Intervention

I think it is time for intervention. I did double workouts today! aughhhh! I swore I would not go there again, but I just could not resist the pool. It was calling me and I did not make it there yesterday due to the rain. Had a great run this morning with no pain in the ankle or back. Got home had a bit of rice and thought, hmmmm baby is at school, everyone is occupied, why not? Hopped on the bus and hurried down for a one hour swim workout. It felt great. I have been having struggles with my goggles, but hey just makes it more interesting when I am swimming along and all the sudden my dreads are swimming all around me and my goggles are swimming next to me!

Speaking of swimming with dreads. It is very interesting to take off from the wall with a head full of little sponges. Creates some great drag that I am hoping will work in my favor once I put them in a cap and swim without the drag. Kind of like the swimmers who get all haired up and then shave right before a competition.

The cool part is they are getting really bleached out from swimming outside. I keep having to adjust the coloring of the roots to match the lightening of the dreads. I love, love, love swimming outside. It is so different than swimming in the indoor pool in Flagstaff. I do miss having a coach and my swimming buddies, but it is a great pay off.

Today was senior citizen day at the pool. Like I was the youngest one there. Not the fastest, just the youngest!

Home Sweet Home

Be it ever so humble there's no place like home! We are always very happy after a leave to return to kith and kin, and of course our own house. Always a little anxious about whether all is well, especially when we leave the 21 yr. old here alone. I swear you would think he was a 21 month old, in fact that would probably be better. Looks like we will have to hire a babysitter next time :)

I never thought when we moved to Costa Rica three and a half years ago that I would ever feel so at home here. I have the same feeling I used to get when we returned home to Flagstaff from the Valley. We would feel so good to get out of the oppressive heat and get into the clean cool air of Flagstaff. Now we are in the same boat. In San Rafael where we live it is about ten degrees cooler than the beach. It feels literally like "a breath of fresh air" when we return to our mountain home.

Not to mention cooking our own healthy foods and the hot instead of cold shower! Early this morning as we were driving through Nicaragua back to the border on the bus, I spotted an old lady taking a cold shower outside her house! She lived in a shack and was dumping a tub of cold water over her head! They are actually used to that here and think we are the crazy ones because we like hot showers.

San Jaun Del Sur

Well here we are again, 90 days later hanging at the beach, shooting the bull with Jerry over at Jerry´s pizza shop. Yeah it is a rough life I gotta admit it. On the bus coming over here I had a real show stopper thought. You know one of those ahah moments. What if I have had all the ¨joy¨in my life? Like what if the wonderful moments I have had in my life were it and I was too busy and serious to catch them? That whole thought really helped me get grounded and think some really happy thoughts. Like feeling bent out of shape because I have to leave for four days and hang at the beach. What the heck? By the way we have made some really cool discoveries while being here that we were unable to make when we had the girls with us.Cool!

One of these was a room for fifteen bucks a night for the two of us. We have been paying fifty! Also a bus over here for one dollar instead of twenty five. Heck yeah! Then we have found lots of little grocers or supers that have sprung up making food much more affordable now. And the weather has been the best. Usually we come during the rainy season and it is hot and humid. Now about eighty and cool breeze, beautiful. My heart goes out to my Flagstaff friends buried under five feet of snow. But you know what? I had tons of joyful moments buried up to my eyeballs in snow too!

First Swim Jitters

Part of the reason I have not been swimming is because the downtown pool is freakin freezing. I mean to tell you it is freezing. So I have been fretting and worrying about getting my butt into that freezing pool.

Then I got to thinking about my years of swimming with the masters in Flagstaff. Getting up at five a.m. every morning, scraping the ice off the car windows, in my pj's no less, and dragging to the pool 15 miles away. I pretty much slept through the workout, which was a good thing, but man was I tired all day.

Now I will head down around eightish, on the bus, swim my own workout, and be home in time to home school the girlies. Not sure what I will do once massage classes start, but maybe do the afternoons. The only hard part once again, is the unheated pool.

The good news is that by Friday the pool will be warming up. Yup they fill it on Sunday and by the end of the week it starts warming up, but it is dirty also. I think I prefer dirty and a little warmer. As you can see by the picture though it is beautiful and I am sure thankful to be so close to it.

