A surfer Dude saves a dog!

AN AMAZING STORY THAT ENDS WELL!


AP - Wed Sep 12, 5:33 PM ET
In a photo provided by Don Dobbin, surfer Joe Riopelle, left, pulls in Matt Smolenski and a rescued dog Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 11, 2007, off the Grand Haven, Mich., pier. Smolenski rode a wave on his stomach to reach and rescue a struggling dog that had been swept off a Lake Michigan pier by a big wave. Smolenski said he grabbed the pooch's collar just as the exhausted, black-and-brown mixed breed stopped dog-paddling on Tuesday afternoon. 'He put the dog up on his surfboard, and the dog . Click here to read more.

Update!

Well I am back!

Indeed, aAfter an extremely busy summer I am back!!! My PCs broke down and I am now writing from my new state of the art laptop! I feeeeeeeeellllllll aaaaaallllliiiiiivvvvveeee! Waow!!!How did I managed???Two whole months without blogging??? :-)))))))))

Well we had a house packed of guest from start to end of the summer. The highlight of it was Bhavishya's baptism which was held on August 18. It was a beautiful ceremony followed by a garden party.

I promise I shall post some pictures soon but in the meanwhile here is one of Mark and Bhavishya on her firt day of nursery school!


Me voici me voila.

Mes pcs étaient FOUTU et je vous écrits aujourd'hui depuis mon nouveau portable! Waou je RE-VIS!!! HA! Comment ai-je survécu? 2 mois sans blogger??? Mystère et boule de gomme!! :-)))

Nous n'avons pas arrêté cet été. Une maison pleine...en commançant par l'arrivée de la maraine de Mark et son Mari et cela s'est terminée par le baptême de Bhavishya ou l'on a eu 17 personnes qui ont dormi à la maison. La cérémonie religieuse était magnifique, la garden party superbe, des invités de rêves et un temps pas trop cochon.

Je promets de poster des photos mais d'ici là en voici une de Mark et Bhavishya le jour de la rentrée scolaire de Bhavishya.

To my Darling Coco

May all your dreams come true. We love you and wish we could give you more support.

P, B & P

Happy 4th of July!

Bhavishya and her New Little Friend...

Question for all/pour tous

How do you store your CD's and where? I find they are so uggly I don't want to display them in our living room. I need some good ideas.

Comment rangez-vous vos CD?

Je les trouves tellement moches et

je ne veux pas les exposer dans

mon salon. J'ai besoin d'idées.

Free hair cut / Coupe gratuite

Yesterday we went to the hair dressers to have Bhavishya hair cut a little as it was going into her eyes. She loves the idea of having pretty hair pins in her hair but they rarely stay on for more that 30 seconds. She hates having them in her face. We we got there she said "Bonjour Madame" and was her charming little self. We were the only ones in the salon and she was the center of everybody's attention. She said please and thank you all the time. She told them that her name is Bhavishya and not "Darlin" that she is 2 1/2 and that she was born in India all in about 20 second flat! She did not move, only when asked. When the Manager finished cutting and blow drying her hair she put a pretty little hair pin which was a present from her and then when I wanted to pay she said no Madame, it was so nice to cut your daughter's hair, she is such a beautiful and darling little one, I would like to make it my treat today!

WAOW! I was blown away!!! And I was very very proud as well!

Now tell me why doesn't that happen to me this kind of stuff???

Hier nous sommes allé couper les cheveux de Bhavishya. Moi chais pas faire ça! Déjà que je n'arrives pas a couper droit sur une feuille de papier je ne veux pas risquer de traumatiser ma fille donc j'ai pris rdv dans un salon de coiffure vu que ses cheveux lui cachait ses yeux. Bhavishya aime l'idée de parter des jolies barettes mais au fait elle ne reste guerre plus que 30 secondes sur sa tête. En arrivant au salon elle dit bonjour Madame, elle fait sa petite Mademoiselle charmante; elle dit svp de merci. Elle déclare que "non c'est BhaViShya son prénom et pas "la Puce" , qu'elle a 2 ans 1/2 et qu'elle est née en Inde tout cela en moins de 20 secondes. Elle ne bouge pas seulement quand on lui demande. Une fois la coupe/brushing finie, la Manager lui met une jolie barette en strass elle dit merci veut lui faire un bisou sans même que j'intervienne et lorsque je veux régler elle me dit qu'elle a adoré coupé les cheveux de ma fille, qu'elle est tellement mignone et adorable que la coupe / brushing nous est offert.

