Never judge a book by it's cover; the greatest story of your life might be in those pages!

Since we got here we have been attending this church called Horizons.  It is an English speaking church that partners with a Spanish speaking church here in Jaco.  We have enjoyed the small church and the people have been very friendly.  We also started attending bible studies.  I go to a women's study on Monday nights and Jeff goes to a men's study on Wednesday nights.  

Jeff and I both wanted to build a community and meet people as soon as we got here so we jumped right in.  Now looking back over the last month, it's amazing to see the connections we have made and opportunities God has provided.  But first some background.

A couple of years ago when I was in Grad school looking for a counseling internship, I SEARCHED for something I could do working with sex trafficked victims.  I felt so called to help  these victims, yet there wasn't much in Colorado regarding this issue.  There were a couple of organizations raising awareness, but I was really wanting work with victims.  By the grace of God I ended up getting an internship followed by a job at a Domestic Violence Agency called Safe Shelter of St Vrain Valley.  I could not have been happier working for this agency.  It is full of amazing advocates that love what they do, are great at what they do, and have compassion coming out the wazoo for people who have been oppressed, controlled, and silenced most of their lives.  Simply put this agency and the people in it are incredible and were a perfect fit for me.  They encouraged my passion while also taming my plan to "Save the World!"; they helped me put away my superwoman cape, and equipped me with the compassion and empathy to understand the stories of each client that walked through my door; they laughed and cried with me; and they gave me an amazing foundation to understand, help, and love, the most vulnerable members of society, and I am beyond grateful for that experience.  When we finally decided we were going to move to Costa Rica, leaving Safe Shelter was one of the hardest things for me.  I loved what I did and couldn't imagine being somewhere else with such great people, great support, and a mission that I was so passionate about.  

Fast forward to the first womens bible study on Monday February 4th 2013.  I was sitting there listening to this girl talk about how to study the bible.  Not that anything is wrong with that but there was no conversation, no relating anything to real life, nothing but listening and filling in the blanks!  It felt a little bit like 6th grade science with Mr. Null minus his constant attempts at jokes. (Mr. Null if your reading this, your class was one of my favorites of all time, I only pretended I was too cool for your jokes cause I was at the weird awkward pre-teen age, please forgive me)  I sat there for an hour thinking in my head, I don't think I want to be apart of this group, I want to live life with people, I want to know these people, I want to connect about real life not surfacey lame-sauce conversations every week!  *Go ahead and say it, I know your thinking it, call me Judgey McJudgerson, I know I deserve it!*  Anyways by the end of the fill in the blank session, I decided in my mind, it's fine that this group isn't what I expected, I'm going to keep coming, and enjoy what the group has to offer.  Good thing too, cause it has a ton to offer!!

 (What I didn't know at the time when I was being Judgey McJudgerson is that they had decided as a group to do a quick overview of how to study the bible for a couple of weeks, and normally they do a more laid back study and actually do share about real life.  Tisk, tisk, on me!! ) 

At the end of the group one girl started taking prayer request.  All of sudden it was like everyone opened up like beautiful butterfly's and actually shared about their lives!  Guess what else came out during that time?  The extreme need for counselors in Jaco...ummm I'm sorry did you say counselors?  Wait did you say a local group that houses girls rescued from sex trafficking rings has been praying for a counselor to work with the girls?  Wait a flippity flop minute, your telling me this community/church/organization is in need of qualified counselors?  Oh okay just checking cause I am, and working with survivors of sex trafficking just happens to be something I have always wanted to do, oh and by the way my name is Ashlie Swanson.

Since then I have spoken with the director of the organization called Seeds of Hope, gone out to observe some of their classes and meet some of the girls, and have been praying about what God wants me to do down here.  There are many details that need to be worked out including school with G.  So far I have been homeschooling, which has been awesome, but he would need to attend a private school here so I could work.  We have him on the waiting list for a really good bilingual school we would love to send him to so hopefully something comes of that.  There are also many more conversations and hoops to jump through to figure out exactly where I fit and what working down here would be like, but one thing is for sure, I am so excited to see where my passion and the need for counseling meet the road.  Wherever that may be, it truly could be one of the greatest stories of my/our lives, and I'm so glad we are here in Jaco to read what God has written!

1 Month Take-Aways

We have officially been in Costa Rica for 1 month!  We survived!  Here are our top 10 take aways from our first month here!

Gentry:

1.  Never leave the house without a water bottle, I always get thirsty.

2.  You have to have a fan, or else you will be to hot.

3.  Go to the beach everyday to cool yourself off.

4.  Rest a lot, you get so tired here.

5.  Never let Molly Paws bite you, it hurts.

6.  Be healthy.

7.  Don't Smoke.

8.  Abajo means down, arriba means up.

9.  Molly knows a little Spanish.

10.  I can surf, a little, probably more in like a day.

Jeff:

1.  Torialba Cheese is 80% water.

2.  Christian surfers organization in Jaco= youth group, not surfers of all ages.

3.  It's not hard to eat beans and rice everyday.

4.  Real Surfers don't surf everyday, only when the swell is good.

5.   You get used to having sand between your toes after a couple of weeks.

6.  Gringos who speak Spanish to Tico's sound like Tico's speaking English to gringos, we all have accents.

7.  You can't drink the water, you can drink the water, you can't drink the water, you can drink the water.

8.  It's not a good idea to buy real estate here.

9.  Fast food= lady with a cooler full of tamales on the beach usually on a scooter.

10.  Taxi rides are the best bargain in all of Costa Rica.

Ashlie:

1.  Grocery stores are not my friend, be prepared, on your game, and ready to cry at any moment while in them.

2.  I LOVE the beach life.  Relaxed, laid back, no make-up, hair in a pony tail, slower pace of life is fitting me really well!

3.  I will cry often being this far away from home and my sweet family.  It's okay, embrace the tears, feel what you gotta feel, and head to the beach after for a little pick me up.

4.  I really like walking or riding bikes wherever we have to go.  We talk the entire way to where we are going, spend more time together, get extra exercise, and just enjoy life at a slower pace.

5.  Be prepared at a moments notice to dunk Gentry under water, throw a towel over his face, or cause a big scene to distract him, because you never know when a devout young whipper snapper surfer (boys and girls) will throw off their clothes ENTIRELY to change at the beach.

6.  It's freakin, spankin, ridiculously hot all the time.  Wear the least amount of clothes possible everyday, tastefully of course.

7.  Always have an exit/kick bad guys butt plan wherever you are, you never know when I will have to bust out and hurt someone.

8.  Enjoy this special time with Gentry and Jeff, this is truly a blessing and a once in a life time experience for us all.  Relish in all the new, different, exciting, horrible, funny, sad, and happy experiences, they will all change us for the better.

9.  Give me a fresh Mango smoothy any day of the week, and I will do cartwheels up and down the street, I'm flat out addicted.

10.  Relax and trust God, He brought us here, He's teaching us, protecting us, and watching us walk through this journey.  He loves us.

For the Love of Pete, We MOVED!

Tuesday our landlord called and said the new condo we are moving into would be ready that day!  YAY with a capital Y!!!  We were so excited for many reasons!  We literally packed up the tiny 1 bedroom, cleaned it spotless, and moved all of our stuff to our new apartment by the end of the day.  It was awesome.  

Now that I am out of the tiny room we lived in I can write a little about why I was so ready to get out of there!  There have been many times that I wanted to blog vent about our apartment, but literally I could not bring myself to write about it for fear I might have a mental break down just writing about what how I was feeling about the place.  Once I start writing it just all comes out, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I needed to be okay until we were out!

