And the answer is?

We chose option C !!

You all are pretty good at guessing, I have to say. I thought I was being pretty objective, but you either saw right through me, or just knew  that this place was a good choice for us! I planned to write the first blog about it while we were still deciding, but it happened so fast that by the time I could get internet and post the pictures we had already moved in! Granted it didn’t take much to “move”… I was so beat from cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and we talked about moving the next day, when we realized ‘moving’ meant loading our 8 checked bags in a truck, and well, it took a whole 10 minutes to do that. The easiest move thus far! So we did move Thanksgiving Day, which was actually super fun. What a cool thing to think about all day -and even now still-how thankful we are for this oh so cute, clean and safe little spot to call our own for the next year.

I was pretty bent on making Thanksgiving dinner here in Nicaragua, even if I couldn’t find any ingredients. Well, turns out, I was very pleasantly surprised! The first time we went to the grocery store, I kid you not, they had turkeys in the refrigerated section. It was amazing. Then a few days after that, there was an entire end cap with Thanksgivingy stuff-like gravy, pumpkin, stuffing, etc. It must be for Christmas around here, because last I checked Nicaraguans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving!

I thought I would be doing this all on my own, and I hadn’t really thought that through. But turns out, I was not alone, and had a super fun she-also-loves-Thanksgiving-and-all-the cheesy-stuff that goes along with it friend. Her name is Brittany, and she came this week to visit Stu. She is from Colorado, where a dear friend of mine lives, so of course I instantly liked her. We had so much fun making Thanksgiving together!

Our theme this year, beat this Martha Stewart: “We’ll make it work”. So even though the grocery store had way more than we could have ever imagined, each dish that we were going to prepare was shy an ingredient or two. Sometimes it was an important one, others not as much. So we used substitutions, made stuff up, emails friends, and got it done. Every time we came across a hurdle, we would ask the other if we could use X instead of Y, etc. And we’d always end up saying-we’ll make it work. And, much to our surprise and delight, we did! It was fantastic food!

We had turkey-that we brined, something I tried four years ago with our old small group at church and it turned out great so it’s my go to, super easy and amazingly moist recipe! We made dishes from both Brandon’s side of the family and mine. It was almost-almost I say- like eating with everyone knowing we were all eating some of the exact same things! We made Stone family spicy corn-mom, I actually found the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce!!! We made my mom’s classic amazing mashed potatoes, my sister’s zucchini casserole. It was so fun.

And of course, at the end, we all sat around and shared what we were thankful for. So cheesy, but something I just love doing. Our lists were long, as we enter this new season of life. God has shown us how to be thankful in everything, something that isn’t always easy to do. But right now, it’s hard not to be thankful. We have a true miracle baby girl on the way, we found a lovely home in two days flat, have met great new friends and staff here in Nicaragua that have been so welcoming and friendly, and we are together once again, living in the same country, same town, same house…as husband and wife should!

Here are some fun shots from the day. Sure hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful, spent with family and friend eating yummy food!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been on the hunt for a house. There is a lot of Living Water staff around, and we have been asking everyone where is the safest place to live. Everyone keeps coming up with the same answer. And so even though we want so badly to live by the beach, we decided to check out the burbs first. We are not big suburb people, hence why at one point we bought our dream home -on an acre with only one neighbor in the quiet town of Fallbrook. But, since we don’t yet have Spanish down, we figured we should first go for the safer option. So we began our search this week. We have looked at about five different places for rent. All are in this small community known to be very safe, and let’s face it, that is more of a concern with a baby on the way. When everyone says things will change when you have kids, you sort of smile and nod, knowing of course they will. But how exactly? Well, we’d live anywhere normally, in any kind of house, and not think too much of it. But knowing I’ll be home with her often, and we are in an unfamiliar place, we are making different decisions already because of this baby girl.

So for fun, all along the way I took photos. I thought I would give you a real life, someone you know, house hunting experience! At the end, You need to comment and cast your vote, and see if you can guess which one we chose!! Unlike the real house hunters though, we are not going to list the name of the small town, nor the price. Sorry!

OPTION #A        A Three Bedroom House.

A small house in the neighborhood I was telling you about. Newly built. About 1,000 square feet. Three bedrooms, two bath, small kitchen. Open kitchen/living room design. Small backyard with a small ‘shelter’ in the back for laundry with a sink. Pros: Smaller, easy to keep up, new, bedrooms are decent size with “closets” (an area for a closet, no doors or shelves though). On the end of a row of the same kind of houses, so only one attached neighbor. Cons: Comes with nothing-no a/c, stove, fridge, etc, and they are still building across the way- so many construction workers and a lot of noise- bathrooms are really tiny, no outdoor shaded area for sitting.

 

OPTION #B      A TOWNHOUSE

In the same neighborhood, this townhouse is pretty cute. It’s two stories, with the kitchen, living room, bathroom and laundry room on the first floor. Second story has three tiny bedrooms, and one bath. Each bedroom has a built in closet. Pros: Great location, all the houses around it are built, it has as a decent size backyard with a covered area for sitting, laundry room is inside the house. Cons: Stairs. Concrete steep stairs. Teeny tiny kitchen. Bedrooms are very, very small.

 

Options #C. A Three Bedroom House.

In the same quiet neighborhood, at the end of the street. This house has three bedrooms, and three baths. The rooms are a nice size, and each comes with a built in closet. Everything is modern and updated. There is a porch out back with a shaded covering. There is also room to park behind the house, that is enclosed with a gate. This house does come fully furnished, even though it’s a bit more per month. Pros:  The rooms are bigger, and have storage/closet space, it has an outdoor porch area that is shaded, it is safer and has secured area to park our imaginary car. It’s fully furnished, including a/c units and stove, fridge, etc.  Cons: It comes furnished, so we are stuck with what they picked and it is a little more per month, and it is more secure but that also means a high wall with barbed wire.

 

SO…..which one do you think we picked?? Feel free to leave a comment and make your vote! Was it the lovely house in the suburbs A, the lovely town house in the suburbs B, or  the lovely house in the suburbs C ?