Friday, August 23, 2024

Temple Time, Birthday Time and Fun Time

 We started off the Month of August taking our friend Sebastian with us to the Barranquilla Temple.

August 3, 224




August 4th
Happy 70th Birthday to the love of my life!
Darryl - you look fabulous for your age!

Our friends, Lalo and his two oldest, Ximena and Eduardo and Sebastian came over to help us celebrate.

We had invited several other people over who weren't able to come, so we had plenty of pastels. 
Darryl wanted a chocolate cake and I bought a carrot cake and made brownies to make sure we had enough. We did.

On Saturday the 11th, we decided to just take a day and go into town. We walked all over the beautiful neighborhood of Getsemani.





Not many people in town on this Saturday morning.

We had a delicious lunch...

...and walked over to the walled city to look for a couple of souvenirs.


The Art of Straw Marquetry

He has started collecting wooden items decorated with straw Marquetry.

Thin strips and pieces of straw are used as a decorative veneer on the wooden items.


I just love these beautiful pieces and we hope to get a couple of more before we leave.

On our Friday night date into "Old Town" we saw this guy chillin' and begging for a little cash.

We are in the rainy season, which they call winter down here, but it does make for some lovely morning walks. Of course, "winter" here means the low temperature might hit 78° and the highs just in the mid to high 80°s. Not quite the same as the USA for sure.

I've also been working on painting watercolor flower cards ...

... and a new project. Painting bookmarks for the young women at church.

And of course - there is 
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION NEWS! 
πŸ“ΊπŸ“°πŸ“»πŸ’»
To say the most of the mainstream media is biased towards the Liberal Progressive Democrat party is an understatement. These two news articles were put out 2 months apart. They are about the same economic proposal by the 2 candidates, but the headline and treatment of the Donald Trump story is negative..
πŸ˜•πŸ˜•πŸ˜•
Just one example: Proposal to end Taxes on Tips -
First introduced in June in Las Vegas, Nevada by former President Donald Trump. He said if elected he would propose a bill to stop taxing tips made by service and hospitality workers. The headline states that "Donald Trump's vow to stop taxing tips would cost the federal government up to $250 billion dollars over 10 years"

Kamala Harris was anointed (I use that term because not one primary vote was cast for her) by the leaders of the democrat party on July 21st when they forced President Joe Biden to stop seeking re-election. It's like 3rd world "Banana Republic" politics. They selected the vice president to run in his stead, and on August 13th she went to Las Vegas and proposed to her supporters that if elected president she would stop taxing tips made by service workers. Her headline, by the same news organization reads: "Vice President Kamala Harris is rolling out a new policy position, saying she'll fight to end taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers." At the end of the article it goes on to mention that it could possibly cost the US government $100 billion - $200 billion dollars.
***
This is only one example of what people in the USA are fed everyday on TV, radio internet and Social Media sites. Our news media has become more like a propaganda arm of the progressive democrat regime in this country. The anchors and journalists only give opinions and rarely give full facts on anything relating to the election. The reporting is extremely skewed towards the liberal progressives and all things democrat. The Media Research Center has found that since July 21st, the Legacy Media (the big 3 networks ABC, CBS and NBC) have slanted their reporting so much it almost seems like election interference to an outsider. The 'news' coverage comes out to 84% POSITIVE coverage for Kamala Harris and 89% NEGATIVE coverage for Donald Trump. How can people be so dishonest, disingenuous or conniving and still say they are honorable?
πŸ˜•πŸ˜–πŸ˜ž 
The media has the lowest trust ratings they have ever had in the last century. There is a saying among conservatives and it goes...
However much you hate the media, its not enough. You may think it is, but it's not!
I am beginning to think it could be true.  


Monday, August 19, 2024

Ezra's Baptism and Some Costa Rican Fun

I flew to Costa Rica on Thursday July 25th and surprised my sweet grandsons, Gabriel, Jethro and Ezra! 


To celebrate Ezra's birthday on the next day, we went to dinner at their favorite Mexican restaurant!

The owner, in a luchador mask, serenaded Ezra with a happy birthday song.

Happy Birthday Ezra!
Friday, July 26th
For a birthday present I bought Ezra a "Fish Pedicure". It tickled and was quite fun!

It was a fun and relaxing way to start this special day!

That afternoon the boys had a video game Birthday Party with their friends.

Oh Yum!!!

Saturday July 27th
What a special day! Today is Ezra's baptism day!
The baptism was held a their friend's beautiful home.


We had a lovely service on a lovely day.

Ezra asked me to speak on the ordinance of baptism and Hillary spoke on the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

What a lovely place for a baptism.


After the baptism they had a second party to celebrate Ezra's birthday.

So many nice gifts for the birthday boy.



Darryl and I have been looking for a place to build a new home, so Jake and Hillary took me to see a couple of properties to check out.
 


Monday was such a good day and we ended it by going to the beach for some sun and fun!

These boys are so fun, and almost like water bugs!



Oh how I love my Gabriel!



A whole ocean to play in and their favorite place is dirt cliff.



It takes about 4 hours to drive to the airport in San Jose'. On Friday Darryl suggested that I try to find a flight from the Liberia airport (a 30 minute drive) to San Jose' to save the gas and 8 hours on the road.

I took a flight on a SANSA Cessna Grand Caravan plane that had 2 pilots and 10 passengers. 

It was about 50 minutes long and a lovely flight. 

It was a short but wonderful little vacation on such a happy occasion.

On a more general note, here is a meme that made me smile to think that my grandchildren have a Grandpa that would be a lot like the one referred to in this meme.
No on to August fun!