What now?

Here in Brazil, it's rice and beans e'ry day

I don't know what to do with myself.

Seminary is over.
One more exam and the semester is over.
Christmas is coming.
I'm almost 7 months pregnant.

I'm at home with internet and power coming on and off. No water to wash the laundry I've been wanting to tackle.
So little to do, but also so much to do. I could organize and clean and I could cook something for lunch...
When I was busy I had a mental list of all the things I needed to do when I wasn't busy anymore.

Somehow that list doesn't matter anymore. I kinda just want to paint and be creative. But I feel like somehow I forgot how. I haven't been practicing photography for a long while. That is something I used to adore.
I also want to create some kind of space for our little girl who will be entering our lives soon enough. That wasn't really important to me before. I knew it wasn't really an option financially so I let it go. Maybe I will paint her something. I don't have any paint. I could make some kind of collage just for her. Any ideas? I'm lost. In a few minutes I'll find myself drowning in pintrest pins until I find something that fits her. Somehow I feel like I know her. I should be able to make something that suits her.

I am blessed because I have been having a pretty easy pregnancy. I don't have many responsibilities at the moment. But I'm also kinda bored. I'm usually so focused and studious. I don't know what to do with this... "free time".

I'm feeling good, just a little too lazy in these hot pregnant summer months.

Hello again again

I'm feeling reflective today. I have been thinking about blogging a lot the last while. I miss it.

Today was the last day of seminary. The year has been very good. I have learned a lot. It was also challenging, especially as it came to a close. Teaching while 6 months pregnant at 6 in the morning, has been interesting.

Last day, 

missing some students, 

but its hard to get everyone there at once.

This morning I zombie crawled out of bed at 5:00. I tried to get things together quickly but I felt like I was walking through wet concrete while the clock flew with minutes turning like seconds. I left a few minutes late so I opted to take the bus first. I then stopped at a students house to pick her up and we walked the last ten minutes to the church together.

Our last lesson was on "Malaquias" (Portuguese for Malachi). It was really interesting. I was melding three lessons together so that we could finish the course on time. I wasn't behind, that how it is set up in my area. We talked about gifts. We talked about offerings.

Have you ever received a terrible gift? How did you feel?

In the beginning of Malachi, the Lord chastises the Israelites for offering sacrifices with imperfect animals. They offered the blind and crippled of their flocks. Their offerings were selfish and embarrassing.

What about our offerings to the Lord?
Do we obey the commandments with all of our hearts?
Do we give the best of ourselves?

I invite you to think about that and make a goal to create a habit of heartfelt gift giving to our father in heaven.

As the year comes to a close we celebrate the perfect and eternal give he gave to us. Our Father in Heaven gave his perfect son to die for us. Through him we are made whole.

John 3:16

Living conditions

For my humanities class, I was required to make a collage about something in my life. I chose my living conditions because they are so different than what I am used to. I thought you might enjoy seeing what I came up with.

This was made with PicMonkey.com using photos from Pedro's house.

Week 2

Wow.

Culture shock.

I STILL am quite shocked by cold showers.... I am not sure I'll ever get used to that. I sometimes dread shower time... Pedro doesn't seem to mind. He showers two or three times a day. I guess that's wise because you get pretty dirty here from dust and even sweat. I can't get myself to shower quite as much as he does, it's just too cold!

It's pretty warm here, but it's winter. That means it rains. It's a warm rain, which I imagined to be much sweeter. I think it would be if it wasn't so strong. It's like the sky is shooting billions of water bullets on your roof... or self if you go outside.

I've moved into my apartment already. My street is made of mud. The only reason that bothers me is the way my flipflops flip dirt up the back of my leg. Flip flops have proven to be the most practical. They wash and dry easily. I usually wash my feet, and legs, whenever I arrive at Pedro's house. He usually drives me home, which is nice because I don't have to worry about the mud thing.

Would you like to meet some of my neighbors?

