Tica Baby

Here it is... My first photo-shoot done here in Costa Rica. Little miss Olivia is so sweet and absolutely adorable. Also, she is incredibly tolerable of the toddlers in her life. 

Hi friends and anyone else who decided to take a look at this now neglected blog. I can't seem to keep up with this thing lately. Probably because the day to day responsibilities of motherhood and life in general has finally caught up with the newness and excitement of the move. I am doing laundry a million times a day and my precious son is a freak about the clothes he wears. He is as picky as a 14 year old girl about what he eats so I am constantly cooking, and he prefers to make messes in secret, so by the time I catch him he is knee deep in ketchup and sitting in the fridge. It's a little thing I like to call  "job security." Anyway it's life as usual around here. Our Canadians came over the other night to swim and BBQ, I must say it was wonderful getting to entertain again. This was the first time in months that I was able to cook for people I know, and anyone who knows me knows I love to cook for people I know. Sometimes I like to cook for strangers but they tend to look at you funny when you ask them to elaborate on why they liked what they ate and to describe the experience in detail. A simple "Que rico" just won't do for me. I love when people talk about a dinner I made years after I made it.( Danny Joe you know what's up, lasagna circa 2008 ring a bell?) Anyway, dinner was delicious we had farm fresh roasted potatoes, green beans with red onion,brown butter and garlic with  T-bones,  and yes grass fed beef can taste delicious. Also, we finished dinner with a pecan pie, compliments of the Dr. and her Mr. It was supposed to serve 10 people and had 220 k/cal a slice,  However, we didn't find this out until after we divided the pie into fours...you do the math. To my lovely husband who decided to read the nutrition label. Thank you Donny for your appreciation of nutritional knowledge. You suck. Charlie and his little buddy were needless to say tuckered out after dinner and swimming. So we turned on the T.V and continued with our little dinner party. About 15 minutes later we realized that one of the boys had turned the T.V onto a Latin soap opera and were clearly immersed in the story line. Enough said other than I have not laughed that hard in a long time. For anyone who has yet to experience the Latin television experience I implore you to do so.

Another thing I have to say is I have just graduated to a new level of cool in my mind. Here's why... I personally released at least 25 baby lora sea turtles into the pacific ocean this past week. O heavens those little things were adorable and amazing. They venture out to sea, only to return a mere 30 years later in efforts to lay their eggs. I don't know why but I am mesmerized by the whole process.

Here are some pictures.

Eatin on my fruits and veggies.

Hi,

So every friday here in my tiny town of Jaco, we have an open market where the farmers and peeps come and sell their straight from the earth fruits and veggies. As you can imagine this creates a whole world of color and texture also known as a photographers paradise. Therefore this time I took my canon and strapped that sucker around my neck and partied like no other. I did not mind in the least bit that Donny pretended not to know me for the first ten minutes of my impromptu photo shoot... but sooner rather than later he buckled and decided to join me in my picture taking, fruit and veggie buying/sampling en devour. I can't think of a better way to spend my friday morning. SO here are the pictures I hope you ejnoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed photographing and sampling them. Here we go. Oh and may I add that this is how things that come from the earth are supposed to be, dirty, a little rugged but filled with natural goodness. Enjoy!

                                                                        BEANS

Carrot y Cucumber

Grapefruit

I am going to butcher the actual name and or spelling of this fruit...

Mamonchino

Beets

fresh chamomile...for tea.YUM

Papaya

A story for the ages...

