For Horizontina's 54th birthday, they closed off the main roads and had a bike-a-thon for the kids. It was a riot. The girls loved cruising down main street.

The picture of the couple, is a couple from our local church--Diana and Oseas. The group picture was taken at a large church function in a city about an hour and a half from here. We made some new friends, and met up with a dear old friend, Valdelir (who is to my right). We met Valdelir, in Moline, IL, when his son-in-law transferred there for 18 months around 2002.

The last picture is a view of sunset from our living room window.

Our toothless beauty. Makaela has lost 4 teeth in the last 2 weeks. She told me today that she looks even prettier without her teeth than she did before she lost them, and she's right-- everyday the girls just get cuter...I love a toothless grin.

Evening service at our church
Our last Sabbath School with Loda. Loda and Marco are our friends that we traveled to Florinaopolis with. Sad, for us, and happy for them, Marco recieved a promotion to another area in John Deere that took them way up to central Brazil near the capital, Brasilia. We miss them dearly.

"Thai Chili and Cashew" made by Andrew. For our date night on Mondays, we no longer can take out from our favorite Indian Restaurant (we miss you Jaspreet), so Andrew has been recreating some favorite dishes from back home. He's such an awesome cook...this was crazy good.
"Thai Garlic Black Pepper" by Andrew...another yummy creation that we used to order from "Exotic Thai" in Moline, IL.

Makaela reading. She is reading beautifully now in English and Portuguese. The phonics are quite different and every once in awhile she'll pronounce the English "i" like the Portuguese "i" with a long "e" sound. It's pretty cute. :)

Makaela's Sunday bouquet

Sir William resting in one of his favorite spots under an orange tree.

Reading...

My friend Marcia, the owner of the English language school, and one of her twin boys--it's either Arthur or Bernardo...not too sure on that.

Finding baby puppies at the park. The mother was a little nervous with the girls holding them, but amazingly sweet about it. We gave her some food to eat and the smart little thing took it over to a tree, and covered it up with some leaves to save for later. The dogs here roam the streets freely. For the most part they are all very friendly. A lot of times they will travel in groups of 4 or 5...just walking down the street wagging their tails. The girls LOVE this!!!

Along with the meat, rice and beans are traditionally served. This evening there was a potpourri of foods--potato salads, fruit, green salad, etc. The food here in the south of Brazil is very German with a touch of Italian. The only seasonings used are salt, butter, and cream.

Here are two of the band members. The pants they are wearing are very popular Gaucho (Brazilian Cowboy) pants, and all of the little boys (and men) where them for fun or for special occasions.
Churrasco--We went to a colleague of Andrew's home for a party a few weeks back where they had a Gaucho Band and Churrasco. Churrascarias (as you can see in the background of this picture) are incorporated into every home. Some homes have two. Here you can seem them barbecuing the meat on "espetos" over the coals. We brought along veggies and pineapple to grill--very tasty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oi Amigos! Today, I am a little under the weather. It's never a good thing to be sick, but for today, I'm grateful, as it gives me the opportunity to sit still and write a little bit about our lives down here. Since the end of our x-mas break, the girls and I have been busy schooling in the mornings and part of the afternoon. The children here in Brazil, have been on summer break for the past 2 months, and just returned to classes this Monday. So, the girls are in good company again! The children here only school until about 11:45 a.m., and then they all go home for lunch, and stay home. It's a beautiful thing. Actually, the entire town closes up for about an hour and half for lunch, so people can go home and eat with their families. It's very charming.

There is a church with a large bell tower situated about 2 blocks from our house. It rings every morning at 6 a.m. in an effort to stir the sleeping community and make sure we are all up and "at em," it rings again at noon to remind us it's lunch time, and once again at 6 p.m., to let us know our work day is complete. It's a beautiful rich sounding bell. The girls now live by the bell. Andrew pulls into the driveway for lunch in tune with that bell. A neat tradition the church has is that when someone dies, they ring the bell one time for each year of the deceased person's life. We're always happy when it rings for a very long time!

Our town, Horizontina, is like something out of a story book. We are able to walk the entire length of the town to any place we'd like--the library, the pet shop, the snack shop, grocery stores, churches, schools, parks, clothing stores, friends homes, and even John Deere. And, to add to the charm, everywhere we go, somebody knows our name (like in Cheers). Last Sunday, when I was walking with Sam, a lady stopped us on the street, and said, "so are you accustomed to Brazil now?" And to Samantha she said, "Where’s your little sister?" Samantha and I were both racking our brains in an effort to recall where we had met her. As I listened attentively to her rapidly flowing Portuguese, I found out that we had never met, but she informed us that "this is a small town, and we pretty much know about everything that is 'different'". And, "different" we are.

The beautiful breakfast that Andrew and Makaela made for us...pancakes, vegetarian "pigs in a blanket", and fruit kakobs...

Samantha in front of the lot next to our house where they hold "Carnival" activities...which means as of the last 2 weeks and one more week to come we don't sleep very well, as they party until about 6 in the morning--lots of people and crazy loud music...along with a live band of drummers.
Samantha in front of our house...

This is the English school where we study Portuguese
Samantha's Sunday morning bouquet... Every Sunday morning I take one of the girls for a walk while Andrew and the other girl make a special breakfast (and we provide the bouquet on our return). :) The girls love to gather flowers along the way. There are so many varieties and they flourish like weeds...we find them in the ditches along the roads, cracks in the sidewalks, and on trees.

Our church here in Horizontina--it's only 2 blocks from our house
View from our church window...the house next door was demolished and the view is of another house. If you look closely you can see their washing machine on the back porch. Thanks to the tropical climate, this is very common. Most people don't use dryers, so having the washing machine outside is very practical.

At a local River Sabbath Afternoon
Posing in front of an "animals prohibited in the water" sign --lucky for Theo who detests swimming

Our friend, Shirley Richter, wrote us this poem before our move to Brazil. Her husband Jay, is the president of the Christian radio station KRQC, in Davenport, Iowa. Andrew was his right hand man while we were there, which will explain the adorable punch line at the end of the poem. Thanks Shirley! :)

Our Prayer

As we send you on your way

To a home far away

We assure you we will pray

For your safety day by day

For no distance can erase

The sweet memories we trace

Of the friendship so true

That we have found in you

We'll thank God for you

As you seek adventures new

And pray that He will guide

And stay close by your side

We will pray for His love

To keep your hearts from above

In all of your trials

You'll face across the miles

Now in case you failed to know

Our feelings deep we will show

For our constant prayer will be

Hurry back to KRQC!!

Shirley Richter

This is one lucky cow...I'm sure glad that the North Dakota cows don't know how good their cousins have it...
Sitting in paradise--Makaela, Samantha, and Camila

Autumn and Loda in front of a 100 year old church in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil
Overlooking a beach with Junior and Camila

Oyster Traps
First beach we stopped to admire--very quiet and charming

A sparkly Christmas Eve
The girls each bought me a stuffed animal to replace some favorites I left back home :)

William and Andrew having some bonding time
Samantha reading a Christmas story to us

Merry Christmas to all and thank you so much for the phone calls and e-mails! We have the best friends and family! Lots of love to you all from us! :)