weekend getaway to the mountains!

Since this coming Monday is my first day of school and this week has been extremely hectic due to all my responsibilities as High School English Coordinator (eek!), we took advantage of a free weekend last weekend to go spend the night in the mountains in this cute little town that we actually went to spend a day in over vacation week (the pictures from the last post are from there too). We stayed at a real cute cabin tucked away among tons of flowers and trees and had the best time just drinking coffee picked and roasted right there in that town, eating good food, and enjoying the cool air and flowers. here are a ton of pictures of the flowers around our cabin and other sights in town, but to start off, here is this week's belly shot! our baby girl is growing every week!

our cabin:

coffee beans:

breakfast on the porch of our cabin:

dinner:

coffee beans being roasted:

IT'S A.....

GIRL!!!

We are soooooo excited to finally know that our little baby is a girl! we have all been convinced the whole time that it was a boy, and we were happy with that, but know that i know it's a girl, i can tell that deep down i really wanted a girl!! we had lots of obstacles to overcome to finally get the ultrasound today (including having to find another place to have it done because the woman i had an appointment with was on vacation...go figure! and also having to go to 5 different atm machines to find one that worked) She weighs exactly one pound right now, and everything looks great!

We tried to keep ourselves busy this week to make it go faster, we were so anxious about the ultrasound! We had several fun adventures, and several days just completely relaxing and watching our new obsession, Prison Break! Someone loaned us the first season, which we devoured this week. It's definitely a show that is best to watch from the very beginning, and on DVD so you don't have to wait a week to find out what happens next!

We spent one day up in the mountains with friends, and yesterday several of us went out to the Hippy Hideout at the lake. We also went to the Sheraton hotel one day just to hang out by their cool pool all day, and had a fun picnic with Lulu (David and Lucy also!). Here are some pictures from the week:

pictures from the mountain trip:

i'm reallly enjoying my chocolate mint frappacino here...the most caffeine ive allowed myself to have in the past 5 months, but totally worth it!

Picnic:

And now, lake pictures:

Lulu is getting to know the puppy Lulu sharing her cookie with the puppy (which Lulu continued to eat later!)
Can you find Elvis??

So, we took a boat ride all the way across the lake (which is about 6 miles) in a little bitty boat, and the skies were blue and beautiful. however, on the way back, as soon as we reached the middle of the lake, we realized we were the only boat on the whole lake, and we could see the thunderstorm slowly overcoming the lake! we were soon tossed from side to side, and completely soaked to the bone by the waves and rain. we were laughing so hard and were so scared (i just kept thinking about the fact that dad has been struck by lightning twice and it could run in the family), we didn't get pictures of the mayhem out in the middle of the lake. but can you believe we took this picture literally 5 minutes before the storm starting, while we were already heading back to the other side of the lake??

here, is everyone is starting to get worried about the clouds, the lightning in the distance, and the fact we are in a tiny boat with metal rods sticking up...

We made it across safely however! Now, back to the real world on monday after 2 weeks of vacation!

cravings

So, you may remember an earlier post about our new love for sushi, thanks to our friends Cristina and Charlie for introducing us to it! Turns out, the week they first took us, and we fell in love with it, was also the week I got pregnant, and really it's not such a good idea to eat raw fish while pregnant, nor have your food prepared in a place where they do work with raw fish. So, we had put our sushi cravings on hold until recently, when Marty and Sara sent us a package of all the stuff so we can make our own sushi at home, without raw fish anywhere near!

So this week we got out our sushi book, and gave it a try. As we were preparing it, I got a real pregnancy craving for this crab dip that Tyler used to make, and we already had most of the ingredients, since we were going to use cream cheese and crab in our sushi. Luckily for my cravings, we only live one block from the grocery store, so I sent Elvis out to get the other stuff for the crab dip appetizer, while I started on the sushi. I don't have a picture of the crab dip because it got gone so fast, but thanks Tyler for helping me out in my time of need! =) This was only the second craving i've had while pregnant...the first one was for a tomato sandwich at like 11pm. They have several sayings down here...like, if you don't eat what you are craving when you are pregnant, your baby will be born with its mouth open, wanting that food. or something like that. anyways, here are some pictures of the sushi, which turned out pretty well i would say, for it being our first time.

in other news, all schools and colleges in the country have been closed this past week, due to swine flu. i haven't really heard of that many people getting it, at least no one close to us, but they don't want many people gathering so as to not spread it more. and, this week, the whole country has vacation. so, we both ended up getting 2 weeks of vacation from work and school! you see, each town in el salvador has a patron saint, whom they celebrate once a year with festivals. turns out, here in the capital, we don't have a patron saint, but rather we celebrate Jesus, which is pretty cool. so this week, everybody gets vacation to celebrate the "Saviour of the World", which in spanish literally translates to "El Salvador del mundo". i like that our country is named after Jesus, the Saviour.

