Lazy Daze

Puerto Viejo with the family. It was beautiful and the food was great, oven baked pizza!
The trip from Hell! Our bus got caught up in a strike by the truckers traveling across Central America. What should have been a five hour trip to Nicaragua ended up being an eight hour trip.
Senior and Senora Viejo in Puerto Viejo a fun trip.
A mother daughter moment in Viejo!
Tattoo time with her big brother.

O.K. so I have had a bit of a lazy spell about blogging. I really should not do that as I am planning to blog to book all my posts and that is about as far as I get on the whole scrap booking idea. I have included a few recent pictures to update out big adventure.

When we moved here four and a half years ago I never imagined the effect the move would have on me. I can't speak for the rest of the family, but for me it has been a life changing adventure.

One of my sons called me from the U.S. today to tell me about how he almost got a ticket for riding his skate board through a stop sign. It was the most bizzare feeling in the world to realize that it made no sense to me. It also made me wonder how it ever made sense to me. I asked my family " if you are driving in your car and you get pulled over they can give you a ticket if you do not have a seat belt on. Why?"

No one could answer that question. It no longer makes sense to us.

I have also had my named removed off the rolls of the mormon church. I cannot talk bad about my experience in the church. It was what it was and I am ready to move on. There are many, many people who are very bitter about their experience in what they refer to as the "cult".

It was always my choice and I could have left at any point and time. We are glad to be done with that phase of our lives and look forward to the life and adventures ahead. Peace and pura vida!

Riot Police for Easter

O.K. so we just discovered another really strange tradition here in Costa Rica. While riding home from the grocery store in our taxi we saw several vans of cops in full riot gear in a little barrio or neighborhood close to ours. They were all around the elementary school and the main street. The taxi driver was trying to explain to us what was going on, but we did not really understand it.

Once we got home we had my daughter come out to translate what the heck was going on in town. He told her it was the tradition of "burning the jews". Evidently on Easter eve the teens go crazy and run all over burning everything in sight and call it the "burning of the jews". That sounds pretty messed up to me.

The moral of this story would certainly be not to travel to Costa Rica over Easter if you are Jewish. In fact with a last name like Neumann I believe we will put our big Mormon sign on the gate and keep my hubby with the big snozz in the house tonight.

Things I Was Not Supposed to Have to Do.....

As a Mormon mom I just assumed there were things I would never have to do. Like for some reason I thought my kids would be smarter than other kids and not make the same stupid mistakes and therefore I would not have to do certain things.

There are not any guarantees in this life. In other words just because you have FHE every single week, and read your scriptures every single day as a family, and pray together twice a day or more, still there are no guarantees!

Your family will still be tried, tempted and thrown to the wolves. The best news though? Jesus died for us and we can repent. When I think about that I just shake my head and know there is hope for all of us, not just wayward children, but all of us. Their mistakes are much more evident but they don't necessarily make any more than the rest of us, just more visible.

In the meantime I will be thankful for them and keep on praying!

Visiting Teaching

For church we are each assigned two or three ladies from church to visit and keep an eye out for. It is a great system, when it works. I read an article on a blog about how Mormons are great at circling their wagons. That is the truth and that is the purpose behind visiting teaching. If you visit these sisters you know when something is not going well and they need help. A new baby, sick kids, family tragedies and sometimes just a bit of depression or something like that is great reasons for wagons to circle.

I have had the wagons circle for our family and will be forever grateful for those who helped. After baby six I had an abdominal catastrophe that called for two weeks in the hospital after baby, and about four weeks of bed rest. The ladies from church, as well as friends from the Post Office brought in meals for six weeks. That is a long time to get people to cook for a family of eight! They were awesome meals too.

This month I was determined to visit the three women assigned to me and a friend. She speaks a little English and they speak none, nada! I spent the last three days baking bread and cookies and fudge to pack up for them. I sent my daughter with the goodies and let her explain to them, her Spanish is much better than mine.

One of the ladies sent home a gift for our family. A little loaf of fruit cake, drenched in rum. Yup that's right a rum cake to our Mormon family from their Mormon family LOL!!!