NEW YEARS EVE

I hope everyone is enjoying this the last day of the year. We are at 81 degrees with a cool breeze. I always have trouble with that one. I freeze with the slightest breeze on my skin so therefore I have on shorts, flip flops and a long sleeve t-shirt. Tricky one for sure, but I will take it over sweats and a down jacket.

Today we will be grilling with my daughters family and drinking Yerba Mate to stay awake until New Years. Usually we celebrate at 9:00 and call it good, but we all feel like celebrating and so will take a few more hours to savor this year.

It has been a very eventful year for our family and I give pause to give thanks for all the blessings we have received, as well as the trials we have learned and grown from. For those who know me you know family is #1 on the list of important people and events in my life. My life revolves around my family and for that reason they are the top of my list of things to be thankful for this year.

When we talked with our daughters the other evening to write down goals for the New Year the first one we all agreed on was a trip to the U.S. again in Oct to visit kids and grandkids there. It is constantly amazing to me that we can live here, and talk to my kids in the states everyday and see them a couple of times a year. It is like the best of both worlds and I am very thankful for this in my life.

I hope everyone takes a chance to really reflect on the year past and by tomorrow come up with some ways they would like the New Year to be better, different and just really exciting! Have fun, be safe and enjoy the people you love.

When my kids were younger, I mean when the majority of my kids were younger, I used to make all of our own granola. I have not done it in years, but had some stuff I wanted to use up and made a batch today. This made my hubby very happy, he loves homade granola. My Mom gave me the recipe and it makes a good pan full of granola. It is best to keep it in an airtight container so that it stays really fresh. Mine usually does not even make it to the container. I had to include in the pic our raw milk that we get from the milk man three days a week. He delivers it to our house and it is sooo good. I have recently started taking the half inch of cream off the top as Rick has kind of high cholestral. Kind of defeats the purpose of the granola to pour cream on it I guess, but sure sounds good :)

In a large bowl measure 4 cups of oats. You can use quick, or old fashioned depending on how chewy you like it. Add one cup of dried coconut, one cup of raisins, and one cup of coarsely chopped nuts. In a saucepan melt one stick of butter and 1/2 cup of honey just until melted. Add one teaspoon of vanilla and stir into the dry ingredients. Bake in a 300 oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes to keep from burning. You can add any other dried fruits or nuts you like and use 1 cup of brown sugar mixed into the dry ingredients instead of the honey if desired.

SUMMER AT LAST

My sinuses are revolting, it has not rained for three days and I am getting all dried out. I think I start to grow gills in my nose at the end of rainy season and they have to dry up and fall up. The girls went swimming today and enjoyed the great weather. We will be doing a cook out for New Years day and are looking forward to that.

Rainy season begins in May and works up to a climax around October. That would be the month we leave the country. After October it starts wanning and by Dec. we are dry again. We have "winter" in Dec. It gets down to 60 at night and everyone gets out the scarves, hats and gloves, we may wear them with shorts but hey it's the thought that counts.

Here baby is enjoying his time in the sun!

FIESTA DE NAVIDAD

Wow what a bash! We were not sure if the friends we have here in Costa Rica would understand the concept of a pot-luck, guess they did! We had to take three rounds to finish off the food, and there was still enough left for every family to take plates home to share with family that could not make it. We sang Christmas songs in Spanish and then had another round of food. Then we put on some Cumba music, danced and ate another round. We are already on plans for next year, gotta add the fireworks! Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

CHRISTMAS FLOWERS

If you think I am crazy about flowers you are exactly right! We live in Heredia, which is the "City of Flowers". I sent my husband to the flower lady to get me a centerpiece for our Christmas Party tonight. He brought these home, not quite what I had in mind, but beautiful for sure. Since we moved here to Costa Rica I have a thing about having fresh flowers on my table at all times. For under ten bucks you can't pass it up.

Since I cannot invite all of you, my blog friends to our Christmas Party tonight I will take lots of pics and fill you all in tomorrow. It is starting to sprinkle, which is rare this time of year, but with all the snow slamming to the north of us it is to be expected. I will take my sprinkly 80 degree weather any time. We lived through 14 winters in Flagstaff Arizona, there is a ski area there if that tells you how much snow we got. And I don't ski!

BAD NEWS

I did the cookie excange a couple of weeks ago that one of the gals had on her blog site. One of the recipes was for cake balls. They looked great and we decided to give them a try.

The bad news is did you know dipping chocolate can have a seizure? Well it can and ours did. Our chocolate actually siezed up just like all of the sudden it stopped moving it literally siezed up.

Well we are working on reviving it and trying to bring it back to life so that we can finish up our cake balls. This is the recipe we used, you can experiment like my daughter and come up with lots of fun ways to make the cake balls, then you will be a real life baller!

Bake one cake. Let it cool and stir it in with one can of frosting. We used carrot cake and white frosting.

Form them into balls and freeze. I made some into snowmen. Melt your dipping chocolate, just not too much or it will seize, I guarantee that. Dip your balls and cool. For the snowmen I used a lemon cake mix and white frosting and dipped in white chocolate. We have also made some chocolate ones we are going to dip in a chocolate mint dip. You can get really imaginative and make some fun ones.

SNAIL MAIL

I do believe people have forgotten how to write letters. Actually I think some of the younger generation never learned how to write a letter, address the envelope, buy a stamp and mail the letter.
We got two letters in our mail today and it made my day. The only problem was one of them was from me :) I had ordered our Christmas cards to be printed up, and delivered through a card company and wanted to see what they looked like. I ordered one to be sent to my daughters family through us so I could see it.
We have a mail box in Miami so that we can mail stuff, and letters that otherwise will not mail to a PO box. Mostly it is for online shopping, but hey we also like mail.
The other letter was from my son in Flagstaff. He has been in jail for six months and is just now figuring out how to do the whole mail process. He asked me last week on the phone if he just addressed it to our Miami address and how many stamps he should put on it! OK son it is just going to Miami, one stamp will suffice.
Hopefully now that he has seen how easy it is to mail a letter he will get fired up and send more, they are great to save in his scrapbook. One of those fun activites he can spend a nice family night with his family going over some day. As he constantly reminds me "this is just an experience for me to put into my life."
I would challenge you all to write a letter this week. Just take a few minutes to write to someone you have not written to in a long time. Not an email, a real live letter. I read the book, "Wednesdays Letters", and it was great. A handwritten note is priceless.
By the way I am in no way promoting the Post Office, my husband quit there about one and a half years ago!

"LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL"

When we lived in Flagstaff about a decade ago when movies were still affordable, Rick and I went to a movie. Once it started we realized it was in Italian with English subtitles. Rick wanted to leave and I said no let's stay.
That was one of the good choices I made. It turned out to be my all time favorite movie and made for a great evening out. I have recommended this movie to everyone I know and will continue to do so.
We rented it at a later date so the kids could watch it, but it was not near as good in English. Something got lost in the translation so to speak.
This is one of those movies that makes you determine to be a better, more positive person in all walks of life. Rent it or buy it, just try it!

