HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIS!

SUPERSIZED AMERICA

Shortly after arriving in the good ol' USA I went to the store to buy a few things. My list read something like this:
l). bath soap
2). cotton balls
3). Q-tips
4). mouth wash
5). etc.

I was looking for modest portions that would be sufficient to cover my four-month stay in the USA. My eyes searched the shelves for one bar of soap (we have bins of soap packaged that way in Brazil) but I woefully discovered it would be virtually impossible to buy just ONE bar of soap or a small quantity of anything. I was forced, (coerced?), obligated or what-have-you, to buy WAY more than I wanted and I was not happy with supersized America. I went home with 1.5 liters of mouth wash, 300 cotton swabs (I call them Q-tips), 100 jumbo sized cotton balls, 3 bars of soap and 10 razor blades. I only have 35 days left in the USA and I have close to 1.2 liters of mouth wash left, approximately 291 cotton swabs, 89.5 cotton balls, 2 bars of soap, and 7 new razors. I think we should change the national anthem to read:
America, America, too supersized for me,
Let fly the cry: "We want to buy
In smaller quantities!"

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

From the airport we all converged at Michael & Cari's place for a grand reunion and Christmas in July. One of the gifts was a video in Portuguese that the kids loved. I was in my glory with my kids close to me and my grand kids dancing about. In the midst of all the hullabaloo it was clear that families were meant to be together and enjoy one another and it seemed almost wrong to have missed out on so much of their lives. For now, though, life was wonderful!

THE RIDE HOME

The cheering section!

Penélope Elizabeth

Gabriella MayLyne

Caleb Michael

Pat & I split up for the ride home from the airport: he in Michael's car and I in Michelle's. The grandkids won my heart immediately. Caleb's winsome smile makes the sun come out, and you know there's hidden mischief behind Gabriella's sparkling eyes. Penélope, prim and pensive, charmed me with her demure self. And then there was "Baby," "Monkey,"and the others who accompanied us all the way home.

A BLOOPY SPECIAL WELCOME!

Grandpa meets Penélope & Caleb for the 1st time

These two were only a month old when Grandma last saw them.

A BIG bear hug for Michael.

...and a squishy squeeze for Michelle.

Yes! This is the terminal that fouled us up.

As Flight #851 descended at the Minneapolis airport that Tuesday afternoon we could hardly contain our excitement at the anticipated reunion with our Stateside kids and grandkids. Would the little ones be shy and afraid to come to us? Pat had yet to meet two-year-old Penélope and Caleb, and three-year-old Gabriella would not remember us well either. Much to the dismay of our children, our Airtran plane landed at the Humphrey Airport instead of at the main terminal where they were waiting. Thankfully, we had just been loaned a cell phone and were able to connect with them. And here's the photos to tell the story.

KEY WEST is a key spot to visit!

From a map, the keys look more like pebbles in a vast ocean, but as our van headed south, those pebbles turned into little towns with long bridges linking one to another--imagine driving between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean! The coral lent beautiful shades of green and rose to the water and we had to stop at one point to follow a path out into the shallow water while watching the wind surfers!

But the town of Key West was the best of all! Home to Ernest Hemmingway and the Little White House, it charmed us with its artsy look, tropical vegetation and Spanish-style homes. And the ice cream was the best!

We can now say we have been to the "bottom" of the continental United States and they say that on a clear night, one can see the lights of Havana.

Goodby, Brazil! Hello, Florida!

See those super vitamin drinks? That's the man responsible for my weight increase.

Left behind...

although I wasn't sad to leave behind our cold winter to embrace Miami's warmth. Ah, yes! How comforting the sunshine was to my Vitamin-D starved body. The humidity in Florida, though, was another subject. Thank God for air-conditioning! We wouldn't have stopped in Miami if it weren't for two special people--my sister and brother-in-law. They made our welcome so special with flowers, signs, a basket of toiletries and the use of a cell phone (for free!) plus doing lots of fun things together. Arlin got us going every morning with his super-powered vitamin drink that we enjoyed on their back porch. (More of our fun time at their house in a future blog..

Furlough and the 2nd Coming of Christ

Getting ready for furlough and the 2nd coming of Christ have a lot in common.

First of all, it will surely come to pass. I have tickets for the 24th whether I'm ready or not, and although I don't have a date for the 2nd coming of Christ I know it will happen.

