Big Morning

So, tomorrow morning is the big day!  I am having laser eye surgery at Rahmani Eye Institute in Brownstown.  Kurt is having it next week!  It will be so super exciting to stop buying contact solution, contacts and glasses!  I am super duper nervous, but excited at the same time.  I have to stay home all day tomorrow, and have a re-check on Friday morning, and then I should be good to go.  I cannot work out for 48 hours, and cannot wear make-up (GASP) for a week.  I will post about the procedure after I can use a computer again.  I am hoping the surgery exhausts me so the 24 hours afterwards I am supposed to rest are not LONG and annoying.

MI weather this week has truly sucked.  Yesterday, there was an ice/sleet storm on the way home, and today it snowed the entire way home.  I cannot wait for this crap to be over.  Of course, I got two summer dresses in the mail today that I would love to wear.  HA!  I think they will mostly be worn once we move to Costa Rica.

Went to Judge Snow's judicial investiture yesterday with Kurt.  I have never been to one before.  It was long, but a very nice ceremony.  I don't know much about her, but she seems to genuinely want the job and like family law, so I am happy about that and getting to practice in front of her.

**pic below of me and my cousin, Carolyn, at a wedding shower this past weekend.

Not much else going on.  Hoping I feel somewhat better by the weekend, as I have a bday party to attend on Saturday night and another party on Sunday afternoon.  Hope everyone is having a nice week!

Past Two Weeks

Remembering to blog after a year of not blogging is hard!

I have been pretty busy though.  Right now, I am sitting on  the couch, with a sleeping pug named Vito at my side.

Last weekend was fun.  Friday night, we had dinner with our friends, Jill and Jarod, and Ron and got to meet his new girlfriend, Erika!  Ate at Dolce, and had an amazing time.  Food was awesome, as usual (I had their amazing crab cake salad which I highly recommend) and Kurt had sushi and soup.  I also had two drinks, which is rare since I almost never drink.  Anyway, the drink was called a "Smoretini" and was amazing.  Highly recommend.  Also, that weekend, my friend Jill and I went to a CABI Spring line viewing party at a friend's house (Kristy).  I loved most of the stuff, but really liked several items which I am going to picture below.  I want that tank BADLY and I love CABI colored skirts.  I have the yellow one and I get compliments on it every single time I wear it.  The jacket is really unique for work, and  I never thought I would like that sweater until I tried it on, but it is super cute and comfy.  And the t-shirt is just really different.  Nothing was for sale yet, as the line is not available yet, but we got to see everything coming out soon.  And, it was nice to see Kristy and Jill.

Had a nice KFASS meeting this week too at Black Pine Tree Sushi in Southgate.  I had two rolls that were different than I have ever had and both were awesome.  Being a lawyer is so much less stressful when I have girls to vent to about it who get it.

Last night, we went to my Uncle's in Farmington Hills as my Momma is in town!  :).  I bought some amazing cupcakes as we had a little bday celebration for her.  I had the cookie dough cupcake and yea......awesome.  It was so nice to see everyone as well.  My aunt made an amazing dinner or shrimp and salmon and salad.

I got two packages at the office today (the one positive of working on a Saturday).  One was two dresses I ordered from White House Black Market.  One of the dresses was soooo cute, but the sequins on it rub weird on my arm and I know it would drive me nuts.  The other dress is too short for me.  It would be better on an 18 year old, LOL.  Another package from ASOS and I liked most from that package.  I got a bunch of summery shirts (see below).  also got two dresses, but did not like either one so those are going back as well.

I also got a new pair of shoes in the male last week, which are really unique.  They seem comfy, but we will see after I wear them to court for a morning.

I reallllllllly want this purse for a vacation/travel/shopping bag, but I cannot find any coupons or it marked down, and we all know I will NOT pay full price for anything.  Once I find a coupon or it marked down on eBay or something, I will be all over it.

Have a wedding shower to go to for my cousin's soon to be wife, melissa.   Cant wait to see family there and see all the fun stuff she gets.  Have no idea what i am going to wear though, seeing the weather is so freaking cold here.  I hate winter in MI.  Cannot wait to move.......

Kurt's Bday Trip--Part 2

**I found a sign advertising an attorney, so of course, I had to pose!  :)

We flew into San Jose late on Thursday, and checked into our normal airport hotel, Holiday Inn Express, for the night.  We stay here when we have to be at the airport early, or if we get in late.  The hotel picks you up for free and they were waiting for us after we cleared customs.  Took shuttle to hotel, checked in quickly, surfed the net for a bit and crashed, exhausted from flying a kinda long layover in Ft Lauderdale  I was a little terrified flying Spirit, but our flights were easy with no delays.  The Ft Lauderdale airport is really lame though, no restaurants and very crowded with little kids screaming everywhere.  I was happy to get out of there.

