Aftan, Steven and Kansas Take on the World

videos videos videos!

2012-01-04T01:22:00.002-06:00

how about a few random videos?

Happy Costume Day =]

2011-11-01T09:48:00.002-05:00

Kansas turns ONE

2011-09-17T12:23:00.004-05:00

i don't know what yall do on your 1st birthday, but i went to a girls basketball tournament at rosslyn. i got up earlier than i normally do. now that i think about it, i don't think i ever ate breakfast. oh wait, i take that back. my mom did manage to feed me a bottle while packing things for the day.

after we arrived, my dad left me in the backpack carrier in hopes that i would take a nap. seriously dad? c'mon who'd wanna fall asleep when there's bball going on!

the girls did fairly well. my mom's a really good coach. she taught them alot since the first day of practice. my dad said that they run transmission well. hold on, my dad's trying to say something to me. oh oops, i meant transition. yes they're beginning to figure out how to run transition well. there we go.

after their games, the bball team totally surprised me. i was just chillin on the sideline eating my crackers when all of a sudden i heard a group of girls singing Happy Birthday =]

they gave me this giant birthday card. it was so big! according to my parents, they wrote some nice things on there. i know you can't see it, but it says "Happy Birthday! Congratulations on your one year of existence!"

oh wait, here you go. i forgot my dad took a picture of it after we got home.

anyways, after the tournament we decided to stop by village market for lunch. my mom had sweet & sour chicken. my dad had pizza. i had baby food and some of mommy's noodles. my dad didn't share any of his food with me. punk.

since i'm one year old now, i tried to convince my parents to let me sit in the car with a seat belt and drink some mountain dew. i'm a big girl now. i can handle it. i just wanted to do the dew.

the day wasn't turning out the way i had hoped. i was beginning to wonder if they forgot my birthday. we walked around random places, and the whole time i was wondering when the party was going to happen. it turns out my parents bought me all this stuff!!! a new book, two bouncy balls, a basketball, and a little noise-making drum thing...ftw. i don't know how to explain the joy. they laid out all this stuff on the floor at the same time, and it was blowing my mind. i would crawl to the green ball then notice the yellow ball then notice the book then notice the drum thing then notice the basketball....ahhh it was awesome!

i apologize for not wearing any pants. i was crawling around on the bball court and the grass all day, so they had to go as soon as we got home.

just when i thought the fun was over, my mom whips this out right before supper. my dad's cousin's gf in thailand got this for me. it's pretty crazy. i tried to make a mess on myself and not an inch of my clothes got dirty. trust me i tried.

oh yea, my mom showed me this book a few weeks ago. it's from my grandparents in kansas. it's pretty sweet. the book reads to me in their voices!!! grandpa lambert sounds alot like uncle wessy.

so that was the very first anniversary of my birthday. it was a good day. it's been a good year. thank you to everyone who has been a part of the first year of my life.

good morning Kansas!

2011-08-23T12:36:00.002-05:00

step by step

2011-08-23T12:09:00.002-05:00

i would like to take this opportunity to use blogger and google's presumably reliable hard drive to document the fact that Kansas walked tonight. and i'm not talking about one of those moments where a baby takes a couple steps and plops onto the ground. she took four steps on her own and decided to stop and stand there for a moment. then she decided to slowly bend her knees and lower herself to the ground and switch to crawling mode. yay! good job baby girl!!!

note to self: you probably won't be celebrating this that much when she starts running full speed into random objects.

tim tam & kfc

2011-08-11T10:52:00.005-05:00

our Australian friends introduced us to something awesome. I feel like I've living in a cave for not knowing about these.

KFC comes to Kenya! yup they finally did it. haven't had a taste yet. the line was like a BSB concert ticket sale.

re-adapting

2011-08-04T07:22:00.002-05:00

we arrived Sunday night, and we still can't manage to get a good night's rest. I'm having a hard time adjusting because I have one of three things going on. I'm suffering from jetlag, teething, and its freezing at night over here. I try to tell my parents, but they haven't learned how to speak baby yet. here's me Thursday morning eating breakfast. it's the first time since coming back that they're leaving me all day.

Safe Flight

2011-07-31T22:30:00.001-05:00

this'll be a quick post. everything went smoothly. all the luggage arrived. all the passengers arrived. and Kansas did awesome on both flights! here's a quick picture of what i caught her doing on the first flight. forget cradle...this floor will do.

Music, Bdays, Jordans, SA, Photoshoot

2011-07-20T15:01:00.005-05:00

when i'm not doing photoshoots, celebrating birthdays with family, or traveling across the world, i like to lay down some tracks for my uncle stanley.

yup your eyes aren't lying to you. those are true blue 3's. my dad sat in line and copped a pair for me. my mom hooked me up with this dope kstate bib. i guess they have good taste.

we celebrated my grandmother's bday. my mom made that cool picture frame from scratch. my contribution was to show up naked.

we drove out to san antonio to attend my mom's friend's wedding. her and her buddies from korea had a nice little reunion. sorry we don't have pics from the wedding. my dad took blurry pictures =P

instead, i have to show you this incredibly strange phenomenon we came across on the way to san antonio. normally you see convenient stores at rest stops. this is like a convenient store on steroids. it's enormous and filled with so much merchandise and food!

funny story...our car broke down in downtown san antonio. we parked it and decided to explore downtown while waiting for it to cool down. we walked around looking for a place to sit down and eat dinner when somehow we stumbled across the Alamo!!!

we did a photoshoot in a park with uncle jeremy as the photographer. i was feelin' the cute outfit, but it was just too early in the morning for me to put on a happy face. the mulch was interesting and new to me though.

i haven't quite figured out what they call this contraption yet, but i like it! i feel like i'm flying and feel like puking at the same time. i'm gonna need one of these at home someday.

like i said, i wasn't in a happy face mood that morning. but hey, i have on a cute dress, and i know how to spell my name.

happy birthday uncle stanley! one day i will understand the awesomeness which you call sushi.

that's all for now. the next time i'll be posting will probably be in kenya. hopefully i can access internet soon when i arrive. please pray for my parents. they cried on the flights back to the US. i enjoyed hanging out and meeting all of you this summer. the next time we see each other, i'll try to do some new tricks. so far, i've learned crawling on the floor, crawling up stairs, assisted walking, sucking out of a straw, and denying baby food.

p.s. leave comments. my parents are freaks. they keep hogging the computer to check this blog. show some love. peace out!

