Category Archives: Family

Medieval Times & Girl Scout Camping

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Last weekend Jennifer’s parents flew in to help celebrate Emily’s birthday and to get their first look at our new house in Florida. We showed them around and took them to breakfast at The Townhouse Restaurant in downtown Oviedo. In the evening we took a trip down to Medieval Times in order to celebrate Emily’s seventh birthday. Since she loves horses so much, we thought she would enjoy the show. Everyone loved it and we had fun cheering on the red and yellow knight (who didn’t end up winning).

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This past weekend, Jennifer and Abby headed out with Girl Scouts on a camping trip. They left Friday night and didn’t come back until Sunday morning. Fortunately the camp was just right around the corner, only about fifteen minutes away from the house. It rained Saturday night, but apparently the tents were well made and they didn’t get wet at all. They had fun doing crafts and shoot archery. Jennifer came back with a bruise on her left arm from the archery bow. They had a fun time, but were exhausted when they returned.

Nice Quiet Week

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This week was pretty quiet as we stayed at home and did various chores around the house. Jennifer is finishing up the drapes for our room. We went out and got Izzy’s bike fixed. A cold snap finally hit Florida and I replaced the downstairs thermostat with a programmable one. This allows me to lower the temperature at night and have it automatically increase the temperature in the morning before we get up.

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One excursion we did was visit the Gaylord Palms’ ICE! Exhibit. The Gaylord Palms hotel had brought in ice sculptors to carve blocks of ice. The exhibition hall was set to nine degrees and they handed out parkas for everyone to wear. Jennifer had the forethought to buy the girls hats and mittens, so they were prepared. However, it didn’t take long before Izzy’s cute nose was turning red. Near the end of the exhibit was a giant ice slide, which the girls got to slide down.

So, overall a nice quiet week off. Next few weeks are busy: Emily’s birthday, the Texas Longhorns try to win the National Championship, the launch of Madden Ultimate Team, Jennifer’s parents are flying in, dinner at Medieval Times (for Emily’s birthday), and a camping trip down at Disney.

Merry Christmas

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Hope everyone had a great Christmas this year. Because I didn’t have very much vacation time and Madden Ultimate Team was still finishing up, we decided to stay in Florida this year. This is the first time we haven’t gone back to Texas for Christmas since 2003. We’ve actually found it quite relaxing not having to be four days in the car driving.

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Because everyone mailed their gifts to us, our tree was exploding with presents. We started off Christmas Eve trying to find a place for breakfast and had to settle for IHOP. Our normal breakfast place, The Townhouse Restaurant, was closed. We thought about trekking it up to Lake Mary to visit our old breakfast place, Peach Valley, but decided against it. It was already 9:00 and didn’t want to be eating breakfast so late.

In the afternoon, we attended church service and then headed home to open presents. Abby and Emily played “Santa” and handed out the gifts. It took a while, but we go through them all and are thankful for all the wonderful family we have. Thank you for all the presents. We finished off the night baking cookies for Santa.

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In the morning, the girls woke me up at 5:50 a.m. in order to show me what Santa gave them. Jennifer elected to stay in bed, not having a good night sleep due to some backyard neighbors having a very merry Christmas party the night before that kept her up. I threw Empire Strikes Back into the new Blu-ray player I got for Christmas and laid on the couch while the girls played around me.

On Saturday we went over to Pappy’s Patch, a local farm near our house, to pick fresh strawberries. They were delicious. We went home and made strawberry milkshakes and chocolate covered strawberries.

I’m off from work the rest of the week, but I have to keep my eye on my e-mail. Madden Ultimate Team isn’t quite through all the testing yet, but hopefully we are close and we will be available to download next month.

Abby Turns Nine

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This week saw a pretty big milestone. Jennifer and I are now the parents of a nine-year-old. We can’t believe that it’s happening so fast. I’ve been working late this week on Madden Ultimate Team, so I wasn’t there when she opened most of her presents. She received another gift certificate to Barnes & Noble, a charm bracelet and a lot of money (around $50). She’s already busy deciding what she wants to buy. This morning we finally gave her the present from myself and Jennifer: a Nintendo DS-Lite and several EA games (Littlest Pet Shop, Charm Girls Club, and Harry Potter). Games I really know nothing about, but thought she would like. She was very happy and we both got a big hug.

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We really didn’t have a party this week because in a few weeks Abby is going to have a slumber party. She’s going to invite 9 girls over for a sleep over in a few weeks. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we decided to postpone it a few weeks.

Also this week we were treated to a Thanksgiving musical program at Izzy’s pre-school. They sang a few songs and then we had a giant pot luck Thanksgiving lunch. It’s been a while since we’ve had a musical program since Izzy didn’t really didn’t attend pre-school last year. She was cute as always.

