Dolphin Day.

We have learned how to live 'spur of the moment' very well while on this journey. We leave a town with almost no notice, and decide where to go within hours or at most a day ahead, dinner and lunch are decided when we are hungry or as we pass a restaurant. So last night after dinner, I decided to book a Dolphin tour for the 4 of us. It made the boys very excited, and kind of helped them get to sleep faster. The best time of day to see any 'action' is early, so I booked an 8 am pick up hoping that wasn't too late. By 9 am we were finally off (this was the first time we've experienced Tico time, most everything else has been early for us regarding timing). The waves were fair, and the boys were enjoying the bumps, 'Hot Wheels, Beat That' they sang. Maybe 1 km out, things changed. I won't go into detail, but siffiacate to say, us 4 Lukie's do not travel well. The boys finally settled down a bit, but when they get sick I find myself getting very anxious, I hate it so much! Anyways, by the time we were far far out to sea, the boys were sleeping. And then their they were. DOLPHINS! 20, 30 probably more. Oscar opened his eyes and started yelling and jumping and smiling. But my poor little Callym just didn't want to get up. He wouldn't open his eyes, and just cuddled in more. It's hard to take pictures in a moving boat while you are holding on to a sleeping child, but we did our best.





We also saw a few turtles floating around. Very cool.



Oscar had so much fun, and it mostly made up for the fact that Callym missed the entire thing. The tour guide and the other couple (from Holland and on their Honey-Moon ) thought it would be fine to start back. I felt badly, we came to see Dolphins, but as the boys were still not too well we headed back. Almost to the shore, and Callym finally stirs...... ' Mom, where are the Dolphins'? Oh dear, I was just hoping that the pictures turned out so that he could at least see them that way. I've promised the boys ice-cream for lunch after what they went through, and I think we're going to hunt down some Gravol, just in case for any other moving around we end up doing.

Our day 2day....

7 am. Wake Up. Slowly get dressed. Brush our teeth. Head out the door.

7:30. Get to the hotel restaurant. Order a Tico Breakfast (eggs, rice, toast, slice of Tomato, O.J.) and 3 cups of coffee.

8:15. Get back to the hotel. Change into our swimsuits. Slather on Sunscreen. Head to the beach.

8:25 - 10:30. Play on the sand. Play in the sand. Sun tan (just me). Jump in the Ocean. Swim in the Ocean. Play with trucks. Make sand suits for ourselves (just the boys).

10:30. Wash off at the pool shower.

10:35. Jump in the pool. Play. Watch Oscar learn how to swim. Help Callym try to learn how to swim. Swim. Splash. Play.

11:30. Grab a drink at the bar. Refreshing.

11:40. Jump back in the pool. Play some more.

12:55. Get out of the pool. Dry off. Go to the room and shower again. Dress. Head into town for lunch.

1:55. Get into town. Find a restaurant. Order.

2:20. Get our Fanta's and Beer. Drink. Get our pasta, and seafood pizza. Eat.

2:40. Watch the beautiful sun shower.

3 pm. Order Banana split for dessert.

3:25. Go to internet place and check emails.

4:20. Finish with internet. Walk along the beach back to the hotel.

4:35. Get to the hotel. Order a Fanta and Water.

4:45. Sit. Relax. Listen to the waves. Write a little.

5:25. Go out to the beach and catch the last of the sun set. Sorry, I forgot the camera. Tomorrow maybe.

5:40. Finish getting ready and head into town for dinner.

6pm. Get into town and Skype the Family for a wonderful chat.

6:30. Say good-bye and go to dinner.

By the way.....

Just for any family that is wondering. Internet here is all the way in town. Poor us, we will have to walk the 10 minutes down and across a beautiful beach. But what I mean is that we can't just open the lap-top and chat on skype. If you can all be a little patient, we should have 24 hour internet when we get back to Heredia and we will be there for a few days. I'm not certain if we will get a hotel with internet before then, but we should be in Heredia the last week of November. Yes, I know it's a little ways away, but we will be checking emails at least once every 3 days. Honestly, it's quite nice to not have to run to a ringing phone, or have something turned on all the time that you need to monitor. We do miss you all so much. And sometimes it feels as though we've been here for months, but unbelievably, it's only been 2 weeks. Pura Vida, we'll talk with you soon.

Just a quick note....

I feel so alive. Spending all this time with 'my boys', the beautiful sun, sand and the salty ocean. But it's the Ocean that has surprised me the most. Of course the boys are fantastic, and it's definatly the greatest to be with Chris all the time. But this is about the ocean. The ocean has never really done much for me, but cool me off when on vacation and sitting in the sun too long. But here it is completly different. Here jumping and swimming in the ocean awakens something inside me that I didn't know existed. I want to dive into the upcoming waves. I want them to take me further away. I just want to drift on them and stare out into the clear blue sky. I now crave the salty taste, the sound of the crashing waves, the smells of the sea. I am alive. In a way, that I didn't even know I wasn't.

today

11 am, Saturday afternoon. Chris is calling the bank in Toronto to ask them to help us out a bit. Because his debit card was eaten by a machine and then lost, they have frozen his account for security purposes. That's all nice and good, but my name isn't on the account, so we can't get any of it. Anyways, a long long story made shorter, Chris is calling the bank on a Saturday, hoping not only that someone is there, but that they can help us out. 1800 numbers do not work from Costa Rica, and all we have is a 204 number and it's for a credit card with our bank, not the actual bank. But they transfered us fine. After going through numerous security questions and finally being transfered to someone who has the authority to help us, we were cut off. So Chris calls the credit card number again, is transfered, goes through the security questions again, and is on his way. He explains our situation, and just as the supervisor says he'll help us figure it out, we're cut off again! So back to calling the credit card number. This time the girl who answer's doesn't know how to transfer the call. We'll have to wait a minute please. Chris hang's up and tries again. At this point the boys are getting restless and I want to get into town to buy a swim suit. It's hot, and all of our dirty clothes are at the laundry mat. This includes all of my swimming gear. So I'm off with Oscar, walking down the beach in the sweltering heat in the middle of the afer-noon. DUMB TOURIST. I'm hungry, and Oscar wants me to carry him. Ok. We get into town and I'm still hot, hungry and sweating (nice image eh?) There is only one place in town that has suits, and they are not made for Melnychuk's tops. Humm. Well, I decide to take a taxi back so that we can go and have lunch. Done. When we come back the boys are in the pool and I'm feeling like I should have just boughten a suit for now, our laundry will be done tomorrow at 4pm, and that's a long time to not be able to swim (especially in this heat!). So, I call the taxi back and ask him to take me back to the store, wait for me and bring me to the hotel. Great. I run in and buy the suit, a little small, but we're in Costa Rica, it's all good. I get back to the hotel pay the driver and run to the pool. It's sunny out so I go to grab my sunglasses (already my 2nd pair, I left the first one's in Heredia the day we left - 3rd day of our trip) But where are they? Ahh, I either left them in the taxi, or in the store. So I get reception to call, yes there are in the taxi, for 2$ he'll be here in about 15 minutes to drop them off. Man, what does he think of me, this white dumb north american........ Ah well. It's lunch now. Maybe I'll get a different driver for my mishaps tomorrow. BTW, Chris got things figured out with the bank, so Mom and Isabel if you're worried, please don't be. All of Love, The Lukies! ps- I am not getting any skinnier... I order for me and eat what's left on three other plates. Pura Vida.

To Samara!

So we are going to check out a few other towns. We need to know what else is out there, who knows, we may be back here or we may fall in love again!
So, at 9 am this morning (Friday - just in case it takes me a day or 2 to get this on!) our driver came to pick up the four of us and all our luggage (btw - we got rid of the broken suitcase, and more than 6 pairs of sweat-pants! that I had packed for the boys). So we are off to Samara. It is a small little fishing town just on the west side of the peninsula, about half way from Montezuma to Tamarindo. The direct road is only good 2 months out of the year and right now it is not open, we need to go around through Paquera and north then west that way. The trip will take between 3 and 5 hours, again depending on how the roads are.

So, again. 9am pickup. I was so excited for this trip to start, a new town, new people, new everything, and then it was 9:35. We had just passed the town of Paquera. Oscar was trying to sleep on my lap. Callym says his stomach hurts. 9:37, Callym says his mouth hurts. As I look at him, I see it. The water is starting to pour out of his mouth. ALTO! ALTO, Chris (who's in the front seat), please help Chris, stop, Callym is throwing up! What do you do when you have one child on your lap, and the other is doing his best to keep all the vomit in your small hands, cupped so that it doesn't mess up the car. I'm not sure if it was the smell, or the sound, or just because it had hit him too, but Oscar started now too. Remember, he's still 'sleeping' in my lap. Warm legs. Yuck. Finally, our driver pulled over. It's not that it took him so long to pull over, but everything else happened so quickly. Was it the Orange juice for break fast? The scrambled eggs and cheese? So we get out of the car, and strip the boys naked, (I need new pants too!) it's a good thing we had 3 bottles of water because we needed to wash all of our legs, arms, hands, face, and inside Oscar's shoes!

Ah, so it's now 10am, the car is as clean as we could manage, but we still have a 2 to 4 hours drive. In this stink, I'm not sure if we can do it. The boys want Chris to sit with them, so he does his best to hold them both over the huge bumps, and the quick swerving that our driver is doing. It stinks! I'm in the front. I feel that there isn't much I can do to help, so I start singing a little mantra like song in my head. Over and over. (to the tune of 'we are family') - We are healthy, all my Mr. Lukie's and me. we are happy, all my Mr. Lukie's and me.

It's now 11:30, I'm still singing my little mantra song. Chris is in the back, holding the boys as they sleep half on him, half hanging off the seats. But suddenly it's happeneing again. Callym again this time, no wait, Oscar too. We pull over and change everyone's clothes again. Wash ourselves, and get back in the car. Callym is asking us, 'please, can we walk the rest of the way'? Oh, my poor little babies. Every mother will know this feeling, and many fathers too. You feel helpless, and desperate, and guilty, and so stressed when your kids are sick. But we keep going. By now our driver says we only have about an hour left. Thank God! He is a very nice guy considering that we totally ruined the back seat of his 4X4. But he is driving very fast (can you blame him? the car stinks so bad). and instead of slowing down for the potholes and such, he swerves really fast, stops quickly and more. It would be a really cool drive for adventure seekers, or for the boys (for about 25 minutes).

After a few quick emergency stops, that ended up being false alarms, we are here. I haven't made a reservation anywhere, but being the slow season, I didn't think it would be a big deal. I was right. We made it to the hotel, and unpacked. Now we had a huge bag of smelly laundry to get done, and have some lunch. We are here. We are all fine. And we will have more to talk about tomorrow. The one thing we do know right now? We are not under any circumstances going back to Montezuma. At least not that way. Was this Montezuma's revenge on us for leaving such a beautiful paradise? I'm not sure.

Where are all the Monkeys???

After a nice dip and play in the Ocean, you really need to clean off. The salt sticks to you, and you feel sticky and dry all at the same time. With the heat and the humidity here, it's not a comfortable combination. Chris was off to do some international calls, and the boys were in bed having a siesta. I was going to wash up. No wait, I had also just bought Chris a treat snack of some 4$ Doritos. Yes, he hadn't opened them yet, but said he would when he got back from the phone calls. O.K., so I jumped in the shower. Then I thought I heard something. Kids talking? Where those boys up already? Checked but no, it wasn't them. I'm now drying off, and I hear it again. I look but it's still not them. As I'm drying my hair, I hear the wind blow over Chris' bag of Doritos (they are out on the balcony). All done, I'm ready to wait on the chair for Chris to come back. I'm walking towards the door, and "NO (insert foul word) WAY"! I see the sweet curl of a monkey's tail as he hops onto the balcony arm rail and into a tree. I'm running for the camera, and trying not to wake the boys up with my thundering steps. But alas, I was too slow. He was gone and across the street before I could take any kind of shot with the camera. As I come out side with the most dissapointed look on my face, I notice the Doritos. The bag is ripped into two, and there is a trail of chips all around the chairs and table. How long was he here. I'm thinking now that I could have probubly gotten some really good shots of him if I had just come out earlier. Oh well, Chris ended up throwing away the chips, and his left over beer, never know if they had some to wash down those expensive treats!

(I think) Part 2

Well today was an absolute blast! After breakfast we walked 10 minutes west and found a pretty good 'beach' area. The waves weren't too big, and there was an actual beach for the boys to make sand-castles and play. We were only there for around 2 hours, but it was so much fun. Take a look at the pictures here.


Christina picked us up for lunch and we chatted about what we are really looking for. She took us to 3 wonderful restaurants in town that are for sale under the 20000 price range. This price includes everything inside, as well, we would try to keep the cook and other's on to help. One was a pizzeria that is open right now and would only need a little work. Some paint, a new and working washroom, and an organic menu that I would have fun doing. One was an Argentinian BBQ place that is quite new and not open right now because of the low season. The last was a cute and popular place that also has some rooms to rent upstairs. I think it is a little out of our range, but something to think about. We're actually going there for dinner, so it will be a good chance to check it out.

She also showed us around a small little town called Delisias. Very cute, with about 20 homes, 1 grocery store and 2 restaurants. One of the restaurants was for sale, but it included a home and some more land - so it was out of our price range. She did show us an amazing plot.
Teak trees, howler monkeys, beautiful exotic flowers growing everywhere. But no home on it. We would need to build it. But that isn't so bad. The cost of a nice home would be between 10 and 20 thousand, and the land was going for about 20 to 30 thousand for a 1/4 acre.

All in all it was a great day. The town of Delisias is very small, but there isn't much land here in Montezuma. Actually, most of the people who work here and own business' live there. Interesting. We are considering this, but really feel like we need to not only see more of Costa Rica, but also look at at least Belize, if not a few other countries as well.

So, after a little looking, we headed off to the beach again.
So nice to finally feel the water on us. The boys really surprised us with how well they were in the water, and how much they loved it! Fearless those little boys are. It's almost the full moon and the tide is very VERY strong here. I almost got pulled out a few times, but the boys.... they would just run in head first! Have to be quick with those two! We are teaching them quick about this danger!

On the way home to clean up and go for dinner and local pulled us over and asked if we wanted to see his Monkeys? Ummm.... Turns out there was a family of 5 in his tree. We stood there in awe at the white faced monkeys, who in turn looked at us. It was too cool to see that. Real live monkeys (I know we've seen them at the zoo, but this was way different).
So now we've been up close to Monkeys and both tiny and small lizards. Today (it's now Wednesday) on the way to the beach a white faced monkey passed us on the street and took a good look at us, and at lunch the boys had fun chasing a few larger Iquana's around the grass area. Two nights ago at dinner, the waiter brought over a lizard about half the size of a lighter, it was wild, and so he let the boys play with it. This lizard went up and down their arms, into their hair, and back down. For a few minutes we lost it in Oscar's shirt, but there he was again, it was really cool for them.

Sorry this blog is a little choppy, I'm just trying to catch up.

