Josh Renaud

From the abundance of the heart...

Josie speaks.

Apparently she said "moooom" today.

Dad's 50th

This year was my dad's 50th birthday. My mom began making big plans for it ahead of time. The centerpiece of her plans were to have a golf outing for my dad which would involve he and his brothers, as well as me and my brothers. Also in the works was a trip the next day to see a Cardinals game.

But the logistics of hosting so many families for a couple days in one home were going to be complicated. So my mom and dad decided to add a bathroom to the basement and to build a new deck in the backyard. These were pretty major projects, and it became a race against time to finish it all. My dad has written about the joys and pitfalls of the various projects on his weblog.

For my part, I was a bit nervous about the golf outing, having not played golf in quite a few years. While we were in San Antonio, I went with my brother Jonathan to have a session at a driving range. I was pretty rough, but I did have some good swings.

While we were visiting Jonny and Brittney at their home on Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Texas, Jonny informed me that he had just learned his leave had been taken away. They wouldn't be able to go to my dad's birthday extravaganze after all. I knew my mom would be sad.

Once back home, I hit the driving range two more times, bring Jadzia along each time. The second time out, she was not content to be a spectator. She wanted to hit. The clubhouse didn't really have any clubs her size (or left-handed), but I grabbed a small iron for her. She wanted to do the swinging all by herself, but this proved an excercise in futility and frustration (for me anyway). I had to make her let me help her, and then we started getting some contact.

My own swings were getting much better. That final session at the range produced my best swings yet, and I was much more consistent.

But those results didn't exactly transfer over to the golf course. My mom had gotten my dad's boss to set up tee times for two foursomes at Greenbriar, a private club near Kirkwood. My uncles were in rare form and my dad was excited. Justin and I both knew we were going to stink up the joint, while our cousin Jeremy was probably going to be pretty good.

I was pretty bad through the early going, but I did get better and have a few solid drives and hits. Still, there was no point keeping score. Better to just play and enjoy the afternoon and the beautiful course. And enjoy it we did, it was a blast.

Still, it was a surprise to learn after all was over that my cousin Jeremy and his dad my uncle Jerry had beaten my dad.

When we got back to my parents' house, I took a little spin through the new basement shower. Very nice, indeed. If I had money, I might hire the same guys (including my dad) to build one in my own basement.

The birthday bash was a lot of fun. The best part of that night (or really those two days) was hearing various family stories. It's been quite a while since I got to spend so much time with my dad and his brothers all together. It really made me yearn for days gone by when my grandpa Renaud was still alive and we would have raucous times at their house on Parthenon. I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and tried to capture as much as I could on video.

I would be remiss if I neglected to recount the fact that my dad couldn't blow out all the (51) candles on his cake. This may be due in part to obstruction of air flow by the plastic golf cart decoration on the cake. But still, it's an ominous sign when Jonny boy blows out all the candles for his birthday but dad does not.

The next morning I found Justin and uncle Jerry poring over a partially-disassembled laptop. They were trying to diagnose and repair some sort of power problem. I had assumed that would be the sort of thing uncle Jim would be all over, but he was more of a spectator/adviser.

I couldn't help but flashback to those years when we lived on Yaqui in Florissant and uncle Jerry came to visit. At that time my dad was using an Atari 520ST computer he had been given by uncle Jim. It was probably 5- or 6-year-old technology at the time, but we still loved it. "Mudpies" was the game that occupied our time: it involved a man throwing pies at clowns and navigating various obstacles to get from one side of a room to the next. Justin had the record, if I recall. Uncle Jerry stayed up all night playing the game and setting a much higher high score. The man is driven.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day bowling and later going to a Cardinals game. Of course my dad and uncles bested us young dudes in bowling, but at least I was consistent, throwing three games of 120-130.

So kudos to my mom for putting this event together. It really was memorable.

When people look for "the weird guy," they find me

Through the magic of referrer logs, one can find out what search terms or phrases people typed into a search engine to get to your website.

For the heck of it, I was looking at my logs for the past year and thought some of the entries were interesting or amusing. Here's a small sampling of what's on the list.

P.S. - This list is for my entire joshrenaud.com website, not just this Family weblog.

