SO much going on!

Wow! There is SO much to do to get ready to go to the States! My to-do list is literally 5 pages long and it is a celebration each time we cross something off. I LOVE crossing things off!

We'll be going to the States Aug 22nd, but we won't be leaving from Anapolis. We really wanted to spend a few days getting to know Asas's biggest northern base, Manaus, before we went to the States, so we bought our tickets to the States from Manaus. Finally this past week, we were able to meet with Asas's leadership to decide when we could leave Anapolis to go to Manuas and they said we could go in the beginning of August. However, with so much to do before going to the States, we decided that Aug 10th is the earliest we can go and are in the process of booking our tickets. So, we have exactly 3 weeks between now and saying goodbye to Anapolis until Jan 5th. Although there will be lots of unknowns and stresses from traveling over the next months, we're really excited and can't wait to see you all again!!

Meanwhile, this week we had Bobby become sick.....sick as a dog in fact! I was actually pretty sure he was arriving at his end for a few hours, but I was able to put of my Moody classed into practical use. In college I took a class on tropical diseases where we had to learn how to give a shot, so I gave my first ones ever on Bobby and he's feeling much better now!

Also, this week our car decided it would be fun to take a get-away at the spa.....aka mechanic shop :( A hose broke and the car's in Goiania getting fixed....meanwhile we're a biker couple, getting around only on Jeyson's motorcycle! You should see us getting home with the groceries! We also have some house repairs going on. Our house had some issues that the builder had to fix. Of course everything here in Brazil takes longer, so finally his guy is out working on somethings. This involved taking ALL of our stuff out of each room at a time to get the walls worked on. Today is the last day and everything is getting wrapped up.

Our cat hid under the bed the WHOLE time the workers were here, but when the left his curiosity got the best of him!

Lastly, for fun we had our friends Andres, Camila, Lauro, and Rose over for dinner since soon Andres and Camila will move to Manaus! I made some easy fruit-kabobs for dessert with a cream cheese dipping sauce and everyone was so impressed! A fun evening to top off a busy week.

Recent Happenings

These past days have been jam packed and I haven't had the chance to blog until now. Here's a little catch up on what we've been up to.

On the Fourth of July we decided it would be fun to have a little celebration, expatriate style. We love the States and all that July 4th stands for, not to mention that American bbqs are a lot of fun. So, we invited over a few of our Brazilian (and Argentine) friends and lit the grill.
We made all typical American stuff - burgers, corn on the cob, mac n cheese, etc. My friend Camila was so funny about the mac n cheese. When I brought it out to the table and told everyone what it was, Camila said, "Oh! The famous American macaroni and cheese!!" She went on to explain that she had seen an American sitcom episode where a guy needed to by a box of man and cheese for his fourth of July party but all of the stores were sold out. Camila was very excited to see that it really is a real food in the American kitchen and that I also served it on July 4th!
Part of the group is above. We had a lot of fun to share a little of my culture and I hope to do this every year we're in Brazil!

For the past week we've been especially busy since it's Asas's yearly week for new candidates. The candidates spend 10 days here doing everything from flights to interviews. Several of the candidates are from Columbia and Venezuela so they don't speak Portuguese. Jeyson was asked to help by going on flights with these men as they were evaluated. Jeyson sat in the back and translated for the flight instructors/evaluators. Jeyson enjoyed using his language skills in this way. Also, by going back on these very first flights, Jeyson realized just how much he himself has grown in his skills since 2003 when he was a candidate! He's a shot that Jeyson took from the back of the plane.

Meanwhile, I was able to help with an area that I love, cooking! Along with a few other ladies, we have been preparing breakfast every day for everyone involved in the week. It's been tiring to get up at 5:30 to have everything prepared and served by 7 am, but also very rewarding to be able to do something practical that can be part of bringing new missionaries to the field. These are some of the Venezuelans. The man next to me is their pastor, who came along to support the men in their church who are considering this calling.

Jeyson has also been busy this week with something he loves, maintenance projects. He has been repairing the wing of this plane

And also repainting it, which I will have to post "after" pictures later.

More posts to follow soon!

The Results Are In....

Exciting news! Jeyson passed his commercial pilot's test yesterday!
I'm so proud of you, Jeyson, for faithfully pressing on even when the going got rough - even when it took a few tries to pass the written test, even when we weren't sure where the funds for the hours were coming from. God provided in amazing ways on every step of the journey and you did a great job!

Now we're one step closer to our move to the north of Brazil. We still don't know when or where, but it's exciting to be that much closer! Congratulations, Captain Braun, on your accomplishment! :)

Checkride Date At Last!

Good news! Jeyson was just able to get his checkride scheduled! His evaluation will on Friday at 3 EST. Thank you so much for praying that he would finally get news that he is scheduled! It took a long, long time for the government agency to process everything and give him a date, but it's here! Please pray for Jeyson to do well on everything he has been training for so long!

The World Cup: Brazil at the Peak of Excitement

It would be impossible to post right now without filling you in the main thing on most Brazilians mind this month: The World Cup. That's right, every four years one soccer team from each country has the chance to prove that they're the best in the world and every Brazilian is obsessed with making sure that happens in this year's competition. The world cup is a month long series of games and each team plays at least three times. If they win in their group, they advance to the next level and so on until only 1 team remains.



