Waiting... 39 weeks!

As the calendar draws near to my official American due date (39 weeks today), each day possesses a sense of mystery. Is today the day? Should we go on a road trip or stay close to home in case something happens? How far does one have to walk and how much castor oil must one drink to go into labor? I find myself experiencing a plethera of emotions, feeling completely ready to hold Kayden in my arms to absolutely terrified about finally meeting my daughter. These thoughts vary hourly, making the day a rollarcoaster ride of extremes. It has been entertaining telling people I am due in a week, because everyone has a piece of advice about when they think I should have the baby, what their grandma always says, or a personal experience. Kayden will come when she is fully cooked... the doctor swears it will be before Christmas!

I saw the doctor on Monday and he guessed that Kayden would greet the world in the next week to week and a half. Wow, deep breath, I can do this!

SO, with that in mind, Shane and I have been trying to spend as much quality time together in our quiet home and its surroundings. It has been a terrific week and I must say that I have the best husband in the world. Not only is he super supportive, adorable and handsome, he puts up with mood swings, decorating projects, my obsession with baby clothes and helps when I just can't seem to get on my shoes :) Its a blast being married to your best friend!

We took a day trip over the border to Belgium to explore an old town called Tournai. As with most European towns, it had some amazing churches to discover. To get into the fall spirit, we also attempted to carve pumpkins while watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin. The pumpkins turned out way better than last years (which were supported by tooth picks and falling apart before a candle could even be lit!). Shane made a scary Elivs and mine was a silly bat. We were so excitied to light them for our neighbors, but no one shared the same enthusiasm, as Halloween is not celebrated in France.

In the last week or so, we have found a new hobby of looking for antique/ European furniture at second hand stores across Europe called "Troc". They have some amazing items for excellent prices. Shane is like a kid in a candy store, getting more and more giddy as we weave through the rows of dressers, armoires and unidentifiable objects. I think almost every car ride we have taken in the last week or so has landed us at a new Troc. That said, we have are still searching for our perfect European pieces. They will be found... we do have 3 years!

The wait continues... Our doctor is out of town lecturing in Lebanon until Saturday and I really want to watch the Giants play the Cowboys on Sunday, so, maybe Kayden, could you come on Monday??? (If it were only that easy!)

We will keep you posted!

Pictures from our getaway!

Cathedral in Reims: The first king of France was coronated here.

Table on which WWII surrender treaty was signed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower's office was next door

Troyes

The crazy crooked buildings in Troyes


Troyes. I'm hungry, get in my belly!

Our amazing room!

The walls of the houses are angled...they might fall over soon.

Random vineyard we found while driving around

Champagne tasting

The champagne factory sign

Cross in the vineyards

..

The apple farm!!! YEAH!

Loaded down with our purchases

Loving the beautiful apple orchards

The vineyard across the street from the champagne man's house

The champagne man, his son and Shane in the basement cellar

View on our drive of the Champagne Valley: Epiernay below.

Babymoon- 1st Anniversary

This past weekend, Shane planned a surprise destination getaway to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. To make things more interesting, it also doubled as our "babymoon". With my only request being- not too far away from my doctor!, he schemed up an incredible trip. Where did we go, I know the suspense is killing you????!!!!!

Shane chose for us to go to the Champagne region for a few reasons. One, it was another place we could check off in our attempt to conquer all areas of France. Two, it was within my 1-3 hour radius of my doctor. Three, the area was in full autumn vibrancy... Since we both love the fall, I border on obsession, it was perfect! Plus, four, who doesn't like to try a sip of champagne straight from the vineyards!

We drove down to Reims and took in the sites of the quaint little town. It is known for its INCREDIBLE cathedral, dating back to the 1100's. Since the 400's, there has actually been a church on the cathedral site. To continue our quest to become more cultured, we went to the museum where the surrender treaty was signed by the Germans in WWII. Very interesting.

Our next destination was a town called Troyes. Many of the buildings looked like they were fresh from the pages of a Shakespeare play and contained a ton of character, leaning to the side and crooked. The bed and breakfast we stayed at was unbelievable. It looked like a place straight from a fairytale, with a secret little garden and wooden beams. Loved it! The town is known for a special kind of sausage they produce, andouillettes. Shane attempted to try some on his pizza and then was generous to share some with me. Conclusion- DISGUSTING!! It tasted like the pig sty and had the consistency of mush. Ick ick ick. Needless to say, it was not a French delicacy we will crave!

Saturday we had our favorite breakfast of french pastries and coffee and then set out to see the country side. We drove through itty bitty towns, each boasting multiple champagne producers. The day was incredibly beautiful, crisp and fresh with the smell of fall. Our windows were rolled down in the car and we found it to be the perfect oppurtunity to sing along to Christmas carols. Wonderful! We were able to see one champagne factory and taste some of the various types sold. Neither of us are huge fans of champagne, but it was fun to see the champagne making process and to experience the final product.

