Merry Christmas

Mikaylah and Jayson met "Santa Claus" at the American Rec Center December 5th.

Mikaylah actually woke up this morning forgetting that it was Christmas!!  Tim asked her if she knew what day it was, "Friday." was her response... it wasn't until she wandered into the dining room and saw the Christmas presents that she realized it was Christmas!

Jayson slept in til 10 am!!  But Mikaylah was content to eat pancakes and discover her stocking while we waited for Jayson to wake up!

Mikaylah and Jayson with their stockings

We were spoiled by Tim's brother Ron and Janice's sister, Jennifer this year as both sent packages with gifts for us.  Janice made stockings and was still wrapping presents Christmas morning before the kids woke up!!

Mikaylah's favourite gift was the roller skates that we got her at a garage sale last summer. Uncle Ron and Aunt Linda AND Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Chris sent knee pads and elbow pads for her so Jayson got the black set and Mikaylah got the pink set!!

Daddy opens the walkie talkies while the kids look on.

Jayson's big tractor truck carrier

Jayson's favourite gift was a remote control car!  They were very spoiled! Mikaylah and Jayson in their new swimsuits (and Mika's elbow & knee "caps") and flashlights. We went over to the Riggs' home for dinner in the afternoon.  We were spoiled again with chicken, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy!!  And then four kinds of pie for dessert!!  Plus munching on Christmas cookies all afternoon.  We played a "Riggs' special" game the guys vs the girls and the guys won... It was a wonderful full day and we are very blessed!  Hope you had a great day too wherever you are and with loved ones close by.

It's Christmas Eve at Our House

Well, I have to tell you that this Christmas Eve was the first time Mikaylah was begging to go to bed on time. Her pappa had to go show a film in the neighborhood of one of our pastors tonight and he said that she better be asleep when he got home or Santa would skip right over our house. Her response? Don't worry daddy, Santa can't come here because it is too hot and Africa is way too far away from the North Pole. She knows that there will be presents under the tree tomorrow. She was in bed when I got home, but not asleep. I think she is a bit more than a little excited.

Tomorrow, I hope to bring you some Christmas pictures. I am really glad that while we joke about Santa coming or not, Mikaylah knows that it is just mommy and daddy pretending to be Santa. She will probably sing happy birthday to Jesus tomorrow. I will have to video that!

November Birthdays

November came and went pretty fast!  We had four birthdays in November,  Tim celebrated on the 8th, and everyone wore black!!  Mi Yoen turned 15 on the 10th, Jayson turned three on the 16th and Asyncrite celebrated sweet 16 on the 25th!!  We had Lots of Cake this month, especially considering we had no birthdays in October!!!

October

Genesis 1:31      God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

This is just one of the verses that Mikaylah has learned this year in her kindergarten class. What a simple reminder that we often lose sight of when we are in the middle of a very hot, humid place in which we find ourselves. It is very good.

Hello again from Niamey where we actually had 3 inches of rain in October!

This week we find ourselves with our fall break that has been wonderful. We have had a great chance to relax, read, swim, and just hang out with friends.  We were even able to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with some turkey breast Janice found in the grocery store!!

However, we began the week with much to do, as we got ready to play in yet another NUTS softball tourney here in Niamey. Now, from those who follow us closely, what does NUTS stand for? This year, there were three teams from Sahel Academy, just like last year. All three teams did really well. Our youngest team played so well together as a unit. Although they bowed out of the tournament in the semi finals, they made the school very proud in how they played.  The competitive team had last year’s title to defend. With two more teams in the tournament and all of the competitive teams with the ability to win, we really had some work to do. I will post the longer version on our blog, but to make a long story really short… we were successful in defending our title with a dramatic 8-7 win in the finals.

The school year seems to be going quite well so far. The kids in the dorm all seem to get along quite nicely with each other which makes our job so much nicer.  We are really enjoying watching some of them growing spiritually, mentally, and physically. Of course, those who are growing physically are eating a ton of food as well! Right now, we do have 13 in the dorm, only to add 3 more in January. That, in itself, is another story. We have room for one more girl in the dorm with two girls who really want to come. So, Janice and I found some other accommodations for the older girl here on campus only to find out that the girls hall already made plans and sacrifices to get everyone in. They are willing to squeeze three girls into a room made for two in order to make room for both girls to stay in the dorm. That is typical of the kids who live with us. This job is almost too easy at times! Praise God!

