Having it My Way

While I think I am a complex person (which can be good or bad), I occasionally hear that I am such a “simple” person (in Portuguese, not English. I am fully aware that simple, in English means dumb). I interpret that to mean that it doesn’t take much to make me happy. In a way, it’s also not all that easy to make me happy. But if you put the right ingredients together, then no, it’s not all that hard to please me. I don’t care about expensive or fancy stuff, but I sure do like having things “my” way.

I wrote on Facebook, that I loved my birthday this year because it was all about me. That is really terrible, that I enjoyed so immensely having everything go just right. Still I confess, I felt so good at the end of the evening. Why did I enjoy it so much? I wondered about that last night, as I was drifting off to sleep. At the risk of revealing more about me than maybe I should, I think I have it figured out!

Mostly because I got to do what I wanted to do. I love getting my own way. So I slept until I woke up. I made what I wanted to eat for breakfast. I went to the gym and worked out at my own pace and felt good about it. I even watched “Castle” that I had been able to download to my mp3. When I got home, my husband gave me this hanging basket of Petunias. He picked it out and lugged it home just for me.

Then my hubby let me chose where to go to lunch. I dressed up in the new dress that he also gave me for my birthday. (I loved the dress and you can see it in the photo). We went to Outback which is extravagantly expensive, at least here in Brazil, where I ate what I had been craving and even got a free hot fudge Sundae (which we split). Then in the afternoon I had time to go to my art class. I enjoyed being with the folks there and just painting away the afternoon. (And yes, I got Galileu’s ear just right and am growing close to finishing the painting).

When I got in from class, Elly and Bernardo had arrived and we went out for all you can eat pizza. Oh man, that was a groaner since I’d had a good lunch. But I dug in and really enjoyed the pizza. It was so good. We went back to their apt. where they gave me my present, a gorgeous pair of sandals (aren’t they handsome on my feet?). We came home and I listened to the lovely messages on my answering machine and read about a 100 messages on Facebook and Orkut. (And I finally got to hug Sissy, who because of her schedule was unable to join us for lunch or supper).

It was just up my alley. People showed they cared about me and made me feel special, but I didn’t have to deal with multitudes, loudness or schedules. I got to chose the places I went and what I did. It was relaxed.No expectations from me and I got to be just plain old me. I ate really good food. I got presents I enjoyed and will continue enjoying for a long time. So there you go. I am a selfish creature. I like what I like and those things make me happy. Make me feel special and I’ll purr like a kitty. I’m still purring, even today!

Cocooning versus Gogoing

  If you can’t find me in the photo below, just keep looking. I am in a dark blue dress, slightly right of center in the middle (and typically with my head leaning to one side). It was taken at the women’s camp of the Liberty Baptist Church of São Paulo last weekend. (Igreja Batista de Liberdade).

I had a great time at the camp. I accept very few speaking engagements so when I do, they are real highlights for me. I felt so loved and embraced by this great group of women. It was a rare encounter of making new friends. I had worked really hard on the four messages and I was excited to share God’s Word with them. The setting was lovely, the people were warm and caring and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That being said, it is great to be back in my little cocoon. The older I get, the less I enjoy leaving my own little corner of the world. I used to go, go, go all the time, as my life was a life of travel and speaking. Since Canada, I have truly committed myself to being involved in the accountability of being only in my own church, which as been a really good thing for my spiritual life.

I also confess, it’s been a good thing for me emotionally. It’s not that I don’t love people, I really, really do. But at heart I am an introvert who has learned to act like an extrovert. What that means is that I get energized by being alone in silence. Being with people 24/7 like this past weekend it a good way to let my emotional “battery” run down. I have spent most of this week trying to get recharged. I used to recharge faster. It may be lack of practice, or like the battery on my laptop, it just may be wearing out.

Besides that, the physical journey home was very tiring. I was already tired from speaking (Spurgeon writes that preaching is the equivalent of eight hours of physical labor) and not sleeping well away from home, in addition to the other things. Then I rushed to the airport, with all that hassle of lugging luggage, standing in line, walking a mile to the gate and then standing in another line over an hour and everyone restless and all. The boarding time, the take off time came and went and no info from AVIANCA at all. That can get to be irritating with the staff is rude and condescending (telling us to just get back and line and wait to for the flight to be called). When we finally leave an hour late, the 45 minute flight turns into a two hour flight! How? The landing at the airport gets aborted because there is an injunction that no planes can land after 11PM and we are one minute late. So we circle in the air waiting to get permission to land at the other airport. We hit the ground, and my cell phone goes flying out of my hand! (Hard landing!) I had it ready to call João and let him know where I was. After everyone generously joined me in the search, we found it about 4 rows in the front. Then I could call João who was patiently waiting for me at the other airport, since AVIANCA had up on the arrivals that we were confirmed to land at midnight. (Without telling him it was at another airport.) All’s well that ends well, because I was able to call him, and being a Sunday night, there was no traffic, so by the time the luggage had arrived and I had walked around to get outside and down to the pick up zone, he was driving up. (By the way, did I mention I had on high heels, since I had left straight from the church to the airport, because I “had” to be there by 8PM?).  At least I had an adventure.  It was well worth it. By the way, the orchids were growing in a tree outside the dining hall. Aren’t they great?

As I’ve been working on this entry, my computer has shut down several times and I am distressed to learn that my battery has just about worn out. So when it gets to 40% usage the computer just turns off with no warning. It is two years old, so I actually got more life out of it, then they recommend, since they say the life of a laptop battery is about a year – although on João’s old computer it’s lasted 4 1/2 years.  Argh. Please don’t let me touch anything else. My cell phone died today, as it won’t recharge nor will it turn on anymore (it is 4 years old, though). Fortunately I have João’s old phone (which is actually only about a year old) to use – just insert chip and away we go. And of course I can use the the power for my computer. It works about 40 minutes on battery power. Then there’s my Kindle. No solution for it, since it took a slight jar/fall (really, just slid off the bed) and died. I have dropped it before and no problem, and this was such a slight fall, that I didn’t expect a problem. The screen is dead. So this week I am the kiss of death for all electronics. Sissy and João are hiding their cell phones and computers from me.

I think I’ll head out of my cocoon, publish this entry and head off for the day of prayer for missions in Brazil. And not turn anything on in the car!

I really don’t have time for this!

I seriously don’t have time to put anything on my blog this week, and yet here I am writing words on my computer. In fact, that’s what I’ve been doing the last two weeks, almost non-stop. I will be travelling to São Paulo this weekend to speak at a women’s camp. I have four messages that I needed to prepare. When I am in my martyr mode I think: “Does anyone who doesn’t preach have ANY idea how many hours it takes to prepare a sermon?”

And when I am not feeling like a martyr I sort of think: “I love taking the time to study God’s Word in all of it minute details”.

Translating: I haven’t done much of anything else the last two weeks except research and study and write. When I was young, I tried to imagine how a preacher prepared his sermon. I innocently imagined that he kind of had some kind of revelation, hearing God’s voice and it all came to him in some kind of instantaneous dictation. I even thought that was kind of spiritual.

Now I understand, of course, God’s revelation to man through his word. I simply try to understand and share my understanding with others. That sounds easy, but I have to REALLY under stand first. Then I have to clearly craft the words so that others will hear and even remember something of what I say. It’s very hard work. It’s hard work I love, but I am grateful that I don’t have to preach twice a week. I am pooped.

I think I’m especially excited about the message about pierced ears/slavery. Yip, you heard it right. I do come up with interesting topics, don’t I?

Although I have cleared my schedule this past two weeks, doing little outside of writing, occasional cooking and some exercise sessions at the gym and one wonderful massage (did I mention I was tense?), on Tuesdays I did go to my art class because I needed to do something different. My brain needed to be otherwise engaged. I worked on the acrylic painting of Galileu. That is messy and rewarding. I think I am making progress! By the way, the painting is to the left and the photo to the right in case you couldn’t tell (ha ha ha!)

Aren’t his eyes great? I love doing cat eyes. I will be redoing his right ear because it’s just wrong. (All those fine hairs are just killing me). I painted over his nose tip which is also the wrong shape, but that’s not a big problem.  And I have to figure out how to get his fur to look natural without being choppy. I just can’t figure out how to do the whiskers either. I wonder if I can use a colored pencil to get them done finely enough. I just can’t seem to do fine lines with acrylic paints. I keep buying new brushes, but I don’t think that’s the problem. I’ll keep at it until I get it right! Nice thing about acrylic paint is that you just keep painting over your mistakes until you get it right. Wish life were as easy!

