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“So What? Who Cares? Do It Anyway.”

I heard this from a speaker at a conference not too long ago. It really hit home. As a wife and mother, you learn to live this phrase, take self-pity and whining out of the equation, or life is completely unmanageable. Like, when you are sick and they are sick, you just keep going no matter what. One of the best lessons I ever really took to heart.

Not by choice. I don’t think we learn the really hard lessons by choice. But when the s–t hits the fan, when my back is up hard against the wall, . . . → Read More About “So What? Who Cares? Do It Anyway.”

31 May 2007
One comment - (Comments are closed)   Blink, Hope, Parents

Costa Rica’s Magic Kingdom®

That’s what our trip to Volcán Arenal was almost like. Certainly it was as expensive.

PHOTO: I took this March 06 while we were driving around Lake Arenal. This is our first look at Arenal. We’d been in the area for two days but had not seen the volcano at all because of the dense cloud cover. When we came around the curve and saw this, we almost crashed the car. A massive gray rock jutting up out of the greenest landscape you ever saw..

Before relaying our trip, please see . . . → Read More About Costa Rica’s Magic Kingdom®

28 May 2007
2 comments - (Comments are closed)   CR: Attractions, Travel Tips, Volcanos

Sarchi with Mom and Gayle

Sarchi* is about an hour’s drive from here. The town is famous for two things: wooden furniture and oxcarts. The town is also known for arts and crafts, but it seems to me they make stuff to sell to tourists… not like they were going to make the stuff anyway. You know? Like oxcarts.

. . . → Read More About Sarchi with Mom and Gayle

27 May 2007
Comments are closed   CR: Attractions, Cultural Events, MOM, Sarchi, Travel Tips

F.F.A.W.W.

Far From A Well Woman, that would be me. Not two days ago, I was bragging to my mom how I never get sick. And today I’m in bed all day. Thank goodness for 600mg Ibuprofen! I’ve slept a lot and heading back to bed, but I need to eat some chocolate ice cream first. I can never remember if you feed a fever, starve a cold or vice versa. So I feed them both. Seems to be working. I feel better!!!

My mom’s friend Gayle has been here the past week and we’ve been to Sarchi for a . . . → Read More About F.F.A.W.W.

26 May 2007
Comments are closed   Health & Wellness

Rainforest Salad

. . . → Read More About Rainforest Salad

21 May 2007
2 comments - (Comments are closed)   CR: Cost of Living, Food

Birds Of A Feather

"Life is too strange."

So says Jen from Dominica. No kidding. Here’s what else she said:

"I am an expat living on the island of Dominica and I found your blog because I recently wrote an article for Escape Artist on Expat Culture Shock.

Anyway, I graduated from Lindenwood in 1974 [three years before I did] with a worthless degree in Communications [she should have emphasized Drama, like I did... then she could have gotten a good waitressing job] . . . → Read More About Birds Of A Feather

21 May 2007
Comments are closed   Culture Shock, Expat

The Trouble With Expat-ism

. . . → Read More About The Trouble With Expat-ism

20 May 2007
5 comments - (Comments are closed)   Culture Shock, Expat, Key West, Living-In

Together Again

Ojala, I am home. With my boys and my mommy. Yep, Mommy lived through her first 10 days in Costa Rica. It was wonderful and horrible. Wonderful because she got to chill sin [SEEN, without] the boys around creating chaos and sin me around barking orders. Horrible because, with the rolling blackouts, she was incomunicado much of the time. But that is all in the past. I’m home, it’s raining like a sombitch so no more blackouts, I sold not one but TWO houses so, ojala, there will be groceries again, and I’ve now recovered from the . . . → Read More About Together Again

19 May 2007
Comments are closed   Expat, Living-In, MOM

Expat Wish List

Since I’ve been in Key West the past three weeks, I’ve been working on my must-get-list for when I come to the states. So far:

Must Get:

extension cords (the ones with the flat plug – can’t find those in Costa Rica) printer ink (for my hp, they are $25 in the states, $50 in Costa Rica) replacement heads for my electric toothbrush BIG bottles of aspirin and acetaminophen  (it’s so funny that drugs are so cheap in Costa Rica except aspirin and acetaminophen… they are really expensive here) gel pens t-shirts on sale clothes on sale sneakers sports . . . → Read More About Expat Wish List

11 May 2007
5 comments - (Comments are closed)   Expat, Mail and Shipping

Sad Day For U.S. Expats Around the World

Hal and I did two things on dates, besides eat: we’d try out sofas (I have no idea why we did this… we’d be out, there’d be a furniture store and next thing you know we are sitting on all the sofas.) And browse bookstores. We couldn’t walk out of a bookstore without a stack of books. Last week in Naples, we spent $400 on discount books… That’s a lot of books. We had some catching up to do…

At our garage sale just before we ran away, people like us walked out with boxes of our books. We . . . → Read More About Sad Day For U.S. Expats Around the World

11 May 2007
5 comments - (Comments are closed)   Books, Expat, Mail and Shipping
 
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