Imagine living in a dorm room with your 7 year old son, and a 4 month old puppy, crazy suit mates that party almost every night for a month cause that's exactly what it was like. It was so tiny we could not fully unpack because we literally had no where to put things.  We all just kept out a couple of pairs of clothes that we were wore over and over.  Wearing the same clothes wasn't that big of a deal, but if I every needed to find something we didn't leave out in the first place it was torturous trying to remember which bag it was in, plus I had to dig through it to find it leaving a mess in an already squeezed room.  It was so tiny cleaning was really pointless.  When I would clean the counter, I had to move things to the table, but if I moved things to the flimsy plastic table, MP would would jump up and grab something running off with it.  It was like a cartoon and I kept feeling like I was a little girl stuck in one of those glass mirrors rooms and every time I tried to turn around I just ran into a wall because it was tiny!!

Then there were our neighbors upstairs.  All 3 were crazy single alcoholic males that slept until 3pm everyday so had no consideration for anyone else at 3am.  One of the lovely individuals also had a dog that barked excessively all night, which they never noticed cause they were so drunk.  Occasionally the awesome owner would get sick of it and yell the most obscene names (ones I wish to not share because they were so offensive) at that dog.   We all slept with ear plugs but it didn't drowned out the noise enough.  The dog owner also never picked up his dogs poop, left their trash out on the porch where of course Molly Paws and the other dogs tore into it, and never picked it up.  It was seriously like living next door to a 12 year old boy who was on his own with a pre-teen attitude, he is what I call an awful human being!  Their crazy loudness paired with the fact we lived on a main street in Jaco with taxi's and trucks going by all night honking all the time (seriously everyone honks their horns here all the time, it's a bit much for me, it's like a wave or smile, everyone does it just to say hi, or get out of the way, or hey I'm coming up behind you, or hey I think your hot, or hey I'm mad at you for pulling out in front of me, or hey your going to slow, or hey I want to keep you up all night, whatever the reason I'm still getting used to every honking all the spankin time.  I'd like to pull a prank on the whole town and unhook all the honking devices in every car.  That would show them!  If only Dash was real from the Incredibles and could run me around the town all night slashing honking wires!!!  Okay this tangent is over!)!  Seriously though with all this commotion at the apartments Jeff and I averaged about 5-6 hours of sleep a night.  If you know me, you know that is entirely not enough for even one night much less a whole stinkin month!  It also took it's toll on G, he never got his full 11 hours of sleep which certainly added to the awesome state of emotionally healthy persons in our house, cause he is just like me when it comes to sleep!  Needless to say sleep deprived Swansons are not that fun, in fact we are down right miserable!

I am also an introvert.  Which was one of the reasons I hated dorm life in college!  I was so excited when Jeff and I got married, and I could only live with one person!  He learned quickly that occasionally often he should just get out of the house and let me be, it was awesome, he was awesome for recognizing that.  So even though I LOVE Kathia and the kids who lived downstairs, I never had a day  hour to myself without someone wanting to play, hang out, or Kathia and Jeff getting together for work.  I literally felt like my head was going to explode.  Not because of them, like I said I love them dearly, but because I need space!  I need space from own dear husband, and little boy, much less anyone else in life!  In the full month I was there I was literally was not alone once!  My emotions were going bonkers and I was completely drained every day.  Not a good combination for starting to homeschool, having a puppy, and starting a new life somewhere!  There were days I was on the war path or as G would state it "my bucket is completely dry and dusty"!  I'm so sorry Jeff and G!

