Raining On Our Parade of BonBons

 Happy Bastille Day everyone!!!  Last night we had a fun discussion with Tebow about Bastille Day. Gib determined that what we call it and what they call it are two different things because Tebow sure didn't know what we were talking about at first. I told him Indie suggested I wake him up jumping on his bed with a sparklers in my hands shouting Happy Bastille Day!  Now maybe it was that horrifying image prompting the completely confused look in his face, but eventually we got an "Ahhh! Yah, Yah!" out of him and he confirmed that on the "shaum d'lees", there is a par-rad (parade) of the army, (he knew terrorists wasn't the right word!) and after some very fun charades we supplied the word fireworks. Tebow agrees it is a significant day but not enough to warrant jumping on his bed. I think the dudes should scype Indie and Taryn today to wish them Happy Bastille Day before they go celebrate at a baseball game - it's even a double header (hah hah), complete with fireworks, and concert!. 


We all spoke with Mariah on the phone yesterday. It's been raining on their fun and won't stop until Monday when a break in the rain is forecasted.  I got an email from Felicie's mother who thanked us for the quilt and said they are pleased Mariah is there, and she is delicious and friendly. Yep, sweet as a bonbon that girl is!! They are at the beach now, and without internet connection. Losing the ability to touch base electronically is hard on a fourteen year old away from home so we had a couple phone calls which I enjoyed.  I hope the windsurfing they thought to try today despite the rain works out. Mariah will enjoy the watersports. 


Bastille Day is the French National Day which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale (The National Celebration) and commonly le quatorze juillet (the fourteenth of July).

On this day in 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille as a rallying point and symbolic act of rebellion, thus beginning the French Revolution. As told in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, the downtrodden and hungry people of France united to overthrow the rich and oppressive king and aristocrats. Festivities and official ceremonies are held all over France. The oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe was held this morning , on the Champs-Élysées.

 champs-elysees on a normal day

champs-elysees on La Fete Nationale or the "fourteenth of July" (not so much Bastille Day)




















A couple of days ago, while still in Paris, Mariah topped off a week of tourism and walking her feet off at the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre. I am sure the artist in her really enjoyed these experiences!

(photos from the internet)








Despite some rain, (Tebow says "eet eees Paris!") the girls are still having fun. I had a big smile on my face when I saw these pics on facebook:

At Euro Disney

 Mariah and Lillion

 Mariah and Peyton 

(I loved Peyton's comment to her dad not to mind the boys in the background talking to the French Police!)

It's all good!

7.11 at Chez Coo-Coo

It's Gib's 17th birthday today! It should be a very lucky day with those 7's and 1's all lined up again.  He was born on 7.11 and weighed 7.11.  I feel a lotto ticket calling his name.

We are dragging the birthday celebrations out since the fun started on my bday the 8th, kicking into high gear on Gib's bday the 11th and sailing thru to the 18th Tebow's bday.  Yesterday, Tib and I started on a cajun style Doberge cake. We made 4 layers. I am quite certain my bakery result will in no way resemble that of the image above, but I am 90% certain it will make up for in taste what it will lack in style.  It's a white cake layered with chocolate pudding. I'm putting on vanilla frosting and chocolate sprinkles. No silver cake plate, flowers, or garnish. Unless Tib goes all French on me... hmmm, maybe I should turn the frosting part over to him?!   He did a very fine job making us dinner last night - stuffed tomatoes and cheesy rice. Mariah said she had a similar dinner - Thibault said it is a typical french dish.

Tebow has agreed that we can call him Tib or Tebow.  I mostly call him Tebow. I showed him Tim Tebow you tube vids yesterday. He likes Tebow - the real Tebow - he's big, athletic, and has a cool move...what's not to like. He says some people call him Tib - you pronounce it like "teeeb".  I am enjoying his fluency quite a bit - he gets my jokes and that's really saying something. Yesterday he said something about "ooomare" meaning I was being funny, or humorous. So we worked on his gutteral, phlegmy H sounds - hhhhhhuuumer. I think he's a pea in the pod here.

We will go out for the traditional birthday family dinner on Friday, the dudes get a firework show on Saturday (courtesy of the Sounds baseball game), a 21 gun salute at the shooting range this weekend, and maybe some Thriller at the Michael Jackson concert at the park. When it's Tebow's birthday we will be at the lake. Tebow has never camped in a tent before so I think he's starting 15 off with a jolt!!

Tebow was dutifully impressed with Sonic when we went there to bribe Gib into waking up with a large Dr. Pepper.  Oh, and our friendly Publix guys LOVE Thibault!  He's met 3 of them so far - we've been there twice already - one practiced his French and the older gentlemen keep teaching him stuff like "I'm a fixin'" and "over yonder" seeing as how Tib mastered "Y'all" in about 3 seconds.  My favorite part is when they pull out receipt paper and write it down in Redneck English. Ain't nothin' like living in the South!  Next time we go, I'm gonna have Tebow say to the cashier, "hey Chuuuuck, how y'all doin?"

