This and That

I am afraid I am going to be resorting more and more to bullet points as we near our departure date.  I am amazed at how much normal life and wrapping up details need to happen in the next 8 weeks!  Yikes!

But I do want to keep you all up to date and in the know, so here goes:

• My mom was able to come again!  This time it was for two weeks and it was great!  We got a lot accomplished around the house, like finally decorating the boys rooms (yes, that only took two years.) and learning about painting here.

•  Yeah, paining here.  Not fun.  Not fun at all.  I have no idea why, but it was kinda the same but completely different than any painting I had done before!  The paint seemed sticky, the walls were porous, the roller was different, and well, it was simply a pain!  So glad I decided to only paint a wall or two in each room!

• We also got to redo the little break room at church!  This room gets used for a lot of different things during the week!  Growth Groups meet there, teachers use it to eat their lunch, Moms' group sometimes meets there when it is rainy, and well, it needed some love and attention.  With the help of several college age girls and my mom, we made it quite the cute little place.  A bit of home at church!

•  Our new system for water cups.  I am amazed at how well this has really worked!  Even Quinn understands the idea.  If you are just wanting a drink of water, use a red cup.  When you are done, hang it back up! No more water cups all over the counter or in the sink!  

•  All the boys' stockings are finally finished and are now sitting in a suitcase ready for the trip to Michigan for this Christmas!

Children's Day

So today is Children's Day here in Costa Rica.  You know, like Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, Children's Day.

But, Forrest's school decided to celebrate last Friday by taking the 2nd graders to see the new Nija Turtles' movie.  Yeah, that's a PG-13 movie for 2nd graders.  No offense if your kids can handle that.  Our's can't and we are more than ok with!  So instead we planned an adventure day for the whole family, since Fridays are now Noah's day off.

We started the morning off with their presents.  And when I say presents, I mean scrapes of fabric that cost me nothing to sew into something else, like field bags for the big boys and a fabric marble maze for Quinn.

Then we were off.  The town of Sarchí is known for a couple of things.  It's furniture and the ox carts.  Ok, lemme splain ox carts.

Coffee is kind of a big deal here.  And the traditional way of getting coffee beans from the mountains to the coasts was by using ox carts, like these. 

All along the road from the mountains to the coast sprung up these repair shops...but I am getting ahead of myself.

The first thing we did was explore a Botanical Garden.  If there is one thing that Costa Rica has a lot of, it's gardens!  These were some of the best we've been to here.  And since it was a Friday morning during rainy season, we were the only ones in the whole place, which was lovely!

We did a lot of exploring and playing and just being together.

After we were done with the gardens, we found the only remaining ox cart factory in the country.  Again, since it was a Friday during low season, we were the only ones there. But Noah found one of the employees and he explained to us the history of the ox cart wheel (it used to be made out a single piece of wood!).  He also explained  how they make them now so they will last 50 years by banding them with a iron band, sorta like a whiskey barrel.

He also showed the boys how the waterwheel still powers all the tools in the work shop.  Such a cool stop!!!

All in all, we had a much better day then if Forrest had just gone to a movie that was way too old for him.  And we got to know just a bit more about this country that's starting to feel a bit more like home.

Uncollection

Well, some how we went from the beginning of July to the end of July in a blink.  Here's a little of how it went

• We watched the Ticos lose to the Netherlands in a shoot out.  Sad.  But that didn't change the reception that the team got when they flew home the next week!  They drove the whole group around on a flatbed truck for 5 hours after they landed, just so people could see them.  And everwhere there are billboards thanking the team and the coaches. 

•  We went on a short get away to a beach we hadn't been to yet.  Long story, but our neighbors were given two nights at a house just off the beach and invited us to join them.  What a blast! Best part?  Hands down, feeding the monkeys on our porch first thing in the morning!

• I finally came up with a workable solution for shelves in our garage.  I even managed to maneuver the hardware store in Spanish with all the kids in tow! Oh and funny thing about those shelves.  Elliot opened the back of the 4Runner and all three boards fell out onto his little foot!  We were concerned that he might of actually broken something this time.  So we went off to the doctor the next day (this all happened the day before we went to the beach) and praise the Lord, it wasn't broken, just badly bruised!  He was told no trampoline or tree climbing for 5 days.  And now he's right as rain.

• Noah made me a window shelve too!  Yes, we're into shelves here.

• Elliot found a lizard and put a leash on him.  

• The boys and our neighbor friend built a tepee.  Steph has been collecting used sheets to make a big one later on, but she let the boys paint one for the small tepee they built.  And I will say, their painting looks very cave drawingesk.

• This week is teacher inservice at LCA.  Today the Bible teacher is talking with the rest of the staff about how Jesus taught.  Wednesday, Noah is going to be talking about discipleship, and Friday I will be sharing some practical ways a teacher can  be disciplining in their classroom every day.  This is a new concept for most of them.  Pray for us and for the staff.   

HodgePodge

• 8 1/2 days of school left for Forrest this year.  I am not sure who is more excited, Forrest or me!

• 16 days left of school for Noah.  Remember he is a long term sub for a 4th grade class at our church's school.  It's been good for him to be in the classroom, but we've also learned what we thought was true, he's moved on from teaching elementary.

• God is giving us direction bit by bit on what's next for us here in Costa Rica.  We're thankful!  When things become just a touch clearer, we'll share, have no fear!

• This is one of my new favorite songs!  So describes our life right now!!

• We're so thankful for our church here.  Seriously, I can't wait each week to spend time with the people there!

• It's rainy season, sorta.  I have to admit, I am ready for rainy afternoons!  

• Quinn is cracking us up with his language skills.  The kid can seriously count to about 5 in two languages now!  And you should hear him say "tres"!  There is a little bit of a Yosemity Sam whistle.  Oh and he sings too!  

• Forrest finally lost one of his top teeth.  And yes, he only lost one!  His top palate has grown wider, so that second space on the right is just the room made by the growth! 

This and That

• Forrest was walking out the door this morning with an empty backpack.  No homework, and worse, no lunch...and I hadn't packed his lunch yet!  Mom fail.

• 17 days until our Florida Trip.  Yeah, we're just a wee bit excited over here

• This last weekend we had a retreat with our mission.  It was the last of the LAM retreats and several people came from the United World Mission headquarters.  There was even a couple that came from Cape Town, South Africa to give us a taste of what God is doing there.  Very cool.  It was good to meet some of the new faces now that we are with UWM.  Forrest at one point during the weekend said this was the "M" retreat, because there is an "M" in LAM and UWM.  That kid.

• Did I mention we are going to Florida?  Oh, sorry.

• We just might be getting some new neighbors!  Our landlady is building a new house next to ours and a friend from a Bible study I am a part of is looking for a house.  They have a 9 year old boy and are originally from Chicago.  It would be amazing if this actually works out!

• I think I am going to adopt Quinn's form of language learning.   His vocabulary is exploding right now and it's in part because he repeats all the time!  And if he hears anything in connection with another word he just learned he will talk about it.  Like this.  He learned how to say Happy Birthday to you.  No really.  The whole thing.  He says Happy Birthday to to.  I was reading him a book that said something about a birthday cake.  To which he said "Happy Birthday to to."  What?!  He also learned about airplanes this weekend (there were lots of planes flying over the place the retreat was at) All weekend he would say "Plane.  It's flying!"  Now he talks about the birds, "Bird, it's flying"

• There is a pile of laundry calling my name.  Bye.

Cake and Piñata

So last night Elliot felt well enough to do cake and his piñata.  Funny thing about the piñata, I hadn't even planned on one.  And then one day on the way home from taking Forrest to school, Elliot said " And for my piñata, I want..."  I thought, "what?!?  I hadn't even considered a piñata!!"  But he's been to enough Tico birthday parties now to know that birthday equals piñata here.  So there you go.

I was trying to figure out how to do a SMALL piñata, most here are giant and it was just going to be our family and Adam, the other gringo who works at camp, so we didn't need anything huge.  And this being rainy season, a paper maché one was completely out of the question because of the dry time.  Instead, I used three lunch sacks (which we have to bring with us here, I've never seen them anywhere here!) and layered them, filled it with candy and peanuts, and then tied the top shut.  Then I took tissue paper, made fringe and taped it on.  I think it turned out pretty well, actually!

