Proofing

Yes - I still need to blog about the Please Touch Museum. Yes - I still need to blog about our visit with the parents in DC/PA. Now, I also need to blog about our fun weekend with the Bowmans in Baltimore.

I am proofing the pictures from DC. One a day I think. Which should put me into May when I'll actually have it done.

A part of me is joking, a part of me is not!

But I just took this photoshop mentoring class and I'm trying to use some new techniques, try some new looks - just to see if it fits!

Here's a before and after processing that I just want to post.

BEFORE

AFTER

Can anyone tell the difference but me? Which one do you like better? The Before or After? The Before picture is a bit duller in color. The After picture is a bit more contrasty.

More later. Until then, I'm working on like a million things. And I need to blog about how I had a very "MONDAY" kind of "monday."

Retreat

So last weekend, I left the boys at home for extended 'MAN TIME' and drove off with my friend to a Ladies Retreat for the church where I attend bible study/homegroup/etc.

We drove deep into Amish country to faraway Lancaster! All of an hour away.

It was a great weekend! The weather was gorgeous! And I had a fantastic time recharging as a woman, mother, wife, and friend.

What was the point of this retreat? What did we do? Well, I was trying to explaining it to a friend and came up with:

1. The retreat was a chance to have real and full conversations with friends, meet new people, and get to know anyone you wanted to know a little better.
2. Worship - however that involved a lot of singing with contemporary Christian music. And apart from Breakaway music from A&M one year, I really prefer traditional hymns. No surprise I am Catholic huh? :)
3. Listening to the featured speaker speak on biblical verses and their applications to our lives as women, mothers, friends, and wives.
4. Eat.
5. Talk.
6. Listen.
7. Play Games.
8. Relax.
9. Repeat.

We.Talked.All.Weekend.LONG. Yup, that's a ladies' retreat! :)

I met a lot of my neighbors!! Ok - maybe 4 of my nearby neighbors go to this church and 3 were at the retreat. Two of my other neighbors go to my Catholic church. What a blessing to be surrounded by so many Christian families, all less than a quarter mile away! It makes me feel less alone out here in the wilderness that is my home.

One talk I really liked centered on worshiping false idols, which sometimes serve as blinders to what is really the issue at the heart of some arguments:

• Idol of comfort
• Idol of success
• Idol of appreciation
• Idol of respect
• Sadly, I can't remember the 5th.

But to embellish briefly:

• Idol of comfort - wanting to do what WE want when WE want instead of helping others when they need help. For example - like when I do not want to get Michael his snack because I'm comfortably sitting on the couch doing nothing. Yea - like that! :)
• Idol of success - pretty self explanatory. Especially in our culture.
• Idol of appreciation - Wanting to be openly appreciated for our actions instead of giving of ourselves without expectation of recognition.
• Idol of respect - she gave a great example of kids giving attitude and our first reaction is to send them to their discipline for being disrespectful instead of seeing what is the root cause of the disrespect in the first place. Since we are dealing with this now a bit - this was a real eye opener for me.

This all probably makes no sense as I wrote it, but I swear the speaker was much more effective at conveying all this than I am! It just helped me to see how I can better give of myself and see God's model for all of that.

All this with meals thrown in that I didn't have to cook or clean up for. And uninterrupted grownup conversation. And a quick pop over to the outlet malls in Lancaster (why do the Amish get this?!?!). WOW - what a luxury the whole weekend was!

I had a wonderful time.

Brian and Michael went ice skating on Saturday and then to see Hop. Michael fell asleep in the car on the way home at 5:45pm and then continued sleeping on until 7am the next day. LUCKY BRIAN!!! :) He must have worn him out ice skating!

On Sunday, they worked on the yard and it looked beautiful when I got dropped off!

I am a blessed woman. Really and truly am.

Proud

I'm so proud of an old friend of mine from Paris, who published a very interesting article on some differences between France and America. Check it out:

http://www.incultureparent.com/2011/03/behind-the-times/

She was one of the first moms I met in Paris. I met her at our local park, she was speaking English to her son, and I screamed out in sheer desperation, "YOU SPEAK ENGLISH!"

And thus we became friends. And this is not far from how I still make friends, even in America. I kid.

Seriously: she's a great writer, insightful person, and the editor of the magazine for the Anglophone mom's group in Paris. I can't wait to see her writing career as it develops.

Cross-Eyed

On the days I have to proof pictures, I nearly go blind staring at the computer.

