Celebrate Good Times, Come On!!!

Yes, I am once again currently indulging in Christmas music. It's actually not that far away. In reality, though, the celebration is in reference to my anniversary that I never wrote about, so I will not. Jason and I have now been married four years. As I was saying to him yesterday, most of the time I still feel like I'm about 21, even though I'm a lot closer to 30 than 21. And while I believe that if I could go back and do a lot of things differently I would act much better in many situations, I wouldn't want to have to do it all over again. Plus, I really like my life the way that it is.

To celebrate a few weeks ago, we got a babysitter, went out to a movie, bought boots (explanation to come), and went out to a fancy restaurant, probably the nicest meal either of us has had in Nicaragua. It was in the middle of a forested area overloooking Managua, and you could walk out and see the entire city. And I had LOBSTER THERMADOR, or however, you spell it. It was so incredibly yummy. Regarding the boots, Jason had to get a pair of shoes for his interview, and he needed new boots, and whenever you purchased something you got these gift certificates for money off a future purchase. When all was said and done, I ended up getting a very nice pair or dressy brown Hushpuppy boots, originally about 60 bucks, for eleven dollars. All genuflect before the queen of bargain shopping!!! (You don't really have to genuflect. I suppose a slight twinge of jealousy will suffice.)

The past week has finally been dry here after weeks of rain. When I came back from the grocery store last week, I was discouraged at the prices of everything. It seemed liked instantly prices skyrocketed, and they did; there's a food shortage, and it might get really bad in the next year. There has been so much crop damage because of Felix that it's driving up prices of everything. As ridiculous as this sounds, I occasionally check grocery circulars in the states to get an idea of costs and what kind of sales you can still find. Let's hear it for Giant, where you can still get a pound of boneless chicken breasts for $1.99.

I have still been reading a lot. Currently I'm reading A Tree Grows in Brookyln, and while it's an excellent portrayal of that subculture during that time, it's depressing to realize just how ignorant people can be and how much a basic education can help to change that. While I certainly have my beliefs and opinions about things, it breaks my heart when people refuse to be in relationship with others because of race, religion, sexuality, politics, income, status, or a million other things. I am grieved by it because it seems like so much of it still exists in a myriad of forms, and I know that I am still guilty of it at times, as we all are.

So what else in my world? Seven weeks left in the country, waiting for Jason to hear about a job, trying to figure out where we're going to live, what we're going to drive, and how we're going to get furniture (I think the only real piece we have left is a red couch), tying up loose ends, getting our car fixed up to sell, trying to decide if I'm really going to buy a whole other container of pancake syrup when we'll probably only need it for about three weeks, wondering how we're going to iron our clothes the next month and a half because our iron just broke, thinking that the DVD player on our computer might be a little bit broken, which means no more movies, a really good sermon this morning about submitting to authority, Ortega putting up huge billboards right across the street from the new US embassy (I don't think it's a solidarity thing) and beginning the process of changing the constitution so that he can run again in four years, and watching my daughter grow up. Have I mentioned that she's adorable?