Of Chicken Feet and Grandmas...

Only 15 days, 22 hours, 45 minutes and 36 seconds (more or less) 'til Jonathan returns. But really, who's counting?

We're doing ok without our man/dad but sure do look forward to reuniting in 15 days, 22 hours, 43 minutes and 15 seconds. Karis especially has shown more than ever how much she misses having him around! She asked to watch a YouTube video this morning that Jonathan showed her a few weeks ago. After it was over she burst into tears and came running to me. I thought she was hurt or something but when I picked her up she said "I want my daddy to come home!" It really broke my heart. But he will be thrilled to hear that he was missed so much.

Speaking of this particular YouTube video. Have any of you heard of Nick Vujicic? He is a European (not exactly sure where he's from) who was born without any arms or legs. The video Karis loves to watch of him on YouTube is a short 2 1/2 minute segment of Nick speaking to younger-than-me people. He really is an amazing guy who has been used by the Lord in incredible ways! I think you could watch the video by clicking here. If not then go to www.youtube.com and search his name...there are some other cool videos of him on there!

So I'm mentioning this because in this video he shows what he calls his "chicken drum stick" (a deformed foot that he was born with) Karis calls it his "chicken foot" and has honestly become quite obsessed with Nick and his chicken foot. Usually at least once a day she'll ask something like "remember that guy who has no arms and no legs?" "yep" is usually my reply and by the time I am finishing that short response she is ready with "but he has a chicken foot!" All of her doodles that she does on her doodle pad are no longer drawings of hippos, roaches and beetles but they are of the man who has no arms and no legs but has a chicken foot. It's amazing how similar all of the drawings are (please don't tell Nick that if you ever meet him.)

One of the activities that is occupying my time is Portuguese class twice a week. You'd probably assume that after living in a country 5 years one would be fluent in that language. There are lots and lots of reasons and excuses I could give as to why I am not, however it would make for a boring post. So I won't. I still have quite a ways to go but these classes are definitely helping! I come home feeling challenged and realizing how much I have to learn in this language. And thankfully it isn't a difficult language. Fairly easy one, to be completely honest. One thing that does hold me back is my perfectionist attitude as well as my overwhelming fear to make one of the mistakes that other missionaries have made. Like, going to the gas station to buy a bottle of propane but instead of asking for a gas bottle ask the attendant for a big kiss. Or going to the post office and asking for breasts instead of stamps. I haven't had any incredibly embarrassing moments like these but you will know the day that I do! I think blogging about it will be therapeutic.

So the reason I'm mentioning all of this is because on Wednesday mornings (during my class) Karis gets to go spend the morning with her adopted Grandma Tammy. Without either of her grandmas living on the same continent it makes me feel good that she has this relationship with Tammy. Karis surely doesn't mind either as she gets JUST as spoiled with Tammy as she does with her other 2 grandmas! This week she came home with a bag of potato chips AND a green coconut (which mommy got to enjoy with her!)

She looks like she has spent the morning suffering, doesn't she?

The only bad thing about this whole situation is Karis would now, I'm sure, prefer to go live with Tammy. For several days after a Wednesday she asks as I put her into bed at night "can we go to Aunt Tammy's in the morning?" (instead of calling everybody Mr. and Mrs. here it is "Uncle" and "Aunt".) Which is a huge blessing to me to know that she has a godly adult investing in her life and that she is enjoying it. And Tammy makes me feel like she enjoys it too...as a mom I have to tell you that this brings me much joy!

We have some new friends resting right outside our window these days. It's very interesting because this same pair of birds already had one attempt at having babies. I don't know if she had more than one egg but only one hatched. Unfortunately the nest was poorly made and when the first storm came I think the baby got chilled from the rain and died the same day (I really wanted to save the birdy but my dear husband who didn't want to see his wife commit her life to a bird for several weeks accused me of being baby bird protective services.) I let nature take it's course and had one of the toughest days of my life. Ok, forgetting the past here is a picture of the newest clutch from the same parents (who started building a new nest the following day).

