Showing posts with label Dannielle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dannielle. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Go, Dannielle!! - U. S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team
My cousin Susan's daughter is a member of the United States Army Golden Knights Parachute Team. Click here to read all about it. (Click on the label "Dannielle" below for a couple of funny family stories and some pics of Dannielle when she was a little girl.)
We went to see Dannielle in competition Saturday. Below are some of the pictures I took. I'll post more pictures and videos tomorrow with more details about our fabulous day. (I highly recommend clicking on the pictures to make them bigger.)
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Sunday, July 10, 2005
Dannielle's Baby
My cousin Susan's daughter Dannielle and her husband Jonathan had their baby. Her name is Alayna. She was born July 6, 2005, weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces and was 20.3 inches long. I have written about Dannielle before here, here and here.
Here is a before picture:
Here is an after picture:
Here is a before picture:
Here is an after picture:
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Time Flies When You're Having Fun
My cousin Susan has two daughters, Christy and Dannielle. You might remember Susan and Dannielle from the blog article about Carlsbad Caverns ("Did You Hear That?" - Archives 10/3/04 - 10/9/04). Christy recently had a baby girl and we have just found out that Dannielle is pregnant. Dannielle, her husband and Christy's husband are all in the military and we are hoping to see them all for Christmas.
It seems like it was only yesterday that my cousins and I were taking the kids around Southeast Texas to see Christmas lights. My cousin, Dawn (Susan's sister), has a son named Brady and a daughter named Tiffany. Tiffany and my cousin Derek's (Dawn and Susan's brother) kids (Mya and Ava) came along later. But, Brady, Christy, Cory (my son), Kara (my cousin) and Dannielle were stairsteps, all born within a year of each other.
One Christmas, we piled all the kids (ages 7, 6, 5, 4, 3) into two cars to caravan to see the beautiful decorations in Nederland and Port Arthur where we lived at the time. My cousins live in Louisiana and I'm sure they have gorgeous Christmas decorations over there as well. However, as we were driving along, Christy (6 years old) proclaimed in her thick Cajun accent, "Boy, mama! These Texans sure know how to do Christmas, yes!"
We turned down one street and there was a fake Santa standing in front of his house handing out hard candy. We (stupidly) gave all the kids candy. As we pulled away from Santa, I heard gagging from the back seat and Christy yelled, "Mama! Cory's choking!" In one continuous dramatic ballet of impending doom, I stopped the car, put it in park, reached behind me, grabbed Cory (5 years old) under his armpits, pulled him upside down over the front seat and shook him (still upside down) outside my driver's side car door. Out popped the candy, Cory was replaced into the backseat and we moved on. My sister, who was driving behind us, said it was an amazing sight to see.
It's hard to believe that these kids are now adults. Dannielle was and always has been fearless. (She jumps out of planes for a living.) When she was about two, she was the slayer of bugs no matter how big or small. Christy's childhood claim to fame was catching the chicken at the "courir de Mardi Gras" in Lafayette, much to the embarrassment of Cory and Brady.
I'm sure Christy and Dannielle will both make wonderful parents. I have one important piece of advice. Don't let your kids take hard candy from a fake Santa standing in the middle of a street in Nederland, Texas, no matter how much your bratty kids beg.
It seems like it was only yesterday that my cousins and I were taking the kids around Southeast Texas to see Christmas lights. My cousin, Dawn (Susan's sister), has a son named Brady and a daughter named Tiffany. Tiffany and my cousin Derek's (Dawn and Susan's brother) kids (Mya and Ava) came along later. But, Brady, Christy, Cory (my son), Kara (my cousin) and Dannielle were stairsteps, all born within a year of each other.
One Christmas, we piled all the kids (ages 7, 6, 5, 4, 3) into two cars to caravan to see the beautiful decorations in Nederland and Port Arthur where we lived at the time. My cousins live in Louisiana and I'm sure they have gorgeous Christmas decorations over there as well. However, as we were driving along, Christy (6 years old) proclaimed in her thick Cajun accent, "Boy, mama! These Texans sure know how to do Christmas, yes!"
