Tino & Marianne

Of slaps and tombs

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:04:00 +0000

Grandma had to give Cristian a little slap on his hand for disobeying. Alice immdediately came to his rescue and told Grandma that she shouldn't slap him. Grandma explained that sometimes when kids are naughty, they have to get a little slap. She went on to say that she had to slap Mommy (me) sometimes too when Mommy was a little girl. Alice's face registered horror! Then she said, "Grandma, then I'm going to teach you how not to slap people all the time!"

***

When asking where her great Grandmother lived, she was told that she lives in Thun (pronounced toon). Alice, having just learned about the Easter story, understood "tomb" and exclaimed, "Yes, just like Jesus!"

***

And one of Evlyne:

Alice's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:42:00 +0000

Here's a few pics from Alice's birthday party. It was lots of fun with pizza, fingerpainting, a bubble bath, treasure hunt, cake, ice cream and more to make it a birthday to remember. Alice had a blast and wants every day to be her birthday!

The cake was great fun to make, Alice helped come up with the concept (she insisted on having a snowman somewhere in her cake!) and even tho it was so hot and humid that the fondant and icing start to melt before everyone got a piece, it was still yummy and she liked it! Thank God! HA!

Thanks to Nick, Mike and Coral for taking pics as Tino and I were too busy. It would have been a shame to have planned this whole party and not gotten any pics!

More pics coming as soon as I can get them from Mike's camera.

More flash

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:15:00 +0000

Thank you...

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:48:00 +0000

Here's a thank you email Alice wrote recently to someone who visited us:

Dear _________,

Thank you for the presents you left for us. It was very sweet of you. Thank you for visiting us, it was very nice to see you. I love you. I let you borrow my play room. Today I used the paint brushes and the book and painted a helicopter. I want to show it to you because you are a boy like Gaby.

Lots of love,
Alice

Problems...

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Alice and I were walking outside the other day when she surprised and then amused me with the following conversation:

Alice (sighing): Mommy, I have a problem.

Me (thinking): Gosh, she young to be heart-sharing so seriously. (aloud): What is your problem, baby?

Alice: I like ice-cream.

Me (a little bewildered): How is that a problem? Ice-cream is yummy!

Alice: No, see Mommy, it's a happy problem!

She's so funny!

****

...and a couple pics from a few weeks ago:

Some more pics

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:20:00 +0000

I decided to stop being afraid of my flash and start learning to use it properly.

I've seen too many pics ruined by improper flash use and so up until now, I've pretty much tried to do without. It doesn't work so well! -Especially considering that our camera doesn't do so good in low light.

We get bad grain already at 200 ISO, and our f-stop doesn't go below 3.5 (and that's only when the lens is fully zoomed out, which, being that it's a wide angle lens, doesn't really help in most pics). Therefore, my f-stop is usually around 5ish and with an ISO at 100 it means that I have to put my shutter speed quite low. This is not very good when shooting kids as they tend to move a lot and it's terribly hard to get a clear shot.

Most pics that I've taken absolutely needed some post processing to either remove the nasty grain, lighten them up because I just couldn't use the shutter speed slow enough to get a properly lit shot, enhance the light fallling on the subject so the pic didn't look totally flat etc.

Ok, now that my excuses are out of the way, last night I decided to just try and use my flash and see what happens. Well, while these may not be the best of pics for various reasons, I was fairly pleased with the outcome and the fact that aside from a little sharpening and shrinking the pic to size, I didn't need to do anything in post! Hooray! :)

The light of the flash began to bother Tino and give him a headache, so I took myself off to another corner of the room where I tried desperately to get Alice to pose for me for longer than a fraction of a second. Unfortunatly, her patience ran out way too fast, so I wasn't able to get my settings completely right so this one did need a levels adjustment in post.

Mommy's beautiful girl

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:38:00 +0000

Why Men Lie

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Found this on someone's blog. Thought it was funny!

Why Men Lie
One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch off a tree above a river, his ax fell into the water.

When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?"

The woodcutter replied that his ax had fallen into the water, and he needed the ax to make his living.

The Lord went down in the water and reappeared with a golden ax.

"Is this your ax?" the Lord asked.

The woodcutter replied, "No."

The Lord again went down and came up with a silver ax. "Is this your ax?" the Lord asked.

Again, the woodcutter replied, "No."

The Lord went down again and came up with an iron ax. "Is this your ax?" the Lord asked.

" Yes", he replied.

The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep,and the woodcutter went home happy.

Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river.

When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?"

"Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with Angelina Jolie.

"Is this your wife?" the Lord asked. "Yes," cried the woodcutter.

The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!"

The woodcutter fell to his knees and cried, "Oh, forgive me,Lord. It is a misunderstanding.You see, if I had said 'no' to Angelina Jolie,You would have come up with Catherine Zeta-Jones.Then if I also said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife.Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three.

Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of all three wives,and I love my wife such that I don't want her to share me with anyone,so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to Angelina Jolie."

The moral of this story is: Whenever a man lies, it is for a good honorable reason, and for the benefit of others...MOSTLY his wife!

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Evlyne

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:51:00 +0000

Funny Alice

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:53:00 +0000

Alice was playfully biting my leg this morning when I told her to go bite Papa instead. She replied, "No Mommy, Papa has beards on his leg."

Happy Birthday TIno

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:28:00 +0000

The other day you thanked me for having your baby.

It's often hard to describe what would qualify as a "perfect" compliment or show of appreciation. Well, this is one of them! Those 6 simple words helped make the previous 9 months of difficulties and the 20 hour labour worth it all. It's things like this that remind me that I am married to the most wonderful man.

It's hard to believe it's been almost 5 years. They've gone by so fast, and although many predicted it wouldn't last, we're still togther.-5 years and 2 kids later! You've made these past years memorable. They've been filled with fun, laughter, learning, excitment, a few tears and lots of making-up, forgivness and bonding. I'm looking forward to what the next 5 years will bring.

I never tire of you. Your mind still fascinates me. I admire how you seem to be able to excel at anything you put your mind to.

I love your cooking, I envy the ease at which you can learn a new programming language, I'm proud of the kind of father you are to our girls and I love to brag about the wonderful husband you are to me.

I know God made you tailor-made for me. The ways in which we are different, how your strengths compliment my weaknesses, and the things we have in common, which gives us oppertunities to enjoy things together, is all proof that God put us together.

I could go on and on about all the different things I love about you but let me name a few:

-How you massage my face at night to put me to sleep or to help relieve a headache.

-How you never let me stop at less than my very best.

-How well you manage the finances. Your saving, yet you still spoil us every now and then.

-Your love for the Lord and how you value your place in the Family.

-Your "crazy" dreams and desires for the things you would like to do and accomplish.

-The interesting stories about your past and all your experiences.

-How well you managed this last pregnancy when I had 24 hour "morning" sickness and was unable to do anything or help out in any way. You not only managed my work and your work, but you managed to take care of me as well.

-Your beautiful eyes.

-Your genius at computers.

-Your flawlessly logical mind.

-When you miss my cuddles and tell me to stop working and come lay next you.

-All the funny nick-names you've given me.

-How much you love our babies.

-How well and comfortably I fit beside you with my head on your shoulder.

-How handy you are at fixing what seems like anything and everything that happens to break.

-How well you take care of us.

-That you have infinite patience with me, even when the same issues come up again and again, you still comfort me, logically guide me through them, and love me despite it all.

-Your lips.

-How you make me feel delicate and fragile.-and how you're the only one I would let make me feel that way.

-Your strength. Physically-even after a rough night, you'll still stay up with the kids so I can take a nap. Emotionally-where others had failed, you did not. You proved you were stronger and won my respect. Your strength is what's kept us together. Spiritually- when my spirit needed your light, your strength (and the Lord) saved me.

-How much longer I could go on with this list. It just goes to show that you are wonderful!

I know that you don't particularly relish reading so I'll end before this gets overwhelmingly long. I love you immensely! Happy Birthday, babe!

Promises

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:17:00 +0000

She's Home

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:41:00 +0000

TTL, and thanks to all your prayers we were able to take Evlyne home today. We're so happy to have her with us! Here's a few pics from her stay at the hospital.

Evlyne la'Fae

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:35:00 +0000

On Jan. 6th, at 11:43 AM Evlyne la'Fae was born.

She weighed 2.950 and was 48cms. The day after she was born, the doctor informed us that because my blood type is O+ and hers is A, during my pregnancy, some of my anti-bodies passed thru the placenta into her body resulting in my anti-bodies attacking her red blood cells, which causes the bilirubins to go up, which in turn causes her to have a somewhat more serious case of jaundice than the average baby has.

She has to be under a special lamp as much as possible throughout the day, and tho I am able to take her out and nurse her a few times a day, it is best if it's not for longer than a half-hour at a time.

I spent my 5 days at the hospital, but yesterday, my stay was up so I came home. While it was great to be back and be able to see Alice again, it was hard to leave my little baby in a hospital so far away.

We'll be going back every day to be with her for as long as possible, but this is quite a strain on us as it's fairly tiring.

Please pray for the situation that the Lord will help things to make a turn for the better as quickly as possible.

TTL, overall it hasn't been too difficult, I've been feeling remarkably strong and healthy and the Lord's given us the grace to trust Him thru all of this.

Prayer requests are:

-For her anti-bodies to be able to sucessfully fight of my anti-bodies

-For the bilirubins to go down drastically and for them to stay down after they remove the lamps and let her be out for a prolonged period.

-For her eyes to not get affected by this light. She has to wear a mask over her eyes to protect them, but she doesn't like it much and often tries to move it away from her eyes, and since the nurses can't be looking at her constantly, there are times when her eyes get exposed.