I enjoy getting to watch these little guys grow (there are two of them) but they are quickly filling up the new poorly made nest and come close to falling out when the parents come to feed them. Rest assured, I will follow through with my baby bird protective services instincts should one or both of them fall out of the nest. But I am praying...PRAYING that doesn't happen as I do not want to spend the next 2 weeks of my life feeding them every thirty minutes. Been there, done that. Unfortunately it happened to be the 2 days before my mom arrived in Brazil for Karis' birth. Not a good time to be saving baby birds.

Blues Clues is almost over so I'm guessing I should bring this post to an end. It took me longer than expected to write it but the good news is that now I only have 15 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes and 11 seconds to go...

...and then there were two.

5 days down and only 25 more to go. Yep, 25 more days of temporary widowhood. We are actually quite accustomed to spending 2-3 three weeks apart from each other as our lives have consisted of many trips since we moved to Brazil. However this time just knowing that it would be 4 made me a little less excited about the whole idea. I mean, usually the first week is just fine. I enjoy being lazy in the kitchen and living a bit more selfishly in general. However by week two the whole thing of not being in a consistent schedule (directly related to not cooking, I'm sure) and crawling into bed alone gets old. Although I'm not a basket case by then I really do start to look forward to having him home again. By week three I could definitely be labeled as an almost-basket-case. Come. Home. Now. Babe. And the fourth week? Well, let's not go there for right now. I still have 2 1/2 weeks 'til I know for sure what kind of a ticking time bomb I will be after living without my man for 30 days.

Even though I'll enjoy feeling sorry for myself over the next several weeks (which will be reflected in my posts, I'm sure) I am really, really excited for this opportunity that Jonathan has. He just got to spend 5 days of traveling by plane and boat to arrive in the village (they arrived yesterday). He gets to spend the next 3-3 1/2 weeks working in the heat of the day and building houses for two new missionary families moving into a village. Oh sure they'll have swarms of bugs to deal with and who-knows-what to eat during the day. But when it's all said and done he gets to crawl into a jungle hammock at night and sleep. Yes, these are the kind of things that make my man tick. He will come home physically exhausted but totally rejuvenated in spirit! And I will be so very jealous of the 25 lbs he lost after eating grubs and rice for a month.

And before he left I knew I had one of two choices. I could either 1, do lots of baking and partying while he's gone to help fill the void of his absence and gain a lb or two (or 15). Or 2 I could torture myself even more by trying to eat healthy, exercise more and lose a bit of weight to surprise him (and not feel too discouraged when he comes home with a sleeker bod). I thought I was totally committed to option #2 but up until today I've been teetering between the two. Time to get serious. Tomorrow will be the day. Promise.

Weeks before Jonathan left (and up to the day he left) it was a construction zone around here. We really wanted to get our wall built before he traveled which also entailed getting a car gate put into our right side wall and a walk-through gate installed into our left side wall. Our main concern was safety since without the one wall out front and the short wall to the left anybody from the highway in front of us could look straight into our dining room/kitchen at night and see whatever it is I'm doing. I realize that probably sounds strange to those of you who live in the States but down here one can feel quite vulnerable without a wall.

Here is a picture of our right side wall before construction (if you're standing on our porch it is the wall to the right.)

And here is how it progressed 5 days into it. Well, it was supposed to have been 5 days but the guys Jonathan hired still hadn't shown up. He grabbed the nearest helper and started working himself:-)

That big tree you saw in the first picture had to be taken down. That in itself is a looooong story. Just know that Jonathan did grab a different helper for that specific project regardless of how this next picture looks.

Here is the after picture.

This is the new wall out front (and we don't own two trucks! Jonathan is taking care of two extra vehicles for friends who are temporarily in the States!)

Our wall to the left before.

And now after.

Besides security, another reason we needed to get these walls up is because we got a puppy.


