Thankful Day

This year was my 4th year in Brazil for Thanksgiving. I’ve celebrated in various strange ways in the past. One year we made an “American” meal of Chili, French Toast, Stuffing, pancakes, and rootbeer milkshakes. This year was a little different with Chili Dogs and Rootbeer on Thursday (due to the fact that I had to work) and a big feast with other Americans on Sunday. More about that later.

My father in law sent me an email on the day in question citing reasons to be thankful. I can say, that this year I think I am more thankful than I have ever been for so many things. Simple things like being able to drive down the street to a Target and pick up anything you can think of make me realize how blessed Americans are. In the end, I have a great job, a savings account, an amazing wife, a beautiful healthy daughter, and the gospel. Comparing myself to those around me I am blessed 10X more than I deserve to be. There is no room for me to ever complain about my situation – ever.

So, Sunday we did celebrate thanksgiving. Complete with a bird, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie! We made a little trip to a small town a few hours from our house and spent the afternoon with another American family (our age). It was a great way to celebrate. They are so sweet and it is SO nice to spend time with people who get my stupid little jokes.



The wife, being an amazing mother, thought it would be fun to make pilgrim hats and Indian headdresses for the kids. We made them for our infants and they looked SO cute!! I love my wife.

Okay- so the other big thing that happened this last week was this: we hired a house cleaner. While there is a part of me that feels a little guilty for paying a woman with stomach cancer only $140 a month to clean my house 3 times a week, I am so glad we did it. She is an amazing woman from our congregation. She can’t legally work, but doesn't want to sit at home and do nothing. She’s a fierce cleaner and is grateful for the opportunity to work. Our daughter LOVES her. There are always smiles and coos when she is around. The wife is also grateful for her. She’s learning Portuguese and now has someone to spend three days a week with. Although I am NOT at all a people person, the wife is. She feeds off of being with other people, so having someone in the house, even if she doesn't speak the same language, is great.

SO MANY things to be thankful for. I feel blessed!

They'd never suspect the baby of making prank calls...

So, while the wife is busy with a challenge of blogging daily on her other blog, this one has been left to yours truly. That’s why you haven’t seen anything new in the last 2 weeks.

Our baby is growing like a little weed. She’s gained all kinds of weight since we brought her home. She’s so cute and is finally learning how to smile. She’s finally figuring out who we are and seems to be to the point where she will actually get upset if she isn’t being held or near us. I was a horrible father last night. She had fallen asleep twice had her diaper changed and was full to the point where she refused to eat more. She was ready for bed, but wouldn’t sleep. I let her cry herself to sleep. It’s probably too early to do something so cruel (at least it seemed cruel). She fell asleep within 5 minutes. We want to get her on a schedule- but we aren’t too good with schedules ourselves…



Today is a holiday. It’s black consciousness day. Basically their MLK day. Our city decided that everyone should take the day off, so I’m at home. Our factory is paying people overtime to work though. We paid people to work overtime all weekend. At the end of the year manufacturing is important because of Christmas.

Summer is kicking in. We have NO A/C. Not in our house. Not even in our car. We are going to start looking for something, anything very soon. It’s too too too hot.

Promise of a new Pic

Today was the first time we saw our little girl smile. Isn't she cute!!



Just out of da shower:



Baby and her gorgeous mommy (can you believe she gave birth just 3 1/2 weeks ago??) Grrrroooowwwwlllll She's HOT!:



Okay on a totally different note; this is the snail attacking our house after some rain this week (that's my hand next to it...):

Pics soon to come

I must say we have been very negligent in not getting a lot. It’s not for lack of excitement, or for lack of time, but rather just that laziness. Our daughter is growing so fast it’s unbelievable. It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. She barely fit into the car seat because she was so small that now she barely fits because she’s so big.

Reva never really had the goal of being a stay at home mom, but in last few weeks she’s become one of the best mothers of that I have ever seen. Whether she’s being spat up on, or nursing at 330 in the morning she never seems to be anything but content in her caring for our little sunshine. She loves our daughter SO much it is amazing. Unfortunately, she takes care of her at the expense of herself sometimes. I often feel so bad leaving her here in a big house in a foreign country all alone all day. She must get so stir crazy, but she never will tell me. She has made so many sacrifices for “us” over the last few months. She is amazing. Her dream has always been to be a “rock star” of sorts, traveling the world playing violin professionally to huge crowds. While we certainly are traveling the world, her audience has ended up being one (with an occasional guitar accompaniment by yours truly). She does accompany the hymns at church (which is a real blessing to everyone at the church).