For his cake, Elliot had been telling me for months now he wanted one of the Children's Museum here.  Funny kid.  So, here's what we came up with.  Let's say it's an interpretation of the building, which strangely enough, used to be the old prison, but now is a children's museum. 

He enjoyed whacking the stuffing out of the piñata, (which I need to get better at photographing...all that movement, I tell you what!)  and the cake met all his expectations.  Love this kid!!

5!!

This guy has always liked a dramatic event.  Remember his birth story?!

Yeah, well, today, turning 5 couldn't just be a boring old birthday...it had to include antibiotics and jello.


Poor kid has the same creeping crude the rest of us had and yesterday I took him to the doctors (that would be the fifth time in three weeks we've been to the doctor's.)

Last night he said 'tomorrow if I feel like this, I want to open my presents but save my cake and piñata for a day when I feel better."  Ohhhhhh!

Today he told me he did still want to save his cake and piñata, but he was more than ready to open presents and build one of his new lego sets.

I found him asleep on his floor when I went to check on him this afternoon.  At least he was surrounded by his lego "maps"

Love you Elliot!  Glad you're ours!!

Resting

After two weeks (boy, it felt a lot longer than that!) We took a short vacation to the coast.  My Spanish tutor laughs at me when I tell him we're going to the beach, but not really to the beach, just to a hotel that over looks the beach.  "Gringos, they like to just look at the water."  he says.  Yep.

See there is this lovely little hotel we heard about through friends.  And it's perfect.  It's about an hour and half from our house.  It's small, has kitchens, has a lovely pool, a wonderful view, and well, it's just perfect.

And boy, did we need some time away.  This two weeks was intense, and part of me feels a bit whinny about it.  After all, we did 12 weeks every summer at Barakel, but well, this was just as hard, if not harder.  There are a lot of benefits to living at camp, and we don't here and it just makes it hard.

But this post is not about how hard camp was.  It's about how we were able to get away and enjoy each other and being together as a family.

And aside from the fact that Quinn refused to sleep the whole time we were away, it was great!  The big boys swam 9 hours a day, we brought good food with us and the weather was perfect for swimming (read HOT!)

And now we are rested (sorta ) and reconnected and ready for the next season of ministry. 

Oh the Wonders of Transportation

One of the things we've been struggling with is how to get the boys and I to camp more. God called us as a family here and while there is only so much I can do around camp right now, it's good for us to interact with the other staff and volunteers.   At Barakel, we lived right on the property, so it wasn't a big deal to get into camp on a regular basis.  But here,  with one car, this can become a logistical mess, what with naps and all.  I miss the days of being able to throw the kids in the stroller and walk to wherever Noah was.

But over the last couple of weeks, we've been borrowing a friend's car.  And can I just tell ya, WOW!!  What a difference it is making!!  So much so that we've started to pray about getting a second means of transportation for Noah (this friend will eventually need her car back.)

Today was a great example.  Staff training is this weekend.  Last night Noah went in around 4, and stayed the night.  This morning the boys and I got up, got dressed and then headed to camp for a couple of hours.

 We didn't have to stay the whole day.  We were able to see some of the volunteers, say hi, spend a bit of time with Noah and then come home.  Wonderful!  It was good for us to be there, and I think it was good for the volunteers to see the family there.

So, would you pray with us about a second car?  We're thinking we would need somewhere in the ballpark of $4,500 for a beater car.  Yeah, I know, right?  But God can do it!

Quinn's First Birthday

Happy Birthday little Dude!!  Can't believe it's been a year since you entered this world!  And what a year it's been!  He's already has a passport and been to three countries!  That's quite a lot in one year, not to mention learning to breath, eat, sleep, crawl, and get along in a family of crazies!

We had his birthday party last weekend because Noah has staff training this weekend at camp.  It was a good day, full of balloon, which are his current love, blueberry muffins, pizza crust and fun cards.

So thankful you're ours Quinn Declan!