will WE play in Peoria?

The snow may have all melted, and the temperatures are back up in the 50’s (I did the conversion for you), but today’s mission was to go rent Kaitlyn’s skis. She was very excited about this. Of course, any time she enters a retail environment, she’s excited.

I was so proud of myself because I did the whole thing in French. Only one time did the guy have to switch and ask me a question in English when he needed to know her weight. I said what I wanted, gave her height and eventually her size in French. I also stumbled through describing her skiing experience.

Last year’s skis had penguins on them. Today, Kaitlyn went straight to a lovely pink pair with butterflies. She got something pretty generic… that makes her look like she has some idea what she’s doing on the slopes.

What amazed me the most happened when I went to pay. The sales guy asked if I’d rented there before, which I had, so I managed to spell my name and he found us in the computer. Then after some tapping on his calculator to compute our Caterpillar discount, he looked at that number then lowered it a little more. He told me that because I’d rented snowshoes there last winter and had a problem with them (which is true), he took an extra 5 Euros off the price. I couldn’t believe that a note by my name in their computer resulted in anything… especially nearly a year after it was entered. It may only be 5 Euros, but it is enough to make me feel like a loyal customer now.

If falling asleep less than a minute after your favorite movie starts is any indication, then Kaitlyn is really pretty sick. She’s sleeping on the couch with Mulan on the tv.

When I picked her up from school today the teacher told me that Kaitlyn had thrown up after lunch. Well, she told me this in French and doesn’t know the English word for vomit so she acted it out. I got the point. Then she handed me a bag with Kaitlyn’s dirty tights and shoes (they’re new and they’re suede. now, they’re trash). There was also some other kid’s scarf that Kaitlyn barfed on. I will remember this if she ever comes home with someone else’s barf on her stuff… the guilty party is responsible for the washing! At least she didn’t throw up on someone else’s suede shoes.

I’m kind of bothered by the fact that the school didn’t call me after she got sick, but waited until the end of the day to let me know. The teacher said that Kaitlyn told her she felt better after she threw up… but once we got out to the sidewalk Kaitlyn had to throw up again. We made it to a pile of leaves far away from everyone before she did. When I offered her a barf bag for the car ride home she got really insulted.

She wasn’t the only sick kid at school today. Something is going around. But keeping her there all afternoon to spread it even more seems bizarre to me. We’ll see how she feels in the morning. I’ll decide then if I’ll keep her germs at home or send them to class.

The ski resort isn’t open yet, but it was packed this afternoon. Anyone who owns a sled drove up there to enjoy the early snow.

It was kind of funny to see all those people dragging their sleds up the piste meant for skiers. The run that leads right to the “lodge” is an intermediate run.. so those sleds got going pretty fast!

There were a few dedicated skiiers there… walking up the mountain in their skis specially made for just such a jaunt, then zipping down. I’m sure the runs were empty until they got to the bottom!

Bill had hoped the lifts would be open today. I think this snow is making him even sadder about spending most of his winter in the UK instead of 20 minutes from the ski resort.

I give up on getting a good night’s sleep.

At 3:20am, someone called our house. On our French phone. (we have two: a French phone and a Vonage phone) I ran to answer it thinking that if someone was calling at that time there must be a real emergency. I picked up right after the answering machine did. The person hung up. Didn’t even have the courtesy to apologize for dialing the wrong number in the middle of the night! I have some choice English words for the clumsy dialer.

I tried and tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. After about an hour of lying in bed, I finally went back downstairs and turned on the tv. I got the Slingbox to connect but couldn’t control it, so I watched The Biggest Loser with whoever at my brother’s house watches it. Then Kaitlyn got up and came down with me. I convinced her to go upstairs and snuggle with her daddy. I crawled back into bed and was just dozing off when my alarm clock went off.

I finally got back to sleep. And I didn’t get up till nearly 1 in the afternoon. Great, now I won’t be able to fall asleep tonight!

Tonight, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our extended far-from-home family. But in the rush to make everything happen the way we thought it “should,” we sort of forgot about the whole point of the dinner… being thankful. Because even though some days are harder than they should be, we have a lot to be thankful for.