Waow! J'étais bouchebée et naturellement très très fière!

Mais pourquoi que ce genre de truc ne m'arrives jamais??? mdr!

Mark's bday present...

For his birthday I was tempted to get him a Digital SLR can anyone recommend one and if so why?

I hesitate...

• The Sony A100?
• A Canon Digital REbel xti?
• ....?

We are fed up with the small N1 as the delay is far too long.

Pour l'anniversaire de Mark j'étais assez tenté de lui acheter un Digital SLR. Est-ce quelqu'un peut me conseiller si oui pourquoi?

J'hésite entre...

• Le Sony A100?
• Le Canon Digital Rebel xti?
• ...?

Bhavishya The Future

Yes, the name of our daughter is Bhavishya and it means the Future in Hindi or apparently "Bright Future".

But Bhavishya the Future is not only our daughter's name it is the title of a new film...

En effet, le prénom de notre fille est Bhavishya et cela veut dire le "future" en Hindi.

Mais Bhavishya Le Future n'est pas seulement le prénom de notre Princesse mais c'est le titre d'un nouveau film.

For more info please click here. Pour plus d'information, veuillez cliquer ici.

'cause I wanna remember...Parce que je veux me souvenir

Bhavishya said to me this Morning:

"Mama pas oubliez laver derrière colélé" meaning "Mama don't forget to wash behind the ears"...colélé means ears.

She learned her lesson well! ;-)


Bhavishya m'a dit se matin:

"Mama pas oubliez laver derrière Colélé" Colélé voulant dire oreilles! Elle a bien appris sa leçon! ;-)

What is this??? C'est quoi ça??? II

Ma 1ere commande de Moo cards est arrivée vendredi! Je suis très heureuse!

Je vais les joindre aux cartons d'invitations du baptême de Bhavishya...
I am going to include them to the invitations to Bhavishya's Christening...

Voici le texte en Français:

Here is the French text:

Unfortunately there isn't enough space for an English Text and a French one, so I made a first set as a trial and I have just re-ordered a new one with the English Text.

Malheureusement il n'y avait pas suffisement de place pour un texte en anglais et un en français. Donc cette première commande était un test et puisque je suis heureuse j'en ai recommandé avec le text en anglais.

N.B. To avoid any misunderstandings we are not going to send the proceeds of the collection directly to India. We will donate it to the organisation that helped us adopt Bhavishya telling them we would like them to make the donation towards the orphanage Bhavishya comes from.

N.B. Afin d'éviter tout malentendus, nous n'allons pas envoyer les fonds récoltés directement in Inde. Nous les donneront à l'organisme qui nous a aidé a adopter Bhavishya en leur demandant de faire le don auprès de l'orphelinat d'où elle vient.

Sunday Link Sharing (SLS)

Le résultat du concours du SPD (le Speed Demon Photography) à savoir la photo à très grande vitesse. C'est remarquable!

The result of a photo contest which is called the Speed Demon Photograph. Truely amazing photography!

Since Sophie mentioned "Grand-design" after my SLS of last week-end I am giving you the Channel 4 link of also a fun program I enjoy watching on DVD as we don't get British TV here.

Puisque Sophie a mentionné "Grand-design" après mon poste de la semaine passé, je l'inclus dans celui de cette semaine...J'ai quelques DVD que j'ai bien aimé regardé puisque nous ne captons pas la chaîne de tv anglaise "Channel 4" ici.

From Luxembourg, with Love

C'est quoi ça? What is this?

...and who is preparing breakfast? Et qui est-ce qui prépare le 'tit déj?

Sunday Link Sharing (SLS)

I guess I am not 1/2 Dutch for nothing...
Je crois que je ne suis pas à 1/2 Néerlandaise pour rien...

Here are some of my favourites...
Voici quelqe uns de mes préférés...


Magazine & website:

Landleven. Thank you Dolly & Yvonne for my monthly subscription you gave me for my birthday! I just looooooooove it!

TV program & website:

"Eigen huis en tuijn" which means "own house and garden"I am always bumbed when I miss it and forget to record it as I was last night!
Ce qui veut dire "Sa propre maison et son propre jardin" je suis toujours déçue lorsque je loupe un épisode et que j'oublie de l'enregistrer.

