Can we keep her?

Mom: "So, Popcorn, what would you think if mama and apu had another baby?"

!!!!HYPOTHETICALLY SPEAKING!!!!

Me: "NO, MOM!!! I like Pommies the best, I want to keep her."
 

Mom: "Popcorn, we'd get to keep Pompom too, don't worry."

Me: "Ok, because I she's my best friend and I love her."
 
Mom: (Faints with happiness.)

Paul Bunyan, here!

Don't I look THRILLED to be alive?

And then mom told me I'd get chocolate if I smiled.  

And IT WORKED.  

But it's not snowing!!!

In fact, it was pretty warm. So much so, mom killed another damn mosquito!!! Ugh! She hates mosquitos. 

 

Our friends invited us over for Christmas lunch, which was really nice! Mom feels pretty lucky that thanks to my school, we've met some super down to earth people who we can genuinely be ourselves with. Pompom had fun too! 

 

This is my boyfriend. As you can tell, he's pretty cool. Apu approves because they both love Legos...

Welcome to France...

After a fun night at the Christmas party, I turned up sick the next day.  Just a mild fever and cough...nothing too spectacular. Mom texted with A's mom, and they went back and forth about A waking up with bites of some sort.

Mom: "Be careful, the teacher is going to send her home saying she has chickenpox!"

*There's this ongoing joke about la maitresse, who literally connects the most bizarre behaviors to illness. Once I was scratching a mosquito bite on my neck and she thought I had a sore throat. Another time, I was walking on my "tippy toes" like a ballerina, and she told Apu my foot was hurting.  Let's just say she's no medical professional.  

Well, there's irony in this one, because A actually DOES have chickenpox.  What's even MORE ironic, is that Apu was just talking to my other BFF's mom, who just happens to investigate contagious diseases for a living.  She was telling Apu about a young women who died of the chickenpox...

A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Throwback to mom's experience with Pompom in the US (see here for that story). She bascially vowed to stay away from modern medicine for as long as humanly possible.  In all reality, she really was emotionally scarred a tad...and felt tremendously guilty that Pompom was subjected to ASININE treatment that subsequently cost mom her confidence, her faith in the system, and THOUSANDS of dollars.  

So here we are...exposed to the chickenpox, while Apu is away (thank GOD only for 12 days), like sitting ducks, waiting for the apocalypse.  Ok, mom is a little dramatic.  She called the doctor in hopes of maybe proactively getting the vaccine, but they were too busy to talk to us today.  

And in the throws of her guilt...she fed us a HIGHLY nutritious lunch. Gross.  

 

Wish us luck!!  

Christmas Festivités!

 

Do we look like the happiest married couple around, or what?! 

 

Come ON, mom.

Enough with the darn camera!

See, the thing is, mom is in a bit of a panic.  Apu says that if she were a "gamer" (someone who spends ENDLESS hours online playing video games), she'd be 500 pounds by now.  Literally, for the past week she's been reading/watching videos, and dreaming about newborn photography.  Why? Because someone contacted mom and wants her to do a FULL-BLOWN stylized photoshoot for a baby, TIMES TWO. Yes, TWINS.  Ugh! Universe!!?? Like this...

 

So mom is basically freaking out because she's NO baby whisperer.  Trust me. She somehow has to coax TWO babies to sleep without her usual tactic of breastfeeding. 

In the meantime, she's basically set up a ghetto studio in the apartment with a beanbag, backdrop and cheap lighting, so she doesn't show up totally unprepared (which she totally is). She's basically crossing her fingers that the babies stay inside their mama until the last possible second!

 

 

Weekly catch up!

Nagymama and nagypapa came, and the gifts overflowith.

 

I played hide-n-seek with nagymama at the Christmas market.

We bought a Christmas tree that's aproximately the size of our entire apartment.

 

The parents went out...dad fell in love...and they came home promptly at 9pm *slightly intoxicated thanks to a very strong sangria and a crazy Aussie.

