friends and birthdays and Halloween {o my!}

Last week worlds collided. Our best friends from Uganda came to visit us from New Jersey! The Hallahans {you can read about our times in Uganda here and here or you can check out Kelly's blog here} were doing a road trip across America and stopped in to visit with us for a few days. It was awesome and such a gift. 

Kelly and I. I was super pumped to be able to see her and her baby bump {a girl!}.

Happy {loud} times with these boys reunited. 

It was great to catch up and chat with friends who understand what life is like in North America but also what life is like in Uganda. That is a precious gift to me that I honestly didn't think would happen. So glad they came!

Their visit was perfectly timed with Noah's birthday {and party} so after school on Noah's birthday we had his party which included a couple friends from school, the Hallahan boys, a friend from church and Jude. Of course. 

Noah wanted to have a Star Wars Angry Birds party and I {of course} waited until pretty much the last minute until calling in a {HUGE} favour from my Mom to bust out the cake skills and make one for Noah. 

Right? I mean, mind = blown. 

So that was awesome. And we played Star Wars Angry Birds bingo and one of Noah's friends kept winning but he had THE BEST declaration of bingo I think I've ever heard which made me laugh every time so it was all good.

And then yesterday was Halloween! 

We totally rocked the group theme costume.

These crazy kids. Such troopers and highly motivated by candy. Seriously. They walked around the neighbourhood with no complaints in the wind and rain and cold. For candy. Reminds me of this:

"EVERYONE WE KNOW IS JUST GIVING OUT CANDY!?!?" Love it.

Noah was Clone Commander Rex {from Star Wars The Clone Wars}, Jude was Darth Vader and Blaise was an Ewok. Cute, eh? {I'm biased, I know.}

And then my family came over for dinner to celebrate my sister's graduation ceremony from University. It was such a happy night and I love my house being full of noise and love and laughter. Exactly what I had pictured in our living room {which is coming along! Hardwood laminate floors and white walls. No art or baseboards but it's getting there.}. Good food. Lots of laughter and love. Can't go wrong there.

Happy Weekend to you! I am trying to keep up with my blogging. Eventually I'll figure out a way to stay up to date here while also staying present in the real world. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

make ya smile Friday!

Last night I was up until 1am but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT.
Know why? {I reminded myself of Jude right there.}

I removed the last piece of that wretched, wretched textured wallpaper from our hallway! Self five! 

And this morning I painted one of the walls in the boys' bedroom this morning! While I was taking a breakfast break I came across this video on Facebook {sorry about the cussing in the status. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it.}.
Consider your day, made.

Happy Friday everyone!



*edited to add this full-length video minus the cussing Facebook status. 

a recounting of our weekend seasoned with sarcasm

I am breathing a huge sigh of relief. We made it through the long weekend. It was long. And full. And crazy. And fun. But I'm kinda glad it's done.

It was my sister-in-law's wedding on Saturday {rehearsal on Friday night} and our whole family was in the wedding party and Thanksgiving on Sunday and then we installed new floors on Monday. Ridonc.

I don't have any tips on doing stuff like this.
Jude drew on Blaise's face with blue marker on Friday. It eventually came off, but it wasn't a washable marker so I had a moment of panic. Then he {Jude} got stung by a bee on his pinky finger. Friday was pretty awesome.
We didn't do the rehearsal dinner on Friday night and opted to leave right after to get home and sleep in our own beds before the big wedding day. Jude threw up seconds after arriving home. Yeah, that happened.
Noah fell down the church steps moments before the processional and then refused to walk down the aisle.
I made little fun bags for the boys to open during the ceremony and promptly forgot them in the car. So that was useful.
Jamie and I had many moments where we just looked at each other with wild, harried looks in our eyes wondering what on earth we had gotten ourselves into.
But the wedding was beautiful, the weather was absolutely perfect and we definitely had fun and enjoyed ourselves. It was hilarious and adorable to watch our boys tear up the dance floor. They loved pulling out the dance moves, sneaking candy from the candy table and taking hilarious pictures in the photo booth.

