7 Minutes

I have 7 minutes left until I have to hit the ground running. Today is going to be busy. Tomorrow even busier. I'm not thinking about Friday yet because that might send me over the edge. Now, had I not procrastinated when I wasn't busy on Monday and Tuesday and cleaned the house alot more, I would not be so busy this morning....but oh well, I'm a big believer in "Down Time".

Today we have an appraiser coming. This is not my favorite thing. They take pictures of every room in the house. I however, have lost my need for perfectionism, which I consider a good thing. I would like it to look nice, but it doesn't have to be perfect. So I need to get off the computer now and go take care of my assigned rooms. I sure hope the kids have done their portions, or their rooms will look very bad on the photos. BTDT. Then you have Cranky Mommy. She's not fun.

Gib and I have to leave for an eye dr appt and we'll be back hopefully before the appraiser arrives for last minute screaming, oops, I meant to write, SCRAMBLING, if the other children didn't do their assigned rooms.

The reason for this interruption of our summer laziness? We are refinancing one last time to take advantage of 4.5% plus whatever little extra Mike bumped on there to pay the fees. So it's probably 5%. It will save us $ each month and that's a good thing! Then we have to start co-signing on Taryn's college student loans and by the time that is done, there is a likelihood we will be co-signing on Gib's college student loans or possibly Indy's graduate student loans; or both; or maybe Taryn's too; or all 3. There could be a marriage in there, or two! And we'll be worrying about Mariah dating right about then.

Hey, have I ever mentioned that Mike's hair is turning gray too?!

Oops, my 7 minutes has tuned into 11. Whoa, I'm gonna have to sweep somethin' under a carpet now.

The Ride of our Lives....

Take Two....(for me anyway). Just a short 9 hours ago....

Taryn's Birthday

I will put Taryn's Birthday photos up tomorrow too.

Taryn had a great birthday and she just looked so beautiful the day she turned 18!!!

Mike and I took her to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It is not a tradition for us to do this, but it was something fun and events led to this being the only way we felt we could spend some special one on one time with Taryn before Mike had to leave to head for Atlanta to collect Indie at the airport, and Taryn was going to the movies for her birthday with a friend, and people were scattering to the winds.

As soon as we got home Taryn got to open her presents. She had a great time, especially with the College Survival Kit stuff. She really enjoyed the variety and odd assortment of stuff and creativity!! My mom also made her a scrapbook of her life and a beautiful green quilt that she's been working on for a couple months. I helped choose the fabric. I love doing that - it is my favorite part. After that I don't want any part of quilting!!

Later that night, when everyone except Mike and Indie, met up at the house again, and Taryn was ready for dessert, we had Ice Cream cake. It was probably around 11 pm!! Gib saved the day earlier when he and Brett walked down to Walgreens and bought us another #8. I don't know where these number candles go. But I hear we need another #2 and a 0, and a #3 and a #9. I think we probably should just get a complete set and put it under lock and key!!! Hmmmm... maybe that would be a really good gift for someone - a full set of matching numbered birthday candles! It is very stressful to not have the right number when it comes time to light the cake!

Tonight we went out to dinner. It wasn't exactly Taryn's birthday dinner. It was kinda just a family dinner so Indie could have some real food for the first time that sounded good to her. She chose Mexican. We are going Skydiving this weekend. When we head home, Taryn can choose the restaurant and that will be her birthday dinner topping off her birthday present from Mike and I. She can't wait!!

She's Back!

I don't have any photos yet.... but it has been wonderful after a L-O-N-G month of no contact whatsoever of a personal nature to be able to see, touch, and hear Indie again! She has been entertaining us today with some stories and we expect to get bits and pieces some more as she processes her experience. I can't wait to read her paper.

She had a good trip. Let's do a bug report first, shall we? We get alot of those stories since Indie and I share a similar revulsion of the critters. But, all's well! The special clothing, and the repellent treatment worked! Plus, when they were told to choose huts, Indie went straight for the one closest to her and, well, it was the only one that had a mosquito net that was treated to KILL the bugs that flew into it! And somehow their hut just didn't have the bug problem that all the other huts had. Was Somebody Upstairs looking out for my daughter or what?! Other people had to pick tons of trapped live bugs out of their nets and off their floors every morning and get rid of them. They did not really have that problem. And not just mosquitoes...we're talking scorpions and nasty acid spitting bugs too. Ew, ew, ew.

