Our Creative Son

I love the way JJ's mind works.  He's constantly inventing, creating, and just saying funny things...like yesterday. 

As my sister's family was packed up and ready to go, and JJ realized the baby was still sleeping, he asked: "Is Rachael staying here?" 

Me: Yeah!  What do you think, should we keep her?? 

JJ:  Yes, and I will call him Lightening Bolt!

My brother in-law, Mike:  Might I advise if you have another kid that JJ not be involved in the naming process. 

Dave:  I disagree. 

JJ is also an extrovert, so when kids are here, we never seen him, like all day long.  And that is not an exaggeration.  So, yesterday we had a fun afternoon of spending time together.  We played Candy Land, made a gingerbread house together, and then he wanted to do some art with Daddy.

I love watching him create.  I could've watched him for hours.



finished product



Christmas 2010

We had originally wanted to be in Europe for Christmas, either France or in our new home in Croatia.  However, it just wasn't possible.  So, we were here in the states and our Christmas was filled with so many awesome things including: being with friends, a house filled with rotating family member guests, games, food, and a little:  

playing in the snow

 

Gingerbread house making



wrestling with uncles



playing with technology with nephews



opening stocking stuffers from Santa



waking up Christmas day with his cousins

All in all a very awesome time.   We feel blessed.

Visiting NYC on a Budget

After visiting NYC for the first time, we realize they try to charge you for every little thing, so here are our ten tips to visiting NYC on a budget:  

Tip 1: Walk everywhere.

Tip 2: Skip expensive hotel breakfast and eat at cheap diners.

Tip 3: Buy a piece of pizza on the street corner instead of at a fancy restaurant. 

Tip 4: See where the Broadway shows play, but avoid going.  Even the discounted same day tickets were $100 a piece. 

Tip 5: Don't purchase the $20 internet from the hotel to have wireless in your room and use the computers for free in the Business Center, even if it is located in the basement.

Tip 6: Have a friend who can hook you up with a discounted hotel room (thanks sooo much C!).

Tip 7: Avoid Taxis.

Tip 8: Eat Chipotle.

Tip 9: Walk to ground zero but skip the $10 fee/person to visit the "Tribute Center".

Tip 10:  Walk some more 

Our Life

Sometimes it's easier to blog about seemingly nothing and thus avoid writing about our real life.

As many people know, we technically live in France, but are sort of stuck in America, and are making preparations to move to Croatia.  We came to the states for, what we thought was going to be a three week trip, to attend a week long training session and to visit various churches.  Our three week trip has turned out to be a 3 month one so far.  We came here with only three carry-on bags and clothes for warm weather.  We've had to stay this long because we've had to work on our Visa documents, and are now pursuing Student Visas, which we can only do from the states.

I know that part of what comes with the life we have chosen is being flexible, patient, and learning to wait. Learning to live in the moment has been one of the biggest things we're learning to do.  But, we've had many frustrating and impatient moments, because we're human. 

But we're also trying to enjoy this time for what it is, and the good things that can and have come out of it. We've been encouraged to allow ourselves to take time to mourn France, leaving a place we have grown to love.  But we find that difficult to do sometimes when we can't physically get back there to actually pack up our things and say our goodbyes.  It's also very easy to get excited about the next thing, our impending move to Croatia, which we already anticipate so much that it's hard not to be there. 

So, we have this time and space to be in neither of those places and sit with the emotions that go with the reality of both of them.

This time has also allowed us to do things that would be impossible if we were overseas.  Recently we came back from a trip connecting with our friends and supporters in California. Some may know that we went to graduate school out there and then lived there collectively for amost 5 years.  We were also part of quite an amazing community during our time there.  Anyone who has gone through a similar experience knows that there is a "tearing" that happens when you leave it, and thus going back to a place that was transformational and formational can be well...very nostalgic and healing.

Thanksgiving Dinner with our community



The mountains are so beautiful in So. California after a good rain

Dave-ee-dee and Mel set up a tent for JJ to sleep in

Most days we wake up and engage feverishly in emails all day long, trying to figure out the quickest yet best way to get back to France and then move to Croatia.  On an almost daily basis we communicate with: the Croatian embassy, Croatian University, our team and our team leaders, various kindergartens in Croatia to look for a place to enroll JJ, our friends we met in France, and various other people as we also working on developing long-term relationships and partnerships.  We're also trying to learn Croatian. 

