Chubby Little Cubby all Stuffed with Fluff

So I know you all are asking what has come over us lately, we are suddenly spontaneously crazy decision makers. (Spontaneously is a word, who knew?) I chop my hair off, Alyvia gets a dog, what's next?? Anyways... Alyvia got a dog. How did this happen you ask. Well I'm still not entirely sure about that.
Alyvia had been looking online for puppies in our area, shocker right? Of course she was looking for puppies, did I take that seriously? No, its Alyvia we're talking about, if she stopped looking for puppies then I would be surprised. For any of you that follow her on Pinterest (there we go with pinterest again, maybe that's the root of all of our crazy decisions...) you know she wanted an English Bulldog, very badly. But puppies in Nicaragua are... limited, not that there aren't puppies on every single street, because there are, however finding pure, not bug-ridden puppies = more of a difficulty.
Saturday we stayed home from service (along with the rest of the group I believe) since it was poring rain. So we all slept in, the studied our Watchtowers (since, yes we did put that off until Saturday afternoon...don't judge) then suddenly I hear, "what do you think of having a Shih Tzu?". I promptly made my way to Mom and Dad's bedroom to find they, along with Alyvia, were looking on encuentra24 at Shih Tzu puppies, and yes they were adorable, but we had never even considered having that kind of dog. Still the puppies in the pictures were so cute I got over my fear of talking on the phone for a few minutes and called the number on the ad, there was no answer. (How I got suckered into calling the number instead of (a) dad who always does those kinds of phone calls or (b) Alyvia who was wanting the dog, I'm not sure, but I did.)
After this we realized we didn't necessarily have to have an English Bulldog, Alyvia just wanted a dog, of any sort, so we looked through some more ads and found one in Managua (only 45 minutes away) for Labrador puppies. Yes Labradors, the big, big, Marley and Me kinds of dogs. Okay so they are not HUGE, but compared to Bulldogs and Shih Tzus they are. After some research in Alyvia's thoroughly studied dog books I called this number and they answered! (I should probably mention here that the Shih Tzu people did end up calling back but they only had one left and it was a male, which my mom would not allow.) Anyways the lady was very friendly, said there were 3 females, described them to me, said they had there vaccinations, and were ready to go. She then texted us her address, or directions to her house rather, and we made plans to go see the puppies after our meeting.
This is definitely one of the advantages of a 3:30 Saturday meeting, you can go do things afterwards, like go to the capital to buy a puppy. So after the meeting we quickly ran home to change, drove to the city, and after getting (a little) lost down some (pretty creepy) roads, we made it to the dog's home by 6:45.  Alyvia chose the puppy she wanted, negotiated prices, we ran to the grocery store and around an hour and a half later we were home, with a new member in our family.

Isn't she adorable!?! Her name is Winnie, yes after Winnie the Pooh, which after seeing her glutteny really fits her, she does eat dog food as Winnie the Pooh eats huney. 

She is super tiny, she is only 4 weeks old! Here they try to get rid of their puppies as soon as possible instead of waiting the recommended 7-8 weeks.

She is defiantly going to love the ocean, or any body of water for that matter when she is big enough to go, she loves taking baths.

Playing with the doll I crocheted her, I already have to repair one of the arms she chewed off.

Studies and Videos

I have loved loved loved showing the video of JW.ORG to people this month, I wish I had pictures of us getting to show it at the initial call, since I find that very exciting!!

Video Link: http://www.jw.org/en/video-why-study-the-bible/

But I do have a couple pictures of us showing videos at studies this month.I don't think any of these pictures show us showing the Why Study the Bible video, but we were all so motivated by this special campaign we showed other videos too.

Here Debrielle is showing a video at her study about what happens at the kingdom hall.

 Video Link: http://www.jw.org/en/video-kingdom-hall/

Here Mom was in service in Spanish/ Sign Language showing a Caleb video.

 Video Link: http://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/family/children/become-jehovahs-friend/videos/forgive-freely/

Right before I went to this study on Friday Evening I went to the website to find a new video about God's Name which was exactly the subject we were going to discuss at that study! By the end of the study she was convinced we should use God's Name instead of just God and Father as she had thought before!

 Video Link: http://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/good-news-from-god/who-is-god/video-gods-name/

And now for a couple other study pictures.

