Flashback Friday

I was talking to some friends today about making our first move as a family outside of the US. We moved to Honduras in 1995. Zachary was a year and 7 months and Austin was just 4 months. Looking back I can't believe I made such a huge move with such little ones! Here are two pictures of that first year in Tegucigalpa. The picture above is of Z and A. I love it because you can tell Austin can't sit up too well on his own yet! He is leaning over on Zachary. That pretty much sums up the first few years of his life --leaning on Zachary. For so long he just tagged along as Zach's little shadow. I love this too because of the huge mosquito bite on Austin's forehead. All the Honduran moms would go on and on (and make me feel horrible) about the mosquito bites our kids always had. I had a mosquito net around the bed and we put plug-in things in the outlets to drive the mosquitoes away and put OFF on them at night. But that sweet little pale white skin must have been a rare delicacy because no matter how hard we tried, the boys always woke up with fresh bites. And they looked worse on their pale skin! Luckily they wake up bite-free now!! :o)

Below it a family picture about a year after we moved. Although my big huge bangs are a bit frightening I still love seeing my little family back then and realizing how much has changed! Fun memories. I love Austin's baby curls too. Looks better on him than on me!! :o)

Sad country boy

Well my friends, what you see above is one sad little boy. Today is a national holiday in Costa Rica celebrating the day Guanacaste (far western province) became part of Costa Rica. It was and is a ranching and farming area. But it is also contains all the western coast -- which is where the nicest beaches and resorts are. I can't imagine the tourism money that this province alone brings in with all the new resorts and housing constantly being built on the western beaches. No wonder they celebrate! Anyway, to help celebrate the holiday, all the kids are supposed to come dressed as 'campesinos' or county folk. What that means here is that the boys come in jeans or khaki pants, white shirt, red bandana and a hat. The girls where a typical outfit of a white frilly blouse and a bright tiered skirt and sandals. They look soooo cute. Anyway, Wyatt got all ready and then looked in the mirror. He was not a happy boy. "I need boots," he said. "Sorry, buddy, but you only have tennis shoes and flip-flops." said mean old Mom. So tennis shoes it was. He was not grooving on the cowboy hat and tennis shoe combination. Ahhh, life is rough at 5! I took some pictures promising not to show his shoes! But as you can see he was still near tears. Luckily, most of the other little boys didn't have boots either. So all was well once he arrived at school and realized that!! Still, these sad, pouty face pictures just crack me up!!

Also, I wanted to show you a more recent picture of Buster. He continues to grow but is still just a little ball of fluff. We sure love him. He is still a puppy and we are having to work with him not to bite. But he is lots of fun. I think he notices that the house is a lot quieter now that all the kids are back in school! But I am not sure that is a bad thing. He is much more calm when it is just the two of us around here. You just gotta love that sweet little face and those floppy ears. Can't believe that I have a pet and that I enjoy him so much. I must be getting old!! :o)

Back to school

Well, the 3-week July mid-year break is officially over. The kids started back to school today. The 5:30 alarm sounded a bit harsh to everyone (including Mom) after almost a month of waking up whenever we wanted. But they are all off and on their way to class. I still think it stinks that school starts so early here. Classes start at 7am. So we have to leave the house by 6:30 to beat the lines and traffic and make it to school on time. Seems crazy for little ones. At least Wyatt's little pre-school doesn't start until 8. That's more like it!! I didn't take any pics today. But here are some from the first day of school back in February. Having to wear uniforms sure makes picking out your clothes easy (as long as Mom has been keeping up on her laundry that is!!) They wear grey polo shirts with the school emblem on the front (can't see it here because of the jacket) with navy pants, black socks, black shoes, black belt (for boys) and a navy jacket or sweater is allowed. They are pretty strict with everything -- but it seems to work well. Our kids actually like it because it helps them to feel normal and fit in since everything else about them seems to stand out! Bless their hearts. Hope you are all doing well and that all my US friends are surviving the crazy heat wave that seems to be hitting so much of the States. I'm thinking of you!!

Flashback Friday!

This is me on the left. I think it is Kindergarten or 1st grade. I can still remember this dress that my Grandma made for me. It said "A little birdie told me" all over the blue blouse around the pictures of the little red birdie. Then the red dotted jumper went on top. I thought that was pretty neat-- 2 co-ordinating layers! So stylin'!

I post this because it reminds me so much of my youngest, Wyatt. Granted, he doesn't have long hair or wear dresses, but other than that. . . .! Really, he does take after my side of the family. He looks so much like pictures of my brothers when they were little. He has our brown hair, my droopy eyes, he is even built more like my side of the family. So fun to finally see since my first three look just like their Daddy. I'll have to scan a picture of Darrin in sometime when he was little. It is uncanny how much Zachary looks like him!

