hot & busy

It's hot here. Just plain hot. Well, more than plain hot ... plain hot would be a taco from Taco Bell with one of those hot sauce packets added on top. It's hotter than hot ... like a taco stuffed with habanero peppers & then doused in hot sauce & then lit on fire. It's that kind of hot. 

It's so hot that our candles in our house have melted ... and we've never even lit them!!

Have you ever accidentally put candles in your attic, maybe when you are putting away all your Christmas decorations? And then you go back the next year & they've melted all over your wreaths & tree skirt & fancy nativity scene? No? Okay, maybe that was just me!

Well, I guess, our house could be compared to the inside of the attic in the summer because our candles have just completely collapsed & I don't think there's ever hope that they will return to normal. We just now have very artistic shaped candles in our house ... like the Leaning Tower of Pisa candle. We're just that hip in our decor! 

And do you know what makes the heat even better?! Can you guess? Power outages!! Yes, dear friends, the power in Africa is unstable. Brand new information!! Seriously though, we live in one of the nicer neighborhoods of Niamey (because we are very close to the embassies) & we hardly ever get power outages. If they do cut, it's just for 5 minutes or less. Well, they have become more frequent & a little more than 5 minutes. The other day the power was off for FOUR HOURS!

I'll stop being "poor pitiful me" now because it's really not that bad. I'm getting kind of used to it & the kids are, too! Izzy will say, "Oh! Power off! Let's get flashlight. Where's my fan?" We still have our battery powered fans from when we slept outside in Ayorou & those things don't stay more than 1 foot from us when the power goes off. And Luke just says, "Uh oh! Uh oh! Uh oh!" And then we all clap & dance when the power comes back on! It's the little things in life that we get excited about!

And on another note ... we've been some busy people lately! Can you see my calendar well enough to tell that everyday in May was packed with something? It's been a great month of hosting volunteers from our partnering church in Hurst, TX and our home church in Bowling Green, Ky. We also welcomed our 2 summer interns, Emily & Erin. We are so excited about their time here & all the seeds they'll plant & the groundwork they'll lay for women's ministry in Boubon.

We've been busy & have hardly had a "family day"/weekend all month but it's been a good kind of busy. Hopefully, over the next few days, we'll find some time to spend as a family & relax before another wave of busyness hits us! You should see my June & July calendar!! Well, you should actually see our June - October calendars! I looked the other day & realized that we do not have a full week to ourselves until sometime in mid-August!!

But the busyness is really helping these hot days to pass by quicker & we're praying that we'll get a little cool spell here in the next few days if the rains ever come!! I remember our first year here, when the rains finally came, the temperature dropped to 85 degrees & I was freezing! But you have to imagine that a 30 degree temperature change can cause someone to put on a jacket with a hood & bundle up ... even if it was 85! Until then, I'll just take my habanero taco of heat in my stuffy attic of a house & try to think cool thoughts!

izzy's sweet shoppe

Isabelle Ruth Phillips turned THREE years old on May 15! Izzy has been asking about her birthday since October. She has watched Mark celebrate his, then Mark's mom, then Luke, then me, then another friend & even Mother's Day included cake & presents, which really threw her for a loop!

About 2 weeks before her birthday, we started the official countdown. Every morning she would ask, "My birthday?" and we'd have to tell her "No" & then how many days remained. On the eve of her birthday, we got her out of her bed in the middle of the night & let her snuggle with us for the rest of the night (which we never do). I'm so glad we did because we were both right there the minute she woke up & asked if it was her birthday. Her actual words were, "Is it my birthday NOW?!" When we said, "Yes, baby, it is!", she squealed with delight!

We had so much fun celebrating with her this year. This is the first year of her life where she has actually understood what's happening & anticipated it! We loved every minute of it ... & I'm pretty sure she did, too!

Longst ago, she had asked for a bubble gum birthday cake ... which helped set the theme of her party to center around her favorite thing - candy!! I'm so glad we determined it early enough that my Dad was able to bring so many of the goodies for her party way back in February. We'd been up a creek without a paddle if I had tried to find an assortment of quality candy here!

We finally got some pictures in our frames on the wall!! Luckily we had enough pictures of Isabelle printed off that we could use for her party. Of course, if you come to our house right now, it really looks like we prefer Izzy over Luke! So we immediately explain to people that all the Izzy pictures are from her birthday party & we've just been too lazy to take them down!

I made & printed my own bunting for her party to give it that personalized touch that I love oh so much!

