L is for Luc

You must be wondering who the dude with the awesome French name Luc Renaud is. Four words: P. A. P. A. My Papa!

P: Perfect

A: Amazing

P: Personal Chauffeur

A: Awesome!

My favourite thing about him is that even though he's hit the big four-oh, he acts and looks like he's only about thirty. When I say that, I mean he plays with us without being embarrassed, and super fit. We love to fool around with him and he is a big joker. He was the one who taught me how to play ultimate Frisbee, soccer and volley-ball. Even though he has begged me many times to play hockey, he supports me in my figure skating. 5:30 am: "Emilie! Wake up! Skating!" 6:00 am: "Run another lap! Come on! You can do it!" 6:15 am: "Emilie, time to stretch!". Well, it goes on and on and on! Whenever I have either a competition or a test, he is in the stands cheering me on, and whenever I am warming up, he warms up with me! As you might be able to tell, he is my biggest fan.

I'm very proud of my daddy because he is almost a true runner! He runs at least every other day! In fact, he runs almost every day! I'm sure you all think that he is just running around the block or something, but do you know what? He actually runs up to 16 km! He is training to run in the Chicago Marathon in the fall. We are all really proud of him, because a year ago, we would have never believed that he would do this. He was definitely not in shape at all, and he had a snack pack, which turned into a six-pack really fast!

Like most dads, my dad has a job. Not anything crazy like a mad-scientist, but a normal one that he really enjoys. "An apple for the teacher..." yes, my dad is a teacher. He began his career nearly 18 years ago in Woodstock Ontario. Since he lives in Guelph, Woodstock was too long of a commute. After teaching there for all of 6 years, my dad found a job in Guelph, so he could be closer to my mom and me, because I was just born. Sadly, the first school he taught at in Guelph wasn't very welcoming. Let's just say, after one year, he left and promised my mom that I would never go there. Because he had been teaching middle-school kids for at least 7 years, he wanted to move on. He teaches in a high school, and still loves it. Everyone says my dad is a great teacher, and I truly believe it. A number of young teachers look up to him as if he was the Sydney Crosby of teaching.

"Hello! I'm your chauffeur..." my dad is also my personal chauffeur. He drives me everywhere I need to be. Whether it's to skating, dance, piano, singing, tennis, camp, a sleepover, parties, skiing, school... oh, you get it; everywhere! And to top that off, he has to drive my sister everywhere too. We spend a lot of time in the car, as you can see, so we can really talk and get to bond.

I love my papa, and hope we stay together for ever and ever!

Life Lesson: Slowly I'm learning from my dad that kindness and compassion can get you through everything in life.

I commented on Jamie's blog.

K is for Keyboard

I know you probably think I'm talking about a computer keyboard, but you will be surprised that I'm actually talking about one of my passions: the piano.

When I was only three years old, my mom really wanted me to start playing piano. I think the main reason she wanted me to start was because her and my dad are not musical whatsoever, so she made sure that someone in the family was musical. She brought me in to see this lady, called Leslie Wyber who founded the Guelph School of Music (GSM). When my mom first approached her, Leslie was apprehensive taking on a three year old. After our first trial, Leslie was taken by me and my love for music.

After seven years of taking piano lessons with Leslie, I was pretty darn good for my age. One day, Leslie told my mom that she was going back to university to get her teacher's qualifications so she could become a teacher. At first, when I heard the news, I told my mom that I wanted to quit because no one was as good as Leslie. Boy was I wrong. Leslie recommended a nice Russian/English teacher with the name of Leila Simpson, so we decided to try her out. Her different personality, gentleness and different techniques make her an amazing teacher as well.

"Please welcome pianist, Emilie Renaud!" My favourite part about piano, is PERFORMING! GSM is pleased to welcome all musicians and parents who are in the GSM family to come and enjoy a few recitals during the year. We have a magical Christmas recital and a fun spring recital. I love having the spotlight on me and play in front of an audience. It's fun working super hard for that one day for one little minute and feeling my fingers move, as practiced, with many people enjoying the music I am making! It's truly a wonderful feeling. The spotlight shines on me again at the Kiwanis Festival in April. This one is actually competitive with adjudicators who judge the class, give us a mark and provide comments on our performance. On one hand, it's sort of nerve-racking but on the other hand, it's thrilling to compete. I love the competing part because I am a natural competitor.

My least favourite thing about piano is the practicing. I have to practice 30 minutes every other day! I also have trouble practicing properly. I get lazy and I don't practice the way I was taught to practice. When my mom and I argued over how to practice, I could have been practicing properly. I regret not listening to my mom at times because I could have learned how to practice the easy way, but instead I decided to learn the hard way. I also discovered that shortcuts in piano end up taking you down the wrong path.

I love playing the piano. Even though my dream isn't to become a pianist, I hope that I will continue playing for the fun of it.

Life Lesson: I'm slowly learning that persistence pays off in the end.

I commented on Hayley's blog.

H is for Holidays

Holidays! Our crazy family tends to go overboard on holidays. We love to have big gatherings with our extended family on my mom's side.

