Free Pasta?

Our Saturday was full of kids' activities. Basketball games, horse back riding, friends over to visit, and birthday parties. Calvin felt well enough to go to a birthday party today but came home, pretty worn out. He had such a good time however, as this friend was one of his classmates from last year and Calvin hadn't spent any time with him since July. Tabitha had a couple of friends over followed by Quincy having a group of his friends come over. It is always so great to hear the kids switch back and forth between French and English. The parents of the friends are always thank us for helping their children to improve their English. One mother asked me today if Tabitha would like to come back and spend some time here after we move back to the States so that her daughter could come and spend some time with us there. We would be thrilled to have a regular exchange going on so that we can all maintain our French connection! While the boys were getting ready to attend their birthday parties, Josh took them to the toy store to pick up some gifts. For some reason, the toy store was passing out free boxes of dried pasta with toy purchases????? We never did figure out that connection.
Last night, I joined my friend Suzanne at her house for a dinner party of her close girl friends. We were a mix of American, English and French women. Suzanne has some Mexican heritage and as she is an American living in France, she decided to serve Mexican food. We had some wonderful and very welcome margaritas, enchiladas, refried beans and Spanish rice. What a nice change of pace!! Most of the conversation throughout the evening was in French but I kept up pretty well. At one point, I was a bit confused however when 4 of the women abruptly stood up from the table and walked out of the house.... Seeing my look of confusion, the French woman seated next to me told me that they were going outside for a smoke. She then said, "Since they're French, they don't even consider that to be rude!"

T.G.I.V

Well, this week is shaping up to be just a whole bunch of sitting around the house. Pretty boring from a blog standpoint. Sorry about that! Today was Calvin's turn to be sick. In typical Calvin-style, he has a lot more symptoms than the rest of the kids and a high fever to go along with it. Poor guy. So, once again, I cancelled my plans and stayed home. We have had a tough week and are very happy that it is finally Friday (Vendredi in French)! We managed to take care of a couple offers and counter offers on the house that we are interested in, as well as getting Josh's dad moved into a nursing home and started on Hospice. It has taken several late nights, lots of phone calls and millions of scans but we have to praise the miracle of technology. I don't know how we could have managed without the internet. While typing this and experiencing this, I just have to point out one distinct advantage to not speaking the local language well. When the phone rings and it is a telemarketer... it is so wonderful to be able to make it obvious that you don't speak French. They get frustrated and usually hang up on you long before you even need to hang up on them! I think I will try the opposite in the U.S. and pretend to speak only French! Josh and I did get out this morning to go to the mayor's office and to pick up our renewed Residence cards. We are legal for another year! Susie was my photographer again today since I am so rarely getting out to take any pictures, she captured Quincy and Tabitha walking to school "together" this morning. Quincy was a block away from Tabitha! Ahhhh.... the joys of teenage sibling love...

Black Thursday

Well, if Americans are known for their lawsuits, the French are certainly known for their strikes. They are many and varied. Today was a big one! They were calling it Black Thursday as the French workers; postal, union, government, transportation, and educators, hit the streets hard to protest any number of things.


All of my kids had school but more than half of the private schools did not and all of the public schools were closed. Max was home sick today so unfortunately, I was not able to get out and observe any of the protest marches but Susie acted as my photographer and informant. She watched about 5000 people crowd the streets of Vannes in protest. Pretty exciting!
Tomorrow, should be back to business as usual.

