Family Update: Burning Man 2011

Burning Man 2011 was everything I thought it would be as well as so much more. We were blown away by the generosity of the participants as well as the love that was throughout Kidsville. The girls adapted right away, especially Ali. She was in her element from day one. After we got there, I started pulling out costumes and next thing I know there are four or five girls in our tent dressing up. Ali was announcing that we are "Camp Dress Up" and that all the kids should come by anytime. I have no idea where she even figured out that all the camps had names. We had only been there less than 24 hours.

This was a sight. Ali and I had watched the "Double Rainbow" video last year when I was looking for ideas for her Halloween costume. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI She wanted to be a rainbow. When we found this video Ali and I laughed at first but then after we watched it again, we fell in love with the passion and intensity. We are not the only ones who loved this video because now when I posted this link I realized it had 30 million hits. She loved rainbows so much at that time as well and we ended up having a rainbow birthday for her that year. Anyway, seeing the double rainbow car was extremely exciting for her and she took at least two spins around camp in this fine artcar.

 The amazing Temple of Transition. This was the one piece that I was most excited about seeing this year. I even donated money to help them finish the project. This is built every year as a place for people to leave their grief and loss. You can leave it on the walls, as momentos, as advice for others, as energy or whatever helps you release. Then at the end of the week in complete silence they burn the whole thing down and everything in it. It was a chance for all of us to let a little bit more go. Ali and Jaden feel a sense of loss for their sister even though they never knew her because they still to this day see us cry every now and then and have to ask why.

Here is another example of some of the amazing art. The pictures do not do this justice because we were out riding our bikes on the playa and came across white umbrellas with peoples names on them. Then lights were flowing down like raindrops and you just wanted to be there. It was a nice place to take a rest.

 The million bunny march was a night that was a lot of fun for the girls. The whole family wore bunny ears and so many people were so pleased to see a whole family out on the playa. One girl gave Ali a huge bag of "Bunny Chips", another girl gave her and Jaden a Pez dispenser as well as an adorable pink  bunny backpack. Like I said before we have never met so many generous people in one location. I would say our last school was like this but it did not have 50,000 people like BM. We accomplished as much as we could but it is just too hard to see everything that is there. My friend Paige talked to me last year about why she brought her son to BM and she said it was an amazing experience in acceptance and tolerance. I am so glad that I listened to her wise words and gave my children the opportunity to be part of such a free, happy and giving environment. I want them to grow up with an open mind and to be more than just willing to leave their "judgements at the door"; I want them to feel no need to judge at all. And finally, here we have Troy and Ali at a fishing pier in the middle of the desert and Ali is about to go fishing. I think she caught a boot.

Yurt Updates: Moving Earth

Juan and Jenny are our advisors on how to fix the surface water run off problem that we had on our property. We were taking too much surface water from our neighbor and Juan and Jenny were able to fix this by creating a natural drainage canal without concete. It was great to find someone who had a solution that incorporated earth material instead of shoving more concrete barriers on it. Then they put three more canals on our lot below and created a drainage terrace. We are using organic solutions for erosion control like planting ornamental bamboos, various grasses and mani. They have prepared our surface for construction beautifully and we are quite pleased with their work. Here is a link to Jenny's information. http://www.communitycarbontrees-costarica.com/who_we_are.php

Family Update: Moving Our Camper to California

If you look very closely, you can see a double rainbow in this photo.

Recently we had to take a trip back to the states to move our camper van. We have been keeping it all over the place and love our time on the road. Route 50 in Utah and Nevada was a highlight for me this year. I had no idea that there was such a beautiful stretch of road that seems like it goes on forever. We saw at least three different rainbows on the way and a double rainbow at one point. We were moving fast, sometimes driving almost 10 hours a day. We had to get from Texas to Arcata, CA in less than a week, with kids, with car sickness and at the same time we were shopping for an extreme camping trip in the desert. We made it and can now say we have traveled in our camper van from California to Florida and back again. Whew!

Family Update: No Sew Tutu

I took my first forage into clothes making and it went well. My good friend Laraina helped guide the process and I used Julie Figueroa's video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7aSPMEn7S0 to see how to do it. We just cut the tulle and looped it around a ribbon. It could not have been easier and the girls loved the end result.

Yurt Updates: Still Waiting

We came to Costa Rica to put up a yurt but where is the yurt?

We are still waiting for our yurt. It arrived in the country July 20th and we still can't get it. Troy says the problem is with DHL. Pacific Yurts used DHL on this end in Costa Rica and they don't answer emails or phone calls. Pacific Yurts has been great but they can only do so much at this point. We just have to continue waiting but this is normal for Costa Rica. It's called Tico Time. Things just take longer and you spend a lot of time waiting for people to get back to you. Patience Grasshopper.

In the meantime, I wanted to give you an idea of what we bought. Here is the diagram Pacific yurts sent to us to show us where the windows and doors will be located. I also put in a screen shot at the bottom of everything we ordered for our yurt.

Family Update: Beach Day

Here are just a few photos from our time at the beach today. I realized that we have been here a month and haven't put up any photos. This is the beach next to our rental house. I can't wait to take some photos of the beach next to our land. It is beautiful too and on my list of things to do soon. It's just so hard to remember to bring the camera when you are present and having such a great time in the moment.

Family Update: Time (Just one thing I love about Costa Rica)

Notice all the recycled materials used for planting. 

"Biggie" massacred my beautiful plants. We bought him this platypus to chew on but apparently the homemade germination station was just too much for this three month old.

