Look at my little productive self.....

Ok, so I can't totally claim all the productivity around here! My mom is MAINLY the reason I have gotten so much done. Rick is in Africa. He's been gone for what seems like forever but only about 4 days. He's in Malawi on a mission trip, and as much as I miss him, I'm pretty jealous too! We have always done that trip together before in the past and it's where we got engaged, so it's tough to hang back here on the home front. I miss those precious little ones of Mtendere village and still think a piece of my heart is in Africa.

I have talked to Rick a couple of times and they are doing well. They made it there without their luggage which had to be tough, but they got it a couple days later.

About my productivity....to preface, when we moved it was at the end of the semester when everything was CRAZY, so we just threw everything in the garage until we could get to it. Well, I'm just now getting to it, but am I ever! I am so excited to let go of some things that I have been holding onto forever...unneccessarily. It feels so good. Mom and I have gone through everything, tossed out alot, put up signs for our sale, put things on craigslist to sale, and just cleaned. I have donated, and will probably be doing more of that after the sale. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty to do....I've got pictures to edit, paperwork to sort, a table to finish, grout to seal....and the list goes on, but we're getting there.

So on the health front, Benjamin and I have fallen apart since Rick left...ok, not really, but I guess him leaving just makes us sick! :) Benjamin has a double ear infection...kudos to mom for catching that one. So he'll be on an antibiotic and have nasty poop for the next couple of weeks. I woke up yesterday with no voice, but nothing else was really bothering me. My throat started hurting last night and now I've got all kind of junk. Nothing terrible though...could be worse...and it hasn't stopped me from getting things done. I really want our house to look great when Rick gets back home. Especially since I already told him he wouldn't recognize it when he got back. ;)

Benjamin has shocked me this week. I have decided to invest more in him. He is such a sponge right now and I feel like I am holding him back by not exposing him to more. I thought we would start with letters. We take a letter for a whole week and write it on his board, listen to how it sounds and talk about it all week. We grab items that start with that letter and collect them in a bucket. We eat foods (when available) that start with the letter. I know he won't get it all, but I think it's all about exposing him to more. We've started with letters, but he seems to be telling me to go in a different direction...so maybe we'll do both. We were in his room the other day and he was playing with blocks. He picked up a yellow block and I told him what color it was. I also grabbed other things around that were the same color. Then I told him to find something yellow. He reached right in his basket and grabbed another YELLOW block! I really thought kids couldn't understand colors yet...it's a hard concept...a little abstract I think. I was impressed but kind of wrote it off until we were in shoe station looking for some crocs and he found the yellow ones and said YELLOW! Then I was blown away! So I've got to get on it. He gets stuff so I've got to give it to him. So one color down...a few more to go.

So I know most of you won't give a flip about reading this post, but Rick can read it when he gets back and be proud of "his babies" as he calls us. Well, I'm going to get to work.

Have a great weekend!

The most disgusting thing ever....and a few other updates

So, I'm pretty sure the most disgusting thing ever happened last night! I've learned that lots of disgusting things happen with kids around. They just don't know what they're doing sometimes. I'll have to warn you, if you don't have kids, you will not understand this and might not want any after this story. If you do have kids, you will laugh and probably think of something equally as gross that has happened in your family. :) Here we go: We had made a simple, but most delicious supper - grilled hamburgers and grilled corn on the cob with some fresh strawberries for dessert. We are in the process of painting our table (that we got at Christmas by the way) so we were eating in the living room. I don't even know how to lead into this next part, but Benjamin brought me a tiny little piece of his "hamburger" and I put it on my plate. It wasn't until he brought me another piece that I realized it wasn't hamburger! Yep, it was the other brown stuff. He was reaching in his diaper and pulling out his poop!!! I know! I still can't believe it as I type. What was grosser (might have made that word up) was that I was putting it on my plate! So after I got over the disgust, it was funny. Rick thought it was hilarious and said I had to put this on the blog. I'm thinking it's time to potty train!

Well, there's a lot to update here. It's been an exciting couple of weeks. Things are settling down...a little since the college spring semester is over, but we won't be able to rest long - Rick leaves for Malawi, Africa, in less than a week. We are shopping for all of his supplies, trying to get the house in order and working out our schedule for when he's gone.

We've been getting ALOT of family time lately as we've been carpooling everwhere! Rick's car was hit in the church building parking lot last week. The back wheel was bent inward so he hasn't been able to drive it. The most frustrating part of this is that the person who jumped the curb, drove down the hill (I'm assuming out of control since it was a rainy day) and ran into his car, just left. No note, no "sorry I hit your car," nothing. Just a messed up car. Through this though, I've seen he's a better person than I am, not that I ever doubted. He was hardly bothered by it when it happened. He went back inside and started working again. I was a little more frustrated. It did start to get to him later in the week when he couldn't get around as easily, then he did a wed. night lesson on Phil. 2:14 - do everything w/o complaining. The estimates on the car weren't good. It will cost more to fix it than it's worth, and we're not ready for a car note at the moment. We took it just to see what it would cost to get it driving again and I guess we're going to try to knock out the dents. I know it won't look great, but that's all we can do for now.

On a better note, I had the best mother's day ever! Ok, it was only my second one, but it was still wonderful. Rick cooked us a big breakfast and we scrambled around like we always do on Sunday mornings, but the afternoon, sigh, was perfect. We made sandwiches and somewhat homemade cookies and had a picnic on the quad on campus. It was the most beautiful, perfect day. Benjamin loved running around and chasing birds, squirrels and anything else. We walked around campus and checked out all the new building projects. There was nowhere to be, nothing to do, just enjoy each other. It was a great day.

I thought the weekend was going to be rough after we figured out on Friday that Benjamin had pink eye. The doc called in some drops and he was fine after the third time we put them in. He's done great with the drops too. It's definitely a 2-man job, but he's been good.

I have some pics from the weekend. I'll post them soon. :)
Have a great week everybody!