party hard

Bud is in Nairobi, and I usually don't sleep well. So why not make another blog post?! And I'm now realizing this was a bad decision but I already have the pictures uploaded so might as well. Bad decision because I'm recalling all the good memories from this past week and now rivers are coming from my eyes. Happy rivers though. I'm thankful for all the amazing people God has brought here. I know more will come. There's some incredibles here that I call friend. So we had a lot of parties this last week. I want to remember them all and when I make another book out of this blog for 2010, I want all these memories in it! And all these memories are fresh, so better get 'em down now. The parties...

Women's tea party. The Cooksey's and Bella moved out of their house a week early and stayed at our friend's, Daniel and Marlies' house since they are currently out of country. Very strange to party at their house without them there. It was in honor of a friend of ours birthday, Julie. We did pedicures, ate yummy snacks and chatted. I made cake balls. They didn't turn out quite right, but good. We also had Meredith's rice crispy bars but they were gone before I got a snap!

Pool party. I just love parties. Even if it's just three people (and we had one of those too, I'll get to it though in a minute). I don't think I realized or wanted to realize that was our last party at the pool. I'll probably cry next time I go with the kids and other friends. Cause it just wont seem right without Bella and Jane! Thankful to still have very dear friends here though. Ok, I'm starting to ramble. Did I mention it's 11:30pm? I shouldn't write on the blog this late. Oh well!

Girls day in eldoret party. This was an absolute blast. Not everyone made it but most of us ladies around here did. We took a kangaroo to get there. No, no, not like a jumpy kangaroo. Although it was very jumpy/bouncy. The road to Eldoret is horrrrrrible. (I'm pretty sure that road is why I did not have my babies here, I would have popped them out on the way there since the hospital we would have had them in is there and labor was quick for me... oh, too much detail.) Let's see, first the kangaroo was late. A kangaroo is like a smaller matatu. A matatu is a 15 seater bus that is for public transport. It's the most common way to travel in Kenya. Not the most pleasant way, but do-able. Where was I? Oh yes, the bouncy kangaroo. It was late so we took pictures of our pretty toes and a group picture. All the ladies met at our house. Bud was gone... where was he? But Brett was still there and had the privilege of taking the pictures for us! (haha) Then off we went. Claire fell asleep pretty quick, she likes the bumps. Then the window in the back fell on Julie half way there. The driver had to pull over to fix it. It was a good laugh. Then some of us cried talking about God knows what, but with a bunch of ladies getting together, you gotta cry at least once! I'm pretty sure our driver thought we were crazy. Well, we actually are! SO then we get there and go to Roberts shop for touristy shopping. But Bella and I went to the atm first and the machine was not minding her and spit her card out and not her money. The computer had crashed. So we walked around Eldoret trying to make other atm's mind her. One did but not completely. We finished shopping then walked through town to go get a tuk-tuk. What's a tuk-tuk, you might ask. It's a little three wheeled motorcycle type thing that has one person driving in front and 3-4 sitting in the back. Hmmm.... Not sure I described that right. Unfortunately I don't have a picture but I should get one from someone else who took pictures. So we were making quite the scene with it being 7 white women and a baby. A guy tried to pick pocket me and I almost flashed like chuck and busted out my kung fu moves. The dude was not successful at getting my money. I think he was too drunk. Shortly after we got in the tuk-tuks. We took two and went to Mama Mia's. Yummy nice restaurant with Italian and Indian food. It was quiet, unlike the rest of our day in such a busy crazy town. Then Betsy and I went to immigration to get her visa renewed. We quickly discovered our tuk-tuk driver was either drunk, on drugs, or both. Betsy gave him her left over pizza hoping that would sober him up! We didn't care to find out if it did so we called the other dude to come get us. We then all met up at Nakumatt. Oh Nakumatt. It is the closest grocery store to one in America. It has more options of food we like. It was getting late and we had a surprise going away party for our friends at MY house and we were already going to be late for it. I was not being a very good hostess. But I quickly went through the aisles at Nakumatt, feeling like I was on the show supermarket sweep (do you remember that show?!) but rather than trying to get my cart full with the most money spent, I was trying to do the opposite. Then with all our hands loaded with heavy Nakumatt bags, we loaded up in the Kangaroo and bounced back home. Did you know I have the worst poker face?! If you didn't, you don't know me well. So this going away party was to be a surprise but that morning I think they figured it out. I'm just glad it was that morning and not the week before! Cause I really thought I blew it the week before. The whole way home we sang songs. Country songs, 80's songs, TV show songs, musicals, Afrikaans songs, christian camp songs and veggie tales. It was a learning experience for us all. We all hit a wall before arriving home, then got a second wind when getting to our gate. Which brings me to another party but first some pictures from the day...

