Behnke Family

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of my being ordained a Deacon in the Catholic Church. I’m the second generation of Deacons (that’s my father behind me, who was ordained many years ago). After five years of formation, I was blessed to have the indelible mark of Holy Orders imparted on my soul. Has this made being a […]

My best friend died one month ago. To say that the loss of someone to whom one is close is “difficult” only scratches the surface, especially when that person is only 41 years old, and we, the residual, are not far behind in age. But with sadness comes joy, with sorrow comes blessing, and with […]

I had a friend of mine tell me that I must be wonder mom. I completely dismissed her and even gave her the “are you serious” look because I knew full well what I have not been able to do as a mother. I have had a few things that I have learned really well […]

I have always been a list maker. I found an old diary from my youth and it even had a list of how to clean my room. Adam has poked fun at me for making them and sometimes even leaves a funny little addition to my list of stuff to do. I have decided that […]

Ok, so a good friend from my past have been having lunch together before our daughter’s dance class and she suggested that I look at blogs and check out all the info they have on them. One in particular she thought I would be interested in was one about a family closet. Immediately I was […]

So I (April now not Adam) that the last post was our anniversary 2009. I started thinking about it and decided that there have been a TON of things that have happened in our family since then and we have not put any of them on here. We were busy after our anniversary preparing to […]

Today is April and my thirteenth wedding anniversary! Wow, I can’t believe it’s been thirteen years already (actually 16.5 in all). Crazy. For this occasion, we went to Montecasino to eat at Coco Bongo Latin restaurant. We went to the casino because they have a “Bambino” area that will watch kids for three hours for […]

Today we got up early so that we could rush through the Irene Market to pick up a few last things – only one more market until we leave, wow! The kids, as always, rode a camel. We got home in enough time to welcome Craig, his wife Monica, and their two children Cameron and […]

I had to go up to Vodacom today to work on some new, exciting, cutting-edge project, so there isn’t much to update. However, whilst sitting in traffic (for two hours, from Midrand to Menlo Park, about 20km), I snapped this pic of Shoosh store. I have no idea what they sell, but it reminded me […]

We were shopping at Pick ‘n Pay at the Doringkloof mall today and came across some interesting items – beef olives. Seems most colonial countries have them, but we’d never heard of such things. It is basically a thin steak pounded down even thinner with a stuffing of rice, bread, more meat, and spices. It […]

Africa gives one many opportunities to do works of mercy, and it occurred to us back around Lent that we had two people that actually live and work under our roof that could use our help, so we have tried to find opportunities to help them since they won’t actually ask for it unless it’s […]

We are really on the downhill slope now! Mike comes into town on August 5th, so being four weeks away is actually not accurate. When folks are visiting us time seems to fly even more. So, that said, we have limited time to sample more South African wine! We’ve actually had this one before, but […]

The kids like to come show April or I whenever Sarah does something real cute. She wants her picture taken, so here she is with her ultra-hip pink sunglasses! We only have about four weeks left here in South Africa, and next Monday is our 13th anniversary, so April won’t be cooking Mexican food. Therefore, […]

Kids can sleep in the most interesting positions! When I laid John in bed he immediately shifted his head over to lay on Mary’s buttocks. HA!

One of my colleagues from Vodacom invited us over for a birthday party today, so we spent pretty much all day out there. They were nice enough to provide beverages for us – including, you guessed it, Dr. Pepper!!! They found it at a Spar grocery store in the area – seems it was imported […]

One of my colleagues from Vodacom invited us over for a birthday party today, so we spent pretty much all day out there. They were nice enough to provide beverages for us – including, you guessed it, Dr. Pepper!!! They found it at a Spar grocery store in the area – seems it was imported […]

It’s been a busy week, so we decided to hang out and relax today. The kids and I watched a movie on the laptop… …then they went out and picked a bushel of carrots! Oy!

We started Mary’s birthday out with her requested breakfast – pancakes with vanilla custard, toffee custard, marshmellows, syrup, and chocolate syrup. Yes they are nasty. She opened her gifts there at the table before we drove to Menlyn Park Mall Galaxy Arcade. All the pictures are over at Facebook! Go there now! At dinner we […]

April and I were awakened early, early this morning with the outside lights coming on. Power has returned! We got up and drove to the Bird Gardens at Montecasino – there are way too many pics, so head over to my Facebook page where I’ve uploaded them all. After we returned home, I opened a […]

This is how the kids wake daddy up after he’s been up talking until 1 a.m. This doesn’t even have John in the picture yet – he likes to come tickle feet and put his extremely cold feet (remember – no heat, we still had no power) all over me.