Boat???

2011-07-19T11:43:00.013-05:00

this has been quite a first year of life for me, and it's not even over yet. i've already slept in four different beds, traveled to four countries, and ridden in three different vehicles. first a car, then an airplane, now a giant boat.

i wish i was older to enjoy all the stuff on the giant boat, but that's ok. i was able to enjoy the food because i'm a big girl now. i can eat pretty much everything you can eat as long as it dissolves in my mouth before i attempt to swallow it.

oh yea, i forgot to mention why we're even on this giant boat. i was told that it was my great grandmother's 81st birthday. it was a big family reunion. i've got like a million uncles and aunts. how do they expect me to memorize it all? this doesn't even include my mom's side of the family. *whew*

they had some fine dining with dishes that looked like this.

it's all good because i got mine too =]

i was quite impressed by the room service. every night when we got back from dinner, they had folded towels into animals. this was my favorite.

ok now i can understand that there's cramped space in a cruise, but c'mon guys is it necessary to put me in a cage? that's ok because i learned to stand up this summer using the bars in my crib.

for my great grandmother's 81st, the waiters sang her a song.

oh did i mention that it was also my parents' 2nd anniversary? you see that AWESOME chocolate cake? i wanted to touch it so badly that i stuck my foot in it. i swear i could taste the sweet sweet chocolate through the pores of my toes.

there was one day my parents left me with the rest of the family. they went out on land to ride on smaller boats. that doesn't make sense to me. i had fun checking out mexico with my grandparents. i remember seeing a beach and lots of shops. it was quite colorful.

the following day they decided to bring me to cozumel with them. it started out with a bus ride out to the beach. the logical thing to do is sleep, duh!

this must go down in history as the first beach i've ever walked on. i found out later that my dad and uncles took me out to float in the atlantic ocean. they said i immediately fell asleep while floating in the ocean. i don't remember a thing. i think uncle nicolas has it recorded.

while i was checking out the beach, my dad was being a pig and eating the free buffet.

i like water. it was nice and warm in there. i haven't quite figured out how to swim yet, but the kiddie pool is helping me learn how to walk. i'll put swimming on my to-do list for next year.

in case you were wondering, here's that giant boat i was talking about.

here's uncle stanley and uncle nicolas. they're pretty cool.

on the last night, my parents decided to take family pics. i wish they had told me. i would've sucked in my belly had i known.

overall, it was a fun trip. just remind my parents to take me again when i'm old enough to ride this humungous water slide with cousin ansley and james.

Happy July 4th!!!

2011-07-05T08:38:00.005-05:00

Food...enough said.

aren't my girls the cutest?

i can do this by myself daddy.

blowing up stuff

we had sparklers. we couldn't resist.

this is how we do it.

i'm a rugrat!

2011-06-30T13:15:00.002-05:00

Running with the Devil Marathon

2011-06-26T10:14:00.003-05:00

sooooo what'd you do this saturday?

i got up at 4am and drove out to Lake Mead...

...to watch my beautiful wife run a half-marathon in 95-100 dry heat going up and down various elevations. there was hardly any part of it that was level. you're either running up or down the whole time.

stretching time. about to begin.

3...2...1...go! *cow bell rings*

the marathon starts out going uphill towards those hills. steven walks downhill to the sitting area. steven started sweating just standing there. it's probably because he's fat.

2hrs 20min later. she's alive!!! she said she slowed down near the end. personally i don't think she even tapped into her reserves. i think she could've run more. what an athlete.

much respect. dry heat, open desert, constant elevation, direct sunlight. i don't think i could've even walked this. you're awesome aftan!!!

Swimming yay!!!

2011-06-22T21:55:00.004-05:00

kansas: look ma...i got a new swimsuit

dad: you can enjoy that two-piece for now

walking around in the kiddie pool

floating around in the big pool with cousin jesse

More Pictures

2011-06-22T12:55:00.006-05:00

JoeBev's 60th Anniversary

look ma...i've got teeth!

color coordinated generations

the great grandkids (i feel like i could put a thought bubble over every head)

family on the front porch

Trip to Kearney

we ate at applebee's. i had forgotten the "american" portion size. awesome!

crossing the border from nebraska to kansas

umm dad...what're you doing?

Pictures (almost 9 months)

2011-06-14T15:04:00.003-05:00

yay jiffy burger!!!

i've got my eyes on you.

i haven't quite got a handle on this teleportation thing yet.

for those who don't already know, who do you think is the picture on the left?

Kansas x Technology

2011-06-14T14:41:00.002-05:00

a post by Kansas

2010-12-19T02:33:00.004-06:00

my parents are taking forever to put up a new post, so i thought i'd take matters into my own tiny hands. since the last post, much has happened. i'll work my way backwards.

here are my parents and grandparents on my dad's side...obviously.

my grandparents came to visit ME for about two weeks during the thanksgiving break.

let's just say...i enjoyed being spoiled! grandparents are awesome. i highly suggest getting some. did i mention that i recently found my hands? oh man, i gotta have all my fingers in my mouth at the same time. that's the way to go.

here are the people (my parents) who haven't been posting for the past two months. they're always busy doing stuff. btw, it's really hard getting my parents to look at the camera at the same time as me. they get so easily distracted.

why did i post this? oh yea, i'd like to file a complaint against all mosquitos on the earth. look what happened to me when you bit up my face...and this is only one side! and of course i'm also posting this b/c i like my ducky bathrobe hoody thingy.

at some point while my grandparents were here, we went on safari to amboseli. i "heard" there were lions, a cheetah, hippos, hyenas, giraffes, and LOTS of elephants. as you can see in this picture, my parents felt comfortable holding me up out of the roof of a van to catch a picture with elephants WHILE I WAS SLEEPING! one day i'll stay awake for these trips, but the car rides are so soothing to my soul.

apparently i have many uncles. i'm not quite sure what those are yet, but i just know that they're boys and they're old. here's a picture of our thanksgiving dinner. my mom can cook it up!!! there was soooo much food. i don't remember if my dad helped. lazy bum. he was at that "work" thing...whatever that is. it was fun having uncle hanbeen, sam, and simon join us for thanksgiving. too bad i have no teeth. all i could do is smell it.

oh yea i forgot about this. once again my parents got a shot of me while i was sleeping. here's a picture of me and my homie finch in our halloween costumes. i let him borrow my cow costume. i'll probably be wearing that one next year when i'm bigger.

thanks for reading my post. i hope you enjoyed it.

