John Denver on itunes and played the original Take Me Home Country Roads. Grayson enjoyed it but when it was over he insisted that John Denver had the words wrong. Quote, "He doesn't know the real song does he, right?"

Paperwork Nightmares

2011-06-09T21:45:00.004+02:00

Paperwork is the bane of the Foreign Service life, it is however a necessary evil, and as such is the subject of this week’s FS Weekly Blog Roundup. Becky at Small Bits is hosting this week so make sure to click over on Friday to read about all the paperwork that goes hand in hand with living the FS life.

I am very, very lucky in that my husband, the employee, has control freak tendencies when it comes to paperwork so I rarely have to deal with it at all. He does it all for us. Just one more reason I love him.

Right now we are dealing with two ongoing paperwork issues. One issue concerns Dakota, and the other one concerns our pets. To be fair only one of those paperwork issues is State generated but both are beyond belief frustrating.

Let's start with the animals. Due to all sorts of things going wrong our animals ended up being left behind at my mother's house last summer. I am one of those people who is never really truly happy without her fur kids, so number one priority this summer is getting the cat and possibly the puppy* to post. The problem is the animals are in Texas, and due to heat issues they can't fly as accompanied baggage or cargo this time of year, it’s simply too hot. No problem! We'll take the cat in-cabin as a carryon, not ideal considering the length of the flight, but better than no cat. The other half of the problem occurs when the flight lands in Africa, Johannesburg does not allow animals to arrive in cabin, they must arrive as cargo. ARRRGH! I know of at least one other family going round in circles trying to get their animals to Malawi. You would think no one had ever brought a pet to post before. There has got to be a way to get at least the cat here with us. I am hoping for a miracle in the next 6 weeks.

The other paperwork issue is even more frustrating. As long term readers know Dakota left for bootcamp in early December. When a diplokid grows up and heads off to college they get a college shipment. It is a small shipment, only 250 pounds, but enough to at least get their clothes and a few personal items to campus. Recruits are not allowed to take anything to bootcamp, so we didn’t even think about this at the time. Now that bootcamp is over Dakota would really like to have his stuff back. We really didn’t think it would be a problem to get stuff sent to him using the college shipment, we were wrong. Why we thought anything would ever be simple I have no earthly idea.

To start with Dakota left Malawi on Navy orders, with a ticket bought by the Navy. Standard procedure for recruits reporting to bootcamp. We had no idea what a headache this would cause later. When we tried to arrange for the shipment we were told he isn’t eligible for a shipment since he is still at post. Explaining that he isn’t at post but in the states serving in the Navy didn’t get us far. There were no orders cut, no ticket bought with State funds, therefore he is still at post and doesn’t need a shipment. David has had this conversation in many forms, with many different people, and at this point it doesn’t appears as if this situation is going to be resolved any time soon. I will be hand carrying the most important items home with me this summer, and that may be all he gets. I know it is bit unusual, but surely Dakota isn’t the first diplobrat in history of the Foreign Service to join the military rather than heading off to college, there has to be some way to get his junk our of our house and off to his barracks room.

If anyone out there has any idea how to solve either issues please Please PLEASE let us know!

*The cat we have had for 10 years and he is much beloved. The puppy was a new addition to the family last summer but at this point is no longer a puppy and has never been around kids, except for a brief time last summer when he basically terrified of my boys, but he was a little puppy so he could be socialized and trained adapt to the kids. We will have to see how he handles the rowdy boys this summer, but also we have to consider that he is shorter than the gap under the security gate so he will be a high maintenance kind of pet, never able to go outside alone or even off leash. There are packs of scary dogs and the occasional hyena that roam the streets around here at night. It would be bad to have to explain to the kids that a hyena ate their dog. I am thinking we will be finding him a good, loving home this summer. Anyone want a not-a-puppy-anymore Japanese Chin?

Wordless Wednesday - Hiking at Kumbali

2011-06-08T09:15:00.002+02:00

Petty Officer

2011-06-07T19:52:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I got a phone call from Dakota. That in and of itself wasn't all that unusual he calls at least one a week. It was a bit strange that he called midweek. Generally his school and the time difference make midweek phone calls a rarity. He called because he had to tell someone that he made rank. I am now the proud momma of a Petty Officer Third Class.

Kelly Kits

2011-06-06T19:57:00.004+02:00

Kelly is one of my dearest friends back in San Antonio. I literally wouldn't have survived the initial pack-out and move to DC without her, she totally held my hand during the whole sell the house thing. Thank heavens for good friends! I am really looking forward to seeing her and the rest of the gang this summer. Girls night out here I come, but that's not what this post is about.

Kelly is not only a great friend, but a talented artist, a mom, and now a business woman. She started her own business called Kelly Kits selling self-contained art kits. Everything you need to complete an variety of art projects with your child is included. Currently she offers two kits, each with five different art activities ranging from printmaking to sculpting. It would be a great item for a babysitter, scout leader, homeschooler or just to keep your kids busy for a little while this summer.

It would also be a great item to order for your kids as you head out to a new post. How nice would it be to have an all-inclusive art kit arrive in DPO* the first week at a new post while you are waiting for all the kids toys to show up in your HHE? They could enjoy creating some art and use it to start decorating their new rooms. What a nice way to spend a few hours that first rough week or two.

Kelly appeared earlier today on the local TV show SA Living. Check out this video of her appearance and get a peek at some of the activities in the kits.

If you have, or know someone with kids, a Kelly Kit would be great fun.

*I'm not sure how much liquid is in a kit so I didn't say pouch, only DPO. I will be checking with Kelly and updating this post once I know if it will meet pouch restrictions. My guess would be that it is fine. I can't imagine that a kit has more than 16 ounces of liquid.

Wordless Wednesday - A Special Treat

2011-06-01T07:50:00.001+02:00

This Is My Life

2011-05-26T20:22:00.004+02:00

It's no secret that Colin aspires to grow up to be Jeff Corwin or Dr. Brady Barr. He spend hours watching Nat Geo Wild and the Discovery Channel. He memorizes animal books. If I want to know what kind of pretty bird is in the back yard I ask the kid. He won't tell just me it is kingfisher, instead he will tell me it is a MALACHITE kingfisher. Then he will give me a run down on similar species, how to tell them apart, diet, and habits. He can happily entertain himself for hours with a pair of binoculars or a camera stalking the animals in our yard. He isn't happy just catching a turtle. He has to know that it is a Bell's Hingeback Tortoise.

You would think all this focus would be a good thing. And it would be if he would stay focused on birds, turtles, lizards and other non-scary, relatively harmless creatures. His new fascination is spiders. Big hairy spiders! Baboon Spiders! I have mentioned previously how I feel about these things. He is even using the spiders to terrify his big brother, going so far as to put a spider in his shoe. EEEKKKK! I will be checking my shoes from now on or maybe only wearing flip-flops. Have you ever seen the movie Arachnophobia? I haven't, and after the last week I don't feel like I need to, I have lived it.

He will scoop up a spider with his bare hands and then let it walk all over him while he continues to hunt for more spiders. It is at once fascinating and horrifying. No one can figure out why he doesn't seem to get bit. His brothers and the maid's 3 daughters follow him around the yard as he collects more and more spiders in a sort of macabre parade, although no one else seems anxious to have the spiders crawl on them. I have lost count of the number of times he has walked up behind me and said "Mom?" just so I will turn around and find him with a huge sider sitting on his head or clinging to the side of his face. I know I shouldn't scream but I do, every time, which of course just eggs him on. I can't help it, I HATE spiders.

I tried to take a video of Colin today when he had only (ONLY!) two (TWO!) spiders on him. I figured I could handle it, but I didn't count on 9 year old little boy humor. Check it out. Unless I can get Dave to take some video this is all there is because I'm not voluntarily getting this close to Colin and his horrifying hoard of arachnids ever again. Oh, and for the record I make him release them AWAY from the house every evening before he comes in for dinner. There will be no repeat of Stanley with a baboon spider. Stanley the camel spider was kinda cute, these things are....ICK!

Wordless Wednesday - My Happy Thought, Dreaming of Summertime in Texas

2011-05-25T08:39:00.004+02:00

Cultural Differences

2011-05-24T18:15:00.005+02:00

One of the great things about living overseas is experiencing different cultures, and for me that often takes the form of food. So far I haven't had much experience with Malawi foods. Okay, that isn't totally true. I have had some utterly delicious meals at Nature's Gift Permaculture center when I was taking classes out there. They really need to convince Carol to start offering cooking classes, I would be first in line to sign up. Otherwise, I haven't really had a chance to try much in the way of Malawi cuisine.

To be honest after I found one of the guards collecting these for lunch one day,

and different guard collecting these for dinner one evening,

and my maid collecting these for dinner tonight,

I'm really not all that anxious to experience more of Malawi food.

Call me chicken if you want, it's all right with me. After all you are what you eat, and I had a very nice roast chicken for dinner.

Wordless Wednesday - Victoria Falls

2011-05-18T09:02:00.003+02:00

The Last First Tooth and a Spider Too

2011-05-16T17:57:00.003+02:00

Today Grayson lost his first tooth. He's my baby. This is the last first tooth any of my babies will loose. It's the beginning of the end of an era.

He looks so darn cute with the little gap in front.

Tonight while I was cooking dinner Colin walked in the backdoor, I heard him giggle, he was happy about something. In hindsight that giggle had an evil sound to it. I turned around to find this in his hand.

That my friends is a baboon spider. In other words an African tarantula. A real live nightmare that lives in my backyard.

