Happy Thanksgiving Back

Just half of our amazing Family (come on family! let's get some pictures!)

As I am sitting here typing this, I can't help but to feel a little sad because we are not with our family on this wonderful day of Thanksgiving. We don't have a stove, so making my favorite pecan pie tartlets and green bean casserole is out of the question.  (you guys I want pecan pie so bad, add that to my list of things i'll be eating immediately when we get back to the states). But why am I sad, when I have been given so much!? 

 Jeffrey and I have such an amazing opportunity to live in another country! And that's pretty sweet. Plus we are loved and supported by our families and have some pretty great friends to boot. Living in Nicaragua where there isn't a lot of money has opened my eyes to living simply. I am so blessed to have been raised up as I was and to be supported all my life! So today be thankful for what you have and maybe even give back to someone in need! Also tomorrow we are going away for the weekend! So happy Thanksgiving weekend to us! and to you, cause who doesn't love some good Thanksgiving leftovers! Ham and Turkey on rolls yeah, add that to the list too.

You've Got Mail to take us out:

Also Dr. Torres anyone?

Let's Jam

Boy do I have some awesome songs for you, jam it! We have a lot of down time here in Nicaragua and so we love to have dance parties--well mostly just me but Jeffrey will get down sometimes--

Let's be honest I can pretty much get down to any song but if I could choose I like songs that have a super good beat and sing to. You go it one woman show right here. Getting back on track... my sister

Lulu is pretty much my go to with any music suggestions. Also her voice is amazing and I am always trying to get her to sing for me and record songs for me. I'm convinced she'll be the next Adele! She is a ginge too ya know. Before we left for Nicaragua she uploaded my iPhone with tons of music. And that is what we've been dancing to since!

For real good booty shakin':

Castle by Macklemore

Thrift Shop by Macklemore 

Boom Clap by Charli XCX

Breezeblocks by Alt J- Seriously if you haven't listened to them you need to. They are killin' it lately!

Can't Stop by  Red Hot Chilli Peppers

If you just feel like dancing a little bit:
Taro by Alt J- Seriously if you haven't listened to them you need to. They are killin' it lately!

Falling by Iritation

Be What You Want by Robin Loxley & Oliver Jackson 

One Day by Matisyahu

The Draw by Bastille

Songs I love to sing too:

Flaws by Bastille

Take Me to Church by Hosier

Full Circle by Half Moon Run

Heartache by Adaline
Anything sung by Sam smith. Am I right. He rocks.

I know a lot of these songs are older but they are so good! Have any suggestions for me or want some more suggestions from me? Let me know!

 Happy dancing/singing/being happy!

Ps. All these songs are available for purchase via iTunes!


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Lately...

Spending the past few months in Granada have certainly been an experience. We are coming around though and starting to really love it. After the first few weeks we did about all the sight seeing you can do in Granada and we were just stuck looking for things to do. We decided to play tourist again and this  is what we did over the past couple of days.

We Spent the day in the central park. There are tons of vendors and things to look at.  People will go around yelling FRESCO carrying around bags full of different drinks with straws. (some things are so bizarre to me!) 

 I got a lemonade and Jeffrey got cacao, a chocolate drink.(y'all if you come to Nicaragua GET, i mean get a ton, of cacao drinks. It is so so amazingly good)  Frescos cost around $.18 cents each score-- except I have found a bug in mine.. ahhh! so maybe check before you buy!

We picked up a few souvenirs, I've always wanted one of these headbands, and it doesn't hurt that they are very inexpensive! They sell them every where!

A day later we decided to grab lunch.  This is Vigoron, and it was quite yummy except for the chicken rind things (the brown things) It was weird. Good news is you can usually ask for different kinds of meat!  And if you don't like something there is always a dog around and they will gladly partake of it for you.

 

Jeff loves loves loves his hammock, and likes to hog it ;) 

I was soaking in the precious time I was able to have in it... hehe

Taking a stroll down the dirty street market. This street is really awesome, but also really dirty.
And you can find literally anything you need down this street. With the exception of Twizzlers. Which I just need right now, but they are no where to be found!