Good news is here though!  Our new place is just awesome!  We love it!  It's a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo with 3 other condos in the complex.  There are 2 other families with kids, and 1 single lady that works.  We have slept a full 8 hours of sleep every night since we moved in.  G is back to a normal bed time of 8 and sleeps all night until 7am when Molly Paws drags us all out of bed.  We are much happier and I cry much less :)  Also even though we have met our neighbors, all the kids are school age so during the day everyone is at school or at work.  G and I spend the day doing school, swimming, hanging out, being quiet, you know all the things that introverts do :)

Now there are of course little things that aren't perfect in our new place.  We found out the 2nd day we were here that we didn't have any forks...this was after I had made spaghetti (with salsa instead of tomato sauce, whoops!  Good thing we miss the NM spice in life, we actually liked it) which we ate with spoons and our hands.  The little 80 year old abuela that lives down stairs with her daughter and grandson is not a fan of Molly, but we are winning her over with baked goods and bringing her dogs treats :)  At least that's our evil plan!  It's also hot!  Electricity is 3x the price of electricity in the States.  So if we were to leave the 2 units on all day we would pay about $600 a month in electricity!! Yikes, obviously we don't want to do that, so everyday we open all the doors and windows and hope for a breeze.  Most days we do get a nice off shore breeze so we sweat, but the breeze cools us off.  We only run the AC in our room at night so we can sleep.  G doesn't have a unit in his room so we got him a fan that we run at night.  Overall it's not to bad, but I'm still getting used to being hot all the time with sweat dripping down my back no matter what!

Another good thing about our new place is G has friends in the complex and right across the street.  The down stairs neighbor has an 8 year old named Randoll.  He and G hit it off the first night, they both love boxing and were boxing down in the court yard, it was a friendly fight!  Randoll speaks English but is still learning so it's good for G to be around him, we keep telling him to only speak to us in Spanish in hopes that we continue to pick it up.  He is a great kid and G are at the same level so it's fun for them to play.  We go swimming and usually IronMan and Hawk Eye are in the pool with me saving people from bad guys, occasionally Hulk, BatMan, and Spiderman show up...it's quite entertaining :)  He also loves Molly and says with his really cute accent every time he sees Molly Paws "Oh everyone loves Molly, she is such a good girl", we are hoping his love for MP rubbs off on abuelita :)  Across the street is the pastor of the church we have been going to and he has 3 boys, and right next to him is the pastor of the Spanish speaking sister church with 2 more boys.  We have never lived in a neighborhood that G had buddies so close.  So it's been really fun to just walk across the street and have friends!  The pastor took G with him and his 2 older boys to a circus/juggler act on Saturday night and Jeff and I went out on a date, it was so awesome!  It feels like we are building a community of friend which is awesome, but I'm especially so glad we have met kids Gentry's age every step of the way cause it has made his transition so much easier.

This was G and Randoll the first night, Randoll showed us all the in's and out's of our new condo :) 

They have a lot of fun together :)

Our back yard view.

This is the kitchen and island that G and I use for school.

This is our front door and if you look closely you can see Tigger the cat who also loves Molly and comes and sits right outside the glass door when Molly is sitting inside, it's so funny

We have 2 hammocks on the back porch, G likes doing homework in the big one. 

G's room is on the front of the complex and this is his view from his window. 

G took this picture of our pool.  You can see too much but G loves that it has a waterfall :) 

Deserted beaches, surf competitions, and fresh fish dinners!

Saturday we headed south down the coast a little bit to a beach Kathia really likes called Esterillos  Beach and is a little more off the beaten path that the touristy Jaco beaches.  We piled into the car Tico style about 10am and headed out!  The beach was indeed beautiful and deserted.  There was a fishing boat anchored a little off the coast and literally NO ONE was at the beach almost the entire time we were there.  The waves were bigger, which made Jeff a very happy surfer, and made me a very nervous mommy :)

Jeff and Kathia built a fire on the beach and we roasted hot dogs and had a picnic.  After that it was into the water we all went (I did not enjoy any laying out or relaxing beach time because the waves were much bigger than Jaco and my little surfer boy has absolutely NO fear or hesitation when it comes to the ocean and so I braved the ocean for hours with him and Jeff surfed).

