wife-mommy-woman

My Great #3

2012-01-23T22:38:00.000-06:00

Ok, so if you know me (whether through the blog or personally) you probably know that I say things that I want to do, and then don't follow through. For instance...since saying that my blog is going to be devoted to great parts of my life, I've only done that for two out of four posts.

I think about my blog often, and though I don't feel guilty about not updating often, like I used to, I'm sad that I don't have the time to update it. I would love to talk about life, and how great it is. I would love to be able to share with people who are assigned to Costa Rica, or who are entering the Foreign Service the good, bad, and ugly of living abroad and being in the Foreign Service. And because I would love to be famous I'd love to be a, Kolbi, Jill, Donna, Naoma (or any of the other famous FS bloggers).

Well...anyways, all of that to say that because I did three hours of homework this morning while the nanny is here, I'll use the commercial time during Castle to tell you about my great #3: Costa Rica.

I love Costa Rica for so many reasons. Mostly I love Costa Rica because I love my life here. Sure, it's been hard some times. But let's not talk about that. Let's talk about why I love my life here.

I get to live in a place with a beautiful language. I took Spanish in Middle and High School because it seemed like the easiest choice, and everyone was doing it. After I spent three months here in Costa Rica (after high school everyone went to college - I went to Costa Rica) I didn't think there was a language as beautiful as Spanish. I still think it's beautiful. Sometimes it drives me crazy, but I love it. I wish I had worked harder to learn more, but I'm pretty proud of how much I do speak, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn it.

The scenery is amazing. Once you're about 30 minutes out of the city center (especially if you head West on the new/old Autopista) you see green, and hills, and trees (we have real Christmas tree farms here because you can grow firs at the elevations we have in Costa Rica), so many different kinds of trees. The sky is a gorgeous blue dotted with white clouds, or clear of clouds , or maybe some scary looking dark grey clouds. I have so many pictures from above those clouds when I lived near the top of Irazu Volcano of the clouds. Living above cloud line three days a week was amazing, cold, but amazing. The beaches aren't as great as you would think unless you go to the Northern Pacific coast, but they're still beaches. Costa Rica has water for surfing, or if you'd like calm waters for the most novice swimmers. My favorite beach so far is Tamarindo, we've been there twice and it's great. You can also boat down a river, climb mountains, camp in a Rain Forrest, sit in a hot spring near a volcano...you can see so many things.

Pretty blue sky dotted with clouds (picture by John)

Jaco Beach - another favorite

Wildlife! the range of things to see here is amazing. I know we haven't seen it all, and that makes me sad. But we've seen a lot...monkeys, birds, reptiles, spiders, crocodiles and we even saw a deer.

this is Angelina Jolie. She and I became close friends.

This is a big beaked bird (also known as B.B.B.).

Beauty Services! If I had time I could be at the salon every week getting hair cuts, waxes, facials, manicures and pedicures. It's certainly not Asia cheap, but it's cheaper than the States. If I want - I can have someone come to my house for the services. An at home massage after a hard day of working, homework and kids is a great thing (and too infrequent if you ask me).

Nanny! I have a nanny for the first time ever. Remember when I said I did homework for three hours today? Simon and Coen were up playing and eating during all of that. My nanny made that possible. My nanny has an adult daughter who likes my kids...a lot. She even babysat overnight last weekend so John and I wouldn't have to worry about getting home early or waking up early. I love having a nanny who has a daughter who loves my kids and is willing to do that (side note: next time, we're just doing a live-in).

Schools. Malachi has a great school that we love. The teacher is really dedicated to the education of her students, and is eager to work with parents to make sure they get the best possible education. She has been great for Malachi, and she'll hold a dear spot in my heart for a long time. There are a few schools that are pretty good here.

There are other reasons why my life is so great, but they don't really have to do with Costa Rica itself. Nonetheless, for many reasons (I'm sure I'll remember others as soon as I post this blog) Costa Rica is my great #3.

Reflections on 2011

2012-01-02T22:56:00.000-06:00

Someone turned one, someone was born, someone turned six, two people turned 30. There was travel to Minnesota, North Virginia/D.C. (twice, by two different people, at two different times), Ecuador, and Hawaii. There was a complete overhaul of my husband's section during which time he did a job two pay grades above him (there was also an award given for the service he provided (a big one - rare for a first tour officer)). There were two different schools, and Kindergarten twice. There was a first love made and lost, and the realities of the Foreign Service life set in for our sweet son. Our next assignment was given and much rejoicing was had over one word: Manila. There was family in Costa Rica on both sides, sadly this year no friends came to visit. There was a relapse of Epilepsy and a new treatment found. There were beach trips, a volcano trip, and a group vacation to one of our favorite places - Tamarindo.

I have much more written on another computer I'm hoping this will tide you over until I finish it. Here are some pics to remember 2011 by (in no particular order).

Simon turns 1

High School Friends!

Grandma visits Costa Rica

Malachi zip lines!

On our not kid free babymoon

Welcome Coen!

John at the Equator

Celebrating Easter

Celebrating 10 years

Swimming with some not dangerous (yet still cool) sharks

Coen's first beach trip

I guess some pictures haven't gotten off the cards yet, we're missing Christmas and Malachi's birthday. There's a chance they'll make it on here one day...

Physical Therapy Update

2011-12-26T18:48:00.002-06:00

I wrote this morning's post days ago, and last night finally set it to publish today.

Even before it went live we had a great experience with Coen. He woke me up at 5:40 a.m. (that's not the great part) and he was on his back talking. Since he was happy I let him be. When I looked at him again at 6:20 (still happy but it was time), he was on his stomach!! He had rolled over for the first time! I'm a little sad that neither of us got to see it, but I'm super happy that he's made it to this place! After we went downstairs for breakfast I put him on the floor so I could get his bottle made, and I got him to roll over - so satisfying! I can't wait for his physical therapy appointment on Friday afternoon!

My great #2

2011-12-26T08:13:00.000-06:00

This is actually three greats. They're 6, almost 2 (going on 5), and 6 1/2 months. They're all amazing and I can't imagine my life without them.

Malachi is in Kindergarten right now, at a great school. He gets to ride the bus every day, and has a crush on the neighborhood girl that goes with him (she's 10). His most recent report card reports that he's doing very well. He's excelling in reading and writing and is improving in Math, Social Studies, and social skills. When you ask what his favorite class is, he'll tell you computers. He LOVES computers. His class had a mini concert last week before school ended for the semester and he was so cute! He was the only one who danced during "Feliz Navidad," and he was the clearest person to say his line when he and two others got up for a little speech (a very little speech). He's becoming more and more outgoing, and he's got so much energy! I think he wears people out after just a few minutes with his talking, running, jumping, running, climbing people, hanging on people, smiling, loving...well you get the picture. He loves people so much! He's very well liked by our friends as well.

Simon is growing! He gets very frustrated when he can't do something by himself (hence going on 5), so we're letting him try most things. It must be hard to have a brother who can do stuff that he can't. He must have gone through a growth spurt because he looks tall to me right now. He's adding words to his vocabulary daily. He still calls all liquids agua, but is willing to change if we tell him it's something else. He's defnitely bi-lingual, and I think he's figuring out who to respond to in English and Spanish, he's so smart. He started saying short sentences the other day. He now says "hi (insert name of person or toy)" and " (insert name of person or toy)." He still doesn't get Coen we think, because he still sits on Coen's head when we're not in the room.

Coen is really growing! His exercises are working to strengthen his legs, sitting and rolling. He now rolls from his stomach to his back, almost sits by himself, and almost rolls the other way. That darn arm just gets in the way. I think that with the moves that he does, he'll be doing all three soon, and even crawling early because of the other exercises that she had me start. He loves avocado, and unfortunately the variety of jarred food here isn't very good, and I haven't had much time to do some baby food making. I'm gonna have to start though. Maybe some squash or something else soft - ideas anyone? Coen is smiling and "talking" a lot. He uses the guh sound, muh, cuh, and nuh. I feel like that's early, but my kids have always been early talkers.

2011-12-25T07:08:00.001-06:00

Cinnamon rolls are rising and cooking in the oven, Christmas music is on, baby had his bottle and cereal and apple sauce, and kids are coming down.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Epiphanies Galore

2011-11-12T08:25:00.001-06:00

Breaking from my not-progressing series on My Greats, I have to say that this must be a time of epiphanies. I had another one yesterday...a big one. A very painful one, that I'm not going to get into because it's just that personal.

I really hope that I can fix what needs to be fixed though so that relationships improve and life becomes even happier (because life, over all, is pretty happy).

RE: the other epiphanies I had: I seem to be getting a lot closer to Simon. Right now on vacation there are a lot of people here for him to play with (insert lots of cuteness with cousin here), but I've gotten a bit of time with him here the last few days. Yesterday we got a rare few minutes by ourselves and had a very good time playing together.

I also got to bond with my niece a little bit. While her parents were snorkeling I took her to the water and splashed around with her. She would laugh, and I would laugh, and we were having a grand time. If we lived closer to family I think I'd try to be closer to her since I don't get a little girl of my own. I'll just have to settle with R&R's, home leaves, and their trips to visit us. I often think of her when I pass girl clothing in the stores. I'm good at policing myself, but it can be hard!

We're all enjoying our vacation on Oahu a lot. So far we've: swam at the beach, done an ATV tour, swam at the beach, done a Segway tour, snorkled at Lanikai Beach, eaten at the highest rated restaurant in Hawaii, snorkled at Hanamua Bay, played games, celebrated 10 years together, watched the cousins bond, and enjoyed family time. And we still have six days left! Today John, his brother, and I are going to swim with some sharks. Actually...the alarm is going off in three minutes (4:40 a.m.), I should just start getting ready.

I hope everyone had a thankful and relaxing Veteran's Day.

Epiphanies

2011-10-24T20:55:00.000-05:00

I'm staying home with the kids today, and I've had a couple of epiphanies.

One - I don't know Simon as well as I'd like (this one has been happening slowly over a while). I certainly don't know him as well as I knew Malachi at this age. I've really enjoyed having a nanny, but it's been detrimental to my relationship with my kids. I think that on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays I'm going to try to be a mom full time and a student, friend, what ever second. Of course I'll still need to go to the salon, and the Dr. and what not, but for the most part I'd like to go back to my roots and be the mom to Simon and Coen that I was to Malachi.

Two - I've been very down on my life lately. I imagine it's getting annoying to be my facebook friend because my status updates have been pretty negative for quite a while. There are some reasons that I could list as to why I've been so down lately, but let's not get into those. Instead I want to start a new tradition. I want to use my blog as a platform to announce to the world what's good about my life. I have so much in my life that is great and instead of dwelling on the negative in my life I want to dwell on the positive. I want to call it My Great.

My first My Great in my life has to be my husband. I could write a very lengthy tribute to him, but I don't know how much he'd like that, so I'll just make a list of adjectives that I think describe him: humble (see previous comment), patient, smart, handsome, funny, affectionate, passionate, hot, giving, hard-working, and amazing.

I don't know that I could list all the positive adjectives in the world and still have enough to describe him. He is definitely My Great numero uno.

A First

2011-10-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

John and I experienced a first today.

Simon and I went to the Embassy this afternoon to pick up John from work. We exited the Embassy Compound and we were sitting at a left turn light, about 15 cars back, and all of a sudden we felt a bump at the rear of the car; we got rear ended. We almost didn't notice because it was so light. Because of Costa Rican law we needed to stay at the scene. We called the Marine on Guard and he called the roving patrol to send them over. They got to us in about five minutes and took some information from us. About 15 minutes after they arrived they said that the insurance investigator would arrive in 25 minutes.

Poor Simon got so bored. We tried to keep him occupied but it was hard! We had to stay in the middle of the road, so we stayed in the car with our seat belts on. At the end of the investigation from the insurance, about 70 minutes after the accident happened, the transit cop showed up. His investigation was a lot shorter, and he let us pull over to the side of the road. John and Simon were able to get out - Simon still got bored but John did a great job taking care of him.

When the transit cop finished I got his report and was happy to learn that we owed nothing. We were then released to go. The cop brought over the guy who hit us and said that he works in car painting and thought it would get done faster through him instead of through an insurance shop. So he gave us his information and then apologized for hitting us.

The whole process was pretty painless, it just delayed us almost an hour and a half from getting home. P took good care of the kids, keeping Coen cool (he's had a fever), and feeding Malachi dinner.

In other aspects of life. I think John's the only one that's not sick right now. I think this marks the fourth week that we've had a cold in the house. Coen has a fever that's slowly going down. Simon's fever comes and goes, but it's never as high as 102. Malachi just can't kick his cough. John got the cold and then again. I missed it the first time but got it this time. I hope we're almost done.

Schools going well. I'm holding up an A in one class and I think an A- in the other. Hopefully I don't lose to many points in that one.

Update on Kiddos (including a surprise ending)

2011-09-28T10:11:00.001-05:00

Simon and Coen had a pretty rough day yesterday. Coen's cough seemed to be getting better during the day, but by the evening he was doing not so well. Simon's cough seemed to be getting better except for the frequency. I called his Dr. yesterday morning to see what he suggested, he prescribed a cough suppressant and told me to call him back 3 hours after Simon took it. I got a taxi and went to the pharmacy. The suppressant worked for the cough and put him to sleep. Finally he would get some really good rest.

After about 3 hours on the medicine he woke up from his nap and was coughing just as bad as before he took the suppressant. After I talked to the Dr again he told me to give the suppressant right away and then again at bed time. The second dose of the med didn't seem to work nearly as well. It made him super sleepy but he was still coughing a lot. But after dinner (which consisted of one teeny tiny bite of grilled cheese made softly so as to not aggravate the throat) he was ready for bed. So, one more dose of the suppressant, plus the other three medicines he's getting for this, and he was off to sleep.

He slept through the night!! I was so happy for Simon that he got a good nights rest. Coen, however, did not sleep through the night. He was up at 2:00 (ish) at which time I walked him back to sleep. Then he was up at 3:30 at which time I fed him because he only ate 4 oz of diluted formula (per the dr's orders because formula can make already phlegmy situations worse) for dinner. He ate about 4 oz of diluted formula and then went back to bed. I was hoping that he'd sleep until about 7:00 so that I could sleep more. Nope! He woke up at 5:50 - bleh. I think I'll nap today.

Malachi came home from school yesterday and his first words after he got off the bus were, "my throat hurts." Awesome. So, today I kept him home. His throat hurts pretty bad, and he's coughing up phlegm, although his cough isn't nearly as bad as the others' yet. The main concern with him is seizures because being sick with a virus or bacteria, or really bad allergies even, can cause seizures. Hopefully his anti-seizure meds will keep the seizures away.

Want another Malachi story? Trust me...you do.

Last night while he was devouring his softly made grilled cheese sandwich and daddy and I were trying to somewhat relax we hear, "tooth's out!!" That's right...our first baby lost his first baby tooth. Can I just say?...It's super tiny! So as I'm holding his super tiny tooth in my hand I say, "now what?" and we start talking about the tooth fairy. He reveals a secret though...he knows it's going to be us, that we'll just pretend to be the tooth fairy. I laughed so hard! He told us to get a coin out of the car for his tooth. When John was tucking him in last night they put the tooth in the bedroom.

When I went to bed I grabbed the coin that I had gotten from the car and went to Malachi's room. I couldn't find the tooth under the pillows, and for once Malachi was actually on one of the pillows. I didn't want to disturb him, so I almost just left the coin under the one he wasn't on. But then I remember hearing John saying something about making sure the tooth was safe, and I felt around on the night stand and sure enough that's where it was.

At about 5:50 this morning Malachi came squealing into the room that "she came!!" He was convinced John had done it, and John vehemently denied it and revealed it may have been me. He's so proud of his quinientos coin (which is 500 in Spanish and it's about a dollar, which is probably more than what he would've gotten in the States because he told me that the tooth fairy leaves one coin). He doesn't have much of a gap though because the adult tooth is already growing in, and I would guess is already half way in. I would have taken pictures but we can't find the camera right now, and we're very unhappy about that.

Sick Kids

2011-09-27T09:36:00.000-05:00

Last week on Wednesday or Thursday Simon started coughing. It didn't get too bad, and I just thought it was his teething. He's been teething his canine and I teeth for quite some time now. I thought with the presence of the cold that meant that he was finally going to break through the gums. But the cold got worse and the teeth weren't breaking.

Then Coen started coughing. Over the weekend they both got pretty bad, so yesterday with the advice of the Embassy nurse (whom I love and is amazing - I'm going to miss her) I called the Pediatrician. He had us go to the office yesterday, late morning. While we were sitting in his office, he heard Simon cough (it had turned into a high squeaky cough) and looked very concerned. He listened to his chest and told me that while he can't call Simon an asthmatic, the cough sounded like an asthmatic cough.

He said that some people can have a bacteria in them that predisposes them to asthma and allergies. Since John had asthma as a child and now has allergies we could assume he has that bacteria and that the kids could get it. That explains Malachi's allergies. And that explains the boys' coughs. The Dr. said that the coughs probably started out as a regular cold and then got worse. He ordered some medicines to be delivered to the house. We got them in the afternoon and the kids started their three medicines.

Today they're a bit better, but I still feel like we have a long road ahead of us for recovery. The Dr. also said that what they have is very contagious and he expects the whole family will have it. Awesome. I just put Simon down for a nap at 8:30 this morning because he woke up at 5:30. I've been up since 4:00 because of Coen, and I'm super tired. We'll see how this day goes.

School

2011-09-13T01:09:00.000-05:00

Before I start, I just want to say that this is my 500th post on wife-mommy-woman. I think that's pretty awesome. Now back to our regularly unscheduled blog post...

A friend noticed that I've been a little silent and asked if I'm ok.

I'm doing pretty well, although I am pretty stressed out. If you're my facebook friend you may know that this semester I returned to school. You see, I never finished my bachelor's degree. About two years in I got pregnant with Malachi and decided not to finish. But for some reason, now that I have three kids (omg), I've decided it's time.

Really, there won't be an easier, or slower time in life, so I might as well get it done. And in order to get the degree I want (Business Administration in Management) at the pace I'm going (two classes a semester) John said it will take about 8 1/2 years because not all of my credits will transfer to that degree.

I'm determined to get that degree though - it's what I want. So maybe next year when we're in Manila and I have even more help in the house I'll take three classes a semester. I think I'll still work part-time, but I'd like a job that's even more part-time than my current one. Because even though I love working in the CLO, there's a lot of work to be done outside of my 16 hours/week in the office. I'd like a job that I could leave at the office, maybe I'll work in the consulate. Who wants to come take care of my three kids in D.C. next summer so I can take ConGen?

I realize I'm rambling. So...here's what's going on with me right now:

1 husband
3 kids
1 part time (16 hours, plus comp time for events) job
1 personal trainer 3 x a week to get rid of the mommy body and get back some semblance of the hot body I once had
2 University classes (American History 1301, Lifelong Learning for Adult Students) and I don't even have the books yet - I can't imagine what it'll be like when I do!
Hanging out with friends (when I have time!)
Salon services (it takes a lot to keep up a hot bod) when I have time!
And other random things you throw into the loop

Can I just say that without P (the nanny/maid) I would not be able to accomplish all of this.

