School Time

School starts in two weeks aughhh! It seems like baby just got out for summer break and it is time for her to return already. Her very lovely teacher has been spending an hour every week working with her and getting her ready for second grade. I keep thinking I want to homeschool but she is having so much fun I hate to take her out. I suppose as long as she is enjoying, learning and having a positive experience we will leave her there.
We have been in an ongoing battle with aerocasillas over mail delivery. Evidently thanks to homeland security you are very limited on what you can mail to yourself these days. That would include a mate gourd as well as some mate and a tatoo kit. Get real what is the problem?
I am trying to talk grandma into visiting and delivering gifts with her visit. She has not visited in the four and a half years we have lived here and I believe she would love it.
Daughter and her family have found a great three bedroom house right around the corner from us. It is nice to have a little elbow room but still have them close enough to run over.
Teeny worked for two and a half weeks at a call center taking verbal abuse for eight to twelve hours a day and decided it was not really what she wanted to do with her life. Now to get her studying and ready to take her exams. She really wants to go to estitian school. That would be fun for her and combined with her massage training she could work well at any spa.
We still have the "guy on the chair" playing his game non stop. I love computer and internet surfing but this guy puts me right to shame. Our oldest son is planning on moving here for awhile to chill and get his life together.
We really thought we found a pretty good hiding place here in Costa Rica but evidently not :) Actually I love having the tribe around and we are enjoying hanging out, going to the beaches doing leaves etc. Pura Vida!

Here's Your Sign

Yesterday was Sunday so naturally we went to church. During the first meeting the Primary President, who was sitting behind us gave this beautiful braclet to baby. Do you know what that plant is? I surely don't think she did because it is a pot plant. Now I have to admit it is a darn pretty braclet, but I was a little shocked nonetheless.

I guess I can't really complain considering the fact the Y.W. President carries a really cute bag with pot plants all over it. Only in Costa Rica, pura vida!

JULY FOURTH CELEBRATION ON THE THIRD

Another great fourth of july picnic for all us ex-pats here in Costa Rica. It was great this year and for our second one we were very impressed with all the food, we did eat our way through the whole thing, as well as the kids games and activities as well as the marine flag ceremony.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone and let's not forget that we are losing more and more freedoms as we type and speak. It would be a good time to contact your senator and encourage them to vote no on the cap and trade.

Enjoy the Fourth of July and be safe, pura vida!

SINGER IN OUR MIDST

Take some time and give a listen to Melissa on the sidebar. She has an amazing voice and I love the song she sings. I was especially surprised because I did not know she was a singer, cool surprise. Our students never cease to amaze us.

We have had a student who is now sailing around on private yachts doing massage and being a stewardess. Wouldn't that be cool? The best part is her boyfriend is a captain so they sign on together and get to see all kind of cool places together.

Another student is preparing to take his National Exam and put himself through a Physical Therapist program doing his massage.

Then of course we have a couple of students right now who actually live here in Costa Rica and plan to incorporate their massage into their businesses here. One is doing an distance Naturopath program and will use the massage with that. The other is considering a fitness center, which would be a great hit in her neck of the woods.

I just feel really fortunate to get to know and work with all these awesome people and teach them the art and science of massage. I can't really think of anything I would rather be doing than sharing something I love with a bunch of really cool people, pura vida for sure!

A COSTA RICA THING

There is a "game" tonight! You may wonder what kind of game, unless of course you have ever lived in Central America, in which case you would automatically know it is a futbal game, or better known as soccer.

What can shut down an entire town, tie up every taxi in town, and cause people to throw bags of pee and all other sorts of vile behavior, again soccer games. It can get these otherwise laid back totally pura vida folks fired up like none other.

All the cars are driving around with above colors on their cars, all the stores decorated, all the people painted and wearing hats and clothes. To say it is an exciting moment is an understatement.

We have acclimated accordingly and are totally into it ourselves. There are weirder traditions.

For example at dinner last week my 5 yr. old baby said that they had all, the girls that is, unbottened their dresses and buttoned them back up in class. O.K. so I was pretty cool about it and did not even choke on my food. Upon further questioning she said that the boys did not see anything because their teacher made them sit behind the girls while they unbottoned their dresses.

It would not be a big deal but the dresses button all the way down the front. She was very adament about the fact that the boys could not see them because they were sitting behind them. I was still a bit confused about why they would be doing this.

Yesterday my hubby talked to the teacher to find out why our baby was unbottoning her dress in school. The teacher explained it was an exercise to practice their buttoning skills. I don't know about you but we used little wooden dolls with shirts on them to practice our buttoning skills. I am afraid of what they will do to practice their zipping skills :)

PURA VIDA SPA

Today we visited Pura Vida Spa for a field trip. One of the many perks of owning a massage school! It is a beautiful spa located in the hills above Alajeulah. We wanted to introduce the students to a spa, and let them see how it works there.

I have never worked in a spa, and neither has Rick, so this is the next best thing. The spa coordinator was wonderful and we got a great tour of the grounds as well as getting all the students questions answered.

The coordinator was very curious if any of the students were staying as they can always use more hands during high season. From the looks of the schedule the therapists there were pretty busy this time of year.

Right now it is high season, because of course it is dry and very warm. A great way to thaw out from the snow and cold of the north country.

The tricky part was getting the baby girl from school. It was so convenient when my daughter lived down the street. Now we had to have the tall one take the bus up, pick up his sis, and take a cab back to his sisters house. Sound confusing? It was and took some thinking to come up with, thank you very much. Years of juggling and getting kids picked up almost on time, most of the time have gotten us to this point.

Of course there were times, ok many times, when kids got left places. Like the time the artist son was left sleeping on the pew at church! That will teach him to sleep in church for sure. He seemed to be the one left the most. He kept a sketch book with him at all times and has become a very good artist over the years of waiting to be picked up.

NEW YEARS FIREWORKS

Sometimes you have to work really hard to get that front row seat on the fireworks! Maleah climbed to the top of the lattices to get a great view of the fireworks on New Years Eve. She had a blast but was very disappointed in Breyssi who slept through them. That was amazing since Maleah was screaming for her to wake up and see the fireworks. It was a great party and of course I won at Scrabble, so that made it even better. I got to talk to all of my boys and party with my girls. We ate great food, and played games and watched the ball fall in NY and then watched the wild firework show here. I hope everyone enjoyed their New Years and that you are all looking forward as much as we are to a very exciting and prosperous New Year. Pura Vida.

LAW OF ATTRACTION

I thought this was a good topic to talk about when making our New Years Resolutions. I realized many years ago actually, that I always had the same goals. Why every year did I need to have the same resolutions and I was never getting anywhere?

Once I have learned more about the "law of attraction" I have realized why I keep making these goals over and over. It is because I keep making the same mistakes over and over. A good example of this is the weight loss dilema. How many of us have just wanted to lose that extra 10 lbs. for years now?

In finally comprehending the law of attraction I realized what I was actually doing was attracting that 10 lbs. back every year. That which we think about is what we get. I was thinking about the 10 lbs. not being skinny.

This year is different. I have pictures of what I want to look like, and will not concentrate on the don't haves or don't wants, only the wants and haves. In other words put it all in a positive sentence. I will spend one hour a day working on reading with Maleah. Rather than I will not send Maleah to school not knowing how to read in english. Does that make sense?

I will talk more tomorrow about how to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones. That was a hard one for me to comprehend until I read a great analogy about it. Take care and rewrite those goals on a positive note. Pura Vida and Happy New Year.

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!

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.