the shore

I've been told by a friend that if I want to lay claim to being from NJ I can't say, "going to the beach," rather it is "down the shore."   Yesterday, we went down the shore with Dexter's classmates as a celebration of the end of the school year.   I think it is safe to say we all limped along to this finish line, and a day at the shore was just what we needed to kick-start vacation.

I took over 100 pictures of our time - mostly of the kids - so you'll have to bear with me as I overshare once again.  We went to Ocean Grove, a small beach in an old Victorian town in southern NJ.  It wasn't too crowded, or too crazy, and wasn't too hot.  We went supplied with food and toys and blankets and prepared to campout for the day.

Kyalo loved it...

 (alternate title 'twins')

. . . except when he didn't:

It took him a while to enjoy letting the waves splash up on him; I guess it freaked him out for a bit at first.  By the end, though, I was able to get him to jump over the waves and 'chase' the water as it flowed out, and to 'run away' as it 'came after him'.  The giggles that ensued while in the water were priceless (I thought I got video, but once again I think I forgot actually press the play button. Perfect).

All the kids had a great time!

 Joel and Sophia

 This is Maithry, Sirisha's 19 month old daughter.  I think she is stunningly beautiful.  

 Rua

The best picture of all the kids I could get. Sophia's hidden behind Kyalo, and none of the kids are actually looking at the camera.  But there you have it.  Also, please note Kyalo's legs buried in the sand.

sandy, sandy, sandy

 Gabe and Rua

one of my favorites of the day

Also, I think we may be seeing the beginnings of a love story. . .

And once again, Rua took charge.

You might remember that Hurricane Sandy blew through here in October last year.  While a lot of the shore has been restored -- it being a vital part of NJ revenue in the summer, after all -- the recovery hasn't quite made it to Ocean Grove.

Maybe it will be restored by next summer.

We ended the day with a couple of us getting ice cream.  As we were packing up, I asked Kyalo, "did you have fun at the beach?"  his response was, "ice 'ream."  After we got the oft-requested ice cream, I asked him again, and he said "yes!"  Couldn't have a good time til he got his ice cream, I guess.  

I'd say that all-in-all it was a great day!  I even have my signature behind-the-knees burn to show for it.  I really love this group, all so different, joined together by the bonds of dentistry. We always have so much fun together.  We're already thinking about our leaf-peeping trip to VT/CT/upstate NY for the fall.  Something to look forward to.

Now, let the vacationing commence!

the 4th

It is always nice to have a holiday in the middle of the week to break things up, and give us a change of pace.  Of course, having a holiday on a Thursday is kind of a bummer because you wish you had a long weekend...All that aside, we had a great day!  And it was leaps and bounds better than last year's depressing attempt at a celebration.

Joel, Odalys, and Sophia, friends from the dental school program, came for an early afternoon BBQ.  Since it was just the two families, and thrown together kind of last minute, we kept things fairly simple. Meat, meat, and more meat.  I made pretzel and toffee peanut butter brownies (yes, please) for dessert, but we were all so gutted from the meat we didn't get to them.  I sent them with Allan to school on Monday.

The men worked on the meat. . .

and Odalys worked on the mojitos. . .

 thanks to Joel for squeezing a ton of limes

Odalys

Now for my favorite thing of the day:

mojito

Since I probably haven't had a drink since my Oakland days - we can thank living in a dry community in Kenya, and then a dry country, then back to Kenya for that - one was enough for me but it was very tasty, for sure! When's the next party?

Kyalo and Sophia, who turned two in June, had a good time playing together. Bubbles, side walk chalk, the slide, etc.  They kept each other nicely entertained, with minimal fighting.

 by the end of the night, she'd chalked her whole body, including her face!  

kids!!!

eating watermelon - Kyalo probably ate half of it himself

picnic

I don't love this picture above, because everything looks disorganized and haphazard.  We weren't sure if we would eat outside - it was so hot - but when Joel showed up, the guys decided to move the picnic table under the grapevine that grows over the driveway, which gave us decent shade and kept us cool enough.  I had plans to put a tablecloth on that rundown table and get things a little bit more presentable, but everything happened so quickly, I couldn't.  I don't know how some people can make parties looks so spectacular!

After all the food was consumed we sat around and chatted for a bit, and the kids ate some ice pops I made (1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1/2 strawberries - or any fruit - 1 + TB of sugar pureed.  Throw in a mold, freeze, enjoy. EASY).

I'd say they were a hit!