So if I am a bit silent in the next 6-8 years, it's not because I don't enjoy blogging, it's because I'm really (insert expletive) busy!

Good weekend

2011-08-22T17:21:00.000-05:00

Since Coen was born our weekends have been difficult. We fight the "crazies" (what we call it when Malachi and Simon have pent up energy and start going crazy, the action is usually followed by the request that they "tone down the crazy.") with trips to the mall to walk around, or to a playground.

Even when we do things like this we can have horrible days where the parents are counting down the minutes until bed time, and depending on children's attitudes that time might come sooner than normal.

But as you can probably tell from the title of this entry this was a good weekend.

Saturday John and the older boys went out in the morning to do some shopping and John and I went out to a dinner party that night with some friends. Sunday afternoon we had a going away party for a Vice Consul that actually has been on a year long TDY in Iraq for the last year. His time is done now, as is his time in Costa Rica, so now he's PCS'ing out.

This morning John and I realized that it was a pretty good weekend with the kids. I think it's because we're starting to get the hang of having three kids.

Finally!!

Throwing a Fit

2011-08-19T16:56:00.000-05:00

Well folks, I’ve reached it. The place in my tour when I admit to John that I don’t want to leave next year.

I really like my life here a lot. I have great friends here and they’ve just arrived, so I’ll be the one leaving them. Malachi really likes his school here and comes home happy every day. I have an amazing nanny who I absoultely love, and I mean I really love her. It’s going to be so hard to leave her.

I have a great house, a great job, a great everything. I can’t imagine leaving – AND I DON’T WANT TO! But I have to. Almost 8 months to the day. Don't get me wrong I'll be happy to see people in TX, MN, and DC, and I'm excited for Manila - but can't I just come back here where everything is awesome and familiar? No? Damn.

Favorite Places

2011-08-03T17:14:00.001-05:00

This weeks Roundup is being hosted by Brooke at The World That We Live In. Check it out on Friday.

John was hanging out with friends one day and they said that home to them was Alaska. When John was asked where home is, he didn't have an answer like theirs. To him, home is where his family is. When I went "home" in January I realized the exact same thing can be said. Even though I grew up in MN and love it (in the Spring and Summer...) and I spent my adult years in TX and love it, neither of them are home without my husband and children.

John and I have moved five times in almost ten years. It's what we do. It's one of the reasons we joined the Foreign Service. We're quite nomadic people. The longest we've lived in one place was an apartment in Dallas that we were in for three years - and it felt too long.

So I think that it's great that we're not too attached to one place. We both know with confidence that no matter where we are, it's home.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise, especially to people who know me, that my favorite places always involve my family. My favorite places also always change depending on my mood. Right now, because I'm not working, my favorite place is out. Out with the family. Yesterday we went out to lunch and then to a playground in a nearby suburb. The kids had a blast and I loved being out for a while.

Sometimes my favorite place is whatever restaurant my husband and I are having our date at. Sometimes it's the resort our family is at for vacation.

It may sound dorky...but my favorite place is where my husband and kids are.

Apologize

2011-07-21T10:54:00.001-05:00

I have to apologize to a few bloggers. Nomads by Nature and The Wandering Drays both submitted blog posts and they didn't make it into the Roundup last week.

Heather at The Wandering Drays didn't blog about kitchens, but rather a very long week (that's now almost over) that she was facing. Jason should be home very, very soon now.

Nomads by Nature didn't post about their kitchen either - but rather about the things that fill them. They did a great post about their process of consumable shipment shopping. There are some great tips in there, check it out!

I really do want to apologize to you guys - please forgive me. And everyone else, check out their entries - they're both very good.

Epiphany

2011-07-20T15:57:00.001-05:00

I had an epiphany this morning while I was feeding Coen: I have three kids, two of them are young and very needy and for a time in my life, I have to take care of two very young, needy kids. And even though I'm tired in the morning, when I have a crying toddler and a crying baby and a husband who's not available, I just have to take care of them. No more whining - just do it.

After I realized that there was a lightness added to my life. I feel released from my fears. I don't feel bad about letting one of them wait for a little bit while I take care of the other. The one that's waiting will be o.k. Crying no longer makes me cringe, I hear it and will take care of them as soon as I can.

I really have three great kids, and I was going to add some photos - but I can't get them to upload.

Kitchens

2011-07-16T21:10:00.000-05:00

First have to apologize that this is late. I've been having issues with blogger. I'm seriously considering moving to a new blog.

The theme for our roundup this week is kitchens of the Foreign Service. I'll start with mine. Here's an excerpt from a past Roundup post about housing:

Your kitchen will probably be completely closed off and not very large since kitchens are made for housing staff to be in (although depending on rank, you could have quite a sizable kitchen). Your kitchen will have granite counter tops and probably very few drawers, although you may have quite a few cupboards. Warning - you may not have a dishwasher. You will have a water filter installed in your sink, and probably one in your fridge as well (the water here is potable though, and it doesn't taste very bad). Some kitchens I've seen recently have built in stoves, and I've seen quite small ones, you should make sure the size of your oven before bringing baking dishes.

with dining room in the background. We have a swinging door to the
dining room, we wish it had a lock

The door in the background is to the laundry room.

As far as my kitchen goes, the cupboards might look good in a picture, but some of them are a little crooked, and something about their finish lends to them always looking dirty (even the ones out of reach of the kids). I love having granite, but the color choice makes it really hard to see when and where the counters are dirty. I don't like that it's so closed off, but I do love the size. It's the biggest kitchen we've had since we were in our first house. I wish we had more drawers, but I love the cupboard space. The kitchen has enough space for both John and I to enjoy cooking together, and I LOVE that.

We enjoy our kitchen, but in Manila I'm hoping for more drawers and a pantry.

Kitchens: The Huge, The Average and the Tiny

Donna at Email from the Embassy didn't have time to write up an entry for the roundup, but she did send me a link to an entry that shows her kitchen after her UAB arrived. All I can say is: here I come Amman!

Becky at Small Bits said there wasn't much special about her kitchen except a cupboard that isn't quite kid friendly.

Chelsea at A Fisher Out of Water shows off a sleek if not somewhat lacking in storage kitchen complete with a homemade rug and table for her daughter.

Sadie at Sadie Abroad surprised me this week with how small her kitchen is. Stepping into her kitchen you'll see some of her favorite things which have to be "stored" on the counter. She's also included quite a list of her favorite kitchen items with links to check them out yourself.

Carla at I Run, You Run compared her past kitchen in Arlington which was just as tiny as one of the kitchens John and I had in Texas to her current kitchen in Manila. While she's gained square footage she hasn't gained very many drawers so she still has to be creative.

James and Sarah Talalay recently blogged about the energy efficient qualities of their home in India, including quite a special drying rack for their dishes. You can find a picture of their kitchen in this entry where they give you a tour of their home. And in THIS entry, you can see how they make pizza in their kid sized oven.

And in other (food related) news:

Like nomads, but with more stuff, wish they had a garden but do go to the rinok to get their in season fruits and veggies.

and finally:

Worldwide Availability is not a big fan of Hello Kitty, but thinks Hello Kitty Town isn't that bad of a place to bring their little one.

Thanks everyone for your submissions and suggestions, and again I apologize for it being late. Next week is going to be hosted by Sadie, the week after that is still open, please go by the State Department Blog Roundup Calendar and sign up.

Trouble

2011-07-15T23:37:00.002-05:00

I was having issues with blogger today and couldn't get the roundup done. I'll try very hard to do it tomorrow.

Fun psychology quiz

2011-07-11T11:50:00.000-05:00

I found this past blog post, and thought it would be fun to see how my answers have changed.

First the questions are listed then my answers to the questions, then the psychology behind it. Answer the questions before you read the psychology.

1. You are not alone. You are walking in the woods. Who is WALKING WITH YOU?

2. You are walking in the woods. You see an animal. What kind of animal?

3. What interaction takes place between you and the animal?

4. You walk deeper in the woods. You enter a clearing, and before you is your dream house, what does it look like?

5. Is your dream house surrounded by a fence?

6. You enter the house. You walk into the dining room and see the dining room table. What do you see on AND around it?

7. You exit the house and a cup is on the ground, what kind is it?

8. What do you do with the cup?

9. You walk to the edge of the property where you find yourself standing at the end of a body of water what kind of water is it?

10. How will you cross the water?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My answers August 2007

1. You are not alone. You are walking in the woods. Who is WALKING WITH YOU? God

2. You are walking in the woods. You see an animal. What kind of animal? mountain lion

3. What interaction takes place between you and the animal? we stare each other down, i eventually clap my hands loud and scare it away

4. You walk deeper in the woods. You enter a clearing, and before you is your dream house, what does it look like? big colonial style house

5. Is your dream house surrounded by a fence? nope

6. You enter the house. You walk into the dining room and see the dining room table. What do you see on AND around it? thanksgiving dinner - john, malachi, my family, his family, josh and bethany, chris and holly

7. You exit the house and a cup is on the ground, what kind is it? Green plastic Starbucks cup

8. What do you do with the cup? walk by it

9. You walk to the edge of the property where you find yourself standing at the end of a body of water what kind of water is it? lake

10. How will you cross the water? fishing or speed boat

My answers July 2011:

1. You are not alone. You are walking in the woods. Who is WALKING WITH YOU? John

2. You are walking in the woods. You see an animal. What kind of animal? deer

3. What interaction takes place between you and the animal? stare at each other and it runs away

4. You walk deeper in the woods. You enter a clearing, and before you is your dream house, what does it look like? Big, colonial

5. Is your dream house surrounded by a fence? no

6. You enter the house. You walk into the dining room and see the dining room table. What do you see on AND around it? thanksgiving dinner, family

7. You exit the house and a cup is on the ground, what kind is it? fancy goblet

8. What do you do with the cup? pick it up

9. You walk to the edge of the property where you find yourself standing at the end of a body of water what kind of water is it? ocean

10. How will you cross the water? canoe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ANSWERS

1. The person who you are walking in the woods with is the most important to you.

2. The size of the animal is representative of your perception of the size of your problems in your life.

3. The severity of the interaction you have with the animal is representative of how you deal with your problems.

4. The size of your dream home is representative of the size of your ambition to solve your problems.

5. A lack of a fence is indicative of an open personality. People are welcome at all times. The presence of a fence indicates a closed personality. You'd prefer people not drop by unannounced.

6. If your answer did NOT include food, flowers, or people, then you are generally unhappy.

7. The durability of the material with the cup is made of is representative of the perceived durability of your relationships.

8. What you did with the cup is representative of your attitude.

9. The size of the body of water is representative of the size of your sexual desire.

10. The way you cross the water is representative to how easy or hard you expect your life to be.

Roundup Assignment

2011-07-08T10:26:00.000-05:00

I signed up to do the Round-up next Friday, the 15th. The optional topic is: Kitchens of the Foreign Service. Show us your good, bad, and ugly. How do your current kitchens compare to your previous kitchens (not just the FS ones)? I can't wait to see pictures. If anyone who is in Manila or was there at some recent time wants to share pictures, I'd love to see those!

2011-07-03T22:49:00.000-05:00

Coen had the appointment for his MED clearance on Thursday. He's growing really well. In about two weeks he'd gained 1 lb. 4 oz. According to her measurements he'd shrunken 1/2 a centimeter, but I don't think that's right. He looks longer to me, not shorter. She said he looked really good. I have no doubt that he'll get his class 1 MED clearance.

After that appointment we went to his hearing test. In the States they do this test in the hospital and parents don't see it happening, and have nothing to do with it. You just find out that they passed. The Pediatrician here said that newborns have fluid in their ears and can have false negatives. So she prefers that parents take their child into the clinic at about three weeks old. I took Coen in, and the test was really fast. The person administering the test said that it usually takes about 20 minutes per ear and Coen took about 30 seconds per ear and passed on both sides. He said that Coen was the perfect patient.

On Friday Coen will be 1 month. I can't believe how quickly that went!

The rest of the family is doing well. Today we went to the mall, all five of us. It was raining quite hard when we were ready to go, and we didn't have the umbrellas with us. They were in the car...of course.

Red, White and Blue

2011-06-30T03:28:00.000-05:00

Check out the Weekly State Department Roundup at Nomads by Nature on Friday.

Last year for the 4th of July event I worked. In San Jose there's no CLO event for the 4th, but there's a big representational event that I helped at. The CLO Coordinator was in charge of decorations, so, about three weeks after I started my job, I was at the hotel the day of the event steaming large flags that had been hung. After setup was done we went to the room that was offered to us to change in, and did just that.

This is a fancy party, so I wore a fancy dress. I met people that I never would have met, hotel owners, corporation big wigs, small business owners, etc. I stood in heels for hours because there was nowhere to sit. John and I are friends with the Officer who put the party together, so we stayed until the very end, the very, very end. We even shared a cab home with him.

This year, I'm not going. The event is this weekend, and I'm going to stay home and chill with my boys. My husband needs to work it, but he's driving himself so he can leave early and join his family chilling at home.

I don't think I'm ready to stand for hours in heels yet anyway.

Vacation/Home leave

2011-06-23T18:04:00.000-05:00

The topic for the Weekly State Department Roundup is Vacation and/or home leave. You can see it at The Wandering Drays tomorrow. Home leave, for those who don't know, is the time between assignments that you're required to spend in the U.S.

I haven't had a home leave yet, this being our first assignment, but I've heard people spend thousands of dollars. I know that with our plans (hotel in Dallas, rental car, Target!, food!!!, etc.) we'll be spending thousands of dollars. We're already planning on putting a certain amount of money away a month starting in November or December so that we have a bit saved up before we go.

I have had one vacation to the States since we got here 14 months ago. Before I got the tickets for my trip in January to MN I was really homesick. Going to MN in the dead of winter was better than not going to the States. Everyone in Costa Rica thought I was pretty dumb to go to MN in the dead of winter.

But I got to go to the States! I ate delicious food (although the weather did prohibit me from venturing out more). I got to visit with lots of family and friends, and my dad even got to meet Simon for the first time on this trip.

The thought of vacation takes on a whole new meaning when you're in the Foreign Service. Before we were in the FS vacations meant leaving the U.S. Now, vacations often mean going to the U.S.

There are vacations not in the U.S. though. John and I have always said that having kids wouldn't mean we couldn't do the things we want. For instance, yesterday we took a daycation to one of the closest beaches to San Jose. We packed up all the kids and whatever was necessary for them, towels, and beach toys and headed out. We only spent a couple of hours there, but it was a good time. Malachi really enjoys the beach, so I'm glad we got to do that.

We've also been to the beach with almost every visitor (Allison, why didn't we do the beach instead?!). We went to the jungle to see sea turtles lay eggs, and we stayed at a house near volcano Arenal for a night and relaxed on the porch in hammocks and rocking chairs with our friends. We've had a lot of opportunities for travel just inside this country. We had hoped to see more of Central America while living here, but we may not be able to. We are going to Panama City with the kids in November for our 10th anniversary. We're excited for the city because it's supposed to be a lot nicer than San Jose (San Jose is a non city though), and we're excited for the Panama Canal, and we think Malachi will really like that as well.

But our upcoming vacation that I'm really looking forward to? In September we're going on R&R to the U.S. Honestly we were going to take our R&R to the United Kingdom, but tickets are so expensive to MN that we can't pass up the opportunity for the free tickets to see family.

I can't wait for food! FOOD!!! It'll also be nice to get a break from the rain. Sure it'll be fall in MN and it might rain a bit, but at that time here, it'll be raining almost constantly. It can't be that bad in the States.

September seems not far away...and yet...too far.

So lucky

2011-06-21T14:40:00.000-05:00

How'd I get so lucky? Coen eats every three hours during the day and only wakes up once or twice at night. He's awake more and more after feedings and even started making noises other than crying. After looking at pictures, it looks like his yellow tint has really gone down a lot.

It seems that the older kids are really starting to like him a lot. Simon even got to hold him today.

Giving Coen a kiss.

A new normal?

2011-06-18T03:12:00.000-05:00

I don't have much to blog about. Nothing spectacular has happened in the last few days. Malachi is getting much better, but is still coughing quite a bit since he doesn't yet know how to "cough it out." Coen's feedings are no less than three hours now - how did I get so lucky?! Simon's quite used to him now, I think. He says "hi" to him a lot and either waves or rubs Coen's head gently.

Life has been good these last couple of days. With nothing spectacular I wonder if it's just become...normal.

Coen's busy day

2011-06-15T05:17:00.000-05:00

We saw the Pediatrician yesterday in the a.m. and Coen's doing quite well! He's only lost 4 oz. in six days - probably because he's eating so much. He's grown a centimeter, and his head shrunk two - apparently their heads are swollen at the time of birth. She thought he looked a little yellow, so she ordered a blood test. It came back borderline, so we were instructed to get him in the sun in the morning and have him eat lots. We'll do another test today to make sure it's not climbing. Other than that he's "perfect."

I can tell you from my perspective that he's a poop machine! He's also pretty amazing and we're falling more and more in love with him.

In the afternoon we went to the Embassy to get our packages and mail and introduce Coen to some people. He was a huge hit, and even met the Ambassador, but while Mommy was getting her tetanus shot, he was getting hungry and Daddy remembered that we needed to get home and give Big Brother his mid-day medicine. So Coen had to ride home in the car hungry. Eventually he fell asleep, but before that, if the car wasn't moving you knew he was there in the back seat.

He was so tired from all the activity yesterday, but he was a champ through it all.

Life with Three

2011-06-12T22:51:00.000-05:00

Right now, life with three is easier than expected. Of course Coen isn't doing much, but I truly expected it to be much harder right away.

The last few days have been filled with feedings and diapers for me, and cooking and taking care of the older two for John. Coen is eating tons still, and is spacing out his feedings. Our bosses (my supervisor is married to John's boss) came today to see him.

I'm recovering pretty well. I've been able to even help around the house a little bit. Getting sleep is the hardest thing, although with him spacing out his feedings I got a bit more last night and should get more tonight - I hope.

Malachi is sick. This is horrible for him, but I feel bad because I can't just cuddle up with him. It also means he has to stay away from Coen. That's sad because he loves Coen. Simon may also have the same cold, we're not sure if he's sick or just teething.

Life with three should get very exciting in a few months though.

Longest labor, Shortest delivery

2011-06-11T09:10:00.001-05:00

Coen Christopher was born on June 8th at 7 lbs 12 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long at 7:30 p.m. He was welcomed into this world by a team of Dr's and nurses and his parents in Costa Rica - our first (and last) International birth.

I was induced with both Simon and Malachi. The whole labor times (including delivery) were 8 1/2 hours and 13 hours respectively. With this labor, the time was at least 21 hours. I now know why my body is so exhausted compared to the others. Also, the epidural kept wearing off, so I still had a pretty painful delivery. My Dr. was amazing though, he was the perfect coach. That's one of the greatest things about delivering here. The Dr. was my coach through delivery not the nurses.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but he came out in two sets of pushes. It wasn't the normal three pushes in one set, it was more like one really, really big push for set one and then two or three not quite as big but still big pushes for the second set. And then he was out and crying, and he was amazing. They had to take him to another room for the tests and shots, and that made me really sad. I was jealous that John got to go with. He passed with flying colors and didn't cry from the shots.

