seeking motivation...

Here is my work for the day.

It's 10:30 am.
The morning is halfway through and I haven't done much...
I took downstairs the folding garden chairs we had and some of the mess that was on the table, and I put away the clothes that mysteriously grow on the floor everyday.

This afternoon we receive a new table and chairs and I need to take care of the living room.. Can you tell my focus have been on the garden these past weeks?
Well if you saw the garden you wouldn't believe it, but it's true! ;)

I need motivation because I am so slow.
Agh I used to be really fast at cleaning up!
Yesterday night it took me over half an hour to clean the counter tops, sweep/mop the kitchen and put new linens in the bed..

So I'll make it a little game and take a pic every hour on the dot till I'm done..
If you don't think this game is very funny please remember I have very little social life and I am currently missing part of my brains due to growing a small human being..

11am


of course if I take 10 min breaks every time... ;)

11:30 am
it gets worst before it gets better:
Noon
5 boxes went in the attic, the few empt boxes went outside for recycling and I was left with plenty of books to sort...



From left to right we have 2 piles of religion, 1 pile of linguistics, 4 piles for classics (divided into those that stay in the living room and those that go up in the bedroom), a pile for comic books, a pile for cooking books and a pile for children books.. Pffff time for a lunch break!

1:00pm.. lunch break still going strong :)

a little pic of my cross stitch as an interlude..
1:30pm, back to work...

2:00pm
the religion piles went upstairs, this is what I still have to move up..
But I am done with the shelves!

the bottom one is temporary mess because we need to find an organization for the electronics...

on the other side of the fireplace..
I am happy we can have a Bible in the living room. I opened it on our wedding's gospel: John 17. Behind it is our unity candle.

2:30 pm
barely any time to bring up more books, the delivery guys were here!!!



messy is back...
3:00 pm
nothing has changed, I went online to send pics to Mr L and we chat a little ;)

3:40pm
I'll call that a day.
All the books belong somewhere, the recycling is out waiting to be picked up, I swept the floors and here is the final result ( with one little corner of mess left)

new cute desk "bonheur du jour"

new table and chairs!

last little messy corner.. I can hide it all in the closet ;)

hey looks like this motivation thing worked!

House update, more pics :)

More of house pictures (part 1 here). We now have more furniture so we can sleep and sit inside the house, how fancy! ;) We should receive the crate soon now. I'll be happy to hang a few pictures to give it a more "home" feeling..

Let's start from outside:















The front garden, with some early spring flowers :) The yellow one is a crocus, the white ones are "perce-neige" which means "through the snow". Love having a garden!
















the trees on the left are lilacs! and the big branch above the door is wisteria. This is going to look fantastic in spring!




































This last pic is the stairs leading to the upper part of the garden, from which the side of the house is seen.
I do not like yuccas because they hurt!!! But they look ok there. And hopefully no one will get hurt (except me, the unlucky one).


Now for the inside:

we have boots! And old ikea shoe storage. There is a lot of Ikea stuff in our home, but not only! :)














The living room: a great table we found on the equivalent of craigslist, and chairs that we went to buy at 8:30pm friday night because my cousin was visiting the saturday for lunch and we would not have had enough seats otherwise..





























and the coach. Admire the coffee table, designed by myself, out of the garbage cardbox. My dad couldn't stop laughing about it because the box says: "square with pedal". It does sound random on a coffee table...

Kitchen: with the famous square garbage can, and a brand new fridge!


































the bathroom with a tub, and the door leading downstairs. I think this must have been part of the kitchen in a earlier stage of the house, probably a pantry, because part of the wall suggests shelving...




















plants are still there, but the flowers are gone now... I'll get new blossoming ones for Easter. :)


UPSTAIRS:
the corridor, I like how clear it is (so far!).



















the bathroom with the shower.




















Baby's future room.
















Parents' future room.






















Guest room, currently occupied by us :) And some ladybugs. I'll take them over roaches honestly. :) But it is a mystery why and how they got here. We find 2-3 every day. Mostly in that room.



















View from the guest room. You can see on the left, in blue and gold, the entry gate to the park and palace. It is a gorgeous walk!