Sunday was fun and family and food. Ain't nothin' wrong with that.

Sunday night my brother Curtis slept over so that on Monday he could help us install our new floors in our living/dining room. He's a freakin' superstar. And our floors look so good. They almost make me giddy.

This morning I realized Noah had no pants to wear that were clean and threw in the jeans I had forgotten to dry into the dryer this morning in hopes that they would dry before school. {They did. Whew.} Jamie walked Noah up to the bus stop and came back and said, "So today was picture day." Hashtag face palm.
I just hope he didn't have yogurt smeared all over his face.

Make Ya Smile Monday {09}

I missed last week but it's okay. Things are crazy 'round these parts.

So last week a friend posted this video to Facebook and I couldn't help but giggle. And then Noah and Jude watched it with me and now Noah requests it. Of course he's not quite aware of the context, but that's probably for the better. Mother of the Year Award right here, folks.

Hope your Monday is full of smiles!

"Two Chips" / An Animated Short from Adam Patch on Vimeo.

Make Ya Smile Tuesday ? {08}

So I sorta forgot yesterday. We have a short-term team from Canada staying with us and they all got in Sunday night/Monday morning. So it's been busy. I'm tired already. But I so love having people stay with us and there are three other little boys for my kiddos to play with so we're having a grand ole time.

Happy Tuesday to you!

Make Ya Smile Monday {06}

You know why I love funny gifs? It's because it's like getting to a funny part in a movie and rewinding it over and over and over again and laughing harder each time. Yes. I totally did that as a kid. Except with gifs you don't have to rewind!

Hope these make you laugh - if not, I hope you at least cracked a smile.

HILARIOUS. Quick thinking on throwing the printer out of the window to escape from the monster, buddy.

Poor cat. He'll never play the same.

Aaaand, if you haven't heard of this blog, you need to check it out. http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/ It's funny because it's true.

Happy Monday to you!

14 things I've learned about driving in Kampala

After about a year and a half of driving in Kampala, and on my way home with the kiddies today I was reflecting on things I've learned since driving here and I thought I would make a list for you to read in case you ever decide you'd like to come and drive here.

1. "The Arm" is magical and makes traffic stop. "The Arm" consists of waving your arm or getting your passenger to wave their arm out the window you are turning or merging with traffic. People respect and abide by the arm. The turning signals are useless.
2. Flashing the high beams is almost as magical. You can flash your high beams at someone coming in the opposite direction if you want to turn in front of oncoming traffic. They will usually slow to let you pass in front of them.
3. People probably aren't honking at you. They just honk a lot. They honk as they illegally pass you to let you know they're coming. they honk if they see you about to turn onto the street they're driving on to tell you they're coming and don't turn out just yet {this is most commonly done by boda drivers}. Taxi drivers {public transport vehicles that are like large vans} will honk upon coming to an area where they usually pick people up from.
4. Don't ever drive in a straight line. You will probably hit a pothole.
5. Don't give the police your drivers licence from your home country. Give them your international drivers licence and have a copy of your home drivers licence on hand to give. If they are going to issue you a ticket, they take your licence and you have to go pay the bill and show a receipt at the police station to get it back. Better to hang onto that puppy. Unless they specifically ask to see it.
6. LeftSide! STRONGSIDE! LeftSide! STRONGSIDE! {ie. stay on the left side of the road. If you are just starting to drive here, you may need to repeat this to yourself over and over again. Especially when pulling out to make a right hand turn.}
7. The bigger car usually has the right of way. You can get all aggressive and try and beat them to an opening, but it's usually better not to risk it.
8. That car isn't cutting you off. He's just driving. You gotta take a mile if you're given an inch. It's how they roll here.
9. Never trust the turn signal.
10. Just assume that nobody knows how to properly drive through a roundabout and just make your way in when it seems like there's a gap or a friendly person has let you in.
11. Just assume that nobody knows how to approach a traffic intersection with the lights out. Cautiously approach the intersection and if possible, tag along with another car in front of you.
12. There are no lines on the road for a reason. In cases of traffic jams or other occurrences  a two lane road can easily become a three or four lane road.
13. You don't really need to treat boda drivers like you would treat motorcyclists. I think of them as flies. You wave your hand at them and they fly away.

