Still There 3

Still There 2

Still There

Friday was uneventful: got up late again, went to the park, played board games, ate some more unbelievably! Atmosphere starts to go down a bit...
On Saturday though we had fun going to a cafe downtown that has been Mark's favorite hang out when he was a teenager. Why? Well he sums it up nicely: " it was open all night!". Good food and drinks, relaxed atmosphere, fun people..we all like it. And it is closing :( We talked to the owner and he just said he wanted to move on to other things...it has been 22 years. We took the kids this time and had chocolate fraps!







And apparently I can't post more than 5 pics in a post so I'll make several for that day since I took way too many pics again ;)

There

After staying up for most of the night catching up with my sister-in-law, Amy, and her fiancee, Matt,we staggered out of bed at 10 am. And after a nice breakfast of strong coffee and Pannettone from a Portland (where Amy and Matt are from) bakery, we set to work. Actually Matt loves to cook and he had decided on the menu and did most of the cooking. We feasted on :
-turkey
-vegetarian and non-veg gravy
-garlic mashed potatoes
-cranberry-orange gravy
-veg and non-veg stuffing
-green bean casserole
-brussels sprouts
-pumpkin pie, apple pie, berry pie ( half of them without sugar)

It was good and way too much but then that's the point of Thanksgiving isn't it? Matt is also an american football fan so we watched a game while cooking. I got all the rules and commentaries. Most of the time I couldn't see the ball hehe. Man, I don't know how these guys survive. That's really a brutal game. We drank a lot of wine and again stayed up way too late ;).
And I told you that house is brown!

The way there

I looooove road trips. I get to do nothin' since I hate to drive, except taking pictures, reading and occasional munching :)
The sierra looked lovely on highway 80 as usual with brilliant fall colors.



The summit is at Donner pass and just before you get a really nice overview.



The fog is coming but we are almost there!



There it is: Reno, NV, The biggest little city in the world! Stomachs are rumbling and the kids are on hypervolt mode.



The trip took 2h15 mns. Now, I know it doesn't sound important but in the fourth (!) Thanksgiving installment (!) you'll see how important it actually is.

Brrrrrrrr

We are back! A day late and in the middle of a blizzard. I think my toes are permanently frozen. Pics and everything-that-happenned tomorrow. Now where is that cat with the thick winter coat?

T -o

We are still not gone since I'm still dragging this on and on. I just talked to my sister for 45 mns and I was telling her that we watched Armaggedon last night. We agreed it was a sign hahahahaha. Ahem. "shuffling feet toward the suitcase"

Mmmmph

Well, I guess the day has come. Leaving fo my in-laws today for Thanksgiving. Ha, Thanksgiving, I'll not start on this topic. Curiously I have a big headache. We are supposed to leave in 2 hours and I'm in my pj's and nothing is packed. And of course on the days we are leaving and coming back there is going to be snow because otherwise it would not be fun enough right? We are going to Reno which is 2 hours 15 mns away. Just after you cross the high mountains. One time we got stuck for the night on the road beacause of snow. Did I mention I hate snow and cold?? Man, I'm in a bad mood. If only I can shut my big mouth there should not be the beginning of world war 3 this week-end. How likely is that?
Ah, yes did I mention that my in laws live in a world of brown: from the carpet to euh everything is brown. I'm not kidding. In my house every room is a different vibrant color and it's warm and hum pffffff. I need to go pack I guess.

Flicka

Since I'm at it with movies :) We went to see Flicka. You know: girl loves horse, horse loves girl. Perfect for pre-teens who love horses. A bit too much for my 7 year old daughter who was crying her heart out when she thought the horse would die. The only thing I really liked about it: the scenery. I love the Wyoming/ Montana part of the States and I'd really like to go back to the cabins we rented with Mark's family around the Yellowstone area. We had a great time! Cowboys tipping their hats, the best breakfasts ever, listenin' to the coyotes ( could be wolves actually other there!) howling at night on the porch, greeting the foal in the corral in the morning... Yellowstone is magnificent. Geysers, bears, buffalos... But maybe you'd like a few pictures?

Flushed Away

All right, I wasn't too excited to go see this one but it turned out to be really funny. The kids giggled the whole time and we had a good laugh.My husband thinks that maybe the french people won't like this one too much because of the frogs...

School

Very busy these days...not only with the usual children, work and house stuff but we also have to make an important decision. Our son is in the Rapid Learner Program and we have to decide where he is going to go next year for school. He'll be 12 and the choices are:
-International Baccalaureat which is considered the best of the best. It focuses a lot on languages and art. Big drawback: you don't have a life in there. It's work and a lot of it. They focus a lot on test scores and there is no time for sport, music or whatever else you are interested in.
-High Achiever program. Available in most middle-schools the classe are more challenging and they go beyond in their way of looking at a problem.
-Staying in his school for 6th grade in the same program. I love that program and would love for him to stay but the school is not sure they will have enough students for a classroom next year.

