Unpacking (Part Two)

It's high time for the rest of that trip to France this past summer, don't you think?

After waving goodbye to our lovely gite, we headed to a conference being held by the Foucachon family near Beaune.

Our four days at the conference were spent playing with some wonderful kids,

listening to some really interesting scientific talks,

cave exploration,

 bonfires, and eating and eating and EATING!  Being the extremely prepared and photo-ready person that I am.....not, I don't have pictures of the wonderfully amazing two-hour meals that we enjoyed everyday. 

That may be because I was too busy stuffing my face.....but anyways...

I made some really fantastic friends.  And even though we have all parted and returned to our respective countries, we get to know that we will see each other again soon!

Like maybe even at college!

:)

And, to wrap up our wonderful trip to France, we decided to make a quick (well...not quick) stop in the Swiss Alps on our way home. 

And here's a picture that I have imaginitively (<-- that's a word..) entitled...

Man and Boat.

 

-RM

Of Harold and How I Found Him

It has always been a dream of mine to someday own a hedgehog. And an owl.

They'd be best friends. Amigos. Partners in crime.

I would write a children's book about them.

Well. This past June, my hopes were almost realized.

 

I met Harold.

Our meeting was monumental.

It all started with a neighbor's dog getting loose. He ended up in the tumble-down yard of a nearby abandoned house. And boy, was he upset about something. Once our neighbor had retrieved the still barking dog, he announced that it was only a hedgehog.

Only a hedgehog.

I froze. "Hedgehog?" I asked.

He nodded.

I sprinted into our house.

What followed was a mad conglomeration of trying to find a pair of old jeans to protect my legs from nettles, jumping up and down in excitement, attempting to tell my dad about how amazing this was, grabbing a towel and rapidly trying to come up with a name for my soon-to-be hedgehog baby as I raced back outside.

My brother, Isaac joined me in my quest. The goal: to find the poor, mistreated animal that must be in need of an overly-loving human mother and to name him Harold. (By that time I had decided that he would be Harold.) First obstacle: scaling the fortress' barricade. After he gave me a lift over the fence, we made our way stealthily towards the spot were my wonderful, prickly pet was hiding.

Before approaching Harold, I explained to Isaac the importance of not frightening him. Since he was about to be a part of the family and we needed to make a good first impression. So my brother straightened his collar (or rolled his eyes) and we continued.

I spoke soft, soothing words to the little (large) ball of spikes as I went to pick him up. My brother stopped me.

"He looks kindof ... sharp." he warned me.

I laughed.

"Please. I've watched youtube videos about all of this. I know what I'm doing."

Soon, Harold was safe and sound in my parent's bedroom. (my mom wasn't home and didn't learn about this till later...) I proudly announced to my father that he was now a grandpa. He gave me a look. Then he took pictures. Then he Googled while I played happily with my shweet baby.

"Uh-oh."

Google had announced that, because of their high heart-rate, 'wild' hedgehogs don't adjust well to becoming pets and could have a heart attack.

I stared.

"You mean...Harold could have a heart attack and .... die?"

My dad nodded.

I gathered my hedgehog up quickly and headed for the door. Only one thing mattered now. Harold needed to get outside and not die. We quickly said goodbye to all of our neighborhood children that had met Harold just a few minutes before. There were a few tears. Then it was a hurried walk to the woods to release my hedgehog.

 

Harold and I said our goodbyes. And then he was off.

Harold was a wonderful hedgehog and I will always treasure those thirty minutes that I had him.

Now I must look for his little brother or sister that I can keep.

And introduce to my pet owl. And write a book about.

The end.

September's Resolutions

• Find a blogging rhythm.  Now that I've settled into the "school schedule" I no longer have any excuses whatsoever to not blog.. 
• Complete at least three Pinterest projects.  I love Pinterest!  So much!  But I do have a tendency to simply "repin" anything I like and then never think about it again.  Which is really quite sad because I could be creating all of these delightful crafts and what do I do? Sit around on facebook.  *sigh*  But no more!  There will be creativity flowing from my pores!  I will throw off the bonds of this oppressive procrastination device refered to as facebook and apply myself to more useful endeavors or so help me, I will ..... Well. I don't know what I'll do.  But hey!  At least we know my dramatic side has been unharmed!
• Organize the closet.  Move fall clothes in and get those summer clothes out!  It's that time again and I'm so excited to pull out the warm stuff!! (We'll see how excited I am about that in a few months...) 
• Edit and organize all of those summer time photos. 
• Evaluate and revamp diet.  This is pretty simple....I need to start eating healthier!  To fruits and veggies and all those other things that our parents say we can't live without!

At the end of this month I'll type up a little "report card" and we'll see how well I did with my resolutions. ;)

Unpacking (Part One)

It is a well known fact here in the Lopez household that I, yes I, Rachel Micaiah Lopez, am very bad at unpacking.  It is not uncommon for my duffel bag, full of vacation treasures, to sit rather forlornly in the corner of my room for a week after I return.  There is no specific reason for this particular character trait.  I just never seem to get around to it in a timely manner.  Which makes unpacking and rediscovering all of my memory filled souvenirs later even more exciting.

In short.. I am about to virtually unpack every single bit of information concerning my summer here before your very eyes.  Okay.  Maybe not every single bit.  More like a bit here and there.  The important stuff, you know.

 

 

It all started with Mimi's arrival.  A couple of fun-filled weeks were spent here at home ... to include an afternoon at the strawberry patch!

And then it was time to pile into the car and be off to France!

France was amazing.  As usual.  Our first week we stayed in a cozy gite which was settled in a beautiful villaged called Jaulzy. 

 

We ventured out on daytrips including, but not limited to...

Exploring Jaulzy.

A picnic in Compiegne complete with a farmers market and carousel.

And an adventure on the set of Merlin. 

 

And all of that was only the first part of our trip to France which was just the first part of my amazing summer.

 

To be continued...

Summer Projects

This past spring, some friends of ours gave us a bench.  An old, weather-worn, wooden bench.  The moment I saw it, I told my mom...

"I'm painting it blue."

A couple of weeks ago I secured the help and painting expertise of a dear friend and we set to work.  Sanding and sanding and more sanding and then, finally! painting.

Unfortunately, after all of that sanding, some of us were just too tired to paint whilst sitting upright.

But Bear came to our rescue and encouraged us to sit up and get to work by informing us that he wanted to sit on it, so we should hurry up and finish already!

I am quite proud of our finished project and I can't wait to use it in photoshoots!

 

Because of our great teamwork (and the fact that we would've won any 'How in the world did you get paint there??' contest), we celebrated by watching The Emperor's New Groove.

Love that movie.

Inspiration Board

“In this story, the sun moves. In this story, every night meets a dawn and burns away in the bright morning. In this story, Winter can never hold back the Spring... He is the best of all possible audiences, the only Audience to see every scene, the Author who became a Character and heaped every shadow on Himself. The Greeks were right. Live in fear of a grinding end and a dank hereafter. Unless you know a bigger God, or better yet, are related to Him by blood.”

― N.D. Wilson, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl

Oh the Places We'll Go!

Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

The view from our Kodiak campsite.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And then things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!

You'll be seeing great sights!

You'll join the high fliers

who soar to high heights.

You can get so confused

that you'll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place...

People shots in Paris

...for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or the waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

NO!

That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape

all that waiting and staying

Watching the Tour!

You'll find the bright places

where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,

once more you'll ride high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

So...

be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray

or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,

You're off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So...get on your way!

Snapshots of our summer adventures, narrated by Dr. Seuss's 'Oh the Places We'll Go!'