And the most interesting development??? Pompom ate an ENTIRE container of frog legs. She's so sophisticated...or gross...I can't decide. 

Apu fail 34,596.

If anyone is familiar with French bureaucracy, you know it's described as somewhat of a nightmare of epic proportion.  Mom lived in her French utopian dream for three months. You can't apply for anything before then, so why worry?

Mom knew that after three months, she needed to apply for a Carte Vital for apu, Poms and I.  She gathered all the documents for translation, filled out the necessary paperwork, navigated the French websites...all seemed right with the world.

Que, daddy-O.

Mom: "Hey, where is your birth certificate?"

Apu: "Oh, it's in my folder, and it should be in a hard binder notebook thingy."

Mom: "Great, found it!...oh, and the lady said it was going to be 150 Euros!!!"

Apu: "WHAT??? For a translation???"

Mom: "Yes, sir. Welcome to the world of Hungarian."

Mom quickly scanned and emailed a copy to the translator, who said she would get it to us by the next day! Score!

24 hours later...

Mom opens her email to discover that apu's High School Diploma was staring at her...

Que, hot flash, sweating, confusion, heart palpitations, and defeat.

Yes, that's correct...between apu just being apu (see here for yet another example), and mom being clueless in Hungarian after four years...we threw 150 Euros DOWN THE DRAIN.  It's a good thing apu is FAR FAR AWAY...currently in Hawaii, sipping drinks on the beach...while mom panics and tries to figure out HOW THE HECK we are going to get a birth certificate from Budapest, like, yesterday.

AND to add to the panic, the Prefecture just decided to cancel mom's appointment for her Carte de Sejour, and reschedule it for a MONTH earlier.  Que, second coronary.

It appears that mom, in all of her zen-ness still cannot escape the French.  She should have known better.

In other news...mom took us to the Christmas market yesterday and ran into some Canadians who promptly asked if she voted for Donald Trump. Awesome.

This is what mom looked like after he asked...

UPDATE!!! Nagypapa and Nagymama saved the day and got a copy of apu's birth certificate, which also happened to be IN FRENCH!!! What are the odds?! Apparently the universe wanted to spare dad's life. Mom, chill.

Maîtresse d'école is sick.

Seriously??! When my teacher gets sick the school refuses to get a substitute?? Yes, that's correct. When the teacher gets sick, they cancel the entire class for 23 kids. That's no school FOR A WEEK. 

Meaning we're watching a little more TV than usual,  and which is a LOT.  And playing on mom's phone.

 

Oh, Wayne...

 

Those inner signals are SO strong in mom that she literally follows them even when she thinks they are INSANE. And she doesn't have one single regret. 

 

Except for flour play dough, which subsequently took longer to clean up than the time we played. FAIL. Thanks a lot, rain. 

Does it spark joy?

Mom, on the brink of death (her week long stomach flu), stumbled across a book about organization. A real thrilling read, she thought.  But MAN, she was TIRED of always picking up...so why not? We have SO many toys. Well, we HAD so many toys.

Mom read this book in one day...and with two toddlers, that's pretty impressive (read: child neglect). She realized what a clean apartment could do for her soul...so it was an addicting read.  The main concept is that you literally go through EVERY item you own, hold it in your hands, reminisce about what led you to buy it (or acquire it), and then ask yourself if it makes you genuinely happy.  Strange, right?  Can a spatula make you happy?? Oddly, yes.

"But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can't let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past, or fear for the future."

So mom started with her clothes. She threw them all on the floor. EVERY. LAST. SOCK.  It took awhile, but she touched and remembered her past...

-That blue dress she bought in Coronado, for the Navy graduation of a former boyfriend, but last minute decided on something else. And honestly, it never really looked good on her.

-The black off the shoulder shirt she wore with Apu in Montenegro...the week her life would change FOREVER.

-The pair of socks she dragged from San Diego to Budapest to Lyon...the ones she still hasn't worn because despite them looking super warm and fuzzy, they are UNCOMFORTABLE.

-The hideous vase she received, but couldn't throw out due to GUILT.

