Kenya girls

I'm sorry I have been so delinquent in updating our blog since I came home from Kenya. Mike did such a great job keeping it going while I was gone. I'll do my best to keep it up now that I'm getting back into a routine. Kenya was wonderful, and I plan to put pictures and stories up on the blog once I get all of my thoughts together. I've been working on organizing my thoughts and everything I've learned. These are pictures of the girls are of them wearing the outfits I bought them in Kenya. Isabelle's was a little big - I had to roll the skirt 4 times to get it to fit. But don't they look adorable? :)

Day 14

Sunday was a productive and a fun day as well. Grandpa and Grandma came over. Grandpa helped me work on the garage (new trim, paint the trim, etc) in preparation for the new garage door that will be installed on Wed. Grandma helped with the girls. Olivia, Isabelle and I took them out to dinner at The 50's Grill afterward to say, "thank you." The girls actually ate more than just ice cream this time and had fun playing checkers and listening to the jukebox!

Day 13

Saturday was cleaning day! We did a few loads of laundry, put clothes in the closet and dressers, picked up around the house and did the dishes together (well, Isabelle and Olivia played with the bubbles). It was a good, fun day all-around.

We had Lisa and Jesse "over" for dinner. Ok, well, actually Lisa did the cooking, we just ate the meal at our house. Later that day, Jesse and I went to a very awesome Tool concert at the Target Center while Lisa played with the girls and put them to bed.

Day 12

Today marked Auntie Stef's last day babysitting the girls while Heather is in Africa. The girls are always excited when Auntie comes, so it's been wonderful having her here. Auntie and Isabelle went to Como Zoo with some friends in the morning while Olivia went to school. Olivia rode a tricycle for about 10 "pedalings" (is that a word?) all by herself today! Her PT was very impressed... as was I upon hearing it!

The day was big for the girls too because they got a chance to hear Mommy today! Heather called during lunch and it sounds as though she's doing well. She may or may not have an opportunity to blog in the next day or two. The girls faces beemed when they first heard mommy's voice over the speakerphone. My face was beeming, too!

Day 11

We'll mark today down as the "long nap" day. Olivia's nap was over 2 and 1/2 hours today. That's amazing! I guess Auntie Stef really tired them out in the morning. Grandpa visited as well. The girls are coming down with a cold I think. Very runny noses and they didn't sleep well at night. Literally, one of them was up every half hour throughout the night (they alternated). To say the least, I'm a bit sleepy myself now...

Day 10

Another fun-filled day for the girls! Auntie Stef watched the girls today. While Olivia was away at school, Isabelle made a new friend today. A friend of Stef's came to visit and she brought her son. The playdate went great and Isabelle had a blast playing with him and sharing snacks!

Day 9

Grandpa and Grandma watched the girls again today. They had a wonderful time playing at Grandpa and Grandma's house and even picked up the pictures taken with the disposable camera from the store for me! Grandpa helped get rid of almost all the tree branches in our garage today. That was very nice! This picture is of Olivia practicing her kick move, "The K says keh," while watching Leap Frog!

Day 8

One week ago today Heather began her trip to Africa. All of us miss her dearly, but we pray that she's having the time of her life! Olivia had her 3rd day of school today. She really played well with her Speech therapist after class, so that was encouraging to see her warm up to her. Olivia took a 2 hour and 45 minute nap today. See, I told you last night was rough. Isabelle slept well as well and had fun with Grandpa and Grandma today. It's great having another Grandma here. Know why? One week ago today, Heather left... and Mike still has yet to have to cook a meal! I think I made eggs one morning. Anyway, I appreciate the prayers for sleeping. So far, so good tonight!

Day 7

Oh boy. Kind of a rough day today. We all made the most of it however. We started the day off all a bit tired, but still had a pretty good morning. The girls made it through almost the entire church service without any meltdowns. I was impressed. There's only so long a kid can sit through a church service... especially on Rally Sunday with Sunday School teacher installations and communion, etc, etc... even I was getting antsy to get going. The afternoon consisted of short naps, dance time (where we bop 'til we drop and Isabelle wears her dancing hat), and a visit to the Mall and Target. Bath was successful today. I consider it a success anytime I don't deal with major splashing. I got squirted by a plastic turtle, but no major water battles. Very rough night for Olivia falling asleep (took about an hour and a half). If you think of it, prayers in that regard are appreciated. The past two nights she has woken up several times in the night crying. There's simply a lot of changes in her life these days. She still manages to light up a bright smile every now and then! Grandpa Bob and Grandma Lynn come over tomorrow, so I'm sure the girls will have a blast.