**View of the pool area right from our room at our hotel in Herradura.  Got to wear my new bathing suit, whoot.

Got up fairly early, as we had to be at our hotel in Jaco at 11 to meet the realtor.  Had a yummy continental breakfast at the hotel (free) and headed to pick up our rental car at Payless.  Got the rental SUV and started towards jaco!  Drive was nice and beautiful, as usual.  Pulled up to our hotel at 1105 and the realtor was there waiting.  He jumped in our car and off we went (see previous post about house hunting).  After looking at houses all day, we checked into our hotel La Brisas.  We had a room near reception and the pool.  Room was nice and had a little kitchen and sitting area.  We headed out to dinner that night at our fav place in the world, Taco Bar, in downtown Jaco.  Sat on our swings at the bar area and had spicy ahi tuna tacos, yum.  Headed to a grocery store to pick up drinks and snacks and back to the room.

Day two, I woke up and worked out with my Jillian video, and then we headed into town to walk around and have lunch before heading out with the realtor again.  We had lunch at a sports bar called Los Amigos, and I had an amazing shrimp pad thai.  HUGE, varied menu for a sports bar.  Loved it.  went and looked at houses the remainder of the afternoon.  Went and got a massage at a place called Nazareth that we like.  Decided I wanted to take Kurt somewhere nice for is bday dinner, and I had heard good things about this place called Graffiti Wine Bar in downtown jaco, so we headed there.  Was slightly concerned about getting a table because reviews I read said you need a reservation, but we lucked out and got seated right away.  We both had this saltine encrusted mahi with clam chowder that was AMAZING and I made Kurt get dessert, which was a french toast with bananas and was incredible, called the Elvis.  Oh, almost forgot, before lunch we went to Tarcoles and went on the crocodile man tour again (we went once before in 2006).  It was super fun, yet again.  The people who run that tour are crazy with how close they get to these huge creatures.

Day 3, we checked out (after i worked out and Kurt worked out at a local gym) and decided to head to an area of the country we had never been to, called Uvita, which is near Dominical. The way to get here used to be a 4 wheel dirt road, but now is beautifully paved and simply to get to, about 90 minutes from Jaco.  We drove right there, after making a pit stop in Quepos so Kurt could use the internet for some business.  We stayed at Hotel Cristal Ballena.  Our room was super nice, overlooking via a huge wraparound balcony the rain forest and ocean and pool area of the resort.  After checking in, we headed across the street to a beach area at Marino Bellena National Park.  We walked the beach and went to a cool area with some rocks and caves to check it out.  Back to the hotel and did a hot hike in the rainforest.  Prob should have taken bug spray on this one, we got a little eaten alive by the mosquitoes.  :).  It was a nice workout though and a very pretty walk.  That night was the Super Bowl, so we headed into downtown Uvita to a little bar attached to a hotel called Nido del Halcon, and watched the first half of the game while having dinner.  Headed back to the room after that and watched the second half of the game.  Crashed after that.

Day 4, we got up and headed to Sierpe to go on a mangrove tour.  Got there, and had a really nice time relaxing on the boat during the tour.  Were bummed we did not see monkeys, but we saw a lot of other birds and animals and it was a fun time.  Love spending time on the water in nature.  Drove back towards the hotel and stopped in a little town called Ojochol for lunch at a place called Citrus.  Had lunch in an outside area, that started with an amazing banana smoothie, yum.  Headed back to the room after that and I walked out, and we decided to stay in for the night and relax in the room.

Day 5, checked out and on our way back to Jaco, stopped in some little towns to drive around and explore the areas and the beaches.  We stopped in Uvita and Dominical.  Super cute little areas right on the water.  Got back to Jaco, as we were meeting up with Colin again to relook at one of the houses we liked.  Before that though, we went and walked on Jaco Beach and walked the downtown area some.  Made a reservation at Serenity Spa to get massages, and had lunch at a place called Caliche's Wishbone, that was super yummy.  Looked at the house again, and checked into our hotel, which ended up being one of my favorite places we have stayed at in Costa Rica, called El Paso de las Lapas. Small boutique place, with almost nobody there besides us.  Our room had a huge pool right outside the door.  Loved swimming in that pool and the grounds were gorgeous.  Went and had dinner that night at a Sushi place called Tsunami.  Got a table right by the window overlooking the street and we split some yummy sushi rolls and miso soup.

