poor ipod.

Well ipod is having his manhood taken away from him today! :-(

I feel really bad, but have been reassured that this is a normal procedure and if it does not happen then he could become a happy humping dog. so for the sake of everyone in the world that could ever meet ipod we are getting him neutered. :) 

you can thank me later. haha jk

well i woke up at 8:30am this moring. That's better!!!

I have decided that I was just either completely exhausted from work yesterday or i'm back on my regular sleeping schedule. Lets hope for the second one otherwise i'm a pansy! :-)

4:40am

oh my. oh my. 

Well i accidently fell asleep at 6:30pm last night. haha

paul says he tried to wake me up a couple of times last night, but.... i don't remember any of them.

So this morning I woke up at 4:40am rip roaring ready to go and hungry as could be!!!! ha

But....no macaroni this morning, i've decided to keep all my eating habits to myself cause paul likes to announce it in church apparently! oh my!!

So i've been reading, surfing the web. Paul just woke up for the day, came into the living room walking like an old man. I was laughing SO hard!!!! Then he thought it was to bright in the house so he decided to turn off every light that i had turned on. It was SO funny!!!! He cracks me up.

There is never a dull moment in the briney house!

by the way, you can see some of my africa pics i took on paul's blog. 

Up at 2am

I accidently woke paul up while i was grabbing some socks out of the dresser. He said I was crazy and that I should blog about this...So here i go! :-)

At 2am this morning I woke up. Wide eyed & bushy tailed. I apparently fell asleep at 6pm yesterday. (don't remember that) but woke up at 2am rip roaring & ready to go.

Around 3:30 hunger came over me like a storm so I decided to make mac & cheese, the only thing in the house since we have not been grocery shopping since we've been back. So now i'm eating my "breakfast(USA)/lunch(africa)" watching Sneakers, one of my favorite movies ever. Man this time change is really getting to me this time around, but at least I'm sleeping properly, even if it is at the wrong time of the day. :-)

Up once again for another sunrise.

Africa Update

Well. Day 8 of our Uganda trip has come and almost gone.
We will be leaving the beautiful country of Uganda on the 2nd.
Being in Africa has been indescribable. I have met some of the most amazing people in my life and they are the people who live with no electricity, no running water, to medicine, no connection with the outside world, no bible, no money to buy food, no money to get tested for HIV/AIDS, no money to buy ARV’s if they are infected, and no money to send there children to school. All they have is their HOPE in GOD, and that alone gets them from day to day. WOW!!!!

Being here has spurred me on in new ways, to do the right thing, the thing the bible speaks of. Take care of those who are orphaned & widowed, to be a voice for those who have none, and to spread His name to the Nations. God has placed new vision and passion in paul & I. We have SO many things we will begin planning for once we are back in the states. New partnerships, new focuses, new ways of thinking, new trips to plan, new ways to spread God’s word, new ways to share God’s love with those who have nothing, & new ways to restore their hope.

Here are a few pictures from the trip so far. Of course paul has updated his site a couple of times (furthermoreproject.com) We just got REAL internet yesterday. The first week we had literally had nothing! And then once we made it to watoto we finally found reliable internet that is comparatively quick to anything else in Africa. (this would be a snails pace in America… literally!!!)

We will be packing up here in Kampala soon, 3 of our team members drove over to Rwanda (8hrs.) for the next day or so to speak at a conference there and then will be coming back to grab me & jerrod, we are staying at the conference to continue on learning how they run the watoto project. Then we will head on west to visit a couple of other villages and an orphanage.

So goodbye from this masungo for now, (that means white person) we hear this A LOT from the children. They yell this at their friends to get them to come and wave at us as we pass by them. It’s pretty funny!! And I would just like to point out that as I have typed all of this out I have said everything in my mind with an accent. Well technically not an accent I just keep ending my sentences going up like it’s an exclamation… It bugged me at first but now I’m constantly talking that way & literally can’t stop. It’s pretty funny. It’s like we were made to speak this way or something. Haha

Blessings from Uganda Africa, & may your light shine so bright for all the world to see!
~c.b.

My 4 essentials for Africa.

Here I am less than 7 hours away from leaving for our flight to africa.
I'm afraid I will forget something. But then I realized that I only need 4 things.
If I only had these 4 things. I think my trip would be the same no matter if I lost my luggage or not, or if I forgot..... my underwear... haha just kidding.
anyways. Here are my 4 essentials for my africa trip. Everything else I can go without.
of course i need my bible. And this one is small enough to fit into my camera backpack. Cool. huh!!
So here is my camera bag. You can't see 2 compartments which are holding another lens and some other random things. I sure do love my new backpack. Which my bible fits perfectly in!!

My 3rd thing that is an essential for this trip would be....
my new mp3 player. I don't like the fact that I have a mp3 player. I feel like I'm cheating on mac right now. But it was the best i could do for the money i had. I'm just blessed to have something to listen to while i'm on the plane!!
The last thing is my new shirt i just made. Sorry it's backwards i took the picture with the computer and it turns everything around.

So here it is... my 4 essentials for Africa. This is really all I need.
My Bible to spread the joy of my Savior.
My Camera to document all the faces of Africa that need our help.
My mp3 player for my sanity! and maybe even sharing some good tunes with an African.
And lastly my LOVE t-shirt.

Were hoping to have internet while we are there. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get it at least a couple of times.
Please pray for the 5 of us (Duke, Paul, Jerrod, Mike & me) and also in a week my old pastor from oklahoma (Nick) & his daughter (Amy, who is the wife of my youth pastor growing up) will be going to kenya (just next door to uganda)
May we take each step with the Lord's guidance. And I pray our hearts and voices will be filled with His words & songs.

Lord may there be more of you and less of me!

1 relaxing day!

well. today have been non-eventful and lazy so far. It's now 12:20pm I'm still in my P.J's and ipod is apparently still sleepy! Surprised? didn't think so..

this was after i woke ipod up and took him outside.

this is me bored. why? you might ask. well.................

......this would be why i'm bored. Cause ipod fell asleep on my stomach while i was checking my e-mail.. how is that even comfortable??!! I don't know. but i feel so bad about moving that i'm now just sitting here waiting for something to wake him up. ha

Well were gearing up for our trip to africa. We leave in 7 days. We are SO excited! Ipod is excited cause he is going to go stay with grammy!! I'm going to be blogging about getting ready for the trip. So be prepared to be bored. haha just kidding!

Calling all Avocado lovers!!

Ok. So this is one AMAZING dish!
It was introduced to us by some friends from church. And since we were having dinner with them again last night. I BEGGED for her to make this dish again. I think her husband and I downed it in about 3 min. haha!

So i had to share it with all you avocado lovers!
So here is the recipe, ENJOY!!!

Fresh Mozzarella Salad with Avocado, Roasted Corn, and Grape Tomatoes:

Serves 4 to 6

4 ears sweet corn, in the husk
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, cut in to 1/4 in cubes, or bocconcini
2 ripe avocados, halved, peeled, and cut into 1/4 in cubes
1/2 pint grape or other small tomato varieties, halved
8 to 10 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 dressing (recipe follows)
several handfuls of young arugula or baby greens


1. Preheat oven to 400

2. Soak the corn in the sink or a bowl filled with cold water for 10-15 minutes. Place on a baking sheet with sides and roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until the kernels are tender. Cool to room temperature, then pull off and discard husks and silks. Cut the kernels off the cob into a large bowl.

3. Add the mozzarella, avocados, tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper to the bowl with the corn. Drizzle 1/2 cup of the dressing over the salad and toss gently. Be careful not to over-mix or mash the avocados. Season with more salt, pepper, or dressing to taste. Serve on a bed of arugula or baby greens.

Dressing:
2/3 c. oil
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1/4 c. sugar
2 T lemon
1 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp finely diced onion
(can triple this and keep in frig for several weeks)