The Comparison Game

It is the Christmas season...and it's only a week away! Wow! One of the more "popular" blogs out there does a wonderful Christmas Tour of Homes. How you play, is that you take pictures of all of your Christmas decorations in your home, post them on your blog, then link to her blog. I stumbled upon it yesterday and there were over 700+ links to other blogs, all of these women showing their homes and decorations. I thought, what fun!!! I LOVE to get new ideas and of course, to peek into other people's homes. Well, I got a lot more then I was bargaining for.

After the first few blogs that I visited, I started feeling sad/bad about my own circumstances. The pictures on these blogs were amazing! The decorations were incredible and gorgeous, and the homes were absolutely beautiful. I started looking around my humble little rental home. Most of my furniture hand-me-downs, hardly anything on the walls to decorate. For Christmas, I only had up our very tiny and very sad looking tree (that we had bought a few days before). I had started the comparison game in my head. I don't know if you ever do this, but I start comparing what I have to other's and then a feeling of "not measuring up" comes in. I was thinking....there is no way on God's green earth, that I would ever post any pictures of my very sad x-mas tree...and it being our only x-mas decoration at the time, next to these beautiful homes and gorgeous decorations.

I finally just stopped looking at the blogs and shut my computer. That's when God started speaking. He reminded me very quickly that last year, I didn't even have a home. (We were in our nomadic period of staying with friends/family before we moved to Brazil.) He also reminded me that Christmas isn't about decorations or how "pretty" your house looks. It's about Jesus, and the condition of our own hearts. When I looked into my heart, it wasn't very "pretty". I had a lot of lies and ugly things to get rid of before my heart would be truly ready and "beautiful" for the spirit of Christmas.

Since then, I've been looking around my house and appreciating everything I do have. (Even my sad and tiny x-mas tree!) Now I am so thankful that I have it! I have a home, my wonderful husband, my spunky son, baby Dawson on the way, and a very blessed life. I'm doing the most to make my home filled up with as much "Christmas Spirit" as possible. And that doesn't mean any fancy decorations, but the condition of our hearts.

Renato and I have talked about some family traditions we can start now with Camden and carry with us wherever we are in the years to come. Some traditions that aren't about what we buy or put up around the house, but what we fill ourselves with. We want to fill up with joy, peace, and love, then spread that to those around us. We've talked about what we want to do together Christmas morning as a family, and start some fun traditions like a special breakfast, and other fun activities.

With my heart changed, my home and all of my very minimal decorations are so beautiful to me. I can't wait for Christmas morning to share with Renato and Camden the joy, wonder, and blessing of our Savior's birth. AND, now that I have my heart cleaned out and "beautiful" once again, this evening I'm sitting with my husband on the couch, in the light of our little tree, listening to beautiful Christmas music, drinking some hot tea, and thoroughly enjoying that tour of homes on the blogs once again. I'm loving looking at all the beautiful homes and gorgeous decorations...without even a hint of the comparison game sneaking in!

Thank you Lord for changing my heart and opening my eyes to You and all You've blessed me with.

Cookie Decorating

Well, I'm in the middle of trying to get my x-mas goodies and cookies done. This year we're going to give some friends and family (grandparents) a "x-mas goodie" tray for x-mas. So I've been busy making all sorts of yummy things. All the things I'm making you don't see here in Brazil, so it'll be fun to see what people think. I actually had to bring a HUGE jar of peanut butter with me, sprinkles, and marshmallows, so that I could make some of my favorite treats. I've never seen marshmallows here, peanut butter comes in a tiny little container and has tons of sugar added, and I've only seen a few sprinkles. So I planned ahead was able to bring a few things back to Brazil with me from the US.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon decorating the sugar cookies. We had so much fun and I must say, they are the cutest cookies I've ever decorated. :) Camden had his first "sugar high" too. He just licked all the frosting and sprinkles off the cookies we gave him to decorate. At least it kept him busy, but now we are sure that we want to keep as much sugar as we can FAR FAR AWAY from him. YIKES!

We had fun family time though, and that's what really matters!



Posing with our cookies. Renato said that noone here will want to eat them. They don't decorate x-mas cookies here, so it will be fun to give these away to our friends and neighbors.




Here are just a few of the cookies. Aren't they cute??? I actually had to put them in the fridge for awhile to get the frosting to harden and set...it's just too hot here.




