Thursday, July 30, 2015
Blog Troubles!
I promise I have been trying to blog for the past 10 days!! The remaining GracePoint team pictures, what my kids have been doing in the USA, a trip to Lusaka, Pecos Bill play, school awards ceremonies, and birthday parties!!! Lots to share, but due to power outages and internet troubles, it may have to wait! I will keep trying!!
Monday, July 20, 2015
More Team Pics!
Here is a little update of what the team has been doing!
Ashley got to baby-sit sweet Emma during Kids Club!
Painting...painting...and more painting!! Ceiling boards for the new school!
Washing dishes from the 213 kids at Kids Club!
Lezlie, Betty, Lorraine, Marlene, Kailey, and myself went through the kids' shoes on Saturday - stinky job but I was grateful for the help!
Lezlie helped lead the craft during Kids Club
Lorraine trying to teach the kids how to double dutch!
Melanie and Niki getting their lesson ready for the kids' Sunday School class
Today has been another busy day of teaching, sorting clothes, painting, roofing, leading P.E., Reading classes, and tutoring! We are so thankful for the help this week!
Ashley got to baby-sit sweet Emma during Kids Club!
Painting...painting...and more painting!! Ceiling boards for the new school!
Washing dishes from the 213 kids at Kids Club!
Lezlie, Betty, Lorraine, Marlene, Kailey, and myself went through the kids' shoes on Saturday - stinky job but I was grateful for the help!
Lezlie helped lead the craft during Kids Club
Lorraine trying to teach the kids how to double dutch!
Melanie and Niki getting their lesson ready for the kids' Sunday School class
Today has been another busy day of teaching, sorting clothes, painting, roofing, leading P.E., Reading classes, and tutoring! We are so thankful for the help this week!
Making the Switch in Texas!
Today my kids' time with Grandpa & Mama Dee comes to an end and they head to Alvarado, Texas! They will spend one night with Ms. Di-nee-na-na before heading to G.A. and R.A. Camp in Glen Rose! (Glen Rose is where I attended my first G.A. Camp in 1988!) Cason will spend a couple of more days with Grandpa & Mama Dee before he heads to Brownwood with Paw & B-Maw. Fun times! Here are a few pics of their last week in Temple!
Cambree has taken to the sewing machine like a fish to water! She has made diapers for her baby doll and a mini pillow!
Caedmon got in on the action too and made his own pattern for a stuffed lion!
Lots of Dominoes with Grandpa!
Snowcones in that Texas heat!
And of course, a last trip to the library where they saw some of their favorite characters!
We are so grateful to Mama Dee and Grandpa for the fun adventures of the last 3 weeks, the trips to the water park and movies, the shopping for camp, and the hours of fun!
Cambree has taken to the sewing machine like a fish to water! She has made diapers for her baby doll and a mini pillow!
Caedmon got in on the action too and made his own pattern for a stuffed lion!
Lots of Dominoes with Grandpa!
Snowcones in that Texas heat!
And of course, a last trip to the library where they saw some of their favorite characters!
We are so grateful to Mama Dee and Grandpa for the fun adventures of the last 3 weeks, the trips to the water park and movies, the shopping for camp, and the hours of fun!
Friday, July 17, 2015
GPC Update!
I have been a very bad blogger this team season! I have some really good excuses, I promise!! #1) Our computer is on its VERY last leg!! #2) I am spending every spare second getting my house in order/organized/getting ready for furlough. Um, that's all I've got. :) But in the past 24 hours, 5 different people have talked to me about my blog, which made me feel guilty for not posting more team pictures! I will try to do better, assuming our computer holds on!
GracePoint Church is here from Bentonville, Arkansas! This is their 4th trip to New Day! Aaron (his 3rd trip) led Music class this morning with Carly & Melanie.
Carly also helped Papa Wes work on the new office/resource room's roof!
Gretchen worked in the Kindergarten class and taught them the game Pick-Up Sticks! (My sister and I played hours of that growing up!)
Lorraine, whose husband Paul has come twice, made the trip to New Day for the first time! She helped Glory play Boggle Junior.
