Too noisy. Too big.

Another quick post. Zella being Zella....pretty happy. Max surveying the ocean. His thoughts? As voiced to us, they include..."It's too noisy. It's moving. Don't like it." From his perspective at 3 foot nothing even small waves seem horrific, I'm sure. We're going to try and find a placid bay for him to try out, much to Rob's chagrin!

The new house and an advertising question

This post is mainly for our moms and dads. If my kids ever move far away and I can't picture where they're living I'll have a hard time of it I'm sure.:) So here's the new digs. The pictures are pretty self explanatory. The condo is less than a one minute walk to the kid's school (I can see it as I type) and life here feels really good.

Now we just have to find some friends. And a social life. Any ideas on how to advertise for that? (There are some pretty big shoes to fill for all positions...)

The Importance of Stuff

The container arrived. Our furniture, toys, books, dishes, etc etc are here with us. It feels like Christmas a thousand times over. I think Max said it best when we told him what had finally landed in Panama- "My cars? My cars are here?"

What I have learned from this is never underestimate the importance of stuff. The stuff that fills up your house, that I used to curse because it was all over the floor or the counter or the bedroom....this same stuff is the stuff that that makes you feel like you're home. Tethered to something. Without stuff it becomes way too easy to feel quite adrift in the world.

Anyway. Just glad our stuff is here.

An Acouti wearing one blue Croc...

These are everywhere. Hoards of them. Bands of roaming, thieving, stinky little guys. We're pretty sure they're the ones responsible for removing Max's size 7 blue Croc from our front porch. The shoe was found 4 days later, unharmed, about 300 metres away on the main road.

That's the Saturday Night Report from Panama.:)

The big update

Okay so we're at three weeks today and it's about time for an update. My apologies for being so lax with this blog but without internet/furnishings/phone at home it's been a hassle. To say the least.

So three weeks in here's where we're at....

• no shipping container yet, but's it's coming this Friday just in time for Zella's Birthday!


• We're moving! Again. For many reasons (animals in the attic, break-ins in the neighbourhood and a landlord that may sell the property) we decided to look around. We found a great condo that we're REALLY excited about. Pool, palm trees and a very nice security guard.:)
• Zella and Max have started kindergarten and nursery school at the same school. Sending them off to a completely Spanish speaking school together was a bit heart-breaking, but they held hands, were fierce in their combined determination to fit in and have made a really good go of it. Photo of ridiculously cute uniformed children above.
• Rob wants everyone to know that beaches are close by, work is going really well and beer is 39 cents.:)

Stay tuned for more updates to come. Including Max and Zella's Adventures with the Leaf Cutter Ants and How Mara Came to Love Coffee.

Ciao!

We're here!

We've arrived. Sorry about no new posts, we don't actually have any internet hookup yet. Sounds like we might on Friday (?). Question marks abound for us right now, as we try to settle in. The kids are well and we're all adjusting to the HEAT. Phew. Hot like hot has never been. For us anyway.:)

Stay tuned, as we get internet connection in the house, lots of photos and updates to come.