how about a nice summary in photos?

hecho.

we're still just living it up in costa rica. 

still eating more fruits and veggies than...wait no. more than nothing. we should always be eating more of those guys.

laura says my husband is going to need to love verduras. especially the green ones.

and also that i should have a compost. 

i don't really know what that means, but i'm cool with it.

did i tell you we had a lot of fruit flies? before. 

ha ha. at first we had a separate bag for the fruit and veggies remnants. then we had that bag be air tight and somewhere else--in a cupboard. didn't work either. then we decided to put all that stuff in a baggy in the freezy. this is me doing away with that. : ) 

and i'm pleased to say we have little to no fruit flies now. 

genius.

we're still chilling with this great guy--love. what an inspired human being!

still loving the whole workshop situation. 

we met with the bishops/branch presidents of a nearby church units to tell them about all the resources the church offers and to see how we can help their specific members. 

the Lord is so aware of His children. and He's given us so many resources so that we can be successful. i'm becoming more and more aware of and grateful for that.

we got to teach this great group the first part of the workshop last saturday.

second half tomorrow!

(we think this selfer is a cool pic because you can kinda see the title of the workbook cover--"el taller de la autosuficiencia laboral." that wasn't on purpose mae!)

aaaaand we're still chilling with this great family all the time. :)

here we're teaching them to make galletas. SO FUN. we made the dough and then just did whatever we wanted for each individual cookie by hand...some had oatmeal, some coconut, some almonds, some all three, some plain,... we made a mound of cookies and they were taaaaaaasty!

love with bea smiles in pictures. : )

we also taught them how to make apple pie. 

(and this pie is GIGANTIC. it looks sad because it should be more elevated, but that was two gigantic bags of apples!)

 
all those people (above) partook...

and--as you can see--it was riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiico.
we were just missing the johnny rockets a-la-mode action (in memory of my dear sister).  

and they taught us how to make this majesty of an el salvadorian dessert. i think it's called semilla de piña? soooooo good.

and then we went to the temple. : )


cutest abuela.


you know when you find yourself feeling grumpy for no reason? 
and then you realize it's because it's been too long since you templed it up? 
that should never happen. 
but i realized a few days before we went that i needed it and that it was time to stop worrying about not knowing where it is or about it being too dangerous to go alone and to just FIND THE TEMPLE because i needed that spiritual boost. sooo badly. 
we all do! 
i love this story of the early saints in logan: every time they wanted to go to the temple, they'd say they were going to go and immediately something would happen...like their wagon wheel would break or their mule would get sick or whatever. finally the prophet exhorted them, "drop your buckets and RUN" to the temple if they wanted to go. 
so don't wait.
 don't let satan win. 
something will always come up. 
and maybe it is legitimately hard to go. 
but make it a priority--make it happen!--and watch the blessings flow.

(Utahans are SO BLESSED to just be able to go to any of eighty temples at our leisure. we've gotta step it up. we don't realize what we have until we don't have it. 

will you all make a goal to GO?)

it's time. 

......................

pineapple shake. : ) 

happy one month in costa rica!

_______________________

apart from all the usual great stuff, we hiked a volcano yesterday. ha ha. just got on a bus and went.

first we drove through the cutest, quaintest most beautiful places on earth...

see all the pictures. no explanations necessary. 

just tulips on the mountain. no big.

i love this one.

and then it started getting foggy...

but it wasn't fog...

we were, in reality, in a CLOUD because we were up so high on the mountain. i mean volcano. ha ha.

 

just treadin the volcanic ash.

made a few friends...

i have such a knack for that.

remember the squirrel and pigeon in london?

or the ducks in slovenia?

call me the she-whisperer

or whatever.

ps. racoons have sharp claws. he swatted me for some cashew clusters. 

the audacity.

oh, and then today we jumped off this bridge.

down there.

pretty sturdy, ma!

and then here are two videos. in case you happen to want to watch me jump off a 300 foot bridge voluntarily. 

what?

ps. you may notice they keep calling me "anto." the reasoning for that may be unclear to you. let me reveal the logic here.
TAWny is impossible to say in spanish. that kind of pronunciation just doesn't exist, period. so i sometimes go by TANI. but even still...that causes a lot of ruffled eyebrows. so i often just resort to antonia because that's totally latino and easy and unmistakeable. and anto is antonia shortened.


(i occasionally go with toñia because that's cool and russian sounding and just awesome, but i found out today that's a kind of nicaraguan beer and if i seem overly excited about my name...people automatically think i'm ready and wanting to party. odd. and undesirable.)


you've gotta think BIEN about what you name your children. as my sister always says, "why do you hate your child?!" i'm just sayin. i love my name but all you out there bearing fetuses or feti, you've gotta consider these things.

all's well that ends well.

we're happy and grateful to be alive.

i'm grateful. so full of thanks.

life's a gift. 

open it.