Here's a funny piece of the day.  Here we were, celebrating America's birth, and the only Americans I was celebrating with were the two year olds:

Americans

This year we decided to go to the fireworks show here in Belleville, since we knew they'd wake Kyalo up anyway.  It was nice that we could just walk up the street to where they viewed.  We had a good time. Kyalo, who started out in his stroller, was again totally freaked out, but I held him for a long time, and he eventually calmed down and could enjoy the show.  He started pointing out the colors and telling us it was "nice".  

All in all, the day was so much better than last year.  It is amazing to me just how much has changed since last year, when we'd only been here a few months.  God has truly been good to us, providing so much to meet needs for us.  It hasn't been perfect, or easy, or very fun most of the time, but it has been GOOD.

And that is all we can ask for, I think.

like lilies

Do you know that passage of scripture about God taking care of the lilies of the field, birds of the air, and therefore, he'll take care of you, and so stop worrying already?  (Slight paraphrase).

Well, it is safe to say that it has been our life verse for this first year of school.  In fact, I'm already thinking about finding some etsy shop (or something) to print it up all nice for us as a reminder that God is really seeing us through this time of school.  I would like to share with you some stories.

So, school.  It is expensive.  As is living in New Jersey.  We knew coming into this season of our life that it would be a bare-bones, no frills, no splurges existence, and we both whole-heartedly accepted that reality. What we didn't know was just how expensive everything would be here.  We've done all we can to help our situation at the moment. We're on Food Stamps and WIC, and I'm going to be forever grateful for these small things (and for a government that provides this service. Think what you will of it, and I am sure it is full of corruption, but it has truly saved us time and again).  I won't bore you with all the details of the things we've "sacrificed" this year, instead, I want to share some pretty amazing stories. (Some are repeated from this post of last year).

Not long after we arrived, cards started arriving in the mail, addressed to "The Mulandi Family" with no return address.  In it would be an unsigned card and a gift card to Trader Joes, or a restaurant, or -- and I'm still awestruck by this -- massive gift cards to Target around Christmastime.  As is always - ALWAYS - the case, these seem to come right when I'm in "how are we going to make it work?" melt down mode.

Then friends sent us a couple of checks to help with "resettling" costs (thank you, friends, for an air conditioner).

My aunt got a HUGE box of clothes from a neighbor last summer for Kyalo which kept him going a long time. Then another friend went to a consignment sale in Philly earlier this year and got him a gazillion summer clothes.

Other friends sent us money in February for us to celebrate our anniversary. It just hadn't happened yet, so we put that money towards our trip to Philly, which meant we didn't have to pay for our little outing.

Even our spring break trip was made possible by so many people accepting us into their homes as we journeyed down to Tennessee.

Last week - Monday, I think, when I was having a terrible, terrible day (thank you, tornado warning and down pouring rain for keeping my cranky two-year old inside) - Dexter came home with a bag of cherries and a gift card to a local grocery story.  The cherries were from a friend, but the gift card was just in the mailbox - no envelop, no stamp, which means that a) it has dropped directly from heaven (and I would seriously believe that) or it is a new friend from here, which is so sweet to me. {This was the second time it had happened!} And that gift card helped make our 4th of July celebrations - small though they were - a reality.

I'm having a hard time getting my thoughts to really convey all that I want them to.  The pure amazingness of it all, the how perfectly timed these gifts have been for us.  And then there are other things like, we have all been healthy (with the exception of Kyalo's minor nebulizer incident earlier this year), there are so many things we can do within walking distance for free, even meeting Jenny and Ellen last year at the library seems to me now a perfectly orchestrated gift from God - they've been out of town this week and, oh, how I've missed them.

And then my parents.  There are not enough words in English or Swahili to properly thank them, to express all that they done for us - from housing us on every vacation we have, to house hunting, to helping us purchase a car, and SO MUCH MORE.  Where would we be without them?

Thinking through these things is making me teary, and humble, and amazed.  One major thing that these 'small' gifts have added up to is the fact that I am able to stay home with Kyalo.  Sure, I could (and probably should) find a job to help supplement things, to give us some breathing room, but as hard/exhausting/challenging/frustrating as it can be to be a stay at home mom, I am so very grateful that I can spend my days with Kyalo, watching him explore and learn and love.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Do you see why perhaps I shouldn't worry about this year?  God is using so many of you to take care of us.  To each of you who have made it possible for us to survive this year in one way or another, we thank you.

27 months

Another month crossed off the list, and I feel like it was a big one.  But I guess I feel like that every month.

