The Schrag Blog

"Liberated". . .

2012-02-14T07:11:00.004-06:00

Kevin and I laughed that this was our discharge paper. There was a tiny tag on Adri's arm that said, "newborn of Sandra Schrag," but nobody checked it. Nobody really asked us any questions. We talked to the pediatrician and my OB and they gave us a verbal release, but basically, this was the paper we needed to leave the hospital! I have a stack of papers and discharge instructions that were given to me when we left the hospital with Emma! We just kind of walked out the doors and got in our car and drove away!! Nice and easy. . . and very different!

Little Miss Adri Ann. . .

2012-02-12T09:34:00.010-06:00

We welcomed Adri Ann Schrag into our family on Wednesday afternoon, February 8th, at 4:45pm. She weighed 7 pounds and was 19 inches long. Adri was born in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, about 40 minutes from where we live in Horizontina. Emma was able to come to the hospital about three hours later to see her little sister. Our American friends Matt and Courtney have been incredible and took care of Emma while we were away. We were so thankful they were able to come to the hospital to see us and bring Emma to see the baby sister she's been waiting such a long time for. We were especially thankful because we were discharged from the hospital less than sixteen hours after Adri was born!! Definitely there are some differences here in Brazil!

We are so grateful for a healthy little girl and we are in awe of God's miracles. We have two little miracles in our home now and our hearts are full. There's so much more to share, in pictures and in words, but this is it for now. Time to snuggle with our new baby girl!

P.S. Adri is pronounced like "Audrey", but is spelled the Brazilian way. After all, she is a little brasileira!!

Swollen Lips and Cultural Sensitivity. . .

2012-02-03T02:00:00.000-06:00

For the past three years, Kevin and I have tried very hard to be sensitive to the culture we are living in. There are many differences between the American way of doing/saying things and the Brazilian way. And while we are not perfect and have failed many times in our attempts to be sensitive, we are also very aware that the Brazilians have failed, too. I'm not upset. Rather, it's been a fun subject to discuss with other Americans. This isn't always the case, but lately, these moments of cultural insensitivity have been the topic of many conversations. For example:
Swollen Lips - A few days ago Emma and I went to visit a good Brazilian friend of mine. We walked into her workplace and she smiled and greeted me with, "Quem esta aqui, a menina com as labios inchados?" I understood what she said, but the words weren't registereing because of the translation. I asked her to repeat and she said it again, kind of grinning. I touched my lips and asked her again to explain what she meant, feeling suddenly embarrassed. Translation - "Who is here, the girl with the swollen lips?" My friend then explained that since I'm at the end of my pregnancy, I'm getting all swollen. I'm 38 weeks along and really didn't think I was that big, let alone swollen. I've gained way less weight than I did with Emma and I'm feeling really good. However, I spent the next half hour trying to suck my lips in, wondering just how big they must look to her. I think they really did start to swell after trying so hard to suck them in. Now, I know Brazilians are pretty straightforward with how they describe people, but that's usually when they're talking about someone else. For instance, if they think someone is overweight, they describe that person as "gordinha" or chubby. Nobody has ever told me to my face anything that would make me feel awkward. Now I'm self-conscious about my fat lips and I'm wondering how many more people are going to greet me with, "Hey there, swollen lips!"
Fat Boy - Kevin's first boss here was great. We really enjoyed spending time with his family, which wasn't very often because they lived six hours from here. After not having seen the wife for several months, she greeted Kevin with a hug and kiss, looked him up and down and then said, "O Kevin, voce se-engordou!" Translation - "Kevin, you put on weight!" What he heard, "Kevin, you got fat!" Fortunately, Kevin chose not to respond with something sarcastic.
Awkward Moment with the Masseuse - Several weeks ago, I went in for a prenatal massage. My masseuse is a good friend of mine and I've learned a lot from her. The first time I ever went in for a massage here, I was wondering when the lady would leave so I could get undressed. She never left. Not only did she not leave, she didn't turn her back to give me any privacy. Not only did she not turn her back, she stood in front of me, less than three feet away while I undressed. She even offered to help me get undressed. No thank you, I've been undressing myself for over thirty years now. Over the last few years here, I've gotten used to that and politely decline the help. I don't rush to the table and duck under the sheets anymore because I've found that usually there isn't anything to duck under! I inwardly cringe a little as I lay there until the masseuse lays a too-small towel over less than half of my mostly-naked body. I try to go to a far-away place in my mind, remembering that the massage is so worth it. One hour for about fifteen US bucks!! Can't beat that!! I can handle a little bit of weirdness for a great massage! Or so I thought. My friend, whom I found about a year and a half ago, was also pregnant during my massage a few weeks ago. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks and she was commenting on how much I had grown. I turned my back to her and got mostly undressed, just down to my underwear. I turned toward her and started walking toward the table, anxious to crawl under the sheet (because I really haven't gotten over strutting around mostly-naked in front of the Brazilians). I took two steps toward the table and my friend was suddenly down on her knees, greeting my belly and talking to my baby. She was having a one-sided conversation with my belly and I was standing there with my jaw dropped and wondering what in the world was going on! It was like I had left the room and it was just her and my belly. It wasn't just a five-second conversation, either! No, this went on for like two minutes, although it felt like thirty. I'm certain I broke into a sweat! She was asking my baby questions, telling her that she was going to have a playmate when she arrives, asking her how she was feeling, complaining that her mommy (me) hadn't given her a name yet, etc., all the while, touching my belly and talking with her face just a few inches away. Kevin does that, but come on! A-w-k-w-a-r-d!! I just stood there, not knowing what to say or do, but certain that I'd never find a masseuse, or friend for that matter, who would do such a thing in the U.S. Apparently she forgot that I'm American and even though we Americans like massages, we still have this thing called "personal space". I've been told Brazilians don't know how to translate that phrase.
Awkward Moment with Another Masseuse and Friend- After the previous awkward experience, I wasn't sure I could bring myself to go back. However, my friend had stopped working because her baby was due and I thought it might be nice to have someone new, someone who maybe I didn't have to talk to. One more prenatal massage was sounding great, aside from the possibility of some weirdness. All was going well, so well that I was almost asleep. Then I heard the doorbell ring. The masseuse said she'd be right back, she was just going to check to see who it was. (It's not unusual for the masseuse to answer her cell phone during the massage or to answer the door for a client who's entering.) I nodded and closed my eyes, thankful to be so relaxed. Nevermind that my backside was hanging out of the sheet. (I was laying on my left side with all of my backside exposed to the door where she had exited, but I wasn't really thinking anything about it.) Nope, wasn't thinking anything about it at all, until I heard, "Oi, Mae!" or "Hello, Mama!" My eyes shot open, my entire body tensed up (including my exposed backside), and I slowly turned toward the open door to see my friend Catia entering. Apparently, it's OK to interrupt a massage and let the friend of a client into the room!! I lay there, clutching the sheet to the front of my body, trying really hard not to look like I was shocked out of my mind. I asked her what she was doing and she said she had seen my car parked out front and wanted to see how I was doing because she hadn't seen me in a few days. I couldn't respond with what I was thinking, like, "Um, I'm fine, but I'm obviously kind of busy at the moment, thank you!" Then it got really weird because she lifted up the sheet to see how big my belly had gotten. I was still clutching it to my chest, but she obviously didn't seem to notice the force with which I was holding it to me. Nope, she touched my belly, talked to my baby, and then asked if we'd like to go to the river with her and her husband that weekend. I couldn't really concentrate enough to give her a real response. I told her I'd talk to Kevin. Sweat was pouring down my forehead and every other place on my body. Oh, the masseuse? She was standing at my backside, just listening and waiting. Finally, after five minutes of severe awkwardness, my friend left, the masseuse closed the door, and my massage resumed. I lay there thinking, "Only in Brazil." I haven't been back for a massage since.

There are so many more experiences, but those are the top ones lately. Fortunately, we've been here long enough to laugh some of these things off, but they have definitely impacted me. I'm sure I'll have a few more experiences to share before we leave this great country. Sometimes I just think, "There's no place like home!"

Play Dates. . .

2012-01-26T10:28:00.002-06:00

Emma's taking a nap and I was sitting here thinking about how normal life has become here. So much so, that I forget how hard things used to be. I'm not intimidated to run into someone I recognize at the store. I can hold my own in a conversation and not be searching for excuses to run away. I can smile and talk and accept an invitation for a play date, knowing full well I'll actually go and not be scared.
Last week I ran into the mom of one of Emma's classmates. We were talking about how the kids miss their classmates and how fun it would be to get them together. She got my number and told me she'd call me for a play date on Wednesday. I was really looking forward to it, but I also had in the back of my mind that it probably wouldn't happen. It seems like Brazilians often have good intentions and don't always follow through. It was noon on Wednesday when I finally heard from the mom. (So Brazilian!) She said we could come over any time and that there were going to be other kids there. Emma was so excited! So, we went to Cris's house to play with Emma's friend Daniel, and three other kids showed up. I was secretly happy to know that the ones there all got along pretty well. Cris and I talked and talked before I realized that the other moms had dropped their kids off and left. It hit me that this was a play date just for the kids and the moms weren't really supposed to stay. I had been there for almost an hour before I figured it out. Were it any other parent, I might have chosen to stay, but there was a part of me that wanted to give Emma some independence. I think I've been much more protective of her simply because we're in a foreign country. Sometimes I forget that nothing about this place is foreign to her. It's the only home she can remember. So, I took a deep breath and told the mom that I was going to run some errands and that I'd be back shortly. I drove away and realized that I've never left Emma alone with a Brazilian family. It helped that I knew the parents, that they were both home, and that Emma was having a blast. It wasn't overwhelming or scary and I wasn't nervous. I've come a long way in the past few years!
I spent my time away helping another American mom with her kids while she unpacked boxes in their new home. I didn't worry about Emma at all, knowing that she'd be just fine. And fine she was. When I went to pick her up, she was sweaty from running around and couldn't wait to tell me all she had done while I was away. Cris had made popcorn and chocolate cupcakes and the kids helped her make the icing for the cupcakes. Then they went outside and had a picnic with terere', the cold, lemon-y, sugary, Brazilian drink that's served during the summer. I had planned to pick Emma up and leave, but Cris and I started talking and I didn't have anywhere to be, so we stayed until it was time to pick Kevin up from work. I enjoyed my time with Cris and Emma loved getting to play with her friends!
Yesterday morning, my friend Courtney and I went out for a walk, pushing Emma in the stroller (which was harder than I thought - she's a big girl, and I'm almost 37 weeks)! While we were out, we ran into another mom, one of our old neighbors. She invited us over for the afternoon. I told her I needed to run to another town to pick something up, but that we could come over after. She said she'd just keep Emma while I ran my errand. So yesterday, after lunch, we went to Vanucia's house and Emma got to play with her friend, Murilo. I ended up staying for over 2 hours before leaving to run my errand. I was gone for about an hour and then went back to visit for another hour. Emma spent the entire afternoon with Murilo. They rode bikes and scooters, swam in his little pool, ate pao de queijo, drank terere', and giggled a ton. Toward the end of my time there, another mom stopped by to sit and chat. (Side note: Brazilians are really good and just sitting and chatting. It used to drive me nuts because I thought they should be busy doing something. Now I've realized they are doing something. People are important. Taking time for people is important. Sitting and chatting is important.) Anyway, while the other mom was there, she listened to Emma playing with the kids and said it's amazing that Emma speaks Portuguese without an accent. I know she can speak the language, but it's interesting to hear that she speaks it as if she were a native. I love hearing her play with her Brazilian friends. I love that she's so comfortable here. I love that we've all become so comfortable here.
I mostly wanted to write about those two afternoons so I can look back and remember that we built a life here. We didn't just get by and survive; we made this little town our home. It's 2012 and we're pretty sure we'll be moving back to the U.S. later this year, although we still have no idea when that will be. Sometimes it's easy for me to think that we're moving "home", but where we are right now is home.
In about three weeks, more or less, we're going to welcome a little baby girl into our family. She'll be born here in Brazil and this country will forever be a part of our family. Granted, she won't have any memories of her time here, but I'm sure her big sister will enjoy sharing all her memories of Brazilian life with her. I think I'm going to be slightly attached to this place. I'm going to be sad to leave here. It's not time yet, so I won't dwell on it. When the time comes, I know I'll be ready, but I'm glad that I know it'll be hard. I think that means we made the most of our time here. That makes me happy.

Lago Azul. . .

2012-01-13T10:09:00.000-06:00

We took a last-minute trip to Lago Azul (Blue Lake) in Santo Cristo to celebrate the New Year. Someone had mentioned the place to Kevin and he found one room available at their hotel for the night before New Year's Eve. We hadn't planned to travel much because of how far along I am in the pregnancy, but this place is only an hour from where we live. We had so much fun and Emma loved the water! There's one big "lake" on the property along with two other pools, a kiddie pool and a normal swimming pool. The "lake" is more like a massive pool. It has a concrete bottom and the owners clean it and try to filter out most of the gross stuff. You could fit hundreds of people in the lake, so it probably wasn't as clean as we thought. There were four different giant slides (with an interesting jumble of stairs to get to the top), an island, and a couple of bridges. One of the bridges was an old, creaky, wooden bridge that people were trying to cross. As they crossed, someone with a powerful watergun was shooting at them to knock them off the bridge. I only saw one person make it across without falling into the lake. The attempts were comical though. Kevin didn't attempt to cross the bridge, but he did go down a couple of the slides, injuring his hand in the process. I had fun relaxing in the water. Emma loves to swim by herself now, with her floaties. She's getting more and more confident, but still hasn't mastered swimming. We went from the lake to the kiddie pool and back to the lake, swimming all afternoon. Kevin and I are a little bummed that we just found this place. It's somewhere I'd go once a week during the summer! We had snacks and ice cream and just enjoyed the warm weather. We're pretty sure we won't be experiencing a summer December again for a really long time!

After a few hours of swimming, we decided to explore the area around the pools. One of my favorite finds during the exploration was this old slide in the woods. We're not sure, but we're guessing Lago Azul began with this very first slide. It's not being used anymore, but I think it would be awesome to go down! Imagine sliding down with the trees flying by!!

We found this giant teeter-totter next to one of the pools. Emma and I sat on one side while Kevin climbed the ladder on the other side to join us. Our weight didn't even out so we didn't play on it for long. Still, it was a pretty creative idea.

Then we found the Valley of the Dinosaurs. Concrete dinosaurs were hidden (and not so hidden) around one area of the park. We had fun finding them and climbing on them.

The angle of this slide is a little off. Kevin actually helped Emma so she wouldn't hit the sand so hard. We're always amazed at the playground equipment here. Safety doesn't seem to be a major concern for the builders.

Thirty-Four. . .

2012-01-07T10:51:00.003-06:00

Christmas Gifts. . .

2012-01-05T04:02:00.005-06:00

Emma got a few fun gifts from us and from her grandparents. We're excited for her to learn more about the United States because it'll be her new home sometime later this year, although we're still not sure when that will be. Right now, Emma loves purses, her scooter, nail polish and lipgloss, skirts and dresses, drawing and creating crafts, and of course, reading books. Pink is her favorite color and not a day goes by without her wearing something that has a touch of pink in it!! We had a very quiet Christmas day together. We read about the birth of Jesus and had a nice day of hanging out together as a family. We all had a strong longing to be in a different country, with our family, but it was fun to see Kevin's side on Skype. We're so thankful for the communication that's available through the internet. So many things and people to be thankful for in our lives!!

Christmas Program. . .

2012-01-05T03:50:00.005-06:00

Emma and her girlfriends were so cute as they prepared for their program. All the classes performed separate stories from the Bible and then came together at the end to sing a song about Jesus. Emma's class told the story of when Jesus and his disciples were in a boat and a storm came. Jesus calmed the storm to the amazement of his disciples. Emma and several of her classmates were the "water" and pretended to be a storm. She was such a good little storm-maker. Kevin and I have been surprised - as of late, our little girl has decided she likes to perform and have her picture taken. She's always been so shy and anti-performance. Now she begs us to watch her as she sings a song and she asks me to take her picture countless times during the week!! It's been fun to watch her change.