All pics taken with an iphone so there is no focus control or anything...

Would you like to visit?

I finally got some pictures uploaded!! Thanks Mr L!
These are somewhat old, in a few weeks lots have changed! We have more furniture now and are more settled.. I'll also take pictures of the outside.
This is the front yard, we are looking forward to getting a slide/swing or something along those lines..




Living room, this is our fireplace, we had to put the yellow coverage in front of it.


Kitchen! I love how sunny it gets!!!


we now have a dish washer in that hole...

The entry way with flowers in the stairs :)






There are 3 bedrooms upstairs and a bathroom (shower) and one more bathroom downstairs (bath tub). I hope to post more pics later.. :)

so here it is. A happy new home! :)

Even better news!

Today was a BIG day!
We found a house! We visited a house about 25 minutes away from my parents place, not too close but accessible ;) We loved it so much, it was beyond our dreams but in our budget!!! Anyway the agency guy loved our papers. We said Mr L. is employed by his canadian clients and receives regular paychecks. They were very pleased with our paperwork. Great. We got to meet the landlord and his mom was American so he is fluent in English, how convenient! He will be or neighbor, he keeps the workshop in the garden as he is an artist, but he'll put up a fence so we both have privacy and separate access... Even better. The landlord agreed to rent us the place, then we went to sign a few checks for deposit, agency fee and rent. We can move in Tuesday!!! :D
I'd put pics but I don't have much time.

I kid you not: this is our neighbor across the street! it's a palace reconverted as modern art museum, with a huge park in free access, ideal for jogging, biking and taking baby out on a walk. It is litterally across the street.
We are also 2 min walk from the station. The train reaches Paris in 35 minutes.

I'm in and out. A lot more happened these past few days... hours!!! But I have to get going. The movong is definitely weaning me from internet, I barely have 10 min to check mails and update here. Ohwell.Quick word the other big news is that I had a sonogram. We saw the baby he is so adorable, and all is right in it, everything's in place and the size it should be...
I am so relieved and happy. The house is big news, but knowing that the baby is healthy is priceless.

More adventure coming soon, but hinestly i can't wait to have 1 or 2 selfish hours on the internet to read more about other people's blogs... Have a nice day everyone; here it is bedtime...

It is even better than I thought!!!

France is beautiful. I somehow thought it was beautiful in places and lots of industrials zones and ghetto neighborhoods in between, but in real life it is actually much nicer than I remembered.
I will post pictures soon.
The best of all was the welcome though.
My parents were THRILLED! We told them we were moving in and they just jumped with joy :)
They were so happy, what a feeling to be welcomed like this!!
They also said they were glad it was a surprise, they would have been sick with anxiety...
Anyway we spent Saturday just being happy and I don' t remember much else.
Sunday we went to church and everyone greeted us, some were even almost crying to knopw that we are settling down here. Really it was obvious that coming back was the right decision.
THen at lunch my sister came with her family and we told everyone that we are also having a baby :) What a celebration!!

Oh I wish I could post pictures of their smiles, to warm me up when things get harder..

On the harder side is some stress. We found out that France just LOVES paperwork and everyone has to fit in the little boxes, otherwise ... good luck!
Mr L. owns his company, he contracts in USA and Canada, but not in France, so we don't have any proof of income in French. Agencies refused to rent us so far. Mr L. was really pissed. When we left he said "I make more than anyone in this agency and I can't rent???" He was really upset. Now he is really worried that none will let us apply :/ Being self employed and remotely working definitely doesn't fix in french little boxes...
I have good hopes though, because he can pretend to be "employed" by his main contractor in Canada, and they get along well enough that the guy will do it for him, and make it look very very official. I am very confident because even though it's atypic his salary is pretty high and that should help.

The other paperwork race is for the baby. In France you have to declare your pregnancy by week 14. Oops, I will be 15 weeks tomorrow... And I can't get the sonogram before wednesday.
But for this one I am also pretty confident. First I have an excellent excuse for not doing it sooner. Then I actually have the NFP advantage : I know that the baby was not conceived two weeks after my period but some 10 days later or so, so I could lie on my last period without really lying, as what matters is the fetal developpment.
Anyway in one day I did so much paperwork!
I got appointment for blood test, for a sonogram and for a gynecologist so I can put everything in order by next Monday. I also registered to the unemployment services so I can reactivate my social security number. This may actually comewith money. I didn't ask for it, but again, I checked some little boxes and now if I refuse the money I may actually get in trouble later for refusing the stipend. Hey, I won't spit on money! Especially as it comes with career counselling (and I was going to pay for that kind of service!)

