Christmas 2010!

What a fun Christmas we had this year! We were joined by our friend, Tanya, who arrived by road from Sudan on Thursday. She came bearing not only Christmas gifts from Ethiopia (where she’d just been for a couple of weeks) but a spare camera as well, so I can start taking pictures again!

We did Christmas shopping, had a nice dinner and opened Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve, then on Christmas day loaded up in the car and took off on a road trip to north east Uganda. More on that on another post : )

I really flunked out on the “Christmas traditions” this year. Being as I haven’t even hung our pictures up after our move the end of October, I sure as heck didn’t decorate! But regardless, we had a great Christmas anyways. There is a craft bazaar in town Christmas Eve that we went to and I gave the kids each 5,000 UGS (about $2.50USD) to buy the other kid a Christmas gift. Ella totally got it, Frank didn’t ;). I also knew what I wanted to get each kid (nice sandals for Ella and a drum for Frankie) and let Ella pick out her sandals on her own. I knew she’d love that! Much better than just surprising her with them as the kid loves to shop.

We shopped and did some errands, then came home where the kids napped, Tanya started on Christmas dinner (teriyaki fillet!) and I headed back to the mechanic’s to sit and wait for them to fix Frankie’s seat belt. After waiting there for an hour and a half they were unsuccessful in their efforts to get it fixed, so I headed on home to an almost ready dinner and children who were just starting to wake up! How nice to have another adult in the house! After dinner I bathed the kids and we opened presents – what fun!



Getting ready to tear into the loot – gifts from Granny and Grandpa, Tanya and Mom


Someone was just a tad bit excited : )



Tanya opened a Christmas gift from... herself. Yep, her friends didn’t remember to get her anything!!! ACK!



A beautiful new outfit!


Tanya got me some AWESOME gifts from Ethiopia! Delicious COFFEE and...

...this awesome hippo oven mitt! Isn’t it cute?!!!!

Ella got this awesome baby and accessories from her Granny – perfect toy to get the day before a long car trip!

Frank got these great trucks from his Granny and Grandpa as well. They drove all the way with us too!

Frank also got this electric guitar – needless to say it did NOT travel with us!

Ella got an entire Ethiopian outfit from her aunt Tanya and let me tell you, it is GORGEOUS. I didn’t get the entire outfit with my camera but will post pictures of the entire thing later. The mixture of soft white cloth against L’s soft brown skin is stunning.

Frank also got an Ethiopian t-shirt from his aunt Tanya! And in his favorite color too – Orange!

Cool flying remote control Tinker Bell from Grandpa and Granny! This didn’t travel with us ;)

Frank liked the drum I got him – that also did NOT travel with us!

Ella had more fun shopping for her new sandals than she did actually opening them. But they are nice!

The kids were happy with the gifts that they got each other. Tanya helped Frank pick out a nice bracelet for Ella and Ella picked out a really gawdy cheap plastic toy for Frank. It was cute – she knew exactly what she wanted for him! Something “shiny with red on it”.

Frank and the growing Ranger

Kisses from the growing Ranger!

Ella and her pups : )

Christmas just isn’t Christmas unless you have some excited little kids involved : ). Cute puppies and one of your best pals helps too!

Exhausting productive day!

Whew, what a day. Started out the morning by dropping the car off to be serviced in the POURING rain and taking a boda to work. Of course when it’s raining like that there are no boda’s to be found and you end up walking quite a ways to find one (through the mud of course!). By the time I got to work I was SOAKED.

Being the week before Christmas work was SLOW and boring. Lot’s of people in the office have already started taking their Christmas leaves and no one is really thinking about work anymore. Including me : ) But, due to this slowness, I was able to Skype with my sister and mom for quite a while – FUN!