"My Child's incredible story" contest

I found a web site that has nearly the same name as mine. It is a very interesting blog indeed. Ruby has some very good ideas, pertinent ones as well...

Anyhow Ruby is throwing a contest called "My child's incredible story" which I think is a nice idea. Here are the rules...

1. Only parents with adoptive children of Indian origin (In India or outside India) are allowed to participate.
2. Word limit is 750 words.
3. Only one entry per child is allowed.

Here are some more details:

Top four entries will be selected for the publication on the Indi(AA)doption
blog in July.
You must send your entries in Elglish language as an
attachment in Microsoft word file and email to indiahopehouse@gmail.com
Physical
copies of the entries at our physical address will not be accepted.
We
respect your privacy and if you like to send a photo (it is not required but
makes the story compelling when a face can be put to a name) of your child,
send
a high resolution digital photo along with your entry for publication.
Last
date to send your entries is June 15th, 2007
Good luck.

You can read more on his blog by clicking here.

Bhahisya boom a ta tête...

Voilà ce qu'elle raconte depuis hier après-midi...

"Bhahisya tombée paterre, boom a ta tête, Bhahisya vôôôôôômi après pipipital vu doteur vu maname après mal a tatête".

Voilà comment nous avons passé notre lundi de Pentecôte à l'hosto!

Heureusement rien de trop grave...une petite commotion.

The Namesake...

...Has any of you seen it?

I jst got an email from Dolly telling me that she & Yvonne went to see this wonderful film tonight.

Here is the resume of the film I got from our local movie theatre:

"This film tells the poignant tale of a young couple who leave their home in Calcutta, India and move to New York, hoping for a better life. Their children are born in America and due to a series of mix-ups their son ends up with his pet-name, Gogol, being issued as his official name. As Gogol growns from boy to man he suffers an identity crisis due to the differences between the generations..."

I am working for a date with Mark...doesn't that seem pathetic??? Well he is away and not due back until Sunday so you can imagine that next week might be quite busy for him at work!

Lack of professionalism in Luxembourg / Bhavishya's christening

Living in Luxembourg can be so frustrating. By that I mean there is such a lack of customer orientated service it is unbelievable. I have to go back and ask 3, 4, 10 times companies for a quote. People abroad ask me why I don't go somewhere else and ask for a quote. They don't understand it is (nearly) everywhere the same with a few exception.

When we decided to change the horrible grey sad tiles in our hallway and stair case for some lovely off white natural Burgundy stone it was such a headache. Same with the garden. We needed someone to Landscape it and we needed heavy machinery. We had 4 companies do the job as some of them started it and never came back! I don't understand how these people don't run into financial difficulties!?!

We are now in the process of organising Bhavishya's christening. Our good friend Olivier will be baptising her in a chapel here in the village on August 18. As we are going to be between 30 and 50 people, Mark suggests we get a caterer. So I looked around and asked around...there is one that has an excellent reputation in Luxembourg. I speak to the owner, she asks me to send her an email with all the details. It takes her one week to reply! I am not impressed! I write back with some basic questions, it takes her 10 days to reply. At this point I am not at all impressed! I call her and ask if I can taste some of the stuff. She replies only if we order for 6 people minimum (nb the rate would be 180.--Euro). She said some of the salads and some of the deserts can be purchased in their shop directly. So yesterday I go and get some of the salads and deserts for us to try (Mark, my good friend Dolly, Pascal our friend who is supplying the wine and myself) . Do you know what I am told??? "Our customers never ask to taste they just trust us!" Excuse me??? I beg your pardon??? What did you say? Who is the customer here? Who will be paying? There are two things I have learned when I was working as a conference / event organiser is never ever trust anyone but yourself and trust your gut feelings.

Well my gut feeling is Adios Wengé...I am not having you cater our daughter's christening. If you are already so careless now what will it be on the day of the event?

Needless to say that the wine we are going to serve has already been selected and is in our basement! Pascal you are not only the best sommelier of Luxembourg 1993/1994 but to us you are simply The Best!
Merci pour tes précieux conseils et par-dessus tout, ton amitié !

More about the wine later…

Dolly thank you for being who you are! ;-)