Random Observations

Today was Wednesday, which means just non-stop running around with kids and their activities. It was just raining lightly enough and consistently enough to be annoying all day long.
Since Josh has been so good about doing all of our errands since my knee surgery, I decided that I could squeeze in a quick run to the grocery store to pick up a few items. I forgot how absolutely impossible it is to push the grocery carts here. They are set up so that all four wheels turn on their own accord. This means that you end up using brute strength in your legs to get the cart going in the direction that you need it. Especially when you are out in the parking lot that is less than level. This was a very difficult undertaking for someone without two strong legs! Whew! I then had to carry the groceries up our stairs and into the house, I have been doing fine on stairs for about a week now but carrying something heavy is a whole different story. I think I'll let Josh to continue to get our groceries for a few more weeks...
Quincy and Calvin were rattling something off in German to each other today. When I asked them if in their German class, they think in French or if they think in English, translate it into French and then translate into German, they said that they don't know. They never think about it... Calvin and Max did say that they think in French all day long at school. Quincy says that he mostly thinks in English except for math class, there he says that he always thinks in French, even saying his numbers to himself in French. He cannot imagine why this is!
Quincy and Tabitha were distraught to find out that they do have school tomorrow. More than half of their school is cancelled due to a big teacher's strike but both of their classrooms are in session. Obviously, they do not think that this is fair.

Springtime?

Today was pretty mundane. Tabitha was home sick from school. She seems to have a little stomach bug that people have said is going around. So, other than a quick visit with a friend of mine and a short walk, I hung out at home. The boys all came home for lunch and we enjoyed the warm and sunny walk back to school after lunch. While walking around our backyard, I noticed that some flowers are starting to bloom! Pretty exciting to see such bright colors in January.


This is in direct contrast to all of the emails that I have received from friends back in the midwest, complaining of snow and cold. I had to include this picture of our friend, Macy that I received today from Indiana. I think you can tell what she thinks of the snow!

We are spending a lot of time these days helping Josh's dad to get settled. He has had another downturn and is now residing in a nursing home. He is ready to initiate Hospice. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he struggles with severe pain.

Wine Days

For Christmas, Quincy gave me a daily calendar that is all about wine. Each day, I can read about a different kind of wine, learn some wine lingo and even see the average price of this type of wine.

Pretty cool. I'll share some with you when I think of it... I did think it was quite interesting on New Years Eve when Josh and I ordered a bottle of French wine at the nice restaurant where we were dining. It turned out to be a wine that I can pick up in our local grocery store for about 7 Euros - we paid $50 at this restaurant! It's a great thing to actually LIVE in France!

Today turned out to be another warm and sunny day (with off and on rain, of course). The boys played out in the yard after school, Quincy took Coco for a long walk and I walked to a friend's house for a short visit. I took a few pictures of some favorite houses along the way.

French people always talk about how much "light" a house has inside. I think part of this is due to the fact that it is so often cloudy here but with these centuries old houses, you can see why they worry about how many windows they have. This house has only 2 windows on one side and none at all on the back! Can you imagine?

Many Things to Think About...

One of our special little treats to indulge in, is to walk down to our local boulangerie and pick up sandwiches and little tarts for lunch. These sandwiches are just a few thin slices of meat and cheese on a baguette but taste so good. It is really the French version of fast food. This is what you will see the few people who do eat on the run, munching on as they walk down the street. Most of the sandwiches involve loads of butter on the bread in addition to the meat and cheese, and may or may not include mayonnaise as well. We laugh because our favorite version is the "American" style which includes lettuce and tomato, no butter, and thinly sliced hard-boiled eggs. I don't know why they deem this "American" but it is good.


Today was a warm day again but off and on rainy all day. We did manage to get in a walk between rain showers this afternoon while the kids enjoyed playing outside.
We spent most of the day debating a big decision... I don't know if I have officially stated this yet or not, but we will be moving back to the States in August. Hill-Rom hinted at bringing Josh back a year earlier than originally planned and we initially balked at this. The more we considered it, however, the more sense it made to us, for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that Quincy will be able to start high school in Batesville with his class. We ALL have very mixed feelings about this and will really hate to leave our lives here but...
Anyway, so we have been on the house hunt in Batesville. Yesterday, my parents and sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to drive down to Batesville and go through three houses for us. One seems to be a very, very good deal and although it needs lots of cosmetic work, could be THE house for us. I am including a picture of the house that I have always called the "ugly" house. Hopefully, it will turn out to be our little diamond in the rough. I'll keep you posted...

