AP story about StoryCorps!

Check out the AP story that just came out about StoryCorps! Looking at the pictures makes me so sad about not being a part of StoryCorps anymore -- its year in Nashville is up. How can I ever find something to top this job? Sniff...

Pacific Northwest Vacation

Kevin and I had a great trip to the Pacific Northwest. We started in Seattle, then proceeded to San Juan Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Woodinville (vineyards), Mt. Ranier, and Tacoma. It was a great trip. This picture is of me eating edamame at Mariners baseball park in Seattle ... where they also serve sushi (remember that one of their top players is Ichiro Suzuki, and the sushi is called an "Ichi-roll"!). Anyway, if you want to see more pictures, proceed to: www.picasaweb.com/kkessler and Kevin was kind enough to label the pictures so you will get an idea of our trip.

The Paris Connection Camp at Burning Man

Mark and I flew to LA to meet with Kim and Rich. We rented an RV and drove to Nevada for Burning Man. Our camp name was "The Paris Connection." The collage shows a few highlights:

Mark and Rich beaching their hair
Dust
Our camp
Dust
The Center of Attention Chair
Dust
The whiteout
LOTS of Dust
The headdress
Dust
The Temple
Amazing
...

This trip was the most challenging thing I've ever done and the most rewarding thing I've ever done. The sense of community made the biggest impression on me. Thank you to Kim for getting a couple of old folks (and Rich) to the Burn. It is an experience I will never forget.

Grandma's status

Hi, all! These blog posts are much easier to write when it's all good, fun news. But, as you probably all know, Grandma is in the hospital -- Holy Cross. She woke up early Monday morning having trouble breathing, and by Monday afternoon they had inserted a tube in her left side so that her lung could re-inflate. She's still in critical care, but I thought she looked stronger Tuesday evening. She can have calls, but she does admit that she is weak and it's difficult to talk, so I'll try to post again when she's feeling more up to it. We're really happy that she has the graduated care facility at Riderwood, called Rennaissance Gardens, to return to when they release her from the hospital. It's a great place to get stronger so that she can go back to independent living.

And, Nate, I loved your news piece ... it was great to see your smiling face!

Love
Janine

Nate breaks into local celebrity status

Just kidding! However, since no one else in the office wanted to do this news story, I got nominated/volunteered by popular vote to make it happen. We had about 45 minutes from the time they called to 'ask' us for a story and the time they wanted us to have a client ready. Well, you can see for yourself that we made it work. I got comments left and right from clients and friends saying the saw me on TV for the next week or so. Here's the link...

http://www.wlos.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/wlos_vid_1123.shtml

Hope this post finds you well.
Love,
Anne and N8

Wordle

So there's this cool site where you can put in text, then it picks out the words you use most and arranges them with cool designs and colors.

I did it for the Paris Connection blog... follow the link and check it out!
wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/124445/The_Paris_Connection

I guess we know who the most popular aunt/grandma on the blog is now...
:-)

Happy Birthday Kate!

I remember your birthday fondly from last year - you and the kids came to the Opryland gardens and we played in the fountains... can't believe it's already been a year! I hope today is wonderful for you.

And it's been a year and a couple days since our wedding last year, that magical day in Nashville. Rich just got home from Boise, so we've had some time to think back on it. I have so many fabulous memories, too many to list, but here's a couple: all of us dancing like crazy, how beautiful and hot! it was, pink and orange crocs and smiling faces, bluegrass singalongs and Quiddler playing, beautiful flowers, gorgeous handmade cake, going to the Opryland the day after and really pouring through all the sentimental gifts and taking it all in and to heart, and lots, lots of love.

Miss you all, fabulous family!

Ratatouille - Anyone can cook!

Elise just signed a lease on an apartment in Columbia. She asked me for some recipes and cooking instructions, and I told her Anyone Can Cook! If you've seen the movie Ratatouille, you know that a rat helps the human cook by pulling on his hair. Here's a picture of me 'teaching' Elise to cook. ;)

Mom and Regina's Stories

Carol sent me mom's and Regina's StoryCorps recordings. I will make copies of mom's for each of my sibs, kids, nieces, and nephews. I know Carol wants a copy of Regina's -- let me know if you want one, too.

I am off to Quebec City for a few days so I won't get to this right away - be patient!

Cafe de Paris

Chef Carol worked her magic in our new kitchen last week (the 12th).

The day started with Carol and Mark taking a field trip to Litteri's, down off New York Avenue. They cleaned the place out! Fresh mortadella with real chunks of pistachio, proscuitto -- paper thin, salami, and at least six kinds of olives, several wines, ... you get the idea. To top off all those goodies, Carol brought fresh veggies and herbs from her co-op.

Then Carol and I spent the next 5 1/2 hours standing -- Carol making ravioli and linguine -- me mostly watching. Man, were my legs sore the next day!

Carol's friend Scott joined us, as did Mark's boss, his partner, another co-worker and her husband. We ate, drank, and were merry!

Thank you to Carol for making it such a special evening!

Nashville checking back in with the blogosphere!

OK, I'm feeling mildly guilty about being so absent on the Paris Connection seeing as how I started the thing myself. But.... it's summer, the kids are out of school, Brian's working a lot (and so am I), yada yada yada. It all adds up to very little blogging. SO, here's what's up with us.

