Miss M's "9 in the Afternoon" Video

Miss M's made a video for church with her friend Chaechel to the song "9 In the Afternoon" by Panic! at the Disco.
(You might want to "pause" the website music at the right.)

Deevs' Football

Deevs' first year of football may be his last, but he WAS on the team as a sophomore. It was his first year coming into a new school and trying a whole new sport (first time he has ever played tackle football!).

They won the championship and are going on to CIF (they made the finals!!!).

(Look for him in the photo - the farthest right play, next to coaches - he's #21.)

He is looking forward to playing soccer.

November Bdays '09 - minus Jade

For the November birthdays, we went to see Drew (29) picked lasagna as the dinner and Miss M (14) picked apple pie as the dessert. We missed have Jade (22) there... he was celebrating in Kenya.

The two birthday celebrants

We didn't all get their memo...

Cutting the birthday pie

FULL from yummy lasagna dinner!!!!!!

Grampie assuming the position :)

Mmmmmmmm... banana cream pie

Birthday wishes

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jade is HOME!

Jade arrived back in the good ole US of A today at 6:30AM (our time) via Nairobi, Dubai, and Atlanta.

Hopefully we will get more details & photos later... for now, here are a few.

Jade with Justus, Johnstone & another friend.

After the Prayer Day, Jade & his team stopped in town to order 14 orders of chicken and chips {chips cuckoo} for their dinner party...with the 7 boys that live at the Oasis Centre. They joked about the tiny hut being Cleophas' night club "Omega Two" {a play on the dance club in town "Omega One"}
After an impromptu Sunday dance party, {which Alice says "really means, once Jade and I were done listening to "Single Ladies" on repeat"}, they went inside to teach these smaller kids to play Uno. Alice noted that Mattel had some creative geniuses because Uno requires "little-to-no shared language or skill". She said it was so great to watch all ten of their opponents learn to shuffle through their stack of 7 {small hands, they couldn't hold them all} to find a 7 or a yellow.

Jade shaking "his Isaya" as Alice would say

Rael, Sarah, Irene, Kamau and Jade

Finally, lest we forget that Missionary work is NOT all fun and exotic travel and Uno and dancing and hugging precious children you are in a third world country with PLENTY of dangers lurking nearby:

This is a photo of a dead black mamba that a child found in the bushes. He killed it before it could kill anyone. {Highlights of the wikipedia page: this snake has been claimed to move at up to 19.5 km/h (12 mph), It can strike up to 12 times in a row. A single bite from a black mamba injects enough venom to kill anywhere from 20–40 grown men. Can live in bushes and small trees and also in houses.}

EEK!!!!!!!!! Scares a Mama! (Glad I didn't see that photo 'til they got home!)

Praise God for the fun & exotic travels & Uno & dancing & love & hugging precious children and for their safe return!!!

Deevs Homecoming 09

Deevs goes to one school (where none of their mutual friend go). Katie goes to another (1/2 hour away where none of their friends go). So they decided to go to Homecoming at Deevs' PREVIOUS school where they BOTH know & love a ton of people.

The girls met at 3:00 for photos at church.

Katie apparently got DRENCHED by the geyser (in the water feature/baptismal) and had to drive the half hour home to dry her dress, re-curl her hair, and re-apply her make-up... that has got to be the WORST experience for a girl! Ugh!

After photos (by the ever-fabulous Alanna) at the golf course,

a dip for the dancer

putting on the lovely handmade corsage

handmade corsage & boutonnière

the kids were chauffeured 25 minutes south (back by home) to the lovely dining establishment chosen by their Senior pal Luke:

COSTCO food court!!!!!

The group of 20+ couples dined on a gourmet pre-homecoming meal of hot dogs, chicken bakes, pizza slices, and very berry sundaes. Luke's amazing Mom & Dad (with the help of friends) made the whole thing happen. They decorated, collected money, took orders, waiting in line, placed orders, and delivered the fine fare to the awaiting diners.

We went and took photos and then did some much needed shopping (we were in MAJOR need of a Costco sized pack of toilet paper, thank-you-very-much!).

Then off to the dance.

A fabulous night was had by ALL!!!