- Kansas

The Fam

2010-10-15T23:16:00.004-05:00

what do you do during parent teacher conferences?

take a family photo with my computer...duh!

4 Weeks Young [ 20in & 8lbs8oz ]

2010-10-14T22:26:00.002-05:00

"you better got my money fool."

kansas and finch go on their first date. don't they look spiffy?

macy gray (kansas): "you forgot your pants dude."

finch: "hush woman...i'm just tryin' to take care of my business."

"my cheeks can't hardly fit into my car seat."

Pictures & Videos

2010-10-02T03:02:00.003-05:00

look what mommy made me before i was born...

one day i will be bigger than you mr. carrot

do i look like anyone yet?

i have many asian uncles over here. strangely enough, they're all korean.

tummy time...she's still learning to like it.

Fun Fact

2010-09-30T01:54:00.002-05:00

more pictures to come soon, but for now here's a little tidbit about our birthdays. i teach math, so you can count on me to discover something nerdy like this:

steven bday - aftan bday = kansas bday

Nov 30 - Feb 13 = Sept 17

(11.30) - (02.13) = (09.17)

cool, huh?

Happy One Week Kansas!!!

2010-09-24T12:42:00.004-05:00

yesterday (thurs) we took her to the pediatrician for her first check-up. she's completely healthy. she's grown half a centimeter in length and gained 4.5 oz. we'd also like to mention that our baby loves to sleep....for now. she always looks very content and rarely cries. instead of telling you about it....

Hiccups

2010-09-22T09:07:00.005-05:00

Let the jokes begin

2010-09-22T09:07:00.002-05:00

So we had to do a Banana joke. Yellow dad, white mom.

Facial Expressions pt.2

2010-09-21T12:58:00.002-05:00

her diaper's full of poo, and this is how she behaves. why is it so cute?

Facial Expressions

2010-09-20T07:51:00.002-05:00

Kansas & The Carrot

2010-09-19T02:09:00.001-05:00

Have you met...Kansas?

2010-09-18T00:44:00.002-05:00

we've got some info for you:
she's 6 lbs 2.4 oz, and 19 inches.

Kansas BeverleyJo Tso

2010-09-17T06:36:00.003-05:00

she was born in nairobi, kenya around noon on friday. everything went smoothly. thank you all for your prayers and support. omg we're parents!!!

early bird

2010-09-17T02:38:00.002-05:00

so i guess i should mention that aftan's been in labor for about 9-10hrs now.
so far so good...

My Amazing Wife

2010-09-13T13:53:00.004-05:00

it's about 10pm right now. she's sleeping, so i wanted to take this opportunity to tell you how awesome she is. today is monday...the day us normal folk show up to work alittle slower than usual. we arrive at school, and she begins making arrangements to pick up the soccer uniforms. this is a big deal because the people printing numbers on the jerseys decided to cut it close and give us our uniforms today, which happens to be our first game day! somehow, aftan manages to teach a class in the morning, drive out to pick up 50 uniforms, get back to school in time for lunch, teach more classes, and then prepare for today's after-school activities. first, she prepared for a U19 soccer game at home i.e. get refs, ref money, water bottles, first aid kit. second, she prepared for a U19 basketball game i.e. get refs, ref money, water bottles, first aid kit, set up score table, scoreboard, score sheet, benches for both teams. being the coach, i was more than happy to help =] as if preparing for these two home games wasn't enough, she also arranged for two elementary intramurals, karate and gymnastics. so basically, she's got FOUR events going on at the same time. some of you may be thinking...."no biggie, i can do that." throw in the fact that she's about 37 weeks pregnant. MUCH RESPECT!

baby pic from 08.23.10

2010-08-29T10:47:00.003-05:00

went to the doctor. everything is doing well. it's crazy to look at this scan because she's beginning to look like a person. before you know it, we'll be parents! WHOA!!!

Back in the NBO

2010-08-22T07:41:00.002-05:00

just wanted to drop a quick update...

we've been here for nearly 3 weeks, and the ball is rolling fast. we're back in the swing of things. the weather is cold...boo! but at least we have electricity and water.

home front:
- over the summer, aftan grew a 6-ft sunflower.
- booger was breaking out of the yard earlier, but i reinforced the fence recently.
- we're getting the baby room set up little by little.
- my wifey's been cooking some awesome meals!

school stuff:
- i've got 2 geometry, 2 precal, and 1 algebra II classes this year.
- aftan's got prek to 5th PE, elem intramurals, and athletic director.
- lots of new teachers. mostly on the elem side.
- girls bball & boys soccer just had tryouts this past week.
- i have my own classroom, but other classes occupy it when i'm not teaching during those periods. so i find myself wandering unable to do work b/c all my stuff is in the class.

hmmm...i just realized that listing things isn't as entertaining to read. i guess i'm documenting what's going on more than anything. as for kenya, the constitution stuff went well. it was peaceful. they're even having a holiday this upcoming friday to celebrate the new constitution. i'm not sure why i decided to post. aftan's the one with all the pictures. maybe her post will be more interesting. peace out!

baby stuff

2010-07-19T17:51:00.003-05:00

we have registered at Babies R Us for a few things for Baby T. we have been truly blessed by everyone who gave baby things (especially clothes) for Baby T's first few months of life.

if you want to take a gander at what we still need, check out:

babiesrus.com

find registry- Aftan Tso

we are leaving the 31st of July. if you would like to send something, we'll be packing a few days before.

now we just gotta figure out how to get a car carrier to kenya....ha!

houston

2010-07-19T13:19:00.008-05:00

we've been back in houston for about 2 weeks now, and it seems like we've done alot. (btw, we celebrated july 4th in smith center and blew up alot of stuff. unfortunately, i've got no pictures.) since we've been back in houston, we've celebrated our one-year anniversary by going to see Wicked, eaten dinner with family, drove to galveston to check out the restaurant and visit family, visited stacy, jackson, and mia in league city, watched Despicable Me and Inception, completed a 500-piece and 1000-piece puzzle, and made dumplings. oh and we manage to go out in the texas heat and humidity every night to exercise. i've forgotten how much i hate mosquitos.

here is us celebrating our 1 year of marriage. can you believe its been a whole year? and a baby on the way?

this is my wife modeling her belly. im 7 months pregnant here. boy do i feel it (aftan not steven wrote this obviously)

here's us with all our Wicked gear. the musical was awesome!

afterwards, we decided walk around downtown and take random pictures with sculptures we came across.