We turned down one street and there was a fake Santa standing in front of his house handing out hard candy. We (stupidly) gave all the kids candy. As we pulled away from Santa, I heard gagging from the back seat and Christy yelled, "Mama! Cory's choking!" In one continuous dramatic ballet of impending doom, I stopped the car, put it in park, reached behind me, grabbed Cory (5 years old) under his armpits, pulled him upside down over the front seat and shook him (still upside down) outside my driver's side car door. Out popped the candy, Cory was replaced into the backseat and we moved on. My sister, who was driving behind us, said it was an amazing sight to see.
It's hard to believe that these kids are now adults. Dannielle was and always has been fearless. (She jumps out of planes for a living.) When she was about two, she was the slayer of bugs no matter how big or small. Christy's childhood claim to fame was catching the chicken at the "courir de Mardi Gras" in Lafayette, much to the embarrassment of Cory and Brady.
I'm sure Christy and Dannielle will both make wonderful parents. I have one important piece of advice. Don't let your kids take hard candy from a fake Santa standing in the middle of a street in Nederland, Texas, no matter how much your bratty kids beg.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Did you hear that?
This tale requires some family background. I come from a large close Cajun family with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. We still see each other many times throughout the year but when we were kids we spent most weekends and most vacations together.
One memorable experience was the Ransonette/Chapman cousins' appearance on the "Cowboy John Show." This was a children's show based in Port Arthur, Texas in the early 1960's. The stars of the show were "Cowboy John" and "Black Bart." Part of the program involved "Cowboy John" interviewing the kids in the audience. At the time of our television debut my cousin Dawn and I were about 8, my sister Terry 7, my cousin Susan 6, my brother Stuart 5 and my sister Bonnie and cousin Derek would have been about 2. Bonnie and Derek did not join us for our moment of fame as, alas, they were too young.
I was nervous as "Cowboy John" approached the bleachers to begin chatting with the kids. His usual opening question was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Not very creative but guaranteed to get a response. I don't recall what Dawn and I said we wanted to be. I'm sure it was either a nurse or a teacher, the popular choices of the day. My sister, Terry, said she wanted to be a cowgirl. Even at that age, Terry was sucking up to the host. While I was still trying to recover from the humiliation of my sister's alleged lifelong ambition to poke dogies, "Cowboy John" approached Susan.
"And what is your name little girl?", he asked innocently.
"Susan, " she said.
"And what would you like to be when you grow up?"
Susan's response?
"A seahorse."
Yes, that's right. Susan wanted to be a seahorse. To this day, she doesn't know why she said it.
The "Cowboy John Show" had a dubious claim to fame in Port Arthur. The story is told that on one program, when "Cowboy John" approached a group of snickering boys and asked them what was so funny (on live television of course) one of the boys responded, "Michael farted." That's foreshadowing.
Well, Susan is all grown up now with two amazing daughters, Christy and Dannielle. Dannielle is in the Army and is training to be a paratrooper. A couple of summers ago, Dannielle was stationed in El Paso, Texas. My sister Bonnie and I accompanied Susan to El Paso to visit Dannielle and tour New Mexico. We had a wonderful time. We visited the White Sands National Monument, saw "aliens" in Roswell and went to Carlsbad Caverns. Susan tumbled down a huge hill at the White Sands National Monument (not on purpose). It was all elbows and assholes and one of the funniest damn things I've ever seen in my life. (Did I mention that she once fell into the jello when we were in the food line at Luby's?) Susan also cavorted with "aliens" in Roswell and left her mark in Carlsbad Caverns.
When you tour Carlsbad Caverns, you have a choice of taking the elevator down into the caverns or walking down. Being the fine physical specimans we are, we decided to walk down. It's about 1.5 miles of narrow, winding, steep downhill walking. You walk down single file feeling much like an adventurous Hobbit. There are many people (strangers) walking in front of and behind you and your little spelunking party. We began our trek with Bonnie in front, followed by me, then Dannielle, then Susan.
Everything was going well and we were enjoying ourselves and the magical wonders of the caverns immensely. Suddenly, the church-like silence was broken by an unmistakably familiar sound. Bonnie stopped dead in her tracks and turned to me with wide eyes and said, "Did you hear that?" Me, not wanting to be rude and assuming the offending rumble came from someone not of our party whispered back, "Yeah. I wonder who..." As I turned to ask Dannielle if she heard it, she had already spun around and, I can only assume because of her shock and amazement, was loudly asking her mother, "MOM, was that YOU?!"
Now, Susan, from the shock of being confronted so boldly is bent over laughing hysterically. Farting in Carlsbad Caverns (can you say echo?) has become secondary to trying not to pee on herself. This, of course, starts a chain reaction of bent-over-trying-not-to-pee laughter from all four of us. Strangers in front of and behind us politely pretend they heard nothing and move on (rather quickly I might add) and we eventually regained our composure.
Yep, we're one classy family.
One memorable experience was the Ransonette/Chapman cousins' appearance on the "Cowboy John Show." This was a children's show based in Port Arthur, Texas in the early 1960's. The stars of the show were "Cowboy John" and "Black Bart." Part of the program involved "Cowboy John" interviewing the kids in the audience. At the time of our television debut my cousin Dawn and I were about 8, my sister Terry 7, my cousin Susan 6, my brother Stuart 5 and my sister Bonnie and cousin Derek would have been about 2. Bonnie and Derek did not join us for our moment of fame as, alas, they were too young.
I was nervous as "Cowboy John" approached the bleachers to begin chatting with the kids. His usual opening question was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Not very creative but guaranteed to get a response. I don't recall what Dawn and I said we wanted to be. I'm sure it was either a nurse or a teacher, the popular choices of the day. My sister, Terry, said she wanted to be a cowgirl. Even at that age, Terry was sucking up to the host. While I was still trying to recover from the humiliation of my sister's alleged lifelong ambition to poke dogies, "Cowboy John" approached Susan.
"And what is your name little girl?", he asked innocently.
"Susan, " she said.
"And what would you like to be when you grow up?"
Susan's response?
"A seahorse."
Yes, that's right. Susan wanted to be a seahorse. To this day, she doesn't know why she said it.
The "Cowboy John Show" had a dubious claim to fame in Port Arthur. The story is told that on one program, when "Cowboy John" approached a group of snickering boys and asked them what was so funny (on live television of course) one of the boys responded, "Michael farted." That's foreshadowing.
Well, Susan is all grown up now with two amazing daughters, Christy and Dannielle. Dannielle is in the Army and is training to be a paratrooper. A couple of summers ago, Dannielle was stationed in El Paso, Texas. My sister Bonnie and I accompanied Susan to El Paso to visit Dannielle and tour New Mexico. We had a wonderful time. We visited the White Sands National Monument, saw "aliens" in Roswell and went to Carlsbad Caverns. Susan tumbled down a huge hill at the White Sands National Monument (not on purpose). It was all elbows and assholes and one of the funniest damn things I've ever seen in my life. (Did I mention that she once fell into the jello when we were in the food line at Luby's?) Susan also cavorted with "aliens" in Roswell and left her mark in Carlsbad Caverns.
When you tour Carlsbad Caverns, you have a choice of taking the elevator down into the caverns or walking down. Being the fine physical specimans we are, we decided to walk down. It's about 1.5 miles of narrow, winding, steep downhill walking. You walk down single file feeling much like an adventurous Hobbit. There are many people (strangers) walking in front of and behind you and your little spelunking party. We began our trek with Bonnie in front, followed by me, then Dannielle, then Susan.
Everything was going well and we were enjoying ourselves and the magical wonders of the caverns immensely. Suddenly, the church-like silence was broken by an unmistakably familiar sound. Bonnie stopped dead in her tracks and turned to me with wide eyes and said, "Did you hear that?" Me, not wanting to be rude and assuming the offending rumble came from someone not of our party whispered back, "Yeah. I wonder who..." As I turned to ask Dannielle if she heard it, she had already spun around and, I can only assume because of her shock and amazement, was loudly asking her mother, "MOM, was that YOU?!"
Now, Susan, from the shock of being confronted so boldly is bent over laughing hysterically. Farting in Carlsbad Caverns (can you say echo?) has become secondary to trying not to pee on herself. This, of course, starts a chain reaction of bent-over-trying-not-to-pee laughter from all four of us. Strangers in front of and behind us politely pretend they heard nothing and move on (rather quickly I might add) and we eventually regained our composure.
Yep, we're one classy family.
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