COMMUNICATION

One would think with all the new inventions to make it easier to communicate we would be a closer more communicative society. I think though that it is quite the opposite and we have only superficial communication and no real communication. You know the kind where you hang out for an afternoon and bake, or just sit on the porch and shoot the bull.

We have a skype phone in our house so that we can make business calls to the U.S, and around the world. It works ok, unless you both want to talk at the same time, in which case you just have to wait for the darn thing to catch up with real time.

Then we have a cell phone to use here in Costa Rica. Right now our daughter is using it until they get their own line from Ice. We also use that number for our business number.

Of course we have our home phone. That one we rarely use, or get calls on. We are all shocked if someone calls us on it, and especially if we get a voice mail on it. It is very expensive to make international calls on it so we do not use it for that very often.

Can't forget the voip phone. That one has a U.S. number that forwards to our house so that we can get calls from the U.S. and talk to our kids still living there. Our son who is in jail is the victim of a really stupid set up they do in the jails, kind of a racket actually. There is a phone company that takes over the phone lines in the jail and you have to go through them to call out. Well Costa Rica will not accept calls from them, because they do not give Costa Rica enough money, so we have a voip phone.

Then there is the internet. There are days when we don't even have to talk here, we just instant message each other and keep up with what is going on. Pretty funny especially when we are sitting in the same room.

So do we know each other any better, or have any better communication with all of these devices? Of course not, I can't even remember all my numbers half of the time! I much prefer a nice slow afternoon of sitting and talking and watching the people walk by my house, that is the way to really communicate.

SOLO

Can you imagine singing a solo in front of about 150 people? I can't either but my 14 year old did tonight. Now imagine doing it in another language. That too! She sang a song in Spanish at a special program for young girls. I was very proud of her. One man asked her in broken English if she was the next Hannah Montanna!

We were always very commited to having the kids learn at least one instrument or some kind of music. She chose childrens choir and has been singing every since she was 8. When she sang her solo she did not use the mike because she has a very loud voice.

One man asked us if she took after her mother. I had to tell him all of our children play or sing, I listen, and my husband said he pays! So far it has gotten one scholarship and hopefully made lots of happy memories for my children.

I still remember the night we went to pick up one son from Juvy because he and his violin buddies had tried to steal a decoy deer out of the front of someones house, oh yeah good times.

WEEKLY SERMON

I found an awesome blog site yesterday and would highly recommend it to anybody who has, will or is adopting a child. It is A4everFamily.org. I learned a lot from it about some of Maleahs behaviors, as well as my reactions.

After raising six children you would like to think you have it somewhat figured out. Guess what, I just keep being amazed at how much I do not have figured out! Just when I think I have it figured out the rules change, or the kid changes, or the world changes, or I change! You get the idea, there are no rules, there are no constants except the values and principals we live by.

The real trick I guess is learning to apply our principals on every situation we run into with our children as well as ourselves. A good example of this is the belief I have that it really does matter who your friends are and who you hang out with.

My daughter is just starting to believe me on this one, but it is really difficult to learn. She would like to believe that as long as she is doing what she knows is ok it is all good. Unfortunately it is not like that anymore.

She has an older brother who is going to be in prison for at least five years because he did not believe this concept. He thought and actually still thinks that it is ok to go along with the group, as long as you don't "inhale" so to speak. Not true as he has very painfully been made aware of.

I guess this is my soap box for the week, and why I love blogging! I get to choose who I check out and who I hang out with! There are so many blogs and so little time. I have a great new word for friends who blog "frogs"!

COSTA RICA SCHOOL OF INTEGRATIVE MASSAGE GRADUATE

This is our first graduate of the full 500 hour massage program. We were thrilled to work with her and enjoyed her very much. She is going to be an awesome massage therapist, ah heck she is already an awesome massage therapist! We wish her the best and hope all our students continue to be as smart and make us look as good as she does.



It was a long six months for her but she worked through a lot of obstacles to get her certificate. She had to travel from Jaco beach every week to do her hands on work. She was also our first student who completed her book work online. It worked out great for all involved and she feels very ready to take and pass her national exam.



We will be begining another class in just five short weeks. I am looking forward to getting to work with more than one person as it will be easier to have them practise when they have each other. Massage is great and it is even more fun to teach it and see people really enjoy it, I guess that is true of anything you teach.

INTERNET

I have been thinking all day about the miracle of the internet. For the two years that we lived in Costa Rica we had to do all of our internet business at the internet store. It is really cheap here, but it was a real hassle.

When we bought our house the first thing we wanted to do was get hooked up to the internet. We started the process. The first thing you have to do here is get on a waiting list with ICE. After six months of waiting we were ready to go. My husband went with my son-in -law to talk to the people, after waiting in line for 2 hours of course.

They were told that because here in Costa Rica the original owner of the home also owns the phone line we could not get the internet without the original owners permission.

Enter Darwin, the original owner of our house. He was also a gringo and gave us a smokin deal on our house. He is a decent enough guy and we figured we would have no problems with him. Well he was not the problem, his wife was. For some reason unknown to us she did not want to give permission for us to get the internet.

Enter our good friend Jens. We told him the whole story and he went to ICE with my husband and went to a different office, with no waiting by the way. They met with a guy who told them pretty much the same story we had heard the first time around. This time Jens told them the truth, he did not know where the heck the owner was and he could not be reached by us.

The next week we had the internet. That is the perfect example of the way things work here in Costa Rica, kind of weird. We love having the internet in our home, and because of having the internet we can now get a voip phone, which makes it possible for us to keep in contact with our kids everywhere.

Just one of the many things we have come to appreciate on our adventure here in Costa Rica!

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT NUMBER 2

If the first and best way to get into the Christmas spirit is service, then making cookies is a shoe in for second place. Of course that is coming from a true "cookie monster". I love cookies. They are my number one comfort food and I turn to them frequently these days. When I went into labor with all my kids I always made a batch of oatmeal cookies. My thinking was that the kids and hubby would have a somewhat healthy snack for a few days until I was back up and around. I don't know why buying a box of granola bars never really entered my mind!

These cookies have a history. I learned to cook when I was nine years old. My mother put me into 4H and there I learned to cook and sew. The first thing I ever cooked was this cookie, snickerdoodles. They bring back fond memories and they are fun to make with the kids. I just have to relax and not worry about them being symetrical!

SNICKERDOODLES:

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup butter

4 cups flour

1/4 tsp. almond flavoring

Mix everything into a stiff dough. Roll into balls.

Roll in a mixture of 1/2 cup sugar and 1Tbls. of cinamon.

