Monday, May 31, 2010

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Dread Lock Ties



Woot Woo! The dread locks are finally long enough to tie back! I am so excited and love them tied back. They look awesome if I must say so myself.

Don't Call Me White

My boys had a favorite song while they were growing up. I can remember the chorus, "don't call me white, don't call me white". Now why would anyone say that?

Read this quote:

"I'm tired of the title "racist" being rocketed towards anyone that feels people should only come into our country LEGALLY. I feel this way and calling me a racist will not scare me. My family and I lived in Costa Rica for a year...LEGALLY. We didn't go ANYWHERE without our passports...even to the grocery store! I didn't call any phone where I was prompted to push 2 for English, EVER"

Pretty outraged ha? Pretty sick of the whole illegal deal ha? You want to know a secret? They were illegal when they lived here! Yup I asked her when I met her if they did their leaves, well no but my hubby is a Tico so it is ok. No it is not ok, yes you are illegal.

When I reminded her of this after she left this message on FB she said "tee hee, I knew you would catch that Robbie". Ok then why the heck did you say it? Why in the heck did you even set yourselves up as an example of righteousness?

Yeah "don't call me white".

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Gringa Feo?

We were invited to a friends birthday party this weekend. It was very nice and we enjoyed the company, well most of the company.

For some reason from the moment we moved here to Costa Rica three and a half years ago, there is one family in our circle that really does not like us. Actually they are racist and don't like anyone that is gringo or nica.

The thing is they don't even try to hide it. They will say really rude things to our family all of the time. Now these are not young people acting out of ignorance. They are the supposedly educated ones that should know better.

We are very good friends with their son-in-law and have complained to him several times of various offenses. O.k. for instance one time the "dowager" or mom of the clan, came up and started looking through my dreadlocks like she was looking for bugs. Her daughter laughed and told her to stop.

Think the really mean step mom and her really mean daughters in Cinderella.

In fact my daughter and her family will not even go to church with us or to any activity where this family is going to be. Which would be all of them.

For this birthday party I had brought a very good thai peanut noodle salad. Really good if I must say so myself. Hubby was in the dining room getting another plate of food and the dowager did not realize he was in the room. One of the other women in the room asked what the salad was. She responded that it was something the "gringa feo" brought.

Once she realized hubby was standing there she started back pedaling. For the first time she probably wished we did not know any Spanish. I walked in as he was questioning her about her comment and she was denying it. He just looked at me and told me what she had said. About this time someone had tasted the salad and they were all raving about it.

I have to admit it was weird they ate it on corn tortillas, but hey tortillas make everything better eh?

Back to my story. I was mostly just mad, but a little hurt. I am not used to grown women being so mean. Maybe I have been out of the loop too long and have not realized that people act like that. Please tell me it ain't so, people really don't act like that do they?

If so I will not go to anymore birthday parties for sure!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Meeting Bloggy Friends

Cool bloggy experience this weekend! We were at church and a young couple came in with their two cute little very blond little boys. That in itself is unusual of course. They were pretty late, so we assumed, rightly, that they had been lost. Our church is kind of hidden in a small neighborhood and a little hard to find. Like you don't find it unless you are really meant to.

After the meeting baby and I went up to meet them and she was in a hurry to check out the boys books. Of course she was eying them as soon as they got them out. The wife told me they were visiting from the U.S. and were thinking on moving to CR.

They are staying in Atenas, which I think is a beautiful place. We drive through there when we are going to the beach. It also is reported by National Geographic to have the most ideal climate in the world.

She shared with me that they had been feeling a draw for quite awhile to move to CR.

A few minutes later we were speaking with her husband and he told me that he had read my blog and written me a few months ago. I remembered his letter and it was so cool to actually meet someone I had only met online.

When I read other blogs by people in the U.S I am jealous that they get to meet each other. Now I have my first meeting with someone I met through my blog. It was really cool and my first thought was I did not have to worry about what they thought about me, they read my blog so therefore pretty much know my whole life story, at least the part I would tell people.

It is always fun to meet and talk with people who are considering relocating to Costa Rica. Of course I am very biased and love it here, so maybe I should find one of my friends who has gone back to the U.S. and have them talk to them. That way they would get a more objective response.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Writing Ebooks

I am in the process of writing my first book. Well it is not really my book per se. It is actually my sons book. He started writing poetry when he first went to jail two years ago. He took a break for awhile, but is back at it.

Once I started translating his poems and writing them down I ended up with about sixty of them. The amazing thing is this kid can really write. I have had a few of his words I have had to look up and have been amazed at how well he spells and his grammar.

It is good to see he learned something in all the years we were home schooling, and when he was in a public high school.

