Mitry-Mory visitor number 10,000 raise your hand....

Our 10,000th visitor happened, and where the hell was I???? Not looking at my site meter apparently. It is someone who visits often and I can't wait to see which of you it was.

So please tell me who the visitor from Mitry-Mory, France, is:) I do know that you are 3,643 miles away from me and you visited as my 10,000 visitor.

I can't believe it, that is so exciting. Although, I don't blog as much as I used to, (I blog more in my head than on the computer these days:) I'm sure eventually I will resume to normal blogging activity, but when I have the choice to either read them or write my own, I figure, you all are alot more interesting than me:) So I choose to read about you all!!!

What we've been up to...by kim

The heart cake, mmm filled with chocolate mousse!The suisse cake, with decadent layers of chocolate cake and mousse, and whipped cream.
The poutine, okay, we had to share a small plate, I love the cheese and the gravy, but the fries are always tooo salty mixed with everything else, this poutine had chicken on top of it...??? we don't know how that happened!!
Okay this is the bonus picture and no those are not my feet!!! Can'tcha tell, those are frog feet, see the webbed toes;)
I heart Montreal!!!!!!

Not only because the love of my life happens to reside there. Seriously, this town is so amazing, and I have only seen a very teeny tiny part of it. I'm just used to living in a very small town. You know the kind...where when a person of a different culture comes in, and it's in the town newspaper. (not a joke, btw)

I love the options in Montreal.

I love being able to go to the outdoor Jean-Talon Marche, where I am guaranteed to find whatever yummy fruits I would like. We walk the rows of fruits, tasting each vendor to see what tastes the best. This time, it was the oranges, kiwis, cherry tomatoes, pineapples..oooh, I'm drooling.

I love to pick all the freshes mushrooms, green beans, pototoes, asparagus and other leafy green things.

I love to look through all the meat shops, trying to figure out what the names are and what types of meat they are. I bought some cheval, mmmmm, makes my mouth water...and magret that was fed only flax seed. We tried some real foi gras...first I bought a small piece for $10 that was uncooked, and we attempted to cook it at home, it was okay, but the flavor was hard to appreciate, as we followed the suggested recipe and cooked it in a fig sauce. So because I was so curious as to what it really tasted like. (this was real foi gras, not a pate!) I purchased the piece that the chef at the butcher place made, and oooh my goodness. I dreamt of it all night!

I love the Premiere Moisson Boulangerie, we had chausson aux pommes, and chocolatines, a heart chocolate torte, and a suisse torte..mmmmm

Even the television has more diversity! We watched the funniest show, that I don't think will ever play in USA..it is called, The little mosque on the praire. It was really great and diverse. We also got to watch, Corner Gas, which we love!

Once again, we are very sad not to be with the frog, but, ony 2 days and he will be here till monday:) Ayayay, we travel alot, when we are done with this commuting stuff, nothing will be able to get us on the road again for quite a while!

Oh yes, one more thing..we saw two movies. Bridge to Terabithia (balled my eyes out!) and I saw Because I said so! (great movie!!!)

AND..I bought the kids some summer clothes..they were saying..well it's not summer, why would be buy clothes now?? and I was saying...silly look at all the signs..they say soldes!! That means sales, we need to buy now to get good prices...muahhahah, they are so easy to fool!

We've got snow!

Sorry, I took the first photo behind my window screen, but can you blame me, it is fricken' cold!
The funny thing is, it doesn't look like that much snow, but let me tell you, this is from the 2nd story, there is a lot of snow down there!
We are on our second day of no school and I'll have to take some pics when the kids are outside, it is over Cheeses head!

Dreams do come true...by kim

My dream, since I was a little girl, was to swim in the clear-blue water, with white sand. I have longed for this forever! My other dream was to go on a cruise, when my 8th grade best friend went on one and shared with me her diary. An even bigger dream, of course is to take my boys!

They have no clue, not an idea, nothing! Their Oma got them on the cruise kick, she started mentioning it to them at Christmas time, getting their hopes up, I was all game for it, until I checked out the airline tickets!! Yikes! Spring Break the rates shooot up! Even though I was not having to pay for it, it is my Mummy's treat and just a mother/daughter + grandsons. I could not see spending that much for air travel! So I stopped talking about it and put it off till next year!

Cheese, was remembering his Oma's idea...he was pleading...."please, I have never been anywhere, only Maine and Canada, oh and Chicago, but that is it.." he pointed out "I haven't been to Germany, Walt Disney, Florida, Ocracoke...nope I havent' been to any of the places Pickles has been" (with a very sad face, of course) I thought this was a very good tactic on his half, but still I was not feeling the least bit guilty, the kid is only 7, he has his whole life ahead for travel. And we are in the midst of planning an awesome week-long summer vacation to the shore, so ppppfff, deal with it kid!

I told my Mom. The old softy, with a big soft spot for both her boys. She said, why can't we take them out of school?? I said, no way! She suggested a long weekend and maybe a day or two out of school....I had not thought of that...hmmm...

