Welcome to the family, Bronco!

A week and a half ago, when we came back from Jinja, we stopped at the USPCA and picked up a kitten to replace our wonderful cat, Cody, who was killed a month or so ago. I am most definitely a dog person but we were missing a cat around the house and Frankie especially liked Cody and I thought that both kids needed kitten (I want my children to be well rounded ;). Yes, I did it for the children :)

Although we were kitten shopping and can NOT have another dog, my heart totally melted at the sight of all of the dogs there! Ugandan dogs are awesome - they all look alike, have really long noses (like our Sanyu!) and the prettiest, friendliest eyes. There were runs full of them and they set to barking and jumping at the sides of their pens to lick our fingers. Then when we turned to leave - SILENCE. All you could hear was their whimpering!!! Needless to say, I grabbed our kitten and Frankie and MARCHED out of there before I succumbed and brought home a car full of long nosed, friendly dogs!

Anyways, back to our new kitten. There were three kittens to choose from - a black kitty with white feet and a nose, a calico kitty, and a white kitty with a couple of gray splotches. The black and white was the prettiest but unfortunately not too friendly. The calico was friendly but the homeliest white one would not stop purring and was totally NOT afraid of the dog that was wandering about. PERFECT for a H kitty! I have always sworn that I would NEVER have a white dog or cat living in this country with RED dirt, but we walked out of there with a friendly WHITE kitty nonetheless. So much for my resolve :)

What a fine kitty he has proven to be! From the start he was TOTALLY people and dog oriented - the only thing that made him puff up was Ms Dave, who thumped her feet at him. It took them only a couple of days to get used to each other and they are fast friends now. Although homely, he really is the perfect kitty for us - loves people and thinks he's a little dog!

After much discussion, Granny and I settled on the name Bronco for him. It's easy to pronounce and goes well with Bridger.

Ella and Grandpa are teaching Bronco to play Uno.

My parent's involvment in all of this was a hoot. They KNEW that we needed a kitten and I'm so glad that I got one while they were here! Although Grandpa is sort of a kitten hog...

Hilarious! A man and his kitten...

When not sleeping in the arms of his grandfather, Bronco's favorite place to sleep is up on the table snuggled in a hankie :)

This was taken after we first got him and yes, he is a homely fellow. Although now, 1.5 weeks later I must say his looks are improving!

Unfortunetly this bald spot seems to be a bit of mange (or cat scabies). So we have bathed him in flea shampoo several times and doused it with iodine to kill the little mange creatures that were burrowing into his skin. He is on a continued treatment plan and seems to be getting better. I was not looking forward to having a white BALD kitty, that's for sure!

Like his grandpa, Frankie seems to like Bronco quite a bit too!

Bridger wanted to be sure that Grandpa still loved him, too. He has been a pretty good boy about sharing "his" chair with his grandparents... He is one ridiculous dog!

Eastward Ho!

Last week I loaded up the family (in my car with my NEW SHOCKS!) and we headed to Jinja for a few days for a much needed little break. The week before we'd had some serious conflicts with a "friend" of our neighbor and my nerves were frazzled and I just needed AWAY. So away we went!

The main purpose of our trip was to visit another of the children that my mom sponsors through Compassion International. He is from Busiu, which we've visited twice, but this time we all agreed that it would be best for everyone if we just met in Jinja. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera out to get any pictures (took a bunch with my mom's camera though!) but we met at a nice touristy coffee shop (The Source Cafe), chatted and played Crazy 8's for over an hour. Unlike the last time we saw him, he was positively beaming and it was fun to watch him interacting with my mom and Ella. Couldn't figure out their accents to save his life!

Once again we stayed at beautiful Mto Moyoni, which is just down the road from where our neighbors and their four girls moved last Sunday. It was good for Ella to see their new house and to realize that our friends aren't "gone for good." We also delivered their turtle.

"Nile goddess" or something! The child is all long legs and arms!

Standing overlooking the Nile River

My young ones and I

The young ones and their grandfather

Wednesday and Thursday the weather was gorgeous so we got to eat our meals outside.

The had just finished re roofing one of the banda's.

Kinda pretty...

How lucky we have been to have Granny and Grandpa come visit us! You would think that after five people, all their stuff, two dogs and a bunny crammed in one small, two bedroom, one bathroom house for three weeks, that we'd be sick of each other yet but surprisingly it isn't so (or maybe I should just speak for myself ;)!

Chillin'

Granny and I were calculating and at the end of this visit, she will have spent a total of eight months in the last two and a half years, with Ella. While their grandparents do live far (make that very far) away, my children have been ultra blessed to have been able to spend a lot of real quality time with them. We are all blessed :)

This was supposed to be a shot of Ella falling into the Nile River but she just looks way to happy!

On Wednesday we spent the afternoon at the Kingfisher Resort swimming. We'd never done this before and it was great! The pools are PERFECT for kids and SO CHEAP! They had a blast on the little slide and I was relieved that Grandpa was willing to swim and play with them pretty much non stop so that I didn't have to!

Little Ella was smart enough to take a breather now and then :)

Frankie even got a handle on the slide!

And of course Ella had to go down face first :)

Frankie even worked up the courage to go down face first too!

The Swimmers

Even though the kids were pretty pooped, I hired a boat to take us out for a half and hour and take us to see the "real" source of the Nile. Frankie had never been on a boat before and Mom and Dad had never been on one on the Nile before either!

