Africa!!

The children The glass shards on the tops of the walls.
The "bush"

Principals office at the school
Lloyd, Chief of village, Claudia, Claude (interpreter)
How everything gets cooked there

The "Squater" (use your imagination....see that big nasty bug)
Must be close to six o'clock. Very smoky because they burn acai trees to make charcoal)

Can't remember the name of the food, its like a potatoe. they wrap them in banana leaves.

The chicken sacrfice thing.....

They carry everything on their heads.

Love the baby in this one......comfy? I think not.....I could be wrong though...
they pile everything a mile high then sit on top. Oops!

Claudia with a different chief

I love the kids! Claudia said this is how you see the older children carrying the smaller ones!





A house.....when the rain season comes this mud just washes away.

A truck piled high with people and cargo and who knows what else!!
Cool lizard






Town

More barbed wire
back of compound

** sorry I didn't get some of these turned. When I do mine with my camera I don't have to turn them. Claudia took about 800+ pics and I tried to pick some that would give a good idea of what it was like there.

Wow! We had a real treat yesterday! Lloyd and Claudia returned from Africa on Monday. So yesterday they made the trip down to see us! It was great to hear all of their stories and see their pics! What a time they had! Claudias brother Robert has started Tifie. A humanatarian group. See here. They were in The Democratic Republic of Congo. There are several different areas that they visited. They flew into Kinshasha which has about 9 million people and Lloyd said they were all in the streets! It was very dirty and dusty. They have a compound there that houses all of the equipment etc. They stayed in the villa. It was protected by walls and atop of these walls was barbed wire and some other walls had glass shards on top to further protection. They didn't go any where with out their policeman Papa. That made a huge difference in traveling. When they went to the market they had to stay in a group. Major "stealers" as Papa put it. You are seriously mobbed by hordes of people when they see a white man there. It means money to them. They bring you everything out of the shop to buy! They said it was very difficult to walk around there. When the police officers see you they will fine you for rediculous things!! You went two inches after I told you to stop, etc. Oh and the cameras, if they see that you have one you are either "in trouble, big fine, or they take it!" Lloyd has his video camera kind of hidden as they walked to church, but he had it on being very sneaky!! He took lots of footage there when they traveled to different villages and to the bush. It was fun to watch! The children especially! They love to see white people! And they especially love to have their pictures taken! Then they want to look at it and have a picture! When you can't produce the picture then they want the camera.....adults too!! They took the orphans to the park (kind of like a zoo) and spent time in the bush getting land ready and a place to build their little town. One thing was the villagers who used to own it did a little ceremony. They had a little black voo-doo like doll and poured beer on it, (no one could touch it except the chief or else they would die) then they took a chicken and basically sacrificed the poor thing, then plucked its feathers, cut off its head and sprinkled blood on the ground! Okay let me back up a bit. The chief wanted money (also a ridiculous amount) and beer and salt for the transfer of this land. They agreed on a smaller amount then he got the beer and salt too.

The sun there rises at 6am and sets at 6pm. Everynight. 365 days a year. I'm trying to think of all of the neat things they told me!! It was great to have them come down out of their way to see us. They even gave us some very nice trinkets from there. We were sad that Mr. Mayes couldn't be here.

D.E.M + K.M

Let me start this by saying........ there is nothing worse in the world than the fact that I have all these emotions and feelings pent up and no way to express them! Ouch. I'm not a person that is good with words, but when I read, I definately love the way I can feel when words are all put where they should be? Thinking that might not make sense I'll continue. (warning....this is going to be a mushy post)
I am missing Mr. Mayes so much right now it actually hurts. I know thats probably lame, but its exactly how I feel. I can't wait till he comes home. It will feel normal again. I love what he is doing, but it scares me to death. Nothing is better than watching him achieve his goals and dreams. But I am working so hard to get rid of MY fears.......
The other night was the best. Kids were in bed....asleep!!! We talked and laughed and flirted and told each other stories. It was awesome. It reminded me of our first date! I was so giddy.... We stayed awake for what seemed like forever! Those are the moments I love. He calls it Bonding time. How original. ;) I just wish that it could last longer. Sometimes we are so tired and stressed over the day that it is wonderful to fall in bed and push stuff off till later. But we never know when we will never have a later. Thats been brought to my attention more and more recently. Thats were all my fears are.
I'm greatful that we will be together forever.......theres nothing I could want more. We have lots of work to do.....but thats the good thing, we do it together. That would be another thing with him. He loves to do everything together. I don't care if he wanted to go out and do the "guy" thing...... but he stays.....with me.
One thing for sure is I could go off and tell you everything I love about him. It would be long. He has so many characteristics and talents that make me smile. I'm smiling now.
(his ears must be burning so bad it woke him up. Its 2am our time. 1am his time. Haha! See, even listening to his tired voice brings me a perma-grin!)
I have the best husband ever. He makes me feel like someone I never thought I could be, and more! He does that to everyone around him. I definately got extremely blessed. I don't know how it happened, but I am greatful to have him. Its late...... I can't seem to function anymore. You can probably tell it in this post.......but for you Mr. M,

