Mona Lisa...

When we left the Eiffel tower, we got on the metro for the first time to go to the Louvre. I don't remember if it was this time or the next, but there was a man singing "Yesterday"...and he knew none of the words, besides "Yes-ter-day"...and mumbled and made up the rest of the words. Then he walked around with a Dixie cup and for change. I really had to stifle a laugh at this guy.

Then at another time, there was a guy with a dog. (Again I don't remember if it was this time or not, but it was one of the first times on the Metro.) He had a German Shepard puppy under his seat, that he pulled out to hold like a baby after our first stop. Maybe this was on the same train ride. All I know is it was insane! And made me laugh many times.

Anywho...we got to the Louvre stop, and went inside to find someplace to get a drink, since that was my #1 problem on our trip was getting enough to drink. This got me into bathroom trouble more than once, when I would chug water when I found it...then had to go to the loo when I found it!

But, before we got a drink, we took a few photos...


and checked in with Steve through email...

This will go down as the most reliable wifi internet connection in all of Paris.

We stopped in Starbucks and got water, and sat down to chug and take my vitamins. We also filled out our Paris museum passes. We had to put our name and the date, since it was only a 2 day pass. This, in hindsight, was a mistake.

The reason it was such a mistake was at no point in the Louvre did anyone even look at our pass!! I think we could have gotten in absolutely free. It was really strange, but it made our passes unusable on the third day. C'est la vie! It seemed to be a recurring theme there...we paid for more than we needed to. Although, it did even out on the last day of Metro rides for free.

This one is a bit rambling isn't it? Let's just get to the photos!

Inside the Louvre...it was spectacular!






and crowded!!!


We wondered aloud several times if it was a free day, or school tour day. There were a ton of kids. I will say this, if this was normal for an afternoon in February, I would be scared to go in the height of tourist season!

This was Kris's favorite statue, the Nike Goddess...she's lovely standing up there!


We turned to walk through the hall and saw Jesus. Hello Jesus.


We were on a mission to see 2 ladies...because really, you can't see but a portion of this museum and see anything else in the city on the same trip. And you can't go to this museum and not see these two ladies.

The first...


I have always wanted to see her. I wanted to see if her eyes followed me. I couldn't get close enough to see. Next time, I will go as soon as they open so I can try to see. It was, of course, very crowded in this room. She's a famous lady.


This is the room we were in with Mona Lisa...check out the size of that painting!


We made our way out of that room into a room full of French art. That's when I saw these loverly ladies...


I liked everything about this painting! I named it sisters...although I have no clue what it really is about.

We walked through several more rooms and hallways until we met up with this goddess...


The Venus de Milo, the Greek goddess...


I tried to get a long-arm shot of me and Kris in front of the statue...but alas...I don't have long enough arms!


We wove our way back through a few more rooms, that I apparently didn't find impressive, because I have very few photos from inside the Louvre! But, you can click through the ones I did take on my flickr site.

We exited through the large pyramid...




and started our walk towards Notre Dame...that's the next post.

Le Eiffel

(Sorry for the lousy photos not loading quickly. I've emailed the robots at Flickr about their unacceptable behavior...hopefully they fix it soon.)

After eating our crepes, we headed out on foot to the Eiffel Tower. We figured that the first thing for me to see was the most recognized Parisian site. Our hotel was really quite close to le Eiffel, so it wasn't that far of a walk at all.

We rounded a corner, and I saw this...



Whoa...that is REALLY tall! A little known fact about me. I have an issue with looking up at really tall buildings/monuments with the sky moving in the background. I feel like I'm going to fall down, and pair that with the jet lag, it was totally freaking me out!

As we walked up to the tower, I was getting more and more nervous about going up on it!


But, we had bought our tickets, so I had to get over that woozy feeling! I guess it worked out that it wasn't quite time for us to go up yet, since we got to walk around it a bit. I was impressed with two things on the ground below the tower.

The first was the soldiers, or police with their machine guns. I didn't quite know what to think of that bit. It seemed a bit excessive, and maybe for show. But, it didn't bother me too much, a passing thought.


The second was the large group of young African men selling flashing Eiffel Tower statues, and other souvenirs. They all were selling the exact same trinkets...and hovering around the tourist mumbling to them something about the price and all they had. I've seen a lot of touts in different countries, and these were by far the worst salesmen I've encountered. I don't think they cared at all if they sold a single thing! But the craziest thing about these guys is every 10 minutes or so, they would come running in droves from under the tower with all their little trinkets bundled up in their mats, designed to up and run at a moments notice. We could never figure out who was making them gather their things and run, but it was pretty funny to see!

It was almost time to head up, and I took one more look up to try to hype myself up to go...

so...so tall!

But, I got excited to see the city from up there, so up we went. I'm pretty sure Kris had no idea what a nutter I was about height of it. At least, I tried to hide my knees shaking.

