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!

I've been tagged! Thanks Christine. :)


How to play this game of tag.Post these rules on your blog:List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

3 Joys:
a. Soaking up every ounce of my kid's childhood. I mean to not let time fly by without me knowing.
b. (this one is private, huh honey?)
c. Soaking (there's that word again) in a large tub with tons of bubbles, a good book and a little treat.

3 Fears:
a. Having one of my kids or neices and nephews leave to be with Heavenly Father before I go.
b. Heights (yeah I know it's not original but I have issuse with man made structures. God made Mountains I can handle)
c. Coming back to the states and wishing I was in Costa Rica.

3 Goals:
a. serve a mission with my husband
b. foster children
c. learn Spanish

3 GoalsCurrent Obsessions/Collections:
a. marketing and advertising (there is a huge need here for advertising help and I've already got 2 jobs in that field)
b. working with the Jaco community here to help children
c. cooking traditonal Costa Rican meals


3 Random surprising Facts about me:
a. I don't like to travel and don't have a desire to see the world.
b. I really enjoy working with teenagers. I think they "rock".
c. I was a summer camp counselor for a year right after high school


I tag Tonja (for being so brave as to ask me to do a photoshoot, hee, hee)
Nikki (my buddy from Utah), Kristen T. (my twin in the kid's department 2 boys, 1 girl, 2 boys)

Actividad Primaria (Primary Activity)

Last Saturday was my first Primary Activity (as the lame, non bi-lingual 1st counselor). This is the poster I made to display in the hallway at church. The afternoon was planned around ¨Service¨to Heavenly Father, family and community. I´ll just say it was quite different than the huge productions that we feel obligated to do in the states. Usually with 80 plus kids in attendance. I´d say most of the stress comes from entertaining so many children. Here we have about 15 active kids in our branch. When you take out my 5 and the president´s 3, that leaves only seven. We make up half the kids.

It was a pleasure having such an intimate group. Two of us could easily handle the little circus. We washed windows and cleaned the white boards. (Service to Heavenly Father) Then we played pictionary with phrases revolving around serving others (Service to neighbors). After that the kids colored books with service coupons (Service to family). I made these hoping they would take some ¨lame¨points away. The finale, the kids got to coat with colored sugar and paint HEART shaped cookies. That was a hit of course. Something you wouldn´t attempt if you had a 200 kids to 10 teacher ratio like many activities. It went so well and was so easy.

Until, the RAIN started. It´s difficult to describe the rain here. I´ll do my best.

It´s beautiful outside. Cotton white clouds, clean blue sky, warm and hot. You´re busy inside and a before you know it, CRACK, thunder SNAPS so loud the entire house RATTLES and you wonder if you just experienced an earthquake. The clouds are so close to the ground here that the loud VOICE of these CRASHING hot and cold clouds has nowhere to go but to our little town. Rain doesn´t start slowly, warning you to get prepared. NO. It comes down in BUCKETS. If you are caught outside without the necessary umbrella, OH WELL. I have a few pictures here but it can´t possibly do justice to the terror that enters my heart when the first BANG cracks over my head. It is quite impressive and I LOVE it. It is a reminder that I´m not as in charge of things as I think I am. That is good for me.

So as soon as our activity ended and I breathed that sigh of ¨whew, I made it¨, the rain and thunder arrived. I told the kids they could go out under the patio cover. I should have known they would all end up soaked. But they had fun. They were sliding all over the place. I think our next science lesson will be about why water molecules and tile mixed together become such a slick substance. When I asked the kids what their favorite part of the "actividad" was, they all answered, ¨sliding in the rain¨.
Dallin is actually sliding with rapid speed into poll on the left.

Troy and Dallin both showing off their different styles of "cool" in the pouring rain.
I took this of Paige and Aiden, sitting on my "nice" couch cushions on the muddy front porch in a storm. This was taken moments before their demise! We will miss them around here.


A funny story for my girlfriends
UPDATE: I had to write this post last night at an internet cafe. I was done before my honey so I decided to walk home. (I love walking) Anyway I had only been walking a few minutes when the "buckets of rain" started. I started speeding up my pace but being careful not to slip, see above paragraph. Suddenly I became aware that I was wearing a white shirt and missing an important part of the female clothing attire. Lovely!!! I had a white skirt on also. Boy did I look lovely by the time I got home. In fact after I made it past our guards (with my arms held in the most puiculiar position) I realized our front gate was locked. I couldn't get the kids to hear me because of the loud thunder so I had to scale the fortress in front of our house in this soaked condition. It was just lovely. I thought it was funny considering my above comments about the rain here. I guess I need to be more prepared. :)

This goes down as one of my top 10 most embarrasing moments. Right next to Dallin using my sweat pants to hold onto as he fell learning to inline skate. I just happened to be standing on a very busy street in Riverside talking to my girlfriend's husband. Yeah, that was fun too.

I'M COMING HOME!!!

That was not a typo!!!! I'm headed home as an "unaccompanied" adult!

I have a family event to attend. I get a whole week, all by myself!!! Oh, can I say that again? I get an entire week all by MYSELF! I'm even excited to sit in an airplane for 9 hours; did I mention all by myself?!?!?!

Living in our "cozy" quarters here, I'm looking forward to {non-echoing} space.

My second son said the strangest thing yesterday. "Mom, I kinda like living in a small house." I just smiled and thought, "How great for him." :)

This is what is on my "bucket list" for my short visit to the states:

1. Walk into a Target store, kiss the ground {don't think I'm exaggerating here} then spend the next 3 hours browsing through the glorious aisles of consumables.

2. I'm headed to In-In-Out to get a cheeseburger animal style, protein style. My mouth is watering now. Heck, maybe I'll live dangerously, forgo the protein style and eat the bun.

3. I'm going to try and spend time with some of my great friends. {I'm so lucky in this category}

4. I'm going to take a long bath every night. With bubbles.

5. I'm going to spend time with my family and smush my nieces and nephews!! {Thought I'd give fair warning}

6. I'm going to do my hair every morning and have it look good all day. No humidity, here I come!!!

7. One more food item I have to devour; a chocolate malt from Ruby's. This is my favorite treat!

8. I will go to church Sunday {3 hours only} and hear the gospel taught in English. I'm so excited about this! Especially for Relief Society {the women's meeting}.

9. Borders here I come. I'm ordering their scrumptiously yummy hot chocolate Then I'm going to sit and read and read and read as my feet tap away to the live band playing. I will do this until they throw me out.

10. I'm going to hit Old Navy, Gymboree and Gap. Whooo whooo. Honey, I'm warning you now. I need to get a six month supply of shoes, shirts, underwear, socks, our favorite toothpaste and such for 5 growing kids and 2 adults. So be prepared sweetheart. :)

I have to keep my smiling to a minimum, the kids want to come so bad!!!!


Opps! Jenny pointed out I forgot to mention "when" my plane touches ground. I shall arrive September 17th or 18th.

My "Little" Money Maker...

I have so much to post about. We had a primary activity at church, I finally got to my women's group meeting{awesome}, and I have been to a baby shower. Yahoo!!! My social calendar is filling up. Finally! :)


I decided to post about my little money makers. The boys {T and D} are trying to earn money for a wii. They have been working hard; even going as far as selling their beloved Game Cube.

I'm a business addict. Some of my favorite memories as a kid are:

1. While my sweet mother thought I was down for a nap, I would open my window and "rent" out my books to the neighborhood kids.

2. Opening a lemonade stand {with my brothers} on a busy highway while staying with our grandparents. We pulled in over $80.00 { a large fortune for a 9 year old}

3. Creating and selling a neighborhood newspaper

4. Selling baked goods to our neighborhood.
[Tip: don't sit with your brothers and eat half the merchandise}.


So Troy and Dallin have the financial bug like I acquired. Troy decided to sell cinnamon rolls to the neighborhood. Who am I to argue? I thought that I would be "helping" him make the rolls. Nope! He made sure I didn't do any of it.



Something I've learned here is that Costa Ricans love home baked goods. The only place they can get them here is the Farmer's Market. However the cookies are crunchy. They will pay for the luxury of a soft baked cookie. So, back to Troy. He made these oh so yummy rolls and sold them in our neighborhood in about 10 minutes. The most impressive part; he spoke Spanish as he went door to door.

I played the dutiful mom and acted like I wasn't nervous for them but I sure let out a sigh of relief as they bounded up our walkway with an empty tray and jingling pockets.


Before we started Troy added up the costs of his supplies. I loaned him the money to purchase them at 5% interest. (Me being the bank I need to make money) He put in the labor, deciding it was to early to hire anyone. Then when the rolls were sold he payed for his supplies, payed tithing, then put the rest away. Now he can purchase his own supplies and keep the 5% for himself. I love business!!!!

Tip for making great cinnamon rolls, turn up the heat to 400 degrees and cook a little less. This will give you the gooey on the inside flaky on the outside appeal. {Like Cinnabon} Also mix powered Hazelnut coffee creamer into the frosting. YUM!!!!

Landon watched patiently.

Can you guess who was their first sale sale???? ME. I couldn't resist.
You have to realize that this is our winter. It's hot and humid, but rainy. This is the most "winter like" it gets here. That's why were are making things like cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate.

If You Are Going to Eat Out...

check here first! You can find out what restaurants offer "kids eat free" programs. {And any other details involved} Just put in your state and city and your off!

I would be curious if a search in Utah {kid capital} would have a larger list of restaurants. Hummmmm?

I did Riverside, CA for those of you from my "home" area. :)

Carrows Restaurants
11120 Magnolia Avenue
Riverside, CA
(951) 354-6262
Monday and Tuesdays after 4pm
Nights: Mon & Tues


Fazoli's
3655 Riverside Plaza Drive
Riverside, CA
(951) 682-2448
On Tuesdays from 5 to 8pm (check your local Fazoli's for day and time), we reserve an area of our restaurant just for you! And kids eat for only .99
Nights: Tues


Jose's Mexican Food
3765 La Sierra Ave
Riverside, CA
(951) 359-8000
Wednesday's Kids Eat Free
Nights: Wed


Norm's
3889 Tyler St
Riverside, CA
Nights: Mon

Enjoy my money savvy friends!!! I wonder what the restaurants around here would think if I asked if kids eat free. :)

www.mykidseatfree.com