Just Sayin'

I just read a post from a favorite blogger and boy did it sink in deep. The blog was titled "Thinking of moving to Costa Rica" and it was about the American attitude of ex pats who relocate to CR for the sake of running AWAY from the U.S. and taking their negativity with them. She made a point of saying that their family ran TO Costa Rica not AWAY from the U.S. I too, am not running away from anything. I happen to absolutely love where I live. I may complain about the weather and the extremeness of living where we do but I love it and never want to give this place up. Every time we travel to Costa Rica we meet many Americans and many of them seem to have an unpleasant attitude about the U.S. Fair enough, but don't tell me about it if I don't ask. I really don't care what other's feel. I hate getting sucked into a conversation that I could care less about. I find I get myself more and more isolated and maybe it makes me appear cold and not friendly but people who are more and more apt to start bad-mouthing things I don't want to hear about will get a cold shoulder from me. People are often asking us why we are leaving and will we ever come back. I don't know what our future holds. All I know is that I love the good ol' U.S. of A. and if we don't return it's not because we're fed up with the politics here. It's because we are a family and we have bonded like we have never bonded before and we are happy. I hope to contribute something positive to the people of Costa Rica and I do not want to be there as an unmotivated, bitchy, complaining person expecting things to go my way. Nuff said.

Enjoy the Day

It's hard to believe that just 2 days ago this is what we woke up to. Today it's super windy but warm. Yesterday we had some major snow melting going on in our yard. We put the hammock back up, the girls had fun on the tire swing, they filled up buckets from the river. Something about filling up buckets, pails, cups, anything, with water from the river. They love that. They always have. They fill, dump, refill, dump, refill and so on. It's so funny. They have been doing that since they were teeny tiny.
I woke up with a major headache this morning. We have 2 graduation parties to go to and Jordan's confirmation dinner after that. I really want to blow off the parties and just might. I'm just not feeling up to par today. I think I'm getting Hannah's cold. She has been fighting off something for well over a week now. I think she may have a sinus infection but I hesitate to take her into the Dr. It seems to be clearing up very slowly. At least it's clearing up. Jack says it's the barometer messing with me. I can feel all of my aches and pains.
The girls are at leathercraft right now. It's their last class and they have made some really cool things. I need to pick them up at 11 and Jordan wants to go to Old Navy and buy flip flops for the advertised $1. Unfortunately, when they have these so called "deals" the fine print on the bottom of the TV says, "only at participating locations." We seem to live in an area that never, ever participates in these great deals. Still, they are selling their flip flops for 2 for $5. Still a good deal in my opinion. Considering I just bought some Chacos for $60 yesterday. What the heck was I thinking?????? That is just unheard of for me. I do like them though. I think they will last me a lifetime. That was my thinking anyway.
My headache is better, I took some aleve and drank some wheat grass. Time to get motivated. Enjoy today. I plan to.

Good camping

I am running out of time. My days are filled up. Jordan and I are finishing up school. We have a week left. Next Friday is officially our last day. It's kind of sad for me knowing that I may never homeschool her again if she decides to go back to school next year. We leave in 17 days and I am not close to packing. I'm still ordering clothes such as shorts and swim suits online.
Last weekend we had a wonderful time camping in Fruita. We took the kids out of school the last half of the day on Friday and also Monday. It was warm and sunny except for Friday and Saturday morning. Big deal. We had to wear coats for a day and a half. At least there was no snow. After that it was perfect weather. We got a few good rides in with the kids. Jack got a good ride in with Rob. It was exactly what we all needed. Warmth, good friends, bike rides, lake, birds...
Now, concentrate on finishing school then I can concentrate on packing for our 3 month adventure to Costa Rica. Whew. I'm suddenly overwhelmed.

