Monday, February 23, 2015

The Second Annual Great Mouse Exhibit!

I have enjoyed teaching Language Arts to Caedmon & Machila last year and to Cambree this year! We use Sonlight curriculum for Language Arts (for my kids only - the New Day kids use Abeka, except for Machila). It is literature based, and I love it! It was time to read Ralph S. Mouse again this year with Cambree, so of course we had to do the Great Mouse Exhibit!

For the exhibit, she wrote a mouse alliteration poem, a mouse cinquain, a mouse story, and drew and captioned a mouse picture. She also made a mouse maze and had mouse nibbles to share with everyone!

She had been looking forward to this since last year, and she was thrilled when Daddy asked her questions all about her project!

Mama Lala also stopped by!

The Preschool class visited as well and LOVED the "mouse nibbles!" :)

Papa Wes came by to see the exhibit as well!

I have to brag - Cambree is an amazing student. Her head is always in a book, she writes incredible stories, and she very rarely misspells anything! Love that girl!! :)

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Sunday Morning Photo Shoot

Cason woke up this morning and said, "Daddy let's all match!!" My boys love to dress up (even Blu!) so of course I had to take a few pics!

Blu's sermon notes :) This cracks me up that this is all he writes to preach!! It was an awesome sermon!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Fun Friday!

On Fridays, I always greet the kids with, "It's Fun Friday!" On Monday-Thursday, we teach the core subjects in the New Day School (Language Arts, Math, Science, and Bible/Social Studies, with Reading and Tonga in the afternoons). On Fridays, we have a little fun, and we have the rest of the classes - Art, Music, Computers, Writing Club, Creative Technology, and Home Economics! Here are a few pictures for your Fun Friday!

The New Day kids all LOVE to knit - boys included!!

Christina, who spent her day at the clinic getting a tetanus shot after stepping on a nail this week! :(

Their own handmade purses!

Mweene was so proud!

Glory :)

Kelitah working hard in class

Mama Loveness

Lulu hanging around in her new house!

Mama Tembo, who still needs a monthly sponsor!! Please contact me if you are interested!!

David Mapalo, Mulenga's son. Poor Mulenga - his new wife was called away to care for a sick aunt and could be gone up to a month! Mulenga is holding down the fort taking care of his little boy!

Cambree's Great Mouse Exhibit - more pics to come on Monday!

Starting the foundation on our new classroom block! It sits directly across from our current school, making a U with the current school, computer lab/library, and new school!

Cute little Terry, who is quite the handful! His favorite sentence (in Tonga) is "I will beat you!" (translates "I will punch you in your face" ;)

Pics from today's Writing Club classes - lots of fun!

With the little ones, I am doing a unit on If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Today they had to put the story in order using pictures!

Teacher Hildah helps me every Friday by planting herself next to Kefbert for the hour long class!!!

In the older kids' Writing Club class, we are reading The Indian in the Cupboard. They are loving it, and I am loving it!! It is one of my all-time favorite books! Today they wrote "If I were the Chief, I would..." Their responses were hilarious! Muchoni's was my favorite - he said he would spank his returning men if they lost a battle! Kelitah's was also good - she said if she were chief there would be school only on Mondays!

Malilwe

Misheck

Just hanging around..after all, it's Fun Friday!

On Fun Friday afternoons, the big kids go to Discipleship Class with Mama Lala, and then I take the older girls to Bible study at Mapanza Baptist across the river. Hope your Friday is fun!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

How I Met My Mate!


Today I found another cute blog idea from momfessionals.com – it’s called Show and Tell Tuesday, and this week’s theme is “How you met your significant other!” How fun is that!

Many of you know our story, but for those that don’t….

It all began on April 9, 1998. I was a senior in high school, and it was Easter weekend. After having a rough senior year (we moved in October, a bad breakup in November, etc..) my parents decided to let me fly to Lubbock to spend the weekend with my best friend Whitney. I remember drinking coke and eating peanuts on the plane and feeling grown-up. I also remember wearing windpants, a t-shirt, and a ponytail at my father’s insistence so as not to draw attention to myself. 

Whitney and her mom picked me up at the airport, and Whitney told me that her boyfriend, Cloud, was in a school play that night and we were going to go watch it. I remember thinking “Whatever…” and didn’t change out of my windpants.

The play was called The Diviners, and it was VERY good! I was shocked at how good it was. Cloud was amazing, but his little brother, Blu, stole the show.  When he came onto the stage, Whitney leaned over and said, “That’s Cloud’s younger brother.” My eyes widened and I whispered back, “He’s CUTE…” “Shh!!” Whitney said.