Then I got “The Call” – the call that I’ve been waiting for! Frankie’s PASSPORT IS DONE! Hooray, hooray, hooray for our lawyer. I dropped Frankie’s few papers off last Thursday and here he has it not even a week later! INCREDIBLE. SO different than the miserable and torturous experience we had getting Ella’s. Getting signatures from every Tom, Dick and Harry in Entebbe and getting a letter from a certain cantankerous government minister. This dude (who caused me HELL) has since resigned (thanks be to God!) so we didn’t have to haul our sorry butts up to see him – WHEW.

Luckily our car was done in time for me to go get it (thankfully the rain had stopped!), I ran home to get my ATM card in order to withdraw money to pay the lawyer for the passport and land title stuff, then off to the bank. To make a long (and terribly frustrating!) story short, an HOUR later I had the needed cash in hand, all due to my own incompetence and stupidity. I hate that! We needed to be in Kampala at 4:30pm so we needed to leave here by 3:30pm at least. Traffic is a bit more crazy this Christmas week. I got back home at 3:30pm and still had to load up the kids and get gas (was running around on an empty tank). Even though I’ve lived here for almost six years now, I HATE being late for appointments. And we’d definitely be late for this one but I really wanted to get the passport and lawyer fees paid today so I didn’t have to go in later this week (when traffic would be REALLY crazy!).

We got to immigration at a little after 5pm which wasn’t too bad. Traffic was bad but at least it kept moving. We then waited over an hour for the passport to be finished but that wasn’t too bad either. I was AMAZED at the reception by various people that we got. I think that people’s perceptions of expat adoptive parents is changing. My kids got SO many smiles and friendly greetings from people and one woman even complimented Ella on her hair saying, “Your Mommy made your hair really nice.” Usually, no matter how nice your kids hair looks, women will always find something wrong with it. I was shocked at the compliment! Then to my disbelief one of the immigration officers came over to tell me how much he appreciated me “doing what you’ve done”. I could honestly reply at how much we really appreciated immigration for helping us get the kids their passports. After all, they are “their” Ugandan children (and their responsibility!) and it’s nice to see the government and individuals helping their own Ugandan citizens in this way. It’s nice when people don’t just say things, but do the right thing as well. In the not so distant past the old feeling was, “Why are you taking ‘our’ children?” Um, because you don’t want them and are happy to let them languish in western funded institutions? I’m all about people taking responsibility and doing the right thing! And I'm glad to see immigration doing that and making it so much easier this time around.

Traffic had thinned a bit by the time we were done and we managed to get home at around 7:30pm. I made a quick dinner (I would be lost without groundnut sauce and rice! Fast and easy!) while the kids bathed ALL ON THEIR OWN. Even Frankie! He even put his pajamas on the right way all by himself! After feeding them and putting Frankie to bed I then had to take out Ella’s hair so that she can go to the salon tomorrow. Not exactly something I wanted to be doing at 8:30pm but hey. My poor doggies didn’t get fed until after 9pm – a good three hours after their usual feeding time! Fortunately they were calm and submissive and it didn’t seem to bother them. What a well balanced pack!

So, while tired, I’m feeling that I accomplished a LOT today. Not only getting the car serviced but getting Frankie’s passport AND surviving the trip to Kampala safely! God is good, even when I’m exhausted!

Merry Christmas kids!

Whew – seems that I’ve taken quite a long blogging absence! Something like a blog fart perhaps?

Goodness what a week it’s been. It’s only Thursday and I have taken THREE, count ‘em THREE trips to Kampala this week! But as a result of those trips I’m feeling better than I have for the last four months : ) I went into kind of a funk after my parents and best friend left and hadn’t fully recovered.

So, what were all of those trips to Kampala for this week? I guess you could say buying my kids a super duper Christmas present – LAND!!! Yes, that’s right, a chunk o’ Ugandan land in THEIR NAMES on which we can build a house and live. There will eventually be no more landlords and no more rent!

It only seemed right that the land be in their names. After all, these kids started out with NOTHING and up until about 14 months ago Frankie didn’t even own his own underwear (Ella was three years old before she owned her own or even wore them!). I know that buying your kid a chunk of prime real estate at the tender ages of five and three doesn’t make up for their rough start in life but it just seemed right. A great way to invest what money I have/had into my kids AND get to live rent free after the house is built while I’m at it!