Parque Central Cathedral- This cathedral is right smack dad in the middle of the city, and you can go inside and take pictures if you like. It's prettiest on the outside though!

Jeffrey and I recently started to work out again and today we ran a mile down to the lake. Pictures to come... but you guys I'm not a runner and I usually hate it. But it felt so good! I know a mile isn't that much but for me, trust me it is!  We came back and did strength and abs so here's to getting into shape! wish me luck and maybe pray, because I really don't like running.

Welcome to our Home

After a lot of thought and a lot of alone time just Jeffrey and I, we decided we needed to move into the actual city of Granada. I have mentioned that we lived 4 miles outside of town and our only mode of transpiration was some "crappy a**" bikes. Going into town was definitely something to do and exercise but... it was exhausting. We got used to the 8 miles both ways but the heat gets to ya. man. I love not having to use lotion every two minutes but could we just tone down the humidity a little bit? My hair and my self would appreciate it thanks.

We started looking on different websites and almost immediately found our house. If thats not a sign, call me crazy.  We contacted them and the next day we rode in to town (see what I mean about tiring?) to look at the place. This place, let me tell you. is like a mansion compared to the little room we've been staying in. And it had a kitchen. Who would of thought I would miss having a kitchen? Having all our meal prepared for us is just as amazing as it sounds. Except that we didn't always like the stuff we had (beggars can't be choosers yada yada). And I missed making meals. again call me crazy.

Within in a week we told our host Jose Antonio our plans and he was very helpful and wanted to help in any way he could. nice guy. On our last day at the Hacienda, after I said goodbye to our pack of dogs (guys I love animals and Nicaragua has so many stray skeleton dogs. Its so sad, and yes I gave them our left over meals. Mangy though they were, they still needed food!) Jose Antonio had a celebratory lunch for us. It was a fish soup, so yummy... but it had whole fish in it. I'm talking eyeballs and all. Side bar: jeff ate one of the eye balls. (shoulda snuck those to the dogs..) It was really nice and he even gave us a molasses bar for desert. Not our cup o' tea  but my Grandma Sherry would have been very delighted! it was basically a molasses caramel with peanuts.  We enjoyed our time at the hacienda but we were ready to move onto bigger and better things!

Our little house is about 2 blocks from town centre and about the same to the local market. We live on one of the busiest streets, this is really awesome and kind of annoying. There is so much traffic coming through.  Cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians, etc. Its really awesome for people watching... but we can hear everything.  the house isn't even close to sound proofed. So when the city is up at 'em at 5:30 in the morning so am i. yippee, but it does make for good personal reflection/scripture studying.  It came fully furnished and with all the essentials we might need. Theres even a telephone! Sorry guys no international phone calls for us, but its so odd how not having the ability to call people is.  (we talk to our families via face time) We still don't have AC but the house is surprising airy and also fans. Thank God for Fans! Also there is still no hot water, but we are grateful for what we have :)

Bare with me and my horrible quality pictures. I am continually kicking my self for not bringing my DSLR. 

#609 :)

Living Room and Entry. Jeff bought this hammock and is in love. that is his favorite spot in the house.  boys will be boys. 

All the properties here are fully tiled even out the front door. It's sort of bizarre but makes since because of the lack of AC and the overbearing humidity.

no stove :(

The laundry room/courtyard complete with washing board (right corner)

our bedroom is up the stairs. There are two other rooms off the dining room and courtyard. but they're locked. you better believe i tried to sneak in and take a peak!

And now for your viewing pleasure:

Fish Soup.