Mommy & baby girl! Oh I just love this little girl so much!!! I cannot believe she is THREE!!

Izzy & Daddy checking out the "Happy Birthday" bunting that I won at an auction! It was perfect for this special occasion! (Can you tell I love bunting?!)

The food table. Izzy had requested pizza, hot dogs & chicken to go along with her candy themed party. So in order to "feed the masses," I made mini pizzas, mini pigs in a blanket & chicken nuggets. I also threw some popcorn in there because it's Isabelle's favorite snack in the world, a veggie tray to have a little "healthy" in the mix & some tortilla pinwheels because ... well, I just love them!

Izzy's sweet shoppe table (minus the cake). It was just too hot to put the cake out until the last minute. I also made chocolate covered oreos, cake pops & rice krispie treats. The rice krispies were supposed to be on a stick as well because I had cut them out in flower shapes with a cookie cutter & decorated them with chocolate, icing & sprinkles but the heat won that battle. After about 0.2 seconds of them being on the stick, they just fell over ... like a dead flower. So on the platter it was! There was also treat bags for everyone to take home their favorite goodies.

Ben & Melissa gave Izzy this umbrella & it was a HUGE hit. The child loves playing with it & spinning it on the floor. Who knew an umbrella could be so much fun?!

Some of the guests of the party. 

2 things: if you look on the left side of the picture, you'll notice our wall of empty frames. We are not trying to be "chic" in our interior decorating ... just haven't had time to upload pictures to Wal-Mart & have them sent here. 

Secondly, on the right side of the picture you'll notice Ibrahim & "Henry." Ibrahim had come in the day before for a little visit & had planned to return on Sunday morning but we asked him to stay for Izzy's party. We are so glad he did! Hama just happened to drop by that afternoon & we also asked him to stay. Izzy was super happy to have both of them at her party. 

I'm not exactly sure what they thought of our American festivities but I'll tell you what ... when it was time to eat & Izzy had her plate AND her pickins of who to eat with, do you know who she went & plopped down beside? Ibrahim & "Henry"! Of ALL the people at our house that day, she chose to eat her snacks AND her birthday cake with them. Does this tell you something about her?

Izzy opening presents from her party guests & Luke just trying to stay as close to Mommy as possible with all the house guests!

Grandy & Uncle Ben! These 2 men & their wives are like family to us & our kids. We are so glad that they were able to be there to help Isabelle celebrate her 3rd birthday ... even though we REALLY missed having Izzy's grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins here! When asked who she wanted to come to her party, other than biological family, she asked for Grandy, Grusan, Ben & Melissa!

Now here's a question for you ... do you sing before or after blowing out a candle? My family always sings first & then we blow out the candle but Mark's family does it the other way around. I can't remember what we did previous years but this year she blew out the candle first & then we sang.

She was a little shy at all the attention but you know she loved it!

Isabelle's cake was made by a local bakery. I figured with all the other menu items I had to make, I better hire out the cake. I was a little bummed as I have made her & Luke's cakes from scratch but I knew there just wouldn't be time. I gave the bakery a picture of what I wanted & was a little nervous about what the outcome would look like but we think it turned out perfect!

Izzy loved her cake, too!

After she finished her cake, she was ready for more twirling of the umbrella!

And after Luke finished his cake, he decided to take Izzy's new bike for a spin on the porch!!

 Izzy & her birthday present!! A new bike (that we had packed on the crate)! She is still trying to figure out how to push the pedals to make it go! Maybe we should've tried a tricycle first!! Ha!!

In case you can't tell, we had such a great time celebrating Izzy's 3rd birthday! It was so fun to watch her anticipate her birthday for 7 months & then finally have a party to celebrate it. She, of course, is so easy to please because she gets excited over everything! We could've given her a brown paper bag for her birthday & she would've been excited. 

Izzy Rue, we've loved you from the moment you were formed in my womb. We've loved you from the moment there was even just the thought of you! You have made our lives so rich & so wonderful. We could not have asked for a more perfect, beautiful girl than you. The Lord has taught us so much about ourselves & Himself through you. You are a funny, funny little girl & so smart, too! We like to say you are book smart & street smart ... nothing ever gets past you! You are sometimes shy & then other times loud but you've never met a person that you don't love. You definitely keep us on our toes but we wouldn't have it any other way!! You are a little bit of crazy but you love people so deeply & care for people so much! You have the most genuine, sensitive heart of all of us. We love it when you pray for your friends & your brother & we pray that you will never lose that desire to communicate with your Creator ... even if you are just asking him to help the bubbles of your bath not make your "owwies" hurt! We long for the day when you pray & ask Jesus to be your Lord & Savior. Isabelle Ruth, your mommy & daddy love you VERY much ... always have & always, always will!

family vacay

Well, I have been trying to post this for about 3 days but our internet has been going in & out & I've been unable to upload the pictures ... until now! Seriously, the internet has been working SO slow that it's download speed was less than 1 KB! Trying to upload 15+ pictures that are over 1 MB each was just not jiving with the ole internet & blogger for the last few days.

