Friday Five

Happy Friday everyone! Not only is it Friday but it’s a Friday before a holiday… Could it be any better day of the week? Nope, not possible!!!

As you’re reading this I am headed to my parents house for the Fourth of July weekend! It will be a weekend full of family and fun in the lake and I cannot wait to start it. I promise I will be posting a lot.

Let’s get started for my Friday five…

1.  This is gonna look like it’s an advertisement for Aldi’s but it’s not. Or, maybe it is as I’ve been finding so many things lately that I love there. I found this awesome tin in the toy aisle.  My family has always played the license plate game on trips ever since we were little kids. We would just keep track on a piece of paper when we were kids. Now that we are adults, we all have a download app that we use on our phones. But this magnetic game looks amazing. It has these cute little spongy license plates that are magnets and you stick them onto the state when you see that license plate. The state license plates are not flimsy at all… This is really a quality car game. It was only $5.99 at Aldi‘s. there were other car games too but this is the only one I purchased… I recommend you run and get yourself one!

 

2. This next item also comes from Aldi‘s. I can’t recommend that you run and get it because it was on an end aisle with a bunch of other lemon things and it was limited time only. I actually went back to purchase more because I love them so much and my Aldi‘s is all sold out. I think these were like $8.99? When you love something you have to buy multiples because it just may not be there the next time you go back. If you like lemon these are a dream come true! 

3. And I promise this is not an ad for Aldi‘s so the last item that I love this week is the last item from Aldi‘s. They always have the cutest and most fun cat and dog toys. I got my cats two toys this week each were $7.99. My cats adore them.

This first one is white and has a battery. You push that little white button and it spins around and shoots a laser around your house. It runs for about three minutes and then it shuts itself off. My cats are obsessed with this thing!

This second toy that’s a blue has no battery. You fill it with treats and wobbles on the floor like those old weebles used to do. When the cats bat at the toy or balls on it with their paws,  it drops treats out. Best $8 ever spent- lol!!!


4. My fourth obsession is this amazing honey. I just picked this up on the way home from Nicaragua. We bought it in the airport in Iberia, Costa Rica. It is absolutely to die for!!!! I wish I had bought more!!! I have been eating a small drizzle a day on a small plain cracker… it is sooo yummy! I will be seeing if they will mail order this product!!!!

5. Lastly I will leave you with my favorite summer pie recipe!! I believe I got this recipe from a blogger many years ago; if it was you please reach out to me so I can give you your deserved credit. It is delicious!!! And easy!!! You mix together 1 tub of whipped topping (I used low-fat generic brand), 6 oz frozen lemonade concentrate (I could only find pink lemonade so I used that), and one can of sweetened condensed milk. Mix that all together well, pour into a graham cracker crust, and freeze! That’s it! I promise it is delicious!!! I sometimes add extra lemon zest or lemon concentrate because I love “puckery” lemon flavor.

That’s what it looks like prior to freezing. Top with lemon zest or thin lemon slices if you have them! It is my absolute favorite pie for a hot summer day!!!!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July holiday!!! 

Hugs to you all!!!!

Heading Home from Nicaragua

So this is day eight and we are finally headed home… it’s been a truly amazing trip and I am definitely ready to be headed home. 

We had to be ready for our chartered bus to pick us up at 5 AM at our hotel. We took that bus from our hotel to the border of Nicaragua where we crossed the border on foot and then got in another chartered bus and road to the Airport in Liberia, Costa Rica.

Here’s the picture of all of us in front of the hotel…

From left to right- Shawne, Dennis, me, Sr. Gupta (hotel owner), Mom and then Jeremy behind her.

Then this picture of Senor Gupta in the door of the hotel as we drove away…

Here are the pictures of the windmills that we get to see on the drive from Nicaragua to Costa Rica…

When we checked in for our flight to fly from Costa Rica to Miami we saw this drug sniffing dog. This is at the gate before you board the plane. They take the drug dog through all the people and all of the carry-on luggage.

