Our Latest Wager

My family laughs at us because John and I are always competing on everything from Sudoku to knowing the title and artist of songs on the radio. So every year we join millions of others in "March Madness" and fill out our brackets and make a wager. This year the loser has to watch the kids for an hour on 5 different days so the winner can go to the gym! I have not been to the gym since Karis was born so I am pretty psyched that I have a pretty strong lead at the moment!! Of course, it is only luck. I pretty much make my picks based on the rankings (listed on the sheet) and the fact that I like the sound of Gonzaga, Xavier and Villanova and they are always in the tournament so they must be pretty good and I just happen to be partial to UNC and Kansas. Those two seem to always make it into my final four!! This year I have UNC picked as the winner - apparently President Obama does as well and he is quite the basketball person so maybe I am on the right track:)

he does exist!

Despite almost having given up altogether I have decided to give blogging one last try! A couple of people commented they were still waiting to hear if the baby had been born...! So here is a picture of Karis and "baby brother" also known as Stephen! He has been a super easy baby and such a blessing. And Karis really loves him!

Dancing Queen

Actually, I should title this, "Mama Ia" as Karis is pretty obsessed with ABBA and most specificaly Mama Mia. It all started because my sister and I took her with us to see the movie in August. Ever since she has been requesting, "Mama Ia" so she can "dance". In hopes to save us from too many hours of ABBA we enrolled her in a pre-ballet class! It is just 30 minutes, 1 day a week and she loves it. And although I initially thought I was wasting money with the ballet outfit that she will outgrow in just a few months she wears it so much around the house that I think we have gotten our money out of it!

No baby yet...

So my official due date was October 14. It is now October 20 and still no baby.... aghh!! On the one hand I am not particularly keen on inducing and definitely don't want a c-section but I was really, really hoping for the little guy to make an appearance on his own but so far he has not cooperated! We do have an induction set for Thursday night unlsess something happens in the interim! We would appreciate your prayers.

Hyena Sighting!

Clearly this is out of chronological order! A hyena sighting in Temple, Texas would be really exciting! However, I was reminded of the hyena last night driving on a road in Temple where we used to see coyotes. So just a few nights before we left Malawi we were driving home from Bible Study about 10 at night and did see a hyena!! It was a pretty big one and right on the side of the road. This is not totally unusual as people do see them every once and a while and John had seen one once before but it was still pretty cool! As with everywhere the city is getting built up so the areas of "wild" are getting less and less - not sure if that means more hyenas will be seen as they have less natural habitat to stay in or what. Anyway, it was pretty interesting and I must admit I had never been so thankful for the 6 foot walls around our compound! I realize hyenas are like most wild animlas - they would just assume leave you alone but I read a short story about a rabid hyena and that was enough to make me paranoid! John, of course, (and rightly) thinks I am silly for this paranoia!!

Sewing project!

I know, I know! I have not updated our blog in months! So instead of trying to get "caught up" as planned I am just going to start back with a random post. I am almost done with what I hope and think is a successful sewing project! I decided the baby's crib needed a bed skirt and although I found really cute curtains and a bumper from Ikea they do not make the bed skirt or diaper stacker so I had the bright idea that I could make it myself! It has taken a phone call to both my sister and my mom and actually reading the sewing machine manual to figure out how to "gather" but I now have 3 of the 4 ruffled sides sewed on and so far so good!!

Sewing actually makes me appreciate people when they say they can't cook. In general I tend to feel like there is nothing to cooking - you just read the recipe and do what it says! But that is because I cook enough to understand the instructions! Quite often when I read pattern instructions I understand the words but still have no idea what they mean!!!

and despite the success of the bed skirt I am leaning toward skipping the diaper stacker all together or buying one... or talking my mom into making one when she is here for Christmas... that might be the best idea yet:)

Our Grocery Store Burned!

The grocery store just down the street from us burned last week! I have no idea what happened (though it was very likely some sort of electrical issue) but the whole things burned – all that is left is a shell of the building! This shop was pretty new when we moved here and pretty basic but over the 2 years it has expanded and had quite a good selection of things for good prices – including the best garlic in town and my favorite peanut butter!! Not to mention that it was 5 minutes away by car! Now our closest store is double that distance! However, the good news is that the rumor is that he is going to reopen within a couple of weeks at at least some level. I guess there is some other empty space in the shopping center so they are going to open up there while they rebuild their shop!! Thank goodness! Now I just hope garlic and peanut butter are included in the limited stock!! Of course these are very trivial matters but the selection really does vary between stores – and you can’t assume any particular item is every going to be in stock – really anywhere! Keeps shopping challenging. On a sad note, we are really seeing food prices increase and increase here. It is an annoyance for us but I am really beginning to be concerned for the average Malawian. A liter of oil has gone up 200 kwacha (approx 1 qut. And about $1.5) in the past 4-5 months and just this weekend the price of fuel increased by 25%, up to about $7 a gallon! As everywhere this will have a huge trickle down effect. And as elsewhere salaries are not increasing at the same rate as food and other costs anyway!! And rumor (there are lots of those floating around) is that fuel is going to go up again soon!