sNOw MORE

Dear Mother Nature - we have had enough snow to last a lifetime and now you are sending us 10 - 20 more inches of snow! This Texas girl has had enough! If we could dig out our cars, we'd be driving to Pennsylvania to make stew out of that groundhog that predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Here's some images from the weekend blizzard that left us with 21 inches of snow:

Here are some pictures from the December snow that dumped 17 inches...we thought that one was bad...

Sweetest 'Stache

Every year, Spanky participates in Mustaches for Kids to raise money for National Children's Medical Center. It's pretty much one month of the year that he grows a mustache and begs folks for donations. The month culminates in the 'Stache bash where all the growers dress in a character and compete for the title of Sweetest 'Stache. This year, Spanky was Kip Dynaminte, Napoleon Dynamite's brother. His coworker, Leesa, served as Lafawnduh (second picture). Spanky raised over $4,200 and the entire group raised more than $45,ooo for the hospital - not bad for a bunch of mustaches. Even with $4,200 raised, he was not the top fundraiser, but he did take home the ultimate prize of Sweetest 'Stache (and now we have another huge trophy in our living room)...

Go Hogs Go!

At the Arkansas vs. Texas A&M game at Cowboys Stadium - Video tried to capture the essence of the stadium and the enormous screen - whole stadium experience was awesome and we won! Go Hogs!!

Waylon showing his spirit - still working on his trick to Call the Hogs...hard to stand up on those short little back legs to get in a good Wooooo...

Arkansas Trip

Took a trip to Arkansas to see college friends and family...it was great to see everyone again and see all their kiddos...also, great to go to a Razorback tailgate in Little Rock - GO HOGS!

Lori, Marilyn and I at the tailgate

Sarah, Amelia and I - for more pictures of cutie-pie, Amelia, look at Sarah's blog in the links (The Currys)

She flies through the air

though not with the greatest of ease...it was definitely fun, but I have never been more sore in my life...there's a video on Facebook, but I can't figure out how to dowload it so here's a few "action" shots

Rwanda

I traveled to Rwanda from July 8th - 23rd for work. It was definitely an interesting experience. The country suffered from the horrible genocide in 1994, but had made remarkable progress. It is one of the cleanest and safest countries that I have visited. To keep it clean, they have outlawed plastic bags! Here's a few pictures from the trip.

I wasn't able to get too many pictures of the countryside since we were usually zipping by in a car...but here's one in Kigali...it really is the land of 1000 hills and there is always a great view with rolling hills for miles...

Baskets, baskets everywhere...even on the national seal and money...these were actually being prepared for export to the US to be sold at Macy's

Paul, Mark and Patrick enjoying a glass of warm milk at the local milk bar...I declined to try to the warm milk...makes me queasy just thinking about it...yuck...

The country's main exports are tea and coffee and here's a tea field

An exmple of the houses in the rural areas made of adobe bricks

Here is the hotel from the movie, Hotel Rwanda: http://www.unitedartists.com/hotelrwanda/intro.html

This building is across the street from the hotel and I forget the significance, but you can see the bullet holes from the fighting during the genocide

They have constructed many genocide memorials throughout the country to remember the atrocities and to remind people so that it will not happen again. There is a main museum and memorial visit in Kigali that includes the history and documents the genocide that killed 800,000 - 1,000,000 people in Rwanda.

This is from the Murambi Memorial Site: "A school where 27,000 people were killed. A stark, shocking monument, hundreds of corpses are temporarily preserved and currently displayed in the school."

A smaller memorial at the National University of Rwanda

We went to Rwanda to evaluate the feasibility of procuring food from smallholder farmers for school feeding programs. Currently, the main school feeding programs in Rwanda are through the World Food Program with commodities from the US through the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program so all that to explain...we visited schools and here are several of the secondary school students greeting us with a traditional dance...

Preschool students enjoying their mid-morning snack

Secondary-school students enjoying their lunch - this program was actually funded by the parents of the students

The main method of transportation of goods is bicycle and your head so here's a few scenes from the highway...surprisingly, they had pretty good roads in Rwanda, well, at least the main roads...

Fabrics in the market

Curious kids in a local market

Vendors in a market near Kigali

Some doanted US commodities "not to be sold or exchanged" found for sale in the market...

Bananas - they grow a lot of bananas - here's just a few on their way to be sold in the market....

Happy Birthday Waylon

Waylon turned 2 on July 15th - folks have told us that they lose some of their puppy energy once they turn 2, but we haven't noticed any slowing down ;) - happy birthday little buddy!