France is good to me.
Now to figure out a place to stay (my parents are very pleased to have us home but I'd like to be out Feb 1st or March 1st at worst, we can always visit afterwards)

I am so happy, I think the stress is really small compared to all the benefits of being here.

Moving day!!!

Today we moved out. I am still in the house, cleaning. But all our stuff is packed and gone to be shipped. This was a GOOD moving experience. Three guys showed up around 8 am, they packed our stuff, we just had to say : "this goes" "this stays here". They were done and gone at noon!!
It is expensive, but the shipping alone is expensive, so it's barely different, and we had very little to do.
Then I took out more of our left over things that we don't take and all is left is sweeping and moping.
We give the keys to our new sub-lease tonight, and tomorrow we take a plane to France!! YAY! I am so excited!
So tonight we stay at a hotel near the airport, no sleeping on the floor, no stress of getting to the airport on time. :)
Off to sweep!

aghhhhhhhhhhh D-7!!!

We are moving away in 6 days. Would you think I have more important things to do than sit around on the internet?
You are right! I have a to do list longer than my arm. I did half of it before lunch, and nothing since!!

Just a quick update to say that Mr L's father was here, he came with lots of memories to give us. My favorite is a embroidered frame of a mom craddeling a baby, I'll post a picture of it later because it deserves a post of its own. :)
There was also a nice frame that says :" There are only two lasting things we can giv eour children... one is roots , the other is wings"


He definitely brought many roots to his son, now we can take our flight to new adventures.. :)
I am so thankful that he came, it was a great visiting time!
Now off to send him a thank you note...

New Year's post

Happy New Year everyone :)
I just had the best New Year's eve ever. Well I don't actually have a good memory for a new year eve.. nothing dramatic but nothing standing out either. I always was too young, too bored (TV!), too stressed or sleeping long before midnight...
But yesterday was different :)
I had a perfect evening with Mr L. We made little toasts of foie gras and pate, I had a can of peas and an apple (which makes for a perfect TV picnic diner ) and we watched Doctor Who. The full 1st season of the new series.
I was up till 1am our time!! :) And we had fun. We had plenty of bubbly soft drinks like mexican coke, izze fancy drinks and some sparkling tea. It was a very sweet evening. :)

We also talked about our best of 2009 and our best hopes for 2010.
So much to talk about!

2009:

-At some point we went to a retreat with Mr L's young adults group from church and we had a very good time of fellowship there. Following this he started the "Brodays" which are days of celebrating brotherhood of the BBQ. It was a lot of fun during the summer.
-We got married again! In April, we had a two week trip to France visiting family and getting married all over again :)
-We moved from New York to Chicago, and took a road trip through Canada.
-We (I) discovered Chicago. I love being here, the walks, the week ends, the life style..
-We got pregnant!! And decided to move back to France
So these are the main big events I can think of.

For 2010 I am looking forward to:

-visit of my father in law: tonight! or tomorrow morning..
-moving!! just 12 TWELVE days to go!!
-my mom's birthday (in february)
-visiting friends
-visiting my grand father
-my sister's baby in March
-my cousin Sylvaine's baby in May
-OUR baby in July!!!
-my cousin Irene's baby in September
-Next Christmas with everyone
-Week ends in Europe: Scotland, Britany (region of France) Sweden, Bayern..
as much as we can do before baby's here... and maybe after ;)

My plans and objectives for 2010:
-finding a house/apartment to rent.
-passing the driver license!! Getting over the fear of traffic..
-no judgemental critics of random people
- for right now finding a temp job with free week ends
-for end 2010 finding a real good job, with week ends and hopefully 4/5 (which means I get 4/5 of the salary, usually same amount of work, but going to work only 4 days a week) or part time??? Or teaching in catholic schools. I like this option quite :)

That's pretty ambitious already..

