Mothers Day In Seattle

We decided to bail on church and spend Mother's Day with my parents in Seattle.  We met up with my parents and then headed north for a trip to the Imax Theater.  We saw the film "Grand Canyon" and it was really good.  We then headed down to the waterfront where we went to the CrabPot for a late lunch.  We feasted on crab and then headed up to the top of Queen Anne Hill to Kerry Park where my Dad took some photos of us with the Seattle skyline in the back.  Had it been a clear day, we would have been able to see Mt. Rainier but the clouds won out so you'll have to imagine it there!  We then headed over to Ballard and went to the Ballard Locks.  I haven't been there since I was little so it was neat to take my kids there.  On our way back, we were seeing a bunch of crab boats and since Deadliest Catch is one of our favorite shows, we decided to drive by the boats to see if we could see one of our favorites.  Britton said he saw the Northwestern (our favorite boat) and I thought he was joking but he wasn't and there she was!  We finished off the day with a drive thru Wallingord and stopped at Dicks, my Dad's favorite place and got some burgers and shakes.  Dad doesn't like seafood much so Dicks was an inevitable stop! 

  It was such a fun day.  Wish we could have more days like this more often.  We used to have more time to do this kind of stuff when our kids were littler but now with them all doing so many things, it's getting harder and harder to find a down day where we can all be together and do something special.

It was great to have a day with my Mom and Dad and my Mom and I had a great mothers day together and neither one of us had to cook!

Who has the Best Mom in the World?

Who has the best Mom in the World?  I Do!!  As it's Mothers Day tomorrow, I wanted to do a post on my Mom since she deserves to be honored.   

Some of the things I love about my Mom:

1.  She never butts into my business or gives unwanted advice.  She doesn't interfere in my marriage or criticize me about the way I'm raising my kids.

2.  She is wonderful with my kids.  She always plays fun games with them, does fun activities with them and treats them like gold.  They love her to death.

3.  She's so funny.  She is always making us laugh with Mr. Bean like accidents.  (sorry mom)  She's great entertainment whether it's go cart riding, on safari in Africa, or at any family event.

4.  She doesn't have a PHD in anything (inside family joke!).

5.  She's always there for me every way. When I'm sick, hurt, or having a hard time, I just want my mom.

6.  She always goes the extra mile to make everyone feel special and loved.

7.  She is the hardest worker I know and is not a quitter at anything.

8.  She's strong, enduring, loving, kind, thoughtful, patient, and supportive.

9.  She's very creative and is a fantastic piano teacher

10.  She always has a smile on he face and is friendly to everyone.

Thanks for all you do for me and my family!   Your a great example and I'm so thankful you chose me in heaven to be your daughter.   I am so blessed to have you as my Mom!

Happy Mothers Day!

Nsambya Babies Home, Kampala, Uganda, Africa

Here we are at the Nsambya Babies Home.  We spent two days here with the orphaned babies.  I'm not sure how to put into words the emotions I felt when we first walked in.  The babies saw us and they flocked to us.  It was as if they knew that we were there to love and cuddle them.  They were literally fighting with each other to have us hold them.  I had one in each arm and one on each leg as did my sister Suzy and my parents.  They had a death grip on us.  If you tried to put them down, they would not let you and it was as if they knew that if you put them down, that would be the end of their time to get love and attention.  It was heartbreaking.  When we first entered the babies area, it was so overwhelming.  We didn't know what to expect or what to do and we had all these babies climbing up our legs.  It was so dirty and such a different world from where we've all reared our children and you just can't imagine having your own child being left in a place where the conditions were so bad.  My mom, sister and I locked eyes and we all started to well up with tears when we first got there because the emotions we were all feeling were so intense.  I looked at Suzy and my Mom, and said "Come on, we have to BUCK UP!"  I was saying that as much to myself as I was to them!  Somehow we were able to tuck away many of our outward emotions and get thru it.   

The kids were so starved for love and affection so we spent most of our time playing with them.  There were no toys as we know them.  There were some broken down bikes that looked like they were from the 1970's, rusted and broken.  The kids were kept outside most of the day.  Many were sick with fevers and runny noses. There was no soap or hot water to wash your hands and I was terrified I was going to get sick.  I think we used a bottle of purell each day we were at the babies home!  There were no structured activities or anything for them to do.  They fought a lot and mostly wandered around or wanted us to hold them.

One of the "mothers" as they called the workers took an almost empty can of formula powder and dumped what was left of it on the ground and the babies started to lick it up off the ground. They don't have diapers there so the babies walk around all day and just go potty on the ground.  We had seen them wipe up the pee off the ground with what we called the "Pee Mop".  It was never rinsed or cleaned (there is not such thing as cleaner there that I saw) and they used it again and again.  To see the babies get down on the ground and lick up the powder where one had just pee'd earlier was more than we could take.    One of the 2 year olds who must have had some developmental problems pee'd on the floor and before I could get down the hall to her, she laid down on her belly and started to lick it up.  I yelled "Noooooo, Sambyia....noooo" but she just looked up at me and smiled and then went back to licking it up until I was able to get to her and clean it up with the "pee mop".   If you look closely at the top photo of the little girl in the hallway, you can see the puddle of pee on the floor.  This was after she licked it up and I was getting the mop.  My Dad was taking the photos.

I wish the whole world could see what we saw.  It's just not right to see children being neglected, abused, abandoned, and mistreated.  We spend billions on our dogs and cats in America and yet, we don't do much to help these children.  What we saw here at the orphanage is just one grain of sand in a huge desert in relation to all the other suffering of children in Africa and around the world.  Everywhere we went we saw suffering in every way imaginable.  If you watched American Idol Gives Back, you also saw suffering in many parts of Africa and around the world.  Most of the African countries have some sort of war, famine, genocide, or some type of suffering.  I hope I can open a window for whoever reads this to see that there is tremendous need out there to do something, even if it's small!

When we left the babies home on the first day, we decided that one day in Africa is equal to 5 days at home because it was so strenuous in so many ways as well as well as being able to absorb all that we did and saw.  It was so much that it seemed like it had been 5 days!  

Laid up Blues

Okay, obviously, I'm still having some boring down time since I'm still blogging away.  I've been holed up in the house for 10 days now and I've reached the end of my rope.  Like I said earlier, I had knee surgery on the 25th, and then this past friday I had a minor foot surgery.  To top it off, my little Cameron, gave me his cold so now not only does my knee and my foot hurt, I'm feeling yucky from the cold.  I'm so tired of laying around and being worthless to everyone in my house.  I'm definitely feeling sorry for myself tonight!  I get my stitches out of the knee tomorrow and the swelling has gone way down so at least that's good news!  

I just talked Jordan into making a chocolate cake since sweets seem to be the only thing on my mind this week.  I hate not being able to play soccer or exercise!  For a person that is very impatient and always has an agenda of what they have to get done, this is pure torture!  My mom would laugh since she knows how impatient I am!  Sitting around is just not something I like to do!  Craig is enjoying having me be a little bit on the calm side but the down side is that he has to pick up all the slack for me. He's a trooper is all I can say!  How'd I get so lucky??  Okay, well, enough boohooing.  Back to figuring out what else to blog!!  Sorry, no pictures available!!  Trust me, you wouldn't want to see me now (I can hardly stand to see myself in PJ's for another day!)  LOL!!

Montana Skiing at Maverick Mountain

Here we are skiing the incredible, mostly unheard of Maverick Mountain in Polaris, Montana.  This ski hill is only about a mile from our cabin in the Pioneer Mountains.  The best thing about skiing here is the powder of course but there are never any lift lines and the mountain is never crowded.  When your done skiing you can head another mile up the road and go to the hot springs and sit in 104 degree water to soothe your cold and sore muscles!  Did I mention that it's really inexpensive to ski here too?  Lift tickets are $17, seriously!!!

 

Flashback Friday

This is my first "Flashback Friday"!  I think I like these the best since it reminds me of so many things.  This is me with my older brother Jeff and my younger brother Buddy (Brad) in 1970.  I think I was about 2 years old here.  My mom had Jeff, then me 14 months later, and Buddy 17 months after me.  She got married at 18, and had Jeff the following year at 19.  My sister Suzy was born 3 1/2 years after Buddy and she was 25 with 4 kids!  She waited until she was 32 to have the last one, Hans.  I don't know how she did it.  I feel so overwhelmed with the 4 I've got and I had my kids pretty close but I did it in sets of two's!  I wanted to be done having my kids by the time I was 30 and I did it with about 6 weeks to spare as I turned 31 right after I had Maddy.   No wonder my mom was so empathetic when I told her I was pregnant again right after having Cameron!  He and Maddy are 11 months and 3 days apart.  Britton and Jordan are 19 months apart and I thought that was so hard....little did I know I'd end up with Irish Twins!! I still don't know how I did it either??  I guess you just do what you have to do as it comes your way!  I'm glad I'm out of the baby stage even though the age my kids are now has it's own challenges.  

Love the tie!  This outfit I'm wearing looks like it might be coming back in style!!  

The Kids League and why I went to Africa

Everyone has asked me what took me to Africa last month.  I figured I'd start by telling you all how it came about and how it evolved into something much more.

Every year, my parents take soccer teams to Denmark and Sweden to participate in some international soccer tournaments.  I've gone along several times to coach, chaperone, and to take my own kids.  The tournament in Sweden is called "The Gothia Cup" and is the largest youth soccer tournament in the world.  It draws teams from all over the world.  They have an opening ceremonies that packs in over 40,000 people.  About 5 years ago, some teams from Africa started coming.  The Ugandan and Zambian teams drew a lot of attention at the tournament for many reasons.  It was unusual to have teams coming from third world and war ravaged countries and the teams have a lot of personality that makes them fun to watch.  The Ugandan teams are also really good and have won their age group at the tournament 4 times.  It is not easy to win the Gothia Cup so they are like celebrities there.  Benson Soccer (my families soccer organization) became acquainted with the Ugandan team and got to know the man that is responsible for them going abroad to play.  There is something very special about these kids that come and the director, Trevor Dudley.  Each year when we meet up at Gothia we trade items and give them gifts to take home.  

Trevor Dudley is an incredible man who began the program that started this all.  He is an englishman who has been living in Africa, mainly Uganda for the past 27 years.  He retired from his profession and started a sports program called "The Kampala Kids League or KKL".  It was mainly a soccer and sports organization that was formed to give the kids in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, an organized opportunity to play sports.    Each team has disadvantaged kids on it.   They use sports to bring education and help to disadvantaged kids.   The KKL has been a big success in Kampala so in 2003, Trevor and the KKL expanded the program into the other districts of Uganda, mainly, the war torn northern region.  They call that program "The Kids League or the TKL".  They have expanded to 9 districts (districts are like counties, Uganda is the size of Oregon) including the Gulu district which is where many of the atrocities have happened over the last 20 years in the north.

Girls do not play soccer in Uganda and Trevor wanted us to come over, see his program and to show the girls (and boys) in Uganda that girls can play sports as well.  Since my sister Suzy and I both play and coach soccer, we were the perfect candidates to go along and we both have always had a desire to go to Africa and do humanitarian work.   My parents also decided to go and so the four of  us embarked on this journey together.  The TKL's main focus is to help the kids in the war torn districts and they use soccer/sports to promote health and education.  I've attached some of the photos I took off the TKL bulletin board that shows where the districts have been established, their goals or mission, and the director Trevor Dudley.  The other photo is of me and the boys team who will be going to Gothia this summer.  These boys in the photo are chosen from the the TKL districts and the KKL to form this one team that will go abroad this summer to play.  These boys are brought to Kampala, and are given a place to live, they get their school paid for (you have to pay for your kids to got to school in Uganda), and they feed them and try to get them healthy.  The week we were there, Trevor was trying to find some funding to get them some "meat" for their diet at least once a week and they were "de-worming" the boys since having worms in your gut is a common thing amongst the villagers due to what they eat.  (I know, this sounds gross, but it's the reality there!)  They want to get the boys as healthy as they can before they go to Gothia.  They have to raise about $20,000 US dollars for the boys to go.

It takes $100,000 US dollars to start a new district and so Trevor is always working hard to find funding and help.    The work he does is amazing and we were able to participate in the work he does as well as learn about all the aspects of the organization.  Trevor was honored by HRH Price Charles last fall when he paid a visit to Uganda.  Trevor was given an award from Prince Charles and gave him the same tour of TKL and the KKL that we got.   

We were also able to work in some baby orphanages, attend church, and work in another place for orphaned and disadvantaged kids called the Rainbow House of hope.  

This was an incredible experience and I hope to document it all here after I've had a month to decompress from all that I saw.  It's taken me this long to be able to take it all in.  Never have I seen so many things that are so life changing.  Bear with me as I tell my stories from Uganda.