Now, if you have followed our lives for the past 5 years then no doubt your reaction is "WHAT?!!! Another dog??!!!" Yes, another dog. I guess I need to go ahead and admit that we go through dogs like we do hot cakes (is a hot cake a pancake? perhaps I shouldn't use expressions I don't understand.) Hum, anyway. Yeah, another dog. Let's just say our previous not-so-mentally-stable dog did us a huge favor by running away. Bless her little heart. We had to get up a wall quick so that we could keep this new dog in (we both felt we needed an outside dog for security, especially while Jonathan is traveling) and also to keep the previous not-so-mentally-stable dog out, should she decide to return. I still can't stop thinking that perhaps she'll show up in a few weeks, jump the new high wall (she jumped the old) and have 12 puppies on my front porch. If this happens then you can be assured you will see the owner of that mentally unstable dog become unstable herself. Ok, let's stop right now and officially introduce Chief.

We have had him for about three weeks now (he has quadrupled in size) and from all that I can tell he's going to be a good dog (but I'm sure Jonathan would discredit anything I say about this subject since I'm the one who drug the mentally unstable dog all the way over here last summer.) The worst part of having a puppy right now is the constant screams coming from a three year old who doesn't want her ankles used as chew toys. I think I'm pretty sympathetic when that happens because, oh my goodness, those teeth are sharp. I sure wish Cesar Millan could come live with us for the next 6 months. That would make my life a lot easier.


I finished my decoupage! I don't really know how I feel about it. When I finished it I was pretty pleased but was hoping that after having it framed then the little things about it that bothered me wouldn't be too noticeable. Well, they still are. Oh well, gluing napkins on a canvas is more of an art than one might think.


I have tons of projects I'm working on while the man of the house is away. Right now I'm really focusing on our bedroom. It is already feeling so much more inviting! It has always been the most neglected room in the house. I'll probably have some pictures to post in the next few days. I'm just hoping that Jonathan doesn't decide to get onto a computer and catch up on my blog on his return trip home! I really want to surprise him...

Within me lies a spirit of non self-discipline...

I have to admit that self discipline is a mystery to me. I'm obsessed with the idea of self control and self discipline, yet when it comes to living my life in such a way....well, I'm certainly lacking.

Like, when I read about the 5:00 club. Oh, awesome (thought I). That is JUST what I need! However I haven't rolled out of bed before 7am these past few mornings. Partly because my self discipline really needs to take place the night before (go to bed before midnight) so that I can get up early the next morning.

I'm always inspired and challenged by 1 Cor. 9 when Paul talks about making his body his slave, for the sake of the gospel! Unfortunately the catalyst for my self discipline is usually rooted in selfishness (you think I nixed sugar out of my diet for the sake of self control?). It is interesting though, that I am more content with my life when I am practicing self discipline! Even though 2 months of hard work have only taken 4 lbs off this body I think I've been able to stay away from sugar (for the most part) because I feel better when I recognize that I am, in fact, able to deny myself in this one area. I feel somewhat in control. Hmmmm....go figure...self control makes me feel in control.

And that, my friends, is the end of my self discipline shpeal. If anyone has some suggestions or encouragement that could help one-not-so-disciplined (such as myself) please feel free to leave a comment (or two)...

This makes no sense to me but when I am getting close to traveling, and I'm really excited about traveling I tend to start procrastinating to keep myself from getting too excited. If you're totally confused, let me explain. Instead of working on tasks 2 weeks in advance in preparation for my trip (like I should) I put them off so as not to think about the trip and get too excited, which would leave me feeling disappointed since I still have to wait two whole weeks. Today was the day that I finally allowed myself to start thinking seriously about the trip and begin to plan. However, just like every other time I've done this to myself I realize there is too much to do and not enough time to do it! I'm leaving in 4 days for crying out loud!

One area I should have been working on is meals for my hubby. Now, he was a bachelor for 10 years prior to our wedding day so really he can take care of himself. He makes a mean omelet as well as stir-fry and a fancy version of ramen noodles. He will not lose weight while I'm gone, that's for sure. But it did dawn on me today that "gee, it sure would be halfway thoughtful to leave the man something to eat while I'm in the U.S. partying."

So today Karis and I made some tortillas for him (nothing to go with them yet, but this is a start).

As I watched Karis help me today I felt so much gratefulness for this indescribable blessing in my life. She brings so much joy to our lives!

