The passing of time and loved ones

Okay, so it is well beyond a few weeks since the last post. There are many excuses, but no need to elaborate on them all. Let's just say life happens, and for our extended family this past month, death does, too.

My paternal grandfather, Harry Christian Wilhelm Christensen (November 25, 1922-August 4, 2009) passed away after a fall which resulted in a broken hip. His body was just too old and sick to recover from the ordeal and my grandmother let him go back Home by removing Life Support per his wishes before the fall occurred.

Unable to stay by herself any longer, my grandma, OMA (in German) has moved in with our family. It has been a great adjustment, to say the least, but the family is rallying around her and hopefully this will be a happy time for her as she lives out the remainder of her life. I have some pictures to post, and will do so soon. Right now, it's back to taking care of the fam!

Look out, Here He Comes!

Jarin can drive all alone now!

It is official, Jarin has his FIRST driver's license. He would have had it yesterday if he had been told he needed a picture i.d., but since he destroyed his school i.d. card, he was up the proverbial creek, and no one knew who he was. He came home dejected a bit, but early this morning we remedied the situation. Luckily he still has his passport from an Aussie/Kiwi trip 5 years ago. The picture was young, but still worked! Yes, he has already gone on his first solo drive--to violin lessons.

Yesterday Jarin made the call to the insurance company to find out how much it is going to cost to have the priviledge of driving without Mom or Dad in the car. Let's just say he wished he had a good job! Even with the Good Student Discount it is a lot of money!

So Jarin's words to all you traveling in our neck of the woods: Look out, Here I come.

Hopefully that only means you will be seeing him in passing on the road, and not going faster than the speed limit! Hey, if you do see him driving like a maniac please let us know!

Time for a Trim!!

Brendon finally acquiesced and let me cut his hair. Believe me, it was more than a trim! His hair was so long that it covered his eyes and curled at the rim of his glasses into a ski-launch! Now he is sporting a debonair style--short and sleek. He is so funny because now he is trying gel and all kinds of ways to mess with shorter hair. Maybe he'll grow out of this vanity stage....we hope ;-)

Whirlwinds and Dust Devils

WOw! Where has June gone? SOOOO much has been going on in the French household that it seems as if the winds have been blowing non-stop since school let out! We left for Texas on June 6th, at an hour waaaayyyyy too early for a family of any size! Our dear neighbors taxied us to the airport at 5:50 a.m. The flight was pretty uneventful (other than the feeling like we were going to fall out of the sky in Denver!). A black stretch limo picked us up from the San Antonio, TX airport and chauffeured (are there 2 fs and 2 rs in that one?) us to our hotel. The couple of days we spent in San Antonio were one of our whirlwinds! We spent the evening Saturday just settling in to our fancy digs and getting something to eat. We even had cheesecake waiting for us, compliments of the hotel concierge. We swam in the rooftop pool and walked along the famous Riverwalk of San Antonio. On the Sabbath we tried to keep things low key. We did take in the Alamo--the History Shop established by Phil Collins (yes, the European!) just across the street from the Alamo is a must stop, and at a dollar per entrant, it was totally worth it! Did you know the Alamo originally didn't have a roof? Apparently most missions were built 'open-air', but for tourism (?) it is enclosed now. We walked around a little trying to find a bus stop to take us to the Witte Museum. Unfortunately, we walked around the stop and missed it! Oh well, maybe another opportunity will come to visit TX and we can plan on a trip there. The last 'touristy' thing we did was ride the riverboat in the Riverwalk. It was a great tour of the interior of the city. Fascinating stuff!

Monday morning we were again picked up by a stretch limo--this one was white--to take us out into the sticks. Have you ever tried to buckle a car seat into a limo? Well, let's just say Elloryn was buckled into her seat for most of the trip, but since there were few seatbelts in the limo she would have ended up in someone's lap if there had been a sudden stop!

Once on the Ranch (Rancho Cortez) it was all horses. Shayla loved every minute of it and everyone else got to enjoy it too. Jarin, however, was less than thrilled to be away from the comforts of home: cell phone reception, T.V., computer access, Friends! HOWEVER, I cry as I share this, he never, ever complained about it! He knew it was Shayla's wish and he went along with it. He was a real trooper and a great brother and son about it. He will probably tell you that the best part of it for him was getting to cut down the cedar trees on the ranch.

The pictures tell the story best, so I will post those, as a slide show if I can---we took over 500 pictures total (498 are on my camera alone!), so there will be a lot of them left out. Enjoy!

No more caterpillars

On March 30, 2009, Brendon said, "I need a razor." He no longer liked the idea of having little hair over his lip. So, off to the bathroom with shaving cream and razor we went. Dad was already off to work when Brendon had the notion of shaving, so he missed the 'live' event. However, we have it in pictures!

Now he wants an electric razor for his 14th birthday---that's December. Hopefully we can wait that long! And yes, he has shaved again since this first shave.

Faeries and Front Teeth

Mariah has been visited by the Tooth Faerie (or Fairy if you prefer) twice in the past month! Mariah came to Mom with a plea for help when the first tooth was wiggly beyond wiggly! She demonstrated just how 'ready' it was to come out by the ever-popular tongue push where, when applied, the tooth position became so contorted that it looked like it should have hurt! Since Jase was not available for the assist, Mariah handed me the tissue and said, 'Pull it out, please'. Understandable since it was getting in the way of her eating an apple in any 'normal' way! It took a few tugs, twists and turns on Mariah's part, and probably a bit of pain she would have liked to do without, but she held on, and out the tooth came! The next morning Mariah came running up from her room with a DOLLAR! The Tooth Faerie has never left a dollar before! That must have been some tooth! Within a couple of weeks, the second front top tooth was showing signs of coming out. So, Mariah handed me a tissue again. This one was a bit harder to pull out. Poor Mariah, it had to hurt, the root seemed to be an inch long! This one brought in 75 cents. I guess the Tooth Faerie ran out of paper. Now Mariah is enjoying her toothless grin. She loves to push her tongue through it and I am sure there are times water amazingly squirts out on its own, too!