Birthday Blues. Ok, because I'm over here in Timbuktu I unfortunately am not able to celebrate the birthdays of my precious wonderful family in person. So, I'm going to start doin' a little celebrating all of my own. Since the celebrations of two dear family members have already gone by since we've left I've got some catchin' up to do: PS: Mully reserves the right to A) not post these on time B) have a little flexibility in how I celebrate each person's birthday

August 12: My dear whittle sister Dizzle's birthday!

Now, this beautiful godly woman is precious to me. I've known her her whole life and you can thank me for how well potty-trained she is (at the ripe old age of 4 I served as her official potty training coach). I consider it a great honor and quite flattering as well that my little daughter physically seems to resemble her moreso than myself. I can't think of anyone who is more servant-hearted or selfless than my little sister Erica. She always thinks of others' needs before her own and is always willing to take those jobs that no one else wants to do (like scooping snow). I find it completely impossible to hide anything from her and she reads me like a book. We've been like two peas in a pod our whole lives and she blesses me beyond what I deserve by her love and support (even in the really hard stuff like living a couple of time zones away). We love you Dizzle!

How I celebrated Dizzle's birthday: I made a really tasty stacked pancakes dish (an idea I got from one of our neighbors). It was made of very thin pancakes with an egg cooked between each layer and a sweet cream sauce/syrup to go on top.

August 13: Ama's Birthday!

For those of you who don't know, Ama is my mother-in-law. She too is an amazing woman of the Father who I love and admire greatly. She is a very wise woman and a wonderful mother of three fantastic children (one of whom I'm especially fond of:). She handles trials with more grace than I could ever hope to have in my whole life. I've never heard her speak an unkind word about anyone, while speaking with complete honesty. I have many many favorite memories with Ama, one of them happened just recently on our July family vacation to Lake of the Ozarks. To make a very long story short (it's a long sordid take rich with danger, falling bridges, trail mix, and very strange GPS settings), as far as I remember, her suggestions and recommendations would have resulted in a simple and pleasant trip to a state park 2 miles away rather than what actually happened -a 4 hour perilous (well, actually not really perilous) journey through the outback of the wild gravel roads of Missouri. It really is a good story, I'm just not very good at telling it. You'd be much better off asking anyone else who was in the truck to tell you about it. I'm really bad with details sometimes. Anyways, there's lots of other good stories about her. And she can tell you some really good ones as well (especially about Seth, some of those are real doozies:), and don't worry if you forget the story she tells you, she's always happy to share it again.

How I celebrated Ama's birthday: Made muffins to bless her son (aka: my handsome hubby) and my stomach (and yes, Eden ate some too)