Happy Holidays!

One to watch in '52

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes

Jumpin Johnny

Tristan (four months, 18 pounds) is ONE BUSY BOY! Something tells me he'll be walking before he's a year old!

More fun

My birthday celebration overflowed into the weekend, and Mike took me to the dinner theatre to see "The Last Romance" with Marion Ross. Amber gave me a great surprise by meeting us at the theatre. And afterward, I went home to Clinton with her so I could babysit Tristan all day Sunday (while she and Jon had to work). Life could not be better!!!

Fright Night

Trick or treating was over by the time I brought out my camera, so we had to convince the kids to put their costumes back on for pics.

This was one of the best Halloweens ever -- we had such beautiful weather! Before the trick-or-treating began, we had our traditional chili and spiced apple cider.

Diane and I sat on the porch (I actually wore shorts!) waiting for the ghosts and goblins. We had a bowl of candy on the porch with a speaking mechanical skeleton hand ... and we had a blast watching the kids' reactions when they picked out their candy.

Later, we enjoyed my fave pumpkin cheesecake -- from Cheesecake Factory.

In the punkin patch with the Prechts

We were a little late carving our pumpkins this year, and we barely had them ready in time for Halloween. To compensate for our delay, we bought the biggest pumpkins we could find ... and they proved to be more of a carving challenge than we bargained for.

Happy No. 11!

Nicholas celebrated his 11th birthday Sept. 24. He had a campout/sleepover with five of his buddies Friday night. Collectively, they might have gotten 3-4 hours of sleep, certainly not much more! Despite my efforts to plan a party with "structured" activities and games, the guys were more than satisfied with a bag of water balloons and six cans of silly string!

The next day, Nicholas marked another milestone -- he lost his first molar!

Friday fun

As my sabbatical was coming to an end ... Last Friday Dee met the kids and me at Crown Center for their Friday Night Concert featuring Tracy Byrd. It was a perfect night to sit on the patio and enjoy the music while the kids played nearby in the fountains.

Brazil: Part II

When we landed in Recife, we were met by our host, Phil Warkentien and Company ... The mayor of Caruaru provided transportation (a full-size bus!) to pick us up at the airport ... so he brought along a welcome committee. Many of the people knew Carol from her previous trips to Brazil, and they also knew Phil's parents, Lou and Fay. When we got off the plane, the cheering was so loud, that I told Lou it was like traveling with Elvis. :)

We still had a two-hour drive ahead of us, so we quickly boarded our bus. At the half-way point, we stopped at a restaurant for a snack -- our first taste of real Brazilian food! We had chicken coxinhas (pronounced "ka-cheen-as").

It was a piece of chicken that was stuffed with cheese and then breaded and fried (?). It was crispy, but not greasy. They were really good. And we drank three different kinds of fresh juices unlike anything I've ever tasted.

When we finally arrived at the Warkentien's home in Caruaru, I was eager to get my suitcases unpacked and get my things organized. They gave us a quick tour, along with instructions about where to get drinking water, etc. (We were advised not to drink the tap water.) ... Yvonne and I shared a room upstairs; and Joy and Carol shared a room on the main floor.



















Outside our bedroom was a recreational room with a ping-pong table. We organized all our vacation bible school craft materials on the table for the various age groups we would be working with.

About Brazil ... Part I

Okay -- I'm down to the final days of my sabbatical, so I guess I better post some of my Brazil material before I run out of time!

First, let me say that international travel is not the easiest of games ... Even though we bought our tickets in January and had confirmed seat assignments ... when we arrived in Chicago to board our international flight, we learned they had overbooked the flight. All previous seat assignments were thrown out ... and until five minutes before boarding, we still weren't sure we were going to get seats. If Lou and Fay (who spoke Portuguese and could communicate with the airline personnel) had not been traveling with us, we probably would have been bumped.

Here we are preparing to leave Kansas City on July 31. From left: Joy, Yvonne, Carol and me.

We departed Chicago around 10 p.m., and I believed they served us dinner about midnight. I was too wound up to go to sleep right away, so I channel hopped through the various movies they were showing. And finally, I inflated my pillow, donned my eye mask and got a few hours' sleep.

