Halloween 2006...by kim

This is the frog's first experience with Halloween. Normally I am out buying a costume and on a rare occasion, I have made one myself, but it never comes out very nice:)
Cheese wanted to be Zorro, but we were stalling, trying to think of one to make ourselves. I remembered I had cut out a form for a Knight for Pickles extra credit project, but of course we didn't have a helmet that was any good...I had made poor Pickles a helmet out of a cereal box and foil...yeah it was really pathetic, you can ask him..he's feeling really slighted about this really awesome amazing helmet the frog made ;) so he is sure to tell everyone how pathetic mine was, and murmering "why weren't you here to make mine, than I would have gotten 102% for extra credit."
So we made the helmet and boy is it awesome...The frog was supposed to leave on Sunday, but you know the wind was really bad and a storm was brewing, and a costume needed more embellishments! So he stayed and would leave in the morning...that is until he started on the shield...then he would leave at noon..but then we realized it was Pickles last football game and if he stayed...he could see Cheese's face when he saw the finished project, shield and helmet for his Knight costume! Soooo, he stayed:) This picture above was when Cheese took the crappy foil off of the shield and saw what he had done to it...he carved out an emblem and painted it!
I think they both look soo proud, I can't remember what Cheese was saying, but he was in character for sure!
"If this is what it takes to be a Dad, It's really great" The frog, as you can see and as the 3 of us know in this house...will be a wonderful, the most bestest Papa in the world!! I have said that from day one..before I ever had met him...he always gives my kids 1000% and is just a natural born teacher and caregiver!! Can you tell how much I love and admire this guy? ;)
Here is Cheese up above opening the fake shield that we tricked him with, saying it was done really crappy with Tin foil. When the tin foil fell off and he saw the shield in its glory..I wish then that I would have had a video cam, because he was soo happy and excited!!
Here is a boy named Cheese, who is dressed as a Knight, with his "Papa Bird".
Happy Halloween to everyone and their families!!!

2 years ago..by thomas

... almost to the minute, I was landing in Montreal, Canada, not knowing where to stay, and wondering why I had decided to leave France. I remember calling that girl that had tried to help me finding an apartment and asking if I could stay at her place... And so my first contact with North American culture was Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, one of the worst neighbourhood's in Montreal. Eventhough people where really nice, and really curious about this french "cousin" visiting from sooo far away, I had to admit I seriously wondered what I was doing there, and decided myself to call an old friend of mine I studied with in Scotland, and fortunately, his parents were renting an apartment... So what happened during these two years?

• I discovered that people in Quebec dont speak French - even after two years I can have a hard time understanding
• I tried poutine and smoked meat - I still prefer to cook real food
• I lived my two first winters, with snow and -8000 at least, sleding, snowshoeing..
• I met a fantastic girl!
• I visited the land of the crazy people, (where I met said girl) and go there every weekend, eventhough I am still as nervous when crossing the border
• I saw Niagara falls, twice
• I visited the Ice Hotel
• I bathed on the East side of the Atlantic ( it was cold)
• I drove a stupid automatic car...and a stupid automatic van
• I kissed a great girl (the same I mentioned earlier)
• I found a job on my first interview

So many other things happened, but it would be too long...All in all, I am just starting to understand American culture, and eventhough it is hard and sometimes frustrating, I adapt myself. I miss my country, I miss my family, I miss french food, french tv, french sports... but this is my new life and it won't wait for me, so I enjoy every single bit of it... Two years already!!

Football and first day of school and then soo many other pictures to follow, all out of order of course!!

Pickles # 73..wooo hooo, look at the tough guy grin..Cheese and his first day of school, no matter that we just spent the weekend moving:) off he goes!
A very cheeky pickles, and a very early morning, 6 am comes very soon!

Everyone should get to explore through tide pools..

The tide pooolsss...oooh the tide poools, what a wonderful thing..

Look at the treasures we found, shrimp, mussels, crabs...all sorts of stuff...
even a little friend posing and not too happy on my nose..
It was a wonderful day, such a wonderful time..
My favorite photo...he just does it all, and they follow..such a great frog to follow:)

Camp blue turd fun..

Another rainstorm at camp blue turd.


Okay, just a little sunbird, but a happy, especially with a malibu and OJ.
And the lovely fresh dinner prepared by chef thomas!
Sparklers on our last night, ahh, life is good!
The official camp of vacation 2006, to Wells' beach Maine..Camp blue turd, amongst the rolling turd campground!

Camp blue turd, Well's beach Maine

Camp before, and the beautiful Ocean storm and camp after...notice the tarps...it was a 40X60 foot tarp...we thought we could suspend it in the air...that was such a good learning experience....hahahahahha....rain and giant tarps, don't mix....we ended up cutting the tarp and settling for renaming our lovely organized camp, to "camp blue turd", but hey we were dry, indeed:)

The frog who was taken out of his SW France Atlantic ocean and put into a Cold Maine Atlantic ocean..