Last night's dinner was great, but more importantly, Callym and Oscar made a great friend. Salvador's mother works at the restaurant we were at, and he was running around playing cars. Well, as soon as the boys saw a car, they wanted to go. Being North American, we didn't think it was right.... Silly Foreigners! Salvador came right up to those boys, handed them each a car, and off they all went! It was nice, but very different. We just sat at the table, and it was quite. Every 2 or 3 minutes the 3 of them would run by with there cars, driving them up and down the walls, over empty tables and having a great time. It made my heart so happy to see the boys having fun without us having to entertain them. There is something about boys and little cars that is the same in every country and every language.

Today at lunch I think I had my best meal ever! I finally found sushi! Delish, fresh avacado, rice, seaweed, and fresh yellow fin tuna. A coffee milk-shake and I was in Heaven. But 30 minutes later............

Ever heard of Montezuma's Revenge? The locals swear it has to do with a hang-over, but I didn't drink last night......... Well, someone had to get sick sooner or later, just glad it wasn't the boys!


More pictures will be on the site soon. I've been catching up for almost 2 hours, and need to get back. All our love,

The Lukies.

Monday and Tuesday (I think) Part 1

It's Tuesday now and we're going today to look at some properties, wish us luck - it may be where you come to stay! It will be really cool to see the other towns around in this area. We're hoping to be able to find a place to stay for the rest of November. Maybe in at least two other towns. Not sure. Montezuma is the smallest of them all from what we've heard. But we went into Cabyua yestaurday to walk around, some people said it was really nice with things to do. Well, it wasn't anything that we expected. Picture a town with a dozen homes, all spread out (about 2 every block) with farm land and jungle in between. The grocery store was the size of a hall closet, and there were only 2 restaurants. The town centre where we were dropped off consisted of a cross roads of 4 roadways. SMALL. But very very beautiful and it had a peacfulness that I have never been a part of before. Cabo Blanco National Reserve was just a few minutes walk outside of town, but it was so hot out today that we didn't want to make the trek with the boys. We will be going there, but maybe later in the week. After a wonderful lunch in Cabyua, we made it to the beach. The tide was out, and it's so rocky, that we just sat on some huge bolders and watched the waves. As I was sitting there, it sounded like it was raining.... I looked around, but there were no drops on the rocks. I then noticed that the beach was covered with Hermit crabs. The noise I heard was all of their shells hitting the other shells and rocks on there journey to where-ever!




I took some pictures of Montezuma, this is really the enitre 'town'. A cross-roads of 3 streets.




I hope you're enjoying the pictures so far. The boys are at the tide pool again, and I'm having some morning coffee. Very relaxing.




When we came home from dinner on Monday, we noticed that the water was out. It was raining and lightning again, but was that the reason? Chris went downstairs to ask..... Seems as though the entire town has been out of water all day! I wonder what our food was cooked in? No one has gotten sick yet, so I hope our luck continues. I don't know when the town will get there water back, but the hotel has their own supply and it was re-filled this morning! Ahh, to flush and wash your face. Things we seem to take advantage of. LOL.

Here things are both huge and tiny. Take the ants for example. You either have huge black ones the size of your thumb, or tiny red ones the size of 2 pin-pricks. Same goes for the spiders. I've yet to see a tarantula, but the tiny clear ones the size of about 2 pin-pricks are a little freaky. They are just sooooo fast! Not too many mosquitoes yet. But we do wake up with bite marks. Just a little itchy, but nothing that seems to make us worry. I don't know what is biting us, but we're fine. We saw a huge squirel today in the coconut tree. He was hanging upside down breaking open a coconut and drinking the milk. They are dark brown with a black stripe down their backs and bushy grey tails. Right now there are two 'exotic' magpies fighting in the bamboo tree.

I'm tried my hand at yoga yestaurday. It was really hard, but so much fun. I am going to try to make it to the sessions all week. Who knows, I may just learn to relax my mind and body! Here they are really into organic food, naturopathy, yoga etc. (funny how there is garbage on the roadway and no recycling containers!). Anyways, the 2 hotels up the road do yoga every day, and there is even a huge yoga retreat here at the begining of November (another reason we've been asked to move to the villa). One of the hotels actually teaches fire-dancing, but I'm not able to convince Chris to try it out, maybe later on in the trip! He's been practicing his Spanish a lot, and is getting really good at it. He's also been helping us out with it by talking to us in Spanish and then telling us what he said, and how to say it back.

Yestaurday was the first day yet that it didn't rain. Not a single drop all day. The sun was out in full force, it was super super hot, and it was just amazing! It looks as though today will be the same. This year (I'm not sure if I mentioned it before), but the rain has been really bad. Usually the Nicoya Peninsula only gets rain for 2 months, but this year it has been closer to 6! We are in search of a nice beach for the boys to run around in and play. I'm not sure if we will find it around here. Too many huge rocks. Not much beach. But if all else fails we will be on the Caribbean in December, they can get their fill in then.

our time in paradise

It's Sunday. I'm sitting here (actually, totally lazying around), drinking a beer. I want to tell you about our day yestaurday and up to today.

Well, to start, we have been feeling like we are sleeping in but in reality (what is that again?) we are up and dressed usually around 8:30 or 9am. We all usually wake up around 7am, but feel like it is way to early to start the day, so we all cuddle in together and sleep a little more. The sun is up at a time when only the surfers should be, but it is almost pure black around 5:30 pm. So anyways, we were dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. They only serve breakfast here, but it is amazing. A huge bowl of fresh fruit and some home made bread and honey. Oh yes, don't forget 4 or 5 cups of coffee between Chris and I. Callym had fresh Mango juice and Oscar had fresh Watermelon juice. Delish! We took a walk into town (Montezuma - only a 5 minute walk along the ocean) and did a little touring. Being the low season, almost nothing is open. I'd say only 4 restaurants, and 4 shops, 3 internet places, and about 5 tour companies. The buses are coming in everyday with new people, but they aren't staying yet. High season starts in November, so things should pick up then.

It started raining again so we headed into an internet place to check our email. Thank you Isabel for the beautiful email! We tried to do some chatting, but the connection was too slow. Maybe later? I'm not sure what time it was by now, but the rain had stopped again, and I was hunger. We headed over to Chico's bar and ordered a few beers and juice for the boys. No food. Opps. The boys had fun with their cars, and I ran across the street for some lunch, no one else was hungry. (If you've seen the pictures of the boys throwing rocks, please note that Callym just looks mal-nurished, but is really not!) My dellisious lunch was a monstorous tomato, cucumber and avacado sandwich made with everything fresh including the bread. Yum. I met a couple from Saskatewan during lunch. They were here for a small vacation and mentioned that when they were here 5 years ago it looked exactly the same. No new hotels, restaurants or shops. That to me is very amazing, especially in a place so beautiful. We chatted some more and found out that they just checked into the same hotel and are next door. Hope the boys don't keep them up! During this time it had started and stopped raining again. We came back to the hotel and went into the tide pool. The tide was quite low and the 'sand' (if you could call it that) was made up of small rocks and broken shells. I think it was 80% shells and 20% rocks.
We had a great time picking rocks and splashing around. Callym decided that we should make jewlery and sell them to people. He even tried selling some to some American's we met. The American's are here looking for property, staying at the same hotel, and are using one of the same realtors we will be soon!

