Happy Anniversary Jase!

I cannot believe it was eight years ago today that we got married. Half of me feels like it has been much longer (in a good way). I cannot imagine my life without him and it feels like he has always been a part of it, even though he missed the first thirty years. The other part of me feels like it has been such a short time because time has just flown by. What a great eight years it has been. I loved our cold, rainy wedding and looking out with everyone standing there with their umbrellas. I could not have married a more perfect person for me. God sure knew what he was doing. I am constantly amazed at how similar and different we are and how it all works together. He is so accepting, patient and calm. I love how I feel around him. Everything is more fun and much less chaotic. Who else would have gone on this amazingly crazy adventure with me! He is a wonderful dad too. I love watching him with the kids. Enough of the sap:) On with the day full of sickness and school.

"El Dia de Los Perros"

I learned this Spanish expression yesterday and it means a bad day. I say it has been "la semena de los Perros" because of the kids beng sick for over a week. They both had the flu last week and then since Friday night Laney has been miserablly coughing non stop after her asthma attack. She has had more fevers and just felt horrible. We were able to get her into the doctor on Monday. We found an English speaking one near our house. Jason took her in case his English wasn't ver good. A few hours later they came home after her having a steroid shot and several breathing treatments. Jason dropped her off and went fill the prescriptions. She now has antibiotics and two inhalers. They went back to the doctor yesterday and he said her breathing was getting betters and to come back on Friday. She is still miserable and I just hope all this helps her feel better soon. She has been staying home from school and hanging out with Jason while creed and I go to our respective schools. It is a little weird being the who goes off while she is sick. Lucky for her Jason is amazingly nurturing and patient. They have been going to the pulparia (7/11) for cookies every day. She coughed a little less last night so hoping today things get much better.

Sunday's Adventure

Sunday we were invited to go to an ecuadorian puppet show for kids by Miss Carmen. She is the cousin to Laney and Creed's teacher at Yak Academy (the amazing language school for kids in COS). We met Miss Carmen in may when she came for a visit and were able to have her over for lunch. We had a grea time because she is so gracious with me as I stumble over my spanish. She talks slowly and explains herself over and over until I get it. She is so sweet with the kids too. Unfortunately, Laney was sick so her and Jason had to stay home. Creed and I joined her as well as her daughter and two grandsons. The show was great and I even understood some of it. There were animals and singing so creed liked those parts. Afterward went to her house for lunch. It was so peaceful. She has tons of trees; mangos, lemons, bananas, oranges, coconuts, etc. Creed loved playing in the dirt, looking for ant hills, and visiting the neighbor's cows. Carmen was so sweet showing us all around her garden and of course, talking slowly so we could understand. It was a wonderful day. I wish Laney could have gone because she would have loved it. Miss Carmen makes puppets and showed us a bunch of them. I wish my Spanish was better so I could communicate better, but appreciate her patience and kindness to me.

Some bad firsts

This last week has been filled with the kids getting sick and us not getting enough sleep. Laney was only sick for an afternoon, but Creed's fever and feeling bad lasted longer. Then yesterday he threw up for the first time ever. I can't believe he waited so long, but I still don't care for it. At least he waited until we were home. Then in the night Laney had her first asthma attack. At least that is what I think it was. She was gasping for air and couldn't talk. She was pretty freaked and so was I. It took awhile to get her breathing back to normal. Needless to say we are still a little out of sorts today. Creed seems to be getting better and does not have a fever and Laney is just coughing a bit. We still went to the farmer's market for a small outing. It was fun and had so much stuff. We took a cab so we wouldn't have to use too much energy and now we are back home learning Spanish from the tv. We have watched a lot of tv this week. The good thing is we all enjoy kid's shows. We can actually understand them some and of course, the kids like them.

My mistakes

I have made so many mistakes in Spanish, of course, some of them I don't even know what they are. My favorite one was when I was talking to my neighbor. Connie (my mother-in-law) was outside with her dogs and the neighbor asked about the dogs and I said they were mi seguras, which is the word for insurance. Of course, she looked at me strangely and then very nicely corrected me; suegra. I have made the mistake before, but only to my spanish teachers in the States. The good thing about this mistake is I think I finally learned my lesson. Those two words have always gotten mixed up in my brain. Plus, we got a good laugh out of it. Live and learn.

