Hola -- hiya -- Hola otra vez.

Well here I am about to take off again for a new adventure.

Update in brief:

We got to Scotland, safe and sound. Saw John, my father-in-law and spent a few precious months with him before he was called back to heaven. It was a brutally painful end for him, so while we all are sad to see him gone, we are relieved to see his pain ended. Suffice it to say the Young family has a bone to pick with god, and his name is Jonh Young. Screw you, god. That was so unfair! Yeah, yeah, I know he works in mysterious ways and all that blessing in disguise stuff...still not fair. He was this amazing person, and the world could have learned a lot more from John Young.

Benjamin has gotten to know three beautiful and enchanting young ladies from the Mclean Clan. His cousins; Ruth, Fiona, and Lauren. His Princesses, as he calls them. Ruth was a feisty contender for our Benjamin who was used to being the revered baby of his social realm, and he soon learned to keep a safe distance and strike quick and fast before she could retaliate...she had the nails, but he has good strong chompers like his dad. At first it was anyone's game, but now I'd have to put my money on my wee boy if it came down to that. he is utterly in love with the McLean family, and it occurs to me that once he is old enough to travel alone, we may have to send him along to visit his auntie Karen and Uncle John with or without us. He is also in love with his Gran and Uncle Fraser who just take the greatest care of him.

But as the time ticked by and the prospects of me legally finding work in Scotland dwindled to almost impossible, I started searching abroad again. I found a great school and in what I thought would be vain hope applied for a job as an A2 English teacher. Well, after many interviews and lots of long hard thinking I got the job! I have never been so elated by a job offer before. I know it seems silly, but I am actually smitten with this school. It is what I have always wanted in a school. It's the school I would have opened if I had the money and experience I wish I had. It's just everything you could want in educational experience. It's in the mountains, but close to two seas. It's in a tropical location, in one of the greatest ecological reserves in the world. The students come from countries all over the world, and the curriculum is one I fully believe in and adore teaching.

It's called the United World College of Costa Rica, and actually they have a website, so you can read all about them yourself and I can stop gushing like a school girl who just got asked to the prom. http://www.uwccr.com

Benjamin is already talking about picking pineapples with his barehands and catching butterflies in the backyard in "Cosrica" I am just so excited for him to be around Spanish speakers again. We tried really hard to expose him, but especially with all the doctors and hospitals and emergencies, it just wasn't the priority and totally fell by the way-side. He still understands quite a lot of Castellano, but not nearly enough, and he never speaks it. My MIL seems to think that if we take him somewhere where they speak spanish, he will lose his English or learn to speak with a funny accent. She is certain that it is impossible for the human brain to hold two languages at once. "You will confuse him! He is only three!" she insists...well, what can I say to that line of thinking? I tried to show her studies, remind her that her son and I are language acquistion experts with decades of experience, between us, under our belts and we do know a thing or two about the topic, but her "common sense" trumps all that, doesn't it?

Nevertheless, off we go.

Benjamin and I are heading to the states this week, to see Gummy and Pop-pop, Abuelita, Great-Grandpa Hommel, Tio Max and Tia Laurel (and dare I hope, aunty Rachel? probably not), and Tia Maria (the aunty not the liquor) and Tio Marshall and Tia Linda, Grandma Sally...the whole gang! I am really excited. He is mostly excited about the notion that there will be sno-cones at the Fourth of July picnic (why oh why did I ever tell him this porky-pie?) but that is because he hasn't seen gummy and pop-pop in over two years, so he doesn't know how much FUN they can be. I am already anxious and not sleeping well at night. I want very badly to arrive so that I know half the journey's over.

Jamie will join us in August. He's doing this summer camp ESL thing which he HATES but which will earn him 4000 dollars in six weeks. It's a good thing, but heck oh heck will I miss him, and Benjamin? well I don't know how it will effect him, but he's already missing him like crazy now that he is back at work everyday...I can't imagine what he will be like when we are a whole ocean away. *sniff* it makes me sad just thinking about it!

So that's it, really. I'm moving to Costa Rica (Santa Ana), with my boy and my husband. I love my family, and they are so great. I feel like I sort of have that happily ever after feeling despite all the tradgedy along the way.

It's a good thing.

Here are some photos of our time here:






















Benjamin makes his first snowman with daddy.



























Let's go Rangers!















Happy Third Birthday! (yes, I did make that 3D cake of James the Tank Engine.)




















Benjamin at the swan pond


























By the bonnie bonnie shores of Loch Lomond with Ruth.


























Spring flinging with Ruth.

Another year gone by...

And what a year it's been.





Tomorrow being my birthday (number 32 for those of you who are keeping track), I am prone to nostalgic thoughts. This year has seen some serious ups and downs.





Work is the same as always, great students, nightmare co-workers, and the occassional smattering of amazing friendships that manage to endure despite the constant stress of mismanagement. As the last year of my contract comes to a close I am stunned to find the same people making the same flubs and fuck-ups as always and still the administration seems to turn a blind eye, laugh complacently and shrug their shoulders as if they were harmless and not the detriment to the school that they really are. It is, as my husband points out, one thing to be useless, but it quite another to be a liability...when the latter is the case, someone has to take measures.





