friday's letters

 

dear students: this half-day week has been nice. i've really enjoyed not having to teach you new material but doing fun activities like watching all of your skits. i hope you all have a good vacation and i will see you at the end of july ;) dear school: thank you thank you for paid vacations and for paying us before it even starts. just in time for my trip home! dear kindle: i am so glad i realized you can be charged with my phone charger. out of pure laziness i hate having to look for your personal charger that for some reason i hid away. so no need to worry about being neglected anymore. dear boyfriend: last few days before i leave for a little while. i sure am going to miss you. you'll probably miss me too but i have a feeling you will surely enjoy aallll of your free time the coming weeks. love you.

p.s. dear airport: please please please allow everything to go smoothly with my departure. i'll have all my documents handy so no funny business!

this is a mashup

1//2//3

this post  is a mashup between what i am looking forward to about home and oh how pinteresting! wednesday. lately in pinterest there have been a ton of 4th of july goodies that i havent been able to keep my eyes off of. how cute are all of these!

red, white, and blue together is just so festive and not mention the foods that have these colors are so yummy. who can resist blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and whipped cream together? thats right, no one.

i'm really excited that i will be home for the 4th this year. not only is it a fun day to celebrate but it is a holiday so all of my friends won't be working! yay. i'm hoping to spend the day with my friends barbequing, poolside(?), and then some fireworks at night.

just a week away! anyone have any fun plans for their 4th?

rocco's modern life

i thought i'd share a little bit about what life has been like with rocco these past few weeks. you know, a little "day in life" if you will. it starts around 5am with a little yap yap telling us he is awake and wants to play.

then after about 5 minutes of playing he decides he will let us continue sleeping for a little while longer. he likes it best under the covers.

then its play time again. p is the best one to play with. rocco's ears perk up whenever he hears his voice. its the cutest thing.

then its my turn to play, but rocco just uses me for my hair. its probably his favorite thing to chew on, in my opinion, i wish he'd find something else.

some more hangin out. you know, the usual.

rocco likes to hit up the gym every once in a while. he's pretty into staying fit. gotta buff up a little bit to be able to compete with isaac.

 

next up: some grass romping. this was his first time, by the way! absolutely loved it. a little timid at first, he would pick each of his feet up really high to walk around. so cute.

 last but most certainly not least, some quality time with teddy. best buds, these guys!

what a cutie my little guy is, right?

poolside day, mountain top night

 after a semi low-key, semi me being sick weekend, yesterday was a really great day. we spent the whole afternoon at p's sister's pool just hanging out and having a good time. a bunch of cousins came and it turned into a nice ol' family afternoon.

like i said here, p and his sister have these hardcore iphone covers that allow you to use your iphone in and under water. so needless to say we spent a long time playing with that feature. rocco spent a lot of time with teddy.

 then at night, i finally had the chance to get together with some of my coworkers. they took me to a place called mirador tiquicia which is a restaurant/lookout spot way up in the mountains. we had a little bite to eat and then enjoyed the typical costa rica dancing performance where one of my co-worker's sisters was dancing. it was really fun to watch.

 the location was just beautiful. one of my favorite parts of this country is at night when you are even just a little bit above ground level, you can see everything lit up. you could literally see about half of the country from where we were standing and it was impressive.

it was a great day. hope everyone else enjoyed themselves as well!

friday's letters

dear friday: all i can say is thank goodness. dear blogging world: i am so happy to have become a member of you. i never thought i would enjoy you as much as i do and i am really glad we met. i have "met" so many lovely girls through this blog and i can't wait to continue to do so. dear rocco: this week you have continued to surprise me and make me love you even more. i appreciate you only waking up once a night now however i do not appreciate stepping on your little presents in the mornings. lets work on that. dear home friends: thank you for making the time to chat with me during the week. having my girl friends make that time for me, hundreds of miles away has seriously been a life saver. can't wait to see your pretty faces in person real soon ;)

this is not an outfit post

this post just happens to be about my most recent purchase that i was very excited to wear. but not an outfit post.

i'm not a fashion blogger. don't get me wrong, i love clothes. but i'm not confident enough in my wardrobe choices to be posting them all over the internet all the time. i do, however, admire a good number of lovely little fashion bloggers so maybe this is a result of all the cute outfits i see from blog world.

anyway. this past year (yes, i've been in cr almost an entire year now) i have purchased 4 articles of clothing. if you knew what i was like in high school, you'd probably be asking me, are you sure you didnt mean 44? i mean 4.

