The Odyssey

I woke up so tired today. I stayed up too late knowing that I needed to wake up pretty early. That’s the thing about having people visit you though. You want to use up every moment before they leave. For me, that means little rest and I don’t function well without rest. I also can’t nap. Well, I nap when I’m sick or if I’ve gotten like 2 hours of sleep or something. But, napping is a chore for me and downright impossible sometimes. I hadn’t see. Our friends in probably 5 years. I had only spoken with them a handful of times. Because of that, I’m very appreciative that they actually drove out here to see us. That’s special! I’m not a very good friend. I keep in touch sporadically. I thank God for Facebook because it gives me some semblance of pretending to talk to folks.  Anyway, I’m tired but didn’t want to miss a day. 

Well, life is slowly getting back to normal after the holidays. The kids are back in school and Dwayne is back at work today! Our friends are still here visiting but it's their last day. Tomorrow, they leave and we'll be back to the humdrum. I'm so happy they came to visit us. It's been wayyyyyyy too long since we've spent time with them. It's been fun catching up and the kids getting to know each other a bit. We spent some time snow tubing and playing games and watching movies and talking and talking and talking. Good times! One of my own shortcomings is that I don't keep in touch with folks. It's bad. I know it. I'm going to start making baby steps towards it though. Thank God for Facebook and Instagram or I wouldn't still be in touch with almost anyone. But, that's lazy. I know it. Anyway, when the kids come home, we'll go ice skating and have our last bit of fun before our friends head back to Florida.  That's day ...

It's the day of new starts and resolutions and all that good stuff. I never make resolutions. Mostly, because I know myself and I won't keep it. I try to live by a different rule where as I learn better, I do better. I wish I would apply that fully to my health though. Who knows? Maybe this will be the year. We brought the New Year in hanging out with friends that have been in our lives for almost 20 years and friends we've only known for 1 year. I think it's the perfect balance. New and old. Familiar and (relatively) unfamiliar. One thing that I'm working on is trying to have an attitude adjustment when it comes to my feelings about Utah. I really REALLY don't like it here. It just feels so foreign and like it's not really (temporarily) home for me. I don't feel settled or welcomed. But, I also realize that it's a pretty decent place. It's safe. It's beautiful. It's not too expensive. I'm going to try to blog every day this yea...

I'm in school again. While doing a little homework, my best friend texted me. She wanted to let me know about a man from the church I grew up in. He had a heart attack and died suddenly. He is (was) one of my daddy's good friends so she wanted to make sure I knew so I could check on him. He wasn't sick so this was completely unexpected. One time my aunt told me that one of the bad things about getting older is that all of your friends start to die off.  If the Las Vegas shooting and this death doesn't teach me anything, it should remind me that life is so short and can be cut off unexpectedly. This means: 1) I really need to do a better job of keeping in touch with the people that I love 2) I really need to be ready for death because a long life isn't guaranteed It's so easy to excuse the fact that I don't communicate regularly with people. I mean, come on, I have a husband and 3 kids, I'm in school, I live way out in Utah, I have church respo...

Always, in the back of my mind, is the thought that I should blog again. I miss it but I don't miss the feeling that I'm adding something else to my never-ending to-do list. So, I put it off. Then, I thought I'll start on the 1st of the month. But, I didn't. Then, I said I'll start on my 40th birthday. But, that passed. So, I woke up this morning on October 2nd and said I'm gonna blog today. This morning, I got up and started preparing breakfast for the family. A few minutes later, my husband said to me, "Hey, did you see this latest news story?" I didn't. He showed me. I found out that once again someone decided that human life is not valuable and decided to end the lives of a bunch of strangers. People who just wanted to enjoy themselves. People he didn't know. He decided to forever alter the lives of hundreds of family and friends of those 50+ people. I thought and decided that I'm gonna blog today. And tomorrow. And the next day. I...

Have you ever done something wrong? Something you know was wrong? Something you've already apologized for, repented of, tried to make amends for? But, then, years later, someone brings it back up and it's as if you just did the thing. That is the frailty of being humans. We can't forget wrongdoings, especially when we were the victim. Life is hard sometimes. We all have done something wrong. We've all felt guilty or ashamed because of a bad decision (or series of decisions) on our part. But, how long must the guilty continue to feel guilty? I'm so grateful today for this scripture. It comes from Micah 7:19; a part of the Bible rarely referenced. It says: "He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." Thank you, God!

Well, I've been thinking about getting back to the old blog. Since it's the first of the month, why not now. We are in a new place, again. Salt Lake City, Utah! We are somewhat settled now. Just waiting for our shipment from Angola which should arrive in the next two weeks. My goal is to blog every day for the month of September. I think that should get me back in the swing of things. We'll see. I think I have quite a bit to blog about though. New city, fitness, family...there's always something going on. I'm going to try to think of a schedule for myself though. I think this will give me something to break up the monotony of my days here. But for now, I'm going to explore some malls/shopping centers in solitude. 