Without a doubt, our biggest holiday is Christmas. Parties, parties parties! Our poor little house nearly collapses when we have our street Christmas party! We need to prepare tons of appetizers and buy many drinks because our neighbours come and all they do is chat, eat and drink. For me, the most thrilling party is our pot luck get together with our neighbours from our old street. It entails a theme pot luck (some previous themes have been Italian, Japanese, fondu and one year all appetizers) We sing, dance and play all night! Well, not all night but still pretty late.

On Christmas Eve, nothing is more magical than having the whole family on my mom's side together, singing Christmas carols. My little cousins leave out milk and cookies for "Santa" and it's so adorable when they wake up and say: "They're gone! I think Santa liked them a lot! Look! He brought us presents!" Then we all wait and wait for our parents to get their coffee so we can finally open our presents. Our family of 17 nestles at a different place every year. We rotate between our house, my aunt Danièle's house in Montreal, my aunt Jenn's place, and my grandparents' condo in Toronto. We look forward when it's their turn to host, which is every four years, because they take us away for a week somewhere down south.

For Easter, we either all gather at our house, or at our grandparents' place in Toronto. When I say "we", I mean all 17 of us. We do the traditional "Easter egg hunt" and of course, I do it for the delicious chocolate! For my sister and I, Easter usually falls close to our birthdays which is in April. We do something else, totally unrelated to Easter on Easter Monday. We host our "Annual Skate and Donate!" Instead of having a traditional birthday party and asking for presents, we ask for donations for the "Masai for Africa" which is an AIDS clinic in Africa. We have raised over four thousand dollars in four years! We invite everyone we know to come skate for an hour and a half, and join us for cake and hot chocolate after.

Thanksgiving is not as much of a big deal for us. Of course other families would think it's a lot of work, but comparing to Christmas, Thanksgiving is barely a lift of our pinky finger. We cook a nice turkey feast and that's it that's all for the work. To me, Thanksgiving is walking in the leaves, sipping hot chocolate, sitting around the table with my family eating turkey, a nice relaxed little break from our daily lives. We go around the table telling each other what we are most thankful for in our lives.

I love holidays! When I am older, I hope to continue the holiday tradition with our extended family because not only does it turn out great, but it's lots of fun!

Life Lesson: Life is short, do the most you can while you can; go overboard on holidays!

J is for Jenn

Jennifer Anne Sahadeo Harrison is one of my favourite people in the world. No, she is not an imaginary friend, she is my aunt and godmother! She is SUPER JENN! Since I was little, I've called Jenn "Jenny-boy" because her hair was short but now it's long and luscious!

When I was born, I was the only grandchild. My mom only has two sisters. Imagine the dilemma picking between her only two sisters. So, long story short, my mom being my mom found an unconventional solution. I ended up with two amazing godmothers and no godfather. Lucky them! Jenn and Danièle (I call her DaDa) both won the prize of being my godmothers.

Never having the pleasure of having a godmother live in the same city as us, imagine my happiness when Jenn told us they were moving into our hometown! They even invited me to look at houses with them! I loved the little house they picked, it looked just like a cottage! Of course, just like any fairy-tale, there has to be an ending. The street they lived on was a peculiar street with-let's just say the setting wasn't very child-friendly. So, they found another nice house but nothing can compare to my little cottage-house. One advantage about their new place is that it's right around the block from our house! We visit Jenn a lot and they drop-in often. In fact, they decide to invite themselves in for dinner quite frequently. We don't mind-we love playing with her two little boys, Sam and Max. Once, for her first's baptism, she told my mom "Oh, by the way, we're using your house for the after-party." Yes, it was last-minute but it worked out great.

What's that? I see my aunt pulling up in a yellow Volks-Wagen Beetle! But, oh wait! It's Pikachu from Pokemon! You see, my aunt worked for Nintendo when I was about four years old. How special! We loved going in the "Punch-buggy" with her and I felt like a queen, visiting her employees. Sure, Pokemon and video games aren't my favourite, but it was still fun and was the envy of all my friends who did lover Pokemon.

One of the things I love most about my aunt Jenn is her personality. She makes me laugh because of her great sense of humor. We bond like two peas in a pod which makes it easy to chat with her.

Life Lesson: Sometimes two is better than one.

I is For Isabella

One memorable day on March ninth 2009, an angel was born... Isabella Rose. Isabella is my adorable, sweet, loving, cute, smart, pretty little sister. Well, for now she is. Just kidding!

I have two sisters: Olivia and Isabella. Isabella is so smart for her age. Some words she can say(some are in french): gotcha, that's it, casquette, n'a pu, click, papa, mama, Emilie (sounds more like Memimi), baby, uh oh, ahaha, tap-tap. She is so smart! It melts my heart when she sings Justin Bieber songs. She knows her future brother-in-law! Her version of his song Baby is "Bebe bebe bebe ooooooooooh, bebe bebe bebe ooooooh!" Cute is an under statement.

My mom and her sisters are still very close and all the cousins are very close because of that relationship. I'm actually typing this in Montreal at my cousins' house right now! I hope to have a great relationship with Isabella and Olivia in twenty or more years from now so that our children can be close as well; that if we are on the road going somewhere, we can drop in anytime, any country, any city.