Today, we are heading down to the Immigration office again. Our last visit comprised of waiting for hours in non-moving lines only to be told we couldn't be seen and given a new appointment date. That date would be today. So we are heading out again. All family members must be present so that means I get to take all four kids and we can stand together in the hot sun waiting to be seen. Oh fun! We are still working on our legal residency paperwork. We actually began the process two years ago. Some things move very sloooooowly in Central America. Government offices usually top the list! So wish us luck. I'll update you later!! Enjoy your Friday and your weekend!! :o)

Rainy season vs. Dry season!

Wow! What a difference the rainy season makes. We get six months of rain (May-Oct/Nov), called winter, followed by six months of dry weather (summer) Nov-April. We went to the beach at the end of April with my youngest sister, Jeni, when she was here. It was the end of the long dry season and things were hot and brown and dreary. Fast forward only 2 1/2 months. Middle of July. Went back to the same beach, same spot, same tree even, and you would not believe the difference. Check it out for yourself!

Looking to the right:

Under "our tree" looking to the right in April in the above picture and the exact same hill below in July!



and to the left:

Same thing looking to the left -- dry season above; same view in the rainy season below!



So on days like today when the heavens open up and pour out a couple inches of rain in just a couple hours and I feel like I should be running errands in the ark instead of my mini-van, I will look at these pics. And I will remember that maybe I really do like the rain!! Or at least the end results!! :o)

Back home!

4 Little pieces of our week!
Photo number one-- view I saw from my lounge chair at our hotel: my toes, the wading pool, my sweetie sitting on the edge of the big pool (complete with water slide much to the kids' delight), and green plants, trees and bright flowers surrounding everything (much to my delight)! What a relaxing place to start and end the day!!


Photo number 2 --My four kiddos under the waterfall in the kiddie wading pool. Happy to be away from home not so happy that Mom keeps putting sunscreen on their pale little bodies!


Photo number 3 -- "our tree" Well, technically it isn't ours, but I claim it. Each time we go to this beach we make this tree our home base. We set our chairs up underneath to get some shade from the hot sun, we hang our towels to dry from the branches, we buy snow cones from the vendors you see there and the kids build sand castles in the shade when Mom thinks they need a break from the hot sun! This week we shared it with a few other families as it is huge and has plenty of room. But I still think of it as our tree!!


Photo number 4 -- Playa Hermosa. This is the view from under our tree. Isn't it beautiful? The beaches here aren't next to a paved parking lot. They are surrounded by nature--with hills and trees and beautiful green all around. I love that. You can see why it is called "Playa Hermosa" or Beautiful Beach. You can also see why when we are tired of the big city and traffic jams and noise and people we like to head out to places like this. This is just one of many such get-aways tucked in all along the Costa Rican coast. And it is definitely a perk of living here!

Summer Fun

Well, this is what my kids do for fun. The boys would plant themselves in front of the Game Cube like this all day long if I would let them. Oh, but I am a mean Mommy and make them set the timer for 30 min. When the timer goes off, their Game Cube time is done for the day. Unless of course they are on the verge of vanquishing a new villain they have never conquered before. In which case I have extreme mercy and grant them another minute or two! Chloe much prefers to create something (wonder where she gets that??) Yesterday it was with play-doh. (Yes she does have a body to go with that head--she just put her head down on the table so she could be in the picture along with her flowers!) Today it is crayons--picture after picture for me. Tomorrow--who knows? But I know she will make something. As you can see she is helping to pull Wyatt away from the call of the video games. Obviously she has quite an influence on him as he is also making pretty flowers. And that is fine with me. There is no such thing as too many flowers!! :o) Hope you are enjoying your summer my friends!
















Our July school break is only 3 weeks so we feel like we have to enjoy every day to make the most of the time. We are heading to the beach for a few days this week. So if I don't post, it is because I am lathering SPF 299 sunscreen on my fairskinned children as they sweat and complain in the hot tropical sun!! Here's to sunscreen, sand, water, and fresh ceviche!! And of course to hotel rooms with no dishes to do or laundry to fold or floors to mop! Yea!

On a more cheerful note. . .

A BIG THANKS to Diane, Olivia, Tiffany, Corrie, Elizabeth, Megan, Laura, Erica, and Rae for being such a great encouragement to me, to my kids, and to our entire team here in San Jose. I am so glad you each came. We are blessed to know you. Please keep in touch!!

To the rest of you -- these are the 9 girls who were part of the recent group we hosted. There were 14 guys as well, I just don't have a picture of all of them together!! We loved hosting them and are glad they are home safe and sound. Although Wyatt was quite sad today that he had no one to play Jenga with!!

Break-in

Well, sometimes I almost forget I live in a big huge city with millions of people in Central America! Really!! After a while things start to seem normal and like home and I don't think about where I am. Then once in a while something happens to wake you up. Last night my husband was at a discipleship group he teaches on Wednesday nights. It is not in a horrible neighborhood--but not the best either. So when he leaves this is what he finds--the driver's side front little triangular window has been broken obviously by someone attempting to steal something from our car. While I don't particularly like broken glass, it is nothing compared to what we found inside the car door: blood. So gross!! You can double-click the picture if you want to see the details, but I made the picture small here as it is disgusting--however it is obvious he was trying to unlock the doors but the blood is all over the window controls. Oops. He must have been too high to realize the door control was the one way down below (or maybe his arm couldn't reach through that far!) He must have eventually realized it wasn't working as there is also blood on the manual unlock above-- however he never actually made it into the car. Not sure if he gave up or was scared off as the guys left the study. Either way I am glad no one was hurt; nothing was stolen; and we were able to find a replacement window today. So all in all a rather painless event. We used lots and lots of Lysol, 409, germ-killer spray, etc. to try and remove the blood. However it still grosses me out and so when I went to the store tonight I took an old sock and used that on my hand to open and close the door and roll down the window! Am I weird or what?? Anyway, it made me remember that I do live in a very big city in Central America. Luckily my God is bigger than this big city and so I don't have to be afraid. But I still might carry my sock around with me in the car for a few days!! :o)

4th of July

Well, we sure didn't have fireworks. But we did have a houseful of North Americans to help us celebrate. The group I mentioned earlier came over to our house for a cook-out of All-American food: hot dogs and hamburgers, baked beans, potato salad, chips and dip and of course Ice Cream and Brownies! Yum! And of course, we were able to display our "home" country pride with our Old Navy Flag shirts. My Mom sent them down so we could continue the Red White an Blue tradition on the 4th! So, here we are last night in our new shirts. Thanks Mom!! (And there is Buster as well--He is lots of fun!!)

I am a little crazy. I think most of my friends know and accept that fact! This weekend the group that is visiting us traveled to a smaller town a few hours outside the city to get a taste of country life here. My husband and my two oldest boys went with them. That left me home alone with Chloe and Wyatt. So last night with the kids in bed, I had the house to myself. I could do anything -- clean the kitchen, organize my office, catch up on laundry, get some much needed sleep, mop the floors, watch a chick-flick, etc. I really needed to clean as the entire group was coming over again to eat at my house the next day. So, what did I do? I headed for the couch to watch Food Network, got hungry and decided to make homemade cinnamon rolls. That isn't a quick project you know -- the dough has to rise twice -- that's a good 3-4 hours right there. But it sounded good and sooooo, late last night I began digging through my recipe box and tried a new recipe. Then I realized I had time to kill waiting for the dough to double. Did I clean? Did I organize? O no, not me. I looked in the mirror and said "hmmm I haven't added highlights to my hair in ages!" So I preceded to dig in my closet to find a highlighting kit I was sure I had purchased the last time I was in the US. Sure enough! There it was!! Soon I was wearing an extremely unflattering plastic cap working like crazy to pull all the little sections of hair through by myself. It is about 1:30 am and I think about then I realized 1--I usually did this with my sister and it was much easier with another set of hands and eyes 2-- It is very late and I am getting tired 3--I still had to roll out my cinnamon rolls and let them rise again before baking. That is when I became even more sure of the first statement in this entry. I am a little crazy. Oh well, I had already begun--so I lathered on the highlighting mix and the extremely attractive little plastic over-wrap; quickly rolled out my cinnamon rolls. Set them in the pans to rise. Rinsed out aforementioned highlighting mix. Messed around with hair and new little blond streaks in the mirror for a bit and then put the rolls in the oven. Played with Buster a bit (all my kitchen work kept waking him up!!) and finally took the rolls out of the oven, made icing and frosted them!! I finally made it to bed about 3:30 am. Hmmm. I am a night person. But that is extreme, even for me!! But you know what? Church doesn't start till 10 here -- so I slept in a bit, ate a yummy breakfast of fresh cinnamon rolls with my two youngest kiddos, spritzed my hair with a little water and headed out the door! Unfortunately I was a little tired and our preacher spoke for 1 hour and 12 minutes ( I timed him!!) Not uncommon in Latin America. But not good with a sleepy Mom. I don't think I dozed off obviously, but I did that horrible head nod thing where you catch yourself starting to fall asleep as your head drops down and then you realize it and jerk it back up. Rather embarrassing. Ahhh, I am a little crazy. The truth is the rolls were wonderful. Very yummy and I have two pans left for tomorrow now that my family is all back. And I love the highlights--just enough to add a little touch of summer but not too drastic. Nonetheless, next time, I think I'll start a little earlier!! (PS--In case you didn't put 2 and 2 together -- the pic is me today after church with my new highlights. {taken in my front yard by my 8 year old, Chloe!} I am sure by tomorrow no one will notice the hair because their attention will be drawn to the dark black circles under my eyes!!)