Hey guys,

First of all since I am a loyal St. Louis girl, I have to give a shout out to my Cardinals. Way to play boys. Also, I owe my husband an enormous apology after I made him turn off the T.V and come to bed while game 6 was on. Little did I know that it was the game of a lifetime. I kindly told him the next time I am acting a fool to just put me in my place. Needless to say the next morning finding out who won the game was exciting and also a huge relief. Last night watching the Cards win the Series, was exhilarating and definitely made me miss home. It was amazing to see how the world literally stops and are given a chance even if it is only for a couple of hours, to take a trip back to childhood. The gleefull anticipation of your hometown team potentially winning the World Series. The flashback to playing baseball in the front yard while you imagine this scenario..." Bottom of the ninth, bases are loaded,  two outs, fly ball to the left field, and he's out of there. The crowd goes wild!!" Watching the Cardinals win I saw an entire team turn into little boys, jumping up and down and piling one on top of the other in celebration. It's the American dream coming to fruition and I watched it on live T.V in a tiny town in Central America. It literally brought tears to my eyes. I watched as my two year old, my husband and my father- in -law sat on the edge of their seats, three generations brought together and all sharing a common bond, by something as simple and organic as baseball. I saw what a little faith can do. Just a few thousand people aka Cardinals fans with a little bit of faith in one team, gave them the strength and confidence they needed to win the World Series. It's a story for the ages, hometown boy, playing for his hometown team, hit's game winning homer to save the Series Title.  Love it. Feeling a bit nostalgic today...can you tell? I am just a proud girl from the heartland of America, who's baseball team just won the World Series,  letting whoever is reading this know that I still believe now more than ever that dreams still come true, and perseverance truly does pay off.

The boys watching the game, and saluting for reasons unbeknown to me.
Brooke

Small Space Idea...Think shelves.

I know, it's been way too long...but I have a great excuse I have just returned from the states and a mini vacation of sorts. Mainly, I shopped till I dropped at the most awesome outlet mall in the world. It was a great trip overall. Charlie was a champ, and even managed to fall asleep in a shopping cart while wearing soccer goalie gloves and holding a basketball. After all... a sugar buzz can only last so long.

Today, I finally hung the 12x1in shelves and brackets that have been patiently awaiting my time and attention. For those of you with small spaces, I have to say that shelves may be the cheapest and most simple way to visually expand your space while allowing you to add some pleasing aesthetic elements.  I chose to hang four 12x1 boards on a basic metal black brackets, you can really have fun with brackets as there are tons of really cool ones I have found...Lowes had a good selection when I looked last. I chose to  leave them unfinished, however you could get funky and play on colors if you wanted to. I personally like the way the black contrasts with the light wood. Also you will see in the picture you can measure the chest height from any reasonably sized chair and hang the lowest shelf at this height, making this double as a small office/work/blogging place. Thank you Donny for being my handy man for the day:) So here is a look at the finished product.

As you can see... there are no rules here. I just really like using everyday things that aren't necessarily for "decorating" but are simply things that I like to look at. I guess it's that simple.I chose to use Charlies blocks from when he was a baby, my bracelet as a candle holder,  the high-top converse to add interest. It can be so much fun and it takes very little effort. I also love chalk-boards I will show you pictures of my new project later this week. I have a recipe for chalk-board paint thanks to my sis in-law and a way to customize any space with this simple fix. Just thinking about it makes me happy. I am that lame.

I couldn't post without sharing a pic or two of my man Charlie, he is growing so fast. Have a great week everyone.

I Made it...I think.

Good Friday all,
I have good news and well great news to share. First of all the good news...I quit coffee like a champ. Well I was more like a heroin addict comming off of a 10day bender but who cares. I still quit. Let me give you a brief list of my withdrawl symotoms. They are as follows. Migraine headache, nausea, vomiting, sweats, chills, extreme fatigue. You may think I'm just being dramatic, but ask my poor husband he will tell you. He looked at me before he left for work with a look of concern and maybe a little, has my wife completely and utterly lost her marbles? He even had the nerve to say. "Why don't you just drink a little coffee." HA I laugh in the face of the most commonly used drug in the worlds withdrawl symptoms Donny. I will not give in. I didn't give in and voila, I am no longer a caffeine addict.  Charlie and Donny deserve gold stars for putting up with me this week. Now onto the Great news.