That being said, there is a general flow to the traffic here. You get used to it and it doesn't seem so crazy.

Oh and the final thing I've learned about driving here is to never ask why someone just did what they did. You just have to shake your head, laugh {if you can} and move on.

This is Africa!

Make Ya Smile {04}

This isn't a new video, but man is it FUNNY! I'm not sure about you, but I can be easy to scare {just ask my husband or siblings}. But it's definitely funnier if someone other than me is getting scared, that's for sure.

Happy Easter Monday to you!

Oh and April Fools! {What an appropriate video. *pats self on the back*}

Make Ya Smile Monday {03}

Not gonna lie, I love memes. {Although I'm not even sure how to say that. Is it "meems"? Or "memms"? Anyone? Buhler?}

This one cracks me up. Every.Single.Time.

Who doesn't like The Rock?

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com viaJade on Pinterest

There's gonna be more bloggin' this week. I couldn't get into blogger after last week's post via Google Chrome for some reason so my brilliant husband suggested I use Firefox and voila! Back in business, baby!

Happy Monday to you!

Make Ya Smile Monday {02}

Have you heard of Kid President? I love this kid. Seriously this kid is hilarious and adorable and he's got the moves like Jagger. Or Jackson. Or someone.
Happy Monday to you!

to market, to market

this morning we all decided to go out for a walk to the market to buy some bread. i put blaise in the carrier and we all headed out.

it's a bit of a jaunt but despite the boys' {fake} huffing and puffing we made it to the market {which i discovered also hosts a craft market! maybe just on wednesdays but o joy! crafts! this mama can't resist looking at all the pretty things...}.

on our way home we decided to stop in and say hi to some friends that were on furlough in the US for the past few months. we chatted with them for about an hour and then other friends dropped in on them so we decided to walk back home and have some lunch.
for some reason jude was full of energy, running up ahead of us all and not complaining about walking. he raced down the hill and up onto our front porch with noah in close pursuit of him and when i came around this is the scene i came across:

actually, this was the scene about 30 seconds after i came around the corner. jude was peeing into an old water container while noah was holding it for him. seriously. my first reaction was, "what are you doing!!!" {which hilariously made jude pull out, spray noah and then aim back into the bottle} and then jamie and i started laughing so hard. these kids. never a dull moment around here, folks.

this.

this is what jude looks like every.single.morning.
nutella & peanut butter is what he demands requests on his toast and then proceeds to eat it in the messiest way possible. at least, that's how it seems to me.
also?
triangles. it must be cut into triangles.

on doing the needful and feeling like a "mom"

that's one of the walls that surrounds our compound.
it's also one of the walls that doesn't have curly barbed wire on top of it.
it's also the one wall that backs onto the guest house behind us.

we had a canadian team come for may & june and at some point most if not all of the team stayed in the guest house. some of our team made friends with people from another short term missions group that were also staying at the guest house.
the last night that our canadian staff team were with us, i looked up and noticed a young guy walking in our yard. a young guy that i didn't know.
eventually i introduced myself as he seemed to know some of our team and found out he was part of the other team staying at the guest house.
i headed off to bed eventually and kept thinking,
i should tell jamie to ask him how he got into our compound, even though i'm fairly certain he hopped over our wall, instead of walking around and using the door at the gate.
then i thought to myself,
no. i'm an adult. this is my house. this is bothering me. i can say something and speak up for what i think is unacceptable. 
so i stepped back into the living room and just asked him,
um, did you come into our yard by the door in the gate, or did you hop over the wall?
he sheepishly admitted that he had hopped over the wall.
so i explained that we have a gate with a door and a night guard for a reason and though it takes a bit more effort, it's our yard and we don't know who's watching as he jumps over our wall and we are the ones who will continue living here after his team has gone and left {it'd also be a shame if our guard shot him with an arrow, thinking that he's a threat to us.}. i told him he was welcome to come over any time, but to please use the gate from now on.