She is always so excited to help (I must admit that part of my motivation for accepting her help is in the hopes that she will still want to help 10 years down the road when she really IS a help:-)

And can you tell which tortillas were rolled by her?

Even though the seasons are different down here and I miss certain aspects about the States (like fall!) I realized today that there is something very unique about the weather here. We get to experience spring, summer and winter all in the same day! This morning it was fresh and cool, this afternoon the sun was blazing and we were sweating and now we have a freezing wind from the south coming through. I am cold....I love being cold for short amounts of time! We sat on the porch and watched the wind all snuggled up in our blankets tonight.

I guess I better go to bed in order to get up early tomorrow in the hopes of getting a lot of things done that should have been done a long time ago....

A titleless post.

10 days 'til the big day! Karis and I made another chain of paper links for her to take one off every morning when she wakes up. She loves this and hasn't stopped talking about the "jumbo jet" that we'll be stepping onto a week from Monday. I can't wait either but there's a lot going on that is preoccupying my thoughts!

I keep thinking about how I'm going to step on to the plane wearing jeans, a short-sleeve shirt and flip flops but will step off into really, really cold weather (like, below 70 degrees!)

Anywho, here are some highlights of our week...

1. Terantulla #3 was retrieved from the pool.

2. Moof is a rat-killer. Anybody forget who Moof is? Check out this fearsome canine below...

So here's the rat story. I was watching my friend's girls and had just taken them home to give them showers to go to bed when Jonathan called. He said that Moof found a rat which ran under the washing machine. Mike goes to get Moof while Jonathan lifts up the washing machine. Rat runs out, rat runs up Jonathan's leg. Jonathan screams. Jonathan shakes rat off of leg. Rat runs, rat jumps. Moof runs. Moof catches rat in mid air. Moof gives the rat the shake of death. It's all over, rat is dead. I am thankfully not traumatized since I wasn' there and now Jonathan thinks we have the awesomest dog in the world (yes, judging by the red squiggle underneath it I take it that awesomest is not a word).

3. I had minor oral surgery on Tuesday. That front tooth that got knocked out playing basketball over 10 years ago had to come out for good! Everything went really well and afterwards the dentist was very, very glad we went ahead and had it taken out now. So much of the bone structure has degenerated that I only have a 50/50 chance of being able to have an implant without a bone graft! Yikes, we're praying. It wasn't painful but I can't describe how horrific it was to hear and feel (without pain) the dentist drilling/scraping out the tooth cavity. I couldn't stop thinking about how painful it was going to be afterward! Thankfully I only took pain meds that same night! They were even able to use my old tooth by grinding it down, whitening it and then bonding it to the two side teeth. My mouth will need at least 5 months to heal! It's actually kind of nice because as long as my top lip doesn't raise up too much I went from having crooked, semi-white teeth with one gray tooth to crooked, semi-white teeth. How's that for looking at the positive side of things? :-) No picture for this portion of the post...sorry folks.

To be honest I've been battling with some internal struggles the past few weeks. It has been a real challenge to try and choose joy. Doesn't joy come so much more naturally when everything is wonderful? I've had a few highlights that have encouraged my heart...

1. My friend Angie sent me a nice email with some great quotes knowing that I was feeling rather discouraged (praise the Lord for thoughtful friends!). Here are the two quotes she sent me!

"The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life - the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one's 'real life' is a phantom of one's own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it's hard to remember it all the time." -C.S. Lewis

"What I do you cannot do; But what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."

-Mother Teresa

2. Although we don't always make it we were able to go to prayer meeting on Wednesday night. It was such a special time! What made it special (for me) is that when the man who was leading prayer meeting asked for song requests he then looked at Karis and asked if she knew Jesus Loves Me. She said yes so everybody sang it for her! Well that got her really excited so she began giving out her own requests...including Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man & Read Your Bible, Pray Every Day. She really enjoyed participating and everybody was so gracious to go along with her requests and even seemed to enjoy songs they hadn't sung in years. I was so thankful at that moment for the family that we do have here among our fellow missionaries, even though our immediate families are not nearby.