and one of them happened this past weekend. it was one of those mall trips where we just planned on going to the movies and as we are walking i see one of my favorite stores (mango) with a sign that says 50% off EVERYTHING. 

so naturally i was drawn inside the store and the first item of clothing i spot is that little number up there. first thing i see, only thing i try on and i immediately am in love.

it wasn't too hard to convince myself that i had to buy it because a. it was 50% off and b. i thought i deserved to treat myself because .. well i just thought i deserved it!

and i happily wore it to the father's day celebration we had on sunday.

what i'm looking forward to about my trip home pt. 4

1., 2., 3., 4.,

starbucks.

now, before you smack your head and go, "oh she's one of those girls" you know, the kind who are obsessed with starbucks because its the cool place to go even though drinks drain your bank account.

no. i'm talking about starbucks the experience.

i'll be honest. there was the time when i was 14 maybe 15 and starbucks was "the cool thing to do." i would ask my mom to take me to get a frappucino or go out with my girlfriends on weekend nights to starbucks because we were too young to do anything else.

but after high school and more in to college, my friends and i would go to starbucks to just relax. to catch up.

i know so many people think that it is so cliche to go to starbucks but it is something that i actually really enjoy. a lot of times when i visit my friends at home i will call them and they'll tell me "we're at starbucks, come on down" and i go, we talk, we laugh and have a good time.

its not about the "foo foo" drinks as my tia would call them. we usually sip on some tea or a cappuccino. like i said, its the experience.

so i'm looking forward to some nice catch up time in only 2 short weeks :)

a photo

photo from: rebecca hansen weddings

 remember when i said here that i was going to be a bridesmaid in my brother's wedding? well last week my brother and his fiance got their engagement pictures taken.

they so graciously let me look at them and then said i could share on my blog. i know they are just using me to get their 15 minutes of fame to be featured on here. 

i kid, i kid. i asked for the picture.

anyway, they look great! i know you can't see their heads but it's like a suspense factor. i don't want to give too much away to my fam!

i'm excited to start actually looking for my bridesmaid dress when i am home. i know its a ways away but yellow is in right now so i'm hoping to snag something ;)

día del padre 2

i thought it was interesting how today was father's day here in costa rica and in the usa! mother's day is celebrated in august in cr so i was suprised when i found out father's day was the same.

since i couldn't be with my padre today i spent the day at a bbq with paris's family. we went to his sister's apartment (which i love!) and had a lovely lunch outdoors by the pool with p's family and his sister's in-laws.

there was a ton of food. just the way i like it.

there were appetizers, a big paella, and my favorite costa rican dessert, torta chilena. i'm not sure how to describe it, but its a graham cracker(ish) and raspberry type filling, pie with icing on top. yum.

all in all it was a great afternoon. the weather was beautiful and the company was entertaining :)
happy father's day to all those dads out there.

dia del padre

happy happy father's day to the best dad in the whole entire world.

love you a ton and i can't wait to be home oh so soon.

enjoy your day!!

<3

friday's letters

red-eye removers never work on my eyes...

dear boyfriend: lets have a really fun weekend. lately i feel like i never see you anymore. maybe its because of my grandma bedtime. but lets hang out this weekend okay? a date night would be nice :) dear rocco: oh mister little man how i love you so. you have made great progress on your house training this week, keep up the good work okay? also, i love watching you "bark" and knock  yourself over. keep up that good work too. dear vacation: you are so so close. just two more weeks of work and then i am home free for three weeks. dear self: its time to start getting organized. start making lists of everything you need to pack to bring home and then everything you plan on buying/bring from home. dont want to forget anything you know, like peanut butter.

have a happy weekend everyone! xo

a birthday

 i don't know if i've said this before, but p has a huge family. and because of that huge family, there is a huge number of birthday parties we attend. last night was one such occasion but we were lucky enough because it was at our house! yay for not having to leave the house. anyway, p's youngest sister turned 21 yesterday and we had a surprise party for her. she cried she was so surprised. then we ate, talked, laughed really loud, ate some more, and had a lovely time. here are some pictures!

