New Look

After one and a half years pink, I made the change to blue. I'm not too sure why, just felt like it. We have been so busy teaching and working that we are just ready to take a couple of weeks off and try to get everything else caught up. I did manage to plant some spinach in the back yard so that we can use them for our green drinks. We are enjoying our green drinks and I will record a video of our wonderful green drinks. We used to drink them all the time but got a bit lazy. We are back in the saddle!

We have also been cutting out the red meat and cutting back on the chicken. So hard to find healthy meat around here, easier to do without. WE still have our fresh milk and eggs and tons of produce, so we will keep on eating that. Also still working on the granola. The molasses I am using is awful strong and I will try honey in the next batch.

School Visitor

We don't often get visitors to our school, so today was a treat. We had a person who actually lives here in CR come by for a visit and to check out the program that we offer. It was great to visit her, and turns out her fiance is friends with an alumni of the school. Small country like we always say.

When we set out to open our massage school we never dreamed we would get so many students from CR. In fact our current student is planning on staying around for a while after she finishes classes in the next couple of weeks. Smart girl.

After spending the weekend at the beach we had to turn in the rental car today. You know it sure was convenient to have a car over the weekend. Dollar Rental Cars will rip you off though, so make sure you read the fine print. It is funny because we read all these blogs people have about getting ripped off and low and behold it does happen.

Of course hubby wrote letters and complained, but it pretty much fell on deaf ears. So frustrating to live here sometimes. And this weekend we both decided it is about time to buy a car. Even if it is a little car like the Suzuki we rented it makes life so much simpler. I guess we will just have to get about 10 more students and then we can make that happen.

Found Puppy and Perfect Days

This guy was keeping an eye on things as our student did massages on the beach this week. He was pretty diligent. I was a little worried he would fall on her or her client, that would be quite a shock to be sure.




Here you have the future surf champion of Costa Rica. I tell you this girl has no fear of the ocean. She was out with me and our student and now she holds her nose and even goes under the waves. Like when they have already broken she is into diving under. She even just hung on the back of our student and they did all kinds of crazy things. I almost freaked out, but stayed calm!

And the best news? We found puppy. Turns out she was doing a sleep over with the bitch next door. You know of course that I mean that literally? Anyway made my day to wake up to puppy coming home and a great 12 mile hike up to Tirol. It was beautiful. Can you beat that? Spend two days hanging at the beach and then up to the mountains today to hike in the pine trees.

Lost Puppy

If anyone has seen this little lost puppy please let us know! She was here when we left to go to the beach yesterday and is gone. Since there was only one person here while we were gone, obviously he let her out and she is gone. Neighbors said they last saw her around 4:30. We did not get home until after 8:00 and have scoured the neighborhood. Needless to say baby is very upset and we are all praying puppy shows up soon. It would be very good for the son if the dog showed up before he did.

New Blog

I have decided to start another blog in addition to this one. While this one is more of a journal of our family and adventures in Costa Rica, it is very general. I am not one to share personal feelings, especially in a blog, but this blog is as close as it will get. My other blog is more of our story of home schooling abroad.

I get lots of emails asking me about moving abroad with the kids as well as homeschooling, so decided that it would be better to divide up my mind. Like divide and conquer. I do better if I only have to focus on one thing at a time, so on this blog it will be all about me :) The other blog will be about the kids and the great adventure they are having in growing up as expats.

Speaking of me, let's talk about me some more. Again another day in paradise. We are wrapping up sports massage in the school and I am enjoying the heck out of it, as always. We have a student that is bright and quick to catch on to hands on work. That is always fun and great energy in the classroom.

I did a one hour run this morning and the weather was just perfect. I am missing Bekah and family, but at least there is internet, it does help a bit. I told her I don't know what I miss more the running partner or the cookie fiend partner! I just made some banana muffins so that should help curb the cookie cravings. Gotta get ready to head to Manual Antonio beach tomorrow. A couple of days at the beach to work on our sports massage. Actually just a great excuse to go hang out at the beach for a couple of days :)

Having spent the last few months thoroughly absorbed, o.k. obsessed with politics, I feel as if I am waking from a bit of a nap. I have finally faced the fact there is nothing I can do that will make a difference if I am filled with fear and loathing. I read an article today about how we hate the negative traits we see in others that remind us we are also capable of these traits.

If I want to see peace I must be peace. "Be the peace you desire to see in the world." Ghandi said it best.

Paradise

Another day in paradise! I just love days that I get to work for my three hour shift, teaching something I love, ITband and planta faciaitis to be exact. Then off the to the pool to swim for an hour, then home to make my favorite all time meal. Bean tacos!

