Mystery Photo Contest!!!

We invite all our readers to post stories which might explain the photos below. The contestant whose fiction is closest to the real story wins two round-trip tickets to La Ceiba, Honduras. The two photos are directly related. They depict actual events which occurred on Wednesday, November 14th.

ELIGIBLE ENTRIES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY MIDNIGHT, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24th. WINNER ANNOUNCED SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26th.

The runner up will receive a frozen turkey.

Slackers go blogging!

To all of our faithful readers, I feel that I must apologize for our slacking lately. We've been so busy having fun that we don't get to writing about it.

In the news... On Friday morning, a tarantula was spotted on our back patio. He was kind of old and gray looking. I scooped him into a dustpan (the dustpans down here have 4 foot handles) and carried him back to a peaceful place in our back yard. I think he probably breathed his last spider breaths there, judging by the way he didn't scurry too much.

We spent the weekend relaxing and taking it easy. My big project was sorting wedding photos down from about 2000 to 300. No easy task, but it had to be done. My next step will be loading all our favorites into one of those "create-your-own-magazine-style-photo-book-online" deals.

Tom took Ruby for a run on Sunday while I made krumkake. We're having a staff Thanksgiving dinner party on Friday evening. I'm bringing krumkake for 20 and Tom's bringing mashed potatoes. Luckily, we got that electric mixer for a shower gift. Tom will really appreciate it when he makes his... Speaking of potatoes... I was very excited to find a random shipment of potato flakes (instant mashed potatoes) at the supermarket this weekend. Tom wouldn't dream of serving these at the staff party, but boy was I happy... Lefse- here we come! (Maybe next weekend)

Here are a few pics of the krumkake (pronounced kroom'-kah-kah) making process...

1. Mix up the eggs, sugar, flour, and butter.

2. Put it on the iron for about a minute
3. Carefully remove the hot krumkake using the pink napkin

4. Roll it around the cone form
5. Let cool and enjoy

**Special note for those making krumkake in wet, tropical climates- Though krumkake may seem firm and crispy right away, they will lose form and get soggy if left out. Freeze and bake in the oven for a few minutes before serving to retain crispiness.**

We have it MAID!

Our maid is awesome! She mopped our floors, cleaned all the burners on the stove, vacuumed the floor (after never using a vacuum before) and made the house smell all pretty. We love it!

We had our Spanish tutor teach us more tonight. We're learning many palabras! Well, Tom has his gig at Expats tonight, so we're going to head over a bit early and have some dinner. Have a great night!

Rainy Season Has Begun!

It's been raining for almost a week straight! Our backyard is a small pond and it's actually cool outside. We've been going about our business in spite of the rain though...
On Saturday morning, our friend stopped by with her dog, Fischer. Jana and I enjoyed coffee outside on the back patio (covered from the rain) while our pups (Ruby, 3 mos. and Fischer 6 mos.) romped around in the backyard for an hour and a half. It was still raining most of the time, but the dogs had a blast. They were slipping and sliding and turning our backyard swamp into a backyard mudhole! Here are a few pics of muddy Ruby and her new friend.

(Ruby would'nt stay still enough for me to get a good shot, but she's covered in mud)

After the puppy-playdate, Tom and I ventured out in the rain to the best store in all of La Ceiba. Ace Hardware is awesome! It's a brand new store here, and it's as close to shopping at Target that I've come. We bought a lot of fun stuff- a concrete drill bit (our house is made of concrete and we broke all our other regular bits trying to hang stuff up), new dog toys, flower and vegetable seeds, a shovel, and a mailbox! When we got home, Tom was so excited to try out his new shovel that he went to the plant store (not to actually dig at the plant store, but to buy some plants so he could dig at home). He got all of these plants for around $75- a fantastic price for all we got. Tom spent the evening digging up the small front lawn and planting them.


While Tom was plant shopping, I went down the street to meet our new maid, Mercedes. She's currently cleaning for another friend of ours, and she's coming over tomorrow for her first walk through with me. I really do think this is the most difficult house to keep clean I've ever lived in. There's so much humidity and a dirty dog (and her owners) going in and out of the house, that it's really hard to keep up. I know that many of you might shake your heads at the thought of us needing a maid, but it's a good deal for both parties.

Today, I went grocery shopping while Tom worked on his grad school assignments. Our grocery store is notorious for getting shipments of random things. They'll get a box of something, and you'll see it on the shelf, and it will never ever be there again. This week, I was elated to find actual Thai curry paste. I bought both red and green. I've been looking for Thai curry ever since we got there, and I'd just given up when I found these! Not everything was quite so lucky.