I decided towards the end of last year that I would start blogging again. Then, I thought why not just start on Jan 1st. I planned this nice introspective post about new beginnings and making decisions to change our lives for the better. And, then... While eating breakfast, we heard a loud crash. This is what we found. Yep, a portion of the ceiling collapsed onto the floor because of a water leak. Also, there is mold. Great way to start off the year. Since it was new year's day, I knew there was no way that we could get anything done to fix this. So, we just put a trash can under the leak and swept the trash into that pile up there and moved on with our day. We left the pile because we want to make sure the maintenance people see it. The kids and I decided to go swimming. When we returned to our house, we noticed this. This house is super raggedy. We live on a compound of 100 houses that are exactly the same. Some are more raggedy than others beca...

I haven't made the time to transfer pics from my phones and cameras yet so that's why I haven't blogged about Namibia and South Africa yet. But, I remembered I never told this story. So, a couple months ago now, Danica started feeling ill. She said her stomach hurt and she had a really high fever and was just very lethargic. We have been warned continuously that any time anyone has a fever, they should be checked immediately for malaria. So, of course we headed to the clinic. There are only a couple clinics here where the company allows us to go for medical issues. At that time, there was only one in the city. So, I pack up the kids and we set off. I have Danica wrapped in her quillow because she was freezing cold. The driver sets off for the clinic. Unfortunately, although this is the primary clinic for expats like us, that doesn't mean there is always an English speaking person available. I keep telling the people (in my limited portuguese) that my daughter is sic...

I'm back for real this time... The main deciding factor for coming to Angola for 3 years was that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. When will we have another chance to live in Africa and travel around the continent. At my children's school, they get 3 breaks a year. They have Spring break for a week in October. Remember, we are south of the equator so the seasons are opposite. They have summer break in December for 3 weeks and then a 2 week fall break in March/April. Additionally, because this is considered a hardship assignment, the husband's company gives a stipend for R&R trips. For us, this means at least 3 African vacations yearly and then a trip to the US in June/July/August (not sure when we'll arrive or leave). After our stay here, we should have visited at least 9 countries. We've already begun our travels and I will blog in depth about those this week. In October, we went to Namibia and visited the cities of Windhoek, Swakopmund, and Soss...

Sorry for the long break! We had internet issues and then I just didn't feel like blogging. I'm back now and will post regularly. Boring!!! That adequately describes Luanda. There's not much to do here for fun. No bowling, skating, museums, children's fun places. There is a movie theater but it's in Portuguese so... On our compound, there is a swimming pool, tennis courts, soccer field, and playgrounds. But, it gets old seeing the same stuff all the time. There is a nearby beach called Mussulo which is a really nice spot. The problem is that I'm used to having a variety of things in Houston and here there just isn't much. So, we have to deal with the mundane existence here and then have a fabulous vacation every few months. It is what it is! One way to deal with it though is that people have regular get togethers. There are birthday parties every week. There are different groups that get together for different activities as well: book club, bible study...

Hey!!! Let me tell y'all about this church event we went to. For my Houston SDA folks, do you remember a few years ago when we had the Houston for Christ evangelism thing for the month of February. Well, they had a Luanda for Christ thing in Angola. It was introduced at the beginning of the year and then they had a 4 week crusade with nightly preaching which ended on September 21st. On that day, they rented out 2 soccer stadiums for the church service. It was quite amazing! In total, the report is that more than 23,000 people have been baptized so far this year. The goal is 1 million before the end of the year. So, the church that we've been attending was told to go to Dos Coqueiros stadium which seats about 12,000 people. We were told to get there by 8:30 so our family will be able to find seats together. That was good information because by 8:45 the place was almost full for an event starting at 9:15. And, there were people everywhere sitting on the steps, on the groun...

Today, I thought I would talk about some things here that are unique or really surprised me. Weave - Probably 75% of the people here are walking around with weave. This really surprised me. I'm assuming it must be pretty cheap to buy because poverty is real over here. I've been trying to figure out how to sneak a picture because it is installed in a very interesting way. Some people have tracks but for most it is different. At the root, it looks almost like palm rolled dreads. So...I think...the natural hair is palm rolled and then the weave is somehow glued onto that. I know I didn't describe it right but I'll get a pic one day. Just know there's a lot of weave and most of it looks a mess. So, these people hook a trailer up to the back of a motor bike and make it into a taxi. I haven't been able to get a good pic so this will have to do. I have seen like 15 people hanging onto the back. Crazy...dangerous. Women walking around with stuff on their ...

