Not Quite the End of the Marvelous Paris Tale

Before I begin with the "ring woman" I need to add something from earlier in the day on Saturday. When we were on the RER train to the Eiffel Tower, Steve was sitting upstairs on this double-decker train with Caleb, Audrey, and Connor. They were spelling different things and Audrey busted out with this: "A-U-D-R-E-Y spells 'Little Miss Splended Audrey.'"

How's that for humility?

Ok - now back to the tale. One commenter on the blog asked what would have happened if Audrey had gotten up on the little wall - well, I don't know. There was an outdoor cafe/restaurant below us, so I imagine she might have crashed some poor sop's lunch.

Now back to the ring woman. Here's the conversation:

Ring woman: Is this yours? (Holding up a man's wide gold band.)
Me: No.
RW: It's yours?
Me: No.
RW: It's 18K gold! You're lucky! You found it!
Me: (bewildered) No...
RW: (putting it on her fingers each in turn) It's too large for me. You keep it! You're lucky! It's 18K gold! (pointing inside the band)
Me: No...
RW: (taking my hand and shoving the ring on me) You take it!
Me: Uhh.......
RW: (kissing my cheek and walking away) Good bye!

At this point I'm still bewildered and wondering when the "punch line," so to speak, will happen. As I turn back to the kids to gather everyone up to head out, I see that she's back.

RW: Where are you from?
Me: America.
RW: I'm from Khazikstan. I've not eaten in 2 days.
Me: (Not surprised at all, and I start digging in the diaper bag for a snack bar) Here.
RW: (unimpressed, but takes the bar) I need to buy a ticket.
*She still hasn't actually asked for money at this point, but we all know that's what she's after.
Me: (digging in my pocket for the change I have) Here.
RW: (still unimpressed) Can I have 5?
*Steve jumps in at this point and gets out 2 bills, a 5 and a 10. As he peels off the 10 to put back in his pocket, she starts pointing at it and reaches towards it, but he firmly says, "Five" several times as he hands her the fiver and sticks the tenner pack in his pocket. He says, "Thank you" as he steers all of us away from her.

So basically she ends up with 5 euros and a Special K peach & apricot cereal bar, Steve ends up with what he thinks is a hilarioius 5-euro holiday story and I end up with a big fat "gold" ring from a creepy gypsy woman. We still don't know if it's real gold or not. I even tried to give it back to her when she said she was hungry and needed money thinking if she was truly hungry she could pawn the hideous thing.

After this we start heading toward a place to eat. I kid you not, we have another pink hat tantrum and it takes us 25 minutes to walk one block. Steve hangs back with LMAM and I go ahead to scout a place with Connor, Caleb, and Julie. We found an open air cafe and decide to eat there. Outside so as to not disturb everyone in the cafe. It was chilly outside but at this point I would rather eat outside in the cool breeze than subject innocent bystanders to LMAM's tantrum.

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I wrote this yesterday (Halloween) then got interrupted by life. I'm not done with Paris, but thought I'd post the next set of happenings since it involved Audrey's teeth and the creepy gypsy woman.

We took Audrey to the dentist when we came home: he said the wobbly tooth will move back into place and will firm up and that there's nothing to do for the chipped tooth. Fortunately we all have dentist appointments in Los Alamos the week between Christmas and New Year's.

Steve came home from work halfway through the day Monday feeling sick. He stayed home Tuesday and will probalby stay home today as well. He is in bad shape. I'm insisting that he see a doctor today. Will post an update later.

Kids had a fun Halloween. Will post pics later.

Audrey Is So Marvelous!

I sent Audrey to her room today because she was being loud. I told her to do something up there. Steve went up there for something else later and suggested she clean her room. She told him she couldn't because it would make her too dizzy. Then she said she would have to go to bed if she got too dizzy.

Audrey's logic. Can't argue with it. Well, I guess you can argue with it, but you'll get a kick in the shin for your troubles.

Maybe the End of the Marvelous Paris Tale?

Hopefully I can finish up the tale of our adventures in Paris with this entry, then I can move on to more current things.

One thing I forgot to mention about Friday night: a mis-dialled phone call at 9.45 p.m. I needed to call our bank back in Los Alamos and had tried using the cell phone since the kids were all asleep, but the lady on the other end couldn't hear me very well, so I decided just to use the phone in our hotel room. I sat there and dialled the number for the bank, saying the number under my breath as I pressed each button. Then I looked at the number I had dialled on the screen of the phone and didn't notice anything amiss. But when the lady on the other end answered "Hello?" instead of the usual spiel that the bank people say, I knew I had dialled wrong. This is how the conversation went:

unknown person: Hello?
me: Is this not LANB?
u.p.: No. That number is 662-5171.
me: Gwen?
u.p.: Yes?
me: It's April!
Gwen: Nolen?
me: Yes!!

I had dialled the Adams number by mistake. I think all of the 1s in their number and 1s in the bank number confused me. I had just dialled the number correctly not 2 minutes earlier. But we had a teeny tiny short phone call before we hung up and I called the bank. It was a nice surprise for both of us, I think!

Saturday morning dawned. We had decided that Steve and I, our kids, and our niece Connor would go to the Eiffel Tower and do a little touristy shopping, while the Baldridges, Lynette, and Nancy would go to Versailles. We were supposed to meet back at our hotel at 2.30 to gather our luggage and go to the train station for our 4.00 train back to London.

We managed to sleep in a bit before children started stirring, then we got everyone dressed, got our stuff packed up, checked out and headed to a tres chic Paris restaurant for breakfast - the Golden Arches. Again. But that was fine because everyone was very happy with the food. They don't play the Monopoly game at McDonald's like they do at home - they play Uno. So we were peeling little papers off our cups and stuff and Connor got one that said something like "un plat metal." With my nonexistent French, I decided it meant "metal plate." What kind of prize is a metal plate? We talked about it for a while trying to figure out what it was, then Connor decided she would just take it up to the counter. She came back with a metal tray (about the size of a piece of paper) that had the Coca-Cola logo on it. We had a nice chuckle about it and she decided to give it to Lynette since she has Coke running through her veins.

We decided to ride the Metro (subway) to the Eiffel Tower. Steve bought 10 tickets for us to use throughout the day to get us there and back. We are thoroughly unimpressed with the Paris Metro. Lots of stairs. No escalators. Not usually a problem, but we had a stroller that we ended up carrying up and down stairs. We're getting this stroller carrying thing down to an art. Plus you can't just drive the stroller through the turnstiles at the Metro - you have to go through the special gate-thing they have for strollers. That is, you go through them when there's an employee there to man the station to push the right button to open the stupid thing. At one point we had to lift the stroller up and over a half-wall because there wasn't an employee to open the gate for us. Very annoying.

So we get to the Eiffel Tower stop and emerge into a lovely fall day. But I think Audrey has already decided that today was going to be one of her "wobbly" days. (To "throw a wobbly" is to throw a fit in Brit speak.) We walked about half a block to the base of the Eiffel Tower and got stopped at one point by a young lady who approached us asking, "Do you speak English?" She handed Steve a postcard-looking thing that was written in English claiming that she was from one of those Eastern European countries ending in "stan" and that she needed money to get a ticket for her brother and/or father to come join her. Whatever. We gave her a handful of change. There were lots of those types of girls wandering around accosting tourists. When I saw one of them coming, I did everything in my power to encourage Audrey's wobbly of the moment so that the beggar/panhandler wouldn't bug us. Wobblies are good for something, I guess.

I was surprised by a couple of things at the Eiffel Tower: 1 - it's BROWN and not black, and 2 - the wind just rips through at the base! We decided after seeing the lines that we weren't going to wait the minimum 45 minutes to go up. Plus Audrey and Julie couldn't have gone up past the first level anyway, so that means that one of us would have had to stay with them while the other went up. I really wanted to go up with Steve, so we decided to pass. We'd just take pictures. Steve was impressed that his pictures of the tower turned out so well because he wanted to get the names of the French scientists that are on it. The close-up picture is the current wallpaper on the laptop. I like it because it looks like lace to me.

So we decided that we would let the kids ride the Eiffel Tower Carousel across the street from the tower, then we would take a walk along the Seine. They had a great time, then we headed down along the river.

This was where things really started to get weird. As you can see in this picture, there is a wall along the pathway beside the Seine.

Steve was trying to get a nice picture of us looking over the river. Instead he got a post-incident photo. Audrey had tried to jump up on the wall and managed to chip her front top tooth. This is the same tooth she chipped last November. It looks worse now. Plus she managed to knock the other front top tooth forward and loose. All teeth were still in her mouth, but one was pointy and jagged and the other was sticking out far enough that she could stick her lip under it and look like a little mini hillbilly. Yikes. So we're all looking at her in this picture because she has just hurt herself and is starting to cry.

Not 3 minutes after this as we were walking, I stopped to help Caleb with his scarf. As I was straightening up, a lady came up to me and said while holding out a man's gold band, "Is this yours?"

This is where I'm going to leave the story for now since I need to get dinner on the table.

Marvelous Adventures in Paris - Second Half of Friday

When last we met, I was regaling you with the story of the Louvre. What a hassle that outing turned out to be. But there is a silver lining to the nasty black cloud that hung over us that afternoon: Caleb discovered art. He had a wonderful time looking at the different paintings and talking to Uncle Alan about them. He and Alan were sitting together waiting for Audrey and me to come out of the loo and they were in front of some large paintings. Alan was kind of zoning out, but quickly came back to reality when he heard Caleb talking about baby Jesus. Caleb was looking at the painting directly in front of them which portrayed the nativity. Alan hadn’t even seen it. Then there was a portrait above that one that was of a man dressed in ancient Greek garb. For some reason, he either had some massively dark circles around his eyes or he had some sort of dark eyewear. Caleb decided he was a movie star from Jesus’ time.

About the artwork, Caleb says: I saw a picture with George and the dragon. George had already defeated the dragon because he was standing on the dragon’s head. It was cool. Mom bought me a book called “Tell Me a Picture” with famous pictures in it. I look at the pictures then we talk about what we see. My favorite picture is of George and the Dragon. (It’s actually of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, but I haven’t told him this yet).

He was with Alan for part of the time and they would talk about the different paintings. Apparently they saw one with Cupid in it and Caleb said that he was stabbing the chickens with his arrows. Alan told me this with a straight face.

So we have a budding art aficionado. Maybe. We’ll go to the National Gallery in London sometime and see what he thinks about what we see hanging there.

Now, back to our Friday in Paris. We got on the green bus line and went to Notre Dame. We were going to get off there and get on another bus line to see some sights to the south of the city center, so we decided that since we were off the bus we might as well go inside Notre Dame.

There were 2 things I loved about Notre Dame: the gargoyles outside and the breathtaking stained glass windows. Those gargoyles are so awesome! I didn’t know until just recently that they are rain spouts. How cool is that? I took some pictures that got as close as I could of those bad boys. I didn’t get any photos of the windows because you weren’t supposed to take flash pics inside the church. Anyway, the interior was huge. The word “lofty” comes to mind. We went inside and headed straight to the point where the long axis of the church crossed the short axis of the church so that we could see all 4 of the big beautiful windows. I got them on video, so we at least have that as a memento.

We walked around the perimeter of the interior, but so was everyone else. It was hot and uncomfortable, so we tried to get out as soon as we could. At least I was trying to with Caleb and Julie. Steve had Little Miss Axe Murderer with him.

After we looked around and were content to say that we were done there, we went back to the bus stop and waited for about 20 minutes for the next bus. We got on and headed upstairs. This bus took us past some of the newer buildings in Paris like the National Library. The library is interesting – it is comprised of 4 skyscrapers that are all L-shaped. It’s like they make the 4 corners of a square. The sides are all glass and we learned that they have an automated window blind system to control the temperature and light exposure to protect the books. That was interesting. We passed the new opera building, the new treasury building, the big event arena, and a few other places that I don’t remember.

When we were passing the site of the Bastille for the 2nd time, the driver stopped at a bus stop. No big deal. We’re used to stopping, so nobody noticed anything until the driver came up and told all the passengers to get off. Apparently his shift was over and he was taking the bus back to wherever the buses go for the night. It was only 4.30 or 5.00. It took all the passengers by surprise. At least we were at a bus stop that had a big bench. Audrey had another of her infamous pink hat tantrums here. It was cold and we wanted her to wear them, but she wanted to hold them. Actually she wanted to put the scarf and mittens inside the hat and then wear the hat. Problem with this is that with the stuff in the hat there’s no room for her head.

THE pink hat & accessories.

I’m not sure how the decision-making process went from this point since I was dealing with pink hat-induced melodrama, but we ended up going down into the Metro (their subway system) and catching a train back to the stop just outside our hotel.

At the hotel, we decided that Cindy, Steve, Lynette, Nancy (and Julie) would go out to eat and get some authentic French cuisine and Alan and I would take the kids to McDonald’s. I didn’t want French food – I just wanted to get LMAM (Little Miss….) fed and to bed. Caleb had been an absolute dream all day long, as had Julie. I think this was his best day ever. But to balance that, we had to have LMAM have her worst day ever. Anyway – to McDonald’s. Alan, Jarrett, & Connor were all pleasantly surprised to see the McFlurrys there and each enjoyed some ice cream after dinner, as did Caleb and I.

On the way back to the hotel (which was 6 doors down from the McDonald’s) we passed the restaurant where the others were eating. We popped inside long enough for me to eat a snail, gather up Julie, get both room keys, and leave Alan there.

All of the kids hung out in our room for a while, then I sent Connor and Jarrett down to Lynette’s room so I could get my kiddos to bed. The other adults came back and plans were made for the next day. Since Saturday in Paris was another misadventure in itself, I will save it for another posting.
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On to current stuff:
I took Julie for her 9-month pictures Friday. The place was wonderful and the photographer was good. She probably took between 100-150 pictures in the hour we were there. I’ll go back on Wednesday to see how much damage they’re going to do to Steve’s wallet. I’ll try to keep it as painless as possible, since we’ll be doing the big pictures when she’s 2.

After the pictures, I went home and picked up the rest of the family and we headed to a “fancy dress” shop – a costume store. We got a costume for Caleb and the finishing touches for Audrey’s costume. I seriously thought about getting a pink wig for me, but didn’t. I wanted Audrey to be a sheriff for Halloween because they had a little pink sheriff’s star and a pink and white set of holsters and revolvers. Plus pink cowboy hats. But she had other plans.

One More Marvelous Little Thing...

If you click on this picture and get the big-sized one, you can spot Julie's 2 bottom front teeth peeking through her gums.

This picture is here because she's so darn cute.

Marvelous Adventures in Paris Last Friday

Pictures first from Thursday's adventure. Pardon my French. Spellings, that is.
Audrey sleeping past the Eiffel Tower (in the distance).

Audrey sleeping over the Seine River.
Audrey sleeping down the Champs Elysses.
Audrey sleeping past the Arc de Triumph.

Audrey sleeping going past Notre Dame.

Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, she got ANOTHER bag. This one is from the Baldridges. They got it in Ethiopia. Oh yes - THANK you.

Current events first:

Steve took off this morning at 6 a.m. to deliver Nancy and Lynette to the airport. It's now 7.30 and the kiddos are still asleep upstairs. It will be interesting to see how long they all sleep in a quiet house.

Backtracking now to Paris:

Friday morning dawns and we meet everyone downstairs in the hotel lobby. It is decided that we will try a restaurant for breakfast instead of McDonald's. So we go across the street from McD's to a place called Le Prevoyant. I shared a French version of an English breakfast with Audrey. It was ham & eggs, pastries, and coffee. I can handle *this* English breakfast. Not a tomato or baked bean in sight. We linger over breakfast and are amused by the lift/electric dumbwaiter that rises out of the restaurant's floor with supplies for the kitchen and bar. Very interesting.

We head out with the plan to use the tour buses as our transportation today for a couple of sightseeing stops in addition to trying to get on the 2 tour lines we didn't go on yesterday. We have to change buses at the tour company's base of operations - or their boutique as they call it - so Steve and I decide that he will pop in to see if the stroller is there yet from yesterday. While he's doing that, Cindy, Alan, Connor and I dash across the street to a C&A store. It's a clothing store. We are getting winter clothing for various family members. A coat for Connor, hats, mittens, scarves for Connor, Caleb, Audrey, Nancy, Cindy, Me, mittens for Lynette. I finally found a hat that fits my large head. It's a black wool hat with faux-fur trim around the brim. Warm and stylish. As soon as I picked this one out, I turned around to see that Cindy had picked out the brown version for herself. Nice taste, Cindy!

So we get back across the street to discover that after standing in line for 20 minutes behind some completely aggravating Spanish ladies, Steve learned that our stroller would be there in about 20 minutes. Five minutes later, an employee comes out with it. Good timing! And for the record, the ladies were aggravating because they weren't listening to the customer service lady explaining the different tours - not because they were Spanish.





I just ran upstairs to get Julie. I heard her stirring up there and I scooted up to get her a) before she woke up the other kids and b) before she decided to roll/crawl/move off my bed where she was sleeping. I got up there and she was sitting up between the pillows at the headboard just waiting for somebody to come get her. Thank goodness.





Anyway - back on the tour bus and headed to the Louvre. It took us quite a while after we got in to get tickets, get our stuff deposited at the coat check, get everyone through the bathrooms, and get upstairs to the correct floor to begin our tour. Our group, now 11 in number, is trying to make our way to see the "Mona Lisa." We have discovered in the Louvre that the elevators are: 1 - not marked very well, and 2 - not near the escalators. This piece of information is crucial to the next bit of our adventure: getting lost in the Louvre.





Yes, getting lost in the Louvre. Not everyone, mind you, just me and my girls. While everyone else was heading up the escalators, we were getting on the elevator. As I'm pushing the stroller into the lift, Audrey has the first of her "pink hat" tantrums of the day. The hat, scarf & mittens I got for her are made of pink chenille and she wants to carry them. Not wear them - carry them. But they're with all of our coats and junk at the coat check. She doesn't accept that we can't just go back and get the pink hat - we have to wait until the end of our museum visit to collect our stuff. So she's moaning & groaning about her pink hat as we get on the elevator and I just take a quick glance at the elevator buttons. The one on the top has a little picture of the Mona Lisa beside it, so that's the one I mash as I'm listening to "I want to go get my pink hat out of that box Moooooommyyyyy!"





As we ascend, I get the feeling that we're going up several floors, but no big deal because we're going to see the Mona Lisa, right?





We get off the elevator into a large red room with ginormous paintings on the walls. I follow the signs to the Mona Lisa (just around a corner) and glance at it as I keep my eyes open for the rest of the group. No rest of the group, but Audrey is making up for it with her volume. She is now throwing herself on the floor because she doesn't want to walk, she doesn't want to go, she doesn't want to listen, and if I had suggested eating ice cream with Cinderella, she wouldn't have wanted to do that either. We pass through the Mona Lisa room and go out into a big long hall. It's the one that "The DaVinci Code" book begins in. Still no rest of the group as I try to look up and down the hall.





Now I'm trying to figure out if it's ok to eat in here because Little Miss Sunshine is moaning about being hungry. I tell her that we might eat when we sit down and she starts yelling about "not might eat, YES eat!" Since I see no signs that indicate that eating is a no-no, I open up a chocolate chip granola bar, but I'm holding it because the chocolate chips are loose and I don't want them to fall on the floor. But NO. This is not acceptable. SHE must hold it. Fine. Whatever. Hold the stupid thing. Lose all the chocolate chips and make a mess of the floor in the Louvre. Give all American 3-year-olds a bad name, what do I care?





Food issue taken care of, being lost still a problem. I'm thinking that maybe there's an escalator at either end of the hall, but I don't' see anything marked on the map...but then again, I don't get a quiet moment to actually LOOK at the stupid map because of Little Miss See-How-Horrible-I-Can-Be-In-Public. So we start walking one direction, see no escalator, then go the other direction. No escalator.





By now I'm getting really irritated with everything. So I decide to get back on the elevator and backtrack. I have no clue which floor I started on, since it's all in French and I KNOW ZERO FRENCH. But I get back on the exact same elevator (after making a proper stop to see Miss Mona) and end up back where I started. I decide to walk up and down this little hall to see if I can see the rest of the group. No rest of the group.





Back on the elevator to the next floor. Lo and behold, when the doors open, I see Lynette, Nancy, Cindy, Connor, Jarrett & Caleb. Alan and Steve are off looking for us. Wonderful. As Steve returns within a couple of minutes, we convince everyone else to head up to the Mona Lisa floor because there are at least places to sit there, unlike this floor. All but Jarrett & Nancy go up. They wait with Steve, me, and the girls for Alan to return. Finally we send J & N upstairs, too. Alan finally returns and we head upstairs. We quickly see Jarrett & Nancy, but not the rest of the group. Great. Fabulous. Wonderful.





So we reunite with those 2, then wander around the hall for a while. Finally we sit and Steve & Alan go off looking for the rest of the group. Probably 10-15 minutes later they all come strolling up. Bathrooms are next on the agenda, then lunch.





Turns out the Louvre has a little mall-type area with different shops and a huge food court! We go to the food court, but have to divide up and sit in 2 groups since it's tough to find seating for 10 plus room for a high chair. And as it turns out, the place I had the highchair wasn't acceptable to Mr. French Food Court Manager. He came by after I had fed Julie and when I was almost done eating and told me first in French, then in bad English that I had to move her because she was blocking a little aisle. He wanted her over on the other side of our table hanging out into the large aisle. Brilliant, Frenchy, but you're the boss. I wonder what he would have done if I had just said, "No." Not confrontationally, just matter-of-factly. No. Oh well, moot point.





I finish lunch and need to change Julile. I ask Frenchy where the elevators are and he tells me, in French. But at least he repeated himself 3 or 4 times and waved his hands around. Helpful, no? No. Just joking - I got the drift and found the lift. But once I found the restrooms, I discover there are no baby changing places. Or places to nurse babies. So I find a nice little discreet spot on the floor kind of tucked away, change Miss Massive Nasty Diaper and then nurse her. By the time I'm done, I've seen our whole group come down the escalator and they've all seen me. We decide to wander around the little mall area for a bit. After we're done wandering, we all gather our outside gear that Alan has fetched and then find the loos. Not all of us need to use the facilities, so while Connor and I are in the loo, some of our group decides to sit down and wait for us. On the floor. But no. The sitting police come by and tell them they cannot sit on the floor. There is no place else to sit. Alan asks if they can stand. I don't think the sitting police caught the sarcasm, but oh well. By this point I think we're all pretty much nearing the ends of our respective ropes.