Mikaylah loves her class. She comes home everyday with stories of what they do each day. She loves reading and insists that we have to do her reading homework first. Now, she is trying to apply her reading skills to books that she had previously memorized like “The Grinch who Stole Christmas”. She is a good verse learner and seems to be getting along well with her classmates.

Jayson is still a very active little boy who loves to play hard. While he loves shoes, he rarely keeps them on his feet. He often comes crying home limping because he has one of those burrs in his foot. He tries to keep up with Mikaylah with her learning, so now he thinks he can read, too.

We would love to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you who support us financially. This week, I was finally able to catch up on some paperwork and look at where our support is as of late last summer. I am happy to report that while we have lost some support due to the recession, we have gained a whole lot more. When we arrived in Africa, we were at 86% and as of now, we are at 90%. Praise God for His faithfulness to us and thank all of you who are aiding this ministry to MK’s.

For those who have good internet, please check out the blog this week to find pictures of our giraffe outing we had this past Friday. The kids thought it was quite unusual to drive around for so long to find these very tall, gentle creatures. Jayson wanted to go for a ride!

I will leave you with some prayer and praises! Thank you all for the prayers for us. We are entering into my favourite time of the year. The coolness of the dry season is such a welcome change from the high heat and humidity.

~Praise God for a good break and needed rest

~Praise God for continued good health

~Pray for the relationships we have with the kids and their parents. Pray that all will bring honour to God.

~Pray for some of the new dorm kids struggling to keep up in school

~Praise for the world’s best supporters!

 

 

 

NUTS...2009

It is that time of year, again! It is time for NUTS! Are we crazy playing all this softball in 100 degree heat? In Indiana, they would probably just cancel the tourny, but not us crazy people. We began the day last Friday with a pep session at school just before our social team took the field. The whole school was on the lawn cheering all three teams Sahel entered. We had a record 16 teams in the tournament this year. It was a challenge to get all the games in before darkness hit. Saturday night was a close call as darkness descended on us quite rapidly. I think we played the last inning in virtual darkness. 


Of course, you must remember that our competitive team were the defending champs from 2008. Of course our team has changed dramatically due to graduation and home assignments. We had, I think 3 guys on last years' team play this year, besides myself. But, we had a great group of guys and girls who played some great defense throughout the tourny. We, however, started the tourny with the poorest permormance of all time committing many errors and lost 13-10. We were all a bit disappointed about that, but realized that if we could win the next 2, we would be first in our pool. So, that is what we did. Although our defense returned, our offense took a rest in a very hard fought 5-4 victory over a team from Burkina. The hero in that game was Betsie Childs who came up with a clutch hit to drive in the winning run! It was rather exciting as we turned a couple of double plays which is hard to do against those athleic, fast Africans. 

The final game started out just how we wanted it to, taking a 7-0 lead just to see that evaporate by the last inning. We didn't score at all the 3-5 inning, but came up with a bit run in the bottom of the 6th to take the one run lead. Then defense took over. With the tying run on base, two outs, a ground ball was hit right to Betsie who couldn't come up with a clean scoop and throw out. Rather, she deflected the ball right to second base where Tim Smith, our shortstop picked it up and literally rolled to the base to force the runner out. Tim was seen more than once crawling towards the base to make a big play. That was the game, not quite as dramatic tourney overall like last year, but nonetheless very sweet. The thing I love most about this team was the fact that everyone contributed something at different times to make it a success. I love this team!

Our other 2 social teams did quite well as well. They both bowed out of the tourney during the semi's, but played very well. I was especially proud of the younger team who just played with heart. If you could have practiced with them about 3 weeks ago, you would have thought how in the world this team would even win one game. But, they played so together, it was an inspiration to us all. Well done, Sahel Academy! Go Suns! Now, anyone outside of Sahel community and can tell me the what NUTS stands for, I will blog your smartness on the next blog!

Lions, Tigers, and Bears...no, Giraffes!

