Resolution, Finally

So I found out I do NOT have to go back to court again for the guy who broke into my house last year. He pleaded guilty. For breaking into my house he got 15 years with all but 6 months suspended and for some of the other stuff he did, he got 50 years with 40 years suspended. So he'll be in jail for the next 10 years. Even though I never got to see his face (since every time I went to court, it got continued) or hear him explain what he was thinking and what made him decide to break into my house, I am glad it's over. I am glad I don't have to waste any more time going back to court only to have nothing happen. In a way, I almost feel sorry for this guy. He was 18 when he committed the crimes, 19 now, so hopefully he will make the changes in his life he needs to make while he is in jail. He'll only be 29 when he gets out. Unfortunately, many times jail just makes you a better criminal, not a better person. But I truly believe that no one is beyond redemption and so I will be praying that God will use this time to change his heart.

Yellow Blue Tea Bag

After Wednesday's disappointing court stuff, my week actually picked up on Thursday. Well, Thursday night. Work was kind of rough and stressful, but after work we had a fun rehearsal for the Music Team at church. And we were done early, which is always good. So after rehearsal I ended up getting invited over to a friend's house to hang out and watch a movie (actually, Pan's Labyrinth which is, of course, my favorite movie in the world.) I had let her and her husband borrow it and they'd started watching it but had never finished it. She'd told me she'd been bummed out all day on Thursday because she knew I had rehearsal so we weren't going to get to hang out this week. But then when we finished rehearsal early, it was still early enough to hang out. I really needed some friend time, too. She is one of my dearest friends and the kind of friend you can have deep, soul-to-soul conversations with, be totally honest with. And with both of us having stressful weeks, it was nice to be able to just sit down and vent to each other. And watch a great movie!
Today was a really fun day! I went to Busch Gardens with Oksana and Ilona, my friends from Ukraine. We had such a blast! I had been dying to go on the Griffon, which is the newest roller coaster because I am such a roller coaster fanatic. It was okay. Not as thrilling as I was hoping or expecting and it could have been scarier but it was fun. My friends also taught me some Russian, which was very fun. So I can now say "Come here, cute boy", "I love you", "I want ice cream", "I love chocolate", "How are you?", "Where is the bathroom?", "Where is the cute boy?", "Hi! How are you?" and "Cool!". A few other phrases too. And what is stuck in my head for the phrase "I love you" is "Yellow Blue Tea Bag", which is not exactly how it is pronounced but it is sort of similar. So that's what I want to say, but somehow "Yellow blue tea bag" doesn't sound romantic. I've decided I really want to learn some more Russian, though. I am just very fascinated by languages. But for now I am off to bed because tomorrow I'm singing with the Music Team at church and then I have a ton of stuff to do at home: laundry, cleaning my kitchen and bathrooms, weeding outside, other housecleaning. Bleh.
До Свидания,
Meg

This is not even funny anymore

So I went back to court today, for the third time, for the guy who broke into my house last year. Once again the case was continued, so this still isn't resolved and I still haven't even seen him face to face.

I did find out that he was convicted of or pleaded guilty to his other 7 charges, inlcuding the firearm charges and I know for at least one of the charges he was sentenced to 50 years in prison, with 40 of those years being suspended. So I don't know if that means he is going to be in jail 10 years alltogther or if he'll get more time for the other charges. I guess I will find out whenever the new court date is scheduled. Hopefully that will be soon!

On a happier note, my tickets are booked for my trip in December to Nicaragua! I can't wait to go back and to plan Isamar's birthday party. I hope it is really special for her!

More pics from Nicaragua

Isamar and me

Mileidy and me

Candida and me

Isamar and me

Fatima and me

Isamar and me

Xochilt and me

Gloria and me

Pics from Nicaragua

Me and Klenis, one of the newer girls at the orphanage

Maryuri and Me

Jeni and Me

Jessica and Me

Erick, Candida (front), Erica, Aida, me and Fatima

Overdue Post

I have again been neglecting my blog. I have just been feeling overwhelmed and tired by the time I get home each day so I have just neglected to post.
Nicaragua was awesome as usual. I will be posting some pictures soon. It was fun to surprise most of the kids (some of them already knew as my best friend's husband spilled the beans to Isamar and a couple other kids-I was REALLY not happy about that and for that and other reasons he is DEFINITELY not one of my favorite people) I got to be there for the week before and the week after Easter. The week before Easter was Semana Santa so the the kids were off from school. So we just hung out, played games, took pictures, studied for their exams, stuff like that. They went back to school the Tuesday after Easter so I helped out at the school my second week. I'd thought I would just be assisting the English teacher with his classes but he QUIT so I ended up teaching the English classes for 6th grade and up. That was an experience which deserves its own post! More about that later.
It's been really tough to be back here. I didn't have enough vacation time for my trip so I thought it would be unpaid leave but my boss told me if I wanted, they could pay me and I could make up the hours. So I have been coming in early, staying late, etc to start making up the hours. I still have a lot more to go, but it's worth it!
The day after I got home was the day of the shootings at Virginia Tech. That hit very close to home for me. I graduated from Tech in 1998 so it was so shocking that something like this could happen in such a beautiful and tranquil place that had been my home for 5 years. And so many questions now that we will never have answers to. All I can do is just pray for the victims, their family and friends, the students who went back, who didn't go back, who are trying to decide whether to go back, the alumni, the family of the shooter, everyone who was affected because so many people were affected. But I know that God is still there and He is still with the Hokie Nation, and even though we don't know why this happened, we can trust that He can bring something good from this.