But at the end of the day, I just wanted to play a bit - so I played with my fav picture from DC:

I'm not sure this is the best edit, but I just wanted to fiddle.

I know that picture above is far from anyone else's favorite, but it's what I like to take. And photography is subjective so if you don't like it, I'm going to be ok with that. Because I might not like something you like! :)

And honestly, there was a picture I was REALLY trying to take, but it just didn't happen. Maybe another year. I wanted a picture of him in the middle of THIS:

THAT was the money shot I was trying to take. The angle just leads you into the picture and it would have been great if Michael was standing right there in the middle of that. I've been working on pulling out more on my composition. I usually crop in tight, but I want to push myself to do different things.

My Michael has been extra funny the last couple of days.

I showed him a picture of Brian holding his old dog from Arlington, a black poodle named BoBo Palace (at least to Brian). And I asked Michael, "What's Daddy holding?" And Michael said, "A blanket!"

And tonight, while we were driving home from McDonalds for his school fundraiser, Brian asked Michael in French, "Do you want to go home?" And Michael said, "CHECK!" Then, we arrived home, he said, "Game Over!"

What is going on in that head of his?

Apparently it is opening day in baseball. Brian watched 2 pitches, took care of Michael, and fell asleep in his bed next to him.

It is interesting how as Michael grows up, I still see little glimpses of the baby I once knew. Lately, he's been waking up about 45 minutes into his nap and wants to be held for the rest of his nap. And I am a sucker so I do it. But he used to do this as a baby, and I look down now and can't believe that in place of the little 5-6 month old baby, I'm holding a 4.5 year old boy. And I'm happy to do it because before I know it, he'll be gone and grown.

On the Record

So it goes down:

I've got to blog about our trip to the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum, which is a children's museum that is awesome but far away.

And

Our visit with Brian's parents in DC and PA. The cherry blossoms were out and I can't wait to post process those pictures!! Fun!

Money Saving Mom Strikes AGAIN!

She has an excellent link on her website right now for preschool packs. They are GREAT!

She has all sorts of different themes and different exercises to go with them. Some of them are a little easy for Michael, but some are really fun and cover a bit of science. For example, the gardening one has a page that covers the parts of a flower (root, stem, petals, etc).

So check it out! I have been printing out a TON and Michael stands at the printer waiting for them to come out!

This is her preschool packet home page:

http://homeschoolcreations.com/preschoolpacks.html

We are currently doing her gardening preschool pack since Michael and Brian are sowing seeds for the garden:

http://homeschoolcreations.com/gardenpreschoolpack.html

I asked Michael one time what he thought was something special just Mommy and Michael do - special Mommy/Michael time and he told me, "DO WORKBOOKS!"

CHECK!

And go eat at Suki-hana. It's amazing.

Love,

P

Great weekend!

We had a great weekend with the Bowmans in town! I have no pictures because my camera has a dirt speck on the sensor. This results in a little black speck on all my pictures. NOT GOOD.

Luckily, Amy took pictures! So here's a quick recap of us doing a lot of nothin' !

Charlie LOVED the piano. Here's Michael pouting because he did not get to play first. Even though he rarely ever gets on the piano:

Saturday morning - Charlie and Michael started the day like this:
Too cute. Brian drafted his Fantasy Baseball team extraordinaire. Here's to hoping for a good year!

In the afternoon, we ran over to the Longwood Gardens:
The kids loved the Children's indoor water garden:

After this, B decided we needed to grill steaks for dinner, which was great! Here are Andy and B manning the grill:
They are REALLY happy to have a picture taken of them.

We got our butts reamed by Andy in Carcassonne that evening. He beat us by nearly 100 points. It was his 2nd time playing the game. It's not something competitive people like Brian and I sit on very well. :)

Sunday morning, we went to church. The gals (Amy, SJ, and I) had naps in the afternoon while the boys explored in the woods. They played in the creek, made fire, made smores, and cut down wood. It was a manly day!

Michael and Charlie are definitely friends - but very interesting friends. They fight with each and trash talk with one another but they get along when left in the wilderness.

Here's one fight they had in the car:

Michael: Charlie, quit kicking the back of my dad's seat.

Charlie: Don't tell me what to do. You just worry about yourself.

Michael: I don't need to worry about myself. I'm just fine. Stop kicking the back of my dad's seat.

BRIAN: Charlie, please stop kicking the back of my seat.

Charlie: See, I only listen to adults. I don't have to listen to other kids.

Another morning, they had a back and forth about who was going to beat who on baseball. Both went over their respective strategies and about how one was going to beat the other.

