countdown to Paris

I had a request awhile back to post about Paris. I didn't do it before now because I've been in denial. Now, that is no longer possible.

But first, a brief history. We've lived in Paris 3 times before: once for 10 months when Max was 18 months old, once for 6 months when Lucas was 2, and once for 2 months when Eva was 2. (I have no idea why we always lived there when we had a 2-year-old! Crazy.)

The first time we went on our own. Marc was doing research for his dissertation, he found us an apartment, and we had to furnish it completely from scratch. As in, you move in and you have light bulbs dangling from the ceiling and nothing else. Then we had to sell everything when we left. It was a very expensive year. It was also an incredibly fun year. I bought a big map of the city and tacked it to our bedroom wall. Every day I would look at the map and choose a new area to explore. With only one toddler, it was fairly easy to do what I wanted (of course I would throw him a bone every so often as well).

The last two times we have gone with Marc as the director of BYU Study Abroad in Paris. It's much easier to move to a different country when you have a furnished apartment awaiting your arrival. It's also harder to do when you have more children, and older children. Logistically, it's just harder. Plus, they have opinions about what we should do while we're there! (They don't like shopping like I do.) And did I mention how badly I wanted to lose weight before going back to Paris? It's about the worst place in the world to be overweight. And no, I haven't managed to do it. Let's not even go there.

Now we are preparing to go back for another Study Abroad program, this time for the Fall semester. Only 8 more weeks! Marc is a big city kind of guy, and Paris is his favorite city. He would happily stay there forever. I love Paris as well, but I would never go there indefinitely. I'm way too attached to my friends and family. And all of my stuff. And having a car. And customer service.

I don't want to be a whiner -- I know we're blessed to have this opportunity. It's a wonderful education for our kids, and just the kind of eye-opening experience we are determined for them to have. But it's hard, I won't lie. It's hard to get everything ready to go. Hard to pack what we need for 3 months -- and 2 seasons -- in only our suitcases. Hard to resurrect my long-buried French. Hard to take a stroller on public transportation everywhere we go. And just hard to be away from home. But Marc's gift of time to myself every Friday while we're there is definitely sweetening the deal!

So there you have it. I have 8 weeks to get ready to go, and I'm feeling overwhelmed. Here are a few of the tasks I need to complete before then:

• clean out the abominable garage!! (AGAIN)
• get to the bottom of the water leak that we have somewhere, causing our meter to run constantly
• dentist appointments
• doctor appointment
• get my car fixed
• either get the sprinklers fixed or become hose-draggers again
• figure out a way to get 3 months worth of prescriptions, when the insurance company is not entirely cooperative
• get the house organized and ready for a new tenant (our neighbor's daughter is going to live here and take care of the dog for us)
• put my studio back together (still a post-flood disaster)
• pack up and store stuff we're not taking so that said tenant will have room for her own stuff (this does NOT include furniture, thank goodness!)
• help Lucas finish all the Bear requirements for Cub Scouts
• plan Lucas's birthday party, gifts, etc.
• figure out how to get Max's school requirements taken care of (we're trying to do electronic high school, but it is nearly impossible to get into any classes! -- this one is stressing me out)
• thoroughly clean the whole house
• pack

Oh, and entertain Jessie and her kids, they're coming to visit! Hooray!

I'm sure I'll think of more. Wish me luck.