Mr. Mayes,
I am counting the seconds till I can come pick you up! I miss you so bad....and so do your little girlies. It feels like forever already. Nothing will feel as good as your strong arms around me! and of course a kiss or two..... I can hardly wait......please hurry!
With all my love,
K

Family pics

I took some pics of our friends, the Barnes, the other night. It was fun, especially because they have a newborn! Even though she didn't want to cooperate, it was still fun! I was trying some new settings on my camera, so some of the lighting is pretty messed up.....but practice makes perfect right?........ but this is what I ended up with.

First "Official" day of school!!

I can't believe that she's a kindergartner! She was so excited! Can't you tell? We got her all ready and then I remembered that she was supposed to be wearin a certain color. So sure enough.....she was supposed to wear red!! Heart attack! She has no red!! Thanks Elle for letting her wear your shirt! So off she went!! About 3:30 I went down to the bus stop to pick her up. Its been confusing this bus situation! The bus numbers and where they are picking up and dropping off kids. We've had several different people telling us something different!! So I go where the bus driver said the second bus would drop her off. No BrookLynn. So off I go where the second bus stopped and no BrookLynn!!! AHHH! Then I see her little red shirt.....walking home about a block away!! What the..... She was so excited to walk home!!! She begged! I had to have my way....you are coming with me!! But she had a great first day!!!

our backyard friends........

Sorry about the pic..... I had to take it on my phone and then couldn't figure out the whole sizing thing. Anyhow this little squirrel came and sat in the shade for a minute this morning.

Then This little guy is a first. You can hardly tell but his tail is blue. We haven't seen any like this one! Hundreds of lizards but none like this!

Then our favorite! This nosey little road runner was checkin things out. No fear!

Today...

Today BrookLynn ask what we are doing today. She will send her sister in to ask if they can do something. Today BrookLynn will ask if Eli is working or at school. Today BrookLynn will ask if its FHE. She will ask if she can somehow, someway get wet. Pool preferably. She will turn on the music in the living room and dance and sing. Today BrookLynn will pretend to be a princess. Ariel, if shes swimming and Belle if she's home. Today BrookLynn will ask if she can open the garage to get her bike out. She will act like shes twenty....not five. Today she will ask when she gets her shots and if today school starts. BrookLynn will ask a hundred or more questions..... She will try to bribe her sister for something and when she doesn't give in, BrookLynn will threaten her that she won't give her Halloween treats. Today BrookLynn will say "So it looks like I want_____". Today she will crack me up just by something silly she says. Today I will love BrookLynn more than ever before.

Today Elle will ask me the minute she wakes up if I will get her cereal. Then she will ask what she can have for a snack. She has her Barbie cup, plate, and bowl that she asks for every meal. But she is so understanding when it's dirty. Today Elle will ask me to help her wipe :), I guess I'm glad that she still needs me.... Today Elle will want to do whatever her sister does. Today she will find many different reasons to whine. She's a pro at it now. She will ask if I will play a bame (game) with her. Today Elle will ask if we can go somewhere preferably one of her friends houses! She will go through more than one outfit today counting her swimsuit. (They will be skirts.....guaranteed) Today I will listen for her, just to hear her cute laugh! Today she will ask me a billion times if I will get her a drink. She will do her little skip everywhere she goes. Today she might try to catch a lizard. BUT today I will love Elle more than ever before.

Hmmmmkay.

Wow....its been awhile! Busy? Kind of. Today for starters..... I'll back up a bit and explain. Friday our ward organist called and said she would be out of town. Then continued to ask if I wouldn't mind playing. Sure no prob. Never touched the organ......piano will be just fine. So I said yes. Then a couple minutes later another lady in our ward called. I'm beginning to think Ihave a sign posted on my derry-air that says something to the extent along these lines, "CALL ME!!! I will do any ward calling you might have a need with!" Haha!! K- thats exaggerating a bit. Its just crazy cuz we haven't been in this ward very long! Back to the story. She asks if I will accompany her during a solo for relief society. Again, no problem. Easy song from the hymn book. (You have to know the lady. Shes very dramatic, theatrical person. Beautiful voice though.) She wanted to have everyone close their eyes and paint the picture to this song. Hmmmkay. So I still have to teach a lesson in Primary. I'm beginning to ask myself if it will all work out!! Of course it will!!! Du-du-du-done!!!
So we get to church early and for some crazy reason in my head I wanted to sit at the organ and play.....or try to. So I do and was playing with stops and petals and all that fun stuff. Fun! Then the lady shows up describes what she wants me to do, and she sings through it once. Sounds good! We were done. Back to the organ and I end up playing prelude.....and the first hymn, the sacrament hymn, and the closing song! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM??? *Side note* It wasnt near perfect, but everyone sang!!! Don't ask where all that bravery came from. Or was it stupidity?...... I ran to get the room ready for class, taught the lesson, then accompanied the lady. *another side note* The church is starting to replace the painos with electric ones. These ones will play HYMNs or the childrens hymns. Pre-programmed! Sad. I really dislike using them. THEN.....Eli proceeds to tell me we've been asked to speak the end of this month in sacrament meeting! Man, my mind races back to the last time I spoke. Yeah, I bawled through the whole thing. WHY? I have no clue! Lovely. Just lovely.
So by the time we get home I was ready for a nap!! Yeah! It was a long weekend!! THEN.....don't you love that? Eli tells me the young mens pres is coming over so I can get pics off an Ipod. What??!! Why did you tell him I could do that? I haven't stayed up to par on electronics. I have an Ipod but I just listen to it! Hmmmkay! So he knocks on the door. I'm trying to figure out what he wants done and he wants the pictures off and a slideshow made with them.....for the Scout Court of Honor........in less than 2 hours! You've got to be kidding me!!! No pressure. I haven't had to ever to do that! My computer has a program, but like I know how to run it!! HA! Seriously folks lets get this sign off my BUTT!!! So I get to work.....Pres is like "Oh how bout the pics we sent you via email???" By this time I'm praying that we can connect to the internet. Thanks to the neighbors who share wi-fi........ So I'm trying to downloading a hundred or so pics with poor connectivity.....praying.....praying.... praying!! Then he continues to tell us about a guy that did one before and it was AWESOME!! It did this and this and it was sweet. haha. Oh, can we put it to music??!!! No words for how I'm feeling at this point in time!! So i get the pictures and some videos in the layout, now for some church music.... some difficulties there but we pull it off. Eli pops it the dvd player to check........drumroll.......(its 7:15 and this thing starts at 7:30)........disk error. Of course it would! It plays on the computer, maybe its our retarted dvd player? I do one more on a different type of disk as we were walking out the door. Seriously. Thanks goodness for laptops! Of course the thing wouldn't work on the tv there! I did take the laptop though and we did see it. Yeah!! This sunday is over!!!
On Friday though, The new Twlight book was coming out!! I was so pumped! Kyle, Catherine, Eli, myself and a friend of Catherines went to dessert and waited for the book at midnight. We got it.....we were very luck to have been able to be VERY close to the beginning of the line!! So at 12:15 we were off!! I came home and put the girlies to bed and kissed Eli goodnight and proceeded to read! I had to put it down at 4:00am. Time flew!! I picked it up again the next morning and read until 5pm! I finished it! It wasn't wasn't I expected, but I did like it!! My girls weren't too badly neglected! I was up and down several times! Now what am I goin to do? I'm thinking.........
This last week I donated plasma....that was a first!! It wasn't too bad. They give you an anti-coagulant to thin the blood and that was a little freaky! My lips and mouth were tingling and it gave a bad taste in my mouth!! Then to replace the liquid they took, they gave me a huge back of saline solution. And oh boy.....I thought I would never say this......It felt dang good to go out in the 108 + weather!!! It was so cold!!
Now to get BrookLynn registered for Kindergarten! Already. We have all that fun stuff this week!
till next time.......