Gib and Tib spent the evening at Scouts, Laser Tag and watching a redbox movie. Today we planned for them to go rock climbing and a friend is coming over to hang out and have dinner with us. It's game night at church for the youth group so there's our itinerary for the day!

Meanwhile in Paris.....  Mariah will be going to the Versailles Palace today.  She's working off every croissant and bite of chocolate by walking for like 12 hrs a day.  Euro Disney sounds like it was a blast. Mariah said she loved this ride that was like an elevator, and then they dropped you 5 floors, then went back up to the top and you dropped back down several more times. 


In googling Versailles, I really had to laugh at this description I copied below. I KNEW I was right about that cafe thing!!!!  

Outside the Versailles Palace and Estates
Versailles is a Paris suburb, and while there is some interesting architecture through the neighborhood, the raisson d’etre of a Versailles visit is the palace and park estates.
I don’t talk much about toilet facilities, because city parks will always have at least one. I must commend Versailles for its appreciation of people’s needs. While the palace itself has just one toilet area that has a perpetual line, the gardens have toilets at or near each of the four cafés.

."

I might have to modify my favorite life motto: "Never pass up a cafe, bistro, or restaurant!"






French for Dummies: Word Du Jour

chez  ("shay")

at the house of: often used in the names of restaurants and the like; Chez Coo-Coo - house of crazy people. I know coo-coo is the equivalent of "hey ya'll, how y'all doin?" in french, but we don't take ourselves too seriously here.

Commence Download & Encore!

The great Hawaiian Scout Trip 2012 is all over except for the laundry, pics.... and, of course, gifts! The group returned this morning looking tanned, happy and tired.  Gib has about 300 pictures to be downloaded. Look for them soon.  It's so good to have the dude back home! We laughed all the way back from the airport.


French for Dummies:  Question Du Jour
My source for these extremely pertinent, chic, and completely up to date French expressions is, once again, right ON when it comes to need-to-know.....

English:                               Pronounciation:                        French:

Do you have a...                 Ah vay voo                             Avez-vous
   a map?                                Ewn kart                                   Une carte
   a lighter?                              Uhn bek                                    Une bec
   the time?                              Lehr                                          L'heure


Where is the...                   Ooh-ay  leh                              Ou est le
     Bistro?                               beez-troh                                  Bistro 
     Cafe?                                 kah-fay                                     Cafe
     Restaurant?                        res-tah-rahn                               Restaurant


Yep, that's what every traveller MUST be able to communicate and on the top 10 of the tricky, never would have thunk it.  Not "Do you have... Google Translate?" or "Where is the....bathroom?"  Imagine the horror when a native-speaker asks you for L'heure and you reply "Oui, Matt Lauer on the Today show!" or the odd sense of deja vu when the word "res-tah-rahn" is mentioned. 


Wait a minute.... I just figured it out! A bistro, cafe or restaurant might have bathrooms there, and THAT'S why we were given every opportunity to discreetly find one's own way, oh so nonchalantly to  leh twah let ---  also known as lez toilettes

The best tip by far is to shout ENCORE! whenever you see someone leave the commode. You know what's really amazing is how many french words are already in our repertoire.

encore, a simple adverb in French, in English, refers to an additional performance, usually requested with audience applause.

Hawaii 9-0 & Parlez

Last I heard from Gib it was around 4 am here, and approaching midnight for him. They were planning to stay up all night, so they could sleep on the plane. They arrive tomorrow morning at 9am hopefully feeling like it's really morning. Won't be alot of sleeping to be had around here - we've got things to do, people to see, places to go.... 

Here's the last of the photos from Hawaii

Not heavy on the details except it was very cold. I know Gib packed long sleeves, not sure about a jacket, but he doesn't get cold easily. Everyone else is freezing and he's in a t-shirt and flip flops.  He's probably freezing too but refuses to acknowledge it. 

The volcano crater before the sun went down at at sunset

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE:

Thibault and I decided to skip Opryland - we figure we can look at plants outside and it sounded a little boring to me. It's one thing to go with a bunch of girls who just walk and talk & talk & shop & talk & talk. I don't see guys loving it as much.  He tried his first bowl of homemade oatmeal and liked it. He says they are not much for breakfast in France which is great because we're not big breakfast people either. I like breakfast food, just don't like eating at that hour!

We have decided to take it slow here: going to check out the local area, maybe walk to the redbox, go to the grocery store, maybe Costco - because what's a trip to America without Costco?! As we have learned this week anyways, what's a trip anywhere without Costco?! Maybe I should wait for Gib to get back - I'm sure he is a big fan of the Costco run by now!

Later today hopefully he can hang out with our friend next door. 

Mariah went to the Eiffel tower.  She's probably still recuperating.  Something about 420 stairs and not even reaching the top which was closed. I thought they had elevators?!  I'm looking forward to her next blog, but don't know when to anticipate that. I enjoy conversations with her on messaging or texting. She mentioned the clothing boutiques and that she's in big trouble - lots and lots of trouble. There goes my cheese and chocolate.

