Happy 5th Anniversary to Us!

It's only been a busy couple of months. Let's see if I can remember everything....

Well, not off to a good start. I'm drawing a blank on February. So we will start with the Memorial. Our hall had clean up day, and we got to paint the sign and the gates. This was only slightly frightening since I kept having to paint over black widows and I was pretty sure they were going to attack me. However, I escaped unharmed. Here's some pictures.

We signed up to auxiliary pioneer in March and April. I spent two weeks with my grandparents during the campaign and got to work rural driving territories, which was fun. Haven't done that in ages. 

There were 416 in attendance at our Memorial. It was standing room only.

This last weekend was our 5th anniversary. Zach surprised me with a trip to Beverly Hills, which we've never been to. We stayed at a nice hotel, did some sight seeing, and got to see my dream car in real life. Pictures!

View from hotel room. You can see the Hollywood sign in the distance.

 Treats from the hotel

 Dinner. The bread came with three different dips. It was fancy.

 Zach with a Bugatti Veyron *sigh*

 The Beverly Center parking lot. This is exciting because in the movie Volcano, one of my favorites, the building gets blown up. 

So that's what's been going on with us lately. I think some other stuff happened, but I can't remember anything else. 

We still don't really have plans of any sort right now. We now know we will be staying here in California until at least August, but everything else remains to be seen. In the meantime, we're just doing what we can and we're sure it'll get figured out soon. 

Ok bye!

At Long Last

So, it only took six months or so, but I have finally finished my photo books of Honduras and El Salvador.

Here's the links if you want to take a look-see.

Honduras:
http://app.picaboo.com/WebView/Project.aspx?clientID=62e04a4c85f7fd00394efde2a3839afd&version=304897&siteID=ViaPreview

El Salvador:
http://app.picaboo.com/WebView/Project.aspx?clientID=bb55487ca7df988462bc11695ec9502e&version=304894&siteID=ViaPreview

Now if I could just finish our wedding album...

Guess where I am!

Yes, that is actual snow on the ground. You know what that means. I'm back in Colorado. And it is FREEZING! This was an unexpected last minute trip, and has no end date yet. But that's ok, it's giving me a chance to see old friends. I've gotten to visit the old congregation twice so far; it has been so nice to see people. I feel really loved.

 

While here, I also have been doing some more purging, trying to simplify things. It's getting down to the hard stuff, since I've already purged so much on the last visits home. On the one hand, I highly doubt we will be using any of this stuff- I'm talking about you, favorite wool coat and popcorn maker- but on the other side, these are things we've invested time in and have good memories of (yes, I have good memories involving the popcorn maker) and we might have use for them if our plans don't work out to stay down south. Ah decisions. This is kind of like ripping off a bandaid. Anyway, if anyone needs household items, let me know. I'm sure I have something you might want.

 

Sentimental time! Here are some pictures of my nieces and nephew (you'll notice they posed so nicely for me), because I have a new camera. This one is waterproof so expect some awesome underwater photos from our next trip.

 

 

You might notice I haven't mentioned our current plans. That would be because we don't have any. Well, we have a purpose, but not a plan. Points to anyone who remembers the definition and difference between a purpose and a plan from that talk a few years ago.

 

We are trying to focus on certain goals, and that requires us to stay in one place for some time. We are hoping to be in El Salvador for the convention, so if you count backwards that puts us in Honduras...this summer? Hopefully sooner, but it all depends. I'm trying really hard not to stress about it, because I'm a planner. And my plans don't always work.

 

Plus, we still really need to learn Spanish. That might actually be the main delay. :) I think I will do anything to get out of learning that language, including learning a different one. Actually, there is a Chinese group in El Salvador, so we can always learn Mandarin. I think it would be hilarious to move to a Spanish speaking country and speak every language but Spanish. Hmm, there are a lot of Germans too....

 

I'm going to try to update more often, if interesting things happen. In the meantime, check out this sister's blog http://nicachica2010.blogspot.com/. She lives in Nicaragua, and I've really enjoyed reading about her experiences.

 

Ok, that's all for now.

 

Long Time, No Post!!!

First of all, apologies for not posting more often. There hasn't been much going on since we've been back in California, so there isn't a lot to write about.

Things are finally starting to come together now. Zach just started working at Teavana this week, and I started a tutoring job a couple weeks ago. We have a few odd jobs here and there, and hopefully will be able to save up to get back to Honduras soon. Still trying to find something online that we can take down there, I'm sure it'll work out when we get closer to leaving.

Today I did letter writing service for the first time in forever. It's been really nice to get to work with different ones in the congregation and get to know them. Zach knows everyone since this is his home, but I never really got to know anyone on our previous visits.

We are living in a trailer, and it is awesome. At first, I was going crazy because I thought we would be claustrophobic, but it's been really nice. This is forcing us to live really simply, which is good because Southern California is full of shiny objects! We have running water all the time, thank goodness, but we run out of propane occasionally and then spend a few days cooking on the George Foreman. Does anyone know how to boil water on one of those?
I remember in Honduras all I wanted was a long, hot shower, and being in the trailer, there isn't much of a hot water heater, so I still don't get them. I'm a little put out by that, but since I'm already in the habit, it's not so bad. I'll be prepared to go back.

The weirdest part of being back in the States is driving everywhere. There are some different stores that are really close, and the Hall is about a mile away, but we drive instead of walking. We have definitely gotten lazy. We will have to work on that.

Ok, well that is all for now. I'll let you know when something interesting happens.

So Excited

Things are starting to come together. I think we may be going back sooner than we thought....EEP! EXCITED!!!

We had the circuit assembly this weekend. It was really good. I like the new CO a lot.

Nicole, I lost your email address. Can you send it to me? Maybe through Peter?

I'm Sorry

I'm Sorry it took so long to update again. There has been an interesting change up lately, so I actually have something to talk about now. Last weekend, friends from El Salvador came out to Cali and we spent sometime with them. But now we are trying to figure out how we can go back there full time. It seems that may end up being where Jehovah wants us at this point.

I have a job, so we are getting things figured out financially for how we will move back.

Right now we are in Zach's parents congregation, and our cards are on the way there, But the way things go, they might receive simply to send them off again. We really need to settle down somewhere, and I think El Salvador is turning into that place. We still want to go to Honduras, but logistically, El Salvador answers most of our problems.

So... we will see....

Being home

So it's certainly been a while. I really wish I had interesting things to say... Zach and I are sick again. It is hard to come home to pets and allergies and children and the sort. It has been nice to be with the friends here in California. I went to colorado for two weeks and got to see some of the friends there. It makes me homesick. I wish I could have stayed longer.

Right now we are supposed to be taking a course to learn how to teach English as a foreign language. I say "supposed to" because we really haven't been working on it. I know the sooner it is finished the sooner we can become tutors and get jobs to support us in Central America, but its hard adjusting to schoolwork again. So far my attempts have been, well, less successful than I'd like. But it is a really good oppurtunity for us, so gotta keep at it.

There is always the Starbucks deal in el Salvador, but we haven't decided where we will stay yet and tutoring online gives us more freedom. So...we shall see.

Don't quite have a return date settled yet. Still hoping for December but prolly won't be til the beginning of the year. You never know though.

While we are in the states we have new cell phones, 9095380795 and of course the magicjack 9092336284. So you know, call us or text us. We like hearing from people and with all the moving we have done, we have misplaced most of your contact info.

Thats all for now.