i guess some people just think that the rules and considerations we use in our normal environments don't apply when we're in another country or environment. when would it be acceptable to hop the fence into someone's yard you don't know back in the US or Canada?

anyway, i felt like a real mom in that moment, lecturing the neighbourhood teenager for thoughtless behaviour. it made me chuckle and smile to myself.
it's also what we call here, "doing the needful". doing or saying what needs to be done or said.

have you ever done the needful? is there something that you need to do the needful about? have you had a classic "mom" moment?

this kid

this crazy monkey. my almost 3 year old.

this morning he ran to the bathroom {hooray for boys who potty train quickly!} and i heard him yelling,

POOPOO! GET OUT OF THERE! TIME TO GET OUT!!!

then a minute later he runs out and says,

mom, i told the poopies to get out, but they wouldn't. 

he cracks me up on a daily basis.
my life is full of laughter if i'm willing to open my eyes to see it and roll with the punches.

friday links with jude

this morning jude said he had "a word" for the baby so i lifted up my shirt so he could talk to the belly. but then he changed his mind and said he had a secret for me first and that i should "put my belly down". so i covered up my belly and this is the story he told me: "one day, once upon a time, there was a little jude named 'me' and he climbed up a tree. the end."
the kid's got a future in storytelling methinks.

jude & noah are punching {or swiping} each other and aiming for the other's head. jamie sees and says, "hey, boys! no punching in the head." jude quickly asks, "what about the tummy?"
jamie says, "no." jude says, "what about your tummy?"

often he'll say with a furrowed brow and arms crossed over his chest, "i'm not saying a WORD."

right now i'm sitting on a single seater with two other little boys. upon climbing up to join me, jude says, "scooch over, mom!" i say, "sure. because I have such a little bum." jude: "no you don't. you have a big one." i totally set myself up for that one.

weekend links!

bad hair day or just not enough time to shower in the morning? i am totally trying out every single hairstyle in this blog post. try it with me and let me know which one you like the best. won't ya?

okay so i'm so not a lipstick person. but do you buy this? really? can everyone wear red lipstick? i'm intrigued.

it's wedding season! ever wander up the card aisles and are bored with every wedding card you see? jamie and i have a tradition of buying the most non-traditional wedding card we can find - usually a funny card. once we gave a friend a jewish sympathy card as a wedding card. that's just us, though. here's a great article on making your wedding gift mean something. 

i'm in love with this shop and specifically all the plates and cups. so cute!

and how freakin' adorable is this little guy? want. {for me!} actually, i had trouble choosing between all of them. they're so hilarious and adorable.

and i did promise pictures of the donuts, but i made them last night and yeah. i just don't take pictures at night. and i'm feeling quite sick now from all the sugar. i recommend pacing yourself. but you should make them. so. stinkin. good.

when tuesday feels like a monday

it really was one of those perfect kind of days.
we didn't really do anything out of the ordinary. but we made the most of the day we were given.

i've started a morning routine for the boys where jude gets to experience "room time" and noah gets some time to play on this fabulous website called 'starfall' where he learns about letters and phonetics and whatnot.

i set jude up in his room with the toys he wants on the carpet, bring in the stereo and put on some music. then i tell him he gets to play in his room until the timer goes off {today we attempted 45 minutes. i know he can do longer, but we haven't been practicing "room time" so we're slowly building up}. today he happily played except for the part where he played with the plugs on the power bar and turned off his music. i went in and turned it on again.

noah happily plays on starfall and sometimes i'll sit with him and talk about the letters, or sound out letters and words with him and then sometimes i'll get some things done like laundry done or exercise {i've been doing these since i found out i was pregnant alternating with riding our stationary bicycle}.