St. Augustine Camping Trip

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The weekend before Labor Day, I was watching Ken Burns who was a guest on Late Show with David Letterman. He has a new documentary on the National Park system. I came to the realization that I’m about to get really busy at work because of the new game I’m working on and that would mean that this might be the only time that we can go camping for the rest of the year. We drug the camper from Florida to Texas and back again, not using it for the past two years. One week notice usually isn’t enough time in order to get a camping spot. We were lucky. Jennifer just kept going up the coast until she found an open slot. We ended up with Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine.

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I left a few hours early from work on Friday and Jennifer had the camper all ready to go. It took us an hour an a half to get there. We were pretty lucky again. We didn’t know that the gate at the campground closed at sunset. We were there about 15 – 20 minutes before they closed. It was that point that our luck ran out. Once we got the camper set up, we found that the air conditioner was no longer working. We knew something wasn’t going to be working since it was sitting idle for two years, but we were hoping it wasn’t that. I had the girls jump into the truck leaving Jennifer to continue to set up the camp. We used the iPhone map to find the closest Wal-Mart and went to look for some small fans that we could use. We found some and it help a lot to keep the air circulating in the camper.

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The first day, we wandered around St. Augustine and visited the Lighthouse. Izzy was too small to go up, so we had to take turns climbing the long staircase to the top. Emily had no fear standing at the edge and looking straight down. It was amazing how far we could see once we were at the top.

The second day we spent most of the time at the beach. It was pretty nice that the campground was under tree cover, but the beach was less than five minutes away. The girls loved jumping in the waves and playing the sand. Eventually Jennifer and myself started cooking even though we kept putting on sun screen. We even had a few people tell us that it looked like we were getting burned.

When we got back to the campground we found out that we had a visitor. A squirrel (we assume) climbed up onto the side of the camper and ate through the screen in order to get to a pack of tortillas that we had sitting there. Oh well, we had no idea that the squirrels could smell that well. At least he didn’t get into the camper.

All-in-all a great camping trip. It’s always great to get away from it all and just spend time with the family. I highly recommend the Anastasia State Park camp ground. I know we will be returning.

Back in Florida

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Another month has gone by and it’s been quite a trek for the French family. The biggest event being the pack-up of the house and driving from Houston to Florida. On July 4th weekend, I flew from Orlando to Houston one way and then the next morning started the drive back to Florida. This time in the Sequoia and with the camper in tow. It was a boring drive, but went quick and before you knew it, we were pulling up to our new house which I had closed on the week before. We were also in luck, the driver had called and said that he was going to be able to drop off all our stuff on Sunday, July 5th. This was great, because I would be home in order to help.

The next few weekends have been one of just settling into our new house. It had no lights in any of the rooms, so we installed six ceiling fans and then Jennifer’s dad sold us some mini-blinds, which we installed. Over the past three weeks the garbage guys loved us as we left a mountain of boxes at the curb each Friday morning for them. Last weekend we had a big push to get everything done. Last Sunday we were literally going from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. that night. But it paid off, because we were able to just rest this weekend, which was my birthday weekend.

We weren’t able to rest that much on Friday went I got a panicked phone call that morning. Jennifer had taken the girls to McDonalds to play around. Izzy had hit her head on the gym equipment and cut it open. Several of the moms there helped Jennifer stop the bleeding and then she was off to the hospital. I met them at the ER where Izzy had to get three stitches. She was in a lot of pain, but got through it and she’s doing fine.

Not wanting a big birthday celebration, I just wanted to go out to eat where I went a couple of years ago. So, we headed out to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville to have a margarita and a Cheeseburger in Paradise. We went there, but forgot to make a reservation, so we were waiting for over an hour for a table. The margarita was good, but the restaurant was burning up hot. We didn’t wait for desert. We booked it out of there and headed home where Jennifer had baked a Texas Longhorns helmet cake, which we devoured once we got home.

Tale of Two Houses

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It is now the end of the first week of me being in Florida while the family is back in Houston. I finally got to see the new house with my own eyes and I’m really excited about it. Can’t wait until we move in and start settling in. There’s three big things that we are going to have to buy right away: fans, fence, and blinds.

None of the rooms have ceiling fans, which is a big oversight for a house in the South. Not too big a deal, though. I’ve installed them before and they are not that hard. Unfortunately, I think there’s about seven we’re going to have to install.

We need a fence for Austin. He likes to roam around outside some times (especially when he has to do his business) and we are going to have to fence in the backyard for that. Jennifer already has a couple of fence companies giving us quotes. The Homeowners’ Association is requiring us to get a white vinyl fence. I didn’t even know they made fences like that. It’s quite a difference between here and Texas, where every house already has a big wood fence when you move in. I think Texans live under the adage, good fences make good neighbors.

Finally, the house has no window coverings at all. So, we are going to have to get mini-blinds for most of the house. Fortunately, Jennifer’s dad sells blinds, so we know where to go for that.

