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".

Merry Christmas To All

So much has happened in the past month. I am now waiting for the closing of the house which has been pushed back twice. Makes me a little nervous, but I'm trying not to think about it too much. The call I got from my brother-in-law turned out to be a good thing. The young couple that is going to buy the house are actually old friends of Papa's and I have known them for a while. They are excited to move in and start their remodeling plans to the kitchen. One thing that is cool about selling the house to someone that I know, is that I can actually ask to come visit the house and it not be too strange.

So for the past month I have been packing things up and getting things organized. We put up the Christmas tree and put out decorations to keep things somewhat normal, but all the pictures are down, the bulk of the kitchen stuff is packed away. So the house does look a bit empty. And with my attention to packing, selling & donating, the cleaning has suffered. But the kids just seem happy as can be regardless. I packed up so much stuff to donate it took up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the garage. I called Salvation Army and they came to pick it up one day and it's all gone now. I could have started my own thrift store!

I've sold off a bulk of my furniture including my table & chairs, my elliptical machine, a lg dresser, a computer deak & some various tools. It's kind of crazy how things sell on Criagslist. I listed a few items on a Wednesday night not really knowing what to expect and my phone and email was blowing up the next day. I was on a business trip to NYC and couldn't deal with the slew of people trying to contact me about the furniture. It was kind of craziness for a minute there.

So ready or not Christmas is here. It's Thursday and the past week I've been frantically printing pictures, wrapping presents, getting those last minute things like boxes and tape. Sister Sprout was easy to shop for this year, but Brother Sprout was hard. He doesn't need a lot of things and I don't want to create too much clutter or have things I won't really be able to bring to Honduras. He'll have fun playing with Sister Sprout's things too, which he always wants what his sister has anyway.

I'm excited to see how he does opening presents this year. Last year the poor boy had the stomach flu and was throwing up while Sister Sprout was trying to open presents. This year I know the two of them are going to be crazy egging each other on or wanting each other's gifts. It will be fun to watch.

I still have yet to receive this year's Christmas photocard that I ordered online. So, everyone may be getting New Year's cards I guess. Getting the photo done this year was a test of patience. I could never be one of those portrait photographers. I needed a long break after our little home photo session. My ears were probably beat red b/c my blood pressure sure felt high. It was difficult to get Brother Sprout to give us a good photo. But I think we got one that will do. Here it is:

And here are some photos of the fun we had getting to this photo. I had over 50 photos and really only 2 turned out.

Merry Christmas to all!

Happy Halloween!

Boo!

Another Halloween has come and gone. This year Sister Sprout picked out all the bad candy when she got home and gave me all the chocolate ones. She is taking her new diet restrictions pretty seriously. If you all haven't heard, Sister Sprout was found to have ridiculously high levels of cholesterol for a 9 year old. Like in the 260's. It's hard to imagine a young healthy 9 year old with the cholesterol level of an 50+ year old, obese smoker. But she does, and we are dealing with it head-on.

So mama got all the chocolate. Guess what I did a 10pm last night. Sat down with 3 fun size candybars and watched the news. We had all of 2 trick-or-treators at the house last night and good thing I didn't buy any chocolate to hand out, b/c I would have been sitting with a whole bowl to choose from. We stuck with the chewy candy types for hand outs, but after looking at the ingredients, I realized those are on the no-no list too with saturated fat. Why must we do this to our kids???

Brother Sprout didn't really like his costume, but once it was on, he became a bit more curious about how it was he had this stuffed animal on his head and he kept looking up at the dragon tongue dangling above his head. Once we got to GGpa's he woke up and was very interested in the M&M's in Sister Sprout's treat pumpkin. He is a chocolate junkie. Just like his mom. M&M's being his favorite. He will pass on all the other candy bars if he has a choice of M&M's. He knows which one's have his favorites inside.

Sister Sprout hit the neighborhood with a friend and her parents. I was happy to let her go and get out of the cold. It was nice that there was very little wind, but the cold was bitter. I am NOT looking forward to winter here again.

Speaking of that, it's looking that I will most likely be spending another winter here in MN. I thought if the house sold by Thanksgiving, that I could get out of most of the winter by spending time in Honduras and preparing for a move. Well...the house just isn't going to sell as I hoped. I'm tired of trying to sell it. It takes a lot of work. Work I just don't think I can do. I'm starting to lose sleep over it and that's not a good thing. We'll see....a buyer will come eventually. Trying to decide if I should list on the MLS and just be done with it. I'll have to reduce the price most likely. I'm going to do more research on the market price of my home.

November is here. The month Papa and I married. The month of my birth, the month of Sister Sprout's birth. Thanksgiving and the kickoff of the Christmas season fall in November. It's a good month. Finding a buyer for my house will make it even better.