The last daily blog post

I determined to post a picture every day in 2012, then when 2013 rolled around I realized Kevin looked at my blog every week to know what was going on at home (in addition to lots of emails, of course!) so I decided to keep going until his mission was done.

Technically he still has a couple of days, but I won't be here to update, so this is it for now.  Look for occasional updates here and there.

Below you can see what happens when airlines sell their meals for ridiculous prices.  I bring my own food!

A quick email from Kevin . . .

. . . said we will stay with another of his friends in Brazil and to please bring another hostess gift.  So I pulled out my sewing machine and fabric and whipped up another pillow cover.  I corrected the mistakes I made on the first two and I'm really delighted with this one.

I used a darker color for one of the reds plus the small square in the middle and I like it.  Now I'm wishing I had used a more muted white and . . . and . . . and.  I know this will be gratefully accepted with the good wishes and gratitude I feel toward the families who have been so kind to Kevin.

Here are all three pillows:

Hostess gifts completed!

I have a busy first-of-the-week coming this week, then a few days of downtime (big holiday in Korea).  I was actually planning to make the pillows during those few days, but decided to just get going on them.

I did my favorite get-going mental game which was to do things in little steps.  Eating an elephant a bite at a time, you might say.  First I had to get down the box of fabric.  Then I had to look for a pattern.  Then I had to choose fabrics.  Then I had to just cut out the pieces, etc, etc. Everything I did was only one thing and then I could quit and do something else for awhile.  If I wanted to continue to the next step, that was fine too.  I do this all the time when I have a project I'd rather procrastinate doing.

However . . . I'm very happy with the outcome because they are d-o-n-e done!

They are 14" square and have an envelope opening in the back of the cover so they can be easily removed and washed.  In addition, I'm going to have Kevin write a note to each of his families inside on the back of the quilted part with a Sharpie.  That way they'll have a little special something from him, but it won't be open for just anyone to see.

If plans change and we don't give away both of the pillows I won't mind keeping one . . . . :-)

Making a couple of hostess gifts

When we go to Brazil we'll stay with a couple of Kevin's friends.  I want to bring gifts to the families and I know hostess gifts often reflect the native area of the giver.

I mentioned cactus jelly earlier, along with some quilting, and settled on the quilting.  Here is a hint of the pillow covers I'm making:

Red, white, and blue figure prominently as well, so you may guess I changed the colors from the directions I'm following.

Both quilt blocks are underway and I'll post more when I have more to show.

Oh, and Kevin requested I bring jars of peanut butter along.  I guess certain Brazilians appreciate ambrosia as much as my family does.

ANOTHER passport photo!

We got our visas and really, really thought we were done with passport photos, but NO!  In order to rent a car in Brazil, you have to show your International Driving License.  You can imagine that bit of news produced a little stab of fear in me, after the visa battle.

Luckily, it turns out getting the license is easy, not expensive, and the office is actually very close to the house.  However, part of the application is a set of passport photos which Bill has in abundance.  Except we couldn't find them.

Lucikly when I took my own pictures for my visa, I blogged about it and thus I just went back, followed the links and directions there and sent Bill's picture off, to Walgreen's this time, for printing.  I'll pick them up on my way to get the license.

I think this trip is going to happen!

Hostess gifts

When we travel later this month we're going to stay with friends of Kevin's in a couple of towns.  I want to bring them something that is kind of native to the United States and maybe to our area specifically. 

We live in the desert, so I've thought about bringing something like cactus jelly.

However, although I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find something like this, I'm thinking about making a pieced and quilted pillow cover for each family, and perhaps using a red-white-and-blue color theme as I did in this quilt I made last year:

That quilt is on my bed right now and I like it more with each passing day.  Anyway, I think the red-white-and-blueness of it is subtle enough to not shout UNITED STATES, yet is still American, don't you think?  I'm thinking I might make each cover the same as one of the five blocks with the small pieces, although I have to see what size pillow forms are to make it the right size.  Or I might use a different pattern.  I think I can buy the pillow forms here, then cram them into my luggage.  That will leave room when I come back for all the souvenirs, right?

The first thing I thought of this morning . . . .

. . . when I woke up was not that this is the month of my birthday, for which reason I always love September, but this is the month Kevin comes home!

In honor of that, I'm actually going to look at the pictures on his disc and choose one instead of throwing a virtual dart at the disc.

Funny boy.  I can clearly see he is in NO way touching that beautiful girl.

Random Kevin picture

After that last one with the peeling . . . "something" . . . on his leg, I'm a little nervous.

This looks much nicer.  It's a chocolate tie, maybe for father's day or maybe it was for his birthday.  I'm going to assume the police badge is a toy, not that he took this picture while sitting at the police station.

Random Kevin picture

 

Ugh and double ugh.  This canNOT be peeling skin, but I don't know what else it might be.  Some kind of Brazilian after-sun lotion that dries to protect the burned skin??  And what was Kevin doing to get so badly burned below his shorts?

September 2, 2013 update:  Kevin wrote a letter and said YES, that is his skin.  He and his companions played soccer waaaaay too long that day.

Random Kevin picture

Have you noticed I'm posting more Kevin pictures?  I haven't been taking my camera everywhere with me like I once did, and other times, like tonight when I wanted to take my camera with me to the food bank service project, I couldn't find it.  I'm pretty sure it had something to do with an eleven year old daughter.

So, compliments of my dear son, here is another picture and below it my comments.  No matter what.

Okay, this didn't turn out exactly as I hoped.  I went back to the disc and tried to turn the picture 90 degrees, but it wouldn't go.  Maybe this was a special panoramic picture?  While I was messing around with the first picture, I looked at the ones on either side of it.  Look at this terrific picture!  And to think I'm going to see that bay soon . . . .

Because I see a sitting backpack in the first picture, I'm going to say Kevin and his companion and perhaps some other missionaries or church members or other people they met in the area went for a pretty serious hike on their weekly day off.  What a payoff!

Random Kevin picture

Whoo boy, I'm going to take a guess here.  How about the post office or consulate or wherever American guys living in Brazil have to go to get continued permission to "teach and preach and work as missionaries do"?

Random Kevin picture

I'm going to say this is a picture of someone Kevin and his companion met and are teaching.  Pretty nice looking house, and all that green . . . !

Kevin's mission conference

Kevin sent several group photos today and this was my favorite:

Click on it since it's kind of small.  You can see Kevin in the third row from the front about center in a light gray suit.  Happy, good-looking kid, isn't he?

Not-so-random Kevin picture

This morning I was looking for an interesting picture for a discussion topic with one of my elementary school-aged students and this is the picture I came up with:

She asked about the banana leaf (I assume that is what it is?) and we looked at the incongruity of the really rough exterior of the building and the high-end front door and side lights.  I told her what Kevin is doing in Brazil (sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ) and why (he loves Jesus Christ).  Then we talked about the unspoken theme of the picture.  The next thing I knew she asked me to please close my eyes for a count of ten, then she'd have a surprise for me.  Here is the surprise:

Pretty, pretty princess, right?

Kevin Mystery Picture

The girls and I made a batch of homemade ice cream today.  Dh never even knew.  Boy, was it good.

Let's see what Kevin's been up to, shall we?

The good part is that flag is hung correctly even though it may not look like it.  But they are all pledging allegiance to . . . a bottle of orange juice . . . ?  A squeeze container of honey?  A Mountain Dew?

Random Kevin picture

In straightening up for the weekend wedding, I came across Kevin's disc (ahem . . . again).  So here is a completely random picture and afterward, my comments:

Oh my.  I have no idea what to say about this because I don't know what it mean.  "Questions for Two"??  Maybe Kevin and his companion held up this sign on the street to let people know they could stop and ask a Mormon missionary any question they wanted to know?

Just the kind of pictures a missionary mom DOESN'T like to see . . . .

Kevin says he was watching the ground and missed seeing an open overhead garage gate (will have to find out exactly what that means) and this was the result:

What you can't see, because you are looking only at the front of him, is his MULTITUDE of such scars all over his head under his hair.  When he was little he was always falling, hitting things, and cutting his head.  I'll bet he has at least five scars under his hair.

Anyway, this one is a pretty good one.  I hope it heals quickly and without incident.

Mystery picture from Kevin 3

What will it be this time??
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Oh my.  Umm . . . he's a soldier in the war for independence from Portugal?  And that man to his left made the sword?

Mother's Day 2013

This has been a pleasant, low-key day and just delightful.

It started off with breakfast in bed complements of Caroline.  Next was brunch with waffles made by Bill.

Then was probably my most-anticipated gift, which was a Skype call from Kevin.  We might have misunderstood what his mission president said.  Perhaps he said 40 minutes, but we talked for an HOUR and forty minutes. :-)

I thought he looked great.  His hair was longer and in a parted-on-the-side style that makes him look older.  His face looked thinner and more angular.  The boy might be growing up on me.

I made it to Church just before the meeting started and at the end they asked all the women to stand up to receive a small gift.

The last part comes tonight for dinner.  I asked my mom what she wanted to have for her Mother's Day dinner and she said slow-cooker roast and vegetables.  I ran to the store last night and bought a big roast along with carrots and potatoes.  My house has been smelling incredible for hours!  We are waiting until David and Alicia get here, then we'll sit down together to enjoy it and each other's company.

Random picture from Kevin 2

Here is a random picture from the disk he sent recently, followed by my impromptu comments:

I'm going to guess this is the street right after one of the heavy rains so common to southern coastal Brazil.  Knowing Kevin, I can't decide if he waded out into it or not.