Misinformation. Poor information filtering. Communication breakdowns. E-mail usage abuse. These should not be common attributes of leaders. And yet they stay, snuggly in their offices, over spending and under performing, and driving everyone around them as batshit crazy as they are.





On happier news, my child has become a real live boy. He is a star. He is currently dead into make believe and he does an excellent impression of the following: Cats (cooool cat, that is), Tyrannusaurus Rex (Raaaahr....I'm a Sauuuurr), Doggies (ruff ruff) and a cowboy (look out if you ever need to look for something on the floor, you might as well strap on a harness and Saddle...YeeHAH!). He is also an excellent artist, but he's more into body art than painting paper:

In sadder news, my father in law is getting sicker and sicker. The cancer is spreading and my husband has never been so sad. I wish I could whisk him away to Scotland right now and we could be there happily forever, but alas, he feels he has to wait until our contracts are done and we have tied up our loose ends here. I think his heart will heal when he sees his dad. So at the end of this year it's off to Scotland, for a while. I am looking forward to seeing his family and watch Benjmain get to know his cousins, but I'd be a liar if I didn't admit I am dead nervous to mesh my lifestyle with my inlaws...we are so so different.





So tomorrow I turn 32. Half-way to 64, will you still need me? Will you still feed me?

Another much belated update

Well I'm back into the second term of school and boy is it slow going. All I want to do is sleep in and drink hot cocoa until Spring is back. I hate the grey days of winter, especially after three weeks in the sunny blue domed skies of the north.

For my holidays my husband and I went to Tucumàn, Salta and Jujuy. We saw some of the most amazing sights I have ever laid eyes on and we had quite the adventure.

To start with, we hit the road early Friday morning and arrived in our first Destination of Raphael with nary a speedbump in our way, which only deserves a mention as it was the last day of our journey that such could be said for our wee car.

Upon our late evening arrival to Tucumàn's Capital city we noticed out water was leaking (again) and that the oil temp was slowly creep creep creeping its way into the danger zone. By the time we reached the street where our hotel would be the light was on and Jamie was in full on panic mode. I literally had to command him to pull the car over onto a sidewalk driveway and put on his caution lights...I mean what? Do we actually have to be seeping black smoke from the engine to warrant an emergency situation pull-over? I may not drive but I know when enough is enough.

The next day we got ACA (the argie version of AAA) to tow us to the slowest Mechanics in the world. They were brothers, Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-my-thumbs, and two of the largest men I have ever laid eyes on and no wonder. They work next door to their home and have their sandwhich makin' mom stopping their work every three hours like clockwork to provide them with much needed sustanance. Did I mention these men are middle-aged? Did I mention the frequent food breaks did nothing to speed up their progress during the rare moments they were actually looking at the car? Three days later in Tucumàn our engine was in pieces and they'd had all their friends over to take a stab at re-assembling the damn thing in between the courses of milanesas and locro of course. When we finally managed to get our car off the floor and on the road we daren't ask questions about the black exhaust coming from behind us, the suddenly low-milage we got on our petrol and the odd way the gauge seemed to bounce around as we drove over hills. We just counted ourselves lucky to get far away from those nutters before they decided to go back in for another look.

We finally got out of Tucumàn which actually, FWIW, is an amazingly beautiful city if you can get to the outskirts...the city itself is sort of like an abandoned world's fair town. You can tell it had its glory days once upon a time, but now it looks more like a run-down Detroit. The hills around though are absolutely stunning!

Ben rides his first horse

Incan ruins outside of Tucumàn

When we arrived in Salta we were glad to have left Tucumàn but still worried for the car which was spewing gasoline now upon opening the tank, and still awfully black looking. We were anxious to get the car up to Jujuy, so the next day we drove up scenic route 9 to Jujuy's capital city. A very windy road and a very dodgey car...but we made it alive with our safety monitor Benjamin shouting from the back seat "Be careful, Daddy! Be Careful!" as he looked out his wondow and saw nothing but sheer cliff and jungle vines.

But safe and sound we did arrive and that is where our car died a sudden sad death...luckily ACA to the rescue a very speedy mechanic saved the day, and our car. Three Cheers for the guy! He was good. Very good.

With a healthy car and fresh drive for scenery we were on our way to Humahuaca, Las Salinas Grandes and Cafayate. It was a goregous drive around the Andes, and I can only post pictures to allow them to speak for themselves, as my words just wouldn't do them justice.

Hills of Humahuaca

A Salta Horse

The tower of Humahuaca

Las Salinas Grandes

Ben tries to steal a villager's goat.

The Devil's Throat

Maimara's cemetary

Purmamarca's market

Unfortunately we had to cut our journey short a bit as we were robbed. Some little shits broke into Ben's room and made off with some coins, some jewelry and two laptops (aka my LIFE's work...GONE!) Bastards. Luckily Jamie had his on disk...so only half our life is gone...weep for me. I still do.

