Has It Been Two Weeks Already?

I was realizing today that we've already been back from the village for just over 2 weeks now.  Wow!  Time never goes by this quickly in the village.  Often, days can feel as though they are a good 36 hours long, rather than the normal 24!

Life has been busy, busy, busy.  Here is a quick summary of what's been going on these past weeks:

The weekend we got back was Carnival.  Every year around the end of October the High School kids (and parents and teachers) work really hard to put on Carnival... a fair/fun day.  There are rides (slip-n-slide, ferris wheel, pony rides, face painting, a maze) and food (things like ice cream, pizza, and other goodies where the main attraction is that I didn't have to make them!).  It's just a fun day to hang out with friends while the kids have a blast.

COTTON CANDY!!!!!   (a very rare, special treat!)

Nathan on the homemade Ferris Wheel.  It's powered by several teenage boys who spin it around and around.

 The following day, Elijah came down with a nasty stomach bug.  He was sick and throwing up for four straight days.  The first 26 hours he wasn't able to keep anything, even water, down.  I was pretty worried and took him to the clinic.   But as it was only a virus, there wasn't much they could do.  Thankfully, after those first 26 hours, he did a little better and only threw up like 3 times a day.  Needless to say, we were exhausted and very thankful when it finally went away.

Unfortunately, ever since then, Elijah has been a grumpy, clingy mess.  I'll be honest and admit that I've had a really hard week and have felt pretty discouraged at times.  It's just hard when it's impossible to do anything, or go anywhere without a screaming baby hanging onto my legs for dear life.  He's suddenly developed a fear of being left.  I can't even go into the next room to put away laundry without him screaming because I left his sight.  Sigh.  I was very, very thankful for my dear friend and house help, Tina, who was happy to watch him on Thursday morning, in spite of his screaming.  I was able to talk to a friend on the 2-way radio while Tina watched him, and later to take Julianne to a playgroup, while Elijah slept at home.

It's hard to believe that this cutie can be such a grouch!

Last Saturday, we had a "Birthday Celebration Take Two".  Since Matt, Justin and Elijah all had birthdays while we were in the village, we had a second little celebration so they could open up the presents from Grandparents that had come while we were away.

Ice Cream for Lunch!  Fun Fun!

I made strawberry and chocolate ice cream, and we ended up having that for lunch!  Definitely a special treat as we don't have ice cream often (too expensive to make!), and especially not for lunch.  But birthdays are the best time to do special things!

Trying out the Mario Kart Wii game Justin got for his birthday

On top of all this, we have 3 of our Nukna co-translators up here to work with Matt for about 3 weeks.  Yesterday they finished revising Mark, and today they started in on Luke.  They are great guys, but it does mean some extra work for me.  I make lunch for them a couple times a week, and I spent several days this week, baking muffins out the wazoo!  Banana, Zucchini and Apple.  Now I have a stockpile in the freezer for breakfasts for the kids (throw a few chocolate chips into the zucchini muffins and call them choc chip and my kids will eat them... if I just called them "zucchini" my prejudiced kids would refuse them without even trying) and for coffee breaks for the guys.

This weekend, the business begins!  Tomorrow night we're looking forward to enjoying a Mexican Dinner with good friends (thanks again to the High Schoolers!).  Then next weekend we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving.  Here, Thanksgiving isn't a holiday, and Thursday will be just a normal school/work day.  So we'll be celebrating on Saturday instead.  But more on that in another post.  From here on out, I think we have something fun to do every (or almost every) weekend until Christmas.  I love being in Ukarumpa during this time of the year.  It is still hard to have to be away from family over the holidays, but with lots of fun activities and with dear friends to spend time with, it's a little easier to get through the holidays.

So, that's what's been going on here for the past two weeks.  What have you been up to?