HAPPY HOLLYWEEN!

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Isn’t it Great! Mariah is Living With Us!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that Mariah is living at our house. For those of you who don’t know me, Mariah is my 21 year old daughter. We had a very rough (ROUGH? Hah!😳) adolescent period and I don’t think either of us ever imagined we would live in the same house ever again! I’m happy to report that “Time Heals”!

Carving Out Some Sanity!

I’ve accepted the fact that there’s just no way I can have a clean house while work commences and sawdust is flying ! Every time I attempt to dust or organize I have to empty yet another closet so Scott can build shelves. It’s amazing how much junk is stuffed into my coat closet , and boy does it spread out when it’s transferred to the pool table. Do we ‘really’ need ALLLLLL those coats??

Guest Blogger!

I’d like to introduce you to my very first ‘Guest Blogger’, Donald Meyer,he has been a friend and client of mine for at least twenty years. Don is a person who I greatly admire. As a matter of fact he is one person who inspired me to begin blogging myself. He started publishing a blog in 2009. His blog, chippep.blogspot.com, is mostly humor and lots of great photography as well as his own witty insights . I have seen Don go through some pretty profound life changing events in the years that I’ve known him and through it all his sense of humor has never faltered. He never stops learning new things and I believe he has endless amounts of insight and I’m honored that he’s willing to share a little bit with my followers.

To Reinvent Ourselves…… Or To Reinvent Our Lifestyle, Hmmmmm?

What does it mean to reinvent yourself? Does it mean taking on a whole new persona ? Or Changing your personality completely ? Maybe to reinvent oneself is to simply change your hair color ! That’s one reinvention I can manage! Lol! But as I’ve been quietly contemplating my move to Boquete I wonder how it will change me as a person, if at all. Yes, I do believe changes will naturally take place but will I reinvent myself? This, I’m not so sure about. I’m not sure that I have a list of personality changes that I am striving to reinvent ( not that I don’t have aspects of myself I will always continue to improve or change, naturally) , mostly, I think, my ‘lifestyle’ is what I hope to reinvent.

I’m Searching For My Blogging ‘Mojo’!

I’m a beginner in this blogging game! I decided to start blogging as an experiment at first but as I’ve gotten such amazing support from so many people I’ve begun to “Really” enjoy it! Another unexpected development that has happened as a result of blogging is connecting with other blogging expats around the world. I have learned so much about the community of expats as well as bloggers, they are all incredibly welcoming and so generous with encouragement ,and information. So since I seem to enjoy it so much and I’m building up a little following, I figure I should try my best to do a good job!

In order to improve my blogging skills, which are very few, I have begun reading books about blogging. Surprisingly, to me, anyways, there are a lot of books written by very successful bloggers about being a better blogger! I’m starting with “Finding Your Blogging Mojo!”, and,” Bloggers Bootcamp”. Right off the bat I learned that I’ve been writing posts that are much too long! Oops! Silly me! I just have so much to say! The advise I have gleamed is that I should try to post shorter posts but more frequently . Ok…… Hmmmmm! I’ll give that a try. Then I just edited my home page on my Blog and I figured out how to create that little feature where you can read a short tag line at the beginning of each post and then click on,” read more of this post”. This apparently creates a much more usable home page. Who knew??? There really is so much to learn and I’m enjoying the process and hopefully improving my blogging mojo or at least I’ll eventually ‘Have’ a blogging mojo! Lol!

We Better Get Used To It!

FRUSTRATION! Yep, we had better get used to being frustrated by inefficiency! From what we have read on Panama forums and other blogs , living in Panama or any other South or Central American country for that matter , can be rather frustrating at times. But! Wait! We are still living in good old’ U.S . Of A, and holy moly, did we feel the sting of frustrating inefficiency yesterday!

Getting Our Ducks In A Row 🐤🐤🐤🐤

We’re continually revisiting all those little ducks and trying to get them in a nice straight line! I think we have a pretty good handle on it but there never seems to be an end to the process of juggling and rearranging duckies !

My Book Club📖

Moving to another country of course means leaving many many things that are precious to me. One of these things is my book club. So I thought I would write about that group of very special women who I have had the great honor of sharing my love of books with for many years. This is a group of like-minded women who I will miss dearly. I’ve been reminiscing about the beginning of my book club and my ever growing love of books.

Making History With Mariah

Today I got to visit my daughter, Mariah’s Cosmetology school . She is nearing the end of her program and needed to do one more facial. I was overjoyed to offer myself up as her final facial victim, oops! I meant client!

Histories Shared….

My history, your history, Our history. I’ve been thinking about all the people in my life and the history we share. Some go way back to my childhood some my young adult or teen years and other shared histories go back to my early 20’s and still others are more recent histories. This came to my mind of course, because I’m only months away from moving to a new place where I have no history with anyone there. Kinda makes me stop and ponder this fact.

A Great Day In The City!

Scott an I were invited to go sailing in San Francisco today with some very special people. Bare with me as I attempt to briefly explain our connection.

Lion’s and Tiger’s and Learning Spanish, Oh My! 👠👠

I speak English! Regretably, I’ve never learned another language. Hell, You can likely deduce from my often juvenile writing , that my proper grasp of the English language could use some help! On an immersion trip to Costa Rica many moons ago, I failed miserably on my first incredibly weak attempt to learn the Spanish language, (what does ‘Conjugate’ mean anyways??) In spite of my early failure, one of my first goals upon arriving in my new adopted country is to begin the long and arduous process of learning the language

Progress Report!

The countdown to our move is marching onward ! Time is truly flying by faster than I can believe! There’s only 115 days until February 1! We have loosely set February/March as our goal to list the house for sale and I must admit that seems awfully quick! Scott is making great progress on all the finish work in the house.

HollyWeen🎃

I’m not really a huge fan of many holidays. I never remember anyone’s birthday and have never cared about making a big deal about my own. Thanksgiving has been nice since I’ve been with Scott, for obvious reasons spending time with my favorite Mother In Law……..and eating Scott’s outrageously delicious food! Although with the absence of much of my own family in my life, I sometimes feel a bit sad that we aren’t closer . Christmas, well, I have developed a bit of a Beef about many aspects of this highly commercialized holiday. While I enjoy parts of the decorating involved in this holiday ,( of course, I do love to set the stage!), the obligatory gift purchasing has a tendency to bewilder me. Don’t get me wrong, I do get great joy from giving the perfect gift that will shock and surprise the recipient. It’s really quite exciting when you know for certain that you have found a gift that is just perfect! ( of course , it would help if I could keep a secret!, I don’t quite have that part down!). In the end, I would much prefer the gift of time spent with those I love. That’s more valuable than any of the material things wrapped up in fancy paper and tied with a bow. So for many reasons that I won’t expand upon any further, I love Halloween! It’s a holiday that simply celebrates fun!