SPLISH SPLASH

We enjoyed our first weekend in our pool. Saturday Jade and Lexi were invited to a Birthday Party but couldn't wait to get back home so we could test out our pool. We were so hot at the party it was really nice to come home and jump into our pool. It's not very deep, Jade can stand up and the water reaches right under her neck. It's amazing what she's learned here already. The kids have swimming lessons on Wednesday during school, it's only about 40 minutes or so and they missed a few lessons due to rain and the pool was closed one day, so I think they've had only two lessons since we've been here. Jade who was always afraid of water in her face can now swim under water, jump in, cannon ball, and do front and back somersaults under the water. I'm amazed every time I watch her in the pool, and she is so excited with herself. Some friends who are moving to Holland have given us some innertubes and gave Lexi a "Floatie" vest which keeps her afloat so she can swim without having to hang on the side of the pool and doesn't worry about going under and drowning so she's having a blast also. She's not as brave a Jade yet, she's learning how to blow bubbles in lessons and I'm sure she'll be swimming under water soon herself.

Yesterday they bugged me to go swimming starting at 8:00 AM, I held them off until 10:00 AM. I wanted the sun to warm up the pool a little bit. When we got out there, Jade jumped right in then Lexi went in. Jade said there was a bug in the pool so I thought it was a normal kind of bug, asked where it was and she said over there on the pool ladder. I went over looking for it and didn't see anything, got in the pool and looked at the ladder and OMG, I jumped out the pool and had them get to the other side, I got Lexi's flip flop and tried to move it, but it had it's claws wrapped really tight on the ladder. I gave it one hard swipe and it let go and started swimming on the bottom of the pool, I screamed to the kids to get out the pool cause the "Monster" was loose and ran to get the pool net. I caught the thing and flung it in the brush behind the trees. I found a couple of pictures of the "Thing" on the internet, Jade told me it was a "Water Scorpion" because one of the kids brought one to school to show everyone.
See pictures of our "CREATURE" below.

"Creature from our Pool"

Here are some pictures to go along with the "Splish Splash" post:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Hi to all from Nigeria. I hope everyone had a very Happy and Safe Thanksgiving. We just got back from a wonderful dinner at one of the American Expat homes and it was just fabulous. It felt like we were with friends back in the States. There was Baked Chicken (no turkeys here) green beans southern style, corn, candied carrots, potatoe salad,cornbread stuffing, giblet gravy and cranberry sauce. She even had Iced Tea (only hot tea served here) we had to explain what Iced Tea was to the non American's at the dinner. By the way...ice is not a big thing here, if you ask for ice with your drink you get one cube. There was pumpkin pie, pecan pie and red velvet cake. Darren ate twice and was stuffed, but not enough to miss dessert. All in all we had a wonderful first Thanksgiving in Nigeria. It really felt like we were back home just not with our families, but with our new families while we're here.

Cheers,