ONE MORE DAY!!!

Dear boys,

Just wanted to stop in my packing frenzy and tell you how much I love you all and how much I miss you.  Carys and I can't wait to get home.

I would post some pictures, but there is nothing special.  Just imagine that scenario of me running around cramming things into already pretty full bags.

Besides, if I posted pictures you might accidentally see some surprises!!

Well, in an hour and a half are leaving for the airport, so I better get the rest of my packing done.

I love you all so much!!

love,
Mom

Happy Birthday, Kevin!!

Today is my husband's birthday.  HAPPY!

I am still in the USA and he is in Brazil.  SAD!

But, as he has told me, it is just another day.  We will celebrate when I get home on Wednesday (only 3 more days!).

In keeping with the Blume birthday blog tradition, I have asked our kids to write something special about their dad on his birthday.

At our new sponsoring church recently, someone who doesn't know Kevin that well yet, said that he was surprised to learn that Kevin is a big cut-up.  You will see from these words about their dad (and the pictures), that our kids, who know him VERY well, love to cut up and goof around with their dad.  And vice versa.

So here goes:

Giovanni:  happy fathers day!happy birthday dad! hi dad! you are so beautiful dad and you are so mean to mean dad! and i went to sogipa with dad and anderson! i love dad!

Anderson:  dad you are so cool, the only bad thing about you is that you are a big fat goober! Happy birthday! i love you! anderson

Carys:  Dad is the best dad ever i couldn't ever ask for a better one he always makes me laugh when i am sad and i wish i could be there today for his birthday but when i get there i am obviously going to do something special for him when i get there i loovvveee you dad!!!

Garrett: dad is the BEST dad in the world!! i love doing stuff with him, and spending time with him! a specially love wrestling with him, but i feel sorry cause i always beat him! i love you dad! happy bday!

Ansley:  DADDY POO, I LUH YOU, YOU SO NICE, I LUH YOU. did you like that rhyme that i made for you, daddy? well daddy, i love you so much. and i hope that you have an AMAZING day and know that we LOVE AND MISS YOU SO SO SO MUCH. sorry for never calling you daddy. now im making up for it. LOVE YOU, DADDY!!!

Bronwyn: Happy Birthday Dad!!!! I hope you have a great day today in the man cave! Thank you for being such a great dad. I love talking to you and beating you up when I'm home. Thank you for always calming me down when I call you and reminding me to have fun. I love you!! Love, your favorite child.

Me:  Simply said, you are the greatest blessing that God has given me.  I love you so much.  Thank you for treating me like a queen and being patient and loving with all my shortcomings.  I can't wait to get back to Brazil and be with you (and the boys, of course.)  I love the way you never stop growing, never stop trying and never giving up on being the best husband, dad, missionary, whatever that you can be.  Thanks for inspiring me to do the same.  KISS KISS - HUG HUG.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  YOU ARE VERY LOVED!

To my guys - 4 days left

Ok. Well I'm posting from an iPad for the first time. A little weird to type on a screen instead of a keyboard.

(Actually, I'm posting this a day late.  I never could get the iPad to work.  We are now back in Memphis - tired of driving, tired of eating out, but very thankful to be back safe!)

We are in Dallas tonight on our way back to Memphis from Abilene. This morning i went to meetings with Bronwyn about her nursing school. It was really neat to see her school, meet her teachers and hear what her classes will be like. She will have to study really hard, but we all know she will do great, right?

After her meetings we went to get her uniform and shoes. Check her out:

We picked up Ansley and took some farewell pictures:

Then we said goodbye with only a few tears and we were on our way.

When we got to the hotel, we didn't feel like getting ready and going out for dinner. We weren't that hungry and just sick of being in the car. So I decided to just go to the grocery store and get some stuff for supper. Here is my awesome supper combo:

 Chicken strips, baked potato salad, chips, popcorn, orange crush, and molasses cookies. That's gourmet dining at it's finest right there. Now our hotel room smells like a combo of micro popcorn and fried chicken. Yum!

Honestly, we are all so tired we don't even care. It was sad to say goodbye to the girls, but we are all ready to be on our way back home.

Love and miss you all,
Mom

To my guys - counting down now - 6 days left!

Hi Guys,

Sorry about not posting yesterday.  Lack of computer access again.