Now it is my turn to research and learn how to do this ebook thing for all his friends and family. It is so good to talk to him and hear him get excited about something. Heck I would probably deposit money and tell him people are buying his book, it would do so much for him right now.

I remember a movie where a lady was making these funky little wooden chairs. People were always buying them. One day she went into her boyfriends garage and found it packed with those funky chairs! Cool story.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

10 Miler and Coconut Water

I had a great 10 mile run today. Thanks in big part to hubby. He had read that coconut water, which our corner grocer sells, is chalk full of electrolytes. I had stopped to pee and drink after my 5 mile loop and he was there with my yummy coconut water.

I am happy to report that it worked wonders! Finished the next loop in better time than the first. Also I drank half of it when I was done and low and behold no after workout headache. I have been struggling with these for awhile now and was much relieved to have none!

Now I just have to find a way to take it along on my really long hike. I am thinking I will freeze some in a baggie the night before and pack it for the hike.

Gatorade and Powerade make me really sick to my stomach so I am very happy that hubby found me a really healthy replacement. Maybe your corner store does not sell it though?

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Politics, again

This has been a long week for my son-in-law's brother. Part of the reason my daughter and family moved to Hondurus was to help get his brother out of a very dangerous situation. He had befriended the head of a gang in his neighborhood and they were both on the "gang most wanted" list in town.

That was not a good thing and it was a real drag for a 19 year old kid. He could not go anywhere alone, especially not out at night. They had to whisk him out in a taxi and home again. He was pretty much hating life and anxious for a change.

His very generous hard working brother and sister in Spain offered to have him come live there. It would be a lot of money for both of them. The sister is a maid and the brother does woodworking for a cabinet maker. At any rate they were willing to make that sacrifice to get their brother to safety.

After about 10 very crazy mishaps they finally got him on a plane bound for San Pedro Seula, where he would catch a connection on to Mexico, on to France and end up in Spain. In order to even have a chance of getting let into France he had to have a week of paid reservations at a very expensive hotel in Spain.

Added to that the cost of the plane ticket and they were out about $4,000.00. That is a lot of money for them, heck that is a lot of money for anyone.

When he arrived at the airport in France they took him into detention and began questioning him. They said he needed six hundred more dollars. We scurried and made a deposit here for him on my daughter's card.

Everyday they would have more requirements. I just kept thinking of "Search for the Holy Grail" and expecting them to ask for a shrubbery!

Finally after holding him for the maximum time they could, four days they released him to go back to Hondurus. There was much weeping and wailing and sorrow over this decision.

Now it looks like it will pretty much fall on his shoulders to break off and try to get his life back.

And people wonder why illegal's take this risk? Maybe they really do want to live after all ha? Maybe they are not really there to "take advantage" of anyone at all. Maybe they are not "after" all the perks tax payers work so hard for. Maybe they are not wanting welfare or free health care or free schooling after all. Maybe they really just want to live!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Good Friends are Gold


We had a great day hanging out at Abroadincostarica's house! Their family is a blast and they even have teenagers, and the best part of all, her husband is an awesome cook! Went over to give a get well massage, made her cough lots, hope it helps!

We have both realized that our vacation time is about over and it is time to get back to work. The five years was great, and we have enjoyed it imensly. But too much of a good thing can get a bit boring.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Friends and Visitors



Our visitors will be leaving tomorrow. This group has been a blast and we are sad to see them go. Tweeny worked hard to make sure they had fun and saw as much of Costa Rica as possible in budget.

It was great to have a fellow dreadlocker around to compare notes with. I have actually never been face to face with another dreader and been able to have a long conversation with them about their dreads. It is always interesting to find out why, how and when they began their journey.

We had such fun having them here that I signed us up for couchsurfing. We are officially a cs family and will host visitors now. It is great because they can read our profile and make sure they even want to stay here, and we can read theirs and make sure we want them to stay here.

Hopefully we will meet lots of amazing world travelers and find some new and exciting places we would like to go and visit. That list seems to grow longer instead of shorter though.

When these guys asked me what they could do to repay us for letting them hang here for 10 days, I told them the only requirement was they had to play me in a game of Scrabble. Yesterday we had our killer match of Scrabble and they let me win as they were supposed to, and life is great.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Distance Junky

I have decided I am a distance junky. Well I always knew I sucked at short races, especially sprints, but I am really loving distance. It is like I actually come to life about an hour of doing the sport. The only exception would probably be swimming, just because swimming back and forth is so darn boring. Oh yeah and the windtrainer or treadmill would also be the exceptions here, gotta be outside.

In the past when I have participated in sprint or even olympic distance triathlons I have not done too well. Unless of course there were no other old ladies there and then attrition comes into play for sure.

When I did Ironman Utah a few years back I actually placed in the upper third of my age group. In looking at my stats, because I do that and am actually pretty weird about it, I have finally figured out, don't enter short fast races.