But when you ask them about their weekend:

P: Michael, is Charlie your friend? Do you like him?

Michael: Yes!

P: What was your favorite part about this weekend?

Michael: Charlie's piano concert.

Charlie gave us a mini piano concert. It was SO cute. The video is on Amy Bowman's facebook page.

Charlie told Andy that he liked Michael too and that they were friends.

But they fight like cats and dogs when they are here. It is so funny! Well, when they are confined and have to behave.

When they were in the woods - they had a great time together! And during lunch on Saturday, they played outside and dug in the dirt together while we ate. No fights or anything. It was great!

Us grownups had a fun time catching up, trading stories, and going to bed at early hours.

One thing our house is good for is R&R. Don't come here expecting a jam-packed vacation full of sights and sounds. Come here to play in nature, rest, sleep, and do a whole lotta nothing.

So glad to see our Texas friends on the East Coast. Really sad that they are moving back in June - and us Besancons are back to being alone on this side of the world.

Tokyo

I have really enjoyed this post, written by an American photographer in Tokyo:

http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2011/03/16/inside-tokyo-one-photographers-view/

Interesting recap of what the city is like after the earthquake.

It's crazy to me to see this, especially since Brian was just in Tokyo 3 weeks ago. It could have been him there, stuck far from us. And I am really glad he's safe at home.

One other thought I'd like to throw out there.

I'm really irritated at Apple's recent introduction of the iPad2. Seriously? The iPad just came out around when we got back from France. So that was less than a year and a half ago.

Do Americans REALLY need another NEW version of this thing? I know it's cool - but honestly?

After living in France - it is SO glaringly apparent how the American society is driven on the "I want it now, " and "Ooo!! New tech toy - I HAVE TO HAVE IT!"

And I find it incredibly embarrassing. When I'm in my French teacher's apartment where they don't own an oven or a bed frame for their mattress. When I'm staring at all those images of people in Tokyo. It's a humbling thing to see.

Am I saying that I am morally better than everyone else in America? Hardly. I am guilty of it too. We have a flat screen TV. I have a mac computer. We own smartphones.

When we got back from France - well, we had a little catching up to do right? We actually needed a TV, reinstated cell phone plans, and a new computer. Anyone who visited us in Paris knew our laptop screen died and we just hooked it up to a borrowed monitor (or the TV) instead of buying a new computer. For 1.5 years.

However, we ARE different because we won't be replacing our gadgets with the newest or "must have" items. We'll have our items until it dies. We'll use our cell phones until they die - not until the next best thing comes out.

Sorry, I had to rant and rave a bit. It just seems to me - to read in the headlines about the debut of ipad2 alongside the devastation in Japan - that something just didn't line up for me.

Mommy Memory

To be engraved in my Mommy Memory:

Friday night, Michael and I were sitting on the couch after dinner. Me, with my apfel schoerla. I have no idea how to spell that by the way. It's just German for a drink that's half apple juice and half bubbly water. I love it.

Michael, with his warm apple juice in a gluhwein mug that Brian bought in the '90s when he lived in Dresden.

And he climbed up not quite next to me on the couch. He sat about 2 feet away from me. And he said,

"Mommy, will you tell me a story?"

So I told him 2 pretty silly, off the cuff stories. We do it Mad Libs style where I'll start it and let him interject things like a name for the main character or what color he was, etc. Michael decided he wanted a story about a microwave named Dora. So I told him about Dora the Microwave and how she didn't like to heat the food. She would just eat it. Until one day, someone put a Thomas the Tank engine in there and she burned it up.

I never said my stories were super awesome.

My second story was about Luigi and how he kept falling into huge vats of food (lasagna, then spaghetti, and then a bowl of soup). He had to eat himself out of these vats of things. Mario helped him with the lasagna. Toad give him a twizzler and pulled him out of the spaghetti. And he saved himself out of the soup by finding a cheerio and using it as a floatie. He laughed and laughed when Mario was too busy to help Luigi get out of the spaghetti because he had to poop.

Boys love the word poop for some reason.

I will always remember Michael curled up on the couch, with his apple juice in his lap, just staring at me with his big eyes, laughing and chuckling until the juice spilled from his cup all over his Mater t-shirt. We did this for about an hour.

And Brian cleaned up our whole kitchen - did the dishes, swept the floor, wiped the counters down, and the table.

It was a great Friday night.

Actions on the Pity Party

While I am one to have pity parties as seen in my previous post, I do actually DO things about it.

