Happy Birthday Ryan, Rockets and Hammocks

This Wednesday I turn twenty six and my cousin Kate turns sixteen. I think that her birthday is a little more significant than mine. After nineteen no birthday has really been significant. That said, I still like the attention and presents! Becca apparently got me three gifts and has given me two already. Since Wednesday I have classes in the morning and Becca works in the afternoon, we decided to celebrate a little early. The celebrating is coming out bit by bit: Becca’s presents and Grandma Barbara’s present were yesterday. I bought five discounted edited movies with some birthday money and Becca and I tried out a new Brazilian hole-in-the-wall restaurant that just opened. About two-thirds of the customers were speaking Portuguese and all of the staff. It was a lot of fun. Today we’re having our friends the Higbees over and Evy (Argentine) is going to help Becca make empanadas for dinner. I slept in yesterday, today and I’ll get sleep in tomorrow too. My 25^th year is ending pretty well.

I continue to enjoy my polyglot experience. I’ve spoken with about four more Brazilians online now and it’s been lots of fun. They have, overall, been very helpful and I’ve tried to be the same to them. Rodrigo is an engineering major at the University of Belo Horizonte and has a really laid back way of speaking. Franklin works for Brazil’s version of the IRS and is interested in American history. Cleber works in an IT company in São Paulo and thinks English is a beautiful language. Flávia, who I mentioned last time, is a painter and an art teacher who enjoys swimming and Geraldo is a computer tech who helps administrate the polyglot-learn-language website on the side. I also chatted with Ziad Fazah again (Mr. I-Know-Fifty-Eight-Languages) and was able to chat online a few times with Stuart Raj (the guy who was on Thai T.V.). My new friends are a lot of fun.

As part of a choral number today in church, I was supposed to sing the second verse of the song as a duet. The choir didn’t come early to do a final rehearsal before church so I supposed we were all a little fuzzy about what we were supposed to do. The other guy and I started the second verse but after a few seconds I realized that we were singing in a trio. The guy who stands next to me doesn’t read music so he’s used to following me when I sing. I guess he heard me singing and figured he should too. I discretely jabbed him with my elbow which seemed to do the trick because he stopped singing.

Here’s my sweet wife:

Well, this has been quite a normal week for me.

I have enjoyed getting Ryan presents. I seem to be more excited about them than he is, but I think that is because I have known what they were for a while, so the anticipation of his joy when getting them just made me even more excited. I love to spend money on him ( I didn’t go overboard though) The best one (in my opinion) was a lifetime subscription to MP3 Rocket that allows Ryan to have unlimited music and movie downloads. I payed a one time fee...and that's that. Ryan has downloaded enough that we have already made our money back. That is exciting.

Things are still going well at 5 Buck. My boss is a very kind woman, but very sneaky in getting people to work shifts…I can see why she is the one who deals with us, and not her husband…she has a fine tuned gift in the art of manipulation.

My little nephew Benjamin (the younger twin) was taken to the hospital and placed in intensive care this week. He was progressively getting worse at not getting enough oxygen and caused quite the scare. I am happy to say that he is doing well. Thank goodness!! He has to go through air treatments every four hours…so that will keep the Tobeys on their toes for the next couple days.

Weather is wonderful here in Utah. Everything is green, spring will soon be over…but the bugs are still mating! Not meaning too… I’ve killed (stepped on) a few happy couples.

I can’t wait for Brazil!! Counting from Monday the 28^th, we will have 26 days until we happily take the long flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil! I am on a mission to find the perfect hammock from that point on, as well as some native gemstones. *I wish that was me in the picture and not that guy*

I have gotten off the bandwagon when it comes to jogging. I really need to hop back on. It isn’t that bad, in fact, when I go jogging I actually enjoy it (never before has that happened). I just hate having to re-wash and style my hair. I know, I know…I am a girl…but if I jog 3-4 times a week, that is what I have to do, and I highly dislike it ( I have a lot of hair and it takes too much time).

I have been making some ‘nummy’ food lately. So far the things I have liked most are the empanadas, artichoke/spinach dip on light rye crackers, and a no oil spice cake smothered in apple sauce and lightly sweetened whipped cream. I still have quite a bit of mint OREO truffles left…well I have the filling which I have to dip into chocolate.

Well, that is it for me this week. We hope all of you are having a wonderful time with life!