Pictures around Christmas 2010

Luckily they have a football field in Playa Hermosa! Tuomas loves football, but he ended up with a nose bleed the first time we were there. Playing too hard!
Our friends above our entrance door. Lovely bats.

The skeletons of the construction business. And these are not the only unfinished houses in the neighborhood.
Tuomas at Borinquen Resort enjoying a hot water pool.
Risto doing the mudtreatment the proper way, i.e. letting the mud dry before washing it away.
Happy boys with DH's Christmas present!

Christmas pictures

Christmas was understandably very different from what we are used to. But it wasn't too bad. The only decoration we had was a paper star I made.We had red snapper for dinner and Piña Coladas, of course. Before sun set we hurried to the roof terrace (the sun goes down pretty quickly!) and had our picture taken. The Pacific Ocean is right behind those trees, less than 1 km away. Later on in the dry season the leaves are gone and we can honestly say that we have an ocean view!

View to the neighbor's yard.

Playa Hermosa at sunset. During the day the sand gets so hot that it burns your feet.

At home!!!

We have been at home, Playa Hermosa, for a week now!

The flight over was a long one, but went surprisingly well. No major set backs, except for Jaakko spraining his thumb at Frankfurt airport. It was swollen for a couple of days, but hasn't really slowed him down from fighting with his brothers. He's a real terrier, fighting bigger ones and not giving up. All three have been arguing a lot, which is understandable (but extremely annoying). It has been a huge change for the whole family.

The house is nice, the pool excellent. Jaakko can now swim unaided. We've had some reparations done in the house, but nothing major.

Pura Vida!

Six days

The boys' bunk bed was sold today. Even though Jaakko helped carrying the pieces out of the house he was surprised that the bed was gone from his room. Poor boy, he has an ear infection. He described the pain as "I can feel my heartbeat in my ear". Painkillers before going to the doctor, antibiotics, still in pain, more painkillers, throwing up.... Finally fell asleep in our bed.
Oops, almost midnight, we're still moving stuff around in the house, vacuum cleaning spiders and dust.
Six days and about this time we're hopefully landing in Houston, Texas.
Almost exactly a year ago I came home late at night from a week long business trip in Switzerland. I was "attacked" by my husband immediately after walking into the house "I have this great idea for our next trip!!!!". And I wasn't excited. I wanted to stay at home, use the money for re-decorating the house, what about Risto's school, and I'd need to take extra vacation and I've travelled so much, I'd rather stay at home and besides I'm afraid of flying over the Atlantic. He kept whining about going to Costa Rica and actually ended up threatening to go with just Risto and I could stay at home and use my share of the money for re-decorating! Finally I gave in (and DH bought the tickets immediately!). And here we are now, moving to Costa Rica!

Saying goodbye

We have 9 full days left. That's not much. We've been packing, selling stuff, organizing, making phone calls. Saying goodbye.
We've caught up with friends we haven't seen for years, made new friends in the last minute, we have really felt the love and support of our friends! Thank you so much!
We've said goodbye to the teachers at day-care. Cried. Tuomas was heartbroken the last time we picked him up from there. But the day after we had invited all the day-care teachers who had taught our boys over for a small celebration party. We had a wonderful evening.
Risto has 4 days of school and then it's over. He has his birthday party with a friend next Saturday, saying goodbye that way makes it probably easier.
The boys are anxious, arguing a lot. We are tired. I feel a panic bubbling underneath, but I try to suppress that feeling. Luckily I'm so busy that I don't think about the flight; I'm scared of flying over the Atlantic.
I'm surprised that I have absolutely no feelings towards this house. Maybe I'm suppressing that feeling too.
It's 10:30 PM, we've promised to work for one more hour and then call it a day.

Moving

Sorry for the long radio silence, but life has been quite hectic.

We are moving in 20 days and need to empty the house before that. On December 14 we start a new life by stepping on the plane. The winter scene of Finland changes into Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica!

If you happen to be in the neighborhood next Saturday, November 27, you're most welcome to our garage sale from noon to 4 PM. We're selling most of our stuff since we'll travel light, with just our suitcases and not shipping anything over.

Hasta luego!

