From the mouth of my 3 year old...

Karis:Mom, can I have a brownie?
Me: Nope, not tonight.
Karis: Ugh, I'm getting sick again. My tummy hurts. I need a brownie to help me feel better.

(this is the first time she has tried to use this type of manipulation:-)

Karis: Hey mom, remember when I was little and I thought I was big? Remember when I was big and I thought I was little? That's a silly catechism!

(I am teaching her a catechism these days, hence, the new vocabulary word)

Let the Sun Shine In....

Isn't Sunshine glorious? I truly never realized how much I was affected by the weather. We went a week or two without good sunshine and it was rough. Really rough. Now the sun has returned and kept us not-so-gloomy on a regular basis. I love the sun!

The sun means....

Laundry gets done! Fresh, grassy smelling sheets. Yum.

Having the sun out also means we have many butterfly friends around. My sister in law has a peculiar fear of butterflies. I love butterflies. I'm mentioning her fear to see if she's still reading my blog.

This has nothing to do with the sun but when I'm mentally prepared for the mess (about once a week) Karis' new favorite thing to do is to "cook"!

We really miss Vovô and Vovó!!

Everybody remember our little Chief (aka Chief-a-doo, Chiefton, etc)??

I have very sad news. Chief-a-doo has distemper. Poor little guy. I am treating him at home but his chances of making it are rather slim. He is acting so much more normal now after a few days of treatment (eating a little bit, playing) but I have to remind myself that that doesn't mean that he has a better chance of making it. He could in the next few months start having convulsions, and then that's it. Does anybody remember Chicky? My poor sickly, paralized parakeet from last year? Anybody seeing a pattern here? For your own good, animals, stay. away. from. us. Please, it is not worth the risk of catching the Kroeker-pet-curse.

On a slightly funny note...

Karis has heard me talk to others about Chief and so she understands that he is probably going to die. I guess she isn't old enough to be affected by this in a negative way but just takes it all in stride, confidently telling people "Chief is going to die". Well, the other day I was visiting with a friend in our living room when Karis came in running and exclaimed "Mommy! Chief isn't sleeping! And he isn't dead either!" Thanks for the great news, munchkin.

Kinda off subject, again. But sometimes I wonder if Karis is having vivid dreams at night and then remembering them the next day. Almost every day she says things like "remember when so-and-so climbed the mountain and fell off?" Uh, no. Don't remember that one. Or "do you remember Mrs. Smith? She has a present for me. It's a pretty box and a butterfly" (I'm serious about the butterfly...she really said that, I'm not just trying to stick with a butterfly theme.)

Alrighty-who, time to get this day started!

A short post....I think.

Karis and I are alone, once again. One of the great advantages to being apart from my hubs (got that word from Mamahen...thanks, I like it!) is that it is always so nice to reunite. Especially if his trip is longer than a week. It is still nice to reunite after a week but we're so accustomed to longer amounts of time that one week goes by pretty quickly. Anyway, we are already waiting for his return. And we have about 12 more days!

I took Karis to the little park here for a few minutes this afternoon. I have taught her how we can swing on the swing together and I called it "the spider" (what we used to call it as kids, not sure if that's a common thing to call it or just a Wesolowski thing?) So I put her on my lap facing towards me and we started swinging. Some kids started to approach and she said "hey look guys, we're doing spider fings! (things)"

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that this past month I became involved with a few other girls in a ministry to a poor community on the outskirts of town. We go on Friday mornings to the school to teach a Bible class and then on Sunday afternoon we lead a children's church service in the same neighborhood. I am so blessed by this opportunity! So many of these children have parents who are either drunks, druggies or drug lords.

This is my friend Marcela who is pretty much heading up this ministry. She has such a heart for the children! I've been blessed by her in many ways.

This is the building we use on Sundays to teach.

And since I haven't taken my camera yet here is one obscure picture that happens to have me in it. And it just so happens that I only look 20 lbs overweight in this one as opposed to 50 lbs overweight in the other pictures. This little boy is so cute...he is our most faithful attendee; he sits on the front row and listens so intently!

The reason that I went into all of that is because I spent this afternoon preparing because Tuesday I am going to be teaching the missionary story at the school. Up until now I've only been going, watching and then trying to mingle with the kids. Let me tell ya, telling a detailed story in a second language is going to be much more complicated than I thought! As I read over the story again today I wrote down all of the words I wasn't familiar with. Only about 50 of them...and I only have 1 day left to learn these new words. Oh sheesh. Help. Call Marcela. She came to my rescue and helped me come up with new ways to express what I need to without memorizing 50 new words in 24 hours! For instance, instead of trying to remember the verb for "trip" or "stumble" I'm going to say "he hit his foot and almost fell". Now I am so nervous I don't know what to do with myself but I know this is going to be so good for me. You have to start somewhere! I just hope I don't REALLY mess up because if I say something hilarious I know I won't be able to stop laughing. That's just what I do, laugh uncontrollably at my own expense. It would not be good.

