February 18, 2014

Well, as my family and friends back in the USA are having the weirdest winter ever, here in France it’s been mild and rainy. This is apparently their normal winter weather.  For the past two years as it’s been so cold and so wet or snowy I’ve been told that it wasn’t normal; since miserable winters were alI I experienced here I was beginning to believe they were lying!!  So, I’ll take this mild stuff anyday.  Yes, it’s dreary and wet, but temperatures are above freezing and often into the 40’s and low 50’s.

Georgia has had two major storms in the past few weeks.  The first hit with a vengeance and teachers ended up staying at school overnight with students, some kids slept on buses on the side of the road. There wasn’t much snowfall but when it freezes and the roads become pure ice, things get crazy and the whole city shuts down.  There were almost 1000 cars stranded along the highway.  Fortunately Lindsay and Calum made it in just before the freeze, another hour and who knows where Lindsay would have been stuck.  It’s nice to see people rally and help each other though, opening homes and businesses for people to sleep and eat and be warm. Tristan and Katie were in and safe as well in Alabama.

Then this last storm was crazy too….ross happened to be in Georgia for meetings.  He ended up housebound with Lindsay and Calum for the week. Instead of leaving Wednesday, he didn’t get back here until Saturday morning. They would skype and joke about being sick of each other and how they were bonding.  They were trying to figure out a way to do internet pinochle. We have a muti-year game going and those housebound days would have been full of many rounds of that. They had to settle for other games since we couldn’t figure out skype pinochle.  Lindsay will have several make up days into the summer at this point, but the schools had to close as the governor banned driving.  Then as I see the east coast and the major storms they’ve had, it’s been a long winter in the US. The joke is that for both storms in Georgia, within a week temperatures hit the 60’s…we joke you can get frostbite and sunburn all in one week. Having grown up in Buffalo, snow doesn’t bother me, but when the ice hits the south, that’s a condition that calls for a healthy respect. No one can drive on that. Even a salt truck overturned in Gainesville. Calum laughed as his college shut down for the week…in that town they ran out of road treatment in the previous storm and had no more left. So, they had no choice but to close.  Normally during a winter they might not even use the stuff, but this month, they needed double.

Ross and Lindsay did get a trip to Birmingham before the bad weather and had a day with Tristan, Katie and Liam. I got a nice facetime call with them, but Liam has discovered the red button and keeps saying “I push red button” He loves to disconnect the calls.  He is such a stinker, but a super cute stinker!  That morning as Katie was changing his sheets he saw the egg crate mattress thing and said “Hey that has a lot of nipples”…..we all laughed and laughed. They say he NEVER stops talking and has this big vocabulary.  He’s driving them nuts….but in a fun way.  He gets into all kinds of stuff and it makes me smile remembering what a little stinker Tristan was at this age.  From the Nana side it’s hysterical….from there side, not quite as much.

So, Ross arrived Saturday and then left Monday for Austria. Just a normal week in our lives! This year (2014) he’s been in China, Germany, Sweden, the USA and Austria. Yes, we’re only seven weeks in! Travel is supposed to slow down for a few weeks and then he’s off to Philadelphia in March.

As for me, I’ve kept busy here, I have a few friends I meet for lunch or coffee, plus a couple dental visits and grocery runs. I had been saving my set of Downton Abbey DVD’s for such an occasion. I’ve been marathon watching and have been through series one, two and three so far! Hey why not?

Ross did bring me back this book from Tristan….it’s signed by the author to me and everything. WELL…Tristan said he was at a work lunch in Atlanta (picture 6’7”, full beard and his nasty construction work clothes) so anyway as he left the toilet an older lady was waiting for him-creepy! She asked if he would he would help her play a trick on her table of lady friends.  If so she’d give him a free book. So he played along. He was to approach her table and say something like “Hey aren’t you that famous author so and so?” He is SO NOT what her typical reading audience would be. Her friends would then be shocked etc…..okay fine, so he has her sign the book to me figuring it’s not something he wants. I’m dying laughing here ….…the book is Grandma Takes a Lover….WHAT???? She wrote “Dear Lisa, I hope you enjoy my story about a grandmother who discovers it’s never too late for love….or lust” So I contact Tristan when Ross brought it and he just laughed and laughed…..and said “Well I didn’t want it” We’ve all had a good laugh…first her seeing him and waiting outside the toilets….and then the book…oh my! 