Right before we left we bought a fresh red snapper from the local fisher family, bought some homemade goods from a local guy on a scooter, and headed back up the coast.  We stopped in the  little town right before Jaco called Playa Hermosa to watch a surf competition.  It was so fun, Gentry and Jeff were glued :)  At the rate we are going my little man will be participating in one in the future, and I can't wait!

We finally made it home around 6 and started dinner...the fresh red snapper!  I'm not gonna lie, it looked disgusting  smelled like fish, and I was definitely skeptical but it was DELICIOUS when all was said and done.  Way better than the seafood we get in Colorado :)  Here are some pics of our day!

The old school fishing boat that caught the Red Snapper we bought and ate!

A look down the desserted beach...

G is always close behind when Jeff goes into the water

The grill made of pipas and wood we found on the beach

Picnic!!

I'm so glad they have showers and fish :)

The Red Snapper!

"Chili Pan"  We were told was very spicy...it was basically like hamburger helper with a bell pepper in it :)

His wife bakes all of the goodies and he sells them off his scooter.

Cute kiddos!

Oh look I really am in Costa Rica with the boys.  I have instructed Jeff to feel free to take pictures of me too, to have some record of me actually moving down here with them :)

Little surfer watching the surf competition.

After about 4 hours playing in the water, a nap was understandable ! 

Peeps hanging out to watch the surfers.

Hard to tell from this picture, but this dog chased a hollowed out coconut instead of a ball...that's recycling at it's finest! Costa Rica dogs are legit, take notes MP

Right after Kathia changed her from her bathing suit into normal clothes :) 

Like father like son.

These horses rode by right at the finale of the surf show, it was an awesome ending! 

The view from the hill coming into Jaco from the hwy.

Who's ready to gut the fish?

Eeeks!!

It was team work...I offered to man the camera, it was the most important job for sure!  

Almost ready

Now it's ready for the grill!

Finished product!  Already a little eaten and kinda looks disgusting but it was amazing and that's saying something cause I'm not a super big fan of fish!

  We are truly loving our little excursions in Costa Rica.  Amazing how driving just 30 min down the coast offers such a different experience!

Poetry Time!

I am really loving home school with G.  It's so fun to learn with him and I absolutely love our flexible schedule.  The beach is a great bargaining tool, it helps me get through school every single day :)  

Tuesday afternoons we have poetry.  For this unit Gentry is writing poetry focused on himself.   I'm all about him learning to self-explore, express himself, figure himself out, and be able to communicate to Jeff and I about who he is and what he needs.  The more he learns about himself the more we can learn about him and be better parents to him and love him more everyday, at least that's the hope in this whole parenting thing!  What I am a counselor or something?  I thought this exercise was so fun, his answers are very typical of him and it was sweet to see what things he would compare himself to.  There was another lesson along with this, something like similes blah blah blah, but I enjoyed the self introspection more that that.  

His list is as follows:

quick as a mountain lion

slow as a mouse

small as a wolf

large as an eagle

happy as a butterfly

sad as a cat

nice as Wyatt

mean as a knife

cold as fall

hot as a pool

weak as John Cena (WWF wrestler)

strong as The Miz (also WWF wrestler)

loud as myself

quiet as a pencil

tough as Wolverine (not the animal, the xmen)

gentle as a bed

brave as Spiderman/Soldier

shy as a flower

tame as mom

wild as Molly Paws

lazy as dogs

busy as a squirrel

The plague of the Costa Rican grocery stores and non-traditional taxi drivers!

Yes, it's true I am indeed writing about the grocery store again!  Saturday when they boys were at the arcade, Courtney, Katherine and I headed to Maxi Pali which is a Wal-Mart-ish kind of store. Definitely the biggest in Jaco.  We had to take a taxi to get there because it's on the far end of town and walking with all those groceries would be less that ideal.  Katherine fell asleep while we were shopping so the visit was quiet, we found mostly everything we were hoping to get, and all was well in my book until we went to check out.  

