Where am I?

So, everyone knows where I live & what it looks like. I'm gonna take pictures & you have to guess where I am.

I cheated on this one because I took it earlier this year but it is where I live!

Parc Blossac

Parc Blossac is my very favorite place to hang out. From our house it's about 150 steps, 52 of those are our apartment stairs. Not only is the landscaping near perfect but there is also a small zoo and children's playgrounds. This is a park for strolling with all people regardless of wealth, age, or status intermingling here. It is one of my favorite characteristics of the French.

This picture ends my week of photos. I now hand the baton off to Erica.

Flight of the Conchords Ep 12 Bret's Angry Dance

These guys are totally sweet and hilarious. They are from New Zealand and they have a unique brand of humor. I thought you could appreciate it. Here's their take on Footloose. It would be worth your time to check out the other clips as well, like "Albi, the Racist Dragon" or any of their Bowie impressions. Jemaine is my favorite.

This Little Piggy Went to Market...

Every Saturday morning Poitiers has an open air market. All the locals have their cute little French market bags to fill them with lovely items. The smells are so intense, which is awesome when you are right by the fruit or flowers, but not so awesome in the seafood booths. In the background is the Notre Dame La Grande where amazing organ concerts are performed. This is Wellz' favorite place to buy cheese. FYI: France has 365 different types. One cheese is aged for 25 years and then infested with little bugs which is supposed to compliment the flavor.

Pretty Patisseries

Here's the street side window of the pastry shop near our apartment. Amazingly, these taste even better than they look. Maybe the picture doesn't show it, but each one of these are meticulously and carefully put together to look perfect. When you buy them, they wrap each one like a present and tie it off with a bow. One thing I love about Poitiers, and France for that matter, is all the specialty shops. Next door is the baker, the fishmonger, the butcher, and the shoemaker; each with their own special little shops.

String of Nine Missed Periods Ends Spectacularly

Another funny thing on the Onion.

I've heard of many stories upon the same line. I once read that a woman went into the doctor because of "cramps" and was actually in labor. Seriously...what the crap?

Looks like a size 9.

In AD 587 Christ supposedly appeared on this spot to a nun named Radegonde as the statues depict. When Christ left all that remained was the story and his footprint, which you can see in between the bars close to her feet. This picture was taken inside the Cathedral that was built on this spot to commemorate her vision. The city of Poitiers is well known for all it's Cathedrals. Seriously, they are everywhere; which is why it is so ironic that 40% of French are atheist. I guess seeing isn't believing in France.

Flower Power

Right off the cobblestone town square are always beautiful displays of flowers. The city has just changed the flowers for the winter season. All throughout Poitiers are amazing arrangements. I love how much integrity the people have to keep the city pretty. Behind the flowers there are city workers putting up Christmas lights. Since there is no Thanksgiving here the Christmas season starts a lot sooner.

Campus housing, anyone?

I read that the double helix staircase is the mark of French Royalty. I haven't found out what this building used to be but for now it is used as a college dormitory.

Daily photos

So, here's the deal. I'll take the first week and post random pictures of the city that I live in. I'll post one picture each day of the week. Next week one of you will take a turn doing the same thing with your city. No rules, just thought it'd be cool. I love the tall trees. They are all over in France.

.LOVELIFE.

Hey girls! Check out this new online magazine. It's really sweet. There are all different columns written by girls around the country. It's not an LDS magazine but it does have LDS values.

It's got FHE lessons, fashion tips, photography, recipes, crafts for kids, etc.

P.S. I head up the music column. I feel honored that I was asked to be a part of something so uplifting!

3 fears

in no particular order:
1. one of my kids getting cancer (or some other terminal disease). basically, the death of a child. it would really suck if it was caused by me--backing over them, not watching them near water...the guilt would be horrible. but watching a kid suffer through cancer is something i fear.
2. getting migrains. i get maybe 3 headaches a year. they are usually caused by a tense neck and go away quickly after taking a painkiller. but my dad gets migrains and it doesn't look fun.
3. crashing a car into water with my kids in the car. i think of this everytime we drive past a river. and many other random times. i have gone through it in my mind so many times. dan would get chloe because she is the heaviest and he swims better. i would hold onto the kid's shirt and hope it stayed on...would we be able to get the carseat straps undone fast enough? now that we have 3 kids it would be impossible so whenever i start to think about it i have to stop myself. i feel like i might have a panic attack. my heart really starts beating faster. i used to tell myself to not worry, it will never happen. until this story was on the news:

Capt. Guy Adams, Carbon County Sheriff's Office: "The vehicle started to slide and they unbuckled the kids from the inside of the vehicle. The wall of water come down and it just started to roll, they were just reaching for kids, and trying to find what they could. And it just so happens the one-year old didn't get picked up."

am i crazy? is it normal to worry about things like this? make me feel better--everyone tell what your 3 biggest fears are.

