New Hue

Now, what do you think? This image struck me as very Carter-ish. I don't know if you can see her new red hair. We dyed it the day after Christmas. We got two packages from Grandma in record time! One only took 11 days. We were so excited.

I spent the day today baking bread. Cinnamon Twist Bread, Date Nut Ring, Fry Bread... I'm not done. I need to make some regular bread. I think I should freeze some, so we don't all expand beyond our clothing. :)

Happy 2009!

New Year's Eve

Happy New Year to you! We are enjoying the festivities (very loud fireworks--Surprised their aren't more people here missing fingers from these big explosions) We had a BBQ tonight to celebrate and an outside movie. That is one blessing about living in the tropics, you can BBQ any time of the year.

We had fun making candies and cookies in preparation for Christmas. It is really loud here in Wamena at Christmas and New Years; much louder than Mulia was. There is a feeling of generousity when it comes to music. (Meaning, if I have speakers, you must want to share them, so I'll blast the music as loudly as possible. In that way, we can listen to several different types of music all at the same time. :)

I hope you have a blessed and safe New Year.

Isn't she lovely?

Isn't she a beaut? I love spiders. This one was in Singapore, but we have some lovely ones here, too. We just uploaded a bunch more photos from Singapore.




I'll add a few more and then, I gotta tell you about Hannah's new kitten... Just have to wait for Ben to get back with the camera. He's in a tribe, doing clinics and training for a few days.

Even though it is technically spring here, the weather is rainy and cooler, so it feels a lot like fall. This week, we have had so much pumpkin... Last night, I made pumpkin soup, then this morning we had a pumpkin sauce on our pancakes and I made a batch of pumpkin cookies... maybe I'm overdoing it.
No one is complaining , yet.

Happy Thanksgiving Back

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had it twice. Back in October, some of our friends found out they would be leaving for three months, so we hurriedly planned an early Thanksgiving (partly so they could use their turkey before they left and partly, because, well hey, who doesn't want Thanksgiving dinner in October?) Then, on "real" Thanksgiving (which was a day before "real" Thanksgiving--if you haven't figured it out yet, we get to have every day before you folks in the US.) we did it again, only this time I cooked two chickens (decided to save MY turkey for Christmas). Everything else was usual, though, even to the imported cranberry sauce,mmm MMM! Not as good as at Grandma's house, but...

I have been meaning to post here a lot more than I have. I had a migraine when I woke up Thanksgiving Morning and got another about 3pm. I cooked through the pain and we had our dinner. I had gone for several months without any migraines and just recently started getting them again. I did make salsa the night before (Thanksgiving Eve). Tomatoes are my main trigger. I did not touch, smell, taste or in any way contaminate myself or my food with said tomatoes, but... a migraine nonetheless. Ben has decided that I need a hazmat suit in order to work around those evil fruits.

The picture has nothing to do with Thanksgiving or migraines. It has everything to do with the beautiful Henna designs the girls had done in Singapore. We even bought some Henna to try out at home. I'll let you know how it goes.

Dog

We have this dog...Jazz.

He is a very obnoxious part of our lives here. You see, at the end of July, our big German Shepherd dog, Sasha was stolen. More than likely, she became the daily special at one of the many eateries here in Wamena. A friend, when she found out that we were minus a dog, gave us a very naughty puppy.

Every time I go out the back door, he comes up all lovey, with his toy (thanks, mom :) ). His favorite toy is a blue squeaky Hippo. He likes to play fetch.. (when I say "fetch", I mean I throw it and he grabs it and runs around the yard like a maniac). Before I can throw it, however, he needs to squeak it the correct number of times. This requires him getting it into his mouth just right and biting several times in a row. Then, and only then, will he let me have it to throw.

The two youngest kiddos are studying Astronomy this semester. As I write this, they are making a model of an ecosystem as it might exist on Mars (if it were ever to be colonized). I am excited to see them excited about science. Ev is studying Physical Science this year and Han is taking an overview of General Science. We are loving it all. Maybe it is genetic, this love of science and learning about the world around us.

On a Tuesday

I have been inspired by my sister-in-law to blog. Here goes...

Last month, we went to Singapore and Bali. In Singapore, we found a new favorite place. The Botanical Garden. What a HUGE park. It is a totally free place to spend the day in a rather expensive vacation spot. We spent 2 1/2 hours strolling through and didn't even see half of it. We took #2 kid with us--the others were tired of walking and wanted to read.

Little India is still high on my list, though. Bright colors, bartering, Cheese-stuffed Naan... Tired kids didn't make it for long, so I (the short one) stayed and shopped alone for most of the day.

I went to my doctor while there. It was all good. (and when I say "all good"--I mean I get to skip next year's check--WOO HOO!)

Today, we did school. Wow, I guess I could write that every single day and it would be a very boring blog. I'll try to be more creative tomorrow.