Hello Minneasota - I brought you some warm weather

We are having a heat wave in MN. I think it's up to 50 or so. You should see it. People walking around in shorts and flip-flops. I even saw a teenager with shorts, flip-flops and a tank top walking around outside! In Honduras you will see people breaking out hats and winter coats if it gets down to 70 degrees. Sister is even anxious to break out her summer clothes.

Being a mommy to three is not something that I'm used to. Juggling the needs of three kids is tricky learning overnight. It would be one thing if it started from birth, but I'm sort of jumping into this when Baby is 3 months old in my home away from home too- you know. The flights coming to MN were normal and the kids were fine. I was happy to fly on a newer Delta international plane from San Pedro Sula to Atlanta because it had tv screens on the backs of each seat. Brother could pick from some kid movies or cable tv channels too once we were close enough to the states. This made up for the fact that Delta is no longer offering in-flight meals.

We had a two hour lay over in Atlanta, but we barely had a moment to spare. Of course I am slowed down by two little children, 3 carry-ons, a purse, a car seat and a stroller. Trying to schlep all this through airports was not the best on my back. I needed help moving my luggage through immigration from the airport staff. The woman that helped me was not the nicest of people and barely helpful. I was flagged upon entering the US for the first time and had to have all my luggage re-scanned and one of them opened. There was a lot of schlepping going on and that airport helper person watched me do a lot of the work. When I got to the other side she put my luggage on the conveyor and turns to tell me in a rather monotone, unfriendly voice, "we accept tips". Sorry honey, your base pay is all you are making this time. I forgot and didn't have tip money anyway. I actually ran into a number of other rude airport staff along the way. I have had really nice friendly experiences before and all these rude people surprised me this trip through the huge Atlanta airport.

Brother had a small melt down on the second plane to MN because he missed his papi. I think a combination of all the excitement and then it being bedtime made him feel very emotional. He cried and cried in my arm. It broke my heart. I got him to calm down by drawing a picture of papi on a piece of paper. I tried to make it as close to what papi would look like as possible, including drawing in papi's whiskers. Brother held onto that picture the rest of the way. A funny thing - tonight Brother was drawing on the chalkboard a picture of papi - whiskers and all. So cute. Baby did really good on the flights too. She just nursed to her hearts content and she was happy with that. Well...both kids were kind of cranky on the decent of both flights, but that was manageable.

Once all the luggage was packed into my dad's car and I had baby buckled into her carseat I sat down in the front seat and in that moment that my butt hit the seat a searing pain in the back of my shoulder started that ran up my neck and down my arm and into the middle of my back. It took three days of constant ibuprofen for the pain to calm down and I still am taking it easy on using that arm.

Baby saw the doctor and the surgeon already and she is scheduled for surgery on April 3rd. Everything looks normal as far as that is concerned. I've also been making appointments for the dentist and doctor too for the kids and I. So now, I'm trying to figure out what I should be doing with my time while I'm here. It feels like such a long, long time that I'll be here when I think about it. I know I need to work and this can be an opportunity for my husband to focus on work too. But I miss my husband and strangely...I think I could miss Honduras too. I'm surprised.

This Is A Hot Dog....

This is a hotdog....

...For whatever reason, hotdogs and most other kinds of processed sausages have plastic wraps. Does this replace a casing? Not sure.


This is a frog...

...I found in my sink. He is a sticky frog so don't touch him. It feels like snot. Even though he is little he can jump really good.


This came special delivery...

...from the states. We got a DHL delivery the other day with some paperwork I need to register for Baby's US citizenship and it came packed with some extra love for me and the kids.


This is a big kid...

resting in the baby swing.


This is my little chunk...

...she is getting so big. Already 8 weeks old.

The Sprouts Celebrate Halloween

I admit it. I've been homesick the past month. Maybe it's that the "holidays" are here and it just doesn't feel like the holiday spirit yet? At least not the way I know it. I need it to get very chilly, turn the heat on in the house and cuddle up under heavy blankets at night.