Dinner

I bought chicken breast on Monday, eight juicy bits. This morning I put them in a pot with some chopped garlic, fresh basil and sundried tomatoes. I put the pot into the fridge, and showed Risto how to put the oven on at 175C and asked him to put the pot into the oven when he comes home from school. He called when school finished and asked if he could go to a friend. I let him go, but told him to be home early to put the chicken into the oven so we could have a nice, home-cooked dinner.
At 4:30PM he calls and says he's home. I ask him to put the chicken into the oven. "Oh, Mom, it's already in there!". Darn, the chicken's been at room temperature for 8 hours..... I guess we can eat it anyway. "Ok, dear, just turn the oven on." Risto:"It's on already. I put it on when I left for school!"
If you ever wondered what chicken breast cooked for EIGHT hours looks like, then have a peek. It was hours beyond crispy-on-the-outside-juicy-inside, believe me. I couldn't even poke a fork through it! When I finally got a piece cut off , by stretching my imagination I could find a tender part.

We're having frozen pizza tonight.

Wedding day!

Our annual wedding day picture. Looks like we have twins and a younger child, but no. The boys are all 2 years apart.

We have enrolled the boys to the new school in Costa Rica, but that's about it. The house hasn't been sold yet and we have no idea so far where we're going to live in December. But something will turn up!

DH is off tomorrow to see his host family in Australia. 2 weeks alone with the boys will be a challenge.

Pediculus humanus var. capitis

We came back home from Scotland at 1AM. Tuomas, as usual, had a total fit (happens often when he's tired), started screaming. This resulted in a massive nose bleed. He was jumping up and down in the bathroom, blood all over the place. And as usual, I didn't have the patience to deal with this when I'm tired. DH took over, and calmed the bleeding boy down. I started cleaning the floor, walls etc. And finally my maternal instinct came back and I was able to concentrate on the way too tired child. And that's when I saw it: something moving in his hair!

Before we left for Scotland I had seen some small black specks on his neck hair. I had pulled one out, studied it: not moving, no legs, must be a seed or something. The boys had been in the forest, crawling in bushes and hay, so seeds would be a logical explanation. Logical, but apparently not the correct answer.

Lice! Not the thing you want to meet for the first time in your life in the middle of the night. Risto and Jaakko were already in bed half asleep, so there was really no point in dragging them up again just to check the parasites. So, to avoid Tuomas from spreading them into his bed I shaved his head. Boy, was he unhappy!!

The two older boys were leaving for a basket ball camp early next morning with DH. In order to avoid them from spreading the zoo further I shaved Risto after I found that he had them, too. DH said straight away that his head could be shaved, too, lice or no lice. I know it's not necessary to cut your hair if you have lice, but there was no time to treat it with the special shampoo. Risto and Tuomas were raging mad at me:"You have to cut your hair, too!!!!"

I waited until Jaakko woke up, checked his hair, shaved it. Checked my hair, yuck. Could I trust a four year old to comb my hair thoroughly after the shampoo treatment to get rid of the whole zoo? How would I look without hair? Hmm... the older boys were pretty upset.... Jaakko, do you want to shave my head?

He had fun looking for my "side eyes" as I call them, the hidden eyes that mothers have underneath their hair.

I have got compliments on my new look, raised eyebrows from strangers. In the end, it's just hair (or the lack of it). I'm still the same person, it will grow back eventually. And how easy it is to wash!!!!

The toughest job

What's the toughest job you can think of?

For the past five months we have been thinking about it. And now we're doing it! DH gave in his notice a week ago and I told my boss a couple of days later that we're packing our bags at the end of the year and moving to Costa Rica. To do the most demanding, yet fulfilling job: being a parent. The boys are old enough to enjoy the experience, yet still young enough to want to spend time with us.

It is our last summer in this house. We're selling the whole lot, except for what you can fit into 5 suitcases á 20 kg. So we have a couple of things to do, e.g. learn Spanish!

Hopefully, by Christmas 2010, we have returned to Guanacaste, Costa Rica!