July 3, 2013

Things of note:

- his top canine teeth are finally starting to peek through.  This has made for some pretty runny noses which Kyalo calls, "nose boo-boo"

- talking seems to be really exploding now; current favorite phrases:  "hhhice coppee" (ice coffee - this is especially funny because Kambas have a tendency to add Hs to things like "ice"), "Grandma's chaier" (the bean bag chair he's sitting on is from her)...there are plenty more, but I can't think of them now.  It is so much fun to have him talking now...I love hearing his thoughts.

- I think he woke up last week and decided that the 'terrible twos' sounded like a good idea to him.  There have been some battles around here.  {Wonky weather keeping us inside, Ellen being away, and our usual activities coming to an end, hasn't helped much, either}.

- we've had a couple of incidences of him taking off all his clothes peeing or pooing in his bed, and then running to the toilet the minute we take him out of his crib.  So, we ran to Target on Saturday for a potty ('pohhy') and are slowly getting our toes in the water of potty training.  Anyone have any tips?

- While we were in Massachusetts at the beginning of the month, we finally kicked nursing to the curb! So that, plus him sleeping through the night is pretty amazing.  Perhaps it is time to start thinking about #2? 

bashful 

I'll leave you with this little video from MA.  While there he started 'playing guitar' and 'cutting the grass' and 'singing', using the bats my mom had put out as props. We have NO idea where he got most of this from - the one exception is him watching a man in our neighborhood use a weed wacker.  But the guitar?  I am clueless.

a celebration, of sorts

On Friday, Dexter had his final class of his junior year.  This would feel like a bigger deal if it meant he started summer break then, but alas, it is pretty much business as usual for the month of July - minus exams, and a lighter class schedule.  Still, it feels like a huge accomplishment to think that ONE YEAR IS BEHIND US.

Our initial plans were changed last minute, so we were left scrambling to figure something else out.  We'd recently heard about a Kenyan restaurant down in Delaware and thought to give it a try.  We wanted to do more than that and decided to explore Delaware a bit.  But we weren't finding too much near the restaurant of interest, and were rapidly losing interest and energy to find something when Dexter said, "we could go to Philly." And that was the sum total of our weekend celebration plan.

We're wild and crazy, footloose and fancy free around here I tell you.

Except, not.

Anyway, with a general idea of seeing what we could see in a few hours in Philly and then heading off for a late lunch/early dinner of some nyama choma, we set out Saturday morning.  Along the way, we got in touch with Dexter's brother's wife's sister (got that?) who lives about 30 minutes south of us, and she agreed to met us for the restaurant later.

It was a perfect day - blue skies, sunshine, not too hot or humid.  Felt like the world was celebrating with us.

 and we're off!

and we're sporting a new Rutgers "R" as UMDNJ has merged with (been taken over?) Rutgers

our handsome guy, looking so grown up

We had about 3 hours in Philly, which was enough time to just see a few things.  We started in Franklin Square, one of 5 squares designed (I think?) by William Penn.  Kyalo had his first carousel ride. He loved it.

And then we were off site seeing.  I'd really wanted to see the Liberty Bell, but this being the week leading up to the 4th of July, knew things would be crazy.  The line to see it it was several blocks long, and we were on a time crunch so said, "next time!"  So we walked around and read plaques and learned some history (that I've forgotten again, I'm sure) and enjoyed being away.

We got inside Independence Center, and Kyalo promptly took our maps and sat down with them.

"this way"

After running around a bit more, and grabbing a bite to eat, we headed off to Delaware to Simba Grill.

Kenyan food or Bust!

It was very nearly a bust.

I mean, who wouldn't want to eat here?

This picture is {slightly} misleading as the run down, bordered up doors were not actually for the restaurant. The restaurant was in an old strip mall of sorts, and most of the stores seemed like they had long ago vacated the premises.  We were very early, and had some time to kill before Juliet arrived so thought to find the nearest Starbucks to put some gift cards to good use.

Closest Starbucks?  45 minutes away.

We just laughed and laughed and laughed, and fortunately found a Dunkin Donuts.  

Juliet and her uncle George (visiting from Kenya, his first time out of Kenya!) met us, and we had a very nice time with some decent (enough) food.

 goat, ugali, sukuma (collard greens) kachumbari (salsa, sorta) and french fries

These aren't the greatest photos, but we thought it too hilarious to not get some pictures underneath the sign....

do we look relieved to have survived this first year?

one.more.to.go

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  I DO hope we'll get back to Philly some time soon (I have a cousin who lives there) and it was nice to think that perhaps now that exams are done we can do some more exploring.