Moving

As we begin our last week of school, and the suitcases are piling up in the living room, I get more excited about Peru. (We head out on Dec 30.) At the same time I am not wanting to leave Costa Rica. I knew I liked it, since I was here years ago, but now it has become our home. We have already lived here longer than any other place since we have been married. This is where our son was born, and where we've learned to be a family. But Peru is where my heart lives. Since the first time I was there I knew I had to return.
Lima is in the desert, and it rains here in CR about 50% of the time. So I will miss the rain. I will miss the friends we have made here, our neighbours, and Micaiah's playmate upstairs. I will miss the food: the rice and black beans, arroz con pollo, and abundant pineapple. But we are excited about having a house, more space, and the opportunity to pick out home furnishings and actually settle down.
So we are excited about wrapping up our studies, settling in to our new (and hopefully final) home, and getting nestled into our minisry. But we are sad to leave, not knowing when we will return. But at least we get to spend a week at the coast first, but more about that in my next post.

Let it Snow

I miss snow. I love snow! The first day of snow is like a holiday to me. I turn into an eight year old in snow. I love to make snow men and angels, have snow ball fights, build forts, and just jump around and get wet in the snow. I love the way an untrampled field of snow glistens like a million tiny diamonds. But, sadly, it will be a long time until I see snow again. I know, none of you have any sympathy for me, living here in the land of perenial sun. But seasons really are a blessed thing. Believe it or not, sun does get boring after 365 days. Anyway, as all of you trudge around in the cold and snow, just remember I wish I could trudge around for you. Enjoy your tiny crystals of fun for me!

Baby On Board

Surprise! We are expecting Baby #2 on July 9th, 2007. We just had our first doc appointment last night, and all is well. Since we are moving to Peru at the end of the month, this baby will be born there. Then our family will consist of a Canadian, an American, a Costa Rican, and a Peruvian (alhtough the kids get tri-citizenship). I thought I was maybe having twins because I've had considerably more sickness with this one than with Micaiah, (although still not much compared to many women) but the doc confirmed only one baby (yeah!). I might have one more appointment with the doc before we move, but then it's off to find one in Peru. That's it, that's all we know for now. We'll keep ya'll updated of course. (By the way, the baby is that frog looking thing at the top of the black jelly bean shaped hole.)

Miles Disculpas (a thousand apologies)

I know, I know. It's been way too long since I did my last post. I think perhaps not much interesting has happened. We are still plugging away at school; less than three weeks left. Then we head to the coast for a week with my family to enjoy Christmas. We had a good Thanksgiving. There were about 20 people, gringo-tico mix, and it was enjoyable chaos. We started quite late, it was quite noisy, but the food was good. We had most of the N. Amer. favorites: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, veggies, but no dressing (stuffing). That's alright with me, though, since I'm not a fan anyway. Ell and I had a date last night - much needed and fun. We found this great Cuban restaurant. And that's about it. I'll update again soon. Hopefully the next one will have more interesting info.

Portrait of a Cutie

Mama's little helper!

Sleep Dilemma

Hey Moms, I need your help.
Micaiah is 7 1/2 months old now. He has been sleeping 12 hours straight through the night for several months. He normally goes to bed around 6:30 and gets up at 6:30am so I can nurse him before I go to school. He takes two 1 1/2 hour naps in the day, for a total of about 15 hours sleep. Lateley he has been waking up about 5 or 5:30am. He is very sensitive to sound, so we took steps to make his room more quiet, but it didn't really help. I tried putting him to bed a little later, but that didn't help. I tried putting him to bed a little earlier, but that didn't help. I know when he wakes up that early he's not well rested, because he wakes up crying, whereas normally he wakes up very happy and cooing. Have any of you had this problem? What worked for you? Any suggestions?

Our Not-Growing Family

Well, we almost added another member to our family last night. We have been waiting to get to Peru to get a dog, but yesterday Elliott got tired of waiting. He went to a few places, looked at some puppies and fell in love with a female boxer. He even picked out a name for her. He came home and brought me to the store hoping I would fall in love with her, too. I did (she licked my face and nibbled my ear-how could I resist?), but after careful thought we realized we really should wait until Peru. Micaiah even liked her. He squealed and slapped her paws (we'll have to work on that) and laughed. But in the end, we came home with no new family members. But hopefully in about three months you all can read about the new puppy we will have in Peru.

The New Me

Finally cut my hair on Monday. I've been contemplating it for a while. I was tired of spending time every morning making my long hair look pretty. Besides, I almost always end up pulling it back in a pony tail to do something with Micaiah, work on homework, or do housework. So what's the point? Anyway, I thought I'd let you all see the new (quicker-to-get-ready-in-the-morning) me. I'm not sure how good the pics are, but at least you get the idea.

What Rapture

I must say there is no feeling like the sheer joy my little boy brings to me. Don't get me wrong, there are trying days, but nothing compares to the utter rapture of when he cuddles into me upon waking from a nap, or when Mommy's hug can make a boo boo all better. The smell of his head right after a bath is like a little whiff of heaven. There is absolutely no comparision to his cute smile and his addictive laugh. Now that I am a Mommy, I am perpetually exhausted, various parts of my body ache from carrying around a little bundle all day, and I'm constantly wiping spit-up, but it is all worth it!

Techno-frustrated

After a grueling battle that has frustrated several years of my life, I have come to the conclusion that technology really does hate me. I have said it for a long time, but now I know it's really true. I took a computer class in high school, then again in college; I was a computer lab monitor for two and a half years at Bethany; I have a computer genius for a husband; but all this has left me no more techno savy than when I first learned to type on the almighty Apple IIe. I can push the same button, open the same file, click the same link as everyone else, but computers refuse to cooperate with me. I am positive now that I am like Midus with his golden touch, except that mine sours all things technological.

Daddy Props

I just have to give props to my husband. He is the world's most amazing Daddy. Micaiah has been having a hard time tonight and Ell is so incredible with him. He has been trying so hard to play with him, cuddle him, sing to him, read books to him, and whatever will make Micaiah happy. I fall more in love with my husband every time I see him lavish love on our son. Thank you Lord for the blessing that is my family.

Net Church and Bath Tubs

Yesterday Ell and I went to church in Tulsa, OK. That's right. Actually we attended a live internet church. It was very cool. The worship band was amazing, and the sermon was excellent. It was part of a series on the characteristics of a disciple. The church is www.Lifechurch.tv. They are bassed out of Tulsa, and have sattelite campuses all over, including the internet campus. The service was broadcast from the main Tulsa church, but at the begining and end of the service, the internet pastor came on an spoke specifially that audience. You could even participate in responsive readings by clicking on the appropriate phrase, and at the end, you could raise your hand in response to the "altar call" by clicking "raise your hand". A little corny, but 13 people responded that way! Praise the Lord! Afterward you could chat with the in the church "lobby" and even fill out a communication card. You can even belong to an online cell group. I can't wait for next week's sermon. (Disclaimer: I do not believe that online church should be a replacement for physically getting together to worship with the Body of Christ.)

Last night was exciting as Micaiah decided he wanted to stand. He was happily playing in the bath tub, one of his favorite places, when he grabbed a hold of the sides of the tub and started to pull up to a stand. But since the sides of the tub are a little low, he needed to use an arm or something higher to get enough leverage. Now he loves to practice pulling up, and gets all smiley and proud of himself when he does. It's so cute, he looks around for recognition. He has loved to stand for months now, but could not pull up by himself. But now he can. That put together with crawling mean that baby proofing days are near!

International House of Pancakes

I absolutely love pancakes! I can eat them for any meal of the day, or at any time for that matter. I don't like to just eat plain, white flour pancakes. I usually use whole wheat flour, but I like to mix it up. These are some of my favorite pancakes:

* Cinnamon Spice: cinnamon and nutmeg, and sometimes vanilla and cloves, too
* Almond Spice: almond and vanilla extracts with a touch of nutmeg
* Apple: plain pancakes topped with baked cinnamon apples
* Oat flour: a mix of oat and other flours, not as heavy as you would think, and so healthy
* Blueberry topped: self explanitory
* Butter Pecan: a southern delight
* Mora: mulberry (mora in spanish) infused batter makes this tan sabroso and provides a serving of fruit
* And sometimes you just gotta have normal, maple syrup topped pancakes

I am always looking for a healthy, yet tasty topping alternative to maple syrup. Got any ideas?
What are your favorite pancakes?

School Daze and Baby Craze

Today was our first day back in classes after a two week break. Elliott has a full schedule, while I am only taking one class: translation. Our teacher seems to be the right blend of serious and funny. She did say she is very punctual, which will present a slight struggle for me. My previous teachers have not been, so I could count on a 5-10 min grace period after the "official" start time. I guess I'll have to learn to be a little more gringa this trimester.
On the homefront, Micaiah daily amazes me. He is becoming more proficient at stringing syllables together, so he spends the better part of the day babbling. Sometimes he yells and sometimes he whispers, but he pretty much always "talks". He crawled about an inch today. Generally he combines scooting, rolling, pivoting, and flipping to move around, but today he almost crawled. He can sit up for short bursts of time, and can stand the same amount of time while holding on to the couch. He is so active! Once he can really crawl and walk, we will be in for one crazy ride!

Hello New World

This is my foray into the new world of blogging: a mystical land that awaits my discovery. I must admit I am not very good at keeping up-to-date with technology, or at anything that requires a daily committment (diaries, vitamins, etc.), but we will see how this goes. Like many others, I started this blog so I could comment on others, and I decided I should give it a try. I love reading other people's blogs, so hopefully mine can live up to the standard.
Happy Reading!