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!

Rain?

It is hard to believe that it can be so dang hot one day and cloudy and rainy the next day. Today was cloudy right from the start, which is very rare here. Usually we have some sun for a few hours even during rainy season. That is how you can tell this is not rainy season, but just a front moving through. I did not even go do my swim today. I tried that one cloudy day and about got hypothermia. Decided it was a good idea to wait until the next day when the sun would come out.

We have a student flying in this weekend from Alaska and she has to pass through NYC. I am checking and it looks like she may be spending some time there. Or maybe she will get really lucky and they will fly her straight from PHX, where she has a lay-over. At any rate we will be ready to start classes next week and I am pretty sure she will love the weather here, rain and all.

Today was the first time baby wore her pants to school. Somewhere in her young life she got the idea that girls only wear dresses. I never wear dresses, so not sure where she got that idea. She came straight home from school and changed into her most comfortable sun dress. Her jacket is still soaked, so we better get some more umbrellas!

Granola Mom

I was trying to explain in my limited Spanish what a "granola" is. I finally had to settle on "hippie", which they understood. In my explanation I was trying to tell them that a person who is all natural eats lots of granola, and makes their own. I used to make lots of granola and just started up again.

We have been trying to eat less processed food and more fresh. It really is not too hard when you compare import prices here. I can't imagine spending 8.00 on a box of cereal? Crazy. So we have gone back to making our own. I am still getting to making my own tortillas, that is the next goal.

Granola recipe:
4 cups old fashioned oats
1-2 cups coconut
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup any kind of nuts you can find for a decent price
1 cup raw or brown sugar

Mix the above add:
1 stick melted butter
1/2 cup molasses
heated together
Mix all well and spread onto two cookie sheets. Bake 300 for 10 minutes. Stir. Bake 10 more minutes and take out stir and cool. Enjoy!

Neighborhood Seamstress

We had baby's uniforms special made for her. We did not do this because we wanted to, or because we are super picky, we did it because we had to! She is super skinny minny and therefore none of the uniforms we found at the store fit her. The skirt with the belt worked o.k. for her, because we could cinch it tight. The pants did not stand a chance of fitting her.

That is actually bad news for Costa Rica. When we moved here three and a half years ago they were all really skinny. Like we could not even find any clothes that were big enough for any of us. Now we can't even find any clothes small enough for baby. They are getting bigger here, and that is not good for them.

A Day in the Mountains

Monte de la Cruz is my favorite place in Costa Rica. Here we are doing a hike up to the cruz. The girlies loved hiking and they especially loved cooking hot dogs and smores on the fire.

We are going to miss this beautiful family when they vamoose off to Hondurus.

Grandma and Grandpa with the whole Central Valley in the background.

The Central Valley of Heredia, San Jose and outlying areas.

Hiking, hiking, hiking!

The playground in the park. The little cabinas are great and have fire places as well as sinks.

Two tired hikers chowing down on something healthy, for a change! Had to get a picture of teeny eating an apple.