-And maybe a few of Apu's things that he will never know are missing (shhhhh....don't tell him)!!

In one fatal swoop (because that makes the change REALLY stick), she purged everything. Toys (she had to do this very quietly), papers, boxes of miscellaneous JUNK, ripped books that you literally couldn't read because multiple pages were missing, those random chords that multiply like bunnies, baby shoes, OUR clothes....a real mental and physical purge. 

 

IT WAS AWESOME!!!! She silently thanked some her clothes for a fun adventure, and looked back on some purchases and remembered the feeling of filling a void.  Everything has a story...and it was interesting to revisit them.

With two toddlers, that stuff ALWAYS somehow ends up on the floor.  If it's not physically IN the apartment, it can't end up under the couch!!!! A serious epiphany, I tell you! Your living space actually DOES affect your body and mind.  Mom LOVES a good detox. And you should see how much space that is now free! No more stuffing things to the brim, falling shelves...

Plus, there's an outreach program that gives clothes to new refugees...so why not help out a little?

Anyway, for those of you who care, the book is called, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying," by Marie Kondo. It's just as much about psychology as it is getting organized.  This is a life changer. 

 
(Every single toy has a place with room to spare!)

Mom also hopes this holds true with any future (frivolous) purchases! She already found herself questioning some items. WHY am I buying this? Just because I can? Will it add to my life? Or am I bored? Looks like mom and apu will finally be able to start saving some money!

Unfortunately, mom also said Santa will only be brining us one toy each for Christmas.  Cheap 'ole Santa!! Looks like I need to find this "book" and get rid of it!!!!  Of course, I requested a life size doll house! 

 

8

It's been eight days since Apu left and we've taken turns being sick...it's pretty systematic apparently.

Day 1-4: Mom AND Pompom have unknown stomach virus. 

Day 5-6: I come down with mystery fever and make SURE to share my water bottle and spoon with Pompom.

Day 7-8: Pompom comes down with not so mysterious fever and sleeps most of the last two days.

Day 9: Mom's turn!!!!

Ugh, how this ALWAYS happens when Apu is away will forever be the million dollar question. 

Thankfully, mom's new friend used to be a chef and made us all soup that lasted like four days (and single handedly kept us alive)! 

But, despite our weight loss, we still manage! 

Also, mom decided to buy a book and purge all of our stuff to donate to the refugees. 

It's been a long week! 

Leavers and Takers

Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.

It's mom's absolute favorite book.  It's basically the one lesson mom got out of graduate school, from a professor that really knew changing the world began in his classroom.  It was for the small price of $100k (I guess Pom's and I can kiss a private education goodbye), but mom doesn't like to talk about that.  I presume it would have been slightly cheaper if she had found it in the discount section of Barnes and Nobel, but no such luck.

So after feeling pretty down over the fact that the "United" States just elected someone who has questionably unifying intentions, she decided to center herself again and pick up the one book that always make her look inwardly.  She also has food poisoning AND it's a school holiday...it's been a ROUGH week.

Low and behold (because we simply can NOT leave mom alone for more than two seconds), I demanded that she read to me.

I picked a page and pointed. She read out loud...

..."The people of your culture cling with fanatical tenacity to the specialness of man.  They want desperately to perceive the vast gulf between man and the rest of creation.  This mythology of human superiority justifies their doing whatever they please with the world, just the way Hitler's mythology of Aryan superiority justified his doing whatever he pleased with Europe.  But in the end this mythology is not deeply satisfying.  The Takers are profoundly lonely people.  The world for them is enemy territory, and they live in it like an army of occupation, alienated and isolated by their extraordinary specialness."

Um, I'm not sure this was a coincidence.

According to mom, this international family of ours aims to be "Leavers," and not "Takers."

I'm only three, but maybe in ten years I may understand what she means. I then opted for, "Oh, The Places You'll Go," and rice pudding.

 

My Political Accountability

Another guest appearance by mom???! Wow, she must be upset!!!

___________________________________

The words...

