the haunting

All weekend this blog has been haunting me.  It's a whole lot of pressure.  I kept thinking, "crap, I started a blog!"  It's like getting a pet, so fun in the beginning, but then it starts to eat, poop, whine and bark.  Ask any of my siblings and they'll tell you I was notorious for poor treatment of pets - never intentionally of course unless you count swinging the Hailey's cat around in circles by her tail.  But I was young.  I learned to control that urge.  I've always loved my pets, but I was like a teen mom heading off to party (in my case a sleepover) and the last thing on my mind was feeding Corky.  So this is my new pet. Love it, but have to wash my hands every time I touch it...I'm mostly kidding...about the blog.

So it's Sunday.  I have had a wake-up-confused-and-groggy nap and my weekly piano playing is behind me.  This was the first Sunday where I've played all the hymns myself!  I'm quite proud.  The only reason this happened is because the lady that chooses the hymns couldn't get the themes from the bishopric member so she could choose the said hymns.  By Tuesday, I pulled a Tawanda (Fried Green Tomatoes reference) and took matters into my own hands.  Apparently the bureaucracy that plagues all of Brazil spills over into our church affairs as well.  So I chose the hymns - and the easiest ones I could find.  They threw a wrench in my plans and told me Come Follow Me isn't a sacrament hymn (I disagree) about a minute before I was supposed to play it.  So I did a quick change to a sacrament hymn that I already knew.  Look at how I just roll with the punches!!  Anyway, I suddenly feel like blogging again - sans stress and a little sweaty and dry mouthed from my monster nap.

Ben & Thomas had a camp out in the hammocks last night.  Ben reports that it was like sleeping on a cloud.  I think he'll make a good sailor!  These pictures are totally staged; the boys weren't really sleeping.  Thomas has his father's "eye condition" that makes it so he can NEVER keep them open for a picture with a flash.  We tried probably ten times.  The minute I woke up this morning I headed out with my camera to try to get some real candids, but they were already inside playing video games. Darn them!

Yesterday we had a fun get-together with some friends at the Churrascuria Sao Bento.  Here's a PERK: Brazilian restaurants cater to kids big time!  Sao Bento is a big banquet hall that has an amazing playground for the kids outside.  We ate delicious picanha, fried bananas & rice and had some nice company while the kids went wild outside.  After lunch we had a good old game of American football.  Turns out the Swedes were some of the best players!  Ben had the last play - and it was very cool.  Trust me.  We were actually there to watch the airshow that Embraer had scheduled that day, but it was a little cloudy so there wasn't much airplane action.  We did see the employees of Sao Bento put out a brush fire that started about 30 feet down the hill from the playground!

I need to think like a blogger when I'm taking pictures.  I'm realizing my pictures kind of stink.  I don't have a single picture of me or Henry...he was off in an amazing tree with a 20 foot circumference. I didn't measure it, but I don't think I'm exaggerating either.  I'll do better next time.

hurry up and wait

Now's the stage where we waited.  Over the next 2 months we slowly and painstakingly figured out all the junk that makes life run smoothly: internet service, cell phones, fixing the oven, finding a maid (hallelujah), getting the company car, buying a second car, getting the gate fixed, getting the hot water fixed, getting the water leak fixed...and the list goes on.

The crazy and sad thing about Brazil is that it is SO expensive to live here (cost of living in Sao Paulo is higher than NYC or LA) but maids are still so cheap.  I don't know how this society hasn't revolted because of the huge disparity.  Minimum wage in Sao Paulo is $300USD per month!  That said, we can afford a (well-paid) maid.  Lana comes every day from 7:30 - 4:30 and cleans.  She is wonderful!  Lucy hasn't warmed up to her yet, but that's not saying much since she generally doesn't like ANYONE.  We are hoping she grows out of that charming trait before she goes to school.

So needless to say, Lucy and I had a lot of time to goof around on the iPad until the bomb dropped...church callings!!!

