Et plus...

I'm going to start doing my posts more frequently because it's already hard to remember what I did five days ago! In my defense I wasn't "back to normal" (whatever that means) with sleep until yesterday I think.

On Saturday I got le grand tour of the house and shop, although to be fair

I don't think it was until last night that I actually saw all of the house, I swear Kim has revealed a new room or wing of the house and shop each day! It's so beautiful here. The house is very long with a cellar and attic as well as full workshop with loft, the boutique, unrenovated wing with extra bathroom, storage, living room and bedroom as well as a garage with loft! There's also a huge garden with well, old

outhouse, outdoor sink where people used to do laundry, an area to dry clothes and lots of flowers.

Last Saturday I mostly caught up (or attempted at least) on my sleep and had the big adventure of walking into town to the atm and boulangerie all by myself!

Sunday was so much fun, we went to the Viet Garnier (which is like a nicer flea market) where I bought some treasures to bring back for Mignonne. We went out to lunch, I had French fries (in France!) and a tartine which is a piece of toast with (what I chose) atrichoke, bell pepper and chicken on it. My host thought it was a little too soy saucy, but I don't think my taste buds had woken up yet either! We finished with ice cream and a nice canoe ride! It had been raining off

and on all day, but we had some nice breaks in the weather.

I started the windows on Monday, slept twelve hours and started to actually feel human again. On Tuesday, I drove to the Super Marche all by myself and it went pretty well, there was a slight misunderstanding when I tried to leave the store with the store's basket, oops! That night we went out to Indian food, it was amazing, and I even ordered dinner almost by myself!

Wednesday we went to this store that is similar to Goodwill or Salvation Army (Emmouse) and I bought Alex a vintage Tin Tin and a few more items for Mignonne. I also accidentally left a

bag there with some other things for Mignonne and some really cute vintage mismatched glasses that I'm praying they won't have re-distributed by the time we can get a hold of them. Oh! We also got the most parfait black vintage vello (bike) there too, we bought another one but someone else accidentally took it (that's still up in the air) and to make it up to us they pulled out this other one they were saving for a sale and gave it to us instead! I love this one so much more and it's just tres parfait for my fantasy French adventure, pictures soon to come!

Today I finished the windows and I'm going to do a seperate post for them. Kim made another amazing feast out of an impressive four

ingredients and I saw one of the largest spiders of my life, some bugs are surprinsingly large here! A bientot!

France at last!

I can't believe I left a week ago! Excuse the much belated post but apparently not sleeping the week before you leave then not sleeping for another five or so days after that can make you too tired to come up with an amusing blog entry!

Now that I have begun sleeping again I can say that I am here, I am safe, and I am having an amazing time! In my next entries I'll wax poetic about how fantastic France is and how I am already not looking forward to leaving it! For now, I'll just tell all about my journey to get here.

The day before I left for France was wonderful, Alex and I had a great day together and I was able to finally relax. I had made sure that all of my packing was done early so that our last day together would be without stress. I packed Tuesday night then Wednesday we slept in, saw a few movies, had a massage, ate dinner and saw another movie (SATC 2, wasn't terribly impressed with the movie, but the audience was an experience!) came home took a shower and "slept" for two hours before heading to the airport! I did a very good job at holding it together knowing that I wouldn't be seeing Alex for another three weeks after we said goodbye.

The first flight went very well, Alex is having me edit his latest project right now and it helped a lot to have that to focus on while I flew (which, if you've forgotten, I hate more than anything!) I think I may have slept 45mins on that flight. We were on a smaller plane (compared to the giant one I took across the ocean!) so we were closer to the ground which I took as an opportunity to see my country before I left it...I even had my rubber band around my wrist to "snap away" any negative or scary thoughts I had! Every time we had turbulence or started to turn in a scary way I just recalled what my book had said, we were just "finding better wind", "It's a comfort issue, not a safety issue." And, shockingly enough, I was even able to hold it together when the pilot told us that for the next 45 minutes we were not allowed to play our electronics and that the flight attendants would be seated for the rest of the flight because we were going to be "avoiding some weather" read: impending clouds taking up entire sky.

