JULY FOURTH CELEBRATION ON THE THIRD

Another great fourth of july picnic for all us ex-pats here in Costa Rica. It was great this year and for our second one we were very impressed with all the food, we did eat our way through the whole thing, as well as the kids games and activities as well as the marine flag ceremony.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone and let's not forget that we are losing more and more freedoms as we type and speak. It would be a good time to contact your senator and encourage them to vote no on the cap and trade.

Enjoy the Fourth of July and be safe, pura vida!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN

Today is my daughters' boyfriends birthday. I told him now that he is 19 he is too old for my daughter so they can't hang out anymore. He assured me that he is still 12 in his mind. I sure hope so. My daughter stayed up late last night to make him a cheesecake for his birthday. Then she woke him up early at his house and let him blow out his re-lighting candles.

My daughter is feeling very overwhelmed with her doggy turning 2 on Wed. and then the boyfriends birthday the next day, almost too much for a mind to wrap around. I am confident she will have to sleep for a few days to recover from all the excitement.

VACATION TIME

I have had fun reading everyones' blogs about their family vacations. It certainly brings back many memories of our family vacations. Since moving to Costa Rica we seem to take them quite frequently, but they are still fun and memorable. The above picture is at Samara beach last October. That was a fun trip. Not necessarily a vacation, but a nice sight seeing trip.

The definate most memorable trips were the ones we planned with the kids and worked and saved for. One year we took the youngest two to Disney Land. That took lots of planning and saving, but was a blast for all. Another year we went to Yellowstone Park. Because we were camping that one took a little extra planning and saving.

One of the favorites was a trip to Hawaii with two of the youngest kids. We spent a week on the big island and it was a great trip. The thing with that one was again the money saving. We saved and joined a vacation club thing that helped.

We have also used our income tax refunds for trips. The problem here is these aren't happening anymore because all our deductions grew up and left home! Also because we don't make any money, which sure makes it easier at tax time to be sure!

My advice as an old timer? Take vacations the memories are all you have once those little deductions grow up and go out on their own, that and the pictures of course!

SINGER IN OUR MIDST

Take some time and give a listen to Melissa on the sidebar. She has an amazing voice and I love the song she sings. I was especially surprised because I did not know she was a singer, cool surprise. Our students never cease to amaze us.

We have had a student who is now sailing around on private yachts doing massage and being a stewardess. Wouldn't that be cool? The best part is her boyfriend is a captain so they sign on together and get to see all kind of cool places together.

Another student is preparing to take his National Exam and put himself through a Physical Therapist program doing his massage.

Then of course we have a couple of students right now who actually live here in Costa Rica and plan to incorporate their massage into their businesses here. One is doing an distance Naturopath program and will use the massage with that. The other is considering a fitness center, which would be a great hit in her neck of the woods.

I just feel really fortunate to get to know and work with all these awesome people and teach them the art and science of massage. I can't really think of anything I would rather be doing than sharing something I love with a bunch of really cool people, pura vida for sure!

FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

Remember the famous line, "what we have here is a failure to communicate?" Well I can surely say that pretty much on a daily basis. I had enough trouble when everyone around me spoke English, now it is just triple bad.

Last week we went for babies parent teacher conference at the school. In Costa Rica the kids get two weeks off school for "little summer". That is supposedly the time when it does not rain as much so everyone can kind of get a little break. Kind of the U.S. equivelant to spring break.

When we went to her meeting the teacher got the calandar down and told us that for these three weeks, and she pointed them out to us, there would be no school. She said something about being out of town and what not.

Over the weekend I started talking to other parents who have kids in school and found out that the kids only have two weeks off, not three. Well low and behold they do not believe in substitute teachers here. And when they say there is not school, they are not lying.

We got up nice and early and got ready for school, just in case the teacher did not communicate effectively. We got to school and the other teachers and parents and students were all there, unfortunately, as we made our way to my daughters closed classroom door! They all gave me the very pitiful look and tried to explain to me that there was no school for her class this week as Nina Laura was out of town.

Now how should I know they were weird enough that one class would not meet and all the others would. That is just freakin weird. Not to mention embarrassing. When I got home my older daughter who had translated the meeting for me asked my why I went to school! Just in case.