Where did everybody go?

Our present, crowded kitchen:)

Well Mikaylah finally asked, "where are the kids?" The dorm kids have been gone since June 13 and the Smiths left Monday night so we have been really alone for almost a week. Well not really, Tim's brother Doug is here right now helping making new cabinets for the new dorm kitchen.

This is the wall we will knock down!




And yes, there will be pictures as soon as Tim has time to help me download them. I love the MAC but it doesn't have a port to import pictures so it is a bit more complicated and I haven't learned how to do it yet... Anyways... that is a story in and of itself! Doug and his wife Danette were both set to come June 19th, but GOD had other plans for the other Phillips'. On Wednesday June 11 Grant Douglas Phillips was born and on Saturday June 15, the day before Father's day, Doug and Danette brought him home, all signed sealed and delivered! The story of How God orchestrated Grant to be in their family is nothing short of miraculous, but suffice it to say, Danette had her hands full with a new baby! So Doug graciously came by himself (and away from his newborn son) to spend these ten days with us. They are going by fast, but all the lower cabinets are made, they are working on the upper cabinets now. I must admit I feel pretty fortunate to be able to design my own kitchen, pretty overwhelmed, too. So glad that Chris and Diane Marine have done this before and are giving their expert opinions and know-how!
Doug has put on one of Jayson's diapers so he doesn't miss Grant too much (ha ha) and Danette has been great in sending photos of their precious little boy. I am going to try to upload one, so be patient if no picture appears!

R.O.U.S. (Rodents Of Unusual Size) I don't think they exist!

We may not live in a fire swamp but we do have R.O.U.S.s. Tim was up in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday morning and saw an animal under our desk. He scampered out into the dorm but Tim couldn't find him so he simply closed the door to our apartment so he couldn't get back in. Later in the morning we discovered a half eaten potato from the potato bin on the kitchen floor and there was broken glass all over the floor. We didn't see hide nor hair of him all day. We took four of our last five kids to the airport in the afternoon and still no sign of a critter.
Adam, the Smith's oldest son went to bed Tuesday night and soon returned to the common room. The R.O.U.S was trapped in his room! Tim Smith told him to close the door and go to bed, we would deal with the critter in the morning. So we kept him trapped in the bedroom, the rat, not Adam!
Wednesday morning we were telling our workers about the rat trapped in Adam's room and our plans to get rid of it. They protested us letting it back into the wild and begged to have a turn at it. It was caught and handed over to our friends for their dinner! Here is a photo of our little pal. ALIVE

Rains down in Africa!

Well we did get rained on. May 20. Rianna won the free French fries!! Here we are almost two weeks later and Mikaylah still talks about the dust storm. Dust storm? Yes Dust storm. As the wind picks up speed before the rain comes down it whips up a lot of sand. Tim's Aunt Julie called it a Haboob. I don't know what the locals call it, but it was VERY sindy, sand and wind!! Then the power went out so I was bathing the kids in the dark by candle-light. When we awoke Wednesday morning Mikaylah looked like a racoon, apparently I didn't do a very good job cleaning her up because she had two circles of dirt around her eyes and her scalp was still full of sand!! Jayson didn't fare too badly since I took him in earlier, he wasn't to pleased with the wind!

THe basketball court filled up with water in a hurry and all the dorm kids and some of the off campus kids (who came over to campus to celebrate the first rain together with us) layed down in the water. Tim took a picture of them playing in the water. Our video camera bit the dust so we only have the still camera now.
Our kids love being in the dorm. Jayson is our little music lover. He loves to play the African drum, like his Papa. He also loves playing with the boys. Mikaylah loves when the kids are home from school, I am afraid as they all go home the end of this week (except for five who have later flights) she will go into withdrawal. She already knows all their names. Jayson has a different relationship with each of the boys, he has a different handshake or growl for each boy, it is funny! Our kids are getting lots of attention and they are loving it!
Now we are still waiting for the second rain... already little shoots of grass have come up. It would be welcome anytime but Thursday evening when we plan to have the graduation ceremony out of doors. The junior girls don't want rain tomorrow night either because the JSB is tomorrow night and they will be dressed to the hilt! We will try to get some photos up of their special night.

P.S. I am having trouble loading photos right now so this one of Jayson will have to suffice until further notice... sorry!