Place on a cookie sheet 2" apart. Bake 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees until lightly browned.

Cool on a paper towel and enjoy!

They passed this test for sure! She was a little disappointed though because when she saw me put them on the pretty plate and get the milk she thought it was for Santa! Soon enough.

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

I find the best way to get into the true spirit of Christmas is to do something for someone else. Today we took part in the fundraiser to raise money for an orphanage here in Costa Rica for handicapped children. Many volunteers pitched in time, money and energy to make it happen. We were glad to just take our crowd and eat the spagetti and listen to the band.

Jim was the serving guy. He was kind enough to even specialize plates for the kids!

Harmony Roads was the name of the band there to entertain us with their great music.

Like I said we were just happy to be there and enjoy the food to do our part!
Believe it or not the girlies waited all week to see Santa! Don't they just look thrilled? After I took the picture I told them that at least Santa was smiling.

CANCER SUCKS!

My younger sister has cancer. She has had cancer for almost 20 years. When she was nine years old they took half of her stomach out. Six years later they took out the rest of her stomach. Presently she is at the doc. most days for pain management or chemo, or ct scans, mri's, or you name it. The latest was kidney stones.

I had not seen my sister for about four years and got a chance to see her when we were in the U.S. in Oct. It was quite a shock. I would not have recognized her if I had not known I was in her house. I think she was happy with the shock effect because she is just like that.

She has a four year old son, a dumb ex husband and a great mom that takes care of her. My mom lives with her and takes care of her, makes sure she takes all her meds, gets to all of her appts, and eats really good, mom is a great cook.

Every day when I run or work out I do it for my sister. I thank God that I have a strong body and am healthy and able to go out for a run. I talk to my sister while I run and tell her I am doing this because she can't, and I want to do something for her that she can't do for herself.

Of course if she had her choice of what she would do if she could I don't think running would be on the list! Sorry Sarah I can't dance.

TEENAGERS

My daughter is 14, it is very painful to be that age I do believe and remember. She has been doing swim workouts every day and doing very well with that. Now the trick is to teach her to incorporate her school work into her day. I have tried to convince her that she can do more than one project a day.

I guess study habits are something that are learned and developed. My son in law is trying to finish up some school and having trouble with the whole study habit idea. His wife also is taking internet classes and dealing with once again, study habits.

With our students at our massage school we try to keep up with them so that they do not fall behind. The ones who do the best? The ones with good study habits.

Good study habits really are nothing more than not procastinating! It is important to keep up with the info as you receive it and learn the important points before moving on to a new concept. With our internet massage classes we try and make sure with reviews as well as tests that our students are caught up and learning the material.

I have always been the "over achiever" in class and tried to be one step ahead. It did make it easier to actually graduate and finish classes and projects that I start. I recently completed an online course for Ayurvedic medicine. I had it done the first two weeks and it took the online instructor six months to complete all the checking and feedback, frustration!

CHRISTMAS RUSH

Do you get caught up in the Christmas Rush? I used to but gave it up for good a few, actually quite a few years ago. I believe it was a midnight on Christmas eve, after we had taken goodie plates to all the neighbors and friends and relatives, and I was working frantically to finish sewing the dress I had made for my daughter.

At that point I took a serious reflection moment and said never again! And fortunately for my sanity I have stuck with that resolution. The next year we started inviting all our neighbors, friends and relatives over for an evening of christmas goodies and visiting. Wow, what a change. That one change in and of itself made my Christmas so much more enjoyable.

I also quite sewing for Christmas. I love to sew, but found it was just too busy around the holidays to even try it. With all the recitals and family activities it was just better to sew other times of the year. In other words if I wanted to make a Christmas dress for my daughter, better get it done by Nov. Well I never did that, so I just bought or skipped it.

The last year we were living in Flagstaff we did our annual Christmas party with the neighbors and I actually ordered pizza! That was getting way lazy, but hey I was working a ton and there was a lot going on! Actually I believe we all had just as much fun and enjoyed the evening as much if not more.

Try to think of one holiday tradition that you can modify or maybe just dump. Maybe it is something you started when the kids were young, but really does not apply anymore. Just kind of reassess your holidays and make you leave the cheer!

MANUEL ANTONIO BEACH

I love Manuel Antonio beach! It is my favorite beach so far in Costa Rica, and believe me we have been checking them out. We even took our christmas card picture there this weekend. It was beautiful at the beach and we enjoyed teaching and just hanging out.

There are many beaches here in Costa Rica and we have checked out many.

We also like Puerto Viejo, which is on the Caribean side of the country. It is very laid back and a little bit more affordable.

On the Pacific side we have visited Jaco, Punteranus, Samara, as well as Osa Peninsula. We did not care for them as much as MA. They are a little more crowded and more expensive. There are as many beaches as places people are coming from to choose from though so there is lots to pick from. If you would like more info or help planning a vacation feel free to contact us, we love to share Costa Rica with all!

GRATITUDE ATTITUDE

Did you know that when you are feeling grateful you are not feeling a whole lot of other negative emotions? If you can practise a gratitude attitude you will be amazed at how your life will change. There is an old hymn about "Count your Many Blessings".

The reason for that? You cannot feel sad when you start counting your blessings, they do not fit in the same mind. It will bring a smile to your face and before you know it you are wondering why you were depressed in the first place.

We all have so much to be thankful there is no way we can sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. When our family worked for "Families Helping Families" building houses for poor families in Mexico, we never left feeling that we were extremely blessed and very grateful for our little house in Arizona.

This picture is a picture of our neighbors. They are squatters who threw up this shack behind a house two doors down from us. They are hooked in to the electricity of the neighbors and the water. They have kids, and their kids leave everyday for school looking clean and dressed and pressed.

MORE THANKS

Today was a beautiful Pura Vida day in Costa Rica. The closer we get to summer the more I remember why we moved here. Maleah was able to get in some good practise on her bike and should have it down by the end of the week.

On the bus to Alajuela today a guy was trying to sell hi5 cd's to help kids learn english. Rick and I were alone as we were going out to eat at my favorite mexican restaurant. He just walked right by us and did not even try and sell us one. I told Rick it is because we look too old to be parents of a youngster. That was painful.

We have been asked at the grocery store if she is our grand daughter before. That is kind of weird because it is not like she would look anymore like one of our kids. She gets a kick out of it when people ask if we are her grandparents. It all goes back to the age old question of which is better old parents or young parents.

I believe both have their advantages and disadvantages. I love to hang out and just read and write with Maleah. Now teaching her to ride her bike is quite another matter. Makes my back hurt pushing that thing all over the neighborhood. With my older kids it was the opposite. I took them on all kinds of grueling hikes, bikes and runs. We did spend time reading and writing, but I took more enjoyment out of the outdoor things. The ongoing debate for sure.

