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Showing posts from November, 2017

One Month to Go! - Paris Friday Update

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Happy Thanksgiving, folks! We're ONE MONTH and a few days away from the big move! Holy Turkeys! Today, I'm out walking off the vast quanitities of food I ate on Thursday (and hopefully avoiding malls and shops, but who knows, it's New Jersey!) but I'll be thinking about the list of what I need to do to get my ducks in a row for the next month.  Here are some upcoming milestones:  Dec. 1 - Dave goes on an apartment search. And it will be very much like House Hunters, as we only have a finite amount of places to look at available now, in our target neighorhood that meet our criteria.  Dec. 12 - Packing Day! With any luck, we'll be successful with the apartment hunt and we'll know what the heck we need to take with us (furniture-wise, mostly). We'll have about two weeks to strategize and pile up those items so the movers can take them away on this day.  Hanukkah and Christmas are thrown in here. Very inconvient. Think we can get these hol

School News and Packing Date - Paris Friday Update

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Alice's School Building - Pink!  Super School News We found out this week that we GOT ACCEPTED into the school of our choice. Yippee!! It feels a lot like getting into college all over again. I'm so excited for the girls. Of the three schools we visited, this one really felt the most supportive and the place where they would shine. More paperwork is needed, of course, but we now have a January 9 start date. Such a load off my mind. This also confirms our ideal apartment location is the 16th. It's what we assumed, but now we know. We want to be walking distance from the school (hoping to skip using the Metro) and close to the highway entrance for Dave -- so that really cuts down our ideal location to a small neighborhood. The next step here is to go on a second apartment hunt, which is planned for the start of December. Fingers crossed. A Packing Date Set A few weeks ago, as mentioned, we did the home survey. They estimated one day (one!) to load up all the thi

My Paris Purse Predicament

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Here I go overthinking a purchase ... again. This time, it's about my every-day purse situation for Paris. Why is this such a big deal? Because it's been a decade since I've had an urban lifestyle and I'm completely unsure what bag I'll need with me (or items in that bag) for a daily city existence. So there. Currently, I'm a suburban stay-at-home/work-from-home lady. And even that transition took me a few months to figure out the proper daily bag. I went from a commuting office worker purse (medium sized Orla Kiely handbag with lunch, snacks, and a water bottle that I carried the 100 yards from car to desk) to a bag fit for running errands and holding my to-do lists (an open top  LL Bean "Mom" tote ). Starting in January, I'll be commuting two kids to school on foot in a city. Possibly on a scooter. And running errands in between. So my needs have changed substantially. I'll need to have reusable shopping bags, phone, keys, maybe an ex

The Marvel Avenger-A-Thon

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Our family is in the middle of a Marvel Movie Marathon. It started when we saw the new Thor movie. Which we loved. And the girls had all these questions about Thor. Of course, we've seen all the Marvel Avengers movies, but the girls haven't or don't remember them. So, we started watching the back library: The two Thor movies, the Captain Americas and we just started the Iron Man movies. In other words, we're using our new basement for one of the big reasons we finished it: Movie watching. Lando Just Enjoys Snuggling On the Sofa But, maybe most importantly, we're all watching them TOGETHER. We talk about the characters and try to make connections with the other movies. And provide funny commentary. Related posts: More Pop Culture posts Relive the whole basement saga!

Podcasts and Doctors - Paris Friday Update

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Paris-Themed Podcasts To get in the spirit, I've been listening to Paris-centric podcasts while doing work or sorting our crap. It's been fun listening to other expats talk about their experience in Paris, hear topics of interest and some news, too. Here they are: The Earful Tower  --  The host, Oliver G, is a bit strange and charming. He's clearly entertained and also puzzled by the Parisians, so it's an interesting approach. Each episode tackles some aspect of Parisian life and most include interviews. He just interviewed a Brit who has been an expat for over 50 years and his perspective was fascinating. And at the end of each episode, there's a little story about Paris's colorful history.  The New Paris  --  This one is sort of based on the book the host, Lindsey Tramuta, wrote a few months ago. It's about the newer trends and businesses that are growing in Paris. Such as quality coffee, small businesses (which are challenging because of French t

What I'm Diggin' in November 2017

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There's frost on the ground and I just pulled out my puffy Northface coat ... so it must be November. Here's my latest list of what I'm loving right now. I've got the most fantastic print/shipping place just around the corner and I'm so grateful. With all the documents I need for the move, and all the stuff I'm shipping away, they're making my life just a little easier. And the guys there are so helpful and sweet! I used them in September to color print Alice's birthday invitations from this lovely Etsy shop , and it was super easy and not expensive. Don't you just love a small business with great customer service! Outlander: Jamie and Fergus (from EW.com) Guys, Outlander is back and I'm totally in love with it again. I have to say the Paris storyline last season was not my favorite, but this season is completely on fire. I've got a major crush on grown-up Fergus, though Jamie is still my main man. There are not many shows I consid

Anatomy of My Smoothie

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I've been drinking a berry smoothie almost daily for years. It started when I did ten weeks of Beachbody in 2014 (and hey, I lost some weight) and got hooked on their Shakeology powder. It just seemed like a much better breakfast than cereal or toast -- nutrition-wise. And I could drink it while making lunches and running kids out to bus stops. I pretty much follow the same recipe every morning and just change around the fruit. So here's my very unprofessional, yet delicious, smoothie concoction. Start with: Frozen Spinach - about 3/4 cup Frozen Fruit - almost 2 cups * Note: I don't actually measure anything, so this is just a guess. I've tried several different frozen veggies, including spinach, kale, boiled-then-frozen cauliflower, and found I just prefer the spinach. I used to puree and freeze the spinach in an ice cube try for easy-to-use servings, but lately, I'm just freezing our leftover salad spinach and using that. (In the picture it looks li

Slow and Steady - Paris Friday Update

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It's been a quiet week in Paris news. The BIG HEADLINE is we picked up our visas on Wednesday from the French consulate, so we're officially official now. Paperwork is a go. Our Bus Stop Buddy On the apartment front , I'm basically pulling out my hair looking at the same four favorite apartments each week. Our next opportunity for apartment hunting (in person) isn't until after Thanksgiving, so we've got a looong month to go. I'm not so much a fan of waiting. On the school front, our application is complete for our school of choice, so now we're just sitting tight as it goes to the Admissions Group for review. Not getting into this school might change things... big things like where we'd live. So ... this is just another waiting game. Hopefully, it will only be a week review. Lastly, the hunt has started to find Lando, our two-year-old dog, a new home . We're all going to be bummed to see him go because he's such a big part of the fami