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Unfortunately, it was a long night! Apparently, the new bedrail wasn't installed right so Claire ended up on the floor again, crying at 3am. Arnaud went to get her and brought her into bed so the rest of the night was restless for all, except her! So we had a slow morning getting going.

When she woke up at 8, she had a fever again. She has no other symptoms of being sick, so I'll hold off on going to the doctor just yet. Once she had some Motrin, and the fever dropped, she was back to her normal self. Even taking pictures of Arnaud & I.

The weather was beautiful this morning so we spent some time outside. A needed relief from the heat wave we've been having.

As Arnaud left for work, Claire and I went for a short bike ride around the neighborhood. She loves it and tells me which way we should go the entire way. Once we were back from the bike ride, we stayed outside a little longer, playing with chalk, making bubbles, etc.

When we came inside, Claire decided it was time for a picnic in the living room. So we set out a blanket and snacks and had a picnic lunch with friends. Claire had fun being in charge of my camera remote!

For her nap, Claire insisted on sleeping on the floor. I think she's a little worried about the bed situation. Once she was completely asleep, I put her up in her bed with the bedrail firmly attached now! (It's not going anywhere now I've attached it in so many places!)

While she was down for her nap, I edited photos and had my lunch. She wasn't down for long though as she woke up with a fever again. I'm feeling bad about not taking her to the doctor but there is nothing else going on. No coughing, no stuffy or runny nose, no complaints of tummy troubles. I'm really convince that she's just got the same bug as me.

So since we're both still under the weather, it was another afternoon of just hanging on the couch.

After another simple dinner, (she just wanted buttered noodles,) it was bathtime. She loves to hang out and play in the water. It's one of her favorite things to do, that is until it's time to wash her hair!

We then just hung out for a bit waiting for Arnaud to come home.

We went on a quiet walk about this morning with coffee cups in hand.  Looks like we finally have a moonflower bud!  The garden is weedy but glorious. 

While the campers were here we had company on our walk abouts on some mornings.  I’d make them hot chocolate with froth on top so they’d feel grown-up.  It works with one, but adding to that mix just brings chaos.   Our quiet stroll became a jog with pajamas covered with stains and zero contemplation of the garden and the fresh day. 

Crossword puzzle were done this morning with no jumping up and down to greet sleepy kids or toast bagels.  We promised ourselves we wouldn’t do anything today.  I’ve succeeded but Gerry can’t stop doing things, loading the dishwasher and carrying out trash.  I don’t even feel guilty and just watch him work, pleased with myself that I haven’t a single urge to join in.

Those kids wear us completely out.  We get grumpy.  They get louder.  I want them to remember how much fun it was to sleep outside in the tent, play in the yard and tree house, stay up waaaay too late, river rafting, eating Aunt Kaye’s pancakes and Grammy’s cheesey scrambled eggs, outdoor showers at Rhodallen, steak night, gem mining, the beach and learning to love barbequed ribs.

We packed a lot into 26 days. 

It was a slow start to the day. We were all tired after Arnaud getting in late last night from France. He and I had some time to catch up with each other before Claire woke up. She slept in until 9!

While I got ready for the day, Claire played with her current obsession: Littlest Pet Shop. She played with these for hours last week at a friend's house so I got her a set. She probably spends at least an hour a day playing with them, making up little stories.

Then Claire and I set off to do some errands. I needed to go to the bank and then we went to Buy Buy Baby to buy a bedrail for her bed. Since she's about 99% potty trained, she gets very anxious if we leave her in bed too long after she wakes up. So I thought it would be a good idea to convert her crib to a toddler bed. Only problem is that when I tried it with her last week, she fell out of bed in the middle of the night. Oops! Hoping the bedrail will fix that!

The rest of the day was spent hanging out, just Claire and me. Since I've had a bit of a cold since last Friday and Claire woke up from her nap with a fever, we spent a lot of time hanging out on the couch, watching TV and her watching Justin Bieber "Baby" over and over again. (Too funny!)

For dinner, it was comfort food for a couple of sickies, nice warm pureed potatoes. Yum!

As I did last year, I've decided to participate in a project called "Week in the Life" originally created by Ali Edwards You can read all about it here. Basically, it's about taking photos and journaling all about your everyday life for a week.

I almost didn't do it this year for a number of reasons. First of all, when I did it last year, I didn't complete it the way I wanted to. I got all the photos printed and put into an album. But I just never got around to writing out my thoughts about each day. Secondly, this year the project falls in the middle of summer. Our summer is anything but "everyday". Arnaud just arrived home from helping his mom through a health scare, Julien is still away at Camp Grammy and Bompie and our babysitter is off on vacation. Lastly, I've just been in a funk lately and doing anything creative has been on the back burner.

