Owen Has a Birthday

Owen Marshall married our youngest child, Haylee. He is a fun addition to our family and a great "support" to Haylee as she finishes her education degree. He is busy working and helping to raise their baby daughter, Miriam.
We all think of Owen when we go to the zoo in Omaha. They have a neat gorilla exhibit named after him - well not really. But it reminds us of him. He and Haylee stopped to visit Alicia and Josh in the fall of 2007.
All his nieces and nephews love him. He is always there to play with them and help at cousin camp or just be a big kid with them.
Miriam definitely loves her big daddy. I think she is starting to look more like him, too. He makes the perfect heated, pillow-top mattress. Happy Birthday to you Owen. We love you and appreciate all you do.

A Happy "Chicken" Day

This is a familiar sight at dinner get-togethers - the guys sitting and talking while the women get the food ready. We ate at President & Sister Jones new apartment which is down the hall from ours.









Sister Jones had the table all set nice and proper. Sister Neuder roasted the 3 chickens, and they were very delicious. We found a lovely turkey to buy, but it was $10.00 per pound, so we didn't think we were quite that hungry for turkey!









Sister Lynch and I carved the chickens. She made a yummy Chinese cabbage salad with golden raisins, almonds and poppy seed dressing. Sister Jones made us mashed potatoes. I baked rolls, the pumpkin pie and made a banana cream pie.

We had a nice Thanksgiving Day, even though it was somewhat different from our traditional celebration. Being with friends or family and counting our blessings is what it is all about.




Elder Lynch has a timer on his camera, so he got a picture of the whole group. The Lynches are on the left, then Pres. Neuder, Sister and President Jones, Sister Neuder is next to me.

Ikeja Ward Primary Program

Today was our Ward Primary Program, and they all did such a good job. This guy isn't in Primary yet. This is Brother Martin's older son. I posted a picture of his baby brother, Praises about 6 months ago. Praises was born the same day as Haylee's baby, Miriam. His older brother, shown here, was born the same day as Alicia's little Emmett. You can see the stare that I get from little kids because I am so different looking. It makes me "scary".










The program here was much the same as what they are doing in the U.S. The children here had really prepared and most had their parts well memorized. They did some small solo parts during the singing time, but didn't use any type of microphone, so it was hard to hear them. They all came to the pulpit for their speaking parts, so that was better. All songs were acapella except the 1st one they did, which was "I am a Child of God". My piano student, Sandra Ekuma accompanied them on the organ and did a really good job. We were both quite proud! Sandra is the tall girl in the center on the back row.

A woman in our ward named Comfort has decorated the chapel and cultural hall for Christmas. It looks really nice with the red and green fabric swagged around the chapel. The swags go down the sides of the chapel also. She has also decorated a small tree that sits behind the sacrament table and another in the cultural hall.






This is Sandra Ekuma. She turned 12 last August and still attends Primary during Sunday School and Young Women during the third hour of church. I have gotten her started on her personal progress and she has 1 value statement completed. I think her she can use her piano for a value project later on. She has two brothers, Lincoln and Maxwell. They are all very cute kids, and well taught by their parents.

Dylan Turns 12

What wonderful things can I say about Dylan Krupp, our oldest grandson? Well to start, it is obvious that he is very cute, or should I say handsome now that he is getting so old.
I understand that he has a reputation as a ladies' man already.

He is a great student and loves to read. He has read all of the Harry Potter books more than once.








He reminds me of his dad, Jeremy, in many ways. Here is Dylan with his dad, Ethan and Cassie.















He goes all out at our Easter Egg hunts. This time he even went down under the trampoline to search.











He's all "thumbs up" about going four-wheeling on Grandpa Gordon's big toys. He likes the out of doors and camping with the family.

He also likes to golf in the summer with his dad or his friend, Brian. He's a good soccer player, too.













Dylan earned his Arrow of Light this past year. I think that is the highest award that can be earned in Cup Scouting. I know he has started working on his Boy Scout merit badges, and I hope he will attain the rank of Eagle.

We love you Dylan. Keep up the good work.

Happy Birthday, Tara - One Day Late

I'm a day late posting this tribute to Tara. We ended up moving into our new apartment, somewhat spur of the moment. So I didn't get this done yesterday. Tara has been a member of our family for quite a long time. She and Jeremy will soon celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary, and she and Jeremy dated for a long time before that. In fact I remember her with braces on her teeth, so she seems just like a daughter.

We had a fun business trip to St Louis the summer she was expecting Cassie (2005). We drove from St. Louis to Branson to spend a couple of days and see some shows. Then we headed way over to Nauvoo, IL for a couple of days, which is where this picture is taken.





Tara's sister, Monica, lives in Oregon, and she tries to spend a couple of weeks every summer with her. In '07 they all drove around Crater Lake where this picture was taken.










Tara is a loving mother. Here she is with Ethan. He's a great huggie-type boy. They just had their 4th child, Katie Grace, born October 15.











Tara likes to camp, ride 4 wheelers, play games and just hang out with family. We are glad to have her as part of our Krupp Clan.











I'm not sure where they were off to in this photo, but it shows her great smile. Happy 32nd Birthday. Hope it was a fun one.

Trip to the Dentist

I was hoping to avoid ANY trips to the dentist while living in Nigeria. The reasons should be obvious to anyone with half a brain.

First, it's not my favorite thing to do, and I have already spent plenty of time in the dentist's chair preparing to come on a mission. Not that I dislike any dentists that have ever worked on my teeth. I really like them and consider them to be a friend. Still, it's not that fun.