I've been wanting to make chocolate chip cookies, so I thought I'd buy some ingredients. Honduras does a few things differently- no chocolate chips and no brown sugar. So I improvised with some chocolate candy bars, extra white sugar and a bit of Karo syrup. The cookies actually turned out okay!

It's now Sunday night, and Tom and I are all hunkered down for our favorite Sunday night activity. It's a tradition that goes back a few years. We don't have a Tommy and Casey to share it with, but we do have Domino's Pizza, Extreme Home Makeover, and Desperate Housewives!
Have a great week!

SCORPION DANGER...Don't worry, everyone is okay. Except the scorpion. He is not okay.

This one speaks for itself. Don't watch if you are prone to panic attacks or are at all arachnophobic. One actual scorpion was harmed in the filming of this movie.

This little bugger was huge. Like a freakin' lobster with a stinger. He tried to kill Karine. So I had to do what I did. I didn't want to do it.

Another week!

It's been another busy week for the Lewandowskis. A happy belated birthday to my mom and Kristin! The days are flying by so quickly that I hardly realize what day it is until it's too late.

United Nations Day at school on Wednesday was a success. We had students dressed up from several continents around the world. One thing I learned is that Honduran Estudios Sociales (Honduran Social Studies curriculum as dictated by the Ministry of Education) only recognizes 6 continents. Here, there is no such thing as North America and South America. The continent that is home to Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Honduras, Argentina, and Brazil is known simply as America. So in the picture below, you'll see the parade in our school gym of students from the continent of America! Lots of cowboys, traditional Honduran and Guatemalan dresses, and a few futbol players from Brazil. Tom and I dressed up from the continent of Asia. I knew that I had moved my traditional Chinese silk outfit down here for a reason! Thanks Matt A. for the perfect gift of the Kung Fu shirt- Tom and I matched perfectly... (Ruby came from Germany- "her people")



As our friends with children share their stories of their babies discovering their feet and putting them in their mouths, we do have our own "baby story" to report. We are happy to report that Ruby has discovered her tail. It's her favorite toy. It's difficult to capture it on "film", but here you can see her playing with her new favorite toy.

Tonight, I'm sitting at home watching the CRILATON 2007 on TV. Crilaton is La Ceiba's version of the Jerry Lewis telethon. It's a pretty big deal here. Tom will be making his television debut tonight at 8:50. As he's been playing around town with a couple different groups, he's making a name for himself! We can't get our vcr working yet, but I'm going to take pictures of the tv screen. (Just added!)


And here's a video of Tom and Jason singing "Hey Ya" on Honduran National TV!

Tomorrow morning, we're heading to Trujillo, a town about 2 1/2 hours east of La Ceiba. Our friends work for an orphanage. It's a small family-style orphanage on a beautiful beach. It's been rainy and cool here the past few days, but we're excited to get out of town anyway. Ruby is coming too- we're renting a pickup and spending the night in a little resort just down the beach from the orphanage.

That's all for now... Going to look for my husband on tv!

Been Awhile...

It turns out that being "puppy parents" is a lot of work! Ruby has been enjoying her rides to school and working in the library. Over the weekend, we left her alone for her first time. She did just fine. We've got a giant crate in the backyard that she's becoming more comfortable in. Her days in the laundry basket are numbered! On Saturday, Ruby got a bath out back in our pila, or outdoor concrete sink. All of us had fun!


As she's getting more comfortable with us, she's also getting braver and a little rowdier. Tonight, she was so good and calm in the backyard, I let her in the house while I was cleaning the kitchen. In a matter of 3 minutes, she had torn a leaf off a plant and shredded it, pulled a blanket of the couch and dragged it all around the house, and attacked her own tail. When she finally caught her tail, she started chomping and chewing on it like it was a squeaky toy. I tried to catch her to make her go outside, but she just kept running away from me. When I finally caught her and carried her outside and put her (not too gently) on the ground, she lay down and went to sleep. She's been sleeping for an hour now. Puppies!

Tom is taking a nap now. Naptime after school is a regular occurrence in our house- the puppy, the kids at school and the weather really wear us out - it's still 85 degrees every day when we come home! I think we're going to play Scrabble tonight. Tom is really good at Trivial Pursuit- I can't compete. But, I'm the reigning Scrabble champ in this house.