Goodbye photos

I was thinking about all of you this week and realized I never posted the photos from the day we left. I'm glad I took them.

It's been a slow week so far. Gabe was sick from Sunday through Tuesday, so we really didn't go out at all. He enjoyed just playing with me and hanging out together, although I do spend an indordinate amount of time cleaning to avoid being taken over by the biting ants. I have never in my life had such a clean house. Dishes are washed immediately, floors are swept several times a day, clutter is dealt with as quickly as possible so that pests don't have places to hide. I feel like I'm turning into my grandma, but now I feel I may have misjudged her. I always thought she was too obsessed with cleanliness, but she lived poor for most of her life and I imagine she had to worry a lot about pests and vermin. Which also makes me wonder, in America how did we manage to avoid living with rats, mice, all kinds of insects, snakes and other species that are natuarally attracted to human dwellings? Did it involve horrible chemicals? Oddly, just at this moment Gabe screamed because there was a frog confronting him in the hall and in the time it has taken me to type this, he has now decided he wants it for a pet and is calling it "Ribbety".

Anyway, other than that we have been practicing on the motorbike and helping out at school. I also go shopping at numerous places to avoid too many pesticides on our food. I'll be going with Gabe's class on a trip to the market on Friday. It's a crazy place to take kids as it is dark and easy to get lost, but fortunately, there are only 12 of them. I guess that's all for now-a small snapshot of our lives and a few snapshots from another life. Miss you guys.

More of our house

The first picture you see is the giant front room. As I mentioned, it echoes like a train station and we often find ourselves having difficulty conversing in that room. The next pic is Gabe in his hammock bed. He sometimes likes to spend time in it even when he's not sleeping. It's got a mosquito net and he likes to rock himself in it. The next picture is our bedroom. You mostly see the mosquito net in the foreground. The lone window in that room opens onto the giant room (that's how I took the picture). The last picture is of a small bedroom at the back of the house which we'd like to fix up if we stay in this house. It's kind of nasty, so no one wants to be in it right now. So that's our house. We like it:)

Our house

We've been promising pics of our house and here they are: The first ones are pics of the kitchen. The bedroom you see pictured is the downstairs bedroom and we also use it as an office of sorts. The bathrooms are too small to take a picture inside, but you can see most of it from the hall. There is no sink, so the bucket under the tap serves as a sink.

For our faraway friends...

Brian just called from LA. He is there for a few days training for (one of his) new jobs. I regretted that he didn't take pictures with him, since he will see some old friends from our time in CA. So, here they are, for you beautiful, faithful friends so far away, but close to our hearts and so deeply loved...here are the most important pieces of our lives:

Always smiling, always dirty Noah

Ever serious Sam prepping for his gold belt promotion

For our faraway friends...pt 2

For our Anniversary (Aug 2...12 years!!) we visited the park we were married in. They updated it beautifully with a pergola and tasteful landscaping, plants and rocks along the meandering stream flowing from the fresh spring. Of course we didn't take pictures of that, as much, because THIS is so much more beautiful to see:

One thing I like about him being gone is that it makes me realize how much I cherish our friendship. I miss him, not only for the help he is with our busy family, but because he is my best friend. I think he called to say, "I arrived safely." But what he said was, "I miss you." I'm so glad that he prefers my quiet, simple, hippie style to LA bustle and trend.

The other thing I like about him being gone is that I don't feel the need to cook healthy meals and the kids picked fish sticks, Froot Loops and Corn Dogs for our dinners this week! :)