NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP!

I have been waiting and waiting for a package Lucy sent the 24th of March. I had all but given up on it. Well, today, June 9th, it arrived. Yeah!
From the tags and stamps on the package I think it got held up in some sort of inspection. It looks like it arrived in Brazil on the 17th of April, so it arrived in the country in the usual time of about a month but the inspection held it up. I don't get this inspection stuff, because I know not every package gets inspected. But what's done is done and I am just glad it arrived.
Thank you ,Lucy, for the Easter things. I am excited to use them next year. Thank you, Grace. for the apron. Now I have an apron just like all the other hen and chicks. It was worth the wait!

It's War!

Lately I've been losing the battle against mildew during this rainy season. This pair of shoes is the latest victim. The light parts on these shoes are actually black. They are just covered with powdery light bluish /whitish mildew and yes, they stink.

Every few days when I walk in our closet I sniff out something else that reeks. Having never dealt with high humidity and mold before, I was caught unaware, but I'm fighting it now. I've been inspecting everything in the closet, even giving things the "sniff test." Gag!

The mofo, Portuguese for mildew, seems to strike rather randomly. An unaffected piece of clothing will be hanging right between two smelly ones. Shoes and leather belts are favorite targets for the mildew too.

I've washed clothes and taken clothes to the cleaner. I've tried fans, used lots of laundry soap and perfumed softener, and put things out in the sun (if it stays out long enough.)

Today Alan came home with some humidity absorbing packets, and I brought out the biggest gun I could think of....bleach. I'm wiping down every surface I possibly can. I only got through half the closet before I gave out today. There are a lot of shelves in there and when you do tops and bottoms and all the sides of drawers you can work up a sweat pretty fast.

But I will get back to it tomorrow. I have declared war and I plan to win.

P. S. If anybody has dealt with this enemy before and has any suggestions, I will gladly hear them. I need all the help I can get.

I Am My Mother's Daughter, I Hope

Yesterday when I found myself cutting off the burned edges of a cake, trying to salvage the non burned part to put in the freezer for future use if I get in a really desperate situation,I thought to myself, "This is something my mother would do." (You know you would, Mom.)

I'm glad she taught me to try to make the most of a bad situation and to be thrifty, and I hope I am like my mom in more ways than trying to salvage near misses in the kitchen. She is a great mom and grandma and just what I want to be when I grow up. Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

While we are on the subject, I got a cute email I thought I would share parts of. These are questions about Moms that were answered by second graders. They made me smile. I hope you like them too.

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

What ingredients are mothers made of ?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

What kind of little girl/boy was your mom?
1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair.. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head

Is it Just Me?

Is it just me or does anybody else have a hard time remembering the last pan of cookies when you are baking a batch? This picture doesn't really show it too well, but my last batch, the ones on the right, are definitely good for dunking only. They are crisp, dry, sad cookies. I must have adult A.D.D. or something, because I can't tell you how many times I have done this. I've done worse, much worse, but I really needed these last cookies today to make just the right amount for a Zone Conference. UGGHHH! So do I make a whole new batch or just make the assistants have the "well done" cookies? I have enough to give them two actually, but I'm not sure if two borderline burned cookies are better than no cookie at all.

Okay, okay, I'll post something

I've been shamed into posting something on my blog. Becca gave me the "It's high time you posted something" lecture in an email today, so here is this gorgeous picture of me sporting my brand new "MOO-MOO" as Alan calls it. I'm holding a bottle of A & W, two packages of Girl Scout Cookies and a fly swatter that I look like I just got hid in the head with. All these things and a lot more were in the last shipment of goods we received just last week. It was great! (A shout out to Lucy Dahl for the use of her old burgundy suitcases she was going to take to DI. They have been to Brazil twice, loaded full of great stuff, since she gave them to the cause.)

I think the moo-moo is great even though Alan pretty much hates it. I know it is not the most stylish or flattering, but it is cool and that is what counts. Becca picked it up at Wal-Mart for me in case anyone is wondering where you can get one. She said they have plenty left.

We used one bottle of root beer for our FHE treat this week and made delicious root beer floats. We're saving this one for later. You have to ration these things, you know.

Russell sent us enough Girl Scout cookies that we have even shared a few. I don't know how many cases he bought this year, but we were glad he did his part to support the Girl Scouts of America again and share with us.