I was so relieved to hear Indie did well physically. She had a problem with her eye and couldn't wear her contacts for most of the trip which was a huge bummer, but didn't suffer like the others did from many of the other common problems that are expected. She was blessed! She worked hard and was able to keep up with the physical demands of carrying 50 lbs of sand up the mountain. They were at an elevation of over 5,000 feet. 3 of the team members were unable to do this, and one could not even carry 2 liters of water the mile uphill. Indie of course was not one of those! She was a workhorse and hauled sand with the best of them, side by side with the Sisit women and guys on the team, and the professors and the other couple of girls who could do the work. And it was challenging, grimy, and exhausting work. Followed by classroom work in the evenings.

The one challenge she had to endure and will continue to wrestle with for another week is a side effect of the anti-malarial and that is nightmares. I hope that now she is home, her subconscious won't be so freaked out by weird experiences of the day and they will subside. She is so tired from not sleeping well.

Indie has a gift for telling the funniest stories and we are having a great time listening to her adventures. We were all rolling hearing about one trip to a market where 3 warriors were encountering some trouble with an angry cow tied to a rope. It was hobbled and only had 3 good legs to drag these warriors around with but that was all it took. It had a nice set of horns that Indie felt were deserving enough to run from when the cow took one look at their group and went after them. It kinda knocked one girl aside (she wasn't hurt) and Indie took off running! She got behind a hut and was peeking around the corner laughing at the whole scene...because let's face it, this is funny stuff. Bascially a 3 legged cow because one leg is tied up, 3 warriors trying to keep it under control, and it's going after the Americans. All of a sudden the cow sees Indie as they are going past her and it makes a sudden detour and heads straight for her. She pretty much stops laughing and starts screaming and running. She had to hurtle 3 half walls to get away from it. The whole time the market was in an uproar of laughter, as were all of her companions and their professor. Afterwards, Indie walked away waving and smiling, and saying "Jambo! Jambo!" She says they were suitably impressed with her speed and jumping ability! It was a really funny story. I hope she will retell it in her own words because that was the very short version of a very funny tale!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Today I took the van to work. I drove with one eye on road, and one eye on the look out for "The Spider". Judging by its web, it wasn't so itsy bitsy either, but who knows; it hasn't been found!

See, the other day I was leaving for work, kinda in a hurry because I had goofed around a tad too long, then had to talk to the kids on my way out the door. Luckily Mariah was around on my way out the door because as I went to put my purse and lunch in the seat next to me my hand went THRU a huge spider's web!! Yes, inside the van!!!

Give me a live mouse, give me a snake, heck, give me a stupid cardinal pecking at my window for days on end... but not a spider IN the car with me!! Somewhere.... lurking. With its web across the two seats in the front, as big as a human body!! You could see it perfectly too. It was a rather nice web as webs go.

I, of course, evacuated. I had to ring the doorbell so Mariah could bring me new car keys. I told her to have daddy take care of the spider's web for me and if Taryn needed the Volvo... well, someone would have to drive the van to the mall and switch out cars and keys!

Then I drove to work and arrived a couple minutes late. And it was all the spider's fault. That's my story and I'm sticking to it... haha, get it? Sticking to it... webs?!

Today on my way home it was soooo hot (we are hotter than central Florida and only a couple degrees cooler than Waco, Texas!) I had all the windows down to blow out the oven temps as I was leaving the mall after the van sat there for 6 hrs, and when I got home a massive fly was in the car. Dang! That spider missed it by a day - I shoo'd out the fly before I shut the windows ALL the way this time!! Hope the heat killed the spider...surely it would, right?

Party Animal

In the 5 weeks since school got out, I do believe that Gib has single-handedly surpassed both Indie and Taryn's cumulative social activity/party/hang-out gatherings of ALL FOUR YEARS of their high school careers...not the summer's mind you, but ALL FOUR YEARS!!!!

