NOVEMBER ARCHIVE
POSTED: November 30, 2007 Utilities !! We definitely take them for granted sometimes. We have been so thankful to have pretty reliable utilities where we live. We have had lots of problems with our utilities in the past. Andy used to joke by saying, “Yes, we have all the major utilities (phone, electricity & water) and sometimes we have them all in the same day.” In the past year or so, our utilities have been much better. We bought two water tanks to help store water for the days when we do not have city water. We bought a small generator to help us out when the electricity is out for a long time & our phone has been pretty reliable all on its own. Today, we started our move and we were reminded why we are so thankful for utilities that work. Andy took our water tower down today & disconnected our two water storage tanks. So, we no longer have water in our current house. He is going to move them to our new house tomorrow, put the water tower up & cement it in. We have to let the cement dry for a few days before we can put water in the tower at our new house. Once we put water in the tower, Andy can then plumb our new house. It’s about a week long process. So, as of about 3 PM today, we no longer had water. About 4PM, the power went out. So, for about 5 hours we were out of 2 of our 3 main utilities. At 8PM, the power came back on & boy we were happy !! It’s always fun when the power comes back on in our town because the entire town cheers !! It’s so much fun to hear ! Today was just one of those days that reminded us just how thankful we are for the blessing of working utilities ! POSTED: November 26, 2007 HAPPY THANKSGIVING !! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We actually celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday this year. We got together with a bunch of our friends in the Capital & had a HUGE Thanksgiving feast. It was a lot of fun. There was a trampoline for the kids to play on. I’m not sure who had more fun on the trampoline . . . Abby or Andy. We came back home last night and set up our Christmas Tree. Here’s Abby helping Daddy put the lights on the tree. Abby loves the lights We had a great visit with our volunteer team !! Abby already misses them so much. She wakes up every morning & asks for Donnie, Carol and Phil. We took them to our friend’s house so they could see the inside of a hut. Our family picture by the hut The children LOVE looking at their picture on the digital camera Can you find Abby in this picture ? She fits right in. We had a coffee ceremony at our house so our volunteers could see what REAL coffee tastes like. We also spent a day at the lake. We had a WONDERFUL time. Abby enjoyed the water & the sand. While our volunteers where here, we FINALLY got a picture of the mongoose that lives in our ceiling. We were eating dinner when we heard it rustling around. We left the dinner table, ran outside & Phil stood on top of our car with a spotlight so we could see it. It looks kind of like a cat at first glance, but once you see its tail and it’s coloring, you know it’s something different. POSTED: November 18, 2007 We’ve had a busy past couple of days. We took our team out to our goat project site to show them around. On our way there, we saw some farmers threshing wheat. Fati made some salty coffee for the team. The workers had a nice coffee ceremony all set up when we arrived. Donnie tasting his salty coffee Abby liked the roasted split peas We introduced them to all of the workers out at our project site. Here is one of our goat herders. We vaccinated some of the goats while we were there. Donnie helped hold the goat while Andy did the vaccination. Today, we took the team to some waterfalls that are just South of us We had a picnic lunch at the waterfalls Hatfield family picture at the waterfalls Andy washing his hair in the waterfall Phil & Carol with the canyon in the background Abby looking through the slats of a hut An interesting hut that we saw on our way to the waterfalls POSTED: November 16, 2007 We have a volunteer team here this week. We sure have enjoyed showing our friends around our town & introducing them to some of our friends here. We took them out to lunch today & introduced them to the local food. They really seemed to enjoy it. Abby’s become pals fast with her Uncle “Nonnie (Donnie).” She found out that he is the one that will give her coke, read a book to her or pretty much do whatever she wants. She absolutely loves being spoiled by her Uncle Donnie !! On Wednesday night, Abby got her first hair cut. She did such a great job sitting still. We took her to Boston Day Spa & they cut her hair for about $5. Abby seemed to enjoy all the attention. We stayed at a friend’s house while we were in the Capital. They had a little swing & Abby LOVED it !! Abby’s just now learning how to play pretend. The other day, she laid down in Molly’s (our dog) bed & started pretending to be a dog. It was really cute. POSTED: November 10, 2007 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY !!!! We celebrated Andy’s 31^st Birthday today !! We spent the day at home just relaxing as a family. We made chicken parmesan for dinner. Our power went out for the evening, so we had to celebrate with a candle light dinner. Andy even shared a little of his Birthday Dr. Pepper with Abby. What a treat !! It wouldn’t be a GREAT birthday without a little Birthday Pie !! POSTED: November 10, 2007 Here are some interesting things we’ve seen this week . . . A goat standing in a tree This is a school bus in one of the small towns we work in. We thought these kids were so cute ! POSTED: November 6, 2007 Abby’s hair is finally long enough to braid. Desta had fun playing with Abby’s hair today. POSTED: November 5, 2007 Battle of the Bands! I’m not sure who introduced the loud speaker to Africa, but who ever introduced it should be given a reward for how good a job they did!! Everybody here knows how to use a loud speaker . . . especially the Orthodox Churches. We have an Orthodox Church on either side of our town. Sometime between 5 & 6 AM they start blaring their speakers and preaching or singing to the entire town. I’m sure people who have grown up here are used to the noise, but it is something new to us. The noise used to wake us up when we first moved here. That was when there was only one Orthodox Church on the other side of town. Now, a new Orthodox Church is on our side of town. I think the two Churches are having a Battle of the Bands. Each morning they get up and see who can make the most noise. It truly sounds like somebody is standing outside our bedroom window with a very loud speaker. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen every morning. It’s just every Sunday and other random days of the week, but for some reason the past 5 mornings have been loud speaker mornings. Four of those mornings consisted of us getting up with Abby when she woke up at 5 or 6 AM and she couldn’t get back to sleep. On the 4^th day we got smart. Andy downloaded “ocean waves” off of Itunes. This morning when the Church started preaching and Abby woke up at 5:30 AM, we put on the Ocean Waves CD that Andy made yesterday. It worked WONDERS!! Our little girl, after a bit of crying, finally went back to sleep. Thank you Itunes for the much needed rest you gave us this morning!!!! POSTED: November 4, 2007 Abby and I had a great time carving a pumpkin this morning. What’s inside this thing? Abby was proud of her work! All lit up Abby & Koleta I just LOVE November!! I guess it’s just the time of year. Thanksgiving & Christmas are right around the corner, cooler weather is here & everybody is in a festive mood!! I started off our holiday season by making Popcorn Balls. They were so easy to make & they were really delicious!! I was looking at a friend’s website & saw this link and visited the page. I found this delicious recipe on the link – http://allyouhavetogive.blogspot.com/ . Melt 6 T of butter. Add 3 cups of miniature marshmallows (I didn’t have miniature ones, I cut up big ones into small pieces) and stir until melted. Pour over 3 quarts of popped unsalted popcorn. Mix well with buttered hands and form into balls. I used pink marshmallows (all I had), so that’s why they are a little colorful!! We were driving down the road the other day & we saw a TON of vultures!! A cow was hit on the road, so the vultures were having a hay day!! A lot of the vultures flew away before Andy could get close enough to take this picture. Abby and I decided to make Daddy a card the other day. Abby had a great time coloring and playing with stickers!! Abigail Grace Hatfield – she loves to play on the rocking elephant her Hatfield Grandparents made her. She’ll sit on it, rock and sing out, “aucking, aucking.” Spaghetti is DELICIOUS!!