My Beloved Forest

Today João and I had a brilliant idea. Why not walk in a place where we could breath fresh air, look at real trees and hear the birds singing. Since I ripped up my Achilles tendons in the Tijuca Forest 3 1/2 years ago, we haven’t been back. Because I am doing so well with my walking/jogging on the treadmill, we decided to take our day off and enjoy some of the beauty of Rio.  So off we went this morning in the car. I could hardly wait to check out my very favorite trail, the “Jaguar’s Cave”. It’s in the heart of the forest, and pretty flat for several kilometers. It’s a long trail, about 11 kilometers,   but after a couple of kilometers it  starts up a rocky trail. When we walked it 3 years ago, the trail ended at a broken down suspension footbridge. I was always sad that I couldn’t see what was on the other side. Today, to my surprise and delight, the bridge had been redone and finally I could cross it. 

When we went cross the bridge, and felt like explorers as we walked in unknown territory. Since it’s been rainy and windy this week, it was actually quite chilly as we walked, even though the sun was bright and the sky quite blue today. On the way back, I jogged part of the way to try to work up a little sweat. In all we walked about 50 minutes.

We didn’t take our camera, so you’ll have to pardon the cell phone shots. In fact I didn’t plan to photograph it at all, but I was so excited about the bridge I just had to capture that. Sometimes, as we walked, we stopped to listen to the birds and bugs or “hear” the silence.

One bird, the Araponga, known as the “blacksmith” or bellbird in English had a fascinating sound. It does rather resemble an anvil being struck. It is not your typical sweet sounding birdsong. If your are interested in hearing it, I’ve inserted this video from YouTube. This is NOT my video, but I’ll bet you anything it was recorded near to where we were today. Looks so much like the trail we were on.

I love these woods. They make me feel so alive. Unfortunately, tonight I have found my ankle area is swollen, tender and hurts a lot. It appears my tendon has been slightly reinjured. I don’t understand why, as the trail was super easy to walk and cushioned by leaves the whole way. I hiked up a rock mountain in Hawaii with no problems. I walk/jog a lot farther on the hard treadmill. I am icing my foot and hoping for the best, for I want to enjoy many more hikes in these beloved woods. How blessed I am to live in a place of such great beauty.

I made a flower!

Yeah, right, I know I didn’t “make” a flower. Still I was pretty excited when I noticed an orchid,  that I stuck outside months ago, had buds on it. I had received this flower either for my birthday or for Christmas. I am not sure which, since there is a second one out there. Gabi told me, when they quit flowering to keep on caring for them and they would put out a “pup” and flower again. I didn’t really do much with them other than stick them beside the cactus and water them occasionally. When I arrived from vacation, there were the buds. Last week, they started to open up, one flower about every other day. Right now there are four gorgeous orchids. I am so excited. I love flowers and somehow I feel so good seeing them growing naturally on my balcony. Just thought I’d share that little tidbit!

Maybe because of the flowers or other reasons, who knows, I felt like Suzy Homemaker today and so I busied myself washing, cooking and cleaning. It is amazingly hard work and I was even too tired to hit the gym. I tend to clean drawers and organize closets on a VERY irregular basis. Basically when I can’t get the doors or drawers closed anymore. Ok, maybe not that bad, but close.

When I finally got around to trying to do something fun and creative, like baking muffins, an almost tragedy struck. My oven door didn’t want to open. I shook and rattled the door, with my usual “patient” persistence (in other words I yanked as hard as I could) and things started falling. The door came open alright… the glass fell off the door, all the insulation came out and the baking racks collapsed in a heap around my feet. I stood there stunned trying to figure what happened. I can only figure that the cleaning lady cleaned the oven and put the racks in wrong. This crazy awful oven that I HATE passionately, has this nutty system where the racks pull out together with lowering the door. That often means my casseroles tip out and have sometimes even fallen out onto the oven door. Other times, it means I have burned my arms as I have to reach in to pull out something on the lower rack (there is no way to pull out the lower rack separately). I did the only thing I knew to do and yelled for João to come and help me. Together we actually managed to put the whole thing back together again. I was hot and sweaty and aggravated and not exactly remembering “Count it all joy” that I admonished by Bible study class to do this week. I wish I could say that I did. I didn’t, but I’ll keep trying to do that.