I screamed, the boys, including my husband, made fun of me, then took the little horror outside for a photo shoot. Oh thank God they took it outside! Apparently it is a budding spider super model because David took dozens of pictures while it obligingly posed. Meanwhile I decided I was too traumatized to continue cooking, poured myself a glass of wine, turned off the oven, and figured it was about time I updated the blog. Everybody managed to feed themselves so I guess it was a reasonable reaction.

No one was bitten, I have no idea why. I know for darn certain that if I ever lost my mind and tried to pick one of these up I would end up getting bitten and probably die on the spot. Here are a few of the pictures so you can have nightmares too.

OMG do you see those FANGS?!?!?!

The seductive pose.

I think it is smiling with its eyes.

Wordless Wednesday - Butterfly Reflections

2011-05-11T07:58:00.002+02:00

Wordless Wednesday - Trumpeter Hornbill

2011-05-04T07:22:00.002+02:00

Almost Wordless Wednesday -- Favorite Billboard EVER!

2011-04-27T14:35:00.001+02:00

**Airtel is our local cell phone provider.

Morning Converstations

2011-04-27T11:08:00.003+02:00

As I walk by the maid she is wiping down the bookshelves and my husbands books, many of which are over 50 years old with what appears to be a wet cloth.

"Are you using water to clean the books and the bookshelves?"

"No Madame, just a damp cloth."

"And what made the cloth damp?"

"Water Madame."

Pregnant pause. Waiting for the lightbulb to go on. Still no light bulb. Big sigh on my part.

"Please only use a dry cloth or the duster to clean the bookshelves. The water will damage the books and the wood."

With a perplexed look "Yes Madame."

Any bets on how long before I catch her cleaning the books with a wet cloth again?

Why?

2011-04-25T10:08:00.005+02:00

Why do schools now seem to feel it is necessary to assign homework over long holidays? Is this a thing in the states too, or just overseas? I don't remember ever having homework over Spring Break or Christmas Holidays, not once, not ever. As an adult I would work overtime before vacation to make sure I didn't have to work while on vacation. I would strangle David if he brought work with him in vacation. So why should our kid's vacations be ruined by homework? What kind of lesson is it supposed to teach? That it is bad to take time off to relax? I know darned well those teachers aren't carting papers to grade when they go on safari, so why do they expect the kids to do it?

Today is the last day of Spring Break*. I am sitting here forcing the boy in Year Four (3rd grade) to read Charlotte's Web. The whole book, in one day. He dutifully carried the book with him to Zambia but instead of curling up and reading, he chased lizards, befriended donkeys, swam, went on Safari, got drenched at Victoria Falls, sat around campfires and generally enjoyed himself. He didn't get around to even starting Charlotte's Web.

While the older boy is sulking, but at least holding the book, even if he isn't reading it, I am in the kitchen with the boy in Year One (kindergarten). He is filling out his "My Animal Spotting Book." Said book didn't make the trip with us because mom was more worried about making sure we had swim suits, bug spray, sunscreen, malaria meds, and food. I wasn't even remotely thinking about homework over the holidays. So we are getting it all done today. Each page has a space for an animal's name, where it was spotted, and then it is to be classified as wild or domestic, herbivore carnivore or omnivore, and finally fur feathers skin or scales. I can't tell you how much fun it is get a 6 year old to write "I saw a BABOON at VICTORIA FALLS, it is an OMNIVORE, it is WILD and it has FUR," when all he wants to do is go swimming. Then we get to to do this for 4 more animals. He is supposed to draw a picture for each one too, but I am just printing the pictures and he can cut and glue, or we would be here all day.

The homeschool boy is running around outside because I didn't realize I was supposed to assign homework. Bad Mommy! Whatever was I thinking? No school work over vacation? The very idea of actually having time off! Sheez!

Dave had to run into town for a few things. As soon as he gets back we are going to head to the Tamarind Club and go swimming. Homework be damned. Whatever isn't done will just have to wait. The sun is shining, it is still spring break and we are going to enjoy it. It is already fall and I have been told that by mid-May it will be too cold to swim so we are going to enjoy these last days of summer.

*It is probably called Easter Break or something, since it is in fact the very end of summer here not spring, and the days are already starting to turn cooler. Yes the kids go to school all summer then get a month off during winter, which be summer if we were north of the equator, but since we are south of the equator it is winter and will be too clod to swim when they are off from school. Confused?

We're Back

2011-04-22T20:28:00.003+02:00

We made it home from our trip to Zambia and Botswana. A fabulous time was had by all. New animals spotted: jackal, wildebeest, roan antelope, hartebeest, pied kingfisher, bateleur, marabou stork, ground hornbill, puku, and a few others I am too tired to think of. Still no rhinocerors, sable antelope, or wild dog. Maybe next time. I will start sorting pictures and getting some real blog posts up sometime this weekend. G'nite!

On Safari Again Sans Dakota

2011-04-14T11:39:00.001+02:00

We are heading out this weekend to Zambia and Botswana to see the famous Victoria Falls and go on Safari in Chobe National Park. The kids are excited. David is excited. I am sick. I caught the boys cold they have been passing around for the last few weeks. Darn germ factories! Hopefully it won't be too bad. I am taking it easy today, drinking plenty of warm tea and trying to think healthy thoughts.

I am a little sad too. This will be the first big family trip without Dakota. I know it is inevitable that children grow up and leave home, but I miss him. Especially on this trip. Dakota really wanted to see the falls while he was here in Africa. He wanted to go to The Devil's Pool, hang over the edge and look 300 feet straight down the falls, crazy kid!

Sadly it is a two day road trip and plane tickets here are prohibitively expensive for a large family. We just couldn't make such a long trip happen so early in a new posting. At least we did get to South Luangwa so he could go on Safari where we saw four of the big five, and tons of other animals too. Perhaps someday he will make it back to Africa with his own children and take them to see the falls. I hope so.

In the meantime I will try to blog next week. The lodge where we are staying advertises wireless internet, we'll see. If not then I will have lots to blog about when we get back to Malawi. Have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday - We're in the money!

2011-04-13T07:41:00.002+02:00

Getting Old(er) Sucks

2011-04-12T07:36:00.000+02:00

Most days I resolutely refuse to believe that I am getting old(er). Never mind that my oldest baby will be 19(!!!!) this month, and he moved out and joined the navy last year. I happily ignore the fact that potty training, pregnancy, morning sickness, and breast feeding are all well in the past. My hair is still blond, not grey, well except for the part that is red from my midlife crisis last year. I don't have too many wrinkles. I can zip my wedding dress, while wearing it. I can touch my toes, without bending my knees, thanks to yoga. Most of the time I feel pretty young.

Today I feel old. The why is a bit of a long story, so bear with me. Last year when I went in for my annual eye exam the Doc told me it was time for bifocals. ACK! Lasik anyone?? Being a complete chicken when it comes to surgery, especially on my eyes, I got bifocals. Thankfully technology has come a long way and now bifocals are "no-line" meaning that no one else can tell you are wearing bifocals so you don't have to look like an old granny.

It took me forever to get used to them, I tripped going up and down stairs, not a good thing when you are living in a 3rd floor walkup. When I turned my head the edges of my vision moved in an odd way that made me queasy. I had a hard time reading because I was used to looking straight at the page and moving my eyes. I needed to look down through the close up portion of the lens and move my whole head to follow the text, not my eyes. Finally though, after a few weeks though I got used to them, and it was nice to be able to see up close and far away with the same pair of glasses.

Last month I broke my bifocals. Grrr! I have been using my back up glasses, which of course are my old glasses from before I got the bifocals. The prescription is a little off, but it works fine for most things. Until today. I finally finished up piecing all the little quilt squares I inherited and I'm waiting for a shipment with the contrast fabric to arrive so I can finish the quilt top. Since I'm on a crafty kinda roll I pulled out one of the many other half finished craft projects, a cross stitch I started on home leave after Jakarta. It's very cute. Little mice with lemons and the saying: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" When I bought it I thought it would go perfectly in my kitchen, and it will if I ever finish it.

Back to the bifocals. I can't see the little holes in the Aida cloth with my old glasses on, but I can read the stitch chart. Without my glasses I can see the holes well enough to stitch, but then I can't read the graph. I am making progress but I have taken my glasses on and off about a thousand times today. I want my bifocals back. Sigh! I am so old. Maybe I should just give it up and get those little half glasses on a string. Then perhaps I could see well enough to craft, of course it would be hard to deny that I am getting old with a pair of granny glasses perched on the end of my nose.

Household Help

2011-04-07T11:18:00.002+02:00

Daniela at Tuk & Tam is hosting the FS Weekly Blog Roundup. The optional talking point (OPT) is "The Best Of... insert country here." I am opting out of the OPT this week. Hey, it IS optional.

I’ve already ranted about the shortfalls of Malawi, although I think it is more a case of false advertising rather than actual shortfalls. Still I have already had my say, and I don't think I need to rehash it again. So far the best of Malawi has been the trip to Zambia last October, and well, Zambia is a different country, so that isn't exactly the best of Malawi.

Instead I am going to focus on house staff. If you are a long time reader you already know that I hired house staff before we arrived, based only on a recommendation from the people who had this house before us, no interview. It was a disaster. One I won't be repeating. While I appreciate that for some people having staff all lined up and ready to work from the day you hit the ground is a necessity, especially if you are a single parent or a tandem with kids, in the future I will be taking some time to settle in before hiring staff.

I have been without house staff since early October. Mostly I have enjoyed having the house to myself. An acquaintance here asked rather incredulously if I enjoyed cleaning toilets all day. Well no, but then again it only takes a few minutes to clean toilets, so it's not that big of a hardship. Plus the kids are old enough to help out around the house, and I think that having chores is a very important part of growing up.

