Yoli is part of the St. Louis Classical Guitar Orchestra. Earlier this year, the group performed a concert at the High Low venue. More recently, they played at the Kirkwood Public Library on Nov. 19.
Yoli’s culinary creations, 2019
From naan bread to Sioux tacos, from Goomba cupcakes to Frankstein cheesecakes, Yoli cooked up some cool stuff this year:
Apple cranberry pie, entered in Ferguson’s pie contest
Goomba cupcakes for Joseph’s birthday
Naan bread
Princess Peach cake for Josie’s birthday
Sioux taco, inspired by our trip to South Dakota
Coffeecake
Frankstein mint cheesecakes
Joseph, with his runs
A weekend away from it all
It’s been 10 years of wedded bliss for Yoli and me!
Ten years
we wrote letters and raked leaves we pleaded and prayed we vowed in Santa Cruz and signed in Coral Gables we made babies and bunuelos we gained family and friends and facebook we lost tios and tias and little Jubilee we endured tornados and tantrums surazos and suegros we watched Petra and parades we explored D.C. and Del Rio Copacabana, Cotoca San Antonio, Samaipata we saved and we spent we loved and we left we gave and we grew from just me and you to those four and us two vows and visas looks and laughs tea and tears ten times ten let us love again and again
The summer of 2013 in photos
The best pie in Ferguson
After six years, Yoli has finally gotten her due. Her caramel apple pie won the “All-American Pie Contest” with at the Ferguson Farmers Market on Saturday.
Sprucing up the house (Or is it firring?)
Every year my mom has a lovely Christmas tree at her house. She and dad usually pick one out from a tree farm the day after Thanksgiving. This year, though, they are several states away, and we decided to get a tree ourselves.
Unfortunately we didn’t get out soon enough. Our tardiness combined with the terrible drought this summer meant pickings were slim at the tree farm.
We walked for an hour or two looking for “the tree.” We never found one that was altogether perfect, but we did find a nice small one that had no dead branches or brown needles.
Yoli and the girls got it decorated Tuesday evening. Yoli had also taken some free scrap branches that the tree farm was giving away. On Wednesday she used them to make a wreath, and on Thursday to decorate the mantel over the fireplace.
Here are some photos of how it turned out:
Missions to space and the Farmers Market
Today I took Jadzia to the Challenger Learning Center in Ferguson to have a space mission. It was a surprise that Yoli had long wanted to give to her. The timing was good since we just visited the Houston Space Center in August, and Jadzia has really gotten interested in space.
Guess who’s legal?
That’s right! At last, Yoli is a licensed driver.
It’s been a long journey (she got her learner’s permit back in Feb. 2010), but we are very proud of her accomplishment!
The Fellowship of the Readers
Regular readers of this blog know that reading aloud is a big thing in the Renaud Empire.
We have gone through many children’s books over the past couple years, including “The Hobbit” twice.
For quite some time I have harbored a secret desire to read aloud the Lord of the Rings. In my head, I figured it would still be a few years before I could try.
Occasionally the girls have asked me about the story, either because they have seen me reading the books, or something else prompted them. I knew they were curious. Jadzia especially likes to ask questions, and I always refused to answer her. “You’ll just have to wait until you/we read the story someday.”
Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I just had to read it. I figured I would start with the first chapter and see how it went. After all, the first chapter is close in tone to The Hobbit, and the girls loved The Hobbit.
And so began our LOTR odyssey. The audience is primarily Jadzia and Yoli. Ludi would stick around sometimes, but I think this is just too far above her right now, and she has no interest (although she loves the Hobbit and has been asking me to watch the old animated movie).
The hardest parts have been the travel scenes where there is no action. Jadzia can’t quite grasp all the environmental description. But when action or good dialogue comes, she is very interested. I think I had the hardest time keeping her concentration until we reached “At the Sign of the Prancing Pony.” From that point forward, she has been fairly engrossed.
Reading the scene where Frodo is attacked at Weathertop was really cool. I was really into it, and Jadzia was clearly gripped.
But I worried I might lose her in the “Council of Elrond.” It is a complex chapter with so many characters telling all sorts of stories. Some of the stories are current, some are tales of ages past. It’s actually one of my personal favorite chapters, but I knew it would be difficult for a kindergartner.
In fact, she made it through quite well. We took it slow, and I explained as best I could. Ultimately it was okay if she didn’t grasp it all. Her favorite bits were when characters from the Hobbit came back in — the dwarf Gloin, Bilbo, and the mention of Balin going to Moria.
I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised how much she remembered. I didn’t have to say, “Hey, do you remember Gloin?” I simply read the bit where Frodo talks with him at dinner, and Jadzia realized it herself. “Oh, it’s Gloin from The Hobbit!”
The past week we have been reading about the fellowship going south, trying and failing to go over the Redhorn Gate, and turning to Moria. Today we read much farther than I had expected. We finished up “A Journey in the Dark” and read all the way through “The Bridge of Khazad-Dum” in one sitting. Jadzia had been intent to find out what happened to Balin. Why had his messages to Dain stopped? (At least she remembered that from “Council”)
Of course she found out his fate (her own guess had been right) — and after a while she got a bigger shock: the fall of Gandalf.
Confession time: Two days ago I practiced reading the scene of Gandalf and the Balrog on the bridge. I guess it’s kind of like when I do public speaking. I wanted to be prepared.
And I think it did me good, because it was a really exciting session and Jadzia was pacing all over. Yoli had to call her to sit close by. She had no idea what would happen.
My concern was that Jadzia would be really sad or upset. She is very tender-hearted and cries easily when she’s watching movies with sad parts. But she didn’t break down. She understood Gandalf had fallen, but her first question was: “How will they get Gandalf back?” She is very good at predicting things in stories.
We’re 300+ pages in, but many more to go. I don’t have any big concerns until we reach Return of the King. The tone gets higher there and the Gondorian speech is really old-fashioned English. But we’re a long way from that point. I’m most excited to get to the end of The Two Towers, which has a great sort of cliffhanger that gripped me the first time I read it (only about 10-12 years ago).
Anyway, I suppose we’ll see how it goes from here on out.