Despite the trials and tribulations of a very old decrepit oven, I was able to make some delicious quinoa muffins. My next trial was not to gobble the whole dozen all at once. They are so good. They have to be somewhat healthy with all the quinoa. Just don’t ask about the molasses, raisins and flour! Enjoy your own. Here’s the recipe:

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil  (I used olive oil)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar  (I substituted molasses and used less oil)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup whole milk (I used 0%)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa and 1 cup water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cover, and cook until water has been absorbed and quinoa is tender, 11 to 13 minutes.
2. 2. Meanwhile, brush a standard 12-cup muffin pan with oil; dust with flour, tapping out excess. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, raisins, and 2 cups cooked quinoa.
3. 3. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, and stir just until combined; divide batter among prepared muffin cups.
4. 4. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pans.

Where in the World Have I Been?

Uninspired. That’s where I’ve been. I think I have a hard time reporting on what is “old” news for me. Knowing I needed to write about our vacation, that is long over and done with has kept me from wanting to write on my blog at all. So once again, I’ve decided to “move” on. I may eventually go back and fill you in on a few things from our participation in the Baptist World Alliance in Hawaii, but today, at least, I want to share more current events. If I don’t, I’ll never get going again, right?

This past week as been really good, as our church has celebrated its 126th anniversary.  Both Sunday morning and evening we had great services. Sunday night was different, as we had a “big band”, and jazz presentation of the hymns. The church was pretty full. As you can see the “youth” or “young adult” choir filled the stage. The theme for the month of August is “Be Involved”, with an emphasis on every member getting involved with the ministries of the church.

Tuesday was the actually anniversary date and we had a day of prayer. As we ended the day of prayer in afternoon, João asked for the “oldest” church members to come to the front and the “oldest” would pray. We had a stand off of the four people over 90! Isn’t that fabulous? The lady closest to João is 95 and she closed our day of prayer. I love our Day of Prayer. I confess the first year I was leery and afraid it would be monotonous. It is not! We have different people leading every 30 minutes, so there are lots of styles. In addition, there is small group, large group prayer, silent, musical, directed, individual… just about any kind of prayer you can imagine. At the end of the prayer meeting, we had cake and refreshments for our “birthday” party.

This coming Sunday, we will be ending the month long celebration with 10 baptisms and the Lord’s Supper. What a great month!

I have also started back to my art lessons and am currently working on two very different projects. I am doing an iris in colored pencils. I have a new found fascination and joy in working with colored pencils, although the work is very slow and extremely tedious. From the left side drawing to the right side, are about 3 hours of work and you really don’t see that much progress, but I was working on the shading in of a couple of the blooms, as well as the curtain in the background.

I think gripping the pencils has caused my fingers to get really sore and my arthritis in my right hand has been really bad. One finger is quite red and swollen. That may also be because of the very chilly/humid weather we had for a couple of weeks. I am NOT complaining, as I LOVE the cooler weather. Unfortunately it didn’t last and today it was miserably hot for me. A couple of times I thought my body was just going to explode from the heat. Tonight I gave in and turned on the air conditioning full blast. I drove João out of the study as he was freezing, but it was the only way I could put out the fire under my skin. At least I am not beet red anymore! I worked on a painting (with acrylics) that I have been anxious to experiment with.  I haven’t done much with acrylics, although I enjoy them. They are a totally forgiving medium (if you make a mistake, it’s easy to cover it up) and the work goes quickly. This was only about 90 minutes of work. It’s in the very beginning stages, but you can already see Galileo taking form. (By the way, it is Elly’s cat.)

Speaking of cats, I have the sad task of telling you that my sweet little (BIG) Sadik, my cat I left in Canada, passed away this week. He was around 15-16 years old (he was a stray/rescue cat, so we were never sure of his age), but the last 9 years of his life were certainly wonderful. Sissy, João and I were all a little sad yesterday when we heard the news. Mia got lots of extra hugs today.  Sadik was a wonderful friend, the most intelligent cat I have ever met.  I am so thankful that he was a part of our family for five wonderful years.

Vacation – Part One

  In effect, our vacation can be divided into three parts. The first part of our vacation was the time we spent with my family. It was a time of rest and renewal. Probably due to a number of sick people on the plane, soon after arriving I had a cold/sinus infection, as you can see from my very red nose! It didn’t keep me down, though, and I was able to enjoy a good time shopping, eating, talking, and visiting.

Mom’s home is quiet and it gave both of us a chance to just “wind down” and read and sleep and just “be”.

