Manassa Pioneer Days

I'm not cool enough to know how to do those picture collages so here are a bunch of pictures in no particular order. These are some of the things we did our last weekend at home during the Manassa Mormon Pioneer Days.

Just a cute picture of Leah.
Yes, we played Duck Duck Goose (even grandpa ran around the circle) and Colored Eggs, though I have discovered that if you didn't spend Sunday Evenings as a child at Papa Bagwell's house you don't know this game. My favorite part was that every time my mom's color was called out she shouted OH MY GOSH and took off running. The problem is that she is fast for an old woman (sorry Mom) and scared all of us to death she might actually beat us.

We had a picnic at the ranch with my Dad's family. Memorable events were Aaron mercilessly teasing Mary about her Cheerio phobia and Alex taking a swim in the river knowing he could get away with it because it was during the prayer on the food and his mom's eyes were closed.

We went to the rodeo to watch Jim team rope. This year's rodeo was a bit short and disappointing, but Leah survived it all so I guess maybe it was a good thing. Sadly Jim didn't come home with the prize.

Leah chilling with Uncle Jimmy. She was just so happy and chill that day. I think she loved outside, the music, and tons of people to watch, oh and Jim of course. Thanks to Jim for letting me take the picture even though I know he hates them.

Watching the parade with Grandpa Gordy who is 90.

Leah with Aunt Dani. I knew that giving Leah a middle name of Danielle was sure to make her a favorite with Aunt Dani. Now how can we keep the trend up for all of our kids especially since Aunt Dani doesn't even have a middle name?

One of the pretty floats.

Leah and her cousin Adam. I guess she is trying to be a show stealer here and kick him out of the picture.

All the girls having a little late night fun. It started as Dani and me, then Mom was added, then Steph and Rebecca and Tatiana. I'm sure the men stayed away due to all the giggling. Old girls can giggle too.

All of the cousins that were there. Too bad we missed Randy, Cherrie & kids here in Manassa. We did see them in Utah though.

We had a great time at home! When we got back to our own house Leah just looked around at all the walls in our living room with a huge smile on her face - finally a house she recognized! Though she does miss all the action and attention, and I miss it too. Thanks for everyone who gave us places to sleep and rides to cars and airports, etc. Speaking of airports . . . Alex (bottom row, right) had a fun ride on the baggage claim carousel when Rebecca dropped me and Leah off. What a crazy kid.

Good Attitude

Last night I read the Ensign after Levin and Leah were in bed. One article was about a family that had no car for the summer and it gave them a true experience of the Pioneers crossing the plains to Utah. The next was about living in the moment and not just waiting for a certain time of your life to pass before you live life and contribute.

Combine the 2 articles (and I think there was another one but I don't remember it and am too lazy to go grab the Ensign to refresh memory) and you have our situation in Nigeria. Sometimes it is like we are Pioneers and I remembered that they couldn't always look back and say, "yes but in Nauvoo everyone gets to live in a brick house while I'm camping and walking every day and collecting buffalo chips." Sometimes life situations just aren't equal. I also can't just wait for the next year to pass and then enjoy life.

I used to think I had one of the better attitudes of expats in Nigeria. This past week I haven't, but I'm back on the positivity band wagon. Today when Levin told me to be positive I said, I'm positive this internet stinks. But now I really am going to be positive.

Home Bitter Home

And We're Back!
Soon I hope to do a post about Leah and my vacation, the last few days of it that is.
We've been back 5 days. Leah still has jet lag and thinks her crib is a bed of nails in a prison.
The too much chlorine in the water bleached out one of my new shirts a little bit.
We came back to no internet (see one of my last posts about that). I finally got a new internet provider today and let's just say . . . . . slower than dial up! SO I may not actually get to the post about our last few days of vacation but I hope to. Right now I better close down the computer before I take a hammer to it.
This has been my hardest time returning to Nigeria. Our friend asked if while at home I missed anything about here. I responed, I wished Levin was in America.
BUT I am trying to have a better attitude about it and church yesterday went really well.

