what's up?

what's going on....well, at least on my end...randy is a whole other story...

1. we have started school.  we actually started on the 23rd of august.  that was a tuesday.  originally we were going to start on the 22nd....but i temporarily misplaced hudson's curriculum.  all i could do was pray, dear God let it have made it on the plane to africa!  after a sleepless night, looks of disgust from randy, a disgruntled 13 year old, and finally, a looky see around the garage the next day (there was no light in the garage at night), yes, i waited until the night before we were going to start school to look for the curriculum...  it was discovered.  in an envelope.  marked hudson's school.  with some other odds and ends.  well, not "other" odds and ends....as the school curriculum itself was neither odd nor end.  *sigh*

anyway,  we are now in our 3rd week.  it's going marvelously.  there's reading, there's writing, there's dividing and algebra, there's french and there's arabic (don't ask), we even have P.E.  i have applied what i learned last year while losing the baby weight from ella, and have assigned the kids circuit training 2 times a week.  they love it!  no, actually, they hate it.  and they hate me while we do it.  but the other 2 days a week we just do trampoline time.  they don't hate that.  and they don't hate me....until they try to come in after 15 minutes and i start yelling at them, "NO, YOU HAVE TO STAY OUT THERE AT LEAST 20 MINUTES!  then they start hating me again.  really, i don't think my kids are too into physical activity.  which is crazy....i mean, i am the queen of physical activity.  wait, no, no i am not.  please do not make me do physical activity!  i blame it on my own homeschool experience.  there was no circuit training or trampoline time in my homeschool experience.  our physical activity was primarily shopping malls and swap meets....thank you to being raised on the evangelistic field.  it was not so bad....i'm just not a very great runner/walker/swimmer/jumper/catcher/thrower/etc. as a result.  which is fine, why would i need to run/walk/swim/jump/catch/throw/etc?  i don't.  but shop?  swap meet?  i can do that!

2. disciplining....  whose idea was it to train a 3 year old, an almost 2 year old, a 9 year old, a 13 year old, and two puppies all at the same time?!?!

3. i break up arguments and such almost all day.  the little kids fight, the big kids fight, the dogs fight.  i told a friend of mine the other day,  with all of the fighting going on between the kids and the dogs, randy i hardly have time to do our own fighting...

 4. i cook.  i cook a lot.  oh, and i go to the grocery store.....a lot.  for the first 16 years of our marriage, i went to the grocery store once a week.  if it didn't get got that day....we waited until the next week.  it was written in stone. ~ i will go to the store on monday.  if you need anything and it's not monday.  too bad for you!~  we are out of toilette paper?  use a tissue!  we are out of soap?  you need to find a soapless option.  i was not going to the store again.  tuesday-sunday, not store days.  monday, store day.  that was that.  but here, oh my sweet moses...they never have anything i need.  i have to go to the store almost every day.  it. is. killing. me!  i went to the store 4 days in a row this week hoping that they had the right milk.  once, i bought a milk that i thought would be ok...but it was chunky.  and apparently it was suppose to be like that.  soooooo, to the store 4 days in a row, i shall go.   last week, it was powdered sugar.  the week before that it was coconut.  basically, every week i make the list, some how it gets transmitted to the store via satellite, and the workers quickly go and remove key items that were on my list from their shelves.  it's very high tech for swaziland.  and i'm not sure what they have to gain by such actions.  lord give me patience.

which brings me to the next thing i do a lot of...
5. pray.  i pray all of the time.  i pray for protection over my kids' health.  i pray for wisdom to handle the different situations that moving to another continent have given to us.  i pray for the country we are in.  i pray for its leaders.  i pray for my home country.  i pray for its leaders.  i pray for my family at home.  i pray for my friends who are pregnant with little babies that i will not get to see until they are toddlers.  i pray for my friends who are church planters....because i know what that was like.  i pray for my pastor friends and my family members who are pastors...because i know what that was like, too.  i pray for my friends and family raising children.  i pray for their children.  i pray that God gives me an understanding of this culture.  i pray that the african sun isn't too hard on me and my very white children.  i pray for all of my friends who are also missionaries.  i pray that the dogs don't jump on me as i walk to my car.  i pray that i make God proud while i'm here.  i pray that i make God proud.

my day today....

-i was awakened at 4:15 this morning by none other than, ella.....

-i’ve been awake ever since.

-we laid in bed until time to let the guard out of the gate....which is 5:45.  