Leaving the Louvre, we have to use 2 different elevators. To ensure that nobody gets lost, we use an elaborate plan of SENDING SOMEBODY BACK to bring everybody to the same end spot.





Time to don the outside gear. Big, huge, massive, enormous, giant tantrum time. Pink hat tantrum. She wants to carry it, not wear it. I want our family to stay in possession of it, not lose it along a Paris street. It was an ugly one. I kid you not, the girl had SIX different pink hat episodes that day. SIX. This is in addition to her usual Little Miss Contrary-type behavior.





Speaking of Little Miss Contrary, when we went to the antique toy fair in Reading a couple of weekends ago, there were some Mr. Man and Little Miss books that we bought for the kids. We got Mr. Bump, Mr. Grumpy, Mr. Splendid, Little Miss Chatterbox, Little Miss Dotty, Little Miss Giggles, and Little Miss Contrary. No joke. Little Miss Contrary. Steve said this morning he's just glad we didn't get Little Miss Axe Murderer. I second that.





I'm going to stop here for now. Our misadventures in Paris are far from over, though. I haven't even finished Friday. It just makes me tired to re-live it all.





Julie has her 9-month pictures today at 2.30. I'm not sure what she's going to wear. I think it might be something I have to iron, though. This afternoon after pictures I think we may go by a "Fancy Dress" shop - a costume shop - for Halloween stuff for the kiddos.





Steve got back around 9.15 and reported that he got L&N to the airport and they were waiting for a wheelchair when he had to leave. Hopefully all is going well for them.

Marvelous Adventures in Paris Last Thursday

It’s now 2.30 as I sit and type. I’m watching last week’s episode of “Lost” that I downloaded from iTunes last night. I just finished CSI. When I’m watching one of those 2 shows, I forget that I’m in England.

Anyway – back to Paris.

Thursday morning when we got up and around, we decided to go to McDonald’s at the end of the block for breakfast. On the way out of the hotel, I stopped at the reception desk to say something about the lack of additional beds in each room. After the lady at the desk asking several times “No second bed? No second bed?” she finally said something about the 2nd beds being under the double beds. Duh. Now we had our additional beds.

On to McDonalds. In France. Menu in French. I don’t know French. It felt, well, foreign. That morning the phrase “fish out of water” really meant something to me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as out of place in a place as I did in France. Anyway, we got yummy little pastries and egg McMuffins for breakfast. Very nice.

The only thing not going according to plan was the absence of the Baldridges (Steve’s sister & her family). We thought their plane from Ethiopia was supposed to arrive in Paris at 6 a.m. They were going to hop on a train from the airport and be at our hotel shortly thereafter. Or as “shortly thereafter” as possible when you have to gather up luggage, get on a commuter train, get off at the train station, then walk a few blocks to a hotel. I think they finally showed up sometime between 10 and 11.30. I’ve slept since then, so I’m not sure when they arrived. Turns out their flight had a 6 a.m. layover in Belgium, THEN on to Paris.

Back to McDonald’s for lunch. I think they were all happy to eat Golden Arches food again.

After lunch we decided to get on a tour bus and get acquainted with Paris. It was a double decker and Julie and I sat on the bottom while everyone else was up top. It was a bit nippy and I had forgotten Julie’s hat at the hotel. We rode the “yellow” tour line into the city center, then got on the “green” line for what we were hoping was the duration of the tour. About 20 minutes later we had to get off because Julie was hungry and Steve was having difficulties feeding her while the bus was moving. She was in the front pack and I was wearing it, so I couldn’t help much. So we get off and walk about half a block to a Hagen Daas store. We all got a tasty snack there, got Julie fed and changed, ran all the kids through the loo, then headed back to the bus.

This time I took the hood off my jacket and used it for Julie so she and I could ride upstairs with everyone. She was asleep in a jiffy. So was Audrey. We have about half a dozen pictures of Audrey sleeping past the major sights: the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame…I think when I make the picture album of our journeys she’ll get her own “I slept through Paris” section.

It was surreal going through Paris. I guess I hadn’t really been thinking too much about going. I’ve been more concerned about getting train tickets, hotel, getting our guests here, taking care of them, not to mention the regular “mom” stuff like laundry, cooking, etc. So when we get there I’m in a daze. I know nothing about Paris to begin with, so I think I missed out on a lot just because I was ignorant to start with.

I think my favorite thing to see in Paris was the Eiffel Tower. It’s brown! I always thought it was black. Plus the metal work on it reminds me of lace. It seems delicate. My second most favorite thing to see was the gargoyles on Notre Dame. They are cool!

On the tour bus, Caleb sat by Alan. Fortunately Alan has been in Paris before (and will come again due to work), so he’s seen the sights. He told me later that he enjoyed sitting with Caleb and hearing him chatter the whole time. Alan even let Caleb take some pictures with his camera. Caleb said later that was his favorite thing about the whole day.

After our tour of Paris, we got off the green line and I immediately dashed into the tour company’s “boutique” to ask where the nearest restrooms were for the kids. They were kind enough to let the 4 kids use theirs. While we were there, the bus we had been on pulled away before we realized we had left the stroller on it. Darn. Darn, darn, darn! We wouldn’t be able to get it until after 11.30 the next morning. While Steve and I were sorting this out, everyone went around the corner to an “American” tavern that Cindy and Alan had eaten at before. We joined them soon after and all enjoyed a great meal of chicken wings, spare ribs, pasta, burgers, and yummy dessert. We didn’t all eat all of this – just an example of some of the entrees.

Back around the corner to catch a yellow bus home. But we find out that the yellow buses are done for the day. Irritating, since the brochure led us to believe otherwise. So Alan goes inside the little boutique to figure out what’s going on. Turns out there’s supposed to be a straight shuttle to the train station about 30 minutes later. Ok. We wait. No shuttle. Another bus pulls up, but it’s a shuttle going the other way. The driver doesn’t look too happy about having to shuttle, but another bus driver talks rapidly to him in French and then gets off that bus and motions to us to follow him to an empty bus.

He ends up driving us on the shuttle all by ourselves. We joked that we had a chauffeured private bus back to our hotel. Well, almost back to our hotel…only 2 blocks away.

We got everyone tucked away for the night and Steve went downstairs to chat with his family. I’m pretty sure I sacked out straightaway because I don’t remember much after getting the kids all asleep.

I’m going to stop there for now because I need to get Audrey down for a nap. She’s sitting at the top of the stairs wailing, “I’m not tiiiiiiiiiirrrrreeeeeeeeeeedd!” Yeah, right. Friday’s adventures will be the next blog installment, hopefully.

More Marvelous Misadventures

Current events first:

Steve, Caleb, Lynette, Nancy, Alan, Cindy, Connor, & Jarrett have all loaded into Alan's rented MPV (minivan) and are headed to Stonehenge and Portsmouth today. I'm staying here with the girls. My plans for the day include catching up on the blog, tidying up the house a bit, doing some laundry, and going to the grocery store. Steve traded in our MPV yesterday for another van. We now have a Chrysler Grand Voyager. As bare-bones as the Toyota was, this one is decked out. Leather seats, automatic side and rear doors, stow & go seating (the seats fold down into the floor), captains chairs on the second row, tinted windows, parking assistance (I'll have to investigate this option), seat warmers, multi cd-changer. This is the van we needed when we went to Scotland. Oh well. We have it now and Steve is very pleased. He's sure he can fit all of our junk into it when it's time to go to the airport to go home. Plus we only need to make sure there's 1/8 tank of gas when we return it. He likes that.

Yesterday was weird. We had 2 things we had to get done, then we were planning on going to Stonehenge and Portsmouth. We had to get Cindy & Alan's rental car, then they needed to get a cell phone. It took 3 hours to get their vehicle due to a mix-up with the rental agreement. They specifically requested an automatic, but when National Rental got the request, there was nothing about an automatic, so they were put in a standard. So you might be thinking, "why didn't they just switch them into an automatic?" ... easier said than done. All the vehicles they had (with the exception of the teeny tiny compacts) were manual. The lady helping them called the national National office and discovered that there was a van at the Reading branch that was an automatic. Apparently it had just been returned and the lady didn't know it. So it turns out that they got exactly what they wanted, but then they had to wait for it to be processed. So it was about 1 1/2 hours until they found the van there where we were and another 1 1/2 hours to process it, get them in it, and then get them back here to the house.

Now for the cell phone. We split into 2 groups for this bit. Steve, Cindy, Lynette & Nancy got in our van to go to Enterprise to switch the Toyota for the Chrysler, and Alan, all the kids, and I got in their van and went to downtown Reading to the mall. The plan was for Steve to swap vans then head over there and meet us. By the time we got the phone and met up with the other group, it was around 3 p.m. None of the adults had eaten lunch and the kids had eaten a little meal earlier, so we invaded Chili's and had tea. We had to explain to Jarrett that "tea" doesn't necessarily mean a cup of hot tea and a biscuit. It can mean that or it can mean a small snack or a full-blown meal. It's just in between lunch and dinner.

Then we wandered around the mall after Chili's. We decided that trying to go anywhere else to sight see was pretty much pointless at this late hour. Both of my big kiddos had some money burning holes in their pockets, so we went to the toy store while Cindy and Connor were clothes shopping. Each kid had about £10. Caleb ended up with 3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figurines and Audrey got 2 princess ballerina Barbies (Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" and Sleeping Beauty).

I just remembered that I need to be working on some wire transfers for our rent, so I'm going to sign off for now and hopefully get the rest of our Paris misadventures posted later this afternoon.

The Marvelous MISadventures of the Fabulous Nolens

Paris.

Wednesday afternoon, we picked Caleb up from school and headed to London Waterloo International Station to ride the Eurostar train in the Channel Tunnel to Paris. Two hours after we left Tilehurst we were in the station. London traffic was nasty - 5.oo on Friday afternoon, and the commuter foot traffic in the station was even worse. People kept almost running over the kids and Aunt Nancy. So we got Steve to go first down the station with the luggage trolley and we all followed in his wake. Worked well.

We ate at Burger King then went to the Eurostar terminal. We had to go through security - kids, bags, stroller, purses, pockets empty....then we had to gather it all back up and go through passport control. Not a problem. Next problem: how to get up to the next level to board the train. Our gate was right on the other side of passport control, but we had to walk all the way down the terminal to get to the lift. In the meantime, there was a Japanese tour group that kept just swarming without regard to us. We had to cross through them two different times and it was a pain each time. On the lift. Up to the departure level. The lift spit us out at coach 5 - our tickets were in coach 4. A nice little French train man approached us and asked if we were in coach 4. When we said we were, he told us that we needed to ride in coach 5 since it was less crowded and would be quieter. He was very nice about it.

So we get on coach 5 and Nancy goes to the seats with the kiddos. In the meantime, some other Japanese tourists have boarded coach 5 from the other direction and have parked in the same empty seats we were heading for. Our little French friend got on and ran them off. Wow! They were not happy about that. Oh well. I guess sometimes it pays to travel with little kids. So while the seat drama is unfolding, Steve is trying to get our luggage into the racks. Actually, he, Lynette, Julie and I are waiting near the luggage racks while this Korean couple is standing there regarding their luggage (already on the shelves) and, I presume, trying to figure out how to get it in there better. Whatever! Just get out of the way! We had 1 big suitcase (for the 5 of us), plus 2 small suitcases (for L&N), plus a couple of backpacks, Julie's frontpack she rides in and the stroller. Lots of stuff. So we stand there for a while while this couple decides what they're going to do. Then we stand there while they do it.

Finally we get to our seats and we get our little things stowed away - purses, jackets, diaper bag.

When we leave London, it's 6.45 p.m. Not dark all the way outside, but since the lights are on in the train it might as well be pitch black out there. Can't see a darn thing unless it's all lit up. So we trundle forward in the dark. I knew we were in France because the the little French man (turns out he was like the #1 guy on the train) starts making all his announcements in French first, then English. It's reversed when we're in England. So he starts saying things over the loudspeakers in a language that I can only assume is French because all I understand is monsieurs and mademoiselles. Anyway, by this time Julie is tired but won't go to sleep, so I go to the space between the cars to let her be noisy and calm down. While I'm out there, lots of people are coming and going (to and from either the buffet car or the loo) and Julie feels compelled to look at each one. Some of the aforementioned Japanese tourists stop and talk to her in Japanese. It's 3 women and one says to me, "Beautiful!" then "Son or daughter?" then "She looks like a doll." None of these things are a surprise to me, as I hear them all the time.

She finally goes to sleep and I'm able to watch the dark French countryside whiz by. Occasionally I'll see some lights. I feel mostly like I'm in an episode of "Alias" since most, if not all of the episodes include some sort of train sequence. But the most jarring thing is to see neon lights whizzing past. Very disconcerting. France and neon lights in the dark countryside don't really go together.

We get to France and it's after 10 p.m. and we have to walk about 4-5 blocks to our hotel. I have the baby in the front pack, Audrey is buckled into the stroller, Caleb is hanging on to the stroller, Lynette is pushing the stroller, Steve is in the lead with our large suitcase, a smaller suitcase, and a backpack, Lynette is behind him, Nancy (with her cane) is behind Lynette, and I'm bringing up the rear with another suitcase and a backpack. As you can imagine, the part of town with the train station isn't exactly the most favorable, but we soldier on. At one point as we're dodging potholes full of water, we pass some drunks lying on the sidewalk who are loud - at each other, not at us. I caught up to Nancy and told her jokingly, "You know, you have the only weapon among all of us." We had a good chuckle about that.

So 15 minutes later we are at the hotel. Easy to find. Nice reception area. We go up to our rooms, 401 and 301, and see only 1 double bed in each room. Yikes! There's a large pack and play for Julie in our room, so Caleb asks to sleep in it. We put Julie with us in the bed and Audrey on the floor and we made it through the night fine. Lynette & Nancy were downstairs and they did fine, as well.

That's our first few hours in Paris. Life here (England) is crazy, so I haven't had much opportunity to update things. I will try to do more later this afternoon if I can. I think Steve, Caleb, Lynette, Nancy, and Steve's sister's family are going to go to Portsmouth this afternoon. I'm going to stay here with the little girlies. Hopefully I can work on laundry and the blog at the same time.

See ya!

There Is No Place As Marvelous As...

.
.
.
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.......home. We're here, but not all of us. Steve, Caleb, & the Baldridges are stuck in London at Paddington Station (somebody jumped in front of a train and got clobbered), but are about to depart for here. I'm going to meet them at the station at 10.30 p.m. and deliver the Baldridges to their hotel down the street and then bring Steve & Caleb home.

More tomorrow.

Another Marvelous Adventure About To Begin

It's 1.50 p.m. now. Steve is off getting his back massaged, Caleb is at school, Audrey is watching TV, Julie is napping, Nancy is reading, and Lynette and I are just restlessly wandering around the house doing last-minute checks of things. I can only find one of our European plug converters, so we'll have to make do with the one. Oh well.

Steve should be done at 3, then Caleb at 3.15. We'll head to London then. Our train leaves at 6.45, but we have to be there 30 minutes before. Hopefully it won't take us FOREVER to get to London and then into central London to the station. We're going in and out of Waterloo station. How funny that the French, when arriving in the UK, go to Waterloo!

Anyway...I've contained the packing for the 5 of us to one largish-medium suitcase and 2 backpacks. This doesn't count Audrey's newest pink shiny sparkling "Princess" bag that Grammy brought her and Julie's less marvelous diaper bag. Or my teeny tiny "armpit" purse. It's shorter than my forearm and a little taller, but the strap is so short that the thing rests in my armpit. Not too uncomfortable, actually. Plus it keeps *my* magpie-like urges to gather and carry everything under control. We only have to empty out Audrey's bag and fill it with appropriate toys now, but we have to wait until Julie wakes up because I have the feeling she and I will exchange words. Actually, what I think will happen is she will do her squealing whine/wail "NOOOOOOOOO" while I empty out the random things like puzzle pieces that fit nothing, broken colored pencils, rocks and dead weed flowers. Nekkid Barbies are much more pleasant than dirty feathers she's picked up off the drive.

I can her her wailing "Kiiiiiid shooooow" now. Apparently there's an advert on the tele that makes her think the kid shows are all off. Impossible since she's watching a kid channel. She does this every time.

I'm signing off now. We'll be back "on air" either late Saturday or early Sunday our time...so Saturday afternoon or really early Sunday morning your time.

Au revoir!

A Marvellously Quick Update

For the most important update: Julie's first tooth finally broke through today! I can feel it when I poke my finger in her mouth. Mercifully she doesn't feel the need to bite said finger. She's now working on #2.

On to other news - Steve, Lynette & Nancy got to and from London just fine. They spent Monday night there and got to the Reading train station around 5.30 p.m. today. The kids and I went and picked them up there.

Tomorrow afternoon after Caleb gets out of school, we're all heading to London Waterloo station to ride the Eurostar in the Channel Tunnel to Paris. We'll be in Paris Wednesday night until early Saturday evening. I'm not planning on bringing the laptop, so we'll be out of touch for a while. I also don't know what kind of reception our cell phone will get. It might get reception, but they might charge and arm and a leg to use it. In the Republic of Ireland, our rates were 10 times greater than they are here, so we didn't use the phone at all.

Here's a link to some pictures of the hotel we'll be at in Paris: http://www.cybevasion.com/hotels/france/paris/hotel_photos_francais_397.html

I'm going to go now. It's 7.17 p.m. and I haven't had dinner. Come to think of it, I didn't have much of a lunch either. Chow time!

Marvelous Monday

Yesterday's adventures were much better than Saturday's. We skipped church (bad Nolens!) and headed out around 11.30 to an antique toy fair. Very interesting. The kids were good up to a point, but there's a limit on "look but don't touch." One man (who later told us he has an almost-3-year-old daughter at home) took pity on the 2 big kids and gave each a double decker bus toy. They're the size of Hot Wheels, and I think one still had a £5 sticker on it. Wow! We bought a couple of things for souvenirs and headed out.

On the way to TGI Friday's (to try again - am I a glutton for punishment?) I spotted a place called Toby's Carvery. It looked like a pub, and by this time it was about 1.00, so I hung a U-ey at the next roundabout and we pulled in. They said the wait would be 40 minutes, but we stayed anyway. While we were waiting, I called Friday's and they said (after a 7-minute call) that the wait there was about an hour. Yikes. So I conveyed the info to Steve, had time to read a comic on the wall, and the hostess said that our table would be ready in 5 minutes. Less than 1 minute later, we were on our way to our table! All in all less than 10 minutes. Sweet!

Turns out this place is more restaurant than pub. And a carvery is a place that carves the meat for you at a buffet-style bar. I don't know if it was a Sundays-only thing or if it's daily. Anyway, they had gammon (ham), turkey, and roast beef. The ham and beef were fabulous, but the turkey was dry. I didn't see any gravy to lend assistance, so I left my turkey alone. They also had Yorkshire Puddings. "What's that?" you may be wondering. It's bread. It's like a bowl of flaky-ish bread a little bigger than your fist. Nothing in it, just bread. A Yorkshire Pudding. Nancy really liked those. They also had roasted parsnips, broccoli, cauliflower in a sauce, mashed orange something (that didn't taste like yams or sweet potatoes), carrots, boiled new potatoes, and roasted potatoes. And leeks! I gave Audrey one long skinny parsnip and when she took a bite of it, she turned to Steve and said, "This isn't a very good french fry." We all chuckled at that. Now for the leeks - they taste like a garlicky mild onion. I guess these were boiled. I liked them. I think I was the only one at the table who did, though. They're grown in Wales.

For dessert, the kids each got an ice cream, Steve and I each ordered a rhubarb & apple crisp that came with hot custard (just like really thick sweetened cream), and L&N split a Knickerbocker Glory. That puppy was huge! I bet the whole thing from table to top was at least 15 inches! The bottom 2.5 inches was the stem of the glass and the top 2.5 inches was the little frou-frou things that they stick in sundaes and things like this. It was ice cream, different sauces (forest fruit sauce?), and a raspberry cheesecake mousse. Lynette said it was really good.

After lunch we headed to the ruins of the abbey that's in the center of Reading at Forbury Gardens. The "gardens" are actually just a park. With a "ginormous lion statue". Those are Audrey's words. She was describing it to my mom on the phone. It's on a base that's probably 12 feet tall and maybe 20 feet long and 8 feet wide. So if the base is that huge, the lion's got to be at least as big! I think it's as big as the church's minibus. But this is a guess.

Then we walked to the local Hobbycraft store. Think Hobby Lobby, but open on Sunday. We were there to pick up string and something to poke holes with. Have I mentioned conkers before? They are the nuts off the Common Horse Chestnut tree. There are *loads* of these trees around. They are bigger than walnuts and they come out of a green softish shell thing. They pop out when they fall from the trees. Here's a picture.

So the kids pick up these "conkers" as they're known here and play a game called (what else?) Conkers. Here are the rules:

1. Take a large, hard conker and drill a hole through it using a nail or small screwdriver. (This may be done by an adult on behalf of the contestant.) Thread a piece of string through it about 25 cm long. Often a shoelace is used. Tie a large knot at one or both ends of the string, so that the conker will not slide off when swung hard.

2. Find an opponent. It is to your advantage if you can find an opponent with a conker smaller and softer than yours.

3. Take it in turns to hit each other's conker using your own. To do this one player lets the conker dangle on the full length of the string while the other player hits. To hit, hold the string in one hand with the conker held above it in the other hand, then swipe at the opponent's conker, letting go of your own nut but keeping hold of the string.

Does this not sound like a game invented by little boys? The scoring is even better:

-A new conker is a none-er meaning that it has conquered none yet.
-If you manage to smash your opponent's conker to pieces, so that it comes off the string, your conker gets the score that your opponent's conker had, plus one for beating the opponent's conker itself. So for example, if two none-ers play, the surviving conker will become a one-er. But if a two-er plays a three-er, the surviving conker will become a six-er.
-This scoring system is arguably not particularly fair, but it has the property that in a competition where n new conkers compete until only one survives, the surviving conker will be an (n-1)-er regardless of the sequence of games. Familiarity with the game will make this scoring system seem more justifiable, as some conkers seem to lead charmed lives, while others are just extraordinarily tough.

