Charcoal the monkey

 Meet Charcoal the Monkey.

 He was "thrown in" the last package from my mom, and was an instant part of Snuggle Bugs primate family.  Some of you may remember that one of SB's gifts last year for Christmas was a bed for her monkey Chocolate, and that Baby Girl drew her a portrait of Chocolate as well.

 When SB met Charcoal it was love at first sight!  She had him all strapped on the other day, and she looked so snappy in her new sneakers and matching monkey accessory, I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of happy family.

This is a random picture I took, but it was too cute to NOT post some where.

Lunar Eclipse

So apparently on the night of June 15th there was one of the 4 longest lunar eclipses in the last 100 years.

 We were told that it could only be watched in a few time zones.  Uganda just happens to be in one of those special time zones. 

 We had a blast staying up watching the eclipse take place.  It was so amazing that I had to bust out the camera AND the tripod and got to play around with the shutter speeds. 

These are some of my favorite.  It was an AMAZING sight to behold! And the memory of laying on the blanket playing with Daddy will stay with the girls their WHOLE lives.

Mac and Cheeze

When we asked the girls what they might like from the states, Sweet Pea answered..... Macaroni and Cheese!

So our amazing friend in Waco sent 15 boxes with one of the teams.  The first time I cooked some, I cooked THREE boxes, and it wasn't enough! They still wanted more and Snuggle Bug had to resort to licking the spoon in order to get more of the cheezy goodness!

Mac'n'cheese is only one of MANY wonderful treats that the teams have brought over.  We have enjoyed fun cereals, like "Fruit Loops", "Honey Bunches of Oats" and "Cheerios".  We have licked our way to sugar land with "tootsie Pops" and "blow pops".  And we now have enough nail polish to open a small salon!  Actually, the two big girls have started paining the toe nails of all the team girls when they come for dinner!  They are gettin' quite skilled at adding little hearts and flowers to nails.

Bisky

On of the other exciting adventures in our lives.... we got a CAT!  His name is Bisky. 

 He was a wild, little thing when he first arrived!  He bit me in the catching process, and then when we finally were able to re-catch him (I dropped him when he bit me).  The locals shoved him in a milk tin and we rushed him home and let him out in the girls bathroom.  It took him a few weeks, but now he his a perfectly tame kitty.  Lady even likes him!

He looks just like Shadrack the black kitty Kent gave me when I was pregnant with Baby Girl, that we had to leave in Lubbock when we moved to Waco.  Our collection of animals is ever growing!

Busy Hands

Here is not a lot to do here in Gulu. In our free time.... so we read.  And we read.  And when we have read everything on the shelf, we go back and read them again.  Occasionally I can get the girls to work on a hand sewing project.  Sweet Pea has been "working" on this one for a while..... she finished a humming bird last summer and gave it to my mom for her birthday.

 This is Curly's first attempt at anything more than the chunky plastic squares and the huge plastic needles.  I didn't have anything for her to "sew", so I drew a flower on a scrap piece of fabric, and showed her how to "color it in" with the thread.

I think I will be sending my little "elves" to Hobby Lobby for some more supplies for the "sled" from Abilene to bring when they come!s

Happy Birthday to MEEEE!

This years birthday celebration seemed to never end!!!   It started a week early, when Kent brought home flowers from Kampala.  That night was EB's birthday party (the daughter of the TN  team leader).

 (Lady wearing a party hat Kent picked up in Kampala)

 The following Tuesday (still before my birthday) we had the Waco team over for dinner.  They brought a HUGE cake for the celebration, and after dinner we ended up having a talent show.  After the Talent show, we worshiped (huge blessing to me).  Then they all prayed over me and then over each one of the girls, and Kent too!

Kent hooked me up with the goods when he brought home flowers.  He bought the bundles, tons of them too!  And I had the joy and pleasure of arranging them in my pickle jars and placing them all over the house!

Later one of the students from College Staion gave me some yummy smelling lotion cause she had noticed on facebook that they would be here on my birthday! All in all a really blessed "day".

Waco Ladies

These lovely ladies were such a blessing to my girls while they were here!!  They took them all out for lunch and some quality one on one time!

 This was after there "dates".  Some of the girls even got to get milkshakes!  Whoo Hoo!

 Baby Girl and her lunch date Hannah.

 Sweet Pea got a double portion and had TWO girls all to herself.

 Snuggle Bug fell in love with this sweet girl the moment she got off the bus! 

And of course the two curly haired girls had lunch together.  They actually got finished sooner than the rest so they climbed the tree.  That is Curly's FAVORITE thing to do!

Coming up for air!

So like I can't believe that June is almost over!!!  We have had a whirl-wind of a time these last few weeks.  Hosting college teams is SOOOOOO exhausting, but it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO worth it.  The Middle of may brought a team from Tennessee. We didn't get to see all them much, but we were able to have the daughter of their team leader stay with us for a few days, that was fun.  She even had her birthday party while she was here! 

While the TN team was still here, we got to host a team of 11 from Waco.  That was super fun and exciting!  i should clarify that by "Hosting" I mean them coming to our city, we help them get settled into their hotel, we have dinner with them at their hotel, later on we have them for dinner at our house, we help them find things and generally make ourselves available to help them in anyway needed.

TN team left, a few days later the Waco team left, the VERY NEXT DAY we got a team of 16 from College Station "Whoop"!  Before they left we had another team of 16 from Waco come.  The second Waco team is currently still here, but they leave on Sunday. 

Last weekend we went to the capital to pick up our "intern".  He was here last summer and is bringing a team of 15 (i think) over in September and they will be here for 6-7 months!  

Next month, in July we have a GINORMOUS team of 32 that is coming from Abilene!!  YEA! ( Don't tell the kids, but I am thinking about having them bring over some stuff for Christmas)  Yeah, I know it is only June, but when you live in Africa, you have to plan ahead!

BUT, Wait..... that isn't all...... we have one more final team coming over in August!  And at some point in the next 6 months we will have a travel team from our organisation come as well!

WHEWWWW!  Love it! Northern Uganda will be SOOOOOO blessed by all the teams that are coming through here this summer!!