Second of all, I'm trying to get everything clean before I leave on furlough. This week has been very stressful trying to get every vestige of dirt and grease out of the kitchen. Patricia and I worked ourselves to the bone (mainly Patricia) and woke up with sore arms the next morning. After that experience we don't believe the house really needs a spring cleaning, BUT... I finally quit procrastinating and threw away pieces of paper that had collected dust in my office for years, and I actually threw an old bra in the waste basket (then retrieved it) and carted two armloads of clothes to the give-away! And, I allowed Patricia to throw away some egg shells that had been sitting on the laundry shelf waiting for the right moment for crushing them up for "someone" to use for a craft moment with their children. (Let's not mention the bag of folded coffee boxes or that can of old wax). I'm feeling liberated and hope you can see the link between getting one's heart clean and all the trash thrown out of it before Christ returns.

Third of all, my body should be healthy before leaving on furlough. Pat and I have been traipsing in and out of many doctor and dentist's offices and we finished our last exam on Friday by passing the stress test with flying colors (and I did better than healthy, careful- how-he-eats-and-exercises Pat!!). Right now I can't see the link between this third point and the 2nd coming of Christ, but I'm sure you will.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PATRICIA!!!

A belated happy birthday, Patricia Joy. We had fun at the Bonna Pasta Restaurant!

Have you ever found...

a piece of elastic dangling from the freezer door of your refrigerator?

It happened to me for the first time this morning. No, I'm not kidding. This morning when I went into the kitchen I saw a short piece of elastic hanging out of the freezer door!! I laughed! and yes, I can explain.

I am engaged in a sewing project and carefully cut two pieces of elastic for said project. With elastics in hand, I left sewing area for a reason I have now forgotten (I have been very distracted these days...) When I went back to my sewing, I only had one piece of elastic in my hand. Aha! I said. I must have let it drop somewhere while I zigzagged through the house, so I began to retrace my steps to the bedroom, the kitchen, the sewing table, the sewing machine, the ironing board, the big rocking chair where I sat, the trunk next to the chair, but it had literally disappeared into thin air! Defeated, I cut another piece of elastic and sewed it into place.

So, does that explain why there was a piece of elastic hanging outside the freezer door????

MISSING: ONE LAPIS LAZULI

My husband came back from a trip to Chile last year with a present for me: earrings in lapis lazuli, a stone Chile is famous for. Pat didn't know the name of the stone, but my research on the internet convinced me it was the famous "lapis lazuli" mined in the Chilean Andes. I was thrilled to own something so fine.

The other day, however, I was preparing to take a shower, and as my nature is to do things with great vigor and little care, I pulled off my sweater (vigorously) and one of my lapis lazuli earrings came with it. I knew it had to have happened just then because the earring backing was still stuck behind my right ear lobe. Thinking it couldn't have fallen far, I shook out my clothes, searched the floor on hands and knees, thoroughly looked through the waste basket, on top of the dresser, in the open dresser drawer, combed the bathroom, but all to no avail. I slowly came to the unhappy realization that my earring had simply disappeared into thin air and wasn't coming back. I took it as a God-given opportunity to "let go" of material things.

Soon afterwards I left home for two weeks to help take care of my new granddaughter Julia and daughter Patricia while Pat traveled to Chile and Paraguay. I secretly hoped he would bring me another pair of lapis lazuli (which he didn't).

The Tuesday after I returned home I was hurriedly cleaning the bathroom--vigorously and carelessly-- to make my goal of fininshing by 5:30 p.m. so I could go walking with a neighbor lady. As I cleaned the sink I noticed something stuck in the drain. The only thing I could see was what looked like an upside-down thumb tack. Thumb tacks are rare at our house, especially in the bathroom, so I jabbed at it with the end of an old toothbrush I was using to clean the drain. Once, twice, it resisted my pokes, but on the third try I heard a clink as it fell out of sight down the drain! I thought nothing of it, finished my cleaning and went for my walk. DAYS LATER IT DAWNED ON ME THAT I HAD PROBABLY BEEN LOOKING AT THE POST TO THE LAPIS LAZULI EARRING!!!!! Of course, what a dummy I'd been. That earring had been stuck in the drain all those days waiting for me to find it, yet no one had seen it. I was crushed. To have come that close to recovering my earring, only to let it slip away was hard to bear. It was GONE now, forever. (Our bathroom pipes are made out of PVC and are ram-rod straight with no way to open them up.) I had released my earring to the Lord, but all of a sudden it seemed like it was supposed to be mine again. (Okay, so I give it to you again, Lord.)