Profe (Teacher) Cris and Emma, after getting her gift from Santa (aka - the school).

Cha-Ching. . .

2012-01-03T09:59:00.001-06:00

Coleitadeiras are what the JD factory makes here. I'm not sure of the exact number, but they are constantly shipping the combines out of town. When we see them pass, Emma says, "Cha-Ching!!" I guess she heard her daddy say that a few times. "Uncle John" pays the bills for our family, so it's always nice to see people buying their equipment! It's interesting to live in such a foreign country and see something so familiar pass by every day. Even though Deere is a "global" business, it'll always remind me of growing up in western Kansas. I love the John Deere green!!

Hoot, Hoot. . .

2012-01-03T09:57:00.000-06:00

During one of our walks, over two years ago, we found a family of owls near FAHOR, the college on the edge of town. Ever since then, Emma asks to go visit the owls on occasion. It's been several months since we've been there and we decided to visit last week. Owls are such incredible creatures and we have fun just sitting and watching them turn their heads all around. These owls have a nest in the ground and there are at least six of them living there. It was a fun little field trip.

Nasty Neighbors. . .

2012-01-02T09:46:00.003-06:00

We've had these nasty neighbors since we moved into the apartment. The hotter it gets, the more there are and the closer they come to our living room window! I was so tempted to get a broom or a powerful water gun and try to knock their house down. Fortunately, the owner of the building has decided to paint everything this month (yes, it's a brick building and they're going to paint it because that's what they do here). In order to do a good job, they first had to powerwash the entire building. One afternoon, I was out and Kevin called me to tell me the fire department was outside our building attempting to destroy the wasps' nest. I was somewhat bummed to have missed the action, but so thankful it was being taken care of. Now we can safely open our window all the way without the fear of hundreds of wasps entering!! So long, nasty neighbors!!

Crafts. . .

2012-01-02T09:33:00.002-06:00

Emma had fun creating this nativity scene. The diamonds in the sky are angels. The diamond in the manger is a ball for Baby Jesus. Because she's still learning to draw bodies, Mary and Baby Jesus only have legs. . . no torso. The three wise men are next to Joseph and one of the wise men lost his head. It's been so much fun for me to watch Emma's drawings get more and more detailed. Every day she draws something new. Crafts are by far her favorite activity to do during the day. Since she's on summer break from school, we have much more time for crafts.

I found this little mouse craft idea in a book someone loaned me. It's so simple and we had fun doing it. Using an ink pad, you make thumb prints all over a page. Then you draw ears and a tail and decorate the mice however you choose. I happened to have some rhinestones and glitter on hand, so we made our mice fancy-schmancy.

John Deere Christmas Party. . .

2011-12-20T11:24:00.001-06:00

The day after the DMAT Christmas party, we had the all-John Deere party at the Fundacao. I didn't take too many pictures because it was our third year in a row to go and it didn't seem like everything was as "new" to me. Emma loved the giant blow-up toys but she was also content to play with her friends in the sand. Nicoly was there again, so she was pretty excited. We saw a few of the other American couples and had a relaxing evening at the park. We left around 9pm, just when the concert was starting. We kind of felt bad, so we decided to stay for a song or two. During the first song, when the accordian player was dancing around like a goofy elf, we looked at each other and decided that sleep was way more enticing. We had had a party Friday night, Saturday night, and now Sunday night, and we were just partied out. I love that the Brazilians love to celebrate Christmas and be together, but three nights in a row was enough. We had a fun few hours at the park and we're glad we went!

Nicoly and Emma, playing at the park. Sweet girls!!

DMAT Christmas Party. . .

2011-12-19T11:17:00.000-06:00

These girls have been great friends at school. We didn't realize until recently that Nicoly's dad works with Kevin. Oftentimes I see the moms or dads pick up the kids, but I don't always know where they work or with whom. When we showed up at the DMAT Christmas party, Emma was ecstatic to see not just Nicoly, but two other classmates there as well!! Since the other two were boys, Emma spent most of her time running around with Nicoly. They even waited in line together for Papai Noel (Santa Claus) to bring their gifts!

Sometimes life here seems so normal that I forget that we live in a foreign country. Then, something happens that reminds me that we are most definitely living in a different place. First off, the Christmas party we went to started at 8pm (Emma's normal bedtime). No big deal. We're used to parties starting late here. We knew dinner would be served; we just didn't know when. At 9:30pm, my stomach was growling and we were all starving. Guess I should have remembered that they like to eat late here! Finally, around 10pm, we all sat down to eat. There were sixteen tables and two tables were called at a time to go through the buffet line. I was about to eat my fingers off when they called our number first!! Whew! I inhaled my food and felt much better. The kids ran around and played with the balloons that had been used for decorations. Emma had taken a nap, so she was feeling fine, but still, I felt like it was getting really late. We knew Santa was supposed to make an appearance, so I didn't want to take off before he came, but the minutes kept ticking by. Finally, sometime after 11:30pm, Papai Noel entered the room and the children went crazy! It was fun to see Emma wait so patiently with Nicoly. She gave Santa a huge hug when he gave her a present. It was close to midnight when she brought her gift to me to unwrap. She tore the paper off, smiled at her box of chocolates and then asked if she could go to bed. We left shortly after midnight, leaving Kevin behind to wrap things up. He came home around 1am and said they were just getting the party started!! Crazy Brazilians!

Thirty. . .

2011-12-16T09:48:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is Thirty-One!!

Our Bedroom. . .

2011-12-15T12:15:00.000-06:00

More for the Brazilian memories than anything, here's our bedroom in our new apartment. We've been pretty happy with it. I think it helps that closets were already built in and we don't have to go to another room to get our clothing like we had been doing for the past two and a half years!! Go figure, I didn't even take a picture of the closets. It's so unusual here for homes or apartments to be built with closets that I was excited to move into this place! Within our bedroom, there are four massive closets. Almost everything we brought with us from our house fits into the closets, like clothing, bedding, craft supplies, scrapbooking, stamping stuff, instruments, files, decorations, and so much more. As much as we didn't really want to move, I had a good time organizing and finding a place for everything!

We've decided there are a few too many mirrors in the bedroom apartment. Nothing like a massive mirror to greet me every morning! I think I was better off when I didn't always have to see what Kevin was waking up to!! Now I feel like I wake up, look in the mirror and immediately apologize to him for the bedhead and smashed face look (as if it just started when we got mirrors)!! Good thing he didn't marry me for my looks:)

Well, last week we were getting into bed when Kevin asked me if I had shut the water off in the bathroom. I double-checked that the faucets were off. I crawled into bed next to him and we laid there listening. Ping! I stood up and went to one side of the room. Five minutes later, ping! I took four steps to the right and stood really still. Ping! I took three steps forward and waited for the next sound. We realized pretty quickly that the sound wasn't coming from the bathroom. Dang it. Finally, having determined that the sound was coming from somewhere above our bed, we decided to go to sleep because we knew there was nothing we could do at that hour. At midnight, Kevin woke me up asking for the earplugs. The pings were far enough apart that I had fallen asleep. However, when he woke me up for the earplugs, I noticed the sounds were much closer together. I grabbed my own set of sound-blockers and prayed that the wet ceiling wouldn't fall down on me during the night. When I woke up in the morning, Kevin had already left for work. I sat up in bed and heard, ping! ping! ping! ping! almost on the second. Something had been dripping in the ceiling all night! I went downstairs to the business below us and told one of the employees. He came up to see if he could figure out what was going on. In very fast Portuguese, he told me that the solar panels for the building are right above our bedroom and that one of them broke a while back and flooded the roof. Then he said not to worry. I rolled my eyes and said OK. He called a maintenance guy and the guy said he'd have to cut out a large section of our ceiling. I just smiled. Of course, I thought. We haven't even been here two months! Of course something like this would happen. I don't even have a way to explain how peaceful I was. I'm learning from previous lessons here in Brazil that it's easier to just go with the flow and not freak out rather than get upset. An hour later, the maintenance guy came in with a ladder and cut a much smaller hole than I had anticipated. I was in the kitchen with Emma when he came back and said everything was fixed. I was a little confused because I didn't hear anything going on from the back. Not sure what I expected, but it was so quiet back there that I wonder if he fixed the leak with duct tape. I mean, I know duct tape can be awesome and all, but I was expecting some noise to be made. So, we'll see. Anyway, then he said he'd return to repair the ceiling soon. He even told me he be back before 2:30pm. That was about a week ago.

Here's the finished product, at least for the time being. No more pings!

My English Students. . .

2011-12-13T12:13:00.005-06:00

These are my little English students (and two big ones, too). For the past year, I've been going into Emma's preschool class on Fridays to teach English to her classmates. I have had so much fun sharing a new language with these little ones. For some of them, they've never heard a foreign word. For others, their parents have been trying to teach them English since they were born, knowing very well it's a universal language. Several of Emma's classmates' parents are employed by John Deere, so they have to communicate with Americans on a daily basis. Many of them even work with Kevin. I don't have an education background, so I'm not really sure if how I introduced words or reviewed them was effective. I'm pretty sure they learned "hello" and "bye-bye", but other than that, well, time will tell. At the very least, we had fun together. When I started, the teacher said to plan to do a 15-minute class with the kids, knowing their attention spans don't last much longer than that. Fifteen to twenty minutes really was sufficient in the beginning. However, the students matured so much over the year and we were doing 45-50 minutes for the last few weeks. My final class lasted over an hour, although we did some crafts that day, too. At the end of lessons, all the kids would hug and kiss me and say, "Thank you," another word they had learned. I feel like it took me a long time to get to the point where I could say, "Yes, I'd love to come teach little Brazilian kids to speak another language!" It wasn't the English part that was hard. Most of my lessons were in Portuguese, with a new English word here and there. Fortunately, Emma's teachers were a huge help with organization and discipline and if I couldn't think of the word I needed in their language, the gals were quick to help.

At the end of it all, one of the greatest lessons the kids learned is that there are people in the world who speak differently than they do. Emma has been their classmate for over a year now and sometimes they forget that she's not like them. About three months ago, another American boy joined their class. He's just now starting to learn Portuguese. Rather than be confused by that, it seems like the kids understand that he's different and that it will take time for him to learn to speak, just like it took Emma time. If they can't remember a single word that I taught them over the last year, I at least hope that they remember there's a really big world outside of where they live now.

I also learned a few lessons. I learned that I really, really love the 3-4-year old age group. I used to teach Sunday school for that age group and I loved it. It's been a few years, so I had forgotten just how sweet and smart those little ones are! I learned that I can be funny and creative on the spot and do it in a foreign language!! Don't ever ask me to do something like that in front of adults, though. Kids are so much easier to entertain! I learned that I really love Emma's classmates. I love their sweet voices and their questions and their hugs and their craziness! I love that I had the opportunity to give back to the people/culture who've given me so much. I loved watching the kids approach Emma with curiosity about a new word. Even after I'd leave the classroom, the teacher said the kids were curious to learn more so they'd go straight to Emma. At first she was shy and didn't want to say an English word out loud. Now she proudly teaches them any new word they want to know. It's been a learning process and a fun experience for me and I think for her, as well.

Friday is the last day of school here before summer break. I'll be sad not to get to see the teachers and kids on a daily basis, but I'm hoping to do another English class in February when school starts again!!

Story Time with Daddy. . .

2011-12-13T12:09:00.002-06:00

Too cute not to capture. I think I love their time together as much as they do!!

Sunday at the River Burica. . .

2011-12-07T07:54:00.001-06:00

Sunday morning, we met up with another American family and drove to Santa Rosa for lunch. Scott and Tami's family was visiting from the U.S., so we all drove to one of our favorite restaurants. After successfully stuffing our bellies, we drove back towards Horizontina. Instead of going straight home, we took a 25-minute detour to Rio Burica. We've been there several times, but it was a first for Scott and Tami's family. The weather was beautiful and the kids were excited to play around the falls and in the water. There were so many people swimming in the river and I was jealous! I was wearing a dress, so I wasn't really tempted, but the water felt so cool on my feet and plunging in sounded so refreshing! Although the water looked clean, we're not really sure what kind of foreign bacteria make their residence there, so we opted for just wading in the water. I laugh as I remember the murky waters that I swam in as a kid. The thought never occurred to me that it was gross. Apparently, it never occurred to my parents either, as we did it for years and years! We spent a few hours at the river and then headed home, exhausted from a big meal and time in the sun. It was fun, though. I'm glad we got to meet Tami's parents and sister and Emma got to see her friend Ethan!

FISK Teachers' Christmas Party. . .

2011-12-07T07:33:00.001-06:00

Karin was Kevin's first language teacher here in Horizontina and she was my final teacher. Next month she'll be moving to Porto Alegre because her husband is being transferred there. Last Friday night we had a going away party for her at her apartment. The next night we had another party for all the language teachers from FISK. Every once in a while, I teach an English class for the language teachers, so I'm considered one of their "teachers". It was an interesting evening. The party started at 8pm, but like normal Brazilians, we didn't show up until 8:45. Fortunately, Emma had taken a 3-hour nap that afternoon, so I knew she'd be good to party for the night! We had a few snacks, but we didn't start eating dinner until almost 10pm. I think my mind is used to the late dinners, but physically, I just can't eat that late at night. I think my stomach decides to shut down and at some point, I'm just not hungry anymore. After dinner, we had a Secret Santa gift exchange. It was hilarious. For some reason, each person had to act out an animal that resembled their Secret Santa. People were getting on the ground, roaring, crawling, jumping, clucking, snorting, etc, without a shred of embarrassment!! I was thinking to myself that Brazilians are so different than Americans. That, or I just haven't been to a party like this in my life!! Dessert was served around midnight and then the dancing began. Shortly after, I decided I was exhausted and it was time to get our 4-year old in bed!! With all the Christmas parties in the next few weeks, I'm sure it won't be the last time she's up until midnight, but we'll try to limit it to once a week!!

The teachers. . .

Fernanda is Ivan's fiance. Ivan was one of my teachers and the only male at the language school for a long, long time. Fernanda is due at the end of this month so we put our pregnant bellies together.

I'm 29 weeks and she's 36 weeks:

My little party girl never seemed to tire. . .

Goofy girl. One moment she's calm and introverted and the next she's performing for the crowds! Guess she has a little bit of both her mom and dad in her!! She went to bed around 12:30 that night and only as her head was hitting the pillow did she say she was tired! We had a fun night, though. It was worth staying up for!!

Grandma's Early Gifts. . .

2011-12-06T12:15:00.005-06:00

The gifts said, "Open Now" on them, so we obeyed:) I wish I could have captured Emma's expressions as she tore the paper and discovered what was inside!! Next time I'll have to video it! I loved the wide eyes and open mouth and squeal!! She has worn the shirts at least once a day since she opened them and she has decorated and redecorated her tree with her new and old ornaments. She's a happy girl! Thank you SOOOOO much, Grandma! You're the best! (We're also pretty thankful for Todd, our runner, because he brought us a huge box of gifts from the U.S. That was pretty special!)

Horizontina Construction. . .

2011-12-06T12:12:00.002-06:00

I looked out my window the other day and saw this man on the side of a building. Our apartment is on the third floor and this man was a floor higher. I'm always amazed at the construction methods here. They seem so unsafe and illegal, but they work. I was actually surprised to see that this man had a belt around him. Not sure what it was attached to, but maybe it's the thought that counts! E for Effort??

Emma's Room. . .

2011-12-05T11:03:00.002-06:00

This room was one of the reasons I was OK with moving to a 2-bedroom apartment. The first time I walked into the room, I started doing mental measurements, knowing there would soon be a baby sharing the room with Emma. Although I didn't have exact calculations until after we had signed the contract, I figured we'd make it work. I am amazed at how well this room fits our family!! Emma's bed fits exactly where I hoped it would, with about two inches to spare!! The changing table/dresser fits perfectly at the end of the bed. By perfectly, I don't even think there's an inch of wiggle room!! Her Brazilian closet fit, along with a bookshelf and room for a stack of totes. (I'm a tote-lover, by the way.) It's still very surreal for me to walk into Emma's room and see the crib set up. It makes me smile every time and whisper thank you to God. I'm really excited for our girls to share a room. I'm so thankful we were able to find a place that fits us so well. We've been enjoying the apartment so much that Kevin even suggested looking for one when we move back to the States!! We'll see!