Gib often packs in 4 parties in a 3 day span over a weekend. Gib will even bail out on one pool party when he is texted by another friend to come join them at theirs. His explanation? He spent the day before with the one group and they had enough time with him already, and it was time to go to the other party. The "real" reason? A girl. Wouldn't you know it! We figured that out pretty quick. :)

One of my favorite parts about driving Gib all over town to these activities is when he calls to say they have left one location and are now at a community pool in another. When it is time to get him all I am told is what pool he is at. Like I will immediately know exactly how to get there. He has no idea where he is really, what street it is on, or how to get INTO the neighborhood by car in the first place. Thinking he has solved the direction problem, he has written down directions that are the absolute vaguest thing I have ever encountered. We get to the intersection and he says basically "we have arrived". And I'm all like, "Gib, there is not an entrance to a neighborhood in the middle of an intersection!!!" Then we finally find it, thanks to me not his dumb directions, and I turn into the neighborhood thinking Gib now knows where to go since his lovely directions end at this point and he goes, "drive to the pool". I look at him blankly and ask him, "and how do I know where the pool is?!" We laughed and drove around trying to guess where we would put a pool. Luckily a golf cart dude was putt-putting around or we would have never found it. Of course Gib didn't have a phone number of the friend who could have helped get us there. Noooo, that would have been too easy.

So, what I've learned is to get a street name, map it on my way out, and then put it into my iphone and save it for future reference. Thank goodness I have an app for that!!

And by the end of summer, my knowledge of the location of several community pools will be increased substantially!!

Decamping

Well, the girls are feeling better. Gib was entertaining Taryn until about 1 a.m. and texting me until nearly the same time. I know I didn't make it until 1 a.m. though because last I remembered I texted Gib "Nite". When I woke up I had a text from Taryn asking me to tell Gib to leave her alone so she could sleep. Sorry Taryn! You were about 2 minutes too late in your request!

Volleyball Camp is officially kaput. I told Mariah we wouldn't even try to go to the last day today. I can't see her running and hustling for 4 hours. I've called to put Mariah in the next one that will be held in July instead. I hope they will just transfer her enrollment and I won't have to pay again, or let me pay for 1 day since that is all we attended of this one, which is 4 days long.

Poor Mariah, the bad news just kept coming. Turned out her much anticipated overnight volleyball camp has also been cancelled. Last year she went to it, but didn't stay in the dorm rooms, we drove her there each day. Some huge political rally is being held there instead. Gotta say I don't think much of a college that has planned something in advance, taken your money and then says, oh we think this political party needs to have a rally and they are more important than these 100 girls so taataa darlings. Mariah was crushed. It was her overnight camp!!! Girl party! Dorm Rooms! Up all night! Talking! Giggling! Eating! Oh, and of course...the Volleyball! The opportunity that has been lost just can never be reclaimed. You are only 12 once you know.

I also had to move Mariah's Red Cross Babysitter Boot Camp from next week to end of July because she needs to get her braces off on 6/23. Mariah wants to be a babysitter so bad she can taste it! If only she lived close to that rich supply of cousins out West. Out here, getting Red Cross Babysitter Certified is a golden ticket that mom's look for before hiring a young babysitter. It is a two day course, 9 to 4:30 both days and teaches some of the tricks of the babysitting trade, including safety, first aid, choking and CPR. (I think Taryn should take it again. She texted me the other day when she was babysitting wanting to know if I would come do the "dirty work" for her. I told her she would have to do it, and explained how - Mariah was giggling in the front seat of the car the entire conversation. Then I mentioned to Taryn that maybe she better wait a REAL long time before ever having kids.) Either that, or live REAL close to Mariah, who will never let HER Red Cross Babysitter Badge get that rusty!!

A couple days later, I was thinking about the Ortho thing, and asked Gib if, when he made his last ortho appointment, did he finally make the braces off appointment the dr had been postponing all summer or another tweaking appointment? He didn't know, so I called and it was another check up. Which frustrated me, because back in April, we had decided to take his braces off before July. So I told them I wanted to pre-book the braces off appointment right then for something no later than July 1st because he leaves for Florida, and will only be home once for a couple days in mid-July and then again for a couple days the last week of July. And I wasn't going to wait until August when we had agreed in April that these braces were coming off before July!