We’ve tried to make the best of our situation. It’s really really really hot here now. Summer is coming in at full force. We’ve been doing our best to keep our baby and ourselves from literally melting. Since most of our windows are barred getting a window a/c unit is not really even a good option. If I had a whole workshop I could work up something to put into the doorway to the atrium in our bedroom, but I don’t. I have managed to master the art of making guacamole. Avocadoes here are really big and cheap, so we can make a big bowl for about 50 cents worth of ingredients. Doritos sells regular dipping corn chips here. It’s a great mix!! We drink lots of filtered water and juice.

Our entertainment has been reduced to what we can download. I opened an iTunes account and we keep up with some shows we love by downloading them. We also use BYU TV a lot.

Till next time!

videos part um

"Honey, do you think you can figure out how to put a video up on our website?" Pish posh! Little does he realize how cool I truly am.

The view of mommy's lap:



And some witty reparteee as we take Solei home from the hospital:



She's already over a week old and already so pink and squishy - I'm so excited to take her home for Christmas, but I'm scare she'll be so different by then - I want my family to see her NOWWWW! Is it bad that she'll only wake up once or twice in the night, just to eat or get a diaper change, and then goes back to sleep without screaming for too too long? Well, maybe she's just being nice to us right now because we're new at this... I'm not complaining! Thanks baby!

way too much exposure

Solei is a week old now and we are becoming old pros at changing dirty diapers and dirty clothes about 67 times a day. No time to talk, just thought I'd post a mazillion pictures to do that chatting for me!

On the way into the hospital...


Check out the funny baby!


Sure does like her mom though....


Likes her dad too!


In the car, arriving home for the first time!! Soooo little!!


Mommy and baby at breakfast


I'm trying to teach her how to do pushups.


We sure do love her...


The family at my 27th birthday party!


This is what she looks like from mommy's lap. I can't tell if she's weirded out or not...


And just to prove how little she is, here is how big my hand is compared to her head. She liked this shot, can't you tell???

She's here!

Soooo- People told me that once I became a father I’d never get a good night’s sleep again. They never told me that the reason that I couldn’t sleep was that there were nurses coming into your room at all hours of the night checking on your wife. The baby was down the hall (probably getting a good night’s sleep). Actually I don’t think anything really is going to stop the baby from sleeping at all. Our prodding and oogling hasn’t slowed her sleeping down one bit.

Mommy is doing wonderful. We were both amazed at how easy the labor was. Again, no one mentioned to me that it was the recovery that takes it out of you. Epidurals are blessings from heaven.

Here are some pics.
Baby burrito:


Diaper time!


Grandma, daddy and baby:


Mommy and baby, after their baths:

Pictures GALORE!

So, my mom sent a frantic e.mail to Jared's mom this morning (who is currently hanging out at our pad) begging for pictures. So mom, here you go!

Last weekend we headed to a nearby town to do some tourist-y shopping, but the view was splendid. Here's our brave heroes at the top of a very big hill, overlooking Pedreira:


And this was the ant Jared pointed out that was right by my foot. He took the picture (with his finger nearby to show how huge the size was) while I was running screaming to the car.


Mom brought all the baby things, so now we get to actually be READY for baby!!


Here's the "final" product, including way cool flowers mom painted and hung all over the room:


Aren't those flowers fabulous??


Now, if this doesn't entice baby to come out, I don't know what will... they're waiting for you, girl!!


Here's a pic of our dining room area - mom made a cool art piece to work with the rug and the wacky tile:


Here's a closeup of her masterpiece:


And this is the not-friendly-for-babies stairways to our living room.


Okay, our living room is a tad messy, but we LIVE in it! Here's mom typing away - note the awesome rug that matches the ONLY COMFORTABLE COUCHES in all of Brasil!!


Last night we went to the Campinas temple. Gorgeous night, here's mum!


And this is my fatness as of about a week ago. Baby is over a week late now, and ready to come out! I'm having pretty weird contractions today, so maybe she will!


Last but not least, we've told a few people the name, but I've been pretty secretive about it. If you want to know, click
here to see the decoration I made on her door - that's her name!