Something that I enjoyed was being able to celebrate my mother’s and my nephew’s birthday with them. I can’t remember when I’ve been with Mom on her birthday and I don’t think I’ve ever been with my nephew on his. It was memorable as he turned 30!

There was lots of laughter and jokes, and we especially enjoyed the scene of João “fighting” with his “mother-in-law” over the proverbial broomstick that all mother-in-laws use to visit their daughters.

Although I had wanted to do sight-seeing and museum visits while there, it just seems like there was never enough time or energy. Somehow a kind of collective lethargy settled in over us. 

It didn’t help that it was SOOOO hot. Man, I don’t ever remember such a hot summer ever. It’s enough that I have to hot here in  Rio, I don’t want to go to the US and be hot too. We did make it over to the Creation Museum, mostly out of my curiosity. I found it somewhat disappointing, as with all the hype surrounding it, I thought it would be more creative. There were a few good things – like this door that represented the world after sin entered it and the beautiful outdoor gardens.

Despite our laziness, I was able to make it to the gym most days, with my Carol. While she did her aqua-fitness, I was able to work on the weights and treadmill. It was good for me to keep up a bit with my fitness. At least I didn’t turn to total mush. 

In the middle of our time at Mother’s and Carol’s we drove up to visit Jeri for a few days. If you look hard, you can find Jeri and I in the crowd where,  on our first night there we went to an outdoor concert, with a John Denver “songbook”. It was so much fun to hear the music, watch the crowds, eat and just “sing-along” with the songs of my youth. I was surprised at how many young people were there at the concert and actually singing along! While in Indy we had time to do some serious shopping as well and I was able to find some of the clothes I had been looking for. The too few days there flew by far too quickly, but I felt like we had quality time with Jeri and Megan.

It was interesting to celebrate the 4th of July in the US again. It’s been a long time (make that 18 years) and I had forgotten how much people get into that. I even got myself one of the flag tee shirts. Fireworks were everywhere and we set up our chairs outside, but I didn’t know where to crane my neck as there were so many it was hard to take them all in. The whole neighborhood was smoky by the end of the night. I guess there’s a kid in all of us, for I do so love fireworks.

Something I always look forward to while in the US is a visit to different churches. I must confess with my “traditional” view of worship, it’s not all that easy to find somewhere I might actually be able to worship, without having to put earplugs in. What is the deal with “monolithic” worship in the US? Does everyone have to be just alike? Is worship just for the 20-40 years old? I do like chorus’, but so many are just bad music and sloppy theology (and may I hasten to add the same is true of a great number of hymns). Why does it seem like worship is just thrown together to make us all happy, happy, happy? UGH! OK, all grumpiness set aside, I had some wonderful worship experiences. We usually visit 2nd Presbyterian in Indianapolis and their worship didn’t disappoint us. One Sunday we drove over to Walnut St. in Louisville. Although I lived so close when in seminary, I never attended there. I was thoroughly impressed with the beauty of the sanctuary (wow, stained glass windows in a Baptist church!) and well planned blended worship. They just don’t make churches like that anymore.  As a special treat, we were able to spend time with the music minister, who is a Brazilian and also drive out to see my Uncle Frank.

In addition to all else, while home I was able to do a little more work on the family genealogy. That can certainly be an all consuming task, so I do limit the time I spend working on that. I scanned in some photos and discovered this forgotten photo of Daddy as a child. Isn’t this a great shot? Can you see where my own gigantic forehead comes from?

My three weeks of rest and recreation rushed by. The last few days were colored by my upcoming commitment to get ready for travel to the Baptist World Alliance and my small presentation that I would make at the Women’s Department meeting. I had a hard time pulling the presentation together until my very last night, so that hung over me like a cloud. Finally, however, the first part of our vacation came to an end, when we left at dawn to head out to Honolulu. But that will be another installment on my essay on “What I did on my Summer Vacation”.

Do you feel neglected?