I’m a bit of a homebody. I enjoy the process of making a house a home. I like cooking, dusting, and the satisfaction of a clean, attractive room. Ok, so I don't really enjoy laundry, but at least I have a washing machine to make it easier. I'm not sitting on the banks of a creek scrubbing my clothes like most women in Malawi, and I do love the smell when the dryer is running. Unlike a lot of (fully justified) trailing spouses you won't hear me complaining about not being able to find work at post. I was born in the wrong decade; I actually like being a domestic goddess. Sick isn't it? My mom is probably rolling her eyes right now trying to figure out where she went wrong.

As of this week we once again have house staff in the form of one maid/nanny. She's a hard worker, the house sparkles, she keeps the kids from fighting while I cook dinner, she speaks English, and she even bathes Grayson before she leaves. She’s a real gem. She’s driving me absolutely bonkers!

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I would be best off without full time help. I think in my ideal world I would have someone come in once or twice a week to do toilets, mop, vacuum, clean the windows, and do the ironing. That someone would call my by my given name, make eye contact, laugh when I tell a joke, and never never never flinch when I walk into a room. Then the rest of the time I could have my shiny clean house to myself.

So why did we hire a maid? Well there’s no such thing as a babysitter around here. David and I have not been out to dinner once since Dakota left for boot camp last December. In order to have a night out a few times a month we had to hire a full time employee. Talk about your overkill. The kids are all school age, so having a nanny seems a little silly. To justify hiring her we have her do housework in the morning and in the afternoon she mostly watches Grayson play with her daughters. I have to admit this plan beats having to run out and break up 10 fights between the boys while I try to cook dinner each night.

You know not so long ago I was a stay at home mom in the states, trying hard to keep my sanity with two kids in diapers, one half potty trained kiddo, and a preteen with attitude issues. I would have given my eyeteeth to have even a part time helper. A full time, live-in maid was the stuff of movies and dreams. David was working 2 jobs and going to school part time, so I was on my own most of the time. I don't know how we did it, but we did.

This is probably a case of be careful what you wish for. I was really looking forward to having help again. It is only now that I appreciate just exactly how lucky we were in Jakarta. Our pebantu and driver there were totally wonderful and we still keep in touch with both of them. It’s clear I will not have the same kind of relation with our current employee, but I do think we are going to be able to make it work. Now if I could just convince her to call me anything but “Madame.”

Wordless Wednesday - As High as an Elephant's Eye

2011-04-06T11:25:00.002+02:00

Ewww....

2011-03-31T20:06:00.003+02:00

The FS Weekly Blog Round up is being hosted by Stephanie of Where in the World Am I? This weeks optional talking point (OPT) is toilets. Yeah. Toilets. You wouldn't think toilets would be such an interesting topic but, Oh man are toilets overseas a big deal.

The kid's all time favorite toilets are the ones in the Tokoyo Narita Airport. We had a 8 hour layover there once and I really thought the kids were going to dehydrate themselves going to the bathroom every 10 minutes. Turns out they were just playing with the toilets and the cool turbo handryers. What's so great about a toilet? Well these had a heated seats, built-in bidets with warm water, I think I remember a blowdryer, and sound effects. There was no little silver flush handle, instead there was a control panel with lots of little buttons, in Japanese. The boys were in toilet heaven. It took care of at least an hour of that layover.

Personally I like the self cleaning toilets in Germany. When you flush the seat suddenly starts rotating through a cleaner. Each person using the toilet gets a freshly cleaned seat. No more worrying if someone "sprinkled while they tinkled." Ingenious. I can think of a few dozen bathrooms along I10 that could use this feature!

I am pretty sure that everyone's least favorite toilets are the "squatters" so named because you must assume a squatting position in order to use it. Lord have mercy if you have bad knees, are pregnant, or for some other reason you can't squat down and get back up with out loosing your balance or having to touch the wall. I have yet to be in a squatter toilet that I would willingly touch any surface.

If you should have to use a squatter my son's advice is just to take off your pants rather than risk having them touch the puddle of....nastiness that's invariably on the floor of squatters. Carefully take off your pants and hang them around your neck, one less thing to worry about.

My advice when traveling in an area that has squatters is to skip that second cup of coffee to reduce the chance of having to use one, and carry toilet paper. Squatters NEVER have toilet paper. Sometimes thay have a hose, most often they have a bucket of water and scoop. The idea is to use the water to wash yourself using your left hand (which also explains the taboo against touching food with your left hand), no idea how you are supposed to get dry. Toilet paper, purell and maybe baby wipes are esential travel equipment in such areas. Never leave home without them.

I have managed so far to avoid having much contact with African public toilets. I plan to keep it that way. That bit about skipping the second cup of coffee? Vital! Also no matter how quick the trip is supposed to be I go right before I leave the house, you never know what might happen. There are a few western style toilets in Lilongwe I will use in a pinch but they do tend to smell, and I try hard not touch anything in the bathrooms, ever. Mom thank you for forcing me to "hover" over public toilets, who knew that would become such valuable skill?

When we went to Zambia the boys had to use the bathroom at the border crossing while we were dealing with paperwork. Dakota took the little ones. He came back and reported that the urinal was a long trench in the ground deeper than he was tall. The younger boys added in details about bugs, flies, and smells that I could have lived without. He reassured me that he held onto his brothers while they went so they wouldn't fall in. GAH! I decided then and there that I could hold it until we reached camp in a few hours, and possibly until we returned to our house in a week, depending on the conditions at the camp. Thankfully the toilets at camp were fine, a bit buggy at night, but otherwise not bad. At least I didn't have to hold it for a week. Small blessings!

I've had occasion to use a composting toilet on a reasonably regular basis as I take gardening classes at the Nature's Gift Permaculture Center. It doesn't smell like I thought it would. That's a good thing! They keep a bucket of wood shavings and a bucket of ash next to the toilet and there are instructions posted in English and Chichewa to put a little bit of the shavings into the toilet after each "deposit" and a little ash it if it starts to smell. It seems to work, and it doesn't use any water, a HUGE consideration in an area where water is such a precious commodity. If I had a cabin waaaayy off in the woods on the side of a mountain somewhere, a composting toilet might be an viable option. Maybe.

Well that's the Cyberbones Toilets of the World tour. Make sure to click over to Where in the World Am I? on Friday to check out the Weekly Roundup. I hope someone had a fancy toilet with a bidet, I always wanted a bidet. Don't know what I would do with it, but it seems cool.

Wordless Wednesday - Popcorn Harvest

2011-03-30T10:12:00.002+02:00

New Hobby/Obsession

2011-03-29T15:52:00.004+02:00

I have started working on the quilt squares I inherited. Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on the quilt design last week. I think I will alternate solid squares with the pieced squares in a checkerboard pattern. Whenever I have 5 minutes I try to sew a couple of pieces together. I am making progress, but it is slow. When my mother-in-law started piecing this quilt she did it all by hand. I decided that I would continue with what she started, all hand work, no machines, that would be cheating.

I have learned a few things:

1. I can't sew a straight line to save my life.

2. I am spending more time "unsewing" than actually sewing.

3. If I am lucky this quilt ought to be done by the time I am ninety.

4. Next quilt will be machine pieced.

It's Genetic

2011-03-25T17:32:00.003+01:00

This afternoon as I was skyping with Mom one of the boys ran by screaming bloody murder. The boys had been poking around in the bushes (where I have told them repeatedly not to go) so my first thought was that he got bit by a snake. My heart started to beat faster. Instead of running inside, he ran to the fish pond and jumped in. "Ahhh... Better!" So, probably not a snake bite. My heart started to slow down a bit.

My heart slowed down too soon, as just seconds later he started screaming again. "It burns! It Hurts! My legs Hurt! Ow Ow Ow!" Great, just great. I tried to say goodbye to Mom, but she cut me off, told me to go take care of her grandson and hung up on me without a goodbye. Hmpf!

Colin made it to the living room, still screaming, about the same time Alonzo yelled though the window that it was green papaya sap. Good to know. Colin reacts to the sap from unripe papaya fruit the same way most people react to poison ivy. You would think he would learn to leave the stuff alone.

A few questions confirmed that it could be green papaya or possibly any number of other plants causing some sort of reaction. Every since the angel trumpet episode I am inclined to view the plants in the yard with a fair amount of suspicion. What ever it was, it seems as if fish poop and pond water didn't help much. The fish poop did gross me out. I guess from a kid's point of view that's something.

I threw the screaming kid into the shower and scrubbed down his legs several times, rinsing thoroughly between each scrubbing. This is a good initial treatment plan for poison ivy as well, except that every time I get into it I am in the middle of the woods with no soap or bathtub handy.

He continued to scream at the top of his lungs pretty much the entire time. It used up most of my store of patience so that when the next child (predictably) arrived also bearing red welts on his legs and whining pitifully, I just threw a bar of soap at him and told him to use my shower and scrub, rinse, repeat until I got around to checking on him.

Eventually all three boys were bathed, two were slathered down with Caladryl and told not to scratch. The youngest boys got a bath just because he didn't want to be left out. Things were peaceful again, but Mom was no longer on skype, and besides it was time to cook dinner if we were going to eat.

Dave got home from work while I was cooking. He started in on the lunch dishes (Don't I have the BEST husband?) while I related the events of the afternoon. He interrupted to say he would have jumped in the fish pond. I just stared at him. Finally I asked, "What is it about fish poop that makes you think it would make pain go away?"

"I don't know, that's just what I would do." answered my normally rational husband.

Must be genetic.