Cheese, Cheese, and More Cheese

Today was another gorgeous day. Started out wet and windy but cleared up and became beautiful with highs in the mid-50's. Our day was chock full of activities including horse back riding lessons, basketball games, Confirmation classes, and errands. Josh got the cracked windshield in his car fixed, quickly, painlessly and completely covered by insurance - can't beat that. He also did the week's grocery shopping today since I am still not up to carrying all of the groceries up the stairs to our house if I go shopping on my own. One day, my friend was devastated to discover that she had neglected to pick up cheese for her dinner party that evening. She said that all they had at home was Camembert and Roquefort and that was not nearly adequate for a dinner party. When I asked if it was possible to just skip the cheese course, she looked at me as though I had sprouted an extra head!


Anyway, today, I am including pictures of the cheese aisles that are in every grocery store in France. Buying cheese is a major undertaking as the varieties and choices are virtually endless!

Nice People

Today was extremely windy but warm and sunny, so we can't complain. I met my fellow ex-pat wife, Susie for lunch today at one of our favorite restaurants. When I pulled into the parking lot (still not up to that much walking), I got out of my car to walk over to the machine where you pay for parking and are given a ticket of when your paid parking time expires. Just as I was approaching the machine, a woman stopped me. She asked if I needed parking for a long time. When I said "no", she gave me her pre-printed ticket which still had 2 1/2 hours of parking left on it. I thanked her profusely, stuck it in my car window and was on my way. Pretty nice! In those circumstances, it is certainly handy to be able to understand what someone is asking me! Susie and I had a great lunch together and a good time catching up. After paying the bill with the owner, he immediately preceded us to the door so he could open it for us and wish us a good day on our way out. How often would that happen in a moderately priced, fairly large and quite busy restaurant back in the States? After having a quick coffee with another friend, I just had to get out and enjoy the day a bit. I did a little driving and a little walking and took a few pictures of just some sights around town. I've been missing our beautiful city by being stuck in our house these past 2 weeks!





I also had to take a picture of the French calendar poster that my friend, Valerie's, 18 year old son bought and hung in their kitchen the other day! The French love Obama!

Walking to School

Sorry that I didn't get anything posted last night. I seemed to have had a bit of a stomach bug that Quincy now has. After a good night's sleep, though, I am feeling just fine today. In fact, my knee is now feeling well enough that I resumed my walking the little guys to and from school. They were thrilled to have me back in action and as long as we navigated the uneven sidewalks slowly, I did just fine. Felt good!

This morning, I got together with my American friend from Detroit for a cup of coffee. Suzanne's husband is being transferred with Michelin to another part of France so she will be moving in just a couple of weeks. I sure hate to see her go! She has been a great friend and a valuable source of information on all things French!


In reflecting on the inauguration speech from Tuesday, I think this statement of Obama's struck me the most...
What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.
The reason that I think this is so critical is because the biggest difference between French people and American people that I see every single day is the concept of responsibility. I would never say that the French are better than Americans or that France is better than the U.S., but in this one area, there is a huge discrepancy. If you fall down outside a restaurant here because you tripped over your own feet, no one rushes to your side with a waiver to sign. People accept responsibility for their own actions and do not look for someone else to blame. I think this is fundamental to getting out of the many problems that our happening in the U.S. at this time. I just hope that we are all brave enough to do it.
Okay, I will get off of my political soap box now.... Josh has been in Paris all day so I've had too much time alone!

A Historic Day!