Someday I will write a post chronicling that experience and while it went incredibly smoothly there were some HILARIOUS elements to the entire deal. Wow – never thought I’d ever experience anything as crazy as that in my entire life!

But now I’m just sitting back and marveling at God’s goodness, timing and care for our family. Truly amazing to see how He orchestrated it all. Incredible!

And, the icing on the cake was our lawyer declaring that he could get Frankie’s passport for us next week! Getting Ella’s was pure hell and I had been putting off the process with Frank, even to the point of almost letting my own expire (it expires on the 2nd!) so that neither of us would have one should a coup encure after the elections in Feb. If we leave we leave together and if we stay we stay together! Not sure what this all tells me about how the elections will go now... I go in next week (yep, ANOTHER trip to Kampala!) to get mine renewed so we should be all set to evacuate should we need to. Which we probably won’t need to but better to be safe than sorry!

No pictures

So I hadn't wanted to mention it, but our house was broken into a couple of weeks ago and our camera was stolen. So that's why I haven't posted any pictures and I haven't been blogging much. What's my blog without pictures? And especially pictures of my puppies ;) But I should be borrowing a camera over Christmas (thanks Tanya!) and getting a new one in January. But until then, hang in there without any pictures of your grandkids or grandpups, Granny!

The Wedding

So Ella attended a wedding last weekend. Without us. She was gone a total of 9 hours and near the end expressed her disappointment that it was almost over. And she’s only five years old....

The wedding was between two of my colleagues, Irene and Sam, whom wedded last Saturday in Kampala. The actual wedding service was at 1pm and the reception was at 5pm, in Lubowa, which is this side of Kampala and relatively close and easy to get to. I had dutifully planned on attending both but Frankie was having an unhappy morning and was actually WANTING to take a nap (unheard of!) so at the last minute (as in, we were all decked out in our going-to-meetin’ duds) I thought, “This is a dumb idea, taking a tired 3 year old to a wedding and reception which are four hours apart, in Kampala no less”. A better idea was just to attend the reception at 5pm (which would include dinner!).

Ella was jazzed and already decked out in her princess dress (rather tattered but FLUFFY and Ugandans love fluff!), pink Doggers and a crazy Afro (I’d taken her extensions hair out the day before). I didn’t want to disappoint her so called up a friend who was going and asked if she’d have room and a seat belt for one more, who was small and fluffy. No problem my friend said!

So Frank and I walked our fluffy little princess up to the main road, with her jeweled purse slung on her shoulder, filled with water, peanuts, a hankie and a princess cell phone. I must admit to getting a little choked up as I buckled her into my friends back seat. My baby! Off to Kampala without me! Gulp.

Frank took an over two hour nap, I kept picturing horrible car accidents, and after he woke up from his nap we just kind of looked at each other like, “What do we do now?” It was pretty weird without Ella around to liven up the place! I think I read more stories to Frankie than I have in the last year because we couldn’t think of anything else to do. Seriously, we’re a couple of duds!

We headed to the reception at 5pm and were enthusiastically greeted by an excited, relieved, bouncing little girl! She sprinted clear across the rather large reception room and launched herself up onto me. Glad I was prepared as wouldn’t that have been a good show – me flying over backwards with Ella in her fluffy princess dress on top!

She’d been with our friends all day as friends from the office had car pooled up to the wedding. Her idea of a good time – crammed into a car with a bunch of friends stuck in Kampala traffic. Seriously! She LOVED it! A week later I am still hearing stories at work about their trip to and from Kampala with my daughter. Yikes!

She enjoyed dancing, bouncing around chatting with friends (as in MY adult friends!) and eating cake for four hours until the reception was over. She then voiced her disappointment it wasn’t longer. Poor kid. Never gets to have any fun ; )

And Frankie? Well, lets just say that even a two hour nap and a delicious dinner couldn’t sweeten his mood up much. Thankfully we made it out without him screaming at the incredibly darling and well behaved little flower girl that accidentally stepped on his fingers... But it was close!