Sailor One

Sailor Two

Sailor Two and her Sailing Granny!

The Sailing Grandpa

This was our boat

Here we are with the source of the Nile river behind us. Not only does Lake Victoria enter the Nile here, but there is a spring that bubbles the water up as well. It is said to be 90 meters deep at this spot.

We passed some guys in fishing boats

Rather intently looking for birds and monitor lizards. She was SO tired that she was slurring!

Love this pic :) The spray was spraying up into his face which he kind of liked but kind of didn't like, as he was also really tired.

Back at Mto Moyoni

The kids and I slept up in the loft which, as you can see by their faces, was a real hit! I even managed without falling down the latter :)

So, we had a really good time and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Frankie started out screaming because he was told that it wasn't called "Ginger" but "Jinja" (that made him really mad for some odd reason!) but ended the trip on a happy note, with a new kitten and a belly full of Ethiopian food. Yep, we picked up a kitten on our way home through Kampala, which I will post pictures of later!

Fun at our friend Harriets!

Saturday the family and I loaded into our car (with it's AWESOME new shocks!) and headed to Harriet's for an afternoon of fun!

Every time I'm with Harriet I have fun, am convicted, challenged and blessed. I have fun simply being with Harriet and her funny kids (Harriet and her family are as crazy as mine! Truly! And I love that), I'm convicted of my lack of faith in God, I am challenged to rely on Him more, and I'm blessed to see how He cares for His faithful followers.

I was especially blessed to be able to take my parent's to Harriet's house this time. My mom has been "the reluctant salesman" on the other end in the States, who God has used as an instrument to sell all of Harriet's darned beads (and other craft projects! Some have flopped, some have not). Now, my Mom HATES this kind of stuff but has sold, and dispersed to others to sell, THOUSANDS of beads and thousands of dollars worth of beads over the last 2 + years. It is a CHORE and not much fun but ol' Mom faithfully keeps at it and wiring the money back to Harriet. WAY TO GO MOM! So last Saturday she was able to see how God has used her labor in conjunction with Harriet's faith and hard work (because from the start Mom and I have been skeptical of how this all would work - isn't it hilarious who God uses?!).

It seems that I didn't get any pictures of my dad because he was always standing there right beside me taking them too with his camera! But he was there and he did have a lot of fun!

The house even has a nice little "yard" in front now - I love that!

The last time we'd been at Harriet's was last fall, before Frankie came home. Since then Harriet has put a wall up to the kitchen, tiled the kitchen, put a NICE counter and sink in, tiled the bathroom and installed a nice toilet (still waiting for the water to be hooked up), and put up a wall to her bedroom, complete with a nice door.

Granny, ever the life of the party, brought along the paint for face painting which is always a hit with the kids! Note that in each and every Jackie is leaning over Grannies shoulder watching. By the end of the day she actually went and found her own child to paint!! That is just so Jackie!

Jackie's turn

Jacob's turn

Granny painting, the kids watching Tarzan

Ella's picture of Harriet and me

The painted hooligans watching a movie :)

While the "big" kids were watching their movie, the rest of us took a walk around Harriet's "neighborhood". There is a LOT of construction going on and we stopped to have a good look at this brick baker. Being as construction and electricity are my dad's specialty, he was really interested in looking at how things were built and wired.

So great to see "the reluctant salesman" sitting with Harriet on her porch!

It was such a beautiful day that the kids were torn away from their movie and romped around outside on the small dirt road that goes down in front of Harriet's house. All you need is a ball, a couple of jump ropes and a little plastic "bike" and friends to have fun!

Our girls :) They look really sweet but WATCH OUT!

Jacob is one of the kindest boys I know. Here he is giving Frankie a few driving lessons :)

See ya later, Fwank! He came home at the end of the day covered in this red dirt!

You gotta love the hard working neighbors hauling water amongst our wildly playing kids! They ran and skipped up and down this road for ever!

Jackie really just had to show Frank how it was done. A terror on wheels is that little Jackie!

Not to be outdone, Ella had to give it a try too.

Freinds :) Ella has known Jackie and Jacob her entire life. It makes me happy that throughout ALL of the losses that she has experienced, that she didn't have to loose these friends.

Jackie leading the cheering squad

I have such deep gratitude for this woman and for the HUGE and important role in my daughters life that she has played. She worked at Ella's babies home and from the start, took Ella under her wing showering her with extra attention and love (read that, "Ella was one of her favorites"). It was SO much easier for Ella to learn to trust and attach to me because of this and she has far fewer emotional scars because of it.

Granny painting a little neighbor kid's face. By the end of the day there were a lot of little kitties and tigers running around the neighborhood!

Not to be outdone by Granny, Jackie went and found a face to pain herself!

Our friends :)

Taking my kids to Harriet's always reminds me of what city kids I have :( I can hardly believe that I am raising city kids, but alas, it's true! On our walk I had to continually remind Frankie not to tear up the random vegitation because um, well, that's people's food! Here in Entebbe it's no problem to uproot a random bush nor defoliate a tree in search of a good stick (to shoot lions with usually) but out in the country it could be someones dinner that you're destroying!

You can also tell that the little citified H children have visited the long drop toilet becuase, um, they leave their mark :). A little splashy shall we say! On the other hand, they are only five and two years old so maybe they'll get the hang of it eventually! Them trying to use a long drop just cracks me up sometimes, especially since it's such a commonly used type of toilet!