I find it very difficult to choose a "path" for my son's life when he is only 11. Will he be mad at us later if we don't put him in this international baccalaureat program that would for sure put him in a wonderful position when universities will be recruiting? I don't want to commit him to a life of all work no play. A lot of the children in his classroom are going though... He wants to stay in his present school that he loves and he certainly doesn't want more homework and he wants time to play soccer.
I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up and he said: " I want to make video games."
Me: " Euh, ok...Nothing else? Really? Nothing?"
Him: "Nope."

Shoppin' at the Mall

Now, I'm quite happy that I don't look like most of the mothers of 2 children at my kids' school. Or that people look surprised when I tell them my age. And that they laugh histerically when I say that I like to knit ( not well or often but still, it counts!). However when I find myself shopping for pyjamas and underwear at Victoria's secret in the midst of 14 year olds, chatting on cell phones and with their friends and chewing gum at the same time I do ask myself questions. When these same 14 years old are buying push up bras for what looks more like mosquito bites than real breasts, I laugh. When I'm standing in line at the cash register and that I see them buy for more than a hundred bucks worth of stuff I think it's unfair ;). Well at least I don't have mosquito bites ha!

Pumpkin Soup

A favorite all winter long! This recipe is quick, delicious, beautiful and makes everybody feel warm and cozy :)

1 lb ( 500 g.) piece of peeled pumpkin
1/4 (50 g.) cup butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
31/2 cup ( 800 ml) chicken stock
2 cups (500 ml) milk
pinch of grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 1/2 oz spaghetti, broken into small pieces ( 1/4 d'un paquet de 500g )
6 tbsp grated parmesan

1- Chop the piece of pumpkin into 1 inch cubes.
2- Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the onion, and cook over moderate heat until it softens, 6-8 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin, and cook for 2-3 minutes more.
3- Add stock and cook until pumpkin is soft, about 15 mns. Remove from heat.
4- Puree the soup and return to pan. Add milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Bring the soup back to a boil.
5- Stir the broken spaghetti into the soup and cook until pasta is done. Stir in the parmesan.

The french quantities are approximate, which is always how we do it anyway. If you are cooking the soup in advance, cook the pasta in it at the last minute so that it doesn't absorb all the water.

Bon Appetit!

Marie-Antoinette

We saw Coppola's Marie-Antoinette a few days ago and I loved it. Visually stunning of course, but I also thought the acting was very good. I had never seen Kirsten Duntz in a movie and I was surprised how much I liked her. She really conveyed very well the boredom, isolation and superficiality of Marie-Antoinette's life. There are many angles you could choose to portray Marie-Antoinette's life and I loved that sophia Coppola chose to show the life of a teenager (she was 14 when she arrived in France) and what she faced arriving in another country. The modern music, which apparently upsetted so many french people, enhanced the movie really well . Very well done and highly recommended! My only grudge: the ending...

On Halloween

Light all the pumpkins
And let their weird gleam
Call witches and goblins
To keep Halloween.

Happy Samhain everyone! My little witch and my not so little knight anymore are off to do their tricks. I have a fire, a bin full of candy and the cat. I feel at peace and I'll think about my grandparents who are not with us anymore and that I miss. Someone is knocking... careful, the witch is in ;)
Have a great, magical night everyone!

Wanna come over?

The witch is making dinner :)

Halloween favorites

Here are some of my family favorites to read and watch for Halloween:

The first thing that comes to mind is: cute! And not in a bad way at all... this is a very imaginative, uplifting movie. Unless you are the grinch it'll put a smile on your face!

Definitly not my favorite but my 11 year old liked it :)

Everything in Winnie's house is black: the bed, the bathtub, the stairs...even the cat. And that's the problem: you can't see a black cat on a black floor against a black wall. And you trip on him over and over again...what is a witch to do??
Alice and Greta went to the same school and learned the same spells...but Greta forgot about the most important lesson of all: the brewmerang principle.
"Whatever you chant
Whatever you brew
Sooner or later
Comes back to you!"

I love this book ans so do my children. Mitzi is a witch and she likes creepy things. So, when she decides she wants a pet, she, of course, wants a creepy one. But looks aren't everything...

All right, after a raging war between Blogger and me I'm admitting defeat. I wanted to add a pic for The nightmare before Christmas but for some totally unknown and obviously idiotic reason Blogger is not letting me uploading the pic. I'll put the links for all of these items on the right. Anyway, unless you've been raised by penguins in an ice cave, you know the story. And you know it's brilliant too.