In working on the IT band today as well as the plantar faciatis I discovered a great link. It is called Ktape. It is really cool tape that you can buy to tape yourself all up and help you feel better. I have always used tape, just any ole tape I have laying around usually. These ones are actually made to stick and unlike duct tape don't take your skin and hair off when you remove them. Now that is a real plus in my book.

They even showed a great tape trick for the low back. I may have to buy some of their handy dandy tape and forgo the torture of trying to remove packing tape from my IT band. During one marathon I was so desperate I tied two latex gloves together from the aid station and wrapped my IT band. I was able to finish the marathon and did not suffer the rest of the race.

Tomorrow will be a bright sunny morning run and three hours of sciatica, and frozen shoulder! Doesn't get any better than that.

Memories

I am a big baby about separation. Maybe better to just admit that I have some attachment disorder issues myself. When I was studying about our adoption I read a book about attachment disorder. Low and behold I found myself very much identifying with the book. My father died when I was six, and I believe that was the moment that transformed my life. At any rate that is my excuse and I am sticking with it:) As a side note no kid should ever go through the death of a parent without some sort of counseling!

One thing I have lived long enough to realize is that the intense feelings of missing a person only last a few months. That is my consolation with my daughter and her family that just left on Wed. O.K. like I said I am wimpy! I have a hard hat that my grandson always wore under my night stand. He left it here last time he played here and I will not pick it up and move it, too many happy memories. I also told the family I would not be making any cookies until I saw my daughter again. They were a bit sad about that, but knew better than to try and talk me out of it. I mean after all I got dreadlocks the last time a kid left.

In my closet on my undie shelf is a picture of my granddaughter. I see it every time that I have to get something out of my closet. I do wish she was smiling, but the picture is sheer her! Today I was watering the garden and was reminded of last week when I was watering and baby boy started running back and forth in front of the hose. This pic is of him after a few runs through the water. He is a hoot and I can only imagine that he is giving his "other Grandma" fits. I do hope he warms up to her and will even go to her.

In the meantime I am planning our trip to Hondurus. I should be able to make it until Sept. or Oct. then we will be headed out on the bus for the road trip.

"Exams" in First Grade??????

Are you friggin kidding me? I was informed today that yesterday, today and all of next week would be exams for baby. She goes to the corner school for 5 hours a day for first grade. I always told her that it is for fun. Now I find out she will not pass her first grade class if she does not do well on her exams. Uh-oh, problem. We are going to be at the beach next Thurs. and Fri. for our sports massage classes. I tried to tell her teacher that today and she told me that baby could not miss her exam.

O.K. so I told her no problem, and in true Tica style told her we would take care of it. That meaning we would much rather apologize than ask permission! In fact I don't ask anyone's permission to take my kids anywhere! The funniest part is the exam she is going to miss when we are gone is, get this, English!

Dissect a Frog

Check out this site www.frogguts.com. Super cool. Baby has dissected the frog about fifty times now, could probably do it blind folded! She loves anything computer oriented and we will sure focus on that for her school projects.

Speaking of school. I went to pick her up once again and they had let out early without any notice, again. They have to be telling the other parents somehow because I am the only one not showing up on time, so how the heck are they getting the memo?

Do they do secret signs or something while I am not looking or what? I am really not retarded and would understand if they told me or wrote it down somewhere for me. At least baby does not get upset, she just says "where were you?"

Happy Saint Patty's Day

When the kids were all young we really did St. Patty's day. I mean the green oatmeal and the whole enchilada. The kids loved it and I enjoyed celebrating some part of my heritage. I am (are you ready for this?) French, Scotch, Irish, English. I think that would be all of it. Anyway so we will be doing tacos for dinner. You did read that I said we celebrated when the kids were young right?

The Inestroza family will be celebrating in Pinas Blancas, a little border town just this side of Nica. Yeah unfortunately they did not quite make it to Hondurus yet. Seems CR protects it's children, even from their own parents. You cannot take a child out of CR without written permission from his parents. Oh yeah you heard that right, even if the child is leaving with both parents. Oh yeah you heard right, even if he is also a U.S. citizen. Big wake up call about what is going on here in the way of big brother. I had to call the embassy here to make sure the kids had not misunderstood this, yeah they were right.

It would have helped if my daughter had not blown a gasket, but now remember. They went and visited Hondurus a couple of months ago. Did they get stopped? NO! Did they get questioned about said papers? NO! In other words this lady was having a lousy day, My son-in-law, bless his heart, had to go back and grovel four times just to prevent them having to go all the way back to liberia to get the paper. She was "kind" enough to allow the lady that works there on the border,,imagine that... come and sign them off. Of course in the meantime the bus had left and they had to pay ten bucks each to change their tickets to tomorrow. Plus thirty bucks for a little cabina, no air, no tv. no nada!
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Holes

I loved the movie "Holes". It was a good story and a fun movie. At this moment we are dealing with a huge "hole" in our lives and wondering what it will be filled with. It seems in life that when a hole is created there is something that is going to come along to fill it. With my daughter's family moving to Hondurus we are all left looking at each other and asking, "what now?"

