Fin de ano

Last year for New Years Eve, Davie and I went to a fancy dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in Tulsa that I had been wanting to try. Needless to say, this year is going to be a little different. :) One thing I remember from last year is that at dinner Davie and I were talking about what we thought 2012 would bring. We knew we could be anywhere come 12/31/12 because we didn't know what might happen in the upcoming year. And we were right in that we're spending the end of 2012 in Nicaragua with his family, just one of the many options we thought might happen during the year. While we had hoped to be done with this by now, I'm just glad we're moving in the right direction!

Looking back on the year, there's been so many changes and ups and downs, although mostly ups. The lawyer helping us dropped out of the legal profession (down!), but we ended up with a new lawyer that wanted to go in a different direction and I think he is actually doing a better job (up!). If nothing else, we're making more progress in six months than we had made in two years with the other guy! I finally left public accounting and got a new job in industry that I think I'm going to like with less hours and better pay (two ups!). I got to meet the in-laws and the stepson and Davie got reunited with his family after 7 and a half years (more ups!).

All in all, it's been a very good year and I know 2013 will be even better as we continue to work through the legal process and, hopefully, finally, get it completed and behind us!!! (Until we start the next one regarding Eduardo's custody, but one thing at a time. Except not really since I'm going to try to meet with an international custody lawyer when I get home to figure out what the process is. I really want both finished at the same time so Eduardo can come home when Davie does! But we'll see what happens....maybe Maria will change her mind and be willing to work something out so we don't have to get lawyers involved!)

I hope everyone has a fun and safe end of 2012 and that 2013 brings us all wonderful and exciting things!!!

Saturday

It was hair cut day today. You would have thought we wanted to cut off an ear instead of hair the way Eduardo cried and carried on. :) Finally I suggested Davie cut his hair instead of taking him somewhere to do it and Eduardo liked that idea just fine. He's very handsome with his new haircut. Davie did a good job!!

Yes, that is a chicken in the kitchen. :)

I actually slept way better than I had expected last night and better than I have recently. Which was a relief. The sunburn is still painful, but at least I'm sleeping! And I don't think it's as bad as the one I got in May, so that's good. I actually think the tomato might have really helped, which is totally random and unexpected. I'll definitely take it though! We put another one on my back this afternoon after my daily shower since my back was still hurting a little. It felt better after.

We almost got Internet at Enma's house today, but the signal wasn't strong enough. They are going to try a different company and see if that works. One of Davie's nephews is helping us. It's very nice of him! I've been doing better about the upcoming separation but the excitement of thinking we had Internet and then the disappointment of finding out we didn't really was too much. (I want him to get Internet so we can video chat while we are apart.) It's so obnoxious to me that I'm being such a cry baby about this. I'll see him in three months for goodness sake! I think I'm mostly nervous about how the whole thing will turnout and the unknown aspect of it all and that part is eating me up. I told Davie that I think we'll be fine once we get past saying goodbye. And maybe that's the part that has me the most worked up - having to say goodbye. But I really do think we'll be okay once we get past the hard part of separating. I certainly don't plan on spending the next three months moping around and crying all the time! :) Just part of the time. :) It's especially obvious that I'm being a baby here, where I'm surrounded by people who aren't with their loved ones because their other half is in the US or Spain working to provide for their family. Like Davie said, at least he and I know when we'll see each other again! The rest of these families have no idea when their loved one will return. And they aren't here crying over how terrible their lives are! I really need to suck it up! :P Even my own parents currently don't live in the same state! I can totally do this. Now to convince my tear ducts! :) (Good thing two of my tear ducts got plugged so I only have two to worry about! Maybe the LASIK wasn't such a bad deal after all. :))

We think the Costa Rican embassy in Nicaragua was closed. I found an article from 2010 saying Costa Rica was closing it due to issues between the two countries. The number I had found for the embassy isn't working. If that's the case, I may be making a trip to Houston to pick up the police form! (The closest embassy in the US is in Houston.) From what I found online before we left, the form from Costa Rica had to be picked up in person. The person requesting the form could say that someone else was going to pick it up for them, but I don't think email / mail / fax was an option. It really would have been easier to get it in Managua, but we'll figure it out. I just like feeling like we are moving forward, even if we hit a few roadblocks along the way.