So far, Isabella and I are very close. No, not in age, because she is twelve years younger than me! She looks at me like I was her little mother, with those eyes sparkling with love and happiness. When we are older, I hope to drive her to parties, practices, sleep-overs and other activities she may do. I also hope she will trust me to do her hair and makeup and take her shopping sometimes.

We don't want to fight too much because my dad and his brother fought when they were little, and now they don't have a great relationship. Sure, we might disagree a tiny bit, but too much! After all, all sisters pull their older sisters' hair! :P

Life Lesson: Love your siblings, even if they do pull your hair.

G is for Grand-papa

Grand-papa is my grandfather. Me and my grand-papa are really close and he spoils me a lot, because I was his first grandchild. He is still only sixty years old, young and active as always. He works out nearly every day and he can do 150 push-ups and swim 60 laps! I am very proud of him for that. He is my hero.

When he was a young boy, he used to travel a lot and he lived in different countries. He always told me stories about his travels, but then he just decided that he would take me places instead. He has taken me to Disney about 5 or 6 times, Jamaica, London, Paris, Florence and Venice and he is planning something else soon.

My family always jokes around that the day I was born, the universe changed, and that the minute he saw me, his heart melted into a pile of goo. He means so much to me and I mean so much to him too.

I go visit him and my grand-maman in Toronto almost every other weekend. We do so much like shopping, going to concerts, playing tennis, watching a soccer game, and just relaxing and watching movies. Since I was a little girl, I've always had to sit next to him at meals. Even now, if I don't, I have a fit...... hehehe don't tell anyone! Whenever we talk on the phone, or we say bye after a visit, he always asks me "A qui la fille?" which means "Whose little girl?" and I always reply "A grand-papa" which means "Grandpa's" in french. That's another little tradition we've had since I was little.

Sometimes, my grand-papa can get a little picky. Once, at the dinner table, we were talking about changing a baby's poopy diaper, and he was just like "Excuse me" and left! Or once, when my mom was younger, she said "Oh! These noodles look like worms!" and my grand-papa didn't eat the noodles! Picky right? But it doesn't matter, we just laugh.

My grand-papa is a business man and he is good at it, too. He makes a lot of money and always said he would give it to me when I was older, but I never wanted it. He sold it just recently and he's taking a year's break just to relax with us and my grand-maman. We don't know if he's going to start again or not.

My grand-papa also paid for this school, because since my mom's on maternity leave, we are kind of short on money. We don't mind too much. But I thank my grand-papa for letting me come here because it's the best change I've ever had. 

I love you, grand-papa, and whatever age I am, I will always be your little girl.

Life Lesson: Love your grand-papa/grandpa/grandfather/poppa/pops/papa or whatever it may be.

F is for Friends and not so much friends

Friends. What to say, what to say...... well, let me tell you one thing, I've made more friends in the past year then I've ever had. 

I'm not going to go into detail about my past years at my old school. All you need to know is that people were jealous of me, so they were mean to me, and others pretended to be my friends for my stuff. That's all I'm saying.

While all this was happening, I had some great friends who helped me through my troubles. My skating friends were always there for me. Whether it was at skating practice, in the change-room, on the phone, at my house, or on email, they were always there for me. They are my best friends in the whole entire world, and I thank them everyday in my heart for that.

One summer day, however, my dad and I were driving home from skating and he told me that he was going to put me in another school. I had already visited there before. I cried and cried, and well, I guess it worked out, because now, I have many new friends who are so very nice and kind to me and now, so because of that I try to forget everything about my old school. But, of course, me being a chatterbox, we tend to get in trouble in class. We -sorry- I like to talk in class. I always, always, ALWAYS talk. It's just something that can't be stopped. My mouth is like the human heart, it never stops pumping, or in this case, talking. I even talk in my sleep! It's horrible! And Ms. Weldon, I'm really, really, really sorry about that. 

Another adventure my two friends and I have gone through, is totally different than what I've been in trouble for before. We were just kidding around writing stuff on our workbooks, and it just kept getting worse and worse. It eventually got to the point of using our kilt pins to write stuff on the bathroom stalls. I never thought I would do something like that, I just felt sad and hurt, I guess, even though it was a joke. I knew I shouldn't have done it as soon as I finished scratching it, but when I saw the one about me, I was so angry, I just couldn't stop myself!!! When I look back, I know how stupid and foolish it was of me to do that. But we were in it together, and now we laugh about it together. I guess we just took things a little too far.

One thing that I haven't really thought about until the other day, is how my skating friends are doing. I feel really bad because they helped me through my troubles, and now I feel like I just ditched them. I need to talk to them and hang out with them more often because they are my best friends and I barely know them anymore! It's truly a horrible feeling. 

So now I am happy, I have friends, so I want to give a big thank you to my skating friends and my new friends who will always be there for me, and I will always be there for them as well.

Life Lesson: There will always be a bend in the road, but there is usually something good at the end of it. Oh, and make new friends, but keep the old.