 

the birthday girl and i...and rocco

 

couples. that is p's best friend. the one whose gma sold us rocco.

can't leave out isaac. he sure was getting a little bit jealous about all the attention on rocco. but he came around. and then rocco passed out.

the end!

happy birthday, marion xo

summer blue

1., 2., 3., 4.

i have named that pretty blue shade summer blue because it reminds me of summer. well, it really reminds me of the ocean, and that reminds me of summer.

but this summer blue doesn't remind me of just any ocean, it reminds of when my family and i would back up our ol' volvo station wagon and drive hours down to the outer banks, north carolina. we would go for a week every summer until my brother went away to college.

i always like to think about the similarities and differences of the united states and costa rica.

here in costa rica, its like a tropical paradise. some of the beaches make me think i am in pirates of the caribbean. there are monkeys everywhere and i've even seen pairs of bright red parrots flying in-sync together. tropical paradise.

there in the outer banks, the beach seems a little bit more relaxed. a little less fancy. instead of parrots, i've seen dolphins. and there are definitely way more seashells in the sand and kites flying around.

even though the beaches seem really different to me, this color makes me think of both of them.

do any colors make you think of certain places?

the past four days

have been really hard.

i knew that owning a puppy would be a lot of work but i didnt realize just how much of a toll it would have on me.

i love this little guy so much and i think the thing that i have been worried about the most is if i am going to raise him correctly. 

the first few nights he cried so much in the night and it broke my heart. i thought how am i ever going to be able to let him cry and cry just so that he learns we can't always pick him up?

last night one of his tias gave him her old teddy bear. we put it in his bed at night so that he felt like he was with somebody. we also put in one of the t-shirts we had been wearing all day so that he was smelling us.

worked like a charm. well, a charm that that helped him wake up only half as many times. but it sure is a start.

this whole "fur-mama" stuff is hard work. keeping up with his eating schedule, sleep schedule, going to the bathroom schedule is not leaving me much time for the me-to-do-my-work schedule!!

obviously being stressed about this little guy will come with the territory for the first few weeks. but having him around has been so so worth it so far. i can't get over how much i adore him and how i want the absolute best for him.

also, i know my last three posts have been about my new little guy but its probably going to be like that for a while. 

sorry i'm not sorry ;)

as promised...

lots of pictures of puppy!

this weekend was spent getting to know our little guy.

we have learned that: 

he doesnt like to be left alone at all

he will only eat out of my hand

he has a tendency to walk backwards when he is eating

he loves to give kisses

he also loves to clean our noses

and he loooooves to sleep.

puppy things.

i hope everyone had a good weekend!

introducing

rocco!

we finally picked up our handsome little fur baby yesterday and have fallen completely in love.

he is so so small, he fits right in the palms of our hands.

it was a pretty long night because we were so nervous about falling asleep and then when we finally did fall asleep, rocco would wake up every few hours and start gnawing at our noses or crawling into my hair.

i'm so excited to spend aalll weekend with him, i am really hoping he gets adjusted fast. keep your eyes out for a bunch of pictures of our little boy.


*this is a different dog than the picture we were sent below. when we met all the dogs we just bonded with this one and the owner had no problem letting us take him :)

current crush

 1., 2., 3., 4.

 I'm joining some ladies for their current crush posts today!

just like many of you all out there (guys and girls alike) i am a huge fan of pinterest. i am also a huge fan of having my nails painted by both myself and someone else ;)

since i've been out of the country for so long, going on two years nows, i have kind of started to use pinterest to see what the "trends" are back home. obviously so i can keep up! haha just kidding i am far from keeping up..

anyway one of the trends i have really started to take a liking to is all the crazy nail polish ideas! one in particular is painting each nail a different color. i honestly thought this was only something you did when you were seven years old.. you know .. a rainbow on my hands!

but lately i have seen a ton of pictures with the whole "ombre" phenomenon (in love with) or two or three different colors that go well together, alternated between nails.

i'm really excited to buy some new nail polish when i'm home, i love me some essie, and start trying out some new styles on my nails!

the little things

via

i thought i would link up for the infamous "oh how pinteresting" link-up since i have yet to do so! even though it is only one pin, i thought it was super cute and i have been saving it to use for a little while.

this is how i feel most weeks, monday through wednesday haha. don't get me wrong i really enjoy my job, but lately i have just been feeling really tired.

lucky me, today at work i left with a smile on my face. 

i recently met an american girl who had been living here in costa rica for a while and long story short, today she had an interview at my school for a possible teaching position next year.

as part of her interview she sat in on one of my classes with my eighth graders to see what it was like.

after i told my students that she might be a teacher at the school next year and she was here to check it out, the immediate responses were some of the following: 

"wait .. teacher .. you're not coming back?"