It was at this point that the clerk asked Courtney for her ID.  She didn't have hers and they said they wouldn't let her pay without.  I didn't have mine either so I couldn't pay either.  Now mind you I was here about a week ago and they asked for my ID, which I didn't have either and the guy shrugged and let me pay, so I didn't think it was that big of a deal.  You might be asking yourself "why would you not have your ID with you?"  I know that's what my mom will ask when she reads this post.   In all honesty I'm not really sure why that is a common occurrence in my life, but it is. Any-hoo the lady was a stickler, there was no way we were getting out of the store with those groceries!   Sad!!  

So we left our 2 buggies of food behind and told them we would be back to pick everything up after we went back home and got our ID's.  Standing in the parking lot we were wondering if taxi's would be as common there since it was on the edge of town.  Oh but have no fear (or maybe a little) a guy walked up and asked if we needed a taxi.  We said yes and he went and got in his normal car...sketchy much?  When he pulled up Courtney asked him if he was a taxi driver cause he didn't have the normal red car that most taxi's are in Jaco.  He said yes and we skeptically got in.  

So before I go on with the story to tell how we safely got home, I have to tell you my exit/kick some bad guy butt plan (Jeff insist that I have one of these in the back of my mind at all times, and I have come to think of myself as awesome as Liam Neeson on the movie Taken.  I occasionally imagine myself taking out a whole host of bad guys by out smarting them to save myself and Gentry, I actually think I'm pretty prepared to do so, it's the country girl in me that just comes out in instances of emergency)  just in case he started driving off with us 3 cute girls.  The minute Mr.  Non-Traditional taxi driver took one wrong turn I was going to quick as a flash wrap my arms around his neck locking them around each other choking him, which would make him start grabbing at my arms trying to breath, let go of the wheel and let his foot of the gas peddle trying to help himself.  I would continue to choke him out until the car was either wrecked or slow enough that Courtney and Katherine could jump out and start running, I would hold 5 sec more and if the dude was still alive, I would have about 2 seconds to jump out of the car to start running after Courtney and Katherine.  Then we would flag down the next car or run to a house to call the police.  Mr. Non-traditional wouldn't even know what hit him!  How's that for awesomeness Liam?

Okay back to reality.  The guy took us safely to my house (lucky for him), I grabbed my ID and Carlos (the family friend) offered to drive us back to the store to pick up all our groceries.  Finally we were headed home will all of our groceries and the taxi driver's head intact.  At the end of our excursion we could laugh at how ridiculous the whole ordeal was, and be thankful that I didn't have to take a bad guys life.  All in all I would call it a success.  

What to choose, what to choose?

Bummer faces in the non-traditional taxi.  Don't worry one eye was on the camera and one was on the road, it's a skill I have perfected over the years in training for beating up guys.  

We finally have food!

Gabriel turns 11!

Saturday was Gabriel's 11th birthday!  Yay him!  A friend cooked this delish lunch for all of us to celebrate him (It was good, but I actually think we all got a little food poisoning from it!).  I wasn't expecting to celebrate at lunch so thought I would have time to slip out and get him something but I didn't have time before lunch.  So Gentry and I made him a card from all of us, I wrote in it and Gentry drew a picture of them playing xbox together.  I felt kinda bad cause I really wanted him to know we care about him, and wanted him to feel special.  When he read our card he was so sweet!  He literally took the card and said "awww guys thanks so much, I'm going to put this up in my room, I just love it".  He then got up and gave all 3 of us a big hug and told us thank you again!  It was one of the sweetest expressions of gratefulness I have ever experienced, you would have thought we bought him an xbox :).  