THANKS

I decided that before I got into the Christmas Holidays I would finish up with Thanksgiving. That has been our tradition for years. We always try and give thanks before asking for more stuff.

We had the girls help us write a list of 100 things we were thankful for. It was quite easy and we just went on and on. I think they were surprised by how many things they had to be thankful for. Maleah began by saying Jesus and then she just started looking around the room naming everything she saw.

Today I am very thankful for my health. Last year at this time I was suffering from asthma from a bronchial infection that lasted for about 5 months. I learned a lot about asthma, inhalers, prednisone, and asthma control.

This year I have been symptom free and am anxiously training for some 5k's this summer, which is winter to all of you Northerners. And I will be training for the marathon coming up in June.

So here is saluds!

RAIN

"Rain rain go away and don't come back until May." That is the census of opinion these days here at the tail end of rainy season. The interesting thing is that once it rains the wind dies down a little and it gets a little bit warmer. For sure looking forward to the beach next week for birthday week.

I am hoping that I will hear from all of my boys next week for Thanksgiving or at least for my birthday. They tend to be a little bit forgetful this time of year.

It has rained all day for the last three days, letting up to a small drizzle once in awhile but all in all wet. Not to complain of course considering my boys are all snowed in. I will take the rain any day.

I have been scouring for tips for holiday savings and I will post some on Monday. Supposedly people are slowing down this holiday season and trying to give more "thoughtful" gifts. We shall see when it comes down to the 11th hour and they have not made any thoughtful gifts.

MORE FRUGAL IDEAS

I thought I would follow up with some frugal ideas of my own, after living very frugally for about 30 years now. My husband and I made the decision when we married that we wanted a big family. That right there is taking a vow of poverty, and by golly we have stuck with it! Now that the kids are mostly grown and gone we are pretty much sold on the whole frugal idea. It is nice to not be in crisis mode, but we do still watch the meter so to speak.

What I mean by watch the meter, it exactly that. I have a son-in-law that puts me to shame when it comes to being frugal, almost to the tight extreme. But if you need hints he is the person to see.

One day we were hiking and my flip flop broke. He and I were kind of about five miles from town and on a gravel road. I was pretty freaked out and dreading the long one shoed walk home. He took my flip flop from me and found a piece of wire lying on the road. He was actually able to fix my shoe. In fact I wore that shoe for about six more months like that. He told me if he'd known I was going to keep wearing it for so long he would taken more time to make it look nicer.

At any rate here is the test he did, speaking of watching the meter. One day he and my daughter were going to hook up their new washer and drier. He was concerned that their electric bill would skyrocket when they added the new appliances. So he had my daughter turn on the washer while he watched the meter. Then he had her turn on the drier. Then she went to take a shower. Here in Costa Rica we have what is called "suicide showers". That means the water is heated through a on demand heater hooked on the shower head. Well when she began the shower he about had a kitten. He said that thing just started spinning like crazy.

So now they are allowed only so many minutes in the shower, at least when it is hot, unlimited cold. He suggested to us that we do our showers like they do in Hondurus. There they turn on the water only long enough to get wet. Then soap up and turn the water back on to rinse off. I just told the family to cut their shower time in half. We will see how that does.

That is one of the biggest ways to save on bills, just become aware of where your money is going. We were spending a lot of money on our international phone bills. So we got a Skype phone and now that is taken care of.

Another good way to cut down on bills is to cook more from scratch. That does not mean all day in the kitchen. Just throw some beans in the crockpot before work, and cook some rice when you get home. It tastes great with some tortillas, and vegees and fills you up.

Going out to eat is the first and probably the best place to cut out. I think as the economic crisis continues we will definately see our nation getting a little skinnier, and hopefully healthier. There you go we can cure the health care crisis at the same time, just make your own food!

FRUGAL MOMS

Did you know it is in style now to be frugal. It is a new fad that will probably be around for awhile. In the Arizona Daily Sun they were saying that people are now thinking twice, or three or four times before spending money. When things wear out they look into getting them fixed before replacing them.

That is nothing new here in Costa Rica. There are actually still shoe shops that will repair your shoes, from stitching to putting on a new sole when it wears out. They also have shops that will repair your furniture and clothing. They have Clinics for your Clothes.

The people here are very selective about their clothing. You will see them come out of their house which may be a shack, dressed immaculately. They always press their clothes and you will see little areas they may have mended or hemmed their clothes.

The reason they iron is because most people here do not use driers. When you hang your clothes on the line they tend to be a little wrinkled. We have not had a drier since we moved here, and use our iron once in awhile. We are definately gringos!

Part of what prompted us to move to Costa Rica was the frugal enviroment. I love getting a deal and recycling. Here we put our old clothes out on top of our trash on trash day and it will be gone within a couple of hours. Nothing sits for long. That even goes for things you don't want to go!

EARTH QUAKE

When we moved to Costa Rica I could not understand why all of the houses had those ugly tin roofs on them. I liked the spanish tile roofs and could not find any houses with those on them. After living here two years I now understand why the tin roofs, earthquakes! Oh yes they have them very regularly and no one with half a brain would want anything heavier over their heads.

They do have a way of laying a tile roof over a metal roof that is supposed to be safe. The nicer homes do this now and it is all asthetics. You can peer under the tiles and see the metal roof. It also helps with the noise factor. At Rebekahs house when it rains we cannot watch a movie, or even talk for that matter.

Another good thing about the tin roofs are they are a little less expensive to replace, which is important with all the rain we have when you have to replace often. Our roof is five years old and already in need of being replaced.

Our neighbors tin roof has a loose panel and we are in windy season so we listen to it all night long. Our neighbor has disappeared so we cannot even talk with him about it. We did see the police there the other day, but still no hide nor hair of him. He is one strange bird though to be sure.

He really likes to run around with no clothes on. He is in his twenties and I have decided he is not quite all there. We have had a couple of friends pass his house on their way to our house and see him with the door open walking around in his birthday suit, singing no less.

When it rains he gets his weed eater, puts on his shorts and tennis shoes and cleans up his yard, with the music cranked up and singing at the top of his lungs! Pura Vida!

GRANDKIDS ROCK

Did I mention that being a grandma is definately the best trickle down blessing of being a parent? I can brag about my grandkids all day and not appear too biased, since I am not their mom after all. Though Maleah in the below picture is mine, so I won't brag about her in this post. Ahlysa the big girl is my oldest granddaughter. She is 6 and in kindergarten. Of course she is the smartest one in her class, and thanks to mom and dad she is also the tallest. The other girls Tara and Makensie are 3 and 2. They are so fun to hang out with that I wish I lived closer. The ones I get to hang out with all the time are the lower pic. Breyssi and Benjamin. Breyssi calls me weird, and Benjamin just laughs at me. We love our grandkids and have a blast with them.

PURA VIDA

Life is Good! That is pretty much the same as saying pura vida. I still cannot say it like they do here in Costa Rica, but I am working on it. I think I am saying it the same, but alas it just does not come out the right way. My mouth does not speak spanish very well.

At any rate I was thinking today about how good my life is and feeling pretty darned grateful for it. Maleah and I were able to stroll to the health food store for some calcium and magnesium for mom, and a treat for her. So far we are batting zero on health food store treats. She really just is not into them.

Days like this remind me why I traded in my past life for the pura vida life. We were both working the grind, with all of our might and we were like the hamsters on the wheel, just going around as quickly as you please and not getting anywhere.

As I have said we had our economic melt down way before the rest of the world. But we did have it and it was time to decide.

I don't know if my daughters will ever appreciate how tranquil their lives are here, but I do believe they will reap the rewards of living in such a stress free enviroment. I know it has helped me.

MOMS

Half of the equation of being a hotmom is of course being a MOM. Both parts are a choice, but we do have a whole lot more control over the hot part than the mom part. Our children will be children and will do whatever it is children do, test and try us of course.

Having seven children makes me a little bit different than most moms. I don't think most moms get to have near as many experiences, good as well as bad, as I do. Now that can be good or it can be bad, depends on the experience we are in the middle of.

My oldest son will be 29 next year, whoa! I know I should probably just give up on the whole hot part at this point, but I refuse to give up! My youngest daughter is 5, and the saddest part of that one is that I gained more weight with her than I did with my oldest. Why is that so bad? She is adopted! Now that is sad. The premenopause thing was kicking in what can I say?

The thing about being a mom is to take control of all the aspects of motherhood that you can. That does not leave much, but you can take control of your body, mind and time. I have a quote that I love "your lack of preparation is not my crisis". Think about that for a few minutes and apply it to your children.

When your kid calls you from school because they forgot their football gear in the washer and you need to dry it and bring it to them within the next hour what will you do? If you are smart you will take it in stride, if it works do it, if not don't sweat it.

I know that is easier said than done, especially if you baby your boys like I do! The funny thing is all of my boys laugh about what mommas boys they are, all four of them! My youngest son says he is 300% mammas boy. I am trying to talk him out of the tatoo telling that to the world.

FEELING HOT YET?

You know there is a lot in a title. When I went to massage school I was a little timid about telling people I was a massage therapist once I got done. I think it just took a little time for me to realize I had a title other than mom!

I think sometimes we get so used to wearing our title of mom that we forget we are someone! I love being a mom and think it is pretty cool. But I can also use the title to hide behind. I can use it as an excuse for my weight, my frumpiness, my forgetfullness, my sloppiness, my whatever I want an excuse for.

If you give yourself a new title I believe it will help you look at yourself just a little differently. Just try it for a couple of days. Think to yourself " I am a hot Mom." See if it does not change the way you look at yourself.

Maybe you will take just a little more time getting dressed in the morning. Maybe you will stand just a little taller. Maybe you will even feel so excited you will go out and do that workout you have been avoiding for awhile.

Try it out and see what it does for you.

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

Another day with no rain, hurrah the rainy season is really over. We have certainly found the trick in surviving the rainy season, go to Nevada and Arizona for the month of October! We got dried out enough to make up for the previous months as well as the couple of weeks after our return.

I have been thinking a lot about goals lately as you can tell by previous blogs. I am thinking if you keep them small it is good. Small successes keep you motivated.

A good example of this is my Tupperware party I had last night here at the house. I do not speak too much Spanish, so did not have a lot of people to invite. I invited a couple of friends and my daughter. When the Tupperware lady arrived she asked me if I had any other friends I could invite to come over. My daughter told her that all of our friends were busy.

It turned out we had a great selling party and I won the big gift! Sounds like kind of a silly thing but that little bit of success made me a little hungry for more. I ran just a little harder this morning, put out a little more on my core workout, and even wrote a new article.

Funny thing how that success feeling works, kind of feeds off of itself for sure! Try it out.

FULL MOON

I have always been one to use the moon to account for behaviors in my family. When I researched it however I found there really is no data backing up my theory. Now when the kids act up, or my husband gets in a foul mood, or I turn into a lunatic (notice that word is from the latin Luna?) I will have to find something else to blame it on.

Though in all fairness the studies do show that the psychological unstable do have more episodes during the full moon.

Now that worries me!

NO EXCUSES-AGAIN!

I wanted to follow up on yesterdays post with some great success stories that I know of personally. These people all inspire me and are my heros. I will try and get some pics from them so they can inspire you as well.

The first one is my friend Robin from Flagstaff. Robin and I were friends for about 6 years when we lived in Arizona. When we left there two years ago she had six kids and weighed over 200 lbs. She had always wanted to lose weight, but there was just never time with six little ones.

She told me that one day in Feb. last year she was talking with her brother in law on the phone. He ran a weight loss program and she was complaining about her weight. He challenged her to make a commitment to losing the weight. She said ok fine I will start tomorrow, I want to lose 50 lbs by June for the family reunion. She asked him not to tell anyone in the family so that she could surprise them.

The next day she bought an arobics cd and went to work. She tried to work for an hour every day. Of course at first it was near to impossible for her to work out that long because of the weight. As she kept with it the workout got longer and stronger. She also made drastic food changes. She is a great cook and continued cooking for her family. She just quite eating the junk.

She said she also quit eating anything after six in the evening, chewed lots of gum, and had no sugar. A lot of days she did her arobics at ten or eleven in the evening because that was the only time she had to do it.

By June she had actually lost 50 lb. and lost another 60 by Christmas. Is she still there. Yes! She does have to continue working on it and she has had some set backs, but she is staying healthy and taking care of herself.

Another example of a different goal set and reached is my mom. Mom went back to school a few years ago! She graduated with her Bachelors degree from NAU when she was 65 years old! She had tried to go to school many times during her time of raising 9 kids, but she was finally able to finish.

Lest you think she had plenty of time by this time, she was also taking care of my step dad who had cancer, my sister who has cancer and of course all the other kids and grandkids who stop by.

Like I said there are no excuses and I challenge all of you to give me one excuse for not doing something you really want to do. Try it, I dare you!

NO EXCUSES!

When I say no excuses I mean for any and everything. There really are no excuses under the sun to give us a way out of anything. On a personal note I would like to share my experience with you.

At the tender young age of 18 I had my first child. I gained a total of 16 lbs. while pg. and took very good care of myself. My husband and I walked every night and I took all my vitamins. I also quit eating meat and sugar at that period in my life.

We had a beatiful healthy baby boy and life goes on. Every two or three year for the next 15 years I had a baby. Again, at the tender young age of 32 I had my sixth and during the pregnancy decided last baby.