We got into the funicular to take us up to the first level.


The funicular packed full of other tourist going to the first level. Claustrophobia and vertigo all in one go! AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

But hey, I survived, and when we got out, I saw this...look it's Paris!


Kris was great to point out everything...but this is the only one I remember...Notre Dame...((Okay...I told you Kris was good, she informed me in comments that this was not Notre Dame, but some other old church in Paris...maybe someday I'll figure out just exactly what it is!)

(I had to really zoom in to get this photo, so it was hard to get a real crisp shot.)

It was impressive up there...and the wind was biting. And...it was moving. Not only in an emotional way. In a really real real moving and swaying feeling. Don't ask Kris to verify this point, she'll say she didn't feel it. But I PROMISE I felt it moving!

We walked around looking for the post office...we thought there was one on the premises, and I was going to send a post card to a few family members. But we never found it.

We were only half way up...we had one more level to go. And again, I made the mistake of looking up.


I had been up to the first level, and it was impressive. And I what was impressing me mostly, was that I preferred to see it from below! So we headed back down!



See, happy!



All in all...it was impressive, awe-inspiring, worth the money, and all the knee shaking. I can say, now, I have been inside, and ALMOST to the top of the Eiffel Tower. And that's something I couldn't say before I went!

Let's start in the beginning...

I've been waiting to start posting about my trip, because flickr is acting up with loading photos. And what is a blog of a trip abroad without photos?

So, I'll start today with my first day of the trip...which had very few photos. And we'll hope the flickr thing gets resolved to take you along on the rest of the week.

Thursday, last week, I got up at 5:30 to get ready for my flight. As I was getting around I thought it was totally insane what I was about to do. I tried to chicken out the whole week. Max was sick, Steve was stretched with work, and I was about to leave it all for a week in TWO other countries.

But, the time had come, and there was really little reason for me not to go. So I got around, and Steve took me to the airport, while my mom stayed with a sleeping Max. To say I was a ball of nerves would be an understatement.

I have only been away from Max for one weekend prior to this trip. But it seemed different, I could quickly get back to him if I needed. We were sleeping at the same times, and awake at the same times. I really had no idea what to expect being away from him for so long.

We got to the airport, and Steve went in with me to see me off. I know now, I probably said good-bye at the car. I tried my hardest to hold my tears in as I was checking in for my flight. And then when we were heading down the escalator, Steve showed me where he would wait to see me go through security. That's when I started crying. I just wanted him to go on through with me.

I kissed him goodbye, and went on through security, and off I was on my own! I walked past my gate twice before I realized it. But once I saw it I got a good seat to wait for boarding.

The flight from Denver to Dallas was pretty uneventful. It was a smaller plane, which always makes me feel a little sick. So I was just happy to land! I got there and started looking for my friend, Kris. I hooked up with her, and we got lunch.

Some of you may wonder who this friend is. I've known Kris for about 4 or 5 years. Mostly through online, but we have met in person before. She has been to Paris more that you can count on 2 hands, so she was a natural tour guide!

We changed out our monies and waited for our flight.


Here I am taking a photo of my passport with the iphone, in case it got lost.

When it was time to board, we got to our seat and noticed the plane was a bit of a ghost town! One of Kris's friends had notified her friend flight attendant that she was on the flight, so she came over trying to introduce herself. She told us the flight was nearly done boarding, so if we wanted to move to a row we could. Meaning a whole row to ourselves!

We should have...but we stayed put, and they filled up before we could get one to ourselves. But we did have a couple of seats each to spill across.

We had our meal, and then it was time to sleep. Which is something I never found. I tried and tried, but I just couldn't get there. So when we were about an hour out, I was feeling pretty edgy. Tired, off my normal body schedule, and totally ready to be off of that airplane!

We landed in Paris, and got through to customs. This was pretty uneventful, as far as customs go. The lady looked at me, looked at my passport, and stamped it. Done!

We then made our way to get our museum passes, and metro train tickets. The airport was crazy busy! It didn't look like there was much order to the lines, or checking in. I remember thinking I was glad we weren't flying out of there, because that sort of thing makes me go bananas!

We found our train into town, and away we went. The first thing I noticed was all the graffiti...and thinking how much Steve would love to see it all.


Kris showed me the sights as we were getting closer to the metro area. I kept thinking, wow...this is someplace I've never been! That was pretty great...but kind of scary too!

We got to our hotel, and checked in. It was so tiny! Not unbearable, but so tiny! I guess we could call it quaint. ;) But we weren't there to hang out in the hotel room, so it really didn't matter!


Once we got freshened up, we went across to a little cafe to have a crepe for lunch. We shared a egg, ham and cheese and nutella and banana!!!



I felt much better, and found some energy after eating. I was ready to see it all! And boy oh boy...did we see it all!


(I'll post the next portion either tonight or tomorrow. I have a ton of emails, and housework to get caught up on. In the meantime, you can head over to flickr from any of the above photos to see the whole trip.)