I had signed up to bring two things to the dinner: vanilla cupcakes (to make sure there was a dessert Kaitlyn would eat) and stuffing. Kaitlyn and I had a tough time with the jet lag and my plan to bake the cupcakes yesterday just didn’t happen. We didn’t wake up until nearly 11:30 (and only because the phone rang when Bill called to say he was at the airport)… so our baking got a late start. They got done just in time for Kaitlyn to take a bath and for me to take a shower.

The stuffing should have been a breeze… I’d brought four boxes of Stove Top back in my luggage. Boil water, add stuffing, let sit five minutes. But when Bill went to fix the stuffing while I fixed my hair, the stove went out and turned the 10 minute job into a 45 minute job. No stove top nearly meant no Stove Top! (It takes a long time to heat water in our little microwave.) That’s appliance number two that’s given us problems; thank goodness we chose the house with new appliances so that we wouldn’t have to worry about these things!

Anyway, we finally got the Stove Top done, the car all packed and headed out to the dinner… only 30 minutes late. And as we approached the interstate I looked at the overpass and said “uh, those cars aren’t moving.” An accident had the interstate at a standstill. So we drove through the city. Along with dozens of others making the same detour. Most of the drive was spent discussing how we hadn’t planned wisely and if we had then we wouldn’t be so late. Even with the traffic problems, we got there at about the same time as most people.

I had volunteered Bill to be the official photographer. Which I think had him a little stressed out. He tried wandering around taking pictures, but I made him come back to the table and sit down so that we could eat. Eventually, he got to snap his pictures. After I’d had dinner!

The meal was just like at home… everyone ate too much. There was turkey, stuffing (my Stove Top was a hit), potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, gravy, pumpkin pie.

We never stopped to share our thoughts about what we’re thankful for. I’m thankful that my daughter, husband and family are all healthy. I’m thankful that even though it can be trying, we have this chance to experience life in another country. I’m thankful that I have such a supportive husband. I’m thankful that my brother bought me a Slingbox. I’m thankful that I have such good friends at home and that they haven’t forgotten me just because I’m so far away.

I’m reading Julia Child’s book “My Life in France” and finding it fascinating. So much so, that I brought it up during my French lesson today. And the French teacher (who likes to cook) looked at me and said “who?” It seemed funny… when I think of Julia Child I think of French cooking but he had no idea who she was.

I guess the woman who pioneered tv cooking and who taught Americans how to cook French food is, well, American.

Jet lag is a horrible, horrible thing. Especially if you live with a four year old.

The past two nights, I’ve gotten her to bed by 9pm.

The past two nights, she’s gotten up around 3 to get into my bed… and then flopped around unable to go back to sleep for 2 or 3 hours.

Waking her up to go to school today felt downright cruel. But it wasn’t as if I wasn’t tired, too! She cried basically from the time I woke her up until the time we got into the car. Mixed in with the sobs was “sorry, Mommy, I don’t want you to be mad at me” which only made me feel like a bigger jerk. But sleeping in is not going to make the jet lag go away.

Once we got to school, she was fine. Kissed me and hugged me goodbye and headed off with her friends. When I picked her up, she was in a great mood. But by the time her friend who’d come over to play in our snow had to go (partially because it was already DARK outside!) she dissolved into tears.

I got her into bed at 8:45. I convinced her that it’s time to get back to our routine and I refused to lay down with her. She fell asleep all on her own. Now if only she sleeps all night long!

I got back from the store to discover that it takes more than a couple of hours for this house to go from freezing to warm. So I decided to try to start a fire.

Now, the homeowner has a big pile of firewood. Which he keeps at the bottom of a steep slope, in the middle of the yard, up against the fence. There’s no good way to get to it when there isn’t snow on the ground and no possible way to access it when there is.

I looked in the fireplace and realized there was some wood that we never finished burning last winter. I opened the fireplace door, put in some fire starters and noticed a dead wasp just where the door had been. Creepy. Then his leg stretched. Like he was waking up from a long winter’s nap. So I did what any paranoid person would do in the same circumstance. I quickly lit the fire starter blocks and shut the door… then watched the wasp wake up and wander toward the fire where he eventually met his probably painful demise. Cruel. But he was gone. Then again, so was my fire. Hmmm… need more wood.

