Premiers pas en Oregon

First steps in Oregon
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Oui, c'est vrai! Evan a pris ses premiers pas pendant notre voyage. Il a attendu jusqu'a Oregon parce qu'il voulait plus de spectateurs. Il l'a fait devant quelques personnes, et puis encore quelques fois devant plus de gens. Tout le monde a applaudi en poussant des "bravos!!!" et Evan souriait, ravi d'etre la star. On n'a pas une photo de ce moment historique, mais le voila (calme) quelques minutes avant:

Yes, it's true! Evan took his first steps during our trip. He had to wait until Oregon because he wanted a bigger audience. He did it in front of a few of us, then the crowd grew. Everyone cheered and applauded loudly, and I tossed the champion in the air, while Evan smiled, thrilled to be the star. We don't have a photo of the historic moment, but here he is a few minutes before, very calm:OK, on fait "rewind" un peu... On est arrives jeudi soir, chez ma grandmere, l'arriere-grand-mere d'Evan. Ils etaient tous les deux ravis de se voir.

OK, back up, rewind... We arrived Thursday night at my Grandma's, Evan's Great-Grandma. They were so happy to see each other.
Vendredi matin on est parti pour Bend, 4 heures de voitures. Voila Mamie et Evan au debut:
Friday morning we left for Bend, a 4-hour drive. Here is Grandma and Evan at the start of the trip:

Evan a dormi presque 3 heures! Il etait un ange pendant tout le voyage (ok, ok, il avait ses moments de pleures, mais ce n'etait pas beaucoup!) Il mangeait n'importe ou, il est vraiment sympa. Le voila en train de prendre un yaourt a cote de la piscine:

Evan slept almost 3 hours! He was an angel during the whole trip (well, ok, he had his fussy moments, but there were very few!) He ate anywhere, was such a good sport. Here he is having yogurt by the pool:Les soirs on avait la musique live, parce que j'ai une famille douee pour la musique (hmm, peut-etre j'apprendrai la guitare pendant mes "vacances"....) Ma tante et Evan et moi ecoutaient la musique (vous pouvez voir un violon et des guitares derriere...mes 2 oncles jouent la guitare, et ils chantent!)

During the evenings we had live music since my family is quite talented in that way (hmm, maybe I'll learn the guitar during my "vacation"...). My aunt and Evan and I enjoyed it (you can see a violin and guitars in the background...my 2 uncles play guitar and sing)

Voyager avec des bebes n'est pas toujours facile...On n'a pas toutes les choses comme a la maison (lit, chaise-haute, jouets, etc). Mais, ca nous empeche pas. On devient tres creatif!

Traveling with babies isn't always easy... We don't have all the gear we do at home (crib, highchair, toys, etc). But that doesn't stop us. We just get creative!
Et une derniere photo de Mamie et Evan et moi:

A last photo of Grandma and Evan and me:
On n'a pas pris beaucoup de photos (desole, Jean-Robert, je n'ai pas pris de photos de lui!) Mais beaucoup de gens prennaient des photos de nous 3 et les autres alors peut-etre je peux en mettre plus, plus tard.

We didn't take lots of photos (sorry, Jean-Robert, I didn't take any photos of him!) But lots of people did so hopefully I can put more photos later on.

Lay off...lay in the sun!

I am writing this from home. I have been laid off. I had 2 options: be laid off now with 6 weeks severence pay, or work 2 more months and in that time look for a job (and if, at the end, I still don't have a job, I'd be laid off with no severence).

How surreal it was to read the "exit" paperwork, in front of my "supervisor" and the HR person. How strange it was to then be followed by her, packing my office while she hovered over me, and escorted out like some kind of criminal. That's how it ends...after 4 1/2 years of working there, 3 1/2 full-time employment where I invested so much of myself. Of course it is not fair. But I am free.

Now, I'm going to go for a dip in the pool and lay in the sun....A little break before my aggressive job hunt.

Not fun, but important....

I know this does not fit in with the theme of Evan and fun with family and friends, and there are no cute photos to go along with it.

This post is about moral harassment. While it can include physical violence, that is not an essential element, as sometimes it is completely psychological:

"The aim is to cause psychological harm to the affected employee in order to exclude him from his work environment. Neither doctrine nor case law recognises this as an essential element, since in some cases, the harasser exercises the violence with no specific intention, although this cannot be an excuse for his/her extreme and prolonged violence."

This term is mostly used in Europe and is being incorporated into European labor laws, but of course Europe is more progressive than the U.S. in many ways. Here is good article on the topic.

I am experiencing some of this behavior at work right now. Not only is the CEO alienating me from the company and not allowing me to do my work (thus the blog entry during work hours!), management also tried to make me quit. This happens more often than I think most of us realize, and I think we should be aware of it.

What kind of people do this sort of thing? It can be anyone. It can be the leaders of a very successful company. Or, in this case, it can be leaders of a small, struggling company.

Luckily I have a wonderful husband and son, and other great family and friends who are giving me their support. I look forward to a new job and to being in healthy environment!

Fun weekend

Pendant que Maman dormait...
While Mommy was sleeping...Papa et Evan sont libres de faire plein de choses.
Papa and Evan are free to do lots of things.

Et puis plus tard, on a mange un 'lunner' (entre dejeuner et dine, vers 15h l'apresmidi). Jean-Robert est l'expert de trepied et le declencher automatique.
And then later, we had 'lunner' (around 3pm). Jean-Robert is an expert with the tripod and auto-timer.
Et les garcons ont essaye plusiers fois pour cette photo, et voila la photo bien reussie:
And it took quite a bit of practice for this photo, but here is the successful result:
Et une photo du weekend dernier, parce que c'est mignon:

Concours de tomates et poivrons

Petite update pour Fred et Tim... Voila les dernieres photos des tomates et des poivrons!
Quick Update for Tim and Fred. Here are the last pictures of the tomatos and the peppers!

For Tatie Jen and Tonton Shawn...

Sorry for the delay! Desolee pour le retard!
Here are photos from Jen and Shawn's stay with us...
Voici quelques photos de quand Jen et Shawn etaient avec nous...Hmm...Tatie Jen really does like posing for photos doesn't she? And Maman and Papa say that I'm the ham!
Hmm...Tatie Jen aime vraiment etre dans les photo, non? Et Maman et Papa disent que c'est moi, le jambon! (ok, 'ham' en anglais-ou 'jambon-c'est une personne qui fait toujours des grand sourires pour les photos, la personne qui aime etre une 'star' des photos...)Tonton would always walk with Evan around outside, around the garden and pool...
Tonton aimait marchait avec Evan dehors, autour de la piscine, au jardin...

For Maria...

Aren't I handsome in my new outfit?

Plus que quelques semaines et c'est tout seul!