Sunday, we sadly had to leave our little bed and breakfast and hit the road to the cider producing part of the region. With another perfect sunshine filled day ahead of us, we stumbled upon a Fete de Pomme (Apple Festival). AWESOME!! We were the only English speaking people there and all the locals were out with their stalls selling tasty products of the region. Of course we loaded up at the festival on some French goodies- no sausage though! The apples were delicious and fresh, picked right from the orchards surrounding the festival.

The highlight of the trip was visiting another champagne producer at his home. A fellow officer at Shane's work had recommended we visit the vineyard where he gets his champagne from and arranged an appointment for us. Little did we know what kind of adventure was to be had! We pull up to this little house in the tiny town with vineyards all across the street. A little old man comes out and welcomes us in. Turns out, this is the man we had the appointment with and his son was on his way to translate. We were actually able to communicate with our French and sign language while the little old wife kept telling us to MANGEZ - EAT!!!! The champagne had been produced by this family for over 5 generations and was a smaller producer, with only about 30000 bottles a year. So we sat around in this little French man's living room, sipping champagne and just chatting about its production and life in general. It was surreal. Then he took us into his basement where 1/3 of his champagne is stored and explained to us the process, with the help of his son translating of course! They even walked us up into the vineyards, cut off a bunch of grapes and had us eat some. We left feeling so blessed for our glimpse into small town French life and also weighed down with a few bottles of champagne.

The weekend was incredible. There were so many once in a life time memories made. Most of all, it made me so thankful for my amazing husband who put so much time and effort into creating the perfect weekend. Being married to Shane just gets better and better! He has set the standard high for anniversaries to come....

Home

Well folks, we have finally moved into our place! After looking at 8 different apartments, we chose the first one we had seen. Our furniture arrived on Thursday with minimal damage (a few cracks) and nothing was lost. It is so wonderful to be able to sit on our own couch and sleep in our own bed after exactly 2 months of being homeless.
The apartment we ended up renting is really neat. It is part of an old mansion that has been broken into 6 seperate apartments. No one is certain of the exact age of our place, but it is over 100 years old. Our guest room on the first floor used to be for the horses , therefore has 4 old stone troughs, a brick ceiling and tile walls. Such a cool room. Guess you will have to come see it! The rest of our place supposedly was half for the servants, half for the rich people. It is 3 stories with lots of stairs (which will be interesting with a baby). We love it.

Prior to our stuff arriving, we had a brilliant idea to paint the bedrooms and bathrooms. We did not factor in to our home decorating excitement that neither of us really know how to paint. Shane hadn't painted since high school. I had helped my dad paint through the years (turns out, he did all the hard work) and did some painting with Habitat for Humanity. The project took WAY longer than we ever could have guessed (doesn't it always happen like that). After 5 trips to the local equivalent of Home Depot, we are done with the painting! SO, if you ever hear either of us say, "I think I want to paint half the house in one weekend," use whatever it takes to change our minds!

An added bonus to our new home is that another American family lives across the courtyard. Mark works with Shane at the Citadel while Kelsey stays home to take care of the baby. They have been a tremendous help in making everything here go semi- smoothly! AND Kelsey is an excellent source of info for all my baby questions. Lots of questions! They even threw an American BBQ this weekend so we could meet the rest of the neighbors. It was funny to see French people try to put together a hamburger- it proved to be a tricky task! We feel very blessed to have Mark and Kelsey so close.

Off our mini balcony- 33 weeks!

Our door is the one to the left and the second story is ours

Our fancy living room prior to our stuff arriving

Not the greatest pix, the horse trough room

Brugge

Last weekend we decided to escape Lille and head up to Brugge, Belgium for the night. It was a fantastic get away to an amazing, story book like town. We took the train - LOVE public transport and found ourselves a nice hotel right in the center of town. The first night we spent just exploring back allies and scoping out the sites. It was truly romantic, with bridges glowing in the dim light of the street lamps and the peacefulness of the canals before our eyes.

Saturday morning, our main goal was to find delicious waffles (our lives tend to center around food). The breakfast place served amazing Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries and real chocolate melted to pour on top. I was in heaven- chocolate for breakfast, heck yes! We wandered the city a bit more, enjoying the aromas wafting out of of street corner waffles joints and chocolate shops.

This trip, we felt quite cultured, as we went to 2 museums- the Fry Museum and the Chocolate Museum. Let me tell you- fries come from Belgium originally and are incredible! Also, chocolate has been perfected in Belgium and it truly is life changing.

While I tend to go for sweet, Shane is drawn to the hundreds of varieties of Belgian beer. We had lunch at a place that served over 400 different brews. The menu was like a dictionary! Shane was in heaven, while I sipped on my coke. I think if we had time, he would have tried every single one of the beers. Instead, he settled on one and was in all his glory- a new beer discovered!