We were able to go outside of Niamey and drive all over the place to find a dozen or so Giraffes out in the wild. The kids were fascinated at how tall they were. We were amazed at how calm they are. With us just walking all around them, they didn't seem too nervous with us there. One time, I think Janice was backing up to one for a photo and the giraffe got a little nervous and bent his head down as if we was going to lick the top of Janice's head. Hopefully all these picks will load up quickly today so you can see some of what we saw. It was a bit funny because this is the only place in the world where you will find giraffes in the wild. I at being said, they are "protected". They also charge you to go out to where they are. I would think that if they are in the wild, then anyone can go at anytime to go see them. Although I will say that there is no way I would have found my way around out there without the guide. Poor guy sat on top of our truck in 100 degree heat and pointed with a stick at the direction I should go. After finding 2 big old giraffes right away, we found a herd of them 10 minutes later. After much driving around again looking for another herd, we gave up because the kids were getting a bit antsy. You can see our guide up in the top of a tree looking for the heads of giraffes over the tops of trees, but he couldn't spot any. So, after we began to go back home, we almost ran into 2 more. All in all, we saw around 1 dozen giraffes. One funny thing that Mikaylah did say was that she was very sure that Noah did not take any Giraffes on the ark because he couldn't build a boat tall enough for them!

The Boy

Last June when we said goodbye to our three seniors and "see you later" to the rest of the dorm kids Jayson was a boy of few words.  He would say Mama, Daddy, Layla and  "Ha Yoen".  But he would not say any of the other dorm kids names.  He would say "bonjour" to our house workers, and he would respond to questions by nodding his head or saying "no!"  But that was about it.  I was a little worried because I had big plans to potty train him when we got back from our trip to Burkina Faso, and I wasn't sure how much he understood.  Our colleagues Colin and Teena and their 2 year old son (who is almost three months YOUNGER than Jayson) had just been up to Niamey to visit and Ethan was talking in Dinde and in French and in English AND he was going on the toilet too!!!

We went to Burkina Faso and Jayson learned a new word, Ouagadougou... okay now you try to say it... wa ga do goo... not so hard,   just like baby talk right??  Well this started a trend, he began to rapidly add words to his growing vocabulary... in fact in the last three and a half months he has not only learned words, but is now speaking in full sentences!  AND he is going to the potty!! YAY!!

When the kids came back to school Jayson calmly greeted them all by name!!  The kids were shocked and delighted.  He even asked about the graduates, wanting to know when they were coming home...
Now that Jayson has discovered language he has not stopped!!  He is very descriptive. Waking up in the morning, he comes to me with wonder still all over his face, "Mama, I waked up!" Coming in from outside, "Mama I am home!!",  "Mama get out, I need privacy!" He was doing his business on the toilet, "Okay Mama, you can wipe me now." But he isn't always very polite!! 

 However when ever I scold him he immediately looks at the ground and says "Sorry Mama", whether or not he is sorry it still gets the desired result! and he is good at stalling at bedtime too... "I need cold water!"  and "I need a hug and a kiss" and "Nighty Poo, Don't poo in your nighty!"

August!

It is August so Mikaylah announced that she is ready for school!!  She is SO excited to begin Kindergarten!!  We had to tell her that school doesn't really start until August 12!!  And the dorm kids arrive August 11!  She is very excited about that, and Jayson started naming the kids who will be returning!  He was only saying one name when they left in June, now he recognizes their pictures and is saying their names!!  I think the kids will be surprised!  So we are ready for them (emotionally) but we still have a to do list that needs to be accomplished before next week arrives!  Staff meetings start this week.  and Monday and Tuesday are national holidays!!  so we are again understaffed but have plenty of work to do :)  

We have just heard that our short term dorm assistant Cindy has raised enough funds and is 100 % supported!  Hopefully she will be here by September.  She still has to get a visa, shots, etc.  But we are excited that she is on her way!!  Anybody have any new recipes I can try?  Remember that we only have access to basic ingredients...

Eight Years and counting...

We have just celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. We were remembering that after our honey moon in Canada we crossed the border into the US on August 5, 2001. Janice was fingerprinted and cross-examined and finally allowed to enter US soil on humanitary grounds!! One month later we had a celebration in Kokomo, Indiana so Tim's friends who couldn't make it to the wedding could meet Janice. Two days later, nine eleven happened and some of Janice's family who came from Canada for the Kokomo reception were stuck in Indiana for a few days as no one was being allowed to cross the border!!! Great timing for us, if we were six weeks later in crossing the border they may not have let Janice in!!!