48 hours after the birth of Hannah I had the artery going to my uterus bust, causing what my medical records labeled an "abdominal catastrophe". When it happened the doctors did not know why I was bleeding to death. I ended up with 23 units of blood and 3 gallons of saline solution being pumped into my body.

The last thing I remembered was being wheeled into the o.r. and waving at my husband as he held our baby in his arms waving at me. I was in excrutiationg pain and for the first time in my life really just wanted to die. At one point I grabbed the anestesiologist by the shirt and yelled at him to knock me out.

After four hours of surgery and millions of stitches to put Robbie back together again I was back in my room. The doctor said it was probably caused by an aneurism. I was the same age at that time my dad was when he died from an anneurism in his head. All the docs agreed about how lucky I was that it happened while I was in the hospital. I agree.

I spent the next two weeks in the hospital. I liked to tell people that I spent time in every ward of the hospital. I started in labor and delivery, had my baby in the nursery, moved into o.r. from there into the trauma unit, into intensive care and from there to recovery. It was not fun.

Once the anesthesia wore off and they took out the breathing tube so that I could talk, I told my doc that I wanted to nurse my baby. It took him a few minutes to figure out what I was talking about because it just did not register. He looked at the nurses and told them to take me off all the pain killers, dopephine, morphine, blah blah blah. I almost changed my mind at this point thinking that I was going to be hurting a lot more. But I did learn pain is pain.

Seven hours after getting off the meds they brought Hannah for me to nurse. Well now we had a real problem. I had a million stitches in my gut, plus 35 staples up my belly. How the heck were we going to do this? Oh yeah, and someone squished my hand during surgery and it had compartment symdrome and could not be used. This is how we did it. I hung Hannah over my shoulder opposite from the nursing side. Then my mom would help put the nipple in her mouth and away she would go. My nurse midwife came in during one of these shows and said she would like to get a pic for the next time someone told her they could not nurse their baby!

Two months after my surgery I was finished with physical therapy for my hand and could actually walk standing up straight. On a nice warm day in March I went for my first walk. All the way down the street and back! That was the begining for me of many triathlons, marathons and century rides. Does that make sense?

I learned in that one block what it meant to hurt, but to want something bad enough to work through the pain! I was done having kids and knew that I wanted my body back and I was willing to do whatever it took to get there. I have never done a run, or race or workout that has hurt as much as that one block walk, but it was sure worth it!

COOL BEANS

Cool beans!, the organic fruit and vegee guy finally came. He comes in the evenings on Saturday with our delivery for the week, and it is like Christmas around here! All week long it is like a race against time to eat all the healthy food up before it goes bad.

We are just really grateful to live in a place where we have so much variety that is local. I included a pic to show what we get.

RELAX

There is nothing like a great day at the pool to relax me and rejuvinate me. It must be the tanorexia that I suffer from! You do have to remember that it pretty much rains every day here, so a couple of hours of sunshine does wonder to dry out all the gills!

The girls are getting braver. Our goal is to get Breyssi to actually put her head under the water and not have a fit. I can see how a parents attitude toward water can affect their children. Rebekah will never forgive me for not putting her in swimming lessons!

Tonight is pizza and movie night at the Inestrozas. We were going to have a garage sale tomorrow night but there is a storm blowing in which means rain all weekend. We will just have to postpone it until next week.

You can sell anything here in Costa Rica. My old washer broke down. Well it still worked, but the neighbors complained about the noise when we used the spinner it was bad! So we bought a real washer and put the old one I had used for two years on the front porch.

I paid sixty thousand colones for this washer, which is about 120.00. I sold it for twenty five thousand or fifty dollar. I told the lady it was broken, and even plugged it in so she could hear it. She still bought it, I was pretty shocked and pleased to get rid of the old clunker. She said something about putting cilantro in it, or something like that, probably not that but who knows?

COSTA RICA BEAUTIES

Rick and I went up the hill today to look at a couple of houses with his spanish teacher. It was really pretty up there and the homes were beautiful. It is amazing not only the different geographies you see here in Costa Rica, but also the different neighborhoods.

You can go around the corner, literally and be in a million dollar neighborhood. Down the street are people living on rice and on good days beans.

I used to think we had Costa Rica all figured out because we live in a more moderate neighborhood. My friend set me straight. She made it clear that we live among the rich of Costa Rica. She had been in towns where the people really did not have enough money to ride the bus. They had never been to a mall, much less a movie theatre. And for sure they ate mostly rice, with some beans around payday and a little fruit and vegees thrown in when they could get them.

My dentist told me that it is still common in the farm towns that for your big 50 you go and get all your teeth pulled and get your dentures! Now that is something to look forward to.

SUNSCREEN

I grew up in California and I am a true blue or brown sun worshipper. I used to tan with the oil and all the works. My mother used to yell at me, wear some sun screen and get out of the sun.

We lived in Hawaii when our first two children were young and I continued my worship of the sun. Thankfully for my skin we moved to Missouri after three years in Hawaii. I spent the next eight years without the sun, since it never shines in the midwest!

Then unfortunately for my skin we moved to Flagstaff Arizona. The altitude combined with the arid conditions and the fact that the sun shines there 340 days a year, all set me up for what you now see. Oh yeah and the fact that I spent 6 years training and competing in triathlons. All those nice sunny days on the bike took their toll.

I really did try to use sunscreen. I would put it on and go out for a run or a ride. About 10 minutes out I would start to sweat, or try to sweat. I felt like my skin was trying to sweat but could not. Like my skin was constipated or something. I would be like Gollum trying to get the sunscreen wiped off and yelling "it burns, it burns".

After 14 years in Flagstaff another unfortunate for my skin, our move to Costa Rica. Now as you can see in my pic, it is hopeless. Well maybe not hopeless. I called and made an appointment with a skin restoration doc here. After I made the appt. I decided I better research what this skin restoration consisted of.

Come to find out it was contraindicated for those of us lucky dogs who have oral herpes, better known as cold sores. I can spend one hour in the sun without my hat on, and two days later my lips will look like raw hamburger.

So needless to say I cancelled my appt. with the doc. and am just having to deal with my face. I guess the old adage is true, "you make your bed you have to sleep in it". Something like that anyway.

If anything I have to offer is a legacy to my daughters. Guess what? They wear sun screen all of the time!

PRINCESSES

Now these two are princesses if I must say so myself! A sure way to win them over is to offer them a makeover. They go for it every time. When I look at them it makes all the work and worry of being a mom worth it for sure.

I cannot really think of anything I would rather be doing than being a mom and grandma. My baby will be going to school, for a whole three hours a day, in three months. I told her I did not know if I could let her go because I would miss her too much. She told me I could just run on the track across the street and wait for her to get done. She knows me too well, I probably will do just that.

GOALS

Goals are essential for our growth. I have finally found some goals to work toward on my fitness, as well as work. Short term I really want to be able to do a 5k in less than 35 minutes. I will get a chance to try it out in the next couple of months. I have some runs I am looking at to work on.

