California Squirrel :)

La Brea Tar Pits

A few miles from Disneyland, in L.A. a smell permeates the streets. I guess in L.A., it could be a lot of different things (!) ( people from L.A., don't be mad, I'm quite sure you'd have thought of that lil' joke yourself). However the smell, this time, comes from large pools of tar ( goudron in french). The reason this is particularly interesting ( yes it is!), is because a lot of prehistoric animals and at least one human have been found. And many more are still being fished out. They have found hundreds of mammoths, saber tooth cats, dire wolves, condors, ancient camels etc... It is a small museum but extremely interesting and well made. They have a contraption where you can test how it feels to be stuck in tar. And let me tell you, no wonder everything got stuck in there.
My favorite part was the aptly named " fishbowl" which is the part of the lab where you can watch as the scientists are working. We were able to watch some sifting small particles for small bones, a guy was cleaning the tar of a giant sloth head and another one was piecing together pieces of turtle shells ( talk about a puzzle!).




The way back home lead us through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive and then it was hill after hill and more cows and ... well, I think I've already mentioned that huh?




Funnily enough, the kids seemed to have as much fun at the museum as at Disneyland :)

For Ever And Ever

That's what it took to get to Disneyland. You are driving for 6h30 mns in the middle of nowhere. Oh, sure, there are cows, and fruit trees that smell a hell of a lot better than the cows, grapevines, more cows. And hills, lots and lots of hills. And wind, lots and lots of wind. And more cows. And hawks too.
And then, quite suddenly ( nah, I wasn't sleeping pffff..) ( well, maybe a little )you find yourself in L.A. traffic which is always something. First there is ALWAYS an accident. Yes, I do mean ALWAYS. And so you are stuck, and stuck, and stuck some more. And, unbelievably, while you are stuck because of an accident, you witness ANOTHER accident happening on the lane right next to you. This time it's a lady who rear ended the huge truck in front of her. We were going at max 2 miles per hour and she manages to rear end a truck. I wonder if she was talking on the phone, eating spaghetti, doing yoga or if she was just so bored she really really wanted something to happen right now. People, I'm telling you, tssss.

( yes, I'm feeling very superior right now. I mean, come on! 2 miles per hour tops! )

Ok, let's breathe ( well, as well as you can through the smog you know, it's L.A. after all ).
There are lots of people with red cars that look like they could go really fast. Except we are all stuck as you know and "that's what you call ironic" ( Pirates of The Carribean dialogue here ). And after a few turns you find yourself on Disneyland Drive. Everybody is happier and we reach the motel with a sigh of relief.

The 2 next days were spent having fun Disney style. We flew with Peter Pan, had a mad tea party, got shot by pirates, hugged Minnie ( the second my daughter paused to get her picture taken with Minnie, my camera died. It just died. I couldn't believe it. Good thing Minnie is an extra nice mouse: Miss A. got an extra hug and a really nice autograph! I still can't believe it died.).

We ate Jambalaya and Gumbo and Mickey beignets and Churros.

A ghost hitched a ride with us at the Haunted Mansion and we met Geppetto. And we got sunburned and drenched the same day ( I had never been so soaked before, to the point of wringing water out of my underwear).

And then, there was the parade and the fireworks...I love their fireworks! I love the fact that you are in the middle and that they surround you with them.

And there was shopping...too much shopping ;)

It was fun...lots of fun. And there was still one more day of vacation and we decided to spend it at La Brea.

To Be Continued....

Yoho,yoho, no pirates life for me...

In spite of a very tempting proposition from Captain Jack Sparrow to join his band of mecreants, we made our way back to Sacramento on the winds of a storm. And, sadly, after the euphoria of sleeping in your own bed and take a shower in your bathtub has passed, you are left with more laundry than you thought possible and little Jedis wanting food (again?). I'll be back shortly. I think.