Suffocating

We have way too much stuff. "We" meaning us as a family, but also "we" as in general. I need to get rid of it, before I suffocate. But it is really, really hard for me. It took me two months to throw away boys' corduroy trousers that had been patched from the knees and torn from the buttocks. Two months they sat in the utility room waiting for their destiny. It wasn't for sentimental reasons. I just didn't want to throw them away just in case I found some use for them. But they were beyond thrift store quality. I just couldn't throw the fabric away. Finally one night I took my scissors, ripped the zipper (I might need it one day), saved a couple of buttons and elastic and cut the rest into rags. They're now in a plastic bag in the storage room to be used for cleaning... something... some day.
I found a black bin bag full of drawings from my school days. Also a project on husbandry in Finland. The first two newspaper clippings (from 1988) made me smile:"Warehouses full of wool" and "Beekeeping and research limping" (I know, pathetic translations, but you'll have to live with it). I have boxes and boxes of yarn and I'm dreaming of having an apiary.
How 80's the guy with the huge shoulder pads! Beginning of every school year we mad a big paper bag into which the drawings of the following school year were put. I remember being very proud of the one I did starting grade 8 (I was 14 I guess), the one on the top left.
And the dung beetle was one of my favourites, too.
And I was so ashamed of the portrait of my dad in the middle. He didn't look like that!
This is actually fabric glued on paper.

For over two decades I have moved the black bin bag from house to house. It's time to say good-bye to them.

The next project is the book shelf. What should I keep?

Cars

Yesterday we went to a sports car show. The boys were in heaven, all four! I have to admit that it wasn't boring for me either. I tried to take some photos, but had just one lens, no tripod and I don't have a decent flash. I didn't like the fluorescent lights reflecting from the cars. And of course the boys wanted to use the camera, too.

I like keeping the pictures simple.
The red paint was chipped.
I don't know the make nor model, but it's an old green car that makes my heart throb.
This one's orange, the only thing I like about it. I prefer the older ones.

Yeah, this is what I like.So where does the airbag pop out from?

My list of "I want" includes a house in the country, a loom, apiary and llamas (alpacas will do, too). I'll just add to it a nice red sports car. I don't ask for much, do I?
I try to find the time to do some girly stuff, too. I knit these socks this spring. Took me about a month, but had to have a break between the two socks since I got RSI. My hands really hurt for almost a week.

Perfect weekend

Ascencion Day weekend took us to Saviaho, DH's aunt. Four days in heaven for me and the boys, too. Total relaxation in excellent company in the country side. The boys took the dogs for walks. On a field about 300 m from the house was a huge boulder. The first night we headed there.Jaakko with Aino-Inkeri.Tuomas with Hex.Risto with Alli Manninen.And how do I know that the distance was about 300m? Because DH has a range-finder, and Risto measured it. 274m as the crow flies, so approximately 300 for the boys. We had a lovely evening sitting on the patio sipping bubbly watching the boys run around with Alli. Tuomas decided to run to the boulder and back three times. A nice 1800 m run to end the day.The itsy-bitsy spider also thought that it was a perfect time for an evening walk and took a stroll on the birch. The black speck about half way up is the spider.
There is plenty of space for the boys to run around. They're old enough that I can trust them not to fall face down into the pond or get run over by the occasional car. They love going to the ghost forest for walks on their own.
Then there was fire! Aunty P's husband burned the dry grass on the surrounding fields and the boys could join in. Well, it was fun for me, too.It wasn't easy to drag the boys to bed from the burning field.
It is only in Saviaho that I go riding. 2 hours in the forest on a horse, that's what I call therapy. The boys want to ride, too, but they're too inexperienced to go riding in the forest. And these horses hadn't been ridden for quite a while, so they were full of energy.After the ride in the forest the boys could have their turn on the field.
It's a lot of excercise for me: "Mom, run faster!!!"
Tuomas' turn. I let him go by himself. I was too tired to run in the +23C weather. And Risto. By this time Gloui was so tired (i.e. fed up) that every time Risto turned him towards the stables he started to tölt (Icelandic pony trot) faster and it was difficult for Risto to stop him. I was getting anxious.
DH doesn't want to try. He says because he's allergic, but I think he's just a big sissy. He was surprised to see me ride, tölt and gallop and to have the horse in control. What did he think I had been doing in the forest with the horse?

Piano

Risto had his first piano concert about a month ago. There were about 20 children (+ a couple of adults) performing, an audience of over 50. I think I was more nervous than him. A couple of hours before the concert he was struggling a bit, but ended up playing the Norwegian folksong perfectly (took about 24 seconds). I was so proud to notice that he was the only one to bow after playing.
Il Maestro.Tuomas sat quietly and listened throughout the whole concert which lasted over an hour. It is amazing how he is able to fully concentrate on something he enjoys.
For Jaakko it was too much.