I decided on the fabric for my cornice in the piano room:

It's a bit squatty looking in this picture, but it's not this squatty in real life. The beige-ish part of the design matches my wall color. And the grey is a nice compliment (without being matchy) to my framed prints which have a navy blue mat.

PLUS - I found it at The Interior Alternative, which is a huge fabric warehouse with aisles and aisles of bolts of fabric (think HGTV). AND their regular prices are usually cheaper than Joann's 60% off sales. AND they have lots of different fabrics that are fancy.

What sealed the deal? I got the end of the bolt discount so I got 50% off their already discounted price. AND a worker had purchased a 3.5 yd remnant that she didn't end up using so I got that for 50% off too.

DONE.

Just need some ready made light grey linen curtains to be my side panels.

Once that chest gets in that room, I'll be getting this lamp from Target that has a glass base with a navy blue lamp shade with cream accent ribbon. And a mother of pearl mirror to go above it. Both of which I cannot find pictures of on the web.

As far as Brian's jet lag, I've been making him stay up to talk to me and play games - which tires him out enough to sleep through the night. CHECK.

Last night, we showed up to our neighbor's Mardi Gras party with Michael - only to find out it was an adult's only party. Oops. Luckily, our other neighbors who Michael plays with were home and so we sent him there to play with their 12, 9, and 7 year old. They played Wii and watched TV and we had a totally impromptu date.

It was a neighborhood party and we met a lot of our neighbors for the first time so it was really neat. We'll be planning a Texas BBQ party in the summer and hanging our HUGE TX flag over our garage for that WHOOP.

Today, it's raining. And I will be organizing said laundry room and cleaning a bit. We have house guests in 2 weeks and then 3 weeks! YEA! We love house guests.

Love,

P

One day

One day, I will post again on this blog.

One day, I will actually finish organizing my laundry room - I can't live with my supply of toilet paper and paper towels in my kitchen for much longer

One day, I will finish designing all my brochures for my business.

One day, I will make some final decisions on the curtains in my piano room.

One day, I will purchase this chest for my piano room that I have been coveting - for I don't know - 10 months:

One day, I am going to actually watch TV. Like sit down and watch it. And not feel guilty.

One day, Brian's going to not be awake from 1am-4am due to jet lag. I'd like my non-grouchy/non-sleepy husband back please.

One day, it will stop being cold up here. ANY DAY PLEASE.

One day, my house might magically appear perfectly decorated the way I would like for free and with minimal effort from me.

This is not a pity party. I swear.

Let it Snow

Yea, I'm pretty late about blogging lately!

I have had real clients for my business so I've been pretty wrapped up in that! Exciting times - but anxious times as I pray often that I can deliver a quality product to my clients and exceed their expectations as a photographer and as a business owner!

But anyways - this blog is about our family life - so back to the subject at hand.

As you all know, we had a pretty big snow. Brian's hairy chest pictures were not the only ones we took!

Abby came over one Saturday (probably 2 Saturdays ago) and played with Brian/Michael in the snow!

I love this picture of them:

They spent some time attacking Brian:
And doing multiple sled runs in many different combinations:
Here's a shot of them whizzing by:
Brian - proud of his built-in snow seat. It's the only kind of "built-in" we have in our home that's falling off our hill (we are seeing cracks in our crown molding. YIKES.)
And here are just some snowy winter pictures:



Yes, that snow accumulated SIDEWAYS (parallel to the ground) from our railing of our deck.
Brian had to go in to work all those days. He would shovel at midnight and shovel again in the AM. Pretty hard work for him! I was no help because I was battling extreme fatigue - REALLY extreme. I'd get a headache when I woke up and just wanted to take a nap all day. Useless. Glad that's mostly passed! I still have to pay attention to getting rest - and can't believe I'm getting OLDER.

WAH.

I digress. Up next, posts about Boston! I didn't take many pictures of Michael or us - I tend to forget with new subjects (Team Besancon Boston - soon-to-be Texas) to photograph! Can't wait to show those pictures! Some are really cute.

Love to all,

P

I'd like to nominate Phuong for best wife in the world. I leave for Japan tomorrow on business at 6:15am and I was loathing coming home and having to iron my shirts and pack everything. But I walked in the door and there was my bag with the shirts already ironed and folded and ready to go! What a wonderful woman to whom I am so lucky to be married!

Before I forget

Michael and I had the following exchange at bedtime about a week ago:

P: I thank God every day that I get to be your Mommy.

M: I thank God every day that I get to be your kid.