These are the looks you get when you give a frog from the southwest of France, Ice cold East coast waters...he looks at you like you have 2 heads!!

Firefox prevented this site from opening the popup window that spell checks my post, so please beware!!

Many times in the past month I have tried to post, but what the hell....I would make a decent post, get all that has been going on, try to add the photos I wanted to share...and...NOTHING...my Mac would freeze up..or rather that damned beach ball would keep rolling:( So I just figured..ehh, just not meant to be!)

I don't dare try to post pictures on this post, maybe I'll try on the next post. But for now, I must vent! (oh and vent I will do, purge would be a better word actually)

....

So many great things have changed, wonderfully great!! I mean we have this fab house, that is sooo nice and cozy and wonderful! We had a great vacation, even though it rains alot in Maine..we still had a great time and learned great wonderful things about the frog..like he will play in the freezing cold water (and love it) so that I don't have to send my body into trauma (we're talking 58 degree water, here people, I almost cried the one time I accidentally went in;) we learned that when it rained and poured we didn't all have to walk on eggshells because of mother nature or be blamed for picking Maine..because the frog kept apologizing over and over to US that he was sorry it was raining on our trip (to which the boys and me, after regaining our shocked looks, said..ooooh it's okay, we're having fun anyway and we really really did) we learned that rainbows come after rain in Maine and Lobster and fish is yummy in our tummies for every meal expept breakfast!! All in all we had a wonderful time!

We came back to a very quick move, to which the frog took care of all of it mostly. It took basically one month to unpack for the most part. I would have loved to post every night that I had a new stat, but just did not have the energy, but essentially everyday I was making percentages..okay I've got the boys room 98% done, bathroom 95%, sitting room 30%, living room 20%, etc....you get the idea:) All the other rooms are now at the 100% level, well with the exception of the rug that I need to purchase for the living room (I just can't commit to a rug, too many choices!!) and a desk for the sitting room. OOOOOH and my room, well the mother is always last...it is only 30% done and standing still....oh what can I say..i need a magic fairy to wave her wand and finish my room!

I had to buy a new couch, futon, some rugs, kitchen table and chairs, so that was exciting...oh yeah and I also had to buy a new car...ayayayay...which then explains why I am having to work so much more..and am having a hard time saying no to that last customer, so therefore am pulling days where I work 8am to 9pm...I guess this is where the venting comes in...Okay so...

hmmm let me just start a new paragraph.....(It'll be longwinded and not make much sense, so don't read too closesly).I should be happy, no?? I'm my own boss, I answer to myself, I decide if I want to work or not...things are going well, I'm trying to balance, I'm able to do more for the kids, but yet I have no time for me...not that I ever needed alot of time...but I feel myself slipping..I feel that weight on my shoulders and my chest..(and yes that weight there too...I just weighed myself and since I don't know maybe the past 2 months or at least since the deep stress, that I am perhaps admitting to myself...put on 7 pounds...after maintaining the same weight for 2 years...It's just stress, well I'm bloated too and my period is coming..(can ya tell, ayayay) I have no time during the day to eat..I'm tired all the time...and have even resorted to drinking coffee (blechhhhh) when I 'm so tired and yet have to keep going. I'm driving alot, which is stressfull in itself, but the alternative is almost unbearable to think about...I work all day till 8pm on thursday, then work all day on friday, then drive 2 hours to get my beloved frog from the trainstation and then 2 hours back, we arrive home around midnight, wake up the next morning to work all day and then spend some time together, so we end up staying up late to snuggle and have alone time after spending family time with Pickles (Cheese is at his Dads house on that night) to wake up at 8am to get Cheese and then spend time all together doing, well trying to do fun things, to leaving at 7 to bring him 2 hours back (which he thankfully drives) and then myself drive 2 hours back arriving around 1am, to wake up in the morning and start the week off all over again. I just want, and is this too much to ask....someone to invent a portal from the frog's montreal kitchen to my kitchen..or i'll settle for that magic map where I could fold or make a crease and connect the two towns so they are really next to eachother...I'll make it even easier...how about a divorce finally from my ex...(it's uncontested and basically a NON diligent lawyer on whoevers side...I have not figured that one out yet...) or hey how about someone put in a good word for an engineering firm in upstate NY to hire a very awesome multi disciplined engineer who speaks french and perfect english....any one of those things will do for me, i'm not asking for alot, am I???

SIGHHHHH..