-i’m tired of setting my alarm for 5:45.

-i’ve decided to start getting up when we let the guard out instead of going back to sleep.  

-i’m getting a lot accomplished during my very, very, very long day.

-i’m tired.  

-we ate cake for breakfast...again.  we will most likely eat it until there isn’t any left.

-it was a big cake.  

-i don’t feel badly about eating cake for breakfast, or serving it to my children for that matter.

-i think cake is in the same category as donuts.  

-i don’t know why i think that. 

-maybe ‘cause i like cake donuts?

-after “breakfast” i began making french bread from scratch.

-then i made parmesan cheese sauce....from scratch.  

-then i woke up the other kids.  

-the ones who didn’t get up at 4:15.

-the kids who actually love me.

-they ate their “breakfast.”

-school started.

-griffin had a friend come pick him up for a play date.

-randy and hudson don’t like the term “play date”

-they think it’s lame.

-it was griffin’s first “no mommy” hang out with a friend time. 

-griffin came back with dry pants....so it was successful as far as i’m concerned.

-it should be considered successful as far as the other mommy is concerned, too. 

-while griffin was away, we had P.E.

-it was circuit training today.

-hudson hit ella in the head with a dumb bell.  

-i’m not sure how to spell dumb bell....

-between being knocked in the head with a large metal weight, and the fact that she had been up for almost 7 hours by that time....ella had a break down.  

-ella took a very long nap.  

-i don’t think it was concussion induced...but i don’t know that it can be completely ruled out.  

-we homeschooled some more.  

-we had sandwiches for lunch.

-we have sandwiches almost everyday.  

-the bread here is very heavy.  

-it’s better as toast than it is a sandwich.

-another missionary kid came over because her parents had somewhere they needed to be.

-she and olivia made paper dolls.  like dolls out of actual paper.  

-olivia has also made a doll house....out of paper.

-as toys go, it’s one of the saddest i’ve ever seen.

-i’m impressed with her creativity.

-that girl can really work a piece of paper!

-but it’s a house out of paper nonetheless....

-she also makes furniture for the house.....out of paper.

-i finally got a hold of the ballet teacher in swaziland.  

-i’ve been trying for a couple of days....

-did you know you still get a busy tone here?  

-i don’t think there is voice mail either....

-i think this b/c phones ring and ring and ring and ring and ring and ring......

-i skyped with my dad....briefly...he was driving.  

-YIKES!

-i made dinner.

-i did dishes.  

-randy taught a class at the college, preached chapel at the college, went to some rural area and had a meeting with an awesome pastor, and had an all around good missionary-ing day. :)  

p.s.

i think the cock roaches in africa have longer antennae than the ones in texas.  i’m not sure if this has any effect on me, other than the fact that i have seen cock roaches, and i wish that i had not.    

from hater of dogs to......to hater of dogs who owns two dogs....

*sigh*
i dislike dogs.  all dogs.  i do not want any part of any dog.  i never have.  i do not like to be licked.  i do not like to be jumped on.  and i think dogs' paws hurt when they touch me.  i do not like the bellies of dogs....they freak me out something awful.  i do not like dogs' mouths...they freak me out as well.  dogs smell.  all dogs smell.  every owner of a dog will say, "my dogs don't stink."  and i will politely smile.  all the while thinking to myself, "yes, your dog does stink...you just can't smell it any more."  all dogs stink.  they stink badly.  they make everything around them stink.  i will never understand why it's ok for a dog to poop outside (hopefully),  and then come into a house and crawl around on the carpet, or the furniture, or God forbid...and i wince at this thought....sleep in a bed.  YIKES!  i just cannot get past it.  i just cannot.  that dog did not wipe.  that dog did not have a bath.  that dog is not wearing pants!  there is nothing between its pooper and your couch.  and that's how i see it.  but let me also state for the record...it is everyone's right to have a dog.  you can have all of the dogs you want.  love them, lounge with them, sleep with them if you want to.  it's your life, it's your home.  but please don't try to convince me that it's ok.  for me, it is not ok.  i do not like dogs.  and there is no way that anyone will convince me  that they are great.  for me, they are not great.  they are not great at all.  i hate dogs.

sadly, and i mean very sadly... i agreed to the fact that we needed dogs here in africa for protection.  that's right, i have officially given up everything in pursuit of God's will.  heaven help me.  i feel like i have nothing else to cleave to as my own in natural terms.  all of me is dead.  there is no more flesh of dezra.  i am purely a spiritual being at this point.  well, at least that's how i feel every time i go outside and SMELL DOG!  there is nothing left that was once dezra.  i left it all at the swaziland animal humane society.

