Pauline in Africa - 2011

These amazing photos were taken by Abigail Mbuvi on her trip to Kenya in 2011.

 After a week at the school in Kambi, we went on a three day safari.

Those are Lions. And yes that is how close we were to them

 Another one of my favorites from the trip Kiteta Primary

 Day trip to another primary school supported by TMKC. Just so happens that this school is in the same village as my mom's parents farm.

 First day at the hotel in Mombasa, this is what we see... it was about 5 in the evening

 Kambi

 Kambi

Kambi

Kambi

Kiteta Primary

Kiteta Primary

Kiteta Primary

Kiteta Primary

Kiteta Primary

Little Boy

Mombasa

 

My dad grew up going to this dry river for fresh water, so my uncle took me down to check it out and we found these boys just playing around in the water hole they dug

My FAVORITE little boy at the school in Kambi

My grandmothe​r (dad's mom)

My grandmothe​r (mom's mom) and my cousin

My toms have been through a lot. Picture taken on the top deck of the boat

Neighbor to the school. Kambi

Pre-Primar​y kids walking to school. Kambi

Reading Pen Pal letters. Kambi

Signs of the Great Migration. Zebra come first, couple weeks later, the wildebeest follow. All the grass you see will be gone by the end of August

Since the beach is a major tourist attraction​, this man brought his camel to provide camel rides to the tourists. It's also his main source of income

SIUC's VChan leads trip to Kenya bi-yr with non-prof org called Teach My Kenyan Children (TMKC) I met with the group that went this summer and this is the school we taught in. Kambi Primary

Smartest kid I have ever met

Such a silly little boy, with a great smile

Sunrise over the Indian Ocean in Mombasa... can't decide which picture I like better

Sunrise over the Indian Ocean in Mombasa

Ten month old cousin, making the range of cousins on Mom's side of the family from 30 years to 10 months

This cheetah was stalking its prey, thompson gazelle were just couple 100 feet away. Unfortunat​ely we didn't stay to see the chase and the kill

This is my favorite picture from the trip

This little boy, only three years old, walks about a quarter of a mile, everyday, to buy milk from my Grandmothe​r's farm

This sixth grade class sang us the Kenyan National Anthem. Kambi

TMKC donated new uniforms to students in need. Kambi

Walking to the boat while the tide was WAY out

While everyone else was taking pictures of the sunset, I was focusing on the moon rise

Four Days in Shipshewana 2012 Version

Every October my wonderful husband ships me off to Shipshewana to be with my old Chicago stitching girlfriends. It's a wonderful retreat with old friends and new. There is much giggling, fantastic show and tell, great food, fun shopping, little sleep, and even a bit of stitching goes on. Cathy puts together a great time for us to spend together from Thursday to Sunday. These are pictures from last year and I know that this year will be just as fun. Reservations are made and I can't wait to see the buds.  

 We have this gigantic space to live in for 4 days.

The round tables were our dining tables and we stitched near the windows



 Our great view

 Cathy front and center who is our hostess with the mostess

 

 Cathy and her angels who help her out whenever she needs it

 Getting down to some serious stitching. Some more than others.

 Laura Jacobs-Duet and I

 Cathy probably does a lot of bookwork and NO stitching

 Debbie Maxwell working on a monster piece that is beautiful

So many fun things to see as Cathy brings trunk shows

and other treasures from her shop for us to see and buy.

 What a sweet piece

 An adorable little stitched box top.

An exchange took place

And these were the exchange pieces that people got

 I heard this belonged to Kathy Michael. It was a beauty.

Fibers, we have fibers

WW2 treasures

My mother continues to sift and sort things at her house and recently ran across this brown pouch that belonged to my father and gave it to me. It was given to him when he was in the war. That's the BIG war, WW2. He was in the South Pacific with the AAA Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battalion and specifically New Guinea, The Philippines, and took his R&R in Australia, seeing the sights along the east coast. As you can see this little pouch is made from Genuine Kangaroo. The photo album no longer has photos in it, the "going back to civilian life" book cracks me up and the letters seen here from his mother are gems. There is also a letter from the Chaplain sent to dad's mother from the unit Chaplain as he was not writing home enough and the Chaplain wrote my granny and told her he would have a talk with her son about that. Also two letters from a girl in The Philippines who wrote to him after the war. She was clearly a friend of his and was hot for another guy and seemed disappointed when things didn't work out between them after the war was over.

This is definitely something I'll treasure the rest of my life.

 

Here is a little history written by David Smith of the unit my father was with. The names of the cities where he was are so familiar to me, I can still hear my father say them.

 

The 350th Coast Artillery Battalion was first organized on May 1, 1942 at Camp Stewart, GA. In June 1942, the Battalion was transferred to the Fighter Command School in Orlando, FL. The Battalion was assigned to the 10th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group, and was moved to Eustis, FL in September. While still training the the Fighter Command School, the Battalion relocated to Winter Garden & Apopka, FL in December 1942. The Battalion was redesignated the 350th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Searchlight Battalion in May 1943. Four months later, the 350th AAA SL Bn was transferred to Camp Stoneman, California and in October 1943, sailed for the Pacific.