D-14! :)

2 weeks to go!
Can you believe I haven't sent ANY Christmas card this year?
I love writing cards to people. But I didn't :(
So today I will send new year's wishes.

In the coming 2 weeks I need to go over what I really want to take in the shipment and get rid of the rest. It's a little sad because there is so many thing I'd love to keep, like a bunch of scrapbooking papers my sister gave me years ago, but I can't really keep all that... I also need to go over my clothes and select drastically what to take or not.
My main dilemma right now are my bras. They are the one item I put money in for clothing, and right now only the last 2 I bought since I'm pregnant fit, both very plain utilitarian playtex. So long lace and frimzys.. My question is " will I ever fit in my old ones again?". Should I keep them for " one day maybe". I think I'll keep one or two. Just to decorate my drawer :)


Christmas was really a good time here :)
The only sad-ish moment was when I called my parents the 24th and my dad was in tears because he misses us. :') oh I miss them too!
On the 25th we had a wonderful breakfast and called Mr L Senior. Poor guy was stuck in a blizzard, he spent Christmas alone in an hotel nearby his job! So we chit-chat during breakfast, it was very nice, like having breakfast with him! I really like my father in law :) I hope he can make it for next week.

Oh also I wanted to share my gift idea if you have a sentimental husband: make a photo book. I did one with shutterfly, because this is where I store my pictures online so I had a bunch from these past year. I believe any photowebsite have this kind of option. So first step is to upload your pictures. Then you select the pictures you want on each page of your book, the background, how to organize them, add a caption, you can also add lots of writing by picking the "journal" option.
It is a little pricey if you choose the hard cover, but it's just the price of a book, not more. And it makes for a wonderful personnalized gift.

A count -down of our own. D-27!!!

Less than a month!!!
Can you believe that?
Less than a month and so much exciting things to make time fly even faster!!

We are getting ready for Christmas. I am very happy with one of the gifts I got for Mr. L, I can't tell more now but I'll share about it after Christmas, because if you have a sentimental husband like mine he would love that kind of thing..

But before Christmas, actually this very week end, we are going to see the Nutcracker! I have never been to a ballet! I am so excited!! I love to watch dancers, and I also love the Nutcracker's music (how could you go wrong with titles like flowers' valse, chocolate, tea, coffee...)

I don't care too much for new year's eve, sorry... But it's ok, I'll be cooking! :) Mr L's dad is coming from Oklahoma with his wife! I am so happy they take the pain to come over! It means A LOT to me. Because we didn't go for Thanksgiving (we were both sick and the road would have been 16h courtesy of Mr L alone). SO they are coming before we move across the ocean.
They already came to visit in NYC to meet me when we decided to get married, so now we owe them 2 visits.

Oh and the news of the day: we got a sublease!!! "Our God is not a God of confusion" definitely not.. Here is the story:
we moved in September 1st. Our lease is up on July 31st. Breaking the lease exposes us to all kinds of procedures from the landlord to get the rent paid, even if we tell him we are moving and such.. We could just move and not care as the risks of getting sued internationally are slim.. But Mr L has a company here, small sure but still, that could be a problem. So just plain leaving is out. Then we checked out a tenants' rights coalition, the guy was very talkative, not in a professional way in our opinion, and basically his solution is to look for all the little things that landlords do that are illegal (like putting the deposit and the rent in the same account). We both didn't like this option because it's basically threatening the landlord, when they have been the best management company we've lived with. Their apartment is top quality. The super is efficient and quick to answer any little problem, so really we didn't want to go that way.
Our last option is to find someone to sub-rent the apartment until July. Mr L put up a nice link on craigslist, and one person only answered. But that was enough!!!
She is taking the place, she loves it, and she signed the paperwork! WOOOT! That is like a miracle. This is seriously the slowest time of the year for rentals (winter) plus it's a bad time to rent anyway, plus sub-lease doesn't sound very attractive to anyone.. But she took it! She loves the place and hopes to stay for a few more years after that.
I am so happy. One less worry. :) This was the most improbable, yet the best case scenario. And it happened. Christmas miracle :)

What I'm busy doing...