The stores have all been decked out with Christmas gear already. There were only a few Halloweeny things out at stores. I did get a bit nostalgic driving by a Hallmark store though that was spookerific. Fake cobwebs and big black spiders and ghosts in the front windows. It was awesome. We drove by and I thought to myself that I wanted to go back to drive by again. I don't know why? To feel nostalgic again? he he he

I find myself wanting to pretend I'm in the US. For example, I try to look at something and put a frame around the image. Mostly when at stores or restaurants that remind me of someplace in the US, but I have done it even driving past green fields and rivers. I place myself in the US for a moment to feel what it would feel like there. Lately I try to imagine cold air and the smell of the house with the heat on. Especially the smell of leaves drying on the ground once the trees have given them up for their long winter sleep. MN has great smells. The seasons are clear as a bell and each has it's own unique scent. It's awesome.

I used to think Halloween was silly and evil. I tried to not celebrate it. But then I had kids. And gosh, it's just good fun. I also realize now that without it, a time marker is missing. I feel disorientated. Like I just woke up from an afternoon nap and I'm not sure what time it is.

It was a little discouraging to try to celebrate Halloween for the Sprouts. Sister was getting a lot of flack at school about it. Her friends don't "believe" in Halloween and think witches will come to get us if we do celebrate. I said *boo* and decided that since Sister wouldn't be able to go out trick or treating we would bring Halloween to Honduras. Well, at least to Sister's classroom. I made a trip to the big City Mall to the K-andy Land store and bought some candy corns and chocolate foil wrapped eyeballs. We also picked up some caramels from the grocery. Placed some of each candy in little plastic bags to keep them fresh and then into paper Halloween treat bags that I found at the grocery store. It was a big hit with the kids and I guess some decided they like Halloween "a little".

Pumpkins grow in Honduras, but I don't think many farmers plant and harvest them only for Halloween. We heard about stores having some in, but they proved to be elusive. No luck with pumpkins. But! If you get lemons, you have to make lemonade - right? So we carved watermelons! It worked out great! I'd do it again. And we don't mind eating the insides.

We went out for pizza for dinner to celebrate and had a very happy time. Came home and played around the candlelit watermelon jack-o-laterns for a few minutes and called it a night. Here is a slideshow:

The New House in Honduras - The First Week

I apologize that it has taken me a week to find time to sit down and write a blog entry. This stay at home mom/wife thing takes up a lot of time. There is still so much to do and trying to keep the kids occupied has been a challenge. Brother sprout doesn't have as many things to do as he used to in the states. Papa is out right now buying a little pool for the kids to pass the hot days. I mentioned that we do not have AC. This is a big challenge for me at least because I can't seem to stop sweating and sometimes I feel like I want to scream from the stickiness I feel. Taking showers helps. So far the most I've taken is 3 in one day. I think I would most days, but there is usually something that requires me to be sweaty anyway...so I pass on the heavenly cool shower. Did I mention we don't have hot water either? I could care less now.

Our house is beautiful and I am very happy with our colonia. I should get out and take some more photos of the houses around here. They are the brightest homes I've seen in Honduras. The colonia has a few Americans living here too I've heard but haven't met them. I guess they are from S. Carolina. I talked to the owner of the internet cafe here in the colonia who speaks really great english so he was telling me about things around here. He also gave me a name of a woman who works at one of the nicer bi-lingual schools teaching english. I guess she also teaches spanish on the side to anyone who might need and she will come to the house!

We were up at the internet cafe last night while papa was calling his family in the states and Brother and I went for a little walk hunting for frogs and to watch the family of puppies next door. I ran into a lady who spoke a little english. She seemed really lovely. I love when I meet people willing to try and talk to me even though I don't speak spanish yet.

We don't have the car yet which has presented a problem being able to go out an buy things for the house. We took a taxi a few times to this awesome store called Diunsa. It's kind of like Target, I guess. It has just about everything and it's clean and organized. I like that. I was a little worried and relieved to find a store like this. We also have gone to the grocery store a few times and Walmart has a nice south of the border company called Paiz. There are a few other nice grocery stores too. One challenge is trying to find skim milk. They have this stuff that's in these containers that has a really long shelf life. I don't know what they do to the milk, but it takes like skim milk. Hmmm....I would take a photo but my battery is dead on the camera.

