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winning!

By on April 26, 2012 in Costa Rica, giveaways

I have never in my life won anything that I can recall… UNTIL RECENTLY!!!

I was browsing Houtz House Party (always a good pastime, obviously) and discovered this thing called Ultimate Blog Party. on a whim I decided to join up. I don’t think I’ve had such helpful “whims” ever, to date.

I hopped on the twitter party that night and it was actually the first twitter party I had been with as well. I couldn’t BEGIN to keep up. I’m not quite sure I’ll ever really get the point of those things unless they are small, which this one definitely was not. in any case, I made a few comments here and there and I still have no faint clue how, but I WON $100!!! (to Target)

so we were pretty happy about that, obviously, and just went about our regularly scheduled lives until yesterday when I discovered that we’d WON something else!

Time Dog is a personal virtual assistant, and you KNOW we could use one of those!!!
WOOF!

definitely feeling so, so blessed!

I’ve been wanting to do one of our Costa Rica giveaways, so I figured in celebration of winning, we’re going to give you a chance to win something :)
it’s not $100, but it IS fairly cool.

(it’s kinda like the color of the year)

since I don’t have my lobes pierced I’m not the best model for these, but I tried.
now that I think about it, I should have had Mr. D do it, LOL!

so there are actually 2 bracelets (the other one is the pink on my arm) and 1 set of coffee bean earrings to be won, all straight from Costa Rica!
winner takes all. love you guys!

side note: I wish I was eating cereal right now.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Comments { 13 }

hey, it’s hump day

By on April 25, 2012 in Costa Rica, IRLOMashup, the cuteness, ♬ music & art ✎

she drawsshe barely turned 5. frankly I am impressed.

again. this was showing up a lot in her drawings recently.
not even sure where she saw written music…

I’m sorry, but this is just too cute!!!!!!!!!!! (“we’re flowers!”)

and finally, the IRLO Mashup is ON, son!

there miiiiight be a giveaway later today… it’s possible.

Comments { 8 }

warning: don’t irritate me. I’m detoxing.

By on April 20, 2012 in Costa Rica, help!, Lifestyle, Low-Maintenance Girl, Musings

while we were in Costa Rica I was feeling pretty gross… yes, there were lots of fruits and vegetables, but there was also an overabundance of white flour and rice. and maybe just a few late night ramen parties… oh my word, that picture makes me HUNGRY. seriously, SO yummy. ok, but so not good for my stomach, sheesh.

I had mentioned previously about being a bit of a lard at the moment, and when we got back I waited to step on the scale until after a weekend of binging on snacks and sweets at the marriage retreat we attended. so Monday was the fateful day, and the scale told the same story that my ill-fitting clothes had already spoiler-alerted me to.

I had, however, promised myself that I would kick-start my getting back into normal eating mode by detoxing the first week back in the States. I was trying to figure out what I should do and kind of asked God for something and felt like the lemon detox (aka master cleanse?) was what I needed right now.

Source: Uploaded by user via tico♥tina on Pinterest

 I was fairly certain things would go as they have in the past when I’ve made similar attempts = basically just really pissed that I can’t eat, PLUS no weight loss. I mean, as you can see from the picture, I did kind of downgrade from the recommended “fresh” lemon juice and “organic” pure maple syrup. but this family’s budget says no to that, not to mention my Low Maintenance Girl tendencies.

well, this is day 5, and I am quite happy to say that the first 3 days were AMAZINGLY easy – I honestly wasn’t even hungry. (my stomach was probably still digesting all the weekend crap, lol) yesterday I didn’t start drinking as early as I should have and ended up running out of maple syrup, as you can see from the picture, so I was actually hungry and started to get that frustrated feeling. a carrot with some salt sounded like a feast! I just could NOT stand to intake any more sweetness, even if I would have had the maple syrup I needed.

