Leaving 12:30 pm Wednesday 10/25/17 — arriving Thursday a.m. in Paris 6:10 am (midnight East Coast).  Then to Clermont-Ferrand, arriving 11:00 am (5:00 am East Coast).   Through the looking glass, Alice!

Almost 27 years TO THE DAY when we came from Germany (with short stay in Tulsa) to Greenville – October 28, 1990.  How ironic to be almost full circle.  My heart hurts tonight.  Leaving, even temporarily, is so difficult.  Thank you for the emails,  texts,  and calls. LOVE all of you!

The next time you read this….it will be about a BRAVE NEW WORLD TO CONQUER!  Come along on our journey to PURE IMAGINATION!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2pt2-F2j2g

BIIIIIIGGGGGG HUGS!!!  PACK THOSE BAGS!!!

 

It’s getting close.  Really close.  Creeping up on us.  Hiding around the corner. Ready to yell “BOO!” The waiting and distractions have lulled me into a false sense of limbo.   Can’t sleep.   I have to keep reminding myself……

http://gph.is/XJwO19

But we aren’t gonna talk about the twist in my stomach!  It’s getting tight.

I was told by a French woman that French women generally do not shave underarms and, to a lesser extent, legs.  Even today.  REALLY.

And antiperspirant/deodorant is considered bad for the skin and health.  Uh, huh.  Vive la différence, but I’m stocking up at CVS, all the same.

Check your watches — France is 6 hours ahead of Eastern time (7 hours ahead of Tulsa).  So when it’s noon in Greenville, it’s 6 pm in Clermont-Ferrand.  Ha Ha, Santa gets to us first.  But disregard the time difference — JUST CALL – whenever you want to!  I mean it!

Here’s your trivia for the day….French President Emmanuel Macron is 39 years old, the youngest president in the history of France.  He was an outstanding student, an investment banker, and a civil servant, including a stint at the Nigerian Embassy.  He has a master’s level degree in Philosophy and Public Affairs and is the son of a physician and a neurology professor.  Macron’s wife, Brigitte, is 24 years his senior.  They first met when he was a 15-year-old student and she was his 39-year-old teacher, and became a couple once he was 18.  His parents sent him off to Paris due to their alarm at the bond he had formed with Brigitte, who was married with three children at the time.

Also interesting and much less scandalous, there is an apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower, designed and lived in by the architect, Gustave Eiffel.  Among the very few people who were invited to the topmost residence was our very own Thomas Alva Edison.  (Tulsa Edison, Class of ’77!)

Yep……almost time to pack……..

Busy seeing friends and giving big hugs, refusing to say goodbye but rather “see you soon” – “à bientôt” – until they come to visit or we return to be with them.  To Augusta today to hug our trois enfants.  

Petit bisous! (little kisses!) xoxox

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.  1 Peter 5:7  

I’m trying.

George Peppard, star of the 1980s TV sitcom The A-Team, would always escape “near-death” scenarios with his raggedy team of daredevils.  At the end of every show, he would puff on his cigar and say with great swagger,

Our list of MUST DO items, all 2,573 pages long, is almost finished….maybe, just maybe, this plan is coming together!

You know, I think this is actually gonna happen!

Yes, it will be terrible to hug the kids this weekend when we leave Augusta.  Yes, there will be leaky eyes and running mascara.  No, no permanent apartment yet.  Yes, a temporary corporate apartment for 30+ days upon arrival (see it here).  No, I haven’t driven by our old house again (since the last time).    [Does that make me a stalker?]   Yes, Tanner hits the road soon – to Romania and Hungary.  No, we have no plans for my birthday except to figure out which way is up.  Yes, the kids are coming for NOEL!  Yes, I heard there is BUNCO with Americans there (yea!).  Yes, French lessons are such a wonderful gift BUT!  Il est très difficile pour moi!  I adore my teacher, Hortense, mais talk about mental exercise!  Oooo la la la la.  (And Tanner’s course is 4x harder than mine!) I have homework daily – he has HOURS of homework daily, until all hours of the night.  Truly.  Here was today’s lesson (in brief).    

Lundi 16 octobre – corriger les devoirs. Pratique orale: acheter : courses, restaurants, vêtements.   Situations d’achat. Réviser les expressions avec avoir et Les nombres de 30 – 100.   Les commerces en France.  Site pour écouter les dialogues et pratiquer le français. Réviser le passé composé avec avoir et être …

Have you looked at the Cool Tidbits page?  (click here)  Just some interesting trivia!  Such as, “the French eat every part of the pig aside from the ‘oink.’ Trotters, as the British call them, are popular the world over but they are especially adored in France. They are cooked slowly and the final dish is… delightfully gelatinous.”  Now THAT is disgusting! Go to the Cool Tidbits Page and see the article on weird French favorites…but wait until AFTER you’ve had dinner!

I think I’ll stick with just chicken….and chicken….and only chicken, s’il vous plait!

(P.S. Tanner says if I show you the article, then no one will come to visit……)

If I can do anything for you before or after we go, please let me know (soon). Missing everyone already!   

à la prochaine, mes amis!

Isaiah 41:10  So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Our lovely French apartment-to-be on Avenue Julien – the one I was mentally arranging furniture in every single night for hours – was snaked out from under us.  You have to understand, there are maybe THREE (un, deux, trois) others – 3!!! – to pick from…one that’s $500 MORE/mo (UGH) or one that’s 1,000 sf and three flights of stairs up (no elevator) (in which case, we brought WAY.TOO.MUCH.STUFF).  Yeah, yeah, yeah…..this, too, shall pass!  When we signed on the dotted line, no one promised anyone a rose garden…..so homeless we remain!  It’s all good.

Two weeks from this minute we’ll be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, with five suitcases and no keys to anything.  ASSUMING our passports with the Visa stamps arrive from the Consulate in time!  🙂

Selling the Z tomorrow (I think), which will probably be hard for Tanner.  That’s been HIS CAR since 2006 – I’ve probably driven it only a dozen times in a decade.  It’s his baby!  Like selling your firstborn!

Many firsts.  Bring ’em on!

Lesson du jour ~ Six inches.  That’s how much the Eiffel Tower grows in the sun. Yes!  The Eiffel Tower grows when it gets hot and shrinks in the cold. Although this is fairly hard to see with the naked eye.   🙂

Romans 5:3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance…”

As of noon today, we are homeless.  Kinda STRESSFUL.  However, our outlook is shifting towards ‘what’s next’ instead of ‘what’s in front of our face.’ A welcome change, I might add, from the angst of moving out of our family’s home!  [“Those are MY flowers in that yard! That’s OUR kitchen.  That was ROBERT’S place to sit…Those were BRENDAN’S stairs to hop down…”] I didn’t expect such strong emotions for all of this. It’s making my face break out!

‘Stuff’ is fleeting. Hear me.  Just sticks and stones.  It’s wonderful, and we’re thankful and grateful for the things we have….but at the end of the day, really, it’s still just STUFF.  It can’t go with you when it’s time for the big farewell in the sky.  The memories and the love, however, come along with us for the ride! 

Next stop, finding an apartment in Clermont-Ferrand. We’ve been sending emails at 3.00 am, literally, so that the person in France will receive it the first thing in their business day!  Typical crisis du jour things. We may even end up renting an apartment sight unseen (!!!), due to the possibility of a sweet opportunity that seems to have fallen in our lap through another Michelin ex-pat family.

Tanner had an oral & written exam via Skype with a professeur from the Université Clermont Auvergne.  I guarantee that mon mari is not the first American to say bonjour with a slightly Southernized accent.  🙂  I usually don’t believe in giving “A’s for Effort,” but considering the difficulty in learning and pronouncing Le Français, I’d award him a trophy!  (Most Improved, perhaps.  🙂 )

The Université has 37,000 students. Think University of Georgia!  An entire city unto itself.  We’ll be taking French lessons there twice a week once settled, and I think it will be very fun to be in class on campus.

—I just this hour found out that our lifetime family friend, Johnnie Frese, just passed away.  She and her husband hosted our wedding reception 34 years ago in their beautiful, fairy-tale backyard garden.  A fun, witty, smart professional woman who loved my mom and Dad and her two miniature horses, Gypsie and Molly.  God bless you, Johnnie, and your husband, Erwin “Red” Frese.

Heading to Tulsa tomorrow with Tanner (yippee!), courtesy of Brendan and Delta stand-by perks….thank you, thank you, thank you!  Can’t wait to see Mom, Larry, Myrna, Cheryl, family and friends.

Happy birthday to our beautiful daughter (IL), Leslie!!!!  Wishing you bouquets of happiness every day of the year! Je t’aime!One more thing – shoutout to Soraya, Brendan’s love, who slammed down a nursing school exam recently…..AWESOME JOB, GIRL! 

More from the plane tomorrow….those Espeys are all over the place…(Brendan-San Francisco, Robert-Las Vegas, Tanner et moi-Tulsa, Leslie-Georgia…)

Passe une bonne soirée!

“The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you.  He will not fail you or forsake you.  Do not fear or be dismayed.”  Deuteronomy 31:8

LAST WEEK.

TODAY. 

Soon, I promise, we’ll get back to talking about GOING to France instead of LEAVING Greenville.  But not today!

Apartment living – weird.  Empty house at 100 Lytle Street – completely weird. Age 57+, “homeless,” and sharing a car.  Strange, strange, strange!  We’ve just liquidated our life.

But, ah, such is the journey! Not everyone will think of our current chapter as achievement, but it is undoubtedly an adventure, and not for the faint of heart! Continue reading “WHOMP. #CRASHANDBURN”