Again - boys *must* have invented this game.

So we got the stuff we needed, came home, and played Conkers. It takes longer than one would imagine. Audrey gave up after 2 turns because she said it was too hard. It is tough to make your conker hit your opponent's, and I imagine having the dexterity of a 3-year-old doesn't help much. Caleb and I ended up playing. Laughing is more like it. I would take 3 hits on his, then he would take about 29 swings on mine and only hit himself when his conker would swing back on his string towards him. He nailed me in the head once. That got us both laughing! Julie liked watching (from a safe distance) and would laugh every time Caleb threw his conker.

If you want more information on conkers (they have a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!!!) look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conker. It's where I got the picture.

Not Feeling Quite So Marvelous

My back hurts. It usually does when I wake up, but I'm just tired of it hurting all the time. Plus my plantar fasciitis hurts - the arch of my left foot. I hurt it originally in 2003 and it got better in late 2004, but it's acting up again. Plus my Achilles tendons are tender. Too much walking? I don't want to stop, though. It's such a nice relaxing thing to do. Until I wake up feeling like I'm about a hundred years old.

On to other things. I'll stop whining now.

Yesterday Lynette and Nancy got to experience an unpleasant aspect of eating at pubs. Julie decided to take a looooong morning nap and slept until about 1.30. We had hemmed and hawed around and not had lunch at the house and decided to go to TGI Friday's to get lunch. So we loaded us all up in the van and headed out. Got to Friday's and were welcomed by a packed parking lot - at 2 in the afternoon. Hmmm. Unloaded everyone and got inside to discover that the wait was 30 minutes. Ok. Got back in the van and decided to head out to the Pack Saddle. It's a "family friendly" pub on the way to Mapledurham. Our plan was to eat and then take L & N to see the cottage we stayed in back in June. We unloaded, walked past a nice playground into the pub and were told that they had stopped serving lunch already. Fine. By this time I'm getting really tense because I'm starving and the kids (except Julie) are starving and letting us all know about it, and I'm sure the other 3 adults are starving, too, except they're polite enough not to whine about it like the kids.

So we drove down the little road and then the little lane to Mapledurham Estate. We drove past the cottage - I thought about pulling in but saw there was a vehicle there already. Not nice to go window peeking when someone is actually inhabiting the place. We drove down past the cottage through the village and then on towards the big house. But the house and grounds are closed until Easter, so we didn't get very close. But L&N enjoyed seeing the country setting, the cottage, the narrow lane, and all that went along with it. Alas, there were no cows. Audrey was disappointed.

Back into town. Back by Friday's, since it is on our way. I parked and ran in to find out that the wait had decreased to only 20 minutes. No thanks. Ran back to the van and kept on towards home. We decided we would go to M-c-D-o-n-a-l-d-s. Caleb asked, "What does that spell?" to which I replied, "It spells 'you're gonna be happy'." Or something like that. It made L&N crack up and that made me feel better that they could laugh in the midst of grumbling tummies.

Made our way to McD's. I have mixed feelings at this point - it's McDonald's, but I'm starving and it's easily accessible food. So we eat.

I have to interject something here - we're watching a kids' TV show about how they make shoes. It's VERY cool! They're custom-making a little pinky-purple pair of leather Mary Janes for a 4-year-old girl named Georgia. Very interesting and cool!

Back to the whiny story now.

Lunch at McD's at 3.20. Yikes. While we were there, a classmate of Caleb's came in - Chloe. She's a cutie pie. Her mom, Mrs. Bird, is one of the dinner ladies at Caleb's school. They call cafeteria ladies dinner ladies. After the kids eat lunch, some of the dinner ladies accompany them outside for playtime. I'm not quite sure how that works, but it works somehow.

So we now are all fed and happy. We decide to drive around in the older part of Reading to see buildings and stuff. We get over near the Oracle (the mall) and Audrey announces that she has to go to the bathroom. Joy. We decide to just go home at this point. On the way home, we swing by the grocery store to pick up a couple of things.

It was a very frustrating afternoon.

Today promises to be better. We're skipping church (shame on us) and we're going to go to an antique toy fair down by the River Thames later. We'll see the river, then after we're done with the toy fair and sightseeing there, we'll head into Reading to Forbury Garden to see the big lion statue and the abbey ruins. At least we have a game plan for the day.

Tomorrow Steve will accompany L&N to London. They will spend the night there and come back Tuesday afternoon/evening. Steve has decided to take reading material and will sit out on the more "girly" things like Kensington Palace and Harrod's. Wimp.

This is all for now. I'm going to check on train info for the London travellers now.

Marvelous Houseguests!

They made it! Lynette and Nancy made it here safe and sound. They have a wild tale about airport adventures! Let me see if I can get most of it here.

It started in Lubbock. They arrived at the airport early - very early. They got the wheelchair for Nancy (not a usual necessity, but they decided that it would be a good thing) and the little lady that was pushing her through the airport was literally shoving people out of their way. Apparently she was a little juggernaut!

They were asked if they wanted to get on an earlier plane, but declined. They didn't want to mess up the plans they already made. Good thing they didn't switch, too - the passengers ended up being deplaned out on the tarmac after sitting for over an hour and had to go back through ticketing and security. Turns out there was a MASSIVE storm in Houston that closed the airport for a while. If they had gotten on that earlier flight, they would have missed their connection in Houston because of the delay in Lubbock

So they got on the correct flight from Lubbock to Houston and made it to Houston fine - after sitting in their plane for 1 1/2 hours. But the instructions for a wheelchair didn't make it to Houston. They had to wait for a chair. Because the airport had been closed and flights had been cancelled and/or delayed, it was bedlam. Finally someone came with a chair and then they spent the next little while being shunted from employee to employee. It sounds a bit like a relay race with Nancy and the chair being the baton that was handed off. They did make it to their gate and on their plane but they were the LAST ONES on the flight. Not because of tardiness due to the relay, but because the employees wouldn't load them because of the wheelchair.

The flight over was fine. No delays or anything like that. Steve and Audrey left around their normal morning departure time and made it to the airport before Lynette and Nancy did. It was a very rainy morning and I was worried about traffic on the M4 and the M25, but apparently the worst part of traffic was here in Tilehurst leading up to the M4. Oh well.

They went to Windsor Castle for their post-trans-Atlantic-get-rid-of-jet-lag adventure. Actually they ate lunch first at that great British establishment, McDonalds. It seems somehow wrong that you can eat at a fast food joint that is literally across a narrow street from Windsor Castle. The Queen of England has an American clown for a neighbor.

Anyway - Windsor was a huge hit with everyone. Audrey had a fabulous time and was very well-behaved apparently. She met a little girl from Austin who took a shine to both Audrey and Audrey's new pink Cinderella wellies (rain boots). They crossed paths a few times before they decided to hold hands and walk together and chat about how they were the princesses of the castle. It sounds adorable!

Caleb, Julie and I arrived home from our regular daily activities (school for Caleb, being babysat for Julie and a MASSAGE for me) about 15 minutes before they all arrived. I stayed in the kitchen feeding Julie while everyone trickled in. Nancy came back to us first and Julie smiled. Lynette came a few minutes later, walked over to us, leaned over the high chair and we hugged. Julie freaked out. Very loudly. She cried and cried. It was the strangest thing. For the rest of the evening she would cry anytime Grammy looked at her. Bizarre. It is now 48 hours later and Julie loves Grammy. It took lots of cuddles (hugs), kisses, funny voices, smiles, and laughs for Grammy to win her over, but it worked. Thank goodness!

We had Beef Wellington for dinner. Beef with mushrooms in a pastry. Don't be too impressed that I cooked it. That's all I did - cooked it. I didn't assemble it or anything else. The grocery store puts things together like this (fresh, not frozen) and you just pop it in the oven. I didn't know what to expect and fortunately it was tasty. Last night, Thursday, I made Indian food. I think it was a hit. I didn't hear any complaining at dinner or vomiting in the night.

So on Day 2 - Thursday - Lynette and Nancy were going to just hang out with me and see what my usual day was like. We got Steve & Audrey off to school and work, then walked Caleb to school. I think Nancy was most impressed with the fact that all of the moms (or dads as the case may be) walked their kids inside the school gates and stayed in the schoolyard until the kids lined up with their classes to go in. Some even stay until all of the kids are inside the school.

We popped in the wool shop (they call all yarn "wool" here) because Nancy enjoys crocheting. We had a nice chat with with the proprietor about yarns. She was using a really cool yarn to make a scarf. It alternated regular yarn with eyelash (very fuzzy) yarn. It was all on the same skein (ball) of yarn - not two different balls, but the same ball. It was plain for a yard or so, then fuzzy. Very cool! I think I hear the yarn calling to me "Buy me! Make scarves and hats for little girls out of me!" We'll see.

Came home. Lynette plugged in her curling iron to do her hair. Her American curling iron. The voltage over here is 240. The voltage at home is 110. When she picked it up and began to curl her hair, she saw smoke. She tried to get the "tongs," as they're called over here, out of her hair by lifting up the part that hold the hair on the tongs, but it turns out that was unnecessary - the hair burned right off in a clump. No joke. Here's a picture.

Yikes. It was smelly. Fortunately you can't see where it burned her hair, even though it's on the crown of her head. And just so you know, I had her permission to write about this.

Other than all this, our Thursday was uneventful. Today we went to the Oracle and Broad Street for some shopping. We tromped all around and saw lots of things - modern buildings, old buildings, trendy shops, souvenir shops, drugstores...and we rode the bus to and from downtown. I think we're all all pooped. Tomorrow we might go see the cottage we stayed in back in June.

And just so you know, I have hot purple hair. It's permanent, but when I wash it, I get a pink tie-dyed effect on my towel. Makes my towel lovely. I paid for this, by the way.

Update on the Marvelous Visitors

Just heard from Steve. He picked up his mom and aunt a few minutes ago. They're heading to Windsor first to walk a bit and see the castle. Audrey can see all of the 150+ pink chairs again.

Marvelous News About A Fabulous Opportunity

It's a job opportunity for me back home! It was actually addressed to Steve, so *he* has the marvelous opportunity. This is what the piece of mail said:

For our Santa Fe store, opening soon at San Francisco Street. If you love to shop with us, why not come work at our store? Enjoy flexible hours, a fun and friendly work environment and a generous 40% employee discount. If you would like to be a part of the Coldwater Creek team, just call (888)477-6089. We're hiring for full-time lead sales management and part-time sales positions. Coldwater Creek.

Coldwater Creek!! In Santa Fe!! Yippee! I love Coldwater Creek clothes! I love the catalogs! It's always a treat to get a catalog in the mail. I'm so excited! I'll actually make a point of going downtown now. I normally avoid downtown Santa Fe like the plague, but for Coldwater Creek, I'll make an exception.

Off to get everybody ready for the day!

Another Marvelous "Get Fuzzy" Translation

Cheers = thanks
tickety-boo = fine, wonderful
stonking = impressively large
naff = bad, uncool
chunder= puke
prat = jerk, idiot
winding me up = messing with me

A Few Marvelous Random Thoughts

I was reminded this morning while Julie was in her pack and play that she loves empty plastic drink bottles as much as her brother did when he was her age. At that particular moment this morning she was playing with an empty flavored sparkling water bottle. The flavor is what I wanted to report: hemp and apricot. The label says something about the "nutty" flavor of the hemp, but I think it was just wishful thinking that drinking the hemp would make you feel nutty. It just tasted like apricot-flavor water to me.

Yesterday at church, I was singled out (I'm still not sure why) by the worship leader. He mentioned that I was from NM, am staying in England until Christmas, and that I'm in Community Bible Study. That was all he said. After church 2 different older couples came up to us to chat. The couple I spoke with has a son, 26, who works at AWE and who has worked in NM before (I don't know if it was at LANL or at Sandia in Abq.) and is going back there in November they thought. I think it might be last October for the conference in Los Alamos that Steve is skipping, but what do I know? The other couple actually was sitting beside us in our row. They talked to Steve and he found out that they lived in Houston (Spring, actually) for a while! How small is this world?

Anyway, they were talking about the church they attended there. The first Sunday they were there, several families came up and chatted with them, and one family invited them over for Sunday dinner. They declined saying that they were going home to have a joint. When the American family looked at them oddly, the British wife said that it was a Sunday family tradition. She laughed when she was telling Steve this, and said that the American family is probably still praying for them!

In case you didn't get the joke, a joint in England is a roast. Steve was pleased with himself because he got the joke before she got to the punchline.

Now in addition to trying to find the perfect pair of boots, I'm also in the market for some new trainers (tennis shoes). I think tonight I'll go to the 2 shops that flank the grocery store I shop at and look for these shoes. One shop is a sporting good shop, and the other is a clothing shop. Plus there's a drugstore thrown in there for good measure.

I think I might have to take Julie in to the doctor. She has been pulling on her left ear and has a nasty nose. I'm going to give her one more day and then I'll call the doctor's office on Wednesday if I need to. Also on Wednesday, Steve's mom and aunt are arriving! He is taking Audrey to the airport with him to pick them up. I'm staying here to get Caleb to school and to get a massage in the afternoon. The massage I've been threatening to get for almost a year. My back is in bad shape. I can't twist to look over my shoulder when I'm reversing the van - not a good problem to have. I need to get it taken care of. Hopefully the massage will help. The lady also does physical therapy, so maybe she can help me figure out what more I need to be doing.

I had a weird thing happen this morning. My e-mail program pulled in about 15 e-mails from September and August that it hadn't downloaded before. I had seen the e-mails in another program, but they never made it to my main e-mail program for some reason. Weird.

It's 2.14 right now and I'm still hungry. I had some leftover lasagna at 12.20-ish and a pot of yogurt just now, but I'm starving. So I'm going to sign off and go eat. Audrey will probably come wandering in at some point and want some food too, and Julie will probably start yelling at some point in all of this, so I'll go ahead and get both girls to come with me.

Restarting the Computer Whilst in the Middle of Blogging Isn't Marvelous

I had to restart the computer because the USB modem was acting up. I forgot that I had a blog post in progress, so I lost it. I don't even remember what I was writing about!

I do remember that Steve had contributed. So I'll start with that bit.

This afternoon the kids (C & A) were sitting on the floor together looking at a book on the couch so Julie couldn't get to it. Audrey had gotten up to mess with Julie and was coming back when she started to push Caleb away. They finally agreed to share and while trying to sit, she stumbled and kicked him in the knee. He said, "Ouch! She kicked me in the knee!" Putting her hands on her hips, she made a show of leaning down and looking at his bare feet. Then she stood up and told him, "Caleb, if you're not going to wear shoes, then I *am* going to kick you." Impressive piece of logic, yeah?

Steve enjoyed this little vignette so much that he came upstairs and disturbed my nice hot quiet shower to tell me about it. It was worth the interruption.

Anyway, when I remember what I was talking about earlier, I'll post it.