Review of week 3- April 30 til May 6th

The previous weekend we were able to spend some time with Daniel's friend and co-worker, Ken and his wife Betsy.  The kids just loved them!  One night we had dinner down at the hotel restaurant. The kids weren't eating their dinner or behaving so well, but they were loving talking to Ken and Betsy.  I think they are tired of just talking to each other, and Daniel and me.  They had so many stories to tell Ken and Betsy that their food didn't hold much interest for them. It has been fun watching them warm up to all these new people, and it puts my heart a little more at ease about this transition for them. 

Monday- Our sleeping habits are still off.  The thick curtains block out all the light, and with no alarm clock it is easy for the kids and me to sleep in. Which is a good and bad thing.  Its kinda nice to get that extra sleep, but then our day gets pushed back ( not like I have any pressing engagements with anyone, but some sort of schedule is still nice to have).  Sometimes we wake up, and by the time we are all ready to get out the door, the breakfast hour has passed us by.  We have been buying plastic cups, spoons, milk, and cereal as back up.  The kids really like eating out of their "special" bowls, and I like that they have food in their tummies.  This was a morning where we pulled out our breakfast staff, sat at the tiny table and enjoyed a quiet, non-stress breakfast in our room.

I seem to be very obsessed with food because next I want to write about our lunch in the hotel restaurant.  I braved it by myself with all three kids. We were able to eat outside, and we didn't disturb many.  The kids are getting better, and I am feeling a little more secure in my ability to manage these three out in public :).  I just have to mention the dessert that I had at lunch. The kids wanted to try it, and they didn't seem all too impressed with it, but I totally was.  They made this tapioca pudding with coconut milk and a few other ingredients and rolled it up in a chocolate covered crepe.  They then cut it up to resemble sushi, placed it on a sushi platter of some sorts, and served it with chopsticks and chocolate dipping sauce.  I am going to have to try and re-create it. It was tres bien!


Tuesday- France celebrates the 1st of May.  It is a National Holiday. May 1st in France This was THE BEST day ever!! I am not taking about the holiday itself.  It was fun seeing all the flowers being sold on street corners, but the weather was perfect.  The best day yet! Warm and Sunny!  Daniel and I took the kids to the Eiffel tower for a picnic lunch, walked around the park, the kids rode the carousel, and got cotton candy and pistachio ice cream. We later went to our local park which was packed full of Parisians who all had the same idea as well. We played for over an hour in the park, went back to the hotel, had a light lunch, and then played the rest of evening. It all seems like a dream now because the weather has returned to typical chilly and wet Seattle weather that we thought we left at home.

Wednesday- We looked at the apartment in Neuilly Sur Seine, and we liked it.  We are not totally in love with it, but I do love the location for Kylee's commute and Daniel's commute.  We would be by an extremely busy intersection, but the apartment building itself would be fenced in.  We also got the keys to move into our temporary housing.  Daniel and I were pretty excited to get out the hotel and into something with a little more space for the family. Here is a link to our current "home" http://www.homerental.fr/default.asp?id=2&visite=408001   It is very Parisian, and I am afraid we are going to break something. We got all packed up at the hotel, and Daniel's boss Chad and co-worker Ken, came to help move our luggage.

When they arrived to the apartment they thought they would help themselves out by placing the luggage in the elevator and sending it up to the first floor (in Paris, and most European countries, the ground floor is 0, and the floor above that is the 1st floor). The elevator here is very tiny- Kylee, Carson, and I fit snugly in it if that gives you any idea.  Anyways, as the elevator went up, the luggage shifted causing the doors to get stuck and malfunction. They repeatedly tried to open, but could not because the luggage got lodged in there in a way that did not allow the doors to open and close as they should normally do.  The care taker was very upset, and yelling at them in French. Daniel and Ken couldn't understand much, and Chad, I'm sure, understood more than he wanted to. They had to call the elevator technician, and for the price of 90 euros were able to get our luggage out, and fix the elevator.  Oh and did I mention that it was raining.   For those familiar with Paris, parking is a BEAST!! Daniel and Chad turned on their flashers outside the front of the apartment and unloaded the luggage as fast as they could. Good times...Good times!

