Last Milestone

Today our friend Zeb arrived. He is Joseph's age, lives in our neighborhood in Utah, and came down here at his mother's request, cause "you need to take advantage of these opportunities!" :) And this is our last milestone! He's hanging out with us here until we all go home two weeks from tomorrow. I'm hoping it will be a good experience for him, not just a "my neighbor's little girls harassed me for two weeks" experience. (Lily has been the #1 guilty party there, leading the attack. Poor Zeb, he's fresh meat!) He's been a good sport so far, we told him he's free to run or we can help if they get out of hand and he doens't know what to do. Zeb's the youngest in his family, and thus isn't used to the noise and commotion that goes on constantly in our family.

Well, what else? We have had our last swim day, not when I thought, but when Joseph and Ethan arrived. And here is a picture of that event that wins the "picture of the month" from us and will probably be one of the pictures memorialized on the wall when I make a collection of pictures highlighting this experience. So - the girls have these pink tutu bathing suits. I've got a picture of Abi and Lily in them (pic 10), and Lily and Sophi I think, so I wanted one with Sophi and Natalie too. I wanted them to strike a pose and hug each other, but when Sophi went to hug Natalie, this is was her response:

Let's take a closer look at that!

And that my friends in the picture of the year that has made all of us laugh so hard when we see it! Natalie! You are so funny! Look at that little frown and double chin - those baby seal arms and the shrugged shoulders. Corey calls it the "I don't like what you're doing" pose. So funny. So they didn't hug, but I did get a few more shots that might work.

Though I wish I had pulled Sophi's bangs out of the way.

A few of our other "lasts" ~ I gave Joseph and Corey both their last haircut Monday morning. I think I'll only have to filter drinking water one more time. I've made my last trip to Sam's club and today we used the last of the regular jar of peanut butter that I got there and I'm not going to buy anymore. This little local brand and jar of peanut butter is all that we've got left.

Is that the smallest jar of pb you've ever seen? It made me laugh when I saw it at the Walmart here, so I had to buy it to show the kids. So funny, that will make, what, like 3 sandwiches? Something we've joked about here, when it comes to all the little cars and skinny driving lanes and small cereal boxes and other things that we take for granted in the US, is that "ya gotta think little!"

Sadly, I doubt that I've plunged the toilets for the last time. Last Saturday I was so mad at the toilet and the plunger, I had to yell at the skies with frustration - the plunger is so stupid - it turned inside out each time I try to plunge, which just doesn't make any blockage go down. So I have to try to push it really hard and fast, which makes all the water splash back up at me, which makes me want to curse. Plus the plunger is round, the toilet hole is a rectangle with rounded corners, which doesn't work together well. So I end up having to try and push it down 50+ times, honestly! I was trying so hard that the pvc pipe handle broke in two and I was just seething in my head. Yeah, I was just ready to curse and the kids came to see what was making mom so mad... and I yelled "I HATE THESE TOILETS!!!" "I'm so sick of the plumbing here!!!!" and "I've plunged the toilets here more during these 2+ months more than I did the toilets at home during our 4 years there!!!" And as I gnashed my teeth, I remembered this video that I had watched earlier in the day of Jack Black spending the day with a homeless and family-less street kid in Uganda. As I plunged the toilet I thought of Felix. I though that he would probably think our toilets and bathrooms and house were really nice. Sure, it clogged occasionally, but is that a big deal? No, it's a small thing, why and I making it into a big thing when it's not? Sure, a few minute of plunging, a splash of poop water on my foot that I can wash off with clean water and soap... are these problems? Poor Felix, he's in a rough situation, not me. This isn't hard. There are so many people with real problems and real needs in this world. We had a FHE last night about being anxiously engaged, finding their talents and gifts and what they are passionate about and using those talents to help and bless and lift. We should be helping other people in this world. Be like Tim Ballard. Do NOT spend your short life making up problems for yourself (like this white woman who is "transracial" and claims people are racist against her.) or getting lost in our own pretend personal crises. Get out there, think of others, and do something to help and bless. So that was my moral take away from the latest clogged toilet on Saturday evening.