(aftan)-Im finally having to wear some of my maternity clothes. problem is, they're for pregnant women with really big boobs and really big bellies. can't there be an inbetween size, something that doesn't make me look like a balloon? but i do have to say, maternity pants with stretchy tops are the best thing for big meals. im surprised guys haven't started wearing them!

only when we eat dinner with family can something like this be possible. lobster vs. chicken!

we started doing this 500-piece with a few aunts and completed a couple days later. it looks harder than it seems. it's a painting of a pot of flowers, so there were a ton of pieces that looked identical.

since we had tackled one, we figured we'd take on another one. but this time, the pieces were half the size. this was hard on the eyes because all the white pieces look the same.

i wish we could make dumplings in kenya, but unfortunately i dunno where to find the wraps over there.

we only have 2 weeks left until we're back in kenya. this summer has FLOWN by. next up on our agendas: girls day out for aftan, becca, and kara in austin, finishing baby stuff getting, and hopefully we'll hit up a astros game before we leave.

omaha & laramie

2010-07-19T12:59:00.004-05:00

argh i got really good at posting stuff, and then i lost it again. hmm...so where did i leave off? last time i posted was in late june. since then, we've gone to the omaha zoo with cousin mark visited and brought back family from laramie, wyoming to smith center, and flew down to houston. we couldn't find a camera charger for awhile, so you're gonna have to accept the random ones.

here's aftan and mark on a bridge at the zoo. i wanted to take pictures of every animal, but we ran outta batteries. they need to figure out that whole wireless electricity technology.

i wish i got pictures of the rest of the family, but this is probably the funniest. pearl was given a wet-wipe to clean up. instead she used it to clean amos' paw. i don't think he liked that, and yet she giggles.

Country Road

2010-06-22T17:43:00.004-05:00

here's how our day started off today. we went out to lebanon with her dad to help him bring a scraper back. before that, we ate at a small something. i'm not sure what you would call it because it's a small grocery store with the "diner" built into it. it's a nice place for farmers to stop in for lunch.

each day they have two main things to choose from. today it was burger or ham loaf. what's a ham loaf? exactly! that's why i got it. try to take a wild guess at how much this meal cost.

here's my wifey driving the pickup back while her dad drives the scraper.

since we were out there, we stopped by the farm to replace the tarp for the grain cart.

you've driven past a number of these on the road, but it's not the same as getting up close to it. you feel all high and mighty when you're riding around in it.

what's that? grain cart.

john deere invented the steel plow. little did he know that teeny boppers and ashton kutcher would set a fashion trend out of his name.

you're out on a farm. you see onions planted. what do you do? you dig one up and cook it for supper. duh!

Summer of 2010 in Kansas....so far

2010-06-22T00:52:00.006-05:00

got a story. wanna hear it? here it go...backwards....

around here, we gotta find stuff to do to entertain ourselves. since the weather is beautiful outside, we take advantage of that. sometimes we go bike-riding. sometimes we play ladder ball. and recently, we've been playing bocce ball. my wife's really accurate. my brother-in-law is good at the long bombs. and me, well i just like being outside =]

BEFORE THAT, af made homemade chicken noodle soup and biscuits. she was picking up new recipe ideas we could use in kenya from aunt judy. it was delicious. i can't wait to eat it again in kenya. it'll give me that reminiscent feeling of home.

BEFORE THAT, we celebrated father's day. well this isn't us celebrating it. these are just funny poses we make when we take pictures.

i especially like this one.

BEFORE THAT, a weeks ago, i was getting irritated with my former wallet. so i decided to do something about it. i made a wallet out of duct tape. i've got separate slots for dollars and kenyan shillings. i made a pocket just for the guitar pick. and for added customization, i used a small part of a ziplock bag for the hidden coin pouch. just say it..."what a nerd".

BEFORE THAT, cousin mark made us fajitas. oh so good! since then, he has made two types of bbq chicken. it's nice to have someone around who is experimenting with a grill.

BEFORE THAT, we had to go to Jiffy Burger once we arrived in smith center. we got anything and everything that's unhealthy, which means they were really tasty. here's a cheeseball...

here's a corn nugget. it's somewhat healthy, right? who am i kidding? that sucker's fried.

double bacon cheeseburger. i'm sure every fastfood burger joint has one of these, but it just ain't the same.

BEFORE THAT, we ate some gigantic fruit. i immediately noticed when we arrived in the states that the fruit here is LIKE WHOA. compared to the fruit in kenya, i'm convinced the fruit here is all pumped with steroids. this strawberry is almost the same size as an apple in kenya.

BEFORE THAT, we went to cousin rachel's wedding. if you don't know her, then you won't care that you can't see the faces of the people in the wedding party. if you do know her, then you were there. if you know her and you weren't there, why weren't you there? geez!

and finally, here's me and my beautiful, you-barely-look-pregnant wife =]

i hope you've enjoyed these random pictures of June. for those of you who blog multiple times in a week, i don't know how you do it. i don't carry around a camera often enough to document our life, but i'm trying.

what's that?