I have had so much time to think and do things that I've always wanted to do but just didn't seem to have the time to do. I still work Monday to Friday but somehow life has slowed down to the Tico pace. I have always wanted to start an herb garden so I can cook with fresh herbs. I am using old bottles and recycled fruit and veggie containers as my pots. I don't know why I never thought of it before. Oh yea, I had too many other things on my mind. Anyway, just a week later, I already have basil and some other random things growing. The reason I have no idea is because my beautiful baby German Shepherd, Biggie, attacked the baby seedlings. After the massacre and recovery, we have random sprouts in each of the pots and I have no idea what is growing. Oh well. 

The other thing I have wanted to do for years was to make pickles. My  grandma always made her own pickles and eating them at her house was always one of my favorite memories. Plus, I love me some pickles! I used a sun pickle recipe from my sister-in-law (thank you Gina!) and it only took a week. Yea, another success in DIY. I am remembering so many forgotten things on how to save money and how to use what you already have. The other day while I was getting ready for school, I had a silver necklace that I wanted to wear and it was tarnished. I remembered in the back of my mind that toothpaste would take care of the problem. Now normally, I would run out to the store for silver cleaner, but I decided to try it and it freakin' worked. (A discussion for another day is "What the heck is in toothpaste that takes off tarnish?? Note to self...need to Google) Now I don't throw out anything. I even keep the little mesh bags from the garlic bulbs. Don't ask me what I intend to do with them but I have learned that with a little creativity everything can be used again for something else.

Troy and Biggie having a moment at our rental.

Troy is also doing a bunch of projects while he waits for the yurt to arrive. Not only is he focused on our land and getting everything approved, he is also working on building things for my classroom. He made me two sets of shelves because there was only one in the in the classroom. He also hung small pieces of cork all over the place so we can hang student work. The walls are made of cinder block and we were having such a hard time hanging paper on them. I am super happy that he is so industrious and capable. Today is mothers day in Costa Rica and he made me an easel for the classroom. It is beautiful!! Check it out.

Family Updates: Fishing and Stealing

Troy went fishing at a Tilapia farm. We took the girls so they would have a good time fishing but neither of them wanted to participate. Troy caught four fish and then they cook them up at the restaurant. The girls still do not want to eat fish. They have been eating beef and pork which is a nice change. We could not get those two meats in India so these girls ate a LOT of chicken over the past three years. Later we walked down to a waterfall and you can see Jadie is freaking out in the picture. She was ripping off Troy's hat and crying while Ali relished the noise of the water and was screaming "woo hoo." At the same time mommy tried to take a photo. Any parent reading this can appreciate the absurdity of the moment.

I added a photo of Jadie at the river because she just looks so darn cute and because I don't have a photo for our the stealing portion in my title. Troy and I were looking at our bank account yesterday and some creep had gone in there a few days ago to buy some shoes and plane tickets. Creep or creepette, is what I'll call her because I doubt some guy spent all that money on shoes. Well creepette spent about 900 dollars. Luckily, we called the bank right away and I am so thankful that my husband is so disciplined about checking our accounts. Apparently creepette bought a flight from STI to JFK and I hope that dumb move helps them catch her. I doubt that we'll ever know.

Yurt Living: The pics of the land before the yurt

Here are three photos of the property. The first one is what the property looked like before cutting down anything. It is just pure jungle and we want to keep as much as possible, but you do have to cut some down to be able to set up a home in there. The second picture is the section where we plan to put the yurt  and a garden. The rest of the rainforest on our property is still there so don't worry. We also plan to plant plenty of trees since we had to cut some down. The third picture is our view from down low. It should get even better once we get the platform up. We can't do anything right now because we are waiting for all the paperwork to pass all the legalities to begin construction. Luckily, here in costa Rica, a yurt is just considered a tent, so we really only need permission for the platform, garage, and whatever else we decide to do. We are awaiting arrival of the yurt and in the next post, I'll list all the options we put on our yurt.

Family Updates: The Big Move to Costa Rica

So we left India and moved down to Costa Rica. We found a great Tico style house to rent while we wait for the yurt to arrive. It is supposed to be here on July 16th. We got a little dog named Biggie Big E. He is only 10 weeks old, but check out those huge paws. He is going to be an enormous German Shepherd but for now he is a fluffy, sleepy, quiet dog. Well except for the fact that he fell off a friend's balcony yesterday down 8 feet, and then rolled down into a gulley for another 40 feet. After the shock wore off and a few scratches, Biggie is totally fine. We are happy with puppyhood so far.

There are no shelves or closets in the house so Troy has been building us simple ones with pine. This is good practice for all the carpentry skills he will need in the future. In the photo he added chicken wire so that we can just wash our dishes and then when we put them on the shelves to dry, they just stay there until we are ready to use them again. It drips right down into the drainage tray. We are eventaully going to put our kitchen herbs under there so the water drips right down into the plants. No wasting water! I would love to claim the credit for that one but I saw this type of ideas in an ad in a Natural Home magazine last year. We also recently found out that our shipment is already coming in from India. We asked them to hold it for four months so it would arrive in October. Apparently, they held it for four days. Crap. There is always a solution to any problem so we will get this one figured out. Ali has already been belly surfing on Troy's board completely by herself and Jaden is absolutely scared of rain. I am blessed with completely opposite children. In the mornings I am practicing TurboKick which I just got certified to teach and Troy as you already heard is busy with a circular saw.