Second, it costs money. I was hoping to not spend any more money on my mouth while serving a mission. Pleasant surprise - it wasn't too expensive. It cost 8800 Naira, which is $75.00 for the new patient registration and exam, plus some antibiotics.
Third reason to NOT want to go to a dentist in Nigeria is fear of the unknown. Dr. Somoye was nice. He took an x-ray of the tooth that was hurting. To do that, the assistant put on the "apron" to protect me from radiation, then she also put one on Dr. Somoye. He held the x-ray film in my mouth with his gloved hand while the machine took a picture. After it was ready, he held it up to the light and also showed it to me. I was preparing to hear that I needed to have the tooth pulled. But instead he said that the existing root canal looked very good. Then he gently probed around the gum and declared the problem to be periodontal. They sent me home with some antibiotics, and I went back two weeks later for a cleaning. That wasn't too bad, either. They had the water jet thing for cleaning and Dr. Somoye was my hygenist. I was afraid it would be the old scraping method. They didn't give me any sunglasses or goggles to wear, so I got pretty sprayed on. (I don't know why I always feel like I have to have my makeup on just right before going to the dentist.)

The cleaning cost about $50.00 (less than home), so I think I will even go back in a few months for another cleaning, just to be on the safe side. One more thing I survived in Africa!

What's Good About Serving in Nigeria?

After looking at my missionary couple friends' blogs, I sometimes get a little depressed. They have neat old forts to go visit, or churches, cemeteries, operas, & zoos. What do we have that's all that wonderful?

We have many awesome converts, ward members and dedicated missionaries to work with. After all, that's why we are here! We are learning to understand their language a little better, although we still have trouble "getting it" sometimes.

The first group photo was taken on the day of Felicia Armstrong's and her brother-in-law's (Brother Armstrong) baptism day. They were the reason for our bucket brigade (previous post). Felicia's husband, James, was baptized a few weeks ahead of her and is not in the photo.
Brother Abayomi was taught by Elder David (far left) and Elder Ketu (far right). They are our zone leaders. Elder Quansah and Elder Afangbedji jumped in to the photo because they love to have their picture taken.







This is Sister Lovina. She is a fun lady and works
as an actress. She easily made many friends in our Relief Society as she helped them organize and prepare a drama presentation for the Stake Mother & Daughter Activity. She was taught by E. Afangbedji and Quansah.













This photo shows the wonderful Ajinwo family that we love with their friends who first introduced the LDS church to their family. From left is Nwoka, Brother Charles Ajinwo and wife Agnes, Sister and Brother Chukwurah. We have enjoyed so much getting to know these people. Chukwurah's son attended school with Ajinwo's older son, who then investigated the church and was baptized. His mother, brother and sister followed, and now finally his father, Charles, is also a member.





This is Esther. She is a young, single adult convert. I accidentally deleted the better photo of her with her eyes open. She has been working as some type of a lab technician, but took some time off to work on her education. I think she is now back working. Getting educated and finding good jobs is more difficult here than the U.S.A.

Tyson Turns Five

Tyson has two big sisters to hold and spoil him. Here he is with Megan.

Tyson loves the Spiderman movies. He's a cute little Spidey

Tyson always finds lots of eggs at the Easter Egg hunts because he is such a fast runner.

He went bowling with his Krupp cousins during the Christmas holidays.Kayleigh is running along side him as he pedals away with no training wheels. Tyson is also a "Hot Dog" soccer player. It will be so fun to watch him excel at sports as he grows up. Happy birthday, Tyson. We love ya, big guy.

Go-Slow on Opebi Road

What do you when waiting for the traffic to move? I almost always have my camera with me, so I decided to try and record the noise. It never seems to come across as bad on video or photo. I'm still being entertained after all this time.

Another easy day on the streets of Lagos

We attempt to describe and take effective pictures of the traffic we move about in every time we go out in the car. This sequence is shot at an intersection of Opebi Road and Salvation Road. The motorbikes (Okatas) are the only reliable way to move quickly anywhere in Lagos. They are small enough that they move along the edges of the roads and in and through the tied up traffic. They go in front of us, beside us and around us any way they can fit. The yellow VW Taxi went past our front bumper with only a few inches to spare. This is the way things look when it take us one hour to drive 2 Kilometers ( about 1 1\2 miles). The blue truck\van pushing in on the right pushed his nose in and merged just in front of us. The unwritten rule is that if your vehicle's nose is an inch in front of the next vehicle, "you have position" and win. The vehicle whose nose is one inch behind lets the other one in. It's quite a trip moving around in this stuff. There are few traffic lights and there are none at this intersection. The taxi pushed in from the oncoming lane and took advantage of a small break in the traffic on our side. The motorbikes are going by and the noise is horrendous. Linda has a short video of what it sounds like all the time. This is not a quiet, country environment in Eastern Idaho. People walk in between cars and cross the road any where they feel like it . The lady to our right is a passenger on the back of an Okata. We have seen up to four people, plus the driver on an individual Okata. We missed a picture of a live, full grown sheep being moved somewhere on an Okata. The driver was in front, then the sheep, then the person carrying the sheep. The sheep was larger than either one of the Africans.

The day we took these pictures was fairly normal



When the taxi passed in front of us we could see it was really a "pick up truck" hauling carpet and something in cardboard to a construction site. The light silver\green car is typical of what the cars look like from the daily travel in this traffic. Every car has wounds of minor or major nature. Most do not get fixed. We are supposed to have working lights, horns and signal lights, but more vehicles than you can count do not have any of those items that work.