So far I did lots of research and some of the work.

-I got an envelop for the return of Mr L's passport when we deposit the file for his visa.
-I got the official papers out of our file so I can make copies (which of course I forgot to make when I went to Target yesterday!)
-We looked at apartments and houses for rent in France and decided on a town, and found a GREAT place which hopefully will be available for us.. :)
- I called the real estate agency 4 times to ask for details and procedures
-I called my best friend and my cousin to discuss details and what to dos
-I contacted an hospital to register on the maternity list (but with difference of time it was too late to register, call again tomorrow)
-We made lists of what to take in the cargo, what to sell, what and how to give to charity, and what to do with the rest
- We looked for options for terminating our lease early without it turning into a lawsuit nightmare
-I called the bank in France several times to ask for clarification, international wires and make an appointment ASAP once there
-We called the international movers to get an estimate on cargo shipping (yes it is cheaper to ship the mattress than to buy a new one, and we get to bring a few boxes of memories with that)
-We went to my american bank for several clarifications and wires and such
-I contacted the French driving departement to get details on transfer for MrL's driver's license. The funny thing is they won't transfer his NY license, but if he exchange it for an IL license then they will exchange his IL license for a French one.. go figure...

-and I certainly forgot a lot!!

But you know what? It isn't hard on me as usual. I am even excited. I know each step brings us closer to France! :) I am so happy it's a pleasure to do paperwork!
Hummm, well maybe not THAT excited, but still, it's going pretty well! :)

What I am most excited about..

We should be moving around January 15th ! :)
There are many things I am looking forward to, here is a short list :

(picture of last Easter with my sister and my nephew, and people's legs in the background... I wish I had more pictures of the whole family!!)

#1 Family lunches/dinners.
Moving to France means visiting family members way more often! I am glad that our family has good relationships. Sunday lunches at my parents are great! My sister and her family come over, and sometimes my cousin Irene and her family too. I can't wait for it to become a new habit! I hope we can go around once a month.

#2 Inviting people over.
I can't wait to receive friends and family members for great american food :) Yay for social life!

#3 Travel.
Europe is small. :) We can drive to Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy in a few hours. We can take planes all over the place for a few dozen euros! Those are all week end options!

#4 More fun outings.
We can also visit around in France. So many beautiful cities, the smallest village will have 3 historical monuments. And we'll live by the banks of the Loire river, on of the last "wild" rivers in Europe...

#5 Markets, bakeries.
We can go get food at the local farmers' market, which is not some hype thing to do in France, but just a regular way to go shopping.. And you can go get fresh bread every morning for breakfast tartines. You can also go get some sweet treat for afternoon snack :)

#6 Getting a job.
I am not thrilled about going to work everyday, but I'm just thankful for the opportunity of being allowed to work. If I get to bring home some money before baby is here, all the better!

#7 Hands me down.
In France we'll have plenty of family/friends to give us stuff every now and then. Doesn't look like much but it can help a lot! :) Right now both my sister and a cousin are pregnant. It would actually be funny if we had a girl amongst all those little boys... :)

#8 Food.
I know many points in this list can refer to food, but I'll add it once more anyway. Cheese. The possibility to get REAL cheese. I guess I'll stay away from brie for an other few months, but really all pressed cheeses are fine otherwise. And fresh goat cheese :) And fontainebleau, and faisselle! :) (cheese strained?? some places translate it cream cheese, or cottage cheese, but definitely NOT cottage cheese in my opinion). All kinds of local specialties like crepes, choucroute, cassoulet, foundues, tartiflettes... YUM! I made myself hungry with this one!

#9 Culture and museum buddies.
I love America, but I also miss France. I miss going to the library and getting French books, I miss listening to French radio (Mr L has a iphone app to get french radio, but we haven't in a while). I am not too much of a visiting the latest exposition person, but sometimes I enjoy it. I think USA has very good opportunities for culture too, but I don't get the motivation here. For example when I call my mom she tells me about which movies or exposition she would like to go see, even if she never gets around to see it she makes me want to go along.. :)

I don't have a number 10! The things I think about most often are family and lifestyle. how great it's going to be when we go for those family gatherings! :)