The Obvious One

So here is the group picture from the conference in Salvador. Yesterday when I was choosing pictures, this would have been an obvious pick, but sometimes I guess I overlook the obvious. Enjoy!

Jet Setting, unfortunately

I just saw that in 2009 I posted just a few more times than in 2007, and in 2007 I started this blog in August. What does that mean? Failure, dear readers. Failure. I hope you can find it in your blog-reading hearts to forgive me.

The last you heard from me, I was posting pictures of strangers sitting on each other's laps in the spirit of church retreats. Since then, I've pretty much been keeping TAM airlines in business with some unexpected -but very lovely- holiday travel. In October my parents invited me to join them for family Christmas in New York City. Christmas of 09 would have been my third Christmas in a row away from family, and I had no plans to join them, but who would say no to that kind of offer? Because it was a last minute plan, and apparently half of Brazil tries to fly to NYC for the holidays, I flew in about a week before Christmas and flew back to Natal on New Year's Eve. It was a wonderful (and BITTERLY COLD) two weeks, and Christmas in NYC is just as magical as I had always dreamed.

Exploring in Central Park on my first full day, not adequately clothed AT ALL. I was surprised to find legs under my jeans when I got home, given that I hadn't been feeling them for about 3 hours.

Mom (and Dad and Aunt Lynette, NOT pictured here) braving the cold to wait in line for our discount Broadway show tickets. It was really so, so cold, but they said it was worth it. (After seeing the show, of course. They weren't so sure at the point this picture was taken, despite the cute babushka look Mom had going on.)

Carpenter/Barneche family in front of the Rockefeller Center tree and skating rink. The tree is kind of hard to see...I'll post another one.
There you go.

On our way to church my first Sunday in NYC. It snowed a LOT the night before. This is Columbia's library.

My first time (of many) in Time's Square. I really wanted to see The Lion King, but wasn't going to be able to, so I took a picture in front of the sign instead. Kelly was cold.


The Carpenters/Barneches again, this time in front of the United Nations. (And I fancy the cool reflection in the windows, don't you?)

As I said, I flew home on New Year's Eve, which made me arrive in Natal at 1 am on January 1st. Thankfully Roberto pulled himself away from the rockin' NYE party at the church (I'm pretty sure he got out of washing dishes) to pick me up at the airport. I spent the next 3 days doing unpacking, doing laundry, and RE-packing, because Monday morning at 6 am I flew out AGAIN, only this time to Salvador for the annual missionary conference. I had made these plans long before NYC came along, so I made sacrifice to do something I don't like to do (back-to-back trips) and had the time of my life. This was my first time to the conference as an adult and not as one of my parents' +2 children, in other words this was my first time to the conference where I actually participated in the conference rather than childcare.

It was excellent, absolutely excellent. I was blessed to connect with several old friends (mine and my parents') and make several new friends. Jim and Susan Clark from Abilene were the speakers, and they did a wonderful job and made us all feel very loved and appreciated. :) We were in a hotel that looked out on the beautiful Bahian ocean (Bahia is the state, famous for pretty beaches. It was actually Bahia's section of the Atlantic Ocean. Don't worry, I didn't just invent a body of water,) and I enjoyed sleeping in an air conditioned room for four nights. After I got back, I told my parents that it was exactly what I needed without even knowing that I was needing it. Sometimes it's just nice to be with people who get what you're doing, how you got there, and who have the same kinds of joys and disappointments that you do. I regret not going the past two years, and will make this conference a priority in years to come.

Also, I don't think they do, but in case anyone on the Salvador team reads this post, you all did a WONDERFUL job planning the conference. I would have had big shoes to fill had the conference actually fallen on me next year. :)

My good friend Carrie Gotcher, who I met when she was my youth group intern about 10 years ago. She and her husband moved to Niteroi, Brazil last year and now we are missionary friends. Small world.

One of the sessions with Jim Clark

I hope you all had fun, safe, and happy holiday celebrations. If it gets too cold where you are...well...I'm wearing shorts and a tank top right now and sitting in front of a fan. Need I be more clear?

Carnatal, continued

The Carnatal retreat was a lot of fun. Last year I missed it due to my trip to Rio de Janeiro with my sister and brother-in-law, so I was happy to be around for it. This year's theme was "In the Master's Steps," and you can probably guess what we studied. :) We were warned before the retreat started that there would be very little, if any, running water in the house. That meant disposable plates, little chance for showering, and we chose to stop there and try to not think about the bathroom situation! The young people at CDC decided to proceed with the retreat anyway and "rough it" for a few days, as this retreat is one we all look forward to all year. Boy are we glad we did! Turns out the water problem wasn't as big of a problem as we were anticipating, and by Saturday everyone was bathed and smelling fresh! We enjoyed time studying about what we must do to follow Jesus (decide to follow him, deny ourselves, love others, etc) as well as time to just hang out and play a lot of really silly games. They had great Bible-based activities planned (Bingo, a Bible-bowl competition, "find the verse and read it faster than anyone else," Bible character charades) as well as games like musical chairs, etc. Just another weekend that reminded me of how much I love my church family, and why I enjoy living alone! Ha! Enjoy the pictures:

Playing musical chairs where, if you didn't have a chair to sit in, you just sat in someone's lap. We had some visitors at the retreat and..well..I guess this served as a nice way to get to know each other fast. :)

We had lots of free time to spend time together, and the weather was so nice we spent a lot of time on the front porch. Since we didn't have access to a pool this year (no water, remember?) this was a very common scene.

This night we had to turn our clothes inside out in order to be served dinner. It was fine for people like me who were wearing clothes that look the same on the inside as the outside. There were some people who were not so fortunate...like the girl wearing a dress with a polyester lining and the boy wearing swim trunks with netting on the inside. :)

Bible character charades, Marta is acting out Joseph. Took us a while to get what she was doing. But she kept doing this over and over and over and over AND OVER until we understood that she was pulling on her own coat to resemble Potiphar's wife.

NEW BLOG DESIGN!

I know that all the time I recommend Google Reader for all you blog readers out there, but that was when my blog was ugly and the content was more important than the layout. Well, the tables have turned and now I don't really care what I write about, I just want you to see the pretty new design!! For a while now I had been looking for someone talented enough to commandeer the task of redesigning "Living and Loving," and I finally found just the right person. Her name is Kelly Mann, and I think she's a genius, don't you? I told her basically nothing about what I wanted (i.e. I don't like cutesy, I don't like polka dots, and I want the colors of the Brazilian flag) and TA-DA! She got it right on the first try. Then after she came up with this, I was able to come up with a few tiny details that I wanted (like the flower by my signature and the Bible verse under the header. Really. That's the only thing I added.) But really she did all of it. That's an artist, if you ask me.

So take me off your Reader and put me on your bookmarks, because I want you to enjoy this as much as I obviously do.

Thank you, Kelly! (Click on either of these links to see more of her excellent work.)

I'll be back later to report on the rest of the Carnatal retreat. Happy Monday!

Day 1 Carnatal

Two posts in one day? THREE posts in 24 hours? What is this, 2007?

Since I'm not sleeping at the Carnatal retreat this year, but instead coming home to sleep in my scary-bug-less house and non-foam mattress, I decided to give you a report on Day 1.

Day 1 of the Carnatal retreat was a success...a success for everyone but Talissa the Car.

Baby's first time getting stuck in sand.

It doesn't look bad...but if you'll notice the color of the front tires, that happened from them spinning helplessly, trying to get out. And no, I'm not an idiot, I was driving on packed sand when a car came around the corner and I had no choice but to veer right. Turns out that was not a wise choice.

Proud to be out of the sand.

Today I am thankful that it worked out that I just so happened to give a ride to three male church members rather than female church members. Had it worked out to be a car full of girls, I'm pretty I'd be getting ready for bed in my car right now rather than blogging.

Food

I have a friend who is a few months in to a 24-month stint in Armenia as a Peace Corps volunteer. This morning I read this post on his blog about missing American food, and I must say it's spot-on. For those of you who have never lived overseas and think it's weird how many times I've talked about Mexican food on this blog, feel free to read his post so that you'll see that I'm not alone.

And don't miss my post below this one, I published it last last night and you probably haven't seen it yet...

Still feeling thankful

Yikes. I've done a much better job about posting lately but the comments aren't reflecting readership. Is it A) because the reader ship is sinking? B) because the readership is shy about commenting? or C) because my posts are too lame to be comment-worthy?

A whole week after I wrote my Thanksgiving thankfulness post, I've thought of a bevy of other things to be thankful for, so since this is my blog and I can't sleep I decided to continue. Here goes...

I am also thankful for:

• my apartment. I could easily describe this apartment as a dream come true. It sounds like I'm making this up, but not a week goes by that at some point as I'm flicking off a light switch or closing the windows for the night I don't think "I LOVE MY HOUSE." It's true. I dreamed for 1.5 years of living in a place big enough to host church gatherings (like the one pictured below) and church sleepovers and have a kitchen big and efficient enough to actually enjoy cooking in it. God provided all of those things, and I feel BLESSED.

(Lacy, you might be interested to see the blackout curtains, the new couches, and the painting on the wall, the only real additions since you left. Everyone else, there were 27 people in my living room that night. And only two fans. This is a group REALLLLY committed to praising God.)

• my students/readers. They really bring a lot of joy to my life, not only because of the funny things they say, but because of the conversations we get to have about Jesus. The help me to see His story with a fresh perspective.
• Mexican food. I feel it deserves to be on the list again. I especially am thankful for the avocados that make guacamole, the tortillas that make chips, and the tomatoes and spices that make salsa.
  
• fruit. Living in Brazil makes you appreciate fruit, because there is just so much of it, and so many different kinds that don't seem to exist anywhere else. And the fruit juices...oh the fruit juices. That's a whole other item...
• fruit juices. There.
  
• the beach. I've never been much of a beach lover, because I always found it a bit too sandy for my taste, but I've learned to appreciate it since living in a city with some of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. Here's my favorite, Ponta Negra: (This is where I spent Thanksgiving, by the way. And this is not a professional photo. It's just that pretty.)
  
• 
• the book of Philippians. I really love that epistle. Not sure how to make this not be blue and underlined.
• pictures like this one (Mom please don't kill me.):This photo was taken on one of my last days in the US in April. My mom and I had a twice-daily battle with the family cat, Scout, to squirt medicine into her mouth. This was the only way she couldn't get away. We liked to sing "Magnificat" (just now realized the 'cat' in there...we sang it because it's Mary's song) while holding Scout this way. She did not find it as amusing as we did.
  
• special friends in Natal whom I have gotten to know by just being a part of the neighborhood. I mentioned my doormen in the last post, but I am also thankful for Neide and Meyre, my two favorite bakery cashiers, Rosa, the girl who does my nails, Percy, the guy who cuts my hair, Chagas, the guy who sells me drinking water, and Souza, the best dune buggy driver in the world (pictured below.)

Well, that about sums it up...for tonight, anyway. I'm getting sleepy. Happy Carnatal everyone! (10 points to you if you remember what Carnatal is. It starts tomorrow, which means the church retreat starts tomorrow as well.)