I Think I Already Posted 10 Dislikes in a Previous Entry - Oops Here is Another One

Things that I am not very fond of right now:

1. My big toe that has a bad toe nail and is FINALLY more than halfway grown out, but the bad part not fully grown out looks like a Sun Chip

2. The mud that I keep tracking into my office all day long – it looks like someone has been eating brownies in my office and left a lot of crumbs EVERYWHERE

3. The vehicle I drive that needs to go to the mechanic for the third time in a month for the same problem

4. Crispy hair that has grown out quite long and needs a trim real bad

5. The power going out five times in the same day – not getting any work done on the computer

6. Walking to TOA in the mud and sliding around like Dorothy Hamill

7. Hearing Moses yell “There is a big lizard next to me – come and get it out” as he is sitting on the potty

8. Ants all over the place in my kitchen EVERY SINGLE MORNING

9. Waking up at 2am when the power went out – and therefore my fan turned off – and spending the rest of the night in bed sweating and not sleeping

10. Juice boxes that not only contain juice but also little bits and pieces of foreign objects that are not juice related

Oh The Simple Things

I try not to make too many comparisons to life in Tanzania with living in the U.S.  There are so many things that are just too different to even go there.  But now and then I can’t help but remember the “simple” things that I used to do when I lived in CA – you know, those things you would do without giving much thought to it – and it only takes you a minute to do it – and then you go on with your day and don’t even give it a second thought at all. 

So today was one of those days – CHANGING A LIGHT BULB

The light bulb in my bedroom went out this week.  I went to town and bought another one and then that new light bulb just sat in the living room for the next three days.  You see the ceiling in my bedroom is about 10 feet tall.  As tall as I am, using a chair would not have helped me to reach high enough to change the light bulb. 

Jodie, the compassionate soul that she is, went out to our “shed” and brought in the ladder to change the light bulb for me.  We have had a bit of rain and our “shed” is what we like to call “An accident waiting to happen.”  Not only is it an eye sore but most people when they look at it say, “What the heck it that?”  It is three pieces of sheet metal held together by two pieces of wood and one nail.  Yes, I said three pieces of sheet metal because one side is completely without a wall at all. 

ANYWAY, when Jodie went out to the “shed” to get the ladder she stepped in the sticky, goopy mud and then had to lug that old, beat up mud soaked ladder back to the house.  She left her flip flops outside because they were so full of mud they were weighing her down.  As Jodie came in the house carrying the ladder I immediately followed her into my room.  We set up the ladder and looked down at my woven wicker mat and it was caked in mud.  We smiled and moved on with our “simple” task of changing the light bulb. Jodie climb to the very top of the ladder and took out the bulb.  I handed her the new one and she put it in.  I turned on the light switch and no light came forth.  Jodie fiddled with the bulb and I tried again.  We did this about three more times.  Then I went and got the other new light bulb I bought – it is a good idea to purchase more than one since one may be faulty.  So Jodie put in the other new bulb…NOPE.  She fiddled…NOPE. 

Side Note:

Then we played out the scenario that will be most likely take place next week:  We will call the electrician.  He will tell us he’ll come on Tuesday and then on we will wait for him and he’ll call three hours after he was supposed to come and say he can’t come and Wednesday works better for him.  He’ll tell us he’ll come at 8am and we will wait until he shows at 10am.  Then he will work all day until dark at our house and say he needs to return the next day to finish the job.  We may or may not have power that night after he leaves.  He will show up the next day – possibly closer to being on time because the day before we will have had a conversation with him about showing up when you say you are going to show up.  He will work all day until evening and then the job will be completed. 

Jodie came down from the ladder and carried it out.  I followed close behind her with the woven wicker mat in my arms as the mud was spilling all over the ground.  I hung the woven wicker mat outside on our clothesline and accidently knocked off our guard’s undergarment that he had washed earlier and hung on the line.  I looked at Jodie, who had just returned from the “shed” and was cleaning off her flip flops.  I asked her, “Do I have to pick those up?”  Jodie replied, “It would be a nice gesture if you did since you knocked them down.”  I put them back on the line – no more details about that – but I could say more! 

As I was brushing off the mud caked in the woven mat my feet were stepping on all kinds of stickers in the grass.  The grass was kind of tall where I was standing and those sticker things were awful.  I had them all over my flip flops and skirt.  The mud wasn’t coming off so I had to use my finger nails – I don’t even keep a lovely manicure but nonetheless my nails got MESSY! 

