Animal Kingdom

We got our first rain of the season Saturday night.  It was literally one of the loudest thunder storms I've ever heard.  Thankfully the rain has cooled it down a bit!  It has also brought back all sorts of animals.  I just got finished sweeping a crab out of River's room and after that turned the hall light on to find two lizards getting it on!  Just before dark, we got a pack of monkeys in the back yard that haven't been there all dry season.  We counted 11 in total.  Ryder put a paper plate of banana slices at the bottom of the tree they were in.  Hopefully, the monkeys got them before all the other critters did. 

Familia de Congos

Just chillin'

Ryder's pet monkey

We're heading to Managua to pick up one of Chris's oldest friends and his wife tomorrow.  Bring on the Spahrs!  Can't wait for some McDonald's, a movie at the cinema and a Pricemart run (Nica's answer to Sam's Club.)!  Those of you who know me personally realize that this little piggy will be very happy en la manana!  Great old friends and food make this mama a very happy lady!


P.S.  Here's what my little monkey got into this weekend:

Busted!!!

Dragons and flies

I'd like to use my new friend Jill's great quote to describe how I've felt today, and all week for that matter.  That is, "I'm hotter that a one-legged hooker working both sides of the street!"  Holy hotness!  People told me that April and May were the hottest months, but man, I just can't seem to cool off.  More perils of paradise, I guess.  It's also that time of the year here in Nicaragua where we get overrun with dragon flies.  We literally have hundreds of them by our pool every afternoon:

Yes, I know it's hard to see them in this pic!

Close-up:

Might just be the coolest insect!

This sure does beat the fly season that's about to start.  When we got here last year, you had to cover your drinks with napkins inside or out due to the frequency of those disgusting little "puke and move on" creatures.  Yuck!  And don't think that your food is safe either.  You literally take a bite and re-cover with said napkin.  Makes for a very CSI-looking display of food and drink.  Guess it's a proper burial for whatever meat product you choose to eat that day.  Flies or not, bring on the rain because this woman feels like she could melt any second.  Just put a napkin over me if I do please!  lol.  :)

Happy Moth-er's Day!

I had an amazing weekend!  Chris and I went to a music festival here in Nicaragua at TSS.  It was awesome!  We don't really get live music here so to hear live rock and roll was a real treat.  Afterwards, we rented another house in our community and had a sitter stay home with the kids.  Another real treat!  Adult stay-cation!

Live musica!

Yesterday, I was woken up to breakfast in bed!  Then I got to lounge around with my babies all day.  On the way to dinner, I had an unexpected guest land in my cleavage.  I felt something flittering around and then proceeded to fish out the moth who was having a good ol' time down there.  (Only in Nicaragua!  lol.)  Then we had this unexpected guest on the road to Playa Gigante:

Nica traffic

We ate at a new place in Playa Gigante and it was delicious and right on the beach.  The only bad part was the multiple piles of cow dung all over the beach right in front of the restaurant.  (I don't believe the cow above was the culprit!)  Bovine build-up aside, it was a very nice evening! 

With seafare like chicken wangs, you can't lose!  lol.

This ended the evening just right:

Playa Gigante palapa and sunset....ahhhhh!

Stinko de Mayo

Nothing much to complain about down here in paradise.  The only new creature to arrive on the scene these days are skunks.  We've left the house a few times and just had screen doors shut only to return home where every room in the house smells like skunk stink.  It's really gross.  The ones I've actually seen are so small it's amazing they smell that bad. 

We celebrated Mexico's independence last night here in Nicaragua.  We took the boys down to the restaurant for a banana sundae which was giant and of course they loved it.  I had a couple of really tasty margaritas because I love Mexico.  ;)  Who doesn't?  The boys had a good time running around and River met some cool grown dudes to hang out with (You know because all 2 year old boys do this, right?!).  Don't worry, I was 3 feet away so no Chester fiesta here!  He kept eating their food and just chatting it up with them while listening to the sweet sounds of Joselito:

Gordito hanging with the big guys

Atleast he wasn't doing this to get food:

What, you've never gone on a naked search for food before?!

