Movie Star in Congo

It's true...we have a movie star right up from the street from us at the hotel. Can you guess who it would be? The one, the only...... George Clooney!!! Can you believe it! Tyler came home today and gave me that news, and I told him "Why are we standing in the kitchen, let's go find him!" But Tyler was smart in thinking George wouldn't be walking around the streets of Kinshasa, and most likely is in his hotel room. So then I told him that I would get all of us Embassy girls here and we could go there and try to guess his fake name! Like Mr. Flintstone, or Mr. Smurf, or Mr. HeMan. :)

Then Tyler continued with good news, he hears that Ann Curry is coming here, and we also heard a month or two ago that Anderson Cooper was out in the eastern part of Congo. They are all coming here because of what is going on in the east. Finally, someone is starting to see that there is trouble here. Well...that is the highlight of our day....George Clooney. :)

Tyler's "Bucket" List

I saw this on Yahoo news today, and also read about it in Stephanie and Deric's blog. A bucket list, is a list of things you want to do before you die. There are quite a few things I want to do, and I am in the process of doing some of them. Things are going to be added to the list as I think of other things I want to do, and as I get older some of the things may come off because they no longer hold the same appeal. I am letting you all know this list, one so you can better know me, but more importantly it may be 10-15 years down the line and you have an opportunity to go to a final four game and you have an extra ticket and you are wondering who to take, and maybe you will remember this list and go "Tyler always wanted to go to a final four game" and ask me to go. Or some of you may have done some of these things in the past and have suggestions on how I can accomplish it or suggestions where the best place to do some of these things are. Your comments are welcome.


Things I want to do in my life
Go Skydiving
Go on a safari
Go on a hot air balloon ride
Visit every continent for an extended period of time (still need South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia)
Visit Italy, France, UK, and Madagascar again
Visit Hawaii,
Visit all 50 States
Go to the Super Bowl
Go to an NBA Championship game
Go to a World Series Game
Go to a Bowl Game
Go to a Final Four game
Speak 5 languages fluently (already have English and French)
See the pyramids
Write a book
Take a cooking class
Swim in the Congo river
Donate a lump sum of 10,000 to my alma mater
Retire at 55
Own a beach house
Ride an elephant
Go scuba diving
Take golf lessons
Take a ballroom dance class with my wife
Learn how to water ski
Serve a senior mission
Go with Becca to Tahiti and rent a bungalow on the water
Own water machines and snowmobiles
Learn how to drive stick-(done)
Coach my child’s basketball team
Shake hands with the prophet
Run with the bulls in the city in Spain
Climb mount Kilimanjaro
Go on a cruise
Run a marathon
Beat my dad in chess
Go deep sea fishing
Attend my high school reunion
Visit the 7 wonders of the world
See mountain gorillas in the wild

Not funny to me...but to you...probably

So today is one of those days that I don't like very much. It's a cockroach day. Which means....they are EVERYWHERE! We've seen an increase of them for the past couple of days, but still...I don't like it. So on with the story.....

Tyler got one before he went to work, then I went to get Spencer up, and there was one right at his door. Time to go get armed with the Swiffer. I kill that one, and I think okay, I'm done for the day. Nope. I go to take a shower, and see in our room amid the mess (we are still trying to unpack some things, so don't get upset mom) there is a HUGE cockroach...probably 2 to 3 inches long. Well this one wasn't going to take anything from me. He started running everywhere! So then that means...I run everywhere! I have Spencer come in to try and help me find it. I can't find it and still take my shower (the fastest I've ever taken). So I'm not happy that I have to be in the house all day with a roach that I know is still alive and roaming around. But finally a couple of hours later I see it scurrying out of our room down the hallway, and going for the front door. I yell for Spencer to get the Swiffer, while I go get the bug spray, and for him to keep an eye on the roach so we can find it. I spray my heart out to get that thing to slow down...he was a fast bugger! Then finally I got it with the Swiffer, and it made the weirdest popping sound. The best part was when I asked Spencer if he wanted to get it to put it in the toilet (mostly because I didn't want to do that), and he was like yeah. So he went and got a shred of toilet paper. I looked at him and said I don't think that will be big enough. So he went back and got another shred. I told him I would get the toilet paper for him to use, and then he started to bend down and get the roach. When he got close to it and kinda swiped at it, he realized that he wasn't cut out to grab it and take it to flush it. He shot right back up and said I don't want to get it, I'm scared. Poor kid....his mom is terrified of bugs, and now depends on him to be the strong one! So then he just pushed it up on the Swiffer and we finally flushed it. The end.

The whole fiasco took probably 10 mins. But the roach is gone, although it's relatives will be back tomorrow to avenge his death. This life in the Congo is rough! (Hope you got your laugh for the day out of this...I'm sure some of you did)

Out of the mouth of a 3 yr. old

"Mom, the swifter (Swiffer) isn't for cleaning...it's for getting the bugs."

Oh I've taught him so well!! :) He gets a lot of the bugs for me, I'm so glad I have a boy that will kill bugs for me. Also, I started doing a little home preschool with Spencer, and yesterday was his "first day of school". He got his own backpack and everything.

"Mom, I don't have to ride the bus to school, 'cause I can just walk to school."

(school is in our living room.) :)

"I had to move that, it was making me nervous."

Tyler: "Spencer, you need to go clean up your blocks."
Spencer: "I can't do that. You do it, you're the boss. "

No camera yet...

So we haven't gotten our camera in the mail yet....so..no pictures for this blog. But we did have a great Christmas and New Years. We didn't really go anywhere, but still had fun. :) We had a couple of friends over on New Years Eve and just played games and listened to music. Very relaxing.

The only thing that I have been busy with is reading. Weird that those words are coming out of my mouth!!! I don't like to read that much, but Haylee, Tyler's sister, has brought us all (her family) into the light! :) Tyler's mom sent us three books in a series...they are Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. I couldn't put them down!!! All of the books are 500 pages or more, and I read all three in four days! I literally couldn't put them down. I wasn't sure if I would like it because I heard a not so good review about them, and it's about a vampire! But I took a stab at it, and I couldn't stop! I read the first book in one day, it took only 10 hours. Tyler was a very good daddy that day with Spencer. :)

So anywho..that's pretty much all that is going on. We are hoping for the camera soon. We'll see what happens. There are some Congolese holidays going on here this month, Tyler had today off, so who knows when the mail will come in. Our house is also starting to look a lot more like a home with all of our stuff in it now. Horray!

Also, if there are any questions you want answered about Congo, feel free to comment on here with the questions. I don't know what people want to know about this place. I'm sure pictures would help, we are working on it. :) One new thing that has happened in this past week is that we are hearing bullfrogs at night! They sound like they are huge, but we haven't been out looking for them.