2 posts in 1

Well, if you follow the blog you already know I missed my first post. That will happen from time to time, while I'm posting from Africa anyway. Our internet was out. I scrapped a page and waited a bit, but I could see it wasn't coming back on, so I headed to bed. We had a great friday. I was busy preparing a big meal in the kitchen. We invited the Needham family over for dinner (fellow missionaries that live about 20 min. from us) and also Rosemary Craven. I made lasagna and was so proud of myself that I had two 9x13 pans of it ready at about 10 a.m. Lasanga is a bit of a chore here as we don't have canned spaghetti sauce and containers of ricotta or even cottage cheese at the local grocers. I make all that myself. Here is my ricotta:

It is so easy! I just mix up a gallon of powdered milk. Bring it to a boil and stir in 3 TB of vinegar. Voila! I strain it in a cheese cloth, stir in some egg, italian spices, salt, parmesan cheese sometimes. It is perfect for lasagna. And cheaper than if I bought it at walmart. I'm not too fancy with my spaghetti sauce...just a seasoning packet - Great value brand! haha
Anyway, we enjoyed our meal...and our visit with friends. I was going to post a picture of all of us sitting at the table, but it is on my husbands little point and shoot, and I'm too lazy (and my computer too slow) to get it off of there. So anyway, it turned out to be a wonderful evening!

And now for today. Not too eventful. I spent most of my day on the computer and got two layouts done. The kids spent most of their day outside playing. I did take a break b/c I want my oldest, Drew, to learn how to ride our infamous bike! LOL My mom and I were discussing it today and decided to give it a name. Since that bike is often on a journey...we decided it should be named Gulliver...and I can document all of Gulliver's travels! So many of you have commented on that bike, so it has become a dear friend of our family now! Here is a picture of Drew attempting to ride GulliverYou can see Kate cheering him on...well, she was actually gloating about how she was only 7 and Drew 9 and she could already ride it. They are SO different in personality. Kate took that bike out one day and said to herself, "I'm going to learn how to ride the bike today." And she did! She got lots of scraped knees in the process, but she was determined to ride that bike. She is a go-getter. My most troublesome of all four kids, but such spunk. I love that girl! Even if she does make me cry a lot! Drew on the other hand has NO interest. I told him he HAD to learn to ride whether he wants to or not, b/c every kid should know how to ride a bike. We spent 30 min. working on it today, but he wasn't getting it. He was getting frustrated though, so I decided to end the lesson. I told him we were going to work on it until he gets it. I know once he learns he will love it!

Well, I'm off to attempt to take a shower. Our water has been horrible, so I might end up taking a cup and trying to bathe...I do hope the shower works though. I'm SO ready for the rainy season!!! Just over a month and we should see some rain fall. I can hardly wait!