Last day of school etc.

The last day of school was actually a week long... including grad banquet, graduation and Leaving Day.  Just some photos for your perusal!!

Graduation

Tam, Philip and Esther
Yes, we had four graduates today... Philip, Tam and Esther graduated from Highschool and Mikaylah graduated from preschool! We had a great day. Mikaylah's celebration was in the morning. The teacher had the children demonstrate what they do in the classroom each day. I was surprised that Mikaylah understood so much French. They did some simple phonics and sang some songs. It was fun. She will miss her little friends but will be going to Kindergarten in August. So far there are ten kids signed up to be in her class at Sahel.

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Our three big kids started walking down the aisle at 7pm. The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful evening outside. Daniel Meade gave the staff tribute to the seniors and did a wonderful job. Our speaker, Tim Tjosvold challenged both the seniors and the rest of us. Each of the graduates gave a speech to thank important people in their lives and to tell us where they were planning to go in the future. Each senior did an admirable job! We were especially proud of our three! After the ceremony there was cake and celebrating in the dining hall. Everyone was having a great time and no one wanted it to end!
Pray for our three as they leave Niger. Both Tam and Phil are going to the United States. Tam to PA to attend Eastern and Phil to NY to Elim. Esther is hoping to go back to Korea.
Pray as they say good bye to their friends here and anticipate the future. Pray that they will each stay faithful. We are so thankful that each one has dedicated his or her life to the Lord.

Car Pooling...African Style

Just thought I would share a photo that was passed on to me through email. I don't know where it was taken. Thanks Kathryn for the photo. While we have not seen any trucks this crowded, it is not unusual to see trucks that are poorly loaded, or loaded about 10 feet too high, listing to one side and yet there are tons of people hitching rides ON TOP of the whole load. Very scary looking and dangerous, but it is just a way of life out here. 

May Showers???

Well Mother's day has come and gone and we still haven't had a rain to register on the rain guage.  According to Dorm Tradition, there is a pool every year to see who can guess the date of the first rain!  Of the 15 of us, 9 days have come and gone.  Today is Phil's day, but I think he will be disappointed too.  Nat guessed May fourteen, Esther the 15th, Tim the 19th, Tam the 22nd and Mi-Yoen the 26th of May.  I had guessed May 10th, Mother's day, I thought it was appropriate, but we are still dry... a little humid (50% yesterday) but still no rain.  The school year is quickly coming to a close.  Mi-Yoen is our only student writing IGCSE exams this year, she has two this week and three next week, then the end of the year exams begin the 26th of May!  Graduation is scheduled for the fourth of June!   I know the time will go by quickly!!  It is very hot as you can see from our thermometer on the left... please pray that relief will come quickly!  When it is hot tempers can flare up easily and everyone is a little more emotional at the end of the school year, please pray especially for our three seniors, Esther, Tamarah and Phil who will be leaving Niger this summer to pursue further studies abroad (the US for Tam and Phil and Korea for Esther).  Pray for their transition (saying goodbye to their homes and friends and families) and for their adjustment abroad (new schools, church and friends).

Birthday Blowout!

I finally got this thing to load up. I wasn't sure it even did it at the beginning, so we were hearing from the lands of good internet connections that they had seen Mikaylah's birthday cake meltdown. I guess it did load. Hope you all who can, enjoy the video. 

Another Birthday party!

Before Mikaylah's birthday, there was another birthday party our kids went to for Ariel and Bennet McIver. These are kids who met ours in Quebec during language study. Their dad is like a little boy at times and loves to build and have fun. So, he constructed this obstacle course for the kids, complete with 2 zip lines. One for the young ones and one for a slightly older. This first pic is of Jayson coming out of the "tunnel". He had a great time with almost everything. You can scroll down to see how the end of his zipline went. We was ok, until he stopped. At that point, the 

kids were supposed to drop into a       pool and get all wet. Jayson thought that if he dropped, he would be hurt, so he hung out until someone came to rescue him! I think he must get that from falling off the playgroud equipment here at school so many times:)  

Mikaylah thoroughly enjoyed her time there. She went around that obstacle course a dozen times or more. It was a hot day, so they really enjoyed themselves.