I wonder if the offer from Jack Sparrow would still stand.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Yep, that's Disneyland and that's where we are going. Actually, this trip was a gift for Mark's birthday (yes, I know, he'd rather be in Hawaii on the beach, hehe). That's the 2nd time that we'll be going there (with the kids that is; we had been there together before we had kids)(that sounds almost impossible: before we had kids? Can't even form that thought fully!). The first time we went for the wedding of one of Mark's cousin who was getting married very close. At the time, incredibly, I didn't think I'd like it and wanted to spend all my time at the Ocean with the kids. But my mother-in-law insisted we should go arguing that it was silly to be so close to Disneyland with little kids and not go. She was right and so we went...and we had a blast. We all loved it which I really didn't think would happen. But the look on my daughter's face (she was 5 at the time) when she met and talked with Cinderella, Mickey, Tigger and Captain Hook was priceless indeed. We stuffed ourselves with Churros and Mickey ice cream. We watched Tinkerbell flying over us during the fireworks and the parade quite frankly is amazing.
This time, the plan is to have tea with Minnie and meet up with Captain Jack Sparrow on New Orleans Square :)




We'll be back Saturday or Sunday. If you are going on vacation, have a good time and if you are stuck at the office, heu, well, sorry!

Swarmed

Spring has arrived full force in the Sacramento valley. We don't really have a winter here. We have summer with temps in the 100 F. (37 C.) as the norm and staying above that for days at a time with no rain for months (June to end of October). And then it's just a looooong fall/spring being just a bit colder for a few days in January. And there is a downside: mosquitoes. Swarms after swarms of big mosquitoes everywhere. The soil is clay in most parts of the valley which means that puddles stay there for days making the little suckers very happy...and no amount of garlic repels them unfortunatly ;)




Everybody is covered in bites these days even if we are careful...even the dog has had enough. I'm thinking of getting a bat house this year...I'd take bats over mosquitoes any day!

A Little Game

Candy Froggie had a game on her site about movies. Since I had computer troubles at that time I had not played. Now that everything is going well ( crossing fingers and toes), here are my answers:

1. A movie that makes you laugh: Don Camillo
2. A movie that makes you dance: Take the Lead
3. A movie that moves you to tears: E.T. every single time!
4. A movie that gets on your nerves: Sahara
5. A movie that makes you shudder: Any pirates, adventure (like Indiana, Lord of the Rings etc...).
6. A movie that makes you want to travel: Out of Africa
7. A too romantic movie: Shakespeare in Love
8. A movie I've in mind just right now: Lawrence of Arabia
9. A movie everybody knows by heart: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
10: A movie with a real bad ending: Chocolat (not the one with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche) but the one by Claire Denis
11. A movie with a soundtrack you really love: Take the Lead, Real Women have Curves, Buffy (I know it's a show but...)
12. A movie I'd really like to watch again: mmm, there is a lot of them! Let's choose...Cry Baby and The Devil Wears Prada :)
13. A movie with erotic bits that inspire you: Le Grand Bleu
14. A movie you could watch a thousand times without getting bored: Any Indiana Jones
15. A movie for kids that you love: The Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle, Ice Age, Pirates of the Carribean etc, etc!
16. A favorite cartoon: Peter Pan

Voila! Finally did it :)
And here is the trailer of The Devil Wears Prada. Meryl Streep is as usual excellent, a must-see I think!

The Last Few Days

Were lovely! Mark's birthday was great. He is getting 3 parties, no less, which cheered him up considerably ;)
Valentine's day was very good as well. In fact it was great: we all got to dig in the mud to try to make a garden out of the backyard. We had a great time, followed by a great dinner and cake, made by me both in 30 mns. I got raved revues ;)( not that they had the choice or anything hehe ).
Yesterday, started equally great: glorious spring day, everybody in t-shirts, smiling and in a good mood ( see: valentine's day is very good for you ). We got the kids in bed at a reasonnable hour for once and we started to watch a japanese movie that I had wanted to watch for a while:



We were enjoying ourselves quite a bit when we suddenly heard helicopters flying over the house. This is a common occurence. They are police helicopters and are used to follow suspects night or day. So we just continued to watch the movie. But the helicopter was very insistent and usually they don't keep flying over the house, they make a wide circle in between the 2 big streets ( our neighborhood is stuck in the middle). Then they started asking (in a loud speaker) for everybody to close the doors and windows, keep the pets inside and call 911 if anybody saw something suspicious. Which was quite a bit funny, I thought. All right, so, of course we did, and the whole thing went on for a good 45 mns. The sheriffs came with their dogs, and they went in all the backyards with their flashlights. And I don't know if they found what they were looking for or not.
What's funny is that the whole thing didn't faze me one bit. We now live in a very nice neighborhood (I swear it's true, this stuff happens everywhere here) but we used to live next door to drug dealers and across the street from a gang. Which didn't faze me much either. My mom thinks there is something wrong with me. I don't know what to think. She is shocked that after the circus was done I just went to sleep, slept soundly with not a worried thought. I'm thinking: well, the sheriff was there with the dogs, the police was there, Mark was there, Piper the great beast was there, we live down the street from a member of the SWAT team, next street from us lives my good friend M. who is a cop and kicks butt, I had closed up everything that could...I mean, what else could I do at 1 am? Of course she also doesn't think I should walk the dog by myself at night, drink beer when it's not August, eat sausages, work, plant more trees, read too much and for pete's sake Marie-Laure you should wear make-up ;). Mmmph.
And that's my point: I'm not easily scared that's true but I'm not a lunatic! I carry a cell phone at night and keys can be quite useful. I know so many people in the neighborhood by now there are dozens of houses I could run to if I had a problem. Not mentionning a great big dog by my side. But my mom was upset and I don't know what to tell her anymore... Of course it's true: anything could happen at any time. I sincerely don't think paranoia helps though. But I'm sure the fact that I am in the States makes it worse for her. I just read in National Geographic that adults in the United States have more chance to die of a firearm assault than being runover by a car. What about in France though? I've been gone a while but from what I hear it's not safer..
So, what do you think, am I being careless?

Happy B-day!

Happy Birthday Mark!!
He is turning, huh, hum, 26 isn't it? Sure there is a little bit of gray here and there but it just matches my own darling. And really you still get carded when you buy alcohol or ( completly incredible but true ) cough syrup for your sick child. Even though,really, you're 38. Oups, it just slipped out! Sorry!
And you're so fortunate since right on your b-day you get to go on a field trip with 33 eleven years old who have been cooped up inside for a week because of the crappy weather. 6 hours of glorious happiness. Eating a cold sandwich for lunch. Ah, come on, it makes you feel young. And the bonus is: you get to be with 33 happy (ok,ok,overexcited in a give me the ritalin kind of way, but it's the same thing really) little people for most of the day.
And no it's not raining. It's just the sprinkles on the cake :)


ps: I don't really have gray hair. I just said that to make him feel better you understand. I just thought I should be perfectly honest about this.

Signs

Do you think it's a sign
when your mother in law calls at 8 am on a Sunday
and tells you that you've already done 2 things wrong even though
the only thing you've done so far is dragging yourself up to go pee?

Wave

Waving to Candy Froggie :). I know it has been a while...Actually, I'd like to take this opportunity to rant. See, I've calculated that I've 2 days ( I do mean 2, the single digit number 2 ) of good health during the whole month of January. And February hasn't been much better so far ever. Thankfully we've had amazingly good weather and Sacramento is in full spring mode. Well, this week it's rainy and froggie but we need water so I'll not complain about that. No, no, what I want to complain about is school. The good old dreaded school. Never liked it for multiples reason:
- no sleeping-in even though you really had a really tiring week-end clubbing and all.
- they crowed your head with useless stuff like math. Who needs math?
- you've got to be polite to teachers who clearly got their degree in a cereal box.
- you can't dress the way you want.
- you get sick all the time.

But the worse is all of the above still applies YEARS after you finally got out of there, naively thinking you were done with all that crap.
And boy, karma did catch up to me. All these years of laziness, doing philosophy papers due at 2:15 pm during lunch time and so on and so on.
Well, that's it. I don't know which god I have to pray to for this curse to be lifted but I'm done . You hear me up there??