Our house was a bit beaten up but nothing like they do back home.

I will edit this later for photo additions and tell you all soon about the farce of a sham of a mockery of a police investigation our "crime scene" became. CSI? I don't think their detectives are quite that savvy yet. Oh well.

Until then.

First haircut

Benjamin got his first haircut last night...ever cute, I have to tell you. He was such a trooper and giggled through the whole thing. I cried as I tucked his curls into his baby book.

He looks like a grown boy.

I feel so blue, yet proud:

Why my son is cuter than yours.

First of all I offer up photographic evidence.

I don't know how to put pictures in the text of this, so you will have to click on the link for this photo album: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/r_hommel/album?.dir=372fscd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

I told you. Did you see that one of him in the yellow raincoat?

Okay, to prove that my infatuation runs deeper than looks and I am not a shallow, beastly stage-mom, I provide you with evidence of his superior two year old wit and charm.

On the evening of Sunday May 13th, while I was serenading my son in the kitchen with my rendition of I'll Be There, he pushed his chair over to where I was, climbed atop, and grabbed my face in what I assumed would be an appreciative kiss, but rather put his nose to mine and loudly SHUSHED me...with a "BASTA mommy!" as he pointed to the radio, as if to say...I love you lady, but you ain't no Mariah Carey!

On the Morning of Tuesday May 15th the tiny tot I call the fruit of my loins was sleeping soundly at 10 am...as if that was not good enough to win him the title of Son of the Year, he did this: Upon being woken up by his father who soon had to leave for work, he first attempted to ignore his father's nudging by rolling to the other side of the bed, when this did not work he grabbed his face and said to him... "Go. GO!" and pointed to the door and rolled over.

He is SO bossy!

He makes his own jokes in the car and laughs at them...granted I do not know what the punchline IS, but if you heard that giggle, you'd know it was DAMN funny.

Final evidence that he is the cutest boy in the world:

• Everyday he brings home a flower for me from his walk home from Pre-school.
• He dances to everything that has a beat, even the ballet channel.
• He shares his cookies with me, and I don't even have to steal them.
• He blows me kisses when he is ready to say goodnight.
• He tells himself bedtime stories.
• He sings to himself in the morning while having his breakfast.
• He gives sneak attack bear hugs by hiding in his toy basket next to the couch and springing up on you when you are watching TV.
• He talks to his very important imaginary Movie agent on his imaginary cellphone that could sometimes be mistaken for his HAND.
• He eats broccoli like it's candy. (okay that one just proves he's weird, but I think it's awesome!)

Top that!

:-P pthbpthbpthbpthb

And then God sent down a plague of mosquitoes upon the people

I don't know what I have done to deserve this.

I am covered in mosquito bites and they keep on swarming. Everytime they seem ready to die off, there is a horribly rainy day and another three days of heat and sun that brings them all back, these mutant giant blood sucking vampires from hell. I swear, if God is trying to send us a message, I wish he'd be more direct. This plague crap is just unfair to the rest of us who didn't enslave a people, exploit the poor, kill enmasse, or invent aerosol cooking spray flavored like "butter". What did *I* do?

My son went outside yesterday for a mere three minutes and within that tiny moment of freedom acquired five fresh egg-sized lumps on his head...looks like he got in a fist fight with an anvil. He is happy as a lark mind you, but lumpy, and oh so itchy. Poor little bumpy-lumpy peanut, even three layers of Off and citronella doesn't keep these bugs away. Evil I tell you.

I have never in my life prayed for winter before, and just now I am thinking let the cold and ice begin. For the love of GOD, where is the cold when you need it.

Damn myself for loving Aquanet so much in grade seven; how was I to know the consequences of big hair would lead to a melting Ozone and eventually giant blood consuming insects that would try to eat my baby? Damn you Vidal Sasson and your 80s "wings", look at what you've done to us!

Has anyone seen my brain?

I really need it for Third period.

What a weekend.

I am utterly exhausted. Thursday my good friend told me she and her boyfriend broke it off and she was so sad my long awaited weekend of doing nothing was postponed.

One too many nips from the bottle of Smirnoff later she and I were battling a hangover while watching Benjamin, the two year old love bug of endless energy I call my son. Thank god it was a miserable rainy day and there was nothing to do but watch cartoons and rest. There is nothing quite so horrible as realizing that you have stayed up so long that your hangover will kick in before you've even had a chance to sleep, not mention that your child has awoken for the day in the meantime. That has GOT to take years off one's life.

Then there was a birthday party for a co-worker on Saturday night that lasted until 6am and then some, and to top it off another birthday gala for our two good friends Nat and Greg...lovely get together, if only my stomach lining had had a few more hours to rejunvenate. errrg.

I feel today like I have had a lobotomy and yet I have to face the children nonetheless. It's not fair really. One should be allowed to call in self-mutilated, just once a month.