AARP at Fifty

My oldest brother Andy, I have 3, sent an email out today. He turns 50 on Friday. He said, "In 4 days I can start getting all sorts of discounts and special
treatment via an AARP membership." Jack turns 50 in August and I cannot wait. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what the heck to buy him and now I know; he is getting an AARP membership from me. Funny thing, I guarantee, he has no idea what AARP is. If you knew Jack you'd understand.
I was talking on the phone to a friend of mine today and I was telling her about the email from my brother and laughing and saying how Jack is so getting a membership to AARP. Dell, the culligan man, was here working on our reverse osmosis system, so we can actually drink our water from our tap, and he was cracking up telling me to be sure to get the cap with the AARP on it. Good clean fun. Jack won't know what hit him. He was so hoping to be in Costa Rica, surfing, on his 50th. To bad so sad. I really tried to make it so we could fly out after the 22nd of August, which is his birthday, but we have to be in Hayward, Wisconsin by August 26th. We're driving from CO so logistically it would have been pretty tight. Plus, our airfare wouldn't allow us to fly from Costa Rica on the dates I chose so we had to come back on the 19th. Poor Jack. He'll be in Hayward, Wisconsin with all of his in laws. Good thing we are a good time. He's going to be laughing when he gets his AARP membership from me as a birthday gift and we all have to explain it to him while we are in the Midwest. He's got something about the Midwest. He grew up in San Diego and just doesn't get it. We Midwesterners are hardy and never complain. Californians do. It drives him crazy how tough I am. He he he. Just kidding. Jack is the strongest man I know, only emotionally he can't hack it. He bitches about the cold constantly. He's lived here for over 25 years. Give me a break. That's where we differ and I chalk that up to growing up where I did and how I did. I wasn't spoiled. He was(his words). He was spoiled by the weather and by how he was brought up (apparently). But, he is definitely the strongest man I know and has a 6 pack and it pisses me off. He's so good looking and only gets more and more good looking as he ages. His face is getting those rugged good lines where they should. He can run a marathon, still, no problem, he can climb these mountains around our home like a goat. I've got him out aged easily. DAMN IT! We are celebrating our 20th anniversary tomorrow. How did that creep up on us? However, I don't qualify for AARP in August. He does. Nanny, Nanny, Boo, Boo!!!!!!

We like it

Here are some shots of the house finally put back together. We are super happy. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't be upset if we didn't rent it. Shhhhhhhh. Don't tell Jack. He'd be horrified. But now, I feel it's just going to get trashed. And it's pretty nice right now. Here's a sample. I love it.
We will rent it. We have to. Plus, Greg is here all summer and he needs the company. Not really but I'm sure he'll find it very quiet if it's just him, Teller and Buster. I'm happy Teller is going to be staying here with Greg. Him in his own home will keep me at ease. Plus, he's an excellent watch dog and I won't have to worry about him. I am forever grateful for Greg for living here. He is easy to have around and a huge help. Thanks Greg for all you do for us.
We like it.

A Great Mother's Day

What a great day. I got to do my thing in the morning. Jack came back from skiing the backcountry and suggested we drive to Boulder and enjoy the 70 degree weather. We did and it was fun and beautiful. Pearl Street mall was packed with people and there were musicians galore, a contortionist, the zip code guy (you yell out any zip code and he can tell you where it is), the balloon guy, and many other acts. The people watching is incredible and never gets dull. We had lunch on the roof top of some building and it was warm and sunny. I bought some pants for Costa Rica (convertible pants that I've been wanting). We then drove to Patty and Chris's and had a Margarita and some good laughs. Chris gave us a bike for Hannah so she has one for camping next weekend. We just enjoyed ourselves. Thank you so much to my family for making my day so wonderful.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful Mother's out there (I miss you Mom). I woke up to a quiet house and there was a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates and cards, from Jack and the girls, displayed on the kitchen table. It was a beautiful thing. My husband is not the gift giving type so this was huge. Hannah is my gift giver. Everything she has given me for an occasion has been made by her. She is an artist. She gets that gene from Jack's grandma who was incredible. It's been passed down to Jack and now to Hannah. I love her homemade gifts. Jordan gives me her smile and tries to do everything for me on a special occasion. She has filled my coffee all morning and wants to make me breakfast. I asked her to whip me up a breakfast burrito. She looked at me and said, "how bout a bowl of cereal?" Good enough. I have the greatest kids. And Jack, he's a keeper too.