The Battalion arrived in Sydney, Australia in November 1943; then was stationed at Camp Cluden, where it took part in jungle training for the next three months. In February 1944, the 350th sailed for New Guinea, arriving at Lae in Northwestern New Guinea. The Battalion rejoined the 10th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group and was assigned to Nadzab, where it remained until December 1944; then moved to Finschaven. In March 1945, the 350th sailed for the Philippines.

Upon it's arrival in Manila in April 1945, the Battalion was relieved of its anti-aircraft mission and assigned to General MacArthur's headquarters as part of the security and guard detail for the headquarters and the General's residence.

Many of the members of 350th witnessed the formal signing of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

The 350th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Searchlight Battalion was inactivated in Manila on February 21, 1946.

 

Pauline in Africa 2013 Version

My friend at work Pauline returned to Kenya this spring to visit her family and friends. She spent 5 weeks there this time and I would say she probably had a very good visit because I missed her terribly.

While she was there she visited an orphanage and gave out some little dresses to the girls. They look adorable in them. I'm lucky enough to also know the person who makes these little dresses with her mum. Mary also works in the Cancer Center and she and her mother make these up and donate them by the bulk when they hear that someone is going on a mission trip or are in need of sweet little dresses for little girls. These dresses were carried to Kenya a little earlier in the year by the father of another co-worker, Crystal, whose parents live in Kenya. What a group effort.

These are just precious with so many little flourishes and added touches to make a girl feel special.
I got to see three of them recently and I can only imagine how special these girls felt just by looking at the smiles on their faces. Check out the smiles below, oh and they do LOVE those pockets.

Good job Mary and Mary's "MUM" for the making of the dresses.

Good job Pauline being there to bring smiles to these faces.

Good job Crystal's dad for getting the dresses to Kenya.

 

Swimming thru Life.....with floaties on

THE GUEST ROOM

 

 

 

 For those who don't know it...we sold our Urbana house in Mid-June to a student couple from Virginia Beach, VA and could not be happier. They are delightful and they just love it. We are so glad after 2.5 years on the market and having moved 3.5 years ago to have it off our radar.

This is our modified guest room as it looked back in Mid-May.

 I changed a few things so our daughter Sarah could spend a few weeks with us.

Today it looks much like this again as she has now left to go back home and I miss her already.

Sarah graduated from Eastern IL Univ (EIU) with a Bachelor of Science degree on May 4th.

She had a breast biopsy on May 8th when an aspiration of a suspected cyst failed.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer on May 10th and after seeing a nurse navigator, an oncologist, a radiation oncologist, a general surgeon, a plastic surgeon, a physician assistant, and a social worker (not necessarily in that order) she had surgery at Carle on May 24th.

She has done fantastic these past few weeks. She had surgery on a Friday and came home on Sunday morning. She felt pretty good, and napped as needed those first few days. She had two drains in and had to have injections in her stomach every day for 10 days, so I was glad she was with us where I could take care of her rather than worry about her. Now life marches on. She'll return to work Monday, July 8th (the 4th anniversary of my father's death) and will start chemotherapy on Thursday. From there she'll have radiation 5 days a week for 6 weeks and 6 months after that she'll be able to think about reconstruction. That will probably be at the end of next summer. She's been a trooper so far and I know she will sail thru the rest of this just fine...but right now my competitive swimmer needs a little help, so I'm suggesting she swim thru life with some floaties on.
I LOVE YOU CHILD #1!!!!!

Saturday - 07/13/2013: Sarah started Chemo on Thursday. She's currently getting Adriamycin and Cyclophosphamide. Nasty stuff, all of it. This will be four treatments every other week. (Next round should be 12 weekly treatments of Taxol and Herceptin since she's HER2 positive). She had a private room this first time as there was lots of teaching as well as drug administration going on. Since I work in the room right next to the chemo room I know all the chemo nurses and techs and the research pharmacist is an old friend of mine from our bear research days in Medical Research. He came and visited with us a while which helped pass the time and one of the sweet housekeepers on our floor came by with well wishes as well as my boss who has been down this path herself a couple years ago. I sat with her during the infusion, but we'll see how that goes from here forward. Five hours later we were finally done and out of there (11a-4p). So far so good with the way she's feeling. A little dizzy until she was up and going the next morning, but she put in a half day at work and then was back to the cancer center for a bra fitting and prosthetic and a shot of Neulasta. Oneward and upward. 

Saturday - 08/10/2013: Sarah had chemo treatment number 3 on Thursday and the time seemed to sail by. She had visitors which helped pass the time for us.

Easter 2013-March 31, 2013

 Bryce and Tanner love to hunt eggs.

 Shaine and Emily assist in the search

Skyler goes for the easy kill

Almost Easter 2013

Where on Earth have I been? Obviously not on Blogger. Ancestry is my current passion these days and I have found a treasure trove of goods on my peeps, but this past week I got to enjoy just sitting inside watching the blizzard. Monday Mar 25th we got a 13.3in snowfall and the clinic was closed in the AM, so Bill braved the slick roads and drove down Route 150 about 25mph into Urbana to work  while I stayed home and watched my wonderful next door neighbor Derek scoop out our driveway with his nifty four wheeler with the blade on it. We had been lucky all year getting next to no snow, but this is quite enough for this year!!!! On to SPRING!