so we picked up two dogs and brought them home.  one was feisty.  one was stand-offish.  they are brothers.  we named them ranger and maverick...we wanted to be true to our texas roots.  their names fit them well enough.  they are puppies, so they are cute.  but they are dogs....so they won't be cute forever.  after observing their behavior for over a week now, i have come to the conclusion that dogs are just as gross as i thought they were.  no, they are even more gross.  ranger and maverick do things to themselves and to each other that i did not know dogs did.  i am appalled.  i cannot believe these things are taking place in my yard.  *sigh*

i will take care of these dogs.  i will feed them, i will give them water, and when i am in their vicinity, i will pet the tops of their backs....as that is the only part of a dog that does not give me the heeby-geebies. i still smell them...and it still smells badly.  it smells like dog.

having said all of this,  they do bark.... they even growl.  and so if that keeps away the prowlers...then i guess all of the afore mentioned activities and/or aromas will be overlooked.  don't look for dezra to become an animal lover.  don't look for the freemans to purchase any dogs when we are back in the states.  it will not happen.  only missionary dezra can come to terms with this arrangement.  normal dezra would never do such a thing. never. ever. ever......

we are loud americans....

really, we aren't loud americans....we are louder americans.  louder than most everyone in america.  i laugh loud.  the rest of my family talks loud.  my children "whisper" loud....and so does randy.  i know a couple of families louder than us, i will not mention their names here.  but really, i'm standing right here, you don't have to yell.  if you ask me if you are the "louder than us" family, i will not say.  just so you know.

anyway, it's been a bit weird here because our kids speak so loudly....and we aren't quiet either.  children in this culture are mostly seen and not heard.  they don't make a peep.  not in church, not in the grocery store, not when they are shopping....they just don't speak.  my children, however, do.  they also yell, cry, whine, and make other various noises.  between their loudness and the double stroller (no one has one here), we are quite a spectacle at the local shopping center.  it's just wonderful....

so we received and invitation to dinner with some of the most amazing people in swaziland.  for those of you who have been here, you would know their name if i told it to you.  these people are amazing.  dinner with their family?  we would love to!  let's get a babysitter for griffin and ella!  well, that didn't work out, so off to dinner we went, with loudy mcloudy pants and his little sister loudy britches, in tow.  the first 10 minutes went well.  i was sitting down, not chasing down, our two youngest children.  i thought to myself, this might work out.  they have 2 sets of coasters.  the kids love to play with coasters!  and that is true.  they do.....for about 10 minutes.   so this family has a british accent.  i know they told us where all they were from, but what with all the chasing, the giving dirty looks, and the threatening talk i was giving griffin and ella in their ears where no one else could hear, i didn't quite catch where they were from originally.  back to the british accent.  these people speak quietly.  they use fewer words.  they sit up straight, and use phrases that i don't understand.  i've never been in such a quiet atmosphere.  not in a home anyway.  not somewhere besides a romantic dinner in a fancy restaurant.  there were so many of us in the room eating, talking, even laughing a little...and yet, not much noise.

anyway, they had an indoor dog.  the dog was lovely, no licking or jumping...which pretty much makes it the best dog ever, in my book.  it was small, an appropriate size for indoor dogginess.  and the kids loved it.  they loved petting (hitting)  her, stepping on her tail, poking her in her eyes.  the dog was not nearly as impressed with their presence as they were with hers.

and so it was time for dinner to begin.  spaghetti noodles, fish, cheese sauce, onions, peas, broccoli, and a tomato sauce for the kids.  of course being the incredibly wise person that i am, i opted out of the tomato sauce for ella....as we are eating on a white tablecloth over light colored carpet.  awesome.  ella refuses to be fed, she likes to do it herself.  she has questionable aim.  but even with my foresight on the tomato sauce, the mess was hard to deny.  it was difficult to hide.  ella had eaten there for sure...and there wasn't anything i could do about it.  so as the adults continued to talk and to eat, griffin and ella got down to play with the dog.  the dog who went under the table to get away from them.  the dog who lured them under the table to play.  the table was long, and i got to see everyone's faces as my two little ones crawled over their feet to get the dog.  (we have got to get a dog just so they aren't such a flipping big deal when the kids see one!!!) it was wonderful....and so very very uncomfortable....  fortunately, i have long arms, i was able to grab their feet and pull them out.  at least they didn't cry....