then i carried out some buckets of water and some water toys for the boys to play outside with. eventually jude decided to "water the car" which led me to get some more water, some stools and some cloths for them to full-on wash our car. they loved it and spent the better part of the morning outside washing our car.

but it eventually turned into this. we're sorta doing potty training with jude right now.

noah was such a helper today, jude is getting so much better at sharing with his brother and we did a bunch of crafty-type things today. it was a good day.

i covered some tin cans in ribbon to make the boys' marker jars so much prettier. and i made a tiny vase for the flowers that the boys like to pick for me. 

oh and jamie came home with these today:

christmas in africa

i know christmas has past but i couldn't resist this after a friend sent it to me knowing my love of christmas music and also? the last song they do? perfection.
enjoy.

lesson {re}learned

i thought i had blogged about it before but i checked. i haven't.
so we took family pictures for our christmas card back in october.
for the most part, they were a massive fail.
i mean, in the end i did put together a decent christmas card {reveal to come soon!} but i did have to use multiple pictures due to...well...this:

or this:

or this:

and get a look at this fantastic shot:

i believe this picture really does say a thousand words. this one's going down in the family yearbook for sure.

the aftermath/bribing with the promise of lollipops if we got smiles:

oh family pictures. the lesson {re}learned? lower your expectations.

jude's face says what mine wanted to at the end of this photo sesh.

jude's antics

jude is just one of those kids.
you know the kid whose parents always have an outrageous story to tell of his latest adventures?
the kind of kid who can't be left alone for too long or else he's bound to get into some sort of crazy mischief?
the one who blurts out hilarious comments in unexpected moments?
seriously.
jude cracks me up every.single.day.

yesterday alone he did several things that made me laugh out loud.
after dinner he slapped his hand and then said, "sorry, hand. will you forgive me?" *pause* "will you forgive me, hand? HAND?!"

later after i gave him a cookie he looked at it and then made it say {as if it were a puppet}, "hi, i'm a butterfly." and then he made if "fly" all around. he then looked at me and said, "i eat butterflies. big ones." and proceeded to shove the cookie into his mouth.

he constantly does sound effects and plays around with using different "voices" depending on the situation.

and then last night i ran the boys' baths {see this post for what that actually means} while they were wrestling with jamie in our room. i went back to the living room, heard jamie say "okay, bath time" and then noah came out to me to help him with his shirt. then he ran back to the bathroom and called out, "MOM! Jude is...um, come SEE!" and i already knew what i would find when i went into the bathroom.

and this morning? 

while jamie was scrubbing off some pen & marker that noah had used to illustrate some art on our coffee table, i was trying to print off and make up our weekly meal plan when jude came into the spare room {where our printer is} and said,

"look mom! a daddy rock!"

i looked over.

it was a rock-hard piece of poop. in his hand.

life is nothing less than exciting around here!

anecdotes from my side of the world

yesterday i was unpacking a grocery bag and pulled out a pack of hangers when a cockroach {just a small little guy} fell out of the hangers. i lost sight of him and for a second thought i would just leave him. but then i thought about the fact that i was doing all this on my bed. and did i really want a roaming cockroach in my bed? so i searched him out and found him and stepped on him.
then later while lying in bed that night i realized i never picked him up off the floor.

my phone has a function on it that has something to do with the muslim call to prayer.

i am wearing a sweater right now.

the other day we were in a walmart-type store when i got to the cash and realized jude was not with us. we had been split up for a bit, jamie watching the boys while i got some items but then when we all came back together he just wandered off.
mini freak out. right.there.
he was in the toy aisle riding on a baby bike.
wild child.

the appliances we bought the other day don't fit with the plugs here in uganda. apparently you are supposed to take them to the service counter and they switch them for the correct plug. weird. {on the upside, we now have a working toaster and kettle!}

i bought a fan today {finally} only to have a crazy breeze blowing through our home right now. {hence the sweater.}

i went for 2 and a bit days without looking into a mirror. shocking. {we still have no mirrors in our house.}