Stuff from My Life

I haven't updated in a while. I am sure all of about 2 people actually even read this but I felt the need to update. Here is what is going on in my life:

1. I will be in Nicaragua in less than 2 weeks from now. Yay!! I badly need a vacation from work. It's not that I dislike my job but the past couple weeks have been REALLY stressful as we have had more responsibilities given to us but the same requirements for getting everything done. So by the end of the day I am just drained. I need to get back to Nica and see all the kids and my friends. And the cool thing is the kids don't know I am coming! My first 2 days in Nicaragua I will be with my best friends' family and then I am going to the Orphanage and am going to totally surprise the kids. I'm going to be there the week before and the week after Easter so I think I will do an Easter Egg hunt for the youngest and middle kids.

2. I still want to move to Nicaragua but I just don't know how or when. I would need to find a job with health benefits, that is a definite must. And then there is figuring out what to do with all my stuff (sell it? ship it to Nicaragua? put it in storage?) same with my car, what to do with my dog Zoey because I don't want to be anywhere without her (I have had her since she was 6 weeks old and now she is almost 10 years old) but I am scared to bring her there, especially since all 4 of my best friends' dogs died of some weird illness. But I know all of that is just details which can be worked out and I don't know if maybe I am using those as excuses to not be working as hard at getting down there as I could because of my fear. Because it scares me to think about leaving my life here behind. I love Nicaragua and especially the kids with all my heart and I know it would be really awesome to be down there full-time with them. But it would also be really hard to leave everything here behind. Especially Spring Branch and all my friends there. They are like family to me and it would be hard to leave the Music Team, my Small Group, all my friends whose kids I babysit, just everything. But I also keep getting confirmation from others that maybe I should be moving down there. Last week my friend Dawn told me she's sure one of these trips I am just not going to come back but I am just going to stay there, and my friends Vinny and Betsy have been encouraging me for a few years now to find a job there.

3. I saw "Breaking and Entering" last night with Mark. I thought it was just OK, but not great. The acting was really good but the movie was kind of inconsistent and emotionally detached and lacked intensity. Tonight I saw "300" with Vinny. It was pretty cool visually. There was a family sitting behind us who'd brought their kids to the movie which really surprised me because this movie was in no way even remotely appropriate for kids. Teens, maybe but these kids were young. The oldest looked like maybe she was 11ish and the youngest couldn't have been more than 5. It was also very annoying because he kept asking questions, very loudly: "Mommy, who is that guy?" , "Mommy, is that guy hurt?" (after the guy in question had just been run impaled with a spear) "Mommy, which one is Spartacus? Is that one Spartacus?" to which the mom replied "Yes" when that character isn't even in the movie!. Arrgghhh. I really wish theaters would restrict very young children from movies like these. I know maybe it's just me who feels it's very irresponsible for parents to bring young children to movies like this but aside from that it's just really inconsiderate to let your child keep talking like that and keeping others from enjoying the movie. But I will get off my soapbox now.

Anyway, that's about all for now. Want to get some sleep before the week starts all over again tomorrow!

Is it Sunday yet??

OK, I am SO ready for this week to be over! This has just not been one of the greatest weeks ever. For one thing, it's been extremely busy at work, we're just getting slammed and that makes my head hurt.
Then yesterday was the court date for the guy who broke into my house. I was really hoping that everything would be settled so I could put this behind me and get some closure. But *nothing* was settled. Besides me, 2 of the other people this guy had hit (one guy's car was broken into, the other guy had his house broken into) were there and so we had to sit in the Victim/Witness Room waiting while the Prosecutor was talking with the guy and his lawyer. We waited for a few hours, then the Prosecutor came back and said we could go home. Apparently he'd offered the guy a deal and he turned it down and is going to fight the charges. The prosecutor then said he was going to Noelle Pros the charges, which basically means he's dropping the charges until a later date. I am still a little unclear as to why, but it has something to do with the time frame a prosecutor has after charges are filed, and also something about getting a heftier sentence if he's convicted on some of the more serious charges first. So, the prosecutor is at some point in the next few months going to re-file the charges and there will be a trial but I don't know when. So it was another day wasted in court and I still haven't even seen this guy yet. At least I have been assured he's not getting out of jail anytime soon. He's in the local jail now and could be transferred to the State Penitentiary. It'll be a long time before he is out again.
And to add insult to injury, while I was waiting for all those hours, I got a ticket on my car for my expired inspection sticker. OK, granted I should have had it inspected, but, COME ON, REALLY??? Ugh!!!
So now I am just ready for it to be Sunday. I have to go into work on Saturday to make up the time I missed yesterday but Sunday I get to go to church, which always recharges me and see my friends there and then come home and just take a nap and veg for the rest of the day.
Hopefully next week will be a better week.