This is my super creative husband concentrating on decorating his cookie. My goodness did he ever get fancy! He's all about the details, and well....I'm not. I'm just about getting the job done. Although, I did have some creative moments myself. :)




Posing with a cookie.




He can't wait to dig his teeth into this cookie!!




Look at that face! This is after he helped me lick the spoon after we dipped peanut butter goodies in chocolate. Too cute!

Surprises and Blessings

I wanted to take some time to document some of the amazing surprises and blessings God showered us with while on our trip. Before we left, I prayed specifically that somehow, the expenses of our trip would be taken care of and that it would be full of fun surprises. Well, let me just tell you, God delivered! :)

I'm just going to mention some of them here, but I really need to write in my journal all of the awesome ways we were blessed.

1. A friend from high school emailed me a few days before our trip and invited us to a Third Day concert that was going to be in Bismarck while we were in ND, their treat. It was such a fun night out with this couple and we saw a great and uplifting concert too!

2. A friend of mine took me shopping for Camden and baby (didn't yet know it was a boy) at some outlet malls and the store we went to was having a MAJOR sale. Can anyone give me an AMEN for really nice, new, brand name clothes for $0.99!!!

3. We kept hitting major clearance racks at the stores we went to because we were looking for summer clothes, and that's what was on sale. I don't think I ever paid more than $12 for anything....most everything was in the $3-$7 range. Hallelujah!

4. Our 15 hr. drive to CO and back would have been super expensive, but gas decided to hit some all time lows just for our trip. One way of our trip (from ND to CO) only cost us about $70 in gas....now that's a surprise! I was expecting the prices to still be very high. And my dad let us use his really nice and new Toyota Sienna...blessing! (This was total luxury for us compared to what we drive here in Brazil!!!) (AND I got to drive a LOT in the states...oh how I miss it!)

5. It was amazing how provision and money just kept landing in our hands....here are just a few ways. A church gave us a "love offering", during my girls brunch with friends,they pulled together to come up with some money to help us buy clothes and things we need, some people just handed money to us, and Renato got paid from my brother and parents for helping on the farm while he was there. (Also there were x-mas gifts thrown in!) Praise God!

There are countless other blessings, but I just wanted to name a few. This trip was such a blessing in so many ways, but I think seeing friends and family was the best blessing of all. We came back so refreshed and ready to go. This trip was just what we needed.

I'm truly amazed, once again, at God's faithfulness. I was kinda stressed about the trip, with all the traveling and expenses, and logistice, but again, God was faithful. Thank you Lord for wonderful suprises and blessings!!

Pictures from our trip

My dad had to get out his accordian to show Camden, and of course Camden thought it was wonderful! He would dance and dance and want Papa to play it all the time.




Camden climbing on some bales of hay. He loved being outside as much as possible....but he could only go out when the weather was warm enough. (Which he didn't like very much!)




His favorite activity....riding in the tractor with Grandpa.




We had an early Thanksgiving/Christmas party with my family. Camden got the best gift ever....a GUITAR! He LOVES music and he plays his guitar everyday now. Usually he gets it after we wakes up from his nap, then sits on his bed and "serenades" me through the monitor before I get him. Too cute! He's our little worship leader!




"Helping" grandma do some baking.




Camden doing some "treating", as he could only say "treat". :) He went with some cousins to some family and friend's houses. He was so excited about all the candy, but he's never even really eaten any. I did let him eat one whole Tootsie roll though that night....which of course he loved! (And a few licks of a very messy lolli-pop.)

Back Home in Brazil

As of Nov. 28th, we set foot back on Brazilian soil. Our month long trip back to the U.S. was wonderful, but we're glad to be back home and back to a regular routine. (Even if it is crazy hot here!) I have pictures to share, just not today. That would require more effort then I can afford right now....Camden was up most of the night coughing, so that means that we were up too. So I thought I'd quickly post an update then catch a nap.

We spent most of our time in North Dakota with my family. It was such a fun time. I'm not sure what happens to me, but when I get to ND, it seems I fall into a time-warp and don't get anything done. I feel like I did absolutely nothing the whole time I was there....maybe it's just about being "home" and relaxing for me. Camden LOVED the farm. There were a few really nice days where he played and played and ran and ran and ran. Then there were some very cold days too, but he enjoyed them in the house with mommy and grandma. (Since daddy was outside the whole time helping my dad and brothers with tons of work that needed to be done.)