Since then several questions have come to mind:

1) Why do I have to do things so vigorously and carelessly?

2) Why wasn't I curious enough to look calmly and carefully at the object in the drain?

3) Why did I come soooo close to finding my lapis lazuli only to lose it?

You may find this incident silly and certainly inconsequential, but is there a lesson here for me?

SCARY PIRATES

PIRATY AFTERNOON

I had a blast with my grandchildren Emily & Eric one afternoon. They wanted to make a pirate boat. Reesha's livingroom was transformed! Please note Eric's fish in the sea and Emily's island with the green palm tree and "pillowy" sand. Don't we look scary???

MAY FLOWER

The May flower is not a pun; it is the Brazilian name for the USA Christmas cactus. This year my peach variety can only be summed up in one word: glorious!!! It has never had so many blooms arranged with such sublime symmetry and grace. This year for the first time I have a white Christmas cactus with delicate pink. Dare I say they are almost divine?? I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KEEPING UP THE TRADITION

Emily was brave and adventurous.
Eric was a bit more cautious, but loved it!

I come from a family of tree climbers; Grandma Dilly was still climbing trees just a few years ago. I felt it my duty to teach my two grandchildren the delights of tree climbing. We had a wonderful opportunity while visiting Neval's parents farm outside of Camaquã.

Amazed

Serenity Personified

My blood & bones

The fam: Julia at 1 week


I'm amazed at Julia's
tiny, teeny fingers and toes
rosebud mouth
blue eyes that search for mine
doll-sized head
black hair like her Daddy
little dimple on her right cheek like her Mommy
big soul tucked somewhere inside that little body
God who knew how to create her from nothing!

MEET THE PRINCESS

This is Emily and Eric's hands next to Júlia's.
Tickled pink!--paternal grandparents

Here is Julia Joy Dugan Batista. She is reigning and everyone does her bidding. Nice life, huh?

A SHOWER WITHOUT THE GUEST OF HONOR

Patricia called me on the phone on Friday morning, May 9th, and after her opening question "Are you busy running around?"(I was getting ready for her baby shower that night) all I heard were sobs and more sobs. My mother's heart froze as I questioned her and only got sobs as an answer. When she got her emotions under control she said she had just been to the doctor's office and her ultrasound showed she was losing amniotic fluid. The doctor said the baby was fine, but he wanted her to come back in on Monday for another exam and if she was still losing fluid, she would have a C-section. Well, that was unsettling news, but Patricia assured me she was all right and the doctor had okayed her coming for the shower. Coming for the shower? That didn't sound like a good idea to me. She hung up and my mind was whirling with questions, fears, anxieties and an attempt to trust God in all this. After more phone calls it was decided that Patricia shouldn't come to her own baby shower...

My next quandry was if I should go ahead with the shower...and after weighing the pros and cons and asking God what I should do, my conclusion was that we walk by faith (which, by the very word, suggests we aren't absolutely sure about what we're doing) so I did what I thought was the Lord guiding me...and I'm so glad I did. My shower preparations were a bit jerky, meaning I ran hither and thither trying to do many things at once. I tried making a marshmallow filling for the cake, for example, but the Portuguese recipe didn't explain things clearly so I looked at a similar recipe in English and discovered the right temperature for the syrup was 242º (can one get any more exact than that?) so I whipped out my candy thermometer and started watching the needle rise, but it stopped at a certain point and only moved up very, very slowly. Unfortunately, I started beating the egg whites too soon, so I turned off the beater and when my syrup was ready to pour into the egg whites, the egg whites had dissipated! And, the syrup had gone OVER 242º and turned a nice amber color! What to do? I started over on the egg whites and went with the burnt syrup (later adding vanilla and almond flavoring to hide the taste--it maybe helped a little.) I spread it on my cake and popped it into the freezer for a while. When it was time to serve, however, the sticky marmallow was so "firm" (putting it mildly) that it stuck to the serving knife and made the layers fall apart on the plate (ufdah! as we Norweigans say), but everyone liked it anyway!!

