Back in the US!

Hey everyone, I'm currently back in the States, visiting family and friends, as well as raising monthly support so I can continue on as a caregiver at Muphamuzi Baby Home! It's been a busy last few weeks...

...making enough baby food to (hopefully) last for three months. (Yeah, probably not, with four babies eating solid food!)

...packing everything into one checked bag (oops, one and a half...couldn't fit...I borrowed the pink one from a four year old at our church)...

...then I stopped over to visit my sister Joy in Dubai on a 10 hour layover!

Joy and I were roommates for six months or so before she moved to Dubai (city in the United Arab Emirates) to work. It was so good to see her again!

Some family and friends were a bit scared of me venturing out into the Middle East, but everything was totally fine - Dubai is very much a tourist city. In the airport they even have pink taxis for women, driven by women in pink headscarves...

...and red taxis for men/families. (We later took a red taxi in the middle of the city, so I'm not sure how strict they are!)

Some sights around the city

This is the tallest building in the world. I wanted to go up in it, but that cost close to $150, so we just decided to admire it from the ground.

It was so tall Joy couldn't manage to get me and the top of the building in the same picture.

It was 115 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so we spent as much time in air conditioning as we could. This is a waterfall inside a mall. It spanned three floors.

This is the world's largest aquarium. Again, it cost too much to go inside, at least for the short time we were there, so we just admired it from the outside. I didn't get a very good picture.

Breakfast outside at a cafe

We spent about 10 minutes at the beach. This was due as much to the extreme heat as to me not wanting to miss my flight. The ocean felt like warm bathwater. Somehow, despite not bringing sunscreen along, I didn't burn.

I made it to my flight in enough time, although they made the "final call" before boarding time was even supposed to start, so I freaked out and ran for the last bit through the airport. Then I was off on a 16 hour flight to Los Angeles! Thankfully I got a good seat - I got the last seat before the bathrooms, so no one was behind me and I could put my backpack under my seat and stretch out my legs under the seat in front of me. I watched several good movies and started watching the TV series Supergirl - it's really good! (I have a thing for slightly cheesy TV shows...)

I spent a week in outer LA with my friend Alyssa, my 2014 MBH roommate, who was to be married on the 20th. It was a busy week, of course, but it was good to see her again. 

We visited Hollywood, which was, not surprisingly, a disappointment. I did find some nice, cheap sunglasses. 

This is the theater where Lucy and Ethel (I Love Lucy) stole John Wayne's footprints, and it was the thing I actually wanted to see. However, there was some kind of premier going on and everything was covered up with red carpet. Oh well.

And of course we had to visit the Pacific Ocean!

Alyssa took me to see some tidepools - the thing I really wanted to do.

We didn't see an awful lot (no starfish or fish) but it was still pretty cool. Lots of little crabs:

An anemone

Maybe some kind of sponge?

Afterwards we stopped at a taco truck for dinner so I could have "real" tacos. They were pretty good!

I came back to Ohio on Sunday, and it is good to be home! I've finished unpacking and am hanging out with family and working on support raising - I have a rough estimate of how much I will need to raise (per month) on the thermometer on the side of my blog (I don't quite have it nailed down yet). I will be speaking at our church soon...I will let everyone know when I have a date and you are welcome to come out! If anyone knows of any other churches I could speak at as well, I would be thrilled! I'm hoping to head back to South Africa the week after Thanksgiving.

Love to you all!

Auntie Abbie

P.S. Dubai also has the most awesome ball pit known to man. I'm afraid they probably don't let adults in, which is very sad.

Gold Herringbone & Polka Dot Lampshades

So, my room is lit by these rather blah-looking lamps - wooden bases and cream colored shades. Oops! I forgot to take a picture before I dissected the lamps for this project. I decided they needed something different. I love gold - and patterns. I had something like this in mind.

First things first - I spray painted the bases white. It's so hard to get the spray paint even! Hold the can a good distance from the object you are spraying and layer the paint on in thin coats. DON'T sand first - I thought this would help the paint stick better, but it just scratched it. Maybe it would work better if I had done a more thorough job!

This website had the nifty idea to tape a plastic bag inside the lampshade while spray painting. It did take a lot of coats of paint, but the shade looked at least a little bit whiter when I'd finished.

Shade #1 was getting a herringbone pattern. This website has a lot of good tips on how to trace the pattern, although I didn't follow it exactly. I just measured to make sure the vertical marks/lines were even, and eyeballed the slanted lines. I was going for a slightly irregular hand-painted look.

I used gold fabric paint - I had a hard time choosing between that and another gold paint. I wasn't extremely happy with either option - I wanted something really sparkly and glossy. I am going to look for something different while I am home in the States and repaint the shades when I go back to South Africa.

It was a time-consuming process!

