Some recent Instagram shots for your viewing pleasure ...

 

Posted with Blogsy

....And, we're back...

Just like that, we go across the ocean again.  Clearly incapable of sitting still, we broke our one year vow of staying put.  We had a good eight-month run in Hawaii.  Ian continued to work for Disney and Du Vin and I managed to pull off two Etsy business' from the closet of our studio.  One, in particular, proved to be extremely lucrative in a short span of time.  I call it "The Tooth Fairy Project" because, low and behold ... I saved enough money for the next step in getting Momma's new grill!  Please refer to the most recent posts if this means absolutely nothing to you ...

In late December, Ian accepted a job as the new General Manager of Hacienda Iguana, the beachfront development near our casita in Nicaragua.  We are extremely gracious for this opportunity because it has allowed our family to return to this country, knowing we will have a sufficient income to survive.  This has been our dream, and it has finally come true.  We arrived just over a week ago and Ian has been hard at work since the day we arrived.  This move came with many inhibitions, and it has been an emotional journey sorting through our rational and irrational fears in this endeavor.  As a family unit, our strength has grown exponentially as we ford through what has been, a very difficult year... to say the least.  Losing my teeth came with so many more challenges than I could ever have foreseen, and Ian has been the most patient, gentle, kind and understanding partner in this whole, wide world.  I have been completely wrecked over it, and this move to Nicaragua has already proven to be just what the doctor ordered.  In so many words, I'm slowly snapping out of it.  But, more on that later ... 

The most important thing I'd like to convey is, we're so happy to be in Nicaragua!  We've rented a great townhouse that is close to the beach, with plenty of space and all the modern conveniences that were required by this mom, in order to make the move down more comfortable with a one year old.  We're happy with our decision to live in Hacienda Iguana.  In the meantime, we've rented out our casita in La Vista which of course, helps supplement our own rent in Iguana.  

On Monday, Liv turns one.  My baby .... my little baby.  Where has the time gone already?  Here are a couple of photos from the vault ...

Christmas 2012

IMG_6446, a photo by melissabonte on Flickr.

Baby's first Christmas! ~with Daddy

I'm sitting!

I'm sitting!, a photo by melissabonte on Flickr.

Back to Life

Back to life, back to reality - I have that 80's jam stuck in my head after watching Ian head-off to his new job at the Disney Resort during the wee hours of the morn today.  After a lengthy, corporate training period, he is dialed-in and bringing home the bacon for his family.  I'm trying my best to pull-off a new Etsy business from home while taking care of Liv which has proven to be difficult but, almost possible.  If you're in the market for some cute baby-shower gifts, visit Surfing Baby on etsy.com.  Liv is fully on the move now which incidentally, is a total game-changer.  Not only has she been doing the full-roll for weeks, she can, what I like to call, 'inch-worm' her way across the bed. The days of an immobile, sleeping baby lump are over.  This morning I woke up to her screaming, only to find her foot wedged in a crib bar, and poop smeared all over her sheets.  Awesome.  Seriously though, it really is awesome but, whoever said that raising a child isn't easy sure as hell wasn't lying!

That's pretty much it for now.  For some reason, this morning's poop incident inspired me to check in.

And of course, I wouldn't sign off without a couple of photos for my people....

The Sunshine After the Rain

Well, where there's sunshine and rain, there is generally a rainbow and if Ian and I are rainbow chasers, ours always seems to end in Hawaii.  Our pot of gold ... which incidentally, has quite a lot to do with family.  Somewhere in the midst of this last jaunt to the mainland, we figured out that we are very, very tired.  As I'm sure all of you are having a hard time keeping up with where we are on the globe, we're having an even harder time keeping up with ourselves.  Sometime in mid-June, we broke.  Sometime in mid-June, we thought it would be an excellent idea to slam on the brakes.  And sometime in mid-June we realized, the best place to do this would be right back where we came from.  Hawaii.  So, after packing up, selling everything we owned, re-writing our lives one more time, and determining that this was our course, we take it all back.  We take back everything we said.  We've vowed to stay in Hawaii for at least a year and do what most people do.  Just stay still for a while.  And while I'd like to say that everything has been puppies and unicorns unfortunately, it hasn't.  Quoted from another blog I love called Momastery, the author writes, "We don't have to worry about being any good when we're at our worst, we just have to keep trying.  Because when people only show up at their best, it causes confusion and leads folks to believe that others are always strong, and sailing through life.  That's just not true.  We gotta show ourselves when we're all beat up and scarred too.  That's what people need to see, much more than our shiny selves."  So, while we're a little broken and battered, we're definitely on the mend and we're with family.  It turns out ... this is the most important thing in the world.  

My little pea pod!  Thanks Aunty Brooklyn

Tummy time on GG's blanket

Hiking with Mom and Dad

Ian calls this, "The Impending Apocalypse"

In the beach tent with Big Poppa

The Forty Year Storm

The heavens rained down for three days straight.  I believe they were crying over my teeth.  The forty year flood of Duluth left us with eleven inches of rain, stranded on Shultz Lake for four days, and the road washed out in two places.  I will always recall this blip of my life with a clap of thunder in the background.  I'm glad it rained.  I'm glad it was stormy.  I'm glad that the haze of percocet and lidocaine and fourteen appointments in three weeks was accompanied by something record-setting.  It felt big.  And it was big.  All of it.  The weather and losing my teeth.  Losing my teeth.  I don't know if I'll ever get over it.  All in good time.  I know.  But damn, this is hard.  It is so fricking hard.  Thank god for my baby.  Thank god for Ian.  Thank god for my family.  And Puna.  And the sunshine after the rain.  The sunshine after the rain .....