It took a conversation with the Dr, but finally after ALOT of searching, we found two appointments in the two tiny windows Gib is home in July. I am not thrilled that they are booked so solidly that you need 6 weeks to find an appt, but I am happy to know that we will soon be done with braces, and that we won't have two ortho appointments we have to work our school schedules around. When Gib gets back from the lake it's just one week before school starts for us. Whoa.

The Week Looked So Fun

It was supposed to be a fun week - especially for Mariah. One of her activities of the summer - Volleyball Camp has been ruined by a virulent attack of fever and vomiting. Taryn got a jump start on the illness by about 8 hrs. Oh joy. It's been 24 hrs for Taryn now and she is still weak as a kitten. Poor Mariah is in the throes of it and very feverish and sick as can be.

They can't seem to get cold enough - Taryn actually wanted to lay on the tile of the bathroom floor. I'm running the A/C at 70 but that ol' dog of a unit will only get the upstairs to about 75 with all the heat and humidity we are having this week. So I'm pushing cold water bottles and gatorade. I flash froze some otter pops and they gobbled two down so far. They are taking turns with the good ice pack and popping ibuprofin and anti-nausea meds. I need to remember to buy another ice pack to replace the one that sprung a leak. Gotta run! I'm being paged (again!)

Poor little babies.

Wheels of the Car

Today the wheels of the car go round & round....

Volleyball camp began this morning bright and early - 9:00 AM!! That is at least a couple hours earlier than I usually see any sign of life emerging from the upstairs inhabitants. Mariah and I zipped off and she was happy to jump right in after a long absence from playing volleyball.

Then I raced back home to get Gib and take him to his Ortho appt. Drove right back across town. Made it a few pages into my 12 pages a day in the Read the Bible in 90 days quest I am embarking on again this summer - right to the good part when God is stuffing everyone with Quail because they whined about Manna - and then Gib was done and we headed to the post office and then back home.

I have a little over half an hour and then it's back on the road again to pick up Mariah. After that we (Gib, Mariah and I) will decide whether or not to go to Pac Sun and use our discount cards on some back to school clothes, or save that for tomorrow when I don't have to go into work. Probably go with option B.

As an addendum to the High Summer entry: We ended up taking out almost an entire section of the store last night, which nobody knew would end up happening!! We each had a long transfer list we were to find the items on - like a big scavenger hunt - and then you had to fold everything just so (of course), put it in boxes to be scanned and then shipped out. But, 4 hrs later, we ran out of shipping boxes, ran out of storage for clothes hangers, ran out of time, etc., it was kind of funny because right near the end when we realized practically nothing would be left, our manager yells STOP! and madly calls other stores to see what they did. Guess I will see what happened this morning to make that section look beautiful. I'm sure they will find stuff to sell! I got out of the follow up morning detail at 6 am because of Mariah's volleyball camp or otherwise I would have been right back at it to finish up with my crew. It's good to be loved. I was the only newbie on the team! :)

High Summer

We have entered High Summer, in case you didn't know. There are certain colors the fashionable are wearing too, and if you would like to be enlightened, I am happy to do so. I have to wear them at work, and can no longer wear Spring and early Summer colors... unless of course they just so happen to be included in the High Summer collection. Geez, who knew?!

I am learning all sorts of new terminology in my retail work at Coldwater Creek. I am entering the week which completes my first month on the job and we just finished a complete "floor change" and major store cleaning. Wow, that was alot of work!!

Tonight I go in for another over night floor change after hours where I guess we will be unpacking more freight which was why I was supposed to learn everything one gal knew about it. We managed about 15 minutes of uninterrupted work and then the rest of the day we were in the store and never returned to freight work. Well, I sure hope opening one box and taking out two things, pushing the button once on the giant steamer closet and seeing how they organize one visual rack to represent the entire floor will at least give me some skill to be put to use.

Right now there is some 70% off merchandise so it's a great time to go get some good deals! I think we are probably moving around the clearance section to make room for more new stuff. I think there are 9 "stores" by number within the store. I still don't quite know the store numbers by sections. I probably need to memorize that this week. I am constantly being pulled and tugged by one associate or another as they are instructed to "teach me everything they know" and then 15 minutes later we get reassigned and that was that!

