Halloween and mamie's visit...

Halloween 2012 et autres photos courantes

L'anniversaire de Sheaffer: 4 ans!

summer of 2012

July 8th 2012

dear readers,

so I was following my friend's blog, juli peterson, and was really enjoying myself, almost waiting for the next blog entry, when it finally dawned on me that THIS is what I should be doing. I love technology and the new multiple ways we can all communicate. i also use facebook. I look at Facebook with a frowny face sometimes, but it has allowed me to do some AMAZING things. Among those things is the fact that I can now communicate with my family in France,where I'm from, on an everyday basis, for free, and it gives me the opportunity to renew with old old friends, in france AND here in the states. 

I had started this blog with Blogger.com to store pictures and movies for the same purpose, but had only selected a few people to whom I would send the updates on a regular basis. Facebook was simpler, so i started not updating my blog as much as before. 

I'm also a FB stoker (not really). This is what I mean: i put people who use facebook in several different categories. there are those who fully participate, those who somehow participate, and those who watch only. I mostly look at what people post. But i also like to post stuff. I usually enjoy the pictures the most. I don't really care about where people are, unless, like one of my ex students, they are in India or Dubai. I do not really care to read about people's political views or religious dispositions, but in general it's just fun to see how people live and what they do. There are some of those people I've discovered, are way more like me than I thought, and then there are those who are way more different than me then i ever imagined. i guess this facebook thing is saving time on getting to know people. you see, my favorite story of all times is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery. And my favorite scene of the book, also the most important quote of the book, is when the little prince tames the fox and they become friends. the fox explains to the little prince all the necessary steps to be taken if one wants to make friends. very little remains of this old type of friendships...so we adapt (go read the book if you want to know what happens). i, for example, have hidden ALL of my students from facebook. i do NOT want to know about their private lives. i see them every day, longer than their parents sometimes. i know plenty. at the same time though i create pages for them so that i can communicate with them about school stuff. i can remind them of a meeting or an exam, etc...

so i am selective in my list of news feed people, but i think that's alright.

my goal with this new or continuing blog is to write more with my pictures and movies. also because facebook blocked me from posting videos, and my family in france misses those little movies...facebook, you suck sometimes....

this blog site now has a sharing ability, so i can now link this blog directly to my facebook page and allow my friends, who ever wants to read it, do so. 

i want to apologize in advance if my english seems weird or incorrect sometimes...i will never be perfect at it...i'm also planning on writing all of this in french for my family...

now, to introduce the first new pictures and movies, here are the news. lennon left for france on july first, with his friend adam, and they are now in the south of france, where my father lives, his grandfather. they are in lacoste in provence. on july 12 they will be going back to antibes, where my mom lives, lennon's grandmother, until the end of the month of july. the two areas where they are staying are not so far from each other but they are very different in a lot of ways. in antibes, it's all about the mediterranean sea, the fish/seafood, the latest styles, the beaches, saint tropez, beautiful places, beautiful people, lots of people...in lacoste it's the country. even though there is an american art school in lacoste, which brings a lot of people from the united states, it's still very much the same as it was when i lived there growing up. the boulangerie, le cafe, la place du village, the same old families, etc...the thing to do there is enjoy the outdoors, relax, drink some pastis, sit around with friends and neighbours, play boules, eat banon (local goat cheese) and melons de cavaillon (local melons), go to le marche d'apt with it's multitude of merchants throughout the city on saturday mornings...yes, lennon is enjoying ALL of those wonders of life. he is also renewing with his culture. the last time lennon was in france, he was 9. his views and perceptions were completely different. now he has gone back as an adult, with eyes on his future. he has rediscovered the love of the language, the culture, and the family ties...

i have also added some pictures and movies of what the rest of us are doing here, while lennon is having LOTS OF FUN in france. but it's not too bad: spider man at the graham drive in, days at the splash and spray park in iowa park, drives to the lake, boat races at the local pond, lots of movies, video games, staying late at night, playing with friends, going to the gym, etc...real typical summer fun vacation...

the french version is coming...

