School Begins Again

School started a week earlier than usual this year. The first day of school was Wednesday, August 23rd. The first day of official cross country practice was Monday, August 21st. Jay is in 9th grade (high school!!!), Rose is in 7th grade, and Amber is in 3rd grade. 3 kids, 3 schools, let's go! It was also Jay's first official week on the high school cross country team, and Rose's first week on the middle school cross country team. Since it was the start of my 6th season of assistant coaching high school XC, Amber hung out at somewhere around her 400th cross country practice (give or take a few days). Jeff began his lucky 13th year