10 years!

This weekend Daniel and I celebrated 10 years of being together. It's funny to think how much we've changed since junior high/high school. 10 years ago we were scared of each other; it took a while before we figured out we could wait for the other to walk to class instead of just "happen" to meet up with each other. :)

To celebrate, we spent the evening and following day at the Gran Jimenoa (a ten minute taxi drive from our house). We had a wonderful supper, relaxed, slept well in an !air-conditioned! room, and then had a huge breakfast the next morning. We took a walk and spent the day enjoying the pool. It was great to relax and have one last special time together before our lives are forever changed. I know we'll have many more special times, but they will be different and either involve children, or thinking about the children. :) All in all, it was a great weekend. And I especially enjoy being in the pool because my body feels somewhat normal again when I'm swimming. :)Our room was all the way to the right on the lower (2nd) floor.

For more pictures (and a sighting of the Teresa-whale) go here.

Pseudo Camping

So, I've been feeling restless for hiking and camping. Saturday I got my pseudo hike (walking to/ beside a river for the picnic). It helps, of course, that we live in the mountains so I can look around and see mountains as we walk. However, this did not satisfy my urge for camping. Unfortunately, I do not feel up to packing a large back pack and hiking up the mountain near us and having to use the "outdoor" bathroom a bajillion times, since the baby enjoys lying on my bladder (you wanted to know that, right?). And, there's no place to just drive to and camp (at least not close). Anyway, that all to say, we decided to camp on our porch. After grilling our dinner, we made a fire in Leah's mini Weber that we've been borrowing. We roasted marshmallows and enjoyed the smell of the fire. We had thought about putting the tent on the porch, but it is so noisy outside I figured we probably wouldn't sleep. So we brought our extra mattress into our living area, which is more open and has lots of windows and, therefore, more fresh air. This morning, Daniel revived the fire and made pancakes over it. So we sat around the fire eating pancakes, drinking tea, and just enjoying being outside. It was wonderful and refreshing! The evenings and mornings have been cool and, in spite of being in the middle of town, it is peaceful in it's own way, and we are still surrounded with so much natural beauty!

Passing the Time...

So what does a preggy with time on her hands do to keep busy? Well, there have been times I just want the due date to be here and I feel restless. However, then I remember that this is the last time for a while I'll be able to relax and I need to enjoy this time that Daniel and I have together as just "us." So, I'm passing the time in a variety of ways. Since my tutoring is pretty much done (only 1 student now just 2 hours a week), I have been doing more reading (mostly baby related), lots of crocheting, a sudoku a day, exercise, devotion time, sometimes going to the pool, and sometimes just going on a walk somewhere so I can get out. Saturday Daniel and I took a walk down a path by a river. We found a good place to have a picnic. Then we played in the water (well, I did; Daniel got in to his knees and held onto my hands while I let the river float me around). It was cold and refreshing. It was a great way to get some of the restless energy out of me! That night we made grilled pizza. :) Sunday, after church, we ate rice and beans (I admit, it was good, but not as good as when a Dominican makes them...) and just rested for the rest of the day. Tonight we're grilling again.
So, that's what this preggy does- lots of relaxing, exercise, reading, crocheting, and eating. :)
This weekend (Friday night to Sat) we are celebrating our 10 dating anniversary by going to a hotel, enjoying air conditioning, food that we don't need to make, and swimming!

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

So, I'm a little late on this post...
Daniel's birthday was July 10th. To celebrate I cooked Italian food and we had an evening of just the two of us. His big birthday gift (combo gift from his family and I) was a grill. Here's a picture of it. Daniel's parents made a "coupon" for the grill, and he picked it out online (the one he liked the best was also the one I had like the best when I was looking for them). The rest of his birthday gifts were also grill related: grill tools, a "pan" and "wok," grilling book, "mop," and tarp to cover it. We got the grill last Tuesday night and Daniel set it up right away with the help of Dylan. Here are pics from birthday and of the grill. We plan to have our first meal on it- grilled BBQ chicken pizza- Saturday evening after Daniel seasons the grill.
On Friday night we had friends over to celebrate his b-day. We grilled (not on ours, unfortunately, as it had not arrived yet), ate lots of yummy food (including Leah's carrot cake), and played with sparklers and babies!- though again, not ours which had not and still has not arrived ;) .

Daniel's Birthday Dinner

Daniel enjoying his strawberry birthday-pie

Daniel opening the coupon (notice the "ooooooo" expression)

The new grill!

(See facebook for more pics)

Happy 4th!

Leah's giant cookie :) Mmmmm

Yesterday we have fun celebrating the 4th of July, in spite of being in another country. We had Leah and the Schotts over for dinner and grilled out on our patio. Dinner included hamburgers, grilled corn, jello, potatoes and peppers (thanks to the Schotts), and a watermelon bowl and decorated giant cookie (thanks to Leah). It was all very yummy. The jello turned out well- it had red, white, and blue layers. We made it based off of Daniel's sister's jello she makes each Christmas (but used blue instead of green). The green was grape jello to which I added blue food coloring. The white was lemon jello with cream cheese, and the red was cherry jello.
In all, I ate way too much and suffered heart burn for it. All well.

After dinner we celebrated with Dominican sparklers, which are slightly more fun than American sparklers because they're less safe and more powerful. :)See the red, white, and blue jello?

Food Creations

So our food creation of this week was jelly donuts. I used a recipe from the back of a Taste of Home magazine. They weren't very difficult and were very yummy. Daniel was my grease patter and suger-er. :)After the dough rose once, I cut them into circles and let them rise again.

Then we fry them. Mmmm.. grease

After the frying, Daniel patted them and dipped them in sugar. The recipe recommended icing them, but we wanted ours sugar-coated.

Finally, I slit them through the middle and stuffed them with strawberry jelly.

Daniel gives them an "A+, Crispy Cream- watch out"
So not the most healthy of our bread/baking endeavors, but def. tasty.

As for other food updates: Last week for date night we made enchiladas, salsa, and yummy low-fat re"fried" beans mixed with cheese- thanks to our rice cooker for soaking the beans for us (it takes a long, long time). This week we are having pesto shrimp pasta. Mmmm... shrimp...