But this year, I decided at the very last minute to do it anyway. It helped that Ali created a PDF file to easily jot down what's happening throughout the day. So far it's kept me on track for the first 2 days.

So for the next week, I will be documenting our everyday life. I haven't yet decided how I will put it all together in a scrapbook later, but I figured I can at least blog it and then it will be here for me to print out later.

Here's an addition to the previous Camp photos I posted. It's so great to see all the photos here, and see the differences, especially in the kids, from one year to the next. Such a great tradition!

2010:

2009:

2008:
I must present a disclaimer for the 2008 group photo. It's called pregnancy brain or fog of WHATEVER! (see the extra little person in the above photo) I did not take the 2008 group photo at actual Camp Grammy & Bompie. But don't you just LOVE this one?

2007:
The year it all started with the t-shirts.

2006:
Because you see here, in 2006, no t-shirts and no group photos. What's up with that? How are you suppose to know if these people are members of Camp Bompie & Grammy?

I spent today installing the new Zip Line in the front yard.  It’s made from a kit I bought with 1/8 “ steel wire, and a commercially made handle.  As you can see in the video, it’s even strong enough for me!

I got a phone call Sunday evening from the 13 year old.  He told me to get a pencil and piece of paper.  Here’s the list in the order it was given to me:

Bagels

Cream cheese

Bread

Pretzels

Jelly

Wheat Thins

Coco Crispies

Carrots

Broccoli

Milk

Ice Cream

Strawberries

Fireworks

Grapes

Baby Bel Cheese

Steak

Bacon

Marshmallows

Brownies

Here’s a few pictures of what we get to enjoy every morning with our first cup of coffee.

And as an added attraction.  Here’s one of the tents we will be sleeping in at Camp Grammy and Bompie this year.

Today, after bragging that we had not seen any snakes on our property, this guy appeared.

It’s a Black Rat Snake.  Good non-poisonous critter that eats mice, voles and other reptiles.

Here’s another picture.

It looked to be about 3 1/2 feet long.  A good sized snake!

He hung around for a while wandering all over the back yard, then disappeared into the bush.

We’ll have to watch for him on our many walks around our beautiful spring garden.

As most of you know, I’ve been personally handling my investments for the last few months and am doing pretty well.

Today I found a reference to William O’Neil who expressed my exact philosophy on the stock market. 

There are only 5 rules.

Buy expensive stocks  and stay away from low priced issues.

Do not average down in price–only pyramid up to your position.

Be quick to take losses with your max being 8%, average wins being 20%.

Let your winners run as long as they are behaving properly.

Diversification is for those that do not know what they are doing.

The last rule can be can be expanded to say:

It is better to have a few of the best stocks and watch them closely.

It is interesting to me how my learning and experience in the market over these last 5 months led me to these same beliefs.  So far, since I took control of my own investments, I am up 22%.  I guess these rules are working.

Whew.  I’m just now getting caught up with the new season of “Big Love”, that hot mess of religion, ugly clothes and recipes for weird food.  I’ve been busy with trips and what not but also so caught up in “Californication”, “Detroit 1-8-7” and “Shameless” that “Big Love” was taking a back seat…until tonight.  TONIGHT!!  “Big Love” met “Californication” in the most unpredictable and unforeseen manner that I’m still kinda breathless over the whole dang thing.  Let’s just talk frankly about statutory rape.  Hmmm.

I love Dean Winters in those Allstate ads.  He was so adorable/loathsome in Oz!  Speaking of ads, which I devote no small effort in avoiding with my trusty TiVo, I did accidentally catch Bob Barker in an ad 2 days ago and my eyes are still hurting.  Old, wrinkly people with spray on tans are HIDEOUS.

The movie marathon continues.  I’m going to watch “The Kids Are Alright” by myself tonight and spare Gerry the agony of giving it 15 minutes and then bolting from the room.  I know his limits.

I finished Antonia Fraser’s “Must You Go” and am now re-reading her “Wives of Henry VIII” while I wait for 3 of her other books to arrive.  The woman loves the word uxorious.  I think it pops up in everything she writes.

I have also ordered “Barney’s Version” and am searching out how to catch the flick.

8 dead mice and I think we’ve finally solved the mystery of how those little beasties were getting in.  If not, we are moving.

Stay tuned.

