Weekend Update

Its the weekend so obviously it is raining here.  It really sucks in the rain because we walk almost everywhere here.  It rained all day yesterday, too.  I haven't posted in a few days so I thought I would post an update.

I've worked out every day this week...40 minutes walking on the treadmill at 3.2 mph.  Yesterday, as I walked to the gym, in the rain, I decided to count the stairs to see how much exercise I'm getting before I exercise...130 steps, that is what I have to walk up before I can even get to the treadmill.  Its probably more like 160 to get to the club where we eat dinner.

I've now officially been here a week.  I think for the most part, I know my way around.  I've met a ton of people and my goal for next week is to start remembering so that when I see them again, maybe I will remember their name and what they do here.  Last night was a big dinner up at the club to celebrate International Dia de la Mujer.  The food was so good and the company was even better.  We sat with our good friend and a couple that we are just getting to know.  We laughed our way through the entire dinner.  We discussed a little bit what the day meant and then realized that the room was full of international women so we were probably ok on our celebrations.

We finally got the details of Rob's benefits package and I'm just going to say that it is amazing and I am so grateful to the people that helped Rob get this job and mostly I'm grateful to my dear husband, who I love so much, and who I am so proud of for pulling this off.  So much of our stress is gone concerning our financial situation and our future.  The past year has been so amazing and we took such a huge risk, quiting our jobs and leaving home with the intention of just 1 year of adventure.  Nobody could have foreseen that a year later, we would be living in Honduras, Rob would have the best job of his life, and that I would be a housewife who is preparing to be a stay at home mom.  I'm not quite sure what we did to deserve it but my goal is to continue to be as nice and friendly and helpful as I can be to everyone that we meet because if there is 1 think that I have learned from the past year, its that you never know who it is that will change your life and just how dramatic that life change will be.

The other big news is that I am definitely showing.  Its actually depressing which is why I havent posted a picture.  At the moment, I dont think that I look pregnant, I just look like I have a fat belly.  I was always lucky that despite everything, I had a nice small waist and now its mostly gone.  My goal for next week is to post a picture.  I'm excited for when my belly gets bigger and harder and instead of looking like I've put on some lbs that I will look like I have a baby in me. 

Exercise

As my butt is growing bigger, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about this topic.  For anyone who hasnt been around me the past couple of years, here is some background.  After getting married, I slowly started to put on weight.  2009 was my year to get rid of it all.  I literally worked my butt off exercising almost daily and being super-careful about what I ate.  It totally paid off and I lost over 20 lbs.  More importantly, I actually got to a place where I was really comfortable with my body.  Then for 2010, we traveled for almost the entire year. I was no longer able to work out or even really watch what I ate but we were living a very active lifestyle with little access to nightly snacks and I managed to keep the weight off very nicely.  In November, I found out I was pregnant and then spent a month in Dallas gorging myself on all of my favorite foods and snacks that I just couldn't get down here.  It was lovely but very quickly, my butt started to grow.  It didn't help that everyone I was around was encouraging me to enjoy being pregnant and just eat.  I'd kind of hoped that I would be one of those women who is sick all the time or at least totally turned off by food and doesn't gain a pound the first 3 months but luckily and unluckily, I am one of those women who never got sick and can't seem to get enough food in my body.  After a month at home, I had to leave the jeans that I wore on the plane there.  I just couldnt get them over my butt.  I know that this is normal but I am terrified to gain too much weight and to end up one of those ladies who is really really fat after having a kid.

That brings me to here.  I've settled in to my new home.  Over the first few days of being here, I realized that this entire place is just stairways and more stairways.  We have to walk up a mountain (or maybe just half a mountain) of stairs just to get from our hotel room to the restaurant for dinner.  I thought to myself, this will be a breeze, I'll just walk the property over and over every day.  Yesterday, reality hit me that I'm probably not going to walk the property every day but that there is a gym here and that I can probably have it to myself during the day.  Of course I had to walk up a ton of stairs just to find it and I got a little lost since the door was locked so that added a few flights of stairs but I found it and spent a good 40 minutes walking quickly on the treadmill.  I had to have someone unlock the door for me so hopefully today or tomorrow, I can get my own key  and turn this into my daily routine.

As I walked on the treadmill, I thought about exercise and how important it is.  I started thinking about labor, and how much work it will be and how helpful it will be to be in some sort of shape.  I also stared at my butt in the mirror and thought about how nice it would be if it didnt get too much bigger and my arms, which I still like, but used to hate, and really dont want to hate again.

Well, that was the biggest thing on my mind.

Tonight, I get to stay at the big boss's house and puppy sit for his 2 cutie-pies while he is out of town.

Some pics of the area

 I went for a nice walk today and explored a bit.  As you can see by the pictures, the weather is much better today...although a bit hot.  I'm very happy to see the sun out.

Day 2

Its not raining today but still pretty overcast.  I went ahead and took a better picture of our view.  The tops of the mountains are still in the clouds so I'll try to get better ones.

I have so much to say about this place but I dont want to burn up all of my material in the first days.  I'm still so excited to be here.  I think that I will just talk about breakfast because it says so much about this place.  I guess that every Sunday is a big brunch buffet up at the club.  It costs 50 L which is about $2.50 US and had almost everything you would want, from fruit, yogurt and cereal to bacon, potatoes, omelets and pancakes.  Even better is that it seems to be the big community event.  I've never lived in a small town but this place is very much a small town.  People were filtering in and out as we ate and almost everyone stopped by to chat with everyone else.  There were kids running around and babies in tow and everyone took an interest in all of the kids and babies.  Its almost like a big huge family here.  One family had a 2 week old baby and another guy told us that his wife is due just a month before me.  Most importantly, everyone was so welcoming and everyone already knew that I am pregnant even though I'm not showing at all.  My understanding is that word gets around quick here because, I would imagine, there just isnt that much else to talk about and since everyone requires housing, many people are involved in the personal details of new employees.

Even though this place is pretty small, I'm still pretty lost.  My plan for the week is to walk the property as much as possible every day so that I can get my bearings.  My impression so far of the residential part of the property is that is seems like some sort of vacation community.  The landscape is gorgeous here in the tropical mountains with a variety of vegetation from tall coconut palms to pine trees.  There are houses everywhere and they are all different.

Thats all for today.

Moving Day

After a week straight of perfectly sunny and warm weather, of course, today we woke up to rain.  Rob had to work in the morning and after he returned, we packed up our stuff and tried to wait out the rain a bit.  After a few hours of waiting, it had minimized to just a drizzle but didnt see like it was going to go away at all so Rob loaded up the truck and we headed up to the mine.  While Rob has spent a lot of time here over the last few months, I have spent only minimal time here.  This was probably the longest car ride that I have taken in Central America where it was just the 2 of us so I pulled out my camera to try to take some pictures of the road to the mine.  It was super foggy outside and the windshield was wet so everything looks gloomy and almost hurricane-like in the pictures but here you go.  This is pretty typical.  I need to post some pictures when its not rainy because everything is actually really green and colorful all year round here.

Here is another picture as we drove into the town of Las Vegas that is the town closest to our new home where I will probably do most of my day-to-day shopping.

We finally got to our newest hotel room.  It is definitely a hotel room but after over a year of hotel rooms, it is nice to be in one with lots of storage and even a mini-fridge.  It also has some of the other great perks of hotel living like daily maid service...yep....a while freakin month of daily maid service...thats mopped floors, clean bathroom and fresh towels every day.  The breakfast and lunch restaurant is right downstairs and then there is a club where we can go for dinner or even have it delivered.  The shower has hot water and good pressure.  We have completely unpacked and settled in and will be heading to dinner soon.

Rob swears that there is view but this is all that we have for today.

Tomorrow is the big day

Tomorrow is our big moving day and I'm still pretty excited for it.  We leave the hotel where we have spent quite a bit of time over the last few months to head to our new home to put an end to the transient life that we have been living.  Today, I'm thinking about how grateful I am for all of the people that we have met here that have gone out of their way to help us so much.  There are great people everywhere and the past year has taught us that by being friendly, sociable and honest, you can find these people anywhere.  Thankfully, we are not moving so far away from the friends that we have already made and we already have a few friends up at the mine.  Rob has spent much more time there than me so he already knows the lay of the land and since I wont be working, I will have plenty of time to get to know everything.

I do have 1 important piece of news....although the news is early and therefore not 100%....we got some interesting news at the doctor last Friday.  He was doing the ultrasound to take some measurement to help determine the probability of down's (which thankfully all looked very good) and the doctor stops and says, "Oh, do you guys want to know what you are having?".  This early on (14 weeks), I knew exactly what he was going so say and its a good thing that we did actually want to know and not wait for the surprise.  Then he showed us what distinctly looked like a penis....so.....it looks like its going to be a boy.  We were both very happy and relieved as that is what we were hoping for.  Rob hasnt been entirely comfortable with the whole pregnancy thing yet since at that point, we had no idea what exactly was going to happen with the new job but I could tell that he was really excited.  I was even happier to see that the baby was really active through the whole ultrasound which made taking the measurements a lot harder but was really fun to watch.

I will take some pictures of our new home tomorrow so that everyone can see where we will be.  Today, I will just relax and enjoy my last day here.

I'm so excited about life

Yesterday we got an update to our future living situation.  We had been under the impression that we would be moving into a small 1 bedroom apartment this weekend.  We were disappointed but still excited.  It would have been kind of difficult come July once it was 3 of us but our housing is free and we feel strongly that beggars should not be choosy.  Yesterday, it was clarified that actually, we will be spending about a month in a hotel room on the mine property and then will move into a bigger 2 bedroom apartment that is currently housing a family of 5.  We are very relieved and even more excited.  Of course after a year of living in hotel rooms, I wish that we would have a kitchen right away but I guess after a year, what is 1 more month.  Besides the last month that we spent in Dallas at a friends house with full access to a kitchen, we have spent the previous 3 months living at a hotel with access to the restaurant kitchen but have been eating a lot of restaurant food for so long.  At least we will have a small fridge in our room which is an improvement from previous hotel rooms and will be eating at a different restaurant than where I have been eating so at least it will be a new menu.

So far, Rob is really excited about his new job...more excited than I have ever seen him about a job and I am so happy about that.  I also have to say that I am thrilled at the prospect of being a housewife and stay-at-home mom.  This would never be possible in the US and, never in my life, did I dream of this or even think that it was something that I would ever want.  All that I can say is that life is full of surprises and that I love my husband so much for pulling this off.

First Post....Here it is

I'll start by introducing myself and this blog for anyone that might not already know me.

I'm Debbie.  A little over a year ago, my husband and I put our house up for rent, quit our jobs, put our stuff in storage, said goodbye to family and friends and got on a plane for Belize.  Our plan was to travel by bus all the way to Panama City and that is exactly what we did.  I kept a blog of the trip and you can read it here (or click the link on the sidebar).

After 8 months on the road, we just weren't ready to go back to our "real" lives.  Luckily we made a lot of great friends during our travels.  Rob, my husband, especially liked one particular guy that we met on the way and emailed, asking if he could use some help at his hotel/restaurant for a few months before we headed back to Texas and the real world.  Lucky for us, he accepted our help and we headed back to Honduras.  That is pretty much where my last blog stopped last September.

A few major things happened during that time.  First, we grew to love Honduras and the particular area where we were staying near Lago Yojoa.  Next, we made some good friends in the area.  Pretty important to this story, Rob managed to get a job working for a mine down the road.  The other important key to the story, is that I got pregnant!

Here we are in Honduras.  Rob started his new job a few days ago and we will be moving into an apartment at the mine this weekend.  I have found a doctor here in Honduras that I really like and have been to see him 3 times.  I am officially 14 weeks and a few days which means that I am finally into my 2nd trimester and more comfortable with publicizing my pregnancy.

Whereas my last blog was a travel blog, this one will be different....a mommy blog.  It was so therapeutic to be able to write out my feelings and ideas last year and I think that this year it will be even more important.  At the moment, I dont really know any other pregnant women here, although it seems like every woman of child bearing age is either pregnant or has a small baby.  I think it will be very important for me to have an outlet for my thoughts and feelings and to have a way to keep people up to date with what is going on with me without having to subject the world of facebook to pregnancy and baby news.