I usually don't abandon my blog for almost 2 months, but this year when I went on vacation, I decided to do it right. No blog! I rested and had fun. If you read my facebook, you've seen most of my pictures. Nevertheless, this week, I'll try to give you a couple of summaries of my wonderful and varied vacation in the US, as well as our plans for next year's vacation. Someone commented this week that João and I know how to do vacation. We plan all year and then we have a great time. I am back at the helm of my life and all things are organized and normal again. Today, after being back almost a week, all is in place and I am taking steps to getting back to my routine. Even Miss Mia is getting back to normal, as she seems over her tiff that I abandoned here for almost 6 weeks. She still runs to Sissy rather than to me when given the choice.
I have to get back to the gym, spend more time in Bible study, do some drawing and get busy preparing messages for our women's encounter and a September women's camp, so as time permits I'll post a few chronological entries on our vacation and then move on to my "real" life.
Suffice it to say we had a wonderful time and I am also glad to be back back home again in my apartment, with my family here and at my church. It's definitely a win-win situation.

They’ve Got a Point

I have reduced my time watching the soccer matches these days, although today was special, since Brazil played. It was a terrible game. Brazil only needed to tie order to come out in first place in her division. Her three best players were benched for various reasons. It was a boring, boring game, that ended 0x0. So Brazil moves on to the do or die rounds (a sort of sweet sixteen deal) and will play Chile.

Isn’t it funny that we call this sport “soccer”? Makes no sense really. It really is “football”, like the rest of the world calls it. The game Americans call football, is really “handball”, since there isn’t all that much using of the feet. And the football, isn’t really a ball, with that crazy shape it has. I know American “football” is a derivative of Rugby and the word Soccer is a nickname that comes from the word “asSOCiation”, but I still can’t figure why it’s never made such a hit in North America. It’s a great sport. So the rest of the world has a real point in loving it and calling it FOOTBALL!

The USA is holding her own and in fact her games have been a lot more exciting to watch. We are up against Ghana tomorrow in a rematch with the team that kicked us out of the World Cup 4 years ago. And I have an 80th birthday party to go to during the game. I am glad my hubby has a cell phone TV that I can (discretely) watch, just like I did at the wedding two weeks ago!

The only good thing about the game today was since there were no goals, there was less cheering and horn blowing and Mia was somewhat less nervous. I did get her some natural tranquilizer to put in her water (it’s herbal, made for cats) and hopefully that will help her get through this tough time of year for her. She is a nervous Nelly when it comes to loud noise. And of course she has just come out of the long, long treatment for her corneal ulcers, which was so stressful to her.

While the looooooong and boring game went one, I worked on a new colored pencil painting, this time of a long-haired orangey tabby. It’s got a million layers to go. I liked my white cat a lot better. Did I show her to you all finished? She is a winner! 

I really want to specialize in children’s water color portraits and also cats in colored pencils. The water colors are a lot cheaper and quicker to do, that’s for sure, but the cats are so beautiful and no one gets so insulted if it doesn’t have just the right expression!

I need a vacation

I am tired. I need to go on vacation. Today I have been glued to the telephone and the computer. I am in the process of trying to get people to do the children’s message during the 5 Sundays I’ll be gone (don’t forget that’s 2 services per Sunday). I only lack 3 more services of the 10! If you know me, you know I am telephone phobic, so I have to screw up my courage to make all those calls.

In addition, I had to write both teacher and student lessons for my Sunday School class and find 5 people to teach that class as well. I now have four lessons ready and four teachers. So only one left to go…

What else, you say? Well I have to tie up loose ends on my responsibilities for our women’s “get-away” day in October. I am excited about the event, but there is much to be done for such an event. I am on the program part of the arrangements, so today I worked on the emails to our speakers (who I had previously had to call and invite to speak), in addition to sending out emails to all the committee members so that they are all up to par on the program arrangements. I am also speaking at the event (I am doing the opening and closing so as to save money on inviting more speakers) , so I also tried to hammer out my outline, so that I could share that with the  group leaders. It’s always good to avoid overlap.

This event is really a big deal, as it’s kind of a first. We are trying to attract those women who don’t normally participate, especially our younger women. We are meeting at a hotel for the day, near the beach. We will be closing with a fashion show! Our publicity is to the left. We are hoping for 200 women. We have begun accepting fees and already have a number of women who have paid. We may have bitten off more than we can chew, but we are excited. This coming Sunday we are having another bake sale (these bake sales help us to raise funds to pay for those women who can’t afford the event). So today I made up the dough for about 15 dozen chocolate chip cookies. That was the fun part of my day!

After I finish this blog, I need to update the blog and facebook page for our women’s event. If you want to take a look at our blog, you can see it by clicking on the screenshot of the page (it is in Portuguese, of course). 