It seems people raise farms here even they don't have the yardage for it.
There are quite a few chickens. They look different than ours. Betyjane says because they are feed chemicals and hormones. They probably aren't overfed either. People don't worry about them getting stolen, but they must lock them up at night or something. I would worry about the stray dogs sneaking a mid-night snack.

My favorite was when I surprised by a family of pigs crossing the street. They are so funny. I see them all the time now. I'm starting to think I should give them names so I can greet them every morning.

I just keep thinking about how funny it is!  I think about the times we "ooo" and "aww" over duck familes we see cross the street. Ducklings are darling, but a fat stocky family of pigs crossing your path is just hilarious.

Week 1

I am blessed.

I got here just before a fun holiday, São João! Which meant Pedro had a lot of time off to hang out with me.

Maybe you saw my Facebook post about it, if not, here is a snippet of Pedro driving me around the neighborhood to check out the fires in the streets.

It's a lot of dancing and dressing up.

I was excited about the dress up, but Pedro said just the kids do that. Bummer. He was right only the kids were really dressed up in the street, I would have looked a little silly... but I still would have done it if I had the stuff!

We ate some food. I don't remember what this is called, but Pedro seemed to like it!

There are a lot of foods made from corn during this festival. My favorite was munguzá. I wanted to find you cool recipe so you could try it at home. The best I could find in English was the following blog: (click the picture and scroll down to the recipe)

BTW, It looks super fancy in this picture but I ate it out of a plastic cup served out of an old rustic giant pot.

You should really try it. It's good!

Traveling

Well,
I was pleasantly surprised! I was really really dreading this whole fly half-way across the world thing... I assumed it was going to be a nightmare. I haven't been a huge fan of flying ever since my flight home from Brazil in November. I had to muster up some courage before I could face the three legs of flying I was about to endure. Two of them were overnight. WOW. I really didn't get that much sleep yet I still arrived energetic.

Saving grace number one: My aunt Marilyn and her husband Matt.

I happened to have a 14 hour layover after my first overnight flight. Luckily it was in Atlanta so my Aunt could entertain me! She was also kind enough to let me sleep a lot.

Here is a list of my activities:

1. I had a yummy smoothie
2. I took a nap
3. We went to the Art museum!
4. We ate at Chick-fil-a (We enjoyed delicious peach milkshakes)
5. I took another good nap
6. We checked out a great bar/grill, where I met asparagus fries, which I think about frequently ever since...
All along I enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Atlanta, GA. It really is a beautiful and interesting city.

Saving grace number two: Empty plane

Just before my second flight I bought one of those fancy neck pillows to see if it would help me sleep.

Turns out I didn't need it. No one was assigned to sit in the seat next to me. I was sad that the entertainment system wasn't working, (there were some interesting films listed on there) but I didn't complain because being able to lay over the seat next to me made it totally forgettable. It still wasn't perfect. I had to scrunch up to fit. I woke up frequently. Nonetheless the experience was wildly different than my last multi-day trip.

Saving grace number three: A few extra Zs

The last leg was glorious. I didn't like to have to collect my bags and wait through lines, but I was just so excited to be so close to Recife that nothing could bring me down. I slept just a little more on my wee little 2 hour flight. (I had to make use of that fancy neck pillow)

I arrived there and walked through the doors to see Pedro waiting. That was a well-needed "like home" feeling to finish off my traveling.

Happy Sunday!

Today I went to church and many had already heard I was moving to Brazil. That made it interesting!

So I decided I would start telling everyone else in casual conversation. I even told a stranger I had just met about my up and coming adventures.

I assume most people think I am a little crazy. But everyone was pleasantly supportive. Maybe I should always give news of life changes in chapels because everyone is on their best christlike attitude.

Maybe I assume people will think I am crazy, because sometimes I myself think I just might be a little crazy! :P 

But I'm ready for some adventure, and I quite honestly I dearly LOVE my man, Pedro. So it will be worth it.

If you want to follow my adventures stay tuned and follow this, my blog!