I had lunch last week with a friend I met on line. My kids were like “WHAT….you tell us all the time not to meet people online” , but I met her through a group of English speakers here in Tours….so it’s not like it was some weird chat thing. She and I met up last spring and got together again last week. It’s amazing to me how speaking English in a foreign land draws us together.  While at lunch I ran into a Scottish couple we’ve met a few times. They spend a couple months in Tours and then a couple months in Scotland back and forth. We seem to run into them each time they’re here though which is fun. I do run into people in town a lot now and love that feeling of belonging.  It will be very strange when I’m back in the US not to do the BIZ or kiss kiss thing….I really like it and find it so normal now. Plus I think it is way better than handshakes which spread all kinds if germs! With the biz, you never really do more than touch cheeks and make a kiss noise!  

I’m ready for visitors again…it’s been a while. I figured out we had guests 16 weeks last year and I loved that! Between that and my trips to the US the year flew by. Our next guests aren’t scheduled until May so it will be a while yet.  I do go back for a visit at the end of March so that will be nice. I’ve had three people want to come the exact week Ross and I already booked our cruise so that is a shame. We go the end of May for five days to Italy, Turkey, Greece and Croatia. I’m excited and hope Ross loves it.  He wasn’t keen on the whole cruise idea but this just seemed a great way to see a few places we’ll never be near again. I told him if he likes it, we’ll do more.  Lindsay hopes he hates it and that I love it and want to take her as my travel partner!!!

I am able to share now that Tristan and Katie are expecting again and the baby due in mid August. We are so excited and it will be good for Liam to learn to deal with a sibling.  They told us at Christmas since her folks were with us and they could tell everyone all at once.  It was early so we had to keep it quiet for a couple months. I’ve been bursting to share but waited……so Ross and I will do our annual US visit then! It’ll be crazier for me as I’ll go for camp in June/July, fly home and we’ll both go together in August. So, yes. Ross is gone a lot, but I am enjoying the perks of frequent flier miles!

Language wise I feel I’ve made a bit more progress.  I find myself in half French half English a lot which is crazy weird. But I feel like most people understand me, even if my sentence structure is horrid and I will NEVER figure out the gender of every word…I so mix up my Le and La for things which changes everything else….but they get it at least and then gently correct me. Somehow I thought this would be easier and by now I’d be pretty fluent-HA not quite! But, I am pleased at how far I’ve come and realize how difficult it must be for those coming to America and learning English. I feel like English must be a much harder language to master…we have so many homonyms and synonyms and so many words. I hope it makes me more tolerant and more helpful in the future. If I had it to do over again, my children would have studied languages while they were young…when I see what children can do it amazes me…..they pick up the languages without trying. I’ve seen it here firsthand with several children and am so impressed.

So I’m off….I keep hearing random people tell me they enjoy the blog even though at this point I don’t feel like much exciting happens, it’s normal  life just in a different culture and language. I’ll throw in some obligatory food pics…I do enjoy the presentation here. The first is a food truck guy here who does fabulous crepes and waffles!

January 2014

Bon Annee…..Happy New Year!

So, I’ve been trying and trying to figure out what to blog…..really not much shocks me here now and what was once weird is normal.  I’m in my January/February hibernation mode too….it’s never been my favorite time of year and when you are alone a lot, it becomes more of a month or two where you could stay in the house and just wear track pants and a sweatshrt.  Fortunately this year, the weather is so much better….it’s been in the 40’s and 50’s most days, some rain, some sun; but nothing like the past two winters of freezing temperatures and dreary days.  It helps everything when the sun shines.

I’ll go back and recap from Thanksgiving until now and see if I can find something exciting to write about!

