Grandkids and schooling

Today I received in the mail a irreplaceable gift. A picture book of my Costa Rica grandkids. Even though I see them often I highly value hard copy, old fashioned pictures. My daughter did it online and we received it today in the mail. It is soooo cool! My favorite gift yet for sure.

Another gift I received today was that my 6 year old finally got it! I mean it finally clicked and she started putting the sounds together to read words, yahoooo! I am really excited and maybe tomorrow she will forget, but just for today I will enjoy the feeling of success that at least thinking she got it is giving me!

I have taught all six of my other children to read and would never let anyone else enjoy the great sense of joy that we both discover together when we accomplish this goal. There are days, like the past post that I really believe it is never going to click. And then one day they just get this little sparkle in their eye and wallah, they get it. That was our reading day today and I am so excited to get moving with her now. I have a feeling she is really going to take off now that she is reading. Harvard or Yale here we come!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BEN

My grandson it just the cutest one year old in the whole world! I can actually say the cutest boy in the whole world since I only have one grandson! Here he is trying to get the camera from Grandma. he thinks he should get anything and everything he wants, and we usually oblige him. Just because he is so darn cute and sweet.

Here Mr. Guapo is making ojitos at me to try another method of getting the camera from me. If the fit does not work on Grandma maybe the ojitos will work. You gotta admit they are pretty cute.

We spent the afternoon shopping at the mall for babies birthday presents. I bought him tools, because he loves getting into his daddys' so much. I just looked at the box and it says not to let anyone under three play with it! I guess we will have to take some of the small parts away.

Tomorrow is also a bridal shower for a friend of ours. She is 19 and has been seeing her boyfriend for five years. He is 35. They met because he was her teacher in high school. Sounds strange, ok probably is strange, but here completely acceptable.

They will be getting married and then attending the temple. In Costa Rica you have to be married by a lawyer, so the marriages are done outside the temple and then you get sealed in the temple. She is just happy they both have good jobs and a house.

Here the sons live at home, as her fiance has, until they get married, whatever age that may be. It is important to them to have a house and car before they get married, and that can take a few years sometimes. They do seem very patient about that. We are just happy for them and look forward to celebrating with them!

HYPER MOMENT

Noooo don't stir it yet!!!! This is the perfect example of a hyper grandma working with her hyper grand daughter! Poor little thing brought home a note from her preschool teacher. Apparently she is not "listening".
Well being her grandma I am inclined to believe they are not explaining themselves well enough. You have to remember here her first language is not Spanish and cut the kid some slack. Of course there is the point my daughter brings up that she does not listen in English either. Poo poo!
Now we are all tossing around the adhd thing and looking at her every move under a microscope. And the good news is after all the serious studies of her behavior I just declare her very much like her grandma!
There is nothing wrong with that, I spent my whole dang elementary school years with my head down on my desk for talking and causing trouble. Hard to believe for those who know me, but true.
The fact of the matter is if they had known then what they know now how many of us would have been medicated? Except my hubby of course who was medicated, before it was even fashionable. I did not even know they mad ritlan that long ago or maybe he was one of the test subjects!
At any rate we really don't have to worry for a few more years, until she is flunking all of her classes and getting into trouble or something worth worrying about!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there who are near and dear. I think about all the mothers that have been influental in my life including my own Mom. There was my best friends mom when I was a kid. They lived across the street from us in Calif. When I was 6 and my father passed away her father was there with us. Her Mom was always there for us. She would take me school clothes shopping with her own daughter and buy me clothes for school.
Then of course there was the mother of my hubby. She was raised in a boarding school in Canada. She had a very rough childhood and then married a very difficult man. They relocated to the U.S. and she did the best job she could to raise four children far from home and family. She has not had an easy life but continues to try and be cheerful and lift those around her.
Of course there are the mothers of my grandkids. My daughter-in-law is a saint. She endured the first five years of marriage and three kids with an alcoholic husband. There were times when she was the sole bread winner as well as trying to take care of my son. Now she is happily a stay at home mom and loving it.
My own daughter of course is awesome. they always say that you know you have done a good job of parenting if your children are a step above you. I think I must have done something right because she is a great Mom. Being the provider for her family, as well as the spiritual leader and going to school full-time. Lots on her plate and she keeps up with it all very well indeed.
And of course a happy day to my own cool mom. I have talked of her often and bragged about how cool, and totally awesome she is. I have decided she is and always will have to be the caregiver, but it is good because someone has to do it.
I just wish a happy and peaceful day to all on this special day.