We landed and I was feeling VERY proud of myself but started to get anticipatory anxiety again when thinking about the fact that I had to do it all over again, for an hour longer, in just a few minutes. But, I took my pills, tried to relax and know that we would be taking off again soon (once in the air I'm usually better, it's the gearing up for it that's so hard for me). That is until we were grounded because of a storm for the next two hours. In Newark. You can imagine my joy at having to sit in the ENORMOUS, stuffy plane for two hours while watching lightening flash against the tarmac outside my window, all the while knowing that because we were taking off so much later I was now going to miss my train ride. Awesome.

The actual flight to Paris also went very well, surprisingly good food, more room and thank the Lord I brought my ipod because there weren't really any movies, just previews and horrible in flight "entertainment", and you had to pay $6 for the movies on my first flight! I slept a little, maybe an hour and a half? It was also really fun to wake up every so often, or look out my window thinking it had at least been an hour or more since I last looked and to see nothing but OCEAN every time!

However, I did very well again on the second flight and made it safely to Paris! I did miss my train ride though so I had to wait three hours for the next one and buy another ticket, very annoying. Then, as if I wasn't delirious enough from lack of sleep I somehow had boarded the train and was on my way to Brantome! This is me after no sleep and 20 hours of travel, don't I look happy?! (The glasses hide my very dark circles and the bush deflects from my very greasy hair!)

On the stop before mine I got my luggage down, sat it next to me and got very excited to be done traveling for the day! The conductor called out the station name and I happily gathered my things and walked towards the exit...and then watched in horror as the train pulled away from my station and continued on to its next stop...

Oh! Also, all the people that said "Oh, everyone speaks English!" not around me they didn't! I asked four people, as tears of sleep deprivation and utter confusion, threatened to spill down my cheeks, if anyone spoke English. "Non." was all that I heard, again, and again, and again. So I waited by the door trying to hold it together for the next thirty minutes as the train came to its next stop. When it finally did and the train actually let me escape, I ran to the nearest phone to

call Kim to tell her that I wasn't actually going to be at the train station where she was waiting at but instead at another, more distant station. Sadly, I came to find that not only was I at a strange station, in an unfamiliar country but I also could not use any of the phones because of my American debit card (it's a different slot that accepts their cards) so I found a nice woman holding her phone and asked if she spoke English "a little" she said as I begged to use her phone, to which she responded "Non". Super! Then as tears started to rise again the woman sitting next to her said I could use hers. I called Kim and after accidentally telling her the name of the station was "Exit" in French we figured it out and she drove an extra 45 or so minutes to get me.

The day ended with trois fromage pasta or "heart attack food" as Kim called it and trying desperately not to fall asleep while we drove the nearly two hours back to Brantome. Finally in bed I had a restful hour of sleep before I was awake for the next four! This continued for three days until I slept for twelve hours one night. I guess I was tired after all that!?

Wordless Wednesday: I leave TOMORROW!!!

My mama's big blue birthday surprise!

My mom wanted to give me something for my twenty-fifth birthday that I would have forever and be able to use for a long time. She also wanted me to be able to look at it knowing that it was a gift from my mom on my 25th birthday. (Have I mentioned how wonderful she is?!) She did very well.

When we were in Oregon she gave me a hint: "It's a big ticket item, and it's from Macy's" then she got this very confident cocky look in her eyes when she told me that it's something I would always have and how much I would love it. Well, I then took the opportunity to tell her to please not spend her money, I would much prefer something vintage and unique and that I didn't think she could find something like that Macy's (nothing against Macy's, just didn't want her spending a bunch of money on me!) She kept laughing and telling me that she was sure I was going to love it! Then she said that it's comes in either yellow or blue....and then I knew!! I was so excited I couldn't wait to try it out! I had wanted one so badly for our wedding and now I was going to have one! I picked out "Ice Blue" which is very retro inspired and I absaloutely love it (as evident in the pictures!).

I even had a chance to try it out before I left for France too! It was the mushy French macaroons though...so NEXT time it's going to be much better!

Thanks mama, I love it and YOU!

Wordless Wednesday: very delayed birthday teaser!

Mother's Day Gifts Gone Awry...

In all of the madness of getting ready for France and working like a crazy person I still wanted to make sure that we really took time to do something special for our grandmothers and mothers to let them know how much they mean to us. I hadn't had much time to craft or design anything lately so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity! I also wanted the gifts to have a fun French theme to them.

I made homemade French Vanilla extract in this adorable little bottle with a cute printable label and all. My second project was going to make French Macaroons in cute little cellophane bags with nice printable labels attached to them.

