buckle up.... it's time for a hormonal roller coaster ride.

I'm a misserable wretch today. Not sure exactly what's going on. Randy is working ...well...it seems that he is working....more hours than at home. I think it's just that his hours at AMI aren't as flexible as they were at CCBC. He was gone last week from 8:00-6:00/7:00pm every night. The week went fine but I was looking forward to spending time together as a family today and walking the boys to school tomorrow together. Now I don't want them to even breath in my general direction. HORMONES. Yes, all you positive people, I know that you can't let your hormones dictate your actions and responses. Work with me here I'm just venting. So there you have it. Missionaries are just your everyday normal people, with everyday normal emotions...OK, maybe I'm not so normal, but you know where I'm going here right? Missionaries have bad days too, bad attitudes that need adjusting, frustrating moments where they just want to be like gerbals and eat their offspring. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has days like this.

So, the boys and I have been using our Malagasy language as much and as often as we can. We've not been using the scooter as much (I can hear the sign of relief from my parents now:) ) because I'm realizing that I don't connect with people as much since we're zooming by them at a whoping 5-10kpm

(I think a horse can pee faster than that!) So we are back to walking whenever possible. I've been able to introduce my children now, their names, ages, the fact that they are not “combines” (twins), no matter how many times you look at their faces and ask me over and over..... and over again. “No, they are STILL not twins, just like I said 5 minutes ago”. Gee, can you tell I'm in a sarcastic mood or what.

And so language learning is going very well. I do have to say I felt proud of myself this weekend when I had several Malagasy ask how long and often I've been studying Malagasy. When I told them 3 times a week for 4 weeks they couldn't believe it! They said I sounded great and was making great progress! I told them it had everything to do with my helper, Helena, and my children, who attract everyones attention and thus give me many opportunities to practice! Anyway, it was encouraging. Randy is a little frustrated because he can't give as much time to Malagasy language learning. I told him that that is not his focus. His focus is teaching music in english and connecting with those english speaking Malagasy. My focus is different as I'm interacting with and around Malagasy all day everyday. He's dong a great job at AMI. Everyone is so thankful for him. Talk about God's amazing timing. The director of AMI just found out a few days ago that he's got a very serious eye problem. If it's not fixed pronto, he will lose his sight in that eye. So Friday night he found out that he needs to fly back to Korea this Monday, Septermber 6^th! He is so thankful that Randy is here to help fill while he's gone. So if you could be praying for him I know he would appreciate it.

I have to say, now that I'm feeling less cranky, there are many perks to living here in Madagascar. One of them being the fact that I just bought some of the most beautifully colored flowers today in the market, I could just barely hold all the stems in one hand, bright deep blue and beautiful white with a hint of pink for a whopping 2,000 ariary ($1.00) I never bought flowers for myself and home and didn't really want Randy to buy them for me either since I thought they were a waist of money since they just die within a few days, but hey, $1.00? Yeah, I love that perk! We still haven't received our year visas yet. They are due Monday the 6^th. We were told not to worry about it and so....we're not. Though I am curious as to how that's all going to work out. I'm rambling now hense the blog being called “blahblahblog”. Oh, another perk. I look up in the sky at night....oh my. The sky here is so beautiful. So crystal clear with constellations I've never seen before. Just as soon as I think I have a handle of God's amazingness I look up into that sky and realize I'm nowhere near understanding Him. I just stand there in amazement and worship Him.