OK, quite off topic . . . Black?? HUMMM

I found this on another blog and decided to give it a try. Looks like I am BLACK and I guess that's ok. I think it's funny that I end up black as that is the color of the day for Bond. Anyone that knows him, knows he wears black pants daily (occasionally khaki) and a black clergy shirt!! So now I want Bond to take the quiz and see if he ends up with something like "PINK". Now wouldn't that be funny!

The quiz tells me that I am most like black.

I am bold with a dark side. I make clear lines wherever I go, though I color outside of the lines. Many people may just see the surface of me and think I am merely plain, but I have a lot of depth to me as well. (HUM, I wonder what that means?)

Which Crayola Box of 8 Color Are You?

one attempt at a casual family picture

I made a short video to archive one of our attempts to get a family picture, mind you, just a casual posed family picture. For our one month post placement report, we have to include a family picture. Sounds easy right?? Take a look.

Third and last day of school?!?

It is Wednesday, August 27, 2008! I just finished my third day of work for the school year. I get home today and Kidist says, "Mommy school all done? No more school?" Help me to explain that this goes on for like another 187 days!!

MOMMY: No honey, this is mommy's third day of school. I go to school/work, daddy goes to church/work.

KIDIST: OK (with a very confused look on her face)

So the girls start school next week, September 2nd, and I hope that they really like it so that they want to continue to keep going. . . . I think that they like me being home and so "No more school?" keeps creeping out. Oh well, after our first full 12 months here in Wisconsin I'm sure they will understand many many of the unexplainables we currently can't explain! Did you keep up with that?? So today we counted 6 more days until Kidist and Bayat start school! They will be excited to go but this has been a hard week.

Mommy's First day

Today is my first day of school. (the girls and Bond and upstairs still eating breakfast and I'm just jotting a quick note) Bond and I have discussed what the morning routine might look like for about a week now. So. . alarm goes off at 5:30 am. I'm supposed to wake refreshed, oops, but that also means I need to go to bed much earlier than I did last night. Anyway, I get in the shower, thinking that I can be showered, hair dried, dressed before the little princesses awake. Bond makes me a great cup of Ethiopian coffee and while he walks into the bathroom (mind you, I'm still taking my shower) he announces that he has coffee for me and that the entire family is now in the bathroom too! Including Fenric! So much for that little bit of quiet time! So now off to help the girls do their hair and get dressed before I walk out the door!! Post more later, still loading the car! You know school stuff!! Have a great Monday!!

BELOW: Mommy's first day of school - girls giving me a hug before I leave. (note Bayat yawning)

good news!!

We found out today that Kidist gets to go to the school of our first choice! YEA!! The district met today and between the administrators and principals they made all their decisions and we get to go to our first choice!! We got the call at about 11:00 am!! I know I'm wierd, but like I said in my previous post, I don't get 4 or 5 years like most folks!! So, today I think I finished buying school supplies, you know, kleenex, clorox wipes, paper cups, napkins, oh yea and a few boxes of crayola color crayons: 8 count box and 16 count box. I wonder if my mom had to buy kleenex and clorox wipes as part of our school supply list?? I never remember carrying them?? Oh well, it's obvious that times have changed!

back to school??

For all of us!! Yesterday I registered the girls for school and felt very proud that I, (ok we, both Bond and I) feel as though the girls are ready for school. Bayat has been asking about school for about 4 weeks now and Kidist, well. . . she doesn't quite know what she wants to be when she grows up!

So back to registering. .

We are in an option area for school, which means that we are in an area that we can pick which school our children go to. We have a choice of three schools actually, but quickly narrowed it down to two and then visited each of them. They are both fine schools and we are hoping that we are able to have Kidist attend our first choice. By the way, she will be in Kindergarten. Bayat will be attending a 4 year old kindergarten program (or what is referred to as P4J, Preschool for Janesville) in a community center and spend the other half of the day with same aged peers learning English, social skills, community skills and other necessary skills that all 4 year olds need to learn. I am really really really excited that they are ready for school and are going to school.

It's August 20, 2008, Wednesday morning 10:00 a.m. on the last official day to register your children for school and I'm walking out the door feeling pretty good about our decisions. We have visited oodles of places, talked with many community directors, private school prinicipals, trying to be well informed parents and make the best choices we can for our two wonderful daughters. Sorry, I digress. . . I'm walking our the door, yes that is where I left off. . . . . I get into the car, start the engine and start CRYING !! YES, CRYING!! What is that!! I can't believe I'm sending my children to school after only 12 weeks of being in America! But it's the best thing for them!! And they want to go!