Ok, this has turned into a lengthy post! Here's a random picture of my silly girl in one of her birthday outfits...

Signing off for now...

Filhos e Bichos.

I think I'm going to get just a bit personal in my post tonight (or at least in this first section...if you're not into personal issues just skip right past:-)

We went back to the Dr. yesterday to go over the results of our tests (testing fertility). The good news is everything looks great and normal! The not-so-encouraging news is that even though I am going to start taking something that the Dr. thinks may help me get pregnant there wasn't an obvious problem that we can focus on fixin'. Anyway, after the new year I'll start taking this medication and wait a few months to see if anything changes. I won't go into the details of what the medication does since, well, that's kind of weird to write on a blog (if you're interested send me an email and I'll share all the not-so-interesting details!).

The main reason I'm sharing that is because I want you to listen to a song that has been an enormous amount of encouragement to me these past few months! I put it at the top of the list on my music player (on the side of my blog). It's called "Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns. I've always liked this song but for some reason when we were on the way to the Dr.'s the first time a few months ago I really listened to the verses. Go listen to it real quick if you have a chance...

I am so challenged by the words of this song! I have realized that my attitude in life (presently in my desire to have more children) there are voices that would love to discourage and defeat me yet I have the choice to choose to listen to the Voice of truth. Truth. I love that truth exists! And I love that my Savior speaks words of truth that bring life and hope. I hope this song encourages you in the same way it has encouraged me.

Now onto less serious personal things...

We had our first fire in the fireplace a few nights ago!

Yes, it got down to 68 degrees outside and 72 inside...the fire brought the temperature up to the high 70's. Mike and Kelli live in a very hot city so they were walking around all bundled up! I was teasing them that most people in the States keep their a/c thermostat set between 70-75. And they're about to spend the winter months in Michigan! ha! I think after living here 4 months we've acclimated to the cold.

Thankfully beetle season appears to be over. Unfortunately the flying termite season is in full swing. Honestly, I can't tell you what it is like once the sun goes down! I rode my bike home today at dusk time and they were hitting my face/hair, etc. I passed by a friend who yelled "whatever you do don't open your mouth!". Good idea...I hadn't thought of that. Anyway, even with the doors and windows closed they still manage to find their way into the house.

Here's my makeshift flying termite trap

And here's one of those fancy sticky fly traps that Mike and Kelli gave us!

I do feel kind of sad for the little boogers but the alternative is too miserable (termites EVERYWHERE...on me, on my counters, in my sink....I really don't like them getting stuck in my kitchen sink!).

If we leave a light on outside then this is what it looks like in the morning underneath that light.

And this is poor Moof's waterdish each morning (located INSIDE my KITCHEN!)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!

And we picketh some more...

This week has come and gone. Everyday has been so jam packed full of stuff I don't even know what we've been up to.

I went to the dentist who discovered the problem (that was causing my mouth pain). It's pretty gross what happened so I won't expound here but I'm happy the problem is solved and that a root canal next week should take care of it.

The bummer is that the tooth that is causing the problems is one that I just had worked on in March (by the most expensive dentist in town) and wasn't done properly. It's a bummer to pay an arm and a leg to get a tooth fixed and it's a really big bummer to have to pay twice to have it fixed since it wasn't done right the first time! The good news (in a cheery voice) is that thankfully this time it won't cost an arm and a leg. Hopefully it will get fixed next Thursday when we don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get it worked on.

I am at a complete loss as to what to post about except the same ol' same ol' jabuticaba tree. Here I am about to tell you all again that the fruit is ripe, we're picking the fruit and trying to figure out what to do with it. I think I'm going to make a TON of jelly and just give it away (we're not real jelly kind of people, except for when it comes to the texture of our waste lines).

Before I go off and show 11 pictures of our tree (or rather of the almost-3-year-old who picks the fruit off of the tree) let me interject a random picture that I just love! This is from our other weekend in Brasilia with our friends Mike and Kelli (pictured is their baby girl Emily). I just love little girls:-)



Ok, back to the tree. Here the child picketh the fruit...

