A Little Something New In My Sidebar

After being sick in bed for almost two weeks, I am reeling at the fact that November is almost over and that means there are less than two months until we leave for Paris. I'm very excited, and a little overwhelmed at all I need to get done. But one thing I could do while I was lying around recuperating was create a Paris Study Abroad Blog, which has now been added to my sidebar. I will still be posting on this blog, but the other blog will include entries from me, Steve, and the students we are traveling with. Check it out in the months to come (we are leaving January 11th).

A Thing Of Beauty Is A Joy Forever

I was walking Max home from school the other day, and there was this stunning beauty, sitting in front of someone's house.

It had never been there before, and the next day it was gone, so I am glad I captured it's essense of mid-century cool while I could.

What A Riot

Now that I am coming out of the fog of my pneumonia, I am catching up on email, and got an interesting one from one of the former directors of the study abroad program in Paris. Turns out there was a riot the other day just outside the apartment where we will be living, and it was all captured by the current study abroad director who is a photographer. For the whole story, go here. Although I'm sure this won't be happening every day, it sure will be a lot more exciting than our little corner of the world.
Is it wrong that a fruit riot makes me even more excited to go to Paris than ever before?
Well if it is, I don't wanna be right.

How It Went

So, like I mentioned, oh so flippantly, in my last blog post, I had the flu. Let me tell you IT WAS NOTHING TO BE FLIPPANT ABOUT! Not only because I am STILL in bed, but that flu turned into pneumonia which has led to over a week of the worst sickness I can remember. I mean, have you ever had pneumonia? It sucks. I think the all time low point was when I vomited all over Steve the other night in bed. The upside is that he was still there in the morning taking care of me, and I think if you vomit on someone and they stick around, it must be love. I'm almost done with all my antibiotics and my fever is almost gone, so I am really hoping to be up and around in the next few days. Thanks for all the help, food, and kind emails from everyone. Having great family and friends rocks.

Just be glad I didn't vomit on you to make you prove your love.

Just Another Flu Statistic

Saturday morning I had a scratchy voice when I went to yoga. Saturday afternoon it was joined by a fever. By Sunday I was in bed with aches, pains, and an even higher fever. And last night, it got up to 103 degrees. So what more can I do but admit I have the flu. Is it H1N1? Who knows, and I maybe never will because since I'm not pregnant, two, or have a chronic illness, they won't test me and I just have to ride it out. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Blue Plate

Maybe this is true in every house of children, but in our house, it's all about the blue plate. When we visited Portland, Oregon about a year ago I found these cute robot plates by French Bull at a gift shop and thought they would be a fun gift to take home for the boys. I bought one in blue and one in yellow, and thought I was the coolest Mom in the world.
Fast forward to when we get home and I unwrap the cool plates, expecting oohs and ahhs, but instead I get, from both boys simultaneously, "I want the blue plate." And thus it has been ever since, there are always fights over the blue robot plate, and the poor yellow robot plate is avoided like the plague. I have tried to explain that it doesn't make the food taste any different, that the yellow plate has a blue robot on in, and I've even threatened to give the plates away because of the fighting, but to no avail.

Oh, life with kids. Never a dull moment.

Rainbow Cat

Today I went for parent teacher conferences with Max's teacher (who looks about 16 years old, by the way), and as I was waiting saw this great picture he painted in the hall.

It reminded me of one of my favorite books to read to him as a kid, Let's Paint A Rainbow, by Eric Carle. It goes through all the colors of the rainbow, in the magical way Eric Carle does everything, and then on the last page it says "Imagine That, A Rainbow Cat," with a line drawing of a cat with all the colors mentioned in the book. It was so random, I loved it. Max loved to point to all the colors as I read about them. It seems like so long ago when we just had time to spend over books like that. I need to do more of it, except now he can read them to me.

And just in case you didn't think they listen to you when you read to them (Max was like two when we were reading this one), think again.

The scary part is they listen to everything you say too. Not always a good thing.