The sun was out really bright but the air was super humid.  It felt like rain was coming and I was sweating all over. 

In the U.S. this would have taken all of five minutes and would have worked. 

So in the end – this simple process of changing a light bulb was just another daily adventure we seem to experience quite often.   

Sounds

FIVE SOUNDS I REALLY LIKE

1. My refrigerator running.
2. My fan running at night when it is feels like it is 100 degrees in the house.
3. Running water coming out of my facet.
4. Children laughing as they take their evening shower with heated water.
5. The sound of the vehicle starting – with ease.

 FIVE SOUNDS I REALLY DON'T LIKE

1. The sound of a stiff straw broom sweeping the gravel and leaves outside my bedroom window at 6am.
2. The sound of a 1000 police in training running past my house at 3:30am – shouting, screaming, chanting and yelling – lasts for 30 minutes
3. The vehicles driving past my house at all hours of the day/night with loud speakers attached to them making random announcements. 
4. The sound of the wild pack of dogs that run the streets at night in the neighborhood – every single night – getting in fights and non-stop barking.
5. The sound of the radio my guard plays outside my window at 5am - full blast… and although he has been asked multiple times not to do that anymore – his memory lapses are frequent. 

A Conversation With Zoe Today

Today was a hot day.  It looked like rain for hours but no rain came...just humidity and heat.
Our youngest take a nap after lunch and when they wake up they play on the porch for a few hours - it is usually cooler on the porch and out of the sun.
I was sitting on the steps of the porch today trying to cool off a bit but Zoe kept trying to sit on my lap.  I was sweating and it was so hot so I was not letting her sit on me - this is how our conversation went:
Zoe:  I want to sit right there (she points to to my lap and then tries to sit down)
Lydia:  It is too hot to sit on me
Zoe:  I don't feel hot
Lydia:  Trust me Zoe it is really hot and I am all sweaty
Zoe:  I don't feel hot and I want to sit right there (still pointing to my lap)
Lydia:  It is too hot (pushing Zoe away as she tries to sit on my lap)
Zoe:  (laughing and now more determined) I want to sit on your lap
Lydia:  Sit over here (I point to the open area right next to me)
Zoe:  Nah, I don't like that place. I don't want to sit there
Lydia:  (pushing Zoe off again as she tries to sit on my lap) Why do you need to sit right on top of me?
Zoe:  Because I like you
Lydia:  (heart melted and touched by her words) Ok feel free to sit on me
Zoe:  (laughing and hugging me) I like you a lot

I am telling you - If you knew Zoe and her adorable personality you would have done the same even sweating in the heat of the day!
Side note - She never left my side the rest of the day!  She stayed with me and sat with me in my office when I had a meeting with a pastor and then afterwards we went outside and played Frisbee until dinner.
I love that sweet girl...
SO MUCH 

My Favorite Thanksgiving Recipe

This Thanksgiving we made some fun dishes.  We had a great time trying out new recipes…making everything from scratch. 

One of my favorite dishes was the Sweet Potato Casserole that I made.  The recipe called for whole milk but I read all the reviews on the website and many who wrote comments suggested using evaporated milk instead - so I did. 

I LOVED this dish and will be making it again for our Christmas Eve dinner next month (we eat Christmas dinner with the kids at TOA). 

I wanted to share it with you since it was so easy and so tasty! 

Here it is: 

Sweet Potato Casserole

4 Cups of Sweet Potato Cubed (bake the sweet potatoes as opposed to boiling them)

½ Cup of white sugar

2 Eggs beaten

½ Teaspoon of salt

4 Tablespoons of butter softened

½ Cup of Milk (I used evaporated milk)

½ Teaspoon vanilla extract (I used a little more)

For the Topping

½ Cup packed brown sugar

1/3 Cup all-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons of butter softened

½ Cup chopped pecans (I used candied pecans that I bought at Trader Joe’s when I was in CA last May)

A dash of cinnamon as you prefer (this is what I did because I love cinnamon)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Cook sweet potatoes until soft.  Mash potatoes but leaving chunks.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, white sugar, eggs, salt, butter, milk and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. In medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans and cinnamon. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.

FYI:  I called my mom on Thanksgiving Day and told her all about this dish…she is my favorite cook of all time…and she said it sounded delicious! 

Kittens

I have a confession to make.  This confession is to my mom for the most part since she is the one who is going to gasp when she finds this out. 