Quilt Squares

2011-03-24T11:23:00.008+01:00

This week Connie at Whale Ears and other Wonderings is hosting the FS Weekly Blog Roundup. The theme or "optional talking point" is crafts. If you have something crafty you would like to share, or even if you don’t but do have something to say, click over and add something to the Roundup.

I don’t have much time lately for crafts. It’s not that I don’t enjoy crafting, it’s just that I am beyond busy trying to keep up with housework, laundry, cooking, and home schooling. If you have never lived in a third world country everything takes just that little bit longer.

For example: I used to complain about making lasagna, I thought it took too long. Try making it here. You have to start by making the sauce. Then, unless you are planning to pay $15 dollars a box for lasagna noodles, you make the pasta and you will need to make the ricotta cheese too. You can usually buy mozzarella, thank heavens. Then once all the parts have been made it's time to assemble it all. This is the part I used to think was pain back when I was using canned sauce, pre-shredded cheese, store bought part-skim ricotta, and no boil noodles. If you want a salad as a side you will have to wash, bleach, and then rinse all the vegetables. If you are a ranch dressing kind of person, like my kids, you will be making the ranch dressing from scratch too, assuming you can find yogurt and mayo. All in all a lasagna dinner will take about 8+ hours from start to finish, not including clean up or garlic bread. Guess how often my kids get lasagna? Yeah, they are rooting for Aunt Teri to take them to Olive Garden this summer. Since I have been to a restaurant with my kids I am thinking frozen lasagna, frozen garlic bread, bagged salad, bottled dressing, and maybe a pie from Marie Calendars.

Oops....Sorry for going off on a tangent. Back to the roundup topic: Crafting. No, not much time left for crafts lately. But wait! There is hope on the horizon. We have made the decision that Alonzo will go back to school next year. Homeschooling here is very isolating, and I don't think I am cut out for it in any case. There are no activities outside of the school for kids to participate in. We will do whatever we can to make it a more successful year for him, but how is going to go to school, that's one thing down. Secondly we have finally hired a maid. She won’t start until next month but I am hopeful she will work out, which will leave me with more time to follow my own interests.

What will I do with myself? Well, I have this pile of quilt pieces I was given after my mother-in-law passed away, more than a decade ago.

She started the quilt but never finished it. Somehow the pieces ended up at post with us. She was a great crafter. She could knit, crochet, and quilt. A triple threat. I have one of her finished quilts and I just adore it.

It seems a shame not to finish this one too. My original thought was to just finish piecing the squares, add some sashing, and be done with it. Seemed simple enough. I can do this.

I laid the peices out on one of the kids blue(ish) sheets to give you an idea of how it would look when it is finished. I don't think blue is going to be the right color for the sashing, too many blue squares.

The yellow(ish) sheet is better, but the final color needs to be darker, I think.

Then last week I clicked on a link on the sidebar of someone’s blog and ended up at Crazy Mom Quilts. A new obsession was born. Such gorgeous quilts, such gorgeous fabrics. Suddenly my plan seemed too basic, too boring, too uninspired, too easy.

Maybe I should alternate the pieced squares with solid squares.

Maybe I should pick apart all the sewing and reassemble the quilt squares so that each finished square has two patterned squares and two solid squares. Then I could add sashing, or alternate with solid squares, or something.

Maybe I should give up in the idea of squares altogether and turn them all into triangles.

I don’t know, seems like a lot of work. I like that red, it really makes the colors pop. Those would be some tiny triangles since the squares are only 3 inches a side, but I do like that look. maybe if I ever finish this quilt I can do a triangle quilt for myself.

I can’t decide what do. I am not in love with the mish-mash of colors and patterns in the pieced squares. But then again Annette pieced those squares more than a decade ago and I'm not sure I want to undo any of her stitching, it just seems wrong. What do you think? Should I leave it and continue with my original plan, or take it all apart and start over again?

Wordless Wednesday - Tear Free!

2011-03-23T10:11:00.000+01:00

Calgon Take Me Away!

2011-03-17T07:25:00.003+01:00

Last night after the kids went to bed just as I was settling in with a cup of chamomile tea the littlest one appeared in the door looking very pitiful.

“I threw up.” He said at about the same time the smell hit me.

David told me to stay put and enjoy my tea then he scooped up the kiddo and walked away. Aren’t I the luckiest woman in the world? He voluntarily took care of a sick, barfy kid AND all the mess, and let me tell you there was some mess. Poor baby got all tangled up in the mosquito netting and couldn’t get out of bed in time so it was all over the blankets, the pillows, the stuffed animals, the mosquito netting, the floor, and himself. ICKY! I ended up cuddling the littlest one while Dave mopped the floor, changed the sheets, took down the mosquito netting, and tried to get the smell to dissipate. I think I got the better deal.

By two in the morning I was feeling a lot less lucky. David had to work today so he slept while I stayed up with Grayson. Poor baby just kept moaning, “My tummy hurts, my tummy hurts!” I hate when my babies are sick. I feel so helpless, I want a magic wand to make it all better. It’s even worse when they are sick in the middle of the night.

This morning I am not loving life. I didn’t get much sleep. I still have to clean, cook, do laundry, and homeschool the oldest. I have a tired, sick, grumpy kid on the sofa who would rather be at school. It’s international day so lots of fun is being missed, but I kept him home anyway. David is on a road trip with our only vehicle so I am stranded for the day. I am out of saltines, Gatorade, and applesauce, the only part of the BRAT diet I have available is the bananas. I guess it is time for an Amazon order, I can’t buy those things locally anyway.

The rat that chewed it’s way into the house last week, discovered the fruit bowl last night and sampled all of the apples looking for the tastiest one. I HATE RATS! And seriously he couldn’t just picked one apple instead of ruining the whole bowl? I guess the fruit bowl goes in the fridge from now on. The GSO dropped off rat traps but has made no move to fix the hole. I think it is time for a trip down to Area 2 to find some stuff to block the hole before the rat invites his friends and cousins by the dozen.

This morning there was a giant roach upside down in the kid’s bathroom sink. I thought it was dead until I tried to scoop it up to throw it away. Then it suddenly came to life. Lazarus roaches??? God help me!

So here I sit playing on the computer trying to mentally escape my reality. For me that means I am looking at house plans, kitchen ideas, over the top bathrooms, and mentally designing my perfect house with bright open rooms, clean lines, lots of color, and an interior designed by Candice Olson from Devine Design. And most importantly NO RATS OR ROACHES.

So how do you take a mental vacation when life gets to be a bit too much?

Wordless Wednesday - Leaping Lizards

2011-03-16T07:48:00.001+01:00

Isn't It Ironic

2011-03-15T08:57:00.004+01:00

Like a black fly in your chardonnay...

Dave called from work yesterday to tell me there were two boxes from Jill in the pouch. That could only mean GIRLS SCOUT COOKIES! I did the happy dance all around the kitchen. Visions of cookie munching after the kids went to bed were floating around in my head. Could it get any better? Last week's pouch brought me a HUGE box of goodies from one of my friends back home full of all the makings for s'mores: chocolate chips, graham crackers, and marshmallows, even some hot chocolate mix to go with all that. Yum.... (Thanks Cynthia, you rock!). Then this weekend I found cocoa powder at Game and almonds at Chipiku so I finally had everything I needed to make double chocolate biscotti. I was busy mixing those up when David called. Biscotti, Somaos*, hot cocoa, oh it was gonna a be a great evening.

Then while I was mixing up the meatloaf my stomach started to feel a bit funny. I drank a little water and ignored it. Later I walked into the kitchen to check on dinner and almost barfed when the smell hit me, my stomach cramped so hard I doubled over. By the time Dave came home I was truly sick and it was clear I was not going to be munching down on anything much less the chocolate fest I had been looking forward to all afternoon. I don't know why I was surprised, Colin came home early from a sleepover last weekend when he barfed all over his friend's house. The stomach thing is going around.

WHY? Wasn't it enough that for our 12th anniversary this weekend we spent the day trying to find the floor in Colin's bedroom and taking care of barfy kid? There were no castles in the plans for this year. Today we were supposed to go out to lunch together for a quick (late) anniversary lunch. That isn't going to happen either. Oh and the best thing? I was sitting in the kitchen Friday night trying to get the Roundup finished for the second time after Blogger ate it when I pushed "publish" and a RAT ran across the kitchen floor. YUCK! How do I get rid of the cloud of bad luck that I have been attracting lately? What did I do to deserve this? And most importantly when will my stomach feel good enough to eat my Girl Scout cookies?

*I know the boxes say Caramel deLites and Shortbread but in Texas they're called Trefoils and Samoas. I had to look it up on Wikipedia to make sure they were the same thing before I ordered. David took some to work today and assures me they are exactly the same. He didn't even apologize for stealing my cookies! Hmpf!

Update: About midmorning I was starving. I cautiously ate a little something and about an hour later I was starving again so Dave was able to take me out for a quick (late) anniversary lunch. He is so good to me even if he is a cookie thief.

Weekly FS Blog Roundup--Housing

2011-03-11T21:25:00.004+01:00

It seems a little trivial to be working on a blog about housing while the earthquake and ensuing tsunami are occurring. The images on television are shattering. So many people left homeless. So much loss. The boys are worried about their friend Toshia who lives in Tokyo. One of the things that happens if you live a global lifestyle is that when tragedy strikes, no matter where, it seems like you know someone who is affected. Our thoughts and prayers go out in to the people of Japan and those whose lives are touched by this tragedy.

One of the biggest investments most people ever make is a house. Where a person lives, and what their home looks like can be an important part of a persons happiness. When you walk in the door and the house feels welcoming, some of the workday stress just melts away. When buying a house, or even renting one, a lot of thought goes into selecting just the right place. So what happens when you give that choice up for a life wandering the planet, having your housing in your new country selected for you, with little or no input from you?