 Happy Friday/Feliz Viernes everyone!

Funny Bunny

Is this not the cutest bunny ever?!

The kids had such a good time decorating Easter eggs with friends right before Easter.  (Ryder even got to do it twice!)  They also really enjoyed the Easter egg hunt held on Easter itself.  I tried without luck to find an English speaking church to go to that day, so we just talked about God and Jesus with Ryder and River and I cooked a nice dinner at home.  The boys got a small basket to share from the "Easter bunny".  It was amazing how happy they were even though they didn't get several baskets like they normally do.  (Another lesson in third world living:  Our kids don't need all the crap they get!)  Ryder's good friend Neila brought her bunnies to the hunt.  (She has SEVEN~ the original mama & daddy she had have been very busy!)  In Nicaragua, Easter is known as Semana Santa and is on the Thursday and Friday before.  However, they celebrate the entire week.  A lot of them looked at us like we were crazy when we told them we were planning on dying and hiding real eggs!  They also know nada about the Easter bunny.  But they do know all about Jesus' resurrection, so we're on the same page on that one!  :)

Ryder loves animals.

My other sweet boy!

Mommy & Daddy shot

Hope everyone else had a great Easter!  (Yes, I know I'm still blogging in the past tense, but at least I'm blogging!)  :)

GDEV (Gracias Dios Este Viernes!)

We had the creamiest, cheesiest, muy delicioso enchiladas for dinner last night.  Catalina and I made them together and they were amazing!  Then we watched the draft for a hopefully not-delayed season.  This lockout thing is so stupid!  It's like you're all making millions anyway, so just adjust it a little.  Meet in the middle and give us a season!  Won't they lose a lot of money if the season is delayed anyway?  This coming from the blonde who when asked what I thought about the Super Bowl odds in Vegas replied, "They're having the super bowl in Las Vegas this year?".  Lol.  Chris got a good laugh out of that one!  Gotta love football, though!  Football in paradise is essential.  You run out of things to do, so it's something different to look forward to each week.  This week's new event will consist of Chris getting 30 + stitches out of his head.  Good times!  ;)  Luckily, the gringo surgeon is still in town and he will be taking them out today.  Then it's more draft watching tonight because the Pats have 3 picks today.  Ex-pats for Pats!  Feliz fin de semana y'all!

Good bye ugly ace bandage, hello new haircut!

Semana Santa Stitches

It was a cold, rainy day in October the last time I was with Chris getting stitched up from a surfing accident.  That time, his 30 pound, 10 foot 2 inch board bashed him in the nose and split it open to the bone.  It was a ghastly sight indeed.  That one left him with his perfect nose crooked and scarred:

He's so hot, you can't even tell!

On Saturday, Yasser (a driver for the restaurant here) came to my house and said, "Christabol problema con cabeza."  That's all I had to hear to grab clothes for the kids (They don't usually wear much around the house down here.) and run into his truck for a ride to the clinic.  Once I saw the latest damage, I thought for sure I'd have to drive him to Managua, but luckily there was a gringo surgeon in town and he and the local doctor did an amazing job:

Looks so much better stitched up, trust me!

3 arteries severed and 3 layers of 30 + stitches later = one scared wifey!  (but now relieved that he's okay!)  This cut was from the nose of his epoxy board basically going through his head!  When I got there, all I could see was a huge gaping hole and blood pouring out like a faucet.  This happened at the river mouth in Popoyo on the biggest holiday of the year in Nicaragua:  Semana Santa.  He said he had to walk past about 300 + people with so much blood pouring out of his head that he could barely see through the blood!  Then he had to drive 30 minutes to our clinic by himself!  Chris is really lucky that he didn't pass out in the water or lose an eye.  He must have had a couple of angels looking over him that day.  The only funny part about this is when I brought both boys in just so that they could see that their daddy was still alive and would be fine.  (They could only see him laying on a table.)  River proceeded to tell everyone that would listen, "Daddy's a scary monster!"  Then he would put his hands out like claws and growl!  Oh, the mind of a 2 year old!