2012

2012 is around the corner, less than 12 hours. It will start as crazily as 2011 is ending. It's a funny thing really, we are about to be more broke than ever, my computer needs fixing right away, Chris' car broke down, I have been pretty sick and though my voice is coming back, my energy isn't back at all and I don't feel much better, Chris is on medical leave which means finances are about to go from bad to worst,  my weight is at an all time high, Daniel is going through a rough teenage period, oh and on a way too personal note...my periods just started (really??? did it have to be today??)...and since we're talking about it (is this the point where you want to stop reading but just can't?) as my 40s hit so did major cramping and pms...I've never had pms before! It's really been something I've always been thankful for (and it made me better than everybody else!!), but now I'm just Miss Basketcase! Mad, sad, frustrated, impatient and all that other wonderful crap! All this to say that you can imagine what a frustrating issue this is for the former Miss I'm-in-control-of-it-all-not-even-pms-can-get-a-hold-of-me-I'm-so-above-it-all!
Ok, where was I....? Oh yeah! ending 2011. So yeah, it's not ending on the best of conditions, which inevitably means, 2012 is going to have a rough start! Wow! Are you ready to shoot yourself yet? Can I get more depressing? (remember...pms!)  So why even bother blogging all this you ask? Well here's the weird thing...I am feeling pretty positive about our lives.  Chris and I are doing great as a couple,  doing that whole grown up working together thing, being somewhat rational and reasonable! No no no, don't worry, we still behave like two immature teenagers, throw insults at eachother, laugh at people, laugh even more at ourselves,etc...  Trying to get Daniel through his teens while we're still working on ours just makes for a happy screwy mess of a family. We live in this incredible environment, I'm sure you're sick of hearing about it, but damn we love it here! It's a haven, when all else fails and life just grabs you where it hurts, we look outside and just breathe...(insert mushy country song here). We so don't have it together like most people our age (I notably think of my sister who has had her ducks in a row since she was born) but we're happy.  sometimes I think we're doing it all wrong and Daniel will be inevitably damaged from our lives and parenting, but then how can it be so wrong when we laugh so much?  I hope in the midst of all the immaturity and laughter we'll manage to teach Daniel that life isn't always a bowl of cherries, and if it hands you lemons, sometimes it squirts it in your eyes just to add insult to injury, when you think it can't get any worse, it does! But you can take it all with a sense of humor, you can remember that love conquers all (did I say that? barf!), most of all, no matter what gets dished out, surround yourself with love and laughter and you can manage to come out on the safe side. I refuse to get scared of what might happen in two years, I want to live today having the most fun possible. This world we live in is what it is, we owe it to ourselves to laugh everyday and make eachother feel good inside.
Chris, my love, you make me feel good inside, I love our family, our lives and all that we are!
happy new year, hope you'll be as happy as we are!

consider yourself caught up!

So here are a few pictures to get you caught up, I still have tons to go through but you'll just have to be happy with this! New year's resolution...try to stay on top of this blog!!!

enjoy!

Brought to you from our living room window:

our evening skies blow us away each and every time

even at night our skies are gorgeous!

first big snow, more to come...we just got 2 feet and it's still snowing!

Our hike along the Guiers Mort:

Daniel on one of our hikes down by the Guiers Mort, the river by our place

big ol'strand of moss

Chris taking great pictures with his cell phone.

look at the size of these rocks that look like they were just scattered in a nonchalant manner. Imagin the niose it must've made?

more beautiful fungus

Down in town:

waiting for Daniel at chool, I spotted this rainbow, the weird part is that is was flat against the sky above my head

Jardin des Dauphins, Grenoble:

Chris walking towards the light

funky furry lemons on a tree with killer thorns

huge tree in the Jardin des Dauphins

Paris:

jardin des plantes

on the Seine

great sculpture, it looked so real!

loved this flower

Notre Dame from the boat 

Sainte Chapelle

Chris has been making candied jalapeños:

Ok, so there you are all caught up with our life here in France. We've been getting lots of snow for the past few days and we love it! pictures to come...of course!

Early December fun

It's almost mid December already! I still have pictures from Paris and this fall to go through! It's hard to find time to get it all done.
Daniel turned 14 on the 5th. We had a family get together, there were 11 of us in our tiny place! But it was great, despite the rain we went for a walk. Our youngest niece Mathilde thought Chris was just the bomb! She flirted with him all afternoon, it was really really cute!!!

racing takes a lot of concentration

lip biters

yeah, well hours on the wii will give you that look!

Today Chris and I went to Grenoble to go hang out at the Christmas market. It's fun, lots of yummy food, lights, little shops set up all over, Santa, etc...  We treated ourselves to some hot wine and chartreuse hot chocolate. Daniel chose to stay home and went skiing...get this, our slopes aren't open, he skiis down and climbs back up, you should also know that we live on TOP of the slope! That kid's nuts! Well Chris and I had a fantastic time hanging out at the xmas market, we also saw that there was a big flea market, bonus!!!
We people watched, petted a tiny shar pei puppy, watched young kids have temper tentrums, smelled roasting chestnuts, cotton candy, tartiflette, etc..

roasted chestnuts

camera thief