To find the right words.

Half of the United States seems to be in complete shock...and I'm going to venture to say, 99% of the free world...minus Vlad. And I'm already having to answer for all of us. Thanks, folks.  

Challenge accepted.  

To choose...

Cry, or fight?  For those of you that know the story of our plane trip to Lyon, you know, I have the tendency to speak up (sometimes despite my better judgment).  See that story here.

Today, I realized that this madness is partially my fault.  Casting a ballot from 7,000 miles away isn't always enough to be the change you wish to see...or sharing a Facebook article that may or may not be accurate.  But what will I choose to do about it?  I've racked my brain as to how I can help quell this movement of division from continuing.  To be a voice to those who may not have one. I am educated, I am living abroad and have traveled the world, and I do feel I have the obligation to express the dissenting opinion in an eloquent and clear way. 

I usually have a tendency to apologize, which I now realize is totally ridiculous.  Instead, I will accept personal responsibility.  

-I unequivocally plan to start at home. I have been tasked the biggest responsibility of raising two girls, who WILL know their worth and will understand that there are no limits to their potential.  I vow to talk more, hug more (although they already object to my incessant hugging), and teach them that every person should be treated with value because we are ALL THE SAME.

-To listen more, and talk less. I interrupt a lot. I need to be more mindful of that.  It's only when you truly listen can you respond with purpose and lead by example. I want to talk to those who don't think like me...because only then can we truly claim to be openminded and loving. 

-Continue to remove the negativity from my life.  About five years ago, I started purging the people from my life that didn't add anything to it.

And let me tell you, purging has been NICE.  When you surround yourself with positivity and genuine people who lift you up, life never seems that bad.  I have learned that once positivity is something you DEMAND, the universe will deliver.  I have the BEST people in my life...and I am SO grateful for them all...even those who stand for different principles. 

-Read, read, read, and continue to educate myself.

-Refuse to put up with those who don't treat me equally.  I'm not only speaking up for myself anymore.  

I'm not sure how personal I should get here, but I will say that I have faced some pretty awful actions from men, specifically in the work place as a woman owning a plumbing company and other settings. I always shrugged it off as just something that comes along with working in a male dominated field.  This nasty woman is here to stand up for the young girls that take this sort of abuse because they feel as if it's just status quo. I am now a role model to two human beings who will eventually face this world without me. I'll be damned if they aren't strong women.  

The amount of hate I've seen spewed from casual acquaintances on the internet has been slightly disheartening, yet it makes me reflect on the real life friends who believe in love (between humans of either gender), equality (despite skin color), women's rights (my uterus is MINE, aholes) and progression...from all corners of the earth.  

I just watched a video someone posted online gloating that "now the immigrants can be sent home," while in the same breath, encouraged people to "just love one another." You know, that shit people probably hear in church...and just regurgitate...because that's what good Christians say to cover up their bigotry.  But it's not real.  Those words are so empty...are those same people going to fight for their homosexual friends or Hispanic neighbors?? I sure hope so!

Why do these people feel racism is acceptable? Why CAN'T two men or two women marry one another and raise a family?  What do they actually fear?  Because that's what this all comes down to. Fear and this illusion that we are somehow different or better.  

I honestly believe people are good at the core. It's only when they let that fear take over, do they blindly follow...in whatever direction of extremism.  We need to start examining the core cause, not simply treating the symptoms. 

So with that said, and as I watch Hillary graciously speak to her nation of followers, I vow to start with myself. I'm proud that I dragged both my girls to La Poste to cast our vote, that I have the capacity to teach them about TRUE love and acceptance.  Watch out world, these three nasty women (one in particular), may have just gained a new sense of singular purpose.  Proving that love will prevail. There is SO much more work to be done.

And to all of my friends, at home and abroad...

I see you, I love you, and I will defend your right to be EXACTLY who you are...even if you think global warming isn't a thing (although that may take a bit more introspection on my part...but I'm working on it).

A post from mom...