Thursday- We checked out of the hotel, and officially moved all of us into the hotel.  Daniel dropped the kids and I off at the apartment and then left for work. Round two of setting up shop, (just in case you were wondering round one was done when we first arrived at the hotel ).  It was a little tricky here because everything is a little spread out, and not what I deem as usually places. We have a bathroom off of our bedroom, but that's just it- a BATH-room.  In many of the homes it is very common to have the toilet separate from the shower and bath. In this apartment the closets are in the entry way. The kitchen is in the back of the apartment. The quickest way from the dining room to the kitchen is through our bedroom. Kylee discovered this route and enjoyed running it. I am sure our neighbors below loved that. While setting up, I got a visit from a construction worker.  From our conversation or should I say game of charades, I gathered that he wanted to come in so he could finish painting the outside window frames. After he was done painting I did understand that I needed to wait 2 hours before shutting the windows so the windows did not get stuck. I also found out that after 80 minutes of drying clothes in a wash and dry single machine yields warm, wet clothes.

Friday- We woke up to pounding and drilling. Kylee was a little shaken, and Carson was scared. The construction was worse than I thought. I walked into my kitchen and it smelled like burnt metal because the construction workers just outside of the window were drilling on the rod iron. Every six years here in Paris, each building gets a make-over. New paint, washing, and cleaning so the city stays pretty. Of course the buildings rotate throughout these six years, and this building that we moved in was one of them going through this process. Friday was spent trying to figure out how we could get out the apartment and possibly into another one or back to the hotel. Lots of phone calling and rearranging. To top it off, the apartment itself wasn't kid friendly...not very many Parisian apartments are.  Daniel told a french co-worker that, and she told him that in the states we tend to shape our lives around the kids (all of our safety things and such), but in France they shape the children's life around the adults.  The french teach the children how to act in an adult home. I don't understand how they do that with tiny babies. Owen was dirty every day from crawling on the floor.
 Later that night, I made Daniel and I a very gourmet meal of scramble eggs.  The furnished apartment had only a few cooking utensils...not even a spatula or a sharp knife to cut an apple. One of the main reasons I wanted to get into a furnished apartment was to be able to cook. The pots and pans were dingy, and washing them didn't even help.  I didn't have pepper or salt for the eggs, yet there were black specks in the eggs. It was pan scrapings...yuck! Needless to say, I did not feel comfortable there.

Saturday- It is always a nice treat to have Daniel home with us on Saturday.  It makes those transition days a lot easier. We went to Croissy Sur Seine to walk around the neighborhood and get a feel for what life would be like for us there if we decide to stay in the house. It is very beautiful and quaint, and I do love it there. We met our possible neighbors. Lori, from the UK, is super nice and has 4 younger girls. She was telling us about the street.  Quite a few people from the UK, and a family from Sweden. A lot of expats live on this street. She was also reminding a neighbor of their block party they were going to be having on the 8th. The vibe on the street is very community centered. They seem to all be willing to help one another out as they are mostly all in the same boat. We really liked it.

After walking around in Croissy, we toured some surrounding areas.  All very nice.  We stopped in Le Vesinet, picked up some sandwiches and other lunch foods and had a make shift picnic in the trunk of the car. We ended the day back at the apartment, walked to le Chalet, a crepe shop, and had a very yummy dinner.

Sunday- We were late for church, but we were able to meet the stake president and his wife. A very nice family.  We were having ward conference.  After ward conference everybody stayed and had a potluck lunch. It was fun sampling some of the different dishes here.  It didn't feel like a normal ward potluck because many dishes had goat cheese in them, and there was not one single jello salad in sight.

On the way home from church, Daniel was turning from the Champs Elysees onto Rue di Berri, and he ran into a curb causing the tire to blow out.  He quickly pulled over to estimate the damage. The need for a tire change was mandatory.  Lucky we weren't to far from the apartment, so the kids and I just walked to block home. Before we left though, a group of guys motioned to Daniel to move his car out of the way. They helped him push it out of the way, and then parked their lamborghini in that spot ( the lamborghini was a business operation-rent a lamborghini for an hour for 89 euros). I thought somebody would help him, but no, I guess it is more Parisian to watch or pass by, then stop and help.  They are all to busy and consumed with their own lives. Daniel later told me that he was grateful for picture diagrams. French is foreign, but a picture of a tire and a picture of a car jack are universal. Thanks to those pictures, he was able to find what he needed in the car and switch out the tire. Quite the afternoon.