June 2009...so far

Elliot's crib with the stuff we have for him so far

This is coming into the kitchen from the livingroom. The dinningroom at the far end, and then Elliot's room to the left and then the bathroom is the door to the left and at the back.

Dudley washing the dishes with daddy... :)

Jonnie's team practicing before the big game!




:) Busting out some moves

The Pink Fuzzy Bunnies come in 2nd place!!!!

June 4th,
We finally got to move into our new apartment!!! We painted the livingroom and the bedroom, and are planning on painting Elliot's room and the bathroom within the next month or so. But I put a couple pics up of the place just so you could see where we are now. We love this place! It is cozy and very more homey-like to us. We are still lacking in getting Elliot's room turned into a nursery and a few odds and ends like a dresser.
June 6th,
Jonnie got an opportunity to play on a soccer team with some of his friends. We were at teh feild from 9AM to 5PM. His team played very well. Last summer they got their names on the cup and a gold medal. This year, sadly, they lost the final game by 4-3, but still got silver medals!!! Their team name was The Fuzzy Pink Bunnies since their team captain accidently tiedied their shirts pink. They all had a great day and the sun was shinning the whole time.
June 16th,
I started my third trimester today!!!! It has gone by so fast, it's crazy! I have been feeling great. I have a very sore siatic nerve in my left leg, but I've had that since Week 16. Otherwise, things are going fine, I just have to make sure I eat good. Today Mom took me to emerge to get the antibodies shot, because I am RH- and Jonnie is Rh+. It didn't go badly at all and the nurse was very kind. I am 33 inches on my belly now, and have gained 14 pounds so far.
June 20th,
A couple of days ago, Jonnie and I finally got most of our stuff unpacked and put somewhere. We have plenty of closets to store stuff, which is really nice! We are still kind of using Elliot's room as a storage for right now, but that will change very soon. Anyhow, we invited the family over for a fun evening of food and games, so they could see our new place. I forgot to take a picture of everyone here, silly me, I ment to though. We had plenty of good snacks and drinks, and had a great time together playing games, talking and laughing. It was fun to finally have everyone over at our place!

Married nine months...

Wow! Time has definately flown by! We are already almost married nine months. It's crazy to think about, but it's true...
We were just asked the other day by a dear friend how our first year together in marriage has been for us. Has it been easier or harder then we expected. My answer was that I wouldn't have changed it for anything! We have had our days, especially with adjusting to living together and setting up family rules and such, and then the extra commotion with pregnancy and getting ready to take care of a little one. Every day though we fall more and more in love with each other. I live with my best friend, we do things together, go places together. I serve the love of my life, cooking for him, cleaning up the house, feeding our kitty cats. I learn new things about him each day, I strive to please him, and look good for him. It is an amazing experience to be married, and I wouldn't change the man God brought to me for anyone else.
Neither of us are very romantic people. And thankfully we have very many things in common, that has made it slightly easier to adjust to living with each other. Both of us like to fish, play/watch soccer, enjoy family, love to travel and explore things, like war and action movies, like things to be in order and clean... Quite a few main things that are important to both of us that are similar. At first we did some things a little different, just from how we grew up, but in the end we both compromised and do things our own new way now.
I love this man that asked me to marry him, and the only thing that could seperate us is God Himself who brought us together in the first place.

Found out we are pregnant!!! January 7th, 2009

Eight weeks pregnant

Elliot James (Sorry he's sideways)

19 weeks pregnant...just after the ultrasound

25 weeks pregnant with Echo watching my belly jump

This was a very scary day to say the least. We weren't sure if we wanted to start having kids right away or not, Jonnie saying "Let's wait" and me saying "No, now is good". Jonnie gave in, however, and so we decided that we would go ahead and try only in the month of December and if nothing came of it Jonnie promised that he would take me to the Canadian Wonderland this summer. So I was getting more excited about going to this Wonderland place and get to go on all the rides and stuff. Nearing the end of December, however, I started to not feel so grand, always being tired, crying at night because I was just exhausted. So Carrie, one of my sister-in-laws, and I decided to go get a test to see what was the result...Positive!!! No way, I couldn't believe it. I was happy, annoyed, nervous, and most of all in denial. Anyhow, I imediately called Jonnie at work. He was probably all of the above as well, the responce I got was, "Are you sure?"
The first couple of weeks were hard adjusting to a pregnant body. By the seventh week a flu broke out in our family circle, so both Jonnie and I lay on the couch all day throwing up in turns. The flu never seemed to clear up for me; it just turned into an all day morning sickness. That lasted for a month and a half, which was a trying time on our marriage as I was in bed all day and couldn't do what a wife is supposed to do.
We found out during this time though, that Carrie was pregnant as well! Only four weeks behind me. So we have come through this journey together, going to the midwives with her 21 month old Allistair and watching our bellies grow each week. We also have been going to a baby group each week with my other sister-in-law, Kris, and her 6 month old Auroralyn.
We had an ultra sound at my 19 week, and found out that it is a boy! His name will be Elliot James Ducommun. All in all, my pregnancy has gone very well, and I am now sitting on 28 1/2 weeks, due September 8th.

Our honeymoon...

The day after the wedding, we flew out from Northern Ireland saying goodbye to my family, not knowing when we would see them again. We arrived back in Buffalo and Kris and Leeann picked us up. We were exhausted after a long say before and all the packing and an early start to the day with a five hour time difference. We made it back to home sweet home, Durham again though.
The 3rd of October, we drove down to Bemus Point, New York, for our five day honeymoon at a beautiful cottage on a pond. We had a great time exploring this part of the state! On the way down we stopped at Niagara Falls and went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not. We went to a pumpkin festival, and got pumpkins to carve and some apple cider our first day out. Tuesday we went to Erie Zoo in Pennsylvania. Wednesday it rained, so we just stayed at the cabin and watched some cable. Thursday we looked around the next town over to see what there was there, not much, but we did buy my a fishing rod. So we went back to the cabin and fished in the little pond, didn't catch anything though. The place we stayed at was a beautiful, log cabin, with some hunting forest, and the pond out the front. We had a great time learning about each other and just enjoying the countryside together.

We made it across the border again, praise the Lord. And thanx to those who were praying.

September 30th, 2008...

Tuesday morning, ...

Hair to be done, makeup, flowers to be picked up, church to be opened and warmed, suits and dresses to be put on, car to show, and everyone to arrive at the church for 1PM. Everything went as planned though, and all was taken care of. Everyone was ready, and on the road in the wedding car by 12:30. When we got to the church there had to be pictures of the bride's family and the groom's family, which had been done before we arrived, outside the church. 1PM chimmed, and the music started to play as Judith walked down the isle looking very tall and beautiful. Then it was daddy's and my turn. I looked up at the front, and the most handsome man I have ever seen was staring back at me, my heart melted and I gave him a smile. We sang "Be Thou my Vision" and "This Gift of Love", had the I do's part with David Wilson, and then Pat Kitchen spoke. Milford gave us a huge family Bible as a wedding gift. Then we did the signing of the church book and the legal documents. Afterwards, came all the pictures you could imagine. We went to the Palace Stables garden for our photos. Thankfully it had stopped raining for that hour of picture taking.

We went on to the reception in Portadown Faith Mission Centre. A good friend of ours was in charge of the reception. He had the place done to perfection, and the cooks had the most amazing plate of food possible. We ate our food and cut the cake then had a slideshow of Jonnie's past and my past before we met, and our lives joined together.

We had the best day possible, and we thank everyone for your part in it, whether big or small.

Before The Big Day...

Jonnie and I flew over to Northern Ireland on September 13th, 2008, with only two weeks to get everything sorted for the wedding. We again had good flights, and all our luggage arrived safe and sound. My parents and sister again were at the airport to meet us. It was a little easier I'd say for both Jonnie and my parents, since they had met a few months before and knew each other some already.
While we were there, prior to the wedding, Jonnie met my extended family on both the Walker side and the McIlrath. They all really liked him, and a few even told him how handsome he was. Not too embarrassing I hoped! He got along great with everyone and took on the new culture very well. Tea and bickies at British supper time(10PM), chrisps for chips and chips are fat fries, lorries are semitrucks, lots and lots of more tea...we nearly had five to eight cups a day! A lot of getting used to in the language and the accent, but after a few days Jonnie had caught onto the accent, and couldn't help but talk like them too. Why not, I guess, since he was eating and living like them.
A few days before the wedding, Jonnie's parents and brother (Mark) came over. We drove around a couple of days to see the country's beauty. We went to the Giant's causeway, the Armagh Cathedral's, an old farm house. Lynanne took plenty of pictures, and Dave bought a bagpipe cd to help set the N. Irish mood. They had a great time seeing a new place, not quite the queen, but Lynanne still loved it.

Engaged!

