Some of my photos are a little "askew", due to me trying to be sneaky in taking them. I felt funny snapping off a lot of pictures of the Brazilian people and their area. I didn't want them to think I thought of them as a freak show. I completely felt like a "tourist".




This is Scott and Becky's dog, "Damas", which means checkers in Portuguese. Their other dog is "Bradocki" which means bad dog. Scott joked that they have two dogs, BadDog and Dumbass. Damas is part dalmatian and part greyhound or something like it. He is one fast canine!!!

This was an attempt to capture the cyclist. We saw many "families" on the bicycles. Dad pedals, mom on the back holding the baby..........Becky said she's seen families of 5 on them. Their primary means of transportation is bikes, motorcycles, scooters and if you are "rich", an automobile.
These guys look just like our own "Spanky". They were extremely fast. The top gecko was about 5-6". The bottom gecko was only about 2".

We had 2 projects while we were there. One was re-roofing the caretaker's house and the other was screening in the shelter house where Scott & Becky (who run the orphanage) hold their home group meetings. This pix is me breaking up concrete and clay tile taken off the roof. I was taking out some ingrained frustrations, I guess, cuz I ended up breaking the sledgehammer. Ooops!
This is what we did for three days.......I felt like I couldn't get screening out of my brain. I have to say, my hand strength greatly diminished over those days.. until I was using both hands to roll the screen into the grooves in the frame. The biggest challenge, however, was avoiding the fire ant nests. I was not good at this and have the bites to prove it. I may be heading to the doctor, to get prednisone to relieve the itching. Those buggers LOVED me!
The trip to the grocery store was very educational. Not sure this is really batmilk (can you imagine the bat "milking" process????), but worth a picture, anyway. Given the delicacies of the Brazilians, batmilk wouldn't be a stretch.
To the average eye, this looks like a log. Not so. This is a skinned anaconda. The story goes.......this guy attacked the dog of one of the families who live on the river. (For future reference, we call these people "river people" and it is not a derogatory phrase) The husband and wife killed it and skinned it. It was missing it's head, but still was 19 feet long!!!!! The next day as we came on it again, it had bloated to the point of explosion. That smell was burned into my nose the rest of the day. Nothing like it.

BACK FROM BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So, I returned home Sunday morning from the mission trip. We arrived in Miami Saturday evening and stayed there that night. I learned of the flooding in Iowa, and immediately started calling home. The only contact we had with our families was the day we got there and again a week later! Being cut off from home was probably the hardest part. I am very happy to report all is well with my family. Unfortunately, thousands of others cannot say the same. Many prayers go out to those affected by the flooding!!

So, here are only some of the pictures I have to share right now. I will be posting all of them on a different website. I will post the link as soon as I have everything set up. I will also be getting pictures from others on the mission team that I can post later.
This is the childrens home at the orphanage. It is the first of 5?? This is where we stayed, since there were no children there, yet. The house parents move in within the next week or so. They hope to have kids within the month. The vehicles were Komvis. Bought new, but you can only get them in Mexico/South America due to safety reasons.......should have been a huge red flag, but had no other way of getting around. I can safely say, riding in these was the most dangerous and scariest part of the trip!!
This is the team at the local cyber cafe the evening we got in.
Our first spider sighting. We thought this spider was huge, but we hadn't seen NOTHING yet!!
Again, we were very interested in this molted tarantula skin. One of our team members brought her 8 year old daughter, Sidney. She was "critter girl". She was always exploring for bugs and lizards. No fear, this one. She found this little guy.

Well, I'm nearing the departure time for the Brazil trip. We leave Columbus Friday morning. Right now, our group is frantically emailing back and forth regarding our luggage and what we are to bring. I've been quite impressed with the organization being done prior to leaving. I have a lot of people asking if I'm really excited. I have to say that I'm more nervous than excited right now. Once I get on that airplane and finally take a deep breath, I think I'll be fine. I'm stressed about the packing, the flight, the possibility of disease~thank you health department for your very aggressive "pro-vaccine" tactics.....but most of all, I'm stressed about leaving the kids and Eric. This will be the longest I've ever left them. Eric will assume all responsibilities: cooking, cleaning, feeding the kids, laundry, and getting each kid to their ballgame. Oh yeah, I'll have to remember to write a note with instructions to feed the dogs. Last year, when Ally and I went to Georgia, after 3 days, Eric realized he had forgotten to feed Gracie and Boo. He only came to this conclusion after seeing the dogs repeatedly swipe food off the table.................geesh!!!!!!
I'll have two flights to brush up on my Portuguese. We were taught a few words and phrases for the kids. We were told that even if we butcher the pronunciation, the kids appreciate the attempt. I am excited to hang with the kids. I'm sure I will feel like taking them home with me. However, I hear customs frowns on bringing children out/in without proper papers. Damn!!
I will blog about all that we encounter when I get back ~ after I love on my kids for several days!!!!!!!!!

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!

This is a picture of Mark and Dawn's horse, Dixie (in the pen) and our two. Dixie is Minnie's Mom and George's grandma. You would never guess by the way they all acted. Here Dixie is attempting to bite at Minnie. This only happened because Minnie stuck her head over the pen to taunt her. I was embarrassed by Minnie's behavior! She was such a b****!!! She taunted Dixie, chased Charlie and bucked at anyone who looked at her funny! In addition to our own two horses, we also picked up Denice's horse, Casey. They all were beautiful running around the pasture once we put them all in together. It was like a herd of wild horses.

This is Ally and Cate.

This is Max on Casey~before the "incident". Some of us went on a trail ride up behind Mark and Dawn's property. There are woods and a small stream to cross. On our way back, Eric and Max were in front on Glory. Al and I were right behind them on Charlie. Mark was on Casey and Dawn on Buck. As Glory crosses the stream, she starts struggling to get her footing. I watch as she falls over with Eric and Max getting thrown into the stream. Charlie makes it up the embankment and I turn around to figure out what the hell I was going to do. Mark was already off Casey, who went running for the barn. I hear both Eric and Max, so I knew they were ok. I hear Max yelling that he was stuck. My gut is leaping into my throat, but I had to go after Casey. Now, I couldn't start freaking out, cuz I had Ally on the back of the horse, and I didn't want to scare her. She and I get Casey through the gate and we run to the barn. This part was exciting for Al, cuz the whole ride, she wanted to RUN!! Once I got Casey where he needed to be, I head back for the stream. Dawn was already on her way back, saying everyone was ok. They were wet and cold, but ok. Well, as it all went down, Max's leg was stuck under Glory! If I had been there long enough to assess the situation, I would have been a freaking basketcase!!!! Instead of rolling over to right herself, Glory stayed right where she was, on her back, waiting for the guys to get Max out of there. Once they freed him, they told her to go ahead and get up...and she did. If she had tried to get up, she would have rolled onto Max, crushing him or drowning him. As I thought of this scenario over the next couple of days, I tortured myself with what "could have" happened. It was so scary. It was also a freak accident. The embankment had gave-way under her feet. She tried, but it just collapsed. We washed Glory off at the barn and she was ok, too-especially after all the treats we gave her!!! Oh yeah, Glory is also related to my horses. I'll be happy if mine turn out the be even half the horse she is!!!!!

Max's excitement after his first homerun of the year!!

This is Max's first year of kid-pitch (peewee). It's quite a bit different than years past. However, one of the good things is that the kids move around positions a little more than they have before. Last year, when our first baseman was on vacation, we were sunk, due to the fact that none of the other boys had played that position much. This year, while one of the boys is pitching, someone is playing their position. It works for versatility. That being said, I'm a little more of a nervous wreck.......why?........because my kid is out there pitching...right in the line of fire!! EEK!
When Max isn't pitching, he plays shortstop.
It's a lot of fun to watch him, cuz he has such natural ability. He looks like he's been pitching for years........
When I suggested purchasing a chest plate for when he's pitching, I was met with the eye-rolling response..........."Aww, MOM......" :)

Baseball/T-ball has begun!! This is Ally's first year playing ball. In Marengo's league, they separate boys and girls into baseball and softball t-ball. This is my little "ragamuffin" in one of her first practices.
RUN!!!
Doesn't she look like a force to be reckoned with? I'm sure that's what the other teams will think! Please no comments on the fact that she is in her brothers' hand-me downs, head to toe!!!!!!!!