Moving from Omaha to Arkansas

We spent Jan 13-22 back in Omaha to wrap up all sorts of loose ends. We hurried back to be at the big $10,000 giveaway at O'Daniel Honda. (Remember back in July when we won $2,500?) Well, we didn't win the big prize, but they did give us sandwiches.

After the non-winning event, we spent the next week frantically running around town and packing up our stuff from the house. I thought it would be pretty easy and not take that long. I wasn't exactly right. It was a lot of hard work, and having 3 little ones made it difficult to do any project for longer than an hour at a time.


But on Jan 22, we hit the road leaving all of our possessions locked up in a 16' POD. Tom pulled some amazing maneuvers getting everything into the pod. He called it a true Polish Packing Job. The final pieces were jammed behind the door as we pulled it down inch by inch, shoving things up a little higher as the door came down securing them. If everything arrives in one piece, we'll be lucky.

We're scheduled to close on our house on Feb. 25. We are so excited! We'll post more photos once it's a done deal and we've got the keys, but here's a little teaser. Our new backyard is HUGE! Zeke loves playing in it already (that's where he's spent time when we've been at the house) and I can see the entire fenced-in yard from the kitchen and living room. I predict many many hours will be spent in our backyard!

Karine and Tom Buy Minivan, Win Big!!!

I mentioned in an earlier post that something funny happened after we bought our minivan in Omaha last week. This is the funny thing that happened.

We won $2,500!!!

We'll post of picture of our billboard when it goes up. Seriously.

Household Goods

We like to call them HHGs. They are on the way. They were picked up in Gulfport sometime this afternoon. The last time we saw them we were freaking out trying to get everything packed and protected for the trip home. Then, for a long time, it seems like some key people in Honduras sort of forgot about them. But then Karine told them that we really needed them and the baby's crib was in there and she is pregnant with twins and that got the ball rolling again. Now they are on the way.

We've just got to figure out where we're going to put them when they get here.

Sweet Boat

This is my brother-in-law Jon's boat. It's pretty sweet. He took me wake boarding one day and it was great except that I couldn't really walk or lean over and pick stuff up for two days after. Jon is really nice about giving all the little nieces and nephews rides in his sweet boat. The lake is called Long Lake and it is outside of Park Rapids, Minnesota.

The sky is courtesy of God. No charge.

Goodbye Honduras

Our bags are packed, we've said our goodbyes, and it's time to go. Tomorrow morning we leave this country and begin our new chapter in life. While we are truly sad to leave so many special people (and one very special dog) back here in Honduras, we are looking forward to the next great adventure.

Tomorrow we'll be traveling all day and landing in Omaha, Nebraska- our new hometown in the evening.

So, next time we blog, it will be Karine and Tom in Nebraska!

Adios Honduras!

28 Days: Moving Possessions from Honduras to USA

On May 31st, a Dole banana truck is going to pull up in front of the house. Into that truck some guys will load whatever possessions we wish to take back home. The truck takes our cargo to one of the busiest fruit ports in the world. The Lewandowski family banana container will then be nested snugly with all the other banana containers on the banana boat. The boat, company people call it a vessel, will then navigate the probably oil-slicked waters between Puerto Cortez, Honduras and Gulf Port, Louisiana, USA.

That task that lies before us, like a steaming pile of, we'll say, nachos, is determining what goes on the vessel. There will be disagreements. Karine threw a shoe at my face with intent to injure one time as we were deciding what to take home for the summer.

Wish us luck.

29 Days

Speaking of back to the drawing board.

This is an extremely exciting time for us. The energy cycling through the El Sauce house is positively electric. We are moving back to the United States after living for three years in Honduras. Ezekiel is now fifteen months old, a charming and mobile force of destruction. He makes his parents hearts about burst from pride and terror and wonder every single day. And, miracle of miracles, we are expecting twins in November. So what is the plan? What is the plan?

Well, that’s the real question, isn’t it? We are taking the dog with us and moving to Grandma Jean’s house in Omaha, Nebraska.

A month from now we’ll be home in the United States of America. A few things are going to happen between now and then and, if you don’t mind, I intend to write about them here.

Here's What Flew By -- La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula

Antigua Bound

Here is where we are headed today.

Antigua, Guatemala.

We're traveling by bus and hope to update the blog throughout the day. We have mobile wireless, so we should be able to do it. It's 0538 right now. We should be in Antigua by nine p.m.. We're riding a Hedman Alas bus, which is the best way to go here in Honduras.

Wish us luck. Traveling by bus for over twelve hours with an 11 month old might not be the smartest thing we've ever done.

Earthquake Damage

I believe this is a picture of the La Democracia bridge which connects El Progreso and San Pedro Sula. We haven't heard any reports of high death tolls on either the mainland or the islands. Read about it in Spanish on the La Prensa website.

Turboprop Pics

Here are some pictures I took on our flight from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula last week. They are, what I believe to be, some pretty sweet pictures of a turboprop in action. I took 237 pictures, but Karine said I could only post my favorite one. So here are my favorite four.

Turboprop. That is a fun word.







If you like these pictures, you can contact the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation at the following email address: 4answers@macfound.org. I could also put them on a t-shirt, hat, or decorative plate and have them sent to your home.

Stuff From This Week

This week was crazy busy! After frantically preparing photos and documents after school on Monday and Tuesday, we enjoyed a quick trip to Honduras's capital city, Tegucigalpa. We left at 5am and were home by 10:15pm. We flew both ways, as to avoid a 7 hour each way bus ride.

While in the airports, we were screened for pork flu and we witnessed several people wearing masks. We do not have pork flu. We did encounter something even more exciting than pork flu in the San Pedro Sula airport though. During our 2 hour layover, we wanted to take Zeke for a spin, but we hadn't brought the stroller. Luckily, the waiting area was equipped with several wheelchairs- just the right size to take Zeke around!


This was the only picture of Ezekiel we were able to take on our visit to Tegucigalpa. The Embassy took our camera as we entered- they don't allow pictures. I had dreams of taking a picture of Zeke between the American flag and the Honduran flag on his first day as a dual citizen, but my dreams were crushed. Oh well. We all know that he is an American now. He's got a passport on the way to prove it!

Thursday and Friday were a blur as we got back to school and Tom prepared for a big night at school with the Mother's Day program and Book Fair in the library. Tom was accompanied by his pop band and 25 7th grade dancers as he sang a sweet version of "You Are My Sunshine" to the crowd of students, teachers, and families. Tom's number one accessory tonight was his son. He held Zeke and sweetly explained to the audience that Zeke had written the words to this version, but being only 3 months old had asked Tom to sing it for him. They all did a fantastic job. Of course I forgot the camera at home! Que triste!

To make up for the lack of documentation of our week, I'm posting a cute video from this week. Ezekiel has discovered his hands and realized that his entire fist can fit in his mouth. It's pretty darn cute!

Happy Weekend!

Home Sweet Home

We made it! And I didn't even go into labor on the plane or anything!

Tom and I are home in our 80 degree house and so happy to be here. We did arrive with a few less things than we left with. Okay, we arrived empty handed. When we left Omaha yesterday morning, we had a stroller/carseat (my beautiful new Chicco) and two suitcases, and a backpack. We're home safely with our backpack. The rest- well that's a long story...

We had such an easy time in Omaha when the nice lady at Northwest told me that I could "valet check" or gate check my stroller/carseat combo. I thought this would be a good idea because it wouldn't be handled as roughly as other luggage. We wheeled it to our departure gate and were prepared to meet it in our destination city, Chicago. The nice lady said she'd check it through to there since we wouldn't actually need it during our 1 hour layover in Minneapolis. Upon arrival in Minneapolis, we were treated to a ride on the Special People Cart. Since I'm preggo, a nice gentleman set us up with a sweet ride to our next gate.

We arrived in Chicago O'Hare with our 2 suitcases and the backpack, however the stroller/carseat was nowhere to be found! Since it had been gate checked it didn't have the tracking tags on it- just a tag on each that listed its destination. The guy in the lost luggage office at O'Hare was pretty busy and not really a lot of help to us. He was in the middle of dealing with a dog mixup. Apparantly, two dogs with two different destinations (ORD and ORF) were switched and ended up in the wrong cities with the wrong families! This situation made my missing stroller/carseat seem a lot less troubling.

