Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Family. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Family. Afficher tous les articles
mardi 11 juin 2013
Saturday morning, Alain and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7 am and drove to Toulon for our niece's first communion. She goes to a Catholic school, even though they aren't particularly Catholic, and I guess Saturday was the semi-annual mass baptism/ first communion. Alain is her godfather. It was a bit difficult choosing a present as we were told 'no jewelry' (from the school) plus 'no christian stuff' (from his sister). Hum.
Alain finally went to a bookstore and bought a fictional girl's diary from some uprising in France in the 1870's and "Dictionnaire des rebelles". Good ol' anti-establishment frenchisms.
We got to the church around ten, and met up with both sets of grandparents. It was a modern church, which I didn't really like. Packed with people. Alain's sister said we would have to 'do something' unspecified. It turns out we didn't have to do anything at all other than stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, kneel, stand up, sit down, the usual.
Man, she adores her uncle.
No pictures allowed during the ceremony, but after it was over we snuck back in and took some pictures in front of the altar, until the nuns starting cleaning up around us.
Afterwards, we went back to their house (in the middle of a major renovation- they had to move out for three months while workers added a mezzanine).
After lunch, they sent Manon to her room for awhile while they put together a tower of cupcakes. She was thrilled.
lundi 16 juillet 2012
Saturday morning, we watched the parade in Paris on tv, and then in the afternoon we drove to Toulon.
Our brother-in-law, Nicolas, is in the French Army. He was required to march in the Toulonais parade, and asked if we would like to come and see it.
We figured it was a good opportunity to get out of the house, see Lucie (Alain's sister) and one of their two rugrats (Anna - well into the terrible three's). The other, Manon almost 9, had left for camp for three weeks.
I was afraid that the autoroute would be packed with people on their way to the Côte d'Azur for the holidays, but it wasn't too bad. In about an hour we had arrived. Nicolas had warned us that the center of the city would be blocked off, so we took a detour, which was a bit backed-up, but made it finally around 4. Nicolas had already left, to pick up his rifle, be inspected, and practice. His parents were visiting as well.
A little after five we hopped a bus downtown. We walked past the troops in rank and order (mainly Navy, as Toulon has a semi-large Naval base). The poor men and women had been standing out there for at least an hour.
On the shady side of the street, but still. Having spent many hours in parades myself, I definitely sympathized. We found Nicolas, and Anna (atop his father's shoulders) screamed Papa! and kept trying to get him to wave. He kinda blinked and wiggled his eyebrows in response. We found an area with a good view, and waited, thinking the parade would start at 6. Wrongo.
The boring inaudible speeches and medal-giving started at 6, with the parade starting at 7. This was a bit (okay, way) too long for Anna, who kept complaining that her stomach hurt, and Caca! (the equivalent of Poopoo!) as loud as possible. Lucie took her to the bathroom three times, but boredom was the main problem.
The parade started a bit after 7 and took all of 15 minutes. The troops marched by, followed by lots and lots of firetrucks. I am convinced that no National celebration is complete without firetrucks. Whether we are talking small town Colorado or Paris, France, the firetrucks must be present.
After the parade was over, everyone cleared out pretty quickly. We walked back to the bus stop, and waited. And waited. We must have waited at least half an hour for the damn bus. I was all for taking a taxi, since it was about 5 minutes away by car, but the others vetoed me. Hey, after 2 hours of standing and the prospect of not being able to fit on the bus even when it comes by....
Happy four (teenth) of July!
vendredi 25 mai 2012
Here is a picture of us, I must have been about 16 (the date on the photo is wrong). They brought me out East to visit some colleges, but I was dead set on the Naval Academy and barely wanted to consider any other options. Go figure.
Anyway, Happy Birthday dad!
mardi 24 janvier 2012
When I was seven, my parents bought me a male golden retrievor puppy.
They asked me what I think we should name him (big mistake).
They asked me what I think we should name him (big mistake).
I said
SANDBALL!
which, I think, was a perfectly accurate name.
(<- me with Sunny)
They said no. (and learned a valuable lesson - never ask a child what to name a puppy. Which of course has a corrolary- never ask older children what to name the new baby. Which goes double if they are in a Lord of the Rings Phase.
Here's to not having some weird elf name!!)
Anyway, we settled on Barney. This was, mind you, before the days of the big purple dinosaur.
(Grandma Eleanor with Barney on the left and Sunny on the right)So "Sandball", which could have been transformed into the acceptable golden retrievor name "Sandy" (though it would look a bit funny on the purebreed Kennel Club papers), was out.
Barney Trievor Smith
Now that is one heck of a prestigious dog name.
We took him down to Ecuador with us, where he cheerfully refreshed the gene pool, and we got another puppy from the first litter.
This time, we named him
Sundance Kid de la Cumbré Smith 
(de la Cumbré was added on as the name of the street he was born on).
So we had Barney and Sunny, father and son. They were great pals. We brought them back to Colorado with us when we left Ecuador.
Barney passed away at the age of eight, and Sunny passed away at the age of 12, ten years ago this month.
Miss you, you big balls of sand.
vendredi 27 mai 2011
Here is a picture of me, about 8 years old, with my two favorite cousins, Chris on the left, and Paul on the right.
Our three families decided to rent a houseboat on Lake Powell on the Colorado River, for a week in summer.
Here we are at Rainbow Bridge, me posing with my high-waist shorts and braided pigtails.
Ah, an 8 year old's fashion sense, gotta love it.
We spent the week swimming, barbequing, diving off cliffs, drinking beer (well, not the kids), playing card games, water fights, and lying in the sun.
We keep saying we will do it again, now with spouses and kids in tow, but it isn't easy to find a time that everyone can get together.
mardi 26 avril 2011
Happy Easter one and all.On Sunday, we went over to Alain's aunt's house, picking up his grandparents on the way. Once we all got down to the parking lot in front of their apartment building, Meme remembered that she had forgotten her hearing aids, so Alain ran back up to fetch them for her.
Around 1 pm his parents had also arrived, so we sat down to eat.
I can't really qualify it is as "Easter lunch" or "Easter dinner" only "Easter meal", as it lasts about 7 hours. Thanksgiving is a lot of food too, but that only lasts from about 4 pm to 4:15 pm. I am not sure which is best, but I get restless towards the end of the mega- sit and talk fests.
Here is what we had: a light salad (in photo above) with some tapenade-feuillété rolls, followed by large gambas and mayonnaise, then leg of lamb (side note: just had to explain to Alain that veal is not a baby lamb) with stuffed zucchini (not my favorite) and a crunch basil cheesy muffin thingy, the romarin-olive mini baguettes I made (love my bread machine!) followed by fruit, a fruit-rouge chocolate cake, strawberries, then patisseries and a gugelhupf made by my mother-in-law (they just got back from a week in Alsace, near Strasbourg). I declined the last two desserts (giving my shares to Alain, who was quite happy to have them).
My sister-in-law and her family arrived after we had finished eating the main meal (but before the desserts, bien sûr). They were late as they had to pick up eldest niece from the train station. As she is off from school these two weeks (week before and after Easter) they shipped her off to a camp, where the girls learned how to take care of horses, while the boys rode on mini motorcycles. Figures.
The girls hunted for chocolate Easter eggs, which was quite cute to see Anna looking for them for the first time. Which was a nice change from her first Easter two years ago when she screamed the whole time, and a nice change from last Easter, where Manon threw up all over just before we started to eat.
After dessert #3, the guys went outside to talk about guy-stuff (including shooting off his cousin's BB gun), while the women mostly talked about kids. What a surprise.
We rolled out of there around 8 pm, slept in until 10:30 am as Monday was off from work.
Yay for holidays!
samedi 12 mars 2011
Population :1,088 (2000 Census)
Founded : 1859 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush
ZIP Code : 80444
Elevation : 8530 feet (2600 m)
My post from last visit for Christmas 2008
A few years ago, my parents, aunt, and uncle went in on buying a second house in Georgetown, which they split between them. It is about an hour west of Denver, near the ski resorts.
I like going up there, it is always so peaceful and quiet.
It has a tiny downtown area, with several touristy-shops, a shop that makes candy, a shop that sells cowboy hats, etc.
When I go up there, I usually sleep about 80% of the time. Get up late, take an afternoon nap, go to bed early. We have spent one or two Christmases there, and Alain has been there twice.
This visit, we drove up there on Monday, and another aunt and uncle arrived, whom I hadn't seen in several years. My dad and uncle went skiing one day, while the ladies read/slept/watched girly movies/shopped. It was fun.
Now back down to the Front Range, for more reading/sleeping/watching girly movies/shopping.
It is a hard life.
lundi 28 février 2011
Anna will be two years old in March. She is quite unlike her bigger sister, whom she adores.
She actually will do what you tell her to (so far at least).
She is quite a mama's girl.
It's quite funny (for me) to hear baby talk in French, though I do remember a time when Manon and I were about at the same level (and now she is correcting my accent, sigh).
samedi 26 février 2011
Well, I guess I'll finish up the month with pictures of all our (4) nephews and nieces.
This is Rudy, the first grandkid, my brother's son. He is much older than this now, but I like this picture a lot.
He was our Ring Bearer and got along great with Manon, even though neither of them spoke the other's language (which is okay though, because they both spoke kid).
vendredi 25 février 2011
MANON
Schools in the South of France are now on break. (one of their many)
Which of course leaves parents in a conundrum of what to do with their rugrats while they are at work.
Easiest (and cheapest) answer of course is..
The Grandparents!
Our niece Manon is staying with Alain's parents for a week.
His parents and Manon stopped by his work yesterday to see him and to see his workplace.
Alain brought me home this-
de la par(t) de Manon pour Megan.
I thought at first it was a four-leaf clover for good luck.
Then I took a closer look and guessed "Broccoli taped to a piece of paper?"