-Against dehydration as this light causes her to become somewhat dehydrated. Thankfully, she's nursing very well and I have a lot of mike PTL!

-For her to be able to leave the hospital very soon and come home without any further complications.

-For Alice to deal well with this situation and continue to be happy and cheerful.

-For Tino's and my strength and for continued trust in the Lord's care of our little one.

Thanks so much for your prayers!!

More on Alice

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:41:00 +0000

Alice was asking if she could watch a video. It wasn't the right time for it, so I told her, "Not now". She hunched her shoulders, sighed and said, "Mommy, you're not a very good friend." HA!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:26:00 +0000

In the Shrouded Silver Wood

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:06:00 +0000

Faerie dance and elvin play
To enchant, to bid me stay
Voices echoed o'er the grove
Pledge an evermore abode

Faun delight the sacred ears
Of the wandering mystic seers
Whispering the panpipe tune
O'er the ancient vine-filled runes

Burrowed in the elder oak
Live the bashful midget-folk
Dancing thru' the cherished night
Weaving strands of pearly lights

Cobalt waters harbor sprite
Where the water-nymph reside
Sirens calling to the sails
Gliding by to flash their tails

Mist and glow assert their reign
Rising o'er the sweeping plane
Faint is heard dryad song
Echoing the whole night long

Many search yet few will find
Realms of empyreal kind
Lucky is the mortal who
Secret worlds are open to

The faerie dance; elvin play
Has enchanted me to stay
Ever let me make abode
In my shrouded silver wood

Out of the mouth of bears...

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:25:00 +0000

While reading Alice a story about how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, she pointed to the donkey and asked me, "Mommy, is that Eeyore?" (Incase anyone is Pooh-illiterate, that would be the donkey from "Winnie the Pooh"...)

********************************************************

Her bed-time story a few nights ago was "Baby Jesus". I was at the part where Mary was riding the donkey on the long journey to Bethlehem, and being pregnant and about to pop myself, I sympathised with the difficulty Mary must have faced riding a donkey at this point in pregnancy. I was explaining to Alice that when a mommy has a baby in her tummy, it's very uncomfortable to ride on a donkey and that Mary was probably very tired. In her typical logical way, she looked up at me and suggested, "Mommy, take baby out, put baby on baby donkey!" Brilliant! Why didn't THEY think of that...

Thank you, James

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:14:00 +0000

James did some photo shoots at the PEP...here's two.

Man shall live by bread...

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:38:00 +0000

We've been trying forever to make real bread. Not your usual home-made stuff, but the kind like you buy in a bakery: large holes, real crust and all.

Well, after much research, trial and error we found a way! And here's the loaves that I made yesterday.

Italy Vacation Day3

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:35:00 +0000

Our third hotel:

Went to the old town to look around. We had to climb this ultra steep hill, but the park and view on top was well worth it:

And off to the beach again:

Italian Vacation Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:29:00 +0000

Met up with my grandma and her husband for lunch (they live nearby in Monte Carlo):

Alice at the park:

"Notta Bianca" (White night) is a yearly festival where basically everyone stays up all night partying. The shops are open till dawn, they have parades, concerts etc. 60,000 people over the usual amount attended this year:

Italian Vacation Day1

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:38:00 +0000

So, we're back from our vacation to the Italian Riviera. We stayed in a city called San Remo. The weather was perfect, the beaches were beautiful and the hotels were awesome.

We had to stay in 3 different hotels as even back when we made reservations, everything was booked up, but it was cool to be able to check out the different hotels.

Alice loved playing at the beach, trying new and tasty foods (octopus and shrimp which she particularly loved, to name a few...), going in Taxis and finding our "new hotel" etc. Needless to say, she didn't want to go back home. :)

Here are some pictures:

The view from our first hotel. It was located up on a hill, which tho' a bit of a hassel to get at (had to take a taxi, walking was simply too much), had the most amazing view of the sea and the town below:

Unfortunatly, we didn't have the tripod with us or those night shots would have been awesome!

At the beach (that's me way back there standing on the rocks):

Some of the town:

Enjoying the incomparable Italian ice-cream at a cute little gelateria:

Dinner at a side-street restaurant:

A walk through the town after dinner. There was actually a lot of night-life which made evening walks very enjoyable:

A Toddler's Arrogance

noreply@blogger.com (Tino&Marianne) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:58:00 +0000

This morning we were reading "The Miracle Ride" story from LWG1.

There comes the part where they find out the duck is broken.

Sarah says, "Well, I know Someone Who can fix it!..." I stopped reading and asked Alice, "Who can fix it?" -Expecting her to say, "Jesus!"

Instead, in typical childish pride of their own prowess, she determinedly declared, "Alice fix it!"

She put her hands on the picture of the duck and made "fixing" noises, turning and twisting her little hands around till she was satisfied that it was fixed and then sat back with the most content and proud look on her face. -She is a character!