Hubby and I are relatively quiet people, o.k. downright boring. So my sixteen year old has learned to make her own fun, usually good, sometimes not so good as teens can be. The six year old has just resigned herself to living with old people. The other day when she complained about her teacher screaming at her in the lunch room about running I talked to her. I reminded her that the only reason she goes to school is for fun. She does her learning at home with mom. I reminded her that if it was no longer fun she was welcome to stay home. I asked her "is it still funner than staying home with mom and dad?" She just looked at me and said "yes!"

That tells you how boring we are. She would rather tolerate being embarrassed by her teacher yelling at her than staying home with us. In fact our highlight of the week is the days when the family comes over to visit. Everyone comes to life. First of all to put everything out of reach of the short ones, and then to clean up after them.

I can guarantee you that I would rather clean up all the messes in the world rather than see this family of ours move to another country 15 hrs. away on the bus! When my daughter asked what we were going to do tonight I suggest all of us just sitting around crying. They all said "how about pizza and movie night?" I guess that would be a much more pleasant way to spend our last night together.

Separation sucks! Our family has had more than their share and it never gets any easier, that is for sure. I just hope that someday I will be able to handle it more gracefully. Guess I will just keep getting opportunities to learn the grace I lack in handling the holes in my life that come up. That and of course wait to see the huge hole fuller coming up in our lives!

Happy Birthday Dreaddys

This month marks one year that I have had my dreadies! I spent the first half of the year hating them and now am loving them. My mother would not understand that, but I do love them. I really love the way they are turning blond, didn't expect that for sure.

When I got my dreads I did the rip and tear method. Well I did not do them, some crazy guy downtown did them for me. It hurt really bad and I wanted to jump up and run a couple of times, but I stuck in there and now they are dreaded up and happy.

There are many different methods of dreading, but I have researched and found that the rip and tear is the best for the longest lasting, healthiest dreads, which is what I wanted. I originally planned to keep them as long as Micah is in jail. Now that they are behaving I have grown quite attached to them.

Bonking Again

Today was a beautiful, very hot day for a hard hike up to Monte De La Cruz. I went up an hour and almost made it to the turn off for the rec center. It was beautiful and cooler once I got some altitude. I get my trail running staying off the road in the grass and the gravel by the side of the road. I am even getting the running down part down.

The problem is my memory. Why I forgot that I need water for a two hour run, and some gatorade would have been nice. I have got to remember to fuel. I get to thinking I am immortal or something and don't need to take care of myself. I also should go out earlier when it is so darn hot. I think it got up to 85 this morning, with lots of humidity. We are starting to pick up on the humidity in preparation for rainy season.

I am also learning how to hike. It is amazing how different your muscles have to work to hike uphill than running. I found I use my feet and push off, which I don't do when I run. When I run I do the marathon shuffle and when I hike I am using my legs more, with more motion. I only came close to tripping over my feet once on the downhill, close call! Good times, good times!

Working and Working Out

I really admire women who work and work out. It is not easy to try and fit it all in. Now that I am down to three kids at home and only working a few hours a day, I still have trouble budgeting my time! How did I ever train for triathlons when I had six kids at home, homeschooling and working part-time? Not too sure, except to say I truly worked out to relax!

I have been working out in the mornings, but am now teaching in the mornings. I refuse to wake up before six and really don't want to work out in the dark anyway. So I end up running on Mon. Wed. and Fri. after I drop baby off at work. In Costa Rica they go three mornings and on the other two days they go in the afternoon. So on those days I drop her off and swim.

The biggest problem I have is not getting diverted into other things on my swim days. In the old days I swam at five thirty in the morning, so it was over and forgotten before we even had breakfast. I also had to take naps on swim days. Now I am trying to figure out where I am going to fit the bike time. How am I getting less time as my kids grow up and leave rather than more time? That is something to puzzle over for sure.

Moving Time

Busy week for my daughter and her family as they prepare to embark on a new adventure. They are getting really excited to get moved to Hondurus. We are already planning the next trip when we will be going to visit them :) (You guys can run but you can't hide)

I have also been enjoying the heck out of teaching massage, as I always do. It has just been so fun this session as the weather has even cooperated. Besides the earthquake of course.

Thinking I need to take up a hobby once classes are done and my daughter's family moves on. What the heck will I be doing with my free time? I could train, but hey that gets really boring after awhile. Maybe knitting.

Rockin and Rollin

I really don't think I will ever get used to earthquakes. I don't think you should get used to earthquakes. Like I think you should always be afraid, like very afraid of earthquakes. Last night we had a 4.6 and it was scary. Hubby told me to stay calm and it was over pretty quickly. The big worry is that last year we had a baby one like this about three days before the biggun!

