crazy eggs

We colored eggs on Monday with the kids (Lucy actually just gnawed on a plastic one). They loved dipping them down into the colors and putting stickers on them. We had to resort to using the stickers as band-aids though to hide all the cracks from dropping them.

breaking the bathroom

If you can hear that hammering in the background that's Lester in our guest bathroom tearing everything up. We are finally redoing our guest bathroom after almost 5 years in our apartment. The tub was poorly put in and leaked and didn't heat the water half the time (we don't have a central hot water heater). Hopefully they can finish in the 20-to-30-day range they promised. We'll send more pictures as it progresses.

"uneventful" in a good way

Our trip down to Campinas this time was uneventful, at least in the car department... no flat tires, no overheated engines (we did get Demps' car back in one piece). Chip Crooms, who will lead the team this summer*, liked the campus and thought it presented some great opportunities. Any place that serves 6,000 lunches a day to students under one roof is usually a good place for campus ministry.

We visited a few houses and "suites" (basically a hotel room in a house) to see what housing opportunities there are. I will go back down to try and secure something on the 17th of April.

A few prayer requests in the meantime: pray for Amy's trip to visit her sister, she leaves on Monday; pray for our church retreat Easter weekend; pray for my time with two small groups I meet with, that we could prepare for the busy summer and our time apart; and pray for the preparations for the short-term team in Campinas at the campus of Unicamp.

*I say summer here even though it will be our winter. And I realize that winter in Brazil is still summer for many that visit us from colder climates. 45º is the coldest I've ever experienced here... and that's cold when there's no heat in your home.

back home and back again

I got back from Campinas on Thursday afternoon and will head back again Monday morning. Just today Demps and I picked up two Campus Outreach staff guys from the Gulf Coast ministry at the airport and we'll be taking them down to see Unicamp there in Campinas on Monday. Please pray for them. Their bags are still in São Paulo. Pray for Demps' car as well. The engine overheated while we were there this week and we had to leave it at the mechanic. Pray that everything will be fixed and that we can drive it back to Belo Horizonte on Tuesday. The purpose of our trip is to investigate the campus some more as we consider the possibility of the Gulf Coast group going there this summer.

the adventures of robinson crusoe

Braden just finished reading the biggest book he's ever read - The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. He started reading it about 5 days ago and wasn't able to put it down until he finished today. Amy asked him if he wanted to go out today to run some errands but he decided to stay home to read more of his book. He's going to write something later to let everyone know what he thought about it.

7 at 7

Tommorow morning Demps and I are headed out to Campinas (Demps is driving). We plan on checking out the campus, UniCamp, and seeing if the city is a possibility for not only hosting a summer-team of students from the US but also what the long-term opportunities are. If we have time we also plan on visiting Ribeirão Preto, also in the state of São Paulo.

after church

After church last night we took a few pictures in Lucy's room. Lucy caught a little nap in Amy's arms during the mingling time at the end of the activities at church, so she was especially spry. She's sitting up well, has a new tooth and is eating all kinds of new things, including her feet.
Simon's in the other room right now learning about circles and Braden just finished writing a letter to a friend of his that lives in Birmingham. We've got some heavy rain coming in from over the mountains cooling things off a bit and hopefully clearing the sky for tomorrow.

belated wish

Lucy turned 6 months old on the 10th... and she ate some potatoes today for the first time. We are without camera right now but hopefully we'll get a new picture or two up soon.

pajamas and face peels

Finally Jeff convinced me (Amy) to write something. Im still getting used to all the new terminology of posts and blogs and stuff... but here it is... my first post (or is it blog?)...

Last week I got together with some girlfriends and had a pajama party. We pulled the mattresses into the living room and made brownies and covered our faces in peel away masks. The conversation, not surprisingly, went from the weather (hot) to movies to boys to God. It was a great time for us to be together and for me to grow closer to them as well. I hope to start meeting with some of them more regularly now that their holidays are over and everyone is back into a routine... including us.

Braden and Simon didnt understand why they couldnt spend the night in the living room too so we left the mattresses out and the whole family, minus Lucy, stayed out there the next night! We watched The Return of Peter Pan and ate cookies.

suggested reading

No, this is not a commercial for a speed reading course! Just wanted to share with all you readers Amy's latest feat - she's read like a thousand books since Lucy's birth. Here's Lucy next to her stack minus 7 books. See that nice paper one... that's my book which I've been reading for the first time to try and decide whether to edit it. But I would probably say it hasn't been her favorite. That would probably be either the Colonists or the Puritans by Jack Cavanaugh (historical fiction).