Unfortunately someone used my credit card, or tried to use it online at an international site, and it had to be cancelled, a major hassle. I am grateful that the credit card company picked up on the fact that I don’t use it on the internet like that and they called me. But today I had to do the paper work on that. Again, fortunately they have already sent me a new card and was able to activate that today as well.

At the same time, I also had to renew all our banking info, with new passwords, cards, checks, etc., since our bank fused with another one and all the account are different now. I am actually glad that took place now and not while we were out of the country, as everything was frozen until I got all that done. The nice thing was that all was frozen on last Saturday when the fusion went official and I didn’t get the new account information until Wednesday. How much money do you think the bank made on that  deal with their millions of customers?

My suitcases are out and I am throwing in a few things gradually. I worked on getting finances straightened out for travelling, too. Poor Sissy is stuck at home, paying the cleaning lady, taking care of the cat, paying bills, on our behalf. She deserves a vacation, but looks like that isn’t happening, as she will be taking a “summer school” (although here it is actually winter school right now)class during the school break.

So I am tired. I didn’t even watch any soccer matches or go to the gym today. Too much to do to get ready for vacation. My poor husband has to do the same, as he had to arrange to fill the pulpit and make sure all the other events, like business meetings, worship planning, bulletins, were all taken care of. Is this normal? Do some people actually just pack their suitcase and walk out the door on vacation without having to spend days preparing people to substitute for them?  I need a vacation from getting ready to go on vacation!

Overdose

I have seriously overdosed on soccer. I have watched so many matches that I am really starting to understand it. I am even screaming at the referees. This is not good. I am jumping up and down. I have been blowing that crazy horn like they use in South Africa. I have even kept track of every game on a chart, recording the scores and keeping stats on who will go on to the next round.

I used to be a nice normal person and have been transformed into a world cup junkie. HELP!!!! Today I tried to get away from it. I went to the church to check out a few things and then walked home. It was only about 3 miles, so about an hour’s walk. On the way home, I stopped into a bakery to get a snack for the evening and there was the television, showing Argentina winning their game. For those who don’t know Argentina is the “arch-enemy” of Brazil. It looks like they are going to give us a serious run for our money!

I’ll give you one thing, with all these horns, it’s certainly been a noisy time. João and I have even learned how to play this stupid thing (admittedly he does a lot better than I do). I think Mia would agree with this cartoon. She spends the big game days hidden under the bed. Maybe that’s what I should start doing, instead of raising my blood pressure screaming and yelling for or against my favorite teams and arch enemies. But then, there is tomorrow. If we can just win this game, we will move on the next round! GO USA.

Who knew?

Really, who knew the World Cup would inspire me to draw again? As I’ve mentioned, our country goes nuts at the World Cup Soccer matches. Since it only happens every four years, it is reasonable (or not???). Streets are painted yellow and green and streamers are hung everywhere. Our building is decorated with yellow and green balloons around all the columns and pillars. Those who are even somewhat enthused dress up in Brazilian colors. Those who are a little nuts, even dress up their animals.

Ok, I’ll admit it, even a few years back I didn’t really “get” it. I was raised on basket and baseball. Soccer was confusing to me. Over the years I’ve learned to cheer and appreciate the Brazilian enthusiasm. And they really are enthusiastic. So much so, it’s even rubbed off on me. I could hardly wait for the start of the games and have watched almost all the matches (which is the more correct term). I was the most popular woman at the recent wedding, since I “borrowed” my husband’s cell phone that has a TV and was able to watch the US and England match. Because the bride was conveniently 90 minutes late, I saw (make that “we”) the whole shooting match and was so thrilled with the tie (which is actually a win for the weaker US team). Tuesday was Brazil’s game and boy was I anxious.

To keep my mind half-way engaged elsewhere, I decided to start another drawing. Glad I did, as it was a less than stellar game. Sketching out the cat and choosing the colors and sharpening the pencils took most of the game. Brazil should have clobbered North Korea, but instead they managed to hammer out a pitiful 2 x 1 victory. To my dismay, it appears that Germany and Argentina are the best teams. Still, we are only beginning the second round of games, and we all had the shocker of seeing France defeated by Mexico (which is great), Uruguay beating out S, Africa (I felt sorry for them) and Greece managing to win over Nigeria (how did that happen?).