There are many things we still have to do around the house like hang all our clothes on hangers. I got some up yesterday but have been slow to get things done. Cooking, cleaning and seeing to the kids takes up a lot of time. And as of today...I LOVE IT!

I really do love being here for the kids. I love being here with Papa. I feel safe and protected next to him. I don't remember the last time I felt this happy. I think I need to find a rhythm to things still. How to get things done efficiently. I need to learn how to cook again too, especially for Papa. Not that I forgot, I just haven't really cooked much the last year.

Here are some more photos of the house:

We have a big yard. No trees and prickly grass. We are talking about what to do about how to make this space more usable.

We had a few pizza nights so far which the kids loved! We finally got dishes since we were eating off of paper plates for a few days.

The kids bathroom. Basic.

The pila where we do some laundry by hand. I wash Brother's diapers in the pila instead of the washing machine. That large rubbermaid the yellow bucket is sitting on is Brother's bathtub. He does not like the showers.

We have a washer but not a dryer. I am thankful that we have the clothes line in the back. Some of the houses have lines hung from all kinds of places like pillars on the house tied to a tree or some other post in the yard.



Papa and Brother on Papa's "bike". The kids love going for rides on this. Yes, the house across the street is under construction. It does cause noise and dust. I couldn't imagine working out there all day building these houses under the sun. Some of the new houses in the neighborhood are absolutely beautiful. The colonia is new in 2001 and there is lots of construction going on around the neighborhood.

Sister Sprout's main hangout spot. She usually has the fan about 6 inches away blowing full blast. Like her American flag flip-flops (on the floor) she picked up before we moved? We had some furniture re-apolostered. A couch and 2 chairs. They look very nice, but are small. The living room isn't huge, so the smaller furniture will do for now.

There are many other things I could write about right now...but Brother Sprout's ice pop is melting on the floor and I need to get him outside.

Saying Goodbye ~ The Final Hours

Okay...I'm kind of weirded out now. I wake up this morning and look around me and think how different my surroundings will be in just a few days. I pay attention to the way the light shines in the morning and the sounds of life in the suburbs of MN. It's so beautiful here. It really is and I'm going to miss it immensely.

I was able to get together with friends and family the past few days. Friday afternoon my parents hosted a "grandparent" lunch since my grandparents on my mom's side couldn't come to the going away picnic. They are getting older now and it's difficult for them to get around. The lunch was really nice except for one disappointment. Sister's Sprouts paternal grandparents were supposed to come to the lunch and just as they were to arrive, Sister runs out to get the mail and there is a card from her grandparents saying they were not going to be able to make the lunch! If the mail hadn't been checked we would have never known they were not going to make it and been waiting and worrying.

It was horrible. Sister started to cry and then I started to cry. She was so excited for them to come and was so concerned with things being just right for them. She had picked out where she wanted them to sit and asked if she would be able to spend some time with them after lunch. She had been counting down the days until they were coming. I was so disappointed for her. What kind of grandparents do that to their own grandchild? What a cop-out to not even have the courtesy to call. It was a rude and inconsiderate thing to do and ultimately was the end of any effort on my part to include them in Sister's life. Now I realize that my hopes for them to accept and love their biological granddaughter were too grand. At least Sister had a chance to meet them as she was not able to meet her father. They seemed like nice people, but it's obvious now that inconsiderate, selfish behavior must run in the family. I know I am not sounding very nice, but this really upset me.
Maybe they will even read this since I've sent out the blog website to them before. I guess it's just the truth and I won't risk hurting my daughter again on them.

Anyway...off that negative note. After our lunch I prepared a "goodbye" and "thank you" dinner for my girlfriends. It was wonderful! I had such a good time preparing a meal for them and hopefully they liked it. We ate and hung out for many hours just talking and laughing and crying late into the night. By the time I had to say goodbye to the last guest I was completely exhausted but happy the night went so well.

Tonight I went out to dinner with my two sisters. Again, such an awesome time. I am enjoying taking the time for family and time for myself and really paying attention to things here and swallowing as much joy and beauty as I can these next few days. Honduras will be beautiful don't get me wrong. But MN is home.

After dinner we had time to just sit and enjoy conversation. When we do get together there are usually kids with enough distraction that our conversations are cut off and we have to ask for reminding of where we left off. Tonight there were no distractions and I enjoyed sharing a meal with them like real grown woman.

