AND THEN THERE WAS ONE

My friends and loyal blog followers, you all know about my beautiful fur child, Ollie, aka Mimi or Mi Niña.  Well, unfortunately, she left us this morning at approximately 10am.  My sweet baby held on for me to come back from the U.S. and we had 1 last good night together.  Yesterday around noon, she started having trouble breathing.  The vet came last night and felt her heart/lungs were failing.  She had labored breathing all last night and then this morning started making her way out to the patio.  She often likes to sit in the sun out there so I put her pillow out and laid her on top.  Shelina and I sat by her and within about 5 minutes she was gone ending almost 11 years together.

Maybe it sounds stupid, but through the years I've often thanked Jehovah for bringing her to me.  The Bible says every gift and perfect present comes from above, and I really can't think of words that could better describe her...gift and perfect present.  There've been times in my life when I truly thought she was the only thing that loved me and that she was my only friend.  I feel so satisfied that for her short life she had it good...bones, walks, and lots and lots of love.  What else could a dog want?  I'll miss my little cheese burrito.  If you're a pet parent, hug your fur child today and thank Jehovah for the chance to be their Mommy or Daddy.

HOW I KNOW I'VE SPENT TOO MUCH TIME IN NICARAGUA

I'm here in the U.S. on another visit and from the time I stepped on the plane, I've been comparing my behaviors and figuring out Nicaragua has weaseled its way further into me than I'd like to admit.  Here are some proofs:

• I thought the airline turkey and cheese sandwich was pretty tasty.  
• I came this close to saving the plastic bag the turkey sandwich was delivered in.  It was such thick plastic and came with a drawstring too!
• It took about a week to stop the automatic action of trying to throw my toilet paper in a bin instead of the bowl.
• I tried the tssst tssst hand wave thing to catch shop owners' and family members' attention...it didn't work.
• I accidentally sat on my sister's remote control so the t.v. went off....I automatically assumed the electricity was out.

AND HERE'S HOW I KNOW I'M STILL NOT COMPLETELY CONVERTED:

• That hot water in the shower?  Ahhhhhhhhhh
• U.S. desserts are life-changing 
• Berries!!!  Oh how I've missed thee!
• I wore high wedges and non-cotton clothing to run errands, did my hair and wore makeup almost every day, and LOVED every minute of it :)     (that's shallow me talking.  I want to be ashamed of her but I'm just not)
• Whoever's shower I used meant I used absolutely every bottle I found in the bathroom...masks, oils, conditioners...everything. twice.
• I felt like a moviestar with that Starbucks mug in my hand.

THINGS I THOUGHT I'D NEVER SAY

• I thought I was really sick but it turned out it was just parasites...again
• Can you crawl up on the roof and throw me down the mangoes?
• I only reported 8 studies this month :(
• So-and-so is looking to study twice a week now, and I just don't know where I'm going to fit her in!
• I'm so sorry your pig died! (I really said this to a student; pigs are big money here! One piglet costs about $30 and a full-size farm pig costs about $150)
• I'm really craving beans for lunch
• The broom and mop have rubbed a blister on my fingers
• Hold on, I gotta wash the feathers off this egg before I can crack it
• It's the road past the volcano.  No, the OTHER volcano
• I know it could save us money, but I'm NOT going to turn the refrigerator off at night
• Well poop! I'll just have to wash tomorrow because we've run out of water!
• Shelina, I woke up with a cockroach on my stomach
• Look at this perfectly good lime/orange/avocado I found in the gutter!

SPECIAL BRANCH MEETING

I just realized I forgot to write about an amazing meeting we had hosted by Central American branch in Mexico back in April.  Now that we don't have a local branch these kind of meetings have been done annually and are really important to us.  It helps us feel connected to our international brotherhood, and the fact Bro.Losch from the Governing Body was a guest speaker really made us feel cared for.

A quick shot right beforehand in the backyard. Shelina went to 1 location in Masaya while Jocelyn and I went to another to listen to the tie-in of the meeting.

Not sure if you can see it, but here's us in the entrance to the high school looking at a projector screen up on the platform. The picture was not great and the video went in and out quite a few times, but I think we got the highlights at least :)

One of the most interesting things Bro.Losch mentioned had to do with our associates.  Here in Nicaragua, kids have the exact same class from kindergarten until they finish, so they become VERY close with their schoolmates often considering them lifelong friends.  Also, it's no big deal to let your kids loose with all the other neighborhood kids to play everyday...it's just part of being "neighborly."  Anyway, Bro.Losch mentioned that we have "classmates, workmates, and neighbors, but they are just that; they are NOT our friends."  He also mentioned that since we would never have "intimate friendship" with someone who was not Jehovah's friends, we wouldn't promote that in our children either by sending them out to make friends with neighborhood children.  I felt those were points that could really help us here.

In total, we had almost a million in attendance between Mexico and all the Central American tie-in locations.  I'm hoping we get another meeting next year :)