Every time the Brazilian team play,s Brazil literally stops. Everything closes: supermarkets, banks, government buildings, school, EVERYTHING! There is not a car on the streets as everyone gathers around their t.v. and cheers like there's no tomorrow. Every time a goal is made, fireworks go off and every time Brazil wins there's a party and/or bbq. It's crazy, but a lot of fun to be part of the cultural excitement!



Right now there's Brazilian flags everywhere! Many people even have special flags that fit onto the hood of their cars! On game days, even before the game starts people honk and shout and cheer in the streets.


We watched a game with our friends Andres and Camila and Camila's family. It was Brazil vs North Korea. Although Brazil won, people were only semi happy because North Korea scored one goal on Brazil, making the score 2 to 1 instead of the 483 to 0 hoped for :)

Brazilians go all out with decorations for the World Cup games. Here, Camila's family had green and yellow plates to represent Brazil's colors.

Concentrating on the game....no talking allowed unless there's a goal!

Enjoying popcorn during the game with Camila and Livia.

It's been a lot of crazy excitement lately - can you imagine what 2014 will be like then the World Cup will actually take place in Brazil?!? It's hard to even picture Brazil any more excited than it is right now with the World Cup in South Africa. It will be fun though!

Birthday Welding and Meal

Tuesday was Jeyson's 28th birthday. Happy Birthday Jeyson! You are a wonderful husband! Although it was a special day, we didn't have time to do anything too special other than breakfast in bed (which actually wound up in the living room) - Jeyson's still waking up in this picture :) We're going out to celebrate tonight instead of during the middle of the week.
Jeyson went to Asas and got to do one of his favorite activities in the world - welding! For the past few weeks Jeyson has been teaching the group of new pilot/mechanic missionaries and some external students a few different areas of mechanics. This is part of the process every new technical missionary has to go through in order to work on the planes and here at Asas the mechanics are taught by missionaries that are further along in the process, like Jeyson

Welding is Jeyson's favorite course to teach and he loves how the guys really get into it. Erik (on the right) is training with Asas for the next few years to serve as a pilot/mechanic in Africa once he gets all of his licenses.

Here's the external students. Having them as part of the course is not only an opportunity for outreach to non-Christians, but also their payments for the course makes it cheaper for the missionaries....a win-win situation.

Christian, Rodrigo, and Ricardo are three of the Asas missionaries who just arrived this year. Rodrigo is especially creative and makes all kinds of projects - including bicycles from bamboo!!!

Here's one of Jeyson's all time favorite recipes, which I made for dinner - It's so completely different than the normal tastes and I definitely recommend giving it a try, it's VERY easy!

"Thai Peanut Beef and Pea Pods over Noodles"

-Cook and drain 8 oz of thin spaghetti - set aside

-Cook 1 lb of ground beef in a skillet and drain.

-Add to the beef: 4 green onions (I use 1 regular chopped), 3 cups of fresh pea pods halved diagonally (I substituted green beans) and 1 red bell pepper cut in strips. Cook until veggies are crisp-tender

- In a bowl mix 1 1/2 cp chicken broth, 1/4 tea ground red pepper (cayenne), 1/4 tea salt, 2 tea cornstarch and stir into the pan

- Add 1/3 cp peanut butter and stir

- Cook a few minutes, stirring until thick and bubbly. Add a little water and continue cooking if it gets too thick

- Serve over spaghetti and sprinkle chopped, salted peanuts over

Garden Goodies

One of my favorite things about living in Brazil is that fruit and vegetables are very abundant and the friendly culture means people are happy to share whatever is popping up in their backyard at the time. Just this week, we received a bag full of clementines, lemons, a giant avocado, a container full of polenta (ok not from the garden, but from a student's kitchen), and a box full of tomatoes....



There's even more here, outside, ripening in the sun a little....

After making salsa and still having tons left, I found a recipe for homemade marinara sauce that I'm going to give a try one evening.

Another really fun thing we received (that actually cost a small price since this family does it as a way to make a little extra cash) is this 2 liter bottle of honey! One of Asas's more adventurous missionary couple has boxes for bees to make honey and harvests it by the bottle full! Talk about an interesting activity to do as a couple to keep your marriage SWEET :)

I've already made some muffins where I substituted honey for the sugar and they were terrific. What else would you do with 2 liters of honey?

Meanwhile, here's our garden situation...

While we were in Boa Vista ants came and took away almost every leaf from every plant in our yard! It was difficult to imagine how many ants this could have been, until the night after we were home we caught them in the act of taking the remains of the loot! I kid you not....there were probably over 10,000 ants swarming our yard leading a THICK parade of ants from a hole in the ground 3 houses away! Some ants were cutting leaves and creating a pile in the driveway, and another group was carrying off the leaves! We sprayed the hole and they left the next day, but it took 2 weeks for our garden to show signs of life again.

Finally, this pretty, yellow bush is growing some leaves back! We hope the rest of the yard will come back to life with a little TLC!