Now time for a siesta! The boys crashed pretty hard today. I'm not sure when they fell asleep, but they didn't wake up until almost 5:30. Dark, but not too late. We headed out for dinner, and stopped by where I went for lunch. Such good food here, I won't even tell you what we had, but again it was huge portions, and everything fresh. Chris (one of the American's) saw us and chatted for a bit about his property hunt, seems he's more into the development rather than a new home - but he's had good experiences with the realtor Christina, hope she's good with us too! A small stroll around 'town' (so funny to say that seeing as it is about 24 shops/bars/etc). Not even a town. And another check on the computer. Eskimos were just about to start, but the connection was too slow to watch. Too bad for Callym and I. We headed back to the hotel and it was nearly 8pm! Where did the time go? Still too early to sleep, so we played a few games, and tried watching a dvd on the computer. (no tv, phone or internet here - so nice actually!) The waterfall and raging river is right out our hotel room so we were unable to hear the movie well. We got into our jammies (by now it was almost 10pm!) and got to dreaming. Although the waterfall/ river is loud, it is really calming to sleep to.

The owner of the hotel talked with us last night about changing rooms. They want to put in air-conditioning before the high season starts, and asked if we would mind moving to one of the villas for the same price as the 2 bed appartment. We took a look at the villa and fell in love again. A two story fully teak home with amazing ocean views! Kitchen, huge rock and tile bathroom, 4 bedroom (6 beds), and living room and up and down balconies! Ok, I think we're moving on. It's just next door to where we are now, but we are considering it. The more room we have, the more stuff we will pull out to play with, but it may be nice. Maybe if someone were to come and visit us it would make more sense having that much space??? Just throwing it out there!
Anyways, we still don't have any solid plans. We know we're going back to Heredia for a few days before we fly out to Belize on Nov. 31st. But other than that we're just going with the flow. I do think we're staying in this area, but with so many little towns around here, we really want to check out more than one. For now I think our make-shift plan is to stay at this hotel until Friday, Saturday or Sunday (see. not even sure about that!), and during that time our realtor will have taken us to a few other towns to see homes. Maybe, just maybe we'll fall in love again and stay in another sleepy town for a week or two. Just to see.

Rabbling on a bit now, but we had a fantastic sleep ( no strange critters yet, but I'm still waiting for a big one to freak me out). Another wonderful breakfast here, and we headed out towards Cabuya. We thought it would be a nice short walk, we were just strolling along the rocky beach, picking up sea-shells and looking into the jungle on the other side. (it is literally jungle on one side and ocean on the other). Humming birds were wizing by, butterflies were on every tree. The air was fresh and thick with sea salt. We were walking and walking. I'd say it was over an hour, maybe close to two. The roads here remember are muddy and narrow. Bumpy too. Pot holes the side of home! LoL. Finally someone stopped, and we found out we still have a 30 minute walk. (more like a 1 hour walk with the boys), so we turned around and headed back for lunch. Finally the four tired Lukie's made it to town for lunch. Not much was opened seeing as it was sunday, but we still have a great feast. Tried the internet again, and now we're back. I'm checking the time now and it's only 3:50, we still have time for a siesta, and picking more sea-shells. (Callym is really into it, we even bought some fishing line at the store to try it out, he wants to make all his favourite chocha's some sea-shell rings!) Well, off for now. I may write more b4 tomorrow, but I can't count on anything being as we're really getting into the beach life. Lazy Lazy days. Just as Tony the Tiger would say 'It's great'!

To the Peninsual

Today was our last day at the all inclusive in Punteranas. It was fantastic to be there, but nothing close to what we are truly looking for. We had a nice breakfast together, and took a stroll down the beach. I really wanted to get some pictures of the Lizards sunning on the rocks, and the boys wanted to throw rocks into the Ocean. Both were accomplished. The sun wasn't out, it was quite cloudy, but it wasn't raining yet, so that was nice. The boys threw rocks and I took my pictures for about an hour, then we headed back to the room and finished packing. We were trying to condense our things to one less bag (it had broken already), but were unable to this yet. (It is only a week into the trip, I'm sure we can do this by the time we arrive or leave Belize in December).

We were wondering how we were going to make it from Puntarenas to Montezuma. It's not a difficult trip, but with 2 kids and 5 large bags and 1 carry-on each (yes we brought all but the kitchen sink!) it was going to be a challenge. We decided to hire a taxi for the entire day. Another option was to take a taxi to the ferry, walk on, and hire a taxi on the other end. That could have worked, but I was worried that either there wouldn't be any around, or they would take advantage of us with all our baggage and kids (especially if it was pouring rain). Anyways, we hired a taxi, and headed downtown. Chris had an appointment at the bank, supposedly his eaten debit card was going to be there. A five minute run-in to the bank turned into almost an hour. I couldn't run in to see what was going on, I couldn't leave our bags (let along our kids!), so I sat and waited. If anything else could have happened it would have been the boys needing to use the Banos. Well, they did. But I couldn't take them either, and I was more worried about missing the Ferry. (we were told that on the weekend people lined up in there cars at 10:30 for the 12 o-clock ferry and it was already past one, would we make the 2pm one?) If that happened I wasn't sure what would be up then. Would we owe the driver more money? Would he just leave us? Etc..... Chris finally came out of the bank - without his card, seems it would now be there on Monday. Our driver actually went in to see if he needed any help, nice guy that Viktor. So we were off again. Well, the 2pm ferry left at 1:40, but it was o.k. we were on it! So glad. The debit card would have to be picked up some other time.

The 2 hour ferry was fantastic and scenic. I wish our pictures turned out better, but today was extreamly cloudy. Also, the ferry only took an hour and 40 minutes. (who says Costa Rican's are late, so far everything has been early and fast!) We landed at Paquera and it was like Gilligans Island. At first I thought that we were making a tico stop and picking up a local fisherman. Nope this was the town. Small. Slow. And so Beautiful. There were only a handful of homes together at a time. Kids riding bikes, walking. Hanging out and talking. The road was barely wide enough for 2 cars, and the potholes would make Edmonton look like a paved paradise. Some were nearly mid calf deep and 3 or 4 feet wide. (impressive when the road is only 7 or 8 feet wide). From Paquera to Montezuma it's only about 15 km, but with the recent rain, and the deteriorating roads, the trip took just over an hour. Narrow winding roads surrounded by tropical rainforest PLUS you could hear and smell the Ocean from there too. I was thinking that we had found 'our spot'. We came to the hotel and the owner was at the entrance waiting for us. ( we had called ahead for directions - actually very silly in a town THIS small), so she had our room key ready and took us right up. I explained to her that we had no plans, we could be here a day or a week, or a month. She told us that it didn't matter, whenever we wanted to leave we could just let her know. Payment was due when we left and if we needed anything she was there. I didn't catch her name (my bad), but she's only been here 3 years, she's from Sweden and did pretty much the same thing as we are. Sold it all and came looking for paradise. Perfect!

So, we have unpacked, took a wonderful rainy stroll into town ( a 10 minute walk - there really isn't a 'town', it's just a few hotels, restaurants, shops, and thing along a windy rain-forest road along the ocean). Had a fantastic dinner...... Octopus spagetti for Callym (2.50), Seafood spaghetti for me (2.50), Oscar had fresh fish (3.00) and Chris had an assorted seafood dish (3.00), 2 beers and 2 fresh coconut milk shakes, and the bill was less than 20$. I am going to love this place. We walked home (in the rain again) and stopped to pick up some apple juice, beer and snacks. Tomorrow is going to be a perfect adventure. Buenos Noche!


Lukie Love to all!

The All-Inclusive Life

I know what you're thinking. We've sold the house and our now spoiling ourselves and spending our last pennies on an all-inclusive holiday. Well, you're partly right. We are spoiling ourselves, but it was not expensive. Don't worry. Right now we are getting our bearings, and settling in. We still have beautiful plans of rooting ourselves in a paradise. It could take months, or it could not. We are in no rush, and we are also not doddling. After a 12 hour plane ride, and ending up in a hotel/apartment without a pool, the boys were very dissapointed, and rightly so. They were under the impression that we were going to the beach, jungle and there was a pool. False advertising, or a misunderstanding. At any rate, we are here for 3 nights, and are heading off on a ferry to this area Take your pick on the area, we're going to try them all out. After all, this isn't a vacation. We have no job or home to come back to. We have all the time in the world. Kind-of. We've only been here a few days. Less than a week. We are starting to get the feel of the place, but we really do need to see more. And then there is Belize in December. Wow, another paradise to discover. Well see what happens. But rest assured, we will keep in touch, and keep writing. Please write to us. We miss you all and Love you lots!

Puntarenas

I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but we decided to leave Heredia early. We were ment to stay for the entire month of October, but well, for a few reasons we have left. It is a wonderful and beautiful city (town), but I think we were thinking it was different. I thought that small towns were quite. This place was not. We didin't want car alarms, radio's and traffic, (and a rooster? what kind of rooster crows all day and all night?) Anyways, we left the Apart-Hotel Roma (ended our contract early, but we worked it out that we can come back and stay for a few days for free this month or next. We are thinking of staying there when we have to come back this way for our flight from San Jose to Belize at the end of November), so all worked out well.

Do you know the feeling of loseing time? When your on vacation and you have no idea if it's lunch or dinner, if it's Monday or Thursday? Well, we are IN THE ZONE! We hired a car and driver to get us from Heredia to Puntarenas yestaurday, and got to the hotel (actaully an all inclusive, but whatever!) *I'll tell you about the drive in a moment* Anyways, we get here, and I run to reception to check in...... Ah, Miss Lukie, I can not find your reservation. Are you sure you have one? Yes, please check again, (the boys want to get into the pool NOW) So she checks again. Oh, yes Miss Lukie, I found you..... but it is not until tomorrow. Can you come back? HUH? Are you kidding? What the Heck? Too funny. Costa Rican's are so friendly, but also funny! So, we get checked in, and now have 3 days here instead of two. That will make the boys happy. (and Chris and I too I suppose).

On to the drive.

Think back to the last time you were in the mountains. You know the highway I'm talking about, the narrow, turning highway that is surrounded by tree's. And then suddenly you pass a beautiful waterfall, and the animals, and the smell. You climb higher and higher, and after one more turn see a stunning view of a city or town. It' just seems to go on forever. And you don't want it to stop. Instead, you want to stop, you don't want to enter any type of civilization. You want the calm, and the air, and the open freedom......

Well, now magnify that by 1000000000 times. This was stunning. Amazing. Beautiful. Breath-taking. I can't believe that there is such a place on earth. I've heard of the Pan-American Highway, but I thought it was just that. A highway. Well, not this part. This was a small narrow turning highway. But it was more. It was Jungle. Rainforest. Cloud forest. We were literally surrounded by trees, overhead, and on both sides. Small little villages in the little clearings and climbing up the hills. The freshest (although damp and humid) air. It was just perfect. I wanted to stop and stay. I wanted to find a little corner and build a little house out of mud and rock and stay. Well, kind-of. I don't think that would have really worked, but who knows. Another thing I didn't expect, I thought that this beauty would end once we arrived at the hotel, but it didn't! We just made a turn and were there. Ahh, Costa Rica. My new found love.

We are now at the All inclusive for a few days. Off to the Southern part of the Nicoya Penninsula for some more time. Not sure how long, we have learned now to not make huge plans. Just little ones, and take it as it comes. It's a good feeling. We're all happy, safe and of course miss you all. Thanks for calling everytime we're on line Stena, we love you.

More soon.
Purda Vida

Que?

Morning. I had agreta idea about what I was supposed to writ today, but it slipped my mind. This trip is teaching me alot about life in general. Making me appreciate certain things in life, such as a hot shower with pressure, quiet (although I do not remember the last time I had that), my family, a vehicle (can't believe that), a working bank machine, and lots of other things. On the other hand I realise there are still lots of things that I have that I really do not need. Such as, lots of clothes, a bank card (the first bank machine I used ate it anyways), a vehicle (can't believe that), quiet, and so on and so forth. A ral eye opener. I love the jungle and the smell. I love the hills and the constant green of the country. The tico homes have a real charm to them, although I do not know if could ever live in one. But heck it's only day three, i think. Days have really lost meaning in this life. we came one day early to a hotel we reserved, and just laughed cause it was pretty ridiculous. One thing about travelling in a small hilly country is that to appreciate the landscape of cities, towns, 'country' and then more towns and villages is they do not come across like anything we are used to in a Canadian setting. I am getting better at it after two trips thru the countryside, and can tell you that everythign is closer here. Your neighbours are attached to your fence and wall. Your town is on the highway. The highway for that matter reminds me of the road that you take to Stych's house after you take that right over the train tracks, but it is narrower and has more turns. And that is a main highway! But once you get past that you realise the closeness of it all. I also see how time gets affected here with all the rain. As Tamara wrote, it can rain many times in a day. Lots of people use that to sit and wait,and that to me is fantastic. They can do it I suppose you are saying, but so can you. We were sitting at a RostiPollos and I watched the rain as I was eating. I noticed an old man that came in and just sat on a bench that was inside the door. He sat and waited for the rain to quit. I felt myself doing the same, and if I did not have to take two little guys to the bathroom three times I would have actually had a chance to unwind a bit more. Oh well, life is great out here. And although we have had a few disappointments so early, we will perservere and see wherre we can get. If the boys let us that is. By far, keeping two boys entertained while trying to plan and book things is the greatest challenge so far. We'll keep going and see what happens. So far no revelations. Heredia was nice but not so early in the trip. It was just like Edmonton. Car alarms, sirens, a rooster (... well not that part), and city noise in general. We did not want to stay in a place where you are supposed to go shopping for somethign to do, so we had tomove on. We are now in Puntarenas for a couple days, adb then off to the Nicoya Peninsula. The pool was great and it is so great to hear waves again. I'll go listen again. Unfortunately, rooms do not have internet (oh poor me and my convenience mindset yet) and so i am in the bar (oh woe is me having a free bar) typing away with minimal spelling mistakes. Talk to you soon. Rum is great. Thanks Paul. Vida.

Las Pas Waterfall Tour

Our tour started with a super nice guy named Olman picking us up early at 10:30 am. We picked up another couple at the Marriott, and headed North West. Olman was so cool to point out many interesting things on the way up. We first went through many many tiny villages (towns). They all seemed run down and poor, but this is the way. The people aren't poor, but have much less when compared to our standards. The homes are made either with whatever they could find (it seemed) or are block homes covered with bars and gates. The bars and gates are both for security (although the crime here is very very low) and also part of the Spanish heritage. Anyone who has been to Spain (or Italy) will know about the bars and gates. Very beautiful actually.

After a few small and quaint towns, we started the climb up. Narrow NARROW roads, potholes, and fast driving. Needless to say, the boys loved it. They thought they were in a HotWheels Race Van! Once we hit the elevation of 1000 feet, the Coffee Plantations were everywhere. It was so incredible. One of the roads we needed to get to was closed because of all the rain they have been getting here, but Olman knew of a short-cut. This would usually worry me a little, but we are on an adventure of a lifetime, so I let it pass. And am I ever glad I did. This short-cut was through the oldest Coffee Plantation in Costa Rica. 3rd Generation Coffee is what it was called. We needed permission to come onto the property, but that was easily granted. The boys needed to use the bano (please see the pictures if you're interested) and so we were able to get out and look around. This coffee plantation actually gives tours, so we headed to the gift shop for some free samples! So good. Better than good. And the boys loved the chocolate covered coffee beans. (was this a mistake?)