This week my 2 year old, potty trained himself. I did not prompt that child in the least bit. He just woke up one morning( 5am), and said "Mommy potty." We go in he sits on the pot, and well I'm sure you can put the rest together. However, my child perefers to linger while on the comode at 5am, and now tells me to "sit" I guess he knows that this is going to take a while so I may as well get nice and comfy on that cold tile floor. The other morning (4:30) to be exact, he spent 20 minutes pooping, I am sorry if this is too graphic but seriously why does it ever take anyone that long to do their business. With all of this said, I must tell you I am kind of sad that his last bit of "baby-ness" has gone. I now have a little boy who no longer needs his mommy to change his diapers. Sniff sniff. Ok, now that I got that out of the way I need your help. My little boy is not ashamed of his private areas in the least bit, and prefers to drop trou in the middle of restaurants, and pee. It's something that has happened twice now, and I'm not sure how to keep it from happening again. It really dosen't help that the majority of  the restaurants are open air, and outside here. He prefers to pee on the beach or on trees and such. Anyone who has ever dealt with this please feel free to e-mail me or leave me a comment and let me know what on earth I can do about this. Wow, I know one teacher who is going to be happy come Monday. Miss Gaby won't know what to do, now that this will soon be a problem she too has to deal with.

Hope everyone is happy and enjoying their fall and harvest season. If you know me you know that fall is one of my favorite times of the year...Pumpkin spice candles, windows open, nice brisk evening walks, fires in the fire pit, making oven roasted squash, potatoes, zuchinni and carrots with a nice pot roast, apple crumbles, and oatmeal rasin cookies, sitting outside on a nice fall evening, and enjoying a nice glass of pinot noir, enjoying latte and going to the kirkwood farmers market, the fall lineup of network tv shows...the list goes on.

That's all for now everyone, hope you all enjoy the weekend!

At the independence day parade with the kids from the school.

Tantrums aren't just for toddlers.

Hi friends,

Happy to have you back this week, I think I may be a little late, my apologies. I seem to have a 3ft dictator who isn't real keen on seeing the computer in front of me, attached to my hip lately.  This put bit of a damper on my blog writing, but this dictator also doubles as my two year old, so I don't mind it all that much. I am pretty sure his two year molars are comming in and with a vengeaence I might add. Holy cow, I forgot how miserable teething can make our lives. AHHHH! The sleepless nights, the diaper rash, the  whining, OH the WHINING! Poor kid... when I ask him if his teeth are hurting he just responds "uh huh." Thank GOD for Motrin. We are all better because of motrin. TRUST me. Although, the teething does not explain the fact that he fed the dog an entire loaf of wheat bread ( the fact that it's wheat is important because it's expensive here) and emptied the entire bag of dog food onto the floor...This happened back to back and at 0530am. Good morning sunshine. It resulted in " Donny you are going to have to wake up for this one." I think he was napping by 0645am that day. It was a sanity nap but a nap no less. It's interesting, as awful as he can be at times, he has started this thing where he wants your kisses and then says "kank oo" in his little adorable sweet love of mine voice, and makes the whole world right.

As some of you may know I have recently taken up surfing...It was only a matter of time, seeing as I live in a place with some of the best surfing in the world. I began on my husbands long board, and the waves seemed to just happen, I was happy catching waves no problem. Then I decided I needed my own board, once again that was the five year old in me not wanting to share. So I got myself a nice fancy new lighter (faster) board. Really Brooke?  Anyway I surfed Hermosa, a nearby beach to the south of where we live with my husband and his friend this past Saturday. I proceeded to paddle out or so I thought, and only ended up a 1/2 mile down the beach from where I set out. The waves were thick and closed out and horrible, and so a tantrum was in order. Seriously, I whined and smacked both my hands in the water and made my way to the beach in a stomping manner. Nice. True story. Ask my husband. This was only minorly embarrassing, it was eclipsed by my husband breaking the only board that I am actually good at catching waves on. However, it  solidifies the fact that the waves were crappy and no one caught anything that day, so a tantrum may have been in order after all.

I would like to take this time to now ask those of you who are return readers, to officially follow my blog. Please and Thank you:)