Hope next time we blog, it's from the hospital! Jared has a business meeting today in Sao Paulo (that's about an hour and a half away, probably more with Sao Paulo traffic) so it's probably when our daughter will want to grace us with her presence;) Just like her mom, I love to make an entrance!

Still No Baby

Still No Baby.

That's the news of the day. Yesterday was the due date and we are all a little anxious to get things underway- like somehow once the baby comes everything will magically be resolved and we won’t have to worry about anything anymore. I can only imagine that attitude is probably exactly the opposite of what will happen. Being extremely impatient, I tend to want to move on with things and get them over. That is probably the worst attitude that I could have in terms of kids. Before we know it our little girl will be off getting married and having kids of her own. Man how time flies…

Life here is good. We are in our home, have furniture, have gotten used to the rooster who crows at 4am, and even figured out hot showers. The only thing that seems to be lacking is the internet. The Brazilian telephone system isn’t known for its customer service nor its speed- so we are waiting for DSL. It honestly was our last resort. We even looked into some strange satellite thing. Alas, we got everything we needed and still no connection. They are sending out a tech to help- we’ll see how that goes.

We’ve even managed to make a few friends. The church here has been great. A group of women came over to help us clean last week. They’ve been super friendly with Reva and have been gems overall. Everyone is looking out for us here and doing their best to help us where they can.

My mom came down to help us out with everything. She brought two full suitcases of baby clothing and stuff. The baby’s room is all set up and ready for our little ray of sunshine. She’s washed a ton of our clothes and cleaned up and done dishes. I mentioned the other day that I don’t think my mom has washed any clothes for me since I turned 12.

We will update everything as soon as we have internet and more things to say. Every now and then I step back and see how truly insane I am. New country, new job, pregnant wife. What was I thinking???

update

The "charmed" life of living in a hotel for a month is drawing to a close, as we finally have the keys to our house! This is both faaabulous, and terrifying, as the move into our house also signifies my move out of the comfortable neighborhood in the large city of Campinas, into the much smaller, less walking distance town of Jaguariuna. And internet will be nonexistant for me for at least the next two weeks.

As I mentioned before, Jared is a genius and found a way to bring our local voIP (internet-y, like Vonage but cheaper) phone from Atlanta and plugged it our internet connection here in the hotel, and I've been able to have much less culture shock with the morning calls to my mom and chats with my girlfriends. What a blessing! But with 2 weeks to go until baby makes her entrance (although I'm guessing more like 3) I'll have no contact with the outside world. And venturing into town by myself, although fun, is a tad more complicated with the language barrier. I did it yesterday, and I seem to make a scene everywhere I go. People keep trying to talk to me, I tell them I don't speak Portuguese and then I get swarmed with well-meaning types. Yesterday I met the nicest Polish lady at one store and then a hoarde of teenagers that searched a local bazzar for a birthday gift for me to give Jared's 20-something coworker. None of them spoke English, by the way - it was my masterful use of the Portuguese language that ruled out in the end - Eu precisso de.... presente... anniversario... vinte anniversario... mulher???" Although it was confusing, a pretty picture frame was found and even wrapped by nice teen and all is good.

This is a shot of the front of the house:



The house is fun though - and ginormous. The first floor has 2 master bedrooms, 2 regular bedrooms, 2 half bathrooms and 3 full bathrooms - one including a jacuzzi and a waterfall, if you can believe that. Oh, and a dining room and the kitchen. All tile, so when Jared and I speak to each other even in the same room, the reverb is so thick I can't understand what the other is saying. We're going to have to invest in sound proofing for sure! I'm kind of interested in seeing how awesome I sound with my violin in there - it's like singing in the shower!

Jared's job is just as agrivating as any other, but he seems to be coping well. He's busy trying to get us all legal and such, and finding ways to cheer up my days. He found me a doctor that speaks enough English to understand me most of the time and we checkef out another hospital Yesterday that we hear has some of the better anesthesiologists (sp?) in the area. I likes those bits of advice!

A week from today, Grandma Paget flies into Sao Paulo to help with the impending entrance of baby. She'll be here for 3 weeks, and I'm hoping baby DOES show up soon after Mom's arrival, because I sure could use the help. I'm due October 3rd, and the baby has begun to go a tad lower in my belly, but I have an inkling that she'll be a little later than the 3rd. With the move being tomorrow, and her crib being all set up in her new bedroom, we're closer to being ready for her.