Spanish Classes

We went to our first class today at a school for expats. There were two other people in it and they meet twice a week. We really liked it. The teacher, Alejandra, is really nice (that is more important to my learning style than Jsson's:)) She speaks in Spanish, but explains things well and laughs a lot. I am going meet with her tomorrow for a couple of hours by myself. There is a lot of conversing and it is in Spanish so that should help a lot. Then I went and met another teacher at a different school that we are going to take classes from. It is near by so that is nice. We can walk there in twenty minutes or take a bus. We haven't tried that yet so I am sure there will be some wrong turns. We tried to find the school on our own, but once again found out that is impossible. First, there are no addresses and then the places have nothing on the outside to tell you what they are. At least we wondering around the area for awhile so know it well and then she met me at a books store and took me there. All part of the adventure. She will let us do a group price with just the two of us since there are no other groups to join. Hopefully more people will join. I may bring Jason's spanish down or I will be lost the whole time. I am sure we will find a happy medium.

We get to go for a class tomorrow. It is fun finally getting all this stuff put together. The last two nights we have had a different Alejandra come to our house to tutor us. She is really nice and teaches at a preschool near by. That is the kind of teacher I need; one who is use to the preschool level. We split it up and meet in the garage area while the other person watches the kids. Every teacher is a little different so that is nice. We need help with so much; review, new, etc. 

Our next goal is to find a church. We would love for it to be bilingual, but we have not found any yet. We also want to go to the farmer's market on Sat. A lady in our class this morning told us of a huge one not very far away from us and straight down a bus line. Hopefully we can go. Everyone was healthy today so hopefully that will last. Laney had a fever yesterday and did not feel well. She seemed to have a quick recovery and really wanted to go to school today and seemed her normal overly excited, chatty self so we let her go and she did great all day.

The veggie and fruit truck

When I dropped the kids off at school today there was a veggie and fruit truck out front. I guess they buy their stuff for snacks every week on Monday's when it comes by. One of the teachers said it was always really fresh and good. I was able to try some new fruit. I can't remember the names of them. They gave me a ride home and I bought a ton. He never has mangoes. I am not sure why since did not understand the rest of what he was saying. The produce looked really good. We still want to find a farmers market. He is suppose to come every Monday morning at seven thirty. There is one fruit I got that I am not sure what to do with. I think it was to make a juice. I'll have to figure that out. It was fun trying to talk to them.

The children's museum

We went on a little field trip on Saturday with Emma and Papa Gary. First we tried to go to a butterfly place because Laney LOVES butterflies. When we got there it was sprinkling and the lady said they do not come out in rainy weather. We will have to try again. Now we know where it is. Which helps a lot. We get lost a lot. The children's museum was close by. It is housed in an old prison. We skipped over the tour of the prison part. The kids loved the museum. It was the first one that they had been in and they liked touching everything. They got to work on a banana plant, play with bubbles, dig in sand at an archialogy site, and record themselves singing. We could have done more but after two hours we were ready to go even if the kids weren't. When you get up before five the day gets a little long.

Preschool

After preschool on thursday we got the low down on it. Creed said he cried and his teacher gave him a train to play with, wiped his tears and took him to see Laney. Laney said he was there just for a minute and then came back later forever. We are not sure if that means he joined her class later or if at the end of the day they all play together on the playground. They got little backpacks with their names on them. hey loved them and were wondering where their uniforms were. They were in a good mood when we picked them up. Everyone is really nice. Laney said all she did was dance and sing. It makes sense since there was a Mother's Day celebration the next day and the kids were going to do a song and dance. Glad they survived.

 Friday did not go as well. It was the big celebration. We dropped the kids off and got their uniforms. Laney was so excited. Of course, they were the only ones wearing their uniforms b/c everyone else was dressed for the Beach Party. We can't quite get it together, but the kids did not seem to care. I came back an hour later for the party. Boy, do they know how to party. There was a live band even singing beach boy songs. They had sand, balloons, face painting.