And here the child picketh more fruit with a goofy look on her face (that child's father tells her that these faces come from her mother's side of the family)...


Are you worried that this might be the end of the pictures? Don't lose heart!

This is what the fruit looks like on the inside. It's sweet and yummy but has seeds that you have to chew to get the meat off. I think I'd overdose on them if it weren't so much work to eat them...



And here the child helpeth squeeze out the fruit to make juice...

And that same dear child is the only one willing to drink the juice...

And the very same, dear child stood on a wall with a flower in her hand and smiled after she drank the juice that only she would drink...

For those of you who are related to me and check frequently for pictures of your grandchild (or grandniece, or niece, etc) I added a new gadget to the side of my blog that I think (THINK) will email you every time I post. Is that what it does? I wasn't going to add it out of pure vanity because I'm not going to have zillions of "followers" to display on the side and be proud of but I do think it would be rather convenient for the relatives who aren't avid blog followers to know when to come back. If this gadget does nothing of the sort then let me know!

Monday Madness

Has it really been almost a week since my last post? I didn't think I'd have much time for posting this morning but the child still sleepeth so here I sit.

Sometimes I feel like I should title my blog "Daughter of a Polish Man who Blogs about the Granddaughter of that Polish Man". You may go away feeling the same after you read yet another post centered around this child of mine...

Yesterday she listened intently while Jonathan and I chatted about a few things (we were both completely unaware of this fact but I'm sure this is normal almost-3-year-old stuff!). I asked him where the camera was because I wanted to take a picture of the Jabuticaba tree out back now that the fruit is ripening. "I'll take a picture mommy!" Karis chimed in and ran to go get her camera. Her camera in reality is our first real digital camera. A whopping 2 mega pixels and weighing about 3 pounds made this gadget something to be proud of (6 years ago). Anyway, turns out it makes a better toy than it does a camera (it is usually one of the toys that kiddos fight over when they come to our house).

So as Karis came trotting into the kitchen with her camera she asked "what shall I take a picture of?" I told her "go take a picture of the fruit on the tree out back". She ran out, ran in and then exclaimed "Mama, do you want to see a picture of the fruit saying cheese?!" (as she held the used-to-be-screen of the camera up to my face). We laughed about that all afternoon, I think.

Here is a picture that I took of the Jabuticaba fruit (you can tell me whether or not the fruit is saying cheese.)


I've never been the owner of a pool before (until now) but I did have friends who had pools when I was growing up and I remember all sorts of creatures we found trapped in the water. Snakes, turtles, bugs, possumes...you name it. Here we have the daily ritual of cleaning out the 236 beetles that flew into the water overnight but yesterday we had another surprise (this is actually the 2nd time this has happened!). Scroll down to see what pleasant creature was awaiting us and actually swimming around in the pool!



No, flip-flops can't swim and mine wasn't left in the pool. I threw it in next to the terantulla so that you could have an idea on how big this thing was. Honestly, it still doesn't look nearly as ginormous as it did when I took this picture but still, this sucker was huge. We've had tons of smaller terantullas show up in our house but the little ones aren't agressive. These bigguns though, they rear up on their hind legs and hiss if they feel threatened. I've heard that they can spit poison but I've never bothered to look that up.

I was about to scoop this guy out of the water and throw him over the wall 'til Jonathan saw me and said (because he knows me) "if you're getting him out you have to kill him!" You know me (well, most of you do)...I can't kill anything. It's just not in me. Not even a huge terantulla that may spit poison into my eyes (now if he were threatening Karis I am sure a new spirit would arise within me and I would find the courage to do so!). So I said, "ok, I'll leave him for you to take care of but please don't spray him...that is such an awful way to die and he's so big he'd suffer for a long time".

10am came and went....

12pm came and went...

2pm...

4pm...

and there our terantulla friend was still swimming around in the pool. I couldn't take it. I asked Jonathan "please take care of the spider...I can't stand it any longer!" (he's suffering, you know!) Well Jonathan had things to do so he said "ok, you can throw him over the wall but go to the front house to do it". So that's what I did...I scooped him up, he reared up on his back legs, hissed and then I threw him over the wall. We'll see if he manages to find his way back.