Each year for the past eleven years, the Cirque Georget is in Luynes.  They actually live here year round now and teach circus classes as a sport.  Your child can learn tumbling, juggling etc as their activity. BUT, in December they do circus shows.  You may remember that last year I went with Lindsay, Calum and Liam and we had the best time ever. So, not what we expected but so fun. Well this year, for the first time they had elephants. One Sunday in early December they decided to have a Christmas festival in the village and have an elephant parade throughout the streets. Okay, call me crazy, but I informed Ross we were skipping church to go to the elephant parade! Plus we invited friends! It was hysterical, I mean there they were, the circus family riding the elephants right up the streets, no barriers, no police and the elephants were within touching distance. It was amazing and one of the most fun days ever. There were probably close to two thousand people in our little village for this event and there were booths with crafts, baked goods and various items. In the midst an antique car show which made for a busy day. PLUS, they sold cotton candy! I found out my friend Kelli loves it as much as I do so there we were, two adults waiting in line for our spun sugar treat!

I loved that throughout the day we had to  “biz” or do the kiss kiss thing with about ten couples or families. My visitors laughed and asked if we were showing off in how many people we could run into that we know. BUT, after two years in the village it is sooooo nice to be recognized and feel like you know people. Now at one point there was a lady Ross was “biz-zing” and chatting with…..my friend asked who it was, I replied “oh that’s Natalie, she cuts our hair”. So it’s random people in town, but we know them well enough to say hello and feel settled. Even this morning I ran into a lady in the pharmacy I know and of course everything stops and you biz and greet each other. I do love that part of the culture.

The next weekend I went to the circus with Kelli and her son Cohen.  We had front row seats and when I say the elephants were close, I mean we shrieked a few times; once as the elephant stuck its trunk in our laps and into Kelli’s bag. Another time as they sat on circle things and I could reach out and almost touch the elephants back. I kept thinking “if this thing leans back just a bit too far, we squashed dead”. We were separated by a two foot high wooden wall, just held together with hook and eye hinges. So not up to code in the US. We had such a fun day and it reminded me of why I will always go to the circus in Luynes each December.

One funny road sign I noticed too….”traffic perturbed”, then the dates. It meant there would be work coming for the dates mentioned and that traffic would slow down….I just thought it was a funny way to put it.

Then Ross and I left the 20^th of December to head to the US for Christmas. Several delays ensued and we ended up just waiting and waiting.  Finally four hours late we took off; when you planned to arrive at 8PM, a four hour delay is fun for all. Lindsay and Calum picked us up after midnight and we all crashed at the house. Since Tristan worked nights, he was gone when we arrived, asleep when we woke up the next day, so we didn’t see him until he got up for work about 5pm that day. Too funny how schedules can have people in the same house never seeing each other.  He and Lindsay are complete opposite and rarely see each other through the week.

The fun began the next day as Liam and Katie arrived.  Even in a short time, Liam changes so much and he was just so fun to be around.  His vocabulary is great and he learns something new each day.  Katie loved having a break and being able to go out alone and I enjoyed being able to stay in and play with Liam.  He’s taken over the family room with his train table and cars.

 He and Katie do this fun thing where she rolls out a big piece of white paper.  They then lay down and draw a town.  He tells her what he wants, a Chik Fil A, his house, the bank, Publix, Lindsay’s house, Nana’s house, school, daddy’s work, etc.  Then she connects them with roads and he drives from place to place. He colors and adds his own places too.  It’s amazing watching his imagination go and he designates a certain car to a person and remembers who goes where. He plays on it for days until the paper falls apart and we throw it away and begin again.  One day he and I played town on our fireplace hearth.  It’s all various stones and he picked each stone for a place and never wavered when we drove from place to place, hysterical!!! So we played lots of trains, town and then special games on Nana’s ipad.  I have a file of Liam’s games and activities and we sit and play….I love every second.  

