lots of stuff

I do have a list of things to blog about. We will see how far we get. The truth is, by the time evening comes and the generator is on, I am too tired to think about what to write. I have no memory at this time. I don’t remember where I put anything. Now granted, part of this is because we have moved things so many times; I just can’t keep up with where they ended up. But sometimes I will put some thing down and two minutes later be looking for it. It is very frustrating and annoying, but I just can’t keep everything straight.
We started school again last week. This year we are studying Rome to the Reformation. We are reading a lot about Julius Caesar and Octavian right now. It’s nice to have a little structure during the day, but some days we get behind on the work, so I would prefer not to do school and just get caught up, but it can’t work that way all the time, or we would never get anything done!
A BIG PRAISE!! We have renters for the house! Four college girls moved in. Their rent covers the house payment and hopefully the heat, so we are doing okay with that for now. Thanks for praying.
PLEASE PRAY! We are trying to find Uncle Tim a ticket to come and visit us next week for Christmas. Please pray we are able to find a decent priced, not- too-extended layover ticket. It would be a real blessing to us to have him here.
So apparently EVERYONE in Africa loves babies!! People (Africans, Middle Eastern, Westerns, Aussie, etc) everywhere stop to look to at Henry, whether they have a baby of their own with them or not. And they love to show babies off-whether its theirs or not! At the “kitchen party” ladies would take him to hold, next thing I know they have their camera phones out taking pictures with the baby! Pastor Henry has baby Henry’s picture as his opening screen photo. It was a good thing I hogged Henry when he was first born. I don’t get too hold him much in church and at events now! I just walk by holding him and hands are extended. We had a lady stop us at the mall and count the kids, and just think it was incredibly great that we have 7 kids (she was British or Aussie, I can’t tell the accents apart yet).
Any one out there have some cellular knowledge? We are wondering if there is an antenna we can buy or build to help with reception at our place. We are having a horrible time. I can get online fairly well, and there are a few hot spots where we can get good coverage, but it’s not real great. We have people tell us they are trying to call but never get through.
Which the next thing is calling. If you call and get a long slow beep, it didn’t go through, it’s not busy. If the phone is off or we are out of the coverage area, a lady will tell you that. We may just be at home, but it’s not going through. The coverage is just very fickle. If you would like to call us (please do!), it may be best to try set up a time-email to tell us a day and time and we will go to one of the areas where we know the coverage is better. We can also get phone texts; I just don’t know what it costs you.
We have a Cliff Clavin postman too. He only goes to get the mail when he feels like it. I know of 4 packages on the way for almost a month now. I think one is here that we have to go pick up. Sometimes he says the truck didn’t come, other times he says he didn’t go get it yet. Now we have his phone number so we can call and ask him if anything is there at least, so we don’t waste gas.
Any one out there know anything about propane refrigerators? Ours isn’t working the greatest. It stays cold, the freezer won’t freeze (and I really liked my ice when it did work well!). According to the not very helpful little book, we may have a problem with “incomplete combustion.”
So I was told our last blogs have seemed like we are a little overwhelmed :-). That’s probably because I (Kelly) have been doing most of the writing. Especially when I am getting tired, I just write the facts and don’t do too much detail. Where’s the beauty? What does it look like? Sorry, that is Brian’s specialty! Right now it’s really only green. Not much for colors except the ones around our trees in the flower beds that we planted. The rainy season is just started, so things are green, but not blooming too much. It’s honestly not too much different than some areas of Sibley State Park in Minnesota, except the ground is red clay, not black dirt. We haven’t really been out at night yet to see the stars and sunsets-hopefully soon. I will have to have Brian write more later!
Another PRAYER! Myron fell and banged his mouth (I think I told you that already). Well, his mouth and lips are still pretty swollen, and now it looks like he has a thrush or fungus in his mouth from it being open so much. He, along with some of the other kids, are developing canker sores too, which could possibly be from the malarone (our malaria medicine). We will switch to another medicine for them and see if that is taken care of. Greta also had a loose tooth that she just refused to let us pull out despite the fact that was barely hanging there. It looks as though the gum area became infected before we finally got it out. So her mouth too is swollen, and her lips dried out (she is also one with canker sores). She just doesn’t look happy at all, she can barely talk it hurts so. Pray both of them would heal quickly.