I Have a Snake on my Kitchen Counter

It's 1 pm here in Sierra Leone and I just thought I would share a "day in the life of the Campbells". And if you want to skip the first part... I promise the end gets more exciting with pictures.

5:45- woke up... Got coffee going. Spent a few minutes in Bible study before

6:15- Archer woke up. Put on a backyardigans for Archer while I finished my bible study/coffee/scripture memory review

7:00 Aden woke up. We're working on reminding him to turn off the fan in his bed before he comes out (energy conservation because otherwise I will forget it's on until nap time. It's rainy season so the solar doesn't charge as efficiently so we need to save electricity where we can)

7:30 Aden helped me make some orange cranberry muffins for breakfast that we just got on our container that arrived two days ago which is akin to Christmas in Sierra Leone. 

8:00 I sent in the "assassins" as John calls them to wake him up. We eat breakfast and John leaves to get started on work.

8:30 John and Chad start working on a short circuit of the solar that pumps water from the dam at our property to the nearby community.  This involves digging up some electrical lines. Oh and it's raining today. I did some breakfast dishes and then started not to feel well because I took some medicine on an empty stomach so then Aden and I watched a Mickey mouse movie while Archer played around. 

10:00 After laying down for the movie I was feeling better so got the kids dressed and joined Robin in working on making decisions about what we should unpack from the container of Emily's.

11:00 We put together baby Ben's crib although I'm sure it took us twice as long as it would have taken John or Chad. We felt accomplished and excited for their arrival in less than a month!!! Yay! We made some plans of what to wait to get ready a little closer to their arrival. Picture Archer running around trying to get into everything between making escape attempts while we do all of the above.

12:00 Robin and I split up to make lunch for our families. While I'm whipping up some Mac n cheese for the boys and leftovers for me, I see John and our guys trying to get the snake out of the tractor. 

They tried pouring boiling water in the tractor arm yesterday with no success.

Today they tried turning on the tractor, moving the arms up and down, sticking long sticks in the arms. Finally, after John used up almost a full can of insect spray, the snake made its way out of its little nesting place and was slithering on the ground.  One of the well drilling guys (the one with the umbrella in the picture below) hit it with a stick. That and the poison spray made him rather slow moving.

And now I have a snake in an old peanut butter container on my kitchen counter.

12:45 We eat lunch. Archer goes down for his nap and John and Chad go back out in the rain to make sure we have water pumping to the community.

Water Fight!!!

We're in the heaviest part of rainy season right now. The rain stopped this morning just in time for a water fight with a water gun and a ketchup bottle.

I love this progression of pictures!

Aden's expression during his fleeting victory

Owen starting to get the upper hand

RUN AWAY!!! RETREAT!

Here are a few more pics from our outside time today:

Aden soaked to the bone wondering why I'm always wanting to take pictures of him having fun.

Archer upset after sitting down and realizing the grass was soaking wet!

He's BAAAACK!

John made it home in record speed (thanks to our friend Ruth that met him at the airport and had all his luggage already collected for him as he went to collect it!!) By 8:30 pm he was enjoying some yummy fajitas that Robin made:

Today, John woke Aden up with his new remote control car going crazy in his room! Thanks Grandma Campbell!

The boys enjoyed some nice gifts from daddy, the grandparents, and some aunties!

 

But their favorite present of all was having this guy back to play rough with:

24 Hour Delay

John left yesterday from Phoenix. While in Dulles he got an email that said his flight from Brussels to Freetown was delayed 24 hours. Poopy. 

This doesn't always happen, but as John told me this news... I was sad that I wouldn't get to see him the next day but I also had such a peace wash over me that could have only come from God. My heart is quiet and at peace. 

John's sad face at not getting home to us today

Right now he is in Brussels at a hotel with free meal vouchers. He did make it out to enjoy a hamburger and a beer in walking distance from the hotel. Plus he gets a good night's rest to break up his long plane flights.

John in Brussels

Did I mention John got to fly first class from Phoenix to Dulles? Our travel agent booked the flight through Brussels instead of United Airlines. With United every additional luggage past the first two free ones is usually $200. John had been planning to bring 3-4 extra luggage with project materials. But because Brussels charges $650 for additional luggage, John would have had to pay over $2K which would have been out of our price range. My mom thought of a loop hole. If he upgraded to first class ($179) his first two pieces of luggage would be alloted 70 pounds each instead of the usual 50 pounds. And then he would get the usual $200 price for additional luggage. Basically it ended up being like a free upgrade since he paid $179 for an additional 40 pounds of luggage.

Now to keep myself busy for another 24 hours...

Here's my excited face to see John

T-ball Time

Aden had a blast on his birthday. He got a nerf bow and arrow set, paw patrol figurine and puzzle, Leonardo TMNT, a Theo movie, race cars, and a bunch of sand and water toys.