It is, apparently, a flower that lost all its petals.
I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you have to be effusively enthusiastic about receiving as a aunt/uncle/parent/grandparent.
I'm thinking yes.
"Why thank you honey for the dead flower taped to a piece of paper! It's what I always wanted! I will put it on the fridge RIGHT NOW!"
But seriously, I am touched.
So, to the exams next week, apparently I am taking (besides my suitcase full of books)
My four-leaf clover socks that I've had since high school and only wear for times when I need luck
My necklace with a gold-dipped aspen leaf and Alain's and my rings
And my broccoli taped to a piece of paper.
Hey, sometimes you need all the luck you can get. (And it worked last year for the CEIPI)
Adding a new label to my blog: Rugrats
dimanche 6 février 2011
Here is a photo of my grandparents (mother's side) on their wedding day.Grandpa John and Grandma Eleanor.
Do I look like my grandmother?
Perhaps the coloring no, but I think the eyes yes.
He called me "toilet brush head" as a baby, and would slam doors so that I would wake up from my naps whenever he came to visit.
(so that he would be able to see me)
She came and lived with us for several years in South America after he was gone.
If we have a daughter, I want to name her Eléonore (at least as a middle name.) Alain says no. We'll see about that.
vendredi 4 février 2011
Here is a picture of my beautiful sister Leah and me. This was summer of 2003 or 2004, age 23 or so, when I went out to visit her in California (before she moved to Thailand).
Can you tell we are sisters?
PS The correct response to yesterday's name guessing game was:
Aloysius
It is an old German name, pronounced (get this) Al-o-wish-us.
My grandfather promised his fortune to whichever of his kids named a grandchild after him. Nobody did. Probably for several reasons:
- There wasn't much fortune
- He was probably joking anyway
- Who wants to name their kid Aloysius nowdays?
I remember once we were having a family reunion when the phone rang.
"May I please speak to Mr. Smith?"
"Which one?" (there were about 10 Mr. Smiths present in the room)
Hesitant pause. "Al-oy-seee-us?"
"Dad, it's a telemarketer for you!"
So congratulations to chcmichael from Our House in Provence !
samedi 28 août 2010
Alain's sister Lucie and her husband Nicolas wanted to get their eldest daughter Manon, who just turned 7, out of the house for a few days, so they suggested that we take her. (Along the lines of "Wouldn't you love to have her stay with you for an indefinite amount of time?" Um, can we really say no? I mean, sure!)
As she is working and he is redoing their kitchen, they wanted her out from underfoot (but that still left the 18 month old to watch over, which is apparently not easy when you are knocking down walls, but no way we were taking both. We can barely handle a 7 year old)
It was her birthday last week, so we bought her some pink rollerblades. Unfortunately, as she does not have two right feet, I had to take them back the next day and exchange them for one 
left and one right. Who knew?
left and one right. Who knew? Alain had suggested that maybe she would like the blue ones, but as he knows nothing about 7 year old girls' tastes, I overuled him and insisted on the pink. Good thing too. I also gave her a small purse that I got for free from Cacharel with a perfume purchase years ago, white with a red heart on a chain. She loved it and carried it everywhere. Alain had said "Don't give her that, she won't like it." Again, just wait until we have a daughter or three. (On a side note, we have been watching the series "Medium" with Patricia Arquette. I keep teasing him that he too will have three blond American daughters. His response? "After the second I'm outta here.")
They dropped her off on Sunday, and she spent three days with Alain here in the apartment. They went rollerblading, to the park, to the Vieux Port, for ice cream, for groceries, etc. He thought that he would be able to work a little bit while she was here, that she would color or read, but that didn't work out. I told him to take her out rollerblading in the morning for a few hours to wear her out so she would take a nap in the afternoon, but it was rather him that was worn out and wanted to take a nap. Seven-year olds are apparently untirable.
All in all it went okay. It seems to be the okay age when they are more or less self-sufficient and obediant, and before they get into the "I hate everyone and everything" stage around 13 or so.
We managed to put her to bed every night around 10. It was really weird to have a kid around. You mean, we can't watch our regular shoot-em-up police TV series? Whoops, didn't expect that love scene, quick, cover her eyes!
She really enjoys being with Alain and opened up to me as well. As I left for work before she got up and came home each night around 7/7:30, I didn't see her too much, but she kept wanting to play "pet shop" with me. Basically it involves choosing small figurines from her collection, moving them around and making them say stuff. I don't really know how to play such games anymore. I just sorta move them around aimlessly and then say "Oh gee, I have to go make dinner now."
She didn't want to go back so soon, but Alain really need to work on his thesis, so her dad came and picked her up after a few days. Apparently, Nicolas wasn't able to advance as much as he had hoped. Without Manon around to sorta watch over Anna, he ended up having to spend more time watching her than before. Manon enjoyed staying with us and wants to come back, which I am sure we will allow at some point. However, it is quite clear to us that it would be best to pass any and all exams before having a rugrat of our own.
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