The Mirabelle Craze.

Here in Metz there is a fruit called a mirabelle. Metz is the capital of the mirabelle. And, this means that we have a festival for the mirabelle. Why? Probably the same reason that Georgia has a Cherry Blossom Festival - because people like festivals!

So anyway, a mirabelle is basically a small yellow plum. They are a little larger than a grape and they have a pit. Although, the picture is a little deceiving...they don't have big blue eyes.

The mirabelle festival lasts about 2 weeks. Each night they have various things going on around town. The festival begins with the crowning of the Mirabelle Queen...who is also Miss Lorraine. Miss Lorraine goes on to the Miss France competition, and then represents France in the Miss Universe competition. But, for the Mirabelle festival, Miss Lorraine - Reine de la Mirabelle (Queen of the Mirabelle) is the star of the show. She pops up every now and then at the different activities that take place and everyone oohs and ahhhs.

Well, we love taking part in our cities activities so, of course, we went to the beauty pageant! I made a video...

Other mirabelle activities include water sport 'demonstrations' and 'initiations' - David went wake boarding and we went kayaking and got some kind of official card for doing it.

They also had a rescue dog demonstration. This was very interesting. Their trainers would ride a boat out into the water...fall of yelling for help...and the dogs would go rescue them.

There was also jousting...from boats instead of horses. The winner is obviously the one who doesn't fall in the water. But it was hot on Saturday so I say the winners were the ones who did fall in....I wanted to.

It has been fun so far. The next big event is the mirabelle fireworks. AKA the biggest fireworks display I've ever seen (all because of a fruit!) This happens this Saturday. We are going to find a spot at the Plan d'Eau at lunch time, have a picnic, and save our spot until the fireworks go off!

IN OTHER NEWS:

• We are keeping our cat guest for an extra 2 weeks!
• Maria and Rocky are coming to visit in about 2 weeks!

Now that you are educated on mirabelles...go learn about the Presidential Candidates! ...pick a good one!

Who are you backing?

David and I have been educating ourselves on the presidential candidates for a while now. We have officially picked a candidate that we feel best represents our political views and moral values as well. In all of the debates so far Mike Huckabee has demonstrated his knowledge and ability to lead our country. I urge you to find some videos of Mike Huckabee speaking or debating and to read about his political views, plans, and beliefs.

Below is a pretty good blog entry that I thought I would share with you all. Please take the time to read it!
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http://onemom.wordpress.com/christians-for-huckabee/

Christians for Huckabee

There’s an article coming out in the September 3, 2007 issue of Newsweek magazine about Mike Huckabee. MSNBC has the article HERE.

The gist of the article is that “on paper” Mike Huckabee is the ideal GOP candidate, but that the party faithful aren’t following him because “he’s too nice to be President”. Here’s a piece of the article, including a quote from the Southern Baptist convention:

The short, cruel answer is that many people who should be his most enthusiastic supporters don’t think he could win if he were pitted in a nasty race against the one Democrat conservatives loathe most. “We like Mike a lot,” says Richard Land, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention. “But nobody thinks he can beat Hillary, and a fear of another Clinton White House outweighs almost everything.”

There is a further insinuation that these “Christian” leaders would support Mike if he had more money. OK, Christian leaders, listen-up … Mike Huckabee would have more money if you supported him! I have been working on an article regarding the need for evangelical Christians to stand with Mike Huckabee in his run for the Presidency, but this article in Newsweek and the comments from Southern Baptists was so troubling to me that I had to speak out today.
Some key thoughts:

Christians: Mike Huckabee is our brother in Christ. How can you say “we like Mike and think he’s the best person to be President” … and then turn around and throw your money into the pots of other “pseudo-conservatives” because you are hypnotized by their money and power and charisma?!

Christians: Where are James Dobson and the Moral Majority? A word of support from both of these would boost Mike Huckabee into the front of the pack and carry him to the nomination and the White House.

Chrisitans: I call on you today to arise from your apathy - to shake off the stupor that comes from blindly following the mainstream media, and to stand with Mike Huckabee in his run for President.

STAND WITH MIKE IN PRAYER. We must agree together to faithfully support Mike Huckabee in prayer each day as he faces the grueling challenges of being a Presidential candidate.

STAND WITH MIKE FINANCIALLY. We must give more than nice words (through blogs, letters to the editor, talking to friends, etc) to Mike’s campaign - he needs our financial support.

STAND WITH MIKE IN YOUR ACTIONS. Mike Huckabee is not a man of personal wealth (like other candidates, who are able to “loan” their own campaigns millions of dollars of their own money), so even with the growing financial support, he still needs us THE PEOPLE of the country to work on his behalf here in the trenches. Here are some ideas:

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  Start a blog and join the official “Bloggers for Huckabee” blogroll
  


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  Write letters to the editor to your local paper and to papers around the country about why you “Like Mike” (be sure to include the URL to Mike Huckabee’s website http://www.mikehuckabee.com/)
  


• 
  
  Pass out fliers in local parades and community festivals. SC4Huckabee is a wonderful example of regular people getting the word out to their community about Mike Huckabee.
  