Well if you are lucky you get a fabulous house, bigger than anything you could have afforded back home. Yes, it does happen. Don't believe me? I'm not sure I blame you after my post yesterday, but Lisa from What Were We Thinking is thinking that they have the best house ever. And you know what? She may be right, it is a gorgeous house! I wonder if I can convince Dave that we need to head to Tijuana next?

Maybe we could try Bangladesh instead. Meandering Memos had a fabulous roof top terrace when they lived there. I have always wanted a patio on the roof.

Or how about Belmopan? You Can Call Me Al has a pretty nice house. Belize could work for me! Dave could head to work and I could send the kids to school, then I could finally learn to scuba dive. At the end of the day I could cook in that gorgeous kitchen. Sounds like a plan to me.

We are on our third post. Which means we are no longer newbies, but we still have a lot to learn. One thing I have learned is there is no typical FS housing. It always makes me smile to hear a newbie ask what housing is like overseas. There is no way to answer that. That's why I wanted to do a housing theme. Next time someone asks, you can refer them to this post where they can click through the links to see examples of houses at various posts. I hope someone does this topic again after transfer season so we can get a peek at all the FS blogger's new digs.

Our house in Jakarta was a townhouse but it was still about twice the size of our house back in the states. With two big living rooms, a efficient galley kitchen, and four bedrooms it was really comfortable, especially after David painted it such fun colors.

In Germany our house was a two story apartment on the third and fourth floors. The stairs with no elevator were a total drag, even more so since I can never seem to get out of the house with everything I need on the first try. Once you were inside our apartment it was pretty nice. Nice light colored laminate floor, and crisp white walls which reflected the light from all the windows. And with six (6!) bedrooms and three baths there was so much room for everyone to spread out.

Now we are here in Malawi. The house is a little smaller than either of our previous FS houses but (and this is a huge but) it has a massive yard for my nature loving boys to run around in all day long terrorizing the lizards and bugs. That yard makes up for a whole lot of things.

Other people think the kitchen is where it is at. Zoe likes a light, airy, kitchen, and a pool is nice too. Toads optional. Zoe is so fond of the FS furniture that she is hosting a contest at her blog Something Edited This Way Comes for the best way to disguise a FS Sofa. I can’t wait to see how to accomplish that.

Nomads by Nature recommends that you develop a sense of humor, and take the time to personalize a house and make it yours. Sounds like good advice to me.

Stephanie from Where in the World am I used paint to brighten up her new place in Hyderabad. I love the colors and all the cool arches, I love architectural detail. If you want to see more pictures of her house you can check out her flicker pictures and she even has a video tour.

Sadie Abroad asks if she's wrong to complain. Considering the luck she has had with housing I would say no, she should be complaining a whole lot more. Bedbugs and spraying for mosquitos while her pets are in the house are pretty much inexcusable problems. I hope she has a change of luck soon.

Adventures In… posted before and after pictures of her house. It is amazing what a little rearranging and some paint can do for a place. I am not sure anything can be done about the wild tiles. I actually like the blue ones and the red bathroom would be cool if the sink and tub didn’t match. That’s a whole lotta red.

Small Bits has a lovely big house with lots storage. And bookcases. You can never have too many bookshelves, or storage.

Connie from Whale Ears and other Wonderings is nicer than me when she goes on a rant. After she finished trashing her house, she took the time to point all the good bits too. Me, I just figure that is a post for another day. It can be so cathartic to have a place vent once in a while.

Kelly from Well, That Was Different makes her premiere post here on the roundup with a post about all the furniture that fills our houses. The Drexel Heritage furniture we all know and love, or love to hate, does have a certain “style” about it.

The current theme At Post is furniture. At Post is a photo blog that, like the roundup, relies on the FS community for contributions. I sent in a picture of my kitchen table. I am pretty sure it started life as a shipping container. It’s ugly, but I no longer dread the pasta night. No white upholstered dining chairs for me this tour. Ha! Send in your furniture pictures. Let’s see if we can get examples of all the different Drexel Horrible brocades in inventory.

Donna at Email from the Embassy is finding her current house in Amman a little boring. Who can blame her? Her house in Armenia had a secret Scooby Doo bookcase door in the basement and her house in Beijing had a naked mermaid chandelier. Guess you can’t be that lucky all the time.

Sass and Sweet has had good luck with housing department so far, mustard colored brocade couches aside, and hopes it continues at her next post. My fingers are crossed for you.

And finally, Sara at Wife-Mommy-Woman posted a very nice rundown of the housing in San Jose. This is just the kind of information I want when I contact post to ask about housing: an honest, thorough response. I would probably whine less about my housing if I had known what to expect. Telling someone the house is “fabulous” when it's really “livable with issues we are working on” makes for a rough landing in country. It’s called managing expectations. Nicely done, Sara.

Well that’s the roundup for this week. If you want to host a roundup stop by A Daring Adventure and sign up. The roundup can't continue without community participation.

Lilongwe Housing

2011-03-10T20:25:00.000+01:00

Quick Reminder: Tomorrow is the Weekly FS Blog Roundup, the theme this week is housing. I will be hosting it here on Cyberbones. Several people have already submitted posts featuring their housing overseas. With out FS community participation the roundup would cease to be, so please think about submitting a post... there is still time. Also you don't have to have done an overseas tour to participate in this one. How about posting on housing options in DC? The dreaded Oakwoods for example? It doesn't have to be a new post... many of us do the "Here's our new house" post shortly after arriving, please consider including an older post in the roundup this week. Thanks!

Necessary Disclaimer: No two houses in Lilongwe are alike so issues with my house are not necessarily representative of all housing. Translation: If you are the the family we are sponsoring this summer and you happen to be reading this don't freak out! If you are someone from Embassy Lilongwe and are reading this, I am well aware that we have one of the "nicer" houses here and have been told this ad nauseam and don't really need to be told it again. Further more this is clearly a RANT! Yes I am whining, quite a lot, as a matter of fact. Sorry if that offends someone but there a few million other blogs out there to read, go choose one.

Houses in Lilongwe does not live up to American expectations or standards. Not much of a surprise really, this isn't America... DUH! The housing in Jakarta and Frankfurt had issues too, but neither of those housing experiences prepared me for what we found here. I was told the housing here is "some of the best housing in Africa!" Once we were assigned to our house we were told the house was "Fabulous!" and the last tenants told me they "loved living in this house and would really miss it." So part of the problem is undoubtedly that my expectations were far too high. After all Africa is known for large houses in various states of disrepair. I should have remembered that.

Lets start with that "best housing in Africa" thing. There are many people here who are on their second, third or fourth African tour. Every one of them as assured me that the housing here is NOT the best housing in Africa, not even close. I can't comment on that since this is my first African posting, but I really really hope this isn't the best Africa has to offer.

Where to start? Hmmm...I know, lets start with the curtains. Most rooms in this house have an entire wall of windows so the curtains dominate the room since one entire wall from floor to almost the ceiling is curtain. Knowing that, why would anyone chose curtains that look like this? Seriously? Don't you just love the stripe with fruit? The peach print still leaves me speechless. I am actually missing the oh so neutral beige curtains that we had in Germany and Jakarta.

My favorite curtains in the house are these curtains in the bathroom. No you are not seeing it wrong, the curtains really don't match. Yes they are both white, but one panel has a silver circle motif and the other has a floral tone-on-tone motif. Even better the two panels aren't even the same length. Love It! No not really.

We were told our kitchen was huge. It would be more accurate to say the room our kitchen is in is huge. The kitchen itself takes up about a third of the room and it is pretty good sized, but not huge. The kitchen is the room we eat dinner in every night and and where Alonzo does his school work every day. It also houses the kids art/playroom, laundry room, and 2 pantries. We spend a lot in this room. Interestingly it is the only room in the house, besides bathrooms without an A/C unit. I requested one and was told that it is was against policy to have an A/C in the kitchen. So most of the time, but especially on baking (I make all our bread since none of us like the local bread) and laundry days, we sweat. It tends to stay hot and humid in the kitchen space all the time. We do have a ceiling fan that helps to make it bearable.

David refers to the kitchen as Monet, good from afar, but far from good. I suppose that statement says a lot about how Dave feels about impressionist art, but it is also a pretty accurate statement in reference to our kitchen. At first glance it doesn't look so bad but then you look closer and realize that the cabinets are vinyl covered particle board and the vinyl is cracking and the particle board is swelling. The drawers are all sort of crooked and some of the doors are falling off. The sink is a lovely huge size with built in drain boards. I love the shape and size of it, but it is so scratched up that there is no way to make it look anything close to white, it grosses me out a bit, but it does match the rest of the sinks and tubs in the house. The counters are old white laminate with burn marks and stains from the previous families cook. To top it off we can't use some of the cabinets because the insides are water damaged from some time in the past. It isn't getting fixed anytime soon. Apparently the cabinets would have to be pulled out to fix it and that isn't going to happen while we are living in the house. It is supposed to be repaired during the make-ready for the next family, two and half years from now. In the meantime I pretend like those cabinets don't exist and the cockroaches enjoy have a private party condo.*

After the drapes and kitchen, the thing that bothers me the most is the floors. We have wood floors. Don't get me wrong I love wood floors. In fact once upon a time I payed quite a lot to get rid of the builders standard beige wall to wall carpet to replace it with gorgeous hard wood floors. Sadly it has been many long years since the floors in this house have seen any sort of maintenance. Unmaintained wood floors don't look so good. Requests to have them refinished resulted in a firm no, not while the house is occupied. It creates too much dust. So we live with the floors and are very glad to have some carpets to cover the worst of it. It

Honestly the house is a good size for our family, it is a decent layout, and is very livable. It was probably a gorgeous house once upon a time. The biggest problem with this house is a long history of poor maintenance, neglect, and shall we say "creative" problem solving. What do I mean by creative problem solving? Well someone ordered a 110 washing machine for a 220 country. No problem just plug it in to a transformer, then set the transformer on the floor right next to it. I put the transformer on a little table when we moved in. Good thing too. Last week the washing machine flooded the room I didn't realize it until I stepped in the water. Can you imagine if I hadn't moved the transformer off the floor? Another example would be the plywood blocking the view and much of the light on our screened porch. Couldn't it at least have been painted? Need shelves in the bedroom? We'll make some. Is there a reason they couldn't have been all the same size? No bathroom cabinet? More shelves to match those in the bedroom. A hole in the screen? No need to replace the screen, we'll just glue a patch on it. Broke a bunch of tile replacing the toilet? Just poor concrete in the hole. The fact that I have boys who apparently can't aim and the unsealed concrete is porous and absorbs smells is an added bonus.