I can do this, I just am pms'ing..why oh why the bloody hell must we women be cursed with this ailment, and why aren't researchers spending alot of time on finding a cure for it..I really hate to feel out of control and bloated..blech! ( I'm not really serious about the researcher thingy, cancer research is way more important, but I sure do wish Dr's would prescribe muscle relaxers for pms these days..you know in the 80's they gave out those things like candy:)

Ooooh (I am such a whiner..) my back is killing me tooooooooooo...you know that burning and numbness...oooh yes and today of all days and weeks, my little Cheese had an incident at school..I was there today for his star of the week, so I had a 2 hour window to have lunch with him at school and read to the class and introduce the Flat stanley project to them that I begged the teacher to let me do (thanks Sal from Spain, twas you that inspired my flat stanley bug) anhow (i'm digressing, I know, I'm trying to stay on track, really I am) So the teacher tells me that Cheese was choking another boy in the bathroom...I was stunned, I have never had to deal with this behaviour, so I was dumbfounded, she said she had addressed it, and when he finally told her, he admitted to doing it and so they talked to the principal and she was telling me..oooh you don't have to address it, because this should be a good visit..to which I said, uuh no! I will address it, because he is going to his fathers tonight and I need to figure out why he did this...so we ate lunch and I said okay we need to go talk about what happened earlier, so we went back to the room while the other kids were still eating and I asked him what happened..and I guess what happened was Cheese was going poop and the other little boy thought it would be funny to peer over the top of the stall and spy on Cheese and laugh a little, so he said stop and the little boy I guess did, so when the little boy was washing his hands..Cheese doesn't remember if he did it with one arm or two, but put him in a headlock and preceded to choke the kid, so I asked if he was doing it to kinda kid around and he said no, so i asked what he was feeling when he was doing it, he didn't answer, so I asked him if he was angry?? and he said yes...my hear sunk...he was angry and instead of using his words or telling on the kid, he started choking him...I'm still stunned, and scared....his Father has major anger management issues, and major control issues, he in the military once put his hand on his pistol and unlocked the safety because someone was "undermining" his supposed authority...he had a g/friend that he threw lit cigarettes at her face and pulled her down to the ground by her hair...he has issues...period....and now I am afraid..my little kind loving to everything little boy, may have those same issues....he knew by the look in my face that I was more than disappointed...I had literally 5 minutes to handle this..I instructed him to tell his teacher the next time or an adult and to never ever handle things in such a way..i tried to make him put himself in the other kids place and for him to imagine himself thinking it would be a funny prank to spy on someone and then to imagine himself quietly washing his hands and for a classmate to come up behind him and do something to take away his breathing, to make him scared and to feel helpless...i had 5 minutes..i needed longer, my lectures and speeches last much longer...now he will go to his fathers till sunday at 8am when I pick him up and talk more about it..to which I will have the frog's help, who handles these things the same as me, with talk and reasoning, but somehow with this little Cheese and the big Pickle, makes much more of an impact.... "being a parent is hard..." says Cheese...yes it is...yes it is...

It is getting late, and ode to those who have made it through this pathetic post, life could always be much worse....I don't adjust well to change... and yet when I change....I change everything...this too shall pass....and I will find balance...I'll start yoga again, give up sweets again, go back to walking again, finish my room, and find my harmony, I'll try to blog normal non depressing things and wait patiently for the day that the frog can come here for good.

ooooh for a bit of goood news...my good friend sent me a house warming gift of a yogurt maker and I finally after a month or two dared to make it..and mmmm it is sooo wonderful, I just love it!! I also got a wonderful matching set of dishes from a wonderful client and some lavender things from another friend, so that was fun!

I'm also having a pampered chef party...to which if anyone wants to order anything they can online and have it directly sent to you... http://www.pamperedchef.biz/chefkristin?page=2ways-order-products
the ONLY reason I am having it, is to get in touch with my lawyer..who (don't ask, please its too painful to think about) moonlights (ughh) as a pampered chef rep...oooh yes...I know big mistake, but big lesson learned...never ever hire a lawyer who happens to be your pampered chef rep...hey in my defense..i just thought it meant she was a hardworker and liked to hold kitchen parties...turns out, she would much rather be doing this than the lawyer gig...as her response time to me was much quicker than I ever had her get back to me when it is in regards to the divorce thingy..you know..hey 3 years of being seperated...no divorce...getting to be a little frustrating...so I plan to get her in my house and not let her leave till she gets things moving quicker........i'm a wuss, who am I kidding..i worry about her stress level most of the time.......I suck, I need to strengthen my backbone..i know.....ayayyayaya..

okay finished, i'm really sorry for not making this an uplifting post, I'm always hurting for people when they are down, and really it's not all that bad...I have my boys, they are good boys..We all have a wonderful frog who will someday join us...heheheh, this was cute..the frog a couple weeks ago asked me how hard it was to train a dog...and i said not too bad...pretty easy, but why?? and he said (as my heart melted) when we are finally together, do you think its possible to get Ticky (the dumb carpet dog as he once stated) a baby dog to take care of....a pet for our pet..and he said well I just thought it would be nice to have another dog to keep ticky company...awww, he is reallly wonderful, life is a blessing with my 3 guys, even when they cause me stress and anxiety, I wouldn't have it any other way:)