Day 6

What a nice leisurely day today was! Daddy and Grandma played with the girls in the morning. Afterward, we all took a nice drive through some beautiful neighborhoods near Bryn Mawr and Calhoun Lake on our way to Whole Foods. At Whole Foods, Olivia pointed us exactly to where the Pudding was! Daddy and Grandma weren't seeing it, so leave it to the pudding lover herself to point it out! The girls had an early nap (we actually had to wake Isabelle up early... much to her disapproval) and after nap we headed to the OK Corral in Jordan, MN for a family get-together hosted by SunGard (my employer). Unfortunately, all the animal petting and pony ride pictures were taken with a disposable camera, so I don't have those pictures to post yet. But here you can see they had a great time playing in the stagecoach! Today marked Grandma Bogie's last day with us. We were all sad to say goodbye, but so grateful she could come up!

Day 5

Day 5 marked Olivia's second day of school. She was very excited to attend. She's still a little apprehensive about daddy leaving the classroom, but she did well. She met her physical therapist (PT) and occupational therapist (OT) today. She had a blast riding a tricycle with PT and loved the big tire swing in OT. The girls continue to love having Grandma Bogie around. She is truly a blessing to all of us. And she continues to read to the girls at just about every opportunity (i.e. almost every time they ask). By the time she goes back to Worthington, I'm pretty sure Grandma will have "How much is that doggie in the window" memorized (it's an Isabelle favorite... to say the least).

Day 4

Day 4 has been a day for bumps, bangs and bruises. Grandma Bogie can provide most of the details, though in the short time I was home, I did manage to witness three falling incidents, two of which led to some bleeding and one that led to knee scraping. And all three of those were pretty much within an hour's timeframe!

Today is Grandma Lynn's birthday. Auntie Stefanie (that's right, if you didn't see the name correctly, that's AUNTIE STEFANIE... inside joke...) invited us to go out to dinner at Fuddruckers with her and Grandma Lynn. Sad to say, but the girls pretty much just ate ice cream for dinner (oh, the things they get away with when mommy is not around).

During the day the girls had a great time playing at the park with Grandma Bogie, doing crafts and making a birthday card for Grandma Lynn!

Nairobi Assessments

We did our first assessment today in Nairobi. The day started out with a bumpy van ride into town. (Although we're told nothing like the ride to Kisii will be tomorrow.) It's amazing to see all the people walking dosn the side of the street, and all the little shops along the road.

The assessments went really well, and so did the nutrition education classes. We learned so much about the people of Kenya. One of the most interesting discussions of the day was about the nutrition aquired from eating the kidneys of cows. The debate between the Kenyans was whether you should eat them raw right after slaughtering the cow, raw afte it has been sitting out a while, or cook them. - Was that too much information?

Tonight we'll spend the evening scoring assesments, and hopefully going to bed early, as we have a long, dusty, bumpy day of travel tomorrow.

Please pray for my back. It is starting to become a bit sore, so I have been doing my stretches a lot. I am hopeful that it will be fine, an dprying a lot. We would also appreciate prayers for safe travel tomorrow.

Thank you all!
Heather

Day 3

The BIG DAY finally arrived for Olivia! Today was her first day of school! It was a bit warm today so we couldn't wear the complete outfit we had hoped to, but she still got to sport her new shoes, new pants and a fancy dancy school bag (which, she was quite proud and happy to carry). School went very well. She was a bit apprehensive when she found out daddy wasn't staying in the classroom with her the entire time. Her lunch "treat" on the way home after school was McDonald's. Mmmmm....

Isabelle took well to the one-on-one attention she was able to receive from Grandma. Everytime I'm home it appears as though she's doing her dance, gymnastics, jig, etc. to get Grandma's attention. Before bed she was able to "convince" Grandma to read her a story while Olivia wound down watching Barney.

