We went shopping today and I bought the girls some traditional Rio Grande do Sul Gaucha clothes--in English they are the traditional cowgirl clothes that the men and women still use today. In the past the women wore long "prenda" dresses which the girls also have, but the pant outfit is so much more fun to play and ride horses in.

More pics of our friendly lizards...

We have been adopted by a preocious little dachsund we call "Salsicha" which means "hotdog" in Portuguese. He does have a family, as he wears an old belt cut into a collar around his neck. It's obvious though that he is not too fond of them, as he stays with us for weeks on end. He's absolutley, positively certain that we are his, and that we and our house are his responsiblity to protect and love. He's a heartbreaker, and even our cockapoo, Theodore has taken to him.

We also have come into the good fortune of being owners of 3 baby Argentine Black & White Tegus (lizards). I haven't had much interest in reptiles or amphibians since I was in grade school, but these little guys have stolen my heart right along with my girls'. At this time they are only about 5 inches long, but should grow to be about 4 feet long. They are already so docile and friendly. When the girls put them down on the floor, they head right for them and run into their hands or onto their laps...it's the cutest thing.

Pool days with "crazy" daddy

Sunflower in our garden

Every step of life seems so bittersweet. The bitterness in the sweetest of moments is the painful knowing that the moment is passing by all too quickly. I have these bittersweet pains daily. I already miss who the girls were at every single age--0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10...at every age they are there own special individual person, who I will never hold again--those chubby baby arms, the sleepy toddler nights with a nose pressed squarely against mine, breathing deeply while enjoying the flux of her own hot breath against my face...in truth she is using the feel of her own breath reverbearting off my face as a baramoter to see if I am still lying there or not...such determinaton to keep me snuggling with her all night long. They now put that determantion into other areas. And, during these precious days of discovery, books, friends, questions about God, I know I'm going to miss them here at this stage with just as much of an ache in my heart, as I do all of the years past.

The girls are dealing with similar aches as I have about their growing up. They are now fully immersed in their lives here, and are loving it, while at the same time they have deep feelings of homesickness. They have fears of leaving here in June...of leaving their friends (above in the pics you can see the "friends are forever club" they made under our stairs), the house, the neighborhood, the snack shack down the street, the language they have come to love. And, yet, they are excited to go back home to their friends, the house, the neighborhood, and the English language that they miss hearing (unfortunatley there is no snack shack down the street in Carbon Cliff). Beautifully bittersweet--this is life.

Our local Snowman

If I Had My Child to Raise Again


If I had my child to raise all over again...I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.

I’d finger paint more, and point the finger less.

I would do less correcting and more connecting.

I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I would care to know less and know to care more.

I’d take more hikes and fly more kites...

I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play...

I’d ignore the stares and stare at more stars...

I’d do more hugging and less tugging...

I’d see the oak in the acorn more often...

I would be firm less often, and affirm much more...

I’d abandon my love of power, …in favor of the power of love...


I stole this from our friends, Dr. Arthur and Dr. Becky's, Chiropractic Newletter--

Thank you guys!

Typical city

Baby coconut

A happy New Year to you all! We have made it safely back to Horizontina from our visit to Florianapolis in the state of Santa Catarina. We spent 9 days being beach bums...we have had our fill of sand, and salt water and are ready to tackle a new school year, and Andrew is ready to move forward at work--we are on the downward trend now--only 6 months till we move back home! We did not take many pictures of our vacation as it is not safe to walk around with a camera. I did manage to take some shots from the car of some of the scenery! The girls' favorite part of the trip was sledding and boarding down the sand dunes. I have to admit this was my absolute most favorite part too!!! I don't have any pics of the gorgeous steep hills, but Makaela and I braved a very fun, very steep one together--so steep, that right before we went down she said, "We're not going to die are we?" The ride down was crazy fast and fun, but it's not the ride down that killed us-it was the long walk up!

Wow! I had an insanely crazy, half good and half bad week last week. I'm just grateful that we're here, it's December 16th, and we all made it through to the other side just fine. The 6th of December, Andrew left for Germany, for a short one week trip. It was going to be a good week (as good as it can be without your all time favorite person), but challenges surfaced in every corner of life here. I don't deal with cockroaches--they are 3 inches long, fast, and way to clever. However, they decided since the cockroach killer, a.k.a. Andrew, was out of town that they would come visit us. UGH!!! I found myself some cockroach spray that you can use from 4 ft away--it's lethal stuff. They become almost completely paralyzed with in seconds of being hit with the nasty chemical. Now that Andrew is home, he just uses shoes again--much safer for all of us. I also had clicking lizards jumping off the walls behind my computer chair, flooding from a vicious tropical storm, my internet died an hour after Andrew left and didn't return until the day after her returned,which also meant that my VoIP phone was rendered useless. It was a very trying week. But, in spite of the bugs, lizards, isolation from the U.S., we managed to have some fun, as there were two American families visiting to check things out before they transfer down here next year. The girls and I had a blast showing them around, and giving them tips on where to shop, etc.

A new thing we started doing last week is jornaling our prayers and thanksgivings with the girls, so we could physically document how God answers prayers. One prayer we pray everyday is that God will send someone to us that day that we can help. God has gone above and beyond the call of duty, and blessed us with several people everyday. We have people coming to the house needing food, clothes, etc., and yesterday, we had a teenage girl that I've never seen in our neighborhood stop by to tell us that she thought our poodle had escaped. Our poodle was safely within our gates, but as it turned out what she really needed was to talk, a word of encouragment, and a few good hugs. It has been so exciting for all of us to see God answering this simple prayer. Today, we had a few phone calls from people needing encouragment and a mother with little children needing food and clothes. How exciting is that? We also have not had one single cockroach today--at least not yet.