I did mention we are crazy right?!

Going away barbecue party for the Cooksey's and Bella. My friend Meredith and I coordinated this a week or so before. That night was the only good night for everyone otherwise I would have made it a different night than the one that we had spent ALL day in Eldoret. It was all good and worth it. But I was exhausted and probably not the hostess of the mostess. Good thing I made bread the day before so I just had to slice it open, put the good stuff on it and pop it in the oven and voila, it was THE bread. The guys all grilled out the meat. And everyone brought yummy sides. And Jeff made his famous caramel popcorn. I have never seen a homemade batch of popcorn that big! It was a great night. Most people had to leave early to get home by dark but a few of us that stayed got to pray over the Cooksey's and Bella. It was a sweet time, although we were all pretty tired.

Making Peach Kuchen in this picture. That's Bella there helping me, and I was in such a rush to get it in the oven, it didn't dawn on me that she was helping me at her own party. Of course she was! She's an amazing hostess, always taking care of others and loving in any way. Bella oooozes with the love of Jesus.

Daniel and Caleb Cooksey with Elisha and Ian

Julie and Roger. They are such a sweet couple!

Sean and Brett

Amy, Caleb, Josiah

Zoe crying at her own party. I know she's just so sad to leave us all! And she's still adorable when crying.

Mama Carla. She has grandkids in the states around our kids age. This woman is one amazing woman. Her and her husband are the ones that run the baby home with 80 plus babies. Claire could sense that she is one experienced lady at loving on and holding babies.

Sean, Bud, Brett

Massive load of homemade caramel popcorn!

Sean, Daniel, Meredith

Bud went to man's night party this past Friday night. While he was there, we went and had another small girl party. It was just me and Betsy going to hang out with Jane and Bella but still fun. Elisha is always happy to go play in a new environment. I discovered how funny short films of mr. bean are late at night. Hm, wonder if there's any around me right now, now would be a good time to watch them. Did I mention it's 12:09am? Bud came and got us. You know how guys are... I ask how it went "oh yeah, it was good". And that's pretty much all I get out of him. I leave it at that.

Breakfast party with some listening to Heidi Baker. We've been trying for the past week to listen to Heidi speak when she was at Bethel last weekend. So we went to have breakfast with our friends. The internet was not minding us so we just hung out. I got to have Jane's yummy muffins one more time. So we rescheduled the Heidi party and it worked for us the next morning. Although we only saw half of it on video, we finished it on the audio. Great encouragement.

Saturday night, just me, Betsy and Bella had a rockin party where Jesus was the life of the party (bahaha). It was a sweet encouraging time, more revelation of Jesus' love and just going after Him together. I will remember that night forever. Sweet memories.

Then the last party was a lunch party at the coffee shop Sunday. Every Sunday is buffet at the coffee shop. Most white people around come to it. It was yummy food. We lingered around till sometime after 3pm. I don't know about everyone else, but I was delaying the whole idea of goodbye. I really don't like goodbyes! The more I love, the more I love. The more I make good friends, the more goodbyes are hard. I know we will see them all again soon though! Whether it be us going to South Africa or them taking a trip here. Or we all meet up in America. Who knows?! They are incredible people. I know that whoever they become friends with where they are going, those people are some REALLY blessed people.

And I realized while uploading pictures that there is hardly any with Jane in them! Jane has been such an encouraging example of a mom, friend and wife to me. (not a wife to me, but an example, i wasn't sure how that sentence came out) And she took a lot of these pictures. What an incredible woman of God she is with MUCH patience and faith. I'm thankful for all I've learned and the friendship I have. I guess we were too busy chasing our little ones around to think about taking a picture together. Oh well, next time.

Much love and prayers to the Cooksey's and Bella.