I'm Thankful for A LOT this week!

It's been a pretty crazy week - sorry for the lack of posts. My mom has been sick and in the hospital, so that's been pretty stressful & consuming. Fortunately, she's on the mend! But she's a pretty strong lady, so I'm not surprised. But she had us worried there for a minute. So that's the greatest thing I have to be thankful for this week - a healthy mom. But I'm also thankful for some other things...

1) I had to have my passport renewed (and name finally changed, two year later!) but I was really cutting it close with the timing as my Visa appointment was supposed to be on the 11th August. But by some miracle, my brand new passport was returned to me today...early! What a pleasant surprise when I came home today.

2) Looks like a member of our church/family friend is going to be giving me a fair few frequent flyer miles towards my flight to Malawi. For that, I am eternally grateful.

3) A wonderful woman from Saint Luke's has just been really amazing this week. She's so excited about the project and has been coming up with all sorts of ideas to raise awareness about the project and maternity issues in Malawi. We've got so far to go - so it's exciting to have people around who are excited about the project and want to help.

4) My wonderful husband has agreed to run the 14-mile race with me on Sunday! I'll have support!

So, it's been a good week - although a long and stressful one. Looking forward to the weekend...but not that 14-mile race : ( I'll report on that Sunday evening. Hope everyone is doing well.

Ben & Jerry's Festival!

We're going here today http://www.benjerry.co.uk/sundae/
I'm so excited! I love music...I love Ice Cream...I'm thinking today can't fail. My favourite Ben & Jerry's flavour is probably Phish Food or Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Andy would pretty much do anything for a Ben & Jerry's Chipwich. Anyway, pics to follow...just had to share my excitement!

UPDATE: We had a great day...and lots of ice cream. I had Fossil Fuel and yes, I got some Phish Food! Andy didn't get his Chipwich, but he did get to try Ben and Jerry's new flavour, Baked Alaska. The music was good, although it mainly served as great background music while we hung out with our fab friends. The sun was out, it was very hot and I think we might wake up with a bit of sun burn tomorrow! Three cheers for Ben and Jerry's!!!


My husband is so handsome : ) Even if he does need a haircut, hehe.

The Perfect Saturday

I haven't posted in a few days, so I've got to put something up! I really feel the pressure now : )

But today has been a great day...and it's only 5:00! For those of you who live in the UK, you know it's not too often that you get a beautiful day where there's not a single cloud in the sky and it's about 80 degrees plus, so we have thoroughly enjoyed the lovely weather. We woke up early and had breakfast outside. I made two more recipes from The Pioneer Woman website (I'm telling you, ladies! You gotta check it out.) I made egg-in-a-hole for breakfast, with baked beans...Andy also had three sausages, haha. And then I made a blueberry cobbler which we took over to Andy's dad's house later today. After that, we spent the morning in the garden reading, getting some sun and of course looking after the babies in the greenhouse (which, by the way, is doing great! As you can tell by the picture, we got loads today). Andy also did some juggling (with our baby veg!) and Poi.


Later this afternoon we went to Andy's dad's house for a BBQ. He invited us over as his mother, brother and sister-in-law were visiting. We had a great time and Geoff (Andy's dad) does a fantastic BBQ - he never does just hotdogs and hamburgers. We always get kebabs or chicken breasts. Also, FYI - my blueberry cobbler went down a treat. You may think I'm bragging - I'm definitely not. I'm just not a good baker and I'm really trying to improve my skillz...yes with a "z"! Haha. I served it with whipped cream and fresh blueberries.

This is a picture of Andy and his Nanny Keet. If you notice, she's holding a picture of her late husband, Andy's grandfather, who passed away last year. We had a picture of him on the table during lunch, which I thought was kinda nice. There's also a picture of Geoff (Master Griller), their amazing patio furniture (which I covet) and Hildegarde (Geoff's partner) and me.

A Doctor's Visit in Malawi...

I was looking through some old videos from my time in Malawi and found this video. This is the clinic in Chisala that we will attach the maternity ward to. This video shows the under 5 ante-natal clinic (which is every other Wednesday) where only women with sick children under the age of 5 can come and be seen by a nurse. My friend and I took this video one morning....



I really feel grateful for our healthcare system - especially the NHS! I know I've complained about waiting in the doctor's office, but most of these women have walked miles and miles with their young children to get to the clinic. They will spend most of the day waiting to be seen and when they are, the clinic may not have the medical knowledge to diagnose the child or they may not have the medicine that the child needs. You don't have to have a baby to know that that's scary.

