Don't you wish you had a co-worker like Nat?

He stayed up until I dunno what time last night (I'm guessing midnight, at least) making cheesecake to take in to work today! After all, today is National Cheesecake Day. Normally it would be my absolute favorite holiday of the year, but today I officially hate it because I'm not allowed to have dairy. To add insult to injury, the Cheesecake Factory is offering all cheesecake HALF PRICE! Yes, you heard that right.

On another note, I was really happy the other day because I got to hang a whole load of diapers out on the line. Shona sat in the shade in her bumbo chair and watched me. (She is growing up SO fast!) I was a lot less happy when I went to get the diapers off the line -- they were stiffer than cardboard! Someone please tell me, how do you put a cardboard diaper on a baby?? I had to give those diapers a vigorous massage before I was able to actually use them.

Last night we were on a dark stretch of highway 6 (on our way home from the prayer meeting) when I saw a man standing in the middle of the opposite side of the highway, waving his arms. I immediately said something to Caleb, and before we could even decide what to do, we ran over a *lot* of broken glass. We turned around and drove back to where the man was, and realized that he was standing next to a very smashed car (and the car was sticking out into one of the lanes). A lady and little girl were standing on the other side. They had been driving down highway 6 when a truck smashed into the back of them. (Seriously, how does something like that happen? The truck must have been going pretty fast, and there must have been a total idiot behind the steering wheel.) Their car spun around into oncoming traffic, and then spun all the way back to the other side of the highway. But get this, it was a hit-and-run! The driver of the truck didn't even check to see if they were okay; and people passing by didn't stop either. We were the first ones. So, Caleb turned on the emergency/hazard lights on our car so that people would realize there was a wrecked car in one of the lanes of the highway. Then a silver Mustang stopped in the "turn" lane and Caleb had them put on their hazard lights as well. EVENTUALLY, a police car arrived. (I would really like to know what took him so long.) Then two or three other police cars and an ambulance arrived on the scene. The paramedics worked on getting all the glass out of the little girl's hair. Then Shona had a meltdown so I had to climb into the back seat and nurse her to calm her down. And finally we were able to go home. Well, thankfully no one was injured in that wreck...though I'd like to think that the driver of the truck woke up very sore this morning and is feeling bad for running off like that. :-P

Okay, I'd better go. Cheers! (Is anyone even still reading this? :-))

Photos from random occasions

Caleb, Shona and Shannon (day before yesterday)

Above and below: Shona wearing a gown that I wore when I was a baby :-)

Shona and me in church nursery, after prayer meeting. Photo taken by Sarah.

Above and below: [photo taken by Tiph] at a barbecue Nat hosted last Friday

Shona was baptised this past Sabbath. She slept through the entire service and only whined for about 1 second when she felt the water on her head (it probably just startled her since she was sleeping).

I have several videos of Shona that I would like to upload...so hopefully sometime I'll figure out how to do that!

Okay, that's it for now.

Shona

Various photos

Caleb in Kenya

Mission vehicles

The veranda, where mission workers gather for morning worship (8 am, M-F)

The church in Sengera

Entrance to the mission

Local market (I think)

Wild giraffe

Me at the airport with Shona in the sling

And again

Rozi's Mini Mart

So last night we were at one of those rundown gas stations. They're not hard to spot. You know, the kind that have bars on the doors and windows; most of the fuel pumps decorated with handwritten "Out of Service" signs (and of course, the fuel is 20 cents more per gallon than everywhere else); a couple beat-up old trucks sitting out front. You find it hard to believe those trucks even run, until an old man comes out of the store with a 6-pack (of beer, that is) and hops (okay, slowly climbs) into the truck and drives away. The dumpsters are overflowing with 2 week-old trash, and along with several cats rummaging through the garbage, is a man. He's probably in his 60's but he looks at least 92. He probably weighs less than a hundred pounds. There's a cigarette dangling from his mouth. His blue jeans (which have multiple holes) look like they've been worn every day for the past 20 years...and his cowboy hat looks even worse. He's searching for cans; probably the only way he can afford his next pack of cigarettes. Then another truck pulls into the parking lot. It fits right in with the other ones. Probably hasn't been washed since it left the factory in '83. In the passenger seat is, not his girlfriend, but a great big dog. She follows him into the store and you can tell right away that she's done it a hundred times before. The man comes out with a couple cans of beer and soon he and the dog are out of sight...probably on their way home to spend the rest of the evening in front of a TV. What a sad world.

And now some photos

Speaking of being flexible...

In my last post I mentioned that Shona doesn't like to co-sleep. I shall have to change that to "didn't like to co-sleep." She has recently decided that after her middle-of-the-night/early morning feeding (which falls somewhere between 2-4 a.m.), she will sleep another 4 or so hours IF she is sleeping with me. I was having a really tough time getting her to go back to sleep after her middle-of-the-night feeding. She would sleep for 5 minutes and then wake up. IF I managed to get her back to sleep it only lasted 15 minutes. And from then on out, she would sleep in 15 minute increments. Well it turns out, she is now sleeping much better and much longer when she's snuggled up to me. If it means more sleep for her (which, in turn, means more sleep for me!), we shall continue to co-sleep! I should mention that she's doing really well the first stretch of the night - she goes to sleep around 8:30-9, and sleeps for 5-7 hours straight.

In other news, Caleb is finally home!!! He arrived home yesterday. Unfortunately, he's still not entirely well, so I will be taking him to the doctor tomorrow, dv.

Okay, better run!