You know the saddest part is that I will probably be the exact same speed I was eight years ago. When I swam everyday I was the same speed as when I only swam once a week. In other words after six weeks of swimming with the masters I was no faster. It was easier, but no faster. Of course unfortunately the same can be said about running club. I went for about four years and never got any faster. My only goal at running club was to keep up with my friend, the one that was 62 years old!

Snow Storms Back Home

Flagstaff is getting slammed! They are up to 20" and counting. Times like these I am really thankful for my sunburn and broken out lips here in Costa Rica. Went on a nice warm run this morning in shorts and tank and had a great day in school.

Tomorrow we will be doing coffee scrubs in lieu of salt glows since our student has already had salt glows and never had coffee scrubs. And in Costa Rica you should certainly be doing a coffee scrub.

We don't drink coffee, but supposedly it is great for your circulation, and even gets rid of cellulite, we will see tomorrow. I invited Bekah over to try it out with us, the more the merrier and that way we can have more people to check it out on.

Off to fight the mosquitoes and try to get some sleep.

Winter

Brrr! We are into winter now, and it is cold. We have actually been into the sixties in the nights and only up to the seventies during the day. Time to get the sweaters out. I have begun to prefer the rainy season as it is at least hot during the morning until it rains in the afternoon.

Today we took baby to Ropa Americana to get some warm shirts. She about freezes because of no body fat! Good thing we live in Costa Rica where she is able to stay somewhat warm. Of course I believe we have just become really wimpy. Considering the brutal winters we have suffered from for years in Flagstaff.

BABIES AND PARTIES

I have realized that one of the main things I miss about no more babies, is no more baby showers! I remember with fondness the cute table settings, placement card holders and the great gifts for the party goers. My last baby shower was a doozy! My friend had it for me and there were the cutest baby shower favors as well as tons of pink clothes.

My friends had gone all out because we all knew I was not having any more children and had barely survived this one. Everyone had asked me what I needed and I told them all "pink clothes". I had been the lucky recipient of three boys in a row and was very excited to finally get a baby girl.

The fanciest baby shower I ever went to was one thrown by a friend in Flagstaff. She went all out, and I mean all out. She had cooked for days and had a huge spread of food. The games were a hoot. My favorite was one me and my daughter won. You had to cut a string the length of the mommys belly. It was so fun to see how short and how long some people cut it.

Here in Costa Rica we are always searching for an excuse for a party. I have been thinking about a party for my daughter once she is pg. The only problem I am having is, is it appropriate to have a baby shower for a surrogate mom? I mean we could all bring gifts for the mommy, as the baby will be going to Europe to be born and live. I have seen on one web site lots of gifts for moms, like pedicure sets and pretty pajamas and etc. I guess I will have to check on a miss manners site to see if it is kosher.

PIERCINGS

When I was 11 I got tired of asking my mom to get my ears pierced, and being told no, so my best friend Karen and I took things into our own hands. We got some ice, a clothes pin, a needle and some thread and got to work. Too bad they did not have google back then would have saved lots of pain. Anyway after icing, and clothes pinning, to numb the ear she did the poke! Oh yeah and we had a half potato behind the ear to keep it from moving.
After my mom saw my ears with the thread in them she finally felt really sorry for me and took me to buy some really cheap earrings. About two weeks and lots of pain and pus later I took out the earrings and gave up on pierced ears.
A few years later I got brave again and went to have them done professionally. I even bought the really expensive gold earrings and hoped for the best. Two weeks and lots of pain and pus later I took out the earrings and once again gave up on pierced ears.
About six years ago I decided that maybe I could trick my body since it was older and maybe pull off a pair of earrings. I did not even wait two weeks this time, after a couple of days I could see that my body was once again rejecting foriegn materials and it was not going to work.
Not to mention the fact that while swimming laps with the masters in Flagstaff I turned to take a breath and pulled one of the posts clear out of my ear on the lane line! That was a sure sign to me and I have not even considered trying ever again.
Well my kids have always felt sorry for me and totally compensated for me not being able to wear earrings. They have pierced ears, and not just with earrings they have used gauges, pencils you name it. They have pierced noses, eyebrows, lips, chins, chest, nipples, tongues and probably other unmentionalbe places.
Why on earth would they subject themselves to this pain? I have not figured that one out yet to be sure. My son came home last week with "snake bites" in his chin and a thingy in his eyebrow. I have watched him nurse those holes with all kinds of remedies in including ibprophin. Seems crazy to me.
I did see a special on the t.v. about piercing places where they actually "hook". They put a meat hook looking thingy through trigger points in your back and chest to release endorphins. The people getting hooked said they felt really high for days after wards! I am wondering how they felt once the high wore off and they started feeling the pain from the holes???????????

SNOW AND GROCERIES

I received a message from a friend today that it is snowing in Flagstaff. I remember those spring days when it would snow and I would want to cry. When we decided it was time to open our massage school we knew we wanted to move somewhere that had no snow.
As we tell people we moved South until we found a place we could afford to live and ended up in Costa Rica. I am having second thoughts though as food prices continue to climb here. We spent almost one hundred dollars on groceries and the three of us could carry them in in one trip.
That is how I measure how much food we buy. If we can get them in in one trip it is not too good. I can remember when the kids were young and we would get the whole suburban filled in the back for two hundred dollars.
That would last us for two weeks. Now if I spend two hundred for the four of us, it would last maybe ten days two weeks if we really watch it. So my question is what are people eating these days? How is everyone affording to eat all the expensive stuff?
We eat very basic, I mean pasta, beans, rice, vegees and everything from scratch and still have to really stretch things. We hardly even buy cheese and the good stuff anymore. The tipico cheese here is ok, but sometimes we just crave some good ole' cheddar cheese.

GOOD FRIDAY

Happy Good Friday to all. I don't know if that is the way to say it or not, but at any rate hope everyone enjoyed the day and had real spring weather. We were remembering all the cold snowy Easters' we spent in Flagstaff. Taking the kids out when the wind was blowing about a hundred miles an hour for their forced hunt.
One year we decided to do the money eggs. So I had one egg with a $20.00 in it, a couple with $10.oo, s in it and some with $5.00,s and $1.00 bills. The amazing thing was the "tall one" found all the money eggs. Now how the heck did he do that? There were actually a couple of ones left but that was all.
A few days later, once everyone had forgotten about the incident he finally admitted how he had done it. He had found the eggs before I hid them, emptied them, and just said he found all the ones with the money in them. Pretty sneaky and he about got flogged good for that one.
You can certainly understand why I have hired him to be our business manager for our school :) I feel like I have been given an extra hand with him managing the web site and all the business issues, wonderful.
To celebrate Good Friday we (meaning me and sort of the girlies) made these super cool eggs! I bet you are trying to figure out how the heck we made these aren't you? Well they are literally "tye died". That is right we wrapped them in old silk ties from the thrift store and boiled them for 20 minutes. Aren't they beautiful?
You can see we were able to get two eggs from each tie, and we were just amazed. Try it out, just put 2 Tbls. of vinegar in with a pot of boiling water and boil them up. Oh yeah after you wrap the egg in the tie and put a twisty tie on it, wrap it again in a old white fabric to keep the ties from bleeding.
I was explaining to my son-in-law that I was wrapping them in white to keep them from "bleeding" and the girlies got very horrified expressions on their faces. It took awhile to explain that one for sure!

Then because we still had not had enough fun or mess we decided to make the little birdies nest below. The recipe called for a bag of white chocolate chips, yeah right we are lucky to find brown chocolate chips, so I bought white chocolate chunks. Then of course it called for sweetened coconut and that is another "can't find" here. So we kind of ab libbed and they turned out pretty cute.
The only sticky point came when I told my grand daughter that she had to put all the jelly beans in the nests, boy that was a little bit testy there. It was a fun activity for them though and they taste very sweet and rich.
Now off to the pool tomorrow and hopefully the girlies will be able to wait until Sunday to find their eggs and eat their bird nests!

VALENTINES WOES

Four days until Valentines day and I am fresh out of ideas! I think you just run out of ideas after so many years and I am racking my brain for something fun and romantic for the evening. There are some memorable ones we have had.

I can remember one year we went out for dessert with some friends and then hiking on Fatmans Loop in Flagstaff. There was a blanket of snow on the ground and a full moon. It was beautiful and not even too cold.

Last year we went out for a movie at the mall and then for Italian food downtown Heredia. I think we will not go out to eat this year. I really cook better than any of the restaraunts around here and don't feel like waiting in line in San Jose.

Maybe I will think on the lines of something besides food! Now that is a novel thought, focus on something besides food. Is there any other way to celebrate than without food?

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!