So, while we are busy making plans for the house in Florida, Jennifer and the girls are having to struggle through the hot summer in the rent house back in Houston. The house has such poor construction the upstairs half of the house stays at least 10 – 15 degrees hotter than the lower portion. Now that the summer is at it’s hottest, it has become intolerable. It’s gotten so bad, that the girls are now camping out in the downstairs bedroom with Jennifer. We’ve complained to the owners, but no response. Fortunately, Jennifer and the girls only have about another week in the house before the movers come and pick-up all of our stuff.

Continuation of an ErA

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Two months since I’ve updated Frenchville. A lot has gone on since then. The biggest news being that we are moving back to Orlando and I’m resuming my job with EA – Tiburon. I just spent the weekend driving from Houston to Orlando and in a couple of weeks I’m going to fly back and do it again, but this time with the family. I’ve learned over the past year that it isn’t really where you live, but your job that matters. You have to enjoy what you are doing for a living. I always enjoyed my job with EA Sports, playing their games and it was extremely hard playing NCAA 09 last year knowing that I started working on that game and didn’t finish it.

We have a contract out on a house in Oviedo, a suburb east of Orlando. It should be about the same drive as I had when we lived up in Lake Mary. We close on the house on June 30th. It’s in short sale, so we are getting a good deal on it, but the movement has been fairly slow because everything has to go through the bank. It recently appraised for lower than we offered. Our realtor went back to the bank and made sure our offer was lowered to the price it appraised for. That’s going to end up saving us quite a bit of money when we close on the house in a few weeks.

Last week was also Izzy’s 4th birthday. Nana, Poppy, and Aunt Marci came down to help us celebrate. Their cousin, Kinley, also came over. Of course, Izzy requested to have a Mickey Mouse cake and Jennifer made it once again. After lunch and cake, we headed over to the Sienna Plantation pool for some swimming.

Last Sunday was also Abby’s dance recital. Five months of dance lessons leading up to this final recital. It was a two hour show with about 15 groups of kids doing two numbers each. Abby’s first dance was to the Austin Power’s theme. If I would have known that, I would have shown her the opening number to the movie before she went on so that she could have seen some of the proper dance moves. Abby did very well. I thought she was one of the best dancers out there, but I might be a little biased.

So, currently, I’m in Orlando, the family is back in Houston and in a couple of weeks we will be reunited. Now that we are going to be in Florida once again, I guess I’m going to have start writing more often in Frenchville. That was the original reason I set up this blog so long ago.

Indoor Easter Escapade

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I awoke early this morning to the sound of the girls rifling through the baskets that the Easter Bunny had left for them. He was pretty generous this year, for the first Easter away from our house in Orlando. The biggest gift being new ceramic piggy banks for each of them. Once they were loaded up with some candy, we had some breakfast and headed to church.

The church service today was supposed to be at the Sienna Plantation amphitheatre, but had to be moved to the Middle School because of weather. Instead of an open field, a school gymnasium had to serve as the field of (egg) battle. The combatants were split into two age groups, Izzy being on the top edge of her’s and having an advantage. When “go” was shouted, chaos ensued as with blinding speed kids ran to every corner of the gym. I fortunately had taken cover in a spot where there were no eggs. They were all limited to ten eggs and had no problem accomplishing that goal. During church service, they were able to go through their spoils and find out exactly what goodies they would be playing with, or if they were lucky, eating.

Jonathan Coulton & Austin Trip

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Last week we decided to spend the first part of Spring Break in Austin. Jennifer needed to have a meet and greet with some of the distributors of the product she’s selling, so me and the girls decided to tag along and make it a mini-vacation.

First though, was the Jonathan Coulton concert on Friday night before our vacation. For those of you who don’t know who JoCo is, it’s kind of hard to describe his type of music. It’s kind of folk music with a humorous geeky twist. It’s best to just go to his web site and listen to a few of his songs. The concert was great, very funny and entertaining. Can’t wait for him to swing back this way. The new House of Blues was a great venue. My only complaint was that it cost $7 for a small 12 oz. can of Shiner Bock.

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Sunday, we packed up and headed to Austin. We used Priceline in order to get $65 / night hotel rooms at the Hilton near the Airport. It was a very nice place, even though it was near the airport, and kind of far away from most of our destinations. We visited with a few of my old co-workers and ate at some of restaurants that I missed (Rudy’s & Chuy’s).  Monday, while Jennifer was meeting with one of her distributors, me and the girls were dropped off at the State Capitol building. We wandered around and then headed up to the University of Texas campus to take  a few sites in. We stopped by Dobie Mall to get something to drink. I was amazed that it hadn’t changed in the thirteen years since I’ve been there. On Tuesday, we drove down to Natural Bridge Caverns. Abby has really been into geology lately, so we wanted to take her there so that she could see all the different rock formations. All the girls enjoyed it even though it was quite a hike. Afterwards, we were all tired and piled back into the Sequoia and headed back home.