I came really close to caving, especially since we decided to finish the last episode of Downton Abbey and eating and watching something go hand-in-hand, you know… but Mr. D encouraged me and I decided to just drink some chicken broth – technically cheating, but I didn’t have much for options, so.

my most favorite part of this whole thing is that I’ve actually almost accomplished half of my goal of 12 pounds! obviously I’ll probably get a bit back when I start eating again (and exercising, which I have been dying to do now that I’m back to my exercise ball and stair-stepper!), and just pounds on a scale is not the real goal, but wow how I DO love parts of my body not touching other parts that aren’t supposed to. I intend to basically stick with the foods I was eating last summer that helped me meet my get-back-to-wedding-weight goal, as well as portion control, which tends to be my biggest problem.

so thankfully, this week has largely been a blessing, not full of bad moods like I was afraid of. I was reading a devotional this morning that I felt pertained:

Anger can be traced to a few sources. First, when we lose control of a circumstance that we have placed certain expectations on and those expectations do not result in our desired outcome, we are tempted to get angry. The source of this type of anger is both fear and protection of personal rights. You see, when we believe we have a right to something, we have not given the Lord permission to allow an outcome different from what we want. If an outcome is different from our expectations, this may stimulate fear.

in this case, I feel like food is a right, which is what makes me so mad when I can’t eat. but I have definitely experienced the fear-based anger as well. I try to keep the whole “emotions are like the car dashboard for your heart” thing in mind, but sometimes it is just hard to care in the middle of things :)

how about you? does not eating make you made at the world?

I definitely think about all the many people around the world who have much more right to be angry they can’t eat than “poor” little old me in the USA.

Comments { 6 }

party like you just got home from Costa Rica… (which happens to be a part of the “real world”)

By on April 15, 2012 in Costa Rica, fyi, IRLOMashup, Lifestyle, stuff we do, work, ★ dreams, ♬ music & art ✎

yeah, we got home late Thursday night, but we left again on Friday afternoon for a marriage retreat. so tonight I consider us to be home for real.

I can’t say it feels like much of a party, though.
(especially since it feels like I’m getting a cold?!)

that’s why I’m linking us up to the Ultimate Blog Party 2012!

there, now it feels a bit more festive in here.

seriously, though, we were just waiting for all the “welcome back to the real world” comments. (which thankfully we haven’t gotten too much yet at least) the thing is, last I checked, Costa Rica is not part of another planet – it’s right here on our world, Earth. additionally, it was Mr. D’s “real world” in every sense, all sarcasm aside, for the first 20 years of his life, which is still well over half of it :)

Costa Rica is a part of our real world, whether or not we live there all of the time. our kids have now joined Mr. D in dual citizenship status, which was obviously not without its quirks, but we’re really happy for them to have that, and I’m looking forward to becoming naturalized sometime in the future as well. we found out on this trip that we should apparently be able to count the 6 months that I’ve lived there so far towards the 2 years I need to have under my belt, so I think that is pretty cool!

anyway, if you’re here for the first time, or maybe have been here before but not made it to our “about” page, here’s a bit of a summary of why we blog:

we’re a passionately creative, multi-cultural family who is currently self-employed and location independent. we’re just sharing our crazy journey, and hope it encourages others along the way.

we really do believe that we are all made for adventure, and while that looks different in different lives, we know that God’s dreams and plans for us are often, if not always, much bigger than what we dream for ourselves. we are continuously amazed by his work in our lives.

part of our journey thus far includes our small business identity & graphic design business, which happens to currently be undergoing a bit of restructuring. our heart for Kaleidoscope International has always been to become a well-rounded resource and source of encouragement for small businesses and those looking to self-employment as a way to enable them to spend more time with their families, so we are working on developing that aspect of it more.

another business that we have just begun developing, though it has been in our hearts for many years, is called the Beauty of One. we believe that what we surround ourselves by has a big impact on us, and so we want to make it easy for people to surround themselves by what inspires and encourages them. we create custom inspirational art, as well as sell ready-made art, (all still in the beginning stages) and are building several fun sidelines such as BlankCanvas™ Cards. we cart around a blank canvas with us and use it in pictures when we come across interesting locations on our adventures. this adventure in Costa Rica is by far the most memorable so far!

the blank canvas has become to us a symbol of life, and we want to paint an adventure on it. this summer we hope to involve some of you in that adventure! we anticipate starting to roll out some of the details about that in the coming month, so stay tuned :)

meanwhile, if you’d like to be part of a fun get-to-know-you activity we’re doing that involves the BlankCanvas™ cards, check it out over here, I haven’t had much time to explain it in detail because of all our recent craziness, so there are still a few spots open!

we’d love to know more about your dreams/adventure, go ahead and introduce yourself!

