Ouelessebougou, and Slurpee's

(If you don't want to read this very very long post just skip down to the funny pictures of Rhett)

Ouelessebougou has always been a sore spot to me. It's a small place in Mali, Africa. In elementary school we raised money so humanitarian people could go build wells. I was so excited to donate money to this cause simply for one reason and one reason only...THE COOLEST T-SHIRT EVER! You won't understand unless you were there and saw how the orange African mask on the t-shirt changed color in the sun. See now you want one! However when me and my sister gave our money so people in Africa could have safe drinking water oh and for the amazingly awesome coolest t-shirt in the whole world the teacher "accidentally" gave the money to the...chess club :( Our parents were out of town for a few weeks and so our babysitter had us go to chess club after school even though we did not want to go. This meant the t-shirt that changed colors in the sun was now gone and out of reach, let's just say I cried a little walking home that day from school. I had no idea what chess was or even how to play it and I for sure did not listen when the guy tried to teach me what any of it meant. Let's just say no one wanted to play a 7 year old who would purposefully kill off all her pieces except the king, then I would simply move it around the board until they said I had to be done and we could go home.  Three years later a note was delivered to me from the office at school informing me they were sorry that I did not get my Ouelessebougou shirt because they had misplaced our money ("misplaced" our money...they made us go to chess club for 2 weeks because they "misplaced" our money!). I have no idea how after three years they finally realized we never got our shirt but apparently it must have been on their minds all this time as well. So I thought my days with Oouelessebougou were over with, but not so. You see my friend Alycen was moving and so she gave me her Salt Lake City On Board game (really it's just Monopoly, but you know how copyrights are sometimes...). The square that you pay your taxes in regular monopoly in our game is the square you pay $75 to... Ouelessebougou. Now me and Spencer have decided when we get old we will request to serve our mission in Ouelessebougou. The church might deny it because when is Mali not in war? But we will go anyway,

Yesterday was free Slurpee day at 7-11. I have not lived in a place with a 7-11 for years so we were finally able to get our free Slurpee. Slurpee's will always remind me of my brother. You see with every paycheck in high school he would buy a Slurpee and a comic book. Slurpee's are pretty much his favorite thing. So when I texted him yesterday to make sure he remembered what day it was this is how our conversation went down (since my sisters and mother are 4 of the few people who read this here blog I thought they might get a good laugh out of this):
Dan: I know! I'm on call  24 hrs today though :(. Next year I'm going to request the day off. Who cares if I forego potentially thousands in income. Free Slurpee's are worth it!
Me: So true! My heart is sad for you now.
Dan: Just make sure and share with Rhett. I mean, what kind of mother doesn't share with her infant.
Me: Don't worry. Was just going to put it in his mouth. His eyes just got so big! Start the child off on his Slurpee addiction early I say.
Dan: I'm so proud of you

Our neighbor gave us this awesome little rocking chair 

When Spencer comes in the room when Rhett is taking a bath he get so so so excited

2 words: sweet potatoes