Enjoy!

Pete's pond

Just a quick note that I've been wanting to do for a while. There is a live national geographic camera at Pete's pond in Africa. You can see elephants, giraffes, zebras, crocodile and a lot more as they come to drink at the pond during the dry season. I like to leave the site on all the time to hear the animal sounds: birds, insects and... bats!
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/

Well, well, well

Long time no see as they say. It's just that I thought I was having such a good time with strep throat. So 2 days after I stopped the antibiotics I, of course, caught a big cold. It actually wiped me out for a week which is pretty unusual. If I remember correctly I said I'd post Halloween pics so here they are! Only a few for today but I'll be back. If I don't get the flu, Ebola or with all the giant mosquitoes flying around, West Nile.

Apologies

I wish to apologize in advance for this post. It's terrifying and gross. It's the horror that gave its name to horror.
I present to you the lunch menu at my kids' school:

October 16
Cheesy bread sticks or chicken nuggets
Marinara sauce
Cinnamon belly bear cookie

October 17
Beef soft taco or chicken nuggets
Fruit snacks (these are candies not fresh fruits)

October 18
Hot dog w/bun or chicken nuggets
Vegetarian baked beans
Wiggly red pear jello

October 19
Pepperoni pizza or chicken nuggets
Chocolate chip elf graham

October 20
Penne pasta w/ meat sauce or chicken nuggets
Animal crackers

Now honesty moves me to mention that there is a salad bar ( only since end of last year ) but the stuff in there is so unappetizing that the only kids that I've seen using it are vegetarians (obviously they don't have a choice!).
Thankfully we make our kids lunches and one good thing is that we are welcome any day to share lunch with the kids.
You know what's ironic too? On the paper that has the menu on it, they insist heavily on haow important it is to get you 5 fruits and vegetables a day. Ha!
Now if you really want to be disgusted with the whole thing go check Candy Froggie's website where she posts her daughter's school lunch menu ;)

Confessions

There was a nice "confession" post on http://blog.candyfroggie.com/. I love that kind of post, it's always fun and it's a tiny crack in other people's lives. Which will explain my first confession...

Confession 1:
I visit this blog http://www.popsugar.com/ regularly. Ahem.

Confession 2:
I never rest when I'm sick which makes it worse and then I get very grumpy. I am also not trustworthy when it comes to take medications.

Confession 3:
I give my dog tidbits from my plate under the table exactly like when I was a kid.

Confession 4:
I love boots. The tall ones that are all leather with no heels. Yes, like pirate's boots :)

Confession 5:
In the family, only my sister knows about my blog. Unless my other relatives discovered it by themselves.

Confession 6:
my favorite ice cream is http://www.benjerrys.com/our_products/flavorWorld.cfm ( Phish Food ) which has marshmallow, caramel and fudge. Ben, tant qu'a faire hein!

Confession 7:
When my daughter was around 2 years old she took the habit of waking me up every day at dawn saying: "mama, mama, you can wake up now the sun is up!!".And one day I said: "Well, then he doesn't need me anymore now does he?". She stopped talking for a full minute at that point, which is still a record ;)

Wasn't meant to be

I was going to do a cheerful little post about Halloween, decorations, cookies and pumpkin pie with lots of pictures. But it wasn't meant to be: my computer is lying in pieces with my husband trying to replace the hard drive. He is swearing profusely ahem. We have 4 computers in the house. Yes, 4. And not one of them is working correctly. It seems I'm also having side effects from the antibiotics I'm taking for strep throat, lovely. Laurienna jewelry has been updated though with new earrings and bookmarks. But the new necklaces and bracelets are not there yet. I'll put that up once I get my "real" computer back. If ever *sigh*
Hehe, I just reread myself: I sound so melodramatic :):)

Candy Froggie

I just added a link ( you know on the right other there ). Candy Froggie's website is fantastic in every sense of the word. And she just added her last Halloween painting for 2006. Does it really have to be the last? ;). Go check it out!

Friday the 13th

I'm one of these people who think that friday the 13th is a lucky day. Nothing bad ever happened to me on a friday the 13th. And I owned a black cat and I gleefully walked under ladders too. That was until yesterday. Yesterday my son's teacher sent her usual friday e-mail giving info on what happened in class during the week. It was student election week and we learn who won which post ( like president, vice president, tresorer etc). My son was not running which should exempt me of any sort of bias, right? Well, I learned that the kid who won vice-president cheated. He distributed printed t-shirts with his name on it ( which is against the printed rules given to you when you run and that have to be signed). Which implies that he was helped by his parents who forked a lot of money to have t-shirts printed. The teachers knew about it, they told the principal who said: "oh well". I'm so mad. I know it seems silly and they are only 10 and eleven years old and all. But you know what? That family works for a very well known actor who is our governor ( you know the one with the hummers and uzis galore). These people make me sick : they cheat, lie and weasel their way out of anything. It starts in elementary school and goes all the way to the president of the us. Black Friday indeed. Shame on you.

Piper

Ladies and Gentleman, may I present you Piper aka Big Baby. She is 8 months old and we adopted her from a shelter when she was 13 weeks old. No, no you are not on the "Save the dogs" website where we'll get all teary eyed and mushy. However, I get a lot of questions about her and the fact that she is a rescue puppy. She is part labrador, part Mastiff. We didn't know what she was crossed with when we adopted her but we did know she would be big ( at 13 weeks her paws were as big as the palms of my hands ). She is the smartest and most gentle dog I have ever known ( and I've known quite a bit ). She was house trained in 3 days, stole food once and never did it again, hasn't destroyed anything in the house and is very easily trained to do pretty much anything. she has not shown any aggression. In fact, when on a few occasions suspicious people have shown up at the door or passed us on walks at night she simply but very effectively put herself between me and them. No growl, but a definit message was sent: you are not coming any closer. Any other people ( even strangers ) are greeted with a wagging tail and rolling tongue. Why am I saying all this? Christmas season is coming and a lot of people are buying pets as gifts. Every year my local newspaper is full of ads selling puppies and kittens for hundreds of dollars a piece. Please think twice. It might take a little longer to get that dream puppy or kitten that will be a good match for you but I can assure you, you will. There are thousands and thousands of animals in shelters waiting for somebody to love them. They might not be perfect ( Piper got her tail broken at birth so now it's crooked and it looks a little funny :)) but I can honestly tell you that when you'll meet them you won't care one bit.





If you live in the Sacramento area check this shelter where we adopted Piper:
http://www.cashelterfriends.org/cashelterfriends.html

Morning walk

Wine and tv

Well, I'm sure that all of you are impatiently waiting for more tidbits of my fascinating life. However, right now, I'm sipping a glass of wine, watching Bones and waiting for the season premiere of Lost :). I'll just share this bit from dinner. Miss A.( 7 ) is animatedly telling us that today she learned about presidents and the White House. And she says she really really really wants to visit the White House. A bit puzzled I ask why. " They have 35 BATHROOMS in there!! Can you imagine? You are visiting and then suddenly you've got to pee, but they have 35 BATHROOMS! And you are in the hallway jumping up and down and and and HOW DO YOU CHOOSE ONE??" huhuhu

??

Does anybody know why I suddenly have links in my texts that I didn't have before? Like sea salt, hard drive, pet mouse? Does anybody else get links with these words or is it just me?

Still alive!

Yes I know, shame on me. Again. I promise I'll make more efforts to post regularly :)
It's not even for lack of things to say, far from it. Actually the opposite: so many things to say and like everybody else it seems, so little time. I've been working quite a bit of course. Expect lots of changes on the website in the coming weeks: new designs of course but also lots of new ideas and directions. And no,I won't tell in advance ;).
To do list for today:
- Finish an order
- Drink lots of thyme and lemon balm tea cause I'm getting sick
- Force that same tea down the throat of my 11 year old who is sick too ( yeah what a coincidence, don't you think?)
- Make brownies with the 7 year old because she was inconsolable yesterday when one of his brother's pet mice died (old age). After proper burial and quite a bit of worrying on my part regarding our giant puppy ( part canidae, part dragon ), that could have, ahem, desecrated the grave in seconds. So far so good by the way. So after that sad episode, I, thoughtful mother that I am make the dinner that I always do when one of us is overworked, sick, in need of a pick me up: chili. And of course it's dinner time and everybody is talking about their day and so I mentionned that I saw a falcon in one of our trees today and it was eating something.
Miss A. : " What do falcons eat?"
The Thoughtful Mother : " Oh, rats, mice, sqirrels and other small animals."
Now on any other day that would have been fine, right. Any Other Day. But not That day. Sigh. I'll pass on what came after ( more tears, reassurance that no the falcon is not going to eat the remaining pet mouse ( named Thunderstorm ) etc. Ah yes, I was talking about brownies. Well after a difficult bedtime, a small little voice asked if we could bake brownies together today. What do you think I said?
- Find a new hard drive because mine is quitting.
- Take pics of new jewelry.
- Plant coriander and Chamomile seeds.
- Give a bath to the aforementionned canidae/dragon. Wonder where that huge tarp went.
- I'll probably need a bath myself after.
- Make onion soup.
- Go to bed and sleep . Well, or read. Or beg for a shoulder massage.