The fly swatter is great too. I've used it every day since we got it and many flies have rubbed their legs together for the last time. They probably have fly swatters here, but I had looked in 4 or 5 stores and couldn't find one so I just put it on "the list."

So thanks for the stuff. We're pretty well stocked again except for peanut butter M & M's. I had requested the Easter egg shaped ones because I swear, they are better than the normal ones. They were everything I remembered them to be. I was rationing them to myself, 1/4 cup a day. That was the serving size listed on the package. (I thought it was a little measly, but since I was rationing, decided to go with it.) There should have been 7 servings, but I don't know if the information was wrong, or if I got a package that was shorted, or if they meant there would be seven 1/4 cup servings if you didn't sneak in the package and eat a couple extra 2 or 3 times a day. All I know is they are gone.

Is There a Nurse in the House?

One of my main jobs here is that of being the mission "nurse." So far I've dealt with quite a wide range of problems...sprains, headaches, flu, kidney stones, ear aches, head lice, appendicitis, cuts, acne, live bugs in feet and dead bugs in ears, not to mention heinous rashes and some of the more unmentionalble things that come up in a foreign country. Now that I think about it, a lot of medical problems are slightly unmentionable. It has surprised me that I have actually been able to talk with missionaries about some of these things and still have them look me in the eye the next time I saw them. (I, also, try to maintain eye contact.)

At first I felt totally lost when the missionaries would call. I really didn't know much about health and medicine to begin with and I really didn't know the Portuguese names for such things. But then the first mission secretary put together a sweet little binder for me with answers to common problems that he got from the web md website. He thought he was so funny when he titled it, "How to Save a Missionary's Life." A few weeks later I got a really good information packet from the Church doctors in Sao Paulo that had even more info and the names of things in Portuguese. I use it all the time.

Now we have two doctors, instead of just one, that work out of Sao Paulo and help with health problems in all the missions in Brazil. One of them even speaks Portuguese and will call the Brazilian elders if I need him too. They are great. Their reports back to me even supply us with quite a bit of confusion and a little humor.

We have received quite a few reports addressed to our mission, but about missionaries that are serving in some other mission. Or we get reports with one of our missionary's names on it with a diagnosis for a problem he doesn't have. Last week I had to call one of our missionaries to see if he really had cut his finger and had stitches and needed pain medication. I hadn't heard a word about it before the email report came and I figured it was for an elder in another mission with the same last name. But the fact that the elder's first, middle, and last name were exactly the same as our elder's, I decided I'd better check. Our elder was fine. He hadn't been cut, or had stitches or need pain medication and didn't have a clue how his name got mixed up in it. I don't know what happened either. I didn't want to call the doctor and embarrass him.

We got one today that was ours though. All the information on it was even right. It was the "doctor talk" that made us laugh. Poor Elder X.....He has a small bean shaped lesion on the upper portion of his leg near the buttock...... We must be easily entertained or just a little sick, but the word buttock, gets us everytime.

Street Shopping: A Thing of the Past

Is this not the sorriest rose you ever saw? I was so bugged last week when I bought 3 from a guy on the street and this was the good one. There were people on corners of every major intersection selling flowers, mostly red roses, wrapped really nicely with some greenery. They even had little stretchy webs over the blossoms to keep them nice. (Sunday was a day to celebrate women and that's why the flowers. ) We were having guests for dinner on Sunday, and thought a flower might be nice, so I rolled down the window when the man selling them came by. I asked how much they were. He tossed one in on the seat and tells me it's $5. Apparently it wasn't his first day selling on a street corner. He knew how it was done. Five reais was a little high, but it did have cellophane around it and the stretchy thing. I started rummaging in my purse. I could not find a $R5. A $R10 surfaced and I think he practically grabbed it. He told me if I had 2 more reais I could have 3 for $R12 and he tosses two more roses on the seat. I wasn't sure I wanted to do that but you really don't have time to consider purchases or barter when you are at a stop light with a car or two behind you....especially when people use the horn so readily. When I got them home and unwrapped them, two went straight to the garbage can. The third one was almost holding it's head up, so I gave it a chance. By lunch time the next day, this is how it looked.
I have bought things from street vendors 4 times and been disappointed every time. I don't like getting "taken." I have learned my lesson. I'm officially through buying things in the street....unless something really good comes by.