I'll come back soon but I'll give you a few spring pics from last week ;)

Mama, mama....

Said miss A. this morning, "it's froggie outside!!"
Miss A. has a lot of words like that, half invented and half " I won't bother to say it the right way, I like that way better" :)

A Good Girl

In my old age, ahem, I'm becoming the epithome of Zen. Yeah, I swear and I won't spit.

Today was a perfect example. My father-in-law was visiting and went to pick up miss A. from school and took her on the playground so that she could show off her moves on the monkey bars. After a while I decided to take Piper on a walk and stopped at the playground on the way back to say hello. As usual when I'm walking the dog she is swarmed by the kids who wanted to pet her.

3 seconds after I arrived, a lady comes up to me and tells me in an unfriendly and condescending tone that "the kids can't pet the dog 'cause they are in Bridges ( the after-school program ) and if they are not in Bridges they still need their parents' permission."
And then, fatal mistake, she keeps talking. Looking at Piper she says "I don't want to pet you either: you are too big and too black."

A few years ago here is what I'd have said: "Well, you're fat, ugly and dumb so I don't want to talk to you either. There."

Instead I stood there, looking at her, silently, thinking " do I say it or not?". Finally, I decided to just turn my back on her.

Granted, I could have pointed out that I was actually in a public park, after regular school hours. That she needs to get hold of the delighted kids that were all around us petting a rock still dog and do her job. That I know that nobody likes her because she is power hungry and petty. And that the parents want her fired.
But I decided it probably wasn't much better than the " fat, ugly, dumb" line and so I showed exemplary restrained.

I think.

Now I deserve chocolate.

Oh, and here is a picture of the fearsome beast. I hope you won't get too scared :)

Play

Last night we went to see a play by my favorite people: my son and his classmates in the "13 colonies". They have known each other for 4 years now, with the exception of a few that only arrived this year. They have had to work together in spite of the inevitable spats that happens in a group of people whatever their age. They have grown, both physically and mentally. All the parents were so proud, and me I almost cried...I'm so relieved that my children are happy and healthy. When I took the decision to move to the US ( yes it was my idea ), I wasn't so sure I'd like it. And granted there is plenty to complain about. Actually, if I didn't have kids I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be here anymore. I wanted to be an archeologist all my life ( and I still do ). In my mind, my life would be spent on my knees with a brush delicately pushing sand of artifacts in some far away country where it's too hot and nobody in their right mind would want to stay.
But my parents decided otherwise and I didn't dare escape and leave my little sis' by herself with my mom who is not such a healthy person. And now my little sis' is training for her dream job, raising 2 beautiful children and married to a grreat guy.
So in the end it workes great for everybody doesn't it?
And maybe one day I can work in an anthropology or archeology field, who knows?
In the meantime, I'm thrilled everything turned out all right for the people I love so much. After the play, we got to stuff ourselves with all the goodies that the parents baked and talk to everybody to our hearts content. And watched our kids play together, starting the dance of attraction inevitable in between boys and girls. The chase, the giggles, the whispers and nugging on the girls side. The laughs, bragging and showing off on the boys side.
They are growing up indeed :)

In the pics: my son in between the 2 tallest boys in the class
and his ,hum, "best friend" shall we say in the next picture :)

Spiiiiiiike!

Following a discussion with Candy Froggie about the beloved Buffy the vampire slayer, I asked my husband what he thought about his wife and her attraction to Spike.

Mark: "You like Spike??!! I'd have thought you liked Angel better!"
Laurienna: "Well, I like Angel better when he gets older later in the show. Spike definitely has a little something."
Mark: "Mmmmm. Does it mean we can role-play?"

Y'en a qui perde pas le nord. :):)

I'll let you contemplate these pictures and decide which one you like better. Now, if you'll excuse me I need to find an ankle length leather coat mmmm...

