Little Tidbits

Over a week has gone by since my last post, and a lot has happened. Trying to keep a somewhat short post, I'll highlight the important tidbits from the last several days...

Halloween:

Halloween weekend was a big study weekend for Randy, so I carpooled with two of my Memphis friends, Julie (who was headed to Chattanooga) and Kayla (who was headed to Kingston). I got dropped off in Nashville on Friday night, which also happened to be my mom's bIrThDaY!! I missed out on the steaks but made it for the best part....cake! We gave my mom her presents and spent some time just hanging out with each other. The next morning I went to Puffy Muffin with some of my besties, and then got to go see the adorable nephews, Grayden and Luke, at Rob and Jen's house. Grayden was a pirate (argggg) and Luke was a turtle. They didn't seem too into their costumes or playing with each other a lot, but boy were they cute! I also got to see my two sister-in-laws and we always have fun together...especially when the boys aren't around! Randy and I wish so badly that we could see them all more, but hopefully we can all spend more time together in the future.

Fights:

One of the schools I teach at (which will remain nameless) had four, yes four, fights on Tuesday. The school was in a lockdown and the cops had to come and take away two of the students off to juvenile jail. The students recapping the event is quite dramatic and scary. Luckily, I was at the other school that day and missed out on all the action.

Jack:

No redbox dvd yet, but I did realize that Jack stole a piece of pizza from the top of the stove. Who knows what all we'll find when we move out of this apartment!

Hunting:

Randy...a hunter? It's true! Randy and his friend Josh (who has hunted for most of his life) went hunting on Saturday which was the first open day. He woke up at 4:30 am, dressed in camo from head to toe with a bright orange hat, and spent the entire morning at Shelby Forrest. When I asked how it was, he said "We saw a buck". That doesn't sound like a lot of success to me, but apparently it is (Josh hadn't seen a buck all of last year). If it wasn't muzzle loading we might have lots of venison to dish out, but no such luck. They said they didn't hear a single shot all morning. Those crazy boys are going back on Monday, so we'll see if we ever get our meat!

Girls Night:

I bet nobody else spent their Saturday night at a bonfire playing games and singing swahili songs with eight Burundi girls, all of whom are sisters. The girls from our house church got together for a cookout and had burgers, chips, and made yummy smores in a friends backyard. One other girl and I were trying to keep the fire burning when the Burundis walked up and took over....in about 2 minutes they had a blazing fire going, then proceeded to tell us how its done in Africa and fired some corn on the cob straight from the fire. Later in the night we played goofy games like a jello slurping relay race, an over-under relay, and Ships in the Ocean. Then the girls taught us an African game called meat and rice, which didn't make too much sense but was fun nonetheless. We then sat around the fire singing songs and then walked all eight girls home while they were still hyped up on leftover Halloween candy. It was a night filled with silly but fun games and great bonds formed between two cultures.

They sang my favorite Swahili song, and I got some of it on camera to share, but I stayed on the fire so they wouldn't know I was taping them and get embarrassed.