then there was dessert.  to which griffin said, "this smells bad." what a lovely child...
not long after the dessert "episode", griffin got his finger caught in a door and began whaling... loudly, at the top of his very large and healthy lungs... uncontrollable sobbing.  this went on for several minutes.  to which the most amazing, quiet talking, british speaking, admirable man in swaziland replied, "i think the kids have reached their expiration date." .....so awesome....

i wish i could say the night ended on a high note,  but griffin wasn't finished.  he completed the evening with an accident in his trousers....i'm picking up on the british accent.  not really, i just like that word.  trousers. trousers.  i'm saying it with a british accent.  which, by the way, people here do not think it's particularly cute when you try to speak with a british accent and you are not british.  poor olivia found that out one day at church...

cooking and other great feats...

well, first off, let me say...it ain't easy.  but not for reasons one might think.  it's not the foods...it's crazy stove and crazy oven that are giving me fits.  sure i have a double oven...but only one actually bakes anything.  and the other one, upon it's choosing, blows a breaker.  even though it isn't actually baking anything in the first place.  the top oven, which we will call my good oven,  is the only one i use.  however, i discovered today that it leans to the front.  my sheet cake dripped all over the front of the oven.  which brings me to the sheet cake.  oh. my.  when we moved i wasn't sure that i could get all of the ingredients for the recipes in my pioneer woman cookbook.  but hallelujah, i had all the ingredients for her sheet cake.  with every taste, every child said, "oh. my. goodness."  in a good way.  it wasn't pretty...thanks to the leaning oven of swaziland, but it was good.  very good.

everyday i try to make something new.  i figure, eventually, someone will come see me...and when they do, i want to be able to make them something yummy.  every meal i ask the family if this is something we could serve guests?  indian tacos-yes.  mediterranean chicken-no.  pancakes-yes.  spaghetti with homemade sauce-no.  it's a little game we play that gets me super defensive and usually stirs up quite a fight.  randy has tried to remain neutral, but hudson hasn't learned to keep his mouth shut.  there are some things it takes men a lifetime to learn.  or at least through their teenage years.....

anyway, i got a little side tracked.  my other cooking obstacle is the stove.  the stove that only has 2 working burners.  oh sure, the others look like they are on...glowing bright red they are, but there will be no heating of my food.  the two burners that do work...only cook on high.  it's fantastic.  not really.  but i shall survive.

i have tried 4 different recipes for tortillas.  each time i end up with something more the thickness of a pancake.  oddly enough, my pancakes are as thin as normal tortillas.  however, as previously noted, they taste very, very, good.  back to my tortillas....i think i'm too weak to roll them out properly.  maybe randy is right, maybe i need to do push ups.  i don't have time to do push ups, what with all my running and all...  ok, so i have done absolutely no physical activity whatsoever since we got here....besides cooking. which i'm pretty sure does not count.  well, the kids bought a trampoline, and i did jump on it a few days.  i even did a no hands flip...which hudson said i botched.  i don't think it matters how you land when you can still do a hands free flip at 35 after having 4 children and your equilibrium getting all screwed up in childbirth.  at least i think that is how it happens.  before kids-not sick on amusement park rides.  after kids-sick on amusement park rides.  do you know that the kids didn't even have the decency to tell randy of my amazing no handed flip feat?!?!  the one thing i ask them to tell their father...

the "grocery" store....

shopping here has not been so bad.  the local pick and pay has many items to choose from. and when they don't have it, you hope for the best and walk on down to woolworths.  woolworths is an interesting store with a wide variety of items.  when i say wide, i am talking more by the fact that they carry both men's pajamas and ice cream....not that they carry a lot of items, they don't.  it's no super target.  but i cannot complain.   the weird thing that strikes me every time i am in woolworths, is the music they play.  it reminds me of the music i heard in an elevator of a hotel i once stayed in las vegas.  an upbeat oceans 11 theme of sorts.  i feel weird, like i'm  suppose to walk quickly, spend lots of money and speak with a british accent.  i don't know why, but the music does it to me.  i keep asking randy if he feels the same way about the music, he says he hasn't even noticed the music.  what?!?!  how can you not notice the need to become an entirely different person just by entering into this store?  anyway, as soon as i walk out, the feeling goes away, and i realize it's JUST PEPPERS that i purchased, and i am indeed still in africa.  sometimes it hits me before i get into the wrong side of the vehicle, sometimes it hits me after.

where it gets a little different than home, is the grocery cart.  very few people use the big carts that we use in the states.  in the states it's very common to see someone pushing around a cart with food heaping over the sides.  sure most of those people were buying food for a restaurant and i was buying for one week of feeding a single family, but still, i did not feel odd.  here, everyone shops around with a small basket, or a mini buggy with 2 small baskets on it.  they look at you strange when you buy so many groceries at one time.  and they seem a bit annoyed that you are taking up so much aisle space.  last week i tried to use the little buggy with 2 baskets.  by the time i got to the last aisle, both of my mini buggy baskets were running over, i had had to shove stuff under the bottom basket between it and the wheel, and i was carrying toilette paper for 6, diapers,  and paper towels under my arms.  sometimes you just can't blend in with the locals...try as one might...  i shall never mini buggy again.  not unless i plan on going to the store twice a day, everyday, from now till we stop eating...

oh, where to start...

on may 23rd we packed up the rest of what could fit into the containers that we had left.  we had made a personal commitment to not buy any more containers, as it was getting a bit ridiculous, and so as we got to the end it became clear we weren't going to be able to take the lantern.  yes, we left our lantern.  let it be noted that on june 17th, the electricity was out for a very long time here in swaziland, and we wished we had replaced some of the brownie mix with the lantern....  anyway,  we finished up the very last bits of packing, said our good byes to randy's parents, my sister, her children,  and my grandparents.  those moments in time are meant for a much more sad blog.  *sigh*  so anyway, we put everything we had on the trailer, and off we went to the airport.  we had such favor as we checked in our luggage.  it went incredibly smooth, and quickly, too.  all things considered. :)  we got something to eat, and then we boarded.  my parents were kind enough to come with us to swaziland.  not permanently, but long enough to help us get settled in, and to help with the trip.  THANK YOU!  i'm not sure we would have all made it without them.

as the plane took off i told ella to say, "good-bye to america."  she waved....














we landed in london 8 hours later.

we were blessed that the flight wasn't very full, and everyone was able to stretch out a lot.  most of us got enough sleep, and so the london excursion that i forced everyone to endure was less of a beating.  we took the tube around the city and we did it with a double stroller.  the tube, and most of its entrances and exits, are not created for a double stroller...not to mention, 2 carry ons,  3 back packs, 2 toddlers, 2 purses full of things that could not fit into the carry ons, 2 blankies, 4 pacifiers...in case one of them lost one, and the london "treasures" that olivia felt compelled to purchase...which included, but was not limited to, a poster that could not be bent or folded.  now when i say that the tube was not meant for a double stroller, it's not because it's not big enough.  there was plenty of room....once we were on.  unfortunately, there are no elevators, so we, and when i say we, i mean randy, had to carry the stroller up or down 2, 3, 4 flights of stairs and usually some unbelievably steep escalator.  i would post a picture, but none of us had hands to take a picture with.  well, i might could have taken a picture while carrying ella, my purse, and 3 back packs, but my camera battery was dead.  yes, i was in london with a dead camera battery.  i had planned ahead and put batteries in my purse in case such an incident took place....unfortunately, i didn't remember that until i got to africa.  hudson made a video of our london trip...he made it look like we had a good time.  that's all that matters really.  we laughed a lot.  we yelled from time to time.  we gave each other dirty looks.  we wondered why on earth dezra would make us take on such an adventurous feat with 4 kids in tow.  we finally made it back to the airport.  i don't know if i ever want to see london again.  pretty sure i don't.

our flight to johannesburg was delayed.  so we took naps.  and then we boarded the plane.  being blessed yet again, the flight had almost no one on it.  i had 8 seats in all at my disposal.  but i also had ella...which meant not much sleep.  it could have been worse.  at least she was quiet.  and so everyone on board didn't hate me the next morning.

when we got to johannesburg, the trailer we had rented was the size of my dining room table.  we had asked for the biggest one they had, but that clearly meant nothing to them on this particular morning.  God preformed a few miracles, and we were able to get all of our belongings to swaziland.  all 40 pieces of luggage.  only one serving dish, from target, was broken.  everything else was exactly how we packed it.  we made it to our new home on the evening of may 25th, to the welcoming claps of the missionaries that were already on the ground here.   and that was our trip from allen to ezulwini...at least i think that's how you spell it....