It's not fair that when you have biological children, you get to spend 4-5 years bonding, sharing boogers, poopy diapers, spit up and all of that other good stuff before sending them off to school. WE GOT TWELVE WEEKS!! And really, I'm thankful, but GEEZ, they are my babies still. . . .We haven't even had a babysitter yet!

Ok, I'll stop, but yes, I am also going back to school, that is work!! Where I will continue to treat my little kiddos at (my hopefully 4 buildings this year) school and then come home to get lots of hugs and kisses from my ethiopian princesses and hear all about their school adventures!! It will all be good!! Do all moms go through this??

Hungry??

Seems as though when I browse the internet these days I always end up at a website revolving around the hunger issue! I'm not sure I'm sorry about that, I just am trying to figure out what to do with it. I mean, I end up there, I wonder what that means and is it a SIGN. A sign? For what? To do what? I don't know. I support ELCA World Hunger and I know that there are many other organizations that work on global hunger as well. It seems to me that if the world does indeed make enough food to feed the world, well. . . . . then we ought to be feeding everyone!! Don't you think?



So let's see. . . . here is a source that talks about food production and supply and demand. It states that [For most of the past 50 years food production has outpaced rising demand. World population has doubled since World War II, but food production has tripled] but in regard to food distribution, well. . . . . [Food security could be improved for millions of people if food from countries with a surplus were better distributed to countries where there are food deficits—that is, countries that do not produce enough food to meet domestic needs. The international trade system, however, works against the ability of poor countries to meet their food needs with imports. Isn't this sad!!

Ok, I'm kind of on a roll and when I hear week after week about loving your neighbor as yourself. . . . AGAIN. . . . HUMMMMM. . . . .

Just to leave you with some images. . . . .

Feed Bags - Feed how many?

Here is a link to find out more about the FEED Bag Project. By purchasing this bag, you can feed 100 children. These bags can be purchased here.

There is a FEED 1 Bag Project and when you purchase a bag from here, you feed one child.

The statistics say that 90% of the world lives on less than $1.00 dollar a day! That's is a really scary number. I've also heard that the world grows enough food to feed the world! Then why do we have so many people in the world starving? HUMM!

There is currently a famine happening in Ethiopia and it's affecting millions of people. You can read about it here, and here. More regions daily are being affected and there are clinics set up everywhere, but still there is very little assistance that can be given. Please keep Ethiopia and their people in your prayers.

so many new things and so little time to post

Ok, so I'm going to make a really long post since I've haven't in a while. I'll even put in some pictures as not to bore you :-)

Let's see, I'll start with my attempt to make an ethiopian meal. It actually turned out successfully. The starter I've been working on (seems like forever) worked like a charm. I used a combination of a few recipes from other folks websites of people who have made injera before.

BELOW: These are hopeful smiles that the injera turns out. They have been waiting a long time for mommy to make injera!!
BELOW: This is a picture of smiling girls and a happy mommy!! Smiles all around!! The injera was successful!! YEA!!

BELOW: Here is a picture of our Doro Wat (chicken dish) and our Misr Wat (red lentil stew). They were delicious!

This is a picture from the next day while we were up north. Everyone eating (or trying) Ethiopian food!! m m good!!

So let's see . . . . what's next to talk about!! I'll just share some pictures from around the house and playing.

BELOW: This is how pool time usually starts out!

BELOW: Sunbathing of course!

BELOW: The girls watering their flowers. It actually started out with mommy emptying the pool. We use the dirty pool water to water the flowers around the yard as to not waste the water. So we were all watering our respective plants and Bayat comes to me and says, "Mommy, my shirt is dirty." She really meant wet. Anyway, to make a long story shorter, I began by watering the girls and then they began to water each other!! We had a good time in the water.

BELOW: the girls chillin'. Do you love the yellow tube socks?? Courtesy of ethiopian airlines. They give each of the passengers a small package and in each of the packages is a pair of these outrageously long yellow tube socks, toothbrush and toothpaste and an eye cover. The girls love these socks!! So this particular day was when they decided they were going to sit out in the back yard in their lawn chairs and chill!!

BELOW: Fourth of July

BELOW: Playing on the swingset in the backyard.

BELOW:Pictures from the Rock County Fair - self portraits


BELOW: The girls wearing daddy's shorts.