Curious George

We watched the movie this week-end. It was the first movie that my daughter went to see in the theater like a big girl. The animation is excellent: the colors, drawings and music are all very good and work perfectly with each other. A perfect movie for the younger crowd, which I proudly am a part of.I dare you to watch it and not smile... if you've got little kids it might also give you a few minutes of peace ;)

Brrrrr....

It's still icy in the morning even though it was supposed to warm-up. I feel sorry for the citrus growers , my orange tree died too :(. Ah well.... I'd all like you to know that I took all these pictures in my pj's , way too early and before my coffee. I hope you'll appreciate my dedication to this blog ;)

Other members of the family have chosen another approach to their saturday morning :)

Today

Today I:

-overslept and had to get the kids out the door in 20 mns
-drank 4 cups of coffee and I'm still sleepy. Which, I guess, is good since I have to go to bed soon.
-swore copiously at the computer for crashing on me 3 times and taking 47 mns...just to start up.
-worked on a sale for my website and it's done :)
-received a package from France :):)
-made a lunch of an entire jar of mini winies ( cocktail sausages) and half a package of licorice.
-had a stomach ache
-decided to make soup tonight to redeem myself
-had the dog take me on a walk and brought home the kids from school and 2 of their friends
-made a list for the grocery store, sent my husband there and then called him on his cell every 5 mns because " I forgot to put it on the list"
-cleaned my desk. Well, ok, attempted to clean my desk.
-watered all the plants even the dead ones, cause you never know, miracles happen.
-looked at this picture of Posh and wondered if she can get out when it's windy
-picked up my pill and learned that it now cost $9 more than it used to for a total of $23. I'm not even going to comment on that. Not yet anyway.

And tonight I'm finishing the dvd of....Buffy the vampire slayer, season 2 disc one. Mmmm?? Me, no, no shame at all, I don't see what you mean. Plus, Spike just arrived in town :)

Peggy is here!!

Peggy made it to Sacramento in one piece and I'm thrilled! The painting , (well you can't really see it in this bad picture), is great: the colors, details and the imagination behind the whole thing is wonderful. I can't stop looking at it and we finally decided on the perfect spot and I'm going to get it framed next week. It actually gave me a boost of creativity, so double thank you to Candy Froggie !! I love it :)

Boobs and stuff

Last night at the dinner table:

Miss A.: " L. ( who is the big sister of A. who is miss A's best friend, yes I thought you were dying to know that ) said something really discusting today! "

The parents exchange a glance, thinking that miss A. coming after a boy like mister T. could not possibly say something they had not already heard a gazillion times, encourage her to share this essential piece of information with everybody. Mister T. is gleefully waiting for what had to be really really good.

Miss A.: " She said that in 3rd grade your boobs start growing. "
" YUCK!"
Mister T.: " Oh man, what do you say that kind of stuff for! That's really discusting!! Oh my god, bleh!!"

The parents find the whole thing quite funny and Laurienna promptly reassures her daughter that L. is pretty much right and that she can see why miss A would find that discusting right now but that she'd bet that in a few years she'll actually want to have bigger boobs. Miss A. shakes her head in horror.

Now I'm sure any good parent would have stopped there or said something actually helpful to their son. However I cannot resist teasing him a bit. I think it's really good for him.

Laurienna to Mister T.: " And you, you seemed quite happy with my boobs when you were a baby. Ah, and we'll talk again about what you think about boobs when you're 15."

I can't tell you what he said, it came out more like a gargle.

I'll be back to tell you all about my fantastic ( in every sense of the word) extended Christmas. I know you can't wait ;)

Iron Chef " Waffles"

In the US, on the food channel, there is a japanese show called the Iron Chef that has had a huge success. 2 chefs are in competition: they have an hour or 2 to make as many dishes as possible with a secret ingredient that is revealed to them at the last minute. It's very entertaining and my kids love it! A few years ago, my son suggested that we do an iron chef competition of our own with waffles as the main ingredient. It has turned into a family tradition and we do it every year around the holidays. This year , with the kids growing up and knowing how to cook more, was particularly yummy :)

We use a pre-made waffle mix ( I know, I know, but it's the mornin' people ) and the object of the battle is to make the best topping for the waffles. Here are the results:

- Almond meal and lemon zest mixed in the dough, topped with almonds and powdered sugar.

