Amazima

I don't know this girl, but I have been following her blog based on the suggestion of a dear friend of mine. Let me sum up the story of her life for you real quickly. She is 20 (I think) and has left her family and the love of her life in the US to move to Uganda. She started a non-profit to help pair people in US with kids in Uganda to provide schooling. Now, this organization provides 350 kids with two meals a day and Christ-based education to hopefully break the poverty cycle. She has also adopted 13 girls that she cares for in her home. I can't imagine being a mom at 20, much less a mom to 13! Her life is difficult, her heart is beautiful, and I highly recommend checking out this most recent post at her blog here. I am still trying to process it.

Clean!

Before we moved in, the landlord supposedly had someone come in and clean our townhouse. But it was very obvious that they put the least amount of effort in as possible. There was still a lot of dust everywhere and just walking on our floors was turning our feet black.

So today, as a "housewarming" gift, a sweet lady named Sue came to clean our house. She spent 5 1/2 hours scrubbing our floors, wiping down the baseboards, dusting, etc. She was even more detail oriented than I am! She worked non stop and didn't even take a lunch break. It was amazing. I have never had a cleaning lady before, but I have to say I could get used to it.

It was a little sad to watch her leave. I was hoping she might bathe the kids and do my laundry, too :) I was getting used to propping my feet up and reading a book while someone else did all my work for me!

Payback is Sweet

I shared the story of A peeing on C's head during a bath. Well, today C got his revenge. After church, we were hanging around talking to some friends. P was holding C and A was running around (as always!). In Hollywood-perfect timing, C's acid reflux kicked in and he puked right on A's head. It was classic! I wonder how long he's been plotting that and waiting for the right moment :)

-For those of you that haven't witnessed it in person, A LOVES to play the air guitar. Not just your run of the mill 2 year old strumming in the air. Oh, no. If his hair was longer and dyed some bright color, he could be in an 8o's rock band. He jumps in the air, headbangs and strums his pretend guitar with every ounce of energy he has (which is a lot!). There is a new twist, now. We went to Gramma's company picnic not long ago, and A got to watch some big kids playing Guitar Hero. He watched so intently, and definitely picked up some new moves. Today he turned on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and told me, "I rockin, mommy". He then starts jamming on his air guitar, and as the song ended, he pretended to smash his guitar on the ground. I have to say it was the most intense version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star I've ever seen!

-We took the boys to get their pics taken today at Olan Mills. It was cute, but exhausting! I thought C would be the hardest to get to look at the camera, but it was his big bro that couldn't sit still for two seconds. He pretended to be shy, he tried to climb up the wall which was really just a curtain (luckily it didn't break!), he dove head first onto the ground and tried to tackle his brother when they were sitting together for a cute shot. Luckily we got a few cute ones of them together. And as a special treat, Gramma came too! She took A to play in the shopping carts that look like trucks while Daddy and I picked out the pics we wanted to order. She was a life saver!

Sorry it's been so long!  The days are long, but flying by at the same time.  I'll try to update:

-I taught my first piano lesson this week!  Once a week, we will be heading back to our old stomping grounds and teaching piano to two girls that used to be our next door neighbors.  The greatest part is that A and C get to come with me.  A LOVES these kids and hasn't gotten to play with them since the big move.  As we pulled up yesterday, I was expecting a whole slew of tough questions about why we weren't going into our old house.  But I was surprised!  A told me "you passed it mommy" when I parked in front of our neighbors' house instead of pulling in the old driveway, but I reminded him we don't live there anymore.  That was it.  No tears. No tough questions.  Yeah!  And he had a blast playing with the kids!

-The only way I was able to pull him away from piano lessons was because our friend Miss Christie was coming over!  Christie is a wonderful friend of mine.  She just graduated from Purdue and got a job as an engineer at GE (she's way smarter than I am!).  We have a new deal set up where every week, she's coming over on Tuesdays.  One week, she and I will hang out (yeah for girl time without kids!), and the next week, she'll watch the kids so P and I can hang out!  So, for the first time in I don't even know how long, P and I went out to dinner yesterday for no reason with no kids!  It was great!  Thanks Chris!!!