A Happy Thanksgiving!

I have a lot to be thankful to God for this Thanksgiving (and everyday!). My family- kids, parents and sister - (WHAT would I do without my almost daily skype conversations with my mom?!), my dogs, a home to live in, money in which to feed my children (For the last six years I have been supported SOLELY through friends, family and a few churches in the States – AMAZING!), good friends, amazing employees, and safety and protection for me and my kids.

What a great Thanksgiving we had! Having friends over for a bbq potluck in perfect weather makes for a very easy Thanksgiving – and a fun one!

First off, we started the morning out with Madea standing on the outside table peeking in the window!!! Her and Ranger are big enough to climb up on the rocking chair on the porch (where they were both sleeping together – awww!) and from there she was able to bounce up onto the table. So funny!

I marinated two fillets in Teriyaki as well as half a kilo of sausage. The teri sausage was a bit of an experiment and although I didn’t get a chance to try one, an ADULT (that’s important!) said they were pretty good. A friend and her husband, who live a very remote part of Uganda, were in town so Amber brought the fix in’s for corn fritters and APPLE CRISP! Another friend brought the smashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and water melon, another friend brought some salad and fruit and another friend brought drinks and pumpkin cookies.

Ella helped Amber in the kitchen making the corn fritters and apple crisp while Frankie helped me with the cooking of the meat on the fire pit. He was actually a big help running to and fro to the house fetching me things! Luckily he used his hobby horse for transport, which really saved on his legs : ) You should really always keep one around for help with things like that! Our neighbor Kathryn would occasionally come out to clarify or help carry a breakable object.

The kids enjoyed playing with their friends, James and Abigail. We had a total of seven adults, four children and an infant – fun!

After the meal we hung out drinking coffee, chilling and everyone had to listen to me babble on and on about dog psychology. One of the perks of having people at YOUR house because then you are the boss and they have to listen to what you say : ) I also got a MUCH NEEDED haircut! That is ALWAYS a swell addition to any day! After the last of our friends left at 6pm we fed the dogs and puppies, popped some popcorn and chilled out with a movie, The Family That Preys, chosen by Ella. What a weird choice for a five year old!

Whilst we were reveling Sarah popped out and went with a friend to look at some pieces of land : ) One piece was too small and next to a school (um, no thanks!) but the other she thought I’d really like so we’ll see! It’s part of an estate with other development going on, and has a land title, so the security would be good. Land issues are tricky here so you have to be careful. Especially when you’re a foreigner! I am so thankful for my friends who are helping me out with this!

So, while pretty non traditional, we had a great Thanksgiving that beat the – 9 below weather back in Montana, hands down! Another thing I’m grateful for – WARM WEATHER!

Sorry there are no pictures as our camera was stolen a week and a half ago :(

Conversation with L

Ever had one of those conversations with your kids and afterwards you thought, “Wow, we really ARE weird!” Well, Ella and I had one of those the other day.

We were outside playing with our puppies and kitten and the discussion turned to spaying and neutering. Ella and Frank both know all of the “body parts” involved in a neuter (Ella helped me neuter our last puppy, Kayo) and thanks to our pets, both kids know the differences between boys and girls. It’s not even an issue with us. Ella knows all about neutering but wanted some details about what would happen when Madea was spayed, and why. Ella LOVES all of the gory details and was about to jump out of her pants when I described the procedure a bit and then mentioned that maybe we could see it done. Yep, that’s L. The bloodier and gorier the better. Weird kid!

So then I explained why Madea would be spayed – if Madea is spayed then she can’t have babies. We don’t want puppies that we can’t find good homes for. Ella thought about that and said, “Yeah, then someone might leave THEM under a tree.” My point exactly, L. Nice to see her using her head! But then, well, she kept on doing some MORE thinking. “Are people spayed and neutered?” Um, no.... “Did you spay ME?” No (scary- does she not realize that she's a "people" too?!). Then finally, “Are YOU spayed? Because you don’t have a baby in YOUR tummy!” HAAAA!! Awesome logical thinking, L! But, well, there’s a bit more to it than that!