GRANDMAS DAY

I got lucky enough to hang out with the grandkids today. They have been great, not going to set that in stone yet as I'm still here. The baby actually went to sleep with no complaint and Loca girl is chillin and watching tunes. As you can see by looking she could be getting into lots of trouble so I am counting my blessings.

We only had to have three people call, send an email, and write on both white boards to remind the hubby to pick up our baby at school! I thought he was forgetful in our younger years and man it just keeps going. I am going to have to pin a note to his shirt with his name and phone and directions home on it :)

In three months we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary and it is surely a miracle. When we were getting ready to be married, I was all of 17 and he was 23, our friends and family had so much faith in our marriage they had placed bets on how long we would last. That in and of itself kept us going long enough to fall in love and grow up a little bit.

Actually strike the growing up part, that still has not really happened. You know when you are young and you go to your parents for advice and wisdom? I still do that actually. But I was thinking today how when my kids ask my advice I usually have no clue what to say. I have lots of experience but do not really know how to advise a right or wrong way to do anything. I guess that verifys the adage the older I get the less I know.

Happy Saint Patricks day to all and we are still trying to explain to our baby that you pinch people who don't have green on, not the ones who do have green on. Maybe next year. It is not a big holiday here in Costa Rica, but the biggy, Semana Santa is coming right up and will be a fun one. Everything and I mean everything is shut down for the week and it is like a ghost town here. I hear it is madness at the beach so have avoided the crowds there.

LITTLE TINY COMPUTER

You know the law, the one that says when it rains it pours? We are in one of those places right now and I must say it is much funner to blog when things are better. Our computer died so I am using my daughters' itsy bitsy one. It works good, just hard to type on.
Then my hubby broke his glasses over the weekend so is walking around blind until Thurs. I just hope he does not walk in front of a car, because he does that anyway even when he can see.
Of course there are the costs of having a family member in jail. Lots of hidden costs they don't tell you about before you sign up by the way. Like the fact that everytime someone puts money on your account they take a percentage of it. And like everytime you make a fifty dollar payment, which is minimum for phone calls, they take six of it for fees. You would think losing your freedom and contact with your loved ones is punishment enough, but some greedy guys evidently do not think it is enough.
Just think about all the families with not enough money to talk to their inmate, that is sad. I am just really thankful we can talk to our special inmate finally, took awhile but we can talk now.
It does seem from talking to others we are not the only ones having a hard time right now. And I do have to admit we have a heck of a lot to be thankful at the same time. Just to name one is seven healthy kids and five healthy grandkids. Those are the things you would not trade anything in the world for.
It's just Dad, or grandpa can't see them :)

OMG

So I had the biggest, and I mean biggest and bestest surprise of my whole life. My son in the above photo surprised me and showed up for pizza tonight! My kids managed to keep it from me from the past week and a half.
Even my grand daughter knew, they say even the dog knew, but not me and the hubby. I kind of did a cross between a scream and a cry when he started banging on the gate.
My daughter pretended her and her hubby were going out to dinner so I kept the kids. The younger sis was supposed to babysit and skipped off with the boyfriend. I was just done yelling at her and making her apologize to her sis. when someone banged on the gate. I ran out because we were all inside and no one else should be there.
There was the tallest guy in all of Costa Rica holding three pizzas, looking like he had had a very long flight.
I have been feeling a little blue because it has been one year this month since we saw Micah free, so this really cheered and lifted my heart. I give a big thank you and lots of love to my son, and other children for making this happen.

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.

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.