French For Dummies:  

English:                              Pronounciation:                  French:

Please speak slowly            par-lay lehn-ta-mohn          Parlez lentement

Hawaii 8-0 and Salut!

Last night the scouts in Hawaii went to the Mauna Kea Visitor Center where they heard a neat lecture "Universe Tonight" and used a sun telescope and stayed until midnight to star gaze. Pretty cool stuff.

According to the Itinerary, today they are going to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park - to the summit of the caldera, see another amazing ocean view, and hike a chain of craters to the southernmost point in the US (really?) Ka Lae.  

Gib leaves Hawaii tomorrow, but we won't see him until Tuesday morning.  Hope they have had the best scout trip ever and safe travels home.

My mommy anxiety is pretty low actually - I had contact with all my kids yesterday! I love days like that.  Mike commented that our 4 children have managed an incredible feat of spanning latitude and longitude. Mariah and Gib are 12 hours apart opposite longitudinally (new word) while Indie and Taryn are 12 hours apart latitudinally (meaning it takes 6 hours by car in one direction to get to Georgia from here, and 6 hours the other way to get to Missouri).  Wrap you brain around that!

Joining the fun, Thibault is on his way now! He arrives in Tennessee this evening. We are looking forward to the start of his time with us.  If he hasn't had the pleasure of Fried Pickles I do believe baptism by deep frying is in order.

Meanwhile, Mariah is heading back to Paris after another fun filled day in the country.  I can't wait to see some photos and hear of her adventures.  Welcome to the blog Mariah!

And, now without further adieu (hah I crack myself up) let's hear it for.....

French For Dummies: Word of the Day 

Although I do have to say that French is NOT for dummies because it is hard to pronounce! To help you I have shamelessly borrowed from the internet.  These will appear on facebook as well, unless Mariah bans me, but even then the French have an expression that she would do well to learn: C'est la vie (say la vee) "That's life".  

English:          French:          Pronounciation:

Hello                Salut             sah-loo

Bonjour!

Bonjour from France! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I love you and miss you and hope you are having a great birthday! I'm having a great time! I've had some really good chocolate, rode bikes for about two hours, watched a few movies, and learned how to ride a motorcycle. And I'm sure mom is pleased by this since I was chatting with her on facebook and told her I was going to learn how to ride a motorcycle then got off facebook before she could say NO! I'm also learning to type on their keyboard, which is really hard so there's bound to be mistakes.

Riding the motorcycle was fun, her dad was following me (more like chasing since the bike was fast) telling me what to do, a lot of the time I was going a little too fast or not fast enough, I also accidentally turned off the bike a couple of times, and nearly crashed once.. into a bush mom, no where near a tree and it only happened once and I didnt actually crash! It was a lot of fun! We tried to get Félicie to go but she refused... :) she also refused biking in the rain today :(

Today we went to their church in Champagne which was cool, it wouldve been cooler had I understood a word they were saying! But it was still a fun expierence, and for communion we just took bread not wine. It was still a great experience.

We will also be riding bikes after I finish this blog (which I'm sure my mom will go back and fix all my grammer), play some ping pong, maybe ride the motorcycle some more, then go to Paris at 7, where I can post pictures from Chicago and yesterday. I am loving being in France!

Happy Birthday again mom! and tell Thibault hello for me when he arrives!

Au Revoir!!

Beret's Away! Hawaii 6-0, 7-0

I spent the day yesterday glued to my phone to catch texts from Mariah as soon as they came in.

It was quite a long day for both of us - she got to see Chicago and had pizza at Gino's which I hear was amazing.  They did a walking tour of the city and went to the airport.  Cut it alot closer than I would have which kind of sent my blood pressure up, but didn't encounter any problems at all - unless you count going to the wrong terminal.  I guess the other parents didn't check out the map of the terminal online like I did. I knew exactly where they should have gone.  I told Mariah it would be easy to accidentally go to Terminal 5 when you need Terminal 1 for departing international flights. I guess by then everything I was telling her went in one ear and out the other. I wonder if I should worry about what else she wasn't listening to! One parent each escorted the girls so they took them directly to the gate.  And they were off!

At 2 am I got up to be ready to receive Mariah's text that they had landed, another one when they made it thru customs, and then an actual call that they were picked up.  We probably spent about $5 getting through that ordeal. There was some tense moments -- they sailed thru customs, got their bags, and still didn't see Lillion or Felicie.  We all scrambled - I told them to stay put, stay together and wait.

"Don't Panic! Stay right where you are. They will come to get you...." was totally running through my mind, even as I laughed at myself, you know I was starting to freak out.


While I was texting them and relaying to Peyton's mom, she found out the girls were there, but just hadn't found ours yet.  Whew!!   I got to speak to Felicie's mom briefly and she say they were all very happy!

Meanwhile, back in Hawaii - it rained.

The guys didn't do the canyon hiked planned because it was too wet after raining the entire day before. Gib said they did a simpler version of it though.

They had a luau last night and will fly to the Big Island of Hawaii today and set camp up in another BSA facility.   That means another Costco run... I wonder if they have the $1.50 Hot Dog Deal there?








View from Camp Honokaia