the norm.

Our house has been invaded by toads. As soon as you walk in the gate, you have to be on toad alert or you might just step on one. They are EVERYWHERE! And I'm not just talking small toads… I'm talking big daddy toads that are the size of my foot! Not even playin. When we got back from Easter break is when we first noticed the problem arising. Some how with the house locked up, 3 toads were inside the house. I mean there are nice gaps between the floor and door but not that big for these big ol toads to get in. It's quite the mystery. But since then, we have about 10 toads hoping around outside downstairs, some big and some small. In the past week, the toads have become smarter and made their way up the stairs to the 2nd level. We've pushed some over the edge of the retaining wall into our neighbor's yard, but that doesn't seem to diminish the toad count. It seems they are multiplying daily. They love to sit right by the doors too. It's very strange. It almost seems as though the frog plague from Exodus has hit Honduras. As soon as they are found in my bed or oven.. I'm outta here. Last I checked, we didn't have any Israelites in slavery around these parts.. but ya never know with these Hondurans!

It's funny how stepping around toads every night has just become second nature. It's totally normal for us to do such un-normal things around here. Just the other night we went out for dinner because we were tired of having our same old meal of stir-fry veggies or curry veggies (sometimes we throw chicken in the pot if we are feeling a little crazy) for dinner. So we went to a local restaurant in town to treat ourselves. While eating our meal, my friend Colleen was telling a story and in the middle of the story Annie leaned over and flicked a huge bug off Colleen's head. Colleen just carried on with her story without a pause, like nothing had happened. It made me realize how hilarious our lives are here without us even realizing it anymore. We have gotten so used to roughin it around here, that bugs, frogs, lizards, dogs, chickens and other creatures in restaurants are just the norm. It's normal for us to be sweaty and dirty at all hours of the day and not even care anymore…especially since they turn our water off several hours a day and sometimes for full days, mostly at night.. we've just adapted.  We've got used to the stares of our neighbors or whoever is walking by our house while we are working out. They love standing on the street, watching us gringas work out on our balcony… it's basically free entertainment and we are used to it. We are used to the fireworks that sound like cannons going off in the middle of the night over and over at least once a week now. We are used to saying "fireworks or gunshots.. yeah definitely fireworks" every time we here a loud popping noise to make ourselves feel better. (mom, its definitely fireworks). We are used to men being total creepers around here every time we talk by them. We are used to siting next to smelly cowboys on chicken buses when we travel and having their sweaty bodies touching ours. 

It's normal and I love it. 3 weeks left of Honduras, woah.


Hers is a picture of one of our toad friends (sorry for the low resolution... it was taken with an iphone)