Bow and arrow from Grandma and Grandpa Hunt

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and race cars from the Simmses and Sosas 

One gift I was really touched by was from a sweet 9 year old. The Courtney kids like to play baseball in the yard. Aden always liked the idea of baseball but is a little too young to be able to participate. A couple months ago I mentioned it would be nice if we had a t-stand so Aden could participate a little more. Owen must have got to thinking because on Saturday, Aden got to open this:

It's made from PVC pipe and the black part I think is from an old tractor part. They cleaned and painted out black. How sweet and thoughtful is that? It came with a nice soft bat and ball :)

Later we played and Aden wanted he and I to try to hit it at the same time. My competitive nature kicked in and I hit it first and got a home run! (Nobody else was in the field because Owen was taking pictures LOL) I've included the ones where I'm making a funny face so you're welcome :)

Rounding the bases!

At home plate! 

We are so blessed to have Owen as our neighbor. God knew just what Aden would need for a friend. They build sand castles together, play bad piggie together, and rough house all the time. We love you Owen!

In other news, John is on his way to the airport right now and WE ARE SO EXCITED!!! We can't wait to have our daddy and hubby back :) 

Happy 4th Birthday Aden!

Four years ago, my sweet little baby boy Aden made his entrance. Now, he will not let me call him my baby and insists he's a big boy.

Just looking at these pictures makes me want to cry! 

You are bright, joyful, energetic, and you are so full of zeal for life and for people. My prayer is that you grow in all of these traits and God grows you in areas of compassion for others, patience, obedience, and a love for God and others that moves you to action. 

Just some day to day things I want to remember about this age:

1. You could still take or leave food. If there is something fun to be doing or playing with, food can wait.

2. Favorite foods: donuts, French toast, Grandpa's Mickey Mouse pancakes, fruit snacks, peanut butter and honey sandwiches (new!), grilled cheese sandwiches, mac n cheese, cookies, chocolate milk, dessert of any kind (except ice cream! What?) I see a common thread in many of these foods! Who did he get this sweet tooth from? Yikes! That being said... You are not picky... You like chicken, fish, and will eat almost everything, particularly if we feed it to you. 

3. As of a couple days ago, you dropped your afternoon nap but are going to bed earlier. We are still doing rest time in your room (mostly so mommy can get a nap or do some chores).

4. You LOVE the Courtney family and ask to go over there all the time.  You LOVE hanging out with Owen, Auntie Robin, Anabelle and your best buddy Gight (Dwight). I can easily see why, they love you so well!

5. You can read! I actually gave you a break from teaching you how to read but you can already sound a lot of words out. I recently read a book called Better Late Than Early that basically insisted there is no rush in teaching kids to read and that it potentially can dampen their desire to read later on if forced. That being said... I think you will be an early reader, I just decided to revisit reading maybe in another six months and just let you be a kid for a little while longer.

6. You LOVE your daddy. You want to be as tall and strong as your daddy. Anytime you're around him, you say "want to play a rough game?" Which involves all sorts of dangerous tom foolery and jumping on beds in which I have to leave the room. 

7. Other things you love: running in the rain, playing in the sand box, trains, learning about dinosaurs, backyardigans,  looking at pictures in books, running back and forth down the hallway with Archer, all your grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

8. You make me laugh in the things you're starting to say:

-"What am I? Chopped liver?"

-"Archer, you've made a terrible mess!"

-When I suggest something you don't want to do "hey! I've got a good idea" and then give a different option.

- When Archer tries to take a toy or food away from you, you cry out some weird hybrid of the word "pancake" over and over again. I think it's your attempt at showing your displeasure about the situation but you'll often start laughing when we point out that you're, in fact, saying "pancake".

Here are a couple more pictures of you that I think exemplify your fun-loving personality:

You are such a joy and I'm so thankful that God gave me you... A precious gift, inheritance, and reward from the Lord. We have a fun day planned to celebrate you today and I can't wait for you to see some fun little gifts your family has sent you! We love you Aden Justus!

Piñata Fail

Aden's 4th birthday is coming up in three days. John is gone to the states so amidst our sadness of not having him around, I decided to try and make Aden's birthday really fun!

So yesterday Robin and all the kids and I set out to make a piñata by doing our own paper maché around a balloon. 

Problem one: the balloons we have have been kept at a constant level of warmth (75-95 degrees year round) and humidity for probably a couple of years. Most of the elasticity of my and John's lounging shorts don't last that long in this weather. On balloon #4, we finally made it to the stage of putting the first layer of paper maché on the balloon. The first three balloons popped soon after being blown up or in my face. We precariously hung up our paper maché outside to dry.

I was actually really impressed that it didn't bust within the first few hours. It even made it over night despite a slight loss of air.  Which brings us to:

Problem #2: The humidity during rainy season is 70-100%. Apparently, paper maché doesn't dry in that kind of humidity.  Under the weight of all that wetness, our sweet piñata fell to its demise. I propped it up on a water bottle in hopes that it can be revived but I have my doubts.

Plan B: making a piñata out of a cereal box. We're fancy like that :)