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Published: February 15th 2006
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In less than 48 hours we will be leaving for Brazil and we only have about 101 things we need to finish before we start our journey. Isn't that how it always goes? For us anyways! Since our last posting Heather spent a couple weeks in Spokane visiting with her parents and cleaning out some lingering belongings, while I have been here in Idaho Falls visiting my family. Make all the potato, in-bred, and trailer park jokes that you want....100% Idaho homegrown and proud of it!
Fortunately, I only had to spend 2 weeks without Heather, and we met up in Boise, ID for a weekend Halloween Celebration with our buddy Alan, and a celebration it was. I drove over on the Friday before Halloween and Heather was planning on driving down from Spokane Saturday morning. Alan and I caught up over a beer on Friday night and said he had a surprise in store for me on Saturday. He promised a buddy he would help him move Saturday morning, so being the Good Samaritan that I am, I decided to pitch in. What was supposed to be a morning of moving turned into a full day of moving, and
the one bit of joy he forgot to tell me, was that his buddy was moving into a 3rd floor apartment! After I broke a little sweat, we headed to JoAnn’s Fabrics to get the materials for Alan's costume and to Wal-mart to find something for Heather and me!
Let me take a brief moment to say a few things about our buddy Alan. I have known Alan since high school and he has to be one of the most genuine and caring friends a person can ask for and he is a creative genius (as you can see by his costume). We went to Germany together one summer and had the time of our lives. And guess what ladies...it is your lucky day, he's single! Alan--no "thanks" necessary, you're very welcome!
Update...Alan is no longer single, repeat he is no longer single. Sorry ladies! So for Alan's Halloween costume he wanted to sew a fuzzy heart on the front of a shirt and on the back of it he made an iron-on that let everyone know he had a heart on. As for myself, I was Spiderman (the full figured version), Heather was a 70's chick, and
Alan's friend Verena was a punk rocker. We had a great night, ran into Fred's girlfriend Laila, danced the night away, and went to IHOP for pancakes.
We returned on Sunday to celebrate Eddie's birthday with a big feast and lots of family. It was good to see everyone and catch up. The next day was Halloween and Heather did the make-up for my sister's kid, Alicia, as the Countess of Darkness and her other daughter, Gabrielle, was dressed up as a witch. Both were very adorable, but I might be a bit biased. We had a lot of trick-or-treaters and young relatives stop by so the candy went fast! I thought it would be amusing to scare trick-or-treaters with a Grim Reaper mask, but after a little girl ran away and tripped on our lawn, I decided I would just stick with treats rather than tricks for the rest of the night.
On November 6th, we celebrated my niece Gabrielle's 1st birthday and it was a great time...she is so darn cute! My family has a tradition that on your first birthday you get free reign on your birthday cake, and Gabrielle did just that! There was
frosting on every inch of her face and instead of using her hands, she just dove face first for a bite. Maybe on my next birthday I'll give that a try.
We have been very fortunate while we've been here to run into many old friends from high school and college. Some great friends of ours are in a Christian Rock band called Lystra's Silence and they started the band back when I was in my mid-teens. They music is fantastic and inspiring and I recommend everyone to check them out -
Lystra's Silence (click here!) Anyways, they are doing very well, they have been touring all over the US and just recently had their latest CD released nationally. We have seen them play a couple times while we've been here and they've introduced us to some new friends. The drummer Tim (who is the best drummer I know) is from Kenya and his parents currently reside in Nairobi, so when we make our journey around the world, we will definitely be spending some time there! (Very excited about that!) They have really been great to us while we have been here, met up with us for dinner, cooked us dinner another
night with bowling afterwards (Thanks Tim and Sherry!), and Lystra's Silence invited us to many activities, for that we are very very thankful. So check out their website, there are tour dates on it, and check out their latest CD.
A few days after Gabrielle's Birthday, Heather ended up with a bit of a cold, which I soon started to feel the symptoms also. It was a bad day to get sick since my buddy Alan was coming to visit us for the weekend and we had a lot planned. I started taking meds, but the cold won and I ended up with bronchitis. Regardless of being sick, we still had a lot of fun over the weekend, played some poker with my Mom and Ed, and met up with Lystra's Silence at Lava Hot Springs for some relaxing in the hot pools, and had a great night out on the town. I am sure that my sickness would have had a shorter life span, but the fun times were worth it!
So need less to say, I am still a bit sick (4 bottles of Nyquil and two weeks later!), and like I mentioned earlier, we have
a lot left still to accomplish before we leave. I am sure if I wasn't ill these past two weeks, a lot more would have been done, but then again being lazy has had it's benefits! The biggest bummer being sick is that I bought us a one month membership to a gym and we only used it for two weeks! So I am fat again...ok just kidding, still just slightly husky!
Tomorrow is Turkey day and I think we only have 3 dinners to attend (a lot of family here) but as Heather says, “It is all about portions!” So the next time we add a new entry into our blog, we will be in sunny Recife, Brazil! Once all is settled, I will post our address for those that would like to write, and if you would like us to send you a postcard, please send us your mailing address to our e-mail wherearewenow@gmail.com. Hope all is well and we look forward to hear from all of you!
On a side note...if you are new to blogging, let us clarify a few things. As a subscriber to the blog, you don't have to create an account,
this just means that you will be sent an e-mail when we have updates for you to view. You are also welcome to post any comments, thoughts, or questions you might have by clicking on the link at the bottom of the posting that says "Add Comment” After you decide to post a comment, Heather or myself have to read through it to make sure there is no foul language or anything inappropriate and then we approve it. After we have approved the comment you will see it at the bottom of the entry you were commenting on and we encourage this! Some of you might have vacationed in some of the areas we will be visiting, so if you know of something great to do in the area, please share! Or if you know of a place we shouldn't venture into, that information is always nice to have as well.
Happy Turkey Day (or Tofurkey for our herbivore friends) and talk to you all soon!
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Alan
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Heart On for you guys!
Ben and Heather, Thanks for the kind words and yes ladies, my heart on is only the start of things to come. I wish you both the best of luck in Brasil and I'll be talking with you both before I leave. Viva Brasil! -Alan