I have also learned how to use the cash register and am getting much faster and neat with hanging up clothes JUST SO. There is one associate who will walk by and shake her head at your rack of items to go back out on the floor and go, "No... No... Yes... Yes... No" and keep on walking. Gotta love that. Really, it kinda makes me smile because she can spot the problem while on the move. It's kind of dragonlady-ish but she doesn't mean to be unkind, she just knows her stuff. And I'd rather know back in the dressing room that the jeans I just hung up in a pleat fold should have been flat hung. And she is good at helping you figure out what you did wrong and teaching you how to hang items correctly. I learned more from her way of doing things about getting it right than from others who have showed us. Everyone has their system. The last time I worked with her I only got one NO when she walked by. Woot! Woot!

There is a stupid rhyme that drives me crazy about hanging pants:
2,4,6,8 - hang them straight
10, 12, 14 - let them lean (so you are supposed to fold back one side, on the hanger, but does the rhyme tell you which side, or which pair of pants are folded front side or sideways pleated, or which ones don't even get hung up on hangers at all and are folded on tables?! Noooooo)
16, 18, 20 - fold them plenty (it doesn't even rhyme...really)
And this is what goes thru my head the entire time I am buttoning, zipping, pinching the little hanger dohickeys, sliding everything around, centering it on the hanger, and tightening it all so a fricking quarter can bounce off the waistband if dragon lady should try when she walks by.... ah! it's soooo much fun!!!

And for all that.... my first paycheck was like $21 bucks hahahaha. It had 2 weeks withholding on it or something. I get a decent one I hope when I go in tonight. Gotta say, I have never worked so hard for so little. But it is still fun and when it's not fun, there's just no point.

Unless, that is, I want the inside track on what colors to wear for Early Fall....

Mercer On Mission Blog Posts

Just in case you haven't been following the blog posts, or the tweets, and so that we'll have it on our blog, I thought I'd transfer the first week over to ours. So far it looks like everything has been going pretty good. Indie has crossed the equator, seen a pair of hippos (hopefully from a very safe distance), met the community, and they have begun their work. As expected, the Sisit women can run circles around them. I bet the 8 yr olds can outwork them. Indie might have eaten agali with her fingers from the communal pot if she was A) hungry enough or B) was concerned about offending the community and/or the warriors who carry spears to protect them from the hippos. Grab a snack and enjoy... but if you want to see a couple pictures, click on the link:

TWEETS:

• First day of labor at Sisit. Moved + sifted + washed + dried a lot of sand. The Sisit women hauling sand were amazing. about 20 hours ago
• Good day at Sisit. Planning for sand source for water filters+water pump+pipeline. Met community. Labor starts tomorrow. 1 day ago
• Arrived Marich Pass. Rough roads but safe journey. Work at Sisit starts tomorrow. 2 days ago
• Dr. McCreanor is the mercer bear! 3 days ago
  
  
  http://mom-kenya-2010.blogspot.com/
  

6/5

Today started with a very early and completely amazing boat trip on Lake Baringo. The landscape was incredible and we got to see local wildlife including a fish eagle plucking a fish out of the water and a pair of hippos.

We then loaded up the vehicles and head into town for a breakfast of fried bread and eggs and then on to the Longiwan Integrative Child Development Center. The work Sam has coordinated at this site includes a nursery school building;a water supply and treatment facility for the nursery school, elementary school, and local community; garden area with grass for cattle feed and thatching roofs, millet, and maringa; and bee hives. The community fed us a very generous lunch of agali, rice, maringa leaves, chicken, and goat. On the ride back we saw monkeys and ostriches.

We spent the afternoon relaxing around the cabins and were visited by one of Sam's favorite birds, a Paradise Fly Catcher.

We will be up early tomorrow for the second half of the trip to Marich Pass and our main project while here. We will not have internet service once we leave Lake Baringo but think we have sorted Twitter out so, we should be able to send updates but, they will be brief.

6/4
Our updates may be coming in via Twitter so, be sure to check the side bar for updates. You can also check www.twitter.com/MOMKenya2010.

We are at Camp Roberts on Lake Baringo and have a signal on our wireless modem. Today was another day of travel with some flouride removal science and crossing of the equator to break up the trip.

We had a nice breakfast at the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Ecumenical Center then loaded up and started the trip towards Camp Roberts on Lake Baringo.

