I wrote quite an update the other day and xanga went down while I was writing it!

We’ve had a good week. After church on Sunday the kids had rehearsal for the church Christmas play. Then we went to McD’s with Christopher (Jessica’s friend) and his family. They hadn’t been in years and weren’t familiar with the menu. This was shocking to me as, of course, I have it nearly memorized. The kids got back in to judo and sports class this week. They missed only 1 week…the other 2 weeks were vacation for French schools. On Tuesday we went the Allam’s, our homeschool friends. That’s always a treat for all of us. We’re almost finished with the honey they gave us last time. When I told the kids they were going, they were thrilled. Then Joshua asked “are you going to do laundry there again?” I said “yes,” and he jumped for joy…nice fluffy clothes! We went to the library in the morning. I left my suitcase and grocery cart of laundry in the front. I asked if I could leave my laundry there…funny. We checked out some new books and headed west to visit our friends. We had a great afternoon discussing life, homeschooling, God and the future. We ended up staying for a fabulous roast and mashed potato dinner. We got home at 10:30! Wed. morning was sports class. It was an early morn for us. The kids have basketball and acrobatics (like standing on each other’s backs) now. I headed off on the bus to our friends to meet baby Gabriel, the 9 day old baby of our good friends Zach (American) and Ludmila (Brazilian). It was so great to meet their little guy. He had such an animated little face! We spent the morning together and then  I rushed home to meet the kids.

Thursday we waited at home for the electric/gas company. I had a letter stating that they would come between 11:30-2. We waited till almost 3 and nobody came. We left around 3 and I checked the mailbox. They had come! I guess the doorbell didn’t work. The note said they’d they’d come again between 7-8:30 the next morning. I thought “Yeah, right!” My solution was to write a note and translate it in google translator. I wrote the note and left it out for them…and…they didn’t come!!! I can’t believe they didn’t show up. I’m glad I didn’t’ get up early for them! We cleaned all morning in anticipation of the Pulidos arriving. After waiting we headed to the Laundromat for the first time. Despite doing 3 BIG American loads of laundry at  Michele’s, I still had lots to do! We did one 16 kg load. It was huge! We went down and used our McD’s coupon for McFlurries then headed back to do the dryer. We spent 12 euros on laundry, but it should’ve cost 4 euros more. While we were there, the guy came to clean up the place. I was pretty impressed! Then, when I went to put more money in, he said we didn’t need to pay and let us do it free! We got home just in time to get Joshua to judo. We went to bed pretty excited.

Ray was in Singapore all week leading up to his big excitement on Friday…Insead’s 19^th annual Business Venture competition. He and Vinh, Jolene’s husband, were there to compete in the finals.

Friday arrived. Ray’s competition was nearing completion when we got up in the morning. We did some cleaning and headed to the airport to pick up our friends! We got there a bit early and had a chance to get acquainted with Terminal 1 which we’d never been to! The highlight (besides meeting the Pulidos) was riding the tram that connects the terminals. We love it! Joshua made a banner. It ripped a bit and he got some tape from the guy in the currency exchange office. It took quite a while. The guy and the next customer in line were chatting it up with him. As we waited we saw Javi and Harrison go by inside security once and waved, but still waited a while for them to come. It was a happy reunion and we headed home on the train. All went smoothly. We spent the afternoon at home and went to check out the local grocery store. I love to visit grocery stores when I travel. It’s fun to see what is the same and what’s different and try new things. I checked my email and got a 3 sentence email from Ray to tell me that…he WON!  It was pretty exciting! His was the first eMBA team to win ever (or even be in the finals) AND they won by quite a margin. We are thrilled for him.

Saturday we went to Versailles. I had expected Ray to come home in the morning, but he didn’t arrive so we headed out anyway. We hadn’t been to Versailles but it had been over a year since we studied the French Revolution and we didn’t remember a whole lot! We rode the train. We got off and walked a block and WOW! There it was! It is a beautiful chateau. We got tickets fairly quickly and easily and headed inside. There, I saw a friend from church! The last time we went to chateau I saw a friend from church, too! Well, it would’ve been good to have studied a bit more before we went. Honestly, it was hard to get excited about. It was immense, beautiful, lavish and really, the overwhelming wealth was a bit revolting…I guess the Frencht thought so too! My mind went right to what I would do with all that…I don’t desire nice furniture and exquisite things. I never have. I love hand-me-downs and second hand goods, making things last and being frugal. I do. The kids were anxious to get out to the gardens. I took them out while the Pulidos got their bags from the bag check. They ran around and had a great time til we rode the little train (electric cars) to the other buildings. I liked the minor buildings a lot better. They were less ostentatious and I could see real people living there. I was annoyed at the over protective guards though. I actually asked the first guard if my bags were fine and he said yes, but made the PUlidos check there’s. Then the guard in the next room made me carry my backpack in front. I didn’t mind except that I’d been told it was fine. I would’ve checked it otherwise. It was fairly annoying. And the building wasn’t even that interesting! We went to the last building and we had to leave. I wouldn’t have guessed it would take so long with the kids, but everything took time. They charge for EVERYTHING there and the info booth gave me all wrong prices, though in the end it was cheaper. He told me the kids had to pay for the train but they didn’t. Overall, I was completely unimpressed with the staff, but it was good to go Versailles finally. It would definitely be fun to spend a day in the park. For dinner we went to McD’s. We had to get the Star Wars toys for Javi… When they arrived Friday I mentioned that I had a sheet of coupons and although I didn’t expect that they came to France to eat at McD’s, we could use them. And they both responded with great enthusiasm “yes, oh, yes, we definitely want to go to McDonald’s!” Too funny.

Today was Sunday. We got another late start, but Ray DID come home today! He had to shower and head off to his last council meeting at church. The rest of us went to get train passes for today and for the week for the Pulidos. We went to the next station (Cite U) and tried to buy the tickets but my credit card was refused. They don’t have the ability to take an American card, apparently. Weird. So we had to go the next station and do it. We got there and couldn’t find the exit. Interestingly, there were a number of others who ALSO couldn’t find the exit! Too funny! We finally found it and while I bought the tickets, they were going to take pictures in the booth for the passes. I managed to stop them when I realized we got to put the pictures on ourselves. Isabel’s had already finished so she has her “I’m not smiling” Paris picture souvenir. J With all that done, we had to make a plan and took a bus to the Il de la Cite. We walked by the Concergerie and the Ste. Chappelle, a place with memories for Javi and Isabel. We headed over to the Notre Dame and faced quite the wind there! The kids loved running around and jumping off the cement posts. We walked through the church during a service and the kids really enjoyed it. From there we went to the Latin Quarter and had kebabs (gyros),took the bus to Luxembourg, walked through the garden and went to church. The kids had another rehearsal today and then we headed home. We walked with quite a crowd to the RER and got home and had soup for dinner. The kids had a hard time going to sleep despite a tiring day. They are all so excited to be together.

The last picture is of my new purse from snaptotes.com If you use coupon code 7Price10 you get  a 10% discount! The bag is really  nice quality and it literally took me under 5 minutes to make it online!