Millie Moments....

My sister was visiting a few weeks ago and during one of our conversations she told me that she thought that I ought to write down some of my experiences. For those of you who have spent very much time with me at all know that I am prone to somewhat awkward moments. These experiences include the normal mishaps like walking into glass doors, locking the keys in the car with only thongs covering my feet and no coat, or entering the wrong bathroom. However, they also include perhaps the more unusual... driving away with the gas hose still attached, slicing some poor guy up at the cannery and sending him to the ER, driving down the freeway in the opposite direction, or pulling the gas nozzle out of the car while it is still pumping gas (there was actually a good reason for that one)...looking at those I am thinking that maybe if I just did not drive I would not have to deal with such moments as these.... Anyway...back to the point. I affectionately (or perhaps not so affectionately) refer to these experiences as "Millie Moments." I kind of laughed at my sister's idea and did not give the idea much thought, but then Saturday night happened. We were given movie tickets as a gift a few months ago and decided to go out with a couple of friends to the movies. We got popcorn and candy to share. Out came the dreaded milk duds. You confusedly ask what could possibly happen with milk duds, do you? In my skillful hands anything is possible! We passed those babies back and forth throughout the movie. When the movie came to an end we all stood to leave. I looked down and right in my crouch area were the melted messy remains of those blasted milk duds!!! And lets me clear...they no longer resembled anything close to milk duds at this point. I hurried to the bathroom to try to clean off the disturbing looking mess. Sadly my attempt was fruitless!!! The only alternative I was left with was to laugh...and I did that...and let people make their own assumptions as to the mess on my pants. Such is my life friends!!!

Songs

More Fun!

One of the most fun parts about coming to Brazil this year is that we have been able to do lots of fun things that we haven´t before. When Lincon and I were talking about the particulars of us coming to Brazil again Lincon said that this time we would get a nanny to help out with the boys and that we would spend most of our time in Tiangua just chilling with his parents. Well, the first part was accurate...we do have a girl helping us out with the boys (her name is Ana), the second part is far from what we have been doing!!! I think when he saw how much easier this time has been plans changed in a hurry and we have been running from this place to the next ever since. I´m not complaining...it has been fun and I can´t believe that we will be coming home soon already. We have gone to a couple new beaches this time. One is really touristy and for good reason. Jericoacoara is seriously such a cool place...a new favorite here for sure. The beach there is beautiful but not for the reasons you would typically thing of. It has amazing rock formations and emerald colored moss. So pretty! At night the street comes alive with vendors and different little shops with fun things to look at not to mention the oh so yummy pizza we had at Pizza Banana. We also went to another beach one state up in Piaui called Parnaiba. The hotel we stayed at had a waterslide and Sam and Seth adored it...ok...so we adults loved it, too. When we went to the beach there it was really rocky in some areas which would not have such great appeal for swimmers, but as for me I was excited because that meant for great exploring. I dragged the kids out there and proceeded to look in every crevis looking for critters. We saw baby lobsters, a sea cucumber (or at least that is what I think it was), and crabs. On our way back in I saw a rock that looked like it would be a good place for some little something to hide. I lifted it up and saw a glimps of what looked like a blue crab. On the down side I cut my finger on a broken piece of shell on the outside of the rock and that ended our adventure in the rocks. It was fun while it lasted!!!
Sam and Seth have really had a lot of fun here and it is so nice to see the relationship that they are developing with their grandparents. They like to go on walks with Vovo Carlos to buy ice cream and will go almost anywhere with Vovo Rita. They both have learned how to swim while they have been here, too. Sam, unfortuantely has had enough fun, though. He keeps saying he wants to go to his home and I have to keep reminding him that our airplane is not quite ready yet. He also gets angry and growls at anyone who tries to talk to him outside our family and Lincon´s imediate family. He also really does not like poor Ana. Any suggestions how to remedy this problem will be happily accepted!
Poor Sam had a little misshap while we have been here. He kept putting his mattress on top of the hammock and jumping on it even though I had told him repeatedly not to do this. I was helping make dinner one night when I heard Sam start screaming. I hurried into our bedroom to see him holding his mouth that was bleeding. I took him into the bathroom so I could wash him up and see the extent of the damage done. His upper front toothe was bleeding around the gum line and he had teeth marks just under his lower lip. As I was cleaning his cut I could see that the cut looked really deep and opened up so I looked at the inside of his mouth to see that the inside was even worse. My first thoughts were ``Crap, he is going to need stitches!`` I finished cleaning and then put a bandaide over it the best I could while Rita called Lincon home. We took him over to a doctor that night and on the way over we said a prayer that everything would go over well. I have heard plenty of horror stories of children having to be held down while a doctor stitched them up and I was really nervous. When we got there we took the bandaid off for the doctor to see and the cut looked like it was almost entirely shut. Had the cut looked like this when I was cleaning it I would not have even thought of going to see a doctor. I was incredably relieved and before we had even left the doctor´s office Sam was sleeping. Now is is only a faint pink squiggly line under his lower lip. His poor toothe is now brownish gray which makes me so sad to see whenever he smiles at me, but I am deeply grateful for how well things went that night. We have been so blessed the whole time we have been here. Time and time again we have been protected and comforted while we have been here and I am so grateful for a tender, compassionate Father in Heaven who has known my concerns and not left me alone.