Wish us luck.... things are getting close to being quite nuts around here, stay tuned!

preparing to nest...

Hallelujah! Things are starting to move around here. We're getting more and more legal here - just spent all morning getting fingerprinted and notifying the police we're here, we have a rental car so we can get around this crazy town (although we get lost a few times a day), found a doctor - a woman who speaks Eglish AND has an office within 3 blocks of our new home, and speaking of home - I got to actually SEE it today! The rental contract has been taking forever, and we're hoping and praying to get the keys officially tomorrow. And good golly it is gorgeous!! Filthy and messy (it has been uninhabited for a few months now) but huge, with lots of rooms and space for potential. Oh, and the biggest jacuzzi tub I've ever seen - WITH a waterfall. That was a big selling point for me, I must say:)

I'm now at 37 weeks and ready to pop. I feel pretty huge, although people still don't believe I'm in my 9th month. I'm getting a lot of sympathy from Jared though, that helps! So what does a couple decide to do for a wild and crazy weekend when the mom-to-be is within weeks of delivering her first bebe? Last weekend, we hopped on an 8 hour bus ride to visit Jared's old mission on the other side of the state of Sao Paulo. The drive was positively miserable, but the visit was fabulous. We saw a couple Jared baptised 10 years ago! They had pictures of him as a hearty young missionary, and could barely recognize him now. They stuffed us with food and filled me with stories of Jared 10 years ago. Completely wonderful and worth the drive, although I doubt we will be hopping on a bus any time soon!

We'll hopefully get to start nesting in our new home very soon and I'll throw some pictures up of just how ginormous it all is. It will most likely be empty for the most part, but it just means there's more space for Baby Paget and I to dance around in. Have a loverly day!

Our town

A whole week! I've survived a whooole week in Brazil! Of course most of the week has been spent in my hotel room as Jared is hard at work all day, but I'm resting for the insanity that is to come in about a month. I'm a few days away from being at the 9 month mark and goood golly am I pooped! One more month to go.... AK!

For your viewing pleasure, Jared found me some pictures of Jaguariuna, the town we'll be living in. It's quite quaint and small, and it seems a heck of a lot easier to drive in than Campinas - the bigger city we're staying in now. Cross your fingers that the house rental things come through soon - I don't know how much more room service food I can handle!!

First Time?

It's about time that I get my say in things. I can't leave everything to the wife.

Although it's only been about 4 months total, this has been an unreal experience. When I was in school I studied international business. We talked over different scenarios to help us to understand different cultures. We did case studies to help us understand different business situations. We did thousands of little things to prepare us for life in the "business world". And now here I am.

I'm an American working in Brazil for a Singapore based company. My boss is a former business owner from Singapore. His boss is the VP of the company- who apparently has dedicated everything to this company. She travels 95% of her life. My boss is in Brazil for a "business trip" that lasts 90 days at a time, with two weeks home.

The primary business language in our office is Portuguese. I have to be completely bi-lingual though- as my boss doesn't speak the local language. English is spoken only when necessary. The cultural differences between the Singaporean and Brazilians is unreal. Americans are somewhere in the middle- which often leaves me right in that spot. I try to translate the Brazilian "we'll get it done whenever" to the Singaporan "DO IT NOW" and vice versa. This is a truely global experience.

Case in point: I arrived this morning expecting a PO that was promised me by my brazilian counterpart at our customer yesterday. In fact he told me the 4 times I called him yesterday that he was working on it right then and i'd have it FOR SURE in a half hour, 2 hrs, before 6 and before tomorrow morning. The PO wasn't in my inbox this morning. What I did have waiting for me first thing this morning was a phone call with Singapore and China about some equipment damaged in transit to Brazil. 45mins of my working our details with China for replacements. 1/2 the phonecall was in Chinese, half english.

I wanted International Business. Now I have it. All this time my poor wife sits bored out of her skull in a hotel- waiting for the realtor to get around to finishing up the rental contract for our house. She'll get to it sometime. Yesterday when I called she told me she was working on it. I'm beginning to believe that doesn't really mean what I think it means in Brazil...

BraSil, take one....

So this weekend, Jared rented a car and we got out and saw lots of loverly things - our home in the town we'll be living in (it's in the process of being rented right now), the largest mall in South America (I ate at McDonalds), the LDS temple in Campinas, and we even took a tour of the hospital we're thinking of giving birth in. And did I remember my camera the entire time??? GAH!

