I'm leaving here...

in 1 hour and 35 minutes. I bet you're wondering if I'm ready.

Thanks for asking. Actually, I have yet to pack a thing, my little one just redecorated my master bedroom in the new fall style, "au la toilet paper" and I still need to get in the shower. And where am I?

I'm here writing this post to say,"I'M OUTTA HERE in 1 hour and 33 minutes!!!!" See ya soon!!!

If You Have a Girl from 5-10 years Old...

You need to check this site out. It's from Precious Moments. Remember them? The cute statues with the large heads and even larger eyes.

Well, they have new books out that promote virtues. And the best part, as far as my girls is concerned, they have a virtual world about to launched any day. If you sign up before it opens, you get 25 extra virtual points and a limited tee shirt for her character to wear. They can set up their own room, and can receive emails from us, their mom's, giving them extra virtue points for something they did good at home. NOW THAT IS COOL!!!!

So if you and your daughter are interested, go to www.preciousgirlsclub.com and sign up. It's free but I'm sure they have an upgraded membership like all those websites seem to have. No mention of it yet.

Enjoy and if you sign up and want to connect with Paige, email me and I'll give you her name. photomom5 at gmail.com

Crafts are keeping me sane right now. No one is in school as of yet. Get this, I have to get the kid's sealed school transcripts, both from the district and from the school, take them to the Costa Rican consulate in Los Angeles and get them o.k.'d and the birth certificates stamped (and show Wes and my passports) along with the kid's passports. Then I get to pay $200 to a translator here in Costa Rica to translate them to Spanish. Of course they won't let "mi esposó" do it. I need to do the same with the vaccination records. I also have to have an electric bill in our name among other things. And all this just to have our kids pick up the language fast. Hummm. I might just need to find another way to accomplish that one.
So to keep the kids entertained we have been doing some fun things. Did you know you could make fun coloring pages out of your kid's favorite photographs? Imagine the benefits of this. You can take them to the park dressed as Spiderman, superman or a princess then snap away.

When you get home open your pictures in a Photoshop type program and do this:

1. open your picture on a page the size you are going to print. I did 8.5x11
2. make sure the picture is selected and not the background.
3. Go to filter>sketch>photocopy
4. You will now have something close to a coloring book sketch.
5. Play around with it, I kept the DETAIL around 8 and DARKNESS at 5.
6. That’s it. So easy.


Think about the possibilities.

*You could have a coloring contest at a baby shower with one of the pregnancy portraits.

*You could create a "choosing the right" coloring book for Sunday with your kid as the star.

*You could use them for a birthday party.

*You could create a “thank you” coloring page from a photo at your child’s birthday party.

*You could use it for a young women’s, primary, scout or achievement day activity.

*Ohhhh, how about a coloring book for a 50th wedding anniversary with pictures for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren to color about the couples life together. That would be awesome.

In fact if you think of a more creative way to use it, please let me know! I’d love to hear.

This is one we came up with.

I'm It!! I Got Tagged.

It's Sunday, a non post day, so I thought I'd throw in this fun "tag your it" questionnaire I got from my good friend Lara. It took me 2 years as a teen to stop calling her Lora. She just kept softly reminding me that her name included 2 a's. I'm amazed she will still take me as a friend. Thanks L-A-R-A.

A= Attached or Single: Attached for 12 perfect (crazy, hard, fun) years
B= Best Friend: I'm spoiled in this area!
C= Cake or Pie: Yuck to cake, pie is it (lemon supreme is one of my favs)
D= Day of Choice: Used to be Sunday, but now it's probably any "rainy" Monday.
E= Essential Item: I've learned besides food and water, there aren't any "essential" items
F= Flavor of Ice cream: Rocky Road with a little milk poured on top.
G= Gummy Bears or Worms: nothing gummy.
H= Hometown: Riverside, CA
I= Indulgence: baths, books, Ruby's chocolate malt, cuddling with the kids Saturday mornings in our bed.
J= January or July: Both
K= Kids: Troy, Dallin, Paige, Aiden, Landon (and sometimes my sweetie Wes).
L= Last movie I saw at a theater: "Becoming Jane" when I was in the states (so good!)
M= Musician: my son the drummer (he drums on EVERYTHING)
N= Number of Siblings: 3 brothers 1 sister
O= Oranges or Apples: mandarin oranges and gala apples
P= Phobias or Fears: heights; losing a child, not enduring to the end.
Q= Quote: Today's trial is tomorrows testimony" or "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission" or "cleaning the house while you have young kids is like stringing beads without a knot tided in the end of the string."I'll stop there.
R= Reason to Smile: my kids, my honey, my quiet time.
S= Season: what are seasons? We've got hot and humid or hot and rainy.
T= Tag: L(arge), oh you meant tag someone.
U= Unknown fact: I have to turn the tv channel if I think someone on tv is going to be embarrassed or made fun of, I just can't watch it.
V= vegetarian or oppressor of Animals: oppressor definitely, A-1 steak sauce just doesn't go well with veggies.
W= Worst habit: I'm not telling! :)
X= Xray or Ultrasound: I'd rather have an ultrasound if that's what the question is.
Y= Your favorite food: my mom's
Z= Zodiac sign: I'm not sure. I never read those! (Hee, hee)

Who's This Guy?

The one thing that Troy and I disagree on (besides scouts and chores) is his hair. He loves it long. The longer the better from his point of view. Wes just wants it short with a nice "comb over" for Sunday. I have to fight him on that one. I'm cool with it a little long, but I don't like tons of hair around his face. So in honor of him turning 12 in about a month, we had it cut off. Tons of his hair left his head for good yesterday. I was impressed he didn't go kicking and screamin'. Here he is before the "hair do". Check out this sign, Beauty Saloon instead of Beauty Salon. I guess you can head to the bar and down a root beer before you get all dolled up. So funny.
So here is the official "before" shot.
Here is the "painful" during. He had just looked in the mirror and got that panicked, "He's ruining my hair and my life look". I get that too during my hair cuts.
Here I was able to grab a shot just before he headed out the door to "go hang out". Thanks Troy for letting me photojournal your life today! When did my baby turn into this?????

It's still a little long. Next month we will have a new, shorter style. :)

Survivor Man...

Can you guess what we watch on T.V? Discovery channel, Survivor Man, Dirty Jobs, you get the picture. We know that when getting through the jungles of Costa Rica, going through the mangroves isn't possible. Crickets can be good when roasted, but don't eat them raw, they can contain worms. We know tons of that type information.

So when Dallin wanted to play survivor man for a day, a very drenching rainy day I might add, I agreed. I gave permission to cut down 5 palm leaves to make his shelter. This is what he came up with.

He swears that it was actually comfortable to lay on the palms but I wasn't ready to try when he insisted. He hung out there in the deluge for at least a few hours. He did come in dry so this survivor man's mother was quite impressed.

Of course Aiden, Landon and Paige wanted to get in to the action. I made these little green slickers for them before they left for their adventures. (Poked a hole for heads and arms) It's amazing how easy it is at this age for your kids to think you are a genius. I plan to thoroughly take advantage of this.

I Love Doing Laundry...

I never thought I'd say that, but since we don't have "laundry facilities" in our home, I get to escape to Rusti's once a week to complete it. It usually is a glorious 5 hours to myself. Sometimes I will bring a munchkin or two, but today was not that day.
Let's see, what's going on. We are trying to get the kids into a "public" school here. It's looking like a more difficult task than I could have imagined. And I have a great imagination!
I'm glad I'll be heading home (in 10 days) because it looks like I will need to stop by LA and visit the Costa Rican consulate to have the kids paperwork documented. How fun does that sound? I guess for them to attend public school they need a stamp on their birth certificates. I will be homeschooling them to keep them caught up with the U.S. standards. The public school here will be their Spanish 101. Troy should be considered fluent probably within the next 4 months. He is amazing when it comes to picking up Spanish. I'm happy to announce the kids have earned enough money to buy a wii. This has been their goal and the reason my kitchen has been covered in flour, butter and sugar. All the kids have worked hard to sell cookies, but my oldest certainly wins most dedicated. "Great job Troy!" He gets dibs on the first game.

Since we have 1 week to pick out a few games for the wii, what is your favorite wii game????? I would hate to get back to CR and realize I had picked out a dud.

Spanish, well, what can I say. I've learned more than I knew last week. I'm picking up a few words everyday, and still I realize how much more I need to know. I can't get up and teach in Primary without having almost everything I say translated. In Nursery I'm on my own, so you can imagine that the cuties in there are doing very well picking up English. LOL I use the words for "calm down", "sit down", "please", "don't hit", "no", "clean up", "no, no," and my favorite, "o.k. we're done, time for your next class".

We have decided it's time to look for a new place. Our present digs, although a great deal, just aren't cutting it. We will be renting out this place to a smaller family (I'm sure) and putting the profit there into our new place. We did find a beautiful, gorgeous home with all of the American amenities (dish washer, washer and dryer, hot water, counter space, large fridge, garbage disposal, bath tub, pool, 4 bedrooms, alright I need to wipe off the drool and stop listing everything) we just need to see if we can get the owner to rent to a family with 5 kids. That will be our biggest hurdle here. Wish us luck.

Sorry, no pictures today. I'll have some on Wednesday.

Where The Wild Things Are...

Do you remember this book? I love it. It's one of my favorites. The little boy gets in trouble and gets sent to his room. He, like most children, decides to run away. He uses his imagination to transport him to "Where the Wild Things Are". My guess is that in his mom's wailing attempts to impress upon him the seriousness of what he did, she might have used the term, "wild thing". He is off on his adventures until the smell of food brings him back. His mom has made him dinner and he heads home. See how important family meals are?
I found this idea on "skip to my lou". {Sorry I can't recall if it's blogger or typepad} She had her little ones create their own monsters then she sewed them into pillows. How adorable!!!

I had to be just a tad more creative and use a sheet that we didn't need. Then in place of fabric paints we used watered down acrylic paints. It isn't the softest pillow {quite scratch actually} but the kids LOVE them. They like the idea of taking their monsters to bed instead of being scared by monsters. The older three also got a sewing lesson out of it. Yes, Troy made a pillow. However he disappeared when my camera came out. His pillow was a grousome football player.
My two youngest enjoyed this craft the most. I remember in kindergarten loving to paint, but we only got to paint once. Everyday I wondered if today would be the day we got to paint again. It never came. It's amazing how quiet the house was for such a sustainable amount of time with paint brushes in these guys hands.

I need to get Troy into this blog somehow.
Landon just crashed on him the other day. How adorable is this? The beginning and the end. My oldest and the youngest.
Isn't this plant the cutest little thing? It came with a pink and white striped bag {everything here in Costa Rica comes in this bag}. I bought it at the farmers market and carried it all the way home. If I blurred my vision and pretended the humidity away, I felt like I was in a Venician city carrying home my treasures from the local market.
I bought this plant to remind me of my treasures, my friends. I was so happy walking home imagining how I would nurture it and watch my "friendship" plant grow. Oh, I had such great plans.

Then I went in to take a quick shower, came out and found my plant stripped of almost all it's glory! Who would do such a thing? Who would be such a monster?

It was Paige and Aiden. They were having fun making snow with the delicate petals. Let's just say I didn't handle the situation so well. I have a friend who is having a tough time right now. I specifically thought of her as I bought it. Now it has been destroyed and mangled and I wasn't there to protect {her} it. I really didn't get mommy points on how I handled this one.

Now I am happy to say that with a little LOVE and care, my friendship plant is even better than before. She has more blooms, more leaves and is a bright green. She has weathered the "storm" of an 8 and 4 year old and is stronger because of it.

Cowabunga!!!

I have to post another "back to school" recipe. This is so EASY, really. The original name was "creepy crawlers" but I've decided it was named incorrectly. Besides, most of my friends wouldn't even try it with a name like that. Then I do have a few friends that would try it because of it's name. So, I guess you can choose your "title". The best way to describe this dish is a thick crepe. It literally climbs up out of the 13x9 pan. The kids will like to watch it grow in the oven. It looks more like high ocean waves to me. {that's why it deserved a proper name}
We spread butter and syrup or powdered sugar on it. You can spread cream cheese and top with fruit if you'd like. Yummy!
Creepy Crawlers breakfast

This is a fun recipe for the kids. It actually crawls up the side of the pan.
The kids will sit in front of my oven for the entire 20 minutes just to watch it crawl!



6 eggs

1 C. flour

1 C. milk

1/2 tsp. salt



Melt 4 Tbsp. butter in a 9x13 pan. Pour batter over butter. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Serve with strawberries and cool whip or syrup.

My First Women's Meeting...

As you know I've been trying to attend the area's bi-lingual women's group meeting for 4 months now. I finally did it. Every month something came up, Wes couldn't watch the kids, I didn't remember until the afternoon of the meeting day and then they were off for 2 months. Last week, I made it. It was just what the Dr. ordered. I sat at a table with 30 or so other women, mostly gringos mixed with tico's. Most of the women were business women sprinkled with a few of us stay at home moms. It was glorious. They had a couple who wrote a Costa Rican travel guide speak to us. {Great book I'd highly recommend. Talks more about the quaint hotels, eco lodges and Bed and Breakfasts instead of the huge corporate hotels.} Sleeping with Tucans.
I was able to meet so many influencial women that have done great things for this community. Procuring 2 logo jobs was also a nice feature. Another added bonus. I'm designing the logo for the "Central Pacific Women's Group". It doesn't get much better than this!
On top of that experience I got to tag along with Rusti to a baby shower. It seems like friends are flocking into my Costa Rican world. This has made all the difference for me. I have yet to make the life long friends that I have at home in the states, but I really can't complain.
Something I learned, at Costa Rican baby showers they toast the baby on the way using egg nog. The egg nog has extra additives that you wouldn't expect at a baby shower. Hummmm.

Exploding Box...

I thought this was an interesting subject for a post. Don't worry we didn't have a box explode as far as I know. The kids are at home with my sweetie and who knows what's happening there.

I just wanted to share with you the coolest thing my friend Nikk made. The exploding box. Check it out here . It's a great "inexpensive" Christmas gift. You can purchase directions here Now isn't that the most adorable thing you've seen in awhile.

I have to tell you a little about my friend Nikkole. I went to high school with her. She was the one with the car we would all hitch a ride to lunch. {We had an open campus back in the olden days} Later, I stayed with her for a little while in San Diego and learned there were more independent options for me. {Sorry Nikk that I wasn't a better room mate for the 2 weeks I stayed with you} I've always felt bad about that.

I took my first road trip with her and thought about jumping out the window if I heard one more country song. I survived however and now force that music on my munchkins. That road trip changed my young life in so many ways.
I remember her fingernails were always beautifully painted. They {her fingers} were of course her tools she used to create art and an ARTIST she was. I can see even now how carefully she would use a pen to address a letter just PERFECTLY. It's been great to see her still able to continue to develop her artistic talent as she mothers and wifes. {You know what I meant, right?} So check out here stuff. It's awesome.

Do Hard Things...

This is my theme for the year. Maybe the following year also. I got this idea from Christy at www.everythingispink.com She started picking a theme word for her year to help her better herself. I think last year was "stretch". I've picked "Do Hard Things". And yes I realize it's 3 words not 1! It's my way of doing things my own way.
So I stole the "term" from a book I'm currently reading entitled "Do Hard Things". It's written by twin teenage boys who have started what they call a "rebellution" against low expectations towards teenagers. It's a little dry but a great book. {I'm a sucker for self-help books thought} I should have put that down on my previous questionaire}
Already this book has helped me with my pre-teen son. I've raised the bar in what I expect from him and in turn have gotten so much more back. Then he feels much more pride because he's accomplished something "hard". Now my respect for him has risen, see the pattern?!?!? Nice.
Yesterday at church he did something hard. He sang a song in sacrament meeting with his dad. They harmonized the last verse and it was great! He sure fought me on it though. Funny thing is it was one of his best Sundays. He smiled all day.
I did something hard too. I spoke in church. Well, I bore my testimony. I wrote out what I wanted to say and my sweetie translated it to Spanish for me. Then I praticed reading it tirelessly! {Well from late Saturday night until about midnight.} That part of me that loves to procrastinate stepped in. Anyway, I spoke {read} Spanish from the pulpit yesterday. I did a hard thing! I can't tell you how many times I've gone to back away from something difficult these past few months and then the words "Do Hard Things" came to mind. These words have given me power to do what I might not have done otherwise. Woooo whoooo!!!

I'm counting down to U.S arrival time. See many of you soon!