Catching up is hard to do

Still playing catch-up here on the blog... Someday all my websites, bunk beds, and projects will be finished and we'll be up to date.

Ah, who am I kidding?

Anyway, here are a few choice pics from our trip to San Antonio.

Nan holds Josie in her living room.

Ludi gets messy with some sugar-free chocolate pudding.

The girls take a photo with Grandma Renaud and Aunt Joyce. We had a lovely visit with them and Aunt Carol.

The Renaud family embarks on a cruise/tour of the Riverwalk.

Going under a bridge.

An interesting sign we found in La Villita.

Ludi's ladybug birthday cake, which Yoli made.

Alan, Jonathan, Britney, and Jadzia get ready for the Ludi-thon.

Yoli, Josie, and Ludi are ready to get their eating on.

Little princess is ready for food.

The girls hang out with their cousin Chelsea.

Group photo with Uncle Oliver, Aunt Karen, and Chelsea outside of a Toys-R-Us.

Inside a restaurant with our friend Christy.

At a bowling alley on Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Texas, with Jonny and Britney. We had to buy a pair of socks for the girls. They took turns wearing them. The socks were also far too big.

Sorry, Josie, you're too small to bowl.

Getting back home.

Nanny has a birthday present for Ludi after our arrival in St. Louis.

Yet another apology

Here at the Renaud Empire, there has been no shortage of stories to tell the world at large. There has been, however, a shortage of time in which to write said stories. So, yet again, I am apologizing for a lack of updates here.

A few days ago we returned from a trip to San Antonio to visit family and relax. It was really wonderful. The weather was hot and dry, although we were thankful to see the parched land receive some rain while we were there. My Nan's pool was loads of fun, and all three of the girls greatly enjoyed it.

We got to celebrate two different birthdays during the trip -- Ludi turned 2, and my brother Jon turned 24.

Jon and Brittney came to town for Ludi's birthday. During the day, he and I went to the driving range to practice our golf swings. I am dreadfully out of practice, and I have a golf outing coming up next week on my dad's birthday.

Anyway, Yoli made a ladybug cake for Ludi's party and we had a lot of fun. (Jadzia has been spending the most time playing with many of Ludi's presents, as always seems to happen)

For Jon's birthday, we drove out to Del Rio. It was a great trip. We enjoyed the scenery along the way and the small towns. When we got to Laughlin Air Force Base, Jonny met us at the main traffic circle. We had been planning to go right to a bowling alley, but Jon asked us to first follow him to his house so that Brittney could get socks. Yoli realized she, too, needed socks, and asked to borrow some from Brittney. At that point I realized both Jadzia and Ludi were in sandals and would need socks, but I wasn't sure where to get any.

At the alley, we found they had one pair of kids' socks for sale. But they were for older kids. So I bought the pair. I decided to let Jadzia bowl the first game and Ludi the second game. The socks were obviously big on Jadzia, but it worked fine. She had a lot of fun, though most of her balls ended up in the gutter (bumpers only worked on two of the lanes). When it came time for Ludi's turn, though, Jadzia threw a bit of a fit. I had to extract the shoes and socks and put them on Ludi; the socks covered pretty much all of her exposed legs.

After a meal and two games of bowling, we went to Jonny & Brittney's place for chocolate cake. I am pleased to report than Jon did NOT whiff when it came time to blow out the 25 candles.

I gave him a Tiger Woods Wii golf game. This game had a disc golf mode, which I was eager to try, so Jonny and I played a few holes before the girls started getting sleep-deprived-crazy and it was time to go back to San Antonio.

During the trip I was able to scan 140+ Lawrence family photos, as well as some George documents. I went over some family tree stuff with my Nan, and I also conducted a 40-minute video interview with her discussing her dad and stuff from her childhood.

We got to visit our Renaud family (Grandma, Aunt Carol, Aunt Joyce) for one evening, but unfortunately it didn't work out to see them another time. Grandma was not feeling well that week. We also had a great dinner visit with one of my friends from high school, Christy.

Suffice it to say that the trip was great. Nan's hospitality was greatly appreciated, and the girls (read: Jadzia) keep telling me they want to go back and live there.