Then Lindsay had introduced him to Nana’s big tub and he loved his bubble baths in it.  He counts down for the jets to go on and braces himself for them to go.  He spends an hour or so playing and goofing in the tub making bubble beards and talking.  Lindsay and I of course indulged this and loved bath time. Then we lay together on Nana’s bed and read books before bed. Moments I will always cherish! Lindsay and I love taking care of him together….it’s just easier with two of us and he LOVES the double attention!

What makes me laugh is that he considers it Lindsay’s house and Nana and Papa have their room in Lindsay’s house. In his defense, since he’s been born, we’ve lived here and she has been there, so he assumes it’s hers.  We laugh when asking for something and Katie says she doesn’t have any, he’ll say “Lindsay has some”….He tells me that to get to my house you have to go on an airplane and train, which is correct. This week as he showed Katie one of his many teensy tiny almost invisible boo boos, he asked for a bandaid.  She said she didn’t have any ….his reply “Lindsay has some”.

The holidays were spent enjoying family and relaxing. We invited Katie’s parents for Christmas morning and brunch so it was fun for us all to watch Liam open his gifts and play. I loved watching his 82 year old great grandparents on the floor playing town and trains with him.  He even got their names correct….Granma and Great Papa. We had to add the great to Papa since that is what Ross goes by too. He still loves his Unc Cal and everyone else ceases to exist when Calum is near.

I prepped on the 26^th (oh such fun) and had my colonoscopy on the 27^th. The procedure is so simple and quick, the prep not as easy! It went well and he said he went all the way to my stomach. All is well and the problems I’ve had for six months did get started by the use of multiple antibiotics, but then is compounded because I have no gallbladder there is a lack of bile absorption.  He prescribed a new medication which is working wonders. So, no more hunting out roadside trees and being in a panic going somewhere…..YAHOO!

Lindsay, Katie and I had a girls day out too. Part of my Christmas request.  We shopped, ate out and then got pedicures. We just talked and laughed and had a fun day together. Much needed for us all. Ross was on Liam duty since Calum and Tristan had work. Ross and Liam had a great day together too. We girls stopped at the Nike store where Calum works to get sneakers for Ross and me, plus a few clothing items. Hey 30% off plus his 30% discount…right up my alley. Fun to see him in his work environment. So obvious sales and marketing are the right choice for him!!!

Ross and I left for home on the 31^st, celebrating our New Year’s on the plane. Well, surprise, we got on the plane, they had a mechanical error, tried to fix it and couldn’t. So, we had to get off the plane and switch to another one. Fortunately they had another plane available and we just had to wait for the luggage and food to be transferred. Plus, there were empty seats so they upgraded us to business class from economy plus! Oh business class, how I have missed you. Ross is the top tier on Delta now so he was one of the first bumped. I like travelling with him, I get perks like that occasionally plus we can us the lounge.  Alone, I’m just a nobody and sit in the terminal like everyone else! The seats made such a difference in my comfort level for travel, I even slept a couple hours which never happens. We missed our train due to being three hours late but we were able to switch our ticket for the next one.  After a wait and the train, we made it home…well a taxi ride too, then home. We showered and crashed. Not much food in the house but we managed, it was New Year’s Day so even after a nap I couldn’t shop.

January brings us back to a busy month of travel for Ross.  Last week Germany, this week China and next week Sweden. I’m back to my French classes and life has settled in again.  After such a busy time in the summer and fall with visitors it’s quite quiet to me. I’ve been having marathon Hulu Plus sessions with Masterchef and Chopped. In between I’m at the dentist for a crown on a back tooth.  I’ve known it was coming for over a year, but had to deal with the abscess issue first. My dentist here loves me! I’m trying so hard to fight genetics with my teeth.  Both parents had issues and I work to keep my teeth and have them be nice! It’s so much cheaper here and my out of pocket is small, so I am trying to do as much as possible before I return to the US.

So, I’m off on this crisp, clear, sunny day.  In France we talk about the weather a lot when it’s nice…..just because it often isn’t so nice J Wishing you all the best in 2014…..

Also a few photos of our meal this past weekend. We do love eating in France!