Did you know........The Plantation was over 450 hectares, and it implyed over 1000 workers. They exported 90% of their crop to Europe and the USA. Most good workers can pick 30 baskets of ripe beans per day, and they recieve 1$ per basket. A good wage according to Olman. Also, coffee bean plants take 3 years to mature so that they are ready to be harvested, and they only ripen in October, November and December. When they cut the tree's back for better growing, they use the cut branches to roast the beans.

Once we hit 1700 Feet, Coffee could not be grown anymore, so the area was now filled with Dairy farms. Cows Cows Cows everywhere. On the road, in the fields, Everywhere. Here again the villages looked poor, but don't tell the Costa Ricans, this is the way they live. Honestly, I have yet to meet a sad Costa Rican. Everyone here is happy all the time.

In around this time the cloud forests appeared. I have never been inside a cloud, but this was very very cool. It wasn't actually raining, but the mist was so thick it was very hard to see in front and behind you. Glad Olman knew how to drive! A little later we hit the Continental divide. This is where the rivers start flowing in different directions. The same as in the mountains in B.C., here the water either goes to the Pacific or Caribbean side. Cool

Las Pas Waterfalls was soon after this, and were we glad to get out of the van. We had been travelling for around 2 hours now. I thought the boys would be hungry, but they were eager to get on with the tour. We started with the birds. Scarlet Macaws, Blue Macaws, Toucans and more. We were inside the enclosure, so the birds actually came right up to us. Callym was about 2 feet from one, and it was the coolest thing ever. During the walk we passed by a huge display of bettles, ants, and other many HUGE bugs. These can be seen on our photo site. From there we headed into the butterfly area. This too was enclosed. They were everywhere. There were butterflies flying around, caterpillars under every leaf, eggs on the leaves, and cocoons all around. We saw some of the most interesting cocoons. Please see the pictures, but I will tell you know, some looked like pure solid shiny gold!

From here we saw the frogs. There weren't many to be seen (all hiding) but the few that we saw were very cool. Red-eyed tree frogs, Blue Jean frogs (because they are red with Blue legs that makes it look like they are wearing jeans) the HummingBird exhibit was in the open air, and was incredible. There were about a hundred of them. I tried my best to get pictures, but they are fast. Really fast. Amazing though. The whole day was.

After this we started the walk to the waterfalls. This included many, many, many steps. All steep and all slipery. Here everything is so damp that they stairs, trees, and everything in between is covered in moss. Makes for slippery stepping. The waterfalls, and the entire park is in the Jungle (rainforest it's called too) Oscar loved this so much. Callym was keeping his eyes open for Jaguars. (none here tho). They were smilling the entire day. It was fantastic. These boys didn't complain the entire trip, not even when we climbed both up and down more than 300 steps!

I can't describe the waterfalls. They were breathtaking, and powerful and amazing and magnificent, and, oh. Just take a look at the pictures. Actually, pictures can never really be the same as being there. But truly, it was BEAUTIFUL!


Instead of walking back up (which I don't think the boys could do, nor could Chris carry them up all thouse stairs, seeing as he carried at least one, sometimes both down most of them), we took a shuttle back up to the main part. Here we had a fantastic Costa Rican lunch and hit the guest shop. The boys found some cute frog toys (they really ribbit!) and we headed back home. Olman took a different way, just to show up more of Costa Rica, and the boys had a great siesta along the bumpy roads.
Once we got back we had a nice dinner, and started packing. We are going to Puntarenas tomorrow. More to come. Promise.

Our picture site, if you don't already have it.

I know that I have promised a great entry about our tour. And although it was fantastic, I am so very very tired. I have also misplaced? Or forgotten our camera downloading plug-in thingy...... so no pictures until then...... I hope I have it somewhere. The story will just not be the same without them. Until tomorrow. Buenos Notches.

a new day!

Well our sleep was fantastic, and the boys stayed in there bed all night! Quite a feat.... We're off soon to go on our tour, that should be fantastic. Just wanted to touch base with you all and let you know that we are great and still can't believe how lucky we are. To be here, and to have such great family. Thank you all who have called us! I will write a long post later today telling of our tour. Also, we are moving out of Heredia tomorrow and heading off to Puntarenas. It's on the coast, and we will be there for 3 nights before we take the ferry to Montezuma on the southern part of the Nicoya Pennisula! Exciting! Anyways, off for now, and we'll talk with you all soon.

1st Day in CR Paradise.

Well, we're up. We're happy, and we're still a little amazed that we're HERE! Ah, so we started the day off with a beautiful thunderstorm, ah 9am and it starts. It only last about 25 minutes. And now we're dressed and ready to head off into town. Actually, we're leaving around 10:30. Nice! I took a map from Omar at Reception and now we try to find our way. Chris just met a guy named James from around the Niagra Falls area in Ontario. Seems he lives here part time and part time in Canada. We chat a little, and try to make our way to town.

Heredia, has one of the marine biology Universities and so, we assume there are many students, although it's Sunday, so I'm not sure how many we will see. We walk, turn left, walk, turn right. Now by this time people are looking at us. Well, we are cute, but it's more of the look of ' who are these people, and where are they trying to go'? Now I know why. We've just walked into a dead end. We're in a residencial area, but it's very run down. I'm sure this isin't the worst part of town, that would be in San Jose, but it's not somewhere where we would like to stay, (or be at night). But the people are friendly, and we somehow find our way out. Then, we're lost again. estoy perdeda (I'm lost) I think I need to remember that one! Well, we see a guy in one of the University areas. He tells us through the gate that he'll let us in to use a short cut. So we do. As soon as we get to the entrance gate one of the security men look at us like we're crazy people, and what are we doing here? Um, what are we doing here? Good thing the 'short cut' guy was driving beside us. And now it starts to thunderstorm again. #2. Anyways, we explain to him that we're just looking for the centre of town and a place for lunch. He speaks English almost better than me and helps us out. Then as we are about to start walking in the rain, (all of us with our back-packs and me with our laptop bag (Can't be to careful) and the camera) TOURISTS!!!!) the 'short-cut' guy gives us a lift! So nice. I can't believe it. He takes us to a restaurant, and when we find it closed, he takes us to another one. Nice Costa Rican's!

So after a great lunch, we start walking, but being a Sunday not much was open. It seems as though this town is not really for us. I know it's only been a day, and not even a full day at that. But sometime I guess you just know. It's hard to explain..... but we are looking for a certain something....... and this is just not it.

Anyways, we came home (found our way quite well this time) and headed off to bed for our siestas! WOW do I LOVE SIESTAS!!! During this time it Thunderstormed twice. Talked with a some family, and got ourselves a tour set up for tomorrow. We are going on a beautiful tour tomorrow. Volcanoe, Waterfalls, Butterfly park, Serpentarium, Animals and MORE! We've somehow found a guide that will pick us up later than 6am. So as I speak, Chris is making sure we are ready to go, because really.... 9 am is still early for us sometimes! (A huge thing!!!) Ok, please add one more thunderstorm, this one was heavy, but only about 10 minutes!

So, after Siesta, we went out for dinner. A great place called El Grand Papa! Well, as we leave for the restaurant thunderstorm again. Beautiful! We get a cab to the restaurant and it's stopped raining. Order some great delicious food and it starts to thunderstorm again, not once, but twice! Anyways, as I said, the food was great, and the people were so friendly so far. We're here at home now, getting ready for bed.

One more note. I'm a little sad, Why? Well, I was kind-of thinking that I would have seen a big scary bug already. Huge spider, Scorpion, something! But nothing. I've seen a humming bird, and I think when I went out for my last smoke I scared a bat, but nothing else. Oh well. Not sure why it matters, I know I'll just 'freak out' when it does happen. And I'm sure tomorrow in the Jungle something will scare me. Anyways, off to bed for now, I hope to have a great story and beautiful pictures for you all tomorrow.