To summarize this too-long account, the party was lots of fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. We called Patricia by skype so everyone could greet her and she could thank those who came. A friend prayed for her and as she prayed, baby Julie gave her Mommy some hard kicks (I think she was telling her to get ready cuz she was coming!).

Only about three hours after the last guest left, Patricia was already at the hospital to have Julia. God knew she couldn't wait until Monday to have this baby. The doctor later said the baby was losing weight as well...but God was taking care of her and we praise Him for a healthy baby girl that was born at about 37 weeks.

Thank you, Lord, and welcome to our world, Julia! I love you.

A Tower and a Rock

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe." Pv.18:10

"...He will set me high upon a rock." Ps.27:5b

I found an artist walking the beach...

he was out for his morning walk (I think) and allowed me to capture a few seconds of his life.

Vacation at the Beach

Floripa (short for Florianópolis) has some of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil!!

Not a blue ox, but brown is good, too!

After a week at the beach and busy times getting ready for baby Julia, I am back!

Pat and I arrived at vacationland coming from different directions--he from a meeting up north, and I driving myself from the south. We rendezvoused at the bus station in Floripa--how romantic!!
However, I had to stop at our favorite spot along the way -- Engenho Lanches-- to devour cheese bread They also serve freshly-squeezed sugar cane juice (which I don't particularly like), but which is their calling card and the charm of this restuarant. Here is Mr. Brown Ox at work making sugar cane juice.

27 VS. 55

as in 27 dogs vs. 55 people on my block. Sound crazy? I agree, but it's true. When a stray dog or cat or person walks down my street, there is a loud chorus of barking that accompanies the stranger. I want you to meet my neighbor's dog, Kiko. He has to be isolated in the back yard because of violent tendencies towards other dogs in his own yard. What you hear on this video is typical of his race. I guess they get lonely just like people.

STAR FRUIT

One of the blessings of living in the subtropics is the variety of delicious fruit. The star fruit is not real common in Brazil and is expensive to buy in the supermarkets. However, my neighbor has a star fruit tree in his back yard and shares its fruit with us when in season--which is NOW! For those who have never seen a star fruit on the tree, I went to my neighbors just so you could see how it grows. By the way, star fruit tastes delicious in a cabbage salad together with other fruit.

SHOES ANYONE??

This is not the typical place to keep one's tennies, but it's certainly original. I came across this scene on one of my walks several weeks ago, and when I returned the other day to take the picture, no one had disturbed them.

Nedra's Pile a Few Minutes Later

Pat was unavailable for comments on his pile.

New Piles

Nedra's Pile & Pat's Pile

Seven Years Old

Happy Birthday, Emily!

C.S. Lewis' Monopods

For those who've read the Narnia series, you will remember the monopods--those curious creatures who always said the obvious. My husband's unique sense of humor does seem to resemble Lewis' monopods at times. Therefore, once in a while I will be posting one of his "monopodisms" for my readers...

Linda tagged me!

Okay...here’s my list of 10 Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I went to a one-room country school from 1st grade through the middle of 5th grade, then graduated from 8th grade in a much larger school ( It had two rooms: upper and lower grades).
2. I was a cheer leader for the Nash Ramblers, our grade school basketball team and I loved it!!!!!! (Give me an "N" clap, clap, Give me an "A"....)
3. My sister Cyndee and I would sing duets in church and sometimes get the giggles so badly we couldn’t finish the song.
4. I got my driver’s permit when I was 12 years old and my license at 13. Sometimes I drove the neighbor kids home from school. Scary???
5. I fell into the river that ran behind our house while trying to walk my puppy Posie across a large tree that had fallen across the river. My puppy quickly swam to shore while I stood up, bawling, and walked out of the river with the help of my mother. Fortunately, the water only came up to my chest.
6. I love to collect stamps, salt & pepper shakers and spoons!
7. My childhood dream is to see the redwood trees in California.
8. I love country music.
9. My first airplane ride was in Mexico with missionary Danny Ost piloting a small plane. Pat was told to throw tracts out the window as we circled low over a village. I gave my approval from the back seat. The missionary was pamphleting the whole country this way.
10. I attended a summer conference at Bethany in the 60s when they ran out of water and had to bring in a water truck. I discovered later that my future father-in-law was also present that year and we may have been at the water truck at the same time!!! Think about those implications!