The big news is that Brian's parents are moving in next door to us. And when I say next door, I literally mean the house next to ours. Pretty much everyone I've shared this news with has immediately asked "How do you feel about that?" with a concerned look on their face, which I totally get. Most people, it seems, wouldn't want to share a continent with their in-laws, much less a zip code. And while I'm sure it will provide many healthy boundary-setting opportunities, shall we say, I am blessed with really cool in-laws who care about their family (read grandkids) enough to move next-door to them, and who care about the environment enough to willingly downsize to a much smaller house within walking distance to a lot of spots they'd usually have to drive to. When our current neighbors, who we adore, told us they'd be moving, we wondered if and how our new neighbors could ever measure up. Well, prayers answered -- you can't get much better than your own flesh and blood. Let's hope I still feel the same 6 months from now...

In other news, Cora, Oliver, and I went on a long (3 mile!) hike yesterday at Radnor Lake and had a blast. My friend Sarah called as we were finishing up and when I told her what we were doing, all she said was, "Well, that's ambitious of you." And while it was ambitious in some ways, in others I felt more at ease with the kids out in the woods than I ever do when we're at home or jetting from place to place in our car. I was able to relax, soften my gaze, and share in their wonder at the beauty that surrounded us. We saw dozens of deer; Cora seems to have a tracker's sense (notice I didn't say hunter) of when a deer is close by, and whenever she sensed one, she'd quick put out her arms to stop me and Oliver and say "Shhhhh..." And sure enough, she'd point to some brown smudge 30 feet away through thick underbrush, and there it would be. I only had to give a couple of piggybacks along the way, so I was really impressed with their level of engagement and stamina. Plus, after an evening swim to top it off they were zombies and bedtime was a breeze.

Now I'm having to face the sad reality that my one-year position with StoryCorps is soon to come to an end, and I'm wondering how I will ever find a part-time job as cool and inspiring and fulfilling and fascinating as this one has been. On Wednesday, I facilitated the interviews of two of the Holocaust's "hidden children," who were able to change their identities and live as non-Jews while the rest of their families perished in the concentration camps. It was really moving to be in the booth with them as they lamented never being able to know or thank their parents for the sacrifice they made of giving up their only children before being deported. I'll just have to savor every last story I hear between now and mid-September, when the booth will be dismantled and shipped to its next, still undisclosed, location in the US. Sigh...

Brian and I got to enjoy a rare getaway while visiting Grandma Carol -- we spent a night at a bed and breakfast on Solomon's Island. And instead of sightseeing, shopping, or any of that tourist-y stuff, we opted to sit in lawnchairs in the b&b's beautiful garden, reading and talking and enjoying being able to have long, uninterrupted conversations without having to SPELL any words or speak in pig latin. I told him I'd heard that adults sometimes go out for a drink at a bar and then migrate to a different locale for dinner, so we decided to be like those adults that night and had mai-tais at a tiki bar before heading to a seafood restaurant on the pier for a steamer basket (and another drink!). Then we went to see the movie Wall-E, and for those of you who haven't seen it, GO SEE IT! All in all, a spectacular and much-needed break for both of us.

By the way, Elise, I LOVE your new haircut! I wish we could have seen you over the 4th! Mary Pat, Janine, Grandma Max, and Mark, thanks for coming to see us and for being there to celebrate Cora's 7th birthday. It was so good to see you all.

Love to the whole family...
Kate

I can't believe it!!!

So everyone has been telling me I need to check out the new TLC show "Rock the Reception"... and I am sitting here watching it, I can't even believe it!

Everyone who came to our wedding knows that Rich and I had a silly/fun/joke first dance where we danced to a hip hop song... and now there is an entire show on TLC dedicated to this very topic!! In this show, professional choreographers help the wedding couple surprise their guests with a crazy first dance.

I came up with this idea myself... and now I am seriously wishing I had shopped it around to producers in LA, apparently I could have made some money!!!

I guess I'm just a step ahead of my time...
At least I choreographed it myself!
:-)

Anyway, check it out, and know that the Paris clan wedding in TN was cooler than the rest of the country, who will always have to say they got their idea from a tv show!

Johnsons and Wingates

Here is a photo of me, Nate, Kate and Brian taken at our house in Asheville the day of the birthday party. Nate's aunt made the quilt we have hanging on the wall.

Cora's 7th Birthday

Greetings from Cecil Creek. Cora's 7th birthday was memorable, to say the least. . .visits from Aunt Janine, Aunt Mary Pat, Uncle Mark, Greatgrandma Max and best of all, her best Maryland friend, Brynn. Here we are in the Creek, no jellyfish allowed. And blowing out the candles on Cora's birthday cake. I'll try to figure out how to put the rest of the pictures into a flicker account.

Happy 4th of July Everybody!

Hey! Just wanted to POST since it has been a while, although not too much has happened here in good old Asheville. We have enjoyed beautiful summer weather in the mountains with some rain and sun helping our little garden to grow. Mary Grace turned 11 on July 1st and is very excited to be a 'tween.'

We recently got a webcam so we can Skype with friends all over the world for no charge. You don't have to have the webcam, but it's kinda cool if you want to see how big the kids are getting in Nashville or elsewhere while you chat with family. It might be fun for every one to join Skype so we can chat easily online, real time, in person.

Work has us both busy, me with heat relief stuff for our local seniors, and Anne with the tourons at the restaurant. Grace has a busy summer schedule and will be here ocassionally. So that's the news for now...

Just an old pic of Mary Grace since we don't have anything current.

Peace,

Anne and Nate