Creed had a hard time when he saw me so I spent the time trying to keep him from crying, which did not really work. He then had some reaction on his arm. THe hives grew a bit so eventually I called Jason to bring the benedryl. By then I had missed all the little games in Laney's class where the moms learned each others names and played silly games. I did not talk to anyone and felt totally lost the whole time. I left in tears and bummed I missed an opportunity to get to know other people. We have been trying to get stuff set up for us to learn Spanish and it has taken a bit. Hopefully next week I will have a school and some tutors. The cutest part of it all was when we were coming home. Jason called and I of course couldn't stop crying to talk to him and Laney asked why I was talking so funny. I told her I missed my friends back home and was frustrated with not being able to understand or speak Spanish. She said I had good Spanish and took my hand. It was so cute. She loves to comfort. It is part of the process to get frustrated. Learning something new is not an easy process. I am going to use it as a motivator to work harder. Through it all Laney was happy to just follow what the other kids were doing and did a great dance. She had a good time.

Kids went to preschool

We dropped the kids off at preschool this morning. It was kind of weird. We met their teachers and off they went. They just went with them and made no fuss. I am nervous for them. I think they will do fine and will enjoy all the activities. It is hard for me when I do not understand people and I put that on them. They are much more flexible as kids. I cannot wait to hear all about it. It is four hours a day, five days a week. That is way more school than they have had. It is a nice Montessori school not far from the house. It looked so fun. Tomorrow I get to go to part of it to celebrate Dia de la Madre. Also, it sounds like they are going to have some German lessons. It is a bilingual school and that is the other language. After we dropped them off Jason and I figured out how to take a bus to escazu, a small suburb when there is suppose to be a Spanish school. We got there easily thanks to Jason's great Spanish. He asked someone where the bus stop was. We had a little issue getting home and got on the wrong bus. The good news was that we knew where we were and just had a long walk home. There is a lot of walking around here; at least for us since we do not have a car. Luckily we are pretty centrally located. We just have to figure out the bus system. We walk to the grocery store an I am still buying to much. I guess I will get stronger or change my ways and not buy heavy things. No more beer on my runs:) Creed and I had a nice walk there last night. It is pretty easy with one kid and of course a little more challenging with two.

Feliz Dia de la Madre

It is a national holiday here today. I get two mother's day this year. The kids and Jason made me a card and eggs. It was nice walking around with the place being dead. We moved in on Sat. and love it. The kids are so excited about the bunk beds. There are two sets in one room. They seem to enjoy the different places we have been and all the new things there are to play with. Laney likes the place because butterflies can come in on their own if they wish. We have bars on everything (as does everyone else) so we leave the doors open. We have a third bedroom in the back with it's own bathroom so those who want to visit have a place to stay. Jason's parents came Sat. night and it was nice being able to hang out with them and then walk around the park on Sun. Unfortunately Laney was sick on Sun. so it was nice we had the stroller to go for a walk with. She had some stomach ache and a little fever. The rest of the day we just lounged around. We watched Mardrid and Barcelona futbol game. We are trying to indoctrinate the kids. They liked trying to find Spanish words they knew. It was an exciting game. There were a couple of other futbol games on as well. Creed wanted to watch some kids shows after awhile. He gets to watch more b/c it is in Spanish, but he is disturbed by the adult shows that keeps interrupting it. He is not very familiar with commercials and does not care for them. Today we just walked to a little bigger grocery store. It was interesting looking at all the different things and comparing prices. I think we will go bankrupt over the cheese. It is expensive. When I bought it the other day it was in a protective plastic thing that ony the clerk could take off. We love cheese and seem to put it on everything. I am so uses to certain things and cooking with them that I am going to have to find my new favorties. We carried things home in our backpacks and the stroller. We walked through the ginormous park near our house. I am amazed at how many runners there are here. They are everywhere. I better get back to the running thing in order to fit in. It took awhile and the kids fell asleep on the way home. It was so cute.