*melt*

Mother Nature

This is what Mother Nature thought of my Let it Snow garden flag:

And our mailboxes

Courtesy of Frenchie Alburtis:

SNOW - Again

When I bought this flag at Pier1 for 50% off - I just bought it for the color. Who knew it would be an omen:

We got 6"-8" of snow on Tuesday night. Which is normally quite exciting. But I decided to go to a movie that night with Michael (Tangled - it was great!) - and drove home - in the pitch black - on snow - down a huge hill - in the middle of a snow storm - did I mention pitch black?

It.Was.The.Scariest.Thing.I.Have.Ever.Done.

You can assume correctly, that I am not a huge risk taker to begin with.

Here's our little buddy - with his 360 ear muffs that he stole from Dad - ready to play in the snow:
The view of our trees in the backyard:
Michael trying to figure out his sled. He asked me for help. I told him a resounding no.
Fine, he'll play in the snow then. I am blessed to have a son who understands his mom is a wimp and will be ok to find something else to do:
And my grownup guy:
He asked me to make him a snowman, but I'm extraordinarily bad at that! The snow was really powdery and would not compact. I'm sure it was my technique.

And I leave you with this last picture of Michael, running around, looking at his footprints behind him:

11 Months of Michael

My friend, Brandi, had a great idea for a blog post - she posted one picture of her son from every month this year. It is great because as a mom, you don't see the changes in your kids, physically - you see them everyday! This is a great way to document that change, all in one place.

Michael is a bit older, so I don't see as drastic a change in him - but I'm going to do it anyways because I love the idea. Michael's personality has changed a lot in the last year - it is a joy to see who he is becoming - we can't help but love the kind boy he is.

Well, not everyday, but we all aren't at OUR best everyday are we?

SO here we go. 11 months because for some reason, in April - we only took pictures of the snake in our yard.

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

Last night, Michael ate ALL his food on his plate and asked for seconds.

JAW-DROP

Those of you who know Michael, know this is unheard of. My Picky Eater Extraordinaire. Who only feasts on gourmet food, my mom's cooking, and mac 'n cheese/ramen noodles/hotdogs/frozen peas.

Then, he turned to me, and said,

"Excuse me Mommy, thank you for my delicious dinner. It was so good. I ate it all up."

And gave me a very big hug.

Then asked for dessert.

Somewhere in there, I hit "REC" in my mind's eye.

And if you are wondering what I made, this is it:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Chicken-with-Herb-Butter-Onions-and-Garlic-104597

It's not for the faint of heart. But it's amazing. I don't ever buy that storebought chicken anymore.

Side dishes: Sweet potatoes with cinnamon/brown sugar/nutmeg, steamed broccoli

If this isn't worth blogging about, I don't know what is.

Oh yes, up next - answers to the questions from my tartiflette post.

Household Chores List

Hi All!

MoneySavingMom has a couple of great forms out for those who want to check it out:

http://moneysavingmom.com/downloads/household-management-forms

There, you'll find a customizable template for:

• Household chores for kids
• Daily/Weekly cleaning chores
• Her "Daily Docket" where she keeps track of her "to do" lists.

I printed out the household chores list for Michael and he's super excited about doing it. He gets a checkmark for each item he completes daily, and if he does them all week long (M-F), he gets a sticker for each row. If he gets stickers for each row (indicating he has done all his chores all week), he gets a treat on the weekend like ice cream or sukihana or whatever!

Love that's free, customizable, and printable!

P

Tartiflette

With the snow - the cold weather - the snow...it's a tartiflette kind of night.

Especially since we have been ransacking as many cheese shops on the East coast that we can for reblochon cheese...

Tartiflette is a fattening concoction native to the Savoie region in France, which is known for its snow/skiing/etc. It consists of potatoes, cheese, white wine, sour cream, bacon, and caramelized onions.

If you are interested in making this artery clogging item - click here for picture instructions:
http://www.meilleurduchef.com/cgi/mdc/l/fr/recettes/tartiflette_ill.html

With the pictures, it's pretty easy to follow, I think. If you would like any translations, e-mail me. (I don't expect anyone to be doing this - but in case any one wanted to).

Culinary Goals for the year:

1. P: Get much better at making a pot of pho.
2. P: Attempt cassoulet - I'm hoping it's good the first time.
3. P: Cook more Asian dishes - especially since I have a rice cooker now.
4. B: Perfect baguette recipe to get the right flavor
5. B: Learn how to make pate from scratch.

Off to boil potatoes, caramelize onions, and saute bacon...