So much to blog...

So little time... some day, in the future... I will blog about all the things that have been going on with the Bustrums. For example... I don't think I have posted yet about our trip to see the Clayton family. Which was a blast! And they took us to the beach, it was beautiful and was the girls first time to see the ocean. (Sahara actually saw the Indian Ocean when she was about 9 months old, but she doesn't remember it.)
I will also post about Letha visiting this last weekend, she got a great picture of the girls and Mark riding the little train at the mall.
My trips to the allergist to get "desensitized" to the tetanus vaccine so I can get immunized for tetanus.
And, of course, Mark's fun birthday bash last night. Oh, and how our friends got him good in the cafeteria at lunch:) All good stuff that SOMEDAY you will get to hear about:)
But for now it's back to regional meetings for me.... lots to learn!!!!

Thought everyone might like to see some pictures from our time here. Just couldn't pass up the opportunity to post the video of Mark moving our luggage in... with the rickshaw... looking like a pack mule:)

The crazy peacock that hung around our quad for several days. He was banished, however, when he bite a toddler in the face. And by banished I mean caught with a net, a bag put over his head and taken away... slightly traumatic for our community but we are recovering:)

Week #2

Well here we are starting week #2 of training. We feel much more settled and prepared this week. The weekend was slower, so we got caught up on homework and got things organized for this week.
We are back full steam ahead now, but the cafeteria busted out the smoothie machine and somehow the afternoon sessions didn't seem to long with a raspberry banana smoothie in hand:)
Tirza did much better today at school, the teachers were very noticeably relieved. It may have had something to do with the balloons and cupcakes for a little boy in her classes birthday but however it came- it was a good day!
We are learning so much good stuff... keep praying for us that we will be able to absorb all that we need to know.

Survived Shot Clinic #1

The good thing about Fridays around here is that you get done at lunch time. The bad thing is that you get done so that you can go to the shot clinic. Shot, as in vaccination, you know immunization with a needle. Not fun! These people love to give every immunization know to man. I know, I know... all in the name of keeping us "healthy" as we move overseas.
Our turn was at 1:40, so at least we didn't have to wait all afternoon, we marched down to the clinic and found out that Tirza was home free this week, no shots for her. Wheew. Mark made me take Bria in first, he was a little worried I would run away and they would have to hunt me done. Apparently, they will if they have:) But I was brave... I sat still and got my 2 shots over with quickly. Oh, and Sahara and Bria did too:) They only had to get one, this week, and they didn't fuss just sat still and then went to get their faces painted. So we survived... this week anyway:)

Training!

We are here and we are overwhelmed... so sorry for the lack of updates. But let me explain why.
1. No internet during the day- they turn off the internet access while we are in class. I guess in the past some people would bring their computers and not so much pay attention as search the web... so we suffer.
2. They are cramming 8 weeks into 6 weeks. Which means we we are in classes from about 8-5 every day. And we have homework... no, I am not kidding we really have homework and LOTS of it! Not to mention eating and sleeping some as well.
3. There are fun playgrounds and lots of kids so the girls don't really want to sit inside a meeting room at night so we can be on the computer:)
Anyways, it is really good to be here. We are settled into our quad, all the people in our quad are going to Western Europe so that is lots of fun. The big girls are really enjoying school and making lots of new friends. Tirza is doing better than I thought she would, she is still adjusting some but she likes it for the most part. Mark and I are doing our best to absorb as much information as we can... sitting and listening for 3-4 hours at a time is a struggle for me but the info is so good and useful we really want to take in all of it that we can.
Just so you know... Sahara eye has healed really good and it's bothering her anymore. And we have a peacock, or peetock as Tirza would say, that has decided to hang around the front of our quad, no I am not kidding and yes we will get a picture of it up soon:)

Churrascaria

Here's another blog rewind...

When we first got here we had to drive around a little to find our hotel. While driving around we saw a Brazilian Grill restaurant. So we get to our hotel and meet our new friends, the Marlins, who are on their way to Brazil. Great! We tell them about the restaurant, it's a Churrascaria, called the Ipanema Grill. Sounds like fun so off the 10 of us go, dressed in our most comfortable casual wear, of course.

The cloth napkins should have been the first clue, when they asked us if we had reservation we really should have gotten the hint. But no, we sat ourselves right down, to distracted by the Brazilian Portuguese sign on the table to notice how far out of our league we were... We opened the menu and AGGGGH! One choice and that choice was $27.95 per person... $10.95 per child. Whoa baby, we're getting reimbursed for our meals but that's a little over our daily allotment!

Now we all start nervously looking around and sizing up each other... what are we going to do? We all started adding up what the actual damage would be... especially considering that the menu is ALL meat... and we have three small girls who barely make a dent in a $3.99 plate of chicken nuggets and fries. The Marlins have 2 older girls who they would have to pay full price for... that's big bucks friends.

So we very gracefully stood up and quietly exited the very cool restaurant and headed to Chilis:)

Children's Museum of Richmond

Thursday we took the girls to the Children's Museum here in Richmond. Our friends, the Marlins, who are waiting for training and are staying across the hall went with us. They have three girls, just like us, only their youngest is Sahara age. Which means they have 2 older girls, and their older girls are GREAT with the little girls. It was such a fun day!

Here is the happy couple, Steve and Salva... We are so thankful to have them across the hall, waiting with us. They have let us crash their room just about every evening:) They have helped to pass this time of waiting, with lots of talking, playing, eating and plenty of laughing!

Rewind to Charlotte

After hanging out with Letha in Wake Forest we headed down to Charlotte to visit Mark's sister Melanie and her family. The girls had so much fun playing with their Cousins! They spent most of the time outside, enjoying the sunshine and playing in the dirt. It was great to relax, catch up and let the kids play til they dropped:)

Thanks Freshours for lots of fun, great food and wonderful company.

Rewind to Wake Forest

We are back in Virginia after a fun weekend visiting family. It was so fun to see where Letha lives and goes to school. This pic is at Southeastern Seminary, her school. It is a beautiful campus.

This is Thomas and Leslie. We grew up in Kenya with Thomas... they let us crash at their apartment while we were there. Thanks!

Sahara and Bria had a sleep over with Letha at her apartment, fun times:) The girls loved being at Letha's house.

North Carolina

We are having a nice weekend away from the hotel visiting family. The good thing about the training delay is that we get some time to relax and to visit family. We have lots of pictures but left the cord to download them at the hotel so we'll post them when we get back.
Friday we drove to Wake Forest to visit my sister, Letha. It was fun to see where she lives and goes to school.
Saturday we came to Charlotte to see Mark's sister, Melanie, and her family. Melanie and Jeff have three kids as well so the girls are having a blast getting to play with their cousins.

We missed our Northbrook family today, our first Sunday away. I especially wondered what our small group was like tonight... I know life goes on without us... we just miss not being there right now. Maybe we could just skype in every week:)

A Beautiful Virginia Park