BEACH TIME

Every once in a while, spending a day at the beach does something to the soul. We live only 1 1/2 hours away from the beach and every time we go we both look at each other and say "We should do this more often." The warm sand between your toes, the fresh salty air on your skin, the wind in your hair. Ahhhhhh. My kids love the ocean. Josh loves to boogie board and Syd loves to create in the sand. Here are a few shots of our time at the beach a few days ago. I hope you sense a bit of that relaxing feeling through these pictures! Enjoy.

Syd wrote this note "God, the ocean is beautiful."


Until I blog again.

Lin

DOUBLE DIGITS

We had a very significant birthday celebration here, Joshua turned 10 years old. It is simply amazing to me how quickly the time goes. Below are a few shots of his special week-long celebration. We do birthdays big. The birthday person gets to decide the menu for the day. Josh chose the following: Breakfast in bed, pancakes with smarties, BLT's for lunch and sweet and sour meatballs with brocolli salad for supper!

Breakfast in bed. Nothing but the best for my son! Note his t-shirt!

Now, Josh really wanted to go paintballing with a few friends for his birthday. He has been asking to do this since we moved here. It was decided that turning 10 was a good reason to do this activity. He was so pumped about it, his heart rate was 98 beats per minute the night before he went!

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Days later and the boys are still talking about how awesome paintballing was. We did have a small damper on this event. We noticed that a few paintballs had hit the cars parked outside the tented and designated paintball area. My friend Tammy, unfortunately stopped a paintball with her eye socket. After vigourously irrigating her eye with clean, cool water, we loaded Tammy up and went in search of an opthomologist. This proved to be a challenge. We went to 3 different offices and no doctor. I finally called my friendly hospital director in David and said we need an opthamologist, pronto. After numerous phone calls we finally secured an appointment for 3pm that day and had her checked out in David. No corneal cuts, no retinal detachments, no bleeding. Thank God she had her glasses on, I think they took the brunt of the pressure. Believe it or not, no black eye and her glasses are still in once piece.

Josh and his peeps

The kids are loaded on cake and pop, so taking this picture was a bit of a challenge.

Until I blog again.

Linda

BROTHERS

It was really terrific to see Jon and Paul together. I don't think they look alike, but it is amazing to watch how similar they are in their mannerism. Below is a clip of Jon, Paul, Ceasar (on drums) and Borus (Oon sax) playing a little jazz together at a local night spot here in Boquete. Not sure when they last played together, but they both sounded great.

GRUNCLE?

In my last blog I mentioned about Jen's parents, Ken and Lynda living here in Panama. My kids often ask me what Ken and Lynda are to us. We are kind of related, but not really. Syd and Josh have both said they are kind of like our grandparents, but they are way too young. I have also heard them saying Ken and Lynda are kind of like an uncle and aunt, but not really. It is quite funny to hear them try and figure this one out. We have decided to make up a word, gruncle.

My kids are very touchy cuddly, Ken, not so much. In the below pictures the kids are giving Ken "Da love!" See how he enjoys it!

It is very rainy here, a great day to get caught up on blogs. More blogs to come, I am on a roll!

Linda

FAMILY VISIT

It has been two weeks and no updated blogs. So sorry. We had Paul's youngest brother Jon, his wife, Jen and their daughter, Brooklynn come for a visit. The cool thing is that Jen's parents also live here in Panama so it felt a little like a family reunion. Syd and Josh had such a great time with their cousin. We were able to spend a day at the beach, have a few meals together and get caught up. Time always flies when family comes. Below are a few shots of our time together.