Well I guess we can only hope, and continue to store up on water and beans and rice. And of course keep flashlights and candles around at all time.

Energy Meter

O.K. I think the energy meter is running on low. Feeling like the energizer bunny that finally ran out of batteries. My daughter says it was the double work out last week and I have not recovered, hahaha! Though it could be. I am trying to "rest" up for the big week next week. I will be starting the Leadville heavy half marathon training. I found a training program that should work with my "schedule". By schedule I mean is not too hard, does not include speed work, or anything that might get me hurt :)

I have incorporated lots of hiking into the program, hiking uphill to be exact. I will be hiking up a hill to Monte de la Cruz and hope to be able to hike all the way up by the end of the next few weeks. It will be a doozy, as my ears already pop when I start hiking up, it is steep.

It will not really satisfy my need for altitude, but that is about all I can come up with. I have been having a few anxieties about the whole 11,000-13,000 ft. elevation thingy, but hey I can always walk. That is the advantage of being on foot instead of a bike. I would die before I would ever, ever, ever walk a bike up any hill! But I am not too proud to walk when I am on foot. Sometimes I can walk faster than I can run anyway on the really steep hills.

The good news is I had a great workout, and my daughter made some most excellent granola today, four bowls later I am ready to crash.

Teen Years

I have a theory. It may or may not be correct, but it is the only explanation I can think of for why I would have 7 children. That theory is that you forget. Yup you forget everything. They used to say you forget the pain of childbirth. Well I am telling you that you forget the pain of all things child related. Otherwise why would you "bring it on" again and again?

Take for instance teenagers. I will admit mine have been a ton of fun, and have outgrown most of their wild ways, but we still went through it. I mean to say, not that I have seen everything, but with six having been or being teens at the moment, it has been a wild ride. When I think about the memories or read my journal I am reminded and amazed that I kept signing up again and again!

I do say that my first was only 15 before we had number six, so that may explain lots of the having so many. Like the saying "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, and then it's just fun". That kind of sums up raising teens. (We have only lost one eye by the way, and she has adapted quite well by the way). Baby was the only one that we knew full well what we were getting into when we "had" her.

At the time we went to China to pick up baby we had one 19 yr. old in jail, unknown to us, and one 16 yr. old living with neighbors because he could not live with his father. Our oldest was married and had one child. Our second daughter had just gotten married, pg. and had her husband deported all in the last six months. That was just the first three! While we were in China numero 4 decided to lock himself in the closet and sing all night because his brother ate all his halloween candy. My pg. daughter was trying to deal with all this and not have her baby before we got home from China. She made it until 4 days after we returned and then baby was born! She was waiting for her aunt.

I am rambling and as I ramble it all comes back to me and I get the shivers and begin to go into fetal position! See what I mean, you forget everything. But as I chase my 16 yr. old around and try to keep track of her, and pray and chase some more, it is all coming back to me. And some say babies keep you awake at night? They do not have teenagers yet I can guarantee you that!

Close Call

Last week there was an article in amcostarica about the new tourista law. We are perpetual tourista's so this pertained to us. The real bummer was that the law was not favorable to us at all. In fact we were seriously thinking about exiting because of the complexity of the law. The guy who reported the new law to the newspaper evidently "did not fully understand it" and there was a reprint today.

The new law is actually favorable for us and we were very relieved. We now only have to leave the country once a year, instead of every 90 days, and the other renewals can be done, (for a fee of course) at the airport. This is going to save us tons of money as well as time, since we no longer have to leave. We had gotten the leaved down to about $400.00 per leave, but now we don't actually have to do it.

Not that I don't love, love, love San Jaun del Sur of course who wouldn't? But when we are having classes, or the kids are involved in things, or we have nobody to watch the dogs, this is going to be so much easier.

So if anyone is thinking about moving to Costa Rica, now is the time to make that move :)

So Spoiled

Do you ever have one of those days where you just look around you and feel overwhelmed by how "spoiled" you are in your life? I feel that way today. It was our first day of teaching. I teach about three six week sessions of massage a year. Yeah I have to work 18 weeks out of the year. Of course that does not count all the computer and writing and organizing time, but hey those are fun for me too. Like I get to make lists and tell people what to do :)

Anyhow today we began class, I taught our new student for three hours and had the rest of the day to play. Went to the mall, screwed up a financial transaction that my daughter fixed for me by convincing the teller her Mom was slow and did not understand the Spanish LOL! That was a close one as it would have cost $100.00 if he did not take mercy on her slow mama.

It was a beautiful day to top it off. Around 80 degrees, a slight breeze and a few showers this afternoon, beautiful! And the best part of all? A great pain free run this morning to begin the perfect day. It does not get any better than this.