So she knows how babies grow in peoples tummies, how they get pushed or cut out, and how to prevent babies from growing in ones tummy (ya just yank out the uterus!) but she has no idea how a baby actually gets started in that tummy! And, well, I just wasn’t up to describing it to my five year old yet. Yes, I know. Coward. She’s so into what goes on inside the body (guts, blood, bones, brains, etc) that I think I’ll teach her all about that, and then gradually work into the birds n the bees. And with L, I know that it won’t faze her a BIT! But really, how much does a five year old really need to know about all of that now?

And no, I’m not going to tell her that you “need to be married” before you can have a baby in your tummy cuz that’s just not true. You should but you sure as heck can get a baby in there without it!

Ella's jump rope tricks

Old L's getting pretty good with the jump rope. It's amazing to see all those long arms and legs coordinated!

Also thought I'd post a cute video at the end of Bronco and Madea battling it out :)

Yard work!

We have REALLY been enjoying our new home. I can not describe the relief I’ve felt being ALONE in a compound, with out the steady stream of people in and out and the claustrophobic feeling of the old place.

I so enjoy working in the yard after I get home from work now. Unfortunately this hasn’t lend any progress in Ella’s school nor in unpacking my remaining boxes, but the outside is looking nicer! Our latest project has been collecting flowers and plants and planting them in our new flower bed that goes around the end of our house. We’ve collected flowers that were growing wild outside of our gate, from our old house, and from the office. We’ll have quite a variety!

I’ve never considered myself a “gardening” type person but wow, it’s hard NOT to be one in Uganda! It’s hilarious – you rip up a plant (hoping that you get the roots too but if not, no big deal), stuff it in some dirt and pour water on it and usually by the next day it’s looking perky again, like nothing ever happened to it! With that kind of near instant transformation to a “landscaping” project, how could anyone not be hooked?

We are almost done planting the flower beds and after that I’m going to start raking up all of the rocks that are around here (a lot of cement and debris was left over from raising the wall). Then I will probably continue to plant more flowers and try to spruce up the outside of our gate a little AND pick up some of the trash along the road that goes by our place. Oh, and maybe I’ll unpack those boxes...

All of my "pups"

L watering our newly transplanted plants. Quite the outfit, isn't it?!

The flowers go all around the house now, in an L shape.

Can't exactly call these two "helpers" but they ARE cute

We even get to wash our own car now. Yes, it's fun!

She's serious about it :)

I really need to get these rocks raked up! Ranger will have a smoother ride then.

Such a placid puppy!

Ella and Madea, who is shaping up into a nice SUBMISSIVE little dog!

Some little girls play with dolls, some play with live animals.

"Ranger has a nose!" and a very long tongue!

Growing Madea

Growing Ranger

"The Pack"

The big dogs are seriously mean and I don't know why. Not over the top aggressive but if they are out and not on leashes they will just RANDOMLY attack people. As in, people who are just STANDING and not moving at all and aren't even near our house. It's crazy. I'm starting to wonder if keeping the pups was smart. I mean, will I have FOUR mean dogs? I don't want to be "those" people with the dangerous dogs who people worry will get out and hurt their children. I do wonder what's wrong with my pack leadership. My dogs are crazy!

Seriously heartwrenching ;)

Sunday morning we had one of those rare "dog free" mornings - No dogs were allowed in the house the ENTIRE morning before church. I was getting tired of pooping, chewing puppies and dirty pawed big dogs jumping on and hogging all of the furniture. So we locked them ALL out.

They mostly handled it pretty well - except for Bridger. He's always had a flare for the dramatic.



Crying yet?

A riding we will go!

To celebrate Frankie’s 3rd birthday and first year with us I did want to do something special. For Ella we had a BIG party, which included friends from the babies home (both workers AND children, which was pretty neat), but with Frank I thought that we should probably do something a little different.

