counting my blessings...

I am so happy, I have no reasons to complain and I feel very blessed to be able to feel this way. Last month I received a new calling at church - which I am really excited about- I was called to serve in the Young Women program as 2nd counselor, I finally will have to get over my fear to teach in english, which is silly since I feel pretty comfortable with the language by now, but I know Heavenly Father is helping me to overcome my lack of confidence I shall say. Tonight we had so much fun at mutual, we had a "Spa night", the girls are so much fun to work with, before this calling Nate and I were over our ward activities, which can be really stressfull sometimes, because we needed to think of things would please the whole ward, from nursery to adults, and I knew we would never please everybody, and we sure were told when we didn't..oh well I know there is a plan behind every calling at church, and I am sure in this plan the most important thing is to learn. I am very excited to learn on this new calling, learn with the girls and learn with the leaders I am serving with, they are wonderful women. I taught my first lesson 2 weeks ago, the topic was on "Revelation on our daily lives", it's so important to have a good relationship with our Heavenly Father, I would say it is the key for personal revelation, when I think about this key I think about my earthly parents, I didnt grow up with my father so it is really hard to have a close relationship with him, in the other hand with my mom its really easy to communicate, its easy to be myself, to ask for and take her advise. I am thankful that I can have a close relationship with my Father in heaven, to know that He loves and knows me.

So talking about counting my blessings, 2 weeks ago my mom had her interview to get a visa to come here to visit us. We were so afraid she wouldn't get it because last September she tried and she was denied, it was really sad for her and for us. So we prayed and asked our friends to pray for her. It has been 2 years since I saw her, and 3 since Nathan saw her, so it was really important for all of us for this to work out this time. Soooo She got it :) they gave her an one year visa and she is coming next tuesday the 27th a day before my B-day, she is going to stay untill Dec 1st, she has to go back to help my sister Noeme, she is having a baby in december, it's a baby boy his name is going to be Julio Cesar. this is all for tonight, when my mom arrives I will take lots of pics and post them here.

Novo Chamado na igreja

eu e Nathan fomos responsaveis pelas atividades da nossa Ala por dois anos, e hoje fomos desordenados desse chamado. Sou grata por ter aceitado esse desafio, pois em minha cabeca eu nao tinha criatividade alguma, mas mais uma vez o Senhor me provou que podemos exercer qualquer chamado desde que coloquemos nas maos Dele e facamos nossa parte. Sou muito grata pelo crescimento pessoal que tivemos, pela oportunidade de conhecer melhor os membros de nossa nova ala atraves das atividades, servicos prestados. Quando nos acostumamos com o chamado o Senhor nos da outro...pois 'e foi isso que aconteceu, Nathan esta trabalhando com os rapazes por um tempo, nos dois tinhamos 2 chamados, agora cada um de nos temos um. Hoje fui ordenada segunda conselheira na organizacao das mocas, estou super animada, pois trabalhar com as mocas 'e sempre divertido, e nao faz tanto tempo assim que sai dessa organizacao :)
Estou super animada!!

What now???

Spring is gone and all my favorite shows are gone as well...no more Castle, 30 Rock, The Office, Community, The vampire Diaries, Glee and American Idol...That's right I have my whole week planned out during the fall...Now that we have more channels I need to find some good shows, cause I dont wanna watch "the real housewives of orange county/NY/NJ/Atlanta..." or "Toddlers and Tiaras". I need some new shows to entertain myself, any suggestions???

Ok, 6 months is a long time...

January - May
It has been 6 months since I posted something in our blog, my mother in law called yesteday and told Nathan we had to write something, 'cause the last thing in our blog was "brazilian chrismas cookies" haha she is funny, isn't she? Well normally I would say that "nothing has happended", or " we dont' have news" but things are actually happening...nope, no babie Poindexter on the way...but Nathan got a new job, he is officially a bread man now, yep he bought his route. Heavenly Father blessed us big time on this one...there are over 20 routes in this area, and they hardly open because is such a good oportunity, thennn one route 5 minutes from where we live opened up, and of course Nate got it!!! He is really happy and of course I am very happy for him as well. No boss and he makes his own hours, it can't get any better than that...



Also we finally got a 2nd car which is pretty awesome, 'cause now we don't have to ask for rides, I dont have to start riding a bus (which according to Nathan is not like in Brazil, things can get really creepy in a bus here), and I dont have to start walking to work...how lazy did I become? I love my car!!



