Unemployed and lovin' it!

So, Charley and I are both now officially unemployed!!! Woohoooo!!!!!!


My last day at work was Friday. It was really a rather surreal experience. I've worked there almost 13 years, so it felt really odd to pack up my desk and leave. But the day was fun. It was Rachel Day at work! 


After a training in the morning, which was very entertaining, we had a celebration in our breakroom with a cake. Here are a few pictures of that.

The ladies in this picture are the four people I worked most with.
Mercedes, in the white top, is the unfortunate one
who gets stuck doing all my work as well as her's now.
Thanks Mercedes!!!!

Yum - Cream cheese icing - we devoured that cake!

Then about 11 of us went out to lunch at Patachou Cafe. I had a broken yolk sandwich with bacon and avocado and fresh fruit. It was as delicious as it looks in this picture, or perhaps even more so! Thanks again, Marie!

Then I got to leave work a little early, so the day ended with a round of goodbyes. I got a bit choked up during that part of the day. It was just kind of the beginning of the end! Made me think about all the goodbyes that will be coming up, the ones that will be much harder than saying goodbye to my job. 


So, Charley and I have never been so happy about being unemployed. For me, this is the first time in over 13 years that I haven't had a job! But there's lots to do, so the time will no doubt fly by. I'm glad we have these next three weeks to get organized - aka, procrastinate until 3 days before we leave!


We got to enjoy an evening with Josh, Wendy, Aunty Lesley and the kids. I would love to share pictures but I don't have any. Oh yeah, there's a story! Thursday morning Charley and I went to take the Spanish Pioneer School picture. I'll share that picture next week after the pioneer school class has actually had a chance to see it themselves! Anyway, so Wednesday evening, about 12 hours before taking the picture, I find out I left my camera at my in-law's house almost 2 hours away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any other time it wouldn't have mattered. My dad suggested I take the picture with my cell phone - if you've seen my cell phone you'll know why that was particularly funny! Thankfully a brother in my parents congregation saved the day by letting me use his camera. And actually it's nicer than mine, so we ended up with a better quality picture because of it!!! But I didn't panic, or cry, or scream - I was rather proud of myself. I'm working on staying calm in the face of disaster, and I'm a lot better than I used to be!


Well, just wanted to share my last day at work story mostly. The end of an era!

Another ridiculously long update

So, time is flying by. I try not to think too much about it or I start getting butterflies in my stomach!

I’m trying to think what has gone on since I last blogged.

Well, the evening that we bought our tickets we had some friends over for dinner. My mam made a delicious meal and we had great company to go with it. Below is a picture of us that we almost forgot to take until they were at their car! Phil & Heather and his parents came over. Phil & Heather just got back from Haiti where they worked on the construction of a new missionary home. The day after they got back, they were invited to Walkill for six weeks, with the possibility of staying longer, so we managed to find an evening to have them over. It was really encouraging to see their slide show, and hear their experiences, and talk about our plans. It’s great to have friends who are in somewhat of the same boat, and share the excitement. So, that was a lovely evening. 

With Phil & Heather, and Phil's parents Bud & Phyllis

We had a nice anniversary dinner with my mam and dad that week too. They’ve been super generous with us, and we are now the proud owners of our very own GPS complete with a map of Nicaragua in it! We’ve already programmed in the coordinates of our new Kingdom Hall, and one or two other places. We have discovered that if you borrow something from someone enough times, they eventually get sick of your borrowing it and they buy you one!!! Hahahaa!!!!! There’s your handy tip of the day!

Charley gave his last public talk at our hall. And it was our group’s turn for hospitality so we had a nice time stuffing our faces over at someone’s house. Good food, good times! I also took pictures for a family in our hall whose oldest son graduated (see a few below). We had a great time. Here are a few of the shots. The photo book I made arrived yesterday and although I say so myself, it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! 

 

 

 
 

Last Friday I enjoyed one last lunch with a couple of friends who also work downtown. We went to Le Peeps for old times’ sake and all ordered the same thing we would always get there! It was nice to see them, and they also delivered a suitcase that their parents didn’t need anymore, so now we only need one more and we’re good to go!