Decompressing

I'm going to get to Costa Rica and sleep for a week straight. On the beach. I'm whooped. These past 2 weeks have aged me immensely, darn-it! I'm sure the wine I have consumed hasn't helped either. The house is put back together. Carpet is in. What a project that was. Every time we decide to do a project around the house it is a can of worms opened up and man this was a huge can. We just kept adding more and more work for ourselves. We love the outcome and sitting in my house looking around makes me feel great that we accomplished all of that in such a short period of time. I'm so glad Jack is handy. He is a craftsman and can build anything and he had great ideas. Hang this, rip up this, fix this, move this, and he did with out to many eye rolls. He hung in there and worked his butt off for me and for the house. I'm very grateful.
Last night I hosted book club for 13 of us, 5 didn't make it. I made 3 pans of lasagna, one vegetarian, 2 meat. 3 loaves of French bread, apps, and a friend brought the salad and dessert. Having to make the last two items would have thrown me off the edge. It was a lot of work and I was happy to do it. I must say, I make an excellent lasagna. I use a lot of garlic, and make my sauce from scratch and I never use a recipe. It comes out great every time. Very flavorful. So that was the end of my gotta get things done feeling and I'm decompressing. Now I can concentrate on getting things packed and set aside for the summer and hopefully with as little as we're taking with us it will all go smoothly. The girls need all new summer clothes because they both grew like weeds this winter and nothing fits. Time to hit our favorite thrift stores in Denver next week. They love shopping at the thrift store. It's where we buy all of their back to school clothes. Good thing they haven't copped an attitude about it. They know what they'd hear from me, "to bad so sad." It's a good feeling when you walk out with clothes for the next six months and have forked over a measly $30-$40 bucks. I wish I would have started shopping at thrift stores earlier on.
Time for a nap.

The sound of nothing

     I've been pretty freaked out lately about leaving Teller and Buster.  Buster will be fine.  It's Teller I'm concerned about.  Originally, we thought we'd bring him with us.  After many hours of logistics, it's not possible for this trip.  He'll be fine here, at his home, his domain, with Greg.  Greg has been our tenant for a long time and Teller and him are buds.  He'll be fine. 
     Jack and I were so tired after dinner tonight and the projects are finally getting done.  Carpet is getting put in tomorrow and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Our possible renter is coming Thursday at 5 to check out the place.  We needed a walk with Teller.  It was getting dark and we knew we needed to get out and walk right then.  I called dibs on telling Teller we were going for a walk which made me look like the good guy.  And boy, did it ever.  Teller almost pee'd himself after he heard me say, "Teller, want to go for a walk?"  You would have thought it was Christmas or something.  So, we put on our down coats, after Jack put his away swearing he would not put it on again until we leave.  Never say never.  We walked down the road to Webster Pass and started up Webster Road.  We ended up going to visit Kurtis and Tracy who were not home.  They had already left for their 2 week raft trip.  We'll see them in Fruita on the 15th when we are camping.  Anyway, we ended up visiting with Christina and Bob who are staying over watching the cats.  When we left it was dark but we could see enough not to step in the puddles.  Trying to stay on the snow was a challenge but it was better than trudging through the mud.  Jack and I were talking about how quiet is was.  I was saying how living where we do it's so quiet you can actually hear it snow.  Falling asleep at night is hard for me when I travel because of all of the noise.  Here, you literally hear nature.  If you're not used to that it could be difficult.  I was reading some blogs last night about people who want to relocate to Costa Rica.  This women was commenting that she wanted to live in a rural area where it is quiet.  The response from an expat was there is nowhere in Costa Rica that is quiet.  This is why.  Even if you are in a rural area, the roosters start at 5am or earlier, dogs start barking, Howler Monkeys are howling, birds are singing.  So true.  I remember all of that, except the monkeys, when we used to take 2 months off and drive  to the tip of Baja.  It was loud in the mornings.   
     A blog I have been following for the past year is written by a women who I admire so much.  She and her husband moved to Costa Rica with their then 10 (or so) year old.  I love her posts.  Just yesterday she posted the morning sounds from her back yard.  It was loud. Beautiful, but loud.  I was commenting to Jack how it's going to be such a change with the different sounds living at the beach.  We will have so many adjustments and the sounds are going to be a biggie.  I can't wait to wake up to those sounds.  Especially the waves.  I hope we will be able to hear them.  Right now, all I can hear is my huge dog and my tired, hard working husband snoring.  They are totally in sync.

