I was duly pampered by my husband, friends, and family. THANKS! And I got a bunch of clothing type things I have been needing/wanting… It’s been a while since I’ve felt like myself, so this was an especially fun birthday shopping time. I updated my staple items – different colored long-sleeved shirts for mixandmatch layering, black pants, brown pants, a pair of jeans, a black sweater – sort of, it was something I thought David would really like, so I decided to let it double as my black sweater of the season, a new purse that will not tear on me like they usually do (since I only use one purse and for a long time), but then, I spent more than $3 on this one! :-) and some other various items. Oooh, and two hats! And I got David some stuff, too. We are thoroughly anticipating Costa Rica!!! Though David accidentally started thinking about how much it’s actually going to cost us adding in the money we won’t be making while we’re gone… yikes. He said “It’s worth it, though, right?” 12ish thousand dollars? I hope so! Cause that’s just depressing.
So it’s Halloween. Sadly we will not be able to participate in the usual bonfire and popcorn/hot chocolate giveaway that is outside our apartment every year… they’ll still use our electricity, though. Man, we’re rather bummed about it, but we really can’t afford to skip an FPU class. Fooey!
My parents’ space heater is currently humming (very loudly) away, keeping little Maeve’s hands warm here in my old room. It’s not too cold today, but it’s definitely not summer anymore.
There really was a reason I was writing today, and I thought conveying random bits of information would help to jog my mind, but it’s not! So… until I think of it…
So yesterday I was sitting in our van in the parking lot of Aldi waiting for David to bring back a nice bag of frozen fruit for us to eat on the way home. (definitely one of the more healthy snacks out there – except for the peaches, strawberries, and grapes being high in pesticides. But I don’t eat the grapes) I figured what better time to go through some of the junkmail buildup? (the stuff that I thought looked slightly interesting enough not to throw away at first glance, just in case it was important for some odd reason) So I opened up an envelope that said something about doing a survey about television and extracted the contents, laying them on my lap and picking up the introductory letter part. I perused it briefly, and seeing that it was indeed still junkmail, was ready to throw it away when David got in. I glanced down at my lap to the rest of the envelope contents and saw dollar bills. I looked at David strangely and asked if he had put them there, but he had not. So I picked them up and counted them – 5 one dollar bills. Nice. Not crisp, not turned all the same direction, nothing to indicate they were some sort of incentive or prepayment for my participation… but I looked through both of the papers that were included to see if they mentioned anything. Nope. just a random $5 in between two papers in some junkmail. I think that’s the closest we’ll ever come to winning the sweepstakes. I rather felt that we were supposed to give it to some random person, but we went to Wal-Mart then and no one stood out to me… so I guess we’ll just keep carrying it around. I don’t think the moral of this story is to check your junkmail… but maybe it is…
It’s been too long again, and I can’t remember if we told you what we’re planning to do in Costa Rica. I think not… so basically it is a very multipurpose trip: introducing Maeve and myself to some of David’s family and old stomping grounds, getting Maeve’s citizenship, vacationing, rejuvenating, brainstorming, working on various business ventures, eating :-D, organizing a bunch of crap, exercising, taking pictures, learning some Spanish??? escaping some cold weather! (we hope) Etc…………. it’s been 6 years since David has been back. His parents are going to be there over Christmas as well, so it should be a hopping time. After saying every year since getting married that we should/would go, this is definitely the closest we’ve gotten… but then, we actually planned for it all year. I think his family and Eddy pretty much thought we were full of crap by now. I think David himself probably thought that, too, and despaired of ever going “home” again. Indeed, I don’t know if either of us will really believe it till we are there!
FPU is going well, and we’re really enjoying being a part of the class. It’s a great group of humorous people, complete with a little friend for Maeve to play with, and it’s unfortunate that we’ll have to leave before it is finished! But I’m really glad that we didn’t know when we would be leaving when we started it because then we probably wouldn’t have been the leaders. It’s always something…
It’s frustrating to be paying rent and stuff while we’re gone… I wonder if we could have our electricity shut off for a while? I guess not, but at least the bill should be a lot lower. We’re planning to cancel our cell phones I guess – $90/month for something you’re not using at all seems a little silly. The apartment we can at least say is storing our stuff for us. Honestly, if there would be someone who would live in it for that amount of time and wouldn’t mind at least some of our stuff being there………. we could pack a bit of it up. Anyone want a one-bedroom apartment for three months??? (the other bedroom could have all our crap in it) Anyway, I *think* we should be able to get a nice new plan when we get back and maybe better phones? Not sure. That way I should have a screen that is all intact for a few days at least. Not the best luck with cell phone screens here… nope. Hmmm, we should probably get my brother to get the phone for us before we come back so that we actually have it to use… just thinking out loud now. Or, for this whole paragraph, actually.
See, I can always find something to say. But a fool and his words are quickly parted, eh?
Said the lady who conversationally assaulted us when we were doing our organic shopping at New Pi yesterday. She started out exclaiming over Maeve and then proceeded to talk our ears off for the next half hour at least… she reminded us soooo much of one of our neighbor ladies in every single way except for how she looked. She was quite nice and I really didn’t mind talking with her, though it was really more a listening exercise. I didn’t understand all of what she said, but she wanted us to go to some democratic shindig that’s happening in town tomorrow, so her assessment of us was meant as a compliment I’m sure. We do not, however, prescribe to political definitions, as they are rather washed up.
I always expected us to be involuntarily flung much more often into random social encounters such as the aforementioned once having children in tow, and Maeve has not disappointed. Just today, on our way to the postoffice, we encountered two older women on scooters, one of which called out “I want to see the child!” As seems the case, those who are inclined to exclaim over children are also of the bent to tell you their life’s story, because children are one of those connecting forces. This is honestly one of the things I looked forward to with having children. It can make for some rather long outings, though, also affords us many business opportunities – the lady at the store wanted our business card.
Ah, poor Maeve. Her motor skills are progressing such that she has become somewhat of a baby version of a teenager having just gone through an overnight growth spurt! You know, the one who has not yet gotten used to how far their new arms can reach, and who knocks into things with legs that kick out more than they remembered. She barely learned how to crawl before she started right away at climbing over and up everything in her path, and standing up at every slightly elevated fixture – and in many cases, non fixture… therein lies her problem! That and her inability as of yet to really be able to balance her weight, which admittedly, is on the heavier side. Her desire and motivation are astounding, as is her strength! But oh my word, how exhausting to try to keep her from potentially poking out an eye here and obtaining a gouge there… I truly believe that sometimes her body moves faster than her mental ability to compute the word “no.” And there is where my mental exhaustion starts to kick in. Yikes.
oh my. tickets total price: $671.84; total stay: 104 days; total days till the adventure: 67