If we raise enough money for the maternity ward, we'd like to improve the clinic as well - it's the smallest clinic in the district but serves nearly 40,000 people! Although even by just building the maternity ward, the clinic will then be big enough to warrant the District Hospital placing a full time doctor there. So in that way, the clinic will improve.

S.O.S - Need Baking Help!

I'm having a Bake Sale at my work and at Andy's on August 11th to raise money for my project. I've got a few ideas, but I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas for quick and easy baked goods - I've got a lot of baking to do in one weekend and only one oven...help! So far, I'm planning to make Rice Krispies Treats and this Yogurt-Marmalade Cake that a friend found on a website called Pioneer Woman (check it out of you have a minute - it's really fun and her recipes are always delicious and easy - but not always good for the diet, haha). I'm also going to make Oreo Truffles (thank you Kari) which were an incredible hit at my work BBQ on Saturday - people were still talking about them at work yesterday (Tuesday!) So I've got a few ideas and a few box cakes/brownies I brought back from the States with me, but I'm really looking for easy, simple recipes that can't fail...I'm not the world's best baker!

Finally!

Tonight we had an amazing dinner - and only because we have a blog now, I decided to take some pictures. We finally had a meal with a lot of the stuff from our garden - I've sort of been saving them up for the past few days as they ripen on my window sill so that we could enjoy them all at once. So I made sautéed courgettes, a delicious salad with our very own green peppers and tomatoes and then I bought an organic chicken and rubbed it with a paste I made with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh sage and thyme (also from our garden!) The potato is just a potato : ) So here it is...I am proud of my babies, even though we ate them!

To anyone considering starting a fruit/vegetable garden - do it! It is so rewarding to eat food that you have grown in your own back yard. And it also makes you think twice about wasting food - because you realize how long it takes for that one tomato to grow...

New Kid on the Block!

Here's our first green pepper! (if you look closely, you can see I cut it in half and then remembered I should take its picture. And I also realized I need to wash my windows!)

The Family Reunion

We just got back from the annual Anderson Family Reunion in Pigeon Forge, TN. It's amazing that it happens every year seeing as the family keeps growing and growing! We added it up, and if everyone came, there would be 76 people in all! This year was really special for a lot of reasons, but particularly because we welcomed 7 new great-grandchildren (all boys!) into the family. My cousin and her husband adopted three boys from the Ukraine earlier this year so it was our first time meeting them. Every year we have a group baby shower for all the new additions and little Misha, Max and Vitali couldn't have been more excited about all the presents. Those boys were such fun to be around. And of course I always enjoy playing with all the kids and hanging out with my cousins. Also, this year Andy and I brought a little bit of England to the reunion by bringing Earl Grey Tea and some English biscuits (digestives, custard creams, bourbons and some Cadbury's digestives)...everyone really enjoyed it! Next year I think I'd like to do a but more...maybe scones, tea sandwiches and biscuits. Also, for those of you who don't know - every year we take a big family picture and each family (there are 7 siblings) get's a different colour t-shirt. For some reason the David Anderson's can never seem to get their act together and always get last pick - this year we were purple...sweet.

Annabel

Our good friends, Kebby and Wez, had their first child on July 13th - we met their new addition, Annabel Lilian Kate Mansfield, this week and she is absolutely gorgeous. There's nothing like holding a newborn!

The PA House

A lot of people have asked about my parents new house in Pennsylvania so here are a few pics of that. A few of these pics are from May - since then the copper wall has been completed.

The Kids...

No point in wasting time, I'm excited to show everyone our kids! And by that, I mean our greenhouse babies. Andy nor I have a green thumb, so this has been a real journey and a labour of love. But after about 3 months, we're finally starting to reap the benefits. We have grown 3 different sorts of tomatoes, rocket (arugala) courgettes (zuchinni), a chilli plant and green and red peppers. We lost our cucumber fairly early on...so here's our progress in pictures.

The Beginning

Welcome to our blog! After years of reading other people's blogs - I've finally started my own. It was at our annual Anderson family reunion this year where I realized how much more connected I felt to my family members whose blogs I had been reading. So I just want to use this as a way to keep better connected to my family and friends around the world. Hope I post often ; )