Entertaining

     I'm watching "Dancing with the Stars" with my daughters.  Jack is putting up some dry wall.  Our house is a disaster.  We have been doing some serious projects for over a week now.  The carpet is torn up, the upstairs girls bathroom is being painted so it's out of order.   We are all in one bathroom.  Jordan's room is ripped up.  There are things displaced throughout the entire house.  We haven't done this much to our house at one time ever.  It's great.  I'm loving the upgrades and cannot wait to see the new carpet on Wed.  It better be finished Wednesday as we were already put off once by the company.  No bueno.  I'm hosting book club here Friday night and a little nervous.  I don't usually have many people up to our house because of the size of our small house.  It's not set up for entertaining.  There are over 15 ladies in this book club and we don't all know each other that well.  I just get nervous for things like that.  I'm hoping things aren't to cramped for the party.  I'll put a leaf in the table and call it good.  I'm looking forward to it.  The book we are discussing is "The Help."  Excellent book.  I need to finish it.  I also just read my Mom's favorite book, "Colony."  It's worth the read.  I can see why it was her favorite.  She was so cute and loved to read.  More than anyone I knew. 
     Time to vote for our "Dancing with the Stars" fav.  Evan and Anna.  It was a serious toss up.  The girls won.  I wanted to vote for Niecy and Louis. 

Burr, still cold, but the kids continue to crack me up

    It's cold again.  For the past few days we have gotten out of bed and the temp is not above 20.  It has not been getting much warmer as the days go on.  Our river came out of hibernation for a day or two and it is such a pretty sound when it breaks.  The sound of running river once again.  Now, it's gone back into hibernation and we can't hear it anymore.  I don't think I've ever seen a spring like this.  Blah
     We went to Denver yesterday to pick up Hannah's glasses.  Kind of a last minute thing.  We left the house at 8:30 a.m. for 4-H and didn't get home until around noon.  We listened to the answering machine and there was a message for us saying that her glasses were ready.  I totally was not planning on driving to Denver so I put my head down on the pillow and fell asleep.  I love naps.  It was a good one too.  When I woke up at 2 we decided to drive to Denver for the glasses.  After all, it was cold and snowy here and nice there.  Good call.  It was nice down there and I'm glad we got the glasses.  Hannah is too.  Plus, we did so many errands.  The last time I was in Denver it was with Hannah a week ago.   We stopped at this really cool liquor store called "Tipsies."  It's huge.  It has a wine bar in it, deli, a wine tasting bar with cheese.  Not a small event either.  Their displays are pretty impressive.  They have mannequins everywhere and cool little fake animals that look real.  There is so much to look at and the wine selection is pretty impressive.  Hannah and I spent awhile in that store looking around and having fun.  They have a great candy store in the deli with oak barrels filled with old fashioned candy.  Hannah bought a huge sucker, with her own money.  There is a sitting area with comfy couches and wing back chairs in front of this great fireplace.  The place is nice.  The prices are not bad.
     Yesterday, as we were walking out of Lowes, Hannah gets super excited and starts jumping up and down and she says, rather loudly, "Mom, can we go to the liquor store?"  There were a few people walking past us and the looks I received were pretty good.  I laughed.  "Of course, silly.  We will definitely go to the liquor store."  What will my kids say next?  I love those moments.
     It's like the time Jordan was 3.  She got this blanket from a dear friend of mine when she was born.  Julie, my dear friend, made this blanket.  It had strings sewn on it that were placed about 6" apart throughout the blanket.  Jordan dubbed her blanket "B" and the strings she called her "big ones."  Don't ask me how but she came up with that.  She used to rub the strings on her lips and nose, with her right hand  and suck her pointer finger on her left hand.  It all went together.  She was never without her "B."  We went to the store and I was trying to wean her from bringing "B" to the store.  Not good.  I know this could be a challenge but stupid me, I'm up for it.    She's sitting in the cart, as cute as ever, and she's getting tired.  I proceed to the checkout and unload my groceries and she starts having a meltdown.   I'm almost done.  The checker is scanning, and scanning fast as Jordan is crying and starting to go into huge fit mode.  I'm stressed and digging in my purse for my value card and Jordan yells, at the top of her voice as she throws her head back, "I JUST WANT MY "B" SO I CAN RUB MY BIG ONE ON MY LIPS AND NOSE!"  The checker looks at me and I looked at her and just shrugged. 
     I still laugh every time I think of that moment.  She cried all the way home.  The grocery store is 20 minutes away.  It seemed like 2 hours.