Central America

Jer and I took a trip in April for 10 days without kids to Panama and Costa Rica. It was WONDERFUL! and much needed. We stayed with a classmate of Jer's in Panama. We flew in his private plane from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean in about 30 minutes- with amazing views of the jungle and the Panama Canal. It's a beautiful country- quite modern and quickly growing, but also has a lot of rainforest uncut, and gorgeous beaches.
The Panama Canal by air
Jer with his buddy Mode

Then we flew on a little plane to a small town in the west of Costa Rica- Nosara. A tiny airstrip and dirt roads were all we could see from the air. We stayed in a house in the jungle, overlooking the ocean. We met Jer's brother and his wife Lauren there, and spent 3 days together, before they went home- and we had 3 days to ourselves. The boys surfed, we went deep-sea fishing one day and caught some huge yellow-fin tuna, and we went on a canopy tour. (the people leading the canopy tour weren't very happy about me going pregnant, but I won, and had a super time). Jer and I relaxed and explored and dreamt, and had such a wonderful, romantic, fun time together. I really love that boy, and I'm glad to not have to share him with school anymore!

Jer and Stu having some super fresh sushi getting ready to fly through the jungle a few hundred feet in the air at break-neck speeds

Where do I even start... Why I must be blessed

1. Last week I left a pot of chicken boiling on the stove for 4 hours while I ran errands. When i got home, black smoke was so thick in my house, I could even see my hand in front of my face. Luckily, there were NO flames, and we still have a house- stinky, but standing.
2. My neighbors found out about the smoke, came in and took all of my launderable belongings to thier houses to be washed, and brought them back. Another neighbor brought her steam cleaner and I cleaned the carpets and the couches, etc. What wonderful neighbors.
3. We drove to Estes Park, Colorado last week to spend a week with my entire family. We almost died twice on the way there- once in a random ice-storm, and once when a herd of elk appeared on the dark road-both narrowly averted.
4. I've had 3 weeks of pneumonia (in the spring) feeling better mostly now.
5. Everything in our house is breaking. The lovely part of that is that nothing broke for 2 years while Jeremy was is school and didn't have time to fix it!
6. Jer's car WAS on its last leg. We really didn't want to buy a new one right now, but spent quite a bit of time looking for new trucks. All of the sudden, his old one works better than it ever has!
7. I backed into a car- no damage for either of us!

Needless to say, my life seems helter-skelter, I could honestly go on and on. My instinct is to stay in bed and wait it out, but what mom of 3 ( or any) can do that? Besides... I do realize that I am incredibly blessed, and things aren't bad, I am just getting a HUGE glimpse of how GOOD it really is! All update more soon.