Dear Jasmina » Family

Anna’s visit

Jacinta — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:00:52 +0000

I don’t know if you know that Anna is a bit of a Star Wars freak… She found a game of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit and brought it with her to Winnipeg. She’ll be the first to admit she looked a bit nerdy with the game sticking out of her carry-on, on the train.

Considering the fact that I haven’t watched Star Wars in years and John is just about as rusty, Anna excelled.

We weren’t even threats… not even minor competition… In fact, she’d give us hints and accept sloppy answers.

She also tried not to laugh too hard as she accumulated points and left us in the dust. At least she didn’t dress up in costume. And for all our differences (I like Glee, she watches hockey), she’s fun to have around. I’m going to miss her…

Marie-Hélène will too. In fact she gave Anna a parting gift… Marie-Hélène caught a flu Sunday night and is just getting over it. Anna got sick Tuesday. Remember when she had appendicitis during her visit here? Dear Anna, please don’t be afraid to come back!

Siblings

Jacinta — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:00:26 +0000

Are there two kinds of camera-toting people? If I were to venture a sweeping, population-dividing statement, I’d say that there are those who bring a camera and get people to pose: “Ok, stand in front of the tree! Smile! Click!” Repeat. Then there are those much too shy to ask anyone to sit, stand or pose for anything and instead sneaks pictures of spontaneous moments… A pile of UNO game cards, Marie-Hélène and the lizard, the fire in the fireplace… After snapping a few shots of my brother, it struck me that I should have a picture of the four of us… So we sat on the couch and gave Christian the camera.

Take two:

Take three:

And Christian’s prompt: “Be serious!”

P.S. Happy New Year! In the blogosphere, people do year-end reviews, share resolutions and know just what to write to inspire their readers. I’ll tell you right now that I won’t be doing that here. My inability to contrive something meaningful under pressure usually leaves me with nothing but the simplest words pronounced with a blush… Love and best wishes to each of you!

Mémère

Jacinta — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:00:36 +0000

Mémère, as Christian’s Grandma is affectionately called, passed away yesterday, just after 6:00. Marie-Hélène and I spent most of the afternoon at the hospital, as Christian’s aunt is also there. Dear Mémère! She’d been hospitalized on Sunday, and yesterday, just after 1:00, the staff called the family to her bedside. We were fortunate enough to see her, and she, just well enough to be happy to see Marie-Hélène. There’s a lump in my throat, so I figure I should stop writing now, or I might go on and on. Death has a weird way of mixing emotions and making you introspective. I’ll spare you that, and imagine her happy. “Stop crying!” as she told the sad group around her bed, “This is a good thing!”

Welcome Charles!

Jacinta — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:52:05 +0000

This is little 8 and-a-half pound Charles, born on Sunday, to Christian’s cousin Monique and her husband André. He’s very alert, and oh-so-soft! Marie-Hélène kissed him on the head, sometime between her constant moving, moving, moving.

Yesterday, I was on Radio-Cananda (our local french-channel), to promote the Travel Manitoba blog. For 15 seconds of air-time I was nervous two hours. It’s very disproportionate. This is the link. Wait for the add to finish before selecting the third segment out of five. Then listen in at around 6:20.

It’s Tuesday

Jacinta — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:00:51 +0000

So here I sit, wishing to post some recent photo or other, and there’s some technical difficulty I can’t even explain, other than to say that the pictures on my camera are staying captive on my photo card. Our lovely Mac doesn’t want to recognize the gadget it always used to… Christian’s busy on his laptop, and I have other things to do, which necessarily gets me into a fidgety restless mood, when things don’t work as they should. Next step: the desperate “I give up” attitude. Not pretty.

Anna’s gone back home… Without incident, I might add. No appendicitis. No suitcase mix-up. Just the odd thing left behind, in the absent-minded packing quite characteristic of me and my siblings, and perhaps humanity in general… I don’t know.

Besides the odd tickle-fight, (Do you know how fun it is to have someone in the house who’s as ticklish as you are? Soooo fun compared to the rock of a good-luck-trying-to-tickle-me husband.) and a visit to the Fossil Discovery Centre, we checked this out. Do you know how challenging it is to learn about the complexities of your foot when Marie-Hélène squeals with delight as she squeezes behind the showcases? Then you, the responsible parent of that noisy kid, blinks twice trying to find her in the dark, hoping she’s not clutching someone else’s legs? Let alone touching the “specimens”? If you plan to visit an expo, learn to read fast, or don’t bring a toddler. Lesson learned.

AchOOOOoo

Jacinta — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:18:32 +0000

John has the most maddening sneeze. It’s the kind of sneeze that inspired the scene in Disney’s Mulan, wherein the pet dragon, after catching a cold and sneezing in a valley, causes an avalanche. John’s sneezes test the solidity of the Manitoba escarpment. They enter our ventilation system and land on Marie-Hélène’s nose. It’s totally disgusting. So, rather than plan a family meal for Christian’s family, we’re taking it easy, and passing the handkerchiefs. It’s true. We have handkerchiefs. My mom just recoiled. I felt it. But Christian eventually convinced me how much softer they were on the nose, and so, here I am, trailing handkerchiefs with me. One for me, one for Marie-Hélène.

Despite this little annoyance, we’ve managed to fill our week with some nice visits… Anna and I packed up Marie-Hélène and took a daytrip to Morden to see Manitoba’s Fossil Discovery Centre. Seeing the fall colors in the country was a treat.

Yesterday, we went to the Graffiti Gallery. It made for colorful pictures.

P.S. I’ve added a link to Travel Manitoba’s blog, where I write in French, about all the lovely places to visit in this province. Click away!

Anna’s visiting!

Jacinta — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:00:50 +0000

Anna’s here for a visit, and we might just kidnap her. Not physically of course, but perhaps we could convince her to fall in love with a baseball player. And we’d have the best babysitter in the world! Are you sure you still want to go to Australia Anna?

Happy weekend

Jacinta — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 16:27:31 +0000

The thing about crazy weeks is that they make you appreciate normal weeks, just like sleeping in another bed makes you appreciate more your own… usually.

To matante Simone, back in Montreal today; big kisses from Marie-Hélène!

Counter renovations

Jacinta — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:00:57 +0000

Sometime last week, during a phone conversation with Christian, his Mom, hearing we’d come over, said, “Oh good! Jacinta can take a picture of our new counter and put it on the blog!” Before this counter, which is uniformly flat, there was another counter, that was divided in two, a higher part providing a separate eating counter, and hiding the view of the faucet from the living room. We later found out that Christian’s mom loves this new and improved version, since she can actually see the people in the living room, while she’s in the kitchen. Did you know that when Grandmas are short, they’re twice as cute?

Uncle Ray

Jacinta — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:17:17 +0000

I bought a book on photography, in order to teach myself how to take better pictures. Though I haven’t read it yet, cover to cover, one part in the beginning caught my eye. The author, in the first chapter, encourages you to use the Manual setting on the camera… the one where you adjust everything yourself, and if it’s wrong, your picture is either blurry, black, or white. Then he writes: “Operating in manual exposure mode is empowering, so make note of this memorable day.” Heh. That’ll be the day, I thought.

On Saturday, I invited my uncle over for supper. It is worth noting that he was the first one to give me a fancy camera… A Nikon that used film. I still have it. With my Uncle, it is not hard to talk until the sun sets… and as it was setting, it cast a pretty pink light over everything. I dashed inside, got my camera and tripod, and shot my first entirely “manual mode” picture… Then Christian and him had to listen to me squeal with delight…