This is Mom's study Wendy, who has come to many meetings, the memorial, special talk, and an assembly! She is doing so well especially since she has a hectic work schedule and has only been studying for less than 6 months! Still she usually has her study twice a week! This particular study was in the back room at the kingdom hall before the meeting. I went with my mom on her study at 5:00 before our meeting, after the meeting we took her home to the next town over, on route we ran out if gas in the pitch black 😲 (yes we all locked our doors and jumped at any noises outside), thankfully a brother came and brought us gas 😊.

Here Mom and I are outside another one of her studies that has it twice a week! They use the magazines and discuss articles in them, so her very Catholic study doesn't feel so pressured. But she is doing so good coming to conclusions about the truth.

Here I am with one of my studies who will study anytime I come by and her new born baby is asleep. She does such a great job connecting Bible Truths!

Our Group

Here's the most recent picture of our group, although we couldn't fit everyone in. This is in our back room, where we have our once a month English meetings, in case you didn't see the post I put a couple days ago, this was right about the groups 1 year anniversary! We had 23 there 2 of which were studies that came on there own, one my mom's study Wendy who comes to every meeting she can because of her crazy work schedule, and the other Melissa's study Daniella who is 11 but still came on her own, she comes to almost every meeting and comments well! The great thing about them is that they were willing to squeeze in the back room with us. You couldn't have been claustrophobic at that meeting!

Family Pics

Just some random family pictures for you all. Just in case you forgot how crazy we really are. :)

Chopping My Hair Off

Just so you all know, this will be a really long post, but that being said, it will not be a play by play of my hair cut, it'll be an adventurous story telling of the whole experience choosing to get my hair cut at a random little hole in the wall beauty shop.

I know what you're thinking, 'what the heck was she thinking letting someone random cut all of her hair off?!?!'. Believe me I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Lets start where all good stories do, at the beginning.

I've been wondering for a while what I would look like with short hair, although I was too nervous to admit this out loud. Until Pinterest.... yes I will blame this on that wonderfully addictive website. So one night I started pinning some cute pixie cuts, along with pictures of how I would grow my hair out and how I would style it, by the end of the night, I was pretty convinced I wanted to try it, but I was going to wait until I went back to the states and had someone I could trust. But then the next day I started googling, never a good idea, reasons to get a pixie cut, if my face shape would work for it, ect., ect., which led me to YouTube, which had very convincing videos. So by the end of that day I was getting pretty impatient, so we planned on checking into some places.

So the next day we went in service, but broke off from the group early to go to the next town to do some shopping and to (unknown to the group) check into getting my hair cut. 

There's one place here that many go to get their hair done, a guy that has done hair for some famous people and has pictures on his walls of the people he's met and who's hair he's done, but I wasn't sure if I trusted him to cut my hair so short, especially since all the pictures of hair he's styled was long and more styled than cut. But I went anyways, I asked if he had some other pictures of things he'd done, he didn't and he was busy at the time anyways. So in the meantime we went to do some shopping at the market there in town.

Since the market is so busy and the vendors spill out in every direction we had to park a couple blocks away. Right in front of a beauty shop as it turns out. After buying our vegetables we went back to our car and Mom and Alyvia stared very obviously into the shop. Who of course invited us in, but I was nervous, I knew nothing about this place, but Alyvia insisted I show them the pictures of the hair cut I wanted anyways. So I did and she assured me she could do it, next things I knew I was in her chair. 30 seconds later my hair was brushed out then gone... I didn't even have time to be nervous.

Last picture of my long hair

And then it was gone

So half way through my hair cut the circus advertisement came through town, advertising over the loud speaker, showing off their lions (who's cages could have been a little more secure is you ask me since little kids could have easily stuck there arms in the bars).

Yes that is my hair dresser taking pictures of it with her phone...

The truck stopped at this intersection and with his leg propped up on a llama he gave the details about the circus. I'd just like to put out there that this is the most ingenious form of advertising ever, I mean how exciting is it to be walking down your street and see lions right there!

After my hair cut, I was super excited, I didn't cry of anything (which I did expect). This was not the end of my adventure though, I had them wash and style it to. Although she did style it with fancy Italian product which was unexpected, the washing took me right back to Nicaragua. The lady told me to put my head over a sink then she took a hose coming out of a 50 gallon drum full of ice cold water and washed my hair!

 

As it turns out while I was getting my hair washed my family found out my hair dresser along with another lady doing someone's highlights were witnesses! Which made it even more exciting! And made me even less nervous, although my hair was already all gone, so there wasn't so much to be nervous about anymore... But I was very happy with the hair cut. So for $9 I got a great hair cut, washed, and styled.

