keeping with tradition...

You may remember photos of Memaw and her roommate from last year's Halloween party, dressed in the famous bikini t-shirts. Keeping with tradition, they dressed up this year and were the hit of the party! here are some pictures (notice the coconut bra): At mom and dad's church this year for halloween, they were supposed to dress up as biblical characters. So, here is Queen Esther (my mom's real name is Esther):

And here is "King James" (dad's real name is James): (nice pimp chain dad)

Elvis and i had our own pumpkin fun: happy halloween!

Two penguins, two giraffes, and an owl...

So, lots happened this weekend. First of all, Elvis played in a "Papi futbol" soccer tournament at my school, which is a tournament for the dads at school. Elvis played on the teacher's team, and played 2 games, which were 1 hour long each, on a "field" that is hilly, with a cement strip running down the middle. Despite the rough terrain and some rough falls, they were the champions of the whole tournament!

However, someone suuuure was complaining the next day!! We found ourselves in a predicament because he usually has to help me roll out of bed, but he needed my help rolling out of bed on Sunday! we just couldn't figure out how to help each other out and get out of bed! Finally, with lots of grunting, we were able to get out of bed. However, Elvis was walking like an old penguin, and has been ever since! I am so glad that he now knows how i feel, waddling like a penguin!! =)

Then on Sunday, our friends Efra and Tania (who are just weeks away from gettin' hitched!) generously gave up their day to help decorate Suzy's room by painting an awesome mural. here are the pics of the process! We are still working on the nursery, still are waiting for the curtains to be finished and for the rocking chair, and we still have to organize stuff on the shelves and the closet, but we are getting there! I hope she likes her new home as much as her current snuggly home in my belly!

finished product:

fall?

So the thing about El Salvador which seems so enticing is that we have summer weather all year long. The only 2 seasons we have are dry and wet. Seems perfect, right? The ability to go to the beach and swim on Christmas Day, never having to switch your wardrobe over from winter to summer. However, you don't realize how much you really miss the changing of seasons until they don't change! Now typically in October the rains stop and it won't rain a drop again until May or so, and the winds pick up and it cools off for a couple of months. Or weeks. Or sometimes just a couple of days. Everybody always talks about the good ol' days when the weather was so cool here and you had to wear sweaters in the "winter" time. It seems, however, that the date when the temps drop a few degrees keeps getting later and later in the year as my time here goes by.

So, I got really nostalgic this weekend about fall in general...getting to wear long sleeves, drink apple cider, play in the leaves, and eat pumpkin anything. We thought we had remedied my nostalgia Saturday night by going to get a slice of pumpkin pie from a cafe (not bad i must say!), but it hit even harder on Sunday. So, Elvis went to the grocery store to buy a little pumpkin so we could make pumpkin bread! Also, he's been getting really good at toasting spices and grinding them to make homemade chai tea. So we had some awesome bread and tea yesterday afternoon, but it still felt weird because it was so hot outside.

But, to our surprise, the winds picked up last night, and we actually got chilly last night with the windows open! And luckily the cool air didn't go away when the sun came up...it's been soo nice all day long! Almost as if it were fall! You see, people exaggerate here when there is a slight breeze, and bundle up with sweaters and scarfs and other ridiculously hot clothing. But we are hoping that the weather has finally turned and that it will stay like this the rest of the year, especially since my little internal heater keeps getting turned up as Suzy grows and grows. We are looking forward to spending our first Christmas here in El Salvador (I spent Christmas here with Marty about 7 years ago, but I didn't know any of his friends back then....he was afraid they would be interested in me...haha if he only knew what was coming a few years later!!) We are hoping that during the Christmas season we can actually bring out some of those long sleeve shirts we have packed away in a suitcase. Here is a picture of our cute little punkin (Elvis is showing off his new glasses too!) which turned into our yummmmy punkin bread:

I also wanted to put up some pictures from the house dedication service we had up in Comasagua a couple of weekends ago for Jose Luis and his huge family. They now have their first very own house, thanks to a lot of you guys back home!! the ribbon (or...tape) cutting ceremony

from left to right: Sylvia, Yoly (Elvis's mom), and Jose luis:the kitchen area:
Jose Luis's office (with borrowed computer and all!)

living room:

all 7 kids:

yummy lunch!!!

they can finally "get a room" now that everybody has their own room for the first time ever!

Suzy up close and personal...with pics this time!

Ok i finally got the pictures to load correctly! isn't she cute?? doesn't she look like her daddy???

Suzy up close and personal!

This week we got another ultrasound! We decided to go ahead and get the 4-D kind since it was just a little bit more expensive. It was soo worth it! We got to see Sweet Suzy up close and personal, and even though she was sleeping with her arms around her face, we did catch a glimpse at her precious face. I definitely think she has Elvis's nose and mouth! And we decided she has my legs because she has no ankles, just like me! The doctor said she looks perfect and weighs 3 pounds 13 ounces right now. According to the first due date they gave me, I should be at 30 weeks, but according to Suzy's size, the doctor told me it looks like I'm more like 31 weeks and a half, which would put us at a December 6th due date, instead of the 15th! Who knows....I'm just ready to meet her! I'm having trouble right now putting the pictures of the ultrasound up...they keep getting turned around. so, for the meantime, i'll put up the latest belly shot and ill try to scan the pics somewhere tomorrow!

A day in the life of a dwarf...

So this past Friday we celebrated Children's Day at school...it's actually a national holiday, and we let the kids get dressed up for it since we don't celebrate Halloween at school. Anyways, the theme this year was "Fairy Tales", and our principal organized a group of us to be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, scary old lady and prince included! (We can't call her a witch at school...only an "old lady") Somehow I got picked to be "Dopey", but the cool part was that I didn't have to stuff my shirt with pillows to have a big stomach! The not-so-cool part was wearing a piñata on my head all day long. I guess we looked pretty "realistic" because the little kids were shocked when we took off our heads and they found out we were really people. They also warned each other not to eat the apple the old lady offered them because it was poisonous! Turns out we won 1st place in the costume contest! However, I wouldn't say that winning a cookie was sufficient reward for being inside a piñata. Here are some pictures: