ahhh salsa!

Okay so I guess I will blog some today. Nothing better to do on a very beautiful sunny day here in West Africa. Ha! Just kidding. Well not really it is a beautiful day here... like always. We are gonna miss the sunshine when we move but are really looking forward to rainy days. It has been such a long time since I have smelled the scent of rain - not sure what it was like. Let's see maybe I will inhale and remember......... nope not there.
So anyways I am thinking we should start packing today. Even though the moving company will pack everything I am not sure they will clean all the sand and dust off our things before packing it. SO.... I guess I better start taking the desert off of lamps etc...
Right now Luke is playing with his cars and tractors and Abby is at the table eating salt and vinegar chips... Like mother like daughter. Spencer is still in bed. We have been so tired lately. I think it has something to do with moving internationally again. Moving can be a little stressful. The moving company comes on Wednesday. That is 4 days from now. Wow! It is coming soon. We are keeping the kids in school until next Friday. The longer the better. Plus the last days here will be filled with paying bills and all that fun stuff. Hopefully our car will sell SOON. I think this is what is stressing me out so much. Someone buy our car!!!

Okay off to get the boss out of bed.
Love you guys... remember life is too short.... play (I mean eat salsa) hard!
April

Abby is so sneaky!

Okay so my daughter is so sneaky. She is getting the older girls at school to buy her snacks. The girls just love her and she gets to decide everyday which one is her mom... I think based on my her snacks and carrying her around school. Yes I have talked with her about it. She told me at first they were suppose to buy her toys but now just snacks. Plus she also sneaks out of the park area for her age to see these girls. O-yeah she also sneaked out of afterschool gymnastics to play with them. Oooo I got her for that one.

Anyways we are on the count down until we leave for the states. Well kinda, right now i am tired so not sure what the days are left.

So Spencer got stopped by a police the other day. Yes dad he got a ticket! The ticket was for something expiring on the car. Go figure... this seems to always happen to us. There are so many different steps here to actually get your car legal to drive we must have skipped one. SO the po po decided not to take the car after our pastor and his wife came to the rescue.
This morning Spencer and I went down to the police station to pay our ticket.. they guys just told us that he would spank us next time and didn't make us pay anything. wahoo! SO we got back in our car and headed to the place to pay the expired thingy ma bop. it was a total of about $5 --- $6 if you include the $1 we spent on the guy watching our car at the police station. It was so funny. I think the guy was used to getting a smaller tip b/c when Spencer gave him his 500 cfa.. which is about 1 dollar on a good exchage rate day... he was trying not to smile. Then as he walked away he pulled the coin back out of his pocket and looked at it again. It was funny.
Oyeah i forgot to tell you... today at the police station (mom you can skip this part) I was walking along and there was this guy brushing his teeth. Well kinda some people here us this stick to clean their teeth with. Not sure what it is called but apparently Mohammad used to clean his teeth with this kind of stick. Anyways so he started to say something to me and the pieces of his stick came rushing out of his mouth onto me. I was like... gross you just spit on me. he just looked and kept talking. Yuck!! I guess you would have had to been there. Trust me YUCK!

Okay all for now... plleaasseee pray that our car will sell. We really do not want to move with this burden...

Okay love all yall and always remember... Hakuna matata - No worries in Swahili (one of the Rwanda languages) ahhhh more lanugages to learn.

our crazy schedule!

So here is an update on what and where we are doing this summer. We will be packing up our house on the 20th of this month. May! Yay :) After they company comes and loads everything up we then move down the road to a guest house. This guest house is really cool because there are a couple of kids that live on the property and there is a couple of basketball goals and a tire swing. The kids will enjoy themselves there. We have decided to go ahead and keep the kids in school until the 22nd. This will give us time to tie up loose ends of our house and stay in Dakar.

Our plane leaves Dakar at 9:50 pm so that means we have to be at the airport at 7:50. Our plane gets to Brussels at 5:30 am the next day. This flight is 5 hours and 40 minutes. Wow what a trip. I hope the kids can sleep on the plane good. Then we leave Brussels at 11:05 am and arrive in Chicago at 12:50 pm. This flight is 8 hours and 45 minutes. Leave Chicago at 3:34 pm and arrive in Kansas City at 5:10 pm. This flight is 1 hour 25 minutes.
Our friends Jason and Jewel Alvis is hosting us the night we get there. They are crazy because they are actually moving to Korea the next day! But we really look forward to seeing them and their cute little kids.

Okay here are some other dates:
May 31 AM - Greenbrier, AR
June 7th AM - Clarksville, TN - Park Lane
June 7th PM - Nashville, TN - Nashville First
June 11th AM - Greenbrier, AR - AR District Assembly NMI Luncheon
June 14th AM - Jonsboro, AR - Jonesboro Forest Home
June 14th PM - OPEN
June 21st AM - Cullman, AL - Cullman
June 21st PM - Gardendale, AL - Gardendale
June 22nd we will head down to Orlando for our General Assembly and Conventions. This happens every 4 years in the Church of the Nazarene. We are still not sure if we will head straight to Lakeland or to Orlando. Probably stop in Lakeland for the night and then head to Orlando on the 23rd. Yay I get to see my parents! We have to get there a day earlier because of the booth we are needing to get ready. Come and see us in the exhibit hall! FEF booth in the Africa Region.
June 28th AM - ALL the Nations Service in Orlando (we are not speaking :) )
June 28th PM - Lakeland, FL - Lake Gibson
July 1st PM - Lakeland, FL - Highland Park
July 5th AM - Midland Valley

Wow what a schedule. God is so good! We are excited to be at every church that is planned and really look forward to seeing family and friends. Yay! Here we come!

July 8th we leave for Rwanda from Nashville, TN. Our layover is in Brussels again so it is almost the same flight as far as time goes. We will arrive in Kigali, Rwanda on July 9th at 6:45 PM.

Okay any questions? No... good! See ya soon and remember... God is good... all the time!

April

PS - the picture is our car here in Dakar.... PLEASE pray with us that we can sell it! We are really needing the money from it to help with our needed 4X4 in Kigali!!!!!