Pictures!

Now that I am armed with actual pictures, I’m going to write the entry I had more in mind when I wrote the last one. As I said, I’ve been enjoying some little cross stitch projects—quickly done so I get a finishing rush, and nice to pass off to other people. I love the books in this one,

And of course I couldn’t pass this seasonal one up, now could I?

In addition to the little cross stitches, I’m working on a wedding gift for a young lady out here who will be getting hitched next summer. I can’t wait to see how big this ends up, and how much yarn I have left. To be totally honest, I’m sort of hoping that I will have enough to do another one of these lovely little shawlettes, but we shall see. If I made one for myself it would have green beads in it I think. The pattern is “Indian Feathers,” and I’m just about done with the chart and ready to start working up towards the solid top part.

I whipped out another little beaded baglett with some leftover sock yarn I had here (oh the complications of having stash in two continents!),

And I have the first front done on one of the two baby kimono’s I need to get done before said little ones arrive. Huzzah for productive staff meeting time!

In addition to all the crafty things, I wanted to talk about a book that has really rocked my world this summer-

While I was home God really did a work in my heart about my eating issues, and Lysa Terkurst’s book was a huge help in fixing my spiritual problem manifested in my bad eating habits. Of course, God’s word and Spirit also spoke to my heart, but being able to read the challenging, encouraging, and honest voice of a woman who has finally gotten real about her food issues was such a blessing to me. I am on a new path of obedience now making ‘imperfect progress’ towards a goal of a healthier me who’s heart is grabbed by her God, not food. Gluttony is such a problem in our culture, and while it’s not nice to admit that I look the way I do because of sinful attitudes and habits, I am rejoicing right now in newfound freedom, and some encouraging weight loss! So, I highly recommend this book, and that the Lord for giving Lysa this message that I so desperately needed to hear.

Finally, to close things off, I wanted to review a CD I received recently that I been enjoying.

I remember when Hugh Laurie put out his first Blues CD, but I didn’t listen to it. At my last Starbucks stop in Terrel, my mom bought this for me as a “Happy Labor Day!” gift, and when I arrived back at Sakeji I eagerly put it on my iPod and had a listen. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. Now, I am by no means a fan of the Blues, but I like most of the songs on this album. I love that Hugh Laurie didn’t make a cheesy narcissistic CD to fuel his ego, but there are lots of other people singing on here and he makes no bones about the fact that he is entirely the wrong person to be singin’ the Blues! The musicianship is apparent, and all in all this is a nice listen. I really respect actors that are good at more than one thing, and are genuinely good at it. If only there were more well-rounded people in Hollywood…

Now I just need to fend off my Christmas music cravings until a reasonable time!

This post was originally more awesome when I planned it in my head...

I thought I had more pictures on my camera, but apparently it was a fiction of my poor teacher brain. So, more pictures to follow at some other time!

What I have is, I built a castle!

I probably spent about 3-4 hours in total working on this, but I found it oddly rewarding. The precision of the cutting, folding, and gluing was an interesting challenge, and I was fascinated by the shapes that the flat cardstock came together to make.

This will be a part of the decorations for our Medieval birthday party on Wednesday of this week. Half my house will end up there actually as I apparently like that sort of thing...

I've been cross stitching a lot lately as well as working on some gifty things for Christmas gifts. Pictures to follow soon...

An interesting week...

This will be brief--maybe after the weekend I'll do a 'real' post with pictures and everything, but I felt that since I've made Friday my update day, that I aught to follow through with that. This week has been sort of tough--I had my identity stolen on Tuesday, and it's been a bit of a process getting everything ironed out. Thankfully God has been involved in my details--there are people coming out before end of term who can bring me my new card, the bank identified the fraud right away, and there was cell service so I could call and get things worked out. I have to say, while it's a little demoralizing to say the least to have your identity stolen, I did think how wonderful it is that no one can steal my real identity--who I am and my status as God's child. Credit cards can be changed, but nothing can change God's love for me or who I am in Him.

Oddments

I really missed my cat while I was away. Yes, I had my family's three cats to enjoy and brave little Claudia, but I missed my own crazy kitty.

I know it's a really silly little thing, but I LOVE this new color of nail polish that I brought back with me. And yes,I have a dirty missionary foot!

Last week for handwork we dyed some yarn with Kool-aid; in case you're wondering, 2 packets will do a pretty good job on 100g of fiber, but I think that 3 would be better for pink.

A new garden was put in just over the ditch that divides my yard from the soccer field, and because things are bone dry around here it needs to be watered every other day at least. I came home last night to find this:

I ended up with three buckets of water to use in my own garden and without a lake on my porch. Waste not, want not!