Day 6, got up and worked out, then headed out to explore Jaco and drive around some of the neighborhoods some more.   Decided to check out this place called Pura Vida gardens and waterfalls, which is ended up being like 6 miles up a mountain dirt road.  The place was gorgeous though and had a ton of little trails and hikes you could do.  We walked around there for quite a bit of time then headed back to the room.  Had dinner at place right on the water called Bohio's Beach Bar and got to have awesome fish tacos again, which the place is known for.  For some reason, I am totally blanking on where we had lunch this day!  We did go into a really nice clothing store in downtown jaco.  Did not buy anything, but really high quality, local made stuff.  Place was called Guacamole.

Day 7, got up and worked out, then head to pack up and head to the airport and to return the rental car, BOOOOO.  Drove to San Jose, turned the car in and headed to the airport and away from paradise.

Overall, an awesome and very productive trip.  Pura Vida!

Kurt's Bday Trip 2013--Part 1, House Hunting

Ahhh.  Costa Rica.  My favorite place in the entire world to visit.  We took a trip here for a week for Kurt's bday, and to look at houses.  Combined kinda trip, business and pleasure.  Mostly pleasure though, because looking at houses was actually fun.

We looked at houses in various areas including Hermosa, Herradura, Esterillos Este, Playa Agujas, and Tarcoles.  All around Jaco Beach, which is where we want to be near.  Pretty much every place we looked at was nice, however, we liked two of them the best.  We ended up deciding that the closer to Jaco Beach we can be, the better.  Which is basically Herradura and Hermosa.  We really liked two places.  The first is in Herradura, which is literally only 5 minutes from Jaco Beach.  This house is in a little community of houses where you have to own at least 5000 square meters of land, so the houses are never going to be right on top of one another, even though the community is not filled yet.  This house has 1.5 acres of property.  The house is about 2150 square feet and has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.  The house backs up to some huge trees, where animals often visit and while we were there, a family of 5 toucans was visiting the tree.  The owner said that a group of capuchin monkeys were there the day before.  Love.  This property needs some things done to it though in order to have it be to where Kurt wants.  We would need to build on, adding a gym.  There is no room in the current house for a gym, and Costa Rica is severely lacking in gym facilities.  I plan on working out in the outdoors a lot with hiking, running on the beach, biking, but Kurt likes having weights easily accessible and a treadmill and a bike, at a minimum.  also, the area to park cars is a kinda car port with a storage area.  we would want to wall that in totally so it was an actual garage.  Further, we would want to build the pool area up some.  Right now, it is a pool and patio area, but no coverage.  You need that in Jaco, as it is hot during the day.  So we would want to build on a covered area to the pool, maybe like a thatched roof or something.  And, we want a covered walkway from the garage to the house for the rainy season.  The house would need some paint on the interior walls as well, since one of the rooms is painted in Disney purple, LOL.  So, we have a contractor going to the house to look at it and price these things out.

The second house is in Hermosa Beach, which is about 10 minutes from Jaco Beach.  This house's interior is gorgeous and there are two options for a gym already there (an extra bedroom that is large or using the garage as as gym).  The pool area is stunning and perfect.  I think I would spend every second outdoors, literally.  The downside to this property is besides the pool, it has almost no yard.  A pro this one has the other does not is 24 hours security and free water, but you pay monthly for this as kinda an association fee (it's very low though considering with a pool, the water is included).  It's more in a neighborhood, but the neighborhood is upscale and I would feel really safe here.  By the way, our realtor, Colin Miller, was awesome.  He really seemed to *get* what we wanted and understand our perspective.  he showed us a lot of houses we had not even asked to see, and the two we like the most were not even on our list to see initially.  Anyway, we have not put an offer on anything yet, as we are waiting to hear back on the one with the land and the cost to do the upgrades.  Labor is much cheaper in Costa Rica, so fingers crossed it is not super pricey.  If we put bids in and they are not accepted at what we think we should pay, we will simply wait and look again later.  The entire experience was really positive though.  

Will post more about the non-house hunting part of the trip soon!  Pura Vida.

Check-in

We are having an absolutely awesome time in Costa Rica for our combined Kurt's bday and house hunting trip.

I will post a trip update when we return, but thus far, we have spent time in both the Jaco area and the Uvita area.

Pura Vida!