My parents farm is a bit like "Old MacDonald's Farm", in that it has most all of the animals you would sing about....a little boy's dream! He would run after the dogs and cats, we'd go see the cows, sheep, pig, and chickens. And since my brother and his family also live on the farm, they still have all of their old toys and swing set up, so Camden had a wonderful time playing with all sorts of "new to him" toys. But, I think the hightlights of the whole adventure of grandpa's farm, were riding on the 4-wheelers and most of all, the tractors! I think they have 3 4-wheelers on the farm now, so Camden would run from one to the other and sit on them and pretend to drive. He LOVED being on the tractors! My brother and dad would take him out with them and he couldn't get enough.

Now Camden's favorite toys are tractors. He's always saying..."Tractor, Papa, Cows, Bales". All together in one sort of "sentence", if you can call it that. :) We took lots of video for him to watch now that we're in Brazil too, so I'm sure once he sees it for the 1st time, he'll be asking to see it everyday.....if not every 10 minutes. :)

We spent 1 week in Colorado Springs. We made the 13 hour drive (15 hrs with an almost 2 yr. old) and it went well. Camden certainly is a super traveler!!! We spent all of our time meeting with as many friends as possible. We were absolutely exhausted, but yet it was so refreshing to be around and catch up with so many people that we love.

I have so much more to talk about, but I'm running low on my energy battery, so the rest will have to wait. As I said before, we had a wonderful trip and lots of fun. We loved getting to see so many family and friends. We certainly are blessed by each and every one!

The Ultrasound Drama of '08 has Ended!!

Yes, the ultrasound drama continued on here in the US. Yesterday we were supposed to have that free practice ultrasound. Well, the lady called in the morning and said that her machine wasn't up and running yet. She felt really bad about it, so she scheduled us for another ultrasound at a different facility today. She even paid for it. That was so sweet of her!!

So, as of today, we finally got our ultrasound. And it was still free!! :) It was at a really nice little office downtown in Colorado Springs. Within about 5 seconds, we knew what we were having.....a little BOY!!!! He definitely wasn't shy this time around. It was also a surprise that we got some 3D and 4D time as well. We even got a CD with all the pics and a DVD with the 4D video on it. He is definitely a handsome little boy. It was so special to be able to see his little face and watch him open and close his eyes and move is mouth around. What a little miracle!

After all the drama, we were able to see our new little addition and handsome little man. We can't wait until everyone gets to meet Dawson Daniel Cassula by the beginning of March!!!

Yes, I'm Still Alive

It's been a long time since I posted and there are several reasons for that. First, we've been busy traveling thousands of miles. We are currently in Colorado Springs and are having a great time meeting with friends and catching up on their lives. Our week here is super jam-packed with appointments, but it's so worth it getting to see as many people as possible. Second, slow internet. While in ND, my parents have "so-called" high-speed internet, but really it's not. I've gotten spoiled and anything that isn't light-speed fast drives me crazy. But we've had a great time while in ND and on the farm. Camden LOVES being outside as much as possible chasing the dogs and cats, playing with toys from my nieces and nephews, and riding on tractors and 4-wheelers. Third, I've just been taking a bit of a blogging break, which has been nice.

Also an update on the ultrasound drama. We had our ultrasound right before we left for the states and the baby is perfectly healthy.....but bashful. Yes, that's right, the little stinker wouldn't move and show us if he's a boy or she's a girl. So we were still on a hunt for another ultrasound. A friend was working at a pregnancy center and could get us in for free. Yay! But no, our friend actually quit the week before and couldn't get us in. (I wasn't surprised at all because that's just the way this ultrasound drama has gone.) But I then googled "ultrasound in Colorado Springs" and I got a few sites of places with elective ultrasounds. I called the first one to see if I could get in the week we'd be in CS. But she didn't open for business until the week after. I plead my case with her and she said she could help me, if I could help her. She said she could "practice" on me for free, but no pictures or dvd's or printouts. YAY!!!! What an amazing blessing! So on Friday we get to try to see baby again, but this time with a 3D and 4D ultrasound........FREE! So after Friday I hope and pray that we'll be done with our ultrasound drama!

So hopefully my next post will be about our baby girl, or baby boy. I also want to post pictures of our trip so far. See ya next time!