2010-06-15T12:25:00.001-05:00

wow, we really need to update this!
if you still check our blog from time to time looking for updates, leave us a comment.
we promise to update more often. no more excuses.

see if you can figure out what we're looking at here (20wks):

winner gets a prize =]

Easter Break

2010-04-05T03:45:00.008-05:00

here's a glimpse of some of the things we did over easter:

first, we hopped on a tiny, two-prop plane...

we made a stop in mombasa. we got out for about 10min for the plane to refuel...

then we reached our destination...turtle bay in malindi. turtle bay is an all-inclusive resort. it was nice not having to worry about money all week. you could eat and drink literally all day for no extra cost. sitting on the beach and you want a burger? ask for it and it will come =]

our eating area was surrounding this pool. it's nice to have everything so close to each other.

since coming to kenya, i've enjoyed eating an english breakfast....major staples: tomatoes and baked beans. i can do without the sausages. they be nasty over here. oh oh and i discovered on this trip that i like poached eggs. i had two every morning.

here's my beautiful wife. 'nuff said =D

after breakfast, we usually sat on the beach and enjoyed a nice nap.

normally after lunch, there's a bit of dead time, so we got together with some of our students and played nertz. aftan taught them how to play for the first time, so they really got into it.

ok this is random, but i just had to write about it. there was one afternoon simon (one of our students) and i were left alone to find our own activity. we stumbled across a magic show. the guy was not bad until the end...

...when he busted out this jacked-up puppet. it had one eye, a busted face, and a blacked-out tooth. not only that, the guy used a creepy voice. *shudder* it looked like something that just washed up on shore.

one afternoon, a few of us decided to go out and find the eels. they reside so close to the coast that you can just find them and feed them. they like crabs, so this dude helped us catch them for feeding.

last time we went on vacation to the coast, they had a masai tribe come to the resort and put on a show. usually the women are singing in a high-pitched tone...

the men participate in a dance.

i've always been fascinated by their shoes. they use tires, put some straps on them, and bam...they've got shoes.

easiest way to identify the masai: they're commonly found wearing red AND they jump! and man do they jump high. they spring up with two feet and always land hard with two feet.

on our last day, some of the guys went out deep sea fishing. one of the fish they came back with was a 25-kilo tuna. so naturally, we ate it.

on top of the tuna, i went ahead and grabbed some steak and calamari. hahah why not? we already paid for it.

and of course, what would be an evening without more nertz?

it was a nice, relaxing, very much needed trip for aftan and i. it's been a stressful year with all these hiccups. we needed to get out of the city and rest. now we're back, and it's time to work =P

Modes of Transportation

2010-04-05T02:52:00.003-05:00

over the years in kenya, my modes of transportation have changed for significant reasons. during my first two, i found no reason to own a car. i had no problem walking everywhere any time of the day. when i first arrived, one of the first things i bought was a pair of pumas. i originally bought them because i wanted to wear some school colors. little did i know that they would end up clocking miles and miles to this day.

during my third year here, most of the people i bummed rides off of left. i also found myself needing a car, especially when aftan visited. our former director offered to sell me this car for about $2000. yea i know...it's a hunk of junk. 1989 peugeot. it's a zippy car that did the job. i enjoyed driving manual. the car had problems here and there, but overall the engine's in good shape. who'd of thought the first time i learn to drive stick is on the left side of the road?

i'm sure you've all read the tragedy of our stuff being stolen from the ol' peugeot. in light of that and our newborn on the way, we needed to make an investment in something with better security and more robust. God was good in randomly sending someone in our direction with this car. i played bball every tuesday night out at a school named rosslyn academy. shortly after our car got broken into, i discovered that one of the guys i play ball with was looking to sell a 1997 honda crv. that was a quick blessing outta nowhere. it was alittle on the pricey side for a used vehicle, but we hope the car holds the same value by the time we leave kenya. we're happy that it has an alarm and lots of room in the backseat. i think booger likes it better than the peugeot too. he finds it easier to relax in the back.

U19 Hillcrest Tournament

2010-04-05T00:01:00.003-05:00

i need to backtrack abit here. i feel i should mention some of the achievements of the U19 boys basketball team this year. it was our first time to compete on the U19 level (varsity). we didn't expect much because most other teams have had a long history of basketball. surprisingly, we did fairly well this year. the first tournament we attended this year was at Strathmore. the boys placed 2nd place and only lost by 2pts in the finals against RVA. after a season of maturity, we were invited to a tournament at Hillcrest. it came down to a neck-to-neck game in the finals, and the boys victoriously came out on top against Strathmore. it was a meaningful game to us because in the regular season we lost our first game against them. since then, we made sure we never lost again to them. and to top it all off, we were voted by the coaches in the league for the Sportsmanship Award. good job guys!!!

FEB 20,2010

2010-02-21T06:18:00.004-06:00

1cm in size. strong hearbeat. pretty amazing =]

Yes, we know, we know....

2010-02-17T06:36:00.002-06:00

Surprise to see us on here? We know its been far too long to keep you in suspense of our life over here in Kenya. Granddad Joe threatened to withhold birthday wishes for me if we didn't update the blog! So much has happened in the last few months that its hard to know where to start. We don't have any pictures to post which will all be explained later. Ooo, guess you'll have to keep reading then. Hm...lets see where to start.

School. School has been in full swing for almost 2 months now. The biggest change came when we found out that our Athletic director died in his sleep about 3 weeks ago. It was a HUGE blow to our school and especially our staff. He was young, only 33 and had just gotten married to his wife this summer (around the same time that we got married). His wife was the kindergarten teacher, but because of everything, she left to be with her family. So, that left the AD position and kindergarten position to be filled. WE were bless to find a gal to fill the kindergarten spot. From what ive seen, she's doing real well. And wouldn't you know, God has a funny way of using your experiences to help the present. I have taken over the AD positions for this year and for next year. It has taken alot of getting used to...filling a spot half way thru. Sorta feels like you've entered the prom towards the end and not quite sure whats going on! Being an AD in kenya is way different than korea. Lets just say getting referees to show up is not something you ever want to deal with. Getting an email saying 'sorry, the referees were arrested in a matatu (public transportation) last night and couldn't make it to the game' is not something you want to hear with 2 teams ready to play. But God will see us through all. Im constantly reminded that He's got this all figured out.

