American Sign Language

I took an ASL class this winter...because I know babies can start using the signs to express themselves as early as 6 months old- eliminating a great deal of frustration! I got an introduction to whole new world and culture! This add really cracks me up--- partly because I complain that David is so deaf sometimes!

J'ai pris un cours de language pour les sourds et muets cet hivers...cette publicité me fait beaucoup rire...surtout parce que David est sourd dans une oreille et que je m'en plains parfois!

Ma mamie

Cette vidéo est dédicacée à mes grandparents...en souvenir de tous les moments agréables qu'ils on eu ensemble.

Mamie m'a enseigné beaucoup de choses-- mais elle était timide et n'aimait pas être filmée. Cette vidéo a été prise par Yohann, pendant l'été 2003. Merci d'avoir immortalisé la grand-mère dont je me souviens si bien!

This is my paternal grandma, Mamie. She is now in a nursing home and not always cognitive...I've posted this here to share with my grandpa, her husband, so he can enjoy good old memories of her.

Champions!

Little did we know when we started an intramural basketball team at school that we'd go on to become the champions! In a tournament of over 50 teams we went on a hot streak that included beating the #2 and the #1 ranked teams in the final four and championship games. We started the tourney ranked #22 but came out on top thanks to tournament MVP Morris Davis and a dramatic final shot by our captain Brad Heaton to win the game! We only have 3 members of our team graduating this year, so the dept of Health Policy and Administration (HPAA) should be competitive again next year! Thanks to Lee (one of our graduating stars) for making the video and Sarah (one of our biggest supporters) for taking these pictures.

notre petit jardin

Ca marche et on a du mal à y croire! On dirait même qu'on va avoir UNE fraise bientôt!

It's so amazing to see things grow and develop! I felt so encourage by our little sprouts that I am now attempting to grow Jorge the third!

( I have a silly habit of naming my avocado plants "Jorge")

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Nous avons voyagé jusqu'en Caroline du Sud, à Myrtle Beach, pour le semi-marathon. 23 km pour lesquels David se prépare depuis maintenant 9 mois!

Nous sommes restés dans une suite d'hôtel avec 2 chambres, une salle de bain et une petite cuisine~vue sur la mer, s'il vous plait!
Juste ce qu'il faut pour relaxer et se bourrer de pâtes le soir d'avant!

The only hard thing for the fan club ( Jeff and I )...and the competitors, was that it started at 6:30am! It took all I had to roll out of bed and be supportive about this.


David was amazing! the official pictures of the race are here for you, and his thoughts and comments are on his blog.

Pour ma part, j'ai eu assez de mal à juste êre présente au départ, aux 5 km et à l'arrivée... Cela m'a pris plusieurs jours pour m'en remettre!

Nous avons ensuite eu assez de temps pour aller faire un tour sur la plage...mais l'Atlantique était bien trop froid!
I was disappointed that the hotels line the beach...so when you are on the closest street to the ocean, you don't actually see the water...oh well! This is an "after" picture...my man is looking good!

I have come to appreciate being so round...and stay as far away from the scale as I can. I keep dreaming of being skinny again one day...only a few more weeks and I can start working at it!

Happy Valentine's day!

I thought we could do things a little different this valentine's day : I convinced David to commit to a community garden plot a few months ago. He is a very willing city kid who has not clue about gardening and mowed his first lawn on his mission...so it did take some convincing because I am getting bigger every second and we most probably will have to be giving it the most attention just about the same time our baby comes!

So we had our little date and planted our garden together : just a few strawberries, tomatoes and herbs...so now we just wait patiently...not my forte!

Nous avons choisi de dépenser l'argent des fleurs et autres gadgets de Saint Valentin en plantes pour un jardin! Comme je n'ai jamais vraiment fait ça toute seule et que David est un enfant de la ville...on verra bien ce qu'on récoltera~ il ne nous reste plus qu'à être patients...

Snow in North Carolina!

Croyez- le ou non, mais il a neigé chez nous! Sur la photo, mon amie Debbie...et le blanc que vous voyez par terre: de la neige! I had to wear a sweater it got so cold!

Sébastien

C'est un peu dur de prendre une bonne photo d'un bébé...surtout quand l'écran est cassé- mais bon, en voilà une de potable!

Museum day

We were in Washington D.C. last week. David was skipping school for a conference...and I had no better plans in Chapel Hill, so I decided to go with him and tour all the free museums I could...

Pendant que David assistait à une conférence à Washington, j'ai eu l'occasion de visiter des musées dans la capitale américaine( ils sont tous gratuits!)

J'ai vu des protraits célèbres et ai aussi trouvé la petite soeur de l'énorme araignée qui est à Ottawa.

Happy Birthday Guillaume!

Je pense qu'Estelle est en train de dire "Thank you, David" ...I think she is trying to thank David too for this AWESOME birthday gift!

Pendant mon petit séjour avec la famille Couture, à Gatineau, j'ai emmené Rebecca et les enfants à "Cosmic Adventure"- un parc intérieur immense- en cadeau d'anniversaire avancé! We spent the day there playing until we dropped! The best thing about this place is that the adults get to go in with the kids...though I have to say I felt a little clostrophobic in the tubes!

January in Montréal

Voici quelques photos- prises avec ma pauvre caméra sans écran digital- de certains de mes amis que j'ai eu le privilège de voir lorsque j'étais à Montréal!

Emilie et Sergio invested in a little ikea bed for me to sleep on...thanks so much for making my stay so comfortable!

Merci à tous d'avoir pris le temps de passer un peu de temps avec moi! C'est dingue comme tout le monde grandit si vite!

Aren't they cute? Félicitations les amoureux!

Updates

The screen on one of our digital cameras broke, and the other is acting wierd, so we might have fewer pictures on the blog during the next little bit. Even still, I have to report our latest immigration miracle: Sarah has a North Carolina drivers license! That may not seem like a big deal, but it's very symbolic for us of overcoming all the obstacles we've faced in the last year and a half. North Carolina was one of many states to pass laws last year making it much more difficult for anyone but citizens and permanent residents to get a drivers license (ie, excluding legal non permanent residents like Sarah was until Jan 18). The car was in her name, so we've had to keep it licensed in Quebec, have two seperate sets of insurance, etc. It wasn't that much more expensive or difficult, but a symbol that our life was still somewhat fractured even though she was totally legal. Well not anymore. Once that magical social security number arrived in the mail, it has opened a lot of doors for her, including geting a NC drivers license. She actually studied pretty well for the test too, which was good since at least some lessons were learned from the fact that I failed it my first time!!

The other update is that we spent a few days this week in DC for the AcademyHealth National Health Policy Conference. It was a good conference with important speakers (former HHS Security Donna Shalala, current CBO Director Peter Orzag, congressional staffers, representatives of the 3 major Presidential campaigns, etc. The days were long but I learned a lot. Sarah spent all day monday walking around to the various museums, sitting to watch free movies as often as she could. Her poor pregnant body was so tired that she slept in on Tuesday until noon. She deserved it, our little girl is working her hard!

What a day

Today has been a major day of transition for our little family. We've conquered craigslists and listservs and now have a baby crib, a new couch and living room rug. Sarah also worked really hard to build new book shelves for us. I'm not talking about taking parts out of a box and putting them together, she went to Home Depot, had them cut specific sizes of wood, then hammered and screwed and stained 12 or so small shelves which stack perfectly. We've been accumulating these items and working on these shelves for awhile, constantly talking about how to re-arrange the apt so my office could become the baby's room, our living room could be more comfortable and asthetic, and our bedroom could be a productive study place for me.

It all came together today! We borrowed, drove to get the couch in Raleigh, dropping our old couch off at a friends along the way. My dad came by and helped us move everything around so that now it feels like we live in a completely different apartment. I've been real resistant to change, but am now glad Sarah plowed forward with her artistic vision. You should come by and check it out.

The REALLY big news though is that this evening we received mail from the US Social Security Service. After almost two years of trying to figure out how we can legally live as a married couple in the same country, Sarah now has a social security number!! This isn't quite as great as a canadian social insurance number (she doesn't get free health care with this card), but it does allow her to pay taxes and work!! Things are really working out well for us. Thank you to everyone that helped make this happen.

Trip to Idaho

We spent a few days with my step-sister Tara and her family in Arco, Idaho, literally an hour outside the middle of no where. We had a blast and were so grateful for the Steensons and their hospitality. While there we got to tour the new temple in Rexburg. Believe or not, the inside is even more beautiful than the outside.

Jones Family Gatherings

On Dec 29th, my Jones relatives organized a get together so everyone who hadn't already could get to know Sarah. This doubled as a baby shower in which we ate great cake and received generous gifts to help us get ready for our baby girl. Thank you so much! Two nights later we got back together for a New Years Eve party in which we acted out a murder mystery that had taken place at a 1955 high school reunion. As you can tell by the photos, we had LOTS of fun! Everyone was assigned roles to play, from the being the bookish type, to the jocks, hot rod lovers, homecoming queen and the posh. More than anything, this night was a celebration of being together and laughing, which my Grandma says we haven't been able to do much of this year as we've dealt with her breast cancer. With the recent news that it had gone into remission, we were able to let loose and have lots of fun.

