thump thump!

so, we went to the doctor today, and heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time!!! it was so cool, and made things seem so much more real now. i didnt cry, but elvis and i both immediately got this enormous goofy grin on our faces that just couldnt be wiped off! im at 11 weeks and a few days right now, and starting to see definite changes in my tummy. however, according to the doctor's scales, i havent gained even an ounce from last month's check-up, so we're gonna celebrate the heartbeat with chocolate chip cookies tonight =)

in other news, just a week left of school!! and no class on monday because of the inauguration of the new president. this has been a busy week...4 baby showers for different friends in a week and a half! one of the baby showers took place 12 hours before the she went into labor! anyways, i hope to get in another update before we leave, which is just a week and a half away!! whoohoo!!!

NC bound!!

Good news...we just got tickets to go to NC in a few weeks!! we will be arriving on June 8th, and Elvis will sadly have to come back home on June 24th, and i'll stay until July 1st. We are so excited, especially since this will be the last time we travel for a while, and the last time it will be just the 2 of us going to the states!! we hope to see you there!!!

feliz dia de la madre!!!

Happy Mother's Day! Luckily this year Mother's Day ended up being the same in el salvador as well as in the states. here are our lovely moms, who we love sooo much!!! This Mother's Day is also special, as elvis celebrated the first mother's day for this mommy-to-be also!! he made some yummmy cinnamon rolls, baked apples, fruit salad, and decaf coffee for me this morning and had future mommy surprises for me as well. so fun!! now we are getting ready to make lunch for elvis's mom and the whole family and celebrate with them. This past friday my little kids did a mother's day show for all of the moms, unfortunately i dont have any pictures of that yet!
In honor of mother's day, here is a picture we took this morning of Mama Polly and one of her newest babies (yes, the second round already!)...it was so cute watching them this morning...it was almost like the babies were kissing her and saying happy mothers day to her also!

bluegrass in el salvador!!

So, last night we actually got to go to a real bluegrass concert, just a couple of blocks from our house!! The US Embassy does a pretty good job each year of bringing various jazz artists down here, but this year they brought a real-live bluegrass band (even though they are all from new york, we won't hold that against them...they really knew their southern history and music!!) we went with another southern boy that works at the school with me, and we all agreed that listening to them play fiddle, banjo, bass, spoons, washboard, etc was one of those times that literally brings tears to your eyes because the music transports you back to your childhood. i had visions of the little old ladies from quaker gap flatfootin' after a church gathering, when the bluegrass inevitably broke out. we had a great time talking to the band afterwards, and we thanked them numerous times for bringing us such a tangible piece of home here to us. one of the violin players goes to Mt. Airy every year for the fiddlers convention, and we even knew some of the same musicians from there! small world for sure. im sure it was fun for them also to have us there, since they are on a tour of central america, and im sure only a handful of people have actually heard of this type of music, much less the history and culture that it comes from. they asked in the concert if anyone had ever heard of north carolina, and we stood up and screamed like redneck lunatics! elvis was obviously sporting a UNC t-shirt, which they loved! unfortunately we didnt have our camera with us, but you can check out their website: http://www.myspace.com/hoppinjohnstringband