We are home!!

From Virginia! I love being on vacation, but like being home as well. Today we spent way too much time in the car, like 11.5 hours and well. . . I'm tired. It's veg time. I'll put my photos together and post. And as I actually look at the pictures taken, we didn't take a whole lot as the kids were in their own sessions and the adults were in their sessions. So I'll have to sort pictures out. I will tell you that Mr. B, my DH, took a few pictures of me driving around the hills/mountains, cliffs, whatever you call them as my palms sweat and I was a nervous wreck. I realized during this trip that I have a VERY HEALTHY fear of heights!! Until next time!

WOOHOO! Massanetta Springs Virginia

So we made it to camp and have enjoyed meeting lots of new people and eating s'mores and dancing, dancing, dancing. . . We are actually settling down as I right. The girls are figuring out what their classes are for tomorrow! I'm not loading pictures tonight because I'm tired and well. . . I just want to lay down!! So until tomorrow morning. . .

Vacation in Virginia

We are over half way to Virginia and my girls are still sleeping. We put on over 500 miles yesterday and will have a nice scenic ride today. We are all excited to be in a different place and meet new people, make new friends. It'll be nice to see people that I am facebook friends with but otherwise haven't met yet! So we are on our second day of journeys and I don't know if we'll have internet access for posting.

A funny: While I was routing the trip on Rand McNally, Bayat says to me, "Mommy, we should have just flown, it's going to take too long" She's actually enjoying the drive and noticing some different things from what we have at home. At one point around Chicago, she said for us to look at the power towers and notice how some of them looked like flowers and others looked like rockets! Pretty imaginative I'd say! We head into the mountains of the Appalachia today and I've not been in the part of the world before, so I'm pretty excited. I'm hoping to try out my new camera a bit!

The Mehaber

Blog entry for July 9, 2011: There is an annual Mehaber in Minnesota at their state fair grounds. It’s a day event, about 5 hours long and there are vendors, Ethiopian food, Ethiopian goods to buy like clothes, jewelry, coffee, spices, etc. There are also organizations there supporting causes, like water well building projects.

We attended last year and had an enjoyable time, so thought we would do it again. My in-laws have a place up north Wisconsin, so it makes the drive time bearable, a little over two hours. We always take pictures before we go because we often forget to take pictures while we are busy “doing”. We did manage to take some pictures as you can see. . .




The program on the big stage seemed more organized this year. The stage was full of song and dance and there was even a gentleman who planned to read a poem in four different Ethiopian languages and then in English. We arrived and of course it was all about the food, so we got our name tags and then proceeded to find Ethiopian food. The girls each ate a very big adult sized plate of food! I sometimes feel like they lose their minds when they smell ET food and some instinctual behaviors take over. Anyway, then the shopping began. We found some great beaded necklaces and bracelets that support women in Ethiopia. Their organization is called Global Team Local Initiatives (GTLI) and their website is www.gtli.us. They have some cool projects, go take a look. Another organization called Empowering Ethiopian Children by Education was present. They were selling jewelry and bags to support the children’s education. They currently support 20 children and their first full week of school was held November 2010. Go check them out too!

I did manage to get a spice list from Workinesh Spice Blends, Inc. They don’t have a website, so I was hoping they would be at the Mehaber. They are still working on a website, but if you call them with an order, it’ll be shipped the next day! They are located in MN and their phone number is 952-303-6710. We also bought some t-shirts and a wall hanging of an Ethiopian women weaving a basket! Very cool. . . .

We didn’t manage to get to the two water projects, but the ones represented at the Mehaber were Water to Thrive and Mudula Water . We wanted to listen to the one speaker near Gondar, but lost track of time and missed the session. So it’s online searching we go. .

We sat and watched the little kids (K-2, so 5-7 years old) dance to Ethiopian music. We then listened to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church choir sing traditional songs with drums. It was calming and we really enjoyed it. We visited the churches booth and they let the girls put on traditional Ethiopian church clothes for us to take a picture.

So for the last hour, we let the girls go and play on all the inflatable stuff (slides, jump houses, etc.) since they are kids and they can’t sit and listen and watch all day. . . .so off we went to spread out a blanket for the grown ups and watch the little girls play! At the close of the event, we drove back to the cabin, all having a great day!

An excursion to the woods

So these are writings from the weekend! I am just now getting them up. . . I've been feeling under the weather since Saturday evening and well. . . just haven't posted! So here are some posts. . .

June 8, 2011: We manage to finally get to the cabin up in the deep deep woods, (not really that deep, but no internet, so deep enough) about 7:00 ish. . . We unload and rearrange and then go out for dinner as planned. It’s late for the girls and for that matter all of us to be eating that late, but we do and then come home and crash! It’s going to be an exciting day on Saturday. Side note: I always envision things a certain way, for example, leaving at a specific time planning for certain activities, etc. Even though I try my darnest to get things done, packed and loaded it never seems possible to leave ON TIME! It was even hard with just the two of us, but now with two little people it’s even more fun!! Fenric the dog is easy and he has his own little bag for all his belongings!

Madison Zoo adventure

our state animal ~ the badger, looks nothing like on the sweatshirts!

We spent an afternoon at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. It was a good time and after lunch the big lion was grumbling quite a lot (pretty big roars~)
girls in awe of the black bear
the prairie dogs ~ aren't they cute?
nice teeth
beautiful animal and girls!



look how the girls measure up~
looks pretty content
this was pretty cool, the female lion was a little squirrely.
I've heard of parking yourself in front of the trough, but really IN the trough?

Vacation, Rest, Restoration, Reconnection

Vacation = cram all the activities that you can't get into a regular work week into a designated period of time.

