feliz dia del padre!!

happy father's day!! it is a special treat for us to actually be here with my dad on Father's Day. we have had a good day celebrating Dad and elvis, the newest (and most handsome!) father in the family. mom and i made breakfast and gave them their gifts which really showed that now every occasion really revolves around the baby, which isn't even here yet! for example, i gave Elvis a macho diaper bag that he can carry around, and he also got a book in spanish to read to the baby called "Te quiero Papi" and elvis and dad got #1 Dad and #1 Grandpa t-shirts, respectively. dad also got a t-shirt that says "Pookie", because you see, when dad was asked what he wants to be called by the baby, he jokingly said that he didn't really care...they could call him Pookie and it would still be cute to him! as you can imagine, that name stuck around as a joke...we'll see if Baby really calls him that or not!

For lunch, mom and i really went all out and made a really fancy gourmet lunch....corn dogs!! hahaha its got a story too, of course. you see, there aren't many foods that elvis hasn't tried yet here in the states, but about a month ago, i got a craving for a corndog after seeing one on a movie. elvis didn't really understand the concept, and yesterday when we went to the Blueberry Festival, they were selling them and elvis reallly wanted one. so mom and i got some for his first Father's Day lunch...i think he was impressed! we will actually make a nice fancy dinner tonight!

elvis only has a couple more days here, sadly...then he will go back for an exam and i will go back next wednesday. we are not looking forward to being apart, since we have never even spent a night apart in the 3 years and 3 months we have been married!! i think we will probably try to get back down to the beach in these days (we went friday and saturday too) and just hang out with mom and dad. and maybe try to catch a fish or two.

happy father's day to all the dads out there!

NC

so this week we've been on the road for the most part...after marty left, we went up to King kind of last-minute to see some old friends and while we were there, they gave us a baby shower which was really nice! good to see friends who remember me from when i was ony 6 months. it was also fun to see people along the way, although there wasnt nearly enough time to see everybody! we finally got to meet baby Lydia Vuljanic, which was definitely a highlight!

elvis learned to play Stokes County's favorite pasttime game....Corn Hole! (you gotta say that with a real redneck accent)

back here in wallace, the main thrill has been taking a ride through town in the rumbler seat of an old 1929 car...

we drove out to see mom and dad's community garden:

other than that, we're just hanging out, looking for baby bargains! here is one of my favorites that mom had already gotten for us:

(yes, it says "Hasta la vista baby!")

on tarheel turf!

we made it to NC! we got in late monday night, and were greeted at the airport by mom (sporting her "abuelita t-shirt we made her) and dad, and marty, who came in for a surprise visit on saturday and showed up at Memaw's 90th birthday party, completely shocking mom and dad and everyone!! we had a fun day at the beach on tuesday with the fam, seeing the grandparents and celebrating with Memaw, and then had to take marty back to raleigh yesterday to go back to vancouver. we took advantage of the trip to raleigh to meet up with Kate for catfish quesadillas (yummmmm) which was fun as always!

today we went to the Wallace Stockyard, by far the most multi-cultural experience in eastern NC. its a huge field with rows and rows of yard sale stuff, antiques, ducks, pigs, fresh fruits and vegetables, funnel cakes, pirated CDs, some kind of fragrant oils from the Caribbean, etc etc etc from allll around the world. each booth owner is of a different ethnicity...who knew there was so much diversity here in wallace? anyways, we love going because you never know what youll find, plus elvis feels right at home, getting to barter in spanish and buy familiar fruits and veggies, even sugar cane!

now we are just taking it easy, trying to adjust to NC humidity and air conditioning. here are some pics:

arriving at the airport:

marty teaching elvis to boogie board for the first time:

happy 90th b-day Memaw!!

kindergarten graduation

last night my little ones graduated from kindergarten! as every year, they sing the salvadorean national anthem, Star Spangled Banner (and as every year, they end up singing "the land of papas fritas" instead of "the land of the free"), they recite Psalm 23 in english, one girl gave an 8 page memorized speech, and they all danced and sang to another song. it was very cute, and i feel a huge relief now that the year is officially over! here are some pictures and a video of my kids saying Psalm 23:

after the throwing of their graduation caps:

co-workers!

long weekend

This weekend was a nice 3-day weekend, due to the inauguration of the new president (even Hilary Clinton came to town to get in on the action!). we had yet another baby shower this weekend, but she didnt even make it to the shower, because she was already at the hospital! and we had a going-away dinner at the house for all of the american teachers at school that will be leaving this year. im sad to see them go!
then on sunday, elvis and i went for a little hike in the "ecopark" here in the city, a coffee plantation and park built on the side of the San salvador volcano. here are some pics from that day:

steam vents in the side of the volcano:a huge tree that fell in a storm a few months ago (pratt and ashley, marty and sara, do you remember climbing on this tree??)view of the city from the top of the hikehallucinogenic flowers:we are down to less than a week before we will be in NC, and just a couple of school days left!

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

baby update!

Yesterday we went to the doctor for an ultrasound, in which we finally got to see the baby's little heartbeat!! it was just pulsing right along, which calmed our nerves a ton and made things seem a lot more real! The doctor also seems very sure that it is just ONE baby, not twins! so i guess elvis's dad was wrong about that part of my dream, but ive remembered his words "It's already written" (see earlier blog) many times in these past few weeks, especially after reading Psalm 139:16 which says, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." wow!

we got another fun package in the mail from mom and dad, with an artsy Psalm 139 to hang on the wall (coincidence? i think not!) and these cute outfits:

thanks mom and dad!!!