My daughter always wants me to do 10k's with her and I refuse. It takes me 10k just to get warmed up and get the blood out of my stomach and into my legs.

Today I did a 9 mile run. For about the first mile I was thinking about how long this run was going to be. By mile four I was feeling pretty good and thinking how glad I was to be doing another loop. I was even able to kick it out a bit by mile 9, it felt sooo good.

When my daughter and I were training for Tamarindo marathon last year we so enjoyed our long runs. In fact we decided that after the race we would continue our long runs once a week. Needless to say we did not. Now that I have something to train for and am back on the long runs I am remembering how darn good it feels.

I am trying to talk my friend here in Costa Rica into doing the San Jose marathon with me in Dec. I think I will have to talk until Dec. to convince her!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Blog Book

Maybe everyone else already knew about this, but I just found something really cool on here. I can have them make my blog entries into a book. There you go my journal for the past three years, complete with pictures all done for me. Now I just have to come up with the money then it is a done deal.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I Love Yoga



I love yoga! The only problem is that yoga does not love me so much. I have had theories about my sacrum issues being that it is either locked up or unstable. Now those are two very different theories with two very different treatments.

So either I try to strengthen and tighten the area or I try to loosen and open up the sacrum. Yoga obviously aims for the second option.

For four months I practiced yoga every evening. It is impossible for me to do yoga in the mornings, so I found I could do it in the afternoon or evening. Anyway so I would work slowly and within my pain threshold to try and get results. Unfortunately the only results I got was pain and soreness.

I hurt all the time and could hardly move. It did not work for me. That is a big problem when you practice ayurveda and your hubby is a yoga instructor. I have decided to try Kundalini yoga. I have tried it before and it seems to work better for me.

The opposite treatment, that of tightening and strengthening works for me. In fact I have to run, swim or walk every day just to be able to move. In other words if I don't move I can't move.

I have tried specific core strengthening exercises and have found I have to be very careful. Using the physio ball works much better for me than anything I have ever used.

The biggest thing? Do not under any circumstances sneeze and twist your body at the same time :)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Pity Party

I am having a pity party. Everyone is invited! You just have to fulfill a couple of requirements. The first of course is that you have to be feeling extremely sorry for yourself. I mean not just a little sad, really sorry for yourself. You have to be thinking you are the worst mother in the world, and everyone in the world knows it. You also have to be thinking that you have screwed up your kids for ever and ever and they will never have a normal happy life, ever, ever.

Doubting every decision you have ever made in relation to your children would also be a good thing. Remembering every mistake you made, every time you ever yelled, every time you did not yell, every time you looked at them wrong! These all add to the party quite well. Heck throw in the fact that you had a lousy birth with them and dropped them a few times helps also.

Of course you have to look at your life and think of everything you would of should of could of done differently is ideal for a pity party. There are so many things you did bassackwards and that for sure added to the fact that you have screwed up their lives so well.

I love that line in "Fun With Dick and Jane" by the way when they are looking at having to lose their house and she says," then we would have to move and he would lose all of his friends and he would grow up a social misfit with no friends and nothing to show for his whole life". When we watch that movie all my kids laugh and say that is so mom!

The things that would spoil my pity party? Well of course looking at all these really cool people that we have raised the best we could and seeing that, man are they cool people. Like even if they were not my kids I would love hanging out with them. I mean I would even call them on the phone and ask them to go to lunch or something, and I don't do that very often.

In reflecting on my pitiful mood today I realized that in reality I was just feeling "guilty". Man I hate that word! It is a loaded word and I have to write things like the above to realize that I really have no reason to feel guilty. Part of the price of being a Mormon is the guilt train that we all tend to ride, quite often actually.

Can you just imagine we are supposed to multiply and replenish the earth, keep the word of wisdom, be temple worthy and prepare the kids for this, teach our daughters to be wonderful homemakers like us, get our sons to serve two year missions, never have your kids get arrested or in trouble etc. etc. etc.....

As you can see lots of room for guilt on that plate. I have gotten into the habit of taking the whole church tradition out of my feelings about people in general. In other words I ask myself," if I was not measuring this person against the church how would I feel about them?" I think it is sad that I have to do this to set aside my judging, but I do. I was raised that way, it is in my DNA.

The really bad part is I don't just judge others harshly, I also judge myself this way. That, my friends would explain why I have to have pity parties. So the party is over, done with and I am on my way to make something to eat. I made a cake earlier that I dropped getting out and broke my favorite brownie pan and just turned and walked out of the kitchen. Just added to the party really well as refreshments!