Lampshade #2 got gold polka dots. I followed the tutorial on this website, only using a sponge to make the dots didn't work for me (probably because I tried to cut a kitchen sponge into a circle in the absence of an actual sponge stamper). I traced something circular and carefully filled in the dots with a paintbrush.

This is the end result! I didn't remember to get a good picture before I left, but you can see the general idea.

Comings and goings

So the last month or two have seen a lot of arrivals and departures here around the baby home!

Little T is off to his forever family!

Baby M went home with his mommy! We still get to see him around occasionally, which is fun.

Little T (the other one - I can't remember their code names!) is still with us and getting super chubby. He's often happy and likes to flap his hands and shriek wildly.

Little B is, unexpectedly, still here, and he is getting so big. 

Please send up some special prayers for him, as well as for R, who is also still with us.

We welcomed baby Z! He is about four months old and has a big smile.

Things are busy around here these days, but hope to talk to you all soon!

B is for Bak Bak

Happy (or little B as we call him) looooooves his "bak baks" SO much! He'd spend all day out there if I let him (with regular breaks for FUDE! FUDE!)

He tries to feed them bits of greenery through the fence.

The chickens themselves are doing quite fine. They are giving me 5-6 eggs a day now. I got an automatic feeder and waterer this week to avoid food waste (probably like 1/3 wasted due to scratching it out on the ground and not eating it) and to help keep the water clean. Of course, it's also nice to not have to get up and feed them and water them before work! Haha!

B was SO excited when we went to buy the waterer today! He's seen the feeder in the chicken coop, and when we got to that section of the store, he started screaming excitedly, "BAK BAK! BAK BAK!" I told him that it was for the bak baks' water and his excitement knew no bounds. He didn't stop hollering about BAK BAKS WAWA BAK BAKS WAWA alllll the way though the store, the checkout lane, out to the car...he's such a nerd! Haha!

"B, say bak bak!"

Little B also loves his "TEA! TEA!" with about as much enthusiasm. Rooibos is a caffeine free tea that is very popular here. 

Sihle's Iced Tea

8 rooibos tea bags

2 liters water

1 cup raw sugar (called brown sugar here)

Several generous squirts of lemon

Couple of peaches

Boil the tea bags, water, and sugar. Add lemon and sliced peaches and allow to steep. I find I like to water it down just a tiny bit. It's also good with passionfruit! This is B's absolute favorite and mine too. I don't need to buy peach iced tea when I am out anymore because this is just as good!

B also loves the sandbox. I just recently was able to dry it out enough for him to use. It buys me a good half hour or so! He usually needs a bath as he manages to get it EVERYWHERE! It's part of the reason I buzzed his hair again...

That's all for tonight! Talk to you hopefully next week!

Our babies & what's been happening

It has been a while since I've been on here! Lots has happened since...when was it...October?? I'm sure you would all like to see and hear about all of the babies we have right now.

I will warn you up front that I have the most pictures of Happy! I shouldn't play favorites but I rationalize that it's ok because every baby is someone's favorite! He is almost 18 months old now.

He loves to help me with gardening - especially when it involves a free ride.

Little guy makes my life busy but is so much fun.

"Mama, why are all the other kids teasing me about my chitenga? I think it's cool!"

We took a trip to the local petting zoo to see his beloved "bak baks" (chickens) and all the "AMMALS!" but he was kind of scared. I guess I would be too if I was surrounded by turkeys as high as my head. He enjoyed it more when he was riding on my shoulders.

"Look, it's a leaf."

All dressed up in his Sunday best.

Generally up for a ride on my "Ba! Ba!" (back)

"Happy, say cheese!"

Out for some yummy ice cream

 Little Pooh has started smiling and laughing (his laughs are crazy and sound kind of like pterodactyl shrieks!) He is five months old. He cut his second tooth right before his five-month birthday.

Here he is doing some tummy time with Anakin Skywalker!

He had a mohawk for a little while. Punk baby!

Little Piglet is also five months old (this is an older picture). He is wiggly and squirmy and likes to roll. He quickly wins everyone's hearts with his smile!

Eeyore ties with Pooh for heavyweight champion at MBH. Even though he's only three months old, he matches five month old Pooh, weighing in at 8 kgs. He likes to be held and wants to eat ALL the time!

Time for church in his polo shirt and Nikes!

Roo is four months old and also likes to wiggle and roll. He is a bit of a charmer and his sad face usually makes Auntie Sarah or Mama Linda pick him up.

Princess is a two month old girl with a big fat belly and chubby cheeks! She mostly likes to sleep and eat (a lot) but has recently started smiling and cooing too.

That is all for today! I am going to try to start blogging weekly and I think if I try to catch up on everything at once I will be overwhelmed and stop again. Better to start small!

Love you all and miss you!

Auntie Abbie