Kailey is back!!! Kailey interned at New Day in the Spring of 2014, and she and her mom from Bell Shoals Baptist in Brandon, FL joined up with GracePoint to come to New Day! They helped me pack special birthday treat bags for my youth Bible study today since it's Machila's birthday!
Be still my heart...little Laurie wrote this letter for me to send to Cambree. :)
Cambree gave her favorite possession, Kelsey's big chicken who she named Steve Corky (seriously), to Laurie when she left!
Our new classroom block, waiting on iron sheets to arrive!
Have I posted this??? This is what we are eating while the kids are gone!! ;)
GracePoint Church is here from Bentonville, Arkansas! This is their 4th trip to New Day! Aaron (his 3rd trip) led Music class this morning with Carly & Melanie.
Carly also helped Papa Wes work on the new office/resource room's roof!
Gretchen worked in the Kindergarten class and taught them the game Pick-Up Sticks! (My sister and I played hours of that growing up!)
Lorraine, whose husband Paul has come twice, made the trip to New Day for the first time! She helped Glory play Boggle Junior.
Kailey is back!!! Kailey interned at New Day in the Spring of 2014, and she and her mom from Bell Shoals Baptist in Brandon, FL joined up with GracePoint to come to New Day! They helped me pack special birthday treat bags for my youth Bible study today since it's Machila's birthday!
Be still my heart...little Laurie wrote this letter for me to send to Cambree. :)
Cambree gave her favorite possession, Kelsey's big chicken who she named Steve Corky (seriously), to Laurie when she left!
Our new classroom block, waiting on iron sheets to arrive!
Have I posted this??? This is what we are eating while the kids are gone!! ;)
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Busy busy!
It has been CRAZY around here, but I'll get to that later..first, here's what our kids have been up to for the last week in Temple, Texas!! :)
Cambree & Amelia have become fast friends!
Cason has enjoyed pestering Austin at Ocker Church!
Shopping for items for next week's GA/RA Camp!
But first, every day starts with homework! Caedmon & Cambree are finishing up Grade 4 US History, and Cason is finishing his Grade 1 Language Arts!
Another trip to the water park, where they ran into sweet friend Kayla from Bartlett!
Cason got to go down the big slide!
Of course, they have to go to Whistlestop Park!
Cason enjoying a ride under the basket (check out all those Capri Suns!)
Mama Dee and the kids had a "Cookie Dough Party!" They made a giant bowl of cookie dough, put it on the table, and dug in with spoons!! #grandparentprerogative
They also got to go see the new movie, Minions
They've made many trips to the local library!
And to Target to spend the money they are earning from Grandpa! (I need a pic of Grandpa!)
Meanwhile, our team of 10 left on Saturday, and our visitors from Lusaka arrived that same day. Auntie Michelle came to visit with her husband Ray, and her baby, Josh. Michelle is attending Cavendish University in Lusaka and has 2 years left in her Social Work degree. It was great to see her, play Hedbanz, and watch Superman together! It was also a crazy weekend with 244 kids in attendance at Saturday's Kids Club! Aside from that, about 1/3 of the New Day staff and kids are down with the flu - yuck!! Kids are missing school, staying in bed, and it's not fun! Please pray specifically today for healing for Misheck, Phillip, and Teacher Hildah, who seem to have the worst of it!
The Daka Family - Ray, Michelle, and Josh
Little cutie!!
In my Guided Reading Class, we read a book about growing and harvesting pumpkins, and how fruit is sometimes put into cans. This was a new concept for the kids, so I brought in some canned pumpkin for them to taste! They were not impressed!
However, they did appreciate the pumpkin pie the next day, although Axer threw away the crust and rolled the pie up into a ball like nshima! :)
And if you're wondering what my sister and her family have been up to in the USA on their furlough, they have been on a massive family vacation to Nebraska, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon!! Can't wait to see them!!
Tomorrow a team of 15 arrives at New Day, school is out next week, then a quick trip to Lusaka for the dentist (again..), a couple more volunteers, and we will be on a plane back to the USA! :)
Cambree & Amelia have become fast friends!
