William

Meet William.

William had teeth surgery today.

William let Amelie groom and give him a little loving (poor baby, the meds were wearing off).

William let Amelie put a saddle on him (with help).

William let Amelie lead him to the lesson corral.

William let Amelie ride him.

William is a sweety.

Photo shoot

Amelie got a free mini photo shoot a couple of weeks ago.

Here are the Pictures they took of her.

10 candles

10 little girls

10 candles

10 dinners

10 game cards

One game of Laser Tag

One Happy Amelie who is now 10!

Signs of Spring

Today, I drove around too much! Some days are just like that...

Mike wanted me to deposit a check in our Ohio Bank account.

Which there is only one ATM in all of Houston. 

Very far away, like outside of my bubble far away.

I do not like venturing out of my bubble.

Especially when I go for nothing!

 This Atm does not let you deposit checks! Really?

Then on the way home, I took a wrong turn and ended up taking 1hour 1/2 to get home!

But I don't mind leaving my bubble to go here, where I always have a lovely peaceful time.

Tulips are out!
Spring is here...
And Tomorrow is Amelie's Birthday!
She will be 10!

Teeny

I was putting away my groceries when I turned around and found this little thing 

getting all comfy in one of my reusable bags.

By the way, I love my grocery bags, I can't stand the plastic ones anymore 

and have never liked the paper bags, unless they had handles...

Saturday Yard Work & Fun

After Amelie's meet yesterday, we spent 2-3 hours giving our back yard a LOT of TLC.

Yes, we did have to drag both kids out there to help us!

We even had a few tears and some bribing at first... (They each get 10$).

It really needed weeding, raking, cleaning, trimming

and throwing sticks, leaves and pine needles over the fence.

Very convenient, if you ask me, no neighbors on the one side and lots of underbrush.

It felt so good to take care of our little yard.

That kind of hard work is so rewarding...

We had the music blasting - Sorry neighbors.

Chloe loved it too, with all of her pack out in the yard!

With the occasional soccer ball kicks and throws, she was in heaven!

We had fun too... Amelie is always very entertained when she sees mom being a little crazy. 

As for Mike, he cannot resist me!

He's got quit the moves himself too! Don't you think?

Today, I enjoyed our cleaned-up yard with contentment and gratitude.

 I got a blanket and some pillows and Skyped my family in France from my porch.

It was so lovely! 

Pretty soon I'll be planting flowers in my pots!

The weedy flowers, as seen on pictures, are all gone now.

Then it will be really be heavenly...

 

Gymnastics Photos

Amelie's Gymnastic Team Pictures

She has been doing gynmastics for 5 months now.

Is it just me or do they look very orange?

Week-end with the Girls Gynmastic Meet

Amelie had her first Gynmastic meet today!

It was a lot of fun.

She does not have a team leotard, but was able to borrow one for the meet.

Also, she competed with level 2, not her own. Because we didn't want her to compete on Sunday.

At first they said she could do the meet, then a few days before the meet, 

they called me and told me she could compete with another level on Saturday! 

Yeah! 

She is normaly in level 4.

She skipped right over 1, 2 and 3.

She did great!

(A perfect score is 10.000)

Floor Score 8.200

Valt Score 8.800

Beam Score 7.800

Bar Score 8.400

Amelie walks the podium.

The Hunter vs The Gatherer

I dislike Mike's current deodorant, so I went to buy him a new one.

I went through 3 - 4 Brand's of deodorant

Smelled each scent in each brand.

Picked 2 favorites in one brand

Picked another 2 favorites in another brand.

Eliminated 1 from each brand.

Couldn't decide.

Left with 2 different deodorants.

Total time Choosing:

around 15mn

During that same 15mn, a guy shows up.

Picks one up.

Smells it.

Puts it in his cart,

and leaves.

Total time choosing: 

about 20 seconds.

Ever heard of the Hunter and Gatherer theory?

Or maybe I'm just picky...

I love scents!

 I do the same for body wash, shampoo, febreez, you get the point...

Scatterbrain!

Today, I hurried and showered, and showed up at Amelie's school with wet hair, 

thinking I was late for my Book fair Volunteer slot.

Found out I wasn't even scheduled!

I had it in my calendar and I checked on the paper Amelie brought home for me to sign up!

No wonder I never got an email confirming my slot!

I never sent that paper back!!!

And all these past weeks I was checking it and it never dawned on me! 

Way to be a scatterbrain!

This is me leaving feeling slightly stupid:

*******

A word to my Valentine
(regarding his previous post comment)

You don't need to prove yourself on Valentines day.

You spoil me on a regular basis and tell me you love me
Every Single Day!

Thank You

*******

Still My & His Valentine

See me wearing my cowgirl boots! And I love love love this mint-polka-dot shirt!

 He still makes me laugh!

Our Valentine...

This Year Mike bought a little Black Book.
The 'Like Book'
It has a lot of cute quotes in it.
And every day we write something we like about our significant other.
Err... Mike says I should say 'what we like about each other'
It's been laying around our bed.
I write in it and put it on his side. He does the same.
We might write in it during the whole month of February or longer?
Or we could get it out every Febuary for the next 11 years...
That is part of the fun of it!

Notice my new 'Smile' cushion?
Saw it. Loved it. Brought it home.

I don't know what we are doing tonight.
Mr Valentine said he was getting off work early?
You think?

Update:
 He got home early alright!
(at 9pm instead of 11pm, his usual time this week)

He ate his nice Valentine, Steak dinner
with baked potato, and roasted yellow bell peppers with melted blue cheese,
all by himself! :(

We are now both on our laptops.
Mike is laughing about my typos on this post, that I now have fixed.