Incidentally, this is when my cell phone was stolen right in front of the guards! Only in Africa, I think:) Praise God, the perps didn't get the wallet that was sitting in the pocket next to the phone! The phone was easily replaced, with the same number even! 

This blog is really for all my canoeing buddies back home. Muskrat, I hope you log onto this to see these pics. 3 years ago, I almost put a small canoe or kayak on the container that came out here. At that time, because I didn't have total knowledge of our mission finances, I hesitated, then decided not to bring one. In hindsight, I should have pulled the trigger. I usually go canoeing at least once a month while in Indiana because of all the great creeks and rivers in that beautiful state. But, since being here, there is one river to choose from and that one is used by all. The Niger River.

You can see from the pics that we shy away from normal tents on these trips because of the heat. I slept under a mosquito net on the sand. I laid down a ground cover, rolled out my sleeping bag that just came on the container and fully expected to sleep just on top on the bag using it for only a cushion. However, during the night, a rather cool breeze kicked up and caused me to climb in my 50+ sleeping bag to keep warm. I suspect that most of you North Americans just coming off winter would not have done that. It was a beautiful night to sleep.

we put in down in Tera about an hour drive from Niamey and we had lofty goals to make roughly a 62 kilometer trek in a day in a half to land right on the back side of our campus. We pushed off around 2:30 in the afternoon only to face a fairly stiff wind. We had a place in mind to camp for the night because one of the guys scouted out a place from his plane the week before. The current on the Niger does flow, but not that fast as compared to the smaller rivers to which I have grown accustomed. So, you have a current with the wind, as soon as you stopped paddling just to look at things, if you didn't go backwards, you stopped dead still. Very frustrating because when one person stopped to take a drink or just to take a break, the other had a lot of work to do.
The girl you see pictured is Charity Bliss, who was my canoe buddy for the whole trip. We rode in a homemade canoe that was made in Ghana. Very nice riding canoe, although I am glad that there weren't too many rocks out there because I hated to hit anything for fear of scratching it. But, it rode so nicely. I would have loved to see what that thing could do on a calm day. Needless to say, we didn't make it as far as we thought we should because of the wind. Very slow. As darkness settled upon us, we had to begin looking for an island on which to camp. Of course, after passing so many islands, when we needed one, we couldn't find one. So, we kept going. The good thing is, is that the wind died down, so it got a bit easier. The down side is that we were paddling after dark. That is bad because the river was on its way down and you never know where the rocks are and you never know where the hippos that look like rocks are! As we came upon this one island that seemed to stretch out for 3 k, we saw many, many hippo tracks up on the island that we thought would not be a good camp spot because the hippos were already there. Hippos do not make for great sleepovers!

Anyway, as we were quietly paddling along this island, it was just about dark. You know where the water looks black and you can only see the fires of the Africans burning to cook their suppers. All of a sudden, this huge snort sounds very close to us to the left. And what do we see? A huge hippo rising some out of the water only about half way to shore. Needless to say, we all found some needed energy. There is only one thing worse than seeing a hippo go under the water, and that is not knowing where he will surface! Yes, Hippos are herbivores, unless they are really hungry or we have come between mommy and baby. With all the stories of those things and the amount of people who are killed by them every year, we like to keep our distance.

The next day was more of the same. You see Chris Chamberlain waking in a tent that lost its poles in the middle of the night. I am sure he will love me posting this picture! It was great to be able to get paddling again. I didn't realize just how much I miss it. Only to have my kayak here. Although, if I did, I would think that would draw lots of attention from the Africans.

Birthday, part 3

Just thought you would enjoy the remaining few pics of Mikaylah's birthday. You can see who helped make the cake and who helped eat it. Jayson really enjoyed the beaters. Gone are the days of pappa getting those, I think:) That is ok, though.

Mikaylah loved being a princess all day that day. She was just so much fun to watch. How she included everyone, especially the few kids who were there to share all her new toys, including the tent! She loved to share all her new toys, dolls, etc with Lydia. Jayson is a bit of a different story, but she is working very hard on that account. We are certainly blessed to have these two kids. They are very precious to us and they bring us many many smiles and much laughter!