And then the weekend was spent down at Charley’s mam and dad’s house. We had a BLAST!!! They had a going away party for us on Saturday evening. About 30 from our congregation came along too. We had some really delicious food, and a hayride, and the kids played until they were exhausted, and the adults danced until our feet hurt! We did some Scottish dances that we always did when I was younger in England. That was a good time. The last dance Charley almost swung me off my feet. I barely managed to hang on!!! I’ll try and get a little video clip of that. He’s really very good at those dances!!! I hadn’t danced that dance so hard since I was about 17. It almost killed me – I’m not 17 anymore that’s for sure! We also had a bit of a yard sale on my mother-in-law’s front porch for those at the party and we were very successful in getting rid of more stuff. It’s amazing how much stuff we decide we can live without every time we go through it all! My family worked really hard putting the party together and it was a HUGE success. Everyone had a GREAT TIME!!!!  Here are a few pictures below. To see them all click here.

 

Sunday we went to the meeting in the morning. We were tired, and almost late, but present! And the talk was EXCELLENT. It was actually given by the brother of our friends down in Nicaragua, so it was nice to see him and his wife before we head down there to live about 45 minutes away from his sister. The rest of the day was spent chilling, and trying to tidy up from the party. Monday we stayed down there too. Charley’s youngest sister started pioneer school in Evansville, so she left early Monday morning, and then his other sister and her boys went home later in the day. We spent quite a bit of Monday taking all the tents down and cleaning everything up from the party. Took quite a bit to get it all sorted!

So, Charley’s last day at work was last Friday, so he was enjoying being fast asleep when I got up for work this morning! But I just have two more days at work left so that’s very exciting. Charley is in charge of feeding Spanish pioneer school tomorrow, so that will keep him busy in the morning. And on Thursday morning we’re going to take the class picture. This is the first year that Spanish Pioneer School is in Indianapolis, so it’s exciting to get to have a little part in it although I always get nervous about taking the picture since it’s a big deal to get it right! Oh well, if they don’t like the picture, I’ll be too far away for them to get at me!!! Friday, some people at work are treating me to lunch. And then after work I’m going to get a massage from a friend – yay! Can’t wait for Friday!!!

We still have two more going away parties, one at my mam’s house, and one that our congregation is organizing, so lots of eating and dancing still to come! And Charley is taking a backpacking trip for a few days with his sister and brother-in-law. It’s just not my scene, so I figured they’d be better off without me! I look forward to hearing their stories afterwards!

We’re also going to Columbus, OH to visit some friends who we haven’t seen in a long time. And everyone in our congregation wants to have us over for dinner so our evenings are filling up fast! And somewhere between all that partying and socializing, we will try to remember to pack!

Well, as usual I included way too much detail! Before we all know it I’ll be blogging from Nicaragua!

This is really happening!!!!!!!!

Weeellllll........it seems real now! We bought our tickets!!!!!!!!! Just now - about five minutes ago! I couldn't resist blogging about it!


I decided a week or two ago to be very specific in prayer about how much we wanted to spend on these tickets. We were hoping to pay roughly half what we paid for a round-trip ticket last time since this is a one-way flight. However, one-way tickets are not half the price of a round trip one. So, I just continued to pray about it, and then this last week or so starting looking into using airmiles as you already know.


Well, I think I was doubting a bit in my prayers, thinking that I was being unrealistic to ask for such a cheap flight, but then I reminded myself that nothing is impossible for Jehovah, and so I prayed with much more confidence about it. Then this week I discovered (I don't even know how I found out) that you can reactivate expired airmiles for a price. They don't advertise it very prominently on their website and it never occurred to me that such an arrangement existed, but I somehow ended up on a page that discussed that deal. So, I looked into it and discovered that for around the price I had prayed about, we could reactivate enough expired miles to get a flight.


So, I got online on both of our American Airlines accounts and put a flight on hold. However, it was a few days earlier than I was thinking we would leave. So, I realized that I had been specific in my prayers about price, but not about the day. So I prayed about leaving on the flight I had found for Sunday August 26th which was no longer available with airmiles.