Cason has enjoyed pestering Austin at Ocker Church!
Shopping for items for next week's GA/RA Camp!
But first, every day starts with homework! Caedmon & Cambree are finishing up Grade 4 US History, and Cason is finishing his Grade 1 Language Arts!
Another trip to the water park, where they ran into sweet friend Kayla from Bartlett!
Cason got to go down the big slide!
Of course, they have to go to Whistlestop Park!
Cason enjoying a ride under the basket (check out all those Capri Suns!)
Mama Dee and the kids had a "Cookie Dough Party!" They made a giant bowl of cookie dough, put it on the table, and dug in with spoons!! #grandparentprerogative
They also got to go see the new movie, Minions
They've made many trips to the local library!
And to Target to spend the money they are earning from Grandpa! (I need a pic of Grandpa!)
Meanwhile, our team of 10 left on Saturday, and our visitors from Lusaka arrived that same day. Auntie Michelle came to visit with her husband Ray, and her baby, Josh. Michelle is attending Cavendish University in Lusaka and has 2 years left in her Social Work degree. It was great to see her, play Hedbanz, and watch Superman together! It was also a crazy weekend with 244 kids in attendance at Saturday's Kids Club! Aside from that, about 1/3 of the New Day staff and kids are down with the flu - yuck!! Kids are missing school, staying in bed, and it's not fun! Please pray specifically today for healing for Misheck, Phillip, and Teacher Hildah, who seem to have the worst of it!
The Daka Family - Ray, Michelle, and Josh
Little cutie!!
In my Guided Reading Class, we read a book about growing and harvesting pumpkins, and how fruit is sometimes put into cans. This was a new concept for the kids, so I brought in some canned pumpkin for them to taste! They were not impressed!
However, they did appreciate the pumpkin pie the next day, although Axer threw away the crust and rolled the pie up into a ball like nshima! :)
And if you're wondering what my sister and her family have been up to in the USA on their furlough, they have been on a massive family vacation to Nebraska, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon!! Can't wait to see them!!
Tomorrow a team of 15 arrives at New Day, school is out next week, then a quick trip to Lusaka for the dentist (again..), a couple more volunteers, and we will be on a plane back to the USA! :)
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Our Week
Here's some of what our kids have been up to this week in Temple, Texas! (along with dentist appointments and a trip to the library!)
Swimming!!!
Earning money from Grandpa by helping him clean!
Singing at Ocker Brethren Church in the kids' choir!
Supper at Applebee's!
And here's what we've been up to!
A staff spiritual retreat, led by Steve Holdaway from LifeSpring Church in Bellevue, Nebraska!
A VBS for the village kids - 169 in attendance!
Swimming!!!
Earning money from Grandpa by helping him clean!
Singing at Ocker Brethren Church in the kids' choir!
Supper at Applebee's!
A staff spiritual retreat, led by Steve Holdaway from LifeSpring Church in Bellevue, Nebraska!
A VBS for the village kids - 169 in attendance!
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Tidwell Kids in the USA!
Our kids are in the USA!! Ever since we first moved to Zambia, we talked about how when the kids were older, we would love to send them back early to spend part of the summers with their grandparents. Our kids are EXTREMELY blessed (as are we) to have two very solid, loving, godly sets of grandparents. We are so excited that they get to spend 2 weeks with each set, plus a week at GA/RA Camp! Here is a look at our last few days together!
Caedmon & Machila on their last day of school together for awhile...they are great buddies/competitors and have been for the last 5 years!
They had a Science presentation on primary & secondary succession (don't ask me...) the day before the kids left.
Caedmon will miss his favorite climbing tree for the next 6 months!
Cambree will most definitely miss her best friend Laurie!
And our friend Joyce's newest little baby, Lillian!
And her sweet mama! :) (I had been sick with a sore throat for 4 days in this picture and felt so bad!!)
Cason worked hard to finish his Grade 1 Math books before he left!
Thursday morning at the Livingstone airport - all ready to go!