Borboletinha. . .

2011-12-05T10:24:00.002-06:00

She came into the living room with her hand behind her back, telling me she had a surprise for me. I jumped back when she put the butterfly right in front of my face! I must have scared him, because he flew away. Emma went around a chair and found him. Somehow he jumped onto her neck and she let him stay there for a few minutes, giggling about how he was tickling her neck. I can't believe how much she loves animals and critters and all things in nature!

Thanksgiving with the Americans. . .

2011-11-23T01:25:00.000-06:00

We did have one Brazilian guest for our American Thanksgiving dinner. I'm going to call it a she because it looked like she was about ready to give birth to a load of babies!! These giant lizards are fairly common around here. They hibernate during the winter and then come out during the hot, summer days to sun themselves. I can't get over them. Every time I see one, I just stare at it until it's gone. This one stuck around for a long time because the kids cornered it and guided it into the pool area. There was no escape, so we took several pictures with our little guest. Fortunately, by the time we finished lunch and it was time to swim, our friend was gone.

This past Sunday, all the Americans here celebrated Thanksgiving together. I didn't get any pictures of the adults and very few of the kiddos, but it was a great day. We had a real turkey, thanks to our newest ex-pat Sarah, who took her language teacher to the store with her to order it and then rigged the too-small roaster to work with the turkey. FYI - it's not common to eat turkey in November here. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving (obviously) and turkeys are more common around the Christmas holiday. Well, Sarah was able to get one and the meat was awesome!! We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes with melted marshmellows on top (which, by the way, is something I've never heard of in my life, but apparently, is very common to everyone else except my husband), a vegetable bake, my salad and veggie turkey tray, a pineapple bake that was so good, and of course, Pumpkin Pie and Scotcharoos. I was so full after we ate and all I wanted to do was find a couch and crash. Instead, we all grabbed chairs and sat around the pool while the kids went for a swim. I probably would have sunk had I decided to get in. Emma put on some arm floaties and spent the next hour swimming. I was sure she'd be cold and want to get out after a few minutes, but she lasted longer than any of the kids! I finally made her get out when it started to sprinkle. It had been an overcast, but warm day. Once the rain came, it cooled off pretty quickly. We had a great time and I was just really thankful for everyone there. Each Thanksgiving here has been different, but we've been very thankful for our time with new friends. This time, there were a total of twelve kids and thirteen adults, along with our Brasilian lizard-friend. We have much to be thankful for.

Veggie Turkey. . .

2011-11-22T11:30:00.001-06:00

I was in charge of the salad and cold veggies for our ex-patriate Thanksgiving dinner this year, which we had on Sunday. My friend Courtney sent me a link for this cute vegetable turkey and I am SO happy with how it turned out! I had fun making it and was surprised at how simple it was! I also made a Seven-Layer salad, which was awesome, but it wasn't nearly as creative as the turkey. The only thing I'd change for next time are the eyes. The directions said to use black beans, which I conveniently had made earlier in the week. However, they seem to give the turkey a Stevie Wonder feel and that's not really what I was going for. Maybe next time I'll use something brown or white?? Happy Thanksgiving!! Gobble, gobble!

(Veggies: lettuce, cucumbers, red-yellow-green peppers, carrot sticks)

Pink Princess Christmas Tree. . .

2011-11-22T08:46:00.003-06:00

Our family went to Santa Rosa on Saturday for lunch and a visit to Nacional, the large WalMart-owned grocery store. The 40-minute drive was worth the trip for many reasons, but one in particular. While wandering around the grocery store, I spotted a tiny pink Christmas tree. I called Emma over before I had even checked the price. Her eyes were huge and the smile on her face was contagious. As I reached down to turn over the price tag, I prayed that it wasn't ridiculously priced like most things here seem to be. R$6. Probably more expensive than I'd find at the Dollar store, but way cheaper than I expected!! Before she could even think to ask for it, I handed it to Emma and told her to go find her daddy and ask him what he thought. She practically flew through the store looking for him, her pretty pink Christmas tree in tow. He laughed when he saw it and checked the price tag, too. I could see in his eyes that he was thankful it was so cheap, too. Emma's never really whined or complained about getting things at the store. In general, we just get what we need and she doesn't get a gift or candy or the newest toy that's on the shelves. It makes it really easy to want to buy her something like the pink tree. She held her little gift on her lap the whole way home and talked about how she was going to decorate it. I think she spent a few hours decorating and redecorating that afternoon. At some point, she decided she needed to put on her pink dress and tiara so she could be a princess next to her princess tree. I love to see her so excited about a R$6 gift. Well, worth the trip and the money!!

Little Bride. . .

2011-11-22T08:15:00.001-06:00

Among the dress up clothes is a white Cinderella dress and a veil. Recently, Emma has had a lot of questions about weddings and brides and husbands and marriage. I love hearing her questions and listening to her comments and talking to her about my own marriage. The other day she pulled out the white clothing and said, "Mommy, please help me. I'm going to be a bride." As I was helping her, I asked her who she was going to marry. Smiling sheepishly, she said, "I'm going to marry Daddy." She's said this before and I think it's adorable. This time, I told her that she couldn't marry Daddy because I already married him (and I left out the part that it's weird and wrong and incestuous and we just don't do that). "Oh, well, I'm just going to pretend that I'm going to marry Daddy, because I love him so much. But I won't really marry him. Is that OK?" She practiced walking around in her dress several times before he came home from his trip. On Saturday, she put her dress and veil on again and stood before her daddy. I love that he told her that he would walk her down the aisle, but that she would get to marry another very special man. He's going to have to be very, very special because right now, her daddy is in first place!!

Play Date with Livia. . .

2011-11-22T06:08:00.002-06:00

Last Thursday, my friend Catia came over to visit with her daughter Livia. Catia was one of the first Brazilians I met here in Horizontina because she's the owner of the hotel where we stayed for the first three months. I love that she taught me so much Portuguese in those first few months and now our conversations are entirely in her language. I really enjoy our time together and it's been fun to watch our girls interact. Livia is two years younger than Emma, but they play well together. We pulled out the dress up clothes and the girls changed outfits and ran around the party room giggling. Livia found the fairy wings and pretended she was flying. It was so hard for her to take them off when it was time to go. She loved being a little butterfly.

Check out their shoes. . .

Kevin was traveling last week, so having Catia over for the evening made the time pass quickly. He leaves again today for Porto Alegre, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to have another play date! I am so thankful for friends and little girls and play dates and dress up clothes and fairy wings! What a fun night!

Decorating for Christmas. . .

2011-11-21T07:45:00.000-06:00

Last Tuesday was a holiday here, so we slept in and lounged around for the morning. Out of the blue, Emma said, "Mommy! We should decorate for Christmas!!" We had nothing else planned for the day, so we figured we might as well. I only brought one small tote of decorations with me to the apartment, but it was pretty full of little goodies for Emma. We have a small, fake Christmas tree that I pulled out of someone's trash several years ago. Quite a deal! I'm so glad we have it!! We turned on some Christmas music, lit my Mulled Cider candle and decorated a small area of our apartment. It didn't take long, but Emma played with the decorations and her Santa hat for the rest of the day! A week later, she's still having fun with them!

This last picture reminds me of when Emma was a baby. Her face looks a little older, but sometimes her eyes still look like they did when she was born. I love her big, blue eyes. I love her tiny, little nose and her sweet cheeks. Her lips remind me of her daddy and I love those, too. I love everything about her cute face.

Fake Nails. . .

2011-11-21T07:14:00.000-06:00

As if Emma didn't already love Courtney enough, last week she was given fun chapstick and fake nails. I wasn't sure what she'd think of the fake nails, but she wanted to try them out as soon as we got home! She tapped them on the counter and tickled her arms and hands with them. We took them off and then put them back on a few hours later. Emma couldn't stop talking about her new special chapstick and nails. I'm so thankful for people who love on her. We're so glad to have Courtney here!!

26 Weeks. . .

2011-11-20T11:07:00.005-06:00

. . . and growing.

Morcego. . .

2011-11-20T11:02:00.003-06:00

I learned a new word a few weeks ago: morcego. It's the Portuguese word for "bat". Not the bat you use for baseball, though. Unfortunately, it's the word for the ugly black creature that flaps its wings and screeches loudly while being attacked by a broom. It's a hideous critter and one that SHOULD NOT be in my daughter's bedroom - ever!

It was early in the morning, like 8am or so. The sky was overcast and looked like it was going to rain. I opened up all the windows and let the cool air in. At some point, I returned to Emma's room and decided to finally pick up her princess poster that had been on the floor since the move. I knew where I wanted it to go on the wall. As I grabbed the poster, I saw something dark under it and I jumped back. Then I went back for it and thought that maybe it was a lizard and I can handle lizards. No big deal. Then I realized that it was darker and thicker than a lizard. I slowly lifted the poster and then dropped it back down. I ran to the phone and called Kevin at work, yelling at him, "There's a BAT in Emma's room!! A BAT! A BAT, Kevin! Do you hear me? What do I do?" I think he was laughing at me. I didn't really need him to tell me what to do; I just needed some moral support. He did give me some good advice to close the door to Emma's room. Otherwise the bat could get out into other parts of our house and we'd never get it and live in fear of when it was going to come out! So, I hung up the phone and Emma and I went into her room, armed with a broom and my camera (because a story is always better with a picture). She crawled up onto her bed for the show and I closed the door. I removed the poster and threw it across the room. The bat was about a foot from Emma's balcony door and the door was wide open, but he decided to go the other way and crawled under Emma's dresser! Dumb bat. All I could think was that if he got behind Emma's bed, I'd have to wait for Kevin to get home that night to help me get it out. NO WAY was I going to wait that long! Using the broom, I smashed him against the floor and then just stood there, not knowing what to do. I knew I didn't smash him hard enough to kill him, so I half-expected him to fly at me when I lifted the broom up. But when I lifted it, he started half-crawling, half-sliding toward the door. It was like his slimy body was suctioned to the tile floor and he couldn't quite get up and go. Finally, he made it to the door. His slow exit gave me a little bit of time to get some blurry pictures, proof that I'm not crazy and there was, in fact, a bat in my daughter's bedroom!! Once he hit the balcony corner, he jumped off and flew away. I thought I had maimed him, but nope, he was just fine. Off he went. Had things gone differently, I wouldn't have been so eager to tell the story, but because he flew away and didn't bite or do anything else bad to us, I was happy to tell people I had fended off a morcego! Emma did remind me that the bat left some droppings in her room, like fifteen of them. We cleaned them up and told everyone about the bat that had visited her room that morning!

Mini Mundo (Mini World). . .

2011-11-19T10:39:00.004-06:00

After we left Canela, we drove back to Gramado for lunch under the Rua Coberta, or Covered Street. I had started feeling a little off during the short drive back, but I thought maybe it was because I was getting hungry. After all, I had only eaten popcorn the night before and then just fruit for breakfast. I ordered from the menu and then sat in my chair, hoping the queasiness in my stomach would pass. The longer I waited, the sicker I felt. Shortly after my lunch arrived, I realized I wasn't hungry, I was sick. I left the table and went back to the pousada, only a few blocks away. I decided to rest, hoping to head to Mini Mundo with everyone when they were finished with their lunch. Kevin called when they were done and I told him to go ahead. He and Emma went with the rest of the group and he took all the above pictures. About half an hour after he returned with Emma, I went into the bathroom and vomitted multiple times. Yep, I was sick. However, within five minutes of getting rid of everything in my stomach, I felt so much better! I felt really weak, but better. We went to dinner that night and I didn't have an appetite. I was so disappointed because we were at an Italian restaurant and I love pasta!! Nothing sounded appealing though, so I passed on everything. I couldn't stomach the thought of putting more food in my body. Apparently, I had overdone it with the fondue!! I think I learned my lesson. I decided to drink water and then I ate only fruit for breakfast the next morning. Seems like it took a few days to get back to normal, but I made it. I think that's the first vacation we've been on that I actually lost weight! NOT a fun way to do it! The day after I got sick, we drove back to Horizontina. It was a fun little weekend vacation and I enjoyed getting to spend time with two of the couples who've moved here recently.

Canela Church. . .

2011-11-19T10:37:00.001-06:00

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes, also known as The Cathedral of Stone in Canela.

Cascata do Caracol. . .

2011-11-19T08:35:00.001-06:00

All of us woke up Sunday morning and drove over to the waterfall near Canela, Cascata do Caracol. We hiked from the entrance back to the river and all around the park. It's such a beautiful area of the country and I love that it's within driving distance of our little town.

(25 weeks and growing)

Ella and Josie are the daughters of Steve and Sue, one of the couples who came with us to Gramado. I went with the three girls on a little train ride and we ended up in a little "old town" somewhere within the park. We weren't really sure what we were doing and didn't know if we had to catch another train, so we hurried through the odd town and only took a few pictures. After we walked out of the place, we saw some quati, the animal that looks a little like an anteater and a little like a raccoon, but ugly either way.

Gramado & Nativitaten. . .

2011-11-19T04:36:00.003-06:00

Several months ago, we planned a short vacation to Gramado, knowing it would probably be one of our last road trips before the baby comes. We invited two other ex-pat couples to go with us because Gramado is such a fun little town to escape to. It's about a seven hour drive from here, but we split the drive up and stayed in Lajeado for a night, making the hours seem fewer. The guys took Friday afternoon off of work and we hit the road. We made a quick stop in Soledade at my favorite rock store and then went on to Lajeado. The next morning we heading to Gramado. After checking in to our cute little pousada, the Bela Terra, we went out for an amazing fondue lunch. The first fondue is hot, melted cheese and it comes with bread, soft, cooked baby potatoes, and steamed broccoli. I think I ate a pound of cheese and I justified the madness by saying that I was eating broccoli with it! I was full before they even brought the meat out! The next course was the meat, served with several different sauces. We chose the fondue na pedra, which is fondue on a rock. Basically, you cook the meat by placing it on a very flat, very salted, flat stone. We were given chicken, beef and pork to choose from. I stuck with the chicken as pork has always kind of grossed me out. And finally, because we weren't already stuffed, the waiters brought out the chocolate dessert fondue. Along with the chocolate came several different fruits - strawberries, grapes, pineapple, bananas, oranges, melon, apples, and papaya. As soon as one bowl of fruit was empty, the waiter would refill it. Finally, we finished off the fruit and just sat there, staring at the melted chocolate in the bowl. Apparently, I have no shame. I picked up my spoon and dipped it in the hot chocolate. I seemed to have forgotten that I was full and there was no more space left in my overstretched stomach. Nope, I took a few more spoonfuls of chocolate and ate them plain. It was so good. Needless to say, I was in a little bit of pain when we left the restaurant!! Fortunately, we walked around for a while and then went back to the pousada for naps.

The first weekend of November happened to be the first weekend of Natal Luz de Gramado, the Christmas celebration that the city puts on. It really is amazing. Last year we went to Gramado, not knowing anything about what was happening; we just happened to be there one weekend. This year we went prepared and bought tickets ahead of time for one of the shows. There was a parade in the street in the late afternoon and Christmas lights and decorations were everywhere! Emma loved seeing all the Papai Noels, (Santa Claus), and other characters.