Various small projects

I may have committed some more plastic canvass.

Because I saw something similar when I was in Ohio, I decided that I wanted to try making these with my handwork group. We're not doing this big one--it's way to complex for my kids, but I'm working on scaling it down.

I went on a teacher cross stitch kick last week--notice that I didn't feel like doing that big chunk of black more than once!

I've also been playing with model making. There is a castle under construction right now, but last night I finished this model of the Globe that has been kicking around my house for the last year or so. *cough cough*

Beth brought me back some fun goodies--this totally made my day! NERD!

I also had to laugh at these napkins-

When I got back, I had a lot of fun arranging my new magnets on my not-so-boring-anymore fridge.

I also made a whole lot of banana bread the day the kids came back, and after giving a few loaves away I stashed the rest in the freezer. Freezers are a missionary's friend...

Finally, my very own "I'm in ur box" moment. Silly cat!

Of Towers and Transit

I wanted to share a few pictures from my trip over before term starts. Not that I took that many--I was rather busy being in transit after all!

First of all, a picture of my beloved Delta Flyer which pretty much saved my summer.

In London I ended up hanging out in the National Portrait Gallery and Trafalgar Square because the bank helpfully froze my card AGAIN, but I did get to see this interesting performer. I would love to know how he was hovering!

I enjoyed seeing this statue of Trajan beside a remnant of the old London wall on my way to the Tower. I had so much fun teaching Rome this spring!

I had to laugh when I got to the Tower of London because when my dad was there many years ago he unwittingly took a picture of a dog answering the call of nature. No dogs that day, but it was a much needed smile! The Beefeater tour is totally worth it by the way.

When I made it to Solwezi after almost missing my plane to Lusaka, I had to smile when I saw this on the road as we drove up to Sakeji-

I have been working on getting my house and classroom put into order these last few days. I have some little mendy/alteration projects to do before I get too busy, and yesterday I made some bread and sun tea. I also may have committed some more plastic canvas...

Frantically shopping and sorting...

Today I scored four new kitchen towels for free (after the gift card I had for Kohls), bought three ink cartridges, found planners for my kids, and stocked up on glow sticks. Oh the shopping lists that being a teacher in Zambia create! I'm really tickled though because now I have cool *me* kitchen towels instead of the ones inherited with the house. I'm also excited about the ink because being able to use my printer makes my life better.

I started sorting the things I've accumulated into "now" and "later" piles, and started trying to think of the crazy places where I might have left things. I hate this part of leaving. The part where you are trying to juggle what you will need before you go, what you need to do before you go, and wadding through the feelings that inevitably come. It's a good thing that I can lean on my heavenly Father for strength and comfort during this time.

Home again and a little show and tell

Yesterday I got up at 4:15am so I could catch my 5:30 flight, and I almost sort of regretted for a moment my decision to drive down to Cinncinati with Jennifer so we could go to the Contra dance. Almost. I had so much fun dancing for those two hours that the 3 hours or driving was TOTALLY worth it. It was also nice to have a better idea what I was doing--too bad there isn't a dance group near me in the bush!

On the way home from the airport we stopped at a Starbucks and saw a place called, "Yarn Heaven." Said place had lots of SALE signs up in the windows. Of course, we had to go in, and after finding out that the sock yarn was 75% off, I ended up scoring several single skeins of Lorna's Laces as well as a nice big roving from Mountain Colors for a fraction of their original price. You can never have too much of a good thing, right? I've been to yarn stores in St. Louis, Billings, and Columbus now, so I thought I'd give you a little peek at my treasures.

Some sock yarn that pretty much screamed my name as I went by,

Some lovely Mountain Colors mill ends at a great price--all the cooler because this is Montanan yarn! (Not the best picture though, sorry)

And a lovely skein of luxury lacewight.

My mission should I choose to accept it (oh wait, I don't get a choice...) is to finish shopping for the more mundane items I need to take back with me, sort through everything I have already acquired , pack some boxes to ship and some suitcases to take, and say goodbye to all the people, places, and foods that I'm going to miss. Easy, right?

The Columbus Adventures

I have done so many things in Columbus, and as I was rather busy doing I don't have pictures of everything, but here is a bit of a recap of the mad adventures of Jennifer and Lina.

* We visited a lovely yarn store where I was snagged by a skein of sock yarn and justified some other yarn because of a baby coming to a family I know...

* We rambled over a lovely rose garden which included a cool plant that we would like to know the name of, and some of the most beautiful roses I have ever seen.

* We visited the COOLEST BOOKSTORE EVER--32 rooms that ramble through one another in four wings so visiting each room is an adventure in itself, not to mention browsing the books! This might be the ultimate hide and seek location ever.

* I took a trip to the Columbus Museum of Art while Jennifer was doing clever doctorate student things, and saw this amazing glass sculpture-

* We rambled over German Town and ate supper in Schuller park while enjoying the "Girl with Umbrella" statue and watching the community use this beautiful space. Later, we enjoyed the play The Beaux Stratagem on the outdoor stage. What a perfect way to spend a summer night!

* On the way to visiting the Santa Maria replica, I saw a griffon which I was sorely tempted to take home with me! I found the smallness of the Santa Maria astounding--men got on something that size and sailed across the trackless ocean in that? I wish my dad could have been there to enjoy the rigging with me!

* One of the big events for us was the contra dance that Jennifer and I attended Saturday night. I had a blast, and lets just say that I now have another hobby that I will miss getting to pursue...

* We also went to watch Fiddler on the Roof at an incredible old theater that just screamed to have Phantom of the Opera performed in it. It was a long movie, but well worth the pittance of an admission price!

* There may have been some Warehouse 13 watching going on last night...

Tomorrow I head back to Texas starting at the insane hour of 5:30am--I guess the good thing is I'll have most of the day to be exhausted in? I need to start packing up and procuring the final things I'll need before heading back to Zambia. How has five months flown by so fast?

Yellowstone Adventure!

I've been having a BLAST in Montata with my friend Annie, and I thought I'd post just a few pictures of my trip to Yellowstone. We traveled over the Beartooth mountains to get to the park, and it was breathtaking-

We went straight to our campsite so we could set up before it was dark, and had a lovey supper of taco pie and then sang and played guitar around the (smokey!) campfire. We also had a nice visit with our neighboors who were from New York and kindly told us that there were some elk feeding just across the river from us.

The next morning we decided to choose our top two sights and then enjoy the drive around the park. So, we found ourselves enjoying watching Old Faithful erupt, and visiting with some lovely girls about our age who were sitting next to us.

The other big sight that we wanted to see was the lower falls and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This was one of the most beautiful things I've seen in my life--it made me wish I was a painter so I could try to capture it on my canvas.

We hiked down to get as close to the base of the falls as we could, and while it was a very steep climb (down AND up!), it was totally worth every step!

When we exited the park a nice stranger took our picture at Roosevelt's arch. In total the trip was about 36 hours, but it was one of the most amazing 36 hours of my life.

I hope some day I get to go back and explore some more--you could spend a lifetime enjoying Yellowstone! I have been so blessed during this visit; being with people you love is sometimes the best medicine.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” --C. S. Lewis

The St. Louis zoo

After a slow start this morning because I wasn't feeling well, I finally got myself over to the zoo, found a place to park, hiked in, and started walking. The zoo was really croweded because it was a Saturday, but there were some things worth seeing there.

The butterfly house was beautiful, and seeing all those delicate wings gracing the sky and the flowers was a true delight.

As much as I love the zoo I've been going to since I was a child, one of its big defects is the lack of hippos. I got a kick out of watching these river horses beat the heat in the water, and get mobbed by the fish in their tank.

My very favorite part of the whole day was watching two Indian elephants frolic and play in the pool of their enclosure. They looked so small since most of them was under the water, but I'm not sure that I would want to risk getting involved in elephant swimming... I was reminded again of how increadible God's creation is--the great variety, masterful design, and the sense of humor!

It took awhile, but finally I found the giraffes!

Something that's interesting to me is that as you travel, you are often struck with how different things here are from your home, but sometimes it's hard to put into words how they are different. Here in St. Louis everything is more hilly, and the houses are set very close together and manage to give an impression of much squareness. (Not that there is much variety of shapes when it comes to houses, but these ones just seem more square than normal. Don't ask me why!) I passed this fascinating Jewish cemetery on my way to Starbucks yesterday, and was struck by how different it is than the cemeteries back home.

It's a little hard to see in the picture, but it was packed very close, and almost all the markers were pillars or columns. I drove through a little bit of it yesterday, but as it was about to be locked up for the night I figured I shouldn't linger. I love exploring graveyards, and I find Jewish ones particularly fascinating.

Tomorrow we head back to Texas, and then I have less than 24 hours to get myself packed and turned around before heading to Dallas so I can fly out Tuesday morning. Let the roaming continue!

A good way to spend a Friday...

Breakfast-

Fine Art Museum-

Yarn store-

Souvenir yarn of much happiness

*Happy Day!*