Happy Thanksgiving..new blogger?

The last time I attempted to post to my blog, blogger was down and then I got busy with Thanksgiving and class so I got away from it. Somehow I am now in new blogger, but I don't see much difference yet, so we'll see.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We celebrated here with a turkey and our friends. Pamela actually had the day off school this year. She, of course, complained because she didn't have Friday off as well and yeah, it kinda bites to have to go back to work or school the day after, but Dylan doesn't get Friday off either. If he wants to take it off he has to take a day of leave and since Fridays are short days it doesn't make sense anyway... But I was very thankful that the school gave the kids Thanksgiving off this year. This is the first time since we were in Syria that it's been an official day off for Pamela and not just a day that we kept her home from school in protest. My ideas might change when I have 3 school aged kids running around:)

We have yet to take our Christmas family portrait to be made into a card. I suppose that's something we will do this weekend as we are getting pretty close to time to send the cards.

Rose's brother (who lives in Maryland) came to visit yesterday. He's a nice guy, works for USDA and he's funny too. Rose said that he sounds and behaves like an American. He bleaches his vegetables before he eats them and he made her wash the mangoes from the trees with distiller water (I don't blame him, not only does he work for USDA, they also delivered water the day before Thanksgiving and the water was diiirty, bleh!).

Blogging from Germany and a guest!

Dylan has offered to guest blog for this week. He's got an interesting take on things and he's funny too! So I'll let him have it for a few days. But as of right now, he's at the consulate and I'm sitting in the hotel with a sleeping baby so y'all have to listen to me:).

I'll let him tell you the funny stuff that happened on the flight-cause it's always funny. I'll blog my take on Germany. First, it's cold here but not as cold as I remember it being and I'm okay with the cold. It's quite a shock when you go from 95 degree weather to weather in the 30's but we're doing okay. It's a pretty gray day today, but again, I'm not bothered. I see bright sunny days every day. I am amazed by how bright the lighting is in every place here. But now I look old because I can see every little line on my face..."mood" lighting is what we have in Accra and I kind of like it;). Dylan and I were overwhelmed in the stores yesterday. We couldn't find anything to buy because there's just so much stuff. I did buy a new pair of running shoes, but I couldn't go running today because I didn't wake up with enough time to leave Blaise with Dylan.

I got an overall 97 in my abnormal psych class. I am kind of sad it's over. Now I'm in college comp II. I am not sure that this class was required in my other schools, because I should have already taken this one, but perhaps I overlooked it.

Dylan said yesterday when he went to buy food at Taco Bell, that he feels like he's special ed. I know what he means. We're so up on the whole world and know so much about so many other countries and then we come back (even though we're not in the States, we're on military bases and they're pretty close) and we're so out of touch. Things like using elevators and little things like that. I forgot that water is safe to drink out of the tap in other countries. I keep trying to buy bottles. And the power hasn't gone out once since we've been here.

Well, I am taking advantage of my break and since the baby is sleeping, I am going to take a nap. Something I haven't been able to do since Seth was the baby.

Serena Willams

Well, today was a met and greet with Serena Williams. When Dylan told me she was coming, I thought That's why all the people want to come to Africa, all the cool visitors! Not really, but hey it's still pretty cool to meet them. This is actually a terrible picture so hopefully I can replace it soon with one that the embassy photographer took. 

Marine Ball Picture

This may be the only picture of us in our Marine Ball dress. They weren't doing the traditional pictures with the Marines at the ball so this could be it. There may be some more floating around out there that we'll find out about later, but I just found the ball pictures from last year so it may take a while. Enjoy! 

Wow a whole week!

So now I have a whole week's worth (and a really busy week it was) to blog about and so little time:) So I will start with yesterday and work backwards, 'cause that's easier for me.

Yesterday we went to Mia's birthday party. There was a bouncy castle, as usual, and lots of friends for Seth and Toby to play with. All the kids took turns riding on Mia's motorcycle. But probably the highlight of the party was the caramel dip for the apple slices. I was hanging out by the food table eating the apples and everyone there was just thrilled by it. Now today I started thinking, most Americans don't think that caramel dip is such a big deal, but I don't think that we've had it in any post since Germany. Just odd.

Saturday night was the Marine Ball. The Marines tried a different venue this year, it's security concerns, but in Ghana it takes you so long to train people to do what you want that to change venues, usually ends in catastrophe. Our table was right by the "bar" and the line to the bar was almost the length of the room. The ball itself was a lot of fun, but it was poorly put together. The U.S. Navy band played at the ball and they rock! The choice of music wasn't all that great (all 80's) but hey, it worked!

Most of the rest of the week was just us without our car. The fuel pump went out, we ordered a new one, then we waited. Once we got a new one, Dylan hired the commissary manager's son to fix it because the Ford dealership here is doing bare minimum and so our other friends have been without their car for approximately 3 months because the pump just keeps going out, we just can't do that. There's too many of us to take 1 taxi and we're not even supposed to be taking taxis here because of security. So we paid someone to repair something that the Ford dealer would have done for free. But so far (we got the car back yesterday) it's working better than it ever did when we left the dealership. Pricy, but the other option is to just sit around and wait without our car for months at a time.

Today proves to be a cool day, but I'll save that for later.

Been really busy

This is just a short blurb to let everyone know that tomorrow I should be back on track blogging! I have so much to say, because so much has been going on, but I have had this 10 page in depth psychological analysis due today and I haven't had much time to blog. I'll be back tomorrow, I promise.

The Aluminum Man Part 2

After looking over my last post, I am surprised I was coherent at all. I was pretty tired, even though I didn't participate in the event. Dylan has also pointed out to me that I don't have the permission of all the people pictured to post their picture on the internet and perhaps I should take it down, so I might, but not right now.

Another thing-just as a cute aside-today Toby was coloring with markers (we're trying to do art in relation to Halloween) and he colored all over his hands. So the palms of his hands are blue and yellow and some green where they overlapped. I said, "You need to wash your hands." and he said, "No, it's art." Of course with the way Toby talks it sounds more like "no, sarrrr."

Where did I leave off in the last post? Oh, with the praying mantis. After I woke up and noticed that my univited guest was not where I last saw him, I got up to go to the bathroom. The bathrooms were quite funny too as there was no door, they were just open to the room, and as Dylan later told me, the shower just drained out into the bedroom area. I don't shower away from my home here in Ghana. I don't appreciate standing under a ice cold shower and I still feel dirty anyway, so no need. When I came back to lay down, I noticed that the foam mattress had conformed to my body (sounds like something that people in the States pay a lot for) and I could only lay back down in the exact same position I had been in before. Thankfully, I had awakened at about 5 AM and it was time to get up and get moving for the day anyway. I had no clock or watch in my room, so I just waited until Dylan knocked on the door (he had fallen asleep in the room with the boys). Then we were up and off for the run portion.

They ran 2.5 miles and then jumped in the Volta river. The Volta is rife with schistosomiasis (here's the wiki article). Schisto, as it is commonly called, parasites get under the skin and cause itching. They make their way to the liver and can make you pretty sick. It's rarely fatal though, but still...not interested in having ANYTHING living under my skin. They swam across with Dylan in 3rd on arrival at the other shore. Then it was time to jump on the bikes and head out for the 16 mile bike race. It was a very hilly course. All in all, Dylan did fantastic. He finished last, but not by a heck of a lot, and his bike wasn't nearly as good as everyone else's. At the halfway point the pace biker, traded bikes with him and couldn't believe he'd made it so far on his bike. It's kind of out of repair too.

We had breakfast at the other hotel (the one with A/C and pool), which was really good food and they didn't run out! A plus always! Then we headed back to Accra, made great time and when we got ready to leave the house the next morning...the Explorer would not start! How's that for a blessing? We didn't get stranded in Akosombo, we are now stranded in our own home in Accra! I don't think it gets any better. So we now have a fuel pump on order from the States, hopefully it will be here by next week and then we can have it installed. After that, I don't know what, but most people haven't had trouble if they flush their fuel lines, so perhaps it was only one bad batch of gas.