There is so much more I can say about this house, but I think at this point you get the picture. It isn't one big thing about the house, it's the sum all the little things that get to me.

*If you are coming to Lilongwe pack pest control. Lots of it. We are prohibited from buying any local pesticides for safety reasons but Dave managed to get his hands on a can of Raid. The next morning we swept up more than 40 dead roaches. GAH! Didn't phase the ants though. Nothing phases the ants. At least they don't bite like the fire ants back home.

Wordless Wednesday - Green Camp

2011-03-09T09:50:00.001+01:00

FS Furniture and Housing

2011-03-08T08:37:00.002+01:00

This Friday I'm hosting the Weekly FS Blog Round Up. In keeping with DiploPundits suggestion that we use our blogs to debunk the myth of the Foreign Service "cushy" lifestyle, I want to hear about housing at post. I want to hear about the good, the bad, the ugly, and the just plain weird. Yes, as employees of the state department overseas we do get housing. Let me tell you it isn't always all that it is cracked up to be. Unless you are the ambassador your housing bears very little resemblance to the fancy diplomatic houses you see in the movies, sometimes not even being ambassador helps. I am sure that all the newbies, as well as everyone looking at bidding this summer, would like to know about the housing at various posts.

While you FS folks are looking around your house considering a blog post about housing, take a look at your couch. Zoe at Something edited this way comes is hosting a contest this month for the best disguised FS couch. Yes, we get furniture too. It goes with the house. Before anyone out there gets all "Hey that's cool!" think about. Do you want someone else to choose all your furniture? That kinda makes it a bit more challenging to personalize a house. Generally our furniture looks a bit like it was chosen by someone's Great Aunt Edna.

I don't really need to disguise my current sofa, it is part of the new collection and is pretty nice, or at least it isn't brocade, it is a nice solid color, which is more than I can say for my curtains.

I had the dreaded blue brocade in Frankfurt. After pricing slip covers and deciding I really didn't like the way slip covers looked anyway, I just embrace the ugly for the two years we were there. It sort of grows on you after a while. Sad isn't it?

However I do have an entry for the contest. I think the the best way to disguise a FS couch starts with being assigned to a post where labor and textiles are cheap. When we arrived in Jakarta our sofa set all matched this chair.

More lovely Drexel Heritage brocade, only in cream this time instead of blue. To make it even better the last family had cats, with claws. The chairs were in good shape, but the sofa and love seat were clawed up pretty badly. No worries, Jakarta has an upholstery allowance. Shortly after we arrived I put in my request to have the sofas repaired. A gentleman showed up with stacks of fabric sample books. I made my selection (after nearly having a heart attack from too many choices) and a few weeks later my sofas were picked up, recovered and returned to me better than new.

I would actually buy these sofas. I like the brown chenille. It wears well, the kid stains washed out easily, and it was super soft and comfy to sit on. It even matches almost any pillow you could throw on it. All in all it is a very nice sofa.

Of course there is a down side to this plan. This love seat for example. It was recovered by somebody before me. It was a crushed velvet in a color David referred to as "bordello red". We stuck it in the kids play room figuring there wasn't much they could do to make it worse. As far as I could tell this fabric was kid proof. Sadly for the next people it was still in perfect shape when we left.

Just one more thing. And yes, I know these aren't sofas, but you just know that someone is totally hating these polka-dot dining chairs. For the record I LOVED them! Polka-dots Rule!

A Lazy Lazy Day!

2011-03-04T09:28:00.003+01:00

I am sitting around doing not much useful today. I don't remember the last time I could do this, sometime before I decided to fire the staff and start homeschooling, I guess. I did manage to get dressed, of course I am wearing the slouchiest, softest, most comfortable (and also ugliest) clothes I own. Today there is no homeschooling, no sweeping, no mopping, no laundry, the beds aren't made and it's not likely they will be. Grayson is curled up on the couch watching Toy Story 2 and munching down a lemon muffin. I am alternating between working on a jigsaw puzzle and playing on the computer. Dave did have to go to work, poor guy, but Gray and I aren't letting that spoil our fun!

Wait where are the other kids you ask? Well, Dakota is still in the Navy. I haven't quite come to terms with the fact he doesn't live here anymore. I thought I had, but just this week I took 6 cupcakes out the freezer for dessert instead of 5. Then of course I had to eat the extra cupcake. Alonzo and Colin left Wednesday for Green Camp. It's a sleepover camp and they won't be back until Sunday! YAY! I love them, but seriously, YAY! Grayson in enjoying his temporary status as only child. I am simply looking froward to tomorrow morning when he goes to Wild Kids Club at the Wildlife Center. David and I will 3 whole hours without kids. Yipee! THREE HOURS!

For the rest of day the only useful thing I intend to do is cook dinner and that's mostly because I like to eat. I am making gnocchi because Dave asked nicely, and also he had the sage in hand when he asked. I think he even waved it under my nose so that smell would get to me. I will probably do the dishes just because I want to make the cockroaches lives a little harder, and it hardly seems fair to ask Dave to do them since he has to actually work today and I sitting around doing nothing and loving every minute of it.

Wordless Wednesday - FS Swap Box Has Arrived!

2011-03-02T05:58:00.002+01:00

And the Conversation Continues...

2011-03-01T21:29:00.000+01:00

Friday I hosted the Friday FS Blog Round Up. My theme (if you want to call it a theme) was current events. There is a lot going on right now in the FS world but the big news that had everyone buzzing was the proposed pay cut for the FS. I wish I had something clever and interesting to add the conversation but after a long day of homeschooling and laundry my brain seems to have gone on strike. Fortunately there are others in the blog-o-sphere who are much better writers than me. Go check out these blogs and even if you are not in the foreign service but you want to be, your daughter/son/cousin/best friend is in the FS, or you just like blog stalking FS folks, go write your representative.

Hick/Hitchhicker/...Diplomat (!?) is all for the paycut but with a few important conditions.

Ever wondered what a FSO does to earn that salary that is on the chopping block? Simmons Says they work hard, really hard.

Something Edited This Way Comes would like to stress that we (me, her, and pretty much every other FS person I know) are middle class.

Four Globetrotters not only wrote her senators but she published her letter. The letter alone is amazing reading, but make sure to scroll down and take a look at the the comments. Great conversation, but where, oh where, do people get the idea that our pay is tax free? As if!

The Goodjamin blog likens the pay cut to some of his favorite heist movies and ends the post with a great picture just for those who don't care much about

Foreign Obsession is just starting out and already they want to cut her pay? Sheez.

Small Bits is happy to take a pay cut if it is part of true reform and true change.

DP's Blog is kinda insulated from the news at his post but still wants the world to know that diplomats don't lead cushy lives. Many, many, of us are single income families because we gave up careers to follow our diplomats around the world and the jobs just aren't there at post.

Nomads By Nature boils down the furor over the paycuts to three points: misinformation, targeted, and indignation. It is a well written thoughtful post.

Well that is about it for now. I am sure there are many more posts out there, nothing like money to get people talking. I look forward to reading more of the conversation.

Happiness

2011-02-28T14:56:00.002+01:00

…posted by Bones

Can happiness truly be found anywhere?

I am sure that there are some places that happiness can not be found, such as the death of a loved one. But in most situations I like to believe that happiness can be found. You just have to look for it.

When my older brother was taking a psychology class as part of his nursing degree, one of the topics was happiness.

“Do you know what happiness is?” he asked me.

I thought about it a moment and told him what I though happiness was.

“To you perhaps, but your happiness it not necessarily someone else’s happiness. Take for instance the homeless person that lives under the bridge. His happiness will be completely different than yours”, he told me.

Wow! I never really thought about it like that before. I am the kind of person that likes to see happiness. You know, I like to see people smiling and laughing. In my previous opinion before the conversation with my brother, if you were not smiling and laughing, I just assumed you were not happy. Kind of like my mom. Don’t get me wrong she smiled and laughed, but she complained all the time. It was interesting to hear her complaints and it wasn’t until my brother and I had that conversation that I realized that “complaining” was a key component to her happiness. If there was nothing for her to complain about she was not happy. It made me see things totally different for the first time.

I deal with people on a daily basis, from all walks of life and ranging from all ages. Some I have relationships with and others are just passing strangers that I might have a small interaction with. Never a moment goes by that I don’t think about what makes one happy. I often think there must be something wrong with me, because it is rare that I get sad or get let down by a situation. I would love to tell you what makes me happy, but I can’t, because I truly don’t know. It is so much easier to say what makes me sad.

As mentioned earlier… the death of a loved one or the loss of a family pet. I have had many of them and I am just as sad now as the first time I experienced it. It also saddens me when I see someone I love unhappy or sad and there is nothing I can do help. Shannon would say “you can help by just listening" I am a problem solver. I always assume that if someone comes to me with a problem, it’s my job to fix it. It is not always easy to just listen.

Guys… remember, sometimes when our wives complain to us…they just want us to listen.

Weekly FS Blog Roundup--In the News

2011-02-24T20:03:00.005+01:00

This week I found myself wanting to write blog posts that linked to other blogs. This isn't my usual style but there is just so much going on out there right now. A lot of what I have been reading is worrying, to say the least. There are riots, pay cuts, evacuations, and earthquakes, oh my. Sorry! I don't mean to be flip but that is the way I handle bad news, with sarcasm and dark humor.

In the midst of all the bad news there was one blog, or should I say a pair of blogs that touched me deeply. The bloggers are a husband and wife assigned to Wellington New Zealand, but they were both in Christchurch when the quakes hit. They are both fine, at least physically. The story of their finding each other in the chaos that followed the quake is amazing. You can read his point of view of the quake and the story of the magnificent kiwis. You can also read about her experiences. Warning: grab some tissues before you start reading, and make sure to check out the comment Adrian left on Amy's blog, it's the sweetest thing ever.

Another bit of bad news/good news was the shooting at the Bangkok Embassy. Good news no one was hurt, bad news there was a shooting.

Of course you can't turn on the TV right now without hearing about some new development in the middle east. The good news is that Connie discovered the source of the booming in Jordan the other day, while Adventures in Good Countries is contemplating what to protest for, a coffee shop perhaps? Wonder if that would work here in Malawi, we could use a good coffee shop, actually we could use any coffee shop. Also good news the Four Globetrotters had a nice time while they were evacuated to Morocco and are now back at post settling back in to their life.

Not everyone is having such a positive experience. The folks in Libya are still stuck trying to get out of the country days after an ordered departure. Matt finally made it back to post after being stranded en route to the middle east. If only the call had come earlier he could have had a few extra days with Jill and the kids. And really who could blame the Sherwood Family for getting fed up with being on evacuation, but even in the middle of it all the kids thought about the less fortunate.

For a really different look at the whole situation check out the narrative at Muttering Behind the Hardline, it puts a personal face to the people in these countries.

And now for the news that has everyone stirred up, the House voted to cut locality pay, and no I don't care what the media is reporting this is not about pay raises, this is about pay cuts. If this passes the Senate, we, along with a whole lot of other people, will face an immediate 15% pay cut. That is 15% of his pay check. His check that we are already receiving not some raise we may get some day, money we count on NOW. If this passes it will be gone. POOF! So what can be done? Well Kolbi called her two Senators from her home state. Wife-Mommy-Woman wrote her Senators and urges others to do the same. Digger and Herding Cats not only wrote to their Senators, they shared sample letters to make it easier for you to write to your Senators as well. You have no excuses, now get writing.

So how did we, the people who make up the FS, come to be in the budgetary crosshairs? We are not that large a group. Tiny in fact. A while back it was reported that there are more people in military bands than there are FSOs. So why are we front and center for pay cuts? Why should we get paid less to work overseas than to work in DC? Donna has an idea, she says it is all our fault. You really must read this wonderous work of logic. I am now thinking (somewhat guiltily) about all the blog posts I wrote glorifying going to Marine Corps Balls, spa treatments, household help. Am I part of the problem? Maybe, but mainly I blame the way we are all portrayed in the movies. I have yet to see a house in the movies that looks like any house I have lived in overseas, never mind all the invites to balls (we PAY for our tickets, thank you very much) and hanging out with famous people. I wish my life was that glamorous, no actually I don't, I like my life just fine.

Becky is cutting back on spending, just in case. For my family we live pretty modestly so it won't make a lot of difference in our day to day life but it will make a huge impact in our future plans. Dave and I recently started shopping for a house so we can have a place to retire in a few years. At the moment it is little more than a hobby. We spend many evenings looking at real estate on line. The money we don't need for our day to day existence goes into retirement and college savings, the small (very small) amount left is being funneled into a special account for a down payment, someday. If we loose 15% of our pay I can kiss that account goodbye.

Well that's my roundup for this week. I hope next week will have better news for all of us. No one has signed up yet for the roundup next week. If you are interested in hosting please stop by A Daring Adventure and sign up.

Weekly FS Round Up: Call for Submissions.

2011-02-24T13:40:00.005+01:00

It has been a while since I have hosted the Weekly Foreign Service Roundup. Since the last time I hosted there have been a few changes, one of which was the introduction of themes. There have been some great themes over the past few months. Everyone who has hosted has done such a great job. I wish I could say I had a cute, fun, theme for this week, but sadly I don't.

I have noticed that this week (and last) that there are a lot of news type postings on blogs, rather then the usual family updates and travel log kind of posts. So I am asking for news items related to foreign service personnel. Has something happened at your post that has made the news this week? Riots, evacuations, earthquakes? Want to weigh in on the proposed budget cuts and how the loss of income will affect us all if it makes it through the Senate? I know it is short notice but there have been so many things going on the last few weeks that I think we can do it. Please send me you news worthy blog posts and will put together the roundup sometime tomorrow afternoon. Thanks!

Wordless Wednesday - Giraffes and Dakota

2011-02-23T19:01:00.002+01:00

Hat Trick

2011-02-20T08:08:00.004+01:00

In case you are wondering what they learn at Navy bootcamp these days here is a video showing Dakota's proudest accomplishment.

Graduation Pictures

2011-02-19T08:13:00.007+01:00

If you checked in yesterday you know that Dakota graduated from Great Lakes Naval Bootcamp. WOOT WOOT! You also know that I wasn't there to play paparazzi and give him a huge hug when the ceremonies were all finished. *SOB, Tears, sniffle* Ok, all better now. What you don't know is that I spent the evening perched in the chair next to the phone that is hooked to our vonage line, with the big desktop computer set up for skype and my laptop in my lap open to facebook so I could monitor the updates posted by family that was there to cheer him on.

I was all hooked up via modern technology so that I could be as involved as possible from another continent. After days of on and off (mostly off) internet, the technology decided to cooperate, and dropped connections were fairly minimal, and quickly reconnected. The kids were watching "Charlotte's Web" munching popcorn, and trying hard not to attract Mom's attention. David was at a function, the kind that means he has to get all cleaned up and wear a suit. So not only was he missing the graduation, but he was working. Poor guy! Just think instead of doing... what ever it is they do at these functions, he could have been mopping up my tears and dealing with my hysteria. Wait a minute...hmmm...I wonder if there really was a function?

We did eventually get to talk to Dakota on on the Vonage, and we even skyped with him and Jorden from the backseat while on theIr way out to eat with everyone. He looked really good. The boys got a chance to tell him all about starting a fire with a magnifying glass (Ummm... Sorry about that Jenn you probably want to hide the magnifying glasses from Jorden for awhile!) they showed him Squirtle the tortoise, and got him all caught on the goings on here in Malawi. Dave got a chance to talk to him when he got home, his conversation seemed to be mostly about what comes next now that bootcamp is over. Fatherly advice from someone who has been there, done that. I am so happy that bootcamp is finally over and we can talk more often. Hopefully he uses some of his new income to buy a phone, or a computer or something to make it easier to keep in touch. On a regular basis! (Yes, Dakota I know you are reading this and I expect regular phone calls or skypes, so does Grandma!)

My thanks to Brenda, Donnie, Teri, and Jenn for being there and being so quick to get pictures up on FB! Thanks to Jenn for posting to FB live during the ceremony, hopefully you were discrete and didn't bother those around you too much, but I loved seeing the pics in real time. Thanks to Donnie for wearing your dress blues even though you're retired, that was so cool. Thanks to Jorden for giving Cody a big kid hug so he didn't miss his little brothers too much. And a big thanks to Teri for getting me a copy of the official CD so that I can eventually watch the whole ceremony from beginning to end. I can't wait until it arrives, well we are a pouch post so I will have to wait, but I don't have to be happy about it. Here are some pictures of the whole event that I have shamelessly stolen from the afore mentioned relatives FB pages.

Wow! That's a whole lotta new sailors!

You can't see his face, but Dakota is the one carrying the MIA/POW flag.

Dakota and Uncle Donnie both in dress blues. Out with the old in with the new! Donnie is a retired nuke, and Dakota is a nuke in training.

Aunt Teri and Jorden give Dakota a big hug.

Gedunk! I have no idea what that means but David said I had to write it. Apparently that makes sense to those who have been in the Navy.

A big hug from cousin Jennifer.

Aunt Brenda, Dakota, and a frog relaxing after a long day. Love the frog, for those of you who don't know I collect frogs.

I will post more pictures when I get some. I am sure all of you will be tired of the pics before I am done, but I am one proud mama!

Graduation

2011-02-18T08:07:00.003+01:00

Today Dakota graduates from Navy Bootcamp. In so many ways this is more of a mark of his becoming an adult than was his high school graduation. I want so badly to be there to see him in his uniform carrying the MIA/POW flag in the ceremonies. I have seen him in uniform before when he was in JROTC last year, and he looked very handsome. This is different, this is more, this is what he has chosen to do with his life. I want to see him in his new navy uniform and give him a big hug and cry proud mommy tears all over him.

Instead I am sitting in Malawi watching Dakota's brothers roast marshmallows at 9 in the morning on a fire they lit all by themselves with magnifying glasses. I am glad I was here to see how excited they were that it actually worked, and to make sure they were playing with fire in a safe location. It almost made up for not being there for Dakota to watch all three of them sit and concentrate and then see their victory dance when the first small flame appeared. All the same when the sugar high wears off there will be a serious fire safety talk.

