Farewell Sweet Greta

This has been a very tough week on our family. Our Bernese Mountain Dog, Greta, after a tough week of heart failure and only an estimated couple weeks left of life was put to sleep yesterday. We adopted her when she was 2 years old and for the last 10 years she has been my shadow. Constantly by my side through all the good times and the bad, helping me raise and care for 3 babies, and always looking after all of us. We are so lucky to have had her in our life for the length that we did. Most Bernese Mountain Dogs do not live longer than 8 years and she made it to almost 12! She was the most loving, loyal, faithful dog with an almost human-like personality. She was so in touch with all of us and if one of us were sad or ill, she laid by our side until we recovered. This week, we had to return the favor to her and it was tough. She was our rock and now she is no longer with us.

It’s ironic that she left us now as we were really stumped as to what we were going to do with her once we moved to Dubai. We knew taking her would be extremely risky and, honestly, not worth it as she very likely wouldn’t have survived the stress of the journey. And then, the Dubai heat! We had made arrangements for our dear friend and caretaker to live in our home with her. We would come back and visit as often as we could. He grew just as attached to Greta as we all did. He was captured by her loving manners and was with us in the end when we said good-bye.

Saying farewell to her was not the only challenge. Telling our kids, on their last day of school, was also a huge challenge. Their reactions were all very different. Our 7 year old daughter burst into tears right away while our 9 year old son was silent all day until bedtime when he tried desperately to fight back hysterical tears. Greta always helped me with bedtime. We’d clean up the kitchen, round up the kids, go through bedtime duties like teeth brushing or bath and then up to their bedrooms for books. I realized that none of our kids have had a life without our sweet Greta so it is going to take some getting used to.

Our 4 year old daughter who had no reaction initially asked where Greta was 3 hours later once we were at home. We were all stunned and silently waiting for her to register what we had told her earlier. She did. She followed up with, “Is Greta dead? Do we now only have 2 dogs? Is Greta in heaven?” then she cried.

What a sad week it has been in the Clements’ home. We will miss you, pretty girl. R.I.P.

Ali's End of School Year Party

On Tuesday, the parents of the maternelle (5 kindergarten classes) were invited for an end of year party with the parents and students. We were asked to bring a snack or drink. I brought in apple cake and enjoyed chatting to the other moms and Ali's teachers. Here is a photo of Ali with her teacher, Isabelle (on the right), and the T.A. (teacher's assistant) Erzsebet. I found it interesting to learn that Isabelle is trained as a Biology teacher for high school kids, however, she enjoyed the short change of teaching the little ones. She was very good at it as well as she is very nurturing and sweet. Her teaching career at the Lycee Francais Budapest has quickly come to an end as her husband's job is taking them to Milan this summer. She is very excited.

Erzsebet has been at the Lycee for quite some time. She was the T.A. for Mia 4 years ago and is really lovely. She especially bonded with Ali - and vice versa. Thanks to Erzsebet, Ali actually had a really good year. She had trouble at the beginning of the year but once her and Erzsebet bonded (mostly in Hungarian), it all improved. After the photo is a short video that I took while we were on the playground of the maternelle.

My Magyar Mia

Magyar, for those of you that don't know, means 'Hungarian' in Hungarian. Mia is a Magyar girl through and through. She loves the food, culture, language and now that she's been introduced to the folk dancing, she is at home!

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of watching her and her class on stage dancing in true traditional Hungarian style folk dance. She was so great (I thought)! The teacher did a great job and all the kids on stage seemed to be perfectly in sync and with smiles on their faces. It was so fun to watch and I can tell that they also enjoyed performing!

In the short video below, she is the 3rd girl to come out.

T's Gardening Skills

Been slightly out of touch lately. Just a very quick update on my very proud son as we all admire (and beg for nibbles) his freshly grown peas. He planted the seeds about 2 months ago and they are now grown and DEEE-licious!!!

Here are 2 videos. The girls were begging to have some but he wasn't too happy about sharing - especially after he recently discovered them taking some without his permission. So, he made up a game of questions and when they got the answer(s) correct they were rewarded with a pod.