We bought tickets for the Nativitaten show. After a very light dinner of popcorn (that's all we had room for), we walked down to the lake and found our seats in the grandstands. We actually had front-row seats so that was awesome. The show started at 9:30pm and we were not disappointed. The fireworks were better than any Fourth of July fireworks I've seen in the last ten years and the music really was beautiful. Maybe I enjoyed it more because they sang so many of the songs in English. Maybe it was because I love Christmas songs. I don't know, but it was an amazing show. There were tiny islands set up around the lake and each island held one or two singers. The spotlights would shine on each island as the singers sang their parts. There were also a choir and drummers on the mainland. The drummers were illuminated somehow and every time they hit their drums, water would splash up in the air. With the light behind the water, it was just a beautiful sight. I smiled and enjoyed the show. Emma danced around during quite a few of the songs and then stared in amazement at the fireworks. I was surprised she wasn't scared, but she just covered her ears a few times and she was fine. The show lasted for about fifty minutes and I felt like it was worth the ticket we paid for it. I am so glad we were able to go!

My Favorite Little Girl. . .

2011-11-18T04:26:00.002-06:00

She's growing up and I'm loving her more and more every day. Lately, she's been really cuddly and wants to snuggle several times a day. I love that I have time for doing that with her. As I write this, she's napping on the couch next to me. She fell asleep with my hand on her cheek. I love our sweet cuddle times and I love the person she is becoming. She makes me a happy mama!!

Salto do Yucumã. . .

2011-11-18T04:14:00.003-06:00

We had a holiday here in Brazil a few weeks ago, so we took a little road trip to Salto do Yucuma, a waterfall about two hours from here. The series of waterfalls are the world's widest at over 1.8 kilometers. There really was no way of knowing how high the river was, so we took a chance and drove up there. Unfortunately, if the river is high, the waterfalls aren't visible. We walked up to the water and were disappointed to see how high the river was. Bummer that we missed the falls! We went with Matt and Courtney in their car and Gwen and Jason followed in their car with their three boys, so at least we had some good company. We ate lunch, hiked up and down the edge of the river for a while, and then headed home. Maybe we'll try again after a few dry months.

Here are two pictures from our trip there back in May of 2009:

Argentina is on the other side of the river. This is the Uruguay River and it's one of the natural borders between Argentina and Brazil. Very beautiful when the water level is low.

Projects. . .

2011-11-18T04:11:00.002-06:00

This little girl adores her father and loves doing projects with him. One of their most recent projects was putting together the crib for Emma's baby sister. I am so thankful we decided to bring the crib with us to Brazil! Kevin spent many long hours building her bed when I was pregnant with Emma Jae. It was so neat to watch her help him put it together a few weeks ago. She actually put the screws in and tightened them as much as she could before getting out the wrench. I love how Kevin teaches her new things that I never would have thought to teach her. She gets so excited to help him and it warms my heart to watch their relationship grow. Emma's pretty excited that she gets to share a room with her little sister!! I love that there's space in the room for both of their beds. Should be fun!!

A Few New Ex-Pats. . .

2011-11-18T04:09:00.004-06:00

For most of our time here in Horizontina, Emma has been the only American child. She's been OK with that, but I prayed a lot the first two years for more kids to show up. Well, here's the proof that that prayer has been answered! Over the last few months, five new couples (four with kids) have moved here. There are eleven new kiddos in our ex-pat group (seven boys and four girls - two of them were missing for this picture)!! Having twelve English-speaking children in the town has been fun. One of them, Ethan, happens to be a classmate of Emma's. At first, she didn't seem to care, but now she talks about him all the time and loves to play with him at school. One night in October we all got together and had a little Halloween party. The kids painted pumpkins, played "Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Ghost" (Halloween version of Duck, Duck, Goose), ate lots of goodies and ran around playing. It was a fun evening.

This is Helen, one of the adorable new Americans living here.

My Birthday. . .

2011-11-17T11:09:00.001-06:00

Bummer that this is the only picture I took on my birthday! It ended up being a really great day overall. We had planned to have a party at the park and invite tons of people, but we woke up to pouring rain and decided to cancel. Then we decided that we could clean the apartment up enough to invite people over (we'd only been here for one week). We spent the afternoon cleaning and then called everyone and told them to come over for cake and ice cream and salgadinhos, the salty snacks that are so common here. The only thing I asked for for my birthday was cake. I wanted a strawberry cake and a cafe cake, two of my favorites from my favorite bakery, Zelandia's!! After cutting the cake for everyone else, I cut myself a slice of each and sat down alone at the table. I just smiled. Should delicious cake make me so happy?? It did. I was oblivious to the rest of the people in my home for the few minutes it took me to devour my cake. I decided it was a great day!! It was really fun for me to look around during my party. There were Americans, Brazilians, Mexicans and a German in my home. I haven't found words to express how my heart felt when I realized the cultural differences present. I'm thankful to have this opportunity. I feel like a different person than I was two and a half years ago. I'm so thankful for the different people who have come into my life since moving here. Realizing some of who I've become felt like a gift that could never have a price tag attached.

It's a. . .

2011-11-17T10:39:00.001-06:00

The wheat was ripe for harvest, which is still strange to me. I'm used to seeing ripe wheat fields in June and July, not October and November. But, that's the deal here. One of my favorite sights in the world is a field of ripe wheat. I used to love riding the combines every summer. The thought of standing in a field ready to be harvested is so peaceful to me. After our very detailed ultrasound, we stopped alongside the road and I walked out into the field and closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I almost felt like I was back in western Kansas.

(24 weeks and growing)

IT'S A. . .

PRINCESS!!!! We are SO excited to add another little girl to our family! Wow!!

Moving Day. . .

2011-11-17T08:50:00.001-06:00

This was the scene at our house a month ago today:

Boxes, boxes everywhere!!! A month ago we said goodbye to our home of 2+ years. I wasn't very sad, but I'm kind of starting to realize that the sadness doesn't hit me until much later when it comes to moving. Maybe it was easy to leave because it never really was our house to begin with. After four weeks of living in our apartment, there's not a lot I miss. However, one thing I do miss is my clean garage. Never again will I have a garage floor as nice and clean as we did in that home! Other than that, I'm not missing much. Emma, on the other hand, has been more emotional than I would have guessed. We went to our old house last weekend to say hi to the new owners and answer some questions. The wife, Ana, was so sweet and asked Emma if she'd like to go see her old room. Emma smiled and ran through the house, looking at all the new owners' belongings. When she got to her room, she started crying and said she missed her home and her room and the play room. Then she ran outside and said she missed picking flowers and giving them to me. I about started crying, too. The new owners are very nice and said we can come over anytime and use the pool and play in the yard. We might just have to do that and, as the Brazilians say, "matar a saudade", which translates to "kill the missing". Aside from Emma being emotional last weekend, I feel like it's been a very smooth transition. I secretly enjoyed unpacking and reorganizing and cleaning and purging more junk from what we own. When we finally move back to the U.S. I think it'll be fairly easy to pack things up! Then again, I'm not the one doing the packing, so of course it'll be easy:)

Pictures of the apartment to come. . .

Iguazu Falls - Argentina

2011-11-16T08:05:00.007-06:00

Finally, a beautiful, sunny day! Perfect for visiting Argentina!

After several days of rain, the giant lizards decided to get out and sun themselves. We've never seen them at the park, so this was exciting for us!! We often see these lizards around Horizontina, only on the hot, summer days, though. They literally make me almost have an accident, but they're really pretty harmless. I hear they eat the snakes, which is good, right?

Mama hanging out with her baby. . . so sweet.

I love the Argentina side of the falls. While standing on the Brazil side, the overall view is just incredible, but when you're on the Argentina side, you get a close-up of the falls. The sound of the rushing water is powerful and the rainbows are just beautiful. The people who built the walkways around the falls deserve a lot of credit. Most of the falls wouldn't be visible were it not for the man-built bridges that connect them all. There are over 275 falls in all!!

Above: Proof to our next child that she was there!!

Probably my favorite view of the falls is standing at the Devil's Throat, the largest waterfall that makes up Iguacu Falls. I feel like I'm watching a movie when I stand at the railing. The force of the water makes my head swim and I have to take a step back. I love that we got to share this experience with family!! It was our last day with Steve and Maggie and the boys. We hiked around and wore the kids out. All four of them fell asleep on the way back to Brazil. We surprised them by taking them all out for ice cream at a fun place in the city. Needless to say, they were pretty happy when they woke up from their naps!! After dinner, we played some more Rook (a Schrag must when we get together) and then packed our bags.

The next morning, we took Emma's cousins and their parents to the airport. They flew back to Rio and then on to the U.S. We were back in our home that afternoon and they were traveling until the following afternoon. One of the many joys of having people come visit us is not having to travel very far to get home!! We are SO happy they were able to make it here to see Brazil and spend time with us!! What an awesome time we had!!!

Parque das Aves - Bird Park

2011-11-16T07:20:00.009-06:00

It rained again on our second day, so we decided to visit the bird park, which is partially covered by trees. It drizzled for part of our time there, but we didn't get near as wet as we did the day before! The birds didn't seem to mind the shower!

This bird seemed unamused by us, but he was a willing participant, so everyone took a turn touching him.

This picture makes me smile. I was just waiting for the two birds (possibly brothers) to attack Kevin and Steve. It didn't happen, but just the thought of it made me laugh.

I was OK with the bird on my shoulder until he started pulling my scarf off. His beak was so hard and I didn't know what to do. I was afraid if I moved he would bite my neck and I knew nobody would believe me if I told them that story. I just stood there, laughing, while goose bumps formed all over my body!! Finally, the bird guy took him off me and I relaxed. Holding birds for pictures is something I've decided I don't need to do much more of in life.

We're standing in Brazil. Argentina is behind us to the left and Paraguay is to the right. Tres Fronteiras is the name of the tourist spot. There's not much to see there, but it's kind of neat to be where three countries meet. This is where the Iguazu River (left) meets up with the Parana River (right). The Parana is the second largest river (after the Amazon) in South America.

Iguaçu Falls - Brazil

2011-11-16T06:55:00.008-06:00

By far, one of my most favorite places in the world, even on a rainy day! Iguacu Falls was recently voted one of the new top seven wonders of the world. This was our third trip there in the last two years and I'll go again if the opportunity arises! We live about five hours south of the falls, making it an easy trip worth making!

For almost two hours, you can walk along a pathway that gives an amazing view of the falls. I am continually in awe of God's creation. What a beautiful place to be!

We all had to wear plastic jackets because the rain was constant! It wasn't a pouring rain, but it was enough that we couldn't escape it! The kids were great sports about getting wet. They were easily entertained by the disgusting quati and slimy worms that were crawling along the banisters. Emma would have taken a few home with her had I let her.

At the end of the pathway, we climbed to the top where we could see the Iguacu river that feeds the falls. It's just breathtaking to watch the force of the water tumble over the edge.

After a wet morning, we went into the city of Foz do Iguacu. We spent some time shopping and eating and then visited one of the large tourist junk stores. Kevin was unimpressed by the artifact I wanted to take home. Although I thought it was a pregnant lady, I later became undecided. Now I'm pretty sure it was a man. Or else it was a really ugly, weird-looking woman with a large belly. Check out all the junk we could have picked up! Fortunately, we made it out of the store without spending any money!!

Escadaria Selaron & Parque das Ruinas. . .

2011-11-14T07:17:00.011-06:00

These steps are one of my favorite places in Brazil. I love the bright colors and the creativity of the artist. He's been adding tiles to these steps for over 30 years. Apparently, he's a bit strange, but then again, aren't most artists?? That's what makes them so good at what they do! It was starting to rain, so we didn't stay long at the steps, but long enough to capture a few fun pics!

We had a tour guide for the last few hours we were in Rio. She took us to parts of Santa Teresa neighborhood that we hadn't seen on our trip there last year. We visited the Parque das Ruinas, the ruins of an old mansion that belonged to a wealthy heiress many years ago. We were told that she would have elegant parties for the rich and intellectuals. There were several stories to the mansion but the view from the top was the best. The first two pictures are from one of the gardens and behind us is Centro, the center of Rio de Janeiro. You can see the easily identifiable Metropolitan Church of Rio. It gives you an idea of how large the church is from a bird's eye view and also an idea of how high up we are at the mansion. The last picture is the view from the highest point of the property. It felt like we were at the top of a lighthouse looking out towards the water. Sugar Loaf is the mountain to the left that Kevin and Steve climbed a few days earlier. What an incredible city to visit. We are so happy we were able to do it again and that we were able to do it with family!

Sambadrome & Metropolitan Cathedral. . .

2011-11-13T13:13:00.011-06:00

The Sambadrome is where the Carnaval parade takes place. There's a little store next to the grandstands where people can try on some of the costumes that were used for the parade. The costumes are very detailed and extravagant and very heavy. I can't imagine wearing the headpieces for more than a few minutes but the participants wear them for many hours while they perform.

Can you tell these two are related??

After the Sambadrome, we went down to Centro and visited the Metropolitan Cathedral. I just read that it has a standing-room capacity of 20,000 people. It's huge. And very beautiful. It also has a very cold feeling to it, like it's a dead church. It feels more like a tourist stop than a place of worship. The kids made it feel a little more lively:)

Rio Apartment. . .

2011-11-13T10:29:00.006-06:00

Instead of renting two hotel rooms for eight people with the possibility of being really crowded, Kevin looked into renting an apartment for our time there. It ended up being very spacious and was much cheaper than a hotel in the same location would have been!! There were three bedrooms with king sized beds as well as a fully-stocked kitchen, living room, two bathrooms, laundry room, a doorman and a security gate to get in. We felt very comfortable and very safe. I'm so glad we took the apartment over the hotel!

Hang Gliding & Ipanema Beach. . .

2011-11-13T09:30:00.014-06:00

Yes, hang gliding. Kevin did it!! So did Steve and Maggie and they all had a blast! Maybe next time I'll join them!

Here he is, getting ready for takeoff:

Hang gliding over Rio, just south of Ipanema and Leblon. He said it was awesome, but way too short. The entire flight was less than ten minutes. I think that's an incredibly long time to be flying in the air (unless I'm in an airplane)!

My sister-in-law Maggie, soaring over the city:

While the others were out flying, I took Emma and the three boys to a mall. We had some fun treats, including chocolate caramel brownies from Starbuck's, but I don't think our morning was near as exciting as the adults' morning was! Emma did enjoy getting to play with Cinderella at the mall!

We spent the afternoon on Ipanema beach again. The kids played for hours! I had fun searching for sea shells for Emma until I got knocked completely over by a wave. Apparently, I wasn't paying attention to the force of the water and had my back turned when it happened! I hadn't planned on going all the way under, but it felt good to cool off!

Kevin tried to earn a spot as "favorite uncle" to the boys, but I'm not sure this was the way to do it:

We went to a pizza/pasta place for dinner that night. It was rodizio, which is where the waiters bring different types of pizza to every table and you can choose what you want. I loved it! Emma was so exhausted from playing on the beach that she crawled up onto my lap and fell asleep. That never happens!! Unfortunately, she missed out on the dessert pizza, which was pizza crust covered with chocolate sauce and fresh strawberries or chocolate and white chocolate sauce or chocolate sauce with mini-M&Ms on it. I didn't feel at all bad about eating her share!! Needless to say, I was satisfied when we left the restaurant!! We walked along Copacabana Beach and found a few souvenirs at their outdoor street market before heading to back to the apartment for some Rook and then bed!

Christ the Redeemer & Botanical Gardens. . .

2011-11-12T15:52:00.017-06:00

Our second day in Rio, we decided to visit the Christ the Redeemer statue at the top of Corcovado Mountain. The view is amazing. The statue itself is massive and incredible, but it was placed on the top of the tallest mountain in Rio, making the whole experience a bit breathtaking. We rode a train to the top of the mountain, which was a new experience for us. Along the way, we saw wild monkeys swinging from the trees. Yet another reminder that we're not in Kansas anymore!

One of the views of Rio from the top of Corcovado Mountain. Sugar Loaf is on the right, the mountain jutting up from the bay area. It's just amazing to me that someone ever climbed this mountain but it's also crazy to think of the logistics involved in building the statue as well as the transportation to the top!

Arms open wide. . . I love this.

We had to wait quite a while to take the train back to the bottom, so we sat around and relaxed. After just a day, Emma decided she really liked her cousin Jakob and made sure she was close to him wherever we went!