But at long last, we've got semi good internet again (a whopping 30 kb/sec!) & I can now offer you a looksie at our family vacation.

Longst ago, we blocked off the last 2 weeks of April for family vacation. We didn't know what we were going to do or where we were going to go, but we knew we needed to get away before the crazy, busy summer began. As we got closer to the date, we knew we couldn't afford to fly anywhere (since we're saving our money for a trip to you-know-where in November) & the "drive-able" options are pretty limited as well.

We finally opted to drive 7 hours to a neighboring country to hang out in their capital city. Not "top 100" places to visit in the world or anything but it's a step up from Niamey & the point was to get away. We had thought about a "stay-cation" but we knew that wouldn't work. When working from your home most of the time, taking a stay-cay is like taking a vacation in your work office. Not ideal at all!

A few days before our trip, some unfortunate "events" happened in that country & it forced us to look elsewhere. The only other viable option left was to drive 2 days to the beach. While I LOVE the beach, the idea of spending 2 days in the car with the kids on African roads that we weren't familiar with, just didn't sound that appealing. But, again, we needed to take time away as a family.

So (is this not the longest story ever, by the way?) ... we finally decided to try it out, even if it took the better part of our sanity. We invited some of our friends to tag along, too, because they had some extra sanity to spare. We had to delay our trip again because the hotel at the beach was full so we ended up doing a week of stay-cay, which worked out exactly as I had imagined ... the kids & I hung out at the house while Mark worked!

Finally, on a very early Monday morning around 5:30 am, we dragged ourselves & the kids out of bed & hit the road. The kids were wide awake & did not go back to sleep as I had hoped they would. However, they did fantastic for the amount of time we were in the car. After about 3 hours of good roads, we came upon the "bad" roads we were warned about. I wish I had a picture to show you or a video to capture how bad these roads really were. Imagine a piece of Swiss cheese being your road with no shoulders & the holes of the cheese are actually pot holes that are sometimes more than a foot deep. There was no avoiding the holes so Mark had to drive over them & really never got out of 2nd gear for another 3 hours.

We finally stopped for the first time when we reached the border of Niger & Benin for a one hour border crossing. We drove another 7 hours that day to make the first leg of the trip a lovely 14 hours. We spent the night in a mission's guesthouse & got up early the next morning for the final leg of the trip which ended up being on semi good roads for about 6 hours. The final 1.5 hours was brutal but when we finally reached the coast & saw the ocean, it was worth it!

We unpacked our bags, got in our swimsuits & never set foot in our truck again for the next 5 days. We played, swam, slept, watched the Royal Wedding on CNN & just had time as a family with no interruptions. It was much needed after being here for over 7 months without a break. After 5 glorious days at the beach, we packed up & endured the 2 day trip back home. It was a crazy trip, with crazy roads & a crazy amount of time in the car but it was worth it!

And now for the reason you are all here, the pictures ...

 Isabelle loved chilling on our front porch to have a snack ... or two. It was so nice to be away from the heat for a few days! You almost forget that it can actually be pleasant enough in other places of the world to sit outside & enjoy it!

All the dining areas were outside. We usually tried to snag this table so we could be closest to the beach view.

 The Lukester loved being here & being outside. He didn't care if we were swimming or playing on the porch or walking around, he just loved being out!

 Isabelle LOVED the pool! She was just a little fish! Any time she wasn't sleeping or eating, she was in the pool! 

 My little man was just so happy!!

 I did convince Isabelle to take a walk with me on the beach to find seashells. We spent about 30 minutes out here before she was ready to go back to the pool!

 Now this is a picture for the books! This little fella (Luke, that is) does not like sleeping or snuggling with anyone ... ever! But the magic of the ocean caused him to be a snuggle bug. Mark said that the whole trip was worth it for this! Isabelle saw this & got a little jealous so she asked to take her afternoon nap on the beach one day, too. (She, of course, had her own chair for that event as she's a little too big for snuggling on one lounge chair.)

