Monday, February 12, 2012

Awoke to see more snow had fallen through the night, just a dusting, so it isn’t too bad for the roads.  I was able to sweep our front walk and sidewalk off.  Our driveway and road are just packed down snow and ice still.  Europe is having quite a winter, although when I watch the news, I’m very thankful that we don’t live in Eastern Europe (for many reasons) as they are having such horrid snow and cold. 

This morning they sent two men to pick up all the furniture, dishes and bedding that had been rented.   I watched in horror as they wrapped the dishes and glasses.  Four glasses wrapped in one package with no paper between them, just shoved in a bucket or china plates just put together.  It was really wild to watch.  When the original packers came to Georgia, every single thing was wrapped carefully and we had not one broken thing, even traveling in a container across the ocean.  I’ll be shocked if this stuff makes it into town in one piece. I signed off on it as they checked each item, so the company knows what it looked like when it left here.  Watching the one guy trying to deal with the box springs made me laugh, I had moved them myself and stood them up against the wall, I was thinking that surely this guy could handle it, but I was wrong!

Also today I had to wait until it was a decent time in Georgia to call the guy who handles our lawn and yard.  The kids called to say we have a Homeowner’s Association violation for weeds.  Left him a message and hopefully he’ll be on top of that.

Also, had a note from my relocation lady. Due to the extreme cold a lot of people had electricity issues this weekend, so I’m one in a group.  She suggested waiting and just not using so much until warmer weather or my other option is to have a technician come upgrade us and it will cost 35 euros a year.  Okay, for less than $47 a year, we’re so upgrading!!  It’s an all-electric house and our monthly cost is only 69 euros a month currently and will increase to 71 or 72 monthly….still less than $100 a month for it all, I’m good with that!  So, the guy will come on the 21^st to upgrade us.  I’ll do laundry in the mornings to avoid overload until thenJ  this maintaining two household’s thing will take some getting used to.  The company pays our rent, which is great, but the rest is on us, so I’m learning how much money needs to be in each country for the corresponding bills. I’m hoping by the end of March I have all that flowing smoothly.  At least our mortgage in Georgia was paid off in January, so that was a huge burden removed from our shoulders.  If we hadn’t been at that point, I don’t know if the whole “move to France for two years’ thing would have worked.  Again, the Lord had everything in His timing, down to the very tiniest thing.  I need to keep reminding myself that when crazy things go wrong.  We’re exactly where we are supposed to be at this time and I can rest in that.  And I’ll admit, not going , going, going like I was used to has helped me feel better and more rested and my saggy under eye bags look a tiny bit less puffy.  At least to me they do, my kids will let me know if somehow it’s just my eyesight going or bad mirrors here!  But for now, I’m believing that they’re smallerJ  I’m really hoping that we embrace the more relaxed lifestyle and will be able to keep it when we return to the US. 

So, Skyped yesterday after church with Lindsay and Calum (early evening for me).  They used our main computer which is in the room designated in the house as a dining room.  Well after years of not using it much, we made it into an office computer room.  I’ve never liked how it looked and told them I’d have to re-do it someday.  I have a lot of re-do it somedays in my head.  Anyway, they took on a DIY project and totally re-did the room for me.  So through the wonder of Skype, I got to see my transformed office and I love it!!  They said it took way more time and money than they originally thought, so this is the extent of their DIY projects around the house.  Katie and I painted that room maybe 7 or 8 years ago, so it was time for a new look.  They said they laughed and bickered their way through it but are very pleased with the outcome.  Pictures attached so everyone can see my surprise.  They’ve been telling me they had a project going and I just wasn’t sure where or what and I must say it was a wonderful surprise.  Plus, Lindsay and her friend MADE the curtains!! We've just had sheers up and people could see in at night with the lights on; well no more! And Lindsay sewed......I mean really....this is impressive:) 

Another nice surprise, as I’m writing, the phone rang and it was my yard guy.  He said they sprayed last week and will go this week and do the weeding and trimming. YEA!  No fines from the HOA -which is probably our last HOA neighborhood- much as I love that it protects us, they can be a bit ridiculous now that they’ve hired a monitoring company to do drive by’s.  I will be arranging to have the house painted when I’m home in March, so that should be fun.  Last time we had to show them which color white we were going to use!!  I’m switching colors this time to light grey I think with dark grey trim, so I’ll have to submit paint samples while I’m there.  The brick front uses a pinkish brick, so we’re kind of limited to colors.  I’m just tired of white houses……this is our 3^rd white one!! 

I was able to put the small (6’x6’) black and white rug in the living room today after the men left.  I moved all the furniture still to be assembled over where the rental stuff had been.  While it’s not finished yet, the living room has a rug, couch, an end table and lamp and two chairs and a tv.  Yea, finally feeling like I’m making headway. 

In three more days, Ross will be home, so we’ll spend next weekend putting together the rest and getting things where we want them.  Then hopefully the weather will be better and I can start exploring France!

One other good thing I’ve found from these websites for ex-pats is a site where I can subscribe monthly to a VPN ( whatever that is……..I’m so not technical), but it allows me to go to websites for tv shows in the US that are normally blocked.  So, I signed up for $6.50 a month and now can go to CBS.com or NBC.com, and actually watch real shows….in ENGLISH!  Even once I’m better in French, the tv is so lame here it’s funny.  Because we bundle the tv, internet, home phone and my cell phone with SFR it’s cheaper to leave the tv as is or else I’d just ditch it.  We actually are getting a reduction at the end of this month because a new provider here in France (Free) is showing some real competition to the two main ones SFR and Orange and they’re both lowering costs for existing customers.  . I love some good healthy competition if it lowers my bills J

Had a nice chat with Ann Rachel last night, she is the sister of our good friend Claire.  We met Ann Rachel, her husband Paco and their daughter Naomi when they worked in the US for a year and stayed with Jacques and Claire. Well, they’re back in France and they only live about an hour from us, so this week she is going to try and come visit with me.  They have three children now, so I am excited to meet the two little ones.  Once Ross is back, we’re going to get together and catch up. I’m hoping during our time here we can see them regularly.

I’m off; it’s nearly 5 pm on this dreary, cold day. Time to make the rounds and shut all the shutters.  On a sunny day they let all kinds of light and warmth in, today, not so much.