Look who we ran into! It isn't a trip out of state if you don't bump into someone from Sunday School! We have in Houston (Josh) and Orlando (Mathesons) and now the Deboers in Missouri! Glad to see them and thankful John is going to Tulsa to return the rental car with Curtis and the kids don't have to! We got to have a truck stop dinner together, even ! Great way to end the trip!
That is also a song. For Melissa, who spent her childhood in Europe. Just like how we call you "the Germans," you feel free to call us "the French" now!
We have a sweet ride, but no DVD player! Beckett is happy to be going home to his friends. Myer wants to go back to France or Inola, whichever has more paper to draw his inventions on, he says and Abe wants to stay in Chicago. That makes sense; he is a Schmidt and they're Chicagoans!
Lots of people (by "lots" I mean "Ashton") have asked if I would keep this blog going when I get home. I read a great book while I was in France by a friend of my friend Lisa called "Redneck in Kenya" (it's on Kindle. Give it a read! You wont regret it!) He wrote about his time serving orphans in Kenya from his perspective as a Texan and he had a chapter about when he returned to Texas. I expect I'll do the same. Maybe the blog will make a return whenever I find another adventure to go on! Although I feel like raising three boys in Inola is the biggest adventure I have had yet!
Thanks to all 4 of my faithful readers who have followed along with us! It has been fun sharing it and hearing from you! See you very, very soon!
For Steve, who says he reads my blog but then asks me questions that are clearly answered in the blog. This is your test. Despite all that, Jamie is a lucky girl and we are excited for the wedding next month! Don't worry, we will leave the kids at home. **update: Steve called. He says he read the blog "a lot the first week. Maybe less later on." Haha! We still love him!
In 2005 or so, our friend Steve was interning at Ford Motor Co. (He drives Chevys!) in Detroit and we made a trip up to see him. On the way back Curtis and I went through Chicago and I remember driving through Little Italy. After our trip to Italy in April, I really wanted to stop by again! It had changed a lot I thought but we found a fun little place to eat some pasta! We almost stopped at a place called "Tuscany" but didn't because we remembered that Tuscany has terrible bread!
The place we ate was exactly like Italy in the way they did act like we were all long lost friends. Abe was SO happy to have ice! Europe doesn't use ice and he kept asking for it and so when he got ice he flipped out. He asked the waitress for more and she took him with her to the kitchen and let him make his own drink. It was fun!
At the end of the meal they gave us a tiny glass and the waitress said something like this is "antiseptic" or something like that and I thought "ok... I hate germs..." so when she made the toast I downed it. Um, it was booze. I do not drink ever and as soon as it went down and burned like I had drank gasoline! I just waited politely til she left the table and I went to the bathroom and I couldn't help myself but every last drop came right back up! Haha. I have no sense of smell so I didn't see it coming but Curtis just pretended to drink his and poured it in his water when no one was looking. He said the glass gave it away, but I was clueless. We are funny.
Today we hit up Maggie Daley Park with Curtis and my new friend Sarah and her kiddos! It was fun. I think it is like "The Gathering Place" in Tulsa is supposed to be like when it is finished. I am excited.
Next we walked to the Field Museum. I had told the kids that the museum had the largest and most complete T-Rex in the world and they said "Sue??" Yep, they knew the name of the most complete T-Rex. That cracked me up and they're lucky they did or else I would NEVER have agreed to pay the outlandish price to get in. It was $89 total!! Ack! I was bored silly most of the time but I did want to see the Terracotta Warriors and the photography exhibit of Women of Vision, but of course, those cost extra!! They had corny scenes set up of what different areas of the world and all I could think is if we didn't waste $89 on this place we could save up and just go to those places. They had a rose rock and it made me think of my Granny and I love to do that.
They don't know the actual gender of the T-Rex it said so I kept singing "life ain't easy for a boy named Sue" and no one else thought it was funny. Replacing boy with "dino" didn't draw laughs either. I have tried to be interested in dinosaurs. I find them as exciting as Beckett's favorite game as a small child: fence.
The one cool part is they had the palentologists on exhibit! The signs on their exhibit cracked me up.
I continue to love Chicago and have loved our trip so much. Tomorrow we head to Inola by rental car! Crossing my finger the car will have a DVD player!
For Brenda. I am so flattered that you read this! See you this weekend!
Yesterday evening we walked to "The Bean" at Mellenium Park, where we were supposed to go with my new friend Sarah when I accidentally walked us to the zoo. She stayed all day at the zoo yesterday and after seeing the bean today was so thankful for my mistake!
The Bean is a huge mirrored sculpture that refects the Chicago skyline. My kids LOVE their reflection so they kind of enjoyed it! Inside the bean looking up made the coolest crazy relfection. Myer, Beckett and I all walked directly into the Bean like a bird would a window. Now one else did. Must be genetic. Myer blacked his eye on it even!
After that we walked to the Rainforest Cafe. I know they have those lots of places, but this was our first time at one. It reminded me a little bit of going to Casa Bonita as a kid. The kids liked it and we had a fun time!
The kids got up 4-something AM again. Ugh! After breakfast Sarah and her 4 kids and the kids and I headed by foot 3 miles away to the Shedd Aquarium. It is on Lake Michigan and had great views of beautiful sail boats. It was sooo dark and sooo crowded with school groups and we had 7 kids 7 and under and at one point I considered drowning myself in the penguin habitat. It was crazy, but luckily the dolphins redeemed the aquarium and I LOVED watching them! The kids stood and watched them for a long time. Without the crowds the aqarium would have been amazing. We paid the cheapest entrance ($8 for adults, $6 for kids) and we didn't realize it at the time but all the cool stuff like dolphins and sea lions were not included. Luckily we had already seen it all when we realized! We never saw the beluga whales which is a bummer but we tried our best. I had to watch Sarah's baby Sadie at one point while she took her other 3 potty and It reminded me how much I don't enjoy taking babies to aquariums.
It was fun having a mom friend to do stuff with in Chicago.
For Aunt Dina and Maddie. Dina, you have one beautiful hometown!
Yesterday I was certain since the kids only slept 4 hours and had 7 hours added to their day that they would nap. Sometimes I wonder if I am new around here. They didn't nap and had boundless energy and were up again before 5am this morning. I should have seen that coming.
I hailed my first ever taxi all by myself and took it to Lincoln Park Zoo (the zoo is FREE! The taxi was $10 one way and it took us about 2 miles).
We had the very best time! The weather was perfect and the zoo is super amazing. I saw my first ever gorillas and I could have watched them all day! If I had realized that was a career option it might be what I did for a living instead of studying the behavior of people. The mom gorilla was like looking into a mirror of my life. She ate nothing but lettuce but was all round and flabby and her three kids wrestled wildly while lookers on stood there staring in amazement. Solidarity, sister.
Beckett had to see every last inch of the zoo. He lives for animals. Always has. He got to see a serval and wolves and he reacted as I would if i were to win the lottery or get to go grocery shopping alone. His excitement made my day.
This morning we were at the hotel pool at 7:30am and I met a nice Mormon lady with 4 kids from Utah by way of Ohio whose husband was here on business and I mentioned we wanted to walk to Mellenium Park to see the Bean today and she asked if she could tag along. So Sarah and I set out with 7 kids in tow. 2 miles later I found out we had in fact walked to... the Zoo. Oops. She was super cool about it and just said she wanted to visit the zoo anyway (it was freezing cold. I can't believe I made 9 people walk that far in the cold to go to the wrong place!). The upside it the walk was breath taking. I'm certain it is out of my price range but the neighborhood was called Gold Coast and I am ready to move in whenever I can get a rich uncle who then dies.
Curtis finished up his meetings and met us at the zoo and we took him around to some of the highlights. The buildings there were so beautiful and I can't believe how close you can get to the animals. There were beautiful views of downtown as well. Beckett said "Why is this place free? It is so good." I agree! Thank you, Chicago! Best time the kids and I have had in a while!
At least I accidentally took us all somewhere nice!
There truly is a song for everything!
We landed in Chicago at 6pm Tulsa time, 1am Toulouse time. We got to the hotel downtown where Curtis is working arond 9pm, got everyone asleep around 11 and the kids and I slept til 10am! Woo hoo! Unfortunately 10am Toulouse time, aka 3am here. So yes the kids had 7 hours added to their day yesterday but onlt slept 4 hours. They're tired though, because Beckett asked me how we got to the hotel yesterday. I told him we took a taxi. He had no recollection! I've slept a total of 8 hours total over the course of 3 days and can't remember much myself! Curtis slept in until he had to head to his meetings. He will work late tonight, so good that he got some sleep.
Shockingly, the kids and I aren't doing half bad, considering we missed a night's sleep. We went out to get some necessities and walked a few miles and have enjoyed the hotel pool. I thought we wouldn't get much done today because we might be sleeping, but no dice. Their downtown zoo is free! so we may head that way soon.
The kids and I will be flying solo this trip to Chicago as Curtis is busy with whatever it is he does. He has been to Chicago a lot, since his dad and his family are from here! I've only been once before but I love it and hope I can haul these kids around to make the most of our time here.
I miss Curtis' long monkey arms for pictures!
Today we leave France and head to Chicago for the week! It is very bittersweet, as I really have enjoyed our time here.
Things I love and will miss about France:
*The beauty of the buildings and landscape
*The kids' school
*Walking a mile to school with the kids and chatting with the other kids and moms
*The delicious food! Baguettes and butter!
*The markets
*Walking
*Fewer committments. Curtis had dinner every day with us and on weekends played catch with the boys. These things don't happen in Inola, sad but true.
*Public transportation
*The healthy lifestyle
*The parks and running trails
*My kids learning French
*Adventure
*Diversity. We met nice people from every walk of life, every color, nation and belief. I love for the kids to learn that even if we don't agree on everything, look alike or even have the same native tongue, we can still be friends.
*Wide definitions of beauty and body acceptance (plastic surgery isn't even a thing here)
*Watching Memaw and Aunt Laura enjoy France
*Mild weather
A few things I look forward to:
*Sleeping in my own bed
*My gym(s). Don't judge me. I ate a lot of bread here.
*My people
*More space
*Dryers
*Toilets and toilet seats. If youre lucky enough to find a western toilet, odds are there won't be a toilet seat
*English
*Having a car
*Chicago
*Relieving my housesitters and all those helping with my home and dogs. I owe you guys.
*The lake
*Fewer people walking around crowded streets with lit cigarettes inches from my kids' faces. Everyone smokes in France.
*The return of my guitar, Summer. Curtis wanted to bring all the luggage down and told me to go wait on the taxi with the kids, so I did and said "Please don't forget my guitar." My guitar remains in Toulouse. I'm being moderately cool about it. Until her hopeful return I will play my electric, Jimmy.
*Traveling again :)
What I have learned:
*We really enjoyed time with just the 5 of us. We have so little of it at home.
*My Spanish is better than I thought, as the French often knew Spanish and not English (we are 2 hours from Spain in Toulouse) and often times we were able to get through simple conversations together in Español.
*We adapt quickly to change
*I pinpointed some things I want to be different at home
*It is hard ans sometimes scary to not speak the language. I like my kids to know how hard it is for the new guy in town and pray this experience taught them what it is like to walk a mile in someone else's ill-fittingshoes.
P.s. it is normal to bring butter on an airplane in your purse, right?
