"52 Weeks"~~~~24/52 Cette nourriture est délicieux

Carin over at "Forever in Blue Jeans" has been hosting "52 Weeks" for the past year. She has started a new theme called "Shoot Me" with the same premise which is for us moms to be in the picture(s) on a weekly basis and post about it. I'm still working on the former theme and encourage you to come along and give it a try.

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I have no clue when it comes to speaking French. Thankfully Wikipedia came to my rescue.

So, you're wondering what the title of this post reads, right?

If I can copy the "Lumberjack's Wife" for a moment, I'll give you a gazillion (meaningless) points if you can translate it.

Answer: You'll find it at the end of this post.

So here we are. All dressed up and a fancy place to go.

It was Valentine's Day, Annette & Quentin came to visit the day before, and I found a way for my sweet hubs to take us all out to La Boheme, a great French restaurant not far from home.

How tasty does that look? It was a crab/shrimp cake. The interesting thing is that I don't love-love seafood. But when I go to this place, it's all I eat! Why? Because I don't like lamb much, and chicken isn't on the menu. And even more importantly, it tastes sooooo good.

Quentin feasted on this "Suckling Pig". If my memory serves me correctly, that was what it was called. But, again, everything they make, even things with funny titles, is divine.

Both Shawn and Annette ordered the sea bass. Yum!

And me, the non-fish eater that I am, ordered the cod. There were mashed potatoes on top of a carmelized onions and julienned vegetables.

Does it get much better than that?

Oh, perhaps it does. Two of these little delights were brought to our table and my hubby looked as excited as I was inside.

Can you tell he was thinking this is another beautiful "blog moment". "Take my picture, Honey." Don't you think he should start to write his own blog? He would be fabulous at it. After all, he does write our annual Christmas letter and always gets scads of wonderful comments from friends and family.

Coffee & chocolate-mints-in-the-shape-of-hearts anyone?

The evening was rounded out in a classy way when the check was presented with these two pretty boxes. Two chocolates could be found in each.

We had the best time together on Valentine's Day, eating fine cuisine, and celebrating friendship. The funny thing about going to La Boheme is that Annette and I enjoyed it so much, that we had the nerve, audicity I mean, to find a way to get back there just one more time before they got back on a plane 5 days later. Yes, we returned last Friday evening.

Greedy I tell ya.

Answer: The food is delicious!

Wordless Wednesday! ~ The Boys

My hubby was looking forward to seeing this shot that he captured in a "Wordless Wednesday" post.

There you go, Dear.

For more WW posts, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

York, England... how quaint.

Day two of our travels with Annette and her family brought us to

York, England.

If you can imagine, for a moment, in your mind's eye what you think England would look like, it would be this very place. Parts of it look like it comes straight out of a Charles Dickens novel.

There are extremely narrow streets, which for some reason, I have no pictures of, and there are all kinds of neat little shops and restaurants with which to entertain yourself. You can stumble upon street vendors that make "Kinky Donuts", which really should be called "Dinky" donuts, because they are tiny albeit delicious. We made our way into a chocolate shop, because if you love chocolate like me, you must get your hands on some of that delicious confection.

Before we did any of that, however, we made our way up to "Clifford Tower."

Annette & Quentin really enjoyed their visit here.

After we climbed the many spiral stairs to get to the top, our eyes feasted on these sites.

My sweet hubby and I have been blessed to see all that we have seen in our time in England.

One day he said something like this to me, "Did you ever think we would be so blessed to be able to travel like this?"

My answer: "No, not really."

I certainly never imagined it while raising our young family. The Lord has been so good and has shown His favor and for that we will always be thankful. And if He never called us here, we would have been happy to stay put because He desires us to be content with His provision no matter how great or small.

I love this picture of Annette & Matthew. He looks so much like her, and yet he looks a lot like his dad as well.

Me and my three sons.

(Is anyone humming that tune right now while tapping their foot?) If you don't know what I mean than you are obviously too young. There was a show on called, "My Three Sons" that was a great show back in the 60's and 70's. I think that's the time-frame anyway.

While we were all walking around up here, Annette was getting a little nervous. I didn't realize she had a fear of heights. She was a great sport about it anyway.

She was making a swift and clean getaway in this photo.
Shawn and Grant

Annette & I

We did the calculations and we've been friends for almost 34 years.

Where does the time go?

Twin power.

How lovely is this place?

Thanks for taking the time to visit York with me. Tomorrow it's all about London.

"Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest."

Charles Dickens

Cheerio Mate!

"It's Been a Hard Day's Night

...and I been working like a dog.

It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log."

Check these fellas out.

Quentin, Matthew, and Quent's wife, Annette, aka my bff, arrived a little over a week ago.

This is jetlag personified.

We have found that the best thing to do is just go, go, go, when you only have a week together and so much to see.

No sooner were they off the plane, and we carted them off to Liverpool.

What's in Liverpool? You know, right??

The Beatles Story.

Annette & I quickly posed for a picture for my blog... of course! Well and for all the great memories.

Here's the crew.

Before we took the tour, Costa Coffee called our names and we all

went in for a cuppa. Our friends needed a little caffeine kick anyway.

Matthew is a budding photographer. I think he shot about 150 pictures by the time we left.

Their first guitars were really neat to see.

They loved hearing the "Beatles Story."

These seats are from the plane the Beatles were on when they headed to the U.S. for their first-ever concert in the States.

"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes."

"We all live in a yellow submarine... yellow submarine... a yellow submarine."

Crazy wig boys. Yes, you definitely look like a "Beatle", boys.

Stay tuned for more travel posts. I have to get them on here because eventually I'll print another book. They're so great to have.

"Good day Sunshine..."

Flashback Friday - England here we come!

Flashback Friday is a meme that I found through Joyce's blog over at "this side of the pond".

To find more "flashbacks", visit Mylestones. Joyce participated this week and, with all that she and I have in common, she inspired me to write about our initial journey to England as well.

There is so much swirling through my head right now about our upcoming journey back to the States, that my thoughts need to be written down. I'll start here...

Just under two years ago we were about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. At least in many ways it felt that way. Who moves from their home country to another with 5 kids and a dog? I'm sure there are many, but it felt like few.

Who gives up two cats,

sells 2 cars,

a beautiful home,

says goodbye to all of their friends,

and family,

their church,

their dog who is in quarantine,

to go to a place they have never been to

where virtually no one homeschools like you do

so that their hubby can make some cornflakes in another place?

We do, that's who.

It's been both scary & grand all at the same time.

Take a walk with me and peek into the very beginnings of this journey.

Shawn and I went on a house hunt by ourselves about 6 weeks before we left Michigan.

This was house #3 of about 12 homes we looked at in 2 days.

It's been a wonderful place.

This is what we see when we look out our front window. Not too impressive, but it's the neighborhood nonetheless.

This would soon be the living room, aka lounge, that we would spend much of our time in.

My soon-to-be washer & dryer aka my nemesis.

Our conservatory provided a great place in which to have school.

And this is the place we would spend much of our time in as most families do. A place where I would lovingly prepare 3 meals a day, listen to music, enjoy endless cups of tea, teach my kids how to bake, and listen to my dryer yell at me because it is done.

And this, my friends, is our first walk around the Lymm Dam. The place I walked around just about everyday where Fletcher got to run and play in, a place that I still love to walk around, and the place that has given our family much enjoyment.

Thanks for joining me for "Flashback Friday."