We stopped about halfway at the Catholic Diocese Flouride Removal Facility which is helping local communities by supporting water treatment systems for large and small facilities and homes. The systems use ceramic filters to remove bacteria and cintered cow bone to remove flouride. The high levels of flouride are a real problem as they cause the adult teeth to come in brown and weaken the bones of the body.

We lunched at the Yama Choma (The Barbecue Palace) - plates of fresh cooked meat, veggies, fries, and flat bread.

About an hour out from Lake Baringo we crossed the equator where we stopped to get some souvenirs and got a lesson in the high pressure sell.

We arrived at Camp Roberts about 4:30 and were sitting down to a cup of tea in our awesome accommodations within 30 minutes. A helicopter landed about 20 yards from us shortly thereafter.

We are still working on the Twitter updates, but no joy yet.


Lastly, a reminder for friends and family just in case we can't get back online - on our return trip, we arrive at the Atlanta airport at 6:10 PM on Thursday June 24. Not on Friday June 25.


6/3

Today started with a great breakfast in the hotel restaurant. There was an excellent millet porridge and Marielle invented a new breakfast sensation - coffee french toast.

After breakfast we took off and had a crash course in Kenyan driving and traffic followed by a tour of the Nairobi National Museum where we got some good background information on the history and culture of Kenya as well as the wildlife and natural history. We lunched as a group at the Savanah Coffee Lounge and then went to the mall to get our money changed.

In the afternoon we napped and relaxed around the hotel. The birds and cats at the trash heap were a great source of entertainment.

Sam took us to dinner at the Abyssinia, an Ethiopian restaurant. The food was experienced but not necessarily enjoyed by all. Sam took the leftovers home for his dogs.


Tomorrow we take off for Lake Baringo and then on to the Marich Pass Field Station and won't be back to Nairobi until the 23rd of June. Internet service will be spotty at best so don't worry if the blog is not being updated.


6/2
Today was a safe and pretty uneventful day of travel. We took the 7:15 bus to the airport, cleared baggage check and customs quickly, almost everyone at some chocolate, and we were in the air pretty close to on time.

8.5 hours later we landed in Nairobi, passport check and customs went smoothly. Sam and some of his crew met us at the airport and transported us to our lodgings in Nairobi, the Rev. Desmond Tutu Ecumenical Center. Sam also took the 10 duffels of vitamins off of our hands.

We get to sleep in a little bit tomorrow and will do some sightseeing in Nairobi. We leave Nairobi on Thursday.


6/1
Everyone got checked in and onto the plane in Atlanta. The flight was mostly uneventful except when Dr. Lackey got a big kiss on the cheek from the Senior Cabin Steward after she explained what we would be doing in Kenya.

After a little bit of logistic trouble with our ground transport we decided to take basically public transport to our hotel and the duffels of vitamins and research equipment cases were checked into baggage storage at the Heathrow airport so that we did not have to lug them around with us.

We had a nice lunch at our hotel at 3:30 PM we re-grouped and took local buses and the tube to the Green Park station in downtown London where we got on an open top sightseeing bus. We were blessed with some good English weather (cold, wet, and rainy) and after about an hour were below deck or under the top floor shelter. The tour was about 3 hours and gave us a great overview of the many historical sites in London.

After taking the tube back to our hotel, we picked up dinner to go (Sam's Chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or Indian Deli) and caught a bus back to the hotel.

Beauty and the Beast

Today I spent the ENTIRE day driving in and out of the garage with a kid in the car, or on my way to get a kid in the car! Early this prevening (haha nod to us Big Bang Theory fans) on our way back in, Taryn said to look at the beautiful butterfly thingy on the garage.

I see that gargoyle moth and my face must have scrunched up because she immediately said "not that, the pretty GREEN one!!" I'm all thinking, GREEN?! A GREEN butterfly.... Oooooooh!
Taryn, Mariah and I all got out of the car and

snuck up on it with our camera phones. We found out later it was a Luna Moth.