There are benefits of the simple life in Costa Rica.  There might not be as much available, it might be hard to find materials to make Valentines cards, the name brand items I am so used to do not grace the shelves of the grocery stores, but with that comes less expectation as well.  Gabriel didn't expect to get gifts from everyone, in fact he didn't get any, he loved having lunch with his family and home made cards to read.  He melted my heart.  After that we took him to this arcade that he has been raving about since we got here.  He was going to meet some of his friends there but him mom needed to work so Jeff and I took Gabriel, Katherine, and Gentry off to the arcade to meet Gabriel's friends.  When we walked up I was taken off guard by how tiny this arcade was.  I guess I just thought it would be like an arcade in the States, and it instantly reminded me of how I really like the simpleness of living here.  Gabriel and his friends didn't need a huge arcade and tons of money.  They played in an arcade with 6 games, and air hockey table, and 2 computers, and entertained themselves as they took turns and made the little money they all brought last for a couple of hours!  It was fun to experience with him and see him in action with his buddies.  

Gabriel and his buddies :)

During their time at the arcade, Courtney and I headed to the big grocery store on the edge of town with Katherine and just left the boys to do their thing.  After they finished at the arcade, Jeff took Gentry and Gabriel to KFC for another little birthday treat.  Gabriel had mentioned it was his favorite place to eat and he never gets to eat there so Jeff indulged him a little more followed by a trip to the local ice cream shop.  (By the way the only American restaurants here in Jaco are Pizza Hut, Subway, and KFC, and it's not places most locals eat it more for the tourist, so Gabriel has only eaten there a couple of times)  When they were sitting at KFC playing finger football, Gabriel told Jeff "This is literally the best birthday I ever had, I just love this birthday"  Again the kid melted my heart in the fact he is so thankful for the small things in life that he gets.  It is a great lesson for us being here around this family but also around a different culture where it isn't common to get everything you can think of on your birthday.  It was a great day with him and a great day to remind myself and my family there is so much we can be thankful for!

They couldn't find 11 for the cake so they decided 4+7=11 :)

Planetarium Arcade :) 

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Look at sweet Gabe's face :)

I even did a couple of rounds of Just Dance with Katherine

Katherine and Jeff racing with G!

Lunch with Katherine, Gabriel, Carlos (a family friend that cooked lunch), Jeff, Gentry, Katherine and I!

Missing Home and Shadow the Wonder Dog

I'm sure there are many factors to why I feel a little homesick.  Some of the major ones include our neighbors right next door.  They are 2 single guys just trying out their luck in Jaco.  As you can imagine they LOVE all the annoying things that crazy single guys love.  Staying up til 4am almost every night, smoking pot and drinking until they are plastered on the common porch we all share, letting their starved for attention dog bark excessively all night because they don't notice cause they are to drunk or high, waking our landlord and her 2 kids up at 1am to get into the gate cause they can't find their keys, saying every word under the moon in front of the kids including the big F bomb even after we have asked to please watch their mouths in front of the kids.  All these lovely traits about our next door neighbors have left Jeff, Gentry, and I getting far less than the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night and we are all pretty drained from the lack of sleep!  So I know the lack of sleep contributes to part of unstableness.  7 days until we move into our new place where other families live!

I also know taking on watching Katherine adds stress to life cause I have been out of fit throwing stage for a while, and I'm not really fan of this stage, even if I'm a huge fan of the kiddo.  Yesterday we went to swim at Courtney's pool (my friend from the States that we moved down here with).  We were there about 10 minutes and Katherine decided she would not let it go that she didn't have her floaties and started crying and whining...and crying and whining...and crying and whining.  Finally we had to pull the plug on our pool trip and I took the screaming, no really SCREAMING 3 year old out of the pool and started walking home with her.  The boys stayed cause Jeff was on his way.  The entire, no really the ENTIRE way home she was screaming and kicking while I had to try and wrangle her flailing body so I wouldn't drop her.  She kept screaming "ayudarme por favor" at the top of her lungs.  As I walked through the local neighborhood, people literally were walking out of their houses to see what in the world was going on.  I'm sure it crossed some of their minds that this mean white woman was stealing a child from Costa Rica!  It was quite the walk home.  After we were home she continued the screaming frenzy for about another 20 minutes, it was at this point she was calming enough that I busted out google translation and laid down the law with the little one.  I don't think she could believe her ears cause I was actually speaking her language and setting some rules!  It was freakin awesome.  Afterwards I just kept thinking to myself...I'm pretty bad ass :)  Even though I really don't mind keeping her, I know the change of life is definitely adding to me missing the normalcy of life.  