To my Valentine...

February 2000


March 2000


March 2000


May 2001


May 2001


July 2002


May 2003


The year of the hospital...March 2004


May 2005


May 2006


September 2006


July 2007


July 2007


(only photo of "us") May 2008


July 2009

Wii Fit...

While gearing up for more walking than I've done in two years, I have been doing a Nintendo Wii Fit workout every day. I'm wanting to build up my endurance to help with the time change and jetlag, and just walking from morning till night in the dead of winter through two of the most bustling cities in the world.

We got our Wii Fit while we were living in California. I initially wanted to get it for me to get to work out some while being at home with Max. But it also quickly became a way to burn off Abbey's pent up summer-vacation energy! It's still one of her favorite Wii games.

I've often been asked if the Wii Fit actually works. I would say, yes and no. You can cheat with every single workout and game. So if you don't put all of your effort into it, as if you were at the gym, then it likely won't work. But, if you really put effort into it, and focus on the correct moves, balance, and breathing, then yes it does work.

In the summer we walk/run quite a bit with the kids. Every day we're taking at least a mile walk. But in the winter, it's really hard to get motivated to bundle up and get out in the cold! So when I started this up a couple of weeks ago, I really felt it the first couple of days. I had lunges in my workout last week, and I felt it for DAYS afterwords. It really is strange that a video game can cause so much discomfort results!

I can't take Max to the gym, and it isn't my favorite way to work-out anyway. And it's so cold right now, that taking him with me for a run would mean he would be pretty uncomfortably bundled up.

Yesterday, I wasn't feeling like a full workout, so I did the "free-step" aerobics. This workout is done by keeping beat with the Wii remote's tone, kind of like a metronome, and I can flip the tv on for the duration of the workout. It starts and I step on and off, side to side, arms up and down. All the while, Max was able to watch his cartoons and eat. When I was done, I had taken over 1,000 steps (because I sped up the beat quite a bit), and he had finished eating.

It's a bit of an investment at the beginning, first you have the Wii System, which runs about $220. Then the Wii Fit Plus and Balance Board, which runs about $150.

But, it has been a good investment for us. Considering the amount of monthly/yearly gym memberships, and we've had it for 2 years now, we've paid for it over and again! And hopefully it will help when I get back from a week eating croissants and Coconut Flan at Paul Patisserie!

Being Selfish...

Before we had Max, and when Abbey was still very young, we had big plans. We had planned to live outside of the country, and teach our kids about the rest of the world.

We tried that in 2008...almost exactly to the date. I still think every day how I wish it would have worked out. I know now, we needed to come home. We needed Max to get a g-tube. We needed to get his seizures under control. We needed to be closer for Abbey. Lots of reasons.

But still...wished...hoped...dreamed.

Since returning in July 2008 from California, I haven't traveled anywhere. I needed to get Max strong. I needed to regroup from all the moving. I needed to get my CNA certification.

I just needed to be.

Until late last year. I was done just being. So Steve nudged me to go on some trips. I had never been away from Max that I couldn't just rush to him if I needed. I don't like being away from him and Steve. But, I knew I needed to get away for a bit.

So, my friend Gwen offered up her lovely home for my first time away. It was perfect! Good friends, good visit. Short enough to wish for more. But long enough to know I could make it away from Max and Steve.

Then, we decided on a birthday trip. This time, a longer time away, and a further distance. But still not with Max or Steve. I've been telling my friend Kris for years, the first time I go to Paris, I would go with her. Paris is to her, like London is to me. Unexplainable love for a place. So who better to see a new place with?

It has taken a lot of planning. And a lot of letting go of how I do things...with Max particularly...and a lot of being selfish to go.

My husband is the best of the best to give me this gift of travel. I still wish...that one day we'll get to travel together again. But I feel pretty loved and appreciated that he insists that I continue to go...to travel and dream.

And maybe to be a little selfish, so I can continue to be the best mom to Max...and of course...the best wife too!

February...

It's February!!

When I flip the page on the calendar to February, I always hope for warmer days, and spring flowers. I know living here, I'm not likely to see either for a while. I guess it's just what I remember from growing up.

I've always felt like this month was special for me. Three of my siblings have summer birthdays, and the other two are at Christmas. Being one of six kids, it was pretty cool to never have to share birthday parties with your brother or sister.

It's only the first, but it already feels like it's flying by. In two and a half weeks the month will be nearly over, and I will be on a jet plane out of the country. As a special treat, I am going to Paris and London for a week, for my birthday, with my friend Kris!! She and I will meet up in Dallas, and fly to Paris to play for 3.5 days, and then take the train to London where we'll play for another 3.5 days. Getting home the evening before my birthday.

I've never been gone from Max that long...which will be the hardest part. But I'm really excited, and thankful to Steve for making it happen. It's really making this month...and year special!