I know that some of you who live this nomadic life that is the foreign service understand the choices: when do you go home, when do you sit tight and wish you could be there, is it really worth days of travel to be there for a ceremony that will last such a short time? Others who's lives are different probably think I am a horrible parent for missing this event. We could have probably have (just) afforded the round trip ticket to Chicago for me to be there, but it would have been a stretch, and it would put our budget in a bad place.

Instead we have made sure that there will be someone there to cheer him on and take lots of pictures. Later if the internet cooperates we will get to talk to him on vonage or skype and wish him all the best. Then his aunts and uncle and cousins will take him out for a good meal and make sure that he knows just how proud we are of him.

*Teri, Jenn, Donnie, and Brenda: if any of you are reading this take LOTS AND LOTS of pictures today! Give Cody a big big hug from his mom. Make sure you get someone to take a picture of all of you with together Cody. Thank you!

Wordless Wednesday - So Many Snails

2011-02-16T07:08:00.002+01:00

A Gift For Who?

2011-02-12T12:43:00.003+01:00

I opened my dresser drawer this week to find a package with a Victoria Secret's label on it nestled in with my bras. Picking up the package I wondered what it could be. It was too big for underwear and the wrong shape for a bra which are the usual things I would expect to receive from that particular store. Opening it I found a nice halter top. What a nice surprise! David often surprises me with little presents. He is a pretty wonderful husband.

Today I got around to wearing the new halter top and I am really wondering just who this top is intended to be a present for. I am feeling somewhat...ah, um....exposed, shall we say, and David has had trouble meeting my eyes all day. His gaze seems to be somewhat south of my eyes. I don't know if I am embarrassed or just flattered that after 4 kids and more than a decade of marriage David still seems to be enjoying the view.

Update: After reading this David said I should have posted a picture. Ain't gonna happen, sorry.

Household Help

2011-02-11T08:01:00.003+01:00

This week's Friday Weekly State Department Roundup is being hosted by Ogles and Observations. The theme this week is household help. Be sure to click over on Friday to check out everyone's stories of having help around the house.

I was totally blessed to have possibly the best staff EVER in Jakarta. I had a maid I adored and the kids loved and a driver who was funny, patient with the kids, and got my husbands humor. I still keep in touch with both via FB!

One day I was cooking dinner. Dwi (the maid) was outside with the kids and Haryono (the driver) had gone to the embassy to retrieve David. I was alone in the house with my glass of wine, the dinner prep, and my computer which was streaming a country music station from back home. I was happily chopping away, sauteing, and simmering. At the same time I was also singing along with George on the radio and two stepping my way around the kitchen. That's George Strait y'all, just in case you are wondering Geroge who?

I forgot one thing, the kitchen window was wide open. It faced the driveway so that when Dave and Haryono returned from work the first thing they saw was me dancing and singing around the kitchen. To this day I have no idea how long they were standing there, I just know that when a station break came on, I quit singing and there was a sudden burst of applause from the window. I looked up to see my husband camera in hand, Haryono, Dwi, the kids, several of the neighbor's staff, and a gardener or two, all standing in the window grinning like mad. Totally busted! I blushed furiously and took a bow, what else could I do? Then as soon as everyone had scattered I slammed that glass of wine.

One of things I looked forward to the most about coming to Malawi was having help again. A few years of doing it all in Frankfurt had me looking forward to living the easy life again. It is strange thing to have help, at least if you were brought up in America. Most Americans don't have household help of any kind. A few of my friends had a maid that came in twice a month and did the dusting and such but no one I knew had a full time maid, never mind a living in. That was something you only saw on TV, like Alice on the Brady Bunch.

So far there isn't an Alice for me here in Malawi. In fact I am currently without household help although I do have two gardeners that I am totally convinced are somehow related to Naoma's driver. If it weren't for the kids I would probably be content to keep it that way, but in Malawi if you want to someone to watch your kids once in a while so that you can go out to dinner you need to hire a full time helper. Seems a bit like overkill, but that's the way it is.

I had hired staff, not only a maid but a cook as well, before our arrival here at post. They were the staff from the people that had this house before us. That didn't work out as well as we had hoped. They have both since moved on to new positions and I hope are much happier. I have decided that I will never again hire staff before I arrive at post, not even if it means I may need to do without for a while. It is just too important that I be happy with the people sharing my personal space on a daily basis. It's a tricky business this having staff thing.

Wordless Wednesday - Glossy Starlings

2011-02-08T21:21:00.003+01:00

A Diet, a Birthday, and Some Humor

2011-02-03T19:53:00.001+01:00

* Note: I started this post last week and it then sat in "drafts" until I remembered about it today, so it isn't exactly current. I have been just a little busy dealing with two huge boxes of mangos before they all went bad. I now have a quart of mango syrup, twenty five quarts of sliced mangos in the freezer, and 8 half pint jars of mango jam in the pantry. I sent a bunch home with the gardener, and a bunch ended up on the compost heap because they got squished at the bottom of the boxes. I am done done done with mangos until next mango season!

This week marks the start of Malawi Meltdown 2011. I have been weighed, and my BMI calculated. No, I am not going to post my weight, but I would like to loose about 15 pounds this year. My BMI is in the healthy range, but just barely. I am officially on a diet. Okay, not so much a diet, more working on changing bad habits and making better choices. To start with I am keeping a food log and writing down every little thing I eat or drink. Nothing takes the fun out of eating quite like having to stop and write it down. I also need to start exercising again. My original plan was to start with the 30 day Shred but my knee isn't cooperating. Last time I tried the Shred I had to abandon it around day 19 because my knee started hurting too much. Instead I am doing about 30 minutes of yoga each morning. I get up way too early and tune into to AFN for Nameste Yoga while David takes care of the morning routine getting the kids fed, dressed, and loaded on the bus . I'm not exactly working up a sweat but it is a starting point I suppose.

This week also marks the end of my annual torment by David. There are only two months difference in our ages. I am the older one. Every year from the last week of November until last week of January David takes great pleasure in telling everyone that he married an older woman and that I am a year older than him since I was born in '67 and he was born in '68. His usual line goes something like "Shannon is already 43 but I'm still 42. I won't be 43 until next year." We have an agreement, he can be a jerk for two months then I better not hear a word about it for the other 10 months of the year. To celebrate the end of the torment for another year I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. For presents Dave received a brand new tripod for his camera and some special gifts the boys made just for him.

Sorry David holding the cake upside down does NOT make you 34.

And now for a little humor. I may have mentioned that we have guards at our house. The guards take their job very seriously and we are thankful to have them. The one thing that cracks me up is the saluting. Every time we go through or even near the gate, or sometimes if I am sitting out by the pond drinking my morning coffee (note to self: no more drinking coffee outside in pj's) the guards will salute. Basically the thought of anyone saluting me on a regular basis cracks me up, I'm a civilian through and through. However that isn't what is funny. When we arrived most of the guards just snapped a basic salute as you drove past, but there was this one who would do this foot stomp thing as he snapped to attention. Now it seems that all of the guards are doing some sort of fancy foot stomping salute, some stomp once, some stomp twice, some seem to specialize with the straight leg stomp or the high knee lift stomp. So far I have managed to refrain from bursting into laughter in front of the guards, but it is a close thing sometimes.

Update: Since I wrote this last week I have dragged myself out of bed at a quarter of six everyday to do yoga. How I managed to get dressed and functioning well enough to exercise prior to coffee I am not sure. One morning I had a hard time figuring out how to put on my exercise shirt. David came in looked at me struggling and after he finished laughing, he told me I had it on backwards. If you are a girl and you can't figure out that you have racer back exercise shirt on backwards you probably need one or more of the following: 1. Serious psychiatric help 2. More sleep or 3. COFFEE!

I was feeling stronger and more flexible until I managed to loose my balance yesterday doing triangle pose. Somehow in the process of falling on my butt I managed to pull a muscle in my thigh. Today's workout was all based around the warrior poses. If you are not familiar with yoga the warrior poses use the thigh muscles, A LOT! OUCHIE! Hopefully tomorrow's workout will be based around down dog, or cobra, or really anything but warrior. My personal choice would be child''s pose, but I suppose that wouldn't be much of a workout, more of a nap.

It has been a week so I got on the scale today and found I had lost 3 pounds in a week. YAY! Twelve more pounds to go. WooHoo!

Wordless Wednesday - New Chameleon Computer App

2011-02-02T07:04:00.002+01:00

Overheard Conversations

2011-02-01T08:35:00.002+01:00

As I was cooking dinner the boys were huddled in the corner heads together. They weren't fighting for a change so I thought I should leave things well enough alone. A few minutes later I wondered if I should have investigated the situation just a little sooner as a bit of conversation drifted my way.

"Just eat it, it tastes like sweet milk."

"You should kill it first."

"Yeah! Kill it so it doesn't wiggle around when you eat it."

"I always kill them, I like my termites dead."

After I finished gagging I managed to put dinner on the table. Termites must not be very filling because all three boys ate like pigs. However just thinking about eating termites will keep Mom on her diet.

No More Beans?

2011-01-31T09:11:00.005+01:00

The government of Malawi is proposing a new law that would make farting in public illegal. How am I supposed to enjoy a big bowl of chili and beans if I can't fart? 'Cause you know the old kids rhyme "Beans beans the musical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot..." has a lot of truth to it. Add in some beer and deviled eggs and we could have a serious problem going on. Sadly I am not kidding you can read the story here.