Visit from the Will girls

Last week Beth, Caitlin and Ashlee came for a visit. I took off 3 days from work to spend some time with them since I was in Africa last time they visited. We had a fun time while they were here. Some of the highlights - in writing and in picture:

• Going to parks to play
• Reading books
• Playing games and doing puzzles
• Cooking - with Caitlin helping and wanting to try every ingredient. It's funny that she doesn't like most things for dinner but she does like flour, wheat bran, soda, etc.
• Visiting dad's choir
• Picking apples at the orchard
• Spending time together

It was a great time. I always like it when I can spend time with Beth since we haven't lived by each other for a while. I also love playing with Caitlin and Ashlee. To end with, a story from their visit:

Mom: Caitlin, who is Annie's mother?
Caitlin: I am. She's my Annie
Mom: (After reviewing the Beth is Caitlin's mom) So, who is Annie's mom?
Caitlin: I think she don't have one

Caitlin is pretty funny, as I'm sure all 3 year olds are. She is convinced that I am "her Annie".

Listen...

...that is the glorious sound of monsoon finally making it to Arizona. It was a little late in coming, but finally we had some rain to cool off the HOT weather. Here is a view from my front porch (as you can see, rain gutters are not a norm in AZ, so the corner of my rose garden gets it's more-than-fair-share of run off). The few days of rain showers was so great! I love how the rains dusts everything off so the outdoors becomes vibrant with color.

Good news...

...maybe not for anyone else, but it is good news for me. Back in Africa I took some videos when I was in Lubumbashi but I couldn't get them off my camera (recall the story here). Yesterday I tracked down the software for that camera and, whala, I got the videos. (I realize whala may be spelled completely wrong but I am not the greatest speller and that's how it sounds to me.) This first video is of small kids from a school crossing the street. It was rather disorganized and oh so funny. Also the music playing in the background was authentic Congolese, we listened to that tape about 75 times during the trip.

Did you catch the little girl falling at the end? How sad :( At least she was ok.

The next video is of a parade going through downtown just as we drove up. It was a group from a church all dressed in green and white and singing. I'm not sure what they were saying, but they were very enthusiastic about it. It is kind of fuzzy, but it gives a feeling of the culture there.

A New Car

Here's how is happened. It was my last Friday night in Africa and I was doing my usual nightly activity, checking email and/or blogging. I had a new email from my insurance company with subject, "your recent claim". Funny I thought as I haven't made a claim, maybe it is somehow related to having just paid my renewal so I will skip it for now. Then I get to the next email from my dad with subject, "your Pontiac". The email said something like, "mom was in a fender bender, she is ok, the back of your car is wrecked, call". Hum...I was feeling a bit concerned. I tried to call home, but I either could not get through (it was very difficult to get through at night in Africa because there were 600 lines out that 3000 people were trying to use. Those are just number I made up, but you get the idea) or when I did get through my parents phone was busy. I tried using email to communicate with Beth to find out what was going on, but the wireless that we were "using"' from the house across the street was not working very well. Needless to say, I finally got a hold of my dad and then my mom. My mom was driving my to Phoenix to park it at the airport for me as we had planned and in Mesa someone rear-ended her. My car was towed away because something was rubbing on the tire and it couldn't be driven, but she said the damage didn't look too bad. After returning from Africa, having some rental car struggles, and a few insurance company struggles I finally found out that my car was totaled. I have no pictures of it but, my mom was right, it didn't really look that bad; only the back was smashed. The impact ended up bending the frame, which is why it was a total loss.

After looking around for a while I finally decided to buy a 2009 Honda Accord. I bought it in Mesa one day when it was 115 - in case you are wondering, that is REALLY hot and I do not recommend looking for a car in that kind of heat. It has been a good car so far and hopefully it will be a good car for the next 10 years.

The joys of nature and home ownership

Oh the joys of owning a house :) Remember a couple years ago when they were worried because so many bees were disappearing?

Back in April I was mowing my backyard one evening when I noticed a few bees flying around one area. Upon closer inspection I discovered they were coming in and out of my sprinkler box. Hum...what should I do? Maybe open the sprinkler box - possibly a really dumb idea but I decided to give it a try. With my shovel I stood as far back as possible and pried the lid up...about 1/4 inch on one side, not even enough to do anything. Then reality hit me and I decided it was a really dumb idea. The next day I called the exterminator. He came right away, got decked out in his bee outfit, opened the sprinkler box and sprayed the attacking bees. From the safe confines of my house it looked like there were a lot of bees, maybe 75 or 100. When the exterminator finished his business he left me a small piece of honeycomb (about the size of a flat grapefruit) which was the smallest of 8 pieces. What!?! And said there were several thousand bees. WHAT!?! On second thought, I'm pretty sure it was the spirit telling me not to open the sprinkler box.

Fast forward to July.

Katie and Ryan came to visit last weekend and I opened the sprinkler box as I told them the story of the beehive. Boy was I surprised by what I saw (all the brown is bees).

Today I decided to clean this up (don't worry, I wore gloves). There was so much is it almost filled a grocery bag.

All that remains is some honeycomb left on the cover and some powder to make sure they don't come back. I also included an after picture of the box so you can compare to the pictures above to see just how many bees it really was.

Vacation!...in Rock Springs

Last week I was on vacation. I was in Rock Springs, WY which is not much of a destination but it was fun anyway. And it was very nice to have some relaxing time after 7 weeks of 6-days-a-week working in Africa. I visited Beth, Chris, Caitlin and Ashlee for a week and here are some of the highlights:

• Standing in the driveway so Caitlin could ride around me on her tricycle
• Going on walks with Beth and/or the girls
• Listening to Caitlin copy exactly what Beth was saying
• Caitlin talking non-stop during meals and explaining to us that "after I eat my piece of corn bread all gone I am going to have that piece and then that piece" (sure Caitlin )
• Ashlee waving and clapping
• Finding a steal of a deal on long jeans at the mall - buy 1 get 1 free - resulting in $10 jeans for Beth and me
• Meeting up with Taffy and her kids in Green River for the afternoon
• Riding to Green River and Logan, UT with Chris wedged in the back between two car seats - he was a really good sport about that
• Helping Caitlin put on "sun scream" and playing "membory"
• Reading books
• Visiting Grandma and Grandpa and the Stuarts in Logan

These are some pictures of us playing "membory". Ashlee was not very content with just sitting on Beth's lap and watching.

10 Year Reunion

I have been very busy since returning from Africa, therefore adding no posts. I am now however back in the saddle :)

Last weekend Beth and I attended our 10 year high school reunion in Laramie. Back in May I convinced Beth that we should go and we are super glad that we did. It was a good time and really great to see high school friends. There was a mixer on Friday night followed by riding in the parade and a picnic lunch on Saturday. It is amazing how much yet how little everyone has changed. This is a picture from the picnic, taken by my "coolest person on the face of the earth" brother-in-law Chris. In case you don't see me, I am on the top row (for those 6' tall or taller) in a purple shirt next to Beth in a green shirt. It was a great weekend. The only down side was missing those classmates who couldn't come to the reunion.