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met." - Barack Obama
Today was a day of great excitement around the world! Today, we witnessed the first African-American President to be sworn into office as President of the United States. Every person that we spoke to today, was thrilled to see this change come about. We continue to be amazed at how interested the French people are in our American politics. But, then, it becomes very clear why, when our economic crisis effects the entire world as it does. When the kids came home for lunch today, we watched much of the pre-inauguration activities on HBO. We had a great time singing "Little Pink Houses" with John Mellencamp and "Bye Bye Miss American Pie" with Garth Brooks. After school, the kids tried to get some studying done with their French tutor but had a hard time concentrating with the inaugural events taking place. The tutor was just as interested as the kids so we finally all sat down and watched the whole ceremony. Awesome and inspiring! I only hope that people continue to give the patience and understanding that Obama is going to need to fix the mess that was a long time in the making.


Here is the front page of our French newspaper for today as well as the front page of Max's little daily newsletter that he gets. Can you believe that a newsletter geared toward 6 year olds is about foreign politics? Incredible!

All Kinds of Weather

We love the weekdays when our US friends and family have the day off of school or work! We seem to get lots of phone calls and chats on Skype. It is always fun to catch up! Thanks Martin Luther King for giving us such a day today. Today was a crazy kind of weather day. It started out fairly warm but then got terribly windy and cooler temperatures seemed to blow in. We had episodes of hard, hard rain, bright sunny skies, hard rain, and then even some hail off and on all day. Just kind of nuts!

My knee was really starting to feel better today so I did some baking in addition to whipping up a big roasted chicken dinner. It's fun to be back in action!

A Girl Party?

Today was a hectic day of basketball games, grocery shopping, horseback riding, and running kids to friends' houses and birthday parties... for Josh. I sat home and directed as I saw fit. Tabitha is currently with her friend, Meghan. They are going to see a production of "Grease" where the dialogue is in French and the singing is in English. Quincy went to a birthday party this afternoon where he was the ONLY boy!? He said that he had a great time! Hmmmm...

Just because she said not to...

Well, I was specifically told by my sister to STOP telling you about our nice weather when they are freezing to death so, that means that I will have to continue to do just that. We had a beautiful day today!! It really felt like spring-time. The high was about 54, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. While taking a shower this morning, I had the bathroom window open so I could enjoy the weather and listen to the church bells tolling. Just gorgeous! Sorry!
Josh came home from a meeting last night, hating the French! Not really, he was just hoping that his attendance at Quincy's upcoming ski trip meeting would be brief and just informative. Instead, it was the usual French way of greeting everyone, exchanging pleasantries and discussing everything ad nauseam! What should have taken 20 minutes, took more than 2 hours!

Too Much

Well, I am sorry to say that I am not as tough as I thought I was. All of our activities yesterday really took their toll on my knee and I am having a day full of pain and swelling. That means my entire day has been spent sitting or sleeping on the couch and using as many ice packs as I could get my hands on. Thank goodness for friends! Susie came over and walked our little guys to school this morning. She was even kind enough to take Coco along and give her some exercise as well. Thank you, Susie! Sabine came over and just kept me company for awhile. My friend, Teresa, in Indianapolis, sent me a wonderful care package of chocolates, books and new pajamas! I did have plenty of time to explore the internet and see the horribly cold temperatures that the midwest is suffering and to read more and more depressing news about the U.S. economy. Whew, times are certainly tough. It does look like Josh's dad will come home from the hospital today, however. That's good news.

Queen for the Day

I've had it pretty easy lately... staying at home, having everyone wait on me hand and foot. But, today, reality set back in. The kids have many activities on Wednesdays when they don't have school. Since they all missed several activities last Wednesday when I was having my surgery, I didn't want them to miss today. So, I managed to hobble and drive enough to get everyone where they needed to be with just a little help from my friends. That meant that most of my day looked like this...




Have I mentioned before just how many flights of stairs are necessary to do anything in our house? By the end of the day, that last flight up to the front door looked like Mount Everest! I made it, however and am now settled in with an ice pack on my very sore knee.
My friends Valerie and Sabine did surprise me with a nice treat this afternoon.... We have missed several invitations to share the La Galette des Rois with friends because of my knee. So, today, Valerie and Sabine, picked up the boys and I, drove us over to Valerie's house and threw us a little King cake party of our own. It was great fun and of course, I won the prize of Queen when I found a little Harry Potter figurine in my piece of frangipan cake. Very fun!

