More of the Farmer's Market...

I thought I would post a few more pictures of the Feria; Farmer's Market. Here is how the money works basically. $1,000 colones are equal to 2 U.S. dollars. Of course a kilo is larger than a pound. So here I am paying about $1.00 for a pound of "organic" tomatoes.



How many pictures do I have of Paige holding up fruit to her face???? More than you know. Before she will let me photograph a normal face, I have to shoot a silly face. So to answer my own question, a ton!!!



This is an abandoned structure that is at the end of the Feria. I loved the bright green vegetation along with the crusty cold stone. I'll have to come back here and do a real photo shoot soon.

So of course little brother has to copy.

My Favorite Place in Town...

I had to post this. In fact I think I'll make a 16x20 to go in our home. This will be to remind me of moments like this. One child carefully leading the other through life; the younger child so trusting and safe. You know, what you thought motherhood was going to be like before the first night home with a sweet but screaming baby. :)

I would have to say that we have become closer as a family living in these tight quarters. Discussions {arguments} are neutralized before things get way out of hand. We have just a handful of toys so the kids rely on each other for entertainment. Sometimes it involves acrobatical skills I don't approve of but so far no superglue. {my version of stitches}


This is where we were headed. Yummy! We've been in here only twice and the woman that runs it already gives us special treatment. I have noticed that I have yet to meet a family with five kids here. I think we make an impression wherever we go. What type of impression, I don't dare ask. :)

Parent Tip #1

How to Make Sure Your Kids Behave in School




Tell them that if you get a negative call from the school you will come down during P.E., take a picture of them in their gym shorts and post it on the blog!

Works everytime!

{I have to tell you that the above picture is NOT one of my kids. }

About My Goal to Share a Spanish Lesson Everyday...

Well, that only lasted 2 days. But I did find this great "free" {love that words} podcast at coffeebreakspanish.com It came highly recommended {by a fellow blogger here in CR} You'll find the link to the right. Let me know what you think if you try it. As for me, I'll start manana. :)

Walking Home...

Well today was our first adventure going somewhere without a car, a.k.a. walking. There was a little cloud cover so I was more comfortable to attempt it. The locals walk everywhere. I often see young mom's holding their babies to their chest as they are sound asleep in unbearable heat. Another form of transportation is bicycle. It's rare to see only one person on a bike. The other day I saw the cutest little family, a mother, father and little baby boy riding into town. They seemed so happy and if I had squinted hard enough it would have seemed like they were riding in a quaint town in Vienna.

Anyway, things went well. The older ones helped with the younger ones. We went to Subway and Pizza Hut. {Troy went to Pizza Hut, the rest of us went to Subway.}

Bridges here scare me. There is room for only one car and it's basically first come first serve. If you are the first one there you win. Ladies can you imagine your husbands with this competition going on every time they get behind the wheel? Yeah! I know!!!

So we had to walk over one of these bridges today. The so-called sidewalk was petite and full of cracks and crumbling cement. I told myself, "Don't panic Shawna, the kids will see you and make sure to take advantage of your fear!!!" Then a HUGE bus came barreling through. It was LOUD and way to close to my little ones. Yikes!!! The look on my munchkin's faces was priceless. I'm just glad they didn't take a step to the left and slip into the deep ravine. I will have to post a picture of this sidewalk later.


Here is a shot Troy took of Landon and I. {I hope someday soon my hair will be decent, I can't make any promises though}
We were pretty hot and exhausted but almost home.



I have to post this! Aiden had gone on ahead with Paige. I was behind walking with Landon. Then when Aiden made it home and realized that Landon wasn't right behind him he ran back to find him. These two are so close.

Grasshopper bebes...

Aren't these adorable??? As I was getting my ninos to school I passed these on the wall. I almost didn't take a second look considering the "discussion" Troy and I just had involving these words, "responsible", "on-time" and "if you are late for school again I'll make sure you wish you were never born!". {I'm exaggerating on the last one, it didn't leave my lips. I kept that one in my head.}

So I saw these and then of course we were even later because I had to take these great pictures. See it's o.k. if I make us late, I'm the mom.
Now that that's settled here are a few things we learned about grasshoppers.

Their antennae are always shorter than their body.

They make noise by rubbing their hind legs with their abdomen or their front wings.

Grasshoppers lay eggs 1-2 inches in the earth, usually by plants.

The eggs look like thin pieces of rice.

Grasshoppers are eaten around the world. They are used as a filling or snack. The Chinese put them on skewers.

Raw grasshoppers should be eaten with caution. They can contain tapeworms. {Just in case you were thinking about it!}

They live up to 3 months.



When the eggs hatch the first one that hatches leaves and the others follow. (This is what we saw. One was climbing up the wall and the others were following.)

There's your little lesson for today. Oh, and the Spanish lesson for today, look at the title. That's it! Bebes means babies. :)

Welcome to Spanish 101

So here goes. This is what I've learned and will be relearning probably for the next year.

There are 7 seven key question words to know:
Donde (dohn-deh) where We used to ask Troy when he was a baby "Donde esta la luz?" Where is the light?
Que (keh) what
quien (kee-en) who
por que (por keh) why
cuando (kwahn-doh) when
como (koh-moh) how
cuanto (kwahn-toh) how much This one I know well!

Notice how cuando and cuanto only have one letter that is different?
So there you go. We are starting off easy.
I did remember learning "Yo quiero un beso." from a boyfriend in high school. The only embarrasing thing is that I had just learned it when I met his parents for the first time. They asked me if he had taught me any Spanish yet and of course I answered.

Our conversation this morning...

Wes: "Honey, have you seen my nice shorts?" {I added honey just like I always do in my head when he speaks to me :) }
Me: "They are right here in your pile of shorts." {I hurried and put them there since I left the folded laundry on the couch from the night before)
Wes: "Oh, great! I'm meeting a huge developer for lunch and need to look nice."
I have to say that the shorts were not even dressy shorts, they were the dark green safari type shorts. Oh the benifits of living here.

Yummy Treat...

So we had our first social event here. Friends from chruch invited us over for FHE (family home evening). They served this easy but scrumpious snack. I thought I'd attach the recipe.

Chocolate Mint Popcorn (I'm sure someone out there could come up with a more creative title)

12 small York Peppermint Patties
(unwrapped obviously)
1/3 cup of butter (or margarine)
2 bags of popped microwave popcorn

Melt butter in saucepan. Add the patties. Stir as melting. Put the popcorn in a large bowl. Drizzle (I love that word) the chocolate concoction over the popcorn. Stir to mix. Enjoy.

It wasn't very minty but had that sweet and salty taste to it. Yummy. Thanks Carolyn.

Does it feel like we are on vacation?

"Does it feel like we are on vacation?" I get asked this question often. I would say yes it does but more of the "camping vacation" where the mother does more work on the trip than she even does at home. :) Yeah, that's how I'd describe it. Definitely not the 5 star hotel type vacation. But I like camping! I really like camping.


Here is a shot I took of the view on our way to church. We are gone for about 6 hours on Sunday, an hour drive there and an hour back. Then we have the three hour block of church. We stay an hour after church because the sweet family that we ride with teaches piano. This is so that when they leave someone will be able to play the hymns during sacrament.
The first Sunday was fun even though I didn't understand a word. Umm, actually I understood 3. The second Sunday I was bored out of my mind but had to fake it for the sake of the kids. This last Sunday, the third, was so frustrating because I really wanted to be able to communicate with these sweet sisters (all 6 of them) at church who have actually started to smile ever so carefully at me.
I would love to have an Elder Groburg experience. You remember, he stayed on the beach for 3 days studying, until he understood the language. Then got up and spoke it fluently. Yeah, one of those. My companion {my sweetheart} could bring me food and water and not disturb me. I'd of course be in my swimsuit so that I could have a great tan when done, you know, multi-tasking. The kids would be taken care of by someone else. Think how much I'd get done.

Since that is not an option for me here, I need to start studying, the old fashioned way. So if you don't mind I will occasionally mention some things that I've learned. Who am I kidding, I'm still trying to get out of things by being very vague in my course of action. O.K. I need to be held accountable. This is my goal. Monday-Friday I will post something that I've learned in my new country's language. How's that? Speciffic enough? (Except for power outages, insect invasions, an injured child or loss of Internet) There it is. I'm warning you, I took French in High School, and didn't do to well at that. Tomorrow will be my first lesson. Ciao!

This is a picture of Troy and Dallin with our great missionaries in front of our new gorgeous building. A little over a year ago they were still meeting in a house. (O.K. I've got to mention that this was taken 5 hours after we left for church, they are missing their ties, their shirts are untucked, they look pretty disheveled, but they are smiling.

Mc Donalds

When Wes and I came down here with our friends the Bagley's a few years ago we got a kick out of a made to look like McDonalds restaurant in Jaco; where we live now. Well, Saturday we headed to San Jose {where the international airport is} and found this real McDonalds. I made Wes photograph the breakfast sign with Mc Pinto as a menu option. Is that hilarious or is it just me? {Probably just me.}

How do you like the view?

This is a condo that I photographed, well the upper view from the penthouse. What do you think of the view? I wish it was our place, but then again I can imagine what my kids would do from up here. Oh, and yes that is an infinity jacuzi on the right.

This is the living room. Isn't it gorgeous? As I was photographing this, two red macaws came flying by. Yep, I said two macaws. Did you know that macaws stay with their mate their entire lives? If you see one flying solo then you know that their mate has died.

Paige was attacked viciously...

Well, sort of. We were getting ready for bed and my sweet one went to get a diaper for the baby. Next thing I know she was SCREAMING and a scorpion was crawling for safety. Eventually Wes came running and tried to save the scorpion. He loves to collect insects. Quite a few times I have located a jar {with a deadly creature struggling for survival} as I am doing my spring cleanning. When he realized that there was no way the scorpion was being taken alive, he sadly killed it. I put a baking soda paste on Paige, along with an ice pack and some Ibuprophin. I just did everything I could think of to help her little arm. Thank goodness the bites aren't too dangerous here in Costa Rica. I just had to make sure her tongue didn't swell or that a pain didn't start up her arm and we were good. She did have three little marks, two where the claws got her and one from the tail. She's a pretty tough girl you know. So in three weeks we have killed 2 scorpions, 1 centipede and 1 spider the size of my hand (that climbed out of Dallin's shoe). I feel for the insects, we have entered their country and annialted them. However this is a warning to all insects, enter my house, attack my child, and your days are over.

and another Happy Birthday...

My mother in law had her birthday last week. I hadn't thought of wishing happy birthday to our loved ones until today. So I decided to go back a week and do the same for her. I have been very lucky in the mother-in-law department. (Very lucky!)
So here goes:
The top 10 things we love about Grandma Foote:
10. "She feeds us popcorn when we are watching movies" Paige said.
9. She always has something from Target for the kids.
8. She is a great babysitter and unlike my father, the kids are usually asleep when I pick them up. :)
7. Grandma Foote has the best collections of sandals, she really does!! (We won't mention how many sandals)
6. When she was a young mom she took her kids to great "FREE" activities like the Disneyland fireworks.
5. She makes a delicious pot roast.
4. Christmas, we won't even mention how spoiled we are all at Christmas. :)
3. She keeps everything! Mail, her kid's baby clothes, furniture and cars.
2. Grandma Foote makes the best cherry cake. Unbelievable!
1. She always dyes eggs with us.

Glad you had a nice birthday. We love you!

Happy Birthday to you!

It's my dad's birthday today. Happy Birthday Dad! We baked a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in your honor. To him if it isn't chocolate it isn't cake. :) Too bad he can't enjoy it with us, oh well!

So here are the top 10 things we love about him.
10. Grandpa can wrestle pretty well, even wearing his church clothes.
9. He can throw a grandchild up in the air no matter how old they are.
8. Paige said, "I love how grandpa sneaks me things, like chocolate chips."
7. He is a loving and patient.
6. He loves his Father in Heaven and tries to serve him.
5. He can do the best cannonballs into the pool when no one is expecting it.
4. He cannot remember birthdays even if his life depended on it! Do you know today is your birthday!?!?!?
3. He can fall asleep on the couch even in the middle of a party.
2. Grandpa is the best babysitter, but watch out when you come home, it will take hours to calm the kids down for bed.
1. When he gets caught doing something he shouldn't, he turns a bright shade of red!!!



We love you dad!!!! We love you grandpa!!!

Happy Mother's Day...