Managua, Nicaragua

About the 2nd week after we arrived in Nicaragua, both of our computer charges some how got fried. We're not sure if it was the voltage/frequency of the outlets or what. We did a lot of research before we came  and found out that the outlets were the same, but just in case we bought and adapter. We just didn't use that adapter when we first got here... Probably not our smartest move. Without computers Jeff had to complete his assignments on his phone  talk about tedious. And he wasn't able to help out with work for the Hacienda. We looked into having a charger shipped to us but it was fairly expensive and the mail system isn't entirely reliable here in good ole ' Nicaragua. So we looked around town and the closest thing we found to an apple product was an iPad mini  for  drum roll please...a $1000. Yeah you got it, a thousand dollars. Clearly we needed to look elsewhere, so Managua it was!   Let me tell you about Managua. The only other time we had ever been in Managua was when we had flown in at night.  We were not that impressed.  But as we  were on the bus there (oh my gosh the buses y'all!!) the drive was really beautiful. There was so much open space and you could see the lakes and volcanos! It was really pretty. The bus ride itself was not  so great. It stopped every 2 mins with guys yelling " nagua nagua nagua" (Managua) to try and get  people on.We got our own seats which was really nice but it was hot and they just kept pulling people in there. Every seat was full and so was the isle clear up to the steering wheel.

We finally got to the mall all sweaty and claustrophobic. This wasn't  some dinky little shopping center. it was real live mall you guys! and it was really nice and quite a few really awesome shops. Every American brand item costs an arm and a leg but it was fun to browse. We found a charger had some Quiznos and shared a crepe stuffed with strawberries whip cream and Nutella. Everything bad but everything so so good. After the mall we browsed around a super market (10 times bigger than the markets in granada) to soak in some human life. Stuck in the middle of nowhere  you start to crave some serious people watching/talking to them etc  pretty soon we were on our way back and we caught a night mare of a bus. If I thought the other buss was packed, I wasn't even close. There probably 25 people crammed into a 9 seater van.  We had the honor of sitting i between 2 other people on make shift metal bench directly behind the driver seat and directly in front of the front passenger row. Let's just say we played a lot of "footsie" on that trip and maybe almost suffered  a heat stroke. On the plus side it was a lot faster and only stopped about twice for other passengers ( how one could fit more people on that van was beside me).

Now please enjoy these pictures of super squished, super nasty Jeffrey and Clara. Plus there new squished very unhappy friends.

Knees touching.. we were all but on top of these upset/sleeping ladies.

Family Pictures

A few months ago before we moved from Rexburg, we had our friend Mckenna from Mckenna Rachelle Photography take some pictures of our us. Jeff and I have really come to love and cherish that little town and we wanted to take pictures in the place that it all started. (Jeff and I met at school there). We were so surprised at how good at posing Basil was! We're really missing that place and that pup!

Around here lately

The past week has been pretty uneventful. We don't have the moto anymore so if we want to go into town we take the bikes. It ends up being a pretty big ordeal and an all day thing but it's something to do and we can practice our Spanish in town better because there are more people. The road into town is about 3 miles and so so rocky. Our behinds are perpetually sore, but we are getting into better shape. The first time we went into town on bikes I about died. Jeff is really sweet and says it's because the bikes are no good... But really it was because I need to work out more. In town we usually get a bite to eat and walk around the shops and the central market.  We already have favorite places to eat Kathy's Waffle House

Our bill, this one is a little on the high side  it equates to about $15 U.S.

and the Garden Cafe.

We crave American food and these places deliver. There is only so much beans and rice we can eat people! 

The market is pure chaos but sooo much fun. There is so much to look at and every one is so busy. I love it. There is one street that vendors are lined up at and they haveeverything from food to bike supplies to shoe and clothing repairs etc. they really have the right idea of "supporting local business" it's been really refreshing and also slightly inconvenient to not have a super store nearby. The central market is probably about 4 (maybe more) blocks long and really wide. I don't the deminsions just know it's really big, and they sell literally everything you can think of in there. There's no ac and a lot of it is just covered by tarps and there are a lot of mangy mutts roaming around which is kind of sad and dirty. 

I'll have to get more pictures. We haven't taken very many! 

We also visited la Iglasia de Merced which is the oldest church in Granada. It was built in the early 1500s. It nice, but nothing to the cathedrals in Italy Jeff said. You can climb to the top of the tower and you can see the whole city of Granada, it's pretty spectacular. I can't get over the colors and the roofs of all the buildings! They are so charming!