Fun in Brazil

So we are back in Brazil again and I have to say that really truly things are going so well. For those of you who know how things were last time we came I am sure you can imagine how completely relieveing that is for me to be able to say that. The plane ride here was as good as one could possibly hope for! The kids just played while they were awake and then slept really well during the night. In fact, I think this is the very best that I have ever slept on a flight as well! Our first few days we spent in Fortaleza and then Rita, Lennon, the rest of our little family headed to Lagoinha. It is one of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen in Brazil. Sam and Seth love the water and show very little fear which actually makes me worry some.... It was fun there just being with our family and Lincon´s mom and brother. No pressure and just fun.
From there we got to go to this place called AguaVilla. This place was so fun. It is a little gated community where you can reserve a condo. We went there with all of Lincon´s family minus his dad, our family, and I started to name the rest of the people who were there but there really were a lot of us so I will just say that there were a lot of us! At AguaVilla there were a couple of pools, a few different playgrounds, tennis courts, soccer fields, basketball courts, a river with fish and kayaks, and of course it was right on the beach. I think my favorite part was feeding the fish. For one real (Brazillian money) they would give you a big bag of fish food and the boys would lie on their tummies on the dock and feed the fish. There were tons of them and they all congregated at the dock to be feed. One little boy was catching them with his bare hands! It was pretty cool to watch.
This all happened in the first week in Brazil so needless to say we were all pretty tired and happy to head to Lincon´s home in Tiangua. We have gone to his aunt´s ranch swimming (if you haven´t noticed yet...we swim a lot here!!!) and then over to her house to see her chickens, ducks, and guinne (sp) pigs. She also has mango trees, and starfruit trees. Sam loves picking fruit so that was a lot of fun. She also has these mini pineapple bushes. It is just for decoration, but the tiny baby pineapples were so cute.
This last weekend Lincon and I did something daring. We left our kids with his family for two days!!! I haven´t them before and I was kind of freaking out the day we left. Had I had time that morning I would have sent my mother information as to where I want my children to go if something happened to the two of us and because I didn´t have time I spent a lot of time in the car praying that we would be safe. Poor Sam would tell us to ``come home right now`` everytime we would call. He would tell us that we had been gone a long time. It was hard and I think that both of us thought about them very frequently. That first night Lincon took me to see Eclipse and I think that is the only one that I have been completely satified with so far. Loved it! Quick note! The theaters here have such a great system. When you buy your ticket you get to pick your seat as well. No waiting in line...just pick your seat and then do whatever until it is time for the movie. It was so nice! then you know how full the theater is before you even buy the tickets. I think we should do the same in the states! It would totally illiminate pre-movie fighting which, by the way, I hate!!! The next day we got up and went to this indian hut hotel on yet another beach with his aunt and uncle. Everything outside at the hotel was really cool and all the decorations were made from sticks, dried coconut shells, and sea shells. It was really creative. They even had peacocks! Unfortunatly the rooms and especially the bathrooms left something to be desired. They didn´t have fitted sheets for the beds, just a flat sheet so we spent the whole night trying not to move to much so we wouldn´t have to sleep on the bare mattress. I don´t want to sound like a priss but hotel mattresses kind of gross me out. And then there was the bathroom...bless there hearts for all they did on the outside but... the bathroom was a little scarey. It was fun though. We spent the whole day either in the pool or eating crab at the beach. Lincon´s aunt and uncle are a lot of fun too! His aunt especially kept us laughing all day!
The next day, much to the relief of both of us, we came back home to Tiangua. Sam and Seth were just as happy to see us as we were to see them. Seth told Lincon that we were gone a looong time and that it got dark a lot...meaning we were gone for days. So all in all it has been a pleasant vacation. I will post some pictures later.

We had such a great Christmas this year. We always go to cut down a fresh tree. It is a fun tradition that we all love but oh my hannah it was COLD! We found a tree that was perfect and soon we were coming back down the mountain to decorate. On Christmas Eve we had our traditional party with friends and family. After everyone went home we opened one present (pj's) and then told the boys they had to go to sleep or Santa Claus wouldn't come. Sam really grasped the concept of Santa Claus this year. On Christmas Eve we thought it would be fun to have the boys sleep in sleeping bags in our room. Sam really wasn't tired because he had taken a short nap earlier but he was sure trying to go to sleep so Santa could come. It was fun to see Seth interested in everything this year, too. When he sat on Santa's lap he told him confidently that he wanted a dinosaur. Poor Sam was quite shy and wouldn't even look and Santa let alone talk to the man. What funny boys. The best part was that Sam really loved hearing about the birth of Jesus Christ. Sam is getting ready to go into Sunbeams so he got to go to the Primary activity. They went to the Temple and saw the lights and nativity, and saw the Luke 2 movie in the visitor's center. After the movie I asked Sam what his favorite part was. He said the dragon...if you are confused that is because there is not a dragon in that movie. Oh, well. On the way home we talked about what he had seen and he asked lots of questions. It is good to see his interest.