Good-bye Seattle.......

Every year around this time, Zach and Josh start looking pasty, and almost sick. They have dark circles under their eyes, and look like they have been under immense cloud cover for months. Well, all that will change next week, as we will have to drag them all out of the pool for more SPF 30 as we head down to visit family in Palm Springs. Here is what we are leaving....and what to look forward to. If you are one of my skiing friends......I hope you enjoy yourself, I will be thinking about you!


Seattle Forecast:

Cloudy and chilly with rain, 48

Cloudy, breezy and chilly with showers, 46

Mostly cloudy with showers, 47

Rather cloudy and chilly with a couple of showers possible, 49

Rather cloudy and chilly with showers 49

Hello PALM SPRINGS!

Plenty of sunshine, 87

Mostly sunny and breezy, 84

Sunshine, 80

A full day of sunshine, 86

Brilliant sunshine, 81

Abundant sunshine, 85

Wednesday cannot come soon ENOUGH!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Josh turned 9 on Easter today. This mornng I asked him if he was excited to turn 9.......he said "No, it was pretty fun being 8." He broke out of his shell during his party though! :)

Addis-World's 6th Dirtiest City

Addis Ababa has been ranked the world's 6th Dirtiest. My kids were born in the heart of the worlds 6th dirtiest city. Hard to believe.

These are the same kids who refused to use a Honey Bucket when they came to America!!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Don't send a lame St. Patrick's Day eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Legadadi Update

This is a "look what God did post". He supplied the funds, connections and contractor to complete the project at Legedadi. They finished the boys dorm (dung building on the right), made a kitchen, and drywalled the walls. The first two pictures were while we were there, the rest are updated pix.

Kitchen before

Kitchen after....less "ites!" (mice)

Hopefully, now there are enough beds!

Outside of boys room

HERE is more about the Legedadi Orphanage.

Room to Read

I found this on YouTube, and since I posted on John Woods book, I thought I would post this video as well!


The book mentions that one of the reasons he went to Nepal in the first place was that a friend said, "If you get high enough in the mountains, you can't hear Steve Ballmer yelling at you anymore." :))

5*5*5*5*5*Book MeMe

So, Paula at Island Happenings tagged me. I have completely bungled it. For one thing, I have WAY too many favorite books. So, I decided to do the last book that I read, which I LOVED and ranks right up there, somewhere in my favorites. I picked it up in the airport on the way home from Ethiopia, it is "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World". He went from a top position at Microsoft, to founding Room to Read.

So, the instructions are:

*1* Get your favorite book
*2* Turn to page 55
*3* From the top of the page, count down to the 5th sentence
*4* Write it and the following four (a grand total of 5 sentences)
*5* Tag 5 more people

I go to page 55, and it is a description of a meeting, and how someone is dressed....not quite what I was looking for! So, instead of 1-5, I am going to give you 5 books that are currently in my Amazon cart for summer reading....

1. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery by E. Benjamin Skinner
2. Deep Justice in a Broken World: Helping Your Kids Serve Others and Right the Wrongs Around Them by Chap Clark
3. What Is the What by Dave Eggers
4. Uncharted by Angela Hunt
5. The Hospital by the River by Catherine Hamlin

Sorry Paula, for being so lame!

Select Soccer Times Two

Luckily, they are both on the same team! The coach that left this message has been Zach's coach for the last two years.....here is the message we got.

"Zach and Sami, I regret to inform you, unfortuately, you made the team. See you at practice."

Course, Zach picked up on it right away, but poor Sami, I had to walk him thru the whole message, trying to explain that it was a joke. :) "Are you sure I made the team Mom???"

"I Was Wrong, YOU Were Right"

RANT. Sami and Tsion are never wrong. For example, if I said, "The sky is blue." The first words out of Sami's mouth would be "NO......." Tonight, Sami said "The Washington Huskies do not have a soccer team." I said, "Yes they do." What do you think he said???? "No, they do not." This happens with a shaking head as well. Can you imagine how ANNOYING this is when it happens....like 10 times a day???? Hence, our new saying....."Mom/Dad.....whoever, I am sorry. I was wrong, you were right." As you can imagine, I may as well be pulling teeth!!

Tryouts: 3 Boys x Two Sports in 2 weeks

Last weekend the 3 boys all had baseball tryouts. This is the first year that everyone gets "drafted".....as almost 9, 10 and almost 11 year olds! Our community is all abuzz about who ended up where, what coach and who is on their team. Sami and Josh were drafted together on a AAA team (a sibling rule...once one sibling is drafted, they get the other and skip thier next pick). The next morning I hear Lance telling them who their coach is. The first words out of Sami's mouth was "WHO was picked first?"

On to SOCCER tryouts this weekend....... :))