After visiting Jesus, we took a taxi over to the Botanical Gardens. I have to admit, I wasn't all that excited because really, how exciting can a garden be? I was impressed though. The Botanical Gardens were beautiful and very peaceful. Rio de Janeiro is such a huge city and there are people everywhere. It's almost impossible to escape the noise, as is the case with any large city. However, there's a strange peacefulness within the garden. Maybe that's because there are over 345 acres of land there.

The kids found plenty of water features within the park. There were way too many photo opportunities.

This is one of the plants that eats insects. After the insects crawls into the opening to steal some yummy nectar, the plant closes around the insect and has its own little feast. Who would have thought a pretty plant could be so sinister?

Emma loved this greenhouse and kept asking me to take pictures of her next to the flowers. She had a hard time resisting the urge to pick the flowers, but she was great and let them be!

Below: The Devil flower - no, really, that's its name!

Brothers in a tree. . .

I love the Avenue of Royal Palms. These palm trees were planted when the park was opened in the late 1800s.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the Botanical Gardens. There was a cute, outdoor restaurant there and the lunch was really good. The park was clean and quiet which made for a nice, relaxing afternoon stroll with the kids. . . except for the part where Emma fell down and scraped her knee and cried as the blood ran down her leg. We were so thankful that Aunt Maggie was prepared with wipes and bandaids!! Overall, it was a fun afternoon.

Copacabana Beach and Sugar Loaf. . .

2011-11-12T10:41:00.013-06:00

Vacation with the. . .

The first week of October, we drove to Iguacu Falls and then flew to Rio de Janeiro to meet Kevin's brother, his wife Maggie and their three boys. We were so excited for vacation and to have family visit us here!

Emma was ecstatic to play on the beach. It didn't take her too long to warm up to her three cousins, Ben, Jakob and Noah. It had been almost 15 months since she had last played with them, but that didn't seem to bother her.

Here she is, jumping for joy on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

We checked into our apartment and then went out for an afternoon on the beach. One of my favorite sights was this sand castle. It's common to see amazing sand castles built by some of Rio's poorest residents. They build these incredible works of art and then tourists (like us) donate money to have our picture taken by the castle.

Sugar Loaf (Pao de Acucar)

The first full day we were in Rio, we went to visit Sugar Loaf, one of the most popular mountains in the city. Kevin and Steve hired a tour guide to hike with them to the top while Maggie and I opted for the cable car with the kids. Pretty sure our trip was way easier!

Brothers Jakob (10), Ben (5) and Noah (7)

After our short ride to the top, we wandered around taking pictures and searching for monkeys. We saw a few of the tiny creatures, but not as many as we were hoping for. I played, "Sandi Says," with the kids for over half an hour while we waited for the guys to finish their hike to the top. I was amazed at how easily entertained the boys were with my game! Finally, after over two hours, the sweaty, exhausted brothers made it to the top!

Above: Rio and Copacabana Beach behind us

Below: Steve and Kevin with their guide

Emma was so excited to see her daddy after his hike. This picture is from the first hill. There are two cable cars to get to the top, one to the first hill and then a different one to the top of Sugar Loaf. Steve and Kevin hiked all the way to the top of Sugar Loaf and then took a cable car back down to the first hill. There, they got off with Jakob and Noah and hiked the rest of the way down. Again, Maggie and I opted to ride the cable car down with Emma and Ben.

This fountain is located outside the entrance to the cable cars. There were tons of beautiful fish in the water so Emma and I sat on the grass and watched them while we waited for the boys to finish their hike to the bottom.

Later in the afternoon, we walked a few short blocks to Ipanema Beach. I'm not sure I've ever seen a beach so full of people! It reminded me of a scene from the movie "Rio" where the birds were trying to land on the beach, knocking over hundreds of umbrellas in the process. The kids played and the adults relaxed for several hours. I loved it! It's not very often I get to sink my feet into several inches of warm, soft sand while enjoying the beautiful view of the ocean!

Mom. . .

2011-11-10T11:02:00.005-06:00

Today is my mom's birthday. She'd be turning 74 this year and I can't believe she's been gone for over seven years now. The older I get, the more I feel like I didn't really know her. I have a book of questions I'd like to ask her. I have years worth of hugs to give her.
We recently moved from our house to an apartment. One of the beautiful advantages of living in our new home is that we are less than three blocks from Emma's school. I am amazed at how excited she is to walk to school every day! We always hold hands when we cross the street, but oftentimes she's running ahead or lagging behind. The other day we were getting ready for school when her eyes got really big and she said, "Mommy, today I want to hold your hand all the way to school!" She was so excited. As we were walking hand in hand, I smiled. My heart was so happy. Her tiny hand isn't so tiny anymore and we can really hold hands instead of her just holding a finger or two of mine. My hands feel so big around hers. One very distinct physical characteristic I remember about my mom is her hands. They were always so soft. For as much gardening and sewing as she did, I'm amazed that her hands were always so beautiful and smooth. When I was little, little, I remember watching her file her nails on the way to church. The ten-minute ride to town was just enough time for her to smooth the edges and sometimes even add a clear coat (always a clear coat) of nail polish to her nails. The whole van reeked of the powerful smell, but now it brings back memories of my mom and I love it. I held my mom's hands a lot during the last few months of her life. All the questions I have now hadn't quite formed in my mind and I'd often sit speechless next to her, just holding her hand. What I wouldn't give to hold her hand today. How much I would just love to feel her soft skin next to mine. Emma and I have had a lot of hand-holding time lately. When I hold her hand, I do it so purposefully, as if I want her to remember my hands like I remember my mom's. I want her to feel the love I have for her.
Another physical characteristic I remember and miss about my mom are her cheeks. My mom wasn't a tall woman, but she wasn't as short as I am. When I'd give her a hug, our right cheeks would always touch, mine slightly below hers. If I close my eyes, I can still feel her incredibly soft skin touching mine. I don't remember ever seeing a blemish on her face. She had such a beautiful face. She wore lipstick; that's it. Her skin was so smooth and she had very few wrinkles. She always smelled so good. What I wouldn't give to hug her tightly and feel her soft cheek next to mine. We weren't a very huggy family growing up, but sometime after I left for college, I started hugging a lot more. Having lived in this country for two and a half years, I'm even much more of a hugger these days! Oh, the hugs I would give her now.
So many memories flood my mind. Significant days like today are filled with longing for her. Her voice. Her hug. Her smell. Her touch. Her laugh. Happy Birthday Mom. Oh, how I miss you.

Grandpa Carl. . .

2011-10-20T18:05:00.003-06:00

Always smiling. Always ready to give a hug. Grandpa to everyone. He will be missed. Carl went to be with Jesus this afternoon. These pictures are some of my favorite memories of him. The moment that makes me smile the most though, is when I told Carl we were expecting a baby after many years of praying. He turned to find his wife Eloise, who was standing at least ten feet away, and shouted, "Eloise, she's pregnant!" They were overjoyed for us. What a beautiful couple. We're so thankful that our paths crossed this side of eternity.

Familiar Face. . .

2011-10-19T09:28:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago we had dinner with an old Ottumwa friend. We met Brian and Debbie shortly after moving to Ottumwa in 2003. We both left around the same time in 2009. We enjoyed seeing a familiar face and catching up on family happenings!

SOLD!!!

2011-10-19T08:30:00.002-06:00

Because we're moving, we decided to sell some things now instead of when we move back to the U.S. One night, several of Kevin's coworkers came over and bought items. The most entertaining part of the evening was watching these men carry the piano out the front door. I mean, who needs a piano dolley when you have six strong men?? They walked down the steps and loaded the piano into a tiny truck not much smaller than the piano itself! I just smiled to myself. All the men were laughing or smiling and it was just fun.

Ex-Pat Birthday. . .

2011-10-19T08:26:00.002-06:00

We celebrated Matt's birthday at the end of last month along with several other ex-pats. We ate lots of filet and had an amazing strawberry- and cream-filled, white chocolate covered, white cake. I had a huge piece. The next morning, when they came over to use our internet, they brought us some leftover cake. I ate it for breakfast! Fun night. Fun people. We also welcomed another American family to town that night! Busy, busy!!

Lovely Flowers. . .

2011-10-19T08:22:00.002-06:00

She brought me beautiful flowers the other day. I told her they were lovely and thanked her for thinking of me. Then she said, "Mommy, I brought these to you because I love you too much to let you spank me anymore."

Dia de Farroupilha. . .

2011-10-19T03:35:00.002-06:00

Last month we went to our third Farroupilha parade here in Horizontina. Crazy to think that we've done something here three years in a row! This time we took some new ex-pats with us. It's been fun to share the culture and town with the Americans. Lots of horses, gauchos, chimarrao, and pretty dresses; always an entertaining and different kind of parade!

Our friends Ivan and Fernanda, expecting their first child soon. . .

Matt and Courtney are two of the new ex-pats living here in Horizontina. Emma has decided that they are two of the greatest people in the world and she gets giddy when they're around. Kevin and I agree that they really are pretty great people! We're so thankful for them and the new friendship we're building with them.

We've Been Busy. . .

2011-10-18T04:45:00.003-06:00

Kevin jumped off a mountain and went flying. . .

. . . and we just spent ten days with these awesome people! We are SO happy that Kevin's brother Steve came to visit us with Maggie and Emma's three cousins, Jakob, Noah, and Ben! More pictures to come, but probably later. It's a busy week here as we're getting ready to move! I'm not quite ready to move back to the U.S., although I'll be ready when it's time. This move is just across town. The owner of our house sold and we don't have a contract past the end of this month. Bummer. So, we're downsizing to a 2-bedroom apartment, which is strangely exciting to both of us. I love organizing and purging, so it's been a fun month of doing that! I think I secretly like the moving process, too. Something about figuring out how to arrange and live in a new place is kind of fun for me. Movers come Thursday and we're hoping to stay in our apartment Saturday night. Oh, the apartment isn't even near finished - the owner is remodeling - but he "says" it'll all be ready by the end of this week. No worries. There are now five other American families living here so maybe we can sleep on someone's couch:) Remember when I prayed and prayed for another American mom to join me??? Well, now there are several! Yay! Thanks God. Now, off to packing!

The Love of My Life. . .

2011-09-15T15:18:00.001-06:00

Ah, the memories. This is the man I met and fell in love with over 10 years ago. It took me a while to realize that hidden behind all that hair was an incredibly amazing person. As I gave him yet another haircut last night, I was reminded of the time when I had to tuck his hair back behind his ears to get a better look at his eyes. I love him. Gosh, I love him. This picture takes me back to the beginning and I'm amazed at how far we traveled together, in so many ways.

Big Sister. . .

2011-09-11T15:09:00.007-06:00

17 weeks and counting. . .

We are grateful. Thankful. Amazed. Excited.

Off She Goes. . .

2011-09-06T05:18:00.003-06:00

She has spent hours riding her bicycle over the last month. We gave it to her for her third birthday, but in retrospect, waiting another year would have been good. Something clicked last month and she decided that she loves to ride! For several nights in a row, I'd take her to the empty John Deere parking lot and let her ride. The lot was recently asphalted and is a perfect place for her. They even have special walking lanes for the pedestrians and Emma loves to use those lanes for riding. It's been fun for us to watch her get faster and faster and gain confidence in what she's doing. Recently she was riding really fast and screamed, "I love doing this!"

Uncle Jon & Emma. . .

2011-08-22T12:53:00.003-06:00

I'd say she loves her Uncle Jon very much! I love that they got to spend some time together while we were home. I was gone one evening when Jon came to visit. A few days later, while we were eating breakfast, Emma turned to me and said, "It would behoove you to eat your fruit!" Kevin and I had to look up the definition of the word and here our 4-year old was correctly using it in a sentence - thanks to Uncle Jon.

Tractor Time. . .

2011-08-20T10:12:00.005-06:00

Driving the John Deere tractor with Grandpa. . .

One of my favorite moments of our visit home was watching Emma and her grandpa drive away in the John Deere tractor. I had asked her if she wanted to drive with Grandpa or her daddy and she chose her grandpa. I was OK with that; it meant that I got to ride with Kevin, something I've always wanted to do but never had the opportunity. Emma was grinning from ear to ear, so excited to hang out on a tractor with her grandpa. I can't wait for the summers when we live closer to our families!! We'll be riding tractors and combines as much as we can!

Sweet Friends. . .

2011-08-15T10:06:00.003-06:00

Absolutely one of my favorite families in the world!! While in Moundridge, I made a quick trip to Wichita with Emma. She played with Avery and Levi while I played catch-up with Amy. Time always flies by way too fast, but I'm so thankful for the face-to-face conversations we were able to have!! The following weekend we met at a restaurant with our husbands and then went to a park so the kids could play. The sun was going down and our time ended before I was ready for it to. Lifelong friends are precious to me and Amy is one that I treasure greatly.

Class Reunion. . .

2011-08-13T10:01:00.002-06:00

Here we are, thirteen years later:

Every five years, my high school hosts an all-class reunion. Every class from the beginning of the history of the school is invited to hold their reunion during one weekend in August. I love that they do that. It's convenient for families with more than one child; instead of the graduates coming home every year, we're all home once every five years. When I was in high school, I had this weird thought that I'd like to be the person who finds classmates several years out of high school, so I became the secretary of the class and assumed that role. The first two reunions, though, other classmates were living in my hometown and it was easier for them to take care of the planning process. A few months ago I received a note from an alumni association board member reminding me that it was my responsibility this year. I wondered how I would find the 73 graduating members of my class while living in Brazil, but it worked out well. I found most of them through Facebook and was happy to get responses from a majority of them. Almost half showed up at some point during the reunion weekend. I loved seeing familiar faces, even though I don't keep in contact with very many. One of my classmates lives in Goodland and offered to host the class party. The location was great, it was free, and there was plenty of space. We grilled burgers and everyone brought sides. There was so much food! The party was scheduled from 4-7pm. We finally turned off the lights and closed the doors around midnight. It was such a fun evening for me. I was bummed that Kevin and Emma weren't with me, but I was free to set up, clean up and just talk, which is something I really like to do:) There didn't seem to be any really awkward moments and I think everyone had a pretty good time. It's amazing how much my classmates look the same after thirteen years! So much has happened during those years. I realize that I know so little about these people, but it was fun to reminisce about the time when we felt like we knew each other well. I'm looking forward to the next reunion in five years!!

More Cousins. . .

2011-08-12T09:51:00.001-06:00

Alexandra, Dad, Caleb, Jessie

Emily, Dawson, Emma, Hudson

While we were at my dad's, some of my siblings came to town. Goodland was hosting the all-class school reunion that weekend and there was a family reunion for the descendants of my great-grandfather. Not all of my siblings came home and I didn't get pictures of Emma with all of her cousins, but these were a few that were around one day. My dad looks so much like his father that this picture reminds me of when I was little. A bunch of my siblings would gather around my grandpa and the picture would turn out looking much like this one. The kids love their grandpa! He's so proud to have so many grandchildren and it seems like his eyes just light up when more walk into his home to see him.

Papa Ben and Emma Jae. . .

2011-08-11T09:20:00.005-06:00

Emma got to spend more time with her Papa Ben this trip than previous trips. We were around and he was around and it was just relaxing and fun. Emma followed my dad around the house, always curious about what he was going to do next, even to the point of following him into the bathroom. He thought that was pretty funny. She was so embarrassed! He loved showing her his pretty rocks and they spent a fair amount of time choosing a special rock for her to take with her. I think she inherited her love of rocks from her grandpa!

I grew up with this view (minus the clouds and rainbow) every day for the first eighteen years of my life. While taking this picture I was standing on the front porch of my childhood home, looking to the east. Western Kansas is flat, very flat, and I love it. On a clear night, we can see the lights of Goodland, ten miles away. On a really clear night, we can see the lights of Burlington, Colorado, almost twenty miles away. I've seen the most incredible starlit sky in the world from my parents' front porch. I love the fresh, clean air and the stillness of the open country. I miss being a part of wheat harvest and the smell of freshly cut wheat. My childhood home brings back so many memories. I love that we were able to visit again.