 

Alyvia bought one of the bracelets this little boy was making on his loom while we were there. He was very talented, making a couple of the bracelets with two forks. And he is the reason we found out they were witnesses wince he recognized us from a couple of the English meetings he'd been to, so he knew we were witnesses and told the hairdressers. 

Here is the finished product. Yes I did just take my instagram post, but I was too lazy to get my tablet to email myself these pictures.

And here is the back, although I apologize for the bad lighting.

Cart Witnessing

One afternoon Dad brought the English Cart out to where the Spanish Cart was, in the Central Park, so they could have both languages available!

Giant Bug

I believe this is the biggest bug I've ever seen, ever, and I've lived in third world countries for the last 4 1/2 years.

Yes I do believe it deserves 3 pictures. This was inside the courtyard/ garage at the 'single sister house' which is a apartment like set up house where there are always different single sisters renting.

Preaching

Here are some random preaching pictures we've taken since we've been back from the states.

Here Mom and Alyvia are preaching to some workers at the Mormon Church. We  were asking if anyone there spoke English, and telling them how beautiful their grass is. Grass isn't very common here, especially not nice perfectly green grass.

Kyle and Melissa have family visiting, their niece and nephew were very excited to get to ride in the back of Kyle's truck.

Service group one day of the campaign.

Then showing their true colors.

Mom went in service in Spanish/Sign Language one day with this sister.

Here Aura was showing a Caleb video to the kids. The families they preached to were very poor, I believe they all had dirt floors.

Service Selfie

The isn't too far from our house, we pass this every time we walk to the kingdom hall, here Mom and I were walking home from a study.

This is what we do when we take breaks in service.

Especially when its just 4 sisters, tired after a long day of preaching.

Here I am after preaching to an English teacher at this Catholic School. She was very nice, we talked to her in the music classroom that had a very bloody statue of Jesus... The teaching came out of her active class to talk to us and not only took the tract for herself but also for her students that spoke the best English in her class. 

First Day of the Campaign Adventures!!

August 1st, exciting stuff!! The start of the biggest preaching month ever, while getting to advertise JW.ORG. And our month started out exceptionally exciting.

Here we are all excited for the campaign (and a little bit still trying to wake ourselves up).

The started out like any other. We posed for a picture, the all piled into a car since the territory was a little far out. What made this morning special however (other than our bags packed with lots of yellow tracts and devises ready to show the video [ http://www.jw.org/en/video-why-study-the-bible/ ] to anyone who would watch) was the circus was in town. It wasn't quite all set up but the animals were on the grounds in their cages. So we decided to stop (saying we would start our morning by doing a little bit of informal witnessing) and see the animals, who's cages you could walk right up to.

Sorry about the instagram screenshot, but Jonas got really good pictures of the animals and I Picaso wouldn't let me crop them. :/

There were around 10 jaguars (okay so we're not entirely sure these were jaguars they could have also been cheetahs or leopards, but we called them jaguars so for the sake of the story we will call them that). On a side note, how do you tell the difference between those large cats....I suppose I could google it, but...nah.

There were many animals we didn't get pictures of too, like lions, camels, llamas, sheep, ect.

But still even with lions there (and llamas which are just awesome animals... at least according to the Emperor's New Groove and Napolian Dynamite which is all the experience I have with llamas, still, good experiences) the Jaguars were the most memorable. Ben is a brother in our group from Mexico who decided since the jaguars cage wasn't as secure as say the lions they were okay to be played with, turns out they weren't... He played with them patting their paws and they would swat back, good times until one of the caught his finger. It snagged it open, evidently to the point some flesh was coming out (although I purposely didn't see that part).

To help it, he cleaned it up with some water, since it was bleeding a lot (as you can see on the ground there). Then he left to go to the doctor, where he got somewhere around 7 stitches. At the next meeting he said he could feel the needle giving him the stitches since it wasn't completely numb, that was enough to turn my stomach. That being said my dad does have some more... graphic pictures of his wound, but I will not share those, for the sake of those who have a weak stomach. 

You will all be happy to know only 2 weeks later it is healing up nicely, the stitches are out and it now just looks like a nasty scratch, which is pretty impressive if you ask me.

So, the lesson learned here is to wait until paradise to play with wild animals!