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