So far, I'm coping well. Jared is at work today and getting loads done (he does love to be productive) and today my big excitement was that I ventured out of the hotel alll by myself and bought myself some lunch. At 2 different stores! We're in a super safe neighborhood, but I've never been by myself somewhere that I couldn't speak the language. It's a tad terrifying. So far I can say

Obrigada = thank you
Tudo bem = how's it going?
Eu no falo Portuguese = I don't speak Portuguese

I'm good:)

Oh, and one reason that I am not too terrified is that Jared had this BRILLIANT idea - we have an digital internet phone - we just plug into our router and call all over the states, even parts of Europe - all for the low low price of $20 a month. Well, Jared wondered if he came to Brazil and took all his equipment and plugged it into the internet here, wouldn't it work? And dagnabit, it DOES!!! I'm sitting here in Brasil, and I have already spoken to people in California, Georgia, Texas and Colorado. Oh, I don't think I could survive this without that blessing. So if you have our home number in Atlanta, you can continue to call and chat with us. We're here! Cool, huh????

And before I go, here are some pics Jared's mom snapped of us at the airport as we embarked on this wacky adventure:

Alll of our huggage:



Holy crap, this is all ours???


She wanted a close up of the big tummy:



And here's the one for the photo album -


Enjoy!

destination: known

Just a jet-lagged note to tell the world that we're here and we're fine. Brazil isn't all THAT scary looking!

Leaving on a jet plane

No pictures tonight - just a quick note to say that the tickets are bought - the bags have been packed and unpacked, and we are officially leaving for Brazil tomorrow night. The baby has been kicking like mad, but I'm pretty sure she'll stay in there for the flight at least - she's not due for 6 more weeks, but you hear way too many crazy stories from people at times like these.

Next post is going to be from a hotel in Campinas... AK!

Passing time

While our brave hero is off in Brazil, I am here home, fretting and making a general nuisance of myself. We're waiting for his work authorization, and it's getting to be crunch time as I now am in my 3rd trimester and as of September 3rd, I'm not allowed to fly. If I give birth here, I'm stranded in the states until the baby's paperwork comes in, at least a few more months. It's seriously enough to drive me absolutely crazy!!

So I was lucky enough this week to have my dear friend Annie come visit me and try to distract me from all the insanity! And in the spirit of distracting me and helping me enjoy my last few months of pregnancy, it was her briiiiliant idea to go on a road trip to Savannah, Georgia this week! Here is all the picture-y goodness!

Here we are with our obligatory in-the-car heading-out-for-adventure shot:


Our first stop was the infamous Pirate House were we relaxed and soaked in some local folklore:



Everyone visiting the Pirate House should definately check out their daquiris - this pregnant lady gives it at least one thumb up! (disclaimer - it was Annie's AND it's a virgin daquiri - the picture was too priceless to pass up:)



Next we took a tour of the haunted spots in Savannah - quite creepy stuff! We're standing on a bunch of dead bodies (they found a whole bunch are under this street!) with our awesome tour guide:



Then Annie had found out about some place called the Crab Shack in a guidebook she'd read - and good golly am I glad she's literate!! It was the funnest place I think I've ever eaten at - there were live alligators to gawk at (Annie has a thing for the gators) and ever table had a huge hole in the middle with a garbage can right there so after you eat the shellfish, you can chuck the shells right there in the trash. Hysterical!! So of course I had to get some shellfish, and I got my favorite - crawdads!!!

Annie took a picture of me taking a picture of my crawdads:



Did I mention I love crawdads??

The next day we went by a famous fort... my memory is not serving me well as to what the name was, because it was so hot we almost passed out! But we stuck through it long enough to take a picture of this guy - in a full WOOL uniform in 90 degree temperatures!! Insane man, and he's even smiling!





After that, the beach on Tybee Island was unquestionable. We were so hot we barely even made it to the water, but oh, it was so worth it when we got there! Here is me in all my pregnanty glory:



The partners in crime:



More of my pregnanty glory:



We both made signs in the sand for our husbands, but I made this especially for all of y'all in internet land:




Then on the way home, we tried to see how many places in the car we could get gummy bears to stick. Yup....






So that was our loverly weekend. Still biding time until the husband returns....