Lukies Out!

The Long trip to Costa Rica

Well, our day started off very early. I was up at 2am, but I'm sure that's around the time that Chris got to sleep. The four of us were in Lesia's bed, we fit, but not comfortably. The bags were all packed the night before, so we really just had to get dressed and jump in the car. My lovely husband ran to get coffee while I was in the shower. (beautiful). Anyways, we got the boys up and they were not too happy. They were excited to get to Costa Rica, but very tired. This made me a little nervous for the trip, we still have more than 14 hours until we were at the hotel.

Ah, but we made it to the airport with just a little bit of tears (Lesia and Christina drove us - Mama had to work!). And the first leg of our flight was quite uneventful. Actually, you'll have to talk with Chris about this as Oscar and I both slept all the way to Las Vegas. Las Vegas wasn't too eventful either. Our arrival gate and departure gates were very close, and we had time to colour and get some breakfast. Nothing much to do there. Is there much to do at any airport? Oh wait, I did throw in 2 bucks at one of the slots, no luck.

Off to Phoniex. That took about an hour. Such a strange trip, but the extra stop-over saved us almost 300+$ each, so we went to Phoniex.

Now on to San Jose. We've been on planes now for about 6 hours, and awake for another 4! The boys at this point were still doing fantastic. We even had people mention how well behaved they were, and when we told them that we had been up so long and on a few planes already, they were very surprised that two little boys could do so well. Well, what can I say, even when they are driving Chris and I crazy, they are still great little men.

So, we get to San Jose (well kind-of) It was below us.....there were heavy thunderstorms so we couldn't land right away. We circled for 40 minutes, and then we circled again for 45 minutes. Our only option was to go to Liberia for the night if we couldn't land, but thankfully we didn't need to do that. We were first in line to land, but the pilot wanted to make sure that it was safe enough. Nice to know. After only a few more minutes we made the decent. Wow! I'm not sure how we didn't spin out on the tar-mat, but I'm really glad we didn't!!! And now we were here. Customs and all went very well and smooth (no line-up because they were all still in the air trying to land!), and Carlos was waiting for us with a sign 'Amara Lukie' to bring us to the apart-hotel Roma. Up until now the boys were so fantastic! But it was now that they started to get sick and tired of travelling. It was very hard to convince them to get into the van to get to the hotel. They just didn't want to travel in any way any more. Well, crying all the way to our new home, we left.

The drive was short, and sweet, but very dark. It was hard to see anything around. We just made it to the grocery in time before it closed. Still raining, we had some toast and drinks. Yum, nice dinner..... After trying to figure out why our room was upgraded with a new bill, we decided to stay a few nights before commiting to the 19days. We'll need to see the town and area in the light of day......

More to come, I need to sleep.

Hello, is anyone awake yet?

It's only 2:30 in the morning, but I'm up and getting ready for our long flight ahead. Just thought I'd leave you with some parting words from a friend I wish I'd met.....


All my bags are packed
I'm ready to go
I'm standin here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin'
It's early morn
The taxis waitin
He's blowin his horn
Already I'm so lonesome
I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Theres so many times I've let you down
So many times I've played around
I tell you now, they dont mean a thing
Every place I go, I'll think of you
Every song I sing, I'll sing for you
When I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time
Let me kiss you
Then close your eyes
I'll be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I wont have to leave alone
About the times, I wont have to say

Oh, kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

But, I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Dont know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Our last shots, and a Mother's Guilt.

I will never ever forget today. This day will stay in my mind and my heart forever. The look on my baby son Callym's face will forever be in my mind somewhere. It was a day of guilt and sadness. A lesson in a mother's daily life about the hardships, trauma, and things that I guess just happen when you are a mother.

We had our very last appointment for our very last shots today. Rabies. A deadly and always fatal disease if not immunized for, and sometimes even still fatal without proper treatment. Rabies, an unlikely disease. But so scary and really, who knows. Without going into the very lenghty and contriversial debate about immunizations (one which I am ironically against), let me just say that, after a long descusion with my beautiful husband, we decided that this was a smart decision. We are trying to be as prepared as possible for all the things unknown.

I hate needles. I hate them with a passion. I get anxious, and nervous, and want to run out of the room screaming. Callym on the other hand, well, I just don't know of a single word in the human language that would describe his fear of them. This is troublesome. How do you prepare a 4 year old for this. I thought of not telling him, of blind-folding him and leading him into the Doctors office not knowing anything until the final secound. I thought if we gave him candy that would help. We tried to explain to him that this was the last one. THE VERY LAST ONE!!! He gets anxious even thinking about it. The last one he freaked out so much that the Dr. had to put it in his ass. That was tramatic enough! But today was more than tramatic. As I said, it will haunt me forever.

We started by talking about all the other things that we would do today. After all, we were dropping off Twinkle Twinkle (the cat) at her new temporary home. This would be the last time we saw her in a few months. We planned to take her to the pet store to pick out some treats and toys. He was happy, but within secounds would bring up the needles again. At least the appointment was early, 9:30, so the day wouldn't be spent waiting and waiting for it. We made it to the Dr.'s in time, and took Callym to pick out some treats before. I thought that would help. A treat of sugar first thing in the morning is usually a good way to get your kids to behave. But once we were waiting in the waiting room his anxiety worsened. I tried to make a plan with him. I would let him open his candy before the shot so that he could be eating it and the same time, he could look right into my eyes instead of the needle, and squeeze my fingers until they popped, and maybe it wouldn't hurt as much. This seemed like a good idea to him, until we got into the room. THE ROOM.

This is when thing turned tramatic for me, nevermind my poor Callym (only he know's what this has done to him). He didn't want the Dr. to give him the needle. He wanted someone else. Was this because of the butt shot last time? He started shaking a little in my lap, and I could hear his breathing quicken. The Dr. came in and noticed this immediatly, so he told us that he would get everything ready outside to not upset him even more. This is when Callym got off my lap and asked me in the most scared little voice ever that he wanted me to help him hide, mom, can you please help me hide. I didn't know what to do. He started backing into a corner when I grabbed him and hid him inside my jacket telling him that I would protect him. Me. I would protect him? The one who made the appointment and decided that we needed these shots in the first place? I would protect my precious baby, when I myself was now crying. How could any mother that loves her children do this?

- now please, before you email me, I know. I know that we made the right decision to get the shots. I know that I am protecting my children. I'm not sure if Callym will get over this, but this is what I hope. I know that he's just a child, and doesn't know, but please. If you are a mother, you will know what I am talking about. You will know this guilt in some way or another, from a situation that you have been in once. -

I asked him to look at me, to listen to me closely. He looked up, with horrible tear soaked fear in his eyes, and asked again for me to help him hide. He asked if the Dr. could see him. I told him no. I told him that everything would be ok, and that I loved him so much. He hid his face into my jacket more. I wrapped my shaking arms around him, and hoped that we could both disapear. It took all of my strength to keep sitting in the chair and not bolting through the door to safety.

The doctor came in. Chris had opened the door so that Callym wouldn't hear him come, but he did. He started to shake more, and I needed to get a grip of his arm so that the needle could be done. I was shaking now, and Oscar was starting to pick up on it. Oscar, he is the brave one. He get's this from his father. At all previous appointments, all he did was sit there with the bravest little man face, and take that cute little quick breath in when the shots were given. Not even a tear, not one. But oh my Callym, I am now holding his arm tight, as he is pleading NO NO NO, and it's done. I'm crying and he's crying. I don't know what's going on in his mind, but it can't be good for me. Oh miracle of miracles it's done. And he wants to get out of there as soon as possible. I don't even have my needle out of my arm when he is dragging me out. Still crying, but releaved, I think.