We also found out today that Natey Rae's dog Shadow died today ;(  If you know Nate and you know Shadow you know how deeply sad that is for him.  Shadow had been sick for a while but the vet told them yesterday that he had an infection in his intestines that even if they tried to treat it, he would die.  Poor puppy didn't make through the day today :(  I got an email from my dad telling us they took him into the vet and it was all over.  I set in my bed and cried, G was already asleep so we will breach that topic in the morning.  Obviously I know it was just a dog, and life will go on, but man does it hurt!!  I haven't talked to my sweet baby brother yet, but gotta get myself together before I can do that!

All these things started to take a toll this weekend as I was longing for familiar things.  It was SuperBowl Sunday weekend and I kept thinking we should be planning a party, shopping for game day foods, wearing jackets; but instead we were sweating since 8am, having a plate of rice and beans at a local Taco Bar, contemplating where we would watch the game if we did at all.  It wasn't even about the game, it was about feeling something familiar.  Jeff asked a couple of times what do you want to do (we all know how I am about rash decisions in the first place) and after about the 3rd time he asked I just started crying.  I even said the words out loud "I just want to go home".  Jeff held me for a while as I let it out.  I don't really want to go home, but I certainly miss the familiar things of home, and at times it makes me sad.  Most days are good, but there are definitely times I wonder why in the heck I live countries away the familiar life and family I love so much!!!  

Especially now with Nate losing Shadow.  I don't know that I would make the 10 hour drive from Colorado to NM, but I know for a fact I would consider it!   I love that kid like he's my own and my heart just breaks thinking about him being sad.  Wish there something I could do, wish I could give him a hug, wish I could see his sweet face in person and tell him it is going to be okay, wish I could just be home with him.  

Don't worry dad, before you go and think I have lost my marbles and head down on the next flight to help your baby girl pack and head home, let me assure you I am okay.  It's hard and there are things about being so far away that I HATE!  There is also 90% of this experience that I LOVE! It's just that the 10% of things I miss so much include my family, friends, and community that we dearly love, so they kinda make a bigger impact me.  

After my cry fest on Sunday, Jeff was determined to make me feel a little more at home and like Super Bowl Sunday.  He ordered Pizza Hut pizza, got some Coca Cola, invited Courtney and Justin over to hang down at Kathia's house with her and the kids, and sent G and I off to the store to try and find something to bake for dessert. Sadly the closest grocery store had nothing even remotely close to familiar baked goodies so we settled on ice cream. On the way there, G asked "Why are you so sad?"  I told him I was just missing being back at home.  He sweetly replied "Me too mom, sometimes I really miss my friends and our house, but it's okay we can go back in a little bit"  His innocent answer somewhat calmed my tears cause he's right, this is only a season and what a great adventure we are on.  It might be hard to be so far away from our family and friends but our time here will pass quickly and soon enough we will be missing our life here in Costa Rica.  Until then I am so glad we are here, with moments of tears thinking of all the ones we love and left behind.  Especially you my sweet Natey Rae, I love you sweet boy and wish nothing more than to give you a big hug and make your tears go away.  I love you like crazy, and all the way to Heaven!  

Here are a couple of videos of Shadow the dog who was seriously addicted to chasing a ball!

Molly's first friend!

Even though not your typical Super Bowl Sunday brunch, it was actually really good!

G got the french toast, although he didn't get his meal for 25 minutes after we got ours! It was gone in about 4 minutes flat!

So glad to have good friends here!

Enjoying ice cream during half time instead of something warm!

Hanging out at Kathia's with familiar faces