Cousins. . .

2011-08-10T08:13:00.001-06:00

Cousins: Ariane, Sadie & Ranger, Emma, Olivia, and Casja

These girls had so much fun together! (Ranger just kind of did his own thing, oblivious to the girliness around him). Something about watching the cousins play together just makes my heart happy. I feel like we've missed out on a lot of cousin time since we've lived here, but Emma just jumps right in to play with them whenever she gets a chance! She adores her cousins and talks about them constantly after we've been with them. She's was so happy in this picture that her eyes are practically closed! Fun cousins. Fun visit.

First Professional Haircut. . .

2011-08-09T12:29:00.001-06:00

I've always been the hairdresser in my family. Shortly after we were married, Kevin suggested that I start cutting his hair. I've never had a lesson and I'm usually not impressed with the job I do, but he's happy and it's cheaper and more convenient than paying someone else to do it. After Emma was born, I refused to pay someone to cut 1/8 of an inch off her hair, so I started cutting her hair too. For the last four years, I've trimmed her hair about once ever two months and it's worked out well. Well, just before our trip, I decided she needed another trimming. It was cold in the bathroom and Emma had a hard time holding still. My scissors were dull and did I mention I've never had a lesson? I still don't really know what I'm doing! Half an hour later, Emma's head looked lopsided and I had cut almost two inches off her hair. I finally gave up and decided she'd wear a ponytail every day. Then nobody would notice! Fortunately, my sister Chris is a professional and offered to fix my hatchet job. I was a little nervous for Emma because it was something new and I kind of figured she'd freak out. When I was her age I had to sit on my sister's lap while I had my haircut. I'm still not sure why, but the hairdresser kind of freaked me out and I'd panic every time we went into her basement. (Maybe it was the fact that her salon was in a dark basement and I could smell the hint of cigarette smoke on her furniture??) Emma did get scared and there were a few tears shed during the hair washing, but overall, she did great. You can see her reaching for me in the photo above. She calmed down and ended up relaxing. Chris gave me a lesson while cutting Emma's hair so as not to botch it next time. I would have shown a picture of Emma with her hairdresser, but Chris made me promise not to take any pictures of her since she wasn't fixed up. For the same reason, I'm not in any of these pictures:)

Beautiful hair!!

Toad-ally Fun. . .

2011-08-09T12:17:00.002-06:00

One evening, Lori and I took the girls over to my sister Chris' house. For some reason, there are hundreds of baby toads living around her house. Emma and Olivia were on a mission to find as many toads as they could. It was slow-going for a while until Lori climbed down in one of the window wells. When she emerged, she had a bucket full of baby toads and two little girls were very happy! I'm always surprised when Emma plays with little critters like worms, lizards, snails, and baby toads. I half-expect her to be kind of girly, but nope, she loves to get her hands dirty! Then again, I don't think she really understood that the baby toads were peeing on her. She thought they were just wet from the pond and I didn't have the heart to tell her she was getting peed on! We washed her hands well before lunch!!

After collecting several baby toads, we stored them in a bucket overnight. The next morning, we went on a short walk to a neighborhood river. The girls took turns releasing the baby toads into the wild. Livi commented on how one of them wasn't swimming away. Guess he didn't make it through the night. He's pictured on the left side of the photo. Bummer.

On our way back from the river, Lori and I were talking about the differences in the personalities of our girls. Olivia was running about twenty feet ahead of us, full speed, excited for whatever was next. Emma was lagging twenty feet behind, picking flowers, observing snails crossing the sidewalk, oblivious to whatever was next. "Slow down Livi!" "Hurry up Emma!" Extrovert vs. Introvert. So many thoughts ran through my mind. Emma's always been my flower-picker. Every time we go for a walk, she notices the pretty flowers, including the dandelions, and her instinct is to pick them, smell them, and then give them to someone to make them happy. One day I was out for a walk and realized how seldom I notice the beauty of nature around me. Emma wasn't with me and I saw tiny white flowers growing in a ditch. I smiled and thought to myself, Emma would have begged me to pick those pretty flowers! I love that about her and I'm reminded to stop a little more often and smell the flowers.

Princesses. . .

2011-08-08T11:21:00.001-06:00

Alice in Wonderland (with random cat ears) and Snow White

My sister and brother-in-law and I had a fun, relaxing evening outside while the girls played dress-up. Emma fluttered around barefoot in the grass and at one point commented on how soft the grass felt. We never run around barefoot in the grass here - the crabgrass hurts our feet and the black mosquitos (borrachuros) want to eat me alive! I can hardly even stand near the grass without being attacked by the miniature, black fly-looking mosquitos. So, it was a fun evening for several reasons!

Denver Zoo. . .

2011-08-07T11:51:00.007-06:00

My sister Lori and I took our girls to the Denver Zoo one day. When we were kids, our parents used to take us to Denver for short vacations. Usually we'd visit the zoo, the museum, the Aurora Mall, and then eat at Chik-fil-A. I don't remember much from the visits to the zoo, but I do remember that they used to let people ride the elephants. Sadly, there were no opportunities to ride elephants. After walking a few hours, the girls did get to ride in the jogging stroller together. Not nearly as much fun as an elephant ride, but hey, they were OK with it. I loved being able to play with Emma and take her to do fun things that she enjoyed. As much as I love being here in Brasil, sometimes I miss being able to take her to fun places like a big pool or the zoo. I'm so thankful for the visits to the U.S., especially when we get to do fun things like that with family!

Pool Time with Cousins. . .

2011-08-06T06:23:00.005-06:00

In August, Emma and I made a trip to the U.S. It was still winter here and another cold front had come through. I was so happy to step out of the Denver airport wearing shorts!! The day after we arrived, Emma and I went to the Ft. Collins pool with two of my sisters and their kids. Emma's eyes were huge when she saw how awesome the park was. I loved being able to take her there and it was fun to spend time with my sisters. We packed lunches and the kids were little fishies, only getting out of the water for the mandatory break.

It didn't take long for Emma to warm up to her cousins, especially Olivia. The older they get, the closer they seem in age. They played like best friends and also argued like sisters, but overall, they had a great time together!

Another Birthday. . .

2011-07-31T12:53:00.007-06:00

July 25 happened to be a holiday here in Brasil, so Kevin had the day off. I successfully made his favorite coffee cake and we spent the day together as a family. Side note: don't place wax candles in a cake that's right out of the oven. The wax melts, ruining the scrumptous cake!

Plenty of guitar-playing during the day. . .

Lots of time and love from his girls. . .

The Gibson. . .

2011-07-30T20:17:00.000-06:00

Peek-a-Boo. . .

2011-07-25T06:30:00.001-06:00

Festa Julina. . .

2011-07-25T06:08:00.006-06:00

Emma had her first school program a few weeks ago. The kids celebrated a June holiday in July - calling it Festa Julina. All the kids dressed up as little Caipiras, which is a word that identifies people who are from rural areas and are less educated ("hillbilly" is an English word that closely resembles Caipira). Each class performed a short skit to music. Emma's class performed with the two classes above her age group. One class pretended to prepare soil for planting, Emma's class pretended to be seeds that were planted and another class pretended to water the seeds. It was kind of a comical moment when I realized how proud I was of my little seed:) It wasn't a difficult role, but really, she was a great seed!! After her class was finished, they danced around for a while and then exited. Well, they all exited except for Emma!! She was having so much fun whirling and twirling around that she didn't notice the rest of her class had gone. I'm not sure she cared. I loved watching her dance away and my heart was happy to see her having such a great time.

During the week leading up to the festival, I was able to help at Emma's school. We wrapped presents for the festival, ironed decorations, organized food, sent out reminders for the party and helped with other little preparations. I was in a small room with about 7-8 other moms and teachers. I really had a good time. My language isn't good enough to just jump in and offer my opinion or comments, but I understood everything and enjoyed being around the other moms. It was fun to be able to help and participate. The night of the festival, I signed up to be a helper for selling drinks. I poured countless cups of Coke and Guarana, along with hot chocolate and quentao, a hot-spiced wine, similar to apple cider. Emma was thrilled because I painted our faces with fake freckles and lots of blush. I even put my hair in pigtails. We stayed for most of the party, but left when Emma was about to fall asleep. She had danced herself into exhaustion.

The festival was also an end-of-semester celebration. Emma is now on winter break for two weeks. I love having her home all day. We've had some busy days running around town, playing at home and at the park, baking lots of fun things, and making crafts. Even though she misses school, I think she's loving her time here too!!

Granola Bar Goodness. . .

2011-07-21T06:31:00.002-06:00

These are absolutely the best granola bars I've ever had in my life!!! One of my sisters sent me the recipe a while back. It called for Coconut Oil. I couldn't find that here so I substituted regular oil. They were just OK, but definitely not what I had eaten while at my sister's house. When we were home last, I picked up some Coconut Oil and now I am eating these things for breakfast, snacks and even dessert!! Other than the chocolate chips, they're full of great nutrition. They're so chewy, too! Ahhh, the perfect granola bar! I was pretty proud of myself because I actually made the almond butter from raw almonds (baked them for 16 minutes, threw them in the food processor for 7-8 minutes and !voila! almond butter!!)

Wanna try?

Chewy Homemade Granola Bars

1 c. almond butter (or peanut butter)

2/3 c. honey

1/2 c. coconut oil

Heat these on the stove until melted together.

Stir in:

3 c. oats (old-fashioned, not instant)

Turn off the heat and then stir in 2 c. of your choice of the following: chocolate chips, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, nuts, coconut flakes, raisins, etc. (I use 1/2 c. chocolate chips and the rest flaxseeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds). Mix together and place in a 9x13 pan. Then I top them with a few more chocolate chips. Refridgerate for 2 hours. Cut into bars and wrap in saran wrap. Store in fridge. Yum.

Brrrrr. . .

2011-07-15T10:14:00.000-06:00

On July 5th, we had to drive to Santo Angelo to renew our documents to live here. As we were waiting in the car for Kevin to get the Deere car, I realized that it was 0 degrees Celcius, right at freezing. I've never seen it snow here and it hasn't for many, many years, but it does get cold. The fog is thick in the mornings, but doesn't last all day.

I started this post last week, but I'm just now getting around to finishing it. I feel bad for even posting it now because this week has just been gorgeous. We've had several days in the upper 70s and got up into the 80s once. Pretty sure I can handle the winter here, especially with a few sunny, beautiful days here and there!!

Miss Mollie. . .

2011-07-14T18:19:00.001-06:00

It's already been two weeks since I saw Mollie. She had to come to Brazil for work and we were so blessed to get to see her for a short time. On Saturday evening, she had a small party at Christian's house so we had some time together in a group. Sunday morning, we laced up our shoes and went for a long walk together, catching up on the last four months of life since she left Horizontina for the U.S. It felt incredibly normal to spend time with her, almost as if she had just been on a long vacation! Unfortunately, she really did leave and no longer has a residence here in Brazil. However, it was just so great to be with her and catch up on each other's lives. Christian, a German, is a somewhat new ex-pat living here. He arrived a few weeks before Mollie left. Over the last several months, they have been communicating and have formed a very sweet relationship. I'm so excited for them and looking forward to seeing what God has in store for them. Their story is a fun one and I'm so happy I've been able to be a small part of it!

Goodbye Germans. . .

2011-07-07T17:59:00.002-06:00

Harald and Silvia left Horizontina a week ago. A few days before they left, they had a going-away party at Rancho Quintiliano, a rustic restaurant located in the country, about a mile south of town. Excellent food, good music and great people! The Grossjohann's moved to Horizontina from the U.S., where they had been living for over 2 years. This month marked two years here for them, making it well over four years since they've lived in their native Germany!! I think they were ready to move home! Although we didn't see them very often, we will miss them. Our ex-pat parties were always full of laughter when the Germans were with us. Never a dull moment, that's for sure!! Silvia was so sweet to Emma - our first winter here, she knitted a toddler-sized scarf for her. It reminded me of something my mother would have done in a matter of minutes. Silvia brought Emma a giant birthday balloon and a gift for her last two birthdays here and it just makes her day! Last week, just before she left, she brought over a small green box with a red ribbon wrapped around it. She had no use for the box and remembered how much Emma loves to collect little things in boxes. Needless to say, Emma was beside herself with excitement! She could hardly contain herself! When she opened the box, she was thrilled to find used notepads and a miniature puzzle inside. She hasn't stopped playing with the box since she got it. She loves to fill it with her tiny toys and then open it over and over again. She's pretty easy to please sometimes!! Every time I see her playing with her box, I think of Silvia and then of Harald and then I smile, thankful for the opportunity to have met them while living here!!

Festa Junina. . .

2011-07-07T13:55:00.003-06:00

Typical caipirinha clothing

Emma has some fun teachers and classmates!!

A few weeks ago, Emma's school celebrated Festa Junina, also known as Festa de Sao Joao, or the Festival of St. John. The kids came to school dressed in their caipirinha outfits and ate foods typically associated with the festival. Emma's favorite foods were the pink popcorn and the pinhaos, the seeds that fall from the pinheiro, a type of pine tree here. The boys were adorable with their little mustaches and straw hats and the girls were so cute with their fake freckles and fancy dresses.

One of the many reasons for the celebration is to mark the beginning of winter here. And yes, it is officially winter here!!! My indoor thermometer read 52.8 degrees this morning - INSIDE. Not funny. We don't have central heating, but we have some window units and a little space heater, which I'm using at the moment. For the last two winters, I've thought people were just crazy for not using their heaters nonstop. Only this week, I've heard some of their reasoning for not doing so. First of all, the electric bills here are insanely expensive. Most people would rather wear extra clothing and endure the cold than pay the bill (I'm with them on that one). Another reason is because they believe it's bad for the body to be heated and then to step out into the cold and have the body temperature drop. They believe this leads to sickness. While that might be partially true, dropping the body temperature down to below freezing doesn't make much sense either! A third reason people don't use their heat is because they just might not have it in their homes. It's not unusual for homes to be built without any sort of heating unit (except for the fireplace). If a home has a fireplace, it's cheaper to use that than to buy a space heater or window unit. That would explain why the city constantly smells like a smoldering fire during the winter months!! I'm staying warm by using my little space heater and by going for long walks in the afternoons. The sun is beautifully warm when it's out and I love wearing black and absorbing the heat!! For those of you who were jealous in December because we were swimming in our pool, oh how the tide has turned!! Happy summer to you all!! If you need a break from the heat, come on down!!

Quick Visit. . .

2011-07-06T13:50:00.002-06:00

. . . from Mr. Hamilton!! Jeremy was here less than 24 hours, but at least we were able to have lunch with him! It was fun to have a familiar face in our home. I was reminded that this really does feel like home now and that the town we used to share doesn't so much feel like it anymore. Weird.

My Little Town. . .

2011-07-06T13:44:00.002-06:00

Between the Auto Escola (Car School) driver, the guy leisurely driving his motorcycle and the two ladies out for a stroll on their horses, traffic was a little slow in Horizontina. . . slow enough that I could take a picture while I was driving. Gotta love this place!

Livia's Two!!

2011-06-26T11:29:00.008-06:00

I met my friend Catia over two years ago, the day we moved to Horizontina. She's the manager of the hotel where we lived for three months. At the time, she spoke more English than I did Portuguese and she made herself available to answer my neverending language and cultural questions. Shortly after we arrived, she told me that she was pregnant with their first child and she was due in August. On June 6th, I walked down to the lobby of the hotel and heard that Catia had delivered her baby. At first I wondered if I had misinterpreted the due date, but then I remembered that she had specifically told me she was due in August! I later found out that the placenta had basically stopped growing and providing nutrients to her baby and she was sent to Porto Alegre. Livia was delivered via C-section at 29 weeks gestation. She was soooo tiny! Everything I heard from the grapevine was good, that even though Livia was 11 weeks premature, she was growing and developing and doing just fine. Around her due date in August, Catia and Marcelo were finally able to bring their daughter home. By then, Kevin and I were out of the hotel and in our home and we didn't see them for a while. Our first year here flew by and only in the past year have we reconnected! We've really enjoyed getting to know Catia and Marcelo and Livia. One Saturday, a few weeks ago, we celebrated Livia's second birthday with them and their families. It's just amazing to see how healthy and happy their little girl is! You'd never know she was fighting for her life when she was born.