I moved abroad almost four years ago, and it goes without saying that it was a struggle. I was scared, felt like I didn't belong (Hungarian ain't no walk in the park), and worried my girls would suffer because I was unhappy. I realized (after about two years), that fear was holding me captive. Once I let that go, things drastically changed for the better. 

I do believe we get back what we put into the universe. I have been so incredibly lucky to be given this experience of living outside of my walls, and to meet the most beautiful families from ALL over the world. 

One thing I've come to conclude, is that people are the same at the core. We have the same goals, hopes and love for each other. It's in all of us...somewhere...when you strip away the fear. 

Recently, discussions with these new friends have turn to American politics, and there's one resounding conversation that keeps taking place. What the HELL is going on? 

Most of these conversations end in the same way...I hope for the sake of your children, people don't vote for the person who exemplifies hate, fear, and inequality. 

So with that said, I can't stand back and stay silent as an American, and more importantly, as a mother. These parents all want the same world for their babies. One that is safe, and one filled with more love than hate.

The world is watching...and they have faith in us (which I find pretty darn cool).  Mom is cautiously optimistic. 

 

This was Poms, waiting to cast her ballot after a romp in the park. 

American Halloween...

In France.

All the Americans, of the American Club of Lyon, decided to put on a trick or treat Halloween for all of us yanky expats.  Mom and Apu told us that we may not get to go, since it was heavily raining...and I was SO sad.  SO, in sucker fashion, mom and apu agreed to dress us up and take us on the town. 

 

We went from fancy apartment to fancy apartment, and I collected some pretty decent candy! I had a blast. So did Poms, who was the main candy grabber.  It was super fun! I can't wait until next year!

 
Poms was OUT after about 10 minutes. 

 

 

Friends.

We had some friends from Budapest visit this week, and was a LOT of fun, mainly for mom and her friend.  Me and E fought the ENTIRE time. A few repeated phrases from this week...

-This is MINE.
-No, it's MINE.
-I was playing with that. (Which was true like 2% of the time.)
-You CAN'T do that.
-I was dancing first, you can't dance.
-I was looking at the moon. NO, I WAS!
-I was eating that.
-Let's play hide and seek. (Apu was sucked into this about 150 times, and he was SUCH a good sport about it).

But, as soon as they leave, I'm sure I will be sad.  Because, well, I'm a girl, and we can't decide what we want 99% of the time!

 

Throw back to our first set of pictures together (since mom didn't snap any because she was too busy telling us to stop fighting for the last five days straight). 

A day at the Parc.

Mom basically is so obsessed with photos and editing, she's forcing us to be models when Apu is home. This was today's results. Not so bad for a scouting trip!

Pompom was asleep, so I got the camera ALL to myself!!

Detox time!

After eight days of oil, fried food, salami and processed sugar...mom is dextoxinng us majorly. For lunch, we're eating a veggie salad and loads of water! 

Seriously, the market here is SO amazing. 

Busy bees.

Since Apu arrived, we've been all over town, mom has been working (kinda), and yesterday, we went to our first bar. 

Basically, it's COMPLETELY acceptable in France to eat oysters/mussels with beer/champagne at 9am. We are learning quickly that this is literally the coolest place on EARTH. 

Not the best picture, but this is what my buddy and I did while the parents gorged themselves on seafood and beer...oh, and mini saucisson. 

On Sunday, Les Halles is PACKED. Literally, it's a endless indoor market of gormet meat, seafood, chocolate, and much fancier things mom and Apu can't afford. 

Apu is...

Tired and posing with moose...in Alaska. But he's on his way home! Thank GOD, because school vacation just started. Two weeks of no child care! 

No babysitter for Pompom's baby either. It's a full house! 

8 days!

With no major issue!!! Holy wow, is everyone surprised. And mom actually had some time to make money and go shopping...alone! 

While we built towers with nagypapa. And he put the last screen up since the mosquitos are back!!! UGH! 

They left today and mom is semi sad (I know, right)??? Being alone kinda sucks sometimes...but thankfully Apu should be home in a few days.