"but she isn't taking your job, right teacher?"

they do love me! i couldnt help but smile a little bit at their concerned faces that this new girl might possibly replace me. 

at least i know they like me a little bit, no matter how many times i have to ask them to stop talking or how many times i have to remind them that they should be paying attention.

so that was the little thing that made me leave work feeling a little bit better about how i'm doing.

what i'm looking forward to about my trip home pt 3

i figured i'd give you a break of all the food i'm looking forward to at home (for now) and tell you that i'm excited for .. my backyard!

there is nothing extremely special about my backyard. we don't have a fancy back porch or a big in-ground swimming pool (as much as i bugged my parents for one when i was little). but my parents have done an excellent job of turning our normal sized backyard into a lovely little outdoor getaway.

since the last time i was home was december/janurary, i wasnt able to fully appreciate everything i love about my backyard. but since i will be visiting in the summer time i am excited to spend a lot of time out there.

when the weather turns nice, my parents usually push our kitchen table against the wall to make more room in the kitchen, and start eating every meal outside.

there is just something to be said for enjoying a meal outside in the fresh air. my favorite times are early in the morning (you know, if i choose to get up early) while i'm drinking a nice cup of coffee, and after i've finished eating dinner just relaxing with a nice cold beverage. 

and when it's not a meal time, i enjoy hanging out in that great hammock with a good book, which i plan on doing a lot of when i'm home.

is there anything specific that you guys love about your homes?

fur-baby

sorry for the blurryness!

well there he is! this little guy is soon going to be the newest member of our little family.

we will pick him up some time this week but i couldn't resist not sharing this picture of him! isnt he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?

we haven't quite decided on a name yet. any ideas? i've been told franco and rocky balboa.

i am seriously so excited to have him home with us :)

hope everyone had a great monday.

weekend wrap-up

this weekend was pretty busy (for us). we started on thursday with a little date night action. we went out for some buffalo wings, which if you don't know already is pretty much a staple for us because it is p's favorite thing to eat. then we stopped by a little family gathering because one of p's cousins is home for a short vacation from her job. she works as a flight attendant in Qatar, which is crazy, and she brought home a ton of little napkins, place mats, and hand wipes from the planes she works on ... hence that first picture above....i thought maybe someone would ask me why the heck i was flying on qatar airways.

friday we spent all afternoon moving apartments to one in which we lived in previously, which is a complete blessing. i'm so grateful that p's parents offer us an apartment to live in essentially free of rent, but the apartment we had been living in for the past 4 months was a mistake. so now i can say, hello hot water, hello full sized-kitchen sink, and hello non-smelling bathroom (.. among other things). even though it was a ton of work moving everything from one apartment to another just the two of us we are extremely happy to be back in our old home. oh and then we went out dancing with some cousins which is always a good time. we've been to this bar a lot and one thing that always gets me is that it is in the middle of the forest and it has no roof. so you are just dancing with some trees and stars above you. something i have only experienced here.

and finally, sunday was spent organizing our new apartment .. notice i now have my own closet area .. so much less stress. i spent a good amount of time reading a free book i downloaded on my kindle which made me really happy because i havent been able to do much reading for pleasure lately. we also headed to the movies to see snow white and the huntsman which unfortunately wasn't as great as i was expecting but still entertaining.

i hope everyone had a good weekend and is ready for the week to begin!
xo

tgif

i am so happy to see friday today. this week has been extremely long and very busy for me.

last week marked the end of the trimester so this week meant i had to finish grading all of the geography projects and language arts exams from both of my classes.

and then i had to calculate the final trimester grades.

so needless to say that kept me a little bit occupied this week.

yesterday at school were the school olympics. when i first heard there were going to be olympics at school this year i was pretty excited because when i was a camp counselor, the olympics were the absolute best part of summer.

i'm just going to say that my school's olympics were a little bit sub-par compared to what i was used to haha. however, the students had a great time and that is all that matters.

up there are some of the decorations that my eighth graders spent a loooong time making. pretty cute right?

and speaking of being a camp counselor, if there are any of you out there who know what i mean when i say you were a summer camp counselor and you basically grew up going to summer camp, i think you will appreciate this little article i found the other day. 

as soon as i read it i was reminded of myself and my parents a few years ago and how we had some very similar conversations.

its always interesting to look back a few years and think about where you thought your life would be, and where it is now. for example i never in a million years thought i would be an english teacher in costa rica, but here i am. if only i had had a time machine i probably would have been able to convince my parents that one more summer as a camp counselor probably would not have hurt my resume!