Pictures: Horsey-ride

Here are a couple of pictures of Marissa having a horsey-ride on Chris. She runs up to him when he is sitting on the floor, jumps on his back and says, "Back, back!" Chris is always good to give in and give her a ride. :-) The ride usually ends with Marissa falling off on the side and laughing hysterically, and Chris trying to catch her.


Chris giving Marissa a horsey-ride


Horsey-ride from a different angle

Moving Again...

Tomorrow will be a busy day as Marissa and I are moving back to Mike & Kristi's for a week. Mom's maid of honor is flying in tomorrow, so we are moving out to make room for her. :-)

This morning was a fun one for Marissa. We went to Dave and Jess's to meet with Charity, Candace and Jess. Marissa got to play with Cheyenne, Chloe, and Solomon. They played with a train set, played catch with a ball, had a snack, saw Lucky the hamster and played in the play tent set up in the livingroom.

Mom and Vincenso's wedding is coming up this Saturday, so I have a couple of prayer requests:

• nice weather (it is notorious for it to rain this May long weekend, but so far the forcast is for sun and warm temperatures....)
• peace for the groom and bride
• things to go smoothly
• safe travel for Chris as he comes to Winnipeg Friday night, and returns to Bloomington Sunday
• I am coming down with a cold, so a quick recovery
• my sisters and I are singing a song, so that it sounds good
• everyone will have a good time! :-)

I'll try to get pictures posted as soon as I can.

Pictures: Swing ride for Chuckles

The story behind these pictures starts when I heard Marissa in our bedroom saying "weeeee! weeee!", so I went to check it out. She had put Chuckles (her favourite monkey) in the pelvis of Chris' model spine and was swaying it back and forth. I burst out laughing and grabbed the camera. For those of you wondering, she is wearing Chris' belt around her neck as a necklace. It was also early in the morning which is why she has bed head and pj's on.


Marissa giving Chuckles a swing ride


Closeup of Marissa giving Chuckles a swing ride

Paga & Maga

Marissa is learning how to say "grandpa" and "grandma".

1st attempt - "...pa!" "mama!"

became - "pacga!" "maga!"
(NB: she mixed up the p&g in grandpa, and the m&g in grandma, similar to how she said "puh" instead of "up" - at least she is consistent!) :-)

became - "?" (still says pacga for grandpa) "gramma!"
(The gramma is pretty new, she says it about half of the time right now.)

Another interesting development is that while she doesn't say "yes" yet, she has learned to shake her head yes. An example of a conversation we had this morning -

"Veggietales" (she shakes her hips)

"You want to watch Veggietales?"

(she shakes her head yes, and points to the TV) "TV, on"

"You want to turn the TV on so you can watch Veggietales?"

(she shakes her head yes, with a big grin on her face, and walks toward the TV)

Picture: Marissa after pig-tails

Marissa's hair really started growing after Christmas, and my favourite hair-do for her is pig-tails. This is what her hair looks like after taking the pig-tails out...


Marissa after pig-tails

Maranatha Women's Retreat 2005

Wow! I had a really good time at the retreat!

It started off on a shaky note - Marissa got upset when she saw me loading my suitcase, and cried, "NOOOOO" when I took her car seat out of the car. I almost cried during the drive to Jess's, and started to rethink the idea of going at all.

The theme for the retreat was rest and relaxation. (I went to the Crosspoint Women's Retreat in January, and the theme was the same so I was prepared! By the way, I had a great time at the Crosspoint retreat as well - I highly recommend going to multiple retreats within a year.)

The food was very good. The company was excellent!!! The sleep was pretty good considering the cot and the late hours. The sessions were excellent - one on our need for positive self esteem, and one on our need for the miraculous.

The main point I took away to work on is the looking glass concept - our sense of self worth is derived from what we think the most significant person in our life thinks of us. We need to see God as the most significant person in our lives (which he is) and then discover what he thinks of us (in short - he loves us and thinks we are great!). In this way our self esteem is greatly improved and we become healthier people (mentally), and more like Christ.

We also wrote notes of encouragement to each other. I am most thankful for the ones I received. I also wish I could have written more. Did I mention that we cried a lot during the weekend?!?

Another first for me was - karaoke! The later it got, it seemed the better we got - this could be due to sleep deprivation?!? We also did lip sync's to Veggietales Silly Songs. They were so good you almost wish they were taped - almost, but not quite! It rained over the weekend, but it did stop long enough for us to have a campfire - with banana boats and smores, of course. We also squeezed in a walk in the mud to see the baby animals and horses.

Marissa had a good time during the weekend too. Auntie Diana (and Scott) were fabulous babysitters. She unfortunately had a bowel movement during a nap which Scott had to take care of as Diana thought she "was going to throw up!" But other than that, things went really smoothly.

Up and running!

The internet connection is now up and running at my mom's new house in Stonewall! :-)

The move went well, and the unpacking is going well too. It has also warmed up here which is much appreciated.

A big thank-you to Mike and Kristi for letting Marissa and I crash at their house until we could move here.

This weekend I am going to the Maranatha Women's Retreat at Camp Assiniboia. Diana is coming to Stonewall to help watch Marissa. I hope Marissa will be a good girl for her auntie! - But she is always a good girl so I have nothing to worry about! ;-)

Speaking of Marissa, she has just woken up from her nap and sounds hungry - I'll try to post again soon.