-Chocolate chips, orange zest and hazelnut meal mixed in the dough, topped with maple syrup.

- Chocolate and mashed bananas mixed in the dough, topped with powdered sugar.

-Plain waffle dough topped with pears simmered in maple syrup with a cinnamon stick. This one, with no exageration, was heavenly. I swear there is no other word for it. Try it with waffles, crepes, on top of yogurt, anything...

Now, your turn, what is YOUR favorite waffle?

Not Dead but Almost

Well, of course there is a wee bit of exageration there ;). Just a wee bit. The holidays were great minus a bad cold making the round in the family and like 90% of the population around the world we had too much to eat ( my daughter asked if 1n 2010 you had to have an even bigger meal than in 2006!), a bit too much to drink and we went to bed way too late. It was a lot of fun especially since the only thing we had been doing since Christmas was trying to repair the computer. It seems that the problems came when a big storm hit Sacramento, shutting down the power 3 times while the computer was on. Then, the internet provider was having troubles and when finally I tried to get online to post then Blogger was having troubles pffffffffff. Now all of this was in between Christmas and January 2nd. It was a beautiful day, a spring day really, and we decided to all go to the park, including Piper. We all had a great time, the kids found some friends and the dog owners were chatting watching the dogs play for 2 hours. And when we came back home Piper was limping. Of course I worry but not too much, must be a muscle, she needs to rest kind of thing. 2 days later she is still limping but a lot less and we decide to take her to the vet who annouces that she probably tore a ligament and requires surgery which would involve cutting the bone of her leg and putting in a metal plate and the recovery will take 10 weeks. But to be sure she needs complete anesthesia so that they can take x-rays. Needless to say we were in complete shock. We agreed to the x-rays but we were crushed: she is only 10 months old, how could this happen? After much reading on the internet I arrive to the conclusion that she probably just strained a muscle but of course we went ahead with the x-rays to be sure. And just this morning a specialist called, he had looked at the x-rays and he is sure it's just a sprain: " just give her a bit of aspirin". I was so relieved I could have kissed him :). So after 3 nights of not sleeeping and 2 days of reading on the subject of torn ligaments in dogs, life is back to mostly normal.
Tonight we are watching this, with a bottle of wine and Piper's head on my lap and I just can't wait!
And I'm also looking forward to visit all of your blogs, and Cecile I haven't forgotten about the waffles I'll post about it tomorrow when I'm a bit catched up with work ;)
And I just tried to post a few pics but no luck, blogger is mad at me :(

Merry Christmas!

Have a Merry Christmas all of you! And this is a gift from my family to you, it was voted by us as best Christmas card 2006, hehe, we are such a nice , cuddly family :). Enjoy!

Best Christmas Card 2006

Believe

People are often surprised that my 11 year old son still believes in Santa. He made that choice to believe when he was 9 years old. He was getting really suspicious and asked me if Santa really exists or not. And I said: " what do you think?". He came back 5 mns later and told me he chose to believe (his words). And I just said: " ok, then it's true". I think that Robert McCammon summed it up very well and much better than I could:

I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. When I was twelve, the words was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow I saw the past, the present, and into the future. We all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see out destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put in the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God’s sake. And you know why we’re told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wilderness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad at what they allowed to whither in themselves. After you get so far away fro it, though, you can’t really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get all weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theatre, the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm. The truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us. We get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good. Things happen to us. Loved ones die. People get in wrecks, and get crippled. It’s not hard to do, in this world of crazy mazes. Life itself does its best to take that memory of magic away from us. You don’t know its happening until one day you feel like you’ve lost something, but you’re not sure what it is.
-Robert McCammon



Image from this site: life classic pictures

Pulp

Thanks to Candy Froggie I have a new addiction ( no you can't have too many ) and this was the song-in-my-head of the day :)




Pulp - Help The Aged

"Don't you let go Mr Frodo"