I've written this over the last two days, I just have to wrap it up. He's nursing lots and keeping me up at night. Right now I feel completely wrecked. Hopefully I can nap today, maybe more than once. His cry is growing and he's getting louder. John's been amazing - he always is.

Mid-Night Hospital Run

2011-06-08T03:05:00.001-05:00

I decided that John and I needed practice going to the hospital. Well, really I thought my water was leaking and I was having contractions. We called P here some time before mid-night and when she got here we went to the hospital.

The nurse on call did a fetal monitor which also monitored the contractions. Turns out I am having regular contractions, every seven minutes I have a big one and in between I have small ones. She did an exam and said that I'm not leaking fluid, I'm only dilated to 1 and he's not in position. I am partially effaced though - so I have that going for me.

So we were sent home. I'm supposed to try to get some rest, and maybe I can do that. I'm going to try at least. When I get up in the morning we'll count to see how far apart they are. When they're about 3 1/2 minutes apart I can go back to the hospital.

Right now the contractions are noticeable and the big ones are a little painful, but it's still very manageable. I'd like to think that I will eventually fall asleep.

Finding and Losing his First Love

2011-06-07T21:44:00.000-05:00

Inspired by the informational and personal piece from Naomi about moving a teenager abroad, I wanted to write about my child's recent experience of life and love in the Foreign Service.

Living in the Foreign Service certainly provides challenges, and one of them is the "transition season." That time of year (Summer in the U.S.) when those leaving/coming to Post do those things. This is my first at Post transition season and it's been challenging for me. Luckily the Foreign Service is small and there's a chance I'll see my friends again.

One of my biggest fears for my children is handling the emotional stress involved in losing their friends. For Simon, this isn't an issue. I don't know if he has friends yet - is he capable of that? But for Malachi, when almost all of his friends are leaving this summer, I'm terrified. Malachi's a very social and friend/family-centric person. I guess he takes after me that way.

Malachi's usually a very well behaved boy and Wednesday two weeks, ago I got an email from his teacher, basically saying that he was having a hard time focusing and it was a distraction for the students, and a hardship for the teachers.

This was very un-Malachi so I immediately suspected that the anti-seizure meds had finally started to really mess with his brain and I imagined us having a very hard time with education either until his meds were done or for the rest of his educational career due to anti-seizure medications, which we certainly weren't giving up. We told Malachi that this behavior wasn't acceptable and that we'd be talking to his teacher every day to see how he acted at school. If he was a "bad" student he'd have privileges taken away, if he was a "good" student he'd be rewarded.

The next day, I received another email from his teacher saying that he'd hit two boys from his class - one of them being his BFF.

I was utterly mortified when I read this. I couldn't believe Malachi had acted in such a fashion. I had wondered if Malachi was getting stressed out about the impending arrival, but at home he'd only been acting excited and happy about it. John and I agreed to have John have a very serious discussion about his behavior at school that day. When John came out, I'm pretty sure he had a really big grin on his face.

When Malachi told him the story of what happened, John felt he wasn't getting to the bottom of it - the root of the cause if you will. He wasn't going to lead Malachi to admit anything specific, but realized that if he didn't bring up the baby it might not be talked about. So John flat out asked if Malachi was upset about the baby.

Malachi says, "well...I wish it was a girl like [Malachi's classmate, and daughter of FS family] because I like her."

He then went on to admit that they're really good friends, "but not like she kisses me or anything." We suspected that the behavior issues at school the three days had to do with the fact that he was in fact dealing with his first love. The misbehavior at school could have been showing off, and the aggression to the boys could have been because they were potential threats.

The next night he whispered a secret into John's ear (that he whispered so loudly that I could hear). The secret was that he wanted to marry her because she's so pretty (she's a very pretty Latina girl, btw). John later asked him if he'd ever confessed his love to her. When he answered no, John encouraged him to do so because he'd regret it if he never did.

His behavior was reasonable at school the next couple of weeks. The teachers said that all of the students were having problems because of all the upcoming changes (school ending, people leaving Post, etc.).

The parents of his first love left Post on Sunday. We spent Saturday morning with them in a pool at a hotel where they were staying. The two families went up to their room so we (the Roys) could change. We hung out with them a bit, and right before we left Malachi handed his love a note of scribbles and whispered in her ear. I asked what it says and he wouldn't admit it, but she had a big smile on her face and said "it says I love [insert name]." He was embarrassed but got over it. When we left the room he hugged his love "the most" and her sister "the least." And he admitted as much to each of them.

That was the last time he saw them, and I imagine the last time he'll see her again for a long time. I wonder if he'll remember this later in life.

Every time John talks about it he gets a huge grin on his face and is so proud of his boy for his first love. At first, I was so sad that my baby is growing up. Now, I love that he has that emotion to express for someone, and my grin is just as big as my husbands.

June 10th

2011-06-04T00:12:00.000-05:00

June 10th was the last day of school, I thought (it's actually the 9th). I told the baby that he could come on June 10th, or any day after. Recently when the pregnancy got difficult I began telling him that I'm full term on the 3rd and that he could come anytime after that. Today I found out why the pregnancy got so difficult. Here's my status update from Facebook:

37 week check up:
Ultrasound: check
arrhythmia gone: check
head down: check
size of abdomen (in weeks): 37 weeks 5 days
size of femur (in weeks): 38 weeks 5 days
size of head (in weeks): 39 weeks 3 days
weight of baby: 7.6 lbs
original due date: 6/24/2011

due date due to size of baby: 6/11/2011

This kid is humongous! Do you "see" the size of his head?! I have to push that out of me! I could go into labor any day. My hopes are that he waits until the pump and diapers arrive. I also hope they arrive before next Friday.

Contractions

2011-05-31T21:22:00.000-05:00

I get a little active, like...walking to a restaurant across the street from the Embassy...walking to the bathroom...standing up, I might have a contraction, or maybe even a few. Sometimes it feels like I'm having a contraction just sitting there.

Unfortunately these contractions are like the road to nowhere. I'm not in labor, and as far as I can tell, he's still high in my torso and head up or horizontal. His movement seemed infrequent today compared to previous days, but I suppose that's to be expected when he's getting so big.

The pregnancy is getting harder and harder. I feel bad for John who is taking on more and more at the house after working hard at work. This is one of those times that I'm so glad we have a nanny/maid.

3 weeks 6 days

2011-05-28T11:31:00.000-05:00

Until my due date. He's welcome to come any day after Friday (the 3rd). I have to do a few things yet like pack a hospital bag, and have P wash the NB and 0-3 mo. clothes. We have to arrange the two cribs in the nursery so we can get to the clothes.

The last two births at the Embassy (both within the last three weeks) have been very quick. Neither of them had time for an epidural, and one of them didn't even have the Dr. present because it was so quick (one almost didn't have a Dr present). Part of me thinks it would be nice to have it happen so quick, part of me is scared to deliver a full size baby with no drugs.

I filled in at work for my co-worker this last week and my body is exhausted. Thank God for a three day weekend!

We interrupt...

2011-05-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

the very important work project to give you this post.

I'm working on something really important at work, so of course I can't concentrate on it. I'll be honest, the project is scaring the crap out of me. I'm writing the speech for the Ambassador for our Hail & Farewell party (a yearly event welcoming newcomers and sending away departing employees with love). A lot of people think it's not a big deal, and they're probably right. She's going to take what I write, chew it up, and spit it out anyway, but good lord! Some people know I'm writing this, and I don't want it to just be adequate. I want it to be amazing. I want her to have to not chew it up and spit it out.

I don't know where this drive (to have a great product - not so much to do it quickly) came from. This is not how I was in High School, or the two years I spent in Bible college. I think John might be an influence though. It's a bit encouraging and scary for when I start school because I know that I'll want to hand in great quality work, but it will probably take me a long time to do it!

The good thing about this project is that the people I've been asking for help have been very helpful today. Thank you people!!

Baby update: Friday I'll be 34 weeks along which means I'm 3 weeks and 2 days from being full term - yikes! The bassinet is set up in our room, and the crib is ready in the nursury. The only necessary tasks we have left to do are buy diapers, wash his clothes, and pack the hospital bag. Wow...

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T07:49:00.000-05:00

I had an amazing Mother's Day. I was left alone until after 8:00 to read and watch T.V. in the room (this is actually normal for a Sunday, but it was still nice). As I was reading my book I heard the noise of the waffle maker and started preparing myself for a delicious breakfast.

The kids and the husb came to greet me and Malachi brought his gifts from school. I figured one was a frame, and I was right. I'll have to put a picture of the two of us in it. I might have to take a picture of the two of us. Then what I thought was a simple card turned out to be a poem that was tear inducing. He read it, and even though I know (having been an Elementary school student myself) that the teachers told him what to write, it still touched me enough to make me cry - and I had a hard time stopping. But I got myself under control enough to eat said delicious breakfast - and it was very delicious.

My in-laws were flying into town yesterday so we spent the rest of the morning preparing the house and our selves for their arrival, even the kids got showers! John and Malachi picked them up and brought them home, and we hung out for a few hours.

John, his dad, and Malachi went to a birthday party and the girls and Simon went grocery shopping for the week. We hung out at the house, and after the party the girls and Simon met the boys at a restaurant for dinner, which was closed. As was the next restaurant we tried, so...we went to the food court. Lame. It was supposed to be our treat to my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. So, we did buy for her, but we're going to make it up later.

After we got home the kids went to bed and the adults played a game. It's fun to play games with adults, it doesn't happen here, so we were missing that.

Really, a great day.

Blah

2011-05-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

Can I be frank? This pregnancy is getting on my nerves. I'm in a lot of pain lately. I keep telling myself that I get to meet him soon and it will all be worth it. But that's so hard to think of during the pain.

7 weeks and 2 days until my due date.

Roundup

2011-05-01T08:49:00.000-05:00

I haven't done a roundup post in a long time. But I'm feeling a bit out of the loop, so here we go.

This week's theme is holiday ceremonies. We just had what is called by the Catholics in Latin America (or maybe just Central America), Semana Santa (translated Holy Week). Costa Rica had two National Holidays on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

Except for Easter Services on Easter (Pascua in Spanish) it's become a week to take vacations. We had to work on Monday and Tuesday (because we took Wednesday off, but normally we'd have to work Wednesday as well), but the traffic was so light...driving around was a joy, and a breeze...literally. With the traffic moving so quickly the windows were open and the breeze was coming through.

So this year we decided to adhere to local tradition and go on vacation. It dawned on us that it was the first time we've taken a vacation without guests since May or June, and it's the longest vacation we've taken since we got here.

We had a great time. There was beach time, and pool time, and food time, and sleep time...for three nights, and when you factor in travel time, about 3 1/2 days. We all had an amazing time. We left on Saturday to be home in time for the Easter bunny to visit and thought that we'd beat traffic because everyone would be going home on Sunday. HA! The InterAmerican Highway was horrible. But once we reached the Autopista (the main highway going East/West from San Jose to the East Coast), it was smooth sailing because they opened all lanes to go East bound. It was really freaky the first few times to find ourselves heading Eastbound in the Westbound lanes. Especially on bridges. But we adjusted and then enjoyed the freedoms (and breezes) that having two to four lanes brought verses one to two. My friend came home from a different beach on Sunday and said there was no traffic. Oh well...We had a great time Here on Easter.

Easter here was a normal American Easter. Egg hunting, brunch made by the hubby, and good times with our family. Oh, and lots of candy eating.

We might not be here for Semana Santa next year, but if we are, I feel we might not be traveling because it would be so close to our departure.

Apple Jacks

2011-04-30T08:20:00.002-05:00

Simon easts the green ones first. The rest of the family is less choosy.

Diving boards and fork usage

2011-04-28T21:03:00.000-05:00

Malachi proved how awesome he is by wowing his swim coach today with his improvements. Not only did he jump in the pool without help, he actually jumped from the diving board (don't think crazy - I just mean the short one that's always there, does anyone know a different name for it?). And he swam a lot more than before, and he put his face in the water all the time. In fact....he probably put his face in the water too much.

He would get easily distracted and wouldn't obey the coach's orders - even the ones he understood. I'm considering putting him in an English course anyway. We'll see.

Simon is eating with a fork and a spoon now. In fact once he's set his mind to it, he's probably not going to take it from somebody else. He's also walking a ton. He's figured out it's faster. When he gets really excited he walks fast, and then realizes he can't do that quite yet. But I don't think we're far from a runner. It's amazing how mobile he is, and is always is. He doesn't like to stop. He's awesome too.

20's

2011-04-18T21:34:00.000-05:00

This is the last night of my 20's. I wanted to reflect on what I've accomplished...

Bought a house
Got Married
Sold said house
Moved to new State
Started college
Finished 2 years of college
Birthed child #1
Moved to new State
Birthed Child #2
Moved to new Country
Settled family in new Country
Carried Child #3 most of the way (birthed Child #3 will belong to my 30's)

My 20's have held so many great moments in my life. I expect that my 30's will be amazing, some things I'm looking forward to...

Birthing Child #3
My first trip to Disney World
Moving to Manila, The Philippines

And that's all in the first 15ish months! And those are the only things I know will happen, who knows what other things could be added to the list.

Thank you 20's for being good to me.

A Moment

2011-04-16T21:15:00.000-05:00

I have a moment, so I'll blog a moments worth.

Malachi's 4th ever swim lesson went really well today. They decided to put him with the beginner beginners. This was a good move. He did really well compared to the rest of the class, and I think that was very encouraging for him. He even jumped into the pool (holding onto the coaches hands) with a lot less reluctance than before. He didn't cry once, and there was very little choking on water. This was a very, very good lesson for him. Hopefully his next lesson will be good. Unfortunately that's not until Thursday the 28th because of the holiday/vacation.

Seizures update: no seizures in a while. I'm reluctant to say that, because every time I say that he has a seizure. However, after some blood work the Dr. increased his dosage of Valpakine to 250 mg 3x/day. We started that on Wednesday night, but even before that he'd been seizure free (partial and tonic clonic). I don't know if I'm comfortable yet, but I'm getting there. The medicine seems to have a very good side effect: he sleeps! He hasn't slept more than 8 or 9 hours a night in a long, long time. Keppra is said to cause light sleeping in children, apparently Valpakine works the other way and is stronger than the Keppra because he's now sleeping about 11 hours a night!

Simon is teething molars. I got a call at work the other day from P who said that Simon had been crying a lot that day and he felt really hot. Turns out he had a temperature of 100.6. His fever was gone later that night, and he seemed to be in a bit of a better mood. I knew he'd been getting ready to cut a molar or two, or four, so I checked and sure enough, he cut his lower left molar. I could tell that the second one was very, very close. He cut that one that night or early the next morning.

Teething with Simon is a bit weird. He's usually fine until the actual day of cutting. That day and for a while afterwards - about four days with a normal tooth, who knows with a molar - he's got the crankiness, lack of appetite, snotty nose, etc. So that's what we've been dealing with this week. Today, it seemed to be the worst for him because he wouldn't take his afternoon nap, so by 5:30 he was stupid tired and stupider hungry because he'd eaten very little. After a very rough dinner time, daddy took him to play in his room, which seemed to make him pretty happy. Once bed time came, he was really mad again. It didn't take long for him to go to sleep though!

John got lettuce plants today at EPA (think: Lowes or Home Depot) and planted them in our gardens. We now have approximately 16 heads of lettuce growing in our garden. Our dill, spinach, and zucchini are going to overtake other plants soon if we don't give a ton away/use it all. In fact...

Today a photographer came over to do some maternity shots. She's a friend from work and has this as a side business. She took pictures of the kids and grandkids on John's side last November and we really liked what came out of that. In fact...Simon's not had one year photos, so we might want to get in on that since he's already over 14 months.

She showed me some of the shots on her camera, and I'm anxiously awaiting some samples from her. I'm trying very hard to not bug her...especially since it's only been 81/2 hours since she left. Speaking of leaving...she left with a gallon size ziplock stuffed full of spinach and a spicy pepper. This might become a tradition, anyone who leaves, leaves with food.

The pregnancy is getting difficult. It's becoming increasingly difficult to do anything. Thank god for my maternity belt, which I'll get good use out of tomorrow at our Easter Egg Hunt. This is a work event, and I've been voluntold for crafts. I hate doing crafts...of all the things I could do that's what I hate the most. However, I like doing crafts at this event because it's the first thing on the schedule. I'll be able to enjoy the rest of the time half working half hanging/out with the kids. Also, this is my first time going to the DCM's (Deputy Cheif of Mission) residence, so that should be fun for me.

John and I are looking forward to our family vacation for Semana Santa (Holy Week). We leave mid-week and get home in time to be visited by the Easter Bunny - yay! This will be Simon's first conscious Easter, it should be fun.

And now my moment is over. John has requested I pick a movie, and so I shall.

Check Up

2011-04-13T21:52:00.000-05:00

Saw the Dr. today. Blood pressure: good. Measurements: good. Weight: good (we think. his online chart system was down, so he didn't know for sure). I told him that I've felt some contractions lately and that they're sporadic, only hurt a bit, and usually just on one side (the right side normally, although the other night and tonight the pain was on the bottom half). He asked if the baby's moving and I said...a lot. He did an exam and said that it's definitely Braxton Hicks contractions. I'm not dilated, so I'm not in labor. I see him again in a month.

Hiatus

2011-04-11T17:30:00.000-05:00

I'm considering a hiatus from blogging. It's a bit of a time suck, and then I feel bad when I don't blog. John said "back blogging (blogging about something that happened a long time ago (more than a week in blog time))" doesn't work.

So...I'm considering a hiatus. Life is so busy - how do you do it ladies?! With only two kids and a part time job, I have a hard time keeping this up. I've applied for the CLO job and that would add two more days a week of work for me. And then I'll have three kids instead of two! I barely even facebook anymore! Although, I do facebook more than I blog.

Lack of content is not a problem for me, I could list more than a handful of topics right now. For those who read to keep up with the kids, I'm sorry. For those who read to learn about FS life or life in Costa Rica, I'm a bit less sorry, but I'm sorry to you too. I know that reading blogs is a great way to get a peek into life of somewhere you're going to live.

This hiatus is not guaranteed, but very, very likely. If you'd like to friend me on facebook and haven't you can find me as Sara Simmons Roy current city San Jose, Costa Rica. I'm not great at putting up pictures, but I do update my status (albeit less than I used to).

Where Do I Start?

2011-04-03T20:48:00.000-05:00

Well I'll tell you where I won't start. That major seizure event that I told you about, that's now 16 days in the past? I've written it all down in a very lengthy and detailed story of the event. I'm on the third page in Word, single spaced. I moved it from notepad because I was getting annoyed with notepad. However, we don't really have Word on this computer, so it's not registered, so I can't copy, paste, add, subtract, do anything with it. So for now the very detailed description is on hold. I'll just tell you, Malachi's fine. He started a new therapy that night that has taken full effect in his blood and we haven't seen any (and I mean any) seizure activity in about a week.

So I'll start with training in NOVA/D.C.. I love FSI, that's right Drng Adventure, I said it. I've loved it since John started there. For me it's a symbol of the beginning of a new life. John had so many good times there, and now so have I. The training was intense. It was very overwhelming, I know I just used a superlative in front of overwhelming, but I feel like I can and any other person that goes through that training would agree. Today I finally was able to put it into words - it was 40 hours of training, but it was more like 50 or 60 hours of training all crammed in. There's so much more to the job than I thought. I now have a great respect for CLO's, and will never look down on one - unless they suck (I've heard that happens).

Right now I'm a CLO Assistant (CLO/A), and my main responsibility is the newsletter, with that I also keep up the paper files, and make sure the welcome books and welcome packets are taken care of. I also make the flyers for our events, I also do the finances for CLO (yikes!), but that's not very involved. Other than that, I really don't do much. I'll take messages for the CLO, and I keep the office open on Wednesdays. But there's so much more to the job than that!

Our CLO plans our events, does all of the work for families and the area schools, is the CLO rep. on the Emergency Action Pannel (the people at the Embassy who are in charge during an emergency), helps the EFM's with employment inside and outside the mission, and more! She does so much in only 32 hours a week.

She's leaving this summer, and I've applied for the job. I feel like after training, I have so much to offer that position. I came home with almost four pages of ideas and reminders, most of them one liners, only about seven personal. I wasn't even able to touch that list at work last week to organize it, hopefully I can do that this week.

I made some good connections there too. One of the Co-CLO's from Buenos Aires and I hung out the last two nights doing a bunch of shopping and eating at Chipotle (both nights). I wanted to take her to Dogfish Head Alehouse, but the wait was already 45-60 minutes by the time we got there. I passed around a piece of paper at training one day and got everyone's contact information, and then put it together in Excel when I got to work on Wednesday. We now all have 23 connections we didn't have before.

I had so much fun being in the States, and being at job training. But I learned, as John did when he went to Thailand by himself last August, that home is where our family is. I couldn't wait to get home on Saturday morning. That's a whole other story...have you looked up MIA yet? You should.

So.Much.To.Say.

2011-03-27T15:50:00.000-05:00

I've been writing a blog entry for a week about Malachi's horrendous seizure event that happened on Friday the 18th.

I have lots to say about my training at FSI and Main State in VA and D.C. respectively, and I think Drng Adventure and I feel very differently about FSI.

I have a great amount to say about my travel home as well. As a precurser to this, I think you should Google recent news about MIA (Miami International Airport).

However, it's going to take so long to put all of that together, I have no idea when it's going to be done, let alone published. I also haven't been good at keeping up with blogs. I may have read about five entries over the week. So I'm sorry if I've missed some big events. I'll try to catch up some time soon.

All this to say, I'll get to it, eventually.

Training

2011-03-21T20:59:00.000-05:00

I'm in the States for job training. I had quite an adventure getting here, and even got to walk into a presentation today with all my luggage - it was a bit embarrassing.

I might not get much of a chance to blog while I'm here, but if I have a particularly important story I'll let you know.

I am drafting an entry about what happened with Malachi's epilepsy on Friday night - what an adventure! But for therapeutic reasons, and so I have it documented, I'm trying to be as specific as possible, so it's taking a while to write.

The time change here is kind of messing with me, but I'm tired, so I'll try to sleep soon, I'm getting up nice and early in the morning to be at work on time! Fun times!!

D.C.

2011-03-17T17:41:00.000-05:00

I'm going there...soon. And I'm going to be trained in all things CLO. While I'm there I'm going to stay in a swanky hotel downtown, shop at Target downtown, see friends from town, meet people coming to San Jose, and leave as early as I'm leaving Costa Rica...which is very, very early.

I'm quite excited to be going to the States again.

Seizures & Medications

2011-03-15T20:26:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be lazy, because I'm over six months pregnant, I worked today, then came home and made dinner and put Simon to bed. In a little bit Malachi's going to go to bed and John and I are going to hang out. I'd rather hang out with John than write a long blog, so...you're going to get pieces of things I've already written.

Written to our D.C. Neurologist on 3/11

Dr. Lastname,

You saw Malachi (last name) (DOB) as a patient in '09 & '10. We've since moved to Costa Rica on orders with the State Department. Malachi was seizure free for almost 18 months. We have a relationship with a Neurologist here, Dr. Firstname Lastname at CIMA, and had been doing check ups with him. Recently Malachi has started seizing again. He had a grand mal on Friday 2/4 and again on Wed 2/9. He was also having partials. An MRI was done on 2/12 and an EEG was done on 2/14 and both came out normal. The Dr. increased his Keppra dosage to 300 mg 2x/day. He continued having partial seizures but the grand mals seemed to have stopped.Because the partials continued the Dr. here upped the dossage to 400 mg 2x/day. Yesterday 3/10 Malachi had another seizure. This time it wasn't a grand mal but one where he blacked out, had his typical postictal period, and then went to sleep. The Dr. told us to keep the Keppra at 400 mg 2x/day and also add Trileptal 250 mg 2x/day at first and then to 300 mg 2x/day until he sees Malachi on 3/22.

I was able to buy the Trileptal in suspension form here, but there's no Keppra in suspension form in all of San Jose. They only have tablets and it's a different dosage. Here's where this email comes in...

I'll be in the D.C./NOVA area (insert dates) by myself for work and I was wondering if you'd be willing to write a Rx for Malachi for Keppra in suspension form at 400 mg 2x/day so I could buy it while I'm in the States. We have enough to cover ourselves until then.

If you need any more information, I'll be happy to provide it. I can also provide you with the email address and phone number for Dr. Lastname.

Thank you,

Sara Lastname

We had a lot of drama with the MED unit (our normal nurse was at a conference in Singapore, we had a substitute) trying to find the Keppra. When our normal nurse got back on Saturday she called and left a message saying that she was back and she wanted to hear about Malachi. We found out on Saturday night that we were much lower on medicine than we thought, and in fact only had 7 1/2 days worth. I called our nurse on Sunday morning and told her our dilemma. She said it would be her top priority on Monday morning.

On Monday she put in an overnight mail order of three months worth of the Keppra we needed. That wasn't going to get here fast enough though (new Rx's in this system take five to eight days to process, expediting it would mean four to five days, and then it has to be sent from D.C. to Costa Rica). She finally called the Costa Rica Neurologist who said you can find liquid form at this pharmacy, and this other pharmacy. Our nurse called and arranged to have it delivered to the Embassy where I was working yesterday (the Trileptal was delivered to our house last Thursday, I LOVE pharmacy deliveries). We now have enough Keppra to get us to the mail delivery, and beyond I'm sure.

Since we started the Trileptal on Thursday, we haven't had any full seizures but are still seeing partials (he had 8 on Sunday alone (and all but one was before 8:30 a.m.)), the Neurologist said we need to give the Trileptal 7-10 days to become fully effective. He seems completely unconcerned about the partials though. I'm not noticing any side effects from this new medicine.

Oh - and btw. Dr. Lastname from D.C. still hasn't gotten back to me. That would never happen here. I don't know that I'm very excited about Medical care in the States anymore.

A Break

2011-03-13T17:27:00.000-05:00

My mother-in-law said she's been missing my frequent blog entries. I told her that I've been very happy to not have much to blog about since my blogging had been so depressing about Malachi. Since I now have a ton to blog about, I guess I better start catching up.

1st up, Manila:

I have a pen pal (or...email pal, I guess) in Jerusalem. She told me that Manila sounded like a great place, to which I responded that it's perfect. And it really is perfect for us, and I told her I'd blog about it so y'all can understand how perfect it is.

When John and I started to think very seriously about where to go next we came up with what was most important about out next post. I told him that the most important thing is good schools for Malachi. We didn't have to say good medical care because we knew that MED wouldn't let us go anywhere that didn't have good medical care. So...good schools was at the top of the list. Then after that for me was the ability to work and afford house help. Those go hand in hand so they tie for #2. Under ability to work there was a sub category for large mission so that there would be work available for me.

When we got our bid list John immediately widdled it down to what worked for timing and medical clearance, and then widdled it down more to where we desired to go. Some people were bidding on jobs (e.g. they wanted to do anything but consular work), John was bidding on place - he bid on a variety of work in places that he (we) really wanted to live. For instance, he bid on four different jobs in Manila. Only two were consular, one was economic and one was public diplomacy. Our #1 bid was a refugee job in Bangkok - I mean...who doesn't want to live in Bangkok?! Numbers 2-5 were the four Manila positions that we bid on. Everyone we talked to was pretty confident we'd get Manila, but just in case we didn't, I didn't get my hopes up.

The day the onward assignments came out I was at work and John was on vacation in Ecuador and I had no way to contact him and tell him that assignments were out. I had friends telling me where they were going and I wasn't getting anything about our next post. I was quite frustrated (as you know if you're friends with me on facebook).

FINALLY, John and our friend who's posted in Quito went to the Embassy to check their assignments. Manila it is!! I was so excited that I yelled. No one at work came to see if I was ok, or what was going on, and I found that a bit weird, but I was so...so happy. And here's why...

Manila (in case you don't know) is the capital of The Philippines. The Philippines is a country made up of 7,107 islands in Southeast Asia. Asia...where labor is cheap! Live-in nanny? No problem! Working at the Embassy should be pretty easy with a Mission of over 300 Direct Hire Americans (FSO's, etc). And our number one priority seems to be satisfied as well. The school over there has gotten good reviews from people we know and people we don't know. Malachi was already cleared for Manila when all of this stuff started, so we knew it would be cleared again.

For a while we won't have anything to do. We still have over a year left in Costa Rica, and we probably have about six or seven months of enjoying Costa Rica before we need to worry about Manila, aside from the school. I've read that we need to get moving on the school pretty early.

I have an acquaintance who's currently in Manila, you can find her blog here. I follow another woman's blog who is in transition from Post to Post and their family just left Manila. You can find her blog here.

I think that's enough for now. Next up...Seizures & Medicine

50

2011-03-13T10:43:00.000-05:00

My hubby and I used to joke that one of us had more followers than the other on our blogs. For a little while John was winning. But he doesn't blog much and so his blog doesn't draw much attention.

Today when I logged onto Blogger I noticed that I'd reached a milestone in blog followers. The big 5-0. Fun!

Right now I'm off for a facial with the ladies, but later today I plan on blogging about a ton of things. Preview: Manila, Seizures & Medicines, and D.C.

Housing

2011-03-10T19:48:00.000-06:00

This week on the Roundup the theme is Housing. You can check out the Roundup tomorrow at Cyberbones.

I have an interesting insight to housing in San Jose because as A/CLO I'm a non-voting member of the Inter-Agency Housing Board which exists at every Post. Coincidentally John is a voting member, he's also the interim-President of the Board. Therefore, we've been on a few housing tours together.

Housing in San Jose ranges from apartments (which are all pretty luxurious) for singles and couples without kids, to townhouses, to single family homes. Every newly assigned home will be in a condominio which means gated community in Costa Rica.

The housing is farther away from the Embassy than it used to be due to security concerns. One family who still lives in the Embassy area experienced a break-in and theft. Luckily they were out of town and nobody was hurt. We live in a neighborhood of a suburb West of San Jose. This suburb is the closest that we'll assign new housing in. We have another suburb to the West of us that we're also assigning in.

We have contracts with two apartment buildings. One is not far from the Embassy, but is much more secure than single family homes not in a gated community. It's actually quite secure and the apartments are nice. The other building is about a five minute drive from where I live. Our current housing coordinator does a good job of looking at a wide variety of houses to pick the "perfect" one for each incoming employee and their family.

Some things you can expect in housing in San Jose: No fewer than three bedrooms, and no fewer than four bathrooms, including maid's quarters. You will have tile flooring, possibly throughout the whole place, but there's a chance you'll have wood floors in the bedrooms. The house/apartment will be constructed out of concrete, so you'll need to buy special nails and screws to hang things (I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to have someone from the Warehouse hanging your items) which can be found at many stores here.

There's very little central air-conditioning in housing in Costa Rica. You'll be able to get three units (usually used in bedrooms, however, I've seen them in common rooms in houses of singles or couples who have no kids) to use in your house. It's a very humid country, even at 3,300 feet above sea level. You'll want to have dehumidifiers in the bedrooms so your clothes don't get moldy. It's very windy where we live and having the huge doors into the backyard open as well as another window make for a very cool living room, if we open our front door it's even better (beware for neighborhood dogs, and wild birds that may end up in your house, as well as mosquitoes and biting gnats).

Your kitchen will probably be completely closed off and not very large since kitchens are made for housing staff to be in (although depending on rank, you could have quite a sizable kitchen). Your kitchen will have granite counter tops and probably very few drawers, although you may have quite a few cupboards. Warning - you may not have a dishwasher. You will have a water filter installed in your sink, and probably one in your fridge as well (the water here is potable though, and it doesn't taste very bad). Some kitchens I've seen recently have built in stoves, and I've seen quite small ones, you should make sure the size of your oven before bringing baking dishes.

Yards here are typically small, but most of the condominios here have common areas with playgrounds, pools, and sometimes tennis courts. You can usually get yard work done by the condominio's jardinero (gardner) for a reasonable price. Your jardinero will also be for hire for extra work like painting and car washing.

Most people here are very pleased with their housing, although there are people that are always unhappy. We're very, very happy with our housing, it's been great to us, although sometimes I do get a bit jealous after walking through some houses on housing tours.

Next Stop...

2011-03-08T17:43:00.000-06:00

Manila!!

This is the best possible post for us! We are so happy with our forward assignment (with the exception of maybe Bangkok, but who DIDN'T bid high on that?). Even Malachi says he's super excited to live in the Philippines.

Anxiously waiting...

2011-02-26T21:57:00.002-06:00

...the arrival of my mother. This trip has so many firsts attached to it for her. I can't wait to experience them with her! John and I did a lot today in preparation and even used our oldest son to help, our youngest son tried to undo what was being done, but he's one. We'll let it pass for now.

I haven't taken pictures of Malachi's room all finished, but posted a picture of Simon's room on Facebook. Not only did I paint this week, but we had curtains made for our first floor. They're thin-ish, wispy curtains that weren't too expensive and really add a lot to our first floor. It's amazing what projects get done when you're about to have a visitor. I think we're done with projects though. We have about 14 months left to enjoy the work that's been done, and enjoy it we will!

Quick update...Malachi seems to still be recovering a bit, his appetite isn't what it normally is. But he hasn't been sick since the other night, and no sign of seizures either. His neurologist said that stomach bugs can aggravate/cause seizures so we shouldn't worry.

So far no one else is puking, and no one has the throat/ear infection Simon had a while ago. Interesting that things that should be so contagious aren't making their way around the house.

Vomiting and a Seizure

2011-02-24T21:30:00.000-06:00

I'm tired, so I'm going to bed in about five minutes, but I wanted to put down in the blog a bit about today.

Malachi's teacher called at 2:30 and asked if I was the one picking Malachi up. I said yes and that I was getting ready to leave. She told me that since lunch he'd been complaining about an upset stomach, and had been crying for Mommy for a while. When I got there he wasn't playing with friends, he was sitting in a chair waiting for me. I talked a bit to his teacher and we went home. Right after I'd opened his door and grabbed his backpack he said "I don't feel good" and then proceeded to puke in the backseat of the car. Throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening he puked another five times. He can't hold down anything.

We put him to bed before 8:00 after about an hour of being puke free. We brought an extra crib mattress that we have in the house into our room and put it next to our bed so he wouldn't have to walk across the house to tell us that he got sick. I came downstairs to watch T.V. and John stayed upstairs to play a video game. I heard John call out Malachi's name and go into our room and then heard silence. I knew that since I didn't hear the door close, or crying and puking it meant seizure, but since I didn't hear anything I didn't want to jump to conclusions. John made his way downstairs and told me that in fact he did have a small seizure. Not a partial, just a short grand mal. No drool, and quite short. Neither of us is very surprised really since his little body and mind have been under a ton of stress since about 3:00 today. Not only has he puked six times, but he has no nourishment because he can't keep anything down. Poor guy. Luckily he did wait long enough to puke the last time that his medicine should have been digested.

John's going to email the Neurologist in the morning and give him the details. I had already emailed his teacher and told her that he wouldn't be in school. I have a work thing tomorrow, I guess I may not be able to make it to. Of course, after a night of rest, all may be better.

HR1

2011-02-24T14:32:00.000-06:00

I wrote my Senators today. I've never done that before. Sure I used someone's letter and then made it my own, but I still went through the effort. I had to. The House of Representatives passed HR1, and if Senate passes it we'll have a 16% cut in our pay right now. If the President is going to freeze everyone's pay for two years that's fine. If Senate is going to shut down the WHOLE government because they need to then fine. But HR1 only applies to Foreign Service Officers - and only those overseas.

My question is why? Why pick on one of the smallest groups in the U.S. Government? Some of us are serving in expensive countries, some of us are serving in dangerous countries (and yes I understand we get compensation for those specific things, but...) and cutting our pay is going to make a lot of people angry. And if you're cutting pay then there's a chance it will be difficult to get some Officers and their families to go overseas.

I know that a 16% cut in pay is going to hurt in Costa Rica...it is NOT cheap here! So please write to your Senator. Tell them that you'd like them to NOT pass HR1.

Could I BE any more sore?

2011-02-22T21:55:00.000-06:00

Answer...probably, but right now when it hurts so much to sit down I can't think I could.

I've wanted to paint rooms in our apartments for a long time. When we lived in Dallas we weren't allowed, so it was an unrealized dream. When we arrived in San Jose I found out that if we wanted to paint the house that was fine, but we'd need to have it painted back - SOLD! The living room and dining room were painted less than six weeks after moving here. I've thought for the last 10 months that it would be really nice to have the bedrooms painted as well.

With #3 coming the desire to paint has gotten stronger. So this past weekend Malachi, Simon, and I went to EPA, a Superferreteria (think Lowes), I had the colors for Simon and the baby's room picked out, and I asked Malachi what he wanted (WARNING: Never let your 5 year old pick the colors, unless your 5 year old has an uncanny way with colors). We bought the paint, and some painting tools and took them home. We originally had plans to go to the beach on Monday (was that just yesterday?) with our day off but with the highway closing none of us wanted to make the trek.

So Monday turned into painting day, a.k.a. killing Sara's body day. I started at about 7:30 a.m. and I taped and primed the walls. Then once that was dry, I had John help me put tape up to mark where the third color (the horizontal stripe) would go. Then I painted the two main colors in both of the rooms. In total that was one coat of primer in both rooms and four different colors between the two rooms. With all of the bending, squatting, standing, stretching, taping, and painting my body was so over it by the end of the day, which was shortly before 6:00 p.m...I think.

I was so, so happy that we had already scheduled a masseuse to come. By the time I cleaned myself up, John was half way through his massage. I started reading The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison. When I reached page 25, the masseuse was ready for me. I had an amazing one hour massage and shortly after went into a deep sleep until Malachi came in this morning at 5:40.

I had a busy day at work today and came home with a headache and nausea, but I decided to do the second coats in Malachi's room before dinner anyway. Out of breath and with a worsened headache and nausea I sat down at 6:00 p.m. and after a bit went for the Panadol (acetaminophen). Pizza was delivered about two hours from ordering, and was enjoyed by the whole family. The kids went to bed, and I've been watching recorded episodes of Chuck and Castle and writing this blog during that. Now...I'm ready for bed.

Good night.

I Love a 5 Year Old's Mind

2011-02-20T19:26:00.000-06:00

Setting: John and Malachi reading The Dangerous Book for Boys

Malachi: Can we go to Mars?
John: umm....Mars is really far away
Me (to John): Probably not in our lifetime, but maybe in his, (to Malachi) it's more likely you'll go to the moon buddy.
Malachi: I'd rather walk on the moon

Holiday Weekend

2011-02-20T08:47:00.000-06:00

This long weekend we made a lot of plans, and so far I've been having a great time.

Friday night John watched Simon while Malachi and I went to Multiplaza (the local mall). There's a place there, full of large bounce house like activities, where you can drop off your child to play while you go shop. OR...you can take your child and watch them play. If they're under 4 you can go play with them. I had to sit outside and watch, but after he had a pretty good time. At first he didn't really know what to do or who to play with, and a little boy then yelled at him, and that certainly didn't help. Finally he watched another little boy do something, to which Malachi copied and then continued doing for 10 minutes, over, and over, and over. He eventually found a little girl to play with and spent the remainder of his time with her.

After about 40 minutes I told him it was time to go eat dinner. He wanted McDonald's, and since I've recently been on a no McDonald's kick I said no. However, I don't know if I picked something that was healthier for us. I took him to Oui Oui Crepes, he had a nutella crepe and I had a banana and chocolate crepe. After he stuffed his mouth full, didn't chew properly, and started chocking he got the hang of eating the crepe and enjoyed it. His came with M&M's which he thought was pretty special. After that we went home and he went to bed.

Last night John and I went out on a date. We were supposed to go to a movie and then dancing with some friends, but our maid told me when she got here that she had to leave early. She wanted to be home by 9:00, she had a good reason but I was pissed. I told her when we scheduled for last night that we were going to be out late. The dancing didn't start until 9:30. I didn't say anything to her about it for a couple of reasons. One, I didn't know if my Spanish was good enough to convey what I was feeling, and two, I didn't want to let my anger rule what I said.

I was determined to not let my anger towards P ruin what I could have with John. We had a good time at the movie, and then headed home. I told P before we left that we already had tickets and that the movie will be done around 9:00, and we'd head straight home. We did just that, and when we got home Malachi was still up...not good. Malachi shouldn't have been up that late! She knows that he goes to bed by no later than 8:00 on the weekends, she's babysat enough to know that. sigh Next time I guess I'll just have to be more thorough in giving her directions for the evening. Or...I could arrange for someone else to babysit.

We have some more fun plans for today and tomorrow.

Test Results and a 1 Year Well Check!

2011-02-17T22:06:00.000-06:00

Malachi's test results came back normal for an epileptic. We have digital and hard copies of both of the tests for the future if we ever need them. The neurologist didn't add a second medicine or increase the dosage more than what he already did last week. He's still hopeful that Malachi will grow out of the seizures.

Simon's well check went really well. He's 22 lbs and 24 inches long with a 19 inch head. He's just over 90% for length and just over 50% for weight, which is common at this age because of how much he's moving around now. He of course has the big Emery (my mom's side of my side) head, I've blessed both my kids with that. He passed his exam with flying colors. The scar from the growth removal is healing really well as well.

So...to recap - both kids are doing great, and I've had Dr's verify that today.

Deep Breath

2011-02-16T20:47:00.000-06:00

My deep breath took place over 10 hours of sleep, and an 8 hour shift at work.

After even a short time at work today I felt so much better. I talked to a friend for about 20 minutes about where we'll be next (don't know...). That with the knowledge that it's now been a week since Malachi's had a seizure, the large amount of crying done over the last two days, and all of the prayers and good thoughts sent my way, I think I'm finally getting better. I know I am.

Thank you everyone for your constant support and prayers. Maybe I'll start blogging about other things tomorrow.

Another Hit

2011-02-15T19:15:00.000-06:00

My body has taken another hit from the stress. I won't go into details...you don't want them.

My husband missed an important work event tonight because of all of this. My mood is getting darker and darker.

On the upside, I found out that I AM in fact going to D.C. for training next month. I'm going to be gone from my family for seven days, but I'll be happy to be in the States again.

Dear weather gods,

Will you please make sure that there isn't too much snow while I'm there, I'll be carrying around a big belly and don't think I'll be able to not slip on snow and ice.

Thank you,

Sara

Breakdown

2011-02-14T22:20:00.000-06:00

Today I had a breakdown. Not that I haven't had a few in the last eleven days, but this was like a real breakdown. First came the stress cry that I got under control after only about five minutes (that's a really long time to cry), and then my body and especially my brain only did what was necessary. During the kids' naps I went to my "happy place." I was somewhat blissfully happy for a little bit because my brain wouldn't allow anything else. Then I returned to reality and fell into some crying, although this time instead of being in the "privacy" of the car with John and Malachi, I was at Malachi's school with all of his friends and their parents for the Valentine's Party/Presentation. It was very hard for me to control myself there. I almost wasn't able to do it a few times. My husband was gracious enough to make dinner (well he usually does, but I think he could sense my utter lack of willingness to do it) and after the kids went to bed I drew a bath, lit some candles, and read a book (my "happy place"). I've made it known that sometime soon I need dinner and a movie out with a girlfriend. I'm sure I'll get that with no contest.

Just for a quick update: Malachi's EEG went well. The Dr. will got the results to both tests tonight. We're apparently meeting with him on Thursday at 2:00 but were only informed of this through the Embassy nurse who was informed by our neurologist. I was supposed to bring him the previous test results (the ones done 19 months ago) but when I went to their office today it was closed...at 10:00 a.m. They don't hold normal office hours here...anyway, I digress. So he has nothing to compare them with because I have to work the next two days. Oh well. He'll tell us that there was nothing on the MRI and the EEG and we'll tell him that's what happened last time.

Simon's still teething the 8th tooth, which came in one day last week, but other than that, he's great. Thank God. #3 is moving a ton and I can even now feel him punch and kick at the same time. He's strong too, it's starting to get a bit...uncomfortable. Less than half way to go!

Sort of Seizure Free

2011-02-13T22:12:00.000-06:00

Malachi had a few partial seizures this morning. We kept an extra close eye on him today since the last grand mal he had was precluded by a partial. Thankfully though, there was no grand mal.

We stayed at home all day until 7:00 p.m. when Malachi and I went to the store to get a few things. Then we had a good time staying up until 10. We watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition, talked to John's parents for a while, and then did dishes together. Those things with the grocery shopping and getting ready for bed equaled the three hours that we had to keep him up. He's been very excited about staying up late and getting up early, we'll see how excited he really is at 4:00 a.m. when John gets him.

Tomorrow's test will be very different. It's only going to be 30-40 minutes long and they want active and sentient brain activity so he will be falling asleep at some point. He also won't be so restricted. He won't be able to move around a lot, but he won't have to redo parts of his test because he moved. The Dr. should get the results from the MRI tomorrow, best case scenario is that there's no change. I don't know when he'll get results from the EEG. Last time we did a short EEG like this there was no seizure activity on the test. Even when we did the long test there was no seizure activity. So we'll see if they can find anything this time.

John missed work on Thursday and is going to miss part of the day tomorrow, but we'll bring him to work when we leave the hospital. Malachi's not going to be in school in the morning but we're going to the Valentine's Day Party at his school at 2:00. We still don't know if he'll be going to school on Tuesday. We have much to discuss.

We'll let you know how tomorrow goes.

Simon

2011-02-13T11:48:00.000-06:00

On Friday night, February 11, 2010, John and I headed to the hospital to begin the process of bringing our son into the world. We had been eagerly awaiting his arrival and we were so excited to know we'd be meeting him the very next day.

I had a few prayers to God about Simon's birth and every one of them was answered. My epidural wasn't as good as with Malachi's labor and delivery, but it did help a bit. The labor started on Saturday the 12th and he was born at 1:54 p.m. (EST) and weight 8 lbs. 4 oz. and was 21 inches long. He passed all of the newborn tests and was cleared to be with us. He cried a lot that first day, but was amazing to us. His blood work and eventually his skin showed that he was jaundiced. The doctors said it was because our blood types conflicted. So he spent the remainder of our time in the hospital in the UV bed getting his tan on. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of this. He was pretty cute laying in the bed with his eye protectors on.

We were released on Sunday afternoon and went home to introduce Simon to his big brother. Our good friend Sam had watched Malachi the whole weekend and welcomed us home with a clean apartment and welcome home signs and cards for Simon.

The first few days we were definitely in our honeymoon phase. We loved our new life with our two boys. Simon didn't wake up every two hours because of the jaundice - and he had a big appetite, I couldn't keep up with it and had to supplement. I was also supplementing because the jaundice wasn't going away the way we'd hoped it would.

Finally the jaundice was gone, and so were we. Simon handled our travel to TX like a champ, sleeping the whole way on the flight from D.C. He met our friends in Dallas, and then after a couple of days in Houston for Daddy's work, he slept through another flight to Costa Rica.

He adjusted the best out of the family to our move, only showing a little bit of stress here and there when the parents were stressed out. Simon adjusted to having a nanny and a mommy who works part time (although sometimes the mommy has a hard time leaving in the morning).

He's grown and developed at a rate completely new to John and I , and was wearing his brother's 18 month clothing at 10 months (partly because he was huge, partly because of clothing shrinkage). Before that, his development (laughing, smiling, cooing, talking, rolling, sitting, etc.) seemed a bit early if not right on time. His first tooth came in at 5 months, 3 weeks, and his next tooth came in a few days later. His next two teeth didn't come in until he was eight months old, and he's slowly been teething since then. He now has eight teeth and it seems his first molar is forming and going to come in. Learning to crawl was difficult for him because of our tile and wood flooring that offered no traction. He did the army crawl for a long time and finally mastered crawling at about ten months old. Shortly after that he started to "cruise" around our furniture and now will take a couple of steps between pieces with confidence, but no more than that.

In January of 2011 Simon enjoyed his first ever vacation in Minnesota. The cold didn't seem to bother him nearly as much as it did his mother. He met his Grandpa on his mommy's side for the first time as well as many extended family members and some friends that mommy's had for many years (one friend mommy has had for almost 27 years). He really enjoyed flying and was just like his brother was at that age.

He prefers to crawl than practice walking. He's talking up a storm now, saying a ton of words in both Spanish and English: Mama, Papa, and Hola in Spanish, Hello, Hi, Mama (the difference is in the accent), Dada, Ow, Uh-oh, and possibly more.

He's had two colds and one infection (throat and ear) but otherwise has been healthy over the last year. He's a bit of an attention hog, and cries even if he's fallen just a little bit. He's certainly the baby of the family. But he's amazing, and we're so happy he's in our lives.

Simon, we love you so much. Happy Birthday (a day late).

Victory

2011-02-12T21:30:00.000-06:00

I feel like today was a victory. As much as possible we treated Malachi like a normal five year old boy, and he was seizure free yet again. I wish I didn't react every time he trips, or makes a jerky movement but every move he makes that reminds me of a seizure makes my heart do two things, stop and then race.

John said that they decided to do the MRI with out contrast and would refund us $300 from the $800 that we paid. However, the Dr might decide we have to go back and do one with contrast anyway. I hope not because that would mean that he would need an IV and try putting a needle next to Malachi, it makes him freak out. Today during the preparation the MRI technician pulled out a syringe that had a needle to measure the sleeping medicine for Malachi. We all thought it was going to be a shot and he was crying so hard, he was so scared. He stopped as soon as he was told it was only for measurement.

My wonderful girlfriend did come sit with me, and I needed her at times. She gave me a big hug when she arrived and it was perfect, I needed it. Malachi walked out five minutes short of two hours after I left the imaging center. I was so happy to see him walking out of there, and he had his mind on one thing...food. He'd been fasting so he was so hungry. He had a snickers bar and a box of orange juice for breakfast.

Today was a pretty normal Saturday after that. We napped, hung out, went out for dinner, did a bit of shopping, ate cupcakes (the last three items will be discussed more in the next blog post which will be dedicated solely to my amazing 1 year old), Skyped with Grandma and went to bed a little late.

Tomorrow we're hoping for a chill day, and then we have more testing again on Monday.

The Waiting...

2011-02-12T09:21:00.000-06:00

Malachi's MRI is going to take two hours. John's in the room with him holding his hand. I can't be there because of the pregnancy, but I don't know that I'd want to be there right now. I started crying when his head was being strapped in, the technician asked if I was ok. I had my back to him and nodded, I'm not going to cry on his shoulder. I might not have been the best patient's mom, but I wasn't all that impressed with him. In his defense he did try to calm Malachi down when he thought there was going to be a shot. Malachi just wasn't accepting it.

I'm so thankful for a good friend who is willing to come sit with me. Yesterday when talking to a (different) friend I told her that I felt like there was a lot of pressure (metaphoric) building up in me and that I felt like I could blow at any minute.It would be really bad if that happened while I was in the cafe at the hospital.

I'll let everyone know how our day goes tonight. Have a good Saturday all.

Keeping a 5 year old awake...

2011-02-11T22:26:00.000-06:00

...is easy until about three hours after their bedtime. Malachi started crying he was so sad that his dad's video game wasn't over and he wasn't playing with him yet. After he calmed down and finished wiping snot all over his face he looks at me with all seriousness and says, "I'm not tired yet." It took a lot of energy not to laugh pretty hard at that.

Here's the goal for tonight, keep him up until 11:00 p.m. and wake up him at 5:00 a.m. I'm not that excited about getting up with him at 5:00 but John's taken over on the keeping him up part so I'll get to go to sleep soon.

Our activities tonight to keep him awake have been, watching The Phantom Menace, playing a game, baking cookies, and now he and John are watching Wipeout that was recorded last night. Tomorrow morning, I think cartoons will be sufficient in keeping him awake. He has to fast though so I'm going to have to sneak a breakfast in there somewhere so I don't eat in front of him. We'll leave for the hospital at about 7:30 and begin our morning of testing.

The test is two hours long, so John and I plan on looking for some wi-fi and working on our bid list. So far what I've seen is pretty encouraging. Unfortunately we can't go to Algiers though because no kids over 5 are allowed because of inadequate schooling. That surprises me though, I would think they would have great schooling. It's possible that Americans aren't allowed at their schools though.

We're deciding what our priorities are for our next post, and mine is a good school for Malachi. I've decided that while house help and working would be great, I can do without for a couple of years. If I'm not working I'm much more likely to work on finishing my bachelors in who knows what after the kids have gone to bed.

Simon's rash is 100% gone and he seems to be taking the Zithromax really well. I hear laughter downstairs which is the best sound ever.

Good night people.

Seizure Free Today

2011-02-10T22:09:00.000-06:00

Today I was on edge, but Malachi had a good day - no seizures.

When we woke up today we just chilled, Malachi woke John up at about 5:30 and I woke up at about 6:15. Simon slept in until 8:00 and we decided we should start moving for the day. John got Simon out of bed and I was taking care of Malachi. I was doing makeup in Malachi's bathroom when he was showering (it's hard for me to be too far from him right now) and I heard John say I should come look at the pattern on Simon's face. Here I thought that he laid on a stuffed animal for a long time, but when I got into our bedroom where they were I noticed the rash that was on Simon's torso last night had spread all the way up his head and his eyes were a bit puffy. We assumed that it was a reaction to the medicine he was taking for the infections.

I finished my makeup and called the Embassy nurse to inform her that the whole Roy family was coming to her office this morning because of Simon's rash and because we needed her to confirm with the neurologist what was going on today. I fed Simon a bottle, got Malachi's backpack with a snack and some homework together (felt like I was so prepared), and we left for the Embassy.

Once there the kids and I went to the Health Unit and John went to the Front Office (Ambassador, Deputy Chief of Mission and their admins), to inform the admin of the Ambassador that he might not make it on the trip this weekend that he was supposed to be control officer for. It turns out the Ambassador and DCM were in a meeting, so John went to talk to them and they were very supportive and understanding.

He joined us at the Health Unit where the nurse had agreed with what we thought about Simon and was trying to get a hold of the Pediatrician to see what he wanted to do about it. She took a look in his ears and confirmed that both of them were red and a bit swollen. The Dr. decided on Zithromax for three days - good. One problem solved.

While we were sitting in the reception area of the Health Unit, the Imaging center at CIMA called John's cell phone to make an appointment for Malachi's MRI, with contrast. We made it for Saturday morning. Throughout the day there were emails and phone calls and much confusion about what was going on. Finally John got a call from the neurologist mid-afternoon who said that we could do an EEG on Friday morning or Monday morning. They decided on Monday morning because the night before both tests he needs to stay up a couple of hours late and get up a couple of hours early. With this setup he gets to rest on Sunday.

So, in conclusion. No blood tests are going to be ordered right now, an MRI is scheduled for Saturday, and an EEG is scheduled for Monday. I need to bring Malachi's records from all of his other tests that were done a year and a half ago. I may do that tomorrow, or I just may wait until Monday since I'll need to pass the time during the EEG. Simon is doing much better, the rash is almost completely gone. Dad is sleeping happily next to me, and I'm going to turn in pretty soon.

What a crazy life we live.

2011 Seizure Count up by 2

2011-02-09T20:52:00.000-06:00

Today when we picked up Malachi from his friends house after work we fell as he was trying to get into the car and when I looked back I noticed his eyes looked a little strange, and then he blinked, got up and answered our question of whether or not he was ok (he said yes).

Tonight shortly after he finished his sucker (he loves those btw Grandma and Grandpa), we were watching TV and he started making a noise. Neither John or I thought anything of it, but I glanced at him anyway and told John he was having a seizure. We got him on his side on the couch and let it run its course. It was about a minute long and even though I think it was a grand mal (now called tonic clonic) his body wasn't in it. It was just his head and face. His mouth was moving as well, and he was making a gasping like noise.

After he was done seizing he did a lot of groaning and he moved around a lot. By that I mean he got off the couch and was trying to walk. At one point he was sitting on the floor and moving forward. He certainly didn't seem alert at this time, and he continued to groan. Simon was around for all of this, and I'm sure he didn't know what to make of it. I think he wanted to play with Malachi during the seizure. Afterwards Simon still wanted to play with Malachi. Simon was grabbing hair and even was going for his eye lashes (he loves eye lashes). Malachi didn't notice because he was in the postictal state and was basically asleep.

Malachi in sleeping and John calling the neurologist.

John did get him to respond verbally to a question after he was all done moving around and had been still for a couple of minutes. We then let him go to sleep for the night. Every once in a while he would make a noise that sounds a bit like a hiccup.

John called the neurologist on his cell phone and explained the situation. The Dr said that tomorrow we need to go in in the morning and that we'll probably go see another Dr at another hospital. The first Dr., Dr. S. said we might need to add a second medicine. We'll see what testing is done tomorrow, hopefully it's not traumatic for Malachi. We'll both go to the appointment if our nanny is here before hand, I'll wait with Simon and then take a taxi if she's not.

Malachi's going to sleep with us tonight because I think it will wake John up if he starts seizing again since he usually makes noise. I think I'd sleep through it, but maybe not tonight.

We'll keep everyone updated on how he's doing tomorrow, and let y'all know what the Dr.s say.

Ode to P

2011-02-09T15:02:00.000-06:00

This week's topic for the Weekly State Department Blog Roundup (WSDBR) is house help, advice and stories and what not.

I have to admit that when John got the "call" to the Foreign Service in May '09 I got very excited about the possibilities of house help. We already knew we wanted to live in hardship places in order to get Student Loan Repayment Program (also known as SLRP (pronounced slurp), and that meant that we'd be in a place that would make house help affordable. I loved the possibilities open to me...I mean, come on! Who wants to do house work?! Yes, yes, you and you like doing it - but you're rare! I hate, and I mean hate doing housework.

Then the time for packout came, and I felt really weird having someone come pack all of our things. And they had to pack ALL of our things. Partly for security and safety (of them and our things) and partly because they have to fill half a box with paper, even if it's stuffed animals (that is a Sara exaggeration of course - but they use so much paper!). I did get them donuts, and I was nice to them, but it was so weird to sit around that day and watch them do work I could have done.

When we lived at Oakwood it felt like living in a hotel sometimes, one of the reasons being that we had maid services every week. It felt weird at first, being home and having someone else clean the bathrooms, change the sheets and towels, clean the kitchen, and vacuum for us. But it didn't take long to get used to and was a huge blessing in my life because of the pregnancy and then baby.

When we were posted to China we knew that we'd have an ayi (house helper) and were really excited. When our post changed to Costa Rica, we were a bit uncertain about house help, but were excited to learn that it was affordable after all. At first we were a bit lazy about hiring someone. We were just enjoying our new life. And then after about a month we knew...we just knew that we had to hire someone.

The house was really dirty, and I just couldn't keep up with the floors, which is weird, because if there's one thing I actually like doing in the house its floors. There's something so satisfying about it - I think it all started when I got a brand new Oreck vacuum for a wedding present from my in-laws. I just loved making the fun patterns on the carpet...I digress. I contacted our CLO to ask for some recommendations, and to plead with her to make the appointments because John was busy at work and my Spanish was laughable. She was nice enough to do so, even though it's not her job. She made two appointments for that Saturday and we eagerly awaited meeting our new maid...well we hoped we would.

The first person came in that morning and told us she traveled three hours to get there and was only looking for part time work with no kids involved. NOPE! Sorry. She left after 10 minutes. I felt kind of bad that she came so far for nothing. Hopefully she likes being crowded in unairconditioned busses for a really long time.

The second person came that morning and was really nice. She lived close and was great with the kids - who were great with her. We liked what we heard and she liked what she saw. We told her we were going to check her references and get back to her. We were really excited to find out that one of her references was a former FSO here in San Jose. Unfortunately he was on vacation the next week and didn't answer our emails for a couple of weeks, which made me really sad because I wanted her right away. Eventually he emailed us back and said that she was great for the house and with the kids. SOLD! We called her and asked her to start the next Monday.

She originally started at Part-Time with the understanding that she would move to Full Time either after I started working or at the New Year. I quickly knew that I couldn't live without P and that I wanted her at my house all the time. All.The.Time. My husband agreed to more hours when I wanted them, and shortly after I got my job, we moved her to almost full time, and a few weeks ago made it official that she's here full time.

I LOVE having house help. She takes great care of my kids, and loves them. I had some jealousy issues for a while, but I know that my kids are in great hands, and they always prefer me over anyone else.

P is amazing and I don't know what I would do without her. There are some challenges to having someone else do the work you used to do (I didn't it rarely, but I did it, and to my own standards). Your standards might not be the standards of the maid, they might not fold the clothes the same way either. I've learned to not care though - she's doing it and I'm not. Don't get me wrong, I will tell her if I want something changed. For instance, she wasn't cleaning the whole toilet, just the seat and the inside; I've asked her to clean the whole thing.

As previously mentioned, I can't imagine my life without her. And yet, right now I'm imagining my life without her because we may be living in a place where we can't afford an amazing house helper at our next post. Unfortunately she has a son and won't be able to come with us where we go next. I can only hope that we get Manila - because then everyone (John and I) get's what they want.

Children (all 3) Updates

2011-02-08T20:30:00.000-06:00

Written Monday night:
Malachi got into the neurologist today at 2:00 p.m. I picked him up from school, which he wasn't very happy about (partly because he's afraid to go to any Dr. because there might be shots, partly because his friend told him that he was going to his house after school - wrong! Not even if there was no Dr. appointment would that happen), and we got to the Dr's office to early, so we walked to a nearby play ground.

We got to the office before John, who joined us about five minutes before the appointment was supposed to start. Fifteen minutes later a woman came out (I'm confused about this. He's a Pediatric Neurologist and her son was sitting alone in the waiting room...), and we were told to go in. He asked us about the event (his English isn't great and my Spanish isn't great, especially in the realm of medical terms, so he and John did most of the talking together), getting very specific, and I felt a little foolish getting into the position that Malachi was in, but once he got an idea of what happened he did a physical exam.

Written Tuesday night:
The physical exam was passed with flying colors, and the Dr. determined that we just needed to increase the amount of medicine that he's given. He gave us a Rx and scheduled an appointment for April (some Dr.'s here schedule their own appointments and then have you inform the receptionist when the appointment is) for another check up. He reassured us that Malachi's "attack" shouldn't cause us any concern, and we should proceed normally (although, who am I kidding, as much as I want to proceed normally, I'll always be watching out of the corner of my eye to see him, and straining my ear to hear him, and occasionally calling out his name if he's too quiet).

Then the best part of the appointment, the announcement that no testing was needed - not even blood tests! So...not only was he fine, but we didn't have to poke or prod! That's definitely the best part. We (Malachi and I) were dreading news of blood or other tests. There were cheers from the two of us!

We left the office, and celebrated the amazing results of the afternoon, and Malachi's great behavior by getting lunch for John and I and dessert for all three of us! Last night I was exhausted and even though that was the case, I didn't go to bed early enough. I did spend a great evening with my wonderful husband though.
Today at work, I was so tired. I had two meetings this morning, the second one running until almost 12:30. By the end of that I was very hungry and almost laying down on the table because my body was so heavy and hard to support. In the afternoon, I chose to go to a meeting just so I wouldn't fall asleep at work.

We left work a bit early so I could make it to an appointment that I had at 5:00 p.m. When I (finally - they always run really late) got into the office, and switched to English after the greetings so I could speak my mind better, I started with I'm exhausted, and he said I look it - I believe him.

We talked about my few questions, and he did the exam: measure the belly, take the blood pressure, listen to the heart beat, weigh the big fat preggo. I say big fat preggo because I gained 3 1/2 kilos this month!! For those not familiar with the metric system that's 7.71617918 pounds! That's way too much for one month and he said the only reason he's not killing me is because so far I'd lost almost that much. My net gain in half the pregnancy is only half a kilo.

I think I may have eaten a few too many Thin Mints this month (who am I kidding, I've had almost five boxes worth in five months...and that's not a joke).

I go in again in about five weeks and get to have another sonogram! I love seeing the baby! I also love that they're not as rigid as Dr.'s in the States about how many times I have to go in. It's cheaper this way.

Oh, and real quick...Simon's improving. He's eating more, and sleeping better.

Trip to the E.R. (and it's not who you thought it would be)

2011-02-06T20:12:00.001-06:00

At 4:45 this afternoon I got Simon out of his crib so we could leave for the Super Bowl party that started at 4:30 (oops). He felt really, really hot. He had a fever this morning and we gave him Tylenol. He took an extra long nap and then afterwards felt really, really hot.

We took his temperature, under his arm, and it was 103.something which means his internal temperature was even higher. I called the nurse from the Embassy (we've talked a lot this weekend!) and she said teething doesn't usually cause such high fevers (I was thinking it's just teething because all his symptoms are the same as teething symptoms) but to try Tylenol again and to call the Dr. on his cell if it doesn't go down.

40-ish minutes later we took his temperature again and it had gone up! I couldn't get a hold of the Dr. so I left a message, and called the nurse back who recommended I take him to the E.R.

I arrived at CIMA (great private hospital about 10-15 minutes from our house, depending on traffic (up to 30 minutes) or how I drive) and brought him to the E.R. registration. I waited about two minutes, which felt like an eternity, registered, which took about twenty seconds, and was called back in another two minutes. Simon's temp and weight were taken and we were shown to a room. The Dr came in about two minutes later, asked some questions, did a quick exam and said there was swelling in his left ear and throat as well as some white plaque in his throat, diagnosis: infection. She gave me a Rx for the infection, and a pain relief spray for his throat. She also said to continue the Tylenol for pain and fever. I went to the Pharmacy, got his medicine and came home. Total time in the Hospital: approx. 30 minutes, Total Cost: approx $130. I LOVE private medical care and cost in Costa Rica.

We came home, gave him medicine and a bottle and put him in bed. He gave his kangaroo an extra big hug, and barely made a sound when I left.We'll check on him through the night to make sure he's ok, and pray the fever breaks.

I'm going to shower and go to bed.This weekend has been a bit exhausting. Tomorrow morning we'll call the Neurologist and try to get in as soon as possible.

Friends, Public School and Seizure update

2011-02-06T11:18:00.002-06:00

My dear friend (yes I feel like I can call her a friend, no I've never met her, that's just how it is in the State Department Blogging Community) at A Daring Adventure is going through an atrocious situation with the Fairfax County Public School system. She closed comments on this entry in her blog and forced me to publicly chide her for being so apologetic to me and the community. http://adaringadventure.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/discrimination-sorrow-anger-tears-pain.html

She apologized profusely to me because she hadn't been on the blog to update the Roundup Calendar or announce my topic. I said in my roundup entry that I knew something was wrong, and I was right. To my sweet friend who is going through something horrible, please know that we in the community love you and would (should) never hold you to standards that we wouldn't hold ourselves.

I commend you for your restraint, knowing that I would have a very, very hard time holding myself to. When someone offends us it's damaging, but we dust ourselves off and move on. When someone offends/hurts/damages our children we become a force to be reckoned with. My own son has been singled out in our gated community as one who shouldn't be befriended. Three times he's asked/attempted to play with the children here and they've ostracized him every time. Every time I see the kids playing around the community, I glare and dream about them getting a little too close to the car as I drive out (honestly...yes, then I realize that's crazy).

All this to say, that I understand your tears, I understand your need for restraint, and I completely understand your absence the last week and a half. When reading your post about what your son is going through and the horrible treatment you have received from the F.C.P.S. system, I cried. I cried for him, and I cried for you, who after fighting as hard as you can, can only hold him, and do no more. I know that exact feeling, and it's one of the worst in the world.

On that note, I want to thank those who've given their support and prayers for Malachi and our family. So far he's still seizure free during the day (that we know of) so we're going ahead today as if it's normal. John and I will take Malachi to the neurologist this week, hopefully we'll be able to get in. Here's what will happen:

We'll tell him it was a minor event, over short, full recovery. He'll order blood work to check the levels of medicine in his blood, he'll probably order another MRI and EEG (for which I'll probably shave his hair off because during the last EEG application through his hair was really difficult (read this to understand, it's the story of the previous seizure, hospitalization, tests, etc.)). He'll increase the amount of medicine Malachi receives, or add a second medicine, and send us home. Malachi may never have another seizure again, he may have another one on Tuesday. That's one of the worst parts of this, the not knowing.

I'll keep y'all updated on how things go. And for goodness sake somebody please sign up for the Roundup!

My boy

2011-02-05T15:00:00.000-06:00

My wonderful and amazing five year old, who is so smart and so sweet, to no fault of his own, can really make me bawl.

Yesterday on the way to the Embassy to get John I heard a familiar noise from Malachi, and although he makes it on his own sometimes looked back to check on him. He was indeed having a seizure. I was stopped at a light but knew I needed to pull over. I said a very quick prayer and looked over to the lane next to me, it was empty - not normal during rush hour on this road - thank you God! I told Malachi that he was ok and that I was going to pull over and get him out (for myself of course, he was unconscious during his seizure). I did exactly that, there was an empty parking lot very close to me, so I pulled in and without even turning the car off, grabbed my cell from it's uber convenient spot to time the seizure and got Malachi out very quickly. I laid his head in the crook of my arm with his body on his side. I looked at my phone to see the time and to call John. By the time I looked back down at Malachi he was closing his eyes and had stopped seizing. I think total, this event was about 30 - 45 seconds. It was very short, with no drool, and was by far the least traumatic seizure for him. Malachi didn't even cry which is abnormal. He used to scream after a seizure.

John answered the phone immediately, probably thinking I had arrived. I told him Malachi had, had a seizure and then I started crying. Between sobs I told him that it was short and he was already done. I got Malachi to respond to a question of mine, told John to call our Embassy nurse (he couldn't get a hold of her), and that I'd be right there to pick him up. I drove to the Embassy often watching Malachi in the rear view mirror. He was definitely still in the postictal state (Wikipedia: The postictal state is the altered state of consciousness that a person enters after experiencing a seizure. It usually lasts between 5 and 30 minutes...), and I was also in the postictal state (read: bawling, controlling myself, bawling, etc.). John was waiting for us outside and when I stepped out, he gave me a big comforting hug and took over the driving.

Over the course of our drive home (about 25 minutes) he had fully recovered and won the "race" to the door. I was a mess the rest of the night, John was my rock, Malachi was showing no sign of any seizure. He had dinner, watched a bit of T.V., and went to bed on time. I hadn't been able to get a hold of the nurse, but she called at 10:30 after she saw our missed calls. We told her what happened and that since he recovered so well, we'd keep an eye on him this weekend, but would wait to call any Dr. or go anywhere until Monday unless he had another event this weekend.

I had a difficult time going to sleep last night, and when I woke up at 4:45, my mind ran right to last night's events. I couldn't go back to sleep.

I thank God that Malachi's ok. I thank God that I was able to pull over, and that his seizure was so short. I thank God that his recovery was full and that it happened in the "right" amount of time.

So far today he's been just his normal self. I, however, have been a little different. I actually cuddled with him for the duration of a movie. I wouldn't normally do that, but I was just thankful to have my boy in my arms.

What does that do for bidding (getting our next job), you ask? It means that we'll probably be going to a more expensive (read: no house help/working for me) country that has great medical care, some possible countries are England, Sweden, Germany and Australia. We get our bid list later this week and we'll hand it in shortly after that. I don't know how long it will take to get our assignment after that, but I think (hope) we'll know by the end of March where we're going.

Weekly State Department Blog Roundup

2011-02-04T17:41:00.000-06:00

Due to what MUST be internet or Mandarin issues at the Daring Adventure home, Kolbi hasn't blogged since last Wednesday and hasn't updated the calendar.

That said, our roundup is quite small this week. Which is unfortunate, I was looking forward to some funny and gasp inducing stories of life abroad. The assignment was worst/best/most embarrassing stories of life as an ex-pat.

My quasi prediction at the beginning of the week came true. My story DID happen this week. Luckily for me, I'm the only one who actually experienced this story (I think). I can't imagine what would have happened to my corridor rep at Embassy San Jose if the person I was talking to actually heard me.So here's my most embarrassing story:

I recently dyed my hair dark brown. It's a really good change, and everyone has noticed because it's so different from the blonde highlights that I had before. One of the Locally Employed Staff in the military office, which is next to my office, stopped me as I was walking by and asked me (in Spanish) why I dyed my hair. I thought he asked my why I was walking. I had just returned from using the restroom and was a bit speechless. I really didn't want to tell him, nor did I know how to say in Spanish, that I had to go to the bathroom. So I mumbled a response in English that he didn't understand (due to the mumbling, not the English...his English is great actually) and tried to move on. I then came to find out what he was really asking and gave an embarrassed laugh as I gave my answer, which had nothing to do with going to the bathroom.The situation could've been much worse...much, much worse. But thankfully I got through somewhat gracefully and my really embarrassing story is now only shared with my blog readers...which I don't think includes anyone I work with, except my husband...and maybe not even him.

So...onto other best/worst/most embarrassing ex-pat stories.

Spectrummy Mummy (not the living dead kind, but the English kind) hearkened back to two previous posts she had (great thorough blogging, and good usage of your time!) . One gives a great explanation of a horrible American who works for the USPS, the second is a laugh out loud story involving her daughter, a roller coaster, and some watermelon.

SassAndSweet encompassed her worst and most embarrassing moment into a 10 day hospital stay in Tel Aviv with large amounts of pain killers, a garden hose like tube down her throat, and a good friend who went to get her skivvies from home.

Though she didn't specify, I think this is Melissa's (of Just Us fame) most recent most embarrassing story. When I got through it, I remembered reading it originally and feeling for her, thinking this is something that I would totally do.

Sadie at Sadie Abroad, tells a great story from her junior year in college when she lived in Cape Town, involving the Thai language, a wedding and some balloons. Awesome...awesome story.

Sunny at Fabling tells another laugh out loud story about when she was young and visiting a foreign country.

Off assignment:

Congrats to Andrew at The Life Diplomatic who just passed his Spanish test with a 3/3+ and is now going to Mexico in less than two weeks!

Alex at Travel Orders says he doesn't have any ex-pat stories because he hasn't gone abroad yet, but he's very interested in the diplomatic communities of other countries and the differences between ours and theirs.

Someone please sign up for the roundup next week, you can find the calendar here.

30 Years Ago

2011-02-02T19:18:00.000-06:00

30 years ago, about two months before I was born, on a different continent, a magical thing happened. Johnathan was born, and it turns out this magical event was the best thing to ever happen in my life.

Life without you would be boring, and somehow...wrong. Thank you so much for the amazing 13 1/2 years we've had together, the three kids you've given me, and the most promising future I could have.

I love you so much. Happy Birthday Babe.

Roundup this week

2011-01-30T18:52:00.000-06:00

I'm hosting the Weekly State Department Blog Roundup this week and the theme is your best/worst/most embarrassing ex-pat moment.

I'll have to spend some time this week thinking about mine...maybe my moment will even happen this week.

Car Trouble, Birthday and Baby, Oh my!

2011-01-29T06:51:00.000-06:00

Our car has been costing us lately. The mechanic has fixed many problems. Now it's doing something weird with the steering, and making a very loud squealing noise that sounds like a belt problem. I hate car trouble.

Other than that, nothing big is really happening right now. John's going to be gone on a work trip on Simon's birthday this year. This makes me sad, but luckily for us Simon has no clue. He may be back in time for us to have Simon's party that Sunday, the 13th, but he might not. We should know by Tuesday...we'll see.

As far as what we'll do for his 1st birthday party, I don't quite know yet. Since he doesn't care about the party, we may just have our friends over, at this stage it's really about the parents anyway.

John and I have decided that Simon's going to have a much harder time getting a baby brother than Malachi did. Without the ability to reason with Simon at such a young age, we're not able to prepare him for the arrival the way we did Malachi. One thing we can do with Simon that we did with Malachi is to make sure we spend as much time with him as possible and make sure he knows how much we love him. I hope it helps.

Healthy Eating on a Budget

2011-01-26T21:46:00.000-06:00

Check out this blog I've been pointed to recently. It's done by the sister of a friend from D.C., who's not FS but isn't in D.C. anymore. I think that may be the way of that city.

Anywho, I digress. Natalie blogs about having a family and living healthy on a budget. She's done some great things and even tests products for us, so we don't have to.

Check it out here.

Calling all Foreign Service bloggers (and readers)

2011-01-26T13:13:00.000-06:00

John and I are about to bid and Malachi's class 2 MED clearance is sticking like white on rice. With that said, we've been told that we have to do research about what posts have the proper medical care. So here are my questions...

Do you have a kid with Epilepsy? Do you know someone who has a kid with Epilepsy? Where are you, or they, posted? Does anyone know of any kind of easy to use (HA!) database where we can just check what posts have Pediatric Neurologists and ER's?

If anyone has any advice on this I would greatly appreciate it. We're supposed to bid soon, and we were just told today of the research we're supposed to do.

Not Yet 4 1/2 Months

2011-01-25T20:33:00.000-06:00

I'm not yet 4 1/2 months into my pregnancy. However, I'm showing quite well, I too easily tire out, I get sore in so many places after a day of work (or after standing for a while), my belly hurts when placing Simon in the crib, etc.

On the other hand...I can feel him moving around a lot. I love that part! It doesn't hurt to have him move, or sit up top like he does. I love knowing that he's growing and doing well.

Also, I think we've picked a name...and no, I won't tell you what it is. We have to have ONE secret!

Minnesota...The End

2011-01-23T09:01:00.000-06:00

Things I did in my last couple of days (of course, in no particular order)...

One more trip to: Jimmy John's and Target

Trip to: Walgreens, USPS (Sent my Swap Box!), The Carver County Service Center, scary Thrift Store, TJ Maxx and Payless for Bogo

Afternoon and dinner at my dad's house

Met sister-in-law in Bloomington to go to the airport

Cried at security when they made me throw away the cold medicine for Simon

Great Flight to Atlanta with Simon napping a bit

Chick-fil-A in Atlanta and barely no delay

Not a horrible flight to San Jose with Simon sleeping as long as he could be comfortable

Met at the gate by John and Malachi with Malachi running to me yelling MOOMMYYYYY (Best arrival ever)

Easy time through immigration and customs

Stop at Taco Bell on the way home

Gifting items from myself and family members to John and Malachi

Sleep in my own bed

Since Friday I've seen some friends and spent some quality time with my family. Right now we're sitting in the living room watching Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, having just eaten eggs and toast. I'm not sure we're not in the States sometimes. Well I guess we bring the States to Costa Rica anyway.

Simon and I are still sick, but we're on the mend. Hopefully we won't pass it on to John and Malachi.

Minnesota So Far...again

2011-01-18T09:59:00.001-06:00

More things I've done (again...no particular order):

Watched: Date Night, All of the Twilight Saga movies and some special features
Ate at Jimmy John's, First Course (Tapas)
Spoken a little bit of Spanish
Had my first dream in English and Spanish
Comforted a sick baby
Lazied around a large part of MLK day
Gone to Target two more times (total of three so far, and spent surprisingly little money)
Had my favorite orange rolls for breakfast with the family egg bake
Saw family and friends that I haven't seen in at least a year and a half
Took some cute pictures (that I can't get online because this computer doesn't have an SD slot)
Played Scattegories Junior with Mom and Aunt Patty and lost by 1 point

Minnesota So Far

2011-01-16T10:28:00.000-06:00

Things I've done (in no particular order):

Gone to a movie without Spanish subtitles
Spoken zero Spanish
Hung out with Mom, Sister, Dad, Aunt, Friends (hanging out with many more relatives and friends today)
Eaten at: Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Papa Murphy's x2
Had my favorite family recipe/meal
Played Bananagrams and Five Crowns
Slept at least 7 1/2 hours the last two nights
Driven in MN winter, safely making it to all destinations, passing fatal accidents
Watched zero T.V. (can you believe that babe?!)
Comforted and fought to feed a teething baby
Introduced said baby and his grandpa (my dad)
1 full load of laundry that sits in the dryer waiting to be folded - HA!
Shopped at Target
Woke up before the sun rises (8:00 a.m. in a MN winter)
Taken a few pictures

It's been a great trip so far, and today we're having a party for my mom's 50th, tomorrow is her birthday filled with all kinds of fun activities.

Oh - I got my FS Swap partner. I can't wait to swap parts of our country!

15 degrees

2011-01-14T06:55:00.001-06:00

Where I am it's 15 degrees outside. The high today will be 20. The high tomorrow will be 15. But at least tomorrow it'll be sunny. Today's forecast? More snow!

But...I get to see family! My dad gets to meet my son for the first time today (in about three hours), and I will hopefully see some old friends while I'm here. I'm only going to be here for about six more days and then I return to a (hopefully) sunny Costa Rica. So I've decided that I can do this. It doesn't matter that my toes feel like they're going to fall off...because they won't. And I somehow made it here in between snow storms amidst people that had been waiting four days to fly. The only delay I had was one hour from Atlanta to Minneapolis. I could easily deal with that...we missed rush hour on the highway because of it!

I'm really very happy to be here but I must go find my slippers.

New Stuff

2011-01-12T20:42:00.001-06:00

Becky at Small Bits is hosting the roundup this week. The theme is "new stuff."

Of course I got a lot of new stuff for Christmas, I made out like a bandit actually. And my blog background is new (this was a coincidence, I did the new background a few days ago). But the best "new stuff" that I'll be getting in 2011 is my little boy.

I've been feeling him move more lately. I got my eyebrows waxed yesterday and when I laid flat on the table, I felt him climb as high as he could and go as close to the front as he could. It was the first time I felt him strongly. It was a bit of a weird sensation actually. Not weird because I've never felt it before, but weird because I felt such a strong movement so early in the pregnancy.

Speaking of early in the pregnancy, I'm already pushing the limits of my shoes and boots. I can't believe that at 17 weeks my shoes were too tight. This pregnancy has been so different from the other two.

Besides the biggest and best new thing that I'll get in 2011, I'm going to get a lot of little new things in the upcoming days. I'm so excited to buy things in the States again. Thing is...where we're posted, a lot of what I'm buying will be cheaper in the States than it is in Costa Rica.

I may not blog much, if at all in the next week or so. But a lot of my readers will be sick of me by then!

Great Weekend

2011-01-09T17:47:00.000-06:00

Our family has had a very chill weekend. In fact we really haven't done much. Well...I haven't done much. Friday night John and I went on a date. We had dinner, played at an Arcade, had dessert at a different restaurant and saw a movie. We don't have a huge selection here, so we thought we'd see The Tourist. It had its good and bad moments, over all though, I liked it.

John and Malachi went out yesterday in the morning to check prices on dirt for our raised bed gardens, and then they did a little more shopping around. After they did that they picked up Simon and I for a little American fast food, heart stopping lunch at McDonald's. The rest of the day yesterday was spent relaxing at the house.

Today we went out to try an organic restaurant about five minutes from the house, but it was closed. So we went to a local restaurant that everyone says is really good, and it is. We enjoyed it and I'm sure we'll go again.The rest of the day has just been restful.

Sounds like a normal family living in the States doesn't it? Sometimes even though we're in Central America life seems pretty normal.

2011

2011-01-06T09:20:00.000-06:00

Linsey at Rambles and Ruminations is hosting the WSDBR this week with a theme of 2011. What are your goals and resolutions?

Mine? Well...mine are kind of secret. One is a family goal, and if/when we meet it I'll share it. The one that's not a secret? Don't gain too much weight this pregnancy, and keep exercising throughout it! I guess that's two goals, but they go together.

With Malachi I had gained 35 pounds at the point in which I went into the hospital. Who knows how much weight I gained just laying there for two weeks. With Simon, I had a net gain of 20 pounds (I say net because I actually lost about 7 pounds in the first trimester and then gained about 27 throughout the last two). This time, I can't gain more than about 18 pounds (9 kilos here). So far, I've only lost, so at least I'm not gaining yet. We'll see how it goes in the second trimester. I haven't been able to take as many walks because Escazu (where I live) is so hilly and I can't do them anymore! My Dr suggested swimming and a treadmill. My sweet girlfriend, C, knows about my struggles to walk and is going to take me for a walk in her neighborhood this afternoon (it's so much flatter than Escazu), for about half an hour - yay!

So, that's my biggest goal this year. Of course it only lasts through June, so maybe I should tack something on to it. My goal for the second half of the year is to exercise well, and lose weight at an appropriate pace - not too slow, not too fast! That's a great second half of the year goal.

Check Up

2011-01-06T09:04:00.000-06:00

John, Malachi and I headed over to my OB's office yesterday to check on the baby, the previously mentioned placenta issue, and of course to find out the sex.

My OB lets the other Dr's in the practice to most of the ultrasounds (apparently they're better at it), so I met one of the other Dr's and she did our ultrasound. I was only 15 weeks 5 days, and he wasn't cooperating as much as she would've liked but we did get glimpses of HIS "stuff" if you will a couple of times. We laughed as we realized that we would have three boys in the house. Malachi was mad - he wanted a sister. I assured him that a little brother is way more likely to rough house than a little sister. I think that helped a little.

The rest of the ultrasound went well. The placenta is in a great position - couldn't be better actually. And the check up with my Dr went well. I didn't have any questions - it's my third, I feel pretty confident right now. He did my vitals and checked the heartbeat for himself. The one odd thing this check up...I've lost more weight. I lost about a pound in the last month, making it a loss of about 7 1/2 lbs. How I lost weight over the holidays and with barely exercising I have no idea! If I continue to lose weight, I'll have to eat more and I don't know how that will be possible! However, this month, I'm supposed to do business (eat like I was) as usual. I got a DVD of the whole ultrasound, and I'll see if I can somehow get the file online.

It seems the boys are getting sick. All three of them have some kind of congestion. John's well enough to be at work, and the boys seem fine right now, we'll see how it progresses. I really hope if Simon has a sinus thing it goes away in time for the flight next week.

What flight, you ask? Well...I'm going home! I'm going to visit my family and celebrate my mother's birthday. I can't wait to go to MN, and I can't wait for food. FOOD! Good (but really probably bad) food. With the cold weather, staying inside and sitting around all the time, and all the eating I'm going to do, I imagine I'll gain a bit of weight in the States.

FS Swap

2011-01-03T23:08:00.000-06:00

For those of you out there who are Foreign Service...no matter where you're serving. If you want to connect with someone whose serving somewhere else, and send a little bit of your current culture to them, as well as receive from their current culture, join the swap!

Amy at Crafty Foreign Service is hosting the second FS Swap and this year I signed up. I'm excited to share a little bit of Costa Rica with somebody else. I'll also be in the States sometime soon, so maybe I'll send it from there and share a little bit of the States as well. Amy would like to hand out the swap partners on the 15th, so if you want to join in contact her quickly! Happy Swapping!

BTW, I'm super jealous of whoever gets Kolbi as their partner because I know she's going to be awesome.

1/1/11

2011-01-02T08:35:00.000-06:00

The first day of 2011 was pretty much like any other day. Except it went really fast! The kids slept in - I didn't get out of bed until 7:45. That was a very special treat.

We relaxed at home most of the day. John and Malachi went shopping for the rest of dinner ingredients and John made an absolutely wonderful dinner for our first day in 2011.

One thing I noticed yesterday was Simon's newest tooth. He now has six teeth, and for all I know the seventh popped its way out last night. Poor little guy has gone through a lot the last week with his weird appetite and fitful sleeping. Hopefully todays sleeping until after 8 a.m. is a sign that he's moving back to normal.

Things we're looking forward to this year:

Finding out our next post
Baby
Not moving
John finishing his Masters Certificate in International Relations
Me possibly starting school
Celebrating 10 years of marriage
A ton of awesome adventures in and out of Costa Rica

2010 in Review

2010-12-30T20:18:00.000-06:00

This was going to be a really cool idea, but in order to save my marriage I'm going to leave it way out of order. It's so frustrating to try to put these all in order. So here's 2010 a review in pictures, but way out of order.

Blue Morpho Butterfly, Si Como No Butterfly Garden,
Manuel Antonio, May

Malachi's UAB box castle
May

Our house flood just a few days after arrival, April

Simon is born 2/12 1:54 p.m. 8 lbs. 4 oz.

Big brother, Malachi, was very proud.

Simon and I at our first CLO event, May

He made two parents very happy.

Family Photo at Lake Arenal
June

Organic Market
June

Diana and Simon at Playa Ocotal
June

Our First Visitors, Jess and Diana
June

Horned Beetle on my driveway
June

Jaco Beach Sunset
November

Lake Arenal and Volcano Arenal
June

Malachi at Ocotal Beach
June

Malachi's first day of Kindergarten
August

Anniversary trip to Roatan, Honduras
November

John goes to Thailand Aug

Crocodile Bridge (not the technical name of it)
November

Malachi and Simon riding a boat to Tortuguero - September

Grandpa and Simon in Puerto Viejo - November

John and Malachi playing at the beach - November

Monkey on my back - November

Malachi waiting for daddy to check in at Si Como No,
Manuel Antonio, May

Malachi at El Avion, a restaurant in a Fairchild C-123,
Manuel Antonio, May

Brothers April or May

UAB the week after we arrived, April

Our first weekend in Costa Rica, Our first family outing into town
April

John planting our lime tree which we thought was an orange tree
August

The whole family at our first CLO event -
Mother's Day Brunch

Happy Surprise - #3!
September

Malachi's 2nd Halloween Outfit
Embassy Halloween Party
October

Malachi's 1st Halloween outfit - Black Knight
CIS School Party

Simon's first shower with big brother - December

Visitor to the Roy house - December

Happy Roy Boys - December

The kids/grandkids on John's side
November

Candid Family photo
November

Roy Grandkids
November

My boys
November

Grandpa and Grandma Roy visit
November

Happy 5th Birthday Malachi!
November

Grandma and Simon

Merry Christmas! Christmas Eve

Simon opening his first ever Christmas present
Christmas Day

The boys playing with their favorite toys from Christmas

Me sporting my personalized apron from my mother-in-law

Vroom Vroom! He loves his Fire Truck!
Christmas Day

Homemade Chipotle burritos, it was sooooo good!
December

15 Weeks along with #3
Today

Christmas in Costa Rica

2010-12-29T18:57:00.000-06:00

Christmas in Costa Rica was great this year. On Christmas Eve we chilled at home, having a relaxing day and I made overnight monkey bread dough to use the next morning. That night we went to a friends house for dinner. We ended up playing Cranium, which is weird because John's a self proclaimed Cranium hater. His team won though, I think he was happy about that. Malachi found a friend there, they played together really well for the whole five hours we were there. John and I like his parents, so I think we might try to hang out with them - it would be a good match I think. We didn't get home until after 11:00 that night. We wrote a Thank You note to Santa and wished him a safe flight. We all opened our Christmas Eve pj's and then sent the kids to bed. I set out cookies and milk for Santa, got my first present (a new cell phone!) and then went to bed. John stayed up even later - crazy.

Saturday morning was great! I was so excited that I couldn't go back to sleep after I woke up at 6:00 a.m. Malachi was instructed to stay in his room until 7:00 am and we put a big digital clock on the floor by his door. I heard him playing but I snuck downstairs to enjoy the quiet of the room at about 6:20. At 7:00 I went upstairs to find that John had rescued Malachi out of his room because the clock had changed (well really, Malachi changed it). It wasn't going to be 7:00 for another seven hours! The baby wasn't awake, so we decided to leave him. We went downstairs, organized the presents and let Malachi dig in. Simon woke up at about 7:30 and I brought him down to start "ripping" into his presents. When the kids were done John and I got to start in on ours. John had mentioned after I got the phone the night before that he didn't have any big present for the next day. HA! After opening some great presents (maternity clothes mostly, but so needed and so appreciative, a few books, and other fun items) I opened my last present and found my old winter jacket. I gave a confused look to John who said it was creative wrapping. I pulled it out and couldn't find anything in the box and was even more confused. He said I had it in my hand, and sure enough I did. I pulled two "plane tickets" out of the pocket. One for me and one for Simon leaving for Minneapolis on Jan. 13th. I went to him on the floor by the kids and hugged and cried and squeezed him (hard) until Malachi asked why mommy was crying.

I've been missing the US so much for a while, and to be able to go there, and at the same time celebrate my mother's birthday (I won't say which, but it's a big one!) when I thought I wouldn't be able to, is quite possibly the best gift he's ever given me. After crating a giant mess of paper in our house, we all spent the rest of the day relaxing, resting, and enjoying our new loot.

I had expected it wouldn't be special because there were so many things was were "wrong." But we had a great holiday, and it will be memorable as Simon's first!

On other topics

Bidding starts soon. I'm excited to see the list. I think it's coming out in February. We have ideas about what we want to do, and I hope it works out.

I think Simon's 5th tooth finally popped out! We've been waiting for this one forever. If every tooth takes so long to come out, we're looking at years of teething. I think we have at least two more working their way out. Poor Simon - I remember teething because I got my wisdom teeth very late in life, and I feel so bad for him.

Malachi's excited about school starting. He starts on January 10th and we're going to have to figure out a way to get him there, especially while I'm in the States. It's another small school, it's actually the teachers that were fired from his last school. So they remember him, and will get him where he needs to be. I'm a little worried that he's so out of practice that he may not be able to go into 1st grade next year. We'll see...he started Kindergarten early, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if he had to do it again. I hate this stupid school situation that we've gone through. I feel really bad for Malachi, not because his education suffered, but because he misses his friends.

Today he went to a friends house for the whole day. He was so excited when we told him last night that he actually squeeled! The father of his friends took the day off to use some vacation time and they asked for Malachi to come over. We were excited for him, and this morning while we were getting ready we almost forgot to feed him breakfast in all the excitement. He had a wonderful day with his friends, he used their bounce house and their homemade zip-line. I'm so thankful that he was able to do that today.

Corridor Rep

2010-12-24T07:02:00.000-06:00

This entry was written on Wednesday, but I've been busy and lazy.

You know when you work in the private sector and you have to be careful about what you say around the water cooler? Well it's no different in the Foreign Service. In fact in the Foreign Service people have been known to wreck careers because of something they said but shouldn't have, or did but shouldn't have. Luckily for me, my mistake didn't ruin any careers, but it certainly didn't help. I'm not going to repeat what I said, just know that it was bad. I think the victim is angry with me right now. I feel really bad and I wish I could blame the pregnancy for this. It's true that during pregnancy I have a harder time thinking through things, but this should have been a no-brainer. It's definitely a moment I wish I could take away.

Christmas is coming around fast! The Embassy is closing early tomorrow and then closed on Friday. We have dinner plans on Friday night and then Saturday is just us. I hope it's a relaxing day for us. I plan on making homemade cinnamon rolls on Friday that we can eat on Saturday, I'm already looking forward to those. Our Christmas tradition used to be hot chocolate and orange rolls in the morning, but we're not able to do orange rolls here (they're just not available), and I'm not certain the weather will call for hot chocolate, we do have many varieties in the house to choose from though, if we decide to have it with our rolls.

Malachi is very excited about Christmas. He's been asking us every morning and sometimes throughout the day how many days there is until Christmas. The smaller the number of the answer the more excited he is. When today's answer was three he was just beyond ecstatic. Simon has no clue what is going on. The only difference this season is making, is that he's playing with ornaments on the tree (the glass balls and angels, yikes! I should've thought to put those higher). Simon's not getting much this year, but I like it that way. He'll only be 10 1/2 months and he doesn't need a lot. Malachi has a sizable pile growing under the tree. Since his room is already vomiting toys maybe he'll pick some out to donate sometime in January or February.

More of John's presents showed up this year than I thought would because I ordered so late. It makes me happy that he's not just getting one thing. He said it's a sure thing that at least one of my presents won't make it on time. That's ok. Next year we'll do it better. This certainly has been a learning experience for me.

No P today

2010-12-20T15:42:00.000-06:00

Today when I was getting Simon in the morning I thought I would go to the Embassy and catch up on the hours that Imissed last week when I went to the Dr.'s office for a last minute appointment (more on that in a sec). Right before I was about to remove the diaper (no poop - thank you Simon), the phone rang. I knew that because of what time it was that it was P saying something was up and she wasn't coming in.

But it wasn't P, it was her husband, D. D said that P was really sick (you don't want the details we have) and wouldn't be coming in. Ok, no worries, I'm not really scheduled to work, I'll just work from home. So the kids and I trekked to my office and I worked for about 30 minutes to make sure I could work from home. Our new Management Counselor came in on Friday and my boss is out, so I talked to him real quick to make sure he didn't need anything, and we headed home.

I put Simon down for a nap immediately and worked at trying to get Malachi settled into a movie, which proved to be harder than I thought. Finally I was able to sit at the computer and start putting the Newsletter together. It wasn't as easy as I'd hoped it would be. For some reason when I copied a picture that I'd emailed to myself from work it wouldn't paste into my Publisher Document. Grr! Oh well, as long as P is better tomorrow, I can go to work and finish it. I did get a lot of ground work done on the newsletter today so I know that I can easily finish it tomorrow.

I haven't been able to get a lot of housework done today though. Simon's in the process of teething, which is a super long process for him btw, so he's been very crabby and needy. Even right now, he's kind of whining running around in his walker, which he normally loves.

So, back to the last minute trip to the Dr. This pregnancy has been pretty uneventful as I'd already mentioned. But last week there'd been some light spotting. It didn't go away as quickly as I would've liked so I called the Dr. He wanted me to come in for an ultrasound just to make sure there were no issues with the baby. Well there are no issues with the baby but there's a little issue with the stuff surrounding it.

Just like with Simon I have early Placenta Previa. This means that the placenta attached low in the uterus and is currently covering the cervix. This could be fixed as the uterus grows; the placenta could move up and away from the cervix. However, if it doesn't, it will mean a c-section at 37 weeks so that I don't dilate. Because if I dilate then it could cause some dangerous bleeding. I used to practically faint at the sound of a c-section thinking it was the end of the world. But at this point I just want the baby's life and my own to remain safe, so if a c-section does that, then I'm up for it. Right now, I'm on pelvic rest and no crossing my legs until my ultrasound on Jan. 5th (was already scheduled to check the baby and the sex). Hopefully it'll already have moved by then which would be a good sign that it will all be alright.

What else is going on? All of the presents for the kids that we have so far and that John's parents brought down in November wrapped. The ones from his parents are under the tree, Saturday morning we'll put the rest of the presents under the tree.

Christmas this year hasn't felt very Christmasy. First of all, it's way too green here. Don't get me wrong, Costa Rica really tries to do it all up. There are lights hanging over the roads, trees are light up all over, people are lighting their houses, fences, trees, etc. It's really a season that Costa Ricans love, but I'm just not feeling it. We have our tree up, and have since the Friday after Christmas, and we have up the Christmas decorations we own, which is a sad display for sure. Shopping is done, except for stocking stuffers, and presents are being wrapped, but I still am not feeling it. Don't know if I will this year.

I need help FS people, what do you do when the place you're in doesn't inspire the Christmas feeling? The one thing that's helped me this year? Baking cookie dough while listening to Christmas music.

Simon's crying and reaching for me, so I guess I'm done. Bye people!

Catch up #6: The Rest

2010-12-15T07:00:00.001-06:00

This one is a little long, but I'm sick of catch up posts! Here's the rest that I haven't blogged about. This was actually written Wednesday the 8th.

Malachi's awesome pirate treasure map that he drew (which he drew on the same paper as his dot invitation to his next party, and his friend Ben's name with his name) was well...awesome. I had pulled out a piece of blank printer paper to write a note on. I started writing in Spanish and it was bad...very, very bad. So I flipped the paper over and wrote it on the other side and on the "bottom" so that they couldn't see my horrible Spanish. Malachi wanted the rest of the paper to draw on, and he wrote his name. He wanted to make an invitation to his next party, so he wrote his friend's name on it. And then he made a bunch of little dots, and called it his dot invitation. And then the big scribbles came. He brought the paper over to me and said that it was his treasure map and that he was going to put an X where the treasure is. It wasn't until after he was in bed when I realized he'd also drawn a picture of himself at his house, like the starting point of a maze. The little Malachi drawing was holding a sword, and the house kind of looked like a piece of bread with an egg inside of it - it was so cute! I gushed over how much I love my son after seeing that.

This morning though, he came into the room to wake me up and he had his pirate sword, a hat (not a pirate hat, but a hat, because pirates have hats) and his treasure map rolled up in his hand. He was ready to go treasure hunting! I asked him to let Mommy sleep a little more and as he was closing my door he said we were going to go with him. I think my room was suddenly on a pirate ship. He played this game all morning while I was getting ready for work but at one point he lost his map. This made me really sad because I wanted to take a picture of it, to have it forever. I hope we find it (we did). Then maybe we'll find the treasure.

"The fun things I'm doing at work" mostly means the Holiday Party we're having on Saturday. We're also having a Mission Holiday Dance, but John and I are skipping that one. The tickets are $30/person, and we don't really want to shell out that much. But the party this Saturday is going to be a good time. We're having US Hires and Local staff celebrate together. Santa is going to be there, as well as Mrs. Claus. We're going to have crafts for the kiddos and the US Hires are bringing cookies to share! I have to figure out what kind of Christmas cookie I want to make. It should be a really good time. And since we're out of the rainy season (we still get a sprinkle here or there) it should be good weather.

"My pregnancy." Where do I start? I realize that I haven't blogged very much about this pregnancy. It may be because besides some tiredness and occasional motion sickness, there isn't much to talk about. I think the best part of this is no morning sickness. Some people wonder if it's so different than the last two because it's a different sex, John and Malachi and I would love a girl, but another boy would be a lot of fun.

The Dr experience has been different so far. The Dr experiences in Costa Rica have been different so far. The biggest difference so far in the OB experience here is that the Dr was the one who did my ultrasound, not a technician. They don't have Ultrasound Technicians here. The Dr's do them, that was really nice. Also, I found out that during the pushing the Dr will be there the whole time. He also estimates that because of the size of the last baby (8lbs. 4 oz!!!) and the fact that this is my third, I'll only be pushing for about 10 minutes. I told him not to get my hopes up, but that would be awesome.

I think the biggest differences will be when it comes time to have the baby. I already talked to Dr. R about it and he said that I'll be in one room for labor and recovery. The delivery will take place in a sterile room in the hospital. When I'm in the labor/recovery room, I'll be allowed to have as many visitors in the room at what ever time I want, including my kids. He doesn't recommend having them there during labor, but the fact that they'll get to come see us after the baby is born, is great!

One of my fears about going home with this baby is the size of our house. Never before have I gone home with a baby into something more than a two bedroom apartment. I don't know how easy stairs will be and the kitchen is downstairs. Maybe I'll have to have people bring me food and water for a couple of days. Although, if I remember correctly, I was walking around pretty good by the time I went home with Simon. But the stairs...that might be an issue.

I also don't know what's it like to have a baby in an Embassy Community. Do people bring food? Because I remember how awesome that was before, and if this baby follows suit, he/she might be jaundiced and we might be doing extra things to help get rid of that.

Speaking of he/she, we find out the sex of the baby on January 5th. It's a bit earlier than they do it in the states, but according to everything I've read you should be able to find out by then.

Current time:

I was sick last week and this weekend. I'm still recovering a bit from it. I spent all day Thursday and most of Friday in bed. I'm still coughing a little bit, but I am a lot better. Today I made cookie dough - lots of cookie dough. I tripled the recipe for sugar cutouts, and made a batch of spritz dough. They're chilling in the fridge so that we can bake them. Malachi's very excited to cut and bake the cookies. While I was making dough Malachi was putting Christmas clings on the windows and I had Christmas music on in the background. It was very festive, and it was the most festive I've felt this season.

Catch up #5: Visitors Round 2

2010-12-14T07:00:00.000-06:00

John's brother (B), his wife (S), and their daughter(A) came on Thanksgiving and stayed for 10 days. I'd never met A and I was so stinking excited to meet her, she's so cute and sweet. She didn't like being held by me at first because she didn't know me, but she warmed up.

We had a great time with them. We took a day trip to see Volcan Poaz, an active volcano crater. The walk from parking to the crater is about half a mile, and we also decided to walk up a hill to the lagoon - which I think used to be another crater. That walk was tough! And B & S brought A in the stroller (John did not bring Simon) which wasn't easy for them! The walk back down was so much easier and faster. Then another half mile walk to the parking area to meet John and Simon. On the way home we found an amazing restaurant. John and I both said it's some of the best local food we've had since we got here. I think the volcano and lunch trip will become a regular thing for our guests.

While they were here John and B had to work a lot (not together) and their five month old daughter still spent a lot of time eating and sleeping, so we actually spent a lot of time at the house. S and I did go on a couple of walks, and we hung out with the babies while the daddies made the money. Then we went away their last weekend to Jaco. It's a town about an hour and a half from here with a beach. A lot of people at the Embassy talk Jaco down, but we had a great time. John rented a 3 bedroom 3 1/2 bath condo for us, so we brought our maid - best decision ever! This was our fourth beach trip and it was the most fun I've had at a beach because I wasn't stuck on shore with the baby. I was able to have fun in the water with John and Malachi, and I really enjoyed it.

One of the reasons we picked Jaco was because B really wanted to learn how to surf...like it wasn't an option, the boys were surfing. Right outside of our condo building (which was on the beach, btw) there was a surfing school set up under a couple of collapsable tents. John and B talked to them when we got there on Thursday and set something up on Friday. So Friday afternoon at 12:30 everyone but Simon and P (yay P! (also, it turns out P doesn't like the sun and she loves Simon, so she wasn't upset at all)) headed out to the tents. Guess who else got lessons! No, not me...I'm pregnant! My Dr. would have killed me. My five year old, however, has no such restriction. He learned how to surf right along with daddy and uncle B. Malachi even stood up on his own and surfed once! It was totally worth the $25, and he loved it. John and B had a fun time surfing and I think they'll both do it again. I got video of the whole time Malachi was in the water (including a time when a wave took me down - we have a water proof camera) and S took really good photos of John and B surfing. Unfortunately we had to leave before they could get out into the water again the next day.

We had a really good time with them here and we hope they'll be able to visit us again before we leave.

Catch up #4: Thanksgiving

2010-12-13T11:43:00.000-06:00

In my State Department Roundup post, I briefly mentioned what we had planned for Thanksgiving. But here I can get into depth.

Here we found almost everything we needed for the actual Thanksgiving dinner. My sister in law did need to bring down french fried onions and pumpkin for pie. Other than that I found everything I needed for the meal, and John bought a few finishing touches for the tables. In all, we spent (apart from the turkey) over $400. It's definitely cheaper to ship stuff I think. Anyway, I have to figure out a way to spend less next year.

I usually work Tuesdays and Wednesdays but I took the afternoon of Wednesday off so I could begin cooking. On Wednesday I made the homemade cream of mushroom soup for the green bean casserole and then made the bean mixture and I made the sweet potato casserole. These two things took longer than I thought they would because I had to re-make the green bean casserole because fresh, not canned beans, were requested. That's all I got accomplished that day. I also made stuffing on Wednesday. Next year I won't be doing this because the next day it was dry and not as appealing as it should've been.

On Thanksgiving, I had P make the mashed potatoes (because she's the only one here that makes good ones), and she helped clean up after me every time I made a mess, and I made a lot of messes. John made the pecan pie, and I made the cinnamon rolls and quiches for breakfast the next day. I also made homemade rolls because we couldn't find rolls in the can or in the bakery.

John's brother and his wife came in at about 1:00 that afternoon and they were at our house before 2:00. It was so great to see them and their daughter (more about their visit in the next post). Our Peace Corps Volunteers arrived promptly at 3:00 (the time I requested they be here). We were supposed to have dinner at 4:00, but my turkey wasn't done. So dinner was late...think after 5:00.

We asked P to eat with us, and she finally did. She wanted to eat in the kitchen but we finally convinced her to eat at our table. Dinner was great, it felt so much like home to have family there and to have the traditional dinner. Great conversation, good pie, great holiday.

Our complete Thanksgiving Menu:

Turkey
Stuffing
Corn
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Rolls
pickles/olives
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
cherry pie

Morning After:
Homemade cinnamon rolls
quiche

Catch Up #3: Malachi's Birthday Party

2010-12-11T08:06:00.000-06:00

Because this season is so busy for us we usually wait until the last minute to plan his party. This year was no exception. John did a little shopping for it the night before and we did all of the preparation the day of the party.

Malachi wanted make your own cakes like last year and John came up with the idea of star and planet cakes, so we bought star and round cutters and made yellow cakes in jelly roll pans and John cut out the shapes and set them on individual plates.

As people started arriving we let everyone hang out until the last child arrived. After that we started the games. John came up with some great ideas and the kids had a really good time. The first game was bean bag assault. Malachi's cardboard castle is still on our porch, so John cut different shaped holes in it and gave each hole a point value. One team would hide in the castle and the other team would throw for the holes.

After that we played a game that the kids really liked. They played mummy wrap. Each team got a roll of toilet paper and had to wrap someone in all of the toilet paper from the roll. Malachi was a very good mummy and stood still the whole time so the paper wouldn't break. His team won that game.

The last game was the funniest, especially for the adults. We had two one year olds attending the party and each team of kids was assigned a baby. The teams had to coax their baby to the finish line doing anything but touching them. The babies of course didn't really understand and they'd walk or run about half way and then stop. They'd look around and run back to the start. This happened a few times, until the parents went behind the teams to help. One baby finally made it to the finish line.

We had the kids do the cake between a couple of games, but after the games we did the piñata. The kids really enjoyed that, but I felt kind of bad sending them home with all that crap. The piñata candy bags here also have a ton of crappy little plastic toys. Sorry parents!

We asked the parents not to bring gifts because Malachi room practically vomits toys already. A couple of parents didn't obey, but he got some great gifts actually. My favorite gift was window crayons. The whole family had fun drawing on our huge windows with those.

I think Malachi's party was a huge success. I can't believe my baby is already 5 years old!

Catch Up #2: Roatan Honduras

2010-12-10T06:09:00.002-06:00

On Wednesday the 10th (our anniversary) we got up super early and creeped out of the house at 4:30am to make our flight at the San Jose Airport. We went to a special desk by the ticket counter, flashed our diplomatic passports and got a waiver for the exit tax, and made our way to the gate. I did a little shopping at the Cafe Britt store for a magazine to read, a magnet for my mother-in-law, and some bottled water.

The flight to San Salvador was great, we had a really nice plane with TV's in the back of all the seats. John watched Date Night with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, and I watched Valentine's Day (which I STILL haven't seen the end of!). After a 1 hour and 20 minute flight we were in San Salvador. We waited for a little bit and walked out to the next plane...a prop plane. I wasn't very happy about that at all. However, except for the noise, it wasn't as bad a trip as I expected. It wasn't nearly as bumpy as we thought it would be, and after about an hour and a half we landed on the island of Roatan.

Our B&B was ok. We got the top room (read: biggest), but it needed some work done on it, and we only had maid service one day out of five. We'll definitely go to Roatan again, but I think we'll stay somewhere else.

Unfortunately their rainy season was just starting, so we saw more rain than we would've liked. Fortunately for us we brought umbrellas! We did have a great time though. We had a guided tour of the island, just the two of us and our guide, it was awesome. The Eastern side of the island is very rustic still, but beautiful non the less. During the tour of the island we went to a restaurant called The Hole In the Wall. It's only accessible by boat, and is run by a couple of retired US Navy men. After lunch we went on a tour of the mangroves which were pretty cool, we saw some wildlife there, and we saw a cove where pirates used to hide.

We had a realtor take us out to look at properties that are for sale that would be good for renting out. We are very interested in owning this kind of property. With our lifestyle it would be the best way to own since we wouldn't be occupying it. Roatan is a great place to buy right now because it's still developing, and the properties are still very reasonably priced.

Then on day three the sun came out! This was perfect timing because this was the day we planned on going snorkeling. We had already made reservations at a spa for treatments and massages, and the owner said that we could go early and snorkel with their equipment, so we did. It was beaufitul! We had to swim out a ways to get to the coral, but once we did, we saw so many fish, and the coral was so great. The coral was really close to us, at times I thought I was going to cut my belly on it. After swimming back (and wanting to collapse because of how much work that was), we went to a restaurant down the beach from the spa and they gave us a free appetizer because we're guests at the spa and we had a good meal.

Then to the spa...ahh...it was so nice. We ordered a choloate wrap. Neither of us had done a wrap before, and it was very decadent. After we rinsed off, we got hour long massages. They were so nice! I had issues with my shoulders and neck, and I swear he worked on that area for over half an hour. John and I had a great time, and would like treatments again some day.

We had food at an Argentinian restaurant four times, the first two just being dessert. Their food was amazing though. We ate at the noodle hut once and had great asian style noodles, we had dinner and brunch at a seafood restaurant right on the water (the candle-lit dinner was actually on the deck that was over the water), come to think of it, the noodle hut was over the water, and the Argentinian restaurant was just across the small road from the beach.

On our last full day, we decided to swim with the dolphins. We did the typical encounter where we were in the water with the trainer and a dolphin. But after that we paid a bit extra and we literally swam with the dolphins. For 30 minutes with snorkeled with the trainer and eight dolphins, who wanted to play catch with us and seaweed. It was an amazing experience.

It was so nice for us to just have five days with us by ourselves. Meals were a breeze, since we didn't have anyone that needed help. We watched a lot of Glee, and a few old movies on their VCR. Thank you so much to my mother-in-law who made this possible!

The island is beautiful, and we really enjoyed our time. It was a great way to celebrate nine years together since for our 10 year anniversary we probably won't be going anywhere since we'll then have three kids. Three kids!!