Quincy and Tabitha participated in their very first French swim meet which was also their very first official school team sporting event. They had to admit to being excited to get to leave school early today to take a chartered bus to a different city where they swam. They both came home with 2 silver medals and were quite proud.
Fun day...

Oh, and one other thing... while most of you mid-westerners were under ice and snow and freezing to death today... It felt like spring time here with sunshine, birds singing and temperatures around 50.

The Boys Make Tacos

Josh's dad remains hospitalized tonight, so we don't have to do anything new for the moment. Josh took an American co-worker out to dinner tonight to show Dan a bit of our French way of life. Our three boys therefore decided that they would make dinner. They all love tacos so they got busy cooking, slicing and dicing and we ended up with a very nice meal. My knee continues to improve and I am feeling better every day. I'm not doing much at all these days except enjoying reading a couple of good books and doing some relaxed visiting with friends. My home health nurse continues to come once a day to change my bandages and give me my heparin shot. She is so interested in what healthcare is like in the U.S. that we try to exchange as much info as we can through the language barrier. Calvin, Tabitha and Quincy came home for lunch today while Max went to a friend's house. While the kids were talking about lunch over dinner, Max began describing his chicken cordon bleu, green beans, yogurt, chocolate, bread, etc. Quincy did a double-take, thinking about his own ham and cheese sandwich with pretzels and an apple. He then said... "Oh, that's right, you were lucky, you ate at a French person's house."

Too Busy

Sorry, no real time to blog tonight. We are trying to work out some living solution for Josh's dad. Never a dull moment...

Josh is in the Kitchen

Those of you who know us well know that I am the cook in the family. I love to cook so rarely does Josh do any cooking in our house. This week of my recovery is an exception however. Josh has been trying his hand at some recipes and is doing a great job. He whipped up a big pot of black bean soup (easy on the black beans... we had to go with kidney beans instead since black beans are apparently no where to be found in France) tonight for dinner which was absolutely delicious. Other than his cooking and laundry, we all spent the day being lazy and just relaxing at home. Our only interaction with the outside world was when my home health nurse came to give me my daily injection. Max spent the afternoon whipping up "concoctions" in the kitchen by mixing up various spices with water and calling himself a "mad scientist". I spent some time on the internet planning our next vacation. Think we will hit Monaco and Spain in early February...

Saturday Activities

Not much to report these days as I am not leaving the house... The kids all resumed their usual Saturday activities of basketball games and horse back riding. Josh ran them around in addition to doing some grocery shopping. Max then went to a friend's house to play while Quincy had four friends over here. They were busy all afternoon filming a comedy episode that one friend wrote. They had quite the setup with one digital camera, one video camera, a tripod and two laptops. They had a great time and it was fun to hear how fluidly Quincy's French now rolls off his lips. Josh and I are keeping busy with trying to design a house to have built. Not an easy task! Josh's dad is doing a bit better today so he may go him in a day or two.

Great kids. Great husband. Great dog.

Everyone is doing such a fantastic job of taking care of themselves and me while I recover. They are awesome! Quincy didn't even complain too much when I sent him off for the 15 minute bike ride to basketball practice in the cold only to discover that I had received a text message earlier in the day that he was not having practice last night. Ooops!! Oh well, at least he got some exercise out of it. My knee continues to be very painful and the pain medicines continue to put me to sleep but I'm doing okay. We did add one more wrinkle to the mix yesterday, however. Josh's dad was hospitalized with some new complications to his cancer diagnosis. Hopefully, he can get past this latest problem fairly quickly and get back home. Keep him in your prayers.

Recovering at home...