Sisters dinner at Buca's
I love you girls!!

I decided that I don't want to be sad. I'll try hard, but I know it will be weird saying goodbye to my sister's tomorrow night. With technology we really aren't that far away. I'm sure there will be tears as they seem to come even just writing about it...but it will be okay. It really will, I know. It's just hard to say this first "goodbye".

Sister Last Day of 3rd Grade

Sister's 3rd grade class invited family to come to a party for the last few hours on the the last day of school. While we were there they had a show-and-tell. Sister brought in a chunk of fools gold. One little girl brought in her pet guinea pig. They passed out treats and awards were handed out to each of the students for various things such as "inquirer" or "comedian". Of course Sister got the "traveler" award. Then they watched a photo slide show set to music from fun events during the year.

One of the very last things they did was to get up in front of the class and say something about their year at school if they wanted to. It was really cute to hear the things the kids would say. Some got up there then ended up standing there with a blank look on their face. Other's sang or did a little dance and said something silly. At the very end Mrs. Stewart said a farewell and then started to cry. It made me have tears too. She said she always gets a little sad saying goodbye to her classes. But then I was thinking...maybe it's crying because the year has ended and she gets her much needed break. I give her a lot of credit or any teacher for that matter. I was exhausted watching her have to deal with the class in just a few hours.

After school got out we went swimming to celebrate! Brother and Sister really enjoyed themselves. It was a good last day of school.

Honduras Consulate Trip to Chicago- April 25th-28th

Biker at Navy Pier - Chicago IL April 28, 2006

On April 25th around 4pm, me, the two sprouts and one of my closest girlfriends, Laura got in my little Ford Focus (no cruise control) and drove 8 hours to Chicago. I am fortunate that I have a friend, Gina who lives in Chicago and we were able to make a long weekend of the big event to go see the Honduras consulate. The trip was pretty painless and in fact was a wonderful time to spend with my friends! I am very blessed with such sweet friends who honestly would do anything for me. But things on Wednesday the 25th did not start out so great and in fact gave me such a scare that I was questioning if the trip may need to be postponed. I'll try to explain as best I can and apologize if this is a little long to read.

I mentioned before what a circus act it is to become a resident of another country. I needed to have notarized copies that have been "certified" by the Secretary of State. For MN that office is located in St. Paul. About a week before the trip, I received some medical lab results from my doctor's appointment. You know, the usual stuff that says my blood is normal, I don't have an infectious diseases or anything requiring major medical care. For whatever reason I waited until the morning of the trip to go to St. Paul to have the notary's signature certified at the Secretary of State office. I show up around 9am and take a number and sit down to wait to be called.

My number is called a few moments later and I go to the counter and fill out a piece of paper at which point they take my medical documents along with 2 certified copies of my marriage license that I had also received about a week prior. I sit down to wait for them to call me back up which they say should be just a few minutes. I sit...and I sit a little while longer. I watch a couple of people come and go that seem to have come in around the same time as me. I figure they must have something that doesn't take as long to process.

After a while the man that was helping me realizes I am still sitting there and he calls out to me, "ma'am, you are still waiting. Didn't your documents come in yet?" and I rise to go to the counter. Immediately I see he is suddenly in quite a bit of distress. He begins to look through stacks of paper in different places. He then flags another woman to help him search for my documents. At this point my skin is starting to crawl and I think I uttered a few things under my breath like, "you've got to be kidding me?" and as the moments go on and other people in the office are starting to look concerned as well, my heart started to sink even faster. I think the blood in my ears started to sound and I was holding back saying anything b/c I felt like I was going to start to yell and the office was starting to fill up with people waiting because the office was at a stand still while everyone was looking for my documents. Wouldn't you know that they sent my documents with a man on his way back to Rochester, MN.

They printed out the scanned copies of the documents they certified that were now on their way to Rochester and notarized them as real copies of the documents and then gave them the apostille stamp. I already had a marriage certificate that I had certified so I was less worried about that, but I was concerned about the medical records. What if the Honduras Consulate felt the info I had - a wimpy little letter with a few sentences saying me and Sister Sprout are healthy - was not acceptable and they needed actual copies of the medical records. Maybe the scanned copies would have been fine, but what if they weren't? I could show up and they might barely bat an eye, or quite possibly they could send me home without their stamps and seals on it.