Have a great Mothers Day and try to focus on the positives, just like I did :)

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Resting



I hate watching t.v. I have nothing to read. I can only computer so much. So I have a new hobby. I have been knitting like a crazy woman. I really enjoy having an excuse to sit, and actually accomplish something while I am sitting, yeah maybe a tad bit type A.

As you can see these two fellas refuse to let me sit alone. They get as excited when I sit to knit as they do when we get the leashes out for their walk! I have trained them that they each get to sit on one side of me, that way they don't fight.

If I do not have knitting they will fight over who is going to sit on my lap. We finally get rid of all the babies and we end up with these two brats. They are so funny and so different.

In this picture I am knitting a pink scarf for a friend of mine. She just got well from pneumonia so I thought she should be covering her face when she goes out in the cold evenings. I used to laugh at the folks here in Costa Rica when I saw them in scarfs.

That is until I caught a horrible five month bronchial infection. After that I became a firm believer in covering my mouth if I go out in the evening and it is cold and damp. That damp cold here just goes right into your body.

I just hope she has been here long enough to be a believer in the scarf theory.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

IT Geek to the Rescue



There are times when being married to an IT geek comes in very handy. Like when you need a web site programmed. This IT guy is great! He figured out how to do all the edits we needed on our web site, and sure surprised himself.

Not only that, but he found time to paint the kitchen, hallway and touch up the front room. What a catch ha?

Oh yeah almost forgot. He also grilled hamburgers for the missionaries for dinner. What a man :)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Ohhh Yeah Triathlon Time

The news just in! There will be a half-iron man in Feb. of 2011 in Guanacaste!!!!!! I am soooo excited I have been thinking about it all day. Check it out here.

Now that is a goal I can sink my teeth into. And to think it will be just in our own back yard. And a real legit race, put on professionally. After the marathon I did in Tamarindo last year I will be very careful about any race I sign up for here in Costa Rica.

It is kind of like buying merchandise here. You are never really sure if it is what it says. They stick labels on anything, because there are no copyright laws. So you never really know if you are getting what it says you are getting.

But this, now this is gonna be the real thing. I am so ready to do this. Well not really ready to do it do it, just like ready to sign up and get thinking, planning and training for it. Of course this may mean no Ironman Cozumel. That was kind of looking like a bad timing thing, but this, man this is perfect.

I did ask hubby if he would be disappointed in me if I only did a half iron-man for my 50th yr rather than a full distance. He was o.k. with it, of course since we will save a ton of money this way and probably a couple years added onto my life.

Oh yeah for those wondering there is also a sprint and olympic distance race the day before the half. I am trying to talk my teen into doing the sprint. She is heck of a swimmer and runs quite a bit already. Just have to get her on a bike. s

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Sabatical


Taking a little break from blogging here. Just adjusting sails and trying to get grounded. Baby has finally made the decision to "quit" school and I am beyond thrilled. I was wondering when she would finally come to this decision. I really wanted it to be her own.

We work hard to encourage her to make decisions and do what she wants to do. The problem is she has her attachment disorder and we have a hard time convincing her it is o.k. to do what she wants. She is always so worried about what everyone else wants.

There has been some real growth this month as she has started crying. It really just took finding something she was passionate about. That would be the computer. That girl loves playing on the computer. She will play all day. When we tell her time to shut down she will cry.

You have to understand she loves cartoons also. I mean really loves t.v. But she has never cried when we tell her to shut it off. She also loves to play with her friends, but never cries when we tell her time to go. I am not sure if it was computer or if we are really breaking through here. Hopefully really breaking through.

When she announced she "quit" school she did it in a funny way. We were sitting on the couch and she whispered that she quit school. Almost as if she did not know if that was the word she was searching for. We all looked at her and smiled, then she said it louder. Finally she shouted and her sister high fived her! She was all smiles at that point.

On another adventure for sure.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

The Disease of Consumerism

Do you think that the people of the rich U.S are the only ones cursed with the disease of consumerism? I am here to guarantee you it is also alive and well in second and third world countries as well.

Thanks to the wonders of the media now people the world over are feeling like they are missing out and going crazy for the latest wonders floating in from China and Mexico.

My daughter lives with her in-laws in Hondurus. Her mom in law makes the minimum wage there, which is equivalent to $300.00 a month.

Her teenage son really wanted a soccer jersey for his favorite team there. Which by the way the rival gangs are based around these soccer teams. Her teenage son was very happy, especially considering it cost her $75.00 at the mall to buy it.

When she got home with it her teenage daughter threw a screaming stomping fit because she felt she should have one also. Her mother explained she would get her one from the Mercado, she replied that she would never wear anything from the Mercado.

While I was talking on skype to my daughter her hubby came in and told her that he was going to the mall with his mom. Yup you got it, to get another jersey for his little sister.

What a crazy world we live in!