pictures

40 years old and still cool!!!Do you think he likes being surprised??
my idea, a cake with a hill he is the truck headed down the other side, I am the nice car, not on the hill yet, or at least I want to think that :o)

Emma and Jonathan having fun together

don't you wish you were a cat??

My senior girls, really going to miss them. The one on the left, she is my favorite - don't tell the others. But that's mostly cause I have know her the longest. She was just Laney's age when we came almost 8 years ago!!! Her mom is my friend in the city near here where we use to live.

Laney's dress up party, very fun!!!

April / May news

Dear friends and family,
Have you missed us? Well, I know I miss hearing from all of you. It has been so busy, and because I have a blog and find that I often put all my thoughts down there, I haven't been as faithful to send out notes to keep you all updated to what we have been up to.
I know you got Scott's letter that shared about our future plans, and we are excited to see how that will all come together. Of course, right now we are just trying to make it through the next two weeks without exploding. It is the usual end-of-year activities, and they are always busy for us as Scott is busy making shows about each of the Seniors (5 in this year's class) and he is also finalizing the yearbook and preparing to print (900 pages) and send off to be bound. But to top it all off, we are the Junior Sponsors so we have been working all year with them to pull off an amazing Junior-Senior Banquet. Because of how life is on a school base this becomes the event of the year. Everyone involved here at the school is invited, and we also let the Seniors invite close friends and family. There is a theme and a set that is put together that creates a whole " feel" for the evening. Last year it was a soccer field and cup winners (their countries ) were represented in the menu. I would love to tell you what it will be this year, but you have to wait until the 17th - it is a BIG secret!!! So Scott is busy with the construction team of Juniors and parents, I am busy with the cook planning the menu and food prep, and decorating with the Juniors. It is fun, but yes, a bit of pressure.
Scott is also extra busy this time of year as he has personal presentations to finish for the families heading to the states (3 this year). It would be nice if he could have done these earlier, but honestly he hasn't had a minute, so it gets put off until it has to be done. They will be done in time, and he will crash afterward.
I am also busy planning a night event for our final week (the 20th). The elementary kids are putting on a play and performing 3 choir numbers. I am also organizing other specials, piano, music etc. It is fun, and we do so enjoy seeing the kids use all their talents, and they really shine during these days.
Last night was our final home ec. supper, a five course meal. Wish we could have invited everyone, but just 10 was a crowd. I have enjoyed getting to know these girls on a more personal level. They have done a lot of work in different areas, sewing, and cooking. I love seeing how much they have changed and grown this year. I could almost ( I said almost) leave it to them, but I did just kind of tell them when to do everything, and I didn't have to give them much instructions besides that. We have 2 classes left and we are hoping to make some teddy bears during that time??? I might end of finishing them.
Life would be stressful enough with all this going on, but you wouldn't believe what else we have had to deal with these days. In Maine, the banks had a real mess when one of the grocery stores was hacked into, and then the fraud was seeming to be perpetrated here in Brazil!!! So they shut down our bank cards, and this after months of barely making it from month to month (certainly no extra money here that we could use to make it through these tough days.) The dollar has been falling daily, and our support has dropped. Then after that we had a month with almost no extras left after we paid our bills at head quarters. The worst part, though, if you can imagine. Was our computer's power supply burned out ( due to the dust) and we were without a computer just when we needed it most. This last week!!! We needed to write to some churches and contact people to find out where our money was and we had no e-mail address at hand. But amazingly, God gave us peace through these days, and we are finally starting to feel like it will all work out. Some extra money has come in, and we might get all our bills paid. It has been a lesson in trusting and resting that is for sure.
Pray for us when you think of us these next weeks. They will be busy. Scott preached this morning about finishing strong and loving each other through these stressful days. It was an appropriate message for these days.
Thanks so much for your part in our lives. For your love and support. We couldn't be here serving Him and his people if it wasn't for you!!
Love
Jenny for the family

For my Mother

Make a Smilebox slideshow

beautiful weather

Yes, this is my favorite time of the year, it is cool and crisp in the morning and sunny all day. The evenings are short as it is dark soon after six, but it is nice to snuggle up in a blanket and watch a favorite show or movie. Tonight is American Idol and we are a week behind the states, so we try not to find out who will get kicked off early, but sometimes it gets out, then we just watch for fun. It has been a fun night to get together with girl friends and just hang out.
just 7 days of school left, the choir piece has come together nicely, and the play is coming along. I really do hate the set design aspect of the play, but we are going to keep it simple.
I have 9 short stories to read and correct so they can print the final copies to have out for open house at the end of the year.
Scott is busy, busy!!! 4 personal presentations to complete. 5 Senior montages to put together for Banquet, Year book to finalize and then print 900 pages!!! And then banquet is in a week and 3 days. That is a big set to mount, the theme is a secret, so we are trying to get all the last things done without anyone finding out what it will be until the end.
But come the 23 of May and life will be nice and quiet again.
Pray for us, we have had some difficult days with our finances, but God gives us peace as we rest in His hands through it all.

back in the shop

Just wanted to post quickly that our computer is back in the shop. Hopefully just the power supply again, but pray that if there are any other problems they can help with those, too.
Scott's birthday party was fun, big surprise (40 years!!) and I will post video and pictures soon,
Thanks for all your prayers, it has been a busy month, and I am afraid it is just starting, but June will come soon, and life will get calmer. Pray for our finances, some checks we were expecting were delayed, and so we have had to scratch and call friends to make a couple payments that come out first of the month, but God is faithful and we rest in that.
more soon,
Love you all
Jenny

Can you pray for Asphalt??

Yes, that is the question. I know we should pray for salvation for the nations, for the health of a loved one, and even for the dollar to return to pre-Euro strength, but what about praying that the road out front of my house to finally get paved.
It has been twenty years or more that the town has been promising to pave this road. It is the road all the trucks use instead of driving through the downtown area to get to the highway. It is a busy road, and especially this time of year with all the harvest traffic. Thankfully we had a good rain last night so the dust is down quite a bit. but I am sure by noon it will be dried out and clouds of dust will billow across the yard again.
The question is Why am I asking now when it has been like this for so long. Well, this morning down at church one of my neighbors (she makes those lovely crochet rugs I have given to almost everyone I know - who refuse to use them as rugs and uses them to decorate tables and chairs) told me that the equipment is here and they are waiting on Asphalt. So please if after you have covered all those needy prayer requests and you have an extra moment pray for Asphalt!!!
church was nice today. The pastor preached on the Jewish Feasts. It was so neat seeing how they all correlate to Christ's death, resurrection, the church, second coming and millennium. It was cool. I tried to translate as much as I could for the lady sitting next to me. She has learned a lot of Portuguese, but all those tec terms, and at that speed, it is hard to keep up.
The power was out for 4 hours this morning, it is finally on. I must admit it was nice. We had a quiet morning, different, and the kids really played together. I enjoy that. But it is even better when the power finally came on again!!!
Hope you have a nice Sunday. Want to come over for dinner?? WE are having chicken finger with home made BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes, biscuits and corn. So much for starting back on my diet today :o)

Life is Good!!!

So it was a long week, I don't know why, but it was. Emma wet the bed twice, that wasn't fun, I don't know why she is doing it, maybe it is the change in seasons?? She does so well on the potty, but almost always is a bit wet by the time she gets there (maybe cause she likes to run everywhere), so changes her undies, we go through a lot of undies every week. She is cute, so very organized and methodical. Has to use a wipe when she goes number 2, makes sure that I help her, and even now speaks so clearly making her requests.
She said "I love you" for the first time this week, that was very special, and she didn't just say " I love you", but " I love you, Mommy". I have waited along time to hear that. She is always saying " Amen" at the end of our prayers, but I wanted to see if she would pray, she did, mumbled something, then said "Amen". So precious. She likes to have her hair done, and let me braid it today, and seems to like to be told she looks nice. What a big girl. Fitting into her 4T's very nicely. I think Laney was 5 before she wore 4T's.
Laney prayed in church today when Daddy asked who would like to pray. She prayed for her cousin who was in the hospital from an Appendectomy. And for her grandparents who are traveling, and for her teacher's grandpa who is home from the nursing home. It was very special. Jonathan is growing up, too, shared quite a few testimonies in church on Sunday a couple weeks ago, likes is new devo book, and still has so many questions and thoughts about the Bible. He is doing well at school. He really does love to learn, Math, and Science being his favorites. Still loves to learn about animals, but this year they have studied plants and he really likes that, too.
This week has been nice as Scott is finally done with all the extras he has had on his desk since January. He is home most evenings, and just more relaxed. He has a big show for the mission Bible School he finished and will send off for their checking and feedback. And now he is working on two personal shows for a couple families headed home for furlough ( one is in Dutch)
This week we will be doing standardized testing. I will have 9th grade and Scott 10th. It will be a busy week with lots of extra time for me at School. Thankfully Emma can be in the daycare for the whole week, that will be a big help.
I thought that rainy season was really ending, it was so dry and dusty last week, but Thursday night it started to rain and has been raining since. I was even going to take a picture of the road out in front of my house where there has been a lake since November, showing it dried up, but it is full of water again. I must admit, even though the rain is inconvenient, I will so miss it when it goes.
My maid is no longer working for us, and that was a help for our monthly budget. It isn't a lot a month (just $60) but it will help. She helped most by watching Emma so I could teach, but I can have Scott help out, and I am not as busy this semester as I was last semester. So I am cleaning my house again. I forgot how much I do enjoy that. Places that she never cleaned are getting taken care of and other things I don't notice I have finally gotten under control. I am more picky about the kids wearing shoes into the house, but oh well, they will just have to learn!!!!!
I got a couple fun packages in the mail from Maine, how nice it was to have my needs (peanut butter, Tylenol, hair gel, deodorant) and wants (nuts, bath gels, cappuccino mix) met and few luxuries on top of that!!! Clams, Andes mints!!! Scott got his favorite - Peeps - they were for the kids, but I think he enjoyed them the most, and the kids were thrilled with their fruit snacks. Yes, Life is Good.