We watched LOTR " The return of the king" last night but I wasn't paying too much attention except when this sentence came up because it matched my thoughts. I went to my daughter's classroom to help make gingerbread houses yesterday and a little girl told me her mom hits her. I knew about it already because in September, during a field trip, she proceeded to tell in the car how her foster "dad" was beating her, yelling at her and told her she was ugly and dumb every day. Of course I went to see the teacher and the principal and the little girl and her mom are now reunited and are getting a lot of help in every area possible. And I thought she was doing better but it appears she is not, not really...Another year, I was helping a 9 year old girl with her salt dough map when she blurted out that her dad was beating her mom and her real hard sometimes. And another year when I asked a little boy why he was pushing and hitting all the time, he simply told me that was the way it worked in his house. Or this other little boy who was acting out so badly in kindergarten and collapsed in my arms sobbing so hard when instead of scolding him I asked him what was wrong. I can't do much for them, nothing much except the most basic: show kindness, hug and praise. I don't give a damn that their gingerbread house is crooked and that they don't write their name well because everyday they have to make the choice of not letting go. And I know what I'm talking about. It's important to know that you can be better than your parents were. If you don't let go. And that, you have to work at it every single day for the rest of your life. I wish to everybody who feels unloved and abandonned, much love and happiness in their future life. And a hug to boot.

Christmas!

Could it be, could it be? Only 5 more days ;) Elves are scurrying, fairies are busy making fairy dust and Rudolph is being brushed, Santa is checking in the mirror for any black stray hair, by his daughter's order Mark is cleaning the chimney, Thomas is trying every trick in the book so that someone, anyone, will give him a clue regarding his Christmas presents and Laurienna is trying to get tape out of her hair while Piper is trying to make it to the backyard full speed with a huge roll of wrapping paper :):)

All Dressed Up!

Saturday we went to see a Nutcracker performance at the Theater. The daughters of a friend were performing in it and it was very cute and very good. I don't think I had ever seen this ballet in its entirety and I liked it. I miss dancing a bit now. Jennifer wants me to take the adult ballet class at her daughter's ballet school. Huhuhu, I went to check it out: I seriously don't think I could last for more than 5 mns. I had forgotten how much work went into dancing ballet. You use every muscle in your body AND you'd better have a good and quick memory to memorize all the steps and positions. Considering I'm borderline for qualifying as an Alzheimer patient, I don't think that's going to work out. Plus, appearing in public wearing only tights and a leotard, harharhar, do I need to say more?

Bloody Friday

You know it's not going to be a good day
-when you spill 1246 2mm dark beads on a dark wood floor,
-when the milk has turned bad 2 days before the due date,
-when you ordered a gift for Christmas and the company send you an e-mail that starts with " we apologize but... ",
-when you started your period,
-when your mother sends you an e-mail that says you haven't called her for ever and are you mad about something?
-when you step on a sharp lego piece while carrying 1 week's worth of laundry while your daughter is saying that she-just-can't-find-any-socks-and-it-is-7:48am-and-school-starts-in-2-minutes.

That was before 8am.I just want to go back to bed.

Christmas spirit

Or not. I just came back from Christmas shopping and if I hear Silent night one more time, I swear I will, I will aaaaarrrrrrrgh

Next day edit : I made the big mistake of complaining about Christmas songs galore to my dear little family. Now every time I enter the room my son and husband sing Jingle Bells rather loudly.
Funny. I think some people are going to lose their bells before Christmas.

Posting

When I thought about having a blog, I thought I'd leisurely update it every day or even, let's be crazy, several times a day. Haha. There is just too much stuff happening all the time and it is definitly not that easy to write about any given subject. So that's my excuse and since it's way passed by now I'll do a post about last week, condensed.
- 2 parent-teacher conferences.
My children are wonderful, smart and they talk and giggle and make everybody else giggle too much.
Oh really? What a surprise :):)
- My daughter's dance recital at school: very cute. She is always happy and full
of energy so she loves that kind of stuff!



