Moved in and making stupid moves!

It's been a while.... But without videos to post from game drives and undiscovered territories, posting blog entries doesn't seem so exciting.

We have moved into our home in Fort Thomas.. My dad is probably cursing me from his grave, but I'm sure it would be all is good fun. It is great to be in our own place, where the kids can wander the neighborhood. walk to school and be closer to friends.

Whether or not getting a dog and a cat were a good idea remains to be seen.. but that's what we did yesterday.. Maura got a cat and Kate picked out a dog.. Maura named the cat "snoofy" b/c she can't say snoopy for some reason..
Jacob pitches this morning in his first ballgame since before we moved to Botswana.. Hopefully it goes well and he doesn't take it too seriously.

Needless to say, we are feeling more normal again.. But there isn't an hour of the day where my mind thinks of Africa. I think that's a good thing. But I miss it.

My mom has moved back to her own home which is wonderful news.. She is adjusting to a new sense of normalcy, driving and doing everything else. We got together with her to celebrate st. patty's day and it was great to see her back at home.

One quick note... Jude and Franny have moved to toddler beds which is nice, but also makes napping a bit of a problem.. 2 days ago, I went to check on them and Frances was sound asleep in her bed, while Jude was nowhere to be found..

After some investigation, I noticed him sitting up in a stuffed animal toy bin fast asleep. You had to be there.

It's a beautiful chilly morning here, i'm going to enjoy my coffee, head for a long run later and check the house to see what the cat has ruined.. Kate is pulling Frances around by a leash and collar. Should I be concerned that Frances plays a convincing dog?

adjusting

Life is settling down.. I knew it would but I just wasn't sure when. We've gotten into a groove, the kids seem to have adjusted back to their old school and my mom is doing very well. It's funny how things seem to always work themselves out. SOmetimes, you just have to give it 3 months or more...

that doesn't mean we don't think about Botswana every waking hour.
Michelle was working in the hospital yesterday and took care of an African woman and her child. Once they were finished with the meeting, the woman took a cloth and strapped her child on her back..
Michelle asked her where she was from, she said Zimbabwe. Immediately there was a connection and a sense of togetherness.. In true African fashion, the grandmother wants to babysit for us... She told michelle..." i can come on Friday and stay til Sunday."

We've purchased a house and if all goes well will be moving in late March.. That's good.
All for now, the kids are wakin up.

michelle gets published!!!

Michelle has her name in the NYTimes.. She wrote a great piece regarding our experience running the Soweto marathon, and I must say, it looks pretty damn good.
Here's a link to it..

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/sports/othersports/15marathon.html?emc=eta1

I,on the other hand, have not been published and am currently sporting an "Uncle Al" hat playing "fairies and pirates" with the three little ones.. They are currently in a shouting match regarding who will kiss the fairy to wake her up from her sleep.. I got out of the whole thing by telling Jude(Pirate #1) that I was in "my ship".The ship being of course this chair and my computer. That got me out of moving around and able to type this little bit on the blog. Kids are so dumb...

It's cold as a mug here in CIncy.. -3 to be exact. I am listening to some tunes on a great site .... www.zimaudio.com .. I just purchased an album, got an email/receipt, but no music.. I think it takes a day or 2. Anyway, it's a great site if you'd like to sample some great African music.

Tomorrow is an African festival at the Museum Center.. We plan on going and seeing the sites.. Kate has her first ever basketball game tonight.. can't wait for that... I hope she knows how to bounce a ball.

notes for january 15.. i think

As I write this, I can't remember what day it is.. I know it's Thursday.. I know there are ways for me to check the date, but I'm too lazy to do it, the kids are peaceful, so I'm going to use the time to write..

Now, it's been a month and a half since I've been back.. My mom is getting stronger and is scheduled for surgery for her hands next week. She looks great, seems to be in good spirits and physically looks healthy.It's great to see considering most people we've talked to say people don't normally recover from such a serious illness.

We(my family) are doing well. Adjusting, looking for a house and busy with school. Jacob is doing homework all day and trying to catch up to his classmates.. He's handling it well. Although, just last week he said he wanted to move back to Botswana.... I took it with a grain of salt. Kate is Kate, which is what I always say about her.. She rolls with it and seems to be loving being back at home. She misses her friends from Botswana, but has adapted to her new school so easily it seems as if she didn't miss a beat. She has her first basketball game on Friday night, joined the Brownies and signed up for spring soccer.

Michelle and i are doing well. There isn't an hour of the day my mind doesn't wander back to Botswana... I'm sure Michelle is going through the same thing.. maybe worse. I have a feeling it will be like this until we go back again.... which I really hope we do. But, things here are going well.

I think i have gained some weight as I'm having a hard time saying no to almost anything since we've been back..

Twins are great, enjoying cousins and taking drives where there are things to see... like buildings, trucks and vans... I don't know, Jude just really likes to go for drives.... I think our trekking them across southern Africa for hours upon hours with nothing to do really gave them patience with being in the car...

I miss Celeste and her friendship.. She and I probably spent the most time together during our time in Africa... She was a friend/ daughter/ nanny, etc... I miss her for obvious reasons, but just our daily conversations and her wonderful smile is what I miss most. My kids miss her as well... When we see black skinned people in town(a rare sight) Jude always does a second take.. I know Jacob misses Celeste, she was a great friend and role model for him..

I think that's it.. It's -12F here today, so I think I'll clean my mom's house.. No reason to step outside.. the coffee is nice this morning and my kids are still playing well together.. no, no that's over....

Here are some photos from our marathon experience....the one where you can see off into the distance, I am the white guy with the white shirt and blue shorts.. kind of dead center of the photo..

No much else to say today.. just doing everything I can to stay inside..

poor Jude

I noticed something very strange today as we were outside trying to enjoy the warmer weather .. Jude is terrified of airplanes flying overhead. He has no idea what is going on and screams at the top of his lungs as soon as he hears one. In Botswana, there was one a day.. around 3:30-4pm, a plane could be seen quietly passing in the sky.. Here, every 10 minutes or so delta planes fly at lower levels and fill the air with their sounds.. It must be strange for a little one to feel that way about planes.. Something I totally took for granted and never imagined would be a problem once we returned.
Weather was nice today.