After we confirmed that Wes and Lindsay had done the murder, we cut lose and celebrated the new year! We watched Grandpa win a close boxing match on wii, watched the ball drop in Times Square (pretending there was no time difference), and made lots of noise!

The next morning we had a great breakfast together:

Temple Square

Sarah had never been inside the Salt Lake Temple, so we made that a priority on this trip. There is no place quite like the Temple in Salt Lake City, both for its unique beauty and its importance to members of our church. It was a very uplifting experience to worship in the same building as my ancestors a century earlier. We also toured the Conference Center across the street, the 20,000 seat building where our leaders speak in bi-annual conferences to the 13 million members throughout the world.

Dec 27-30 in Brigham City, Utah

On Dec 27th we flew north from sunny and warm Arizona to snowy and cold Utah. We were in good spirits about flying into the cold weather since we knew it was going to be so warm when we got home; this was the only winter I (David) would get! Grandpa and Grandma Jones were nice enough to pick us up at the airport, while my cousin and his pregnant wife Kim drove up to Brigham City and went out to dinner with us. Jon and I are basically the same age and have always been good friends so it was great to catch up and joke about our new adventures in having pregnant wives.

Sarah and I did some walking around, enjoying the sights of Brigham City; both of them! Seriously though, I love this town so much. I especially love the LDS Tabernacle on Main Street, one of the most beautiful buildings the church every built. Brigham City is where both my parents grew up, and where my Jones Grandparents have lived my whole life. Their place feels more like home than anywhere else now that my parents have both left NYC.

World Puzzle

While in Arizona we had a lot of fun putting together a 600 piece puzzle of the world. Once it was complete, we had my Grandparents remove all the countires they had already been to, and it was amazing to see the large chunks of North, Central and South America that dissappeared; they've been to virtually every country on these continents. He was a missionary in Texas/Mexico, and they served as Mission President in Honduras, MTC President in Argentina, Counselor in the Lima Temple Presidency and the first President of the Cochabamba Bolivia Temple. They're getting ready for a cruise around the southern tip of South America in which they'll see Antartica!

Live from Arizona

On Christmas night we all went to the Mesa temple to enjoy the thousands of lights set up on all the palm trees and bushes. The pictures never quite do it justice, but it really was a fantastic night.

Here's a picture of us on Christmas morning with my step-sister Tiff and her fiance Fred. It was our first time meeting Fred and he was great; we're very glad he'll soon become part of our family.

Updates

The big news is that last week we received a letter from the National Visa Center informing us that Sarah is invited to an interview for her immigrant visa!! It will be on Friday January 11th at 8am at the US Consulate in Montreal, Quebec. I'm dissapointed I won't be able to go up with her (it would cost way too much) and that she'll miss my step sister Tiffany's wedding the following week, but the timing of this interview is really pretty incredible. Any earlier and we would have had to cancel part or all of our Christmas plans. Any later and it would have been getting real close to the baby's due date. It would have stunk to have reschedule an interview after having waited so long. When I get back home to NC I'll post a timeline of the immigration ordeal we've been through, but to make a long story short, acquiring this visa has been the most dominant aspect of our lives since before we were engaged in May 2006. We've essentially been waiting for this letter with an interview date since before we were married in August 06, 17 months ago!

After the interview and final processing is done, this visa will allow Sarah to do everything a citizen can do, ie go to school, work, pay taxes, etc. The only difference is she won't be able to vote. Best of all, it will be a huge relief to know that her status is permanent and to have no more stress or question marks about that part of our future.

"The man who looks like David"

I was just going through some papers and came by a newspaper Rebecca saved for me. Guillaume ( 41/2) pointed out the Canadian prime minister as "the man who looks like David" to her. Political opinions aside...I really never thought that he and David looked alike...but they both have blue eyes and comb their hair to the side. I got that a lot while we were dating and engaged- and didnt' like it. We even had a waiter take pictures with us in a restaurant because he was so stunned by the ressemblance!

If Guillaume can point it out...then I guess the truth comes from the mouth of babes...The irony is that now that we live in the US, nobody even knows who Harper is!

J'ai retrouvé aujourd'hui une coupure de journal que Rebecca m'a donnée. Guillaume lui a montré la photo et lui a dit que c'était "l'homme qui ressemble à David". C'est le genre de remarque qui m'embêtait vraiment lorsqu'on étaient au Canada...mais ici, personne ne le connait!

Je suppose que la vérité sort de la bouche des enfants...