Booger. You want a dog? We got one that you can have. Sigh. He's going to get us kicked out of our house. Stupid dog is going thru the teenager stage of 'i don't care what you say, im going ot run away the second you let me off the leash, dig up neighbors yards, eat your flowers, poop, and bring mud in on a newly cleaned floor.' at least he's cute when he sleeps.

Life. THere will be mountain top life experiences and those valley life experiences that leave you befuzzled (new word) and at a loss for words. We can definitely say we've gone though all those experiences in the last 3 weeks. While we were out at a nice part of town this Thursday, we stopped at a mall for supper. Steven was being a good husband and starting my birthday festivities early with supper at this great restaurant called Art box. We were in there for little over an hour, full of food and great ice cream. When we got to our car, we found out to our horror that the locks had been jammed and all of our stuff out of our car was gone. Both our backpacks with our 2 macs, 2 ipods, camera, hard drive, cables, sweatshirts, medicine, and alot of random other things had been taken. I have never felt so violated as i did that night. If your a missionary, you might be able to relate. We don't have alot of nice things. WE're newly married, on a super super small income, and missionaries africa. Those computers were the one nice things we owned. But, tragedy brings out those loving people. Our director is in the states right now at a conference, so he was willing to bring back 2 laptops for us, granted they get shipped to him in time, along with 2 backpacks. This also means now that we just lost 4,000 to replace our computers and backpacks, and we have to get a different car with an alarm. Our car right now isn't worth the trouble of fixing up. Our principle has been gracious enough to let us use their car while we search for a new one. Where the money comes for that, God is the only one who knows. I trust that he knows. Its not just the laptops, but everything on them that we lost. Honeymoon pictures, movies, all the pictures of our first year of marriage, school grades and curriculum are gone. Just gotta start all over i spose!

Baby. In the darkness of all the theft, there has been a super awesome light that you only see from those mountain top expereiences has begun to show. We found out a few weeks ago that we are going to have a baby! We had a doctors visit that put us roughly around 6-7 weeks along. Can you believe it? These two weirdos are going to bring another weirdo into the picture! Needless to say (why to people say that, becuase you know they're going to go ahead and explain themselves anyway), that we've been excited and freaked out all at the same time. We have to go in for another ultra sound this week to get a more exact size of the baby for a due date. We're thinking end of September early October. (hehe, it was a good Christmas break if you know what i mean). All these changes are happening so fast it seems like our heads are spinning. Strollers! Bouncers! Car seat! Bottles! Diapers! Ahhh! So much to think about!! Luckly we're going to be home this summer so we can stock up for this new adventure. I feel like a kindergartner on the first day of school, lost and completely confused, but excited at the same time! That wretched morning sickness has struck and struck hard. For the longest time, i didn't have any symptoms then...BAM! Saturday it started.....then today i felt like i had been at Worlds of Fun for 3 days riding roller coasters over and over. Its hard for me to stand with out gagging and wishing i could find my happy place. I stayed home from school in fear i would be teaching and throwing up at the same time. Its been a hard day staying home, but i have been assured that it does get better. Sometime. Sigh.

So thats whats been going on in a nut shell. Theives, baby, stress, yes! The next few months are going to be trying periods in our lives as I attempt to teach PE/AD whilst having a watermelon on my gut and Steven trying to be the strong supporter of all my crazy pregnant shanaggians. We'll hopefully post some pictures here soon of things once we have some pictures to post.

oh...and all of your kansas people out there in snow and 30 degree weather, it has been a constant 80 degrees the last month with white puffy clouds and birds chirping. its okay, you can be jealous. :)

christmas!

2009-11-12T00:37:00.002-06:00

No pictures on this one, sorry. Just wanted to let everybody know that we're actually going to be in the states this CHRISTMAS! WHOOT! This is a pretty big deal for us to decide to go for numerous reasons but we decided that seeing our families was worth it. We both haven't been home for Christmas for a few years so its time. We will leave Kenya on the 19th of December and arrive in Houston the following day. We'll stay there for a couple of days until the 23rd where we'll then fly to Kansas just in time for the big Lambert Christmas ordeal and the two other family Christmases. We'll get back to Houston the 2nd or 3rd and stay until we leave back for Kenya the following Saturday. It will be a fast and furious trip but I know will totally be worth it. I (aftan) personally will be looking forward to some of Grandma Beverley's punch and mom' sugar cookies! Thank you for all your prayers for us recently, they have been greatly needed. Keep in mind that we have to decide Dec 1st if we will stay for another year or not. Pray that God guides our right motivations in all of this.

And Steven's birthday is coming up!

LA CASA

2009-11-08T00:20:00.011-06:00

i know i know it's been waaaaaay too long, but hopefully this'll make up for it. i might as well mention that we moved since getting booger. it was quite the blessing to move from an apartment to a house paying practically the same amount of rent!!!

let's begin with the entrance on the side of the house leading into the kitchen:

from the kitchen, you could take a left which leads to 2 bedrooms and a bathroom:

if you take a right out of the kitchen, you'll step into this open area consisting of our dining area and front entrance to the house:

pivot around 180 and you face our big, spacey living room:

let's take a gander outside. the white door is the entrance into the kitchen:

if you walk along the side of the house towards the front, you'll come to our front yard:

here's our front porch:

check out all the space booger gets to play on:

look how big he's gotten!

more to come...

Oh doggie poo.

2009-09-25T00:14:00.004-05:00

We love our new puppy, Booger, a whole bunch. However, we found out that not everybody does. We just got a notice yesterday that says we have to get rid of our new family member if we want to stay in our apartment complex. This is something we weren't aware of and frankly are more that a little perturbed about. So....we begin our search for a new place. Sigh. We have a lead on a small house out in Karen with a yard that we are hoping to look at in the next few days. A lot of change for us this month! It will be good to move for the puppy too. We found out that he just doesn't like being in cars and reminds us when he pukes and poos in the car on the way to school. :)

Basketball is in full swing for both of us. Steven is working hard with his Under 19 girls, trying to get them up to speed with the better play that comes with moving up a class. They played a boarding school called Rift Valley Academy and lost, but was encouraged that his girls are making leaps and bounds in their play. Aftan's Under 15 girls won their first game on Wednesday against International School of Kenya with a score of 13-8. It was intense! It was close until the very end of the game where we pulled ahead with a couple of easy baskets. We were very encouraged by the HUGE support from fans. They say it was the biggest turn out for a U15 team to date.