I made the decision to let it be as it was and hope for the best. The secretary of state people didn't charge me for any of the certification I needed and explained that they would sent a FedEx envelope to the person who had my documents and have him FedEx them to Chicago. This was Wednesday and if everything was aligned just right I would have the actual real certified documents by Friday when I was going to the consulate.

I suspected they were quite concerned about this little mis-hap being taken care of as quickly and quietly as possible. I would guess this type of thing would have cost someone their job being that they "lost" private medical records.

So did they make it to Chicago on time??? Yep. At 10:45am on Friday morning the FedEx man rang Gina's doorbell. I was getting ready to leave and they showed up without a moment to spare.


Honduras Consulate in Chicago
Sister Sprout and I made it to the consulate at about 11:30am. The place is in a high latino section of town with almost all stores having some kind of latino name. It's really a small hole in the wall. There was a bench made out of unfinished 2x4's and a mis-match of old used office chairs in the waiting area. The back offices were no different and the 3 desks set up had only 1 "guest" chair to sit on, so sister sprout had to sit on my lap. Maybe there wasn't another chair available, but they did not offer to try and find one for us.


One interesting thing they had in the office waiting area was various application forms such as passport applications from people who I think must have given fake information. I couldn't understand what or why all those application papers were up at first, but then realized what they probably were. If anyone has any other thought on why they would post those applications up for all to see - please chime in.



With all the drama with the documents and the nerves of something going wrong I showed up at the consulate with no cash. Oops! I got in there, filled out some paperwork and then had to leave to try and find some place that I could get cash. We ended up walking down the street to a gas station and taking money out of their ATM. When we got back to the office they made us wait for a very long time. I'm guessing it was just after or possibly a late lunch hour there. My stomach was really starting to rumble too. But we finally were called back and finished up all the paper work. One thing that I thought was kind of cool was they gave me another name. In Honduras I cannot have my husband's name as the first last name. In Latin America and I'm sure many other places in the world, when you marry the woman retains her maiden name and then will add the husband's name after. Sometimes it's just 2 names one right after the other; other times it's the maiden followed by the word de and then the husband's last name. They decided to give me the "de" between my maiden and my husband's name.

The rest of the trip in Chicago was lots of fun with my kids, my friends and Gina's adorable 16 month old son Aidan. Isn't he cute?

Aidan 16 months

This post is going to press a little late. It's been 1/2 written for over a week. I'd post a bunch more photos from the trip but my connection currently is oh so slow and not uploading photos so speedily. I've put all the photos onto my photo album page so check them out there if you'd like to see more. You know...the usual million photos of the kids.

The Mad Hatter Tea Room - Sister Sprout's 9th Birthday

We had such a good time with Sister Sprout's 9th Birthday Tea Party. All the girls enjoyed themselves. The girls had lemonade in china tea cups and cookies, cupcakes & fruit cups to snack on. All homemade and very delicious! Grandma made a stamped bingo game with old buttons as markers. Big hit! The girls looks fabulous in their prettiest party dresses and the hats, gloves and jewelry to dress up with at the tea room made it so fun. A perfect girls 9 year old birthday party!

Check out the slideshow link attached to the post title for all the party pics if you can't see the photobucket images above.

Brother Sprout climbing

Alonso has learned to climb the kitchen chairs and discovered the cool light switch his papa installed

Tidbits

The days just fly by. I know I'm getting closer to having the house ready to sell. I've been working many, many hours on the house. Even took 2 days off work and basically painted or landscaped for 48 hours straight. I've accomplished a lot, and have just a little bit futher to go.
I'm not killing myself trying to get it done. Basically, I'm working, but it will be done when it's done.