Really, I don't think this is the definition, although sometimes it feels like it. The past few days the four of us and our beloved doggie Fenric, have been spending time in the woods in upper Wisconsin. Eating food, reading books, watching movies, meeting new people, sewing (really, alot of sewing), some running and walking and did I say eating?? We had planned to do a bunch of activities outside: swimming, hiking, etc. but the weather. . . It was partly cloudy with some peaks of sun or partly sunny with some clouds! Oh and the rain, let's not forget about the rain, some days heavier than others. We did manage to get a few walks in, but not warm or dry enough to swim!! So we took this opportunity to rest, restore and reconnect! One night we read a bunch of books, my favorite being The Perfect Nest I just love the different characters of the chick, the duck and the goose (honk!!)

I am also becoming a fan of Skippyjon Jones. Judy Schachner, the author, does a wonderful job of writing in rhymes. If you've not read a Skippyjon Jones book, please do so soon!!

We were so relaxed that we decided at lunch time of the day we were to return home, to stay an extra day!! It was nice to be able to just decide that and know that we didn't have any commitments waiting for us at home.

So we returned today. We regathered a bit, ate some food (whatever we could scrounge) and then headed off for the Rock County Fair. Always a good time. We looked at all the animals and then we rode some rides! (I promise I'll post pictures, just not tonight, I'm tired :-) The girls went on a swing ride by themselves and well. . . it all turned out ok. . .

We came home, ate some sugaries, said our prayers before bed, kissed and tucked the girls in.

That's all for now! I'll post some pics soon and as you see to the right, I can't wait for the EAKC Heritage Camp. This is our first year. There are 75 families and about 300 people attending! The biggest crowd ever! I'm sure it'll be a great time. The girls are excited about drinking buna (coffee), but I'm really looking forward many of the other activities!

Ethiopian food - twice in two days!

Sunday afternoon Bond, myself and the girls drove to downtown Milwaukee to meet Addisu's mom, Julie and her friend Dawn for dinner. We went to Alem, Ethiopian Village and it was pretty good. (I think the least favorite part of our visit was that they didn't have any booster seats, so Bayat got to try out the Milwaukee phonebook first and then the wonderful accommodating waitress brought Bayat a stack of clothing to sit on. Of course the phonebook wasn't 'comfortable', and the stack of clothing was!) Julie and I were able to update each other on our kids and family doings, etc. It was a great time! We also let the girls drink some Ethiopian buna, or coffee! They are really small glasses as you will see in the picture, but none the less, the girls were excited to have some buna!
Bayat excited to have some buna!
Kidist stirring in her sugar!
Group Photo at Alems: Dawn, Julie, Kidist, Bayat, Bond & Lori

It was a great visit, the only thing that would have been better? If Addisu and his daddy could have been there.

What a great weekend!

We had a great weekend! Some good friends came to visit and the girls had their first sleep over. We spent some time at the farmers market in Janesville and of course there was the water, the slip and slide, the pool and the sprinkler.






Bayat petting calf








Kidist petting goat









Both girls with goat













Being totally silly at the Farmers Market!

There were some street dancers at the Market too! They were part of the Janesville Performing Arts Events.





































Jeff took some great pictures of the girls on the slip and slide (I'm hoping he'll share so I can post at a later date.) This is the only one I have. I have to admit that I used swim time to run to the grocery!
The girls had their first sleep over too! They were excited to have their friend Grace spend the night! I think Grace might have been excited too. So we watched Shark Tales, kinda cute!


And this is two exhausted girls after worship and a big lunch on Sunday after company left. Aren't they adorable?

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is combined with deer hunting and has been since 1993, the year before I married Bond. This was also my first year deer hunting. . . . Exciting hey?? Anyway, we had our traditional turkey dinner and the girls were in awe when they saw the turkey come out of the oven. They thought we shot the turkey out in the forest too! The first thing they said was, "Did grandma shoot the turkey?" Of course my answer was, "No, she didn't, don't you remember when we went to the grocery store and bought it?" Kidist reply, "No!" So there you have it. . . The turkey was indeed purchased at the grocery store in Jackson County Wisconsin. Exciting. . . .

Turkey is good food! The girls like turkey. I was hoping to make some traditional food for them as well, but it got very busy and it didn't happen. We watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving too! The girls are taking a liking to Charlie Brown and for this we are happy. I'd rather Charlie Brown than Hanna Montana, or some other nonsense caricature. So I welcome Snoopy and Woodstock anytime.

Deer Hunting

So in Wisconsin, we deer hunt!! That's a fact! Anyone reading this that doesn't know we deer hunt, does now! I have some good friends that think I'm mean and nasty for hunting and shooting Bambi's mom or dad. But they don't understand that the deer do so much damage to farmers crops and let's not talk about the over abundance of those cute little deer that travel on the same roads we do. Unfortunately, they don't obey the same traffic laws that we do!

Anyway, the DNR or Department of Natural Resources, stated that the amount of licenses filled this year was about 25% down from last year. So what does that mean?? Well, either no one was hunting or there were no deer to be seen. We think a little of both. . . Anyway, we were successful this year again. We had three hunting and we all filled a tag. 2 buck and 1 doe! Lots of good eating this year. We hunted all opening day, Saturday and most of Sunday and for a few hours on Monday. As usual, we saw less and less each day. Then we took the girls out to see the hunting land. We put them in some orange clothes and went stomping around in the woods.

Then Bond had Kidist in his stand and I had Bayat in my stand. Grandpa and grandma went to grandpa's stand to sit in the warm sun. We sat about an hour very quietly and Bayat did happen to see a deer. Very cool!! Then we went stomping some more through the woods. It was all good!! They had a great time.