-We are getting more and more settled.  If this ridiculous heat would break, we could spend more time outside, but we're surviving inside for now.  I know, I shouldn't complain.  After all, it is August.  

-When I was in college, one of my roomies used to keep old bananas in the freezer with the intent of baking with them.  It became an inside joke because the pile of bananas would take over the freezer.  But, I can no longer joke with her.  Today I made two loaves of banana bread and 1 1/2 dozen banana cupcakes!  And there are still enough bananas in the freezer for two more batches!  

-This is random, but it was pretty funny.  I put the boys in the bath today and A immediately says, "uh oh".  I look, and a stream of pee is hitting C in the forehead!  At least it was at the beginning of the bath!

-Baby C is no longer toothless!  He has 4 (yes... that's right... 4) teeth popping through.  Two have just broken the surface and the other two are ready to bust through any day.  He has been MISERABLE so we are all looking forward to the arrival of these teeth and hopefully the return of sweet, happy C.  

Even more random!

So I thought throwing a party in someone else's yard was random. Today's event tops that.

This evening was the final walk through for the house. P had to go to let the new couple into the house, so he dropped the boys and I off at the library. I had to pick up a few things on hold, so I was waiting in line to check them out. One librarian was helping a teenage girl check out literally 20 or more DVDs. The other was trying to help an elderly man who was obviously confused. He was trying to send an email to someone, but he didn't have an email address. As the line grew longer and the patrons faces grew more irritated, I decided to help out. I offered to sit with the man at a computer and set up a free email account for him. The librarian looked relieved, so I showed the man to a computer near the kids area so I could keep an eye on A who was reading books by himself.

As I was pulling up gmail to open an account, I asked the guy if he had the address he was sending a letter to. He wrote it down for me, and it turns out it was a website, not an email address. He said we could find the girl he was emailing at the website.

This website turns out to be some kind of Chinese mail-order bride site! He didn't remember the name of the girl that he was going to marry, so we had to search for her; I typed in the following criteria "Age: 42 Height: 5'6" Weight: 132 lbs." I was kind of surprised that he remembered all of these criteria and still couldn't remember her name. I felt like pointing out that this didn't quite have the makings of a successful marriage, but I refrained.

By this time, the librarian came over to see if we needed any help setting up the email. I had no idea how to respond, and she looked confused as she checked out the site we were on.

I just had to share this story. It seemed like I was on some hidden camera show, and I still laugh out loud when I think about the whole interaction.

Housing Updates

Sorry it's been so long. We have been extremely busy packing up the house and unpacking boxes in our new place. Just thought I'd take a minute to quickly update you all.

The old house is almost completely empty. Only one or two more car loads and it'll be ready for the walk through tomorrow night. We officially close on Friday morning, and are praying that all goes smoothly with that.

The townhouse is good. We are waiting on maintenance to paint our walls in the basement, so there is basically a huge pile of toys/boxes in the center of the basement. After it's painted, we can finish unpacking and setting up toys. It will give A a place to run around, which will be great.

The boys have adjusted well. I've been prepping A for the past few weeks, and he was extremely excited for his new house. He came in the first night super excited and yelling, "mommy... my toys! look mommy... a kitchen back here." Then when we took him upstairs to show him the room he'll share with Colin, he jumped up and down on his bed with his hands in the air shouting, "My... New... Room!!!!" I think he'll enjoy it even more when we have the basement to play in. And it's been raining a LOT, so we've been stuck inside. We have taken a few walks, which was nice to burn off some energy.

C is not sleeping well, but that's not new. It's been about 3 weeks. I think he actually has 4 teeth coming in at the same time! Poor kiddo. And poor mommy and daddy. He's been waking up 10 or more times a night! He is writhing in pain and doesn't even open his eyes... just cries. Last night was better, so I'm hoping that means they will all pop through soon. I feel the sharp tiny corner of one tooth, but that's it so far.

Alright, I'm off to unpack a few more boxes before I crash for the night. I'll try to update again soon. And no pictures until the boxes all get put away. :)