Update

Bom dia!
It's been awhile since I last posted. We've been really busy lately. I don't have very many pictures this time. The camera doesn't come with me as much and when it does, I forget to take pictures. So, what have we been up to:

In random order,
Yesterday was Denver's first time conducting in Sacrament meeting. He did a good job with no mistakes, except he forgot to get people for the prayers so he asked from the pulpit. It was fast Sunday and we fasted for missionary experiences and for a sister in our ward who is on bedrest because she is having very strong contractions and not far enough along. In the states, she would be fine because she is 34 weeks along and we have modern medicine. Here, however, there is not a NICU and they can't fly her to the states because her contractions haven't stopped. She's been having them for a few weeks now. I was very surprised and pleased when Garrett (only 6 years old) wanted to fast for her and went without breakfast and lunch and didn't eat until after 5pm when we had dinner.

Garrett has been wanting to bear his testimony in Sacrament meeting for weeks now, but I always tell him it's not fast sunday so he couldn't. Well, yesterday after the first person bore their testimony I told Garrett he could bear his testimony today if he wanted. He darted up so fast and gave a great testimony with no fear or hesitation. A great example to me.

This Sunday I taught Relief Society. I spent a lot of time preparing and kept in mind the sisters I would be teaching. In a small branch, sometimes we have 6 or 7 sisters in RS and sometimes we have 1 or 2. Well, we had 3 counting me in RS and one was not a member and the other was a sister that can barely hear and is still learning the basics of the gospel. So...I pretty much dumped my lesson plan and changed almost everything to fit their needs. I wasn't too disappointed though because as I was preparing the lesson, I felt like it was something I needed and was a lesson just for me.

Saturday the female auxillary presidencies had a district meeting. 3 branches were there to get trained and learn together. Lajes Military branch, Praia branch and Angra branch (the last 2 are Portuguese speaking branches.) After some instruction we got together in groups according to our auxillary. My group was Sociedade do Sucorro (Relief Society). Together we had to come up with a lesson plan and scripture to go along with a picture we were given and then share it with all the groups at the pulpit. In my group there were only 3 of us. Fatima, Luisa, and me. I LOVED this part of the training. We had to overcome language barriers and work together. In the short amount of time we were together I had such a good time with these 2 Portuguese sisters. We all had to get out of our comfort bubbles and it felt good.

After the training, our family went to our chapel to clean. We swept and mopped the whole place (it's all tile, but it's not that huge of a bldg) and then did some much needed cleaning in the bathrooms. It was good for our family to serve together to clean the Lord's house.

Friday, on base, was an evening for families. They provided food and bouncy houses. It was fun for the kids.

Last Sunday we had two new families over for dinner. There were in all 11 kids and 6 adults in our home (which isn't so big). It was fun to get to know the new families. One of them was in Misawa, Japan when the Earthquake happened and had to get evacuated. The dad (active duty military member) had to stay in Japan while the family headed to the states to live with family. The mom said it was crazy. The ground never stopped shaking the 4 days they were waiting to be evacuated.

Denver and I went to Buzio's (a restaurant that is the American's favorite) for date night. We ate good and had a nice walk on the boardwalk after. We couldn't see the water (it was too dark), but we could hear it crashing against the rocks. And of course we could smell the fresh air, but that is anywhere on the island. There's very fresh, clean air here. I left with beautifully curly hair and came back with stick straight hair. The weather is not good for fixed hair.

We were dog watchers for an afternoon. Our neighbors watch a girl in our branch's dog and one day we were getting ready to leave, had the door wide open, when all of a sudden a dog ran into our house. I recognized the dog as Sunday (dog's name) and tried to call the neighbor and the owner. No one was answering. So I sent the boys to the backyard to play with the dog while we waited. Colson started off terrified of the dog. He is afraid of all dogs, small or large. By the end of the afternoon when our neighbor came home, he was loving the dog, hugging it, chasing it and calling it 'cute'. It was too funny.

Colson found Maelie's make-up in her room and put it on his cheek and chin. I think it was lipstick.

This picture was taken a week ago, but today I am 20 weeks. I feel great; big, but great. I know I'll get bigger, but it's been awhile since I've been pregnant and I just feel big. I'm still able to run. The most I run is 4 miles, but I'm going to start lessening that because I feel really tired and thirsty by the end of my run. I like the way I feel after though and I have so much more energy on the days that I run.
My crazy pregnancy craving: Last week I had the biggest craving for a hot dog! Hot dog? That's right, one of my least favorite foods in the world. I really think I just wanted the relish. Even now as I write this that hot dog is looking tasty. Weird.
I step outside in the mornings or evenings and am overcome with this incredible aroma! I breathe in so deeply it smells so good. I can't get enough of it. It seems to be more noticeable in the mornings and evenings, but I can smell it other times too. Apparently this wonderful island smell happens every year at this time. It smells like I'm walking into a flower shop. I haven't gotten allergies from it yet either. I smelled this plant/flower that's planted in our front yard and it smells so strong and wonderful. It doesn't look like much, but it smells GOOD!

We went shopping off base to find some different things. I bought this stuff, thinking it looked tasty. I was wrong. It tasted like stale bread with dried frosting on it. Not good. I also bought two other kinds of bread which were delicious, but no picture. One was a sweet bread.
The sky is pretty in this picture. This picture also depicts the houses in our neighborhood, connected. The nice thing is the walls must be thick because we don't hear anything from our neighbors and they have 2 big indoor dogs. It's helps that we're a corner house too so only one wall is attached to someone else.
A souvenir. We try to pick up little souvenirs here and there so when we move, we'll have some nice things from the Azores and we won't have to spend a lot of money at one time to get it all.
oops, that's out of place. The same biscuit type thing. Looks good, but don't be fooled.
My two favorite drinks here: Active drink which is a mix of carrot and orange juice. I'm sure it has lots of sugar, but the labels are written differently than the states and in Portuguese (don't ask me why 'active drink' is in English, I have no idea). Guarana- I love this stuff. Unfortunately it's carbonated and I don't like to drink too much soda, but it's really good. I just can't buy it too often. I already know I will miss Guarana when we move away from here.
These looked good when I bought them. Peach, lemon and apple juice. They tasted like watered down juices. I was okay with that because less sugar for the kids. I like the peach a lot though.
Friday the kids didn't have school and today they don't. Friday was a fun day with a picnic, cookie decorating and games outside. Today is a work day to catch up on laundry and cleaning. We can't go anywhere because our brakes squeal all the time, not only when braking. It's a warning that they're getting really low so we don't want to drive the van very much if we don't have to. Just to church. It's hard to be without a vehicle that can fit our whole family. We ordered brake pads from AutoZone over a week ago and now we're just waiting for them to arrive so we can change them out. Mail is sssssllllloooowwwww. The crazy thing is our van was inspected before we could get our registration or something like that and it passed. I guess they don't check brake pad levels.

Garrett started piano lessons when our stuff finally got here. I was nervous to teach him, but he is doing great!!! He picks up on things very quickly. Now the challenge is to just get them both to practice. Without a 'real' teacher, they think they can get away with not practicing. The candy incentive isn't working out too well.

I'm going to tak a Portuguese class on base soon. It's only a 10 day class so I won't learn tons, but i will learn more about the culture here and more of the language. I really want to learn. When I go to the commissary on base I find the nice man and go to his lane to check out and then he teaches me some Portuguese. We'll see how things go.

That's the update for now.