Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a fun Valentine's Day! Well as much fun as working 12 hours can be. But Zander and my hubby visited me at work and brought me lunch. It was so nice to see both of them while at work. I miss my boy very much when I am working, well I miss both of my boys! Then I came home from work and spent some time with my boys before my little boy, Zander, went to bed. Happy Valentine's Day!

Mommy and Zander in our Valentine outfits

Daddy and Zander

The heart toast I made for Zander

Zander got mail in his mail box!

A Valentine from mom and dad

I love you Zander!

Flying to Kenya

Okay, I'm not flying to Kenya today, but I sure wish I were, with my family of course. But 3 years ago today, around this time, I was in the air to Kenya, Africa. I was very excited, but tired. The night before I had flown from Chicago to London, an 8 hour flight, and had not gotten much sleep on the flight. I had about a 6 hour lay over in London. And this is when I first met Linda, my roommate in Kenya. During our lay over in London, Linda, Claude (the photographer of our trip), and I roamed around London.

Linda, my roommate in Kenya, and I waiting for a train while in London

Claude, the photographer of our trip

We even had lunch at this cute little cafe in London.

Right before our flight to Nairobi, Kenya, we met the other team members of the Compassion trip and the 2 team leaders. We flew through the night, like I had on my flight from Chicago to London. Linda and I tried to sit by each other on the plane to Nairobi, but the people next to us would not switch. I had a rough 8 hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya, it was worse than the flight to London. I sat in the middle seat of the 5 seat row. On one side of me I had a 15 year old girl who liked to watch cartoons all night and laughed loudly at them. On the other side of me I had a little boy who was very excited to be going on a Safari with his family, and every time I was almost asleep he would jab my seat in excitement. Even though I didn't get much sleep those 2 nights, and I was jet lagged, I was very excited to see what the next 12 days had in store for me. I had no idea how awesome this trip would be. I met some of the greatest people ever on my trip to Kenya, Africa.

Wordless Wednesday

Snow

It snowed all day, and we will be getting more throughout the night and into tomorrow morning. It was no fun driving in the snow today. I thought it would be slow in the Emergency Room today, because it snowed all day long. Boy was I wrong. We were very busy.

I read Zander this book tonight, I thought it was fitting.

Compassion Kenya, Africa

 On this day 3 years ago, I was on a plane to London, England, where I met an AMAZING group of people, and then we all hopped on a plane on 2/10/07 and flew to Nairobi, Kenya Africa  (I still have 2 voice mails from that day, one from my best friend, Tracy, and the other from my husband).  I was on a trip with Compassion International.  This trip was a trip I will never forget.  I had been married for only 6 months when I went to Africa.  Being apart from my husband for 12 days was hard, but the trip was worth it.  Those 12 days were so emotional for me.  The poverty over there IS overwhelming.  I have so much to say about my trip.  I journaled some while I was there, but not as much as I wanted to.  SO, now that I have this blog, I am going to use these days to tell about my amazing Africa trip.  You can catch a glimpse of my trip and the continent and country I love in the pictures below.  And I will be sharing more of my story and my heart for this continent in the days, to come.  And compassion is taking some bloggers to Kenya in March.  I wonder if they will be going to some of the same places I went to.  If you would like to sponsor a child through Compassion International, just go Here and see what God has in store for you.   I never thought in a million years that I would meet the little boy that I sponsored.  I thought I would have to be rich to do that. (and I am not even close to being rich)  But I did, I met Mugambi, and it was life changing.

Mugambi and me, meeting for the first time!

 

 

I will share more in upcoming posts, I really need to get some sleep because I have to work in the morning!

Random post about nothing much

I had a very productive day today!  We are hoping to put our house up for sale on March 1st, so we are packing up some stuff in our house to declutter.  We live in a small house, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, and we are out growing it, bursting at the seams.  Today, I got a bunch of boxes packed.  I also did dishes and laundry and cleaned up around the house.  I have been so tired lately, but today I had a lot of energy.  I am loving it.  And I am so excited I got so much done.  We are expecting a snowstorm starting tonight and lasting until Wednesday.  I am not looking forward to the snow because I have to drive back and forth to work for the next 2 days, and get Zander after work.  I wish I was off the next 2 days. 

I finally took some pictures of Zander today.  It had been a few days since taking some of Zander.

Zander was chilling in his high chair.  Whenever he would smile big and giggle he would raise his leg up.  I don't really get that, but it was cute!

On another note, my mom and Auntie Ree stopped by today.  And my mom got a Valentine's gift for Zander.  She got him a cute frog hat, scarf and mittens. 

I love the mittens!

And since were talking about frog stuff, I had to share this picture of Zander after his bath this evening. 

Super Bowl Party

We hosted a Super Bowl Party at our house, and we had so much fun. Three couples came over with their kids, and my parents stopped by for part of the game. Before tonight we did not know two of the three couples really well, so it was really nice to get to know them better. Rachael and Jerrod came over with 2 of their three girls. Indy and Josh came over with their 2 kids, Isaiah and Naturael. And Jen and Sam came over with 2 of their 5 kids. We had such a nice time. I didn't really watch the game at all, but I am glad that the New Orleans Saints won. Even though I live in Indiana, I wasn't rooting for the Indianapolis Colts. I am a Chicago Bears fan, and I think I am still sad that the Colts beat the Bears 2 years ago in the Super Bowl. After we ate, the girl sat in one room and chatted while watching the kids play. The guys were in the other room watching the game. I loved getting to know these ladies even more that I already do. And we all decided we are going to go together to the Women of Faith Conference in Indianapolis in August, and then in September we are all going to go to the Beth Moore Conference in Chicago. The ladies of our church are going together to the Beth Moore Conference, but some of us also want to go to the Women of Faith Conference. I am so excited for both, and I think they will be so different, but yet so wonderful. Thanks Rachael, Indy, and Jen for a great night. I think Zander had fun too. He enjoyed all the girls doting over him. Rachael's daughter Harmony, who is three years old, loved taking care of Zander. She even wanted to help get him undressed and into his pajamas for bed. It was interesting and funny to see Zander crawling away as she was trying to get his shirt off. Then she gave him his bottle too. It was too cute! What a great night. I forgot to take pictures for most of the night. I am bummed about that, but I got a few of the our friends Sam and Jen and their 2 boys.

Jen and her youngest 2 boys, Anthony and Zachary

Brian and I

Jen, Anthony, Zachary, and Sam

I have to tell you a cute story about my 5 year old nephew, Tyler.  He is a die hard Chicago Bears fan, just like his parents.  They live in Indiana also, and most of their friends are Indianapolis Colts fans.  They went to a Super Bowl party and Tyler wanted to wear all of his Bears gear.  At first his mom didn't think it would be a good idea to wear any Chicago Bears stuff, but she agreed he could wear his Chicago Bears pants.  Then he said, well I won't wear my Bears shirt, but I will wear an orange shirt.  (One of the Bears team colors.)  I thought that was so cute.  He is such a loyal fan!  Go Chicago Bears!!!  Go New Orleans Saints!