Tidbits...

Odds and ends, this and that from our daily lives.

Ian is off flying this morning at Manassas regional airport. They didn't have any planes that were the same as the ones he learned on in Manila, because in Manila they're all outdated. He was practically drooling over the list of plane options on the web with all those buttons and switches. Or even better, the ones that have all glass cockpit hoods where the gauges are just, uh... beamed on them? Honestly, I don't get it, but I hope he tells you all about his flight when he gets back. This is all an effort to get an actual license with his hours since he couldn't get one in the Philippines. Did he ever tell you about that fiasco?
From the library we watched a video called Families of Ghana, from the Families of the World series. It showed an 8 yo girl and her typical day in the village and school, as well as a 10 yo boy and his day at home and at school in Accra. The video was very well done and the kids intently watched it. I recommend it if you're heading to West Africa with kids who have no idea what you're getting into.
Katherine had a day long hike with her class to the Outdoor Lab in Manassas on Thursday. She had a great time and collected some rocks and twigs and such from the path. Yeah, I didn't get it either... this was a focus on conservation and natural forest? Whatever happened to "leave it as you found it"? Along the way they also found items to eat and Katherine proudly announced she'd eaten violets. That evening she came down with a fever and headache, yesterday she was chilled all day with a headache and her lips are mildly swollen and bright red. So red she looks like she's wearing a huge amount of deep colored lipstick. And they're chapped and painful. Anyone else thinking that perhaps she shouldn't have eaten those violets?
Oh and a couple more notes. Patricia, a friend of mine for 7th grade when we lived in Niamey, Niger, had her baby on Tuesday. It's funny because we were visiting her and her husband on Saturday and Trish and I were chatting how her mom had gone early with all her kids, and how Trish was hoping to do the same. She was due in a couple weeks, but went into labor early Monday morning. William was born very early Tuesday morning. Congrats to them!
And lastly, Kristine from Manila is awesome. She sent an envelope of magazines which really doesn't sound that great, but... but but but... photos of the kids from their OshKosh photo shoots are in them! Goodhousekeeping (Phils edition of course) has Nicholas in it. There were four magazines and one had a full page single photo with Nicholas featured with two of his friends from AmeriKids. Way way cool. Now to decide what to do with them so they don't languish inside the covers, never to be seen.