Eduardo's very dramatic! He was so upset that I won at UNO instead of him that he starting crying! Even though he had already won twice. It was too funny. I had to take a picture of him draped over the bed, so upset.

And finally, a picture of the three of us!!

Sunday

I can't believe how quickly the time is going. Although part of me feels like I've already been here forever! That part of me is definitely ready to get back to the States where I have real showers and toilets and sinks, regular food, English, my friends and family and pets, my bed! and car and Internet. I will miss things from here though too. The people, of course, and how stress-free I am here. I think I've done a good job of not worrying about what our plan is or things back home or work or bills or money, other than my little freak out yesterday. That's been nice, for sure.

Friday or Saturday, I'm not sure which, the days all blur together!, I caught a little baby lizard that was running around the porch railing. It reminded me of the ones we used to get at the Lewisville house. You would have thought I had grown a second head the way everyone looked at me. I guess they don't normally catch the wildlife here. Maybe if it's always around, it's not as interesting. I had Eduardo hold it for a little while then let it go again. I was glad I did something outdoorsy that they don't do to show that I'm not that much of a city girl! :)

Davie's finally gotten his iPhone set up to work here and got a Nicaraguan number. I don't think we're going to be able to get Internet to work at his mom's house, which is a bummer, but we'll figure something else out. Supposedly there's an English class that Davie could take in Jalapa and then he would be going to the city everyday and he could use Internet there. Which would be faster than anything we could get at his mom's house anyway. Except that means that he wants to get a motorcycle to drive to Jalapa everyday and I am not excited about that at all!!! The roads near the MIL's house are bad and driving here is so aggressive I worry about him on a motorcycle here. I would much prefer he get a truck, but he doesn't want to spend the extra money or incur the extra gas expense and there's really no place to put it at the house. But still. Of course I haven't been looking forward to him driving at all, no matter what vehicle he was driving, so I know I really just need to get over it. He's a grown man and he needs to drive. If he had driven when we met, I never would have thought about it. I'm sure he'll be fine. I just have to have something to worry about. :)

It's been another day of lots of rain. Which is yucky. Yesterday I basically read all day, which was really nice, but not very social of me. :) So today I've tried to do more. There was more UNO, that game has turned out to be a life saver, for sure, and Eduardo and I watched Ratatoullie while Davie and Enma took a nap. The electricity only was out for a little while this morning this time. Eduardo continued to be dramatic about losing. At first Davie and I wanted to help Eduardo win by giving him fewer cards or not playing cards we knew would hurt his game, but that didn't last long. He's able to win without our help and he needs to become a better loser! :) No one will want to play with him if he cries every time he loses.

The girl in the picture is Ingrid, one of Davie's many cousins. She's really nice and she led the games on Christmas Eve for the town. Eduardo has discovered taking pictures so I let him use my phone to take some (because I dropped it yesterday and cracked the screen - ugh - so he couldn't really hurt it too much more :)) and he took the picture of Ingrid. He tends to take pictures of inanimate objects, but the ones he does get of people are normally decent!

Before bed Davie, Eduardo and I took turns playing the PSVida that I bought for Davie before we left Tulsa. It really is a neat little thing. Eduardo is already super good at it. And it's fun doing stuff as a family! :)

Food and other things

Davie had me convinced before we got here that people here eat rice and beans three meals a day with an egg thrown in for breakfast and maybe some meat for lunch or dinner....maybe. An ex-coworker of mine who lived in Argentina and Egypt for a while made the comment that most people in the world eat rice and beans three meals a day. That really stuck with me considering how much we take variety for granted in the US. However, I've learned they eat more than just rice and beans here, and Davie's mom gives me a hard time for just wanting rice and beans every meal!

Every morning Enma gets fresh milk (from somewhere, I'm not sure who has the cow - I'm not up that early!) and makes a cheese called coajuada. I'm not really sure how that works either, even though they showed me. You take a bowl of milk and then put in a pill - that's the part that confuses me, where does the pill come from? How does the pill work? Who came up with the pill? - and 20 or so minutes later, you go back and drag the bottom of the bowl for the cheese. The pill magically makes the cheese out of the milk. They squeeze out the water, add some salt, roll the coajuada into ovals and viola! Cheese.

They eat that throughout the day with pretty much everything it seems and Enma sells it to people too.

Every morning she also makes a big pot of rice and another of beans. They sit on the stove all day and people heat them up as they want. So there is rice and beans every day, but other things too.

It's actually kind of hard to tell what people eat every day because there aren't really set mealtimes. We don't all sit down at lunch or dinner and eat. People eat when they want and people are always coming and going, so it almost feels like there's always someone eating! I think partly people don't sit down to eat together because there's not a table. People eat outside on the porch railing or outside in plastic chairs. I think there's no table because there really isn't room for a table. Well, I say that, but there is a table, it's just used for other things. After a pig or chicken is killed, it's drug outside and used to cut up the meat. We also used it to cut up the veggies for tamales. (I'm sure it was cleaned thoroughly after the meat before we used it for veggies. :P) At other times, it's in the living room with a table cloth on it, but I'm not sure what they do with it. We've just been using it for storage or to put together the Legos. I do think another reason that people don't eat around the table at lunch is because there's no air conditioning and it gets hot outside!

Anyway. In addition to rice and beans, Enma has made nacatamales and a chicken stuffed with veggies and other things. She's also made pork in various forms. It seems like people mostly eat those things and the rice and beans are just secondary. I'm still having an issue eating meat here though, so I mostly stick to rice and beans. I'll eat meat if Davie makes sure it's free of bones, gristle, etc first. :) I'm trying, it's just hard for me to get over seeing the meat alive first! Today (Saturday) she made tacos, which are basically taquitos. She made them for me because Davie asked her to, which was nice of her. Davie got me some from one of his relatives a few days ago and I really liked them. They are pretty greasy, but yummy!

Last night Davie and Eduardo were playing with some firecrackers. They were so loud!!! I don't really like them. They are too loud!!! I wish I could post video from my phone. I took a couple videos and you can hear me screaming in the background each time one goes off. Every time! Even though I knew they were coming. I'm such a girl! (Although its good I'm not really a girly-girl. I would really be struggling here if I was.)

We bought bubbles like Grady has in Jalapa yesterday. Randy, Davie's brother's, Asael, son, had never seen bubbles and was so entranced. It was heart warming to watch him play with them. His face just lit up!

I'll never learn :)

My vacation is now complete.....I've gotten a sunburn. It never fails! You would really think I would have learned after 31 years of sunburns to wear sunblock, but it's obviously not happened yet. :P I just didn't even think about it! Granted, I would say there are a lot of other things on my mind that would keep me from thinking about sunblock, but still. I should totally know better.

The first thing I thought when I realized how much I was burnt: Now I'm really not going to be able to sleep! Sunburns are sooooo uncomfortable. :P And I'm burnt on all sides. There's nowhere to lay that's not crispy. Chest, arms, back all covered in the areas that were exposed. Ugh!

I'm calling foul on the weather I checked before we came here. It showed 70's to low 80's during the day and 50's to 60's at night. I would not be surprised to learn that it's been 90's some days and the nights certainly don't seem to be in the 50's! There have been two nights where I was cold, but most nights Davie and I are using a fan! And the days are HOT. Managua was really hot, which was to be expected, but it should be cooler here. I can't even imagine what it will be like in July and August if it's this hot now!

Today was super sunny and I ended up in the sun on the ride to Jalapa, while walking around the city for two hours or so running errands and again on the way back. Way more sun than my pasty white skin is used to! I told Davie that now all the people here who think my white skin is so pretty will see that it's really not that great!!

Davie's mom said to put a tomato on the burn so that's what we did. I do think its taken some of the heat out. It was funny being covered in tomato though! And then I got to take a cold shower to wash it all off. Which also probably helped take out some heat.

At least the good thing about my many burns over the years - I know they don't last forever and in a few days it won't sting anymore. :) Just got to make it to then!

To Jalapa we go, part 2

We're off to Jalapa again today to run the errands we didn't get to do the last trip since we had so many people with us. Hopefully there won't be as many of us this time and the trip will be less adventurous. :)

I'm still not sleeping well here. I'm not sure what the deal is. I figure when I get tired enough, my body will sleep. Until then, the nights are long!

It was a much easier drive into Jalapa this time. Now if only the truck would finish getting fixed so we can head home!!

It's funny the little things that make me feel more comfortable here. The first few days I was drinking warm milk. Which was fine, but not nearly as good as cold milk. Davie asked his mom to put it in the fridge for me and the next day drinking that cold milk was the best thing I had had since I got here!!! Today it was using a real bathroom for the first time since last Saturday. Although that's probably not really such a "little" thing. :) It was so nice to have a sink with running water too. I think the first thing I want to do when Davie and I get back to Managua is take a really long shower....hopefully with warm water!!! (The hotel we were at the first night said they had hot water but really didn't. It's a good thing Davie had gotten me into taking colder showers before we got here!) Bathing out of a bucket gets you clean, but it's not enough to get your fingers pruney like I like. :) I'm the queen of 30 minute showers. It's definitely been a change to have a bucket of cold water to use and that's it. I still think I take a long time to bathe though. :)

We're getting ready to head back to the MIL's house. It's been a long day already. I'm ready to get back! The schedule here definitely seems to follow the sun - people get up when it rises and slow down when it sets. I'm pretty much ready for bed when the sun goes down, but sleeping at 6:30 at night seems a little early. :)

I hope everyone is doing well!! I miss everyone back home!!

Rain, rain go away!!!

It's raining here today. Which is actually kind of nice. After yesterday, a lazy day is needed!!

It's still really shocking to see people in the clothes we brought. A lady came by this morning to get eggs and she was wearing a shirt we had brought. It almost seems like everyone in the village got something!

It also cracks me up how alike Davie and Eduardo are, despite the fact that they haven't been together for almost all of Eduardo's life. They both are mischievous and like to tell tale tells even when they know you know the truth. For example, Eduardo tried to play off wetting the bed last night by saying it was sweat because it was hot. I'm not sure how a 5 year old comes up with something like that, but it cracks me up!

The electricity went out this morning, not sure why. Not that they really use that much electricity during the day, but it's amazing how it is still a major loss when it's gone. Thankfully they have a gas stove, so we can still cook, and it's not like the shower would have been warm anyway. :)

I brought a box of velveeta mac & cheese with me and made it today. Two days ago I made oatmeal. No one wanted to try either. It bugs me a little that I'm being so open to trying their food and I don't turn up my nose at what they offer me but they aren't willing to try what I offer them. But at least it's more for me! :)

Mom, remember that bag of chips that Davie liked so much with sweet potatoes, yuca and something with purple spots and swirls? Davie made a homemade bag today without the sweet potatoes. We put ketchup on them and they were awesome! I need to take a picture of the purple spotted/swirled vegetable. It's funky looking! Like a big fat root. But tastes yummy. :)

My favorite part of the day now is at night before Eduardo goes to bed. We play a couple of rounds of UNO (thanks Mom and Dad for the game - it's been a big hit!), read some books, and play around awhile. Last night I taught him airplane or helicopter or whatever you call it and he thought that was hilarious!!! I'm about halfway through my trip now and I have no idea how I'm going to be strong enough to leave my boys in a week!! At least I know I'll be coming back in March!