Of course, Ryan and I were really hoping to fly under the radar at church.  Turns out, we are just what the doctor ordered when it comes to piano playing in church.  Ryan got called to be the Primary Pianist, which he is rocking at.  He has a real gift for piano.  Despite his one year of lessons when he was young, he can sit down and play most things.  I got called to be the Ward Pianist!  (that's not an excited exclamation, it's a holy crap exclamation)  You need to understand that I quit piano when I was in 6th grade and have never learned to play a hymn in my life - despite trying periodically.  I bawled when they asked me.  I think they interpreted that as an outpouring of the spirit but it was just actually that I was scared out of my mind and completely overwhelmed.  My non LDS friends must be wondering why I do this even though I don't want to.  The answer is simple.  In our church you do what you're asked to do as well as you can do it.  The lucky thing is that nobody is very picky.  I stumble through 2 hymns every Sunday after 15 hours of practice during the week and nobody seems to mind.  Ryan picks up the slack and plays the ones that are truly beyond me.  I've learned 12 hymns so far.  If there's ever a time for this it's now - full time maid and no crazy perfect expectations at church.  I'm becoming grateful for the opportunity.  I still gripe, but I see that it's a good thing.

Thank goodness for my sweet friend and neighbor Maartje who let us borrow her keyboard while our piano takes 3 months by sea.

what next?

I know if I try to give you a play by play until I'm caught up to date I will never keep this up.  So, I'll use lots of pictures and few words to make the next three months as painless as possible.

The first thing we did when we got to Brazil is clean.  I thought the landlord just left our house filthy, but turns out it only takes a few days for houses to get that dusty.  We spent an entire day sweeping and mopping - it's a big house...oh, and unpacking our 20 duffel bags.

Then to the nitty gritty...school supplies.  I bought all the school supplies I would need back in the US, but unfortunately they are in the air shipment which will take a MONTH AND A HALF to arrive!  So we find a paper store in a mess of one way streets and spend a small fortune on wacked-out school supplies.  Nothing looks the same and it's often super flimsy and very expensive.  In my blog I will be referring to PERKS and QUIRKS about Brazil.  I don't want to always be negative, but some things must be said.  QUIRK: Brazil's stores specialize way too much!  For instance there will be an entire store dedicated to plastic trash cans, or a store specializing in fire extinguishers, or in this case paper.  You buy pens piece by piece from a glass case!  Two hours later, with a screaming two year old (the abacus was the cure) we left with little in our pockets and 1200 sheet protectors - they are way into those.  So much for not many words.  I heart OfficeMax.

Time to celebrate Ryan and Lucy's birthdays.  They got the shaft this year!  Without a working oven or a single useful kitchen tool, we resorted to a bakery birthday cake.  It looked beautiful but wasn't that great.  Lucy turned 2 and Ryan turned 36!  How did we get that old?  I'm one of those old ladies that tells the young ones that "life goes so fast".  It really does, but they won't listen just like I didn't.

First day of school!  Our kids are going to Esfera International School.  We are really happy there aside from an occasional hiccup.  The kids have half of their curriculum in English and the other half in Portuguese.  Yikes!  It's been a confusing first 3 months, but they are starting to get it.  I'm so proud of them.  I know how my head hurts after just 3 hours of all Portuguese at church once a week!

we're on our way!

July 27th: Now we are really on our way!  It's Lucy's second birthday; 17 hours of travel is kind of a crumby way to celebrate it.  She did have a very fun backpack from her Grandma Sharp to explore.  It had all kinds of fun things to keep her busy.  She LOVED it.  Here's a before picture of Lucy:

.....and after 17 hours of travel:

Poor girl.  That's how we were all feeling.  The boys were fabulous on the airplane.  In fact one of the teachers from our soon-to-be school Esfera was on the airplane with us.  We didn't know it at the time, but later she told us that she noticed us get on the airplane and she thought "oh great" when she saw a family with 4 kids sit down near her.  But the kids were so good that she was totally impressed and she was delighted to see us show up at the school she taught at a few days later.

The boys before...

...and after - up to no good kissing the buttocks of a nude statue:

We finally made it!  Let the adventures begin.

in the beginning

I'm not really sure where to start so I'm going to give you a nutshell version of the past 9 months.  Once I catch up then I hope to provide all of you with a more interesting & detailed account of our "yonder years".

December: Ryan says, "what do think of moving to Brazil?" I say "no way".  My only reference point for Brazil was Ryan's mission which he described as terribly hot, terribly cold, terribly dirty, terribly poor, terribly dangerous...but the best 2 years of my life."  I made a lot of that up, but that's the gist.