Needless to say when Dave surprised me and told me that for my birthday he was whisking me away for two nights to a place we have never been together, I was thrilled.  Here are some photos from our mini-trip:

Sorry CBB, one of the best cappuccinos I've ever had

 

So, we continue to do what we know to do, in order to move forward, and try to be grateful for the time we have, instead of frustrated that we're in that place of the in between that is just so hard to be in sometimes.

Coffee Shop Rambling

I'm not really a stalker or creeper, I just really like people, and observing them, and trying to understand them.  Dave catches me often staring or listening, because something or a particular conversation is interesting to me.  O.K. maybe I am a bit of a peeper, but I don't mean to be. 

I'm sitting in a nearby coffee shop, knitting, reflecting on our life as of late, and thinking about how I'm trying to develop the ability to "wait", which is hard for me.  As I do these things, I can't help but notice people and their conversations around me.   

Behind me there is a man who is very obsessed about snow.  He has told countless people how there is a storm coming, and that we may even get 3-8" of snow as a result of it.  This doesn't seem that much to me, but then again, I did grow up in Upstate, NY, where feet and feet of snow are just part of winter life.  He then goes into how being stuck in the snow would be an awful way to die.  This has all really begun to really interest me, as I realize he definitely has what I would consider, although probably not a confirmed disorder, "snow anxiety". 

Then, there's the man in the nice suit who has just walked in, with the perfectly manicured wife, who is speaking extremely loudly on the phone.  I can't help but think, if I were in Europe, that this whole picture would seem very "American" to me.  Thanks to this phone call, we all now know that he's planning a golf outing for his work and how he's waiting to just solidify the price of the trip.  Oh, and last year, the course was great.   

Another man expresses to those around him how he's enjoying much more the atmosphere of the coffee shop today, versus how much he hated it last night, when this place was filled with so many "kids". 

The man with snow anxiety has just told his friend, who is about to leave, to drive safe. 

I watch, who appears to be, the manager, peering out from behind the bags of coffee beans, which are on sale for Christmas, and who appears to be deep in thought.  I can't help but wonder what he is thinking.

I'm watching the rain fall hard on the ground and wonder when this will all turn to snow, while I try to remain hopeful for tomorrow's drive and try to keep the nearby man's snow anxiety at bay. 

Tomorrow Dave is taking me somewhere we've never been for my birthday.  I think we're both looking forward to some connecting time.  I find it very intereseting how two people who live in the same house, need to actually leave sometimes in order to really connect.

The snow man has just left, and just before he leaves, he tells his friend, whom he's heard needs to drive to one of the "affected snow areas" for a meeting, to stay warm.  As he leaves, I wonder if he's going to the grocery store to stock up on food for the big storm.

Learning Croatian

As many people know we're preparing to move to Croatia, and with that has come some language learning of Croatian.  Croatian is a slavic language, while French, the language we just spent almost a year learning, is a latin one.  They are very different.  Right now, I basically know only a few phrases.

Yesterday I had my first experience of speaking Croatian over the phone.  And here's how it went:

Woman:  Saying something in Croatian that I don't understand.

Me:  Uh...Razumijete li engleski?  (Do you understand English?)

Woman:  Ne razumijem.  Ne razumijem  (I don't understand.  I don't understand.)

Me:  Uh....Ne razumijem hrvatski.  (I don't understand Croatian).

LONG PAUSE....

Woman:  (In English) O.K. Fine, go ahead.  Speak English.

Marriage

This photo was recently taken of Dave and I when we visited my mom in Virginia.  This morning I happened to come across it, and it made me think a lot about marriage, our marriage in fact. 

For those of you who don't like sappy, symbolic, or metaphorical blog posts, you can check out now. 

There exists many metaphors for marriage.  I remember when Dave and I went through our own marital therapy during graduate school, we, at one point, described our marriage as two boats.  At that time, we sometimes felt we were in the same boat, but more often than not, we were in separate boats rowing away from each other.

This picture makes me think about how we're making progress in our marriage.  We're both holding on to the same thing (in this case a train) and facing each other.  This picture also reminds me of a seesaw, where one end is sometimes higher than the other.  For me this represents compromise and selflessness in a marriage, where we need to put the other person in front of ourselves, and often elevate them above us, but how we both take turns doing this, which means one person is sometimes below the other.  This doesn't imply submission or oppression or not being heard, but in marriage we need to be willing to put the other person first, and maybe when we both do this, it results in us being on the same level.  I like how we're on opposite sides of the train, for Dave and I are very different people, but together, we make a balanced picture.  And the thing is if one of us were to get off, we would throw off the balance completely. 

I don't know if anyone can relate to this today, but I had to share it.