Last night my dad and I stayed up until the wee hours laying cement. Me, never having worked with cement, I was the pupil. I learned to mix cement to the right consistency and at what pace water should be added and how to use all kinds of cement tools with funny names like "bull float". It seems like it would be a simple thing, but it really is an art and there is a point of no return that you reach with every step. There is only so much room for error and once you start, you can't stop until you are finished or the job is ruined. There were a few moments of panic when we realized we did not have enough cement to finish the run we were trying to get done. I ran to the local hardware store and got 5 more bags and we thought that would be more than enough. Nope. @ 9:40p we realized we are short again and made another mad dash to Home Depot before it closed at 10p. A little bit later when it must have been close to midnight and the cement we had poured about an hour earlier was just not setting up fast enough. We had cleaned up the edges and run the joints, but you could see a thin layer of water shining at the surface. Without the sun, and the early morning humidy working against us, we could have been waiting for hours for the water to evapoate. So I say to my dad, "why don't we sop up that water with some paper towels? I was thinking about how I sometimes sop up the oil on top of pizza. Wouldn't you know it worked like a charm! We went through about 2 rolls of paper towels and we were onto the smoothing step. I don' t know if we broke some major rule of cement work, but it worked! I wonder if anyone else has tried this shortcut before?

My dad deserves a metal for everything he does. I don't know how it is he seems to know how to do everything, but I'm sure glad he does!

My hands are brittle today. Cement will suck out every last ounce of moisture you have in your hands. Not a very glamous job. I've given up on keeping the manicure up for now. Not that I ever really have in my life, but I was trying since my trip to Honduras.


Aside from painting, landscaping, cement work, etc, etc...
I've still managed to keep the kids in one piece and fed.
Here's some kis tidbits:

Sister Sprout is exploring some new independance. She has started to walk by herself to her daycare, which is only about 3 blocks away. It really happened slowly, but also so fast. Her world seemed to open up a lot once she learned to ride her bike this last summer. It's so strange how quickly it does happen. One day I am making sure she is buckled up in her booster seat and the next she removes the booster from the car and announces that she is too big for a booster seat. She had read that kids need a seat until age 7 and once she hit 7, that was it. She was out of that seat and she had the sign posted at the doctors office to back her up. I didn't fight it.
So I embrace this one too. She'll be okay. She is a smart and cautious girl.

Brother Sprout has been my funny monkey lately. Just doing things that really crack me up. He is like curious George always trying to get into things and figure things out.

He's figured out where the candy dish is kept (on top of the fridge). He woke up the other morning and decided he wanted a sucker. He really likes the dum-dum suckers. Yes, I'm breaking the rules by giving him hard candy - I know. He whines, he cries, he points to the candy dish and throws his head and body back is distress he wants that candy so badly. Ugh!I'm trying to get us out the door and he is really making it difficult. So I tell him he can take the candy with him to daycare but he has to save it until later. I pop the sucker into his hand and he's happy to go willingly into the car and off to daycare we go. He's holding his sucker as we walk in the door and I tell daycare he needs to save it for later. That kid held out until about 9:30a I guess and then that was it. He couldn't wait any more. Pretty good for a 1 year old.

Then last night I'm tucking Brother Sprout in and he again starts to beg for candy. Oh boy...he really puts up a fuss too when he wants something. I'm glad dum-dums are wrapped. I pop a sucker into his hand and tell him he has to wait until tomorrow to have it. He didn't seem to care. He just wanted it in his hand. He fell asleep with his little fingers wrapped tightly around the little dum-dum. He never liked the pacifier, he doesn't have a security blanket or a stuffed animal. He likes to have food, specifically sweet food, in hand.

Brother Sprout also has learned that his feet and socks stink. We play this game when I am taking socks and shoes off that I smell his feet and then wrinkle up my nose and proclaim "pee-ewe! You have stinky feet!!". And he laughs and laughs and laughs. Well, then he realized that he could take his sock and stick it in my face and get the same reaction. Tons of laughs are hand by that. Well, the other night Brother Sprout wasn't sleeping well due to teething. It must have been about 5am and still dark as night. He is awake and so not to disturb big Sister Sprout I take him into my room and try to get him to lay down some more. He tries, but just tosses and turns. Then he pulls off one of his socks and in my sleepy haze I feel this cotten sock in my face. At 5am in pitch dark he is trying to get me to laugh. I couldn't help it...I said, "pee-ewe, ..." in my crackly morning voice with a smile on my face.

I just love these kids.

Alonso's Big Boy Haircut