The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

the 1 less traveled by

A move to Nicaragua

Browsing Category:

Toddler Tales

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By Jenna Reid 21 Views

The Box Arrives

We shipped a 30 x 30″ box out of Los Angeles to our address in Nicaragua 2 weeks before we departed. (Read original post here.) The company told us it would take 6 weeks to arrive.  It only cost $275 and weight did not matter. We weren’t convinced with this too-good-to-be-true price that our box would actually arrive.

Once here I found myself saying daily, “IF the box comes we’ll have…new sheets/books for the kids/jumpy for Titus/Azalea’s big stuffed frog/a scooter/our rice maker/our great coffee maker/DVD player & DVDs/amplifier for Kharron’s guitar/router/external storage for computer/clock radio that charges phone/diffuser with essential oils/toys for the kids…”  I didn’t want to invest in any of these items until we knew whether they were lost forever or being delivered to our door.

At 8:30pm almost exactly 6 weeks from shipping date I got an email from my mom stating that she had gotten a call from the shipping company and they want to deliver the box that night. She gave me a Nicaraguan phone number to call to organize the delivery.  I had to give the shipping company her address and phone number since we wouldn’t have one in the US any longer.  I called right away and the man said (in Spanish) that he was in Granada which is about an hour away and wondered if he could deliver the box that night.

The delivery men took a little longer and didn’t actually show up until about 11pm, but we were too excited to mind. It was like Christmas!!! We were so thrilled and couldn’t wait for Azalea to wake up the next morning and see all of her old toys.

If you’re interested in using this company, the information is: Central de Envios / 213-383-9300 / shipcentral@yahoo.com

Books
Bookshelf full of books, crazy light up toy Azalea loves, essential oil diffuser, and learn to read Leap Frog book set.

 

 

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By Jenna Reid 18 Views

Making Cupcakes in San Juan del Sur

Azalea’s school was having a bake sale and since I’m not working, I thought it would be fun to make cupcakes to sell.  I’ve never been a baker and I’ve pretty much only made things that required a box and a couple other ingredients, so what I needed to find was a box of cupcake mix, a jar of icing, and a cupcake tin.  I had no idea that this task would take me over 3 hours to complete and that’s not including actual baking time.

I told our maid Juanita, in my terrible Spanish, of my desire to make cupcakes and she informed me that I would need to go to the closest city Rivas in order to obtain the necessary items. Rivas is about 30 minutes away, but I had the time while Azalea was in school, so I set out on my shopping adventure with Juanita as my co pilot.

We thought we would find a muffin/cupcake tin at Maxi Palí which is a bigger version of the grocery store we have in town, but there was nothing that would work. They also did not sell box mix or ready-made icing. Juanita directed me to park close to the center of town and we went on a wild goose chase through many tiny filled stores before we finally found a tin sitting on top of a shelf as high as the ceiling. It wasn’t just the tin, but it was a whole carrying case with stand! Luckily this same store also sold powdered sugar to make the icing, which I discovered I would need when Googling recipes while Juanita negotiated.  We went back to Maxi Palí again to buy flour and baking powder.  With my items in tow, we drove back to San Juan del Sur just in time to pick up Azalea at noon.  I felt very proud of my accomplishment as I promised the other mom’s that I would be making cupcakes for the bake sale.

Our furnished rental did not come with measuring cups or spoons, so on my first experience baking from scratch, I had to eyeball the measurements. Juanita said something about putting orange juice in the mix, which gave me an idea.  I brought a box food coloring with me from the US, so I mixed in orange juice and orange food coloring into the batter before baking.  They actually turned out quite nice! Not bad for a first time baking.

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By Jenna Reid 44 Views

Lap Infant – The Most Expensive Traveler

We decided not to buy return tickets when we booked our flight.  We heard conflicting information about whether this would be a problem, but enough people had gotten to Nica without a return ticket so we decided we’d go that route.  Tickets are took expensive to change after booking and we didn’t want to plan on a date we had to come back.

This turned out fine for all of us except Titus.  The lady at the United Check-In desk explained that Nicaragua would fine United if they allowed a Lap Infant to travel only one way unless they had residency or a visa.  After much negotiation we purchased a ticket via Kharron’s cell phone right there at the desk.  The ticket had to be through United since it needed to be manually tied to our existing reservation.  If we had done this prior via one of the flight booking websites (Kayak, Orbitz, Priceline) the reservations would have already been tied together and we could have used a cheaper airline.  We booked my $1,500 one-way ticket only to Houston since that’s where United’s hub is and thought that would be the least expensive option.

*Since this experience we learned that we should have purchased a refundable flight and cancelled the next day.  Unfortunately we were exhausted after our repacking adventure, it was late, and we were managing 2 kids and didn’t think quickly enough to save ourselves this painful lesson.

*I’ve now heard that the best way to get out of this is to book a Tica Bus ticket to Costa Rica within 90 days of entering Nicaragua and print a copy to show the agent. Not sure if this would have worked in our situation, but not a bad idea and a small investment to make.

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By Jenna Reid 16 Views

The Little Things

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I’ve been wanting to make feet impressions of Azalea for quite sometime now.  I saw the idea on Pintrest (make-baby-stuff.com/making-stepping-stones.html) and I thought it would be a cute idea for our future steps to the garden area.  Now that we’re leaving for 2 years the pressure was really on.  I needed to get those tiny fit in some cement quick, before we go and I loose out on the tiniest feet.

I used the plastic trays for catching water under plant pots, sprayed a coat of PAM on each one and quick dry cement.  It was easier than expected and turned out great!  I fudged the date slightly so I’d have something from 2014. : )

Previously I purchased quick dry concrete and the large gravel makes it impossible to get a clean impression, so if you decide to do this, make sure you buy cement.

 

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By Jenna Reid 21 Views

Toddler Tales

Last night I succumbed to my daughter’s request to “lay with me for a couple minutes”.  I had read this article about laying in bed with your toddler the previous day while daddy was away at work and had promised the next night when daddy was home that I would lie with her. I had posted the article on Facebook and the comments were very inspiring, talking about how when my friends take the time to lie in bed with their kids, that’s when they have the best conversations.  So after daddy read books I passed Titus off to Kharron and snuggled up close to Azalea in her toddler bed.  I asked her about her day and we discussed how the next day we were going to take a load to storage.  Looking up, I couldn’t help but think of the task of having to dismantle her never-been-used loft bed that was currently her room’s monkey bars.  I told her about how when we move back from Nicaragua that she will be so big, she won’t fit in her bed anymore and that Mommy is going to buy a mattress for the bed above us.  I pointed out the ladder I had draped over the unused wood mattress panels and how she would get to climb into bed at night and Mommy could climb up there too.  She could fit even more stuffed animals on that bed!  I explained how tomorrow we would have to take it apart and put it in storage so it could wait for us to come back. She seemed to take it well and today before pulling it apart, I let her take her maiden voyage up the ladder.