The dog came closer and closer and we just kept commenting on how cute he was. But when he got to my mom his bag he stuck his nose in her bag and was rooting around with his nose. She was worried he was trying to eat her boarding pass so she kept trying to grab the boarding pass. The officer with the dog kept telling her no no no. And asking her not to grab her boarding pass. After he had the dog sit he explained the dog notifies him of drugs or cash. My mom had her envelope of cash in her purse and that’s what the dog can smelled and triggered on. It was definitely an amusing moment watching my mom try to fight with a drug dog. Ha ha ha

I knew I was home when I was able to just order a cuppa coffee. The hotel owner made us coffee every morning in his coffee pot. It was delicious but it was a mix of herbs and coffee… That’s how many people drink it there. I have to say I really missed plain black coffee. This was my favorite treat in the airport!

We had a flight from Miami to Pittsburgh that was scheduled for 7:30 PM. Keeping in line with all the delays recently in the airline travel… First it was delayed till 8 PM, then it was delayed until 8:30 PM, then it was delayed until 9 PM, then it was delayed till 9:30 PM. After the 9:30 PM delay they explained the reason it kept getting delayed was a crew shortage. Finally we took off around 9:30 and got home around 12:30 AM. Mom spent the night and then drove home around 7 AM the next morning.

It is so great to be home and just beginning to get unpacked. I cannot wait to do some laundry and put everything in its place. I love a good vacation but it also feels so amazing to come home!

They won’t admit it but I think the cats really missed me too! They’re going to be getting lots and lots of snuggles over the next couple days!

Hugs to you all I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as I did! If nothing else please know how very very blessed we are to have everything we need… Maybe not everything we want but definitely everything we need!

End of Day 1

Once we arrived in Granada, Nicaragua via bus we checked into our hotel. We are staying at the Boutique Hotel Maharaja on the main street in Granada, Nicaragua. This adorable little cutie will greet you at the front desk. Her name is Gaby. She is named after the owner's assistant who is also amed Gaby. The owner of the hotel is Sr. Gupta and he is an amazing host!! He did everything in his power to make our stay like home and comfortable. 

I think I left this picture out of my last post… It is a picture of the whole group I came with (including my mother) in front of the active volcano here. 

Here are some hotel pics of our room…

This is the view the city from our hotel room. We are literally on the roof and can see up and over the city.

If you’re looking for luxury this is not a hotel for you. If you’re looking for an experience a lifetime this could be the place for you. There is no warm water for showers because everyone here finds it refreshing to take a cold shower. It was easy for me to get used to but my mother did not enjoy this part of our trip. Lol! The rooms here are very small but we are only in the room to sleep so it works well. Here are some pictures of the hallway leading to our room.

This is truly going to be a life experience!!

Hugs to everyone- have a great day - more to come!!!

Day One Nicaragua Part 1

Hi everyone! Just wanted to give you a big update on day one… Get ready for a lot of pics!

Day one on June 9 consisted of a lot of travel! We flew from Pittsburgh to Miami and then from Miami to Liberia Costa Rica.  Here’s a picture of me and my seat mate… Isn’t mom cute?

If you haven’t flown lately they now pipe in sanitized air to the plane. You can see the fog before the plane takes off and after the plane lands. It’s really hard to see in this picture but you can see if you look closely at the ceiling and top of the windows.

After we landed in Liberia Costa Rica we got on a bus that was taking us from Costa Rica to the Nicaraguan border in Peña Blanca‘s. This is a little bit of the view out of the window on the way to the Nicaraguan border.




Everything is so lush and green!

Once we got to the border we had to actually get off of the bus and physically walk across the border with our luggage. This meant checking out of Costa Rica and checking into Nicaragua. It was an interesting process but we finally made it through as you can see in the picture below.

This is a group I went with… Me, my mother, two other students named Jeremy and Shawne and my professor Dennis.  Our professor is one that actually organized the trip. He works with a group called Straight Street Nicaragua to coordinate all the different towns that we would be visiting with our medical supplies. They are based out of Tennessee.

After we finished crossing all the borders and we were in Nicaragua, we got on another bus and we were then driven to Granada Nicaragua where we will be staying for a week.

The bus trip was a little over an hour to get to our hotel and we stopped to get a picture of this amazing active volcano on the way. Nicaragua actually has seven volcanoes that are currently active and others that are not currently active.

We also passed a lot of really beautiful windmills on the way as you can see in the picture above.

Next post coming soon!!!