Today, I decided to go ahead and call and find out if this reactivating miles was really going to be an option. Turns out it is what it sounds like, so we paid the fee to reactivate our miles, and then got online to buy the flights. I had put flights for Thursday August 23rd on hold because that's the only day they had a good itinerary available that didn't involve changing planes like four times, or spending a whole day and night in an airport.


Man, I'm so excited that I don't think my story is very coherent is it?!


Anyway, so I decided just on the off chance to see if that same itinerary was available on the 26th. Why would it be - it wasn't yesterday?! But I looked anyway! And what do you know - there it was! Seats available to fly on the 26th, same flights and times as the 23rd!!!!!


So, we both got on separate computers and booked the flights with our airmiles, just to make sure we could both get on the same flight and have seats next to each other. It all went through, with a small administrative charge. 


Total for flight = $25 LESS than the price I had prayed about.........wow! That almost pays for the extra suitcase we'll each be taking!


My faith is strengthened. It's amazing to see how Jehovah answers prayers if you're specific and then do what you can to act in harmony with the prayer.


I apologize for the rambliness of that story but I wanted to paint the full picture, and I'm so excited and nervous that I can hardly keep my fingers steady or my brain straight!

Another step taken!

Hello Everyone!


First of all, I'd like to say, if you replied to that post about air-miles, I was having email issues and wasn't aware of it. So if you happened to reply, please reply again because none of my email was coming through!


Second of all, we took some big steps this week! Charley called his boss on Wednesday morning to tell him he'd be working through the end of July and then we'd be off to Nicaragua for a month. His boss asked a few questions, and then asked him if he'd like him to hold his job for a year!!!!!! So Charley said, Yeah!!


And then on Thursday, I emailed my notice. My last day will be Friday, August 3rd. My stomach was doing flips when I hit send on that email. I have been in this job for almost 13 years so this is a big change! But it felt good. I'm really excited.


So, now we're just watching flight prices trying to catch a good deal. One way flights aren't really much cheaper than round trip it seems! The plan is to leave sometime the last week of August, although if we get a good deal a bit sooner than that we won't pass it up.


Well, I think that's the latest. If you subscribed and got this in email format, you can actually hit Reply and get through to us now!

Anyone have airmiles they don't want?!

Hello everyone!


I thought it would be worth reaching out and seeing if anyone has American Airline miles they don't think they'll use. It costs $30 to transfer them I think, but we'd be more than willing to pay you for them. I found a good flight that we can use our miles on, and I have it on hold for a few days while I see if I can buy or collect more miles!


If you have any, and you're willing to share, let us know!


Thanks!!!!!

Full steam ahead!!

So, I thought it was about time that I shared our plans with you all. Some of you already know, but perhaps not all. We’re busy making our plans to return to Nicaragua. The idea is to start the new service year down there (Sept 1^st) so we hope to go the last week of August which will give us a few days to settle in before starting the year. And we hope to stay for the entire service year.

To do that, you enter the country on a 3 month tourist visa, then you buy a 3 month extension, and then after those three months you go to Costa Rica on vacation and get your passport stamped afresh when you cross back into Nicaragua again. There are many that do it that way, so hopefully we won’t have any problem following in their footsteps. So, if that all works out we’ll spend at least the year there, and then we’ll see what happens from there!

We are always hoping to get an invitation to the BSCC too, but we can’t just sit around and wait for something to happen, so in the meantime we’ll go to Nicaragua. It may be years, or never, before getting invited, so we’ll keep busy in whatever way we can. Like someone told me once, apply for everything you qualify for, and Jehovah will put you where he wants you.

So, we’ve been in touch with the CO down there in Nicaragua, the one we met last time, and he has recommended a congregation in his circuit that needs help. It’s in Masaya and the congregation is San Sebastian. It’s only about 15 minutes from the house so it’s convenient. We’ll be living in the same house as last time thanks to the endless generosity of the Aguilar family who own the house. Sister Aguilar is going down there next week with her girls, and taking Claudia back since her visitor’s visa will be expiring. So, someone down there will study with Claudia, at least until we arrive and I can hopefully continue her study.