Kenya schedule

Hi! We went through our (tenative) schedule, so I thought I would share it with you all.

Sept. 6: very low key with team meetings, etc. in Nairobi
Sept. 7: AIDS Assessment in Niarobi
Sept.8: Travel to Kisii
Sept. 9: AIDS Asssessment in Kisii
Sept. 10: Sunday service, then travel to Maasai Mara national park, do some safari and stay
Sept. 11: Maasai Mara, morning safari, then travel back to Kisii
Sept. 12: AIDS Assessment for Lake Diocese
Sept. 13: Travel to Pokot
Setp. 14: AIDS Assessment Pokot
Sept. 15-16: Report Compilation (recording data) in Kisumu
Sept. 17: Travel to Nairobi
Sept. 18: Leave for US

This is a rough schedule, subject to change at any time. I do not know how often I'll have internet access/time to blog. I'll do my best.

Love,
Heather

Kenya schedule

Hi! We went through our (tenative) schedule, so I thought I would share it with you all.

Sept. 6: very low key with team meetings, etc. in Nairobi
Sept. 7: AIDS Assessment in Niarobi
Sept.8: Travel to Kisii
Sept. 9: AIDS Asssessment in Kisii
Sept. 10: Sunday service, then travel to Maasai Mara national park, do some safari and stay
Sept. 11: Maasai Mara, morning safari, then travel back to Kisii
Sept. 12: AIDS Assessment for Lake Diocese
Sept. 13: Travel to Pokot
Setp. 14: AIDS Assessment Pokot
Sept. 15-16: Report Compilation (recording data) in Kisumu
Sept. 17: Travel to Nairobi
Sept. 18: Leave for US

This is a rough schedule, subject to change at any time. I do not know how often I'll have internet access/time to blog. I'll do my best.

Love,
Heather

in kenya

Hi everyone! i'm writing to you from our first place in KENYA> SORRY FOR ERRORS IN SPELLING, etc. this keyboard sticks a bit. for our first 3 days we will be here at a missionary compound in nairobi. i am having a wonderful time! i just bought my first souveniers a minute ago. on our trip, only one person lost luggage, and we''re hopeful it will come in today. we have so far been pleasantly surprised with our living arrangements. we all have beds, blankets, mosquito nets, and hot showers.

i will update you all on the blog when i can. we never know if or when we will have internet access. thank you all for your prayers. mike, olivia and isabelle, i miss you dearly and love you more!

blessings,
heather

Day 2

Whew! Day 2's blog almost didn't come to fruition (I forgot our username and password... eventually got it figured out). Grandpa Bob and Grandma Lynn watched the girls today. They had an exciting day of visiting Auntie Stefanie at her work, eating Frosty's and playing outside. Grandma Bogie arrived just as I was putting Olivia to bed, but Isabelle was eager to put on a show. That was the first time I saw her do a summersault (sp?), but she was happy to put on a little dance and do some gymnastics for Grandma. Olivia went to bed 15 minutes earlier than normal tonight... big day tomorrow (hint: 1st day of school!).

Day 1

Well, today is Day 1 of Heather's mission trip to Kenya. I (Mike) have now taken control of the blog and, well, we'll just see how it goes. The girls and I went to the airport with Heather. We went in with and waited while she received her ticket/boarding pass. We said our goodbyes and headed out of the airport around 9:45am. I wasn't quite yet in the mood to be alone with the girls so we visited Auntie Stef (and Grandpa Bob and Grandma Lynn happened to be there, too). We stayed for about 30 minutes and then headed home. Isabelle had a hard time going down for nap. Both girls didn't nap all that well. The first 4 or 5 hours without Heather were hard for me, but I'm starting to feel better. We played at the park after nap and went home and had some hot dogs for supper before bath and bedtime. They're currently both sleeping. Yea! Hope you like the pics (as you can tell, I apparently can't figure out how to get them in the appropriate order)!

Remembering

I think it't fun to look back at old pictures every so often. Here are shots of the girls last year at this time. They have grown so much!