Our new kids

Many of you know that before we left we were blessed to work with the youth group at Highland for several years. And in this work we were specifically blessed to spend a great deal of time with Middle Schoolers. I know, you must think we are crazy, but we loved it. It is amazing to see God works in these special years.

One of the bittersweet parts of being here in Brazil is missing our favorite events with our Highland youth; things like our 8th grade progressive dinner, Mexico Mission Trip, and especially our annual middle school retreat, Breakthrough. One of the main things we loved about Breakthrough was the opportunity to welcome the new 6th graders into the Youth Group. It was always so fun to work on welcoming the new meat, I mean the new 6th graders, and making them feel at home. Another significant event we miss is called Serve City, which happens every fall. This event, for the entire youth group, kicks off each grade's focus on their specific ministry area for the year.

We found out about a week ago that we are still going to be able to participate in Serve City this year. Our 6th graders will serve missionaries throughout the year and we will be able to talk with them via webcam on Sunday. We are so excited to get to participate in Serve City, and not only that, but we also get to take the chance to welcome all of the new 6th graders to the youth group (WELCOME 6TH GRADERS) and share a little about our lives here in Brazil. What an amazing blessing. We will see you soon.

Dance class dreams

Several good church of Christers out there just said "Dance class? What?!?!"

During this first year on the field one of our main team goals is to spend time together, strengthening our bonds of friendship. We try to find creative ways to get to know each other better and encourage one another to use our gifts. One way the women of the team have decided to spend time with one another, is by taking a dance class together. Our teammate Stacey is a wonderfully gifted dance teacher and has taught for many years. So every Friday we meet at the Parker home for Dance class. I have to tell you that this is my first official dance class ever. We are learning a little ballet, a little jazz, and a little tap. Right now we are learning ballet poses and exercises, Let me tell you, these are very good for the hip, thigh, behind region. We are also leaning how to turn and spin. Honestly it is not something I ever thought I would be able to do.

Learning ballet for me is actually the fulfillment of a childhood dream. When I was growing up, there was not a lot of extra money and there certainly wasn't any for dance class or sports (plus my parents were a little iffy on the whole dancing thing). So I used to check out ballet books from the Library all the time. I remember looking at the pictures of the beautiful, graceful women in their pink leotards and trying to copy their movements frozen on a page. I didn't get very far in my self ballet teaching.

But throughout the years I have been known to leap about my house with my arms outstretched when no one else was home. But now I get to learn ballet. It is just basic ballet moves and not really ballet dancing but it is still cool. We do Plies and Demi-plies in the first, second and third position. And the cool thing is that I actually know what that means. We do several other steps that I don't remember what they are called. I had to look up how to spell Plies. But at 29, childhood dreams still come true and I am learning ballet.

Our newest couch potato

Okay so it is no secret that we like tv around our house. We work very hard to keep our tv watching under control, but we do enjoy keeping up with a good dramatic series or tickling our funny bone with a good comedy. Of course here in Brazil our "shows" have changed since we have a little less choice about what we can watch. We have several channel that broadcast in English with Portuguese subtitles. So if we are really trying to justicy ourselves we can say we are practicing our Portuguese. But mostly it helps us not get too overwhelmed by the Portuguese-only speaking world around us.

We have also managed to pass our love for the tube onto Kelton. He has discovered morning cartoons. We get the Disney channel, Discovery Kids and Nickelodian. His favorite shows are The Book of Pooh and Dora the Explorer. He also sometimes watches Blues Clues and Little Bill. He watches them in Portuguese, so figure this is his language class. We do try to limit his tv times and not melt his brain. However, I must confess that sometimes in the mornings (especially on Saturday) we will turn it on for him and let him watch it so we can sleep in. It is the first time in 19 months the we have been able to sleep in. And that is better than watching tv.

Celebrating 6 Months!

Next week we celebrate 6 months on the field. We decided to celebrate this with new haircuts. I am always quite nervous to get my haircut by someone I don't know so it has taken me six months to work up the courage to go to a beauty salon here. Overall it was a good experience. I was reminded that I don't know the words to ask for "layers", to tell them I have frizzy hair or that I would like for it to have a better style. In the end I just said I am growing it out, don't make it shorter and do what you want to make it look good.
Randy went the easier route and had our teammate Russell cut his hair. It was much easier to explain what he wanted.

Mmm..burritos..tacos..enchiladas

So as many of you know one of the saddest parts about moving to Brazil for our family was leaving mexican food. I have to tell you it has actually been hard. It was quite a staple in our diet, whether we made it at home, went out to Abuelo's or ran through the Taco Bueno drive-thru. So you might think, just make it at home. Which we do. It just takes a little more time when you have to make most of it from scratch including the Tortillas, Corn chips, Sour Cream, refried beans, enchilada sauce, salsa, and any kind of taco seasoning or fajita mix. And you can forget about Queso. However we have discovered that there are three mexican restaurants in this city of 4 million. One we tried soon after we arrived. One is too far away and the other, which we just recently discovered, we tried on Saturday night. It is call Tijuana's which they call "Tee-jew-awnas" The Mabery's accompanied us on our culinary adventure. Overall we enjoyed our time, but lets just say it's a good thing that it has been six months since we've eaten at a real mexican joint. The chips were great, they serve the salsa hot (temperature not spiciness) They played great mexican music (the gypsy kings) and we decided the burritos and quesadillas were worth eating (we won't be getting the taco salad again) It was a fun treat for our family, it wasn't tex-mex but I guess it was Braz-Mex.