I scoured the basement for scrap wood. Found just one piece that didn’t appear to have paint on it. I went outside to confirm my inability to reach the snow-covered firewood pile. Check. But I did find a log on the patio. It will do.

Still, no luck with the fire. I finally figured out that every time I shut the glass door, the fire went out. So I called Bill in England to ask how to open the flue. (If he’s going to be sent away for long periods of time, I’m going to call him in the middle of his work day with these stupid questions.) While on the phone with him I followed his instructions, opened the flue then stumbled around the room screaming into his ear. A wasp had fallen onto my head before he flew off to the big window. Here it is, minus one degrees with snow on the ground and I’ve got wasps in the house. I’m just so darn lucky. Oh, I also have a small fire.

Waiting. And waiting. And waiting. In the cold.

The repair man said he’d be here between 9:30 and 11:30 this morning. I haven’t even gone to the bathroom this whole time so that when he gets here, I’ll be able to let him in. I unpacked, which took forever because every few minutes I thought I heard a car and ran to the window to look. But nothing.

Finally, I had to go get Kaitlyn from school for lunch. After double-checking a verb conjugation, I left a note on the door saying I’d be back by noon. Then I rushed down the hill to the school. Two people offered to have Kaitlyn and I over for lunch. I turned them down, too paranoid to be away from the house for one minute longer than necessary. Besides, my note didn’t say anything about eating lunch. And I am not going to have to wait another day because I missed the guy who was late showing up in the first place.

At home, Kaitlyn and I were arguing about how you cannot wear a skimpy tutu in a house that’s barely above freezing when the phone rang. It was the repairman looking for directions. I struggle with French on the phone, but I have practiced giving directions. Although I don’t know how to say my house is at the top of the street. So I told him “Allez haut… haut.. haut… et voila!” (Go high… high… high… and voila) In case I’d somehow tricked him into thinking I can speak French, he was sure then that I cannot. I didn’t care… he was on the way.

Moments later when I was trying to pull some tights onto Kaitlyn (who had changed into a party dress, but at least it’s warm) the bell rang. “Je suis arrive!” That was fast. I led him to the basement where he poked around the water heater. Normally, I’d have stayed to watch and perhaps dechipher what was wrong, but I had to rush back upstairs to feed Kaitlyn lunch before she needs to be back at school. I only had about ten minutes. And that’s pretty much how long it took the guy to fix the problem. He tried to show me what was wrong, but I have no idea what he said or meant. When Bill gets home this weekend, I’ll have to try to re-create the pointing to see if he can figure it out.

I took Kaitlyn back to school with only a small amount of convincing (had to promise playtime in the snow later) and I hit the grocery store.

Kaitlyn told me she didn’t want to go to school today. I’m sure she doesn’t. She has to be tired. Amazingly, after napping for a couple of hours yesterday, she fell asleep at 9 last night. I fell asleep not long after. Then at 3:20am, she was up asking for a glass of milk. I made my way downstairs in a strange, dark house… got the milk… and put her back in bed. She wanted to snuggle and I was too exhausted to force the issue of her sleeping in her own spot. Besides, I didn’t want her to create a fuss and wake up our hosts. But she didn’t fall back asleep for what had to be hours. I heard the recycling truck go by. It stops at our house around 5am. So I figure we were up for at least two hours before finally dozing back off.

When we were up at 3:30, she did tell me that “at morning” she’d go to school and see her friends. Well, “at morning” came and she had a different story. (our hostess woke us up around 8:15 so I could go wait for the repairman)

Kaitlyn had some excuses handy for why she should stay home with me. Said she was scared. That’s what she says now for everything she doesn’t want to do. Then she told me no one likes her. I’m pretty sure that isn’t the case, either. When I told her that her friend Sophia’s mom had said that she’d really missed Kaitlyn while we were gone, she perked up a bit. Finally, she agreed to go to school and see how it went. If it was horrible, she could stay home after lunch. I made the deal half-heartedly. I think that getting back into her routine is the best bet for beating jet lag. And I have too much to do for her to stay home.

Once we got to school, she seemed ok… no arguing in the parking lot or playground. When she went in the classroom, half a dozen little kids jumped up and yelled her name and greeted her. A little French girl whose name I don’t know but I’ve seen at ballet class threw her arms around Kaitlyn in a giant hug. She was fine.