3 little pigs

Suzy has had a full weekend....yesterday I had to go into work for a few hours, but she loved being the center of attention there! Then we had a pool party yesterday afternoon (pictures below) where she got to hang out with her "bff" Rocio. And today she went to her very first musical play! You see, Suzy doesn't really watch TV, but she does LOVE watching the 3 Little Pigs cartoon on YouTube. Like, the 1933 original version. She laughs when the big bad wolf comes out and she loves dancing to the "who's afraid of the big bad wolf" song. It's her fave. So, when we saw that they were going to perform the 3 Little Pigs at a nearby theater, we knew we had to go! I was afraid she wasn't going to be very interested in it since she is a bit young still, but no....she loved it! She was clapping and dancing and laughing and on the edge of her seat the whole time!! It was cool because the used the original music (well, in spanish) but added other songs and changed the story line a bit. It was so fun!Here is Suzy at the play:



And at the pool party:

warning....

Just a heads up that God is doing something huge in our life right now. Be on the lookout for an update. A great update for all you US readers. And please pray that God will keep taking care of all the details as He has been doing. Thanks!

Ash, Elv, Suz

lil cabin in the woods

This weekend Elvis and Suz and I escaped to our favorite little mountain town to spend the night in a cute little cabin and enjoy some cool weather. We had a great time drinking coffee, eating good food, shopping in the second-hand stores people set up in their garages (I got an awesome like-new Columbia winter jacket for $5 for our Christmas trip to the US!), and just being together. After all the times we've been to this town, we finally found a nice waterfall that is just a few minutes away.



Suzy's first marimba concert!

my hunnybee

Elvis and I had fun with Suzy this weekend, playing dressup in her bumblebee outfit. She was definitely buzzing all around the park and would hardly sit still for a picture!

Blue skies...finally!

The rain has finally stopped! Today is the first time I have seen blue skies in a looong time. Actually, it didn't rain yesterday, so the Ministry of Education reversed their decision to cancel school and we ended up going. Thursday night, we had a strong tremor (5.6 on the Richter scale), which shot Elvis up from bed to go running to Suzy's room. Since I have never personally experienced a real earthquake, it is still a bit exhilerating for me to feel a tremor. However, for Elvis, who has lived through several devastating earthquakes, they are always a little bit traumatic. However, one good thing from the tremor is that usually the weather changes after a big one, and this was true for this tremor. Today there is a nice (almost fall-like) breeze and it's a bit cooler. Made for a lovely long walk with Suzy this morning!

Suzy has had a big week...turning 10 months has brought along all kinds of new exciting things! First of all, she cut her 3rd tooth yesterday. She now has two bottom teeth and a top one is now peeping through! And yesterday, she got her Halloween costume. Can't wait to put it on her =) She also learned how to climb the stairs yesterday by herself. Uh oh!! Guess we better figure out getting a gate for the staircase asap! Also this week she ate her very first pupusa!! Dinora made one for her and she ate the whole thing. Loved it! Here she is reaching for it:
I'm having trouble loading the video of her first pupusa experience, but i'll keep working on it!

Anybody got an ark?

So, that tropical storm I was talking about in my last post has come and is on it's way out...however, ANOTHER tropical storm, Nicole, is coming through today! It has been raining absolutely non-stop since last Friday. That makes drying clothes impossible. Actually, it's raining so much and there is such a high threat of landslides and flooding that school got out early today and is cancelled for tomorrow and Thursday. That makes for a great 4 day weekend, although it's raining too much to get out and do anything. The good thing is that I will have time to do all my work for my master's class....it is a little bit more involved than i expected, but the topics we are talking about are SO interesting. Maybe I'll go more in depth in that one day when I have more time. So, keep praying for our little country which is totally waterlogged right now. Thanks!

random happenings

So, today Suzy and I saw our national bird in our neighborhood park:That was such a nice little surprise this morning!


In other news, Monday is gonna be a big day. First of all, Suzy will be 10 months! Whoa! How did that happen so fast? She's at such a fun age though. It's the best when you walk into the room and she starts clapping for you. Who else does that? I mean, my 3rd grade class did that for me once when I walked in with my new haircut- my bangs were practically glued into this awesome wave and it was so impressive that they actually clapped when i walked in! True story.

Also, Monday is a big day because I start my first online class at Fuller Seminary! It is called "Ministry Issues in Gender and Human Sexuality." The fun part is that Kelly McPhail and I will be taking the class together!

In even different news, we would appreciate your prayers for El Salvador: we've had some problems on a nation-wide level recently with increased gang activity/threats...to the point that a couple of weeks ago, there was no public transportation whatsoever for 3 days because of gang threats. That's a big deal in a country that depends on buses. All this has been in response to a new law that makes being part of a gang a crime. Thankfully, nothing really happened other than the fear that was generated amongst the people which in someways is worse than if anything actually happened. We're praying for physical peace, as in the lack of violence, as well as peace in the hearts of salvadorans. Don't worry, gang activity is not something we see personally, but it's something we are aware of.

You can also pray for El Salvador as we are experiencing the effects of Tropical Storm Matthew this weekend. Excessive rains always show the fragility of houses and roads here.

Also, as a country we are all mourning the death of the zoo (and the country's) only elephant, Manyula. She personifies every salvadoran's childhood and everybody has fond memories of her. Really, everybody has been talking about her death as if she were a family member, she is that loved. I even met her one time! She died at the age of 60 years old (55 of those years were lived here at the zoo), and thousands of people went to her funeral. She was buried in her area of the zoo.

Mama

So, even though "mama" was technically Suzy's first word several months back (she said "mama" just minutes before saying "papa" so i win!), she definitely prefers saying "papa" all the time. However, in the past few days, she has started saying "mama" a lot more which of course is music to my ears! We finally got a video of her talking:

1st trip to the lake

Today was Independence day here in El Salvador, so we took our free day and went to the lake! It was Suzy's first time and she loved it.

Get up, stand up...

So, Suzy has decided she loves standing up and walking around (with help, of course). She's always standing up in her crib when we go get her in the morning. We know that she's awake because through the monitor we hear: "Papa, Papa" in her sweet little voice. She knows that Papa gives her her bottle in the mornings, and so she's always saying his name! So precious. And here are some pictures from our trip last weekend to the botanical gardens: