Happy 4 years - in Paris!

Last Thursday through Saturday, Eric and I celebrated our fourth anniversary in the City of Light. I had spent a bit more time here than he had on previous trips, and I had such fun showing him "my" Paris. Thankfully, the whole trip was low-key and relaxing compared to the insanity of the last several weeks. The constant travel and lack of a "home base" was beginning to wear on all of us, but sleeping in til 9 (yep, even Brooks slept in!) and enjoying the leisurely strolling through this beautiful, historic city was just perfect.

We arrived late Thursday afternoon, so Eric put Brooks down for a nap and I gathered the makings of a Paris picnic on Rue Cler (a pedestrian street with lots of market shops, cafes and bakeries - it's always my home base in Paris). We picnicked in our room while Brooks snoozed and the sun set outside. What fun to realize we could see the Eiffel Tower from our window! That evening, we strolled down the Rue Cler with Brooks and discussed the London housing options that we had seen the day before. Friday morning we stepped out and got caffe et pain aux chocolat - delicious pastries with chocolate bars baked inside. Then off to the Ile de la Cite for Rick Steve's (gotta love Rick!) self-guided Historic Paris walk through Notre Dame, Ile St Louis (a yummy stop for take-away crepes and glacee - French gelato, so much better than American ice cream!), the old Latin Quarter, St Chapelle, and Pont Neuf. Brooks did great in his stroller and charmed locals and fellow travelers as he practiced clapping and waving to them. He even caught a few winks on the move. Eric and I got good practice navigating his stroller on the many steps of the Metro - which is not as hard as some might believe. That night we had a yummy French supper and even then, Brooks cooperated beautifully. We ended the day with a visit to the sparkley Eiffel Tower and a slow stroll home. Hurray for four years!

In front of Notre Dame...


And behind Notre Dame (yep, Brooks is asleep!)


Happy Anniversary to us!


So glad we're married! (Is Brooks a trooper, or what?!)

Saturday was a great day as well - we got up and packed our bags, then got breakfast on Rue Cler before heading to the Musee D'Orsay to check out the world's greatest Impressionist collection. Then we strolled through the Tuilleries Gardens, to Place de la Concorde where Eric got very excited about a really fancy car that we saw parked in front of the Crillon hotel. He guessed that the owner's name started with Prince or Sultan. With what appeared to be more than a million dollars worth of upgrades, he felt confident that it wouldn't be street legal in the US. We finished the afternoon by continuing up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. So much history on his street! And so much beauty! What a gorgeous day!!


Check out the license plate


"I will Triumph!"

Perhaps one of the biggest joys of living in London will be how close everything is - Paris is just a quick 2.5 hour train trip from Waterloo station. Maybe that's why this trip was so peaceful. We knew we didn't have to see everything, because we'll be back soon!

Tina, Wendy, Sissy - I'm remembering my trips here with each of you and reliving some of my favorite moments... Wendy, the joy of us popping up out of the Metro and squealing as we saw our first glimpse of the Notre Dame in the glooming. Sissy, I showed Eric "de little chairs" in Hotel Champs de Mars around the corner from us. Tina, we stopped by Angelina's for hot cocoa on Saturday. Dee-lish! Memories with ya'll make the city seem friendly, even after several years.

Mom - I took these pictures because they reminded me of four years ago... THIS is what I was going for with the whole candles thing ... It was such fun to realize that the pictures in my mind were from Notre Dame!! I think we did well, huh? Note, the candle stands all are wrought iron. :)

Darlin - we've had countless adventures in the last four years and I'm so pleased that we're just getting started! I love you so much, thanks for taking me to Paris!!

Observations from "London Life" Day #2

A Tube strike shuts down London. We've just passed the 24 hour mark of a 72 hour strike and it seems that the city is just all out of sorts. Eric had figured out a great plan-B for how to get to work this morning but ended up having to walk most of the way there as all the buses on his route were full and not accepting more passengers. I can't even imagine the stress! And on his first day in the office, too! Geez.

There are large supermarkets here, and not just the equivalent of a 7-11... Brooks and I found one today after a long stroll - it was so comforting to see things from home there - Tropicana OJ, Sunmaid raisins, Hellman's mayo, Pantene shampoo, even Brooks' same brand of diapers. It took us three hours to go to the store - an hour's walk each way and then a slow crawl down the aisles, trying to find things I recognized. Some funny things I noticed? an entire row of various teas, another section labeled "sweet biscuits". Nice. Everything in the produce section is prepackaged and lists the country the item was grown in - green beans from Tanzania, that sort of thing. I tried not to go into sticker shock from the prices, but at least I can find things for us to eat... very very good feeling, especially since...

Brooks' stock of baby food is dwindling. We brought an entire suitcase of food for Brooks with us when we came over, so that we'd have enough for our trips as well as some for a few days in London - time just to get the lay of the land before having to figure out what to feed him. Unfortunately, Gerber is not a brand that I saw today! I bought all sorts of produce though and plan to put our handy food mill to the test tomorrow. I think I can probably give him more table food than I have, but it's a bit daunting especially as we don't have a high chair in our temp housing... Brooks eats most meals strapped into his stroller, just so he doesn't squirm away as we're feeding him. But he needs to be feeding himself, so we'll need to figure out something.

And we also need to figure out where we're going to live. Our first choice flat just got rented out from underneath us... bummer. I'm praying that God has something in mind that's just not yet available. Lord, help us find it!

Finally, it would be very easy for me to not talk to anyone here. Today, I've spoken to Eric, Brooks, and our realtor. People on the street aren't all that chatty. I will need to work at building some relationships soon.

Wow! Even as I typed that last sentence, I got a skype phone call from Donna, our staff liason for newlymarrieds and our pastor's wife. What a wonderful treat! Thanks for the call, it makes Chicago feel so much closer to home!!

I'm going to get started on supper so that it's ready whenever Eric actually arrives... more later

home, sweet temporary home...

Aug 16 Nashville, TN
Aug 17 Chicago, IL ("Chez Youngren")
Aug 18 Chicago, IL (Thanks Tim and Mel)
Aug 19 American Airlines (second to last row of coach)
Aug 20 Luton, UK
Aug 21 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Aug 22 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Aug 23 Bovec, Slovenia
Aug 24 Plitvice, Croatia
Aug 25 Podoca, Croatia
Aug 26 Split, Croatia
Aug 27 Split, Croatia
Aug 28 Canary Wharf London (temp housing #1)
Aug 29 Canary Wharf
Aug 30 Paris, France
Aug 31 Paris, France
Sept 1 Chelsea London (temp housing #2)
Sept 2 Chelsea

Last night, as Eric and I tried to count up how many places we've called "home" in the last few weeks, we lost count. I had to sit down with a map this morning to figure it out. A dozen in 2.5 weeks. Wow. We haven't slept in the same place for more than 2 nights in a row since visiting my family in Nashville mid-August. No wonder we're a bit weary of our suitcases. And Brooks is understandably impatient with us, as his pack n play has a different ceiling over it every couple of days. A bit unsettling when you're only 9 months old...

All this to say, I'm so pleased that we've actually taken everything out of our suitcases and put them all in a closet/bathroom (I'll explain that later) and have made every effort to settle into our little temporary apartment in London, at least for as long as we're here. This morning I found it was a nice change to not have to load up the stroller, pack n play, car seat, clothes, diapers, baby food, toys and oh yeah, stuff for us! and schlep off to the rental car or train station or airport. No, we could stay right where we are! At least for a few weeks anyway... Happy day!

I hear the little guy stirring... More details (and pictures!) from the adventures of our wandering little family shortly.

greetings from Croatia!

We re alive. The trip across the ocean and the crazy week of vacation in the Balkans has not undone us... We re here and we re doing quite well actually. We have lots of stories. Eric, Brooks and I are in Split, Croatia (at an internet cafe with a horrible Eastern European keyboard that switches z and y... geez!!) and about to crash for the night. We ve loved our trip... pictures and a few stories to come when we re back in London and online permanently... but just wanted you all to know that we re well. Tired, but still kicking.

Tomorrow we re back to London and into our temp housing (canary wharf, rather than nottinghill - not what we were hoping for) and then Wednesday we re searching for our new home. Please pray for us! Thursday we re off to Paris for a few days and then Eric starts work on 3 Sept and our new life will have officially begun... (right now feels like the strange non-life of a wandering homeless family... wonderfully free and yet not, somehow. very weird.)

hugs and kisses to everyone.

done.

Well, at least with the big stuff. The movers are now gone. Wow. {deep breath}

I've already had a good cry and we've had a fantastic time recounting all the happy memories we've had in this place. It's been a great home for us for the last four years.

One of the crew said as they were leaving that we were their best clients of the summer. I can't tell you how satisfying that was ... Apparently, we were a LOT more organized that I thought.

So now, we're sitting on our empty floor, drinking a celebratory beer/cider and talking about how excited we are to be moving to London and how glad we are to not be moving somewhere scary... Qatar, Bangladesh, and Omaha have all made the list of places we're glad to NOT be moving.

Thank you Lord.... for more things than we can count.

I'm off for a (might I say "well-earned") massage.

The Chaos Continues...