My vanilla went off without a hitch, my bags and labels for the cookies were adorable! We made the cookies and if you've never cooked French Macaroons they're very delicate and you make the shells of the cookies then fill them with frosting and make them like sandwiches.

They were very fragile and I packed them very gently into the bags and shipped them with the vanilla off to our moms!

Then the phone calls started..."So...I got my Mother's Day package and the vanilla looked great...but, um, what was in the cellophane bag?" These were the guesses we got "Something to make cookies with?", "Play-doh?" and a "What IS this?!"

I guess that they actually ended up looking something more like this:

Oh well...it's the thought that counts right?

"That's why they call me Budget!"...for breastmilk?!

First off, have I ever explained the, "That's why they call me 'Budget'"? Or being called Budget? If not, that was my trail name on the PCT and one night when Alex and I were talking about my mad budgeting skills he praised me on a particularly good deal I scored and I responded in a game show/ sing-song voice "That's why they call me Budget!" and it stuck.

Now, for my real post: I know I've mentioned Freecycle before (freecycle.org) it's a yahoo group they have in many different cities all around. It's like the free section of craigslist in email form. Anywho, I recieve a bazillion different emails each day with things that people either "Want" or are "Offering". I've found some great finds on there, but the other day I was very surprised to see "Breastmilk" in the "Want" section.

The woman who posted the ad had just adopted a baby (not sure of the age) and wanted her child to have the nutrients of breastmilk. She said that the baby so far had been drinking breast milk that other mothers were donating for him.

I had never heard of such a thing! As I have mentioned before three of my siblings are adopted. My mom tried to breast feed my first sister using a breast pump and herbs to start lactating but she stopped after a while because it wasn't working very well. My other two sisters were bottle fed. My "biological" (really hate using that term, but need to differentiate here) siblings and myself were breast fed. When Alex and I started talking more and more about adopting I brought up breastfeeding our adopted children and asked what his stance was on the topic. He and I both felt that we needed more information but were open to different options.

If you adopt you have several options. You can obviously do formula bottles. You can take herbs or other suppliments to help spur on the lactation, you can use a breast pump to imitate the sucking action of a baby (that will start lactation) or you can use a "lactation aide" (pictured here). A lactation aide like this one has a bottle filled with milk (be it donated breast milk, your own pumped breast milk, or formula) that is hung around your neck in a bottle that has a tube that comes out then wraps around to your breast so that it imitates how it would be if you were breastfeeding. This also can help stimulate lactation.

I have such mixed feelings, and really no opinion seeing as how I've only read online what this is like and never talked to anyone who has done it. Half of my siblings have been breastfed and half have not. How do I decide or be able to tell what differences a lack or abundance of breastmilk has had on them? One thought (yes, it is superficial) that I like about adoption (for myself) as opposed to birth children is avoiding what happens to your body when pregnant. One of the many benifits of adopting is that you don't have, how do I put this delicately, "changes" in your body or breasts. However, I have read that what causes the "changes" in a woman's breasts is actually being pregnant and those hormones that make them become larger, then "deflate" (sorry) after the baby is born. Apparently it is not breastfeeding that causes that. Second "pro" is that breastfeeding is supposed to help in bonding of the mother and child which could to help avoid R.A.D (Reactive attachment dissorder) which can occur in some adopted children, other factors are key in them being candidates for that as well though.

Nutrients, bonding, cost (no need for buying formula or many bottles) are all arguments for breastfeeding your adopted baby. There are other things that come to mind though, if you're adopting internationally you most likely won't be adopting a baby under six months and they will have (most likely) been bottle fed since they're been at the orphanage and can get "nipple confusion" if they change from bottles to breast. They may also be much older, which some adoptive parents still try to breast feed. One woman taught her three year old to breastfeed because she saw how it was helpful to her other five adopted children.

I still stand free of judgement on either stance being as that I just don't know. I've never been someone who really had an opinion or stance one way or the other about breastfeeding in general, and hadn't thought much about it at all because I've always known I would adopt and didn't think of it so much as an option. Seeing the post that the new mom made though made me think about this more and it is obviously one of the many things to consider when thinking of adopting. We have plenty of time to figure this one out, but I wonder, what are your opinions on this somewhat touchy subject?