The day after Livia's birthday party, we drove to Santa Rosa and met Marcelo and Catia and Marcelo's parents for lunch at Casa do Marques (one of our favorite restaurants). Afterward, we drove to a large feira (fair) that was similar to a home-expo show. We didn't buy anything, but we had a really great time. Kevin and I were both pretty excited to be spending time with another family. Even in the U.S., it seems rare to find a couple that we both really enjoy! The sun was out and the day was beautiful. Marcelo bought cotton candy for Emma (her first) and she and her daddy shared it. After wandering around for a few hours, we headed home for a relaxing Sunday afternoon. It was one of those weekends that I just loved!!

Proud Running Moment. . .

2011-06-25T15:03:00.004-06:00

About a month ago, I got an email from a new American ex-pat here. We had talked about running in a previous conversation so he knew I liked to run. In his email, he was asking me to go running with him and a Brazilian man he had never met. I immediately panicked because the guy he was talking about isn't just any runner. I had heard rumors that he was once an Olympian and had run multiple marathons in his lifetime. I had seen him running through the streets of Horizontina, looking like a gazelle with his long, effortless strides. No way was I going to go running with that man! Maybe I could keep up with him if I biked, but running? Not a chance. I emailed my friend Mollie, who used to live here and who knows the Gazelle. She encouraged me to go, saying that for the rest of my life, I could tell people I once ran with an Olympian. I made up my mind. I emailed the American back and reluctantly said yes, knowing that I couldn't make the 6 miles they were planning to run. I had recently taken two months off of running and had only started again that week. I knew I couldn't possibly do more than 4. Better to be honest, right?
Well, Saturday morning came and I laced up my running shoes, grabbed my Garmin and drove downtown to meet the guys. After a quick, "Tudo bem?" and "G' Morning Steve," we were on our way. This guy didn't waste any time. No chit-chatting while standing still! We took off towards the cemetery and got to know each other on the run. Turns out the Gazelle has a name: Volmir. I had met him one other time, in Emma's school. He owns one of the fitness centers here in town, but he also teaches some gym classes at the school a few afternoons a week. I'm not sure how old he is, but I'm guessing late 30s, early 40s. I started drilling him with questions, curious about his past, his running, his life. What an interesting man! He's been a runner most of his life. When he was a teenager, he lived in the country, about 15 kilometers from school. Every day he would run to school and every day he would run home from school. Thirty kilometers most days of the year! (That's 18.64 miles per day!!) I was impressed. He was a professional runner for a while. In 1993, he won the Barcelona Marathon with a time of 2:13:25. (He told me that, but I just looked it up on Google, too). The following year he ran the same race one second slower! He placed sixth in the NYC Marathon one year (1990, I think). Because of the rumors, I asked him about the Olympics. He was invited to participate twice, but both times, he was injured and had to decline. I had so much fun asking him questions that the first few miles flew by without a lot of pain. Then again, our pace was slow enough that I shouldn't have been hurting much! When we hit three miles, I needed a break. I knew the route the guys were going to take, so I told them I'd meet back up with them for the last mile. I stretched and walked while they went out past John Deere to the round-a-bout and back. They picked up the pace for the last mile, so I kept my questions to myself. I didn't have enough air in my lungs to get a question out anyway! Four miles about killed me, but I was so happy that I went out for the run!! Volmir was such a neat man. I realized as I drove home that I was more impressed with his personality than his stats. If I had run a 2:13 marathon, I would have been boasting to the world about it. The way he shared his story wasn't prideful at all. He was excited to talk and proud of his accomplishments, but he was humble about how he shared. It didn't seem to bother him that we were running so slow. He was just happy to be running with people. He talked about wanting to start a running club and we agreed that we should plan a race here in Horizontina! He said Brazil is very behind in the area of health and fitness. In general, people here care more about how their bodies look physically, but not necessarily about how healthy they are on the inside. He has a son and a daughter who are in school and he wants them to learn the value of physical fitness. I really enjoyed my time with him. I'm so glad I chose to go for a run that morning. I met a new person, got a good run in, and did something new here in Brazil. Then I went home with a smile on my face.

Birthday Girl. . .

2011-06-25T04:23:00.000-06:00

On May 17th, our little girl turned four years old!! She had been looking forward to her birthday for many months, usually saying something like, "Mommy, when I turn four, I'm going to _____ (fill in the blank). Her favorite line was letting us know that she was finally going to start chewing gum. At some point when she was a baby, we had decided that four years old would be the gum-chewing age. A friend of mine had done that and her explanation seemed wise. At four, kids know where the trash can is and they know how to throw away their wrappers and their chewed gum. I didn't want to have to deal with gum on clothes or couches or car seats, etc. The other reason we waited was because Emma was still sucking her thumb. For several months we told her that four-year olds don't get to suck their thumbs, but they do get to chew gum. Seemed like a deal for her! We were praying the deal would work and she would magically stop sucking her thumb on her fourth birthday. Since she had turned a year old, we had limited her thumb-sucking to naptime and bedtime only, but we were still hoping to completely do away with it. Well, much to our surprise, Emma completely stopped sucking her thumb sometime in March, a good two months before her birthday!! We had been traveling quite a bit in March and she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion more times than I can count. I guess lifting her thumb to her mouth was too much work. Needless to say, we were so happy!!

In this photo, she had just gotten out of bed and was still fighting a cold, but she was pretty ecstatic for her birthday anyway, especially because she walked into a living room full of pink balloons (thanks to her daddy)!!

We made cupcakes for her classmates and teachers. I frosted the cupcakes and Emma decorated them with sprinkles.

Kevin came home for lunch and we opened some presents (one present was a pack of gum!) He went back to work for a few hours and then took the rest of the afternoon off so he could come with me to Emma's school for her birthday party. We blew up balloons and used some decorations we had picked up in the U.S. I made chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes and then ordered some salgadinhos from Zelandia's, knowing how much the kids love the salty snacks!

After we decorated the party room, we heard Emma and her classmates coming down the hall. Emma's teacher was leading them and the smile on our little girl's face was precious. She was first in line and she could hardly contain herself!! The kids formed a trenzinho (little train) and wound their way through the hallways to the party room, where they surrounded the birthday table. Emma stood in the center grinning from ear to ear while her coleginhas sang "Parabens pra voce," (Happy Birthday) to her.

Daniel and Murilo are two of Emma's favorite friends.

I was pretty excited about the yummy Betty Crocker cupcakes I made. The homemade chocolate chip cookies were even better!! I couldn't wait to watch the little Brazilian kiddos devour the yumminess of American sweets! Unfortunately, I forgot that little kids, regardless of culture, don't really like to try new things, especially weird-looking sugary treats! I tried my best to get the kids to experiment something new, but the majority of the kids had zero interest in my cupcakes. Of the 50+ cookies I made, less than ten of them were eaten. (Emma later confessed to eating five of them!) My feelings were hurt. I had slaved away in the kitchen and nothing I could say or do convinced them to eat my treats! Fortunately, Emma got her fill and she was happy. I decided that was most important!! The teachers were more than willing to eat the leftovers, so we left most of the cupcakes and cookies at the school!!

After snacks, the kids sat in a circle while the teacher passed out gifts. Most of the kids brought a small gift for Emma. Each child was given their gift and then they took turns handing the gift to Emma. After they handed her the gift, they gave her a hug and a kiss. It was so sweet. The kids who didn't bring gifts were still able to give Emma a gift of a hug and kiss.

Professora Jayne and Professora Cris, Emma's teachers

Earlier in the week, Emma and I had put together little lembrancinhas (gift bags) for her coleginhas. While we were in the U.S., we found party favors at WalMart for super cheap. I loved spending that time with Emma. It was neat to see her get so excited about giving gifts away on her birthday. She certainly received quite a few gifts from her little friends! I think it was a really fun day for our daughter. At this age, she's remembering so much and I hope she can look back one day and remember celebrating with kids from another country.

After her party, we went home and waited for some friends. Leandro and Monica came to visit us from Porto Alegre with their two kids, Clara and Lucas. Clara had turned 4 just a few days before Emma, so we ordered pizza and had dessert to celebrate their birthdays. We always love our time with the Carrions; we only wish we lived closer to them. One day maybe. . .

Later that night, I laid in bed, reminiscing over the last four years. Can it be that four years have passed so quickly? Our daughter isn't a baby, nor is she a toddler anymore. She's a little girl and she's so full of life and energy and love. I am so grateful for the time we've had with her. Our lives have changed so much since she entered our world, and for the better!

Sick Girl. . .

2011-06-14T07:00:00.001-06:00

A few days before her birthday, Emma came down with a fever and a runny nose. I was thankful for a lazy weekend at home. We snuggled a lot. I love that she still loves to snuggle with me every day, especially in the mornings. It's very rare that she falls asleep in my lap, though. This particular Saturday, we had eaten lunch and then went to the couch to cuddle. I was slowly brushing her hair with my fingers while talking to Kevin. I looked down to see that she had fallen asleep. Other than her being sick, that was a moment I wish I could capture forever. In one of the books I'm reading, there's a quote that says, "The days are long but the years are short." I agree. Sometimes the days are short, too, though. Moments of snuggling with my daughter are too priceless to forget.

Mother's Day. . .

2011-06-14T03:34:00.001-06:00

Mother's Day 2011. Celebrating with my almost-four-year old! We drove to Santa Rosa with two other ex-pats and had lunch at Casa do Marques. Then we spent the rest of the day together, relaxing and enjoying each other.

Mom's Day at School. . .

2011-06-13T09:24:00.000-06:00

A few days before Mother's Day, Emma's school hosted an evening of fun for the preschoolers to celebrate their moms. We were told to wear "gym clothes" and bring our child with us. That evening, we all met in the activity center next to the preschool. As we walked into the building, each parent/child couple was given a colored ribbon. Then we had to find our "team". We were on the blue team and found our group quickly. After some intructions that I didn't understand, a piece of paper was passed around our group. On the paper were eight stations that we were supposed to visit. Our group was given a long rope and each mother and child had to hold on to it as we made our way to another part of the school. Seven other teams, full of moms and kids, were doing the same thing. That rope was a creative way to keep everyone together. It seemed like chaos at first, but every team made it to their destination without losing a child (or a mother)!

We ended up in the preschool building. About every 8-10 minutes, we moved to a new station. The first room we went to was filled with pillows to sit on. The lights were turned off and a short video was shown. Pictures of babies and kids with their mothers were combined with short quotes and phrases that were uplifting and honoring to moms. The next room we went to was also filled with pillows. We took our seats and the instructor went around to each child and placed a small amount of lotion on their hands. The children were instructed to give their moms a facial massage. I've given Emma innumerable massages over the last four years, but I never thought to let her give me a massage. I was impressed with how concentrated she became on giving me a good massage. She enjoyed it as much as I did!! What a creative idea!

Next we went to the "Smell-a-Story" room. The instructor (above) was a fabulous story-teller. I understood most of what she told and I was laughing so hard. As she told her story about an old woman who had lost her glasses and couldn't see (so she had to smell her way around), she passed around jars filled with different scents. Some of them were delicious scents, like the fruits and coffee grounds (although Emma said the coffee grounds smelled disgusting), and others were gross, like the jar filled with a dirty sock (which I think had been soaked in vinegar). I loved the jar filled with basil and the lavendar jar, too. As I sat there listening to her story and laughing at her humor, I smiled, grateful that I could be with Emma, I mean, really be with her. I felt so engaged in the evening and I realized that two years ago I probably would have been too scared to go to the school alone with her. What a long way we've come!

One station was a "play" station. The instructor said that the kids get to play quite a bit at school, but that oftentimes the parents are working or are too busy to play with the kids. So, we were set loose in a room filled with toys and we just played together. Emma and I built a train out of giant Legos and organized some of the toys (Yes, organizing is playing, at least for these two Schrag girls!)

One of my favorite stations was the dress-up room. There were so many outfits to choose from. The instructor gave us specific directions, though - the moms had to dress the kids! Here's what I ended up finding for Emma Jae:

After visiting all the stations, we made our way back to the activity center where the teachers had snacks and drinks. Overall, it was a really fun evening. I'm so glad we went. It was definitely a different experience for Emma and for me, and it was a fun bonding experience. I love being Emma's mommy. I love getting to do fun activities with her. I am so proud of her and so proud to be her mom!!

Thoughts on the Trip. . .

2011-06-08T12:34:00.002-06:00

Of our trips home, the last one was by far the easiest and the best. I wasn't as desperate to leave here nor to go there. I was excited, but I wasn't counting down the weeks and days like I had the previous trips. I feel like I've really been living life here lately, and the trip in April was just a short break. The travel to the U.S. was almost perfect, except that I lost my watch on the last flight. I guess I didn't technically lose it, because I know exactly where I left it on Seat 14B. For as little as I pay attention to time these days, it shouldn't have been that big of a deal to me, but it was. Fortunately, it's a cheap watch and easy to replace, thanks to WalMart.
I realized that I wasn't overwhelmed with the abundance of everything like I had been the last two times we visited the U.S. In fact, the only time I felt uneasy was when my sister and I were standing at the dessert counter at Whole Foods. I have never seen so many intricately designed desserts in my life! I couldn't decide which one I wanted and the vast selection made me anxious. I ended up choosing five, yes five, desserts!! At least they were miniature desserts! A couple from here recently moved to the U.S. I heard through a friend that the wife was overwhelmed by all the choices of foods at the grocery store. I laughed because when I arrived here, I was overwhelmed by the lack of choices! Last week I read a quote that I agreed with completely: "Although people believe they like to have lots of choice, in fact, having too many choices can be overwhelming." - Gretchen Rubin. She was talking about clothing, but I think it applies to food and other things as well!
Although I very much enjoyed the time I had with my friends, I didn't feel the need to pack them in my suitcases this time. I was looking forward to seeing my friends and family there, but I also missed the people I've come to know here. At times I felt like I was living a double life. I guess I kind of am. I have two completely different lives. When we flew into Dallas from Brazil, I left my Brazilian life on the plane, not consciously, but I did. As soon as we boarded the return flight three weeks later, I picked it up. There are parts of our lives here that people in the States don't know about. Likewise, there are many, many pieces of my life that people here have yet to learn. It's a strangely comfortable place to be right now.
Regarding little Emma Jae, well, she's just pretty sure this place is home and she's very excited about that. I'm happy for her heart. She seemed agitated at times during our trip, like she didn't feel comfortable. I thought maybe she would love everything about being in a place where people talked like her. I forgot that she's at a point now where she communicates just fine in Portuguese. She doesn't feel left out. She doesn't feel like a stranger, rather, she thinks she's just as much a Brazilian as her little classmates! The day we arrived home, she said, "Mommy, I love our house. I love my toys. I love Brazil!" The owner of our house wants to sell it and we had two different couples come to look at it this week. After explaining to Emma what they were doing, she became very concerned. She said they needed to find a different house because this one is ours and we can't "ever" leave it! I'm certain re-patriating will be more difficult for her than coming here was!
What else? Well, I was pretty happy with the time I got to spend with people. I felt like every day was booked from morning to evening, but it wasn't too much. Had we had more time, I certainly would have packed a few more visits in! I'm so thankful for people who made time for us, for people who drove out of their way to make it easier for us to see them, for people being gracious to us when we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked, and for people we didn't get to see but who made us feel loved anyway.
As I look back over some of my posts, I think it's funny that I remember almost every meal I had. I love the food here, I really do, but I took full advantage of Chipotle, Quizno's, Papa Murphy's, Panera Bread, Starbuck's, Subway, Whole Foods, P.F. Chang's, Granite City, etc. Yummm.
Random thought, but I want to remember it. I thought of a fun little thing to do to help me ease back into this country(not knowing for sure how I would feel). Just before we boarded the overnight flight from Dallas, I stopped at a Starbuck's and picked up a coffee for the evening, but also muffins and a Naked drink for breakfast the next morning. After clearing customs and immigration, Emma and I checked into our next flight and then sat down. I breathed in the familiar Brazilian air, smiled, and had an American breakfast.