After the play, Blu was standing off by himself, and our eyes met. (Seriously!!) I smiled, he smiled, and I turned away. I went to the Dixie Diner with Whitney and Cloud that night and asked casually where Blu was. Cloud picked up on my hinting, and he arranged a double date for 2 nights later (after teasing me mercilessly that Blu doesn’t like blondes..)

So on April 11th, 1998, we went on our first date to the Lamesa drive-in. We saw Grease. I remember being surprised at Blu’s confidence, his West Texas accent, and his very rough “farmhands.” The next night, Cloud & Blu came to church with us, and I told him goodbye, hopping back on the airplane for a 45 minute ride back to Central Texas.

The movie stub from the drive-in

After the movie, back at Whitney's house. Blu said Cloud made him wear that shirt and made him put on cologne ;)

The three years that followed were a blur of hellos, goodbyes, and LOTS of phone calls and internet chatting. Our relationship was tough – living 6 hours apart – but the distance helped us learn each other’s hearts as we talked and talked for hours. (We both hate talking on the phone to this day…!)

At first, we saw each other every 2-3 months, with me driving to Brownwood to spend weekends with his family. In the summer, we both worked at a church camp so we could be together every day. By the end of our dating, we were meeting at least 1-2 times a month, often driving to Abilene on Saturdays to see each other. We did family vacations together, holidays together, and were both living for the day when Blu would finish high school so he could move to A&M we could be closer (I know, so dramatic! But it was at the time!)

This was the first time I met Blu's parents - Thanksgiving 1998

Working at Plains Baptist Assembly Camp in Floydada

Lots of hugs goodbye..

Yes, we did have matching sweatshirts. And we wore them.

Blu would work at Denny's from 4am to 10am and then drive to Temple to see me every weekend! He was VERY tired that semester!

Blu started college in August, and he proposed to me in October. By January, we were married. 19 didn’t seem young at the time…ask me in a few years when Caedmon is 19 what I think about that!

October 5, 2000...he popped the question at midnight on this rock overlooking Lake Brownwood!

Our engagement pic

We honeymooned in Cripple Creek, Colorado…we couldn’t fly anywhere because we were both too young to rent a car, so we had to find somewhere driving distance!

The honeymoon needs a whole separate blog post...wanted criminals on the loose...etc..

Our first 2 years of marriage were spent in College Station with me teaching school and Blu finishing up at A&M. When we think about this time, we both think about riding The Hawk (Blu’s little Honda motorcycle) around town, spending evenings playing racquetball at the Rec Center, and growing closer to Jesus as a couple. We also discovered our love for travel during this time, taking vacations to Seattle and a road trip to Grand Canyon/Vegas/Oregon. Two years later, we moved to Zambia.

The Hawk - I miss this motorcycle!

Our first home - we bought it for $10,000, fixed it up, and sold it for $18,000 a year later!!

The Redwoods in Northern California

That is how it all began! Anyone who knows us knows that I am one blessed woman to call this man mine. I am so grateful for God’s plan and that He created us for each other!

2002 - our first "family portrait"

2013

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Nsanti Baptist Church

Now that there are so many Americans living at New Day, we decided that we should really "divide and conquer" on Sunday mornings - taking turns visiting other churches in our area to encourage them. A few weeks ago, the Cooks, Debbie, and Abby went to visit Maxwell at Mapanza Baptist. Last week, the Wilcoxes took Mama Joyce and Mama Liz to visit the church in Gwembe. This week, it was our turn, and we headed towards Namwala with Hildah to visit Nsanti Baptist Church!

Nsanti is one of the churches we worked with back in 2004 and 2005. It is led by Pastor Robinson, a 76 year old man who also built our hut in the bush in 2004! He is a great leader for the church and has even helped start some new work in the area. Jeff Powers worked closely with Robinson and with Nsanti Church, and we knew it was time for a visit. I can hardly believe this, but I had not been to visit this church with the kids since we first moved back in 2010!

Getting ready for church...I have a fever blister and can't smile big!

It was about an hour's drive to Nsanti. We hadn't been able to get a hold of Robinson to let him know we were coming, so when we got there, Blu went to his house to find him. We were excited to see that he was already on his way to church!

When he got there, he started ringing a "bell" hanging on the tree to let everyone know it was time to start!

During church, after Sunday School and before the offering, Robinson asked the "New Day children" to come forward and give a small Bible story. Caedmon boldly told the story of David & Goliath, while 9 year old Laurie translated for him - everyone was very impressed!! I was so proud of them!!

Cambree & Laurie loved getting to go to a new place together!

I looked down during the sermon and Cason was taking selfies..

The ladies dancing outside when church was over

Me and Hildah...back row Baptists! (The back row had the biggest and most comfortable stump to sit on!!)

Blu & Pastor Robinson

Praying that no matter where you worship today, you feel the presence of God as you focus on Him!