the new story.

Is actually wedged in between "the miracle post" and "the good ole 75' post"....scroll down a bit.

a little miracle.

I know...so now that I've finally updated the blog, nobody checks it anymore.  Can I just say that the technical difficulties experienced in this country create for complete and total apathy when it comes to doing anything involving the computer and the internet.  So I'm sorry, very sorry.  But here are a couple of updates, and I'm working on a funny story that lets you into our lives since we've been back.  So stay tuned.  In the meantime, I completely gave up on trying to post a video through the blog.  But instead was able to upload them to You Tube and then create a link from the blog to the You Tube post.  I'm hoping that the videos stay the same and don't change.  So if you log onto Motos in the Dust and see three videos that aren't of Diego, please notify me and I'll try to see what I can do.  If the videos stay put and are of Diego, you'll see that Diego loves playing with the baseball much to Miguel's delight, and we're working on saying "mama" instead of "dada".  I think Diego insists on calling me "dada" these days...what is a mama supposed to do!

the wild, wild west?

Or is it the wild, wild caribbean?  I know that there are some of you that wonder what we do with our days.  Its always hard to sum them up as at any moment the unexpected usually happens. Well, one of those days happened a couple of weeks ago.  

As many of you know, Miguel is working on a fairly big construction project.  With the big construction projects in this country, even the little ones at that, come common issues with learning which employees you can really trust and which of them you can't.  Along with that, come the problems of different construction materials that decide to grow feet and walk away. Well, we had an issue with an employee this past November whom we started to distrust and who quickly fled the work scene just to turn around and sue us instead.  For what you may ask?  O the tricky, slimy lawyers that do exist in this world will be able to find some minor detail to trip you up on.  So anyway, not to dwell too much on that issue, needless to say we also had some material turn up missing as this whole scenario started to take form.   We had a pretty good idea who the thief or thieves were and had some witnesses, but the witnesses decided not to get in the middle of the mess and wouldn't testify.  So for lack of some good hard evidence we had to let the issue rest and move on.

A few weeks ago now, there was a watchee (what they call watchmen here) at the construction site who saw some random guys loading up rebar from a vacant cow pasture next to the construction site.  Upon taking notice and calling out to the men, they quickly sped away in the truck they were driving.  Miguel's brother, Daniel, was actually the watchee and he quickly took off on a motorcycle to get Miguel.  Miguel happened to be home when Daniel arrived, and he tore out of the house before I knew what was happening.  Shortly thereafter, Garrett came by looking for Miguel and all I could say was that he tore out of the house in a hurry.  The next thing we know is that Miguel is calling me and telling me to run down to the police station to get some police back up.  Miguel and Daniel had found one of the Haitian robbers in a nearby town and had chased him down and had him locked up in a house.  I leave Garrett with Diego and run down to get the police.  Lucky I had some extra change in my pocket as I needed to buy gas for the police's motorcycle before they sped off to help Miguel and Daniel.  I went back to the house to await the outcome.  

In the end the Haitian was forced to speak and identified 15 others who had either bought the stolen rebar or were hiding it out. All of them were carted off to jail.  Miguel spent 2 days loading up and collecting all the stolen rebar, and by the end of it we had actually collected more rebar than what we had originally gone missing.  Since it was all stolen material, not necessarily from us, the police said to take it all. 

And that gives you a glimpse of random occurrances that happen in  our lives on this end.

our good ole 75'.

So what ever happened to our dear old land cruiser? We were trying to sell it at one time, but wouldn't let it go for one dime less than what it was worth.  The only problem with that is that we didn't factor in the sentimental value that we had put up into it.  And in the end, after a day of trying to get up a muddy bank to retrieve some building materials and failing again and again in a newer more modern truck, Miguel started to wish that he had the jeep.  The dear old jeep would've made it up that muddy bank without a hitch.  So Miguel has spent months now working bit by bit, putting lots of loving care into the jeep restoration.  In the end it will come out with a new metal frame, and a new coat of paint.  We'll keep you posted as the jeep is slowly resurrected.  But as of now, this is what it looks like!

rio san juan.

This past Saturday we went out to Rio San Juan with our friends Garrett and Anne.  We got to take a fun boat ride out in the lagoon that goes out to sea.  We saw lots of other fishing boats too including Noah's ark.  (We'll let you guess which boat that was).  It was Diego's first time out on a boat and it was hard to tell if he was too impressed.  I think he was more interested in his bottle of juice!  Following our boat ride we ate an amazing fish lunch that Miguel's cousin, Any, made for all of us.  She and her family live in Rio San Juan.  Then after lunch we all went out to the beach where we just sat and watched the waves roll in.  All in all, it was the best day we've all had a while and something we all needed.  

how much is that baby in the window?

Diego has a special window friend.  He's always a little familiar and loves to smile back.  Every time Diego catches him in the mirror, he starts to laugh and laugh and smile.  He's his favorite play companion.  And we all think he's just adorable. 

just a lazy sunday afternoon.

Diego is now 5 months old and is strong and sturdy at 18 pounds.  Poor mommy is getting a work out with him!

After church this past Sunday and before nap time, Diego had some play time on the floor.  And lo and behold he started to drag himself across the floor.  He's not up on all fours yet, but starting to gatear (crawl)?!  I'm not sure we're prepared for this next stage...