Hi to all my blogger friends. I’ve answered your questions and comments from this week and last week. First a new visitor to my blog, and I love his name: LZ Blogger.

LZ Blogger said…

It sounds like Duke and I have a lot in common! At least until you woke him up. I’d have just rolled over and gone back to sleep. I too am an Orange County escapee.

Is that how you got your name, “lazy?” What if your wife had pushed you out of bed to wake you up?

Brenda said…

Love the pictures! Yes, things like this have happened to me a lot and my husband reacts the same, he always just gets out of bed to help me. Another good guy!

So living in Paraguay you have similar stories to tell. Yet what about city life? Aren’t there clean/airtight houses with AC and no bugs?

Lady Glamis said…

So why had you kept the icky sheets?

Since our hut was a rental, we couldn’t throw the sheets and towels away, although I dread to think about all those other sweaty bodies that had been in those sheets.

Gramma Ann said…

How did they get so full of the yuck stuff, anyway?

We lived in a palapa style hut, where the vaulted ceiling was made from palm fronds. It invited scorpions, geckos, spiders, giant ants and more. The geckos would fall from the ceiling and I’m glad we had a mosquito net as I never knew what would land on our bed. We did find a scorpion once on the top of the net.

Betty said…

Why did you move back? Or is that a separate post?
Betty, I’d love to answer, and there were so many reasons. I’ll let you guess for now. That leaves me wondering: Will you be staying in OC for the rest of your lives or at least for the foreseeable future? I know we shall not stay here for much longer. My youngest has 3 years of school left and we might wait or leave before if something else develops. What about you?

Jungle Mom said…

I am wondering if snakes were a problem there? We saw some baby snakes, but never had a large one in the house? Have you had many?

Brenda said…

Its too bad you could not have stayed longer than a year. I find that when we repeat landmarks, when things happen for the second time,they take on a whole different dimension. One year is very short 🙂 I agree, and I know it takes about that long to know whom you can trust, etc. How long have you lived in Paraguay?

Peggy said…

How did your children like it, did they miss their friends? What about you, what did you miss? My 3 sons all reacted differently. The middle one, Austin, was 13 and desperately missed his close friends. I missed good food, books, classes, a good hairdresser and good coffee.

Rob-bear said…

As to your question, “What do you think?” I think you stayed as long as you thought it was appropriate, given your situation.

I also think you probably want to go back there, and probably will. I am fascinated by how you came up with this Rob. Please let me know as I’m curious.

BLOGitse said…

so now you’re back – was that difficult to come back? Yes, in many ways. The conveniences were great, but part of me wanted less, not more. So strange to me. Anyone else have that feeling?

Thanks for all your questions and please share your own stories, from home, from your travels however close or far.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I’d like to thank Lady Glamis for introducing me to onetruemedia.com. She said it was easy, and I had so much fun selecting the music and the photos. It didn’t take long and it was FREE. Try it, and I’d love to see and hear what you think of the program. These photos were taken last year in May when I went back for a visit on the island of Ambergris Caye. My snippet of our life below is from the mainland where we lived for the first two months.

Duke and I made an agreement. He would put clean sheets on our bed while I scrubbed the dirty dishes and pans with our sulfur reeking well water.

Hearing his snores all the way from the living room, I tiptoed towards our bedroom where I found him collapsed in bed. To my horror I saw the pale yellow sheets stretched over our uneven mattress. Instead of using our soft California sheets, Duke had grabbed the itchy polyester set from the top open shelf. Those were infested with gecko, mice and cockroach poop and despite my sweaty body, I refused to place a millimeter of my skin inside them. How could he not smell them?

There was only one thing to do. I had to wake him up.
“Those aren’t the sheets I asked you to put on the bed Duke,” I whispered in his ear.
“What?”
“I’m sorry, but I refuse to sleep in those icky sheets.”
“They’re clean” he said.
“No, they’re filthy. I won’t sleep in them. I want the ones from California.” So Duke got out of bed and helped me change them without a single complaint. Had he woken me up to change the sheets, I’d have been so mad.

Has something like this ever happened to you? How would you react?

I’d love to hear your stories, comments or any other questions related to this topic. I’d like to get a discussion going on BELIZE BUZZ Wednesday.
Thanks.

What an amazing day. I’m so excited, I have to blog about it. I’m, going to be in the Laguna Beach Independent this week with my photo and a small blurb. My first time in a newspaper talking about my memoir.

This happened unexpectedly on Easter Sunday when I left my family at home, to finish off the brunch leftovers and attended an open mic event at Laguna Beach Books. Amy Wallen, founded the Dime Stories, an event that allows writers to read their work for three minutes, and yes, every writer has to stop when the alarm beeps.

I showed up early and placed my name in the red tin. As luck would have it, my name was called first. I picked an excerpt from a chapter in my memoir called “Ivan” based on our first hurricane experience on the island, Ambergris Caye, Belize.

Nervous as hell, I kept reading as the camera clicked. It wasn’t till the end that I was told that I’d be in the newspaper and was interviewed by a reporter. This has never happened to me before.

One of the readers at the event was Adam Lambert’s father. If any of you watch American Idol, you’ll know who Adam Lambert is. He’s actually my favorite Idol right now. Here’s his latest song, “Mad World.”

Monday is still Belize Day, but I had to share my Easter Sunday.