Back to reality

What could be better than a week in Paris? Well if we had had good weather it could have been better, but despite mother natures reluctance to cooperate, we had a great time.

I rented a small flat in the center of Paris and we were very well located. It was very cute and had exactly what we needed. To make it even better, it was a short ten minute walk from the apartment my mother and her friends rented. We had a great time with no stuffy set agenda. We went with the flow and really had a stress free time.

Just to keep me honest, Helene got sick. She wasn't like, in the hospital sick, but she wasn't talking (which is a huge clue) and she wanted to sleep all the time (I guess it was like a flash forward to what it may be like when she is a teenager?). We have quite a collection of medicines from the local pharmacy. I will have a hard time remembering which medicine goes with what, so the smartest thing would be to dispose of all of them, but why would I do that? So Helene got sick and Charlotte flirted with sickness and now that we are back, Luke is the one with a small fever and much stuffiness.

I too, have decided to contribute to a bout of illness. I have extremely overloaded sinuses. This was a real treat on the flight home. I was actually in tears at the pain. I still can't hear properly and every time I talk I sound like I am screaming, even though JJ says that he can barely hear me. I realize that this is probably the answer to a lot of people's prayers, but I would really like my life back.

The good news is that I am working from home, so at 2 in the afternoon, still lounging in my pj's with very little motivation to actually get dressed and bathed. Because I am at home and not interrupted I have actully managed to catch up on the gazillion emails that were lurking in my inbox. The bad news is that I still haven't gone totally back to reality, like leaving the house and going to the office.

What did we do in Paris? Well we walked, a lot. We discovered new areas. We saw Paristory, an hour long movie on how Paris was developed. The kids and I took a tour of Notre Dame. We spent time with family and friends. We ate great food. We laughed and basically enjoyed the blessing of being together and being allowed to vacation in a wonderful spot.

More to all soon. We are trying to go up north with JJ this weekend. He has a wine tasting in the Petosky area and meeting in Traverse. I thought that we could go with him and the kids could ski on Sat. Helene ofcourse is still not allowed to do any activity because of the toe thing, but Luke and Charlotte could ski.

bisous to you.