Another Full Weekend....

Today Mrs.Laura Barker comes into town! It is always the coolest thing when your childhood friend comes into your town, especially when that town is on the other side of the country from the town you both grew up in. I expect we will have non-stop chats : )
Saturday is when Daniel and April come! On Sunday we will head up to the mountains for another snowboarding round- and I hope my body will be up for 3 days of it! When we got back from this last trip, ooohhhhh my; I was SO sore! I woke up thinking, " This must be what it feels like to get beat up (groan)." It was plenty of fun, especially since I was exponentially better than last time. You might say I DID rip up some snow after all : )

Weekend Fun

Tomorrow Andrew and I leave in the dark-and-early morning on our way to Copper Mountain for some snowboarding fun! We will be gone all day, ripping up the snow. You have to understand that the last statement was really funny, since I've only been snowboarding once before, and was on my rear-end most of the day. I hear that is normal for first-dayers, and I hope that is true, since it makes me feel better : )
Regrettably, I left my camera at a friend's house (ugh.), so you will miss out on some great posed pictures of my cold, red, runny nose. So sorry! But.... in about 9 days, April and Daniel will be coming with us for a 3-day ski trip! There is not a chance that my camera will not be with me then.

Whats in a Name

We've been trying to teach Marcail to say her name. It took her a while before she would even attempt it. Then she started pronouncing it like "Ta-Tell." I knew she could say her "m"s just fine, since she says "Mommy" and other "m" words quite well, so I worked with her through each syllable of her name, "Mmmmmaaaaaarrrrrr" (she repeated that just fine), "Cccccccaaaaaaiiiiiiilllll" (which she repeated as "tell" still. Oh well.). But still, there was some success!
So we tried again:
Anneke: "Marcail, what's your name?"
Marcail: "Ta-Tell!!!"
Anneke: "Lets try again; Mmmmmaaaarrr. Ccccaaaaaiiiillllll. Can you say Marcail?"
Marcail, very excitedly, almost shouting: "TA-TELL-MMMAAAAARRRRR!!!!"

Ok, I give up for now : ) I'm sure she'll get it soon!

His Mysterious Ways

Recently I asked Andrew what he thought the chances were that we would not be able to have any more children. Without hesitating, he answered, "Three." Three? What does that mean? "Is that a chance out of ten?", I asked. "No, a much bigger number." Hmmmm. "So more like out of one hundred?", I tried again. "Ya, more like one hundred."
I had to smile at the way he had answered me. "Normal" people would have said something like , "a small chance," "not much of a chance," something along those lines. But not Andrew. He had a very definitive answer. When we were getting to know each other years ago, I would've called him mysterious for giving answers like that. I loved it. Now after a few years of marriage, I still call him mysterious for giving answers like that. And I still love it!

Do Good Anyway

Yesterday's post was from some heartbreaks I've experienced with a couple of friends in my life. But this morning I had coffee with another girlfriend who gave me some solid advice. What she said reminded me of a poem I heard John Maxwell read to us at a Leadership retreat. I want to share it with you:

“Anyway” Author unknown

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable

Be frank and honest anyway.

People favor underdogs but will follow only top dogs.

Fight for some underdogs anyway.

People may need help, but may attack you if you help them.

Help people anyway.

What you spend your years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build away.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

Sometimes I think that all-women events have too much estrogen. And all I want is to hang out with Andrew's friends while we play Texas Hold 'Em instead.

The unfortunate thing about having an older sister -when you are a boy- is that you learn to say "flower" before you learn "fire-truck," and you think that wearing hot pink beaded necklaces is very, very cool. No, I'm not going to post any pictures of this.