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”

Before. 

After. *

Before. 

After. 

Continue reading “Moving Days”