-lots of orders for jewelry. Thank you very much everybody! It's very much appreciated. I've started to work on new collections that I'll put up after Christmas.
-I don't think I've mentionned that before but much of my life in between the months of august and december is spent on a soccer field since my son and my husband both love the game. I don't particularly. In fact I was telling someone that since the age of 3 I must have spent an astronomical amount of hours watching and playing soccer. In between my dad, my cousins, my boyfriends, me playing and now my son and husband pffffff. Plus I've a tendency to want to throttle 11 years old that are trying to be too violent towards my son or his teammates. Mmph. And I can't stand hysterical parents ever. I didn't say I was hysterical..I just think about it. I'm a model of serenity on the field. And the first one who calls me a soccer mom is going to lose their teeth.
So, anyway, last week-end was the end of soccer season. Sleeping late on Saturday morning is back :):). Last saturday they had a soccer tournament and on Sunday the team party. With a game in between the parents and the children...always hilarious ;)





I also did too much christmas shopping, enjoyed time passed with a friend that I see too little of, went to the dentist, slept too little, drank too much coffee and ate too many sweets, found a black widow in the house, cooked irish food which is a good enough excuse to drink irish beer too. There, you know everything or mostly. Maybe one day I'll post on something that actually happened that day ;)

Crèpes

I was going to write a another post about my fascinating life but instead my family lobbied for crèpes :) I'm going to put the recipe in this post but first I'd like to apologize to all the people who have tried to unsuccessfully post on this blog. I haven't have time yet to check where the problem could be coming from, but I'm hopping to be able to check that out tomorrow.
And now, let's have a crèpe party:

-in between 250-300g of flour ( 1 1/4 cup )
- 4 eggs
- 1 l. milk ( 4 cups )

That's it. Mix it and let it sit 2 hours if you can, otherwise you can use it immediatly.

This is my little sister's recipe and she makes the best crèpes in the world ;)

Back from There

We are now in California going up and up and inevitably the first flurries start falling. Did I mention I don't like snow? :). And I especially don't like it here because people in big cars think they are invincible and who cares that it is snowing I-am-not-slowing-down. And so inevitably also, some idiots managed to have an accident due to the snow on a barely damp road with clear visibility. And they closed the road and everybody stood to a standstill for an hour and a half in Truckee.



The ambiance in the car is divided. On the kid and dog side it looks like that:



In short: Cool! It's snowing! Let's roll down the window and stick our tongue out!!
Husband side: total calm and serenity, let's listen to the music kind of thing.
Laurienna's side: well I'm afraid Laurienna is muttering about stupid people driving like idiots. But the kids and the dog succeeded in making her smile and take more pics because at that point what else is there to do?
And after 1h30 mns we were able to resume the trip at the awesome pace of 10 miles per hour in weather that definitly got worse and worse until we got to 5 miles per hour.







But we did make it ... in 7,5 hours. Well at least we made it back on the same day which is not always garanteed. Being stuck in the snow has happened to us many times since we have moved here. And most of the time it's no big deal but I have to say that was one of the worst blizzard I saw. Several more feet fell over 2 more days and the " ski people " like I call them are rejoicing.
That's right, I'm not one of them ;)

Home, Sweet Home

Now where was I? It's now Saturday and Laurienna has started to reach the limit of her patience but she is still being a very good girl according to herself. My husband voted for a " somewhat " before the good girl but then that's his problem isn'it? Hehe. And of course, 1h30 mns before a long decided departure time my daughter starts to be sick. Like stomach flu sick if you see what I mean. Yes, I know, you are so happy you are reading that post now, aren't you? So, of course I sacrificed my sanity on the Altar of Motherhood and I did not drag my precious child in below freezing temperatures in the high Sierra. Except that we knew a big blizzard was building up and we knew we had to leave very early on Sunday or stay stuck in Reno until the next Wednesday.
So we left Sunday morning at 10:45 sharp.






And it started well enough. But suddenly Home Sweet Home started to look so so so far away...

To Be Continued And Hopefully Finished Tomorrow!

Still There 4