I wanted to tell you about something really neat that we got to see on Tuesday night.  It was the Candlelight Devo that is a tradition at ACU.

All of the kids who aren't freshman, and a lot of teachers and other adults, line up in a path and hold candles.  They all start to sing really pretty devotional songs and then the freshmen walk through the path on their way to an outside theater.  As they walk along and listen to the singing, sometimes people jump out of the line to give someone a hug.

As the freshmen get to the amphitheater they start lining up and filling in the seats, and then they get candles and start singing, too.  Then there is a little speech by one of the teachers at ACU.

It was really, really neat.  Grandmommy, Carys and I got to line up with Bronwyn, Stephen and all of their friends as the freshmen walked through.  Then we listened to the speech which was really, really good.

Here are some pictures:

This is the Bible building.  The sky looked so pretty as we got to the campus.

A group of freshmen was meeting on the grass.  We saw a girl from the back with blonde, curly hair and thought it was Ansley, but it turned out to be someone else. 

This is called the Tower of Light.

As Grandmommy said as we were leaving, "This was worth the whole trip."

It was really, really neat and, again, I am just so thankful that Bronwyn and Ansley are at such a pecial place with such loving people.

Love you all,
Mom

Dear boys (I'm tired of typing "to my guys")

Hello!

It's a no picture day again.  Sorry!

Yesterday and this morning Ansley and I had lots of meetings to learn about ACU.

I am more impressed than ever with this school and am so thankful that the girls are here.

Today after lunch, Ansley started her Welcome Week activities.  These are fun activities for the freshmen to get to know each other and just have fun and relax the first week.

Grandmommy, Bronwyn and I have been working really hard getting Bronwyn's room ready.  It is looking great and I will share pictures when it is finished.

Stephen keeps hanging around us every chance he gets.  I guess we like him. (just kidding, Stephen.)

Carys is putting in a lot of time watching movies while we are working.  She seems to be having fun.

I miss talking to you guys and hope your internet and phone get fixed soon.

Love you all!
Mom

To my guys (day 12)

Hey guys!

I don't have a lot of time right now, and the rest of the day will probably be pretty busy.  Ansley and I are going to meetings starting at lunch time until supper time.  Learning all about ACU, her classes, etc.

But, I wanted to show you some pictures from the past few days:

Said good-bye to the Terry's on Saturday morning.

Our welcoming crew at ACU:  Stephen and Andrew Dillard

Grandmommy took a risk and opened the back door of the car - it was packed so full that stuff fell out.

See?

Room rearranging:  Tyler, Erika's boyfriend (in the plaid shorts), Branson, Erika's brother and Robert, Erika's dad, moved the furniture all around until the girls were happy with it.

Sweet Jeanene Reese came by to check on the girls.

Big sisters and little sisters - all cared for and loved by this sweet "substitute" mom.

Grandmommy and Carys are working on Ansley's bulletin board - filling it with pictures.

We ate lunch with the Cranfords on Sunday at the Zellers' house.

Grant.  Same as always and even more.

Abigail, Riley, and Carys lost no time in renewing their friendship.  They hung out all afternoon. (I was going to say "played" all afternoon, but they are too big to "play" so, they "hung out".)

Moms and Daughters - This is why I am so glad that I got to come and do this.  Thank you!

Grandmommy, Stephen and Bronwyn working on painting her room.  It is going to be so cute.

Ansley's bed - almost finished.

Her bulletin board looks great.

Erika's bed looks really great, too.

Well, I'm running out the door now to start the afternoon of meetings.

I miss you all!

Love,
Mom

To my guys (days 10 & 11)

Dear Kevin, Garrett, Anderson and Giovanni,

First of all, let me get this out of my system:

I MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!

Well, sorry about not blogging yesterday.  I don't have a computer with me so I've been using Bronwyn or Ansley's computer.  Last night they both slept in their college rooms, so I was stuck with no computer after our busy day.  Sorry!

And.... this post isn't going to have any pictures because Bronwyn's computer doesn't have a camera card reader and so I can't upload my pictures.  Sorry again!!

Yesterday we drove from Dallas to Abilene.  We ate a Chick Fil A for lunch and I got a book for Anderson and Giovanni to share. You will like it.  We got to Abilene a little after lunch time and started moving Ansley in her room.