Comments { 15 }

when life drops 212 pounds of lemons in your lap, I hope you have a He-Man to make lemonade

By on April 13, 2012 in Costa Rica, HA! ☺, help!, traveling

people, I am forever amazed at the insanity that is Mr. D. he is my He-Man for real, and he killed it on our way home.

do you SEE this mound that we were toting around with us in the wee hours of the morning?!

I had the stroller, one of the rolling carry-ons, and the little man. Maeve had one of the rolling carry-ons – 5 year olds are helpful! and Mr. D had ALL 212 pounds of that other stuff, ON HIS BACK! he’s sort of like the Hulk, in my completely un-biased opinion.

I could go on for a good hour recounting the various aspects of the adventure that was getting home. it was the kind of adventure that is quite difficult to embrace in the moment. But let’s just keep it to bullet points, shall we? I was starting to feel like one of those annoying whiny people with some of my recent posts, so we don’t want to go there…

Tina’s Travel Adventure Observations:

  • people in FL wear swimming suits like undershirts? unless it was just a lot of tourists? either way, I’ll call it “fascinating” to be polite.
  • speaking of attire, I was reminded that one good thing about living in the Midwest is that at least part of the year people are kind of forced to dress somewhat modestly out of the necessity to try to stay warm. sheesh people, wearing shorts that look like underwear out in public is just… kinda gross.
  • I did not think “OH MY WORD, everyone is FATTT” this time like my family all did when we moved back to the States from China after a year and a half when I was 16.
  • do those tropical braids (which I’m sure probably have an actual name that I can’t think of right now) actually look good on anyone who is not black, or at least really brown? I am sorry to say I succumbed to some back in 2002 on a cruise to the Bahamas with some girlfriends, but seriously, white scalp is, well, really WHITE.
  • as I was waiting with the kids and our ridiculously huge pile of luggage for Mr. D to find our van, I saw a couple of [ablebodied!] men wheeling those flipping $5 luggage carts around carrying a mere backpack and like an iPad. seriously. (and no, it didn’t appear that they were going to pick up anymore luggage) I was like, wow, can I have those when you’re done NOT getting your money out of them?! I hope we have money to waste like that someday. except that I promise you we would not waste it.
  • ok, whoops, I kind of got whiny again, sorry. some situations just really beg for sarcasm.
  • if one of your kids is about to pee her pants and the other one has crapped his up while you are waiting for two hours in the middle of the night with your huge mound of luggage while your husband attempts to locate your van in one of the vast long term parking lots at O’Hare, running over to catch a group of police/security to beg for one of them to stay with said bags so that you can run your kids to the bathroom might be your only salvation. thank God they came along…!
  • when your husband has no phone and is at his whit’s end hopping shuttles and trying to find above mentioned vehicle in the insanity that is O’Hare, all the while thinking of his poor wife and kids waiting for him back at the terminal, he just might shed a few tears of frustration. even if he IS the Incredible Hulk.
  • carting 6 large pieces of luggage, 1 crazy heavy backpack, 4 other personal item bags, + 1 temperamental stroller, and 2 small children on and off and between shuttles and buses without a cart actually IS possible between 2 adults. certainly ill-advised and a big-time last resort. but possible. if your husband is a He-Man.
  • taking pictures and video, and laughing are all very helpful ways of keeping up one’s spirits during all of the above. as is simply being together, no matter how ridiculous the scenario.
  • having a dad who needs a part picked up in CHItown is very, very handy when he offers to pay for your hotel in order for you not to have to start home at 2:30am.

so let’s review: it was crazy. we survived. Mr. D is a seriously amazing man whom the kids and I am sooo lucky to have!

but I promise you, this is not the end of our adventures. not. even. close…

(we happily danced our way home after a good night of sleep.
because that’s how we do. feel free to make fun of us.)

and yes, it is coming later today :)

Comments { 19 }