Girl's Week

It's been a girl's week here for Karis and me! I thought I'd be able to post about all of the relaxing and fun things we did yet it ended up being a busy week...but busy in a good way. I've tried to keep in touch with those of you who are in my bloggy-world life yet didn't actually get around to posting. Ah well, such is life. At least it hasn't taken me 2 months to write another post and then refrained from writing a post due to embarrassment (you know who you are yet you probably aren't even reading this so I'm actually wasting the time of other readers who this doesn't apply to).

Here's a glimpse into our girly week....

Oh wait, here is what happened pre-girly-week-weekend...

Churrasco! Our friends Mike and Kelli (with their "baby Emily" as Karis calls her) came to stay with us for a few nights before heading to close up their house before furlough (Jonathan went with them to help with that task). Of course for the guys this means an occasion to eat meat!

Since we had a break from the beetles and flying turmites we were able to eat outside. I love eating outside!

Ok, now onto our girl's week!

Sunday - First day without hubby and papai. Church and Sunday School which means mom tries to do something fancy with Karis' hair. She sat really still and all I had to do was turn a cartoon on and bribe her with potato chips!

Fancy shmancy hair

We were also invited to eat lunch at some friends that day. How nice! Hmmm...don't remember what else happened that day but it was pretty full as I didn't get around to working on my decoupage!

Monday - Post fancy shmancy hair day...


Lots of cleaning and laundry took place that day (which is our normal Monday). I can't remember everything else that happened but it was a pretty full day as well because I didn't get around to working on my decoupage. I did spend some time worrying about my upcoming root canal on Thursday. Oh wait, I'm coming back...I did go walking with my friend Angie for an hour and then she came over so that we could pray together. I am so thankful to have this time with her once a week!


Tuesday - A Brazilian friend came over to discuss options for us in ministry with orphans. There is an orphanage about an hour away that we're going to go visit sometime soon!

Other stuff happened that I can't remember (however I did manage to find an hour to work on my decoupage). I worried about my root canal a little more...


Wednesday - Had Portuguese practice/lesson with a Brazilian friend. This is really helping me in my Portuguese!

Made tons of Jabuticaba jelly that didn't turn out (actually I did this on Sunday but needed some pictures to show in the middle of this post). Hours of picking fruit, cleaning it off and then cooking it. I followed a recipe (I know you're asking that in your mind, my hubby!) but it still didn't turn out. And I think it cooked too long because it tastes like it has mint in it. Strange...sheesh, what a waste of time! Karis and I also went to some friend's house for supper which limited my time worrying about Thursday's root canal!

Thursday - Root canal. Besides having to have my mouth open and head tilted back for 2 hours it wasn't that bad! I only had a little bit of sensitivity in one of the roots so he didn't use any kind of anaesthesia.

Thursday night (ok, I can't remember which night) I told Karis to go wait for me in my bathroom to get ready for bed. One of our nightly rituals is to wash her feet, even if she just had a bath an hour ago (if you haven't lived in a region that has a dry season than it is difficult to imagine how much dirt and dust can affect your life! oh how I miss clean streets and carpet!). Somehow this little monkey managed to climb up into the sink herself. When I walked in she said "mommy, I'm washin' my feets!"

Friday - We awakened early to get a ride at 7am to go to a town an hour away (where our mission has an office). We're trying to get a guest house set up in the back of some of the missionaries home so I've been going over there to paint when I can! I like being able to help out in this way. Because we have a deadline now I painted from 8am to 5pm (without stopping for lunch but having a small coffee break in the afternoon). Whoever decided to originally paint those two rooms neon green wasn't thinking of me, that's for sure! One room has a coat of sealer and three coats of paint and still needs another coat of paint! The other room only has 2 coats of paint on it. Anywho, it was fun to paint all day but by the end of the day every muscle in my body was aching...which wasn't very good since Saturday held some unexpected activities...

Saturday - Apparently there was a horrific storm where we live on Friday while Karis and I were away (we only had some sprinkling where we were). We came home to this...



That is a huge branch off of our mango tree. Thankfully it only knocked tiles off of the guest house and didn't actually damage the roof structure! But did you notice all of the mangoes on the ground? Zoom in on the next picture (if you have time)...

If you've ever lived in a region that has mango trees than you already know that you can't just leave them there and let them rot. The stench, the fruit flies and the squish beneath your feet when you walk prevents one from being lazy. Hency, every sore muscle in my body was reawakened for a good ol' Saturday Mango Pick-up! I had Karis pose for this next picture but if the truth be told she picked up about 4 mangoes the whole day. That's ok, she's a better subject to have in my pictures :-)

Now it is Sunday and we're about to get ready for church. I just got a text message from Jonathan that they'll be back late tonight instead of tomorrow! I'm excited! Tomorrow is Karis' thirday birthday so it will be great to have Jonathan here the whole day. My mother in law had a great idea to make a paper chain with the number of rings signifying the number of days left 'til Karis' birthday. So she's been taking off one ring a day and loves it!