Whew, that was a very wordy story.

Onto some less-wordy stuff. I'm still making carrot juice and Karis still loves the stuff. This is what she does when you tell her to "hold the carrot up for the picture"! I still chose this picture because even though you can't see her face it makes me look skinnier than I really am. After weeks of walking at 5:30am and no sugar (hardly any sugar, I should say) for almost 2 weeks I've lost a whoppin' 2 lbs. Things just aren't as they used to be.



I took a few pictures of Karis on Sunday before we headed to church. We usually go to our Brazilian church first and then to an English service that some of the missionaries have. In the English service Karis gets to go to Sunday School which she absolutely loves. Here she is ready to take her Bible with her.

This picture is now the background of our computer screen.

Vaca over.

We went, we partied, we returned and now I'm pooped. It was a fabulous weekend and one worth repeating! Only in Brazil can you pay a buck to enter an amazing zoo and then spoil your child by spending 50 cents on a toy! Actually, even though we did some really fun things what made it fun was spending time with our good friends Mike & Kelli and their little girl Emily. Before we went on furlough the four of us (before Emily came into the picture) did a lot together but then we went on furlough and when we returned life went into chaos mode. So it was really nice to have a few days with nothing pressing on the agenda and visit with them!

Ok, not to get off track. Here are a few pics of the animals. The first guy we saw was this hippo. He (she?) was HUGE. I mean, MASSIVE. It was amazing to see the little stubby legs and try to figure out how they were supporting all that weight. Karis was thrilled to see these in person. 90% of the doodles Karis draws on her doodle pad are either 1) A beetle 2) A roach or 3) A hippo (or so she tells us...amazingly all three of these drawings look very much alike:-) Ok, here's hippo...

This dude was hilarious. Obviously quite bored with the thousands of onlookers who stare, laugh and talk about him...sitting there.

Jonathan took this great picture of the tiger. Doesn't it look like a postcard?

All throughout the zoo there were food stands with popcorn and these little handmade fans stuck in the ground for sale. Karis kept asking for a fan but I guess we were in the don't-indulge-them-by-buying-their-expensive-souvenirs mindset and kept telling her no 'til we asked how much they were. R$1 (equivalent of 45 cents with today's exchange rate). Hmmm...$1 for the entrance fee and 45 cents for a toy? I think we can handle that. We even spent an extra 45 cents on a bag of popcorn for her (what can I say, we like to spoil her).

So here she is with her 45 cent fan (that she is still carrying around and playing with)...


We also went to the hippie fair downtown. There are a ton of booths with lots of handmade items from woodworkings to soapstone to paintings to handwoven clothing to dried flowers...a very dangerous place to send me! It is very difficult for me to stay controlled and not buy lots of house items that I don't need but want to buy and then find a place for them to go. I was very good and only came home with a hippie skirt, a few adorable hippie shirts for Karis and some dried flowers to go in a clay pot that the previous owners of our home left.

There is also a tall tower in the middle of the hippie fair (don't remember what kind of tower or what the purpose of it is) that you can take an elevator ride up and go to a lookout point. It is an amazing view! I wasn't planning on going up since the elevator ride is a bit frightening (all the thoughts of "do they maintain this elevator?" and "I wonder if the cable is 200 years old and strong enough to hold the 25 people who just crammed into this 4x4 elevator?" kept going through my mind a few years ago.) But I was a good wifey and went for the enjoyment of my hubby (those thought still went through my head but it wasn't quite as frightening as last time). All of that to say I have a few pictures from the lookout point! I'm going to quit typing and show the pictures now...

I just love the hippie shirts we got for her.

I'm actually writing this at ladies night while the other ladies are working on crafts. Looks like it's time to go!



PS. Don't have time to proof read so here's my apology if my post doesn't even deserve the elementary reading level rating it received...

PPS. I have been informed via email that what I have been calling a fan is actually a pinwheel. Awesome. A pinwheel for 45 cents sounds even more impressive than a fan for 45 cents!