They each chose their "buddy partners" (as Cason called it!) Caedmon chose Dani because she is fun to play with on the ipad, Cambree chose Josh because he is the strongest and could carry her bag for her. ;)
And Cason chose Naomi..he adored her :)
After dropping them off at the airport, we went to our lodge to wait and see if we could see their airplane in the sky...well, I waited. Blu took a nap! :)
I waited with this look on my face!
I know you can't see it, but in the very middle of this picture you can see the tiny white airplane - we loved that we actually saw it - it flew right over our lodge!
Gelato makes all things better.. ;)
I chose sushi for that night's meal...see that little green square at the bottom of the plate? That, my friends, is not avocado..it's wasabi. Big difference.
The next morning, we did team grocery shopping before heading back to New Day!
And they made it!! Grandpa & Mama Dee were there in Dallas to pick them up! Aside from a little trouble with Cason's paperwork (South Africa has tons of requirements for kids traveling without parents), and Caedmon getting sick and throwing up 6 times on one flight, it sounds like everything went ok! So grateful to our Amarillo team and Josh & Dani for being willing to travel back with 3 extra kids and 5 extra suitcases!! :)
And here we are! Our house is quiet, and what is the most amazing thing to me is that when I put something away, it stays there!!! ;) We will miss our little critters, but we are so grateful for this time they get with their grandparents. Things around here will be a little crazy...a team arrives today for 7 days and we are doing a staff retreat. Then another team arrives after that, doing ministry in the local school and around New Day. To top it all off, our electric company has started a strict load-shedding schedule where we are without power for 5 hours each day! The times vary (today was 5am-10am, which is great!) but it certainly does affect our building/computer work/etc.! Should be an interesting 33 days left for us here at New Day!
Caedmon & Machila on their last day of school together for awhile...they are great buddies/competitors and have been for the last 5 years!
They had a Science presentation on primary & secondary succession (don't ask me...) the day before the kids left.
Caedmon will miss his favorite climbing tree for the next 6 months!
Cambree will most definitely miss her best friend Laurie!
And our friend Joyce's newest little baby, Lillian!
And her sweet mama! :) (I had been sick with a sore throat for 4 days in this picture and felt so bad!!)
Cason worked hard to finish his Grade 1 Math books before he left!
Thursday morning at the Livingstone airport - all ready to go!
They each chose their "buddy partners" (as Cason called it!) Caedmon chose Dani because she is fun to play with on the ipad, Cambree chose Josh because he is the strongest and could carry her bag for her. ;)
And Cason chose Naomi..he adored her :)
After dropping them off at the airport, we went to our lodge to wait and see if we could see their airplane in the sky...well, I waited. Blu took a nap! :)
I waited with this look on my face!
I know you can't see it, but in the very middle of this picture you can see the tiny white airplane - we loved that we actually saw it - it flew right over our lodge!
Gelato makes all things better.. ;)
I chose sushi for that night's meal...see that little green square at the bottom of the plate? That, my friends, is not avocado..it's wasabi. Big difference.
The next morning, we did team grocery shopping before heading back to New Day!
And they made it!! Grandpa & Mama Dee were there in Dallas to pick them up! Aside from a little trouble with Cason's paperwork (South Africa has tons of requirements for kids traveling without parents), and Caedmon getting sick and throwing up 6 times on one flight, it sounds like everything went ok! So grateful to our Amarillo team and Josh & Dani for being willing to travel back with 3 extra kids and 5 extra suitcases!! :)
And here we are! Our house is quiet, and what is the most amazing thing to me is that when I put something away, it stays there!!! ;) We will miss our little critters, but we are so grateful for this time they get with their grandparents. Things around here will be a little crazy...a team arrives today for 7 days and we are doing a staff retreat. Then another team arrives after that, doing ministry in the local school and around New Day. To top it all off, our electric company has started a strict load-shedding schedule where we are without power for 5 hours each day! The times vary (today was 5am-10am, which is great!) but it certainly does affect our building/computer work/etc.! Should be an interesting 33 days left for us here at New Day!
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