As we enter the waiting room, I hear for the first time Oscar crying, and wonder.....

Will any of us ever get over this day. The day that should have been happy, because today was the day of our last shots?

Thank you for Thanksgiving

Today is about being Thankful. I am Thankful.
I am Thankful for life.
I am Thankful for Chris.
I am Thankful for my kids.
I am Thankful for patience.
I am Thankful for mornings full of kisses.
I am Thankful for being a mom.
I am Thankful for having my mom.
I am Thankful for family and friends.
I am Thankful for happiness.
I am Thankful for sunny days.
I am Thankful for rainbows.
I am Thankful for all the stars we get to see.
I am Thankful for opportunities.
I am Thankful for freedom.
I am Thankful for abundance.
I am Thankful for dreams.
I am Thankful for reality.
I am Thankful for coffee and beer and chocolate.
I am Thankful for brave adventures.
I am Thankful for supportive and loving family.
I am Thankful for warm fall days.
I am Thankful for suprises.
I am Thankful for health.
I am Thankful for giggling kids.
I am Thankful, Thank you.

Last Saturday Night in Canada.... What do you do??

So today was our last Saturday here in Canada for a while. How long? as we've mentioned, we're not sure, but it will probubly be at least a year, or two or ten. This is a big thing, and we wanted to make sure that we did everything that we want to do here before we go. We have talked about going to a few of our favourite restaurants, seeing some good friends, maybe bowling.... and more. So, what do you do on a Saturday night with 2 kids?????

First off let me inform you that we all have started practicing a very old tradition from Latin America. Siestas! Yes Siestas, otherwise known as NAPS! It's great, half the time it's only the boys, but the other half of the time Chris and I join them. I love it. It's refreshing, and really makes staying up late easier. What does this have to do with tonight? It's part of my story.

After a beautiful day watching the Eskimos on TV, the boys went for there siesta. They woke around 5:15pm, and Chris and I hadn't thought of a thing for dinner. I was hoping to go to a restaurant that Chris and I went to last night (great butter chicken and amazing mushroom soup - a fav of Callym's!) But Chris didn't want that - honestly it's not that cheap, and plus, we have been going out for dinners at least 5 times a week!
SPOILT!
Chris was trying to convince the boys to have KFC. I don't mind having that before we go, but not the night before Thanksgiving dinner. Yum, Thanksgiving dinner! OK, so what.... We thought about a movie, pizza, actually buying groceries at safeway (what the heck?), and more. Then at 5:45 we decided! I yelled out to everyone,

PUT ON YOUR OILER JERSEY'S WE'RE GOING TO THE GAME!

yahoo, we threw on our jersey's and jumped in the car. Chris grabbed some cash, and I ran out to see what the price of scalper tickets were going for. (Chris actually checked online, and the game was sold out so this was our only option) One guy was going to give me a 'great deal' for 2 seats 225$ each! AHH, this was going to be a little more expensive then the restaurant. After running around looking, I bought some cheap seats. We parked the car and ran to the arena. We made it within the first 5 minutes of play, and it was a great game. Besides beating the flyers 5 to 3, our kids were great! (the guy behind us mentioned this, he said we should write a book on how to raise kids this well, he said that he wouldn't dare bring his 20month old to a game because he doesn't have the patience, and his boy wasn't as well behaved as ours! Very nice compliment). We had hotdogs, pop, ice-cream and yelled our minds out! Fun Fun Fun. This was by far the best way I could ever think of to spend our Last Saturday in Canada.

You can do whatever you put your mind to!

That is something that I tell the boys all the time. One day Callym said he wanted to be an astronaut. I told him, if he wanted to, then he could do anything he wanted to. When Oscar was having a hard time learning how to use his bike, I told him to keep trying, he could do anything he wanted to. It's a very good message to tell your children, actually, to tell anyone. It's powerful, it lets you and other's know that nothing is imposible, and that dream can be achieved.

So what do you expect when you deny your 2 year old chocolate for breakfast? He stacks the chairs, climbs onto the counter, into the cupboard and finds them! Then at the time you should be getting cross with them they say ' BUT MOM, YOU SAID I COULD DO ANYTHING I WANTED TO!'

I Quit

I know that it was a couple days ago, but I Quit! On Friday the 28th of September. Holy smokes! What does the future hold for me? Oh, that's it. Another cup of coffee, thank you. To you guys. Life.

Long overdue post

Well it has been a very productive week. Our 2 weekends of moving sales were successful. The moving sales were very strange though. Some people would walk in and ask if we were moving????? Huh, I wonder what tipped them off, the moving sale sign, or the SOLD sign on the front yard? They would ask us where we were moving, and when we told them... we recieved one of two regular responses. #1, oh, do you have work there? why would you go there? when are you moving back?
OR #2. That's fantastic, I've always wanted to do that, you are very brave and lucky.
We've also had a few 'un-expected' visitors drop by. It was very nice. People we haven't seen for a long time. I mean a long long time. These are people who live here, but with such busy lives, we just don't get a chance to hook up. Visits from friends are always a pleasure. As with the moving sale, we also had the same 2 response's..... Please see #1 and #2 above.

As I mentioned, Chris had his last day of work on Friday. ( YIPPEEEE) He came home early, and you could tell that he was relieved for this day to come. He loved his job, but as with any job where you come in day after day, and do the same thing, with the same people, it get's a little tiresome. Chris is a very creative person, and it's been a long time since he could let that part of him out to play. It hasn't even been a week for Chris, but already I see him having some trouble with being at home like this. It's not his fault, I've had practice for the last 4+ years. It will take him some time to learn how to chill and relax, to learn how we do things. We will need to find a balance between the way he does things, and the way we do things. Although we are the same in many many ways, we do have differences. For example. When Chris walks through a room and see's something out of place, he will just put it away and move on, well, maybe he'll look for more.... just to get it all done. Me on the other hand, I will stack things in a pile and wait until it's large enough to warant a 'clean up'. Chris will wake up and do the dishes, sometimes starting even before his coffee! This is not the way I work. I will wait until I really need to get them done (or at least once my first two cups of coffee are done). When Chris is doing something, he likes to start and finish, I have learned that with kids around, sometimes you need to stop, and finish at a later time. Neither one of us is wrong, but we need to learn how to live with eachother doing things this way. Chris is use to having a limited time with us, and an even more limited time to get 'things' done. Now that we have all day to hang out and do things... well, like I said, it will take time for us to all get use to eachother.

Well, this week is dedicated to packing up EVERYTHING in the house. It sounds daunting, but it's reallly not. We have sold so many things (especially the large items) that it just means packing things to get sent out together, and packing the rest in bigger boxes that won't be sent out. We have a good dozen boxes done, and at least two rooms are completly empty. We also have most of the boys clothes in a suitcase. I know it's early for this, but it helps with having so much laundry, and keeps the mess to a minimum. At any rate, they really don't need shorts right now, the weather is getting a little nasty. No snow yet, but sometimes you can feel it in the air.

One last note here, We have found a home for Twinkle Twinkle, and we have sold our Jeep. These were the last two LARGE items of concern for us. Twinkle Twinkle was in need of a temporary home. We have every intention of having her shipped out to us once we find a real home for ourselves. The boys love her dearly, and she is a real part of our family. We thought about not having her with us, and we have decided that it wasn't an option. Thanks Chocha, it really means a lot to us.


For now, all our love, The Lukies