Mike Huckabee is our brother in Christ - he is not perfect, but he stands on the firm foundation of God’s Word, and he knows that as President that he works for the people, not for special interests and not for himself. Mike Huckabee is running for President - indeed, he is not just running for President, he is running for the good of the United States … he is running to strengthen this nation … to lead this nation and to stand firm on the Christian tenets our founding fathers used to build this country.

I will close with a phrase that I have used before in this blog and I will continue to say it until more Christians get up from their pews and agree to stand with Mike Huckabee in his run for President …

All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing …

In my lifetime, I do not believe there has ever been a more crucial Presidential election … one that will either strengthen all that is good in this country, or will send us on a path to destruction. I urge my Christian brothers and sisters to realize that the decisions about who will be our next President will be all but etched in stone in just a few months - we cannot wait until November 2008 to vote. We must vote now through our prayers, our money, our actions … we must stand with Mike Huckabee - not only our brother in Christ, but a man who is a true conservative - a man with a proven record of leadership and getting things done while working with people from both sides of the political aisle.

Kerry

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House Guest

Meet Miya ("Me-yuh")

She will be staying with us for about 2 weeks. She is Alex's cat, who lives with Alex's parents, but they are going on vacation and she can't stay in Alex's building, so she is staying with us :o)

I think she likes our apartment so far...especially the diagonal beams that she can climb up. At night she sleeps on the floor at the foot of our bed underneath the comforter than hangs down. She is very affectionate and playful. It's fun!

everyone needs a pet

The Orchard

My most recent activity has been constructing my family tree...well, one half of it. For some reason, on my Dad's side of the family we have had some very motivated relatives to collect information over the years to make sure that is isn't lost in time. I think it's great! And now I have the time and the means to contribute to the effort.

After receiving an email from my Dad about a recent trip he took to Pennsylvania to visit some family I became motivated to take on the challenge of gathering and putting together all this information...and to seek out more of it! Below is a picture of what I've been working on. It's only a "glimpse" of the tree since you can't read any of it here, or even see all of it. But you can see where I am (circled in blue), and the red circles that you see are my Ancestors that came from Lithuania. So, from this picture you can see back to my Great-Great-Grandparents. Isn't that cool!?

I don't think I'll be able to go back further than this...because nobody knows anybody that is still in Lithuania...and nobody speaks Lithuanian anymore. BUT, we can go forward! :o) At least my kids will already have this info and they can keep passing it on.

I bet there are so many families whose trees go back further because they were in the US longer. Those would be cool to see. But this is mine, on my Dad's side, and my Mom's side would probably go back even less because I think it may have been my Great-Grandmother who came over from Italy.

Anyway, I'm still gathering information like middle names and dates and stuff like that. After this one I and hoping to add to David's side. I think it will end up being a Christmas family activity. We shall see!

Bikes, Bananas, Beef and Berries.

Our entry today begins a week ago. Last Saturday a large group of various people associated with Georgia Tech got together to spend time with a friend who was heading back to the US for good. The day's event was bike riding along the canal (Moselle River) and a picnic lunch. Shaya (pictured far left) was the guest of honor.

Little did anyone know, but this bike adventure would lead David and I to rent our bikes for the rest of the month! We really enjoyed spending the time outside and found it financially a good decision to rent the bikes for longer than just the afternoon. Although, after the weekend, the weather took a turn for the worst! For the majority of this past week it has been raining non stop! We were only able to take our bikes out one other time during the week, in the evening, to ride surrounded by lots of bugs! I think it may have been a good thing though because our bottoms were pretty sore anyway.

The bad weather did inspire me to cook a little though. Pictured below are my homemade Banana Muffins! Yum! Recipes you can find online are actually pretty good, I'd be lost without them...or starving!

Today was the first day that the weather was significantly better. With rain clouds lurking overhead David, Katherine, and I decided to venture out on our bikes again. The rain never came but we did have a pretty good ride.

We tried to follow a bike-path map that we got from the place where we rented our bikes but we ended up getting really off track and just rode around where we ended up instead. We saw some very neat 'country' french homes, gardens, and towns that lie on the borders of the city of Metz.

After our ride we had worked up quite an appetite! Lucky us, we had just purchased some Swedish meatballs and "fixins" from IKEA earlier this morning! They actually serve this at any IKEA cafeteria...if you've ever eaten there you'd sure to have seen something that looks similar to this: Although, they usually serve them with french fries or boiled potatoes...we went with mashed = far superior. :o) I guess this is how they would serve it in Sweden. They use a "gravy" sauce and a berry sauce...of the Ligonberry, a Swedish berry. It is very, very, very, yummy. And also very filling.

Tomorrow we will be hosting a new Master's student who begins his year and a half stay here in Metz. He will be the first new Master's student to arrive so hopefully we can make him feel welcome and at home here in Metz. Who knows, maybe after his masters he will end up married and back in Metz for three years! :o) ...you never know.