In one day, her and I had picked the day, I made the plans, she paid for them and before I knew it, we were commited to a Disney Cruise!!! My dream come true! (well truth be told, I have a more important dream and would sacrifice this one, but for the time being..i'll take Mickey Mouse)

We leave on the 14th of March. I will pick up the kids from school, and tell them that I have a surprise, and that we will be making a quick visit to see Oma:) They will be so happy, thinking we are on our way to Chi-town for a long weekend! I'm excited to see how long I can pull it off, like will they notice at check in?? (these two are pretty oblivious) or will they notice when we sit near the gate?? (i'll try to sit away from our gate, maybe there will be a gate for chicago near by and we can sit with those folks) Maybe I'll say, oh it's a connecting flight, we have to fly to Florida first then take a flight to Chicago...come on, these two little boys trust their mommy:)

We will set sail on the 15th and come back on the 18th, it's only a 3 day cruise, it was the only way we could fit it in. I'm thinking it will be a good introduction:)

I'm so excited and I just keep praying I won't mess it up, or worse yet, my ex won't mess it up, he would unfortunately like to sabbotage any surprise, but maybe I'm wrong and he wouldn't want Cheese to miss out on the surprise. I had to tell him where we were going, because he was almost trying to say no, I couldn't have that weekend. :)

The only hard part will be (I know, here is where I will be a pathetic girl) I will not get to talk to the frog, and although it may seem silly to some of you, we have not missed a day of contact since we met. But I already checked...the big red boat has internet:) whew!

SHHHH, don't nobody tell....by kim

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! It is a surprise!! How many want to bet I can keep it a secret till March 14th?? Let it be known...I am a horrible secret keeper!!


I can do it, I can do it, I can do it:)

Oh yes and Happy Valentines Day:)

Ceux d'en face... by Thomas

Not sure everyone speaks French, but in substance it means: the ones on the other side, the other team...

Interesting what is going on in french politics these days, a real campaign... take away the balloons, the flags waving, and you will see the exact same thing as the previous American presidential elections. And I have to say what shocks me the most, what makes me soooo mad is when these supposely elits of the Nations that want to govern us say things like that. the other ones, the ones in front, these people... Ah! do they forget that roughly 50% support the right side, and 50% support the left side (the figures vary from times to times 45-55 then 55-45).

And when I hear a politician being so arrogant and so sectarian that he would actually exclude and look with so much contempt these others, and pretend to be the president of all the french, my spine shivers. That has some link with a previous post where I was saying that politicians are so arrogant that they actually think that they are always right, while THE OTHERS are always wrong - and they explain to you very seriously when they actually lose elections that YOU voted badly, that YOU didnt understand, and that YOU made a mistake. So rather than putting the french together so they work together, they make sure that there are two France, the left one and the right one - Tactic old as the World - in french we say: diviser pour mieux reigner... divide and rule

Here in America, the names change, the tactics are the same. America and France may be very different, but when it comes to idiots, we surely are so similar....

Little note for these so-called Great men: One man, brighter than any of you once said: "Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

An American Paradox... by Thomas

Americans are the world champions when it comes to raise money. Tsunami, war refugees, earthquake relief worlwide is mostly financed by American donators. I think it is a great thing and they should be proud of it.

Yet what puzzles me is that a lot of these generous donators would not want their taxes to increase to finance a Universal Healthcare system....

Mid-winter break in Montreal....by kim

The musical entertainement at Dragon Rouge!
The kiss from Delphine...hmmm maybe this is why they are so keen to return...

The boy's and I will be driving the 4 hours to Montreal in less than 11 days! We have not seen our frog for almost 2 weeks, and judging by the weather forecast, we won't see him this weekend either. He just won't allow me to drive in horrible weather and he must insist, because he knows I will be stubborn about that. "Bumping" into a deer a couple of weeks ago, has me regretfully allowing him to insist...blech, winter, blech blech!

We will arrive on the night of the 16th and stay until the morning of the 21st. We love visiting Montreal. It's a great city! We have been to the biodome, insectarium and the science museum, 2 years in a row, so I think we will visit the museum of natural history and/or maybe an art museum.

We went last year to a fabulous restaurant called the Dragone rouge, a very small privately owned themed place. It was so much fun, although we couldn't understand much, the kids loved it and have requested to take another visit! Our waitress "Delphiiiiine" who told the kids to call her when they needed her, was so entertaining. When Pickles asked if he could take a picture of her, she said in a very french/canadian accent, "vell, I don't know, vill it hurt?" and he said, noooo! So when he took the picture, she screamed from the flash "ahhhh you are a wizard, that hurt my eyes, you lied, ahhhhh, it hurts" to which of course, Pickles and Cheese loved! They want to wear costumes this year, oh that would really get them going!

Winter is so hard, the weekends that we can't see eachother are the pits. Hopefully someday in the near future we can get all the loose ends tied up and then be together for good:) We are both tired of the driving back and forth and the border control people just don't make me laugh like they used to;)

On another note, we are trying to plan our vacation during summer...we like to camp and we want to be near the ocean! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! It would be best to be within a days drive of wherever we go, from the Syracuse area! Last year we camped Maine, and found in late August, it rains alot in Maine:) So if anyone knows anything about the Jersey shore beaches, or Virginia beaches or even Delaware, let me know! We are considering driving to Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, so we don't mind if its a little out of the way!!

I only watch the superbowl for the ads....by kim

Free hugs....by kim

I can't help it, every time I watch this video, I want to get my sharpy and a big poster board and head out to the mall!!

I just love this guy, I get chills every time I watch this video! The music is excellent too!