Lots to catch up on...

Wow, there's so much to catch up on...the Quaker Gap mission team, Mom's visit, my b-day, baby, etc etc! We will have to put up mission team pics later when mom sends me hers, but here's a group shot to start of with: The team left on Saturday, then we had a few days with Mom all to ourselves, so we put her to work! She and Elvis had lots of projects each day...they became sheetrock specialists, painters, decoraters, etc! Here is mom painting the baby's room: And here is the finished product!

They also painted the outside of the house...

It was also a special treat to have mom here this week because I finally got to celebrate my birthday with her! This was the first time since my 15th birthday that I have spent my b-day with my mom, due to all my summer travels! I luckily did not have to work that day, so Elvis and Mom made me a yummy breakfast, and then we went to get the ultrasound, which was what I wanted for my b-day! We got to see Baby's head, stomach (complete with a gas bubble!), ribs, butt, legs, feet, etc, and see them moving all around, grabbing their feet, kicking, etc etc, but unfortunately the only part of the body that couldnt be distiguished with 100% certainty was the part we were specifically interested in! The doctor had an idea of what sex the baby is, but didn't want to tell us until she is 100% sure. So, we will go back in 2 weeks for another ultrasound to hopefully find out if it's a boy or girl!! However, the important part was that everything else looks perfect, and just getting to get a glimpse of our baby was quite the b-day present for me! Here's the latest belly shot:

That night, Mom and Elvis and I went out to Chili's (i've been wanting to try it out ever since we got one here several months ago) and it was yummmmy! Then we went out for coffee with my good friend Ruby, to celebrate her bday also!

Here are some pics of a few of my bday presents: Flowers and fun hippy shoes from Elvis (and a new framed picture of us to go in my new office at work!)

And some maternity clothes from mom, some new art for our house, and this cute pillow for the baby's room:

And they made me a cheesecake with a berry topping...yummmm!

The next day, we had to say goodbye to Mom(she had to get home for dad's bday, the day after mine) but that night, our friends from church had a bday party for Ruby and myself. It turned into a spontaneous performance night to entertain the birthday girls, and here are some of the performances: (please don't judge our friends based on this video)

And Lulu sang happy birthday to me:

Since then, we have celebrated Idania's graduation (elvis's oldest sister) from her Ob-gyn residency program, which finally concludes her 12 years of studying medicine. She has won a scholarship to go study in Cuba this next year, but not until after our baby is born!

We also went to the beach yesterday to spend the day with friends from church...one of our church bands was playing in an international Christian Surfers conference, so we took advantage of the trip and stayed all day playing. Here are some pics of Luis being brave enough to climb up the coconut tree to get us some coconuts:

The fruits of his labor:

And last but not least: family picture!

busy week!

whew it's been a busy week, with the Quaker Gap mission team here (including mom!) it's been a fun week though, of working up in Comasagua where our pastor friend Jose Luis lives with his wife and 7 kids (you may remember earlier posts about them). We have been leaving the house about 7:15am, going to do a children's program with bible stories, crafts, games, and lunch for 175 kids in the mornings, working on building a house for Jose Luis's family in the afternoons, and church services at night. they have been long, but good days. oh, and before all that, elvis has been getting up at 5am everyday to go to class before joining us and the team to translate! pictures will come soon, but i don't have much time right now.

baby update: i'm learning that those little weird feelings in my stomach are definitely the baby moving around, not just gas as i earlier believed! we are going to get an ultrasound on wednesday while mom is still here to hopefully find out if it is a boy or a girl! that's going to be my birthday present this year =) im all confused now...we've been pretty certain that its a boy, but this week, i had one dream that it was a girl, then another dream that they found twins in the ultrasound! we'll let you know, and will hopefully put up a new belly shot soon.

pictures to come soon of the mission team, ultrasound, and mom's time here!

catch up blog

So, in all this time that i havent blogged, i have seen lots of great NC friends, had 2 more baby showers, have come back to el salvador to be reunited with my long lost hubby (who greeted me with roses and pupusas!) and i have started back to work. whew! first of all, here are some pics from a fun day in chapel hill with my homegirls, reminiscing about days at UNC and marvelling at how fast we are starting to sound like real adults, with real families and real responsibilities.practicing with sweet Lydia:my new BFF:Then, friends from UNC gave me and Megan (one of my housemates from senior year!) a double baby shower. So much fun!!

freshman year Bible study reunited!my diaper cake!

the awesome real cake Danielle made!Shower #3 in Wallace!

What a fun trip it was, full of lots of blessings for us and the baby. Thanks to all!!!

Now, we are getting ready for Mom and a mission team from Quaker Gap to come this weekend!! The fun continues!