Random Princely Pictures

It's been awhile since I pulled out any random pictures and just enjoyed where we have been and things we have done. Here are some randomly selected pictures from Prince's 3.5 years - mostly in reverse chronological order.

At Prince's old school, taking my
new camera for its first spin

Prince at his Weasley-handsomest

BLOCKS! A tower of blocks!

Baby Prince and Pop

Prince's first Halloween as Captain America,
plus Zorro and a Roman aristocrat

Baby Prince Droolsalot

Two Buzz Lightyears and one exceptionally happy boy

After talking to Crush, Prince tries to find Nemo
but only finds himself.

Daddy's home

Ahhhhhhh

Differences

What do I notice about not being in Nigeria so far?

1 - Real bananas. REEEEAL bananas
2 - Real milk.

No, okay
3 - It's fall. In Yola, it's still winter, which means my kitchen is a mere 90 degrees first thing in the morning. Out here, it's autumn. There are colored leaves. The weather is amazingly comfortable.
4 - While I was getting ready for bed, I realized that I do not actually need to unplug this computer lest a power surge blow out the battery.
5 - I look forward to trying out this soft-looking bed.
6 - I don't seem to have a phone that works in the US anymore.

Eternity = 15 years?

Story Time!

In 1997 I was a missionary. There was this guy who was not all together there upstairs, but he was a good kid. He loved the Church and the gospel. He read the Bible daily, prayed, and did everything he could.

Then came the movie Titanic. The pictures of Jesus came off his wall to be replaced with pictures of Leonardo di Caprio. He said he wanted to bear his testimony of di Caprio one Sunday -- we convinced him to bear witness of the reality of the spirit world and that the real people on the Titanic were now there awaiting the resurrection instead. It was an uphill battle.

It was a really bad time. I came to loathe that movie and everything associated with it. I swore to be annoyed for a very long time at Celine Dion and Kate Winslet, and that lasted about 2/3 years for Celine (when I heard a bunch of drunken Russians singing My Heart Will Go On) and 6/7 years for Kate (forgiven thanks to performing in Shakespeare). More important to me, I swore "eternal hatred" for Leonardo di Caprio. I would never see a di Caprio film. Not going to do it. While I recognized that the day might come that I could forgive him, it was a point of pride that I had not, even when he started showing up in movies that looked vaguely interesting.

Then Inception came out. It sounded really good. The more I heard about the story, the more interested I was. Learning it was totally ripped off from Donald Duck didn't hurt. Too bad it stars di Caprio. Oh well.

Soooo there I was on the airplane today... and there was Inception... Yeah, and dang it ... di Caprio does an excellent job. Granted, he only has about one expression on his face the entire movie, but it is a more appropriate expression to the role than Keanu Reeves would be able to give it. The movie was great like everyone said. Very well done.

So the longest I can manage "eternal hatred" is 15 years. I am uncertain whether to be proud of this or ashamed, and if ashamed, in which direction. [Dude, there is no way this should have lasted that long; Dude, there was no way I should have given in and watched the movie today, breaking such a great record.]

Such are the things I ponder after 40 sleepless hours. G'night from Des Moines, everyone.
 -- Derrill

Improved Peanut Butter

One of these jars is not like the others...

Okay, none of these jars is remotely like the others. The first is real, genuine, creamy Skippy. The second is the cheap knock off product (Skkipy) made with extra oil and lots of nut chunks. The third is ostensibly from England, claims in three places to be Extra Super chunky and has a grand total of two nuts in it and an odd lack of oil. This makes it almost unspreadable.

They are all strange. They are all strange because they all taste totally different. They are all strange because they all cost the same amount. They are all strange because none of them is our usual brand.

Prince is happy to eat the real creamy Skippy. He's so happy to eat it, he has started declaring a preference for creamy over crunchy, much to my chagrin even if it was expected. Ever odder, though ... I'm happy to eat the creamy Skippy. I've never liked creamy peanut butter, but this is addictively good.

Prince is not happy to eat the others. The Skkipy is much too crunchy for him now and the Best-in is also declared to be "crunchy" when he means dry and hard.

Now, if the one is oily and the other is dry, why not combine them? I do. It's still too dry. So I actually POUR IN EXTRA OIL to the peanut butter. Not much, but some. I stir it up, and smear it on the bread, and he likes it. We all agree, the extra oil is a definite improvement. "Necessary," quothe the Joy, who is not a peanut butter fiend like us. "No, I'm going back to not liking peanut butter much, although I do like the Skippy."

This grand mix has a name my son gave it: Improved Peanut Butter. "Dad, is that improved?" he asks before I spread it. "Let me taste it." I ask him if it is improved enough. No, not yet, okay. More oil.... Is it improved enough now? "Yes!" He's gone back to eating it off the spoon.

Our stores have run out of the real peanut butter a couple times already -- largely our fault. We go through about 3 jars a week and Prince's peanut butter needs have been a staple not only of our dinner table, but of my economics classes. The day we bought the last Luka had was tragic because some other faculty saw me getting it and grabbed some out of my basket. "But, but, but that's all my son will eat!" I stammered. "I haven't had any," the other faculty protested, who could see plainly I was buying 5 jars. Oh and hey, another faculty other there, Watson's got peanut butter. Come get it from him. .... That was not a happy day.

So I am thankful for cheap knock offs and false friends from England who showed up after that day, without whom we might not be able to feed our son. This is his only source of protein and almost his only source of fat.

