Gettin' Rid of Stuff

Tonight we hauled our swingset away to Matt and Jacque's house. As we loaded it on the trailer Mia protested with "my swings, my swings!"
Here is Matt and Jacque and Ian on our futon, minutes after we closed on the deal that sent said futon to their house. We only have a few more things that need to find homes. Computer desk anyone? How about a Shop Vac? If not maybe you would like to peruse the "free box".... 

Back in Town

We're back in Tremont now, and not leaving until our training on Sep. 8th. In the meantime we are connecting with friends and family and getting our house packed up. The picture is of friends celebrating Ed's birthday with a murder mystery party.

Stool Samplin' in the Ozarks

We traveled to the Lake of the Ozarks with family. A lot of skiing and a lot of children.

R and R on the Huzzah

Floating on the Huzzah River in Missouri was relaxing (Huzzah, as in "hu-zah" that big ol' bass swimmin' ova thar?). We were able to spend time with our family and the Romanos. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get another speghetti dinner like the one they prepared for our St. Louis presentation.
Probably the most entertaining part of the trip was watching Camila and Akiko (a Japanese girl staying with my parents) learning how to navigate a canoe. I guess canoeing isn't a big pastime in Japan...

-JTP

Meet me in St. Louis

Lydia is belly dancing. She looked like a miniature version of a real one. At least the ones I've seen on tv. Her parents are Calvin and Jill who are workers in Cairo. That is where she will be raised and become proficient in many cultural experiences, like belly dancing. Josh's sister, Camila wants our girls to learn the Samba in Brazil, I would prefer soccer.We spent the weekend with dear friends from college some of whom we had not seen in years and will not see again for many more. The goodbyes are becoming more frequent.We are still waiting for papers from Brazil so that we can apply for our visas.

Moving Days

Tuesday the Gomez family left. We also began packing up much of our furniture to take to St. Louis (Josh's parents) and Bolivar, MO (Brin's parents). Slowly our house is slipping away, we no longer own it, many of the rooms are empty, and we are rarely there anymore. Our girls got a little teary, as they didn't realize we were taking some of their things until that morning.


We went on our first geocaching adventure with Brin's sister and her husband and Brin's mom. Ella and Ava really enjoyed it, especially when they discovered that they could keep a treasure.