We also hosted Easter this year, it was the first time we hosted something for the family. Snow (Diane - Nathan's mom) brought a very nice surprise, the new addition to the family: Gia Poindexter. No, she didn't have a baby, Gia is her Chihuahua, she is adorable, so friendly and sweet, and I can't forget to mention how protective she is, if u got close to Snow she would bark until your ears bled..not kidding, yes I am...or am I? We made some carrot cupcakes, they turned out pretty cute, just the fake grass didnt taste so good, next time I will use coconut, I also made a delicious cheese cake, I love making desserts and cute things, so I was in heaven preparing for the big day. Suzy made the most adorable Easter baskets I've ever seen, she is so thoughtful, she filled the baskets with our favorite treats!!! Thanks Suzy!!! Our friends Becca and Jamey came as well, we had a great time.












The following month we had Corey and Jordan visiting us, we had a blast. Jordan is such a sweet girl, I am so glad we get along so well. I love her very very much, so glad to have gained another niece!!! Their trip was short, only for the weekend, but it was fun to have them here for the first time, hope next time they can stay a little longer!!

to be continued...

Recitas p minhas amigas -

Ola amigas brasileirissimas!!! vou comecar a colocar as receitas p biscoitos com fotos p vcs verem como deve ficar...
Este sao os "Chocolate Surprise cookies"


2 3/4 xicara de farinha de trigo (sem fermento)
3/4 xicara de chocolate em po (meio amargo)
1/2 colher de cha de bicarbonato de sodio
1 xicara de manteiga
1 1/2 xicara de acucar mascavo
1/2 xicara + 1 colher (sopa) acucar (branco/ cristal ne?) - dividido- a colher de acucar sera p rolar os biscoitos antes de assar
2 ovos
1 colher (cha) baunilha
250 gramas de caramelo - 1 caramelo p cada biscoito, esta receita da aproximadamente 40 biscoitos

Preaqueca o forno 190C, asse por 10 a 12 minutos
rendimento : 3 1/2 duzias

Combine farinha, chocolate em po, bicarbonato e fermento em um refratario; deixe la sentadinho olhando p vc...

Bata manteira, acucar mascavo, 1/2 xicara do acucar comum, em velocidade media ate leve e fofo ( 'e assim que descreve em ingles - light and flutty haha); acresente ovos e baunilha. Graduamente adicione a farinha a amiguinhos que vc combinou anteriormente. Cubra a massa; leve a geladeira por 15 minutos ou ate a massa estar em ponto de enrolar (?).

Colloque aquelha colher de acucar + 1/2 xicara de amengoas quebradilhas em um prato. Faca as bolinhas, lembrando de colocar o caramelo no meio, enrole ate cobrir o caramelo. Para decorar pressione um lado do biscoito na mistura ( acucar e amendoas). Leve ao forno asse de 10 a 12 minutos...me mandem fotos...

Fazer biscoitos 'e uma de minhas paixoes aqui nos US...foi colocar mais receitas p vc meninas!!! Muitos beijinhos
Aline

Ps: quando vcs estiverem fazendo biscoitos liguem o som bem alto com suas musicas favoritas...e 'e para dancar tambem, mesmo que seu esposo (se vc for casada) ache que vc esta ficando doida :) eles vao adorar os biscoitinhos feitos com amor!!!

Live-Laugh_Love
Viva-Sorria-Ame

Christmas preparations...

Working at Ups is great until christmas time :O for the past 2 weeks I have been working 6 days a week, almost 10 hours a day, no time to eat, sit or pee....its horrible...so yesterday I finaly got a break, having the day off, so when I woke up I was so excited to put the christmas decorations up -6 days before christmas :( - Since we had no time to go shopping I used everything we had from 07 cause last christmas we were living at the LIneberrys...so here is how it turned out


And Steven has been such a good fish, I had to decorate his bowl as well...I think he likes it...

Cookiessss

I really enjoy baking...earlier today I just felt like baking some cookies so here they are.. It brought me such good memories, cause baking and listening to christmas songs made me think when I first got here in US, I used to go over to the Olivetti's house and help Jutta babe with her christmas cookies and her no special occasion cookies haha ...I miss her very very much!!! Thanks for teaching me how to make delicious cookies Jutta babe!!! Love ya...