Happy Valentines Day!

Amelie Posing

She's got quite the cute outfit!

CiRCLES iN February

I love circles, spots, polka dots & swirls.

You could say I am a circle lover.

I like stripes too, but round things tend to dominate in my life.

To me circles have a sense of infinity, continuity, wholeness, happiness and eternity.

They go on and on.... And are everywhere...

C i R C L E S  i N  M Y  W O R L D

C i R C L E S  A L L  A R O U N D

Can you tell it's February, and there is not much going on in my life?
Other than the day to day stuff...
I'm liking this month more and more.
I didn't use to.
I've always found it rather depressing.
But now I've decided I like February.
It's going to be the month I don't do much.
The month I recuperate from all the really busy ones!
The month I give myself permission to relax and not be always so darn productive.
The month that when it is gray and rainy, I cuddle up in bed and do mindless and enjoyable stuff.
Let's see, it's the 11th, I've done a pretty good job so far!

Sunday Afternoon & My Handy Dandy Manly Man

Yesterday, Mike tried to fix the Family room Ceiling fan lights.

He spent like ALL eavening on it.

Called Electrician buddy for 3 hours. Researched online. 

Spent $150 in those manly stores he went to twice. 

And fixed... hummm... Nothing.

Today, after a delicious Sunday dinner:

Oven Roasted lemon and french herb Chicken

Green beans and garlic/parsley/butter sauteed  mushrooms.

Baked yams. Rice and corn.

Mike got back on the Internet to try to figure it out, and is now sleeping loudly next to me.

Amelie is playing some girly dress-up games on my computer.

Emric is asking me for some french homework help.

And being your typical hide-my-face-teen when I take a picture.

Chloe is zonked out at our feet...

And I am blogging like I did almost all day yesterday on my bed!

My tooshie is getting sore...

I think I have done too much blogging this week-end.

When the sun is not out I tend to stay in more...

We really should have cleaned up our very neglected back yard yesterday!

(It's a good thing it's sunny most of the time here, less winter blues...)

Emric before a Church Valentine Dance Last night.

A Real Texan?

 I now own some (used) Real Cowgirl Boots!
You can't get more Texan than that, right?

Does this make me a real Texan?

A Frenchy-American-Texan...
No, I'm not getting the cowboy hat...
I draw the line and will stick with my berets...
Can you ware the 2 together?

How can you not love this?

She wants something...

Regional Dive Meet & Teenagers

The meet was over 2 days.

 They did 8 dives on Friday and 3 today.

Emric did pretty good... 

He came in 7th, among 16 boys, only 0.1 points behind the guy who took 6th.

Last year, there was no way he could have done a meet!

He had that going-through-puberty-awkward-growing-teen-boy thing going on.

He is finally, this year, gaining better control and confidence over his body.

This is all very promising since he has 2 more years of perfecting his dives. 

He's just going to get better and better.

Can we say maybe some college scholarship money down the road?

EVERY PARENTS DREAM

These are all from the meet yesterday.

Because today, Emric forgot to text us the time the boys were starting! 

He texted us when he was done!

We still have to work on the phone thing with him.

We pay for it so we can communicate with YOU, WHEN we need to!

 It's not just for your entertainment!

 

Our Date Night

I craved PHO and Vietnamese Spring rolls.

I love food. 

My man had a fling with a Fish, on our date!
Right in front of me!

The weird looking fish kept coming up to Mike and staring at him.

Wispering sweet nothings, well trying to, since fish can't talk.

He is MINE!
Yep, in all his goofiness...

Cell Phone Saga or Phone Envie?

I have to clarify some misconception that has been out there:

That I use all my kids phone upgrades to get the phones I want...

I've had 4 phones in the past year.

True.

But.

I did not use all my kids upgrades. Only one, Emric's.

For the record, here are the facts.

I had the Evo for over a year 1/2 and used MY upgrade to get the Samsung Galaxy 2

I gave my Evo to Alexi who used his upgrade for an IPhone and dropped it in the toilet.

(Apple is lame that way and does not cover water damage)

A couple months after that, Emric's phone died.

I used his upgrade, the only one, to get the newly released Galaxy 3 

(I really had my heart set on the Note, (I fell in love with it) but Sprint did not carry it)

I gave my Galaxy 2 to Emric, who was very happy for the upgrade.

Then Sprint got the New Samsung Note 2!

So I talked Mike into trading his Evo he's had for over 2 years for a Note 2 and give it to me. 

Come to find out, we can't do that since his phone is a company phone.

So I was very willing to wait for my next upgrade Oct 2013.

But then for Christmas, we got a phone line for Heavena. 

At Mike's suggestion, 

I got the Samsung Note 2, 

Justine got my Galaxy 3,

Hevena got Justine's Evo 4g.

And everyone lived phone happily ever after!

For a while anyhow... 

Well, except Mike who has a crappy phone...

Because he wants to please us more than himself...

He's just like that, he sacrifices so we have what we want!

Except when it comes to ice cream, no sacrifices there!

The End

Ps:
I'm planning on keeping my Note 2, we are very tight together!
Like inseparable tight and 1st-one-to-touch-in-the-morning-and-last-one-to-touch-at-night tight.
Unfortunately those relationships are not lasting.
One will come along better, faster, prettier, smarter, equipped with a to die for camera...
 like maybe a the Note 3?

I never thought I would be such a phone lover!

One of my Favorite Dinners

Had this for Dinner.

LOVE

Pan fried Talipa with quinoa

Kiss The Frog - Amelie in Wonderland