I meant to do this a long time ago. My house was never really clean enough to want to show it off. I’ve realized over the past few weeks that since I spent the first six months in survival mode, only the absolutely necessary tasks got done. Now I’m playing catch up with a lot of house work. Last week I tackled the toy room. I had to laugh at how ridiculous it was. Almost as though I had given them instructions to go and make it as messy as they possibly could.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So, anyway, here’s a tour of our happy little home.

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We’ve had a busy but very fun week. I’m a better picture poster than an actual writer but I truly believe pictures tell the best stories! Plus, with young children, it’s so much more fun!

Our “weekend” started on Thursday night when Annabel’s teacher announced that she’d be going to England on Friday with kids from the elementary school and there would be no sub. (This is totally acceptable here… I don’t get it.) So, I decided to keep Ellie out as well and take the girls on a spontaneous trip to Disneyland by myself. This was the first time I attempted this and it actually went really well. Both girls were really well behaved and we had a great day! I was exhausted when we got back home but really glad we went. Boy have we gotten our money’s worth out of those season passes!

We decided for a change we’d go to the Lucky Nugget Saloon instead of our usual Cafe Mickey. It’s a tex-mex buffet and the food was so good. Annabel made friends with a little English girl sitting next to us and had an all around blast. I took a few pics here but only had my iphone so they’re all pretty bad lighting but here’s us with Mickey:

After searching our last three visits at every store we passed, we finally found the HSM cheerleader outfit in Annabel’s size. She was SOOOO excited. My little easy-going Ellie settled for a HSM Minnie.

We stayed for the “Once Upon a Dream” parade which no matter how many times we’ve seen it, the girls still love it. I need to get some video and pictures of it so they remember it.  You can see it here if you’re interested – you will then know how it is to hear announcements in a million different languages, hear Mickey and Minnie speaking French, and YOU TOO can get the “Just Like We Dreamed It” song stuck in your head.

The next morning we gave Ellie all of her gifts from our extended family. Who doesn’t LOVE presents. She was so sweet at the end and said, “It’s my birthday! Thank you everybody for my presents!”

The next day we drove to Belgium to visit our friends Mark and Camron and their girls, Jaclyn and Chloe. Ellie wanted to have a birthday party with them and there’s a great indoor playplace (think a large scale Pump it Up). First we went to McDonalds’ (it was quite possibly the nicest one I’ve ever been to – and as a bonus, you can get beer at McD’s here!).

We went to a gelato place after playing since all the kids were “hot and sweaty!” France and Belgium have the most amazing desserts of anywhere I’ve ever been. Geez… I could gain a million pounds and I don’t even have much of a sweet tooth!

That night back at Mark and Camron’s, we had a nice cookout and got to meet another American family living in Brussels. The kids had a great time, dinner was wonderful, and cake and presents followed!

The birthday fun continued into the next morning when another gift from Noni and Papa arrived in the mail. Ellie had a very blessed and happy birthday!

For Father’s day, the girls gave Ryan some things they had made at school and we had a pretty relaxing day around the house – Ryan’s idea of a great day! We are so thankful for such a great Daddy in our home! He works so hard to keep us happy and healthy! I am counting my numerous blessings these days!!!

That’s our weekend update!

When we were still in Arizona we had a training day that was meant to prepare us for live in a foreign country. Ryan and I found it rather boring and relatively useless. The woman had never even been to France and we felt like it was mostly inapplicable information. There was, however, one thing that stood out in both of our minds. She mentioned that the six month point would be the hardest. We’re finding she was right.

Basically you figure that the first few months are spent just in survival mode. We were settling into our new home, making lots of purchases, finding grocery stores, and just all around learning how to live here. There is, of course, a huge element of excitement that comes with that time. While we were frustrated with little things that were different, we were OK.

After we spent almost a month in the States, I had a lot of people asking me how I was doing readjusting. People asked if I cried leaving family or at the airport getting on the plane. The truth is, I thought I was totally fine. We had been there so long that I just wanted to be back “home.”

The first week back was spent just unpacking, doing laundry, going grocery shopping, etc. I started to get into a routine and then got pretty sick with tonsillitis. Things started to pile on top of each other and pretty quickly Ryan and I found ourselves in a very depressed state.

On a regular basis, we have people asking how we’re doing. The honest truth is that it’s really hard. We can recognize that it’s an amazing opportunity and we are getting to see and do a lot of awesome things. But it’s the in between times that we have to live in. We know that in the long run, we’re going to look back and be so grateful we made this decision. Right now though, we’re taking it one day at a time and doing our best to choose joy.