Tender Mercy: The prodigal returns 1

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

We had the happiest email this week. A few years ago, Joy spent a year making this crocheted sacque for our baby boy. Prince loved it. It was enormous and built to last him a few years.

Then Joy showed it at a church talent show in May. Prince was being a pill, so she took him and left early ... leaving the sacque behind. I was visiting AUN at the time. Since it was getting warmer, we didn't notice until we were packing to leave. We called and emailed several people. No one remembered seeing it. Someone remembered that the very week after the talent show, the church sent all of its lost and found stuff to the Salvation Army.

We toured their offices regularly, trying to find this wonderful thing Joy had poured herself into, without any luck. We finally left Ithaca, somewhat broken-hearted to have lost it forever.

Then our good friend emailed this week. She found it. She found it! Huzzah!

So come rejoice with us, for the piece which we had lost is found.

How worldwide is General Conference?

I'm not sure why this didn't post when I wrote it a month ago. I'm even more confused why it didn't post last week when I reposted it. Let's try it one more time, shall we?

More than half of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) live outside the US. More than 1 in 4 members speaks Spanish as their primary language and more than 1 in 10 speak either Portuguese or a Philippine dialect. In the last thirty years, Africa's share of LDS membership has grown from close to 0 to 3%. Every year, the membership looks less and less like the stereotype most people have of the Church. That's one of the reasons I keep up the "LDS in ..." series, to showcase the lives of actual members in this diverse world.

The newest LDS temple is in San Salvador, El Salvador. This is the 4th Central American temple (Mexico has it looks like 12). There is another new stake [a large grouping of congregations] in Peru, the 96th, bringing the country closer to becoming the 5th in the world with over 100 stakes.

I was interested to learn this morning that - just as Christ, Messiah, and Annointed One express the same concept translated in different languages (Greek, Hebrew, and English) - Allah is likewise the Arabic word for God:

In these instances the Greek word θεὸς is translated into the English “God”, the German “Gott”, and the French “Dieu”. These are not differing unique English, German, and French deities but rather just the generic word in the respective language to express the Greek word. So it is with the Arabic word الله‎ (Allāh).  ...
Who would have ever guessed that Arabic speaking Muslims, Jews and Christians use the same Arabic word (Allah) to name the God they are worshiping? To illustrate by way of personal experience, when my family and I traveled to Israel in 2006 we sat in on a Roman Catholic mass attended by Palestinian Christians. Does anyone want to guess what word in Arabic we repeatedly and distinctly heard throughout this beautiful Christian liturgy?

-- Derrill

Smiles of a Different Color

When children are little they learn how to smile. Our children have been very different in the way they learned this skill. Prince seemed to be born with the knowledge of smiling. He did not wait for me to smile. He made me smile and laugh. I remember being overwhelmed as new parent and some days Prince was the only one that could make me smile. Infact I think that Derrill sometimes used Prince as a weapon against me when I was down.
Princess is the opposite. She usually waits for us to smile, and is becoming more and more willing to smile. Her favorite time to smile is when she gets her diaper changed. It surprised me so much because Prince hated having his diaper changed. My favorite time that she smiles is in the morning. When I get her in the morning if I will wait and smile at her before picking her up she will smile in anticipation of me getting her out of bed. I miss that smile if I pick her up too soon. I am sure there is a lesson in that for being patient and happiness :)
I love both of their smiles and I am so glad they share them frequently.
---Joy

Conference Oct 2011

There is a prophet that speaks to us today, who tells us the words of Jesus, just as they did in the past. His name is Thomas S, Monson. He is also the president of Jesus Christ’s church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We were privileged to listen to the semi-annual conference of the church last weekend. I am so grateful that the internet connection worked so well even here in our home in Jimeta, Nigeria. It is like being at home.
 -- Joy

Games and Cookies

We have had some fun game nights. The Austin family has been over to play games with us a couple times.  We got together and played Dominion and they brought over some divine homemade peanut butter cookies. Another night we played a fun game of scrabble where you don’t use the board. Everyone gets 7 tiles and you try to make a word or words with it. When someone uses all of their tiles, they say go. When someone says go everyone has to take another tile. When someone uses all their tiles again they say go and another tile is drawn for everyone. When all the tiles are gone the first person to say go which is using all their tiles is the winner. It is fast and fun and I stink at it :) We then played Guillotine which they liked very much. They were good nights.
We got to spend time online with out friends the Peterson’s. We played Dominion online and we are looking forward to playing Carcassone and Ticket to Ride online together too. I have really enjoyed seeing some of their picture lately. It is so nice to feel a part of their lives. I am not very good at online games either, but they are fun.
I have been enjoying a game called Wonderland Adventures on the computer from Big Fish games. Most of it’s levels do not have a time limit so I am doing alright though I usually feel stupid on computer games. Derrill had to help me with one level because it was timed and needed to be faster than my clicker clicks. We had gotten the game for me a while back, but I often lose interest in games before I get very far. Prince is the one that was persistent with this game and once he got farther in his game than I did on my old game I had gotten interested in it again. It is a story line puzzle game (go through mazes, get keys open doors, collect jems and coins. No fighting, but you have to avoid attacks from plants that spit fire.
My activity of choice when I nurse Princess is to read. In the past 2 months I have read 13 books, some of the books of the New Testament,  continuing the Book of Mormon, and some Ensigns. I don’t think I have ever read so much in such a short period of time. Go Kindle!
Have a great week everyone,
--Joy