So, since we’re on the final countdown we have a lot to do, yet we don’t seem to be doing much of it! Haha!!! We haven’t bought tickets yet, just keeping an eye on them waiting for a good price hopefully. Or just waiting until it’s too late and we’re desperate. One of the two! We’ll probably finish our jobs a little bit before we leave to give us a bit of time to get everything together before we leave. We haven’t turned our notice in yet, but where I work they know it’s coming soon. Not sure if Charley has mentioned anything to his boss yet. I don’t think he has.

I’m trying to think of what we’ve been up to since I last posted a blog. We went to the English District Convention last month with Charley’s parents. That was AMAZING as those of you have been already know. I won’t say anything about it though since I realize you haven’t all been yet! And then this coming weekend we’re going to the Spanish one. We’re taking a single mam and her little girl, and then another sister whose husband isn’t a witness, and her two young ones. So it should be a fun weekend. It seems like we might have some getting baptized, but I don’t know for sure. I’ll find out this Saturday I guess!

First day of convention in Evansville with Charley's mam and dad

We also took a weekend trip to Lexington, KY. We got a Groupon deal for a B&B down there. It was a great weekend. We visited a distillery, a winery and a brewery! And a place that makes chocolates and bought some bourbon balls – yum! And we went to a park and took a short hike that led to an overlook of the Kentucky river. We also toured the home and gardens of Henry Clay. And we visited a sister who used to live here in Indy, and went to the meeting in Spanish with her. The place we stayed at was lovely, comfortable and clean. And all in all it was just a nice relaxing weekend. Here are some pictures of that trip.

Can you see the worm and the ant?

In the gardens of Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate

Woodford Reserve Distillery

The first part of the whiskey process!

With Roxana who used to be in our congregation in Indy,
and another couple in her hall down in Lexington , KY

Charley and I at the winery - we're the tiny dots under the arch!

They give you tons of free samples here!

The B&B from the outside

Raven Run Nature Sanctuary with KY River behind us.
It took me ages of balancing and using self-timer to get a decent shot!

One of my favorite pictures from Raven Run

And you can't go anywhere in Lexington without seeing horses.

I can’t remember what else we’ve been up to but it’s been non-stop around here. We’ve had a few graduation parties, and just been busy with service, meetings, and the district convention invitation campaign. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m coming or going. It’s been super hot here lately, as it has throughout much of the country, but I figure it’s just training for the next service year and I need to get over it and get on with it!

Well, that’s the latest from us. I’ll try and keep everyone updated on the progress of our plans. Even though we haven’t bought tickets yet, it’s pretty much decided that we’ll be leaving the last week of August so it’s full steam ahead. If anyone here in town needs a recliner, or a dining room table and chairs, we might be getting rid of few things. Oh, and we’ll probably have a junky car or two for sale really cheap soon! We have a couple of people we’re supposed to give first chance to, but that might not go anywhere, so if you know of someone who is desperate enough to buy one of cars, let us know!

Please don’t expect this to be as interesting!

I just thought it was time to post on our blog, even though it’s unlikely to be as interesting as our Nicaragua posts.

So, we’ve been back for about 8 weeks now and in a way it feels like our Nicaragua trip was a lifetime ago. We really miss the friends we made, although thanks to modern technology we’ve been in touch with some of them. And we really miss the calm life we enjoyed there those three months!

Since we’ve been back we’ve both been back at our old jobs, not much has changed there. Charley had one exciting change though. He asked not to work Saturday’s any more, and was granted his request, so this past Saturday was his first Saturday of not working. It was wonderful to spend the day together!!

So, what has happened here in Indy? Well, we’ve been very busy with the congregation as usual. It was funny coming back to such a huge congregation after spending three months in a smaller one. The first week back our meeting was on a Friday because English had CO visit and so a lot were missing. I thought I’d seen everyone, but then Sunday came around and I realized how huge our congregation really is! We have just over 120 publishers now but we’re having around 200 every Sunday now.