You see I grew up in an animal friendly environment.  We all liked dogs but most animals were welcome. 

Let’s see…I had a dog, hamster and mouse of my own.  My brothers had several dogs.  My sister was the queen of the cat farm.  I can remember saying, “We have 10 cats.”  My sister named them all.  My brother H.A. had a snake and when it escaped from the aquarium it lived in we did not have many people visit us for a while.  But my mom…now she reached a level of animal friendly that amazed me.  She took in EVERYTHING, even those pesky birds that made nests in places that they shouldn’t and when their nests would fall, and the momma bird would abandon her nest and babies, my mom would take care of those baby birds, feeding them with an eye dropper at all hours of the night until they were strong enough to survive on their own. 

I say all that because about five weeks ago our cat Cupcake who lives at TOA had four baby kittens.  Because I grew up in a house where all kittens were born in a box that was placed in my mom’s clothes closet so she could keep her eye on them at all times, my only thought was to bring those kittens home to a safe place. 

So I don’t have my mom’s kitty compassion.  As Cupcake’s kittens began to get bigger instead of becoming cute and cuddly like my mom’s kittens they turned wild and annoying.  They made a mess of everything.  I kept them in the hallway so there wasn’t much to mess up and yet they managed to mess up whatever they could.  They would roll around in the litter box and then roll around on the floor…yuck!  They would knock over the milk and water bowls everyday.  I work long days and am tired when I come home so to come home  open the hallway door to find a mess to clean up got old really fast. 

So this week was it for me…I took those kittens and their mamma and placed them in a storage container we have outside.  The container has a door that I left open so they can come out but if they care to. But Cupcake their mother wanted nothing to do with living outside.  She was mad…she IS mad.  The kittens, which I held for the first five weeks of their life and yet still came out wild, are not too fond of me so that is a bummer. 

So I kicked out the kittens.  It has been a few days now and they seem to be doing ok.  The dog Snowball doesn’t go near them even though I leave the storage door open.  I believe Cupcake would kill Snowball if she came too close…Cupcake is very protective. 

So I have discovered I do not have my mom’s animal love…sorry mom.  But we did name the kittens:

1. Ghirardelli
2. Oreo
3. Cinnabon
4. Sprinkles

Just For Relle

I wrote a blog not too long ago and mentioned a few “items of interest” going on here in my life.  One of the things I mentioned was a hedge hog who has decided that the food and water I put out for the dog is also his (or hers…can’t tell what it is, but I have given it the name Rainbow). 

So my friend Freya’s daughter Relle was asking me about this little hedge hog (who I named Rainbow) when we were talking on Skype not too long ago.  I wished so much that I had a photo of Rainbow for Relle to see. 

So this week Rainbow was on the porch eating his/her dog food and I opened the door to take his/her picture with my phone.  Well, the dog got so excited that I opened the door that Rainbow took off running.  You have to understand that Rainbow doesn’t scare easily and does not normally run off.  In fact I have been impressed by how brave Rainbow has become and I think he/she doesn’t give me much thought anymore.  But the dog (his name is Snowball) gets SO WORKED UP AND EXCITED whenever I open the door that I think his excitement scares off Rainbow. 

So here I am…camera phone in one hand…excited jumping dog I am trying to calm in the other hand…Rainbow running away…this happened at least four times! 

I snapped a few shots and posted the one that came out the best for Relle.  I hope she likes it.  I’ll keep trying to get a better shot for Relle.  I gotta figure out what to do with Snowball…gotta get a better plan than the one I used this week because the dog is out of control and Rainbow doesn’t like it!  Hahaha! 

Side Note: For anyone who is aware that a few months ago I posted a photo of my two dogs – their names are Huckleberry and One Way – and in this blog I am talking about a dog named Snowball – the reason is because my two guard dogs are now at TOA and Snowball (a stray puppy Eli rescued who would be dead if he hadn’t picked it up from the road) came to live at my house because Eli said he needed someone to show him love and since Huckleberry and One Way were so happy and fat they didn’t need so much love from me anymore. 

Yep…the logic in that statement kind of threw me for a loop too, but what am I going to do…Snowball needed some love and I couldn’t have all three dogs here. 

Did I forget to mention that the TOA cat (her name is Cupcake) is now living in my hallway with her four baby kittens…I got a lot of animals here!!! 

FYI:  I will be writing a blog next week showing off the kittens and their names…you are going to love their names!