Oooh C'est Chouette

I confess I’m a bargain maniac. There’s an irresistible thrift shop in our neighborhood that Gracie and I scrounge regularly. The fact that all proceeds go to an excellent cause is the tipping point that gives me permission to go nuts every time we visit.

With the addition of another child to our household and the requisite influx of additional plastic crap, I’ve exercised a bit more restraint of late. I’ve deliberately stayed away from their “Merry Thriftmas” because I am very tempted by Christmas decorations. But a while back, the pull was too strong and Gracie and I made our first foray of the holiday season.

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We found a reindeer for Gracie and a soft moose for Danny. Gracie set them up on a date that very night!

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Gracie also found a red velvet dress with faux fur trim and a matching hat. I started to stress out when she wore it during lunch and dinner, worrying that it might not survive too many washings. Then I reminded myself that it cost $3.99 and all would not be lost if I let Gracie live in the moment. As you can see from the pictures below, she insisted not only in living in the moment, but sleeping in it as well…

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We also found an adorable snow suit for Danny. It was made in France. (Oooh La La!) The design depicts a couple woodland animals in a snow storm with the accompanying phrase: “Oooh C’est Chouette.” A check on Babelfish.com told me that this means: “oh the owl” which seemed a bit strange. So I contacted a friend who is fluent in French and has spent serious time in France. She told me that the phrase is common slang to mean: “Oooh so cute!” And I have to say, I agree!

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I found a few nice outfits for Danny including one pictured below that Gordon deemed to be completely “dorky.” But we both agree that while it would no doubt be dorky on either Gordon or myself, on Danny it is: Oooh C’est Chouette.

Tardy and waffling...

I have composed so many posts in my head and none of them have made it any further of late.
Some time ago, I was tagged and now I’m so late in responding that I’ve no one left to tag myself. I may remain “it” for quite some time!
I need to catch up on a few light-hearted posts before I get serious later in the week. So here goes the first one.
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I’d like to say that my delay in posting was because I couldn’t figure out technically how to respond to the “tagging.” I was asked to post the fourth picture from my fourth album. Of course, I tried to figure out a way to honor the rules and still come off looking good. But none of my options were all that great. But on the bright side, they brought back great memories and feature me with three completely different “looks!”
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OK: If I go to “my” albums under my name, there are a lot of miscellaneous photos because I don’t archive photos in my file. I only move them there when I need to use them for another purpose. But here’s the fourth photo from the fourth album. It’s a very pregnant me (one week before my due date), with Leo, a kid I tutored during his eighth and ninth grade years. We had just finished his “History Days” project. It was a labor of love for both of us; a lot of hard work that paid off. I met Leo less than a year after Josh died. As with all volunteer work, I got far more out of this relationship than I put in. At a time when many people were nervous about asking about Josh, Leo was a breath of fresh air. He asked questions with out censoring himself. One of the most amazing things this twelve year old boy said to me was: “I’ve never been in such a joyful house!” Hearing this in the depths of the first year of my grief was one of the most uplifting things I remember from that year. Here we are:


Next: I really began organizing “albums” with the birth of Grace. Finally I was putting things in chronological order and adding captions. So perhaps this is where I should pull the fourth picture from the fourth album. Here we are in Gracie’s fourth month. This is a picture from Labor Day in the park. It was one of our first picnic adventures. Interestingly enough, I saw a boy in the park in the distance who looked familiar even from far away and it turned out to be my friend Leo. What a nice tie-in. There were far better pictures from this day, but only this one was number four. Witness both Gracie and me with our baby fat!
Finally: we entered the digital age in 2003 a couple of months before Josh died. After he died, I spent a lot of time loading photos and scanning other pictures. So really, the first set of albums was recorded under Josh’s name. The fourth one from the fourth album is below. This was taken about five weeks after Josh’s diagnosis. It would have been shortly after he finally got out of the hospital after three major surgeries and two rounds of chemotherapy. The first couple months of Josh’s treatment were very rough and it was the only time in his life when we didn’t see his smile on a daily basis. It was hard to see him so depressed, but soon his natural indomitable spirit won the day and he was joyful and happy and without serious pain for the rest of his life. Interestingly enough, this photo was taken in my parents’ home. Two years ago we bought the house from them. It is a wonderful reminder that the house we’re living in today has many memories of all of our children.

So my three nominees for “fourth of fourth” are above. You choose!