Slippy Slidy Sleepover!

yes, we have made it to the wonderful world of sleepovers with Mikaylah. Jayson thought he should be included as well, but we made him to go bed and let the girls be girls. These two girls had just the best time sleeping in our new tent which we just got off a container not more than 6 days before Mikaylah's birthday! More on that later. I have no idea if they really got any sleep, but they said they did....some.
Now Mikaylah with her cake. She did help to decorate her cake. I still have even more pictures of Mikaylah sprinkling the cake with her special sprinkles, Jayson licking the beater and that yummy chocalate cake mix, and some other odds and ends pictures. But, I as I said in last blog, I wish I could upload the video. I still need to get in on disc to be sure we always have it because it is going to make for a great video at her 16 birthday party! or her wedding! Janice had lit the candles and everyone was singing happy birthday, but because it was so hot, we had our ceiling fans on. Yes, you have more than one in one room! As we put the cake down in front of Mikaylah, all the candles went out! oh, no, we just light them again, but Mikaylah breaks out into this most horrific cry I have ever heard. It is like the worst thing in the world has happened and she is broken hearted because her birthday was ruined! Her perfect day was in shambles. Well, we quickly begin to light the candles again when we discover, and it is on the video that the fans had a little help by who? yes, you guessed it, little brother, Jayson. Everytime we lit a candle, he would very sublty lean in and blow them out, furthur exasperating Mikaylah because afterall, it was her birthday and she was going to blow the candles out!I can't blame her. I am just a bit worried for her wedding day way down the road if this happened on a birthday:) The picture you see here is just after all of that. She is doing her best to be cheery, smiley and not cry. She is such a cute littel girl...we love her so much.

As you can see some of the other presents that she received were a pooh clock, which Jayson thought was for him! Some hairbands, 3 barbie dolls, fruit chews, a play kitchen and pots and pans, a sippy type cup with Tinkerbell on it, so the next day we had to watch Peter Pan because that is where Tinker bell is! Notice the outfit Grandma? Mikaylah thought that was the very best! She wanted to wear it day after day after day!

During the big birthday bash, as Mikaylah was receiving much of the attention, little brother was busy entertaining his own friend! The little sister of Lydia, Jayson and Eliza were busy hiding in the cabinet where the trash can normally rests! It is amazing, when the kids go to bed at night, and the power goes off, Jayson goes ballistic. He can't stand it totally dark. When it is a surprise thing, he does not like it! But, to hide in a dark closest or cupboard, no problem! Now, I don't know if you noticed, but he is playing with a girl in her underwear! Should we be worried?????

Slippy slidy birthday!

Mikaylah's 5 birthday party was a ton of fun. What we thought was going to be a bunch of kids to enjoy her new slip 'n slide, it ended up being just the three girls and a whole bunch of adults,...oh, and some teenagers.
Mikaylah calls this not her slip 'n slide, but her slippy slidy. "Pappa, can we play with my slippy slidy today?" she has asked almost everyday since her birthday. Here she is with her very good friend, Lydia Beebout, who she met in Quebec. They have frozen together and now roasted together:)

The rest of her birthday sleepover will come on the next post. I couldn't post all the pics. I will make another post very soon, so you better read fast! I really wish our internet was good enough to upload a video of Mikaylah and the birthday cake. That was very funny. I will tell that story in the next post.

Jayson even like the slide, although I think he thought playing with the big boys was even more fun than the water. Nowadays he loves to run, stop and fall face first into the water on the slide. They have such a great time with it! This is something that we packed on the container to come out here long before Jayson was even born. Mikaylah was a little 2 year old when we bought it for her and we didn't see it again until we unpacked the container on this side of the pond. That was best $5.00 we spent for her birthday. As you can see some of the other presents included Mac 'N Cheese, or Kraft dinner for all the Canadians. That was a real treat since we haven't had that since Quebec. Not that Janice and I were complaining much, but the kids gobbled down a box very quickly the other day! It was like we never fed them. Ok, they didn't eat the box, just the macaroni and cheese. I have to admit, it did taste rather yummy:)

Oh, don't forget to notice Mikaylah's princess crown. She spent most of her birthday telling us she was a princess. Boys are prince's and girls are princesses. I really think she felt very special for her birthday. On Saturday, she asked if it was her birthday again. After we told her 52 more Friday's and it is your birthday again, she was content. Of course, in her mind, 52 Friday's might as well be next week!