Now Frankie has been my little cowboy ever since he came home. I think one of the first English words he learned was “horse” (pronounced “Forse” to this very day ;) and he’s been wanting to ride a horse ever since. Of course he’s ridden donkey’s and camels but never a horse! And really, horses just can’t be beat... Do you ever see pictures of cowboys riding camels? No. Donkeys? No. I rest my case.

So today, in celebration of his 3rd birthday and first year home I took the kids for Frankie’s FIRST RIDE ON A HORSE!!! Actually, I think it’s the first time he’s ever even SEEN a horse, and sure enough HE LOVED THEM.

I was very sentimental about Ella’s first horse experience – I wanted it to be PERFECT, as in , on MY old horse in MY saddle that I used when I was a little kid. Well with Frankie I knew that we wouldn’t have that chance for a couple more years and he is by far more horsey than Ella ever was. So I caved and his first horse experience was on an unknown horse in an English saddle but he LOVED it just the same! He really had no idea : )

I found out about a place about 20 minutes from Entebbe that had horses so I called the gal this morning and we headed out in the afternoon. I paid $25 for the kids to take a half hour ride which about killed me but heck, it was better than paying $.50 each for a ride around a circle on a donkey, like at the zoo! I thought about my old horse Fixie just STANDING around in Montana, that we could ride forever for free, but considering the airfare involved, I think the kids and their $25 (for both) half hour ride was probably the better deal ; )

I thought of my MT and WY friends and family LAUGHING at me because my little boy was riding in an English saddle (with a helmet!) being LED on FOOT along a trail and me PAYING $12.50 for it. But then I thought, how many of THEM could say that their kids got to ride horses along Lake Victoria, through cassava fields, banana trees, through peoples yards, ducking under clothes lines (awesome!), past little naked children, under mango and Jackfruit trees, in AFRICA?? NONE! So really, it was a PERFECT first horse riding experience for my Ugandan born son : )

What was REALLY cool about this place was the fact that the lady that owned the horses and lived there had a PACK OF 14 DOGS and was a Cesar Milan follower! AWESOME! She had all different shapes and sizes of dogs, which looked a lot different than my dogs (who are all Ugandan born and bred) because she got them from other expats who were leaving the country. She had some beauties! The biggest was a Great Dane/Cane Corso, the cutest was a fuzzy dogs, the littlest a happy dachshund, with a plucky little Jack Russell and a bunch of other interesting mixtures that you don’t see much of here! Most dogs look like MINE.

Frankie rode on a CUTE little pony (a cob actually, since it was a good sized pony –probably the size Rielly was or even a little bigger) named Shaggy, while Ella road big old Hope. The owners little four year old rode Maltida the Donkey. They were all great and nice, calm and gentle. Three guys led them and I followed along taking pictures and straightening Frankie, who kept leaning off the right side. The guys were, um, well, guys on a walk leading horses, ignoring the children on top of them, the fact that they might be slipping, or asking questions and wanting to chat. But oh well, they did their job and the kids had a great ride!

Frankie on his first horse ever!

Ella rode a great old horse, Hope.

Frankie and Shaggy brought up the rear

Ella and Hope led the way

Matilda the Donkey was the donkey filling in the middle

At least there was a big blue sky!

Isn't this the most awesome looking dog?!!!!

Off they go, riding through a typical Ugandan neighborhood.

I LOVED this view! You may have to be a horse rider to appreciate looking at a horses butt but I loved it!

Down through the cassava field - hang on little Man from Snowy River!

The end of the ride (and are we getting slightly cranky that it's time to stop?)

A man and his pony :) He totally wanted to ride longer and come back the next day to "ride a forse". It really pissed him off when I said we couldn't ;)

Ella and the Great Dane/Cane Corso cross. He was so big that she could have almost ridden him!

This was a pretty little Arabian but unfortunately she had warts on her nose, which is why Frankie was petting it with one finger!

The life of a horse in Uganda is a pretty sweet one