Since it’s hard not to want to see the games, I have given up the pretense of NOT watching them. I put on the TV, try to do useful things like cook and iron and today I worked some more on my white cat. So despite what I said in my last post, it appears I will complete more art work in the next week. I actually have a long way to go on this cat. A white cat is most challenging. I am using a lot more colors than on the tabby cat. I’ve used yellow, cream, gray (in various intensities), several shades of blue and pink, as well as some browns and umbers. She’s a gorgeous cat. Soon I hope to move on to doing cats I actually know. If anyone has a really good head shot or close-up of a cat to send me, do so! I don’t make any guarantees, for I am still figuring out how to shade and develop colors with the pencils. It’s surprisingly fun, though, despite the tediousness of it, as well as the expense. You wear down a pencil really quickly (I use the waxy Prismacolor pencils) and since they aren’t cheap, I easily spend quite a bit doing a “practice” drawing. I suppose there are worse things I could spend my money on. You know, like soccer uniforms for a cat…

Clowns and a Cat

I have finished my tabby cat painting done with colored pencils. I am pleased with the results. I could have done more touches here and there, but one must simply quit “messing” with the image at some point. As you know I haven’t been to classes for a while, but the other night I dropped by to see how everyone is doing and the interesting thing is that one of the women who has a style very similar to mine has also gone back to colored pencils, that we both found the most challenging of all the mediums. This is most certainly my last drawing for a while, as I will be really busy getting ready for vacation. I have to secure substitutes for my Bible study (in addition to preparing the lessons for the teachers and students) and for the children’s message. In addition, I have a study to prepare for a magazine and a message to prepare for the Baptist World Alliance in July, Then there are bags to pack and the house to organize and bills to pay, etc. Leaving the country for 5 weeks requires lots of preparation. And we will be travelling in exactly 2 more weeks. But then who is counting?

This past weekend we attending a most unique wedding. Our children’s pastor was married on Saturday. I was not seated in a place where I could get a photograph, but surely wish I had been. He and his new wife met through children’s ministry and are active in clown ministry. So guess what? They had two clowns at the wedding! It was so much fun and SO reflected their personalities. I really enjoyed it . This photo I “borrowed” from someone’s online album shows the end of the wedding and I think you can see their joy. It’s great to see two of God’s servants uniting their lives and think of their potential for changing lives together.

And that’s my news for tonight. See you round the net.

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

I know everyone doesn’t love pizza. I recall one time my sisters made pizza (I think it was one of the kits in a box) and as they pulled it out to show my dad, he almost got sick. It seems there had been a disturbance down the street and he went down to see what it was all about and he got there just in time to see them pull aside the sheet and see the dead man’s face practically blown off by a gunshot. Of course it’s not like everyone has such a dramatic story for not liking pizza.

While I know pizza is definitely not on the list of health foods, I can’t help enjoying a good pizza now and then. Especially Brazilian pizza with the super thin crusts and all the varieties.

The other night, I was with João when he picked up Sissy at school. Usually it’s about 10:45PM or so, but it was her last night of classes for this semester, so it was around 9:45 or so. I was hungry, and she said she wasn’t so much, but when he offered to take us out for pizza, neither of us was about to say no. We went to a “rodízio” of pizza, something common here, but not so much elsewhere. It is a pizza restaurant that serves you slices of pizza at your table, as often as you wish and of all varieties imaginable. It really is a pizza lover’s dream.

You start off (or at least I did) with the cheese type pizzas, and I had at least 4 types (very small slices). There was provolone, bacon, cream  cheese, and jerked beef. I turned down such exotic fare as cream cheese and chicken, stroganoff, hamburger, egg, sausage, pepperoni, tomato, olive, sardine, tuna, etc. At least that I can recall.

The real “tour de force” are the dessert pizzas. I have never ever seen so many dessert pizzas. It was almost impossible to resist the ice cream pizza, or the almond bar pizza, french toast pizza, strawberry/chocolate pizza, banana and cinnamon, and fruit salad pizza. There were a lot more actually, I just can’t even remember them all.  

I settled on a strawberry pie pizza and also the fruit salad that was absolutely wonderful. The waiters were a riot and the three of us laughed ourselves silly. We had a great time. I thought of how much my friends in Canada and the US would enjoy a place like this. We got home late, of course and none of us had a hard time sleeping.

Come and visit us here in Rio and we will take you out to the Pizza & Grill for the pizza rodízio.