We met Ansley's roommate, Erika, and her family.  They are really nice.  We helped Ansley arrange the furniture in her room, put up all her clothes, and start decorating.  Her room is going to look really nice.  We saw Stephen, Jennifer, Asia and Tyler.

One time, we momentarily lost Ansley's room key.  I was worried that I had thrown it away because I had been picking up little pieces of trash and tags from things that Ansley had bought and throwing them away.  The key was in a little yellow envelope and I was worried that I had accidentally picked it up and thrown it away.  The trash bag had already been taken down to the dumpster.

Guess what I did?  I went to the dumpster, climbed up the side of it and had to step in it to get the trash bag out to see if the key was in there.  It wasn't.  Then, about 5 minutes later they found it on Erika's desk in their room.

With her iPhone, Bronwyn took a picture of me climbing in the dumpster, which I'm sure gave a chuckle to many onlooking parents and students:

(Grandmommy tried to take a picture of me with her iPhone, too, but she ended up taking a movie instead.  Surprised??  If I can figure out how to put it on here, I will.)

Grandmommy took Bronwyn to her room to unpack her stuff from the car, then we went to eat a hamburger and went on a big shopping trip to Dollar General.  After that we were all so tired.  So we dropped the girls off at their rooms and went to the Zellers' house to sleep.

Today we had church at Highland Church.  It was really nice.  There were tons of people there.  After church we had lunch at the Zellers' house and met a lot of really nice people.   Then we took Ansley to get her ID card made for college and went to Walmart to get paint for Bronwyn's room.  Her room is white with black trim and it really needs painting.  Grandmommy, Bronwyn and Stephen are working on it right now.

Ansley got a message from a new friend asking her to eat in the Bean, so she couldn't wait to get out of Walmart and get to meet her friend.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't need me anymore except to maybe hang a few pictures on her wall tomorrow.

Tomorrow starting at lunch time Ansley and I have meetings all afternoon, and then Tuesday morning. Then Ansley starts her Welcome Week activities and we will just be helping Bronwyn.

Well, I have pictures of all this stuff.  I'll show you those tomorrow.

I love you all!!!
Mom

PS.  Oh yeah, Anderson and Giovanni, I LOVE the dress up outfits as workers.  You both are so handsome!!!

To my guys (day 9)

Hi guys!

Long traveling day today.

But we made it safely.

Guess where we are staying tonight?

Elisa with her new school shoes.  They rainbow colored and sparkly and they light up!  Anderson, do you want me to bring you some like them??

Kira in her little pink car.

Fun family!

We are at Sascha and Jennifer's house.  We just went out to eat tacos and we will leave here tomorrow to go to Abilene.  

Tomorrow I'll send pictures of Ansley and Bronwyn's college!

Love you!!

To my guys (day 8)

Dear guys,

Well, "guy time" has officially started.  Has anyone died of starvation yet???

Just kidding, I know Dad is a great cook, knows how to cook an egg, knows where McDonalds is.

Today was packing day for us - I should say for "me" because some of us don't do so much in the packing department as others do.  (like blonde, curly-headed, soon-to-be college students...)

Anyway, here is the day in a few pictures:

Ansley is not very excited about packing.  She makes up reasons to stop and eat snacks, go to movies, whatever.  I'm trying to be nice to her because she is kind of nervous about going to college.

Carys was having a snack at around 10:30 this morning.  I wanted to take a picture of her "snack" to show you.  She didn't want me to and grabbed her plate and ran away from me.  Why??? (see next picture)

Why?? Because THIS is what her "snack" was at 10:30 in the morning:

Chicken and mushrooms with rice and half a plate full of baked potatoes.  Some snack!

Here is Ansley's stuff that we had to pack in the car.  We still aren't finished yet, but there are just a few things left for in the morning:

Later in the day, Ansley and I went to eat lunch with Papa and Grandmommy at PeiWei.  It was really good.   We had fortune cookies and took some silly pictures.

After that, Ansley, Carys, Chloe and Grandmommy went to see this movie:

They said it was really good.  

I decided to wait and watch the movie with you guys!  

Well, better get to sleep, we have a long day of traveling tomorrow.

Love you guys!!

Mom