The whole weekend was wonderful. Its amazing how refreshed one can feel with just a night away. We will try to squeeze in as many times like this while in Europe.... now if we can just figure out how to do it with a baby - 6 more weeks!

The Chocolate Museum

PARIS!!!

This past weekend we had the awesome oppurtunity to go to Paris. Our friends,Kari and Josh, were on a European vacation, with a stop in Paris for a few days. We saw this as a perfect excuse to travel, see a new city and hang out with friends.

The whole weekend was amazing, with incredible food, long midnight walks,beautiful sites and just a great time hanging out with friends. I had to pinch myself multiple times to bring myself to the reality that I was actually in Paris, the City of Lights and Love.

Shane and I took the train down from Lille, which was an excellent experience. A smooth, nice quiet ride, arriving to Paris within an hour. It dropped us off a few blocks from our hotel and we were able to see our first sites of Paris. Our hotel was quite the budget lodging- bright yellow walls with painted green furniture. Yet, it was clean and we spent just enough time there to sleep and shower.

We met Kari and Josh at their hotel and then we hit the city! We walked in pouring rain to Notre Dame and realized we had arrived just in time for mass. Since none of us are Catholic, we decided to forego the massive line and come back another time. We also decided to buy cheap umbrellas to fight off the rain. Soon as those cheesy tourist umbrellas were in our hands, the rain stopped and we did not have a drop of wetness the rest of the weekend! From this point on, we wandered the back allies of Paris, taking in the sites and sounds of the beautiful city.

Our goal was to see the Eiffel Tower at night. It was so windy by the time we got there, we could not go to the very top. Instead, we split a bottle of wine in the park while gazing at its twinkling lites. This was proceeded by a breathtaking walk home of all the monuments lit up at night. Truly was romantic!

Saturday we had our first go at the Paris Metro and ended up at the Arc de Triumphe. Another magnificent piece of French history. The climb to the top led to a panoramic gorgeous view of the whole city. We trekked about the city the rest of the day, stopping at cafes along the way to people watch and enjoy French cuisine. Also, to my delight, multiple Starbucks' lined the streets. You can guarantee I was at one each day! Yum! That night, we had a delicious greek dinner in the Latin quarter and then shared some wine in the glow of Notre Dame. Wonderful.

By the time Sunday rolled around, we were all so exhausted, we hit up a creperie for breakfast, Starbucks for a final coffee and then said our goodbyes. I can vouch for all of us that our legs were tired and that we were not used to being up so late at night. We are getting old! It was a fantastic weekend!

To top it all off, when we got home, we realized we could get NFL games through the internet. So thats exactly what Shane and I did- rested our worn out bodies in front of the computer to catch the first games of the season. Love it!

The opera with Kari and Josh

Under the Eiffel Tower at Night- Magical

LOVE NUTELLA ON ANYTHING

Outside Notre Dame- it was COLD and windy

Arc de Triumphe

Defence Monument in background

On top of the Arc de Triumphe with Eiffel Tower in back and baby belly looking huge!

On the way to Notre Dame in the pouring rain

Pulled Over

Yesterday we were on our way to our OB appointment, attempting the drive to the hospital for the first time by ourselves. Shane was behind the wheel because the car we are borrowing is so monsterous, it can probably drive right over all the mini euro cars. I find this intimidating, and gladly let Shane take charge. We were feeling rather confident, armed with 2 maps and the GPS. There were signs for the hospital and we thought that going through the round about would be the shortest way.

Not so much.

As soon as we got on to the round about, we realized about 8 cars were pulled over with multiple cops milling about. Hmmm. Strange. In my head, I thought, Oh well, they will just let us go, we look innocent. Wrong again. The police signaled for us to pullover and asked for our license and registration. At this point, we realize that our international drivers licenses were safely at home and we have NO idea where the registration is in the car. I start to break a sweat while Shane sits calmly. We try to tell the cops we speak English but they just keep rattling away in French- not helpful! At this point in the story, I might add also that Shane was in his full army uniform, our car had the French government/ foreigner plates and we couldn't look more American if we tried. Still, no mercy.

Finally we find the registration and proudly (ok, frantically in my case) hand it to the cops. Turns out, from my basic understanding of French, that the lane we had been in was a red paved lane meant only for emergency vehicles. After this proclamation, they let us go on our merry way. All that trauma for that small tidbit of info! I was about to pull the pregnany/ baby card but luckily got away without taking the situation to that level.

The conclusion of the story...
1. Shane is much calmer in situations involving getting pulled over. Me, on the other hand, well, lets just say I pray hard and almost break out in hives.
2. Every one has to have a cop story when they are overseas! Now we have ours and hopefully no more will be added to the repitore.