No need to worry, I read on Wiki that after they emerge from their cocoon they climb up on something and wait until their wings dry out before they fly away. Considering it wasn't at all interesting in flying, I was originally thinking that might have been the case. But when I came back a minute later with the trash can from the curb, it was gone. I was kind of sad. :(

But I had sent Grammy down to see it. Apparently, it took off from the wall and hit her right smak dab on her forehead....hahaha! That would have been an awesome photo. So, I am renewing my guess after all that it was a newly emerged moth... and a female one at that!!

Me and Retail

I have been working practically non stop at Coldwater Creek for almost two weeks. Oh, my aching feet! I would have thought that all the running around I do at the preschool would have had my feet tough enough for retail, but when you have to do this kind of movement in strappy shoes, it is a whole different experience. I don't go in tomorrow until 4 pm (hallelujah!) and that gives me time to find a pair of Naturalizers or something that maybe I can survive the day in. I have one pair that I thought was pretty comfy. We are in the middle of a huge 50% off everything in the store and on Friday, I am quite certain that by mid-day I had already hit 5 miles easy. Since I often have a busy day at preschool and have worn the pedometer there, and walk 4-5 miles with Joanne and Lara, I know when the 5 mile mark is reached... and boy did it feel like I had passed it and then some!! I am going to locate my pedometer and try it out next time we have a big day and see what I hit.

Of course I enjoy working there, because as my friend Lynne summarized, "you have your dream job!". I love CWC clothes so I enjoy the store, helping people put together their outfits, and organizing and doing multiple things at once is always fun for me. I think they like me because I have been getting hours like crazy. I was told your hours would depend on how well you contributed to the team and your ability to sell CWC. You don't work on commission, but you need to have the ability to bring energy to the floor and talk with guests. Not a problem! One of the best rules I think is that you have to wear their clothes. "If you wear it, you will sell it!" It's true... I have been modeling stuff all week, and I get called over all the time to show off what I'm wearing. That's kind of fun. I get a nice employee discount and I can see how the other associates have chosen key pieces and are wearing them with other CWC "vintage" items (which I have alot of). I am looking forward to updating my wardrobe. My preschool director is laughing at me saying that I will not earn a penny all summer but I will be the best dressed preschool teacher next year! However, I have made it a few times now through work all day and went home without buying anything! Plus, I get to see the new stuff before it goes on sale! Ooooooh!!!

At the Atlanta Airport

After a great drive to Atlanta, we arrived very early (Thanks Mike, and we sincerely mean it this time!) and had a wonderful lunch at Long Horn Steakhouse... probably the last good meal Indie will get for almost a month. She had ribs... yum!! Also, the last of the normal meat she will eat too. Ewww - goat. Yuck. Which is a delicacy in Kenya. They don't usually get to have goat meat, but they are celebrating having the Mercer on Mission crew with them to work on the irrigation system for their village, so goat is added to the usual fare of communal mush pot and fruit. I expect to see a very skinny Indie return. And trust me, it's not like she has much to lose. I took this one photo, for kicks, of where she keeps her passport (she had to lift her shirt) which for the sake of Grandparents and Fathers it will not appear here (too sexy!).

Here we are - we just arrived outside the terminal and met up with some of the other early birds (and you can barely see the hidden passport thingy! That's about when I had her flash me!)

"Seriously?!"
Actually, Indie... I wanted to show everyone the olive duffel bags that are being brought to the village, or possibly they are being delivered elsewhere (it was unclear). They are full of vitamins and such. Each weighed about 40 lbs. Somehow Indie will have to carry that as well as her backpack. Hopefully just at the airports?

She said I could take another photo and she would smile. She actually did smile, I just didn't capture it, but that's OK...this is totally an "Indie Face". I like it! (oh, see that amazon woman in the background? I think that's Indie's Buddy!! hahaha)

Mike and Indie. I expect Mike will know every detail the minute it hits the blog. We just hope the blog guy gets to blog! Apparently, the no-electronics rule is being ignored and some people aren't too happy about that.

We got checked in just fine because we were extra early like nearly 3 1/2 hr to 4 hrs before our flight early (yes, Mike we recognized that you were responsible for that more than once!), but the group members who arrived 2 1/2 hrs before departure (like they were supposed to) were still at the back of the line an hour later when Mike and I said good bye to Indie. They had maybe moved forward 4 feet. Ouch. No electronics kinda sucks because we are just assuming they made it through security on time and all got on the plane. I hope Indie loved London!