The movers are here for a second day. Several observations:

~ Sorting all we own into four piles (UK sea, UK air, Chicago storage, TN storage) is exponentially more complicated that just putting stuff in a box and moving it from A to B. Little colored post-it notes are my friends.
~ Ten cubic meters will be plenty of space to bring our stuff from home, including the green nursery chair that we decided at the last moment we couldn't live without.
~ Brooks really is the "perfect angel baby". He quietly slept through six packers ripping apart our house and putting it into cartons just outside his bedroom door. The tape gun sounds echoing through the condo would have woken a coma patient, but not our baby. And he happily flew to TN with grandma yesterday without looking back! Sending Brooks down to his grandparents a few days early was an excellent idea. I can't believe we considered not doing that.
~ There is a huge difference between a 20 year old back and a 32 year old back. I am amazed what these college students can muscle down our stairs.
~ We have great friends who generously came to offer a hand and love on our son... Shel was here Tues for 8 hours and again Thurs for the early morning shift as the movers arrived. Amy came for 8 hours on Wednesday while I had doctor's appointments and ran final errands. Kyler and Linds came Wed night - Kyler doing a ton at the new storage unit with Eric, and Lindsay helping me pack and sort here at home. Their assistance was invaluable and their friendship was just what my heart needed.
~ When choosing a closing attorney, look for one who offices near you, not way out in the burbs. It really does matter.
~ Music makes me move faster. When Eric cranks up the itunes, I almost always get a second wind. Sorting, packing, purging, etc, is better done if you're singing at the top of your lungs.
~ Moving internationally is a good time to decide if you REALLY want something. Knowing that you won't see it for at least two years and that you'll have to pay to keep it in a box really helps ya trim back.
~ A 30th birthday of a dear friend is a GREAT reason to take a break, shower, and forget about the relocation details for a few hours. As is seeing the Indians beat the Sox at Brooks' first American League game!
~ Three nights in a row of going to sleep at 2am and getting up at 6:30 won't kill a healthy mom. Having a newborn is good training for an international move.

When I stop and think about leaving our first home, where we returned after our honeymoon and came home from the hospital with Brooks... so many important life moments! I just can't let myself think of that right now. I sobbed when I moved out of Home & Pleasant four summers ago, even though I was about to marry the man of my dreams and was moving to the city to be near him. I think I tend to get attached to "space" and "home"... maybe that's part of my southern-ness? Anyway, there's too much in front of me to reflect on all of that now. I'm so glad that we'll be back in Chicago next weekend... perhaps I'll sneak over here with Eric and Brooks and take a few snapshots on the front porch - some mirror shots to our homecoming picks with our newborn last November.

Finally, our favorite quotes:

Mine (from one of the movers to his on-site supervisor) - "Wow, these guys are really organized. If I mess this up, you guys definitely should fire me."

Eric's (from one mover to another) - "Dude, you won't believe the cool poster I found out by the dumpster!! It's this horizontal Michael Jordan photo with him palming a basketball. Sweet! It's definitely going in my dorm next month."

Real Problems

We actually don't have any... I mean, yes, we are definitely stressed at times and regularly a bit overwhelmed by the process of packing up our lives, saying goodbye to friends and family and starting a new stage of life in the UK. But when we stop to really look at our lives, we realize that we are blessed beyond our wildest dreams:

We are healthy. We have a darling baby boy who's developing on schedule.
We are not poor. God has provided for us through PWC and we will be fine, even living on one income in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
We sold our house. We won't have to cover mortgage and rent at the same time.
We are well-loved. These last few visits with friends and trips to see our families remind us that we're a part of a community that we treasure who loves us back.
We chose this assignment. Whenever I'm frustrated by some logistical set-back, I remind myself - this is not being forced upon us, we're going because we want to go.
We know many folks who would love to trade places with us. We are aware of the challenges of those around us and see many of our "issues" as blessings by comparison. We recognize that our issues are temporary set-backs at worst and opportunities for God to show up and display His greatness at best!
We aren't dying, we're just moving. And better still, it's not forever.

100 weekends, that's all. We'll be back after about 100 weekends.

Amazing, really, how a shift in perspective can make everything easier.

Sliced Bread

has nothing to this!!!

Tuesday night our friends K and L came over for supper (our last supper guests before we start packing!) and he told us about a web radio site named Pandora. Oh my goodness! This is the coolest website ever, an online music radio database with a wide variety of musical selections in every genre based on the "music genome" project. Not exactly your typical online station, here's their description of the project:

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

I LOVE IT! I'm already filling up with my first "station" and am really enjoying several new artists that I haven't heard before. It's incredibly easy to use, and it's fun to be able to vote songs off my little station and to see what's coming next. How often do they repeat songs? And how can they pay for their tech and music licenses with just advertising space?! Amazing! Am I the only person in America who didn't know about this site?! Anyway, I'm loving it. Check it out and let me know what you think.