Getting Things Done

I always feel like it is hard to write with so much happening and not enough energy to write it all. It is 7:30 and the rest of the house has been asleep for a half hour. We definitely go to bed early and get up early. Creed was up at 4:45 this morning, which is earlier than usual. We have been driving all over the place and I have to tell it is crazy. I am the one doing the driving and Jason´s the navigating. I do not even know how to describe it, but cars and people seem to be all over the place. I am amazed I returned the car today without a scratch on it. There are so many motorcycles too. There have been winding, narrow roads; lots of stop and go traffic and yes we have gotten lost a few times. Some of those times have been costly, mostly to my patience. Through it all we have eventually found where we are going even without a fight. I say that is good enough.

We found a house close to an enormous park and are suppose to sign the lease tomorrow. I cannot wait. It has three bedrooms so plenty of room for visitors. I love how it is in the middle of everything and we can walk all over the place. Plus, it is fully furnished so we do not have to worry about the silverware and stuff like that. There were so many places and parts of town to look at. We even went way out to San Ramon and loved it too. Kind of the polar opposite. It was a gorgeous view just outside the nice size town. We would have had to get a car, but it would have been great too. It was hard deciding.

The front of our little house and garage.

The front of our apartment complex. There is an architects office above us.

Looking east down the street toward the big, expensive tower apartments.

Looking west from our house down the street. The little guards station.

The guest room and Creedś room.

Laneyś room or the bunkbed room.

We took the kids to Cartago and walked around. It is another town a half hour out of San Jose. They loved looking at the really old church that was effected by an earthquake. I took pictures so those will come soon.

Yesterday we drove to a couple of other towns and then made it to the beach. It was nice seeing the ocean. It was a rocky beach so Creed enjoyed throwing rocks in it.

The kids have done great and had a ton of restaurant food and sugary things. I can´t wait to be able to cook (yes, I did just say that). This b&b is great and has two bedrooms and a living space and the people are amazing, but ready for own place.

The kids have been playing with the owner´s nephew John. I think he is six or seven. He is very chatty (in Spanish of course) which is perfect for us. He likes to play with them in the fountain outside our room or inside with the legos. It is helping all of our Spanish. I am hoping we can do more of that kind of thing when we move. Jason said we do not need to put the kids in a preschool, we just need to start a babysitting service for kids who only speak Spanish. I thought it was a great idea and will save us some money:)

We got ourselves local numbers today. I feel like we are making progress. Jason´s spanish is great and mine is extremely choppy. So far I have been able to do or get what I need even if it is embarassing. I have decided to not worry about that and just forge ahead. It is the only way I will really learn and get better. I am very motivated to get better now too, so it is a win/win.

Lo Hicimos!!

We actually made it to Costa Rica. It seems so unreal to me. The last month has been a blur. Lots of packing, giving away stuff and throwing away stuff. After it was all said and done we got out of the house by the 31st and to my parents for a few days. Then once we were there we were rushing around getting stuff for work done or on our computers, etc. We couldn't have done it without my parents help with us and the kids. I think we did everything we were planning on, but I am still in a fog and wouldn't know yet if we missed something.

We spent the night before our flight in a hotel since we didn't want to get up in the middle of the night to drive to Denver. We still got up pretty early, after getting up in the night with one or the other kid. Needless to say we did not get too much sleep. Creed woke up happy and ready for the adventure. Laney always seems to take a little longer to wake up (like her mother), but was ready to go. The bags were a touch over weight so we had to take a few things out. Luckily we left early. After some uneventfully nice flights we landed in San Jose, Costa Rica at 2:05. Laney slept most of the last flight and said how quick it went by when she awoke as we were landing. Creed, of course did not sleep. He watched shows and was amazingly good. I was so tired I don't know how he didn't fall asleep. Thanks to Connie and Gary (Jason's parents) we got hooked up with a great bed and breakfast who picked us up at the airport. Then Connie and Gary came into to town to see us and stay at the same bed and breakfast. It has been nice seeing them and catching up.

Creed fell asleep in his dinner (literally), which longer than I made it. I couldn't even go to dinner b/c I fell asleep beforehand. Needless to say we were all in bed early and slept in until 6:15. It gets dark by 6pm and light by 5 something so I think we are staying on an early to bed schedule. If the rising stays the same it won't be too much earlier than home. I can't believe they slept through the night in a new place. We are off to a good start. Gotta go will write more later about the day.