au lac...at the lake

my new car in the background...2012 Volkswagen Beetle...and Jamie 

sheaffer and his friend kara

this was on june 5th as venus transits, and jamie and anthony are trying to take pictures of it using a welder's mask and a filter on the lens...turned out pretty well

sheaffer with his two best friends edin and kara painting on the porch...i actually gave them real canvas and let them use all of my paint so they could experience the non boundaries of art

the wichita mountains...one of my favorite places to go, especially medicine park...we were going to go eat at meers...we LOVE their buffalo burgers and their green fried tomatoes...but the line was just wayyyyy too long to wait with a three year old little boy...so we went to our second favorite place. the river side cafe, right on the river with view on the many fish, ducks and turtles that lurk in the water...very good food...very refined food...i can't ever get tired of getting to mount scot and see the view below...i just love it...another thing i like to do there is go to the little store on the side of the road where you can see rattle snakes for a dollar! they have a great selection of crafts too, and great turquoise jewelry... 

this is at lucy park in wichita falls. it was our friends deidre and jody's daughter's wedding...very pretty

jamie, me, deidre, jody, and lonnie...old friends...

our house...we've taken some concrete rocks and stuff away to make it more wild looking, and i really like it...

L’été 2012, le 8 juillet

Bon, alors en haut du blog j’ai dit que j’allais écrire en français…alors voilà. Bon, je ne vais pas traduire ce que j’ai dit exactement, mais je vais donner une version, et surtout parler ou écrire au sujet de ce qui est interessant pour mes amis et ma famille française. J’ai eu cette idée après avoir lu le blog d’une de mes amies sur facebook, et j’adore lire ce qu’elle écrit. J’attends souvent qu’elle poste quelque chose. Ça fait longtemps que j’ai un blog, mais depuis les quelques années que je le fais, je ne l’envoie qu’a quelques proches et surtout la famille pour qu’ils voient les enfants grandir lorsqu’ils sont loin d’eux. Maintenant le blog est un peu plus compliqué que facebook et donc j’ai commencé à me servir de facebook au lieu du blog pour mettre photos et vidéos pour les avoir toutes au même endroit. Il y a quelques mois j’ai posté une vidéo d’un groupe que j’aime et j’ai été interdite de vidéo sur facebook. C’est vraiment nul parceque maintenant je ne peux plus mettre de petits films des enfants. Et puis je me suis rendu compte que certaines personnes dans ma famille et quelques amis proches ne se servent pas de facebook, ou très rarement. Donc maintenant je vais pouvoir joindre tout. Je vais donc continuer à mettre des photos et des vidéos sur le blog et le joindre à facebook pour ceux qui veulent aller le lire. Je suis prète à la critique. S’il y a des fautes d’écriture, dites-le moi. Pour les accents c’est plus long car je dois le faire mot par mot…mon clavier est américain. Alors allez-y molo…Ceux qui n’aiment pas n’ont qu’a pas lire, voilà.

Alors, les photos qui suivent ainsi que les petits films sont de cet été. Bien sur la grande nouvelle c’est que lennon est en france pour voir son grand père et sa grand mère. En ce moment il est avec son copain adam à lacoste où ils se régalent. Le 12 ils repartent à antibes pour retrouver sa grand mère. Ça fait presque dix ans que lennon n’est pas retourné en france et il n’avait que neuf ans. Ses vues sur le monde et la perspective qu’il en a est différente aujourd’ahui qu’elle ne l’était alors. Il voit les choses en tant qu’adulte. Il a renouvelé avec ses racines, sa famille, et la langue française. Je voudrais tant être une mouche pour le voir. Je n’ai que trois photos pour l’instant et c’est parceque mon cousin jean-baptiste les a mises sur facebook, mais j’espère en avoir plus et les mettre sur ce blog. Nous ici à wichita on passe le temps comme on peut, mais c’est quand même bien agréable. On fait pleins de choses. On va aux montagnes, on va au lac, on fait de la gym, on va au parc d’eau, on a des amis qui viennent, on fait de la peinture, etc….des vraies vacances typiques. 

si vous voulez repondre a mes blogs vous pouvez le faire en allant tout en bas de la page...