WE'RE OK

The last 24 hours have been quite eventful. Yesterday afternoon - on our way to karate class - a pick-up truck T-boned our SUV. I was driving into town (Boquete) on the highway and passed a taxi - heading in the same direction - that had pulled off the road (to drop off or pick up someone), with enough room for me to pass safely. I am always cautious when I see a taxi because they tend to pull out back onto the road without looking. The taxi stopped in the middle of the entrance of a side road - making it challenging for traffic trying to enter or exit the intersection. Little did I know, the driver of a pick-up truck had decided to exit the sideroad and enter the highway by driving around the front of the parked taxi in order to try to make a left hand turn onto the highway - setting us on a collision course. He drove right into the passenger side of our SUV. I managed to swerve into the on coming traffic lane at the last second to avoid getting fully T-boned. My friend who was sitting in the front passager seat is pretty sore, she got the brunt of the force.We had the kids in our car and they were just shaken up, but none of them were injured. Thank God there was no one in the other lane, and that we have a sturdy car. The car did not flip and handled really well. Thank you Mitsubisi Montero! Here is a picture of our car:

Here is a picture of the other car:

An interesting thing happens here when there is an accident. Everyone comes and stands around to watch, talk and make the sign of the cross over their chest thanking God no one was killed. Many of the accidents on this road sadly end in fatalities. Traffic slows down, many pull over. Many ask "Que paso?" (What's up?).

Immediately after the impact, a lovely gentleman asked me if I had called the police and if I spoke Spanish. The answer was "no" to the first question, and "sometimes, but not now", to the second question. I tried to call Paul and the police but my hands were shaking so hard I almost dropped my phone. The gentleman called the police and dialed Paul's number and within 5 minutes we had Paul, police, ambulance, and fire rescue on the scene. Neither the policia or driver of the other vehicle spoke English. So we weren't sure what was being talked about. Paul called a fully bilingual friend (and well respected businessman in the community) to come and help us, who was there in less than 3-4 minutes and helped to settle things down. We filled out paper work, got our blood pressures checked, gave statements and I received a citation to attend a court date where we meet with the Mayor of Boquete, present our case, and await his decision about fault. Very interesting!

Another interesting/disconcerting thing that happened was that the taxi - that witnessed the whole thing - took off right after the impact. I found out from one of the onlookers which taxi it was, and the same taxi zoomed by while talking with the police. I pointed to the witness taxi and jumped up and down frantically telling the "policia" that the driver of the taxi passing by was the witness. All I got in response was a shrug and a grunt. I wrote down the license plate number and gave that to our insurance agent along with the pictures Paul took.

The fellow that hit me had no license and was driving a truck belonging to his family. Apparently, the owner said they have insurance on the truck. I am not holding my breath. 2 hours later, show is over and we are able to drive our vehicle home. Not so for the other vehicle because the front wheels were locked into position pointing in opposite directions. I will keep you posted about what happens in "court".

As you can well imagine, I was very shaken, especially when I think of what could have happened, especially to the children. I tried to eat supper (graciously made by Syd and served to me by Josh) but just couldn't swallow. Instead I cleaned and bleached the bathrooms and went through homeschooling stuff. I finally got to sleep only to be woken at 3:33am by a 5.2M earthquake that lasted approximately 10 seconds. It has been our third one since we got here! Paul and I immediately got up and checked on the kids, who were both quite nonchalant about the whole earthquake thing. "We're fine, it was only an earthquake, Mom." My children are either extremely well adjusted or extremely jaded about what "normal" is. I headed back to bed for an off and on night of sleep. Paul never did get back to sleep until 8:00am.

Needless to say, I am quite tired and hope I have a better night's sleep tonight. Paul brought the car into the body shop today to get an appraisal. The assessment is done ad a quote is on the way to the insurance company. Apparently, the insurance company has to approve the repair, order the parts and have them shipped to the auto body shop, then we'll get a call to bring our vehicle in for repairs, and be without a car for 12 days. I'm not sure if insurance will cover cost of a rental car. That is next on my "to do" list. If not, the taxis here are readily available and pretty cheap. We are in a great location, just off the main road. So hailing a taxi is very easy. I just taxied from town to home with the kids for $1. Meanwhile, Paul has duct taped the passager door shut so the rain doesn't get the front seat wet. We have secured the front headlight with packing tape and life goes on.

I dropped the kids off at school today and Syd walked around the front of the car and casually and discreetly pushed my dislodged front headlight back into its socket and I slowly exited the school parking lot. She then waved and headed to class. I had a good (and needed) belly laugh.

Until I blog again.

Linda