Today, I'm joining the hodgepodge.
1. Tell us about one small blessing you have counted in the past week?
Counted my blessing in finding out about MOMS Club international, and joined our local chapter. First mommy/son date is for Mexican food later this week.
2. Bastille Day is celebrated on July 14th...have you ever been to France? Any desire to visit there, and if so what would site or city would you most want to see? (pretend for a minute international travel isn't an issue)
Bastille Day would've been my maternal Grandad, Michael's eighty-seventh birthday. He grew up in an idyllic village called Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in the Heart-of-England. He was a highly skilled detonator in the diamond mines of South Africa during the 1960's and 1970's, which is where my mum, Julie Ann, was born and spent her early childhood before the family moved to Lusaka, Zambia. He and my Nana Mabel went home to the Heart-of-England to retire and they passed away within five months of each other.
My Grandad, Michael, and his little sister, Wendy
Growing up between the ages of eight to nineteen in England, there were lot's of family vacations, or holidays as we would say, to France. Here's some memorable ones:
1997 - When I was around eleven years old we went to Brittany, in the NW region of France. And yes, I still wore jelly sandals, hairbands, white under shirts under my summer dresses, and no makeup.
2002 - When I was around sixteen years old, my high school art class did a trip to Paris. We had a full itinerary, which I will have to rummage out of my memorabilia box. I have maybe 3+/- pictures from that whole trip. One of the last trips with my disposable camera before getting a digital camera that summer.
1997 - When I was around eleven years old we went to Brittany, in the NW region of France. And yes, I still wore jelly sandals, hairbands, white under shirts under my summer dresses, and no makeup.
1999 - When I was around thirteen years old we went to Disneyland, Paris. We stayed at a Western style hotel. We also stayed in Paris for a few days afterwards and saw the tunnel where Diana, Princess of Wales had her fatal car accident. I remember the deafening silence and reverence from everyone on the coach bus.
2001 - When I was around fifteen years old I went to spend Christmas in with my paternal Granny, Auntie Di and and her family in Worth am Rhein, Germany. They live close to the Black Forest (where my Granny and Dad are now resting), but that Christmas we went to Strasbourg, France and it was the most beautiful European city at Christmastime. I remember going on a river cruise and to a authentic French restaurant, where I had the most delicious chicken in white wine sauce. Many years in college I'd visit my Granny a week before Christmas to help her decorate and we'd always drive over to the local French villages to visit the market.
Last but not least...
2002 - When I was around sixteen years old, my high school art class did a trip to Paris. We had a full itinerary, which I will have to rummage out of my memorabilia box. I have maybe 3+/- pictures from that whole trip. One of the last trips with my disposable camera before getting a digital camera that summer.
3. A food associated with France that you love?
Bread: Pain au chocolate, croissant, baguette. So yummy and in France they (used to) have no preservatives so they'd have to eat the bread within a day or two, so it didn't become stale.
4. Something you recently purchased where a coupon was involved? Do you regularly shop with coupons?
Will shop with coupons if I have them, but don't go out of my way couponing. Can't remember the last time I used one.
5. You have to give something away this week...what will it be?
Have a few boxes of baby stuff - clothes and bottles, I'm hoping to give away to a mom in FB mom group.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Since I last updated my blog, my son, Drew, turned one years old. We love and adore him so much, and hopefully one day when he's a little older we'll travel to France and make more memories.
