Fall Carnival

Yesterday the American and Canadian communities in Kinshasa had a fall carnival at the US Ambassador's house. As we were getting ready for the carnival and walking over to the Ambassador's house in 90 degrees weather I couldn't help but laugh. Having grown up in Wyoming and Utah, where half the time for Halloween you might as well be a skier or an Eskimo for Halloween since you were going to be wearing gloves and a parka anyways because it was going to be cold and even snowing, it was funny that I was attending a "Fall" carnival in sandals, shorts, and a short sleeve shirt, complaining that I didn't wear a hat.

Usually when I think of a Fall I think of leaves changing colors, pumpkins, warm apple cider, corn mazes, hay rides, and maybe a haunted house. So it was very strange that we had a BBQ for a "Fall" carnival. We had grilled chicken, potato salads and pasta salad. To drink, we had ice cold soda and everybody was searching for shade. There were some carnival games like throwing darts at balloons, ping pong balls into buckets, and a fishing pond. So at least the games brought some nostalgic memories of going to the church culture hall and playing some of the same games.

I do have to say I was quite impressed with Spencer and his ability to win tickets in the carnival games. One game as mentioned above was throwing ping pong balls into 5 different buckets. The buckets all had different point values, with the closest being 1 point and the furthest being 5 points. With Spencer's first throw he won two points and with his second throw he won 5 points. The lady running this game said he was the only person so far to make the 5 point bucket. He ended up with so many points (they could be turned in for prizes) that we ended up giving like 10 of his points to some other kids.

For all those who keep up with the news you might have heard that there has been increased fighting in Congo between rebels and the military. Rest assured that the fighting is all happening in eastern Congo far away from where we live. I have noticed it pop up on yahoo news every once and awhile. Anyone that wants a good web page to visit to get news on the Congo, please visit www.monuc.org.

On a side note, both Becca and I now have callings. Becca is the primary teacher for the English speaking kids, Spencer and three kids from another family. My calling is Young Men's Consultant. Not yet 100% sure what my calling responsibilities are, but so far it has been helping out the young men's presidency on Sunday and translating for two investigators who don't speak french. Last of all we thank everyone for their patience while we were held hostage by the ABA, they finally let us go so thanks for your support.

Go JAZZ!!!

Okay so the basketball season is about to start and we are Jazz fans. As such, we are planning on going to a Jazz game when we are in Utah for Christmas. We are trying to get the best seats possible. The reason for this post is to see if any of our friends happen to know anyone with really good seats who would let us buy two tickets from them. I have looked online and they don't sale the tickets we want at ticketmaster. We are looking for tickets that are courtside and within the first few rows. I did find a ticket exchange webisite where we can get 3rd row, right behind the visitors bench, but wasn't sure how legit that was. So if anyone has any ideas, let me know. Thanks
Tyler

Happy Birthday Tyler!!

Tyler is 29 today!!! Along with his twin brother, Dannon. I just wanted to get on here and wish him a wonderful birthday, he deserves it. Tyler is amazing and has done so much for our family, even though he took us to Congo, we still love him. :) We love birthdays so we have been celebrating all weekend....which Tyler AND Spencer have loved. I think Spencer has sung him the Happy Birthday song at least 5 times this weekend. Too cute! Anywho....happy birthday honey!!! We love you!

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.