My knee surgery went fine. Spending the night in a French hospital was a far different experience than any time I have spent in U.S. hospitals. Amazingly, you are allowed to sleep through the night and the entire place was perfectly quiet all night long. I couldn't get over it! Now, bear in mind that I was more than a bit out of it and in a fair amount of pain. However, it wasn't too bad at all. Thank goodness, my bed was a Hill-Rom bed or Josh would have made me stand for 2 days - sore knee and all! The surgeon reported that I had torn cartilage versus the torn meniscus that we had thought previously. I am far from pleased about this as it may mean my days of running are over. We'll see what he has to say when I return to his office next week. In the French hospital, again, it is very obvious that people are held accountable for themselves rather than being handheld through every step of the way for fear of a lawsuit. When I asked for pain meds this morning, my nurse just handed me the box with the dosages for this morning and this afternoon and told me to take them when I needed them. This was all not without some anxiety from me as I not only had the language barrier to deal with but also my completely befuddled brain due to the lingering effects of the anesthesia. I was extremely nauseous last evening after the surgery so when they delivered my dinner at 8 p.m., I could only admire the wedge of brie, the soup and the chicken with rice. By this morning, I was starving, so I was very disappointed to receive the very traditional French breakfast of a small carafe of coffee and a hard roll! Anyway, all in all, I was treated very well and very professionally. My anesthesiologist even exchanged me with his colleague as his colleague's mother is English and he therefore spoke excellent English. My surgical nurse and the surgeon also spoke excellent English and they found some British nurse in the recovery room for me. Well taken care of, now I just need to rest...

La Galette des Rois

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. This is celebrated in France with the Galette des Rois. Three of our kids wanted to stay at school today for lunch so that they would have the opportunity to get a piece of the "king cake" at school and possibly be the one to find the lucky charm inside and therefore wear a crown and be king for the day. None of them won at school so Taba picked up another cake from our local boulangerie and we all ate it for dinner. The tradition is that the youngest person sits under the table and chooses who gets each piece without being able to see so the pieces are randomly delivered. Josh was our lucky winner when he found the Donald Duck charm in his piece. Josh chose Coco to be his Queen. Very exciting!

Today was another very cold day. Very unusual around here and people don't know quite what to do with themselves. I have been freezing all day so I finally set out a thermometer in the house to see what our house temperature is. With all of our heaters turned way up, it is 61 in our living room and 58 in our bedroom. The kids' rooms are upstairs so they are much warmer. No wonder I'm cold!!! I guess we better get that other heater fixed in our living room...
Coco got a haircut and grooming today. She looks beautiful! Taba is so proud.

I will be off the next couple of days. I will have knee surgery just after lunch tomorrow. Believe it or not, arthroscopic surgery is an in-patient procedure here so I won't be discharged from the hospital until Thursday late morning. Should be interesting...

Slippin' and Slidin'

After just telling everyone who asked that it rarely freezes in our part of France and is generally warm, we are having some COLD weather! Yesterday, when our plane landed in Paris, we saw a light dusting of snow on the ground. Couldn't quite believe it until we continued to see frost on the whole drive home and realized that at 3 p.m., it was still only 0 degrees (C)! Now, mix that temperature with the nearly constant misty rain and drizzle that we have, and you'll know what we woke up to this morning. We often think about what it's like to "drive" on icy roads... Well, let me tell you, walking on it is no big treat either! Max and Calvin and I slipped and slid our whole way to school. The sidewalks are so uneven and crooked that we could often not get our footing unless we stepped out onto the no-less-icy-but-more-level street. Calvin fell several times and Max fell once. We finally made it to school almost 5 minutes late. Whew! Josh drove Q and T to school so they did okay until they had to walk quickly across the parking lot. Crazy! It did finally get above freezing today but is supposed to be even colder tomorrow and the drizzling continues.
We are thrilled to be back in our own house today. I worked like a dog all day today to get the house unpacked, the laundry done, the groceries bought and the dog picked up from the kennel. It's great to be home...








A few more pictures from our trip.... The one of Josh is just after he fell into the lake while showing off for the kids.