Feeling dumb...

You know how Jay Leno does his "JayWalking" bit where he goes out and asks people on the street the easiest questions ever and you laugh at how stupid those people are and you wish you could get interviewed because you would know all the answers?
Well, here's your chance to feel really smart--or if you're like me, maybe not so much. This quiz takes questions from the naturalization test that you have to take to become a U.S. Citizen. I realized I'm clueless about the difference between a senator, a congressman, a representative...I guessed on several of these but managed to get an 88%--how did you do?

Do as I say...PLEASE not as I do!!

The other day Sierra was telling me about the girls at her school feeling her back to see if she was wearing a bra (she's in 5th grade). I remember the same thing happening to me at school.
Also, they sing the same songs we did, for example, "Joy to the world, the school burned down."
It's weird that they do the same things we did in school.

So it made me start thinking about the really stupid things we did. Remember at lunch & after school how we would pass each other out? How stupid were we?

I recall one time I passed Shannon Lister out & she fell on her stereo & got hurt. Another time I passed my sister Ashlynn out at our house. She fell so hard that I couldn't catch her & she smacked her head on the floor. When she came to she asked if she had hit her head because it hurt. I told her no & it wasn't until a couple years ago that I told her the truth!

We were pretty retarded.

Tecktonik Dynamite

This is a wacky dance craze that's spreading throughout France. It's called Tecktonik. It is pretty funny, but it gets even funnier when you realize they're just ripping off Napoleon Dynamite without knowing it. We watched some of the clips from youtube and this is as good as it gets. Actually pretty entertaining for 48 seconds.

wanna live 1,000 years?

I read this article today about curing the "disease" of aging.

“The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is certainly alive today …whether they realize it or not, barring accidents and suicide, most people now 40 years or younger can expect to live for centuries.”

So then I found this website which forecasts how long you will live based on your responses to a few questions. According to this, I'll live to be 108. But if I turn on the "superlongevity factors" which account for all the technologies they expect to come out, I'll live to be 224. Sheesh. At that rate, I won't be in my childbearing years until I'm 60. Sweet, that means right now I'm, like, a teenager. Does that mean my car insurance is going up?

Danika is a lucky girl

In case you don't know, I am a person that keeps completely random stuff in my "scrapbook." When you read "scrapbook," don't think cute, artsy pages with stickers, ribbons and adorable lettering captioning photographs of fond memories. Think of 3-ring binders stuffed with old letters, notes, concert tickets, and boarding passes. I have an entire binder that is nothing but notes I passed in middle school and high school. Another binder is all mission letters, interspersed with the occassional wrapper from some Italian toilet paper (brand name: soffass) or a chunk of a license plate I found on the ground in Sicily.


So, the other night I was browsing through one of my binders full of letters & notes, laughing my ass off at how witty and clever my friends were (and probably still are), but also realizing what a total jack-ass I have always been (and still am). I'll probably eventually get my Masters degree in Jackassery.


Anyway, I came across this treasure from DHS circa 1993-ish:

Do you guys remember this? The reason I kept this lovely bit of history is unknown, but it probably had something to do with my love for ch-ch-ch-Chia. Let's all just have a moment of silence in respect for the radness of Matt Gunn.

Did anyone read?

Should I post some questions about My Sister's Keeper? Katie was the only one who said she was reading this month--did anyone else?

The Darjeeling Limited

Have you seen the trailer for the new Wes Anderson movie? Really excited for this one.

We were glad to finally Welcome Adan into our lives on Aug. 25 @ 11:59 am. He weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz. and was 19 in. long. The birth was uneventful as I had hoped, no horror stories to speak of. We sure do enjoy this little guy more than we ever thought possible.