- Claire's hair is getting so long. I keep cutting the bangs because she REFUSES to let me put ANYTHING in her hair.
- The other day Claire set up my yoga mat on the floor. She then lined up 2 bears, and 3 dolls in a row. She sat herself down behind them all and started to sing "Dingo bah" That would be Jingle Bells to you and I.

- When Julien is doing homework in the afternoons, Claire watches some TV so I can be free to help him. Lately, she just loves "Dino Dan", a show about a boy who sees dinosaurs throughout his day at home and at school. So I went down into the old toys and found 2 dinosaurs for her to play with. But she doesn't growl and do dinosaur things with them. No, she rocks them and sings to them so they will "schleep, go night, night".

- A week or so ago, I had a kitchen designer at the house to measure and talk about the design. Julien was suppose to be upstairs working on homework. All of a sudden, he comes through the kitchen, a combat helmet on his head, and proceeds to march, high stepping, stiff legs, with a hand out in front of himself. "What are you doing?" I asked. He just laughed and went upstairs. Later, he told me that he wanted to be noticed. Yeah, that's one way of doing it.
- Claire loves to play with apps on my iPhone. I've downloaded several especially for her that have nursery rhymes or songs and things that she can touch on to get a reaction. But if ever she's having trouble, she'll grab my finger, push it onto the screen and say "mama do."
- When I put Claire to bed, I hold her hand for a couple of minutes after she's lying down in her crib. Tonight was so cute. She was singing herself to sleep with her own version of "Jingle Bells, Up on the Rooftop, Deck the Halls" all mixed together. I think she's getting this Christmas spirit thing!

- I've tried to fill Julien's first week of Winter Break with fun things to do. We've baked cookies, had pajama/TV day, went to see Tron, done crafts, and had movie nights/afternoons.

I was just struck by the difference a year can make.
Here's Julien last year in December snow:

And here he is this year:

And as for the girl, here she is last year, where I could just sit her somewhere and she couldn't really move ;)

And this year, when she chased after her brother wherever he went and cried when it was time to come in.

I was just struck by the difference a year can make.
Here's Julien last year in December snow:

And here he is this year:

And as for the girl, here she is last year, where I could just sit her somewhere and she couldn't really move ;)

And this year, when she chased after her brother wherever he went and cried when it was time to come in.

This  48” x 24” oil on gallery wrapped linen is for my private collection.  A composition puzzle that intrigued me and kept me guessing until the very end if I would like it or not.

- She loves shoes. She has a definite opinion on which shoes she will be wearing and will change them if she is not happy with what's on her feet.
- She loves to color. She will sit at her little table and color away while I'm on the computer. Although, she will usually pull on my arm, and then show me where I should sit at the table to color with her. "Assis mama!"
- She's adjusted to having a regular babysitter while I go to work. She will still complain a little bit when Mari arrives but will quickly get over it and enjoy her time with Mari. I always come home to a quite house with Claire already down for her nap. When she wakes up, she is SO HAPPY to see me.
- She idolizes her brother ("joo-yen") and is absolutely in love with her papa. She tries so hard to get involved in whatever Julien is doing. And she, of course, has Arnaud wrapped around her little finger. They've been spending more time together as Claire stays with Papa on Mondays when Mama goes to work and we don't have the babysitter.
- She loves music. She loves for me to put music on my iPhone or our iPad. She especially loves videos and she knows what she wants to listen to. It's especially funny when I put on a song and she shakes her head and says "Not this." And she'll do this over and over again until she is happy with the song choice. And then she will bounce up and down and move her arms around to dance. Too cute!
- At least once a week, these days, I will find her taking her clothes off. She will strip down to nothing and run around until I can catch her and at least force a diaper back on. Luckily, our gas fireplace is working again since it's getting cold!

Dear Julien,
I just want to put into words how proud I am of you. You started at Westminster this fall. A stricter school with a more rigorous curriculum, so different than the school you've been going to since you were 3. To say it was hard is really minimizing how the transition went. We had long afternoons of homework that stretched into the evening. You got frustrated, I got frustrated and sometimes, I'm sorry to say, I didn't react in a way I can be proud of. Each day, though, we slogged through it and it was always a relief to be done.
But now, with more than 2 months under your belt, it really seems as if you've hit your stride. You get right to your homework after school, with little or no complaints. And you tell me to leave you alone so you can do it yourself. And you're working HARD! I can see that you want to do well; that you are enjoying the challenge.
I know that you still have hard days but the good days now outnumber the bad. I know that you still get frustrated, but we talk it through and move on. But you've really shown me how smart, hard-working and persistent you can be. Keep up the good work, bugaboo!
Love, Mom