Individual Blogs

I have been taking pictures, actually alot of video yesterday. But didn't get any of it downloaded.
Let's start with Seth. Seth is teething again. The child isn't even 10 months and he is working on tooth number 9. Runny nose, red eyes, chewing on his fingers, waking up at night when the motrin wears off, the whole 9 yards. We gave him a hair cut last week. We buzzed him with a razor with the longest guard on. He looks alot better, still like a baby but a clean cut baby with no hair in his eyes. He is rolling over alot more, both ways, and tolerating being on his stomach for longer periods of time. Wanza feeds him the strangest lunches. Smashed broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, vanilla yoghurt and chocolate cereal. And he loves it. He takes a bottle the best for me and eats the best for her. Everynight our security company sends a truck with Kenyan guards on it to drive through the compound at midnight. The two dogs bark every night at it, waking us and Seth up. Than at 5 am the apartment building next to us has a Mus-lim call to prayer which wakes Seth up again. And sometimes he wants to stay up like this morning. I am not irritated at him, but I am irritated!

Levi conitinues to be my tenderhearted little boy. Several days in a row he was biting Cristiana. She is our neighbor girl and three and both are at that age where sharing and playing don't come easy. Especially when Levi is feeling a little insecure. But Michelle, Cristiana's mom, is understanding and Levi has stopped biting. We just know when those two are together we need to keep our ears open if they start fussing at eachother. Ryan has been working a lot the last 3 weeks. Coming home late, missing dinner, barely getting to tuck the boys in. Levi got really used to having daddy around alot. And asks where daddy is alot. He often cries himself to sleep when he hasn't had enough time with Ryan, this is not easy on Ryan at all. I am trying to be a supportive wife when Ryan has to work late, Caleb seems ok, but how do I help my little Levi. Today as I was leaving home to come to the hangar for a few hours, I told Levi I was leaving and he said a chipper 'ok'. But he chased the truck down the driveway and than stood beside the wall and cried. My neighbor brought him home for me and I know he would settle down quickly but it is quite sad and how long will this go on? Levi loves to go and play with the other kids and Caleb but he is often home too, hanging out. He loves to push a chair in front of the sink, put his apron on, and help wash the dishes. He is doing better at getting himself dressed and undressed. He still eats 2nd breakfast and elevensies. And he isn't going to outgrow his 2T clothes before Seth grows into them.

Caleb: What a good little boy. He plays hard during the day, and sleeps hard at night. I think both Caleb and Levi have put on weight in muscle. I can't hardly lift and carry Caleb anymore. He loves to wear his rubber boots and stomp through the mud puddles. He is a great baby sitter for Seth and will play with him for a half an hour at a time when I ask him too without ever complaining. He is getting really good at building things with legos. He showed me how you cut someones foot off with a sword. I said what will the person do with out a foot. Well he can get a new one. I said where can someone get a new foot? Well out of a book he says, I wonder how that works! Hopefully our sea freight will come soon and he can learn how to ride his new bike.

Ryan is frustrated at work. He is working lots of hours and often because of mismanagement. If the parts room had basic parts like spark plugs for the airplanes, his job would be alot easier. The person in charge of the parts room is not really listening to Ryan about several things. Ryan has been here 3 years and still can't log onto a computer and do log book entries for airplanes. He askes and askes but this same person has not gotten him clearance , he says he will but doesn't find the time and there isn't anyone else for Ryan to go to. I am frustrated because I can't help, but I sure would like too!!!

Dawn!!! I have had a headache since Saturday and very nauseated since Sunday. Being pregnant had crossed my mind and we would have been excited but that's not it. So tuesday I took some medicine for amoebas and hopefully will start feeling better soon. I am exhausted and don't feel like cooking. Also our refrigerator is not getting cold and I might loose all my groceries. The freezer compartment of the fridge is rock hard cold. I have no idea where to find a repairman. I started attending a new Bible Study on Tuesday, boy have I missed that. This one is on communication and I don't know all the ladies which is nice cause I could always use some new perspectives. I have been handing out our prayer cards and everyone likes them. What is not to like, we are very photogenic! We need to write a prayer letter but we don't know what to write. The big question has no answer. When do we move to Uganda?

Easter Egg hunt

Ryan just showed me a much easier way to get pics on my blog! He's worth having around. So we had an easter egg hunt. The boys each got six eggs to find and had a lot fo fun with the treasures inside. i had to fill 2 eggs for 12 kids. My eggs had a big plug of colorful play dough in it and the other one had a tiny carving of an african animal. I think my eggs where the coolest.

The cart is a radio flyer and is for Seth for Christmas. We waited to put it together until we got here. The kids have been having fun with it.




 

Trout Tree Restaurant

Our favorite restaurant is 3-4 hours from Nairobi. Trout Tree is a Trout farm located near Mt Kenya. A mountain stream was diverted to the small man made ponds under a huge tree. And than a restaurant was built into the tree. It's shady and green and relaxing to eat lunch in a tree house. The boys love it. They have a play area, jungle gym for them to play on. Also for 50 cents they can have a container of fish food to feed the trout. Caleb was brave and asked one of the men if he could pet a fish. So the man got out a net and caught a bunch and both Caleb and Levi touched one of the fish. They were jumping all over in the net but even timid Levi touched one.

We took Allison along with us, she house sat for us for 7 months while we were in the States. She doesn't have a car and is going back to the States in June. This was our thank you for taking good care of our things.

We left Seth with Wanza in Nairobi. He doesn't eat trout yet and would have gotten sick of being in the car. It was freeing for me not to have a baby along that still likes three naps a day. And Wanza was able to get to know him. Caleb and Levi enjoyed looking for the mountain and looking out the window. They were so good. We went shopping at the little shops along side the road for souvineers. didn't buy much. I had terrific steak cause I don't like trout either. but the rest had the fish. We tried one of their pizza's for the boys and I wouldn't recommend it. the boys just like looking out at the scenery as you can see Caleb ignoring all the food on his plate. He had pasta with smoked trout. We watched for Kalabas monkeys. and also saw a hyrex, looks like a big rat crossed with a bunny. We bought two big branches of bananas onlong side of the road and Ryan put them on the roof rack so we could give them away when we got home. He also bought a nice length of rope used by mountain climbers. Well its time for me to each lunch with Ryan at the hangar.

Rainy Saturdays

Ryan’s Land Rover is sitting in a field with a tarp over it. He got my truck running the first week we were here but his has been less of a priority. Every time he sets aside a morning to work on it, it has rained all night or is raining all morning. This happened again today. He listed five other projects he would rather do on a rainy Saturday but I pushed him out the door anyhow. The sooner he gets his truck running, the sooner I can have my truck all to myself. He’s got his Cabela’s rain jacket on so how wet could he possibly get?

Hopefully all he has to do is pump up the tires, put in a new battery and drive it over to our house carport. We have a double covered carport that is great to work under. And his truck is parked only a ½ mile away. Or we might have to tow it. To perceive this as an adventure and not a problem is the trick.

Levi was up bright and early this morning. Ryan took him downstairs and fed him breakfast first, cause Levi takes after me and wants to eat right away. Than they lit a fire in the fireplace to warm up the house. It’s quite cozy with sweatshirts and jeans on and a fire crackling.

When I first came to Kenya I had to do a nursing orientation to be a registered nurse in Kenya. Gloria Smethers was doing the same thing so we shared a house for about 5 months. She still works in a hot dry village up north. Whenever she comes to Nairobi she calls me up and we have her over for dinner. She likes the kids to call her Aunt Glo. So she is coming over tonight for Chicken Fajitas.

Which means grilling out. We found out our gas grill and 2 kids bikes that we are having shipped are almost to the port in Mombasa. Imagine a gas grill. Just push a button, turn a knob and it lights! Presto Magic. The charcoal grill we have used the last 3 years works great if you like to work while you cook. Needs to be cleaned regularly which Titus our Gardner does for us. Needs to be lit an hour before you want to grill so the charcoal can burn down a bit. And than the window of good grilling time is only about a ½ hour. We grill out at least once a week. And it’s a smoky mess to light with newspaper and kerosene. We are using real charcoal we buy along the side of the road. Not match light or what ever the briquettes are called.

So When I informed Ryan we were grilling tonight, he usually would have said that sounded good. Today he was ready to have our gas grill and get rid of the charcoal one. Can’t say I blame him. But Chicken Fajitas off the grill taste 100% better than ones fried on the stove.

I decided to not try and catch you up on the last 2 weeks when we didn’t have email and instead tell you what we are doing today.

Our First Ten Days

Where do I even start so much has happened already! We found out my cellphone will not work for email. Even though Ryan got the right cable while we were in the states, we were misinformed when we bought the phone. It can download ring tones from the internet, not to be confused with internet access which would send/receive my email. Since we don't know how long we are in Kenya, we don't want to invest in a phone that would do email for a short time. Randy, a friend at the hangar, has a thing to slide into the computer and could do email. It cost him $275. I think he would let us borrow it and if it works, maybe it would work in Uganda as well. But he is super busy as the head mechanic at the hangar. So until we can nail him down, I have to go to the hangar to do email.

The kids are over jet lag, it took a full week. Not fun, don't want to do that again anytime soon. It was so nice to sleep in our own house right from the first night. My friend Michelle drove me to the grocery store the first day and I shopped for 2 1/2 hours and spent all my money! By that first Saturday, Ryan had my truck running. Mobility is a wonderful thing. He still hasn't even touched his Land Rover which is sleeping in a field with a tarp over it.

The first morning, all the preschoolers came and knocked on our door, where is Caleb. The boys didn't settle down until 4 am that first night and slept til 10:30. They remembered the house and needed to go see the kitty who was waiting for them. They played outside the first week, got filthy dirty and slept happy. I am remembering why we give them baths every night. I think they are getting tan but its just dirt!

We unpacked our stuff quite quickly and went through most of the footlockers we had in storage. I sorted all our clothes out and came up with at least 4 boxes of faded clothes to give away. Its funny that when we were getting ready to leave a year ago, I didn't have the brain power or energy being pregnant to sort stuff out. Plus our stuff didn't look that bad, but after being in the states and seeing how bright clothes are suppose to be, my boy clothes were pretty shabby! We had such nice clothes that we brought backwith us that I could really clean out their closets.

Seeing people has been great. Everyone wants to know how I am feeling of course. And they think I look great, I forget I was 7-8 months pregnant when we left. They think Caleb grew, can't believe how much Levi talks, and comment first on Seth's wild hair and second on his bright blue eyes. Oncethey get to know him, they see what an easy if not lazy baby he is.

Today April 3, Dean's Birthday, I took Caleb and Levi to the grocery store Ilike best. Caleb had been asking when we would go to the old grocery store.he remembered the vegetable lady and she said she would have to startstocking cookies again, now that we are back. They each picked out two foodcolors and got hair cuts. When we got home, I made 4 batches of play doughwith the colors. They played in the drive way with all their play dough toys on my out side table. Than we had a picnic out there for lunch. We put the exersaucer in the driveway during the day. Seth loves to be outsideand watch the kids playing and the leaves rustling etc.

I am going to send this so will write more later, sorry its disjointed.once we get email my blogs will hopefully be more journal like.
Lots of Love Dawn