Thoughts of our French Family and other wanderings of my mind.

I'm sure you all are as heartsick as I am about the tragic events that the cowardice terrorists brought upon Paris last weekend. Our entire family immediately thought of Jean-Pierre Deagostini and his family who live in France. I did not have JP's current email but my sister in law, Mary Ellen did and emailed him right away. 

Years ago my parents decided to host a foreign student for a month one summer and by the luck of the draw, they received Jean-Pierre. He became one of the family, we all fell in love with him and he with us. Over the years our parents, my oldest sister, Sara and hubby, Max and Denny and Mary Ellen all traveled to Europe different times to visit JP and his family who had come and visited us. JP came one summer and traveled all over the western US with one family member or another in their campers.

JP loved to come out to my acreage and ride horses, here he is on my gelding, Spook.

Then one summer he came with his new wife, Valerie, and about 8 months later they had their first daughter, Emeline and a few years later, twin daughters, Marion and Celia`. We heard on Sunday that all of the family was fine, although his oldest daughter, Emeline and her boyfriend had tickets to a concert on Monday night (tonight as I write this) at the same venue where so many innocent people were slaughtered. 

He wrote "But life has to go on, we will not change our way of living, otherwise, the terrorists would have win!

Fights against terrorist organisations (and our protection measures) will carry on...

I attach one of the latest family picture to finish on a more joyful note..."

As I was digging around in my pictures tonight, trying to find the one of JP and Spook that I knew I had, I kept finding other pictures that I had forgotten and things that I'd clipped to save and felt I needed to end this on a bit of levity.

So in no particular order....

 Mom, lower left, me upper left and Rosanne, upper middle, at a garden party with a prize for the best garden hat. Mom won hands down, Rosanne with her biker bride helmet was a close second.

Our twin boys, Smitty and Spike, orphaned at a car wash in town when their mother was killed. As soon as I heard about it, I had to bring them home. They were best buds, always entwined as they slept, it was hard to know where one left off and the other began.

Smitty sleeping in a basket of clean clothes, see his 'mitten paws?'

He was 'pouring' out of the basket, I should be so limber.

I had a plastic chicken, orange, sitting in the flower bed. Videlia, was walking by her one day, turned around, went back and proceeded to kick the crap out of her!

"You stupid chicken, all you do is stand there all day!"

She started to walk away, turned around and gave her another few kicks just for good measure!

Videlia was 20 years old when she died, and once in a while she would still lay a blue egg.

Around my 40th birthday, my family was camping at Blue Lake by Onawa and Bruce and I went down to visit. Peter, my brother in law, had a recumbent bike that I tried to ride but was unsuccessful. To keep me from getting all banged up, Rosanne, Tom and Sue duct taped pillows to my arms and legs, and slapped a helmet on my head.

Don't I look like one of those 'special kids'??

Rosanne held me up.... 

....gave me a push, I frantically pedaled.....

.....CRASH!!

I was not cut out to ride such a creation but thanks to the pillows, I didn't get hurt.

Then I ran across this........

......AWWWWWW!! See why I keep him around!

(But I never cashed it!)