School has been going better these days. Elementary intramurals starts this coming thursday for 1-6th graders wanting to play soccer. Aftan gets the privilege of organizing all of that! Its good for the kids to get some fun competition in.

God has been sovereign here in kenya. We know that he will show us the right path daily. I want to leave you with one of my (aftans) favorite hymns that really encourages me that he is in ultimate control of everything.

Great is thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide.
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

We picked a "Booger"

2009-09-20T07:15:00.001-05:00

We know we haven't posted in a long time and we apologize for keeping you waiting. It doesn't help that to blog here it can take hours to post anything with pictures because the internet is so slow. We're going to skip around a bit here and tell you of our most recent adventure and later go back and blog about other stuffs.

You may be wondering about our title here...something about a booger? Well, we did pick a booger! Meet Mr. Booger Hanbeen Tso, the newest addition to the Tso family.

We picked him out at the KSPCA (the dog pound) on Saturday and now is a member of our home. We're not exactly sure what kind of dog his is, only that he is 2 months old and poops and eats...ALOT. Thats been an adventure, trying to catch him before the act and rush him down 4 flights of stairs and into the grassy area. He hasn't learned to forgo his shame and just let it go with us and the entire complex of Kenyan children watching. He very much has a case of stage fright. But once we bring him back up, he has no problems piddling on the carpet. Sigh. The joys of parenthood :)
You may be wondering about his name, Booger Hanbeen Tso. As to how we got Booger, would you expect anything less from us? Plus it fits his personality well. Ive never seen a dog love the shade so much. His middle name, Hanbeen, is in honor of the student that Steven stayed with last year. Funny kid, funny dog...it all makes sense to us! He's done okay so far with us leaving him for a while, but the real test will come on Tuesday when we get to drop him off at another teachers house with a fenced in yard for doggie sitting while we go to school.
We'll leave you with our updated family picture. Sunny the sunflower is growing quite nicely and is starting to resemble a sunflower. He goes thru droopy days, but we're just blaming that on the kenyan dirt and not our greenthumbs.

We would like you to keep Kenya in your prayers as it is suffering from a horrible drought that has left thousands without water or food. They say that at least 30% of the population doesn't have enough food for day. Pray that the rains come soon (but hopefully at night so it doesn't disrupt outside PE, ha) and things will start to grow again!
Stay tuned for more updates :)

for you, dad

2009-08-30T05:38:00.002-05:00

Because my dad wanted to see his kiddos, here is our family picture here in kenya.
Steven, Aftan, and our sunflower Sunny. Steven planted it the first day of school in kenyan dirt. we'll see how big it actually gets growing in a pot full of red dirt.

Cooking Adventures

2009-08-30T03:13:00.005-05:00

one of the many things we have learned being married in this short time is that to feed two people, it takes effort! we were both used to eating random thing to fill us up in our single days. steven could live off ramen noodles and i could survive off marshmallows and cereal. but we figured we wouldn't live too long or be too happy if we continued that trend. so alas, adventures in cooking! so far its been pretty good, living off eggs, toast, fried potatoes, stir fry, grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta, chicken, and lots of indian and ethiopian food. we were in nakumatt the other day wondering what we could eat for dinner, wondering up and down the isles waiting for inspiration to hit us, when ALAS! down the pasta isle was the greatest invention to come to kenya....TACO KITS! now this is a big deal for around here, for a few reasons. one) kenya normally doesn't have prepackaged premade meals like this two) we could eat it for two meals and three) despite having all of the other ingredients for tacos, nobody sells prepackaged tortillas. it was a no brainer. making tortillas is time consuming work. so we bought the kit (a little pricey, but worth it for two meals), and in the time it took to brown the meat, we had a meal! genius! i will never take american prepackaged meals for granted again!

i also successfully made our first baked item...brownies! this is quite the monumental event considering we had to drive all the way across nairobi to find measuring cups and spoons. they're just not anywhere to be found! there's also no white sugar or baking soda so things come out tasting a wee bit different. but steven was craving brownies, so here is our first batch of brownies. and yes, they did taste very good.

Stand Up and Be Counted!

2009-08-28T00:15:00.002-05:00

In our last post, we informed you of the 'brilliant' idea of a Kenya national holiday to kick start the national census that was starting to take place. The whole idea of a day off was so people would go stay home and wait for the census takers to come by their house and 'count' them. What did we do?? We we out...allllll day! So much for their smart plan of keeping people in! For lunch we went out to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant then decided we haven't been to the local Toi Market in awhile so we dropped by there in the afternoon. Toi Market is truly one of a kind and if we could take pictures we would and post them, but it is generally frowned upon by the locals (they think they're getting in trouble if their pictures is being taken). Anywho, Toi is a place where local kenyans sell clothes, shoes, luggage, household goods, and other random things at normally a huge discount...only its all used stuff. Imagine a huge Goodwill store in handmade wood stalls with very uneven rock and trash floors. We were on a mission to find steven a khaki jacket and me a hoodie (it gets really cold here!). We ended up getting me a nice khaki jacket and an almost new pair of green low top all stars converse! We ended up only spending 1900 shillings for both (aprox 28 dollars) for both things. Have I mentioned I love my husband?? He was so determined to find me a good jacket that he didn't look for one for himself. Oh and did i mention he makes coffee everymorning while im in the shower?? Ya you guys, learn a thing or two from this one :) After our excursion in Toi, we went home where I made him homemade brownies from the Lambert family cookbook and settled down to a movie. Quite the nice relaxing census taking day and we managed not to get counted!

But alas, we didn't escape it. I (aftan) had just gotten out of the shower Wednesday evening around 930 when there was a knock on the door. Im in my PJs and a census taker walks into our house, sits down at our table, and proceedes to ask steven all sorts of questions. My favorite was "do you have a radio in your house?". Just random questions and from what i hear, we got the more mild questions. For kenyans, they were asking "How many cattle do you own", and "how many giraffe do you have?". I heard that one from one of my students. Do YOU own any giraffes??