January: Ryan says, "they (Honeywell) really want me in Brazil.  How about they fly us down there and we see if it's even a possibility."  I said okay.  My mom came to watch the kids, (thank you Brown!) and with knots in my stomach about leaving my very clingy & grouchy but adorable little Lucy we went to Brazil for 10 days.  And I liked it.  Turns out our little town called Sao Jose Dos Campos is very different than the small southern towns that Ryan served in.  We found a house we liked and a school we loved.

February: We said yes.  Then, worst move ever, we told everyone we were moving to Brazil.  Month after month of waiting for visas and everyone saying "when are you leaving?" or worse "I thought you guys already left" got a little old for us - and you too I'm sure.

March - April: Me doing everything I possibly can except preparing for our move.  That's what I do.  When I'm stressed I avoid my problem by reupholstering a chair.  That usually solves everything.  Not really, all the dejunking, and packing was still waiting for me.  The fun part was the shopping...Brazil is so expensive, especially the imported stuff, that our plan was to bring everything down with us that we would possibly need until our next trip home.  So I went wild buying a years supply of stuff.

May - I finally got my act together and had a massive garage sale.  I thought I was selling a lot of stuff, but when the movers came in July I realized I still had loads of crap (yes that's what it felt like) lurking in the corners and cupboards of my house.  Here's when we thought our visas were submitted and we'd be leaving any day.  What we know now is that they were just under a pile of papers on some lawyers desk.  Aargh!

June - Okay, visas are finally submitted!  Just so you know, we didn't wait to work on these until the last minute.  These were in process from the day we signed the deal in February.  It just requires a massive amount of paperwork to move to Brazil.  Swim team started (I love the Bellair Barracudas!).  That was a happy but stressful couple of weeks.  My friends helped me a lot with rides for the kids while I worked on the house - repairs and keeping it clean for all the potential renters coming to see it.

Then I took a 2 week break from it all and went to the Ranch which is the only place where I forget everything going on at home. I love it there.  Ryan isn't pictured because he was in New Jersey and Brazil most of the time.  We really missed him.  This was the first year that I spent a week up there all alone - just me and the kids.  It went really well.  I wouldn't hesitate doing it again.  The whole Sharp family was there for the second week and we had an amazing time as always!

Back to my timeline...

July: Back to business.  The movers came the day after we got home from the ranch.  My wonderful sister Cydney drove home with me so I wouldn't have to manage 4 kids and a marginally reliable suburban on my own for 14 hours.  Then she stayed for a couple of days to help me when the movers came.  If there's a gal you want with you in that situation it's Cyd.  From the time we were little she's been an organizing freak of nature!  Her closet is often found in ROYGBV order.  I LOVED having her there.  She helped me think of everything.  We were packing for 2 weeks in a hotel, 3 months in Brazil without our shipment, an air shipment, a sea shipment and storage.  Trying to figure out where everything was going would have been impossible without her.  A few days into the moving process the house became uninhabitable so we moved to our hotel.  I don't know how to describe this delicately, except to say that our hotel smelled like an Indian restaurant's mop sink.  Because it was an extended stay hotel people were cooking up a storm and we always had curry lingering with us wherever we went.  A few of the big companies nearby use it to house all the families from India who come for training.  Our hotel was over half Indian.  I know because two days into our stay we had a bomb threat so the entire hotel had to stand on the curb in 110 degree weather while the police searched.  There's no point in me saying all of this other than to illustrated the amount of Indian food being made every day in this hotel.

Finally moving day comes!  And then it goes and we are still in Arizona.  Somewhere between the US consulate in LA and our hands in AZ, FedEx losses all of our visas and our passports!  It was starting to feel like a sign from heaven that we should not be going to Brazil.  We had everything packed up; we had every carry-on bag carefully planned; we had checked out of the hotel. All this hoping that at the last minute they would find our package and we'd be on our way.  But it didn't happen that way.  It took them 2 days to find them and by then all the flights to Brazil were booked so we decided to head to Bob & Kay's house for 5 days while we waited for our next departure day.  The bright side of all of this is that we were able to overlap with Bob & Kay for about 24 hours.  They were coming to AZ for a visit during the Peru Temple closure.  It was so good to see them and I'm really glad we got delayed.

July 27th: now we are really on our way!