It's a girl!

I finally feel safe to say that we will be having a baby girl this coming summer, July to be precise. I am 4 1/2 months pregnant and feel happier than ever. Enoch and I prayed for this baby and feel it is God sent. I am taking care of myself, trying to eat as healthy as possible and doing pregnancy yoga. Exercise makes me feel relaxed and relieves some of the stress I encounter from school and work. I feel so blessed to be carrying this child and can't wait to see our precious little baby girl. Enoch is so thrilled to a father and can't wait to take our little daughter to ballet class:)
We found out the sex of our baby on Saturday for Enoch's birthday. I thought it would be a nice birthday gift.  I later prepared diner for our family and some friends over to celebrate his birthday. We had a lot of fun and received baby's first present. Our next task is to search girl names for our little bundle of joy!

Trefflich Trip to Guatemala!

We know its been a while but with the holidays, our trip and school starting up again we've had very busy months. In December, we finally went to our long awaited trip to Guatemala. And we must say it was stupendous! We were able to:

• sight see in Antigua
• hike and ride in a boat on the island, Flores
• enjoyed the sunset and walked around the beach city, my home town Puerto San Jose
• took a boat ride on a Lake Atitlan surrounded by 3 volcanoes
• see and hike the Mayan ruins
• walk through the jungle
• Sip cocunut juice:)

We came back from our trip exhausted but very happy to know we did all of that in 8 days!
Here are some of the pictures!

                                                                        Lake Atitlan

                                                           The view of Tikal after our hike

                                                                             Tikal

                                                          

Boat ride in the island, Flores

The sunset in my hometown, Puerto San Jose

Antigua

Gracias!

This thanksgiving my time will be spent baking a ham, making home made fruit juices, cleaning my house and of course working on my  good old finals for school. I hope I can manage to do all of this but I know I wont have time to write a post on what I'm grateful for.
I have so many things to be thankful for, somehow  in the past 3 years this holiday always makes me reminisce on the day Enoch and I went on our first date. I had plenty to be thankful for in 2007, a new friend, a new potential boyfriend!Haha..Little did I know that this first date would be one of many to come. For this reason, I can start off by talking about me being grateful for my wonderful, fantastic husband of mine. Here is a list of just a couple of things/people I am grateful for:
1. God and his gospel
2. My Enoch
3. My mother
4. Being able to go to school for my masters at USC
5. My job/internship
6. Friends
7. Family
8. My bed(I never see you but when I do, its great:)
9. Being able to travel next month and visit my country Guatemala
10. Peace, love and charity(both receiving and giving)
11. my surprise
12. A good laugh
13. Sour foods
14. The beach
15. Life experiences- both the good and the bad

Happy thanksgiving!

FHE FUN

About the time Sonia and I got married, there was love in the air everywhere. My sister got married just before us and a stream of marriages happened in the local singles ward. A few months back we decided to have a monthly family night with the other newly weds.

This last one was great. The hosts of course, being Brazilian, had ahuge meal with Brazilian beans, chicken pie, and well rice krispy treats.

Anyway, after the meal we always have a lesson. Yesterday's lesson was very simple, yet profound. We were talking about being prepared for emergencies. Having a plan, having food, water, and fuel. The simple topic opened my eyes as to how much more Sonia and I need to do so that we are prepared.

After the lesson we played games and really got into it. TICKET TO RIDE is a great game that I highly recommend.

To keep things simple, Sonia and I really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to next months.

Just a small update

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense. -Thomas A. Edison 
Lately, it feels like Enoch and I have been in school forever!  The transition of going back to school for me has been a challenge. I think it has to do with the fact that I'm working 30 hours and doing 16 hours of internship on top of a full load of classes. Yes! It's a lot. Why did I do this to myself? Ha..ha..
At the same time, it has been quite the learning experience. I've learned so much about human beings/behavior, and myself that it makes it all worth it. Midterms just ended and they consisted of me writing about 30 pages total in a time frame of 2 weeks.
But I still manage to squeeze some fun every once in a while. I've had such a good time riding my beach cruiser at school. Enoch even bought me a basket where I can place my books. Riding the bycicle from institute to school is one my favorite parts of my crazy, hectic day. But my favorite part has to be the part when I get to see Enoch at night. Its interesting the things we take for granted. I've been learning to love the simple, little things. My sense of gratitude has also been reinforced when I give therapy in my internship. I talk to clients who don't have the gospel. Having the gospel and  God has been my anchor in these busy, challenging/fun times. Enoch and I will be having some halloween fun tonight. I hope I'll remember to take our camera because lately, we've been using our phones to take pictures like the one below.

USC vs. UCLA girls soccer game

Guatemala "Land of Eternal Spring"

Today is my countries independence day. All these years I've really missed out on visiting, I miss my family and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to finally go. I am very excited since its been 20 years since I haven't been back. Its a part of my identity and its been hard and sad to not  know nor remember  my own country! So in honor of that I want to share a few interesting facts you might not know about Guatemala.

*The name Guatemala means ‘Land of the Trees’ in the Maya-Toltec language.


*Twenty-one distinct Mayan languages as well as several non-Mayan Amerindian languages are spoken here, especially in the rural areas.

*There are three UNESCO World Heritage sites, namely, Antigua Guatemala, Archeoligical Park and Ruins of Quirigua and Tikal National Park.
*The country is recorded to have 100 rivers, 61 lagoons, 5 lakes and 3 swamps.


*The country has a distinct fauna of its own and has about 1246 known species inhabiting it.


*Agriculture contributes as one-fourth of the country’s GDP. Coffee, bananas and sugar are the main products of the land.


*Guatemala is a storehouse of a number of libraries and museums. Some of the important names in this list are the National Library, the National Archives, the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology.

Summer time update

I know summer's pretty much over but I thought I could update on what we did this summer. First of all, the reason why we couldn't update our blog during the  summer is because we've been extremely busy. So what have we've been doing? Well, lets see...preparing for school, working long hours and getting settled in our home. Preparing for school entailed going to school orientations, scheduling, and saving money for the expenses. We've also worked, Enoch at one time had 3 jobs and I did a lot of over time. And for settling down at our home? This is where some of the fun stuff comes in. I've been decorating our home to make it cozy and a refuge to us after our busy and exhausting days. Decorating my home has made me super happy. Many don't know but one of my other "dream" careers is to be an interior designer.
We said" good-bye" to our summer by celebrating my birthday. It was so nice to spend time with my family members and close friends. I wanted to have a birthday party since I know I wont get to see them as often as I'd like. I've been having to manage working a full time job, an internship and a full load of classes. Its been so stressful but now and then I try to squeeze in some fun with Enoch. And by the way he has been sooo helpful to me. He makes dinner for me and is so understanding. I feel so blessed to have such a hard working hubby! And last but not least, the best part of all...this summer Enoch and I bought our airplane tickets to Guatemala!!Yes!!We will be spending our holidays at my motherland. I am so stoked and can't wait! Meanwhile, we will both continue to be stressed out as students:)
Below are pictures  of my b-day party and home.

Mom, friend and Aunt

Cousins, and sister

Family and friends

Acting silly with friends