I also have a goal to get this blog done! That sounds easy, but I keep coming up with new ideas and things I want to do to improve it. Right now I am looking for a flower for our logo to put on some shirts, mugs etc. I want to set up a little store to sell some stuff.

So needless to say semi-retirement is not really not what I had imagined. I really thought we would be looking for things to do, but frankly we have not even been to the beach for a few months! Time for a beach trip!

BLOG BULLIES

I have a new term for some people I have seen online. They post really rude posts about people, using their names no less, and then modify the comments so that no one can defend themselves. That pretty much sounds like bullying to me. It is mean and goes against cyber ethics.

We do not believe you need to post ugly or controversial posts just to get traffic to your site. Our site will always remain positive and up beat. There is enough ugly stuff out there in the world we don't need to perpetuate it here.

Let's all lift and build each other, we can all use it!

20 TIPS TO DESTRESS YOUR LIFE!

1. Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning.
2. Prepare for the morning the evening before.
3. Don't rely on your memory.
4. Do nothing you have to lie about later.
5. Make copies of all your keys and hide them.
6. Practice preventive maintenance on all autos and mechanics.
7. Be prepared to wait.
8. Don't procastinate.
9. Plan ahead.
10. Don't put up with something that does not work right.
11. allow 15 minutes of extra time to get to appointments.
12. Eliminate or restrict the amount of caffeine you take in.
13. Always set up contigency plans, ie plan b, c, d.
14. Relax your standards.
15. Count your blessings.
16. Ask questions.
17. Say no.
18. Unplug the phone.
19. Make friends with non-worriers.
20. Simplify.

JOY

You know joy is made up of a lot of little things every day! It is seeing my five year old getting shy when she takes her shower. It is a nice long run with light drizzles and 80 degrees outside. It is a great dinner out after that long run. It is seeing my grandkids happy and smiling. It is seeing my garden room looking beautiful. Yes for sure the true joys in life come in little bites.

Being thankful for these joys is probably the key to living stress free. Maybe the biggest key to destressing our lives would be to be thankful!

What better time to feel thankful than the month of Thanksgiving. I have always refused to even begin thinking about Christmas and all the gimmee it brings until we have spent at least a good month being thankful!

STRESS

Stress is ugly. It will literally chew you up and spit you out. The best example of this that I have seen, other than myself, was a client preparing for a grueling mountain bike race. It was a hundred miler through the mountains of Colorado. She had the usual leg, shoulder and neck tightness and stress. Fast forward a couple of months. She had teenager issues. She came in a wreck! I had never seen her so stressed out in her whole body.

Recent research suggests that anywhere from 60-90% of illness is stress-related. The physical wear and tear of stress includes damage to the cardiovascular system and immune system suppression. Stress compromises your ability to fight off disease and infection, throws your digestive system off balance, makes it difficult to conceive a baby, and can even stunt growth in children.

Medical conditions caused or exacorbated by stress include:
chronic pain obesity
migraines infertility
ulcers autioimune disease
heartburn irritable bowel syndrome
high blood pressure skin problems
heart disease
diabetes
asthma
pms
Emotional effects:
Chronic stress grinds away at your mental health, causing emotional damage in addition to physical ailments. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain leaving you more vulnerable to everyday pressures and less able to cope. Over time, stress can lead to mental health problems such as:
anxiety eating disorders
depression substance abuse
(Helpguide.org)

Tomorrow I will give you 20 great tips to help you de-stress!

WHAT IS A "HOTMOM"?

So I thought it would be good to define what exactly is a hotmom? My momma used to say "beauty is only skin deep". And I would agree with that. Dr. Laura as well as Dr. Phil have both done studies into what exactly do men want from their women? Is your first thought big boobs, or a nice butt, or really pretty?

Guess again! The one most important thing for men was they wanted their women "nice". That was it, just nice. Sounds pretty simple ha?

Evidently it is not so simple since lots of men leave their wives, and girlfriends every day. Not that is is always the womans fault of course!

So my thought is that a hotmom is one who takes care of herself, and looks and acts her best at all times. Even when we are pms-ing or menopausing, or pg. A big part of that equation though is taking care of ourselves.

It is essential to get exercise, you cannot operate at your optimal level without that! You also must eat healthy, otherwise you will certainly have mood swings and hormone issues that will be very difficult to deal with.

Also essential is keeping our selves looking kept. That means do something with the hair. Not that you have to wear makeup at all, just keep your skin looking healthy and clean. Clothing does not need to be expensive just clean and somewhat fashionable.

We all know the essientels sometimes we just need a little encouragement to pull it together and try a little harder to be our best. Being a mom is no excuse to be frumpy! If anything we do not want our kids walking 10 steps in front of us when they get to be teens because they are embarrassed.

WHY HEALTH?

I have often wondered why I am so involved in health. I think it began when I was 13 and my mom married my step dad. We moved from Ventura California to Independence Missouri so that he could attend Chiopractic school.

When people talk about skeletons in their closets I tell them we had skeletons in our front room! I knew all the bones and muscles just from helping him study for tests. It never phased me when he adjusted people in the front room or on the floor at church or anywhere for that matter.

Once I was done having babies and decided to venture out into a career there was no doubt in my mind what it would be, helping people. When I see someone hurting or just plain feeling bad I start trying to help them, it is automatic.

The best feeling for me is when I see someone losing weight after years of trying, or someone just feeling good after finally starting a fitness program, or just someone getting motivated to try and take care of themselves.

I believe as moms we have a special responsibility to teach our children about health. If we teach them how special and amazing their bodies are, I believe they will in time learn to take care of them and do what is right for them. Hopefully before they have to!

PERFECT WEATHER

So I hope everyone is enjoying this fall weather. We sure are! We got the best of both worlds in the gorgeous fall weather of Flagstaff and the beautiful getting drier weather here in Costa Rica. We have not even had hardly any rain this week and totally enjoyed it.

I believe fall is the most beautiful time of the whole year. I would sure encourage everyone to get out and enjoy it!

HEALTHY MOMS

One passion in my life is trying to be healthy and helping others in this quest. It seems the world is a very hard place to try and be healthy in. We are surrounded by wonderful foods and activities that really are not very healthy.

To try and help others I have set up my page of health. I will begin by posting a workout every Sunday to help me and others try and get to the healthy place we all desire.

I will also be posting recipes to help us all eat good, and healthy. Yes it is possible and it is fun!

OUTSIDE

O.K. so the verdict is in. Outside running is the best. You just cannot beat running outside checking out the people and the neighborhood.

I am ready to start the long road to training now. Got the clothes, got the shoes, got the place ready to go.

BUFFALO PARK

We went on a great hike today at Buffalo Park. It sure brought back lots of memories as we hiked back to the mountains. I remember doing the early morning "Turkey Trots" on thanksgiving mornings. We even have a picture of our family from the newspaper all running that run. On that particular run you are not running to see who is fastest. You have to write down what you think your time will be for the 3 mile run around fat mans loop. The person coming closest to their time guess wins a pie! One year we did it we won three pies! That took care of the Thanksgiving pies.

I also remember doing a couple of 10 ks up there. It is a hard run as it is on gravel and the wind is always blowing from every direction. There is also an obstacle course you can do as you run.

Rebekah and I used to go up there when we were training. We liked it because it was on trails and easy on the legs. She trained up there for her marathon in Park City.

The one thing that struck me was how desolate it is up there. I always thought it was so beautiful up there, and now I guess minus the green it is beautiful in a high desert sort of a way.

I am going to begin my training for a 5k race in Feb. Stay posted to see the workout I will be using and find out with me if it works!

DRY

We asked for dry and we got it. Boy did we get it. I feel like Spongebob when he goes into Sandees dry house and Patrick yells out, "pinkie up Spongebob!" Boy is it dry here in AZ, and Nevada.

We will definately be like really dry sponges by the time we get to Costa Rica to start soaking up the water. We are ready.

There is sure lots of good food here, and very healthy stores, that we will miss. It is a different mind set that we do not have to eat everything in site because we will not see it again. I am just now getting that under control. We will eat again and will not be starving when we return home.

I LOVE TO RUN

So I am still doing my study on treadmills. I think they are great, just hot and boring. Other than that I think you get the same work out, as well as the convenience a mom needs.

I do know that at the 2004 olympic trials the gal who won the trials for the marathon was from Alaska. She had done the majority of her training on a treadmill, so there you go.

Since I have never trained for speed before this will be a different experience. I think I will run a 5k around Jan or Feb. That gives me plenty of time to get ready. After that it will be the marathon in August of 09.

I got my new shoes, New Balance of course, as well as new shorts and shirt. It has been about three years since I have bought new running clothes so I guess I will not be the bum who runs anymore

MORE ABOUT TREADMILLS

So I am still running on a treadmill for one more week. I have some more observations and of course criticisms about it. The main one---it is so hot! At least when you are outside you have the cool breeze to keep the temp down a bit.

I do like it to keep better track of distance and time. I will probably hook up with one once in a while to keep more careful track in order to improve my times. I have decided on a new strategy this time, I will work on speed then add the endurance.

I will surely let you know how this works out.

TREADMILLS

Well the verdict is in for me. Treadmills are great if, and big if here, if you are in a time crunch, space crunch, or no babysitter crunch. Otherwise tooo boring for me. I even had music but it just seemed to drag. When I run outside I get to look at all the neighbors, and the park and I get to dodge the crazy dogs in the neighborhood!

I do see the wisdom of them and wish I would of had one in Flagstaff when the weather was brutal. A lot of times I would have run had I not had to freeze to do it. Besides that fact I did spend a whole lot of time on the trainer for biking. Maybe I would not have used it after all.

BEAUTIFUL

The weather here in Vegas is beautiful. A good day for a run. They have a great triathlon magazine here listing all the races, there are tons. This would be the place to live to train and race.

We will spend the day at the park with the girlies. It is not up to 100 so they can even go down the slide!

It is quite different here than in the mountains of Flagstaff. Good things about both of them and bad. The air is so clean and thin there, heavy and warm here. Different workouts for different weather.

One thing that is sooo cool here is all the organic and healthy food, for reasonable prices. We have been shopping at the health food stores and it is great. You can find the food in Costa Rica, just not the selection.

I believe the prices for nutritious foods are the same, just easier to find.

FLAGSTAFF

We definately picked the most beautiful time of the year to visit Flagstaff. It sure brings back memories of long rides training for the Tour de Tucson every year.

The leaves are changing colors and the weather is very chilly. I think my blood is very thin because I am freezing to death!

I just ran into a friend who I have run with. She just competed in the Ima jene pass race in Colorado. I forgot to ask her her time. That is a sign for me. I have finally let go of the competitive side and just rejoice in the fact that we can even do a race at all!

It will be good to get home and run in the beautiful warm Costa Rica weather.

I did a run on a treadmill yesterday. I have a lot of opinions about them but they sure come in handy when you have no other options. Running down the road in Las Vegas was not an option for me!

The husband of the friend I just ran into did the Ironman that I did six years ago. Looking at the two of us you would never know it! That is not good, lots of work to do.

WIPEOUT

I take my hat off to people who fly a lot all over the world all of the time. Man that wipes me out a lot! I am just glad we survived the long trip and are safely, so to speak in Las Vegas. I forgot how much I hate big dirty cities. Sorry if anyone like Vegas but I really do not like big cities of any variety.
The girls have had fun visiting long lost uncles, brothers, and nieces. My three grand daughters are the cutest, and sure have grown in a year since we last saw them.
My sons have shrunk. Seth has lost 60 lbs! That is awesome and we are sure proud of the job he has done with this struggle. His wife is right behind him with the weight loss deal.
We will be leaving today to head to Flagstaff to visit Micah and Jesse, whoo hooo. It should be a very emotionally challenging weekend and I am a little apprehensive about the whole thing.
This internet cafe is great. You just buy one of their tasty treats and you get to use the internet for free! Cool beans.
Next week I will start writing about a great weight loss program based on all the results we are seeing in my son, daughter-in-law and Rebekah.

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

Countdown until we hit the airport! I think we are ready. Having Rebekah and her clan to watch the house helps immensely since we do not have to ready the house. Of course the neighbors watch out for us to when we take off, and we do likewise for them. It is a good idea here.

Today was the anniversary of Rebekah and my last training run for our marathon that did not happen last year. We did a great five miler and that day she found out she was pg with baby Benjamin and I got attacked by asthma.

So I went for a run just to commemorate the event. It felt alright but I did feel the familiar twinge in my chest of the asthma stuff.

I am hoping our trip to Nevada will dry it all out and I will be able to avert it this rainy season.

RUNNING

It is still clear in the morning so I can get a great sunny run in. Rebekah has started running at work around Sabana park. There are lots of running clubs that meet at the park and she enjoys the whole running ambiance there in the mornings.
We are signing up to do a marathon in August of 2009. It has been about six years since the last marathon so we are excited and gearing up for it.
The last one we did was Cowtown marathon in Ft. Worth Texas. This one will be the Tamarindo marathon at the beach on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.
Cool Beans!

That is what I call one hot mama, and one extremely gaupo baby!

WELCOME TO HOTMOMSRUS

We welcome you to our new blog site. We are some hot moms, all different ages, trying to survive and thrive as moms. Some of us work, some are retired and some are just hanging on.

We welcome you to share with us and remember it is all about the journey.