Grade School Presentation. . .

2011-06-07T15:36:00.000-06:00

One afternoon while we were home, we went to visit the elementary school where Kevin's mom teaches 2nd grade students. We put together a short presentation about Brazil and shared some of our experiences with them. While I'm pretty sure they liked the pictures of beautiful waterfalls and getting to pass around real Brazilian money, I'm certain they were most entertained by the creatures we have here and the fact that the students only go to school for half a day!! This little guy (about 6 inches in length) got a lot of "Ewws!" and "No ways!"

They weren't as impressed with this disgusting fellow until I told them he was crawling next to my bedpost. Then their eyes widened a little!

Thanks to Kevin, we had a pretty sweet Power Point presentation, complete with Google Earth zooming in on the kids' school and then flying all the way to our little town in southern Brazil. It really was fun to share with the kids. They were great listeners and seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say. We started the presentation by greeting them in Portuguese and speaking a few sentences. We got the reaction we wanted from most of the kids - frowns and confusion. They had no idea what we were saying. However, a little Hispanic boy in the front translated for me when I said, "Vamos comecar!" "Let's get started," he said. Funny. Portuguese and Spanish have several similarities, so I wasn't surprised that he knew some of what I was saying. Our point was to make the kids feel like we felt when we arrived here. We really didn't know the language and we were uncomfortable and confused quite a bit of the time. With time, we learned not only the language, but the culture and people as well. At the end of our presentation, we taught the kids two simple words that are used every day, "Oi," (Hi) and "Tchau!" (Bye). Then I told them if they wanted to be cute, they could say tchau twice. When school was out, the kids who had been in our presentation could be heard down the hallway and out to the schoolbus!! "Tchau, tchau!! Tchau, tchau!!" I love how excited they were to speak another language!

Last week we got the cutest little package in the mail. The kids we had presented to had made us thank you cards and we had so much fun reading them! A couple of my favorites were:

"Dear Emma, Sandi, Kevin, Thank you so much for coming and teaching me all that stuff and bye I mean tchau."

"Dear Kevin Sandy Emma, Obrigada for teaching me portuguese. The cockroaches were N-A-S-T-Y! It must be butiful in Brazil. Butifull!"

"Oi Dear Sandie e Kevin. I have a rabit so if you come over you can hold him His name is King Tut."

I love that age! So much energy, so creative, so easy to entertain. After we left, they learned two more Portuguese words from Kevin's mom, "Obrigada" (thank you) and "e" (and). It's so true that kids can pick up a language easier than adults. Their minds are little sponges, just waiting to absorb any new information they hear or see. I hope they learned a little bit that day and I hope they remember that the world is a very big place with so much diversity. I love that we were able to share a bit of our lives here with them!

Ranger. . .

2011-06-04T15:36:00.010-06:00

My nephew Ranger (sister Jane's boy)

My brother David and Ranger

Jane and Weston with Ranger

The day we flew out was a full day. I woke up early and finished packing our suitcases - 4 big ones plus a carseat, an umbrella stroller, Emma's backpack, my computer backpack and my purse! Seems like a lot, and it was, but it was manageable. At 8am I went to Clayton's studio to preview the photos of Emma, which were amazing. I grabbed a coffee on the way back to Lori's and spent another hour or so with her while Emma and Olivia played. We left their house and drove to Jane's house in Loveland where my dad and brother were waiting. My dad had loaned us one of his extra cars during our stay in the U.S. and we were so grateful! I can't imagine what renting a car for 3 weeks would have cost!! So he and my brother drove to Loveland together so one of them could drive dad's car back to his place. I was happy to get to spend a little more time with him. For some reason, I had in my mind what time our flight was supposed to leave Denver. I didn't think to confirm the time until I was driving to meet my dad (which, by the way, is something I attribute to living in a culture where people just don't plan ahead of time. It's totally rubbing off on me!). I pulled out my itinerary and realized I was off by two hours! Fortunately, the two hours were in my favor! Instead of being in a hurry, we were able to eat lunch with Jane's family and Emma got to play with four more cousins. (After Clayton did Emma's photos, he cleaned my dirty camera for me. I've been trying to get that done for the last year and haven't been successful!) While Emma was playing with the three older girls, I got to play with Ranger. He's a very happy baby and I loved getting to meet him for the first time on this trip! While David went shopping with Jane, my dad drove Emma and me to the airport. Actually, I drove. I used to get so irritated when I'd drive and my dad would sit in the passenger seat. After several years of driving, he would still tell me which lane to be in and where to set the cruise control and whether or not I could pass. The last few years have been different. Regardless of my age or experience, he'll always feel the need to give me advice and even though I don't always listen to him (OK, I totally tune him out when it comes to driving), I don't get irritated. I wait for it and I smile when it happens. In addition, because he's 80 now, I feel much more comfortable getting advice from him, knowing that at least I'm the one driving!! On our way to the airport, Dad and I talked a lot about the Bonhoeffer book. He was already halfway through it and I had just given it to him 5 days before! I loved that last hour in the car with him.

We made it through security with plenty of time to spare, so Emma and I walked around the airport and rode the moving walkway a few times. We visited a few stores and picked up some English magazines and a book. A new habit I've acquired over the last few years is to pick up a new book or two at the airport bookstore. I always get something by an author I've never heard of and with a subject that seems interesting but not familiar. This time I picked up The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I'm about halfway through it and I'm loving it. I love her writing style and her candidness. Pretty sure we could be friends:) She's even from Kansas! Anyway, after picking up my new book and other goodies, Emma and I boarded our flight to Dallas. We arrived in Dallas and made our way to the international terminal, stopping at Starbuck's for one last American coffee on the way. Kevin called just as we made it to our gate and I smiled. First class and business class had already boarded and within a few minutes, our group was called. I smiled because if there's one thing I've learned from living here, it's not to freak out. We made it to our gate with a few minutes to spare. I knew we had a tight window between flights, but the thought of missing our flight never occurred to me. We made it to the back of the plane and settled in for the overnight flight. In the row of five seats, I was right in the middle. Not a fun place to be if you need to pee a lot, but it was fine. Emma sat on my left and to the left of her was a Brazilian man. We spoke for about the first hour of the flight. I found out he was from a large city in Brazil, but two years ago he had moved to Des Moines with his family. Funny, I told him, because I lived in Ottumwa and moved to Brazil with my family. I asked him who he worked for and he asked about Kevin. Turns out he works for Firestone, a company that supplies tires to John Deere. We had a great conversation and then we had dinner and everyone went to sleep. When I woke up, we were over Brazil. Home, sweet, home.

Our Final Week. . .

2011-06-04T15:28:00.008-06:00

Cousin Olivia and Emma Jae

Our final days in the States were spent in Colorado with my family. Kevin actually flew out of Wichita the day after Easter, so Emma and I were on our own. From Sharon's, we drove three hours to Lianne's in south Denver. We stayed one night and spent the whole next day with her, running around together. Her kids were in school, but we got to see them for a little bit before and after. I loved my time with my sister, but it wasn't enough. I had dinner plans with some high school friends that evening, so I felt like our time was cut short. We left Denver and drove north to Frederick, where my classmate Sara lives. Another classmate, Craig, who lives in Boulder, met us and we had a few hours together that evening. After warming up to them, Emma played with Sara's two young kids while Craig, Sara, her husband, and I reminisced. I laughed a lot with them and it was a fun evening. It was so good to be with people who were a part of my childhood and adolescence. The older I get, the more I lose touch with that era of my life, but I realize there's a lot of good from those days. It was fun to be reminded.

We stayed at my sister Lori's house in Ft. Collins for the last few nights. Her daughter Olivia is ten months younger than Emma, but the older they get, the less I notice their age difference. The first morning we were there we went to visit a friend of Lori's. He's a professional photographer and he took Emma's 4-year old photos. I was a little apprehensive because Emma's not a big fan of men, strangers, or having her photo taken. Fortunately, Clayton was able to revert to the maturity level of a 4-year old and he and Emma laughed a ton together while he talked about poopy pants. It was a successful morning. My sister Jane came over that evening and we made homemade pizzas together, another fun time with sisters that I like to do more of if I could. The day before we flew out, I had the girls for the morning. We drove fifteen minutes down to Loveland because I wanted to pick up a few clothes for a friend at an outlet store. We ended up going into Barnes N' Noble to play in the children's section. Unknowingly, we arrived just in time for Story Hour. Emma and Olivia sat quietly and listened very carefully to the stories. I loved being able to share that time with them. It's not very often that I get to spend time alone with nieces or nephews. After the stories, we went to the bakery in the back of the store and ordered two giant muffins for the three of us to share. The girls giggled and played and seemed to have such a great time together. We drove back to Ft. Collins and went to the Vitamin Cottage, one of my favorite stores in the world. I bought fresh whipped almond butter, dark chocolate covered almonds, dates rolled in oat flour (great snack for Emma), and some of the best honey I've ever had! After lunch, I left Olivia with her mom for a nap and drove over to Windsor to visit my sister Chris. (Three sisters live within fifteen minutes of each other.) Chris and I were far enough apart in age that we never lived in the same house, but she lived close to home and I used to babysit for her younger kids when I was in high school. From the time I was little, she's called me "Sandi Sue". "Sue" isn't my middle name but it's kind of neat because she's the only one who ever calls me that. We hung out at her house for a few hours and then her two younger boys came home, the ones I used to babysit. One had already graduated high school and the other one was preparing to graduate (and did) in May. Am I really old enough that the kids I used to babysit are now graduating high school?? Wow. Emma and I returned to Lori's house for dinner, just in time to eat Chinese with their family. Dustin had gone to P.F. Chang's for takeout and it tasted awesome! I've never been a huge fan of Chinese food, but the last few times I've had it, I have loved it! The desserts he picked up were ridiculously huge, but we had no problem making some dents! The chocolate cake was incredible. Wish I would have packed some in my suitcase!!

Before I knew it, I was packing my bags for our return trip to Brazil. The time always seems to fly by and it's never enough, but on the flipside, I found myself really longing to return to my home, my Brazil home. Several times during our weeks in the States, Emma asked me when we'd be going home, meaning our house, in little Horizontina, in a foreign (to me) country. She knows Brazil to be home more than the country she was born in. It's understandable, and yet not. She was excited when I told her we'd be leaving the next day to return home. If I'm honest, I was pretty excited, too!

Alone with Papa Ben. . .

2011-06-04T14:35:00.004-06:00

Most of the time we spend with my dad is shared with at least a few of my siblings and their kids. It's a rare occurrence to have one-on-one time with him because of all the children and grandchildren. This time was different. We woke up the Monday after Easter and just spent time talking with him. He loves to give away "treasures" that he's found at auctions or flea markets and Emma was almost giddy with anticipation of what he was going to give her! I was able to just sit and talk with my dad for a few hours, one-on-one. It was good for me and I think good for Emma to get to hang out with her other grandpa by herself. (She's the only granddaughter on Kevin's side, but she's one of 49 grandchildren on my side, with two more on the way).

We left my dad's and drove to my sister Sharon's house, north of Burlington, CO. I had planned to go on to my sister Janette's house (four miles further), but rain had caused the dirt roads to be dangerous in my dad's Lincoln. I actually screamed a few times as the car fish-tailed toward the ditch. Fortunately, we made it the one mile to Sharon's house from the main highway. After eating lunch with her family (the kids were out of school for a holiday), we piled into her 4-wheel drive, beast of a vehicle and easily drove on to Janette's, where we spent a few hours. Emma played with eight of her cousins while I got a massage from one of the older ones. It was a relaxing afternoon and something I would love to do more often if I lived closer!!

Easter in Moundridge. . .

2011-06-04T14:11:00.009-06:00

Great Grandparents Anne and Milo and Great Grandma Hilda

Getting to spend Easter Sunday with family just felt really good. We went to church together in the morning and then had aunts, uncles, cousins and great-grandparents over for lunch. While I wish I could say I remembered the sermon from that Sunday morning, I can't. A family with two children sat behind us and the last place those kids wanted to be on Easter Sunday was in a pew. Threats were made over and over by the parents, but the kids just wanted to be free and were very vocal about it. Over halfway through the service, the father finally said, "If you don't stop misbehaving, I'm going to kill the Easter bunny!" He ended up taking one of the kids out for the rest of the service. Shortly after we walked out, I turned to Kevin and his mom and said, "Did he say what I think I heard him say??" We all confirmed that yep, he really did threaten to kill the Easter bunny! Nice.

There were several highlights of the morning. Emma went to the front of the church with her grandma to hear the children's story. She learned a new song that she still sings two months later! At the end of the service, Emma went back to the front with Kevin to be a part of the "Hallelujah Chorus". Every year, at the end of the Easter service, anyone who wants to sing with the choir can join them. It wasn't until afterward that I realized Kevin, his grandfather, his father, and our daughter were all singing. Kind of a neat moment to have four generations together. I took Emma to Sunday school and she loved hearing the children's story and doing the craft afterward. I used to teach Sunday school for 3- and 4-year olds. It's such a fun age and they're usually great listeners. I'm looking forward to the day when Emma gets to go to Sunday school with other little kids. She loves doing Bible crafts here at home, so I'm sure she'll love actually getting to go on a regular basis!!

Emma didn't mind that there were no other kids to play with after lunch. She had a great time with her grandparents and great-grandparents. A few nights earlier, Kevin's cousin Jody came over with her three kids and Emma got to run around and play with them. She loved it!

Emma and I ended up leaving Moundridge on that Sunday and we drove to my dad's. We made a long stop in Hays and found birthday goodies for Emma's birthday party that we were planning. I realized while driving along I-70 how much I miss the interstate and how beautiful western Kansas is. There's really not much to see, but I know the area so well and something about familiarity is beautiful. Between Kansas City and Denver, only occasional small towns line the interstate (with the exception of Salina and Hays, which are bigger towns). I set the cruise control, something that never happens on the Brazilian highways, and had some fun conversations with Emma as we headed west. I'm so glad she likes to travel as much as I do. The four-hour drive seemed so short and before I knew it, we were past Goodland and pulling into Ruleton.

Bonhoeffer. . .

2011-06-03T17:15:00.000-06:00

Last week I finished reading this book. It is absolutely, without a doubt, one of the best books I've ever read. Metaxas, an excellent writer, shares the incredible life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer while weaving in important details of the history of Germany before and during the second world war. I've been challenged in so many ways by reading this book. Not only have I been thinking about my laziness as a follower of Christ (compared to someone who risked his own for what he knew was right), I've also been more interested in my heritage, as my own grandfather (my mom's dad) emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1927. I bought this book for my dad for his 80th birthday and a week later he had finished the 542 pages! We've had some really great conversations about Bonhoeffer, the Holocaust, our pasts, and the time my dad spent in Germany in the 1950s, which is where he met my mother when she was just a teenager. (My grandfather returned to Germany with my American grandmother, my mother and her little brother to work for the U.S. as a civil servant. My mom attended an American high school there for two years and then returned to the U.S. to start college, marrying my dad the year after she returned.) I'm really surprised, and embarrassed, about how little I really know of my heritage. I think for a long time I just thought it wasn't that big of a deal to me. I've really loved hearing stories from my dad and learning more.

There's so much to say about Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I'm not really sure where to start. I'm still chewing on some of the information and thoughts that were shared. Instead of trying to summarize a 500+ page book, I'll just say that I highly recommend reading it. Here are a few quotes from the book:

"It is much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, than a vain person praying. Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

"Death reveals that the world is not as it should be but that it stands in need of redemption. Christ alone is the conquering of death.

"Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God - the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.

"Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is what is so marvelous, that we can transform death." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer