Have a great weekend!

First, before I forget. .. Erin H, I tried to respond to the comment you left, and I can't find your email address anywhere. I know I have the ACU friends list somewhere on the computer, but have no idea where!


Okay . . . .so I'm headed out in about 20 minutes to drop the kids and the van off at Andy's work .. . then I'm headed to the airport and out to see Terri! WHOOOOOHOOOOOO . . .we're headed to Joplin tomorrow for a scrapbook retreat. I can't wait! Heck, it's hard to pack for an airplane trip and something like this! I preplanned some things, but it's not all preplanned, and I know there are all sorts of embellishments I'll wish I had.

And I apologize in advance to Terri . . .who can't see Survivor at her regular viewing time because of my flight schedule! Sorry! I'll watch it with you.

Have a great weekend!

Pura Vida!

Pure Life. Definitely our trip to Costa Rica fits. We had a great time (well, we won't talk about Friday's migraine and subsequent throwing up . . .TWICE . . . in the car with Andy's boss, his wife, and the business rep we were with. Or the horrible, horrible, it still hurts a week later, sunburn I got last Monday).

After things finally got rolling, we went out on a sport catamaran and dolphin watched. There were tons of dolphins out. They'd swim right up next to our boat and stay with us. We learned there are birds that fly right around them . . .they work together to catch and eat fish. The birds, unless the accent was WAAAYYYYYYY off were "brown booby birds". tehehe Haven't verified that. We also snorkeled and watched the sunset while on the water. We were suprised at how quickly it sets. Not the slow setting of the Texas sun for sure! And while we were there, one of the other passengers (Edgar) proposed to his girlfriend. We were glad to be there to take pictures for them (see below). And we had an enjoyable tour guide who taught us things like Pura Vida and that Costa Ricas call each other Tic0 (male) or Tica (female).

We stayed at a Marriott resort. . .it was gorgeous! Think I linked it in an earlier post. The rooms were great, the people were great . . .we had a great time!

Sunday we went horseback riding. . .rode through the rainforest like areas, up on high hills, on the beach. Saw avocado trees (did you know there are green avocadoes and purpleish/red ones?), guava trees (Can't tell you how many times we pronounced things with the wrong sound at the beginning. They actually pronounce this Huava), and banana trees. Andy loved the riding on the beach because they let us run the horses. I'd forgotten how fast they go! Think I might've broken a finger in the process. . . tehehe, can you say accident prone? We also went on an aerial tram in the transitional rain forest on our way from Jaco to San Jose. Not so much going on at the transitional rain forest. . . I think we saw 3 butterflies, a toucan (I didn't see it waaayyyy up high in the tree, but another gal from our group did), 1 iguana, and snakes in cages. And a lot of trees. Panama Hat trees. . . .banana trees. . . I know a lot about the trees that are found in Costa Rica!



Monday . . .Andy had meetings, so I read some books. Sat outside with the boss's wife at the pool for about 1.5 hours. Note to self (and others). . . reapply sunscreen every 30 minutes when sitting out at the pool in San Jose! I have a horrible sunburn . . .so bad that a few days ago, I started turning purple (No fear, I checked with my sister the PA and she says as long as a leg doesn't fall off, I'm okay! {snort})

Tuesday we went to a waterfall and butterfly garden place. It was gorgeous. . as much as it hurt to walk, and how many stairs we had to climb! We also went to a coffee bean plantation. And a souvenir place where I'm pretty sure that our tour guide was getting kick backs from what we bought (not sure that isn't true of the coffee place too. Someone asked what his favorite coffee was . .. surprise, surprise it was a regional coffee that was produced at the plantation we went to! We didn't realize this until we tried to get 3 Generations coffee somewhere else!).

In between, we ate peruvian food, cuban food, a lot of fruit, and well . .. I ate a cheeseburger. I just needed a taste of home.

And Wednesday . .. we flew home .. .first class. Ahhhhhh . . .

It was amazing to me how Americanized it was. The mall . . . almost all of the stores were places you could find here in the states. The fast food places at the airport . . . burger king, subway, and about 10 other American fast food joints.

We had a running joke about the conversion rate. Their money is in Calones. It takes about 500 of them to equal $1. Can you imagine what our hotel bill looked like??? ROFL

We're Home!

We had a great time in Costa Rica. Will update more later. No photos as blogspot won't let me put any up! ARGH

Exhausted!

First . .. and update. The keys were found after approximately 3 hours of hunting and tearing the house apart. Where did I find them? The WASHER! I washed (well, Andy did) the darned things. Thank goodness all the door lock buttons still work!

Okay . .. it's spring break, and I'm exhausted! I can't even remember what we did yesterday! We went to see Shaggy Dog this weekend, ran errands for about 4 hours Sunday afternoon, and yesterday is a vague memory. I went to 24 Hr. Fitness, then we drove to a ton of places and shopped.

Today . . .we went here. Fantastic place. Kids love it .. . love seeing all the animals, love having them come up to our van. They spent a majority of the time laughing and making up backgrounds/stories for the animals. We saw a lot of little ones. There was a wreck (looked like a fender bender to me!) on the way up there on a 1-lane highway that stalled us for 35 minutes! EEK Then once we got there, we were one of what had to be a good 75ish or more cars in line to go through. Note to self: Never go during Spring Break again. To make matters worse, I think a National Geographic photographer was in front of me. Every animal . . .he'd stop, hands would come out of sliding rear windows in his van, and he would wait for the "perfect shot". Waiting as in MINUTES! And he'd stop in the middle of the road so you couldn't get by. ARGH I took my fair share of shots, but shot while the kids fed.

Tomorrow . . . .it's Planet Pizza day. It's $5 (as opposed to $10) admission day. Then we've got a soccer practice. I'm hoping for a workout and some time to rest!

Here are a couple animal pics:

Picture 1 . . .taken with a zoom . . .looks like he's posing, doesn't he? The second guy stuck his head in my window (see the door lock in the lower right hand corner?) and wouldn't move until I fed him. His accomplice did the same thing on the other side and scared Alaina terribly! The third picture . . .I love the Mama and Baby giraffe nuzzling. So cute! The 4th . . .this giraffe was standing ON the road and waited for each car to pass by so he could stick his head down and get some food. They tell you not to feed them from your hands . ..but those darned rams (or whatever they are) and this particular giraffe didn't know the rules!

The last picture . .. fuzzy . . .but shows a mama trying to steady her newborn and get him to walk. @@ National Geographic man sat there for a good 4 minutes. . .then apparently the Mama was getting "anxious" (how to the people sitting out there --workers-- know this?) and they forced us all to move on without stopping to watch this cute little pair. So this picture was taken while we were moving.

Has Anyone Seen My Keys???

For the 3rd time this week, my keys are not on my person! The first two times, it was a fairly easy fix. First time, I locked them in the van when I got out to go to Barnes and Noble. Called Andy and asked for a rescue. He said he'd get there "as soon as I can." I told him it was a good thing I'd done it at the mall! At least I had something to do! 8 books and 1 magazine, various CDs from Sam Goody (going out of business), and 1.5 hours later . . . .I was back in the van.

I was quite embarassed when I left them in the ignition again that afternoon with the van parked in the garage. Took me 10 minutes to think "could they be in the ignition again???" ROFL

This morning, got Alaina all ready for western day at school. Went to grab my keys. . .they weren't there. Not on the kitchen counter/bar where I usually put them, not on top of the dryer (another favorite spot), not in the pockets from yesterday's jeans, not in the couches, not in the purse, not in the ignition! SIGH . . .those things are LOST! I had them at the house last night. We did go out to dinner and I didn't drive, but not sure how I would've lost them there (I did call to see if they found any . . . NOPE). Possibly the trash can? Although I don't know how they would've ended up there and one of us not hear it happen! Unfortunately, the trashmen had already been around by the time I figured all this out!

So I called the neighbor, asked if she could take Alaina and I to Alaina's school. She asked for a couple minutes to get ready and then we could go. Well . . .she went out to her car to leave, and hers wouldn't start! ROFL .. . we're in bad shape now!

I did get my SIL to take us to the school, and thankfully, she's taking me back to pick up Alaina in a bit.

I, however, am still frantically searching the house for my little set of keys!

Last time I lost my keys, it was at the PO. I wasn't driving that day either. Stopped in to send out a package, got back in the car with my sister and moved on. I went back and looked there, and they said they hadn't gotten any keys turned in. A YEAR later, they called me. . . I had a club membership on my key ring. . .and lo and behold they found my keys!

Sure hoping it doesn't take a year this time!

How about that????

Two posts in as many days! Go figure.

Allie had her PTA program last night. We got there 45 minutes early . . . .we were still 1/2 way back and pretty much couldn't see! Apparently, you gotta show up about 2 hours in advance to get a spot where you can see! Irritated the heck out of me today when I found out one of said moms didn't send her dd to school yesterday because she was THROWING UP . . .yet brought her last night to the program. And the kid's still sick enough to not come back today??? Oh, I better step off that soapbox before I get all the way on! I sent Ian to go up front with the camcorder and get some video. Not sure how well a 9 yr. old can shoot video . . .haven't checked it out yet. Alaina and I went back today to actually be able to see the program and take some pics. Here are a couple of very cropped pictures of Allie. . .cropped all her friends out of them.



They did a sealife themed program. The first pic is her screaming in fright when the tiger shark "swims" out. The second is her "peace out" stance that they did at the end of one of their hip-hoppy sounding songs. These were the best photos I've gotten, lighting wise and no red-eye, in the 5 years I've been taking pics in that cafeteria!