Today is our second day of basketball practice. Steven is coaching the Under 19 girls basketball and I am coaching the Under 15 basketball girls. We have got a good bunch of girls for each group and we're excited for this year. More to come on that later.

I should be going to class now. God bless!!

day off?

2009-08-24T09:22:00.003-05:00

if you thought obama day in kenya was a random, funny national holiday last year, you'll enjoy hearing that the president declared tomorrow (tuesday) a national holiday encouraging people to stay home, so that a national census can be taken. as a result, we get a day off from school. talk about unpredictable things happening in kenya. shouldn't there be a record of the number of tenants in each resident somewhere? i wonder if everyone is going to stay in their homes tomorrow. what if everyone decides to go out and enjoy the holiday? this could be interesting.

President declares national holiday

hanbeen cooks eggs

2009-08-22T15:03:00.003-05:00

quick post. we're staying at the hagman's. hanbeen came over on friday and told us he could cook eggs for us in the morning. here's how it turned out.

ah yes, i forgot to mention who the hagmans and hanbeen are. the hagmans are an american family who have been living out here in kenya for several years. they have two kids at wns. hanbeen is a sophomore this year. he's a korean kid who has been out here since 2nd grade. i actually stayed with him and his family last year.

af and i had the opportunity to stay with the kids at their house from wednesday to sunday. hb came over friday after school and stayed the night over. also, the little boy in the video (taek) stayed over. we had a grand ol' time being psuedo-parents for a few days.

the most amazing food on earth

2009-08-19T12:41:00.004-05:00

Korean food is great. Mexican food is great. Kenyan food...eh not so whoopie. Ethiopian food trumps them all. "Down the street" from our apartment is this Ethiopian restaurant called Habashia which serves the best Ethiopian food around.

Here it is!

The white stuff on the bottom of the tray is called njera and is the eating utensil as well as the plate. Its actually like this spongy fermented dough stuff. Sounds nasty, and IS nasty the first time you taste it, but it really grows on you. Very sour stuff. This tray is a variety tray with three different types of veggies and 4 different wots, or meat sauces. The middle one is called dorawot and that big thing in the middle is a hard boiled egg. Our favorite thing isn't pictured here which is a dish called shiro. From what im told, its made from powdered chickpeas and tastes like it could be the african bean dip. Don't knock it until you try it! Mmmmm.....my stomach is hungry!

school pictures!

2009-08-19T02:04:00.011-05:00

This week is our first full week of school, so we thought it good that ya'll see some pictures of the place we get to come to everyday. I (aftan) took these pictures while steven was in a meeting after school so there aren't any pictures of the two of us, but you get the idea. Just to give you an idea of the weather that we've been experiencing the last few days, imagine cloudy and 60 degrees with the ever present threat of rain. Not exactly what you think of when you think of Kenya! But remember, this is their winter after all. In the next few weeks, we're going to be moving on to the rainy season (spring) where it should be getting warmer and wetter. Kenya does need rain badly...just not when I'm teaching PE! Everything is outside, so rain ruins lesson plans. It doesn't bother Steven too much all warm and dry in his classroom!!

Here are some pictures of WNS campus. Beautiful? I think so.

This is looking up from the soccer pitch. Highschool is to the right of the screen, elem is to the left. You can't see it, but their there in the trees.

These are the bandas where the kids eat lunch. There are three of them and they look over the soccer pitch.

One of the highschool buildings where Steven teaches. They call this one the treehouse.

Our tiny office. It used to be a book closet. At least we get separate desks!

Elementary 'lower' courts. This is where the PE teacher spends most of her time.

This is unrelated to school, but we think we have found our church home. Its a grace baptist church that meets in a tent not far from our apartment. We really like it there, especially me(aftan) because they sing hymns!

This is the outside. Thats me talking to two other WNS teachers.

Alright, stupid internet won't let me load any more pictures. Its taken about an hour to upload these, so this is a good stopping point.
Please pray for steven today as he is playing in the first chapel of the year! We are really excited to get some worship in with the kids. Pray also that kids respond to the message and pray that we can be a positive influence in their lives. Its all about being intentional!

pictures of our apartment

2009-08-09T14:20:00.014-05:00

living room

bedrooms

kitchen

my awesome wife's cooking =]

introducing...

2009-08-08T11:35:00.003-05:00

The new blog! We actually its the wedding blog but revamped for your viewing pleasure. Our hope is that we will regularly update it with pictures, posts and hopefully videos to keep you informed of our many adventures here in Kenya. Now bear in mind, Kenya has is quirks such as lack of consistent electricity and internet that is a throwback to 1995, but we'll do our best. We have been in country for almost 2 weeks now, getting settled in our new awesome apartment, buying things to make our apartment more of a home. *sidenote* HUGE thank you to everybody who gifted us at our wedding. You helped us start our lives as a married couple a little more comfortable. *endsidenote* We have spent the last 4-5 days at school getting acquainted with the new and old staff at West Nairobi School, along with getting our schedules ironed out and lessons somewhat planned. Steven this year is finally teaching what he was hired to teach...math! It only took 4 years. He will be teaching 5 classes, geometry, 2 algebra 2 classes and 2 pre-cal classes. Yup, he's smart. I (aftan) have a little more hectic schedule. I'm all over the grid teaching kindergarten all the way up to 3 high school classes. 6 classes a day for this semester with the possibility of preschool added and another HS class next semester. God is working in all this, thats for sure. Classes start this coming Tuesday with a half day. Full classes start Wednesday the 12th of August. Basketball starts next week! Both of us will be helping out the girls basketball teams this year. Steven will be coaching the new Under-19 team (varsity) and I will be heading up the Under-15 (junior-high/JV). We both can't wait for that to start.

If you would like to think of us in your prayers, we could use prayers as we start this new school year. Pray that it will be a smooth transition for both teachers and students. We both are having a hard time sitting down and actually planning out for this year...lots of distractions! Also pray as we're still fresh newlyweds in a very different surrounding. We praise God for taking us this far and know that he will guide us thru it all.

Pictures coming soon!