Love Letter

Dear Daddy,
I love you and miss you! I have been holding true to my promise to not start crawling while I am away from you. No matter how many times Mom puts a toy out in front of me I will not crawl until I'm back in Lagos because I promised you.
I have learned a new trick however, I can drink from Mommy's cup. I love it, and the more ice there is the better. This trick has not been without accidents however. This morning my diaper was a little too full from too much water drinking last night. Then tonight shortly after this picture was taken I pulled the cup from Mommy and spilled a lot of ice water on myself. It gave me quite a shock and a scare, but I am your brave little girl and I didn't cry. I waited until later when Mom was putting my new shirt over my head to cry - you know how I hate that!
Mom and cousin Tatiana bought me some new little headbands so people will stop calling me "fine big boy" when I'm back in Nigeria.
Well, it's my bed time. Enjoy your nights without me crying.
Until next Tuesday. Love, Leah

Random

Julia pushing Leah around. By this time Leah had slouched down a bit, but at first she acted like the Queen of Sheba.
Leah playing with grandma and her jewelry.

Leah's cousin Jordan is about 6 weeks older than her. They were so cute playing together. They'd steal toys back and forth, but neither one cried. Their favorite toy was an empty Aquafina bottle.

Leah finally got new toys! She was so bored with the few things we had in Nigeria. What you can't see in this picture is the sound she is probably making. She is getting top teeth and she claps grinds her top and bottom teeth together and it makes a sound that is like nails on a chalk board to me.

In other news . . . Levin says everything in Nigeria is terrible so any question I could ask the answer would be terrible. How is the weather? Terrible. How are the roads? Terrible. How is your nephew's visa to come visit us coming? Terrible. How is the internet connection? Terrible. I think he was having a bad day at the time.

Actually the internet story is somewhat comical other than it made me so mad. They came to fix something on our roof and built on top of our radio receiver for the internet so now it doesn't work. The men that built it also built over the crawl space to get up on top of our roof. They were trapped on the roof and had to connect ladders and repel off the roof to get down. Hmm . . we have no internet now and who is going to get up there to fix it? Poor Levin. He is a champ to let us come home and enjoy America without him.

Something I'm enjoying while in Utah and Colorado is how long the days are. Nigeria is too near the equator. You just have so much more energy when it doesn't get dark until 9 or later. Even if it does make it a little harder to get Leah to sleep, it is worth it!

We Love America

For the 2 people that read my blog, I just want to say there have been no posts because we are in America and I have more to do than blog for a change. :)
*We miss Levin! He is having a fun adventure in Liberia and let me know if I've seen the other West African countries we've been to (Cameroon, Benin, Ghana and of course Nigeria) I have no need to see Liberia.
*I have great sisters who took me shopping and Dani even wheeled around Leah and held her until her arms would break while I tried clothes on. Stephanie makes awesome food and installs Leah's new car seat because I'm not smart enough to man the new big beast.
*My nieces and nephews have all chipped in to entertain Leah when she gets fussy or even before then. What great kids!
*My brother and sister-in-law are here and I can talk with them all about living overseas and watch them box up and mail themselves tons of Lucky Charms and Honey Nut Cheerios.
*My brother-in-law drew an awesome pencil drawing of darling Leah.
*Today we move on to the in-laws and they are pretty darn awesome so we have a great time to look forward to (and a bed instead of the couch, though Steph's couch is pretty comfy.)

Gele Lessons

This contraption on my head is known as a gele (pronounced gay lee to my American ears, but I could be wrong). They vary in fanciness and poofiness and weddings is when they are most common, but you see them all the time. Each week we probably have about 4 women with the fancy ones on at church - and these women aren't rich either. I love being behind a bus where the back row is all women crammed in the bus with their geles on.

A few months ago an American Women's Club meeting they had a woman come and demonstrate tying geles and another woman talked about the fashion of geles and how it had changed over the years. She said a Yoruba woman (one of the major tribes) would rather starve than not be fashionable and I kind of believe it. For about $15 I bought my own gele. I wanted her to tie it similar to the one on her table, but it didn't come out that way at all. The latest fashion ones are really stiff and I think the lady only has some control over how they turn out.

A couple of weeks ago we had a young women's activity at church where Blessing's mom came and taught us how to tie them. I am so mad at myself that I forgot my camera because my young women looked really beautiful and so grown up. Some of them got really good at it. I was no good at doing it on others and am not good at doing it on myself, but I know in principle how to tie these now. If I had a third hand I could maybe do it. Sister Eze told the girls, now if your husband is ready to go out he is not going to wait for you to mess with this so you must be quick. She bent her head down and tied hers in like 3 seconds and it looked amazing. They are also good for hiding a bad hair day.