Luke's favorite part of the pool? Splashing!

 Isabelle was thrilled to have no special reasons to eat ice cream. It's vacation, it's just what you do!

 Luke agreed with that reasoning, too!

 Attempting family portraits on the beach is no small feat. I don't think we got one good picture of all four of us.

 But this is the closest thing we got to a good one. Luke's face in this one cracks me up!

 Our friends, Ben & Melissa, who were ever so kind to take this trip with us, take family photos, play & love on our kids & even give Mark & I a little afternoon date one day. We were SO glad when they agreed to come along with us. It made the trip even that more fun! Isabelle especially loved having the extra attention!

 Sweet, sweet siblings!

we're up & running

Well it didn't take as long as I thought it would to combine blogs & switch to a domain. Not easy but not too complicated. So we're officially now www.phillipsfamilyblog.com. I believe you can still use the www.markandparx.blogspot.com for your RSS feeds but don't quote me on that. We'll leave Izzy & Luke's blog up for a few more days before permanently deleting it.

So welcome to the new blog! We hope you'll enjoy our combined family blog & we hope to start posting more now that we are more simplified & know what to post where!!

a little bit of info for you

Longst ago when we started this here blog, we assumed it would be just for us, our family & to post some ministry updates. Fast forward almost 5 years and we now are responsible for THREE blogs ... this one, the one for our kids & the Songhai ministry blog. It gets a little confusing every now & then about what to post where. The kids blog is obviously about the kids' life, the Songhai blog is obviously for ministry updates & such, and then there's this blog ... what do we post on this blog?!

So here's what we're going to do ... we are going to combine our blog & the kids' blog into one FAMILY blog. Then we'll leave all the ministry updates for the Songhai blog. There will be the occasional story from our ministry that will find it's way onto our family blog but the majority of it will rest over on www.seekingthesonghai.blogspot.com.

And, that's not all! We're going to go all fancy on you & switch our blog to a domain. Woah!! What's up?!! You will soon be able to find us at www.phillipsfamilyblog.com. See you there!!

Please be patient as us amateurs attempt this feat of combining blogs, switching to a domain & updating our look!

easter 2011

We had a low key Easter this year. We celebrated with a few friends the week before with a small Easter egg hunt ... in the sand. There are only 3 other couples with the IMB in Niger that have children Isabelle's age & they all live about 12 hours away! We were fortunate that one of those couples was in Niamey on that weekend & we invited them to come over & Isabelle loved every minute of playing with her "fenz." 

 

On Easter Sunday, we were planning to be out of town on vacation in a neighboring country but some "things" happened there that canceled our trip. We ended up being at home with Mark attending a sunrise service at another mission organization's compound & then we had a wonderful dinner of steaks & sides with the Saleebys.

It was definitely not the Easter that we had last year but we were still able to do some of the "American" parts of the Spring holiday ... even though the landscape was a wee bit different!

 My baby girl last year at her first Easter egg hunt. She definitely cared more about what was in the eggs versus the quantity of eggs she found.

 And little Luke was still sleeping about 18 hours a day then & couldn't do much of anything!

 Weren't they so little & cute in their Easter outfits?

 And now this year! They are so big ... but still as cute as ever!!!

 Izzy's Ralph Lauren dress was one of the awesome $10 deals I found in all my shopping trips for the crate. I'm so glad I picked it up because I had mistakenly thought that she would be able to wear the previous Easter dress for 2 years! Ha!!

 Such a sweet, precious little girl!!

 And my boy in his dress shirt. So cute, I could just eat him up!

 This year Izzy was much more concerned about getting the eggs & then opening them later!

 She got SO excited & squealed whenever she found an egg. She was pure entertainment for all the adults watching!

  Izzy is not picking up a rock here, that's a green dyed egg. We tried to dye the eggs but because they are brown, they didn't do so well ... especially trying to dye them green. But it did blend in with the sand & rocks pretty well since we couldn't hide them in grass!

 Luke just like to walk around & see what everyone else was doing. His basket was pretty bare by the end!

 Izzy's friend, Hope, was like Izzy last year ... opened one egg & done!! 

 Our friend Melissa was trying to help Izzy find the last egg.

 Checking out all her goodies.

 This child gets so excited about candy!! This is a classic Izzy pose!

And she wanted a picture with our friend Ben to round out the evening!