We arrived in Sao Paulo the next morning, and we were pleased to find that all our luggage made it to our destination the same time we did. Praise God for that! We then boarded another three-hour flight to Recife, arriving early evening on Aug. 1.

The airline limited us to two carry-on bags and two suitcases weighing no more than 70 pounds each. We all carried the maximum allowed, as we were hauling lots of supplies that we planned to leave in Brazil.
Happy travelers reunited in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with 12 suitcases (not shown) and ready for the next leg of our journey. From left: Fay, Lou, Carol, Joy and Yvonne.

First day

It's the first day of school, and everyone's all smiles. :) Nicholas is thrilled to have a teacher for 5th grade that he had previously. And Michaela has the same teacher Nicholas had in third grade. It's hard to believe we have a fifth grader and a third grader! This will be Nicholas' last year in elementary school ... and then he'll be off into a new world. Eeek!

Hello from Brazil!!

Here I am in Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil -- just eight miles south of the equator! I'm having a great time seeing this beautiful country and meeting lots of interesting and friendly people. One of my favorite things about Brazil is the number of hugs one gets in a single day. It's great!

In six days I've taken about 200 photos. I'll be posting many of them here after I return.

Until then --

Tchau!

Ola!

The days are passing quickly as I prepare for my trip to Brazil. There are so many things to be done at work and at home! My clothes are nearly all packed -- and now our mission team is concentrating on gifts and trinkets to take for our hosts and the people we meet.

Last night God laid it upon my heart to purchase miniature Kewpie dolls ... I've never made doll clothes before, but He showed me exactly what materials to use and a very easy process for dressing them. I completed all five that I purchased yesterday, and I have "dresses" ready for the 50 additional dolls I ordered. We'll give these to young girls (we have some miniature trucks for the boys).

Tchau for now!

C = Center of the universe

It's easy to see why Tristan was getting all the attention yesterday. Isn't he adorable?!

This car suits our family to a T

Yesterday we took rides in Grandpa Huston's Model T before loading it up on a trailer to send home with Chris and Rainie. I can remember my grandpa taking Chris and me for rides in it when we were very young. It was quite a treat seeing Amber, Nicholas and Micheala take rides in it, too.

Turkeys lurkin'

No one would be surprised if I said there was a family of turkeys at the Precht house. But today we had the real thing -- complete with feathers! We've had a steady stream of visitors this summer -- deer, turkeys, a fox, a bobcat, a family of bunnies and, of course, a squirrel or two.

The goatherders are coming!

Chris and Rainie are in town this week! We haven't seen them in ages. We're looking forward to a fun family gathering that will begin in Warrensburg Wednesday morning and end at Nicholas' baseball game in Shawnee.

Você fala português?

Our mission team (Joy, Carol and me) met today to discuss more logistics for our July 31 trip and learn a little bit of Portuguese. Our fourth team member (Yvonne) was unable to join us, as she's on a mission trip to Mexico.

Our workbook, "Portuguese in 10 minutes a day" doesn't mention how many days of 10 minutes we'll need to prepare for our trip to Brazil. Ten? Fifty? Two years?

From the dugout

I downloaded the photos from Nicholas' camera this afternoon and found this interesting shot he took of a teammate preparing to bat. My shortstop has caught the "shutter bug!"

Baseball Bulletin

The Crawdads take on their next opponent tonight at 8:30 -- providing we don't get rained out. Nicholas said the coaches worked them really hard last night at practice, so he thinks they're ready for a win.

UPDATE: The Crawdads won tonight, 12-2! Go Crawdads!!!! Our next game is Sunday evening.

Determined Crawdads

Last night we cheered on the Crawdads while they gave it their all in 90-degree heat.

Nicholas got walked to first base twice in the game ... and he scored one run. Here, he prepares to steal second base. He succeded, but we accumulated three outs before he made it home.

The Crawdads play really well as a team, but they've had some tough breaks this season. We're hoping for a win Friday night.

Doe, a deer, a female deer ... and a bunny

This evening we marveled at a graceful doe in our backyard. She wandered around for 20-30 minutes before heading back into the woods. Meanwhile, a bunny hung out near the slide. I wonder what he was thinking ...