And so, the entire reason I even decided to write a post tonight is this...I watched a video that changed my life. Really. I am a different person, for the good. I looked on Youtube and it is on there in several segments! You really need to make time to watch it. It will leave you in awe, giving you a better concept on who God is, who we are and the amazing things He has created. I feel like watching it again tonight!

Here is the link to the first video (the rest are on youtube as well...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn2dPZDMOWA

You will be very blessed, I know!

Busyness...but the good kind.

Finally, a new post so that people won't see that goofy picture of a bird on my head! I used to have the habit of being so careful not to do anything that may be slightly embarrassing (post teen years, of course) yet now I am finding freedom in just being, yeah being...even if that means a bit of uninhibited silliness (BTW, now that I'm approaching 30 I do find satisfaction in using the word "silly" and am not embarrassed about this fact.) I'm not sure if my perception is changing or if it's really true but I feel like I have fewer embarrassing moments now that I'm not so worried about being labeled as an odd individual. All of that to say...posting a potentially embarrassing picture of a green parrot on my head is the new and improved me!

Moving on...


Are you one of those people who tends to always say "I'm so busy" even when you aren't THAT busy. I am. I mean, it is such a convenient excuse and even if life isn't chaotic it always feels kind of busy. I am confessing that because I want you to know that I am not kidding when I say life has been busy. Like, really, really busy. Almost whirlwind kind of busy. BUT, a really good kind of busy. Here are a few things going on in the Kroeker home....

April 19th Mom and Dad Kroeker arrived from the U.S.! We've been looking forward to this time for a while. Karis has been soaking in the attention and we've enjoyed spending time visiting around the dinner table, playing cards, etc (hey, playing cards is a part of the busyness, ok?) We've enjoyed the past few weeks, busyness and all. Here is a picture of the munchkin with her vovô and vovó. This picture cracks me up...if you don't know why I'll explain underneath....


Do you see that oh-so-attractive man that Karis is pointing to in the picture?

Yeah, this one....



As Karis was helping make some picture books for the Indians she suddenly exclaimed "hey look, I found a picture of vovô!"

Thankfully dad Kroeker found it as humerous as we did (and let us take a picture...or two...or ten)...


Having in-laws around also means having built in babysitters. The best babysitters. There is nothing like taking off for the day knowing your child is being kept entertained more than when you yourself are home with her.

So here is one way we took advantage of the situation (and yes, this counts as part of the busyness too)....

We went to a water park for the day! Just the two of us. And not just any park but the world's largest naturally heated water park. All of the water is heated underground and then comes out into these natural springs where they channel it into the water park. In fact the water park doesn't even have to use chemicals in the water (at least I don't think they do) because the water is constantly being emptied and refilled. I think they said the entire wave pool has completely new water every three hours.

Anywho, here's a picture from the front of the park....



It really is wild to be driving along a two lane road with nothing in sight then to come upon this water park. It isn't well marked either so you have to know where you're going.

We had the lady at the check-out counter take a picture of us at the end of the day. The waterpark is right behind us...

Besides having built in babysitters we are also blessed that my in-laws like to stay busy and they like to serve. This meant Jonathan and dad getting lots of projects done and this meant mom totally organizing over half of my house! Really, I'm not kidding. It is so nice. I get to go to Portuguese class and then come home only to see one more project done that has been in the "to do" list for quite some time (or shall we say, 6 months, since that's when we moved in?) Not only that but she does a better job than me as I'm a spastic organizer. I don't always organize for the sake of organizing but more to make sure everything is behind cabinets so that I don't have to look at it. It doesn't matter that 50 pieces of tupperware come falling out when I need to retrieve one. Why? Because I know what lies ahead. I simply throw my arm across the cabinet to hold the 50 pieces of plastic in place as I retrieve what I need and then ever so quickly slam the door again. There, I don't have to see the mess and the task at hand is accomplished. My mother in law on the other hand organizes to relax. No really, she does. It took me several years to finally believe her and now that I do I am reaping great benefits. Take a peek....

This is just one of many cabinets. Well, she organized all of the cabinets in my dining room, kitchen and living room. I get a peaceful feeling when I open the doors now that I don't have that surge of adreneline required to keep things behind closed doors while trying to retrieve an item. Aaaaaaaah....I am truly thankful.

I really gotta bring this to an end. Here are a few random pictures...

Chief (also known as Chiefton or Chief-a-doo) has grown a bit...

Karis "cooking" the morning away.

(look at the next few pictures...that white cabinet behind Karis is the tupperare cabinet....can you tell what's going on?)


I've had my hubby home for 3 weeks now but will be losing him again in about 8 hours. This next trip will only be a few weeks long so even though we'll really miss him we can handle that!