Two more...

Two more funny stories of Spencer:
-On our way home from the airport when we got here, I was talking with my parents on the phone. They asked me if I was happy to see my husband again. I told them "Yes, I'm very happy to see my husband." Spencer looked over at Tyler then looked back to me and asked, "Mommy, is daddy your husband?"

-Spencer went to the doctors last week to get his 4 year checkup. While there, they told us AGAIN that he has lots of ear wax. So the doctor gave me some drops to put in his ear, and if that didn't work then we'd have to go back and get his ears flushed out. Well, a day or two after the appointment, and we have to put 5 drops in each ear twice a day, he was putting up a fight about not getting the drops. So I told him, "If you don't let me do this, then I'll have to take you back to the doctors to get your ear flushed." He looked at me, and said, "Mommy, I don't want to get my ear flushed at the doctors, what if the potty is dirty! Is the potty dirty?" I couldn't help but laugh and explained that flushing his ear would not involve the toilet, but just shooting a whole bunch of water into his ear and letting it come out. :)

Zimbabwe here we come!!!

So most of you guessed it, we are going to Zimbabwe. I guess next time I will have to make the question tougher. We won't be going there until summer/fall of 2009. We plan on going on Safaris, feeding elephents, learning Cricket, going to Victoria Falls, raft down the Zambezi river, go to Kruger National Park in South Africa, and go to the Johanasburg Temple.

Unlike the Congo, Zimbabwe has tons of tourist attractions and we will welcome any visitors to our home and show you a good time. If you are planning on visiting us, and again we love visitors, let us know that you plan on coming and we will reserve some of the fun things for when you get here.

We are excited because it is English speaking and there are malls, and bowling alleys, and movie theatres there, unlike the Congo. Here are a few picutes and links to show you the fun stuff we plan on doing.

These links are to some youtube videos of Devils Pool at Victoria Falls, Becca and I plan on doing this, yes we are crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVN9KnWy-H8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu5nlu4IBN8&feature=relateduu5nlu4IBN8&feature=related

Here are some pictures

A Picture of the Harare Skyline

Some of the scenery.

One of the safari lodges I hope to stay in.

Picture from a

Safari

A local and don't worry I plan on getting the whole costume and wearing it in the states.

A picture of Vicotira Falls

All About Spencer

So this past week has been a week full of funny Spencer stories, enjoy!

- At church (in Chesapeake) he was sitting on my lap looking at the people behind us during one of the talks. He lifted his head and looked at me then asked "Is someone saying a prayer, mommy?" and I told him "No." Then he looked around again and asked me "Then why do people have their arms folded and their eyes closed?" I smiled and told him that I thought they were just thinking really hard. He looked back at me and said, "No, I don't think that's what they are doing."

-He spilled my water on the table, and I wasn't in the room when he did it, but he told me to come clean it up. When I asked him why he did that he said "I didn't do it, Tiki did." (Tiki is his imaginary friend.) Then I told him, "No, Tiki couldn't do that, he doesn't have any arms." While I started to clean up the water he stood there and thought, then said, "Yes Tiki did it, he just took off his arms so you couldn't see them." Then showed me how Tiki took off his arms and hid them.

-When he plays airport he tells me to go up to the counter and talk to the lady to switch our seats. We had to do that on one of our MANY flights this summer, he is too well-traveled.

-When playing store, he has to make the food go across the scanner and 'beep' before putting it in the bag. Sometimes it doesn't 'beep' so then he has to keep scanning it till it does. Sometimes the food doesn't have a 'tag' on it so he has to put a sticket on it or type in numbers to get the price. Too smart!!!

Hopes these bring a smile to your face, like Spencer does to us everday with the things he says.

Where are we going????

Where are we going? Yes that is the question. We have been in the Congo for almost a year, and we just found out where we are going next. (We will most likely only spend 2 years in every place we go? Instead of telling you everybody where we are going flat out I thought I would make you guess. I will give you all clues, and then next week, or maybe sooner I will tell you where we are going. (My clues should give it away.) If you think you can be honest, only read as as little as you can before you guess, and when you post your answer you can tell me at what question did you guess.

Clues

1. They had a presidential Election in the last year.

2. The population of the country is 12,382,920.

3. Coal is one of its main resources, along with a whole bunch of metals like ore, gold, and platinum.

4. English is the official language.

5. The land mass of the country is slightly larger then Montana.
6. Platinum is the main export.

7. This is the flag:

8. The capital city starts with an H.

9. I believe one of Becca's friends mom once lived here.
10. They won 3 or 4 medals at the Olympics this year.

11. This is a famous landmark in the country

12. The main ethnic group is Shona

13. It was called Southern Rhodesia at one time.

14. We will see lions, elephants, hippos, rhinos, and all sorts of other animals.

15. The first letter in the country name is either one of the first 5 letters, or last 5 letters.

16. The Zambezi is a river on its border.

17. It's inflation is around 2,200,000%.

I think that is enough clues. Let's see who can guess it the quickest. Also anyone, and I mean anyone is welcome to come visit us. We will most likely have a guest bedroom and swimming pool at our house. It might be a little expensive getting there, but it will be free room and board when you get there. Also we will take you on a Safari and take you to see the other sites in the country.

My Masterpiece

He was impressed with all I did with his decorations. :)

 
Spongebob Squarepants....pretty good, eh? I think so. I did it!!! I actually made a Spongebob Squarepants cake!! Although it was fortunate that he is square already. 

Decorations!! We were spongebobed out! 

Poppa, Wyatt and Spencer ready to eat and party!

Waiting patiently for the pinata.

Trying to pull the string off.....yes the one that opened it all. He got it on the first try!!!! Sorry Wyatt for not getting a good turn. 

Grabbing as much as they can get....can you tell Wyatt loves Snickers? 

Happy Birthday Spencer! His wish: to go back to Africa...too cute! 

So happy about all of the presents he got. Spencer had a great birthday!!!

Spencer is 4 today!!

Just had to put the spotlight on Spencer for his 4th birthday!! I can't believe he is already 4, he will be starting school soon, and then become a young man, then dating, and then he'll be gone off on his mission!?!!? I never did like the idea that a mom only got her son for nineteen years. So unfair. But we'll enjoy today and all the Spongebob we can get! Pictures to follow soon! 

Use The Force

Okay, so from Becca's posts, you know that the Congo isn't the greatest place in the Foreign Service to be posted, but there are some things that bring us laughter and the following story is one that at times makes life here beareable.

There is an American at the embassy who's son loves Star Wars. His son had one of those light sabers that lights up and makes noises. After the son played with it often and the dog chewed on it, the dad decided to give it away. There are several different ways he could enrich the lives of those in the Congo with this light saber. He could give it to an orphanage, give it to a one of the several kids who live on the street, and he could probably even give it to the Ndjili (Kinshasa's Airport) air traffic controllers, who could definitely use it.
Out of all of the choices he had, he chose to give it to the police. You may ask why the police when he could give it to a needy child. Well I will tell you why. There are very few stoplights in town (4) and even fewer that work (2). So at most busy intersections you have a police officer. Some police officers are nice and don't harass the drivers, others surround your car and claim you did something wrong and try to make you pay a bribe to get out of it.

But what these police officers do is stand in the middle of the intersection, either on the ground or on these little four foot stands. The rule (one of only two real traffic rules here in the Congo) is if the police officer is facing you, or his back is to you then you stop. If it is his profile that is facing you, then you have the right away.
So this American gave the light saber to one of the police officers and explained to her how to use it. She instantly took pride in her new gadget, walked out in the middle of traffic and used the light saber, and in my mind the force, to stop the traffic and let this American through. Because this light saber was so popular, this American then decided to start the LSI, the Light Saber Initiative and had friends send him some more light sabers and has started dispersing them through the city. These light sabers enable the police to do a better job and provides them with safety as the light saber is highly visible, but most of all it brings a smile to our faces because they have no idea that they are using a light saber to direct traffic. I will try and get a picture of one of these police officers for this blog in the future.
So today on my way home from work, a traffic cop (one of the nicer ones) was proudly holding his blue light saber, fearlessly directing traffic. And even though I am in the Congo, I couldn't help but laugh, possibly the work of the force from this Congolese Jedi, as the police officer waved me through with his light saber.