I have been running low on time... I can hear you already- "what? you live in the jungle, how could you be 'low on time'!?" well maybe you are right, maybe it is more motivation than time... blogging hasn't been high on my list of items, it comes just after sweeping poop off of the patio (a daily job as we have a jungle pal with an attitude and a bad nightly habit). Actually it must come lower than that because I actually HAVE been sweeping poop and I have not been blogging, sorry.
So my membership ran out, I didn't know I needed to renew it but the Fan of CR membership that helps you every time you swat mosquitoes, get ripped off or just sit in a pool of sweat expired and I got sick of the above short list as well as a longer more detailed list added thereafter.  Seriously I think I got homesick for the first time, missed my Wasatch mountains, my friends and yes, I missed snow.  I think I just heard you sneer.  I feel better now, it is not crazy hot, the mosquitoes have lessened a bit, at times, and then our power went out.
 
Saturday morning 7am I hear "POP" and look out to see a fire shooting from our electrical box, followed by smoke and the oh-so familiar smell when you leave a spatula on a burner. We had fried one of the main lines to our house... must have been my furious blogging. THANKFULLY we had a second line that kept the fridge working, a couple of rooms had light and an electrical outlet in the kitchen... I was slowly more and more thankful for that as the days passed and now, Monday afternoon, we have power again in the last 30 min.  It made me think about life before power, how dramatic it is when the sun goes down at 6 and it's DARK. Refrigeration and life without it, that is a whole article by itself. I thought I could wing it but I ended up sleeping, you guessed it, in the kitchen with a fan.
I moved to CR thinking I would alter my inner thermometer and be more 'tico' by just getting used to the heat. Granted it is only this hot by the beach, but I wanted the challenge. After a couple weeks I changed my mind... as I became hotter (a progressive slippery slope of sweat) the AC was used more and more.  My resolve to alter my inner whatever became a quest for AC, ice cold smoothies and anything under 80F. I guess it takes longer than a few months and opening the pores for me.
Church... we have been trying to go to church every week.  I knew it would be a challenge, but really? The drive to San Isidro has over 160 turns in the serpentine road (more, though I lost track between vomiting kids), causing me to clean more than my share in the car from sick kids.  The drive is 75 min and we are about to move 15 min further away.  The entire service is in spanish (no kidding) however I, in my "fluency" I struggle to understand anything since I can't concentrate as well while managing kids... my poor wife is just glazed over in a fine shellac. The two younger kids, being too young for any real classes become the job of one of us for the bulk of the meetings, or we divide and conquer reducing the experience to whatever net gain our 5 year old gets from meetings fully in spanish.  I will say I think part of the gain is the kids knowing it is important for us to go, and maybe the church attendees gain by our presence (since ours are the only kids disputing the meeting), but somehow it is not what I had pictured before. The people are VERY welcoming (a contrast to our aged congregation in SLC) and very happy we are there. I have had some experiences that tell me to keep going with this even though it is crazy, the love of God has a softening affect that imbues patience with the present.  All in all it is a 7 hour process from door to door... and yesterday took the cake.
We left 30 min early so we could stop and avoid vomiting... thought it would be good measure too.  We didn't need a break as there were areas of road being serviced that gave us a good 30 minutes of sitting, then we arrived in San Isidro and I quickly found myself having driven into a crowd of horses and riders, looked like  a festival.  Somewhere I missed a sign that said "do not enter, parade line up" and the next thing I know I am driving IN the parade of horses, band members, twirling girls and the like.  I could almost hear the "CRAZY GRINGO" thoughts as I attempted to reverse out of the situation, then, for the next 2 blocks, in reverse, without a way to turn around amidst the cowboys, onlookers, crowds and everyone else and their dog. We had stopped to give a tico girl and her baby boy a ride earlier, and she was in the back at this point, and asked me if it was usual to drive like that in reverse in traffic in the US... jokesters they are.. After we parked, crossed the procession by foot and found church, only 10 min late, we spent the next hour in the holy sacrament meeting with a parade passing on the street outside the doors, full bore drummers, trumpets and bells while the speaker at the podium gave the discourse.  I think they actually were speaking, though we heard only celebrations of Dia de los Patrones. Amy almost kept a straight face.