The Memorial was wonderful. We had 326 people packed into the Kingdom Hall. We both had studies there, and I had an old ex-study from a few years ago show up.  Someone who I had never persuaded to come to the Hall while she was studying. She came with her husband and little boy! I was amazed!!! She doesn’t seem like she wants to study at the minute, but that was something so we’ll see what comes of that.

Then for the Special Talk we had 239 in attendance. Another of my studies who hadn't been to the hall in quite a while was there with three of her six kids! 

I also spent a weekend in the house with hives from head to toe – that was fun!! I’ve never had anything like that before and never quite figured out what caused it. I hope I never get it again though! I am now afraid to eat jelly beans ever again because that’s the only thing I ate that I could think might have caused an allergic reaction!

Our ministry here is going really well. I have about 8 studies, which all were conducted by others while I was gone. My study, Claudia, the niece of our landlord in Nicaragua, is here staying with her aunt and uncle until July, so I got to continue her study here. She never misses a meeting or her study, and she’s just taking it all in really well. She’s a joy to study with. She wants to comment at the meeting now, so we’re going to work on getting a few comments together for Sunday. She seemed excited at the prospect of participating.

Another one of my studies, Leonor, is just on fire! She’s always been a very good study. One of these that prepared for her study from Day One, but although she came to a few meetings when she first started studying, she hadn’t been to any for quite a while. So I took advantage of the last subheading in Chapter 9 of the Teach book to talk about the importance of meeting attendance.  So, she hasn’t missed a meeting since the Thursday before the Memorial and she just loves it! She commented last week too. She had also prepared a comment in her own words with a scripture included in it, although she didn’t get to give that one, but it’s good practice for her. She told a sister at our hall that she is in love with Jehovah’s Witnesses! She’s a joy to study with. We’re in Chapter 11 now and I just can’t wait to study with her every week!

A few weeks ago we enjoyed an afternoon working down at the site of the new Kingdom Hall, doing some work around the grounds. And this past weekend we got a new carpet installed in our current Kingdom Hall. It was desperately in need of attention, and beyond cleaning, so it’s lovely to have a new one as well as a few other little jobs seen to. Makes the hall look a lot better. Hopefully we can sell it soon!

And then yesterday we had our Special Assembly Day at the Assembly Hall in downtown Indianapolis. We had five Spanish congregations there, with an attendance of 911 and 4 baptized, one being a young sister in our congregation. On Saturday another part of the circuit was there, six congregations I think, and they had 825 in attendance and 12 baptized. The way we’re going we won’t all fit in there in another year or so! It’s wonderful to see how the Spanish is growing here in Indiana. In October 2004 when we had our first Spanish circuit assembly here in Indianapolis, we had 1250 in attendance, but that was the two parts of the circuit meeting together. It was WAY TOO PACKED! So they split us in half. And this past weekend between the two sides we had 1736 in attendance. 500 more than in 2004!!

Hilary, Leonor & Me. This was their first assembly.

Charley and I accidentally matched for the assembly!

We also had a wedding in our congregation that I volunteered to take the pictures for. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it, and the couple is thrilled with the pictures so that’s a relief! Here are a few of the pictures I took. 

The newlyweds with her two daughters and his three kids

Aren't they cute?!

It rained almost ALL day. So we included the umbrellas in the fun!

I also did a photo session for some friends of their girls in their ballet outfits, and some of one of the girls and her brother. Found a new place for taking pictures that doesn’t make you have a permit – yay! And today I had Sam’s Club call me to ask about a copyright release for these professional pictures I was trying to get printed there! I was very flattered!!! I told her I took them, and she was like, Wow, you did a really great job!! YAY!!!!! Below are a few of those pictures too.

Well, so that’s the latest from here in Indianapolis. We don’t have any definite plans to return to Nicaragua yet, but we’re definitely considering it. We have CO Visit next week (our last one from this couple….sniff, sniff) so we’ll probably chat with him about it. For now we’re enjoying ourselves here and trying to keep up the hectic pace!

Goodbye for now!