So, we are having a little issue around these parts. Danae is mad at the world right now. When Dwayne told her we were moving, she cried like a crazy person. This was expected though because she would miss her friends and family and all that. Then, she had a few moments of excitement about this move. Well, since she started school, we have gone back to the bottom. The problem...friends. She says that she doesn't have any friends. She says people don't like her and are talking about her. I think she's part of the problem. Now, my daughter tends to be a bit shy around new people and I get that. She met a little girl on the first day who has been talking to her and being very friendly. But, that little girl has other friends who don't know Danae and Danae isn't trying to know them too much either. As a matter of fact, when I walked her to class one day, another little girl spoke to her and she barely opened her mouth. I've been trying to tell her that she has to ...

After landing and finally getting through customs and getting all the bags loaded, we headed to our new house. We are living in a compound (just a glorified gated community) called Monte Belo Condominio. It is filled with 100 houses that are almost exactly the same. The only difference is one of the outside walls is painted a different color. Ours is gray. Our house was renovated before we got here because it began sinking and breaking when the previous tenants lived here. We have heard that all the houses here have had foundation issues because they were not built properly. Hopefully, ours will last for 3 years before falling apart again. So, the house is about 4000 sq ft. It has 3 bedrooms, an office, a game room, 5 1/2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, laundry room. It's also 2 story, which made the kids happy because they've wanted that for a while now. It came furnished but not all how we expected. For instance, we were told (and shown on our visit)...

I suppose it is time to dust off the old blog now. For those who don't know, my husband has a job assignment in Luanda, Angola for the next 3 years. We prayed about this and felt this was the right choice for our family at this time. Dwayne applied for his work visa and got it back in 1 month. We were told to expect a wait of 4-6 months. The children and I applied for our visas and 2 came back in 1 day with the other 2 arriving the following week. So, the task of moving to Angola was not an easy one. This is one of the most expensive cities in the world. Also, while things are greatly improving, it is also a city lacking a lot of the things we are accustomed to having in the States. So, we spent a lot of $$ to buy things that we may need over here for the next 3 years (or at least until we make it back to Houston next summer). We arrived at the airport on August 26th with 32 pieces of luggage to check in and about 6-7 more as carry-on items. Don't believe me, here's pro...

Two weeks ago, I weighed myself and I clocked in at 147.8. I know that's not huge in our society but for me it's too much. It's the most I've ever weighed (except when pregnant) and it's not cute. So, I decided to start doing something about it. I began exercising more regularly. The fact that I was going every now and then was doing nothing but wasting my time. I also increased my water intake and cut out some sweets. On Monday, August 22nd, I weighed 145.2. Today, I weigh 144.2. I'm loving the downward trend and must keep this up. My goal is between 130-135 and a trimmer waistline. My workout partner and I will be meeting twice a week. I will work out alone twice a week and rest Friday - Sunday unless we're doing something fun as a family. By the end of the year (but hopefully sooner), I will be at my goal weight with a much flatter belly. Can't stop... Won't stop...

Today was Danae's first day of school outside our home. She was excited! Dwayne and I were a little anxious. We were sending our daughter out to be cared for, and protected by, other people. But, we are confident that God will protect her and we know we chose a good school for her. She looked too cute in her uniform! She was the 2nd kid to arrive in her class and I could tell she was a little nervous. I'm sure by the time her friends arrived she was just fine though. Brayden was so excited until we were getting ready to leave. He didn't want to leave his big sister there. Dani didn't care but was sad to leave the playground. Home school started today as well. I love teaching my kids and Brayden is a dream. He catches on really fast and did well today. He enjoyed the science and math lessons but got bored with the reading and writing. portions. Danica worked on the letter A, her colors, and cutting. She loved the cutting! Oh, and she also enjoyed using th...

Dwayne bought the game Punch Out for our Wii. One of the characters is named Piston Honda. Danae said his name sounds like when daddy says "Brayden just pissed on himself". Get it? Piston = Pissed on. It was one of those funny moments that you can't necessarily laugh about in front on them. Can't encourage that behavior. Anyway, school is back in session and that holds true for school at our house. Brayden's handwriting is greatly improving. Danae is spelling new words every day and is finally getting the concept of phonics. She had the hardest time understanding how to sound out words. She would simply memorize how they looked and were spelled. Obviously, we still have hard words and lazy days but it's getting better. They're both doing well with addition too. I'm so proud of my kids. Can you tell? Danica is doing what she's supposed to I guess. She sits up, rolls around, and babbles constantly. The older two love seeing her progress and get excit...

I know it's been a very long time since I've written on this here blog. I've had a million things to write about but just haven't had the time or energy to collect my thoughts and post something. Now, my life is settled again so I'm back. The summer has been great. We've traveled quite a bit. We've spent time with family and friends. We've done some other cool things in our fair city. Now, school is back in session. Homeschool, that is. The kids are growing and enjoying life. I'm going to try to post something daily but we'll see how that goes. Until later,