We then had to take a shuttle from O'Hare to Midway airport so we'd be ready for our early morning flight today. We talked with a kind woman in the Midway lost baggage and she helped straighten a few things out and gave us some resources. After arriving at our hotel, Tom proceeded to file the appropriate claims and call all the right people - what a great husband! By 11:45pm, we had received the status that our stroller/carseat was probably gone for good. Nobody had seen it anywhere, and that they'd probably be buying and sending us a brand new one. In the time it takes for the claim to be processed and shipping to occur, they gave us $100 credit to buy a new stroller. The woman on the phone encouraged us to take a midnight taxi to Walmart, buy a stroller, and present the receipt for reimbursement at our 5am check in. I went shopping on Amazon instead. This is what Northwest airlines is buying us for our stroller/carseat troubles:

We woke up at 4am and went to the Midway airport, checked our 2 remaining suitcases and got on our plane. There was a very tight connection in Atlanta (only about 20 minutes because our plane was running late). While we made it to the connecting gate just in time, our luggage did not. Upon arrival in San Pedro Sula, we were down to just our backpack. The people at Delta have located our 2 suitcases and they'll be arriving into La Ceiba tomorrow night. No real biggie, but OF COURSE we'd lose our other 2 bags too!

While the trip home was stressful at times, Tom and I both did a really great job of not getting too worked up. Travel itself is exhausting enough, and I now understand why women in their 8th month of pregnancy don't often travel. The baby is still happily hanging out inside me, and I'm hoping he'll be comfy there for a few more weeks. We're going to fetch our dog in a few minutes and then we'll be so happy to sleep in our own bed tonight. Home Sweet Home!

Leg 1: La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula

After a delightful breakfast of baleadas and Coke at the La Ceiba airport, we are on our way. We've successfully landed in San Pedro Sula with all of our luggage still with us. We're looking forward to our flight with Delta and a late afternoon meal in Atlanta. We took the picture above while waiting for our luggage in reclamo de equipaje. "Equipaje" is one of my favorite Spanish words. (Ache-ee-pah-hay!) It just sounds fun in my mouth.

Adios Honduras- Hasta Pronto, Estados Unidos!

Mark Twain on travel

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." -Mark Twain

Copán

We were sad to leave Antigua, but we had heard that Copán Ruinas, Honduras had its own charms. So, we hopped into a mini-bus and headed back across the border into Copán . Here are a few highlights of this final leg of our trip...
Since the streets are cobblestone, and the terrain is hilly, instead of standard taxi cars, they use the tuk-tuk in Copán . Here's Tom after he hijacked one.

On our first night, we rested our volcano-weary muscles in the jungle hotsprings at Luna Jaguar Spa. This place was awesome. In fact, it was possibly the highlight of my Copán trip! We arrived at dusk, and were led through a gorgeous jungle path to these sulpheric hot springs which came bubbling down the mountain. Luna Jaguar Spa has created a small round rock hot tub in the middle of it. So we sat in the jungle by candlelight in this fantastically hot pool. Again- it was awesome. The pictures are a bit dark, but you can see all the steam and jungle...


We spent the next morning visiting the ancient Mayan ruins in Copán . The kingdom was established here around 159 A.D. and the empire was at its peak between 425-822 A.D. Artifacts and buildings from ancient Mayan civilization have been found all over Central America, but here we were able to see several buildings in their still "buried" (under trees and some dirt) state, as well as restored architecture. It was very cool! We even saw the scene that Honduras chose for its 1 Lempira bill...


Later that day, we visited the Parque de Aves (Bird Park). There, we spent some time learning about and interacting with our local feathered friends.


On our last day of vacation, we headed out on a horseback ride up the mountain. It was picturesque and beautiful.

Tom's Favorite Photos

Karine did a great job recapping the action with words. I am sort of lazy, so I just want to post some of my favorite photos....


I know that a lot of our friends and family have been like -- how are things going with Tom's mustache? Well, here we are relaxing together at the San Jose Cathedral Ruins in Antigua. I am not sleeping, just blinded by the sun.


This super cute picture of Karine was taken at a pizza place in Antigua. While we were there we saw a couple of guys come in and check their handguns. I don't know if they were banditos or just a couple of guys who like to walk around with guns in their pants.

There are so many beautiful things to take pictures of in Antigua. But pictures of buildings can be kind of boring, so I always encourage Karine to get right in there with the 500 year old architecture...


Antigua is such a beautiful city. Even the trash cans are attractive. Sometimes I feel like we don't even have trashcans in Honduras. If you didn't guess, the Spanish word for trashcan is BASUERO.


I really liked the bathroom at the pizza place we went to in Antigua. So I took a couple pictures of my mustache in the mirror.

I am pretty sure that this is a picture of ancient toilet ruins protected by barbed wire. This is where monks had their private moments in the 16th century. Now this nice toilet is off limits to the public. I had to go too.

Here are a couple of my favorite lava pictures.



Sunset. Lava. Dog.
Last picture. Antigua is full of beautiful fountains. Here is the fountain from the central square. It has water shooting out of boobs. Karine told me that it was okay that I say that.