Being engaged means, next comes a wedding...
June we went down to Panama, so my parents could meet Jonnie before the big day!
We had great flights, and the Lord spared our luggage. We flew from Buffalo, through Miami, then down to Panama City, Panama!!! I was so glad to be back in a country that I knew so much about. Over the last year I had been in three different countries that speak my language, but not my history. I was so happy as well that Jonnie could finally understand things that I would talk about, like: Panamanian food, or the tropical fruit that you yourself can pick off the tree, or just the way they drive there, and constant Spanish.
My parents and sister were there to pick us up and drive all the way back to Santiago, which is four hours from the airport. Jonnie's first experience was some Nucitas that my mom had brought along for the drive back to Santiago. Yummy! And, of course, Jonnie loved them too.
We spent a very fun three weeks with my family, going to the beach, driving up to Volcan, seeing Panama city and the canal museum, going to the pool, and just hanging out around the house having water fights and watching movies.
We even had some wedding talk and planning in there too. It was a very hard wedding to plan, because my family was in Panama, we were in Canada, and the wedding was to take place in Northern Ireland! My mom and dad helped us out a lot though with the arranging of flowers and the church and reception. While the Ducommun's helped us out with buying a new car, and visa things for Jonnie. It was a long summer of planning and getting used to the Ducommun family, but all in all, I would say it was a very good summer of getting to know Jonnie's parents in a special way that not many -in-laws would get to experience.
The was planned for September 30th, 2008, so we only had four months to get everything together, and with the Lord's help we all managed to accomplish that goal.

Secondly, the engagement...

May 16th, 2008, Jonnie and his class of 99 graduated from NTBI Waukesha. His family came down to attend the special event, even Gramma Ducommun was able to make it! The next day Dad, Mom, Carr, and Allistair drove back up to Canada behind us, who were driving in poor, old Betsy. We all made it back safely though, even though Betsy couldn't go over 50MPH most of the way!!!! I was coming up with them to spend the summer with the Ducommun family on NTMC campus since I have no family in North America.
May 20th, 2008... I needed a little time just me and Jonnie since it had been a little hard for me moving in with a family that I didn't know at all really, so we decided to have a picnic in Hanover Park (17 mins from Durham). We had gotten our chips and salsa and some cookies and pop, and headed over to the park. I was sitting on the picnic table, feet on the bench, chatting away to Jonnie and feeding the two seaguls that had decided to join us. After we were done, we packed up the trash and extra food, and Jonnie went to leave it back in the van. I had a blanket wraped round me, cuz I was cold, but Jonnie took it with him to the van and said nothing! I was like "excuse me, what is going on here, I'm freezing!" Next he comes walking back with this huge gun under the blacket. I was starting to get a little worried, cuz there were police right there watching him, and it looked like he was trying to hide a gun. Anyhow, he comes over and is standing in front of me, just looking at me, as if lost for words. Then he pulled the blanket off the gun, and revealed five, beautiful, red roses. He tells me what each one signifies to him, then he pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him. I was kind of in shock and a little embarassed, so I didn't really look excited, but inside my heart was pounding so fast and I couldn't help smiling, and of course, said YES! We went and sat by the river for a little bit, then Jonnie pushed me on the swing for a bit, then we went and got icecream. That was a day I will never forget!

How we met...

September 2007... Jonnie had already done one year of Bible School at NTBI Waukesha in Wisconsin, USA. I had been in Northern Ireland the previous year with my family, but joined the Bible School in August '07. We both had a great interest in soccer, which is where we met for the first time. I was new to the place, and Jonnie was out on rotation from a game in the gym, so I asked him a couple questions about the soccer games at the school. We didn't really bump into each other again for about three weeks, when again involved soccer. Only us two had shown up for a Friday night soccer game so we started talking and just kicking the ball around. After this we became friends and started hanging out together with our best friends Eryn and Zak. We all went different places together, and I got to know the three of them very well.
It wasn't till December of that year that our feelings for each other started to show. It was Christmas break (by this time Jonnie and I had become really great friends) and I had gone back to Northern Ireland to spend Christmas with my family and took Eryn with me. Jonnie had gone to be with his family in Durham, Ontario. We sent each other messages and chatted some on MSN. On New Years Eve, however, Jonnie told me over MSN that he liked me. This freaked me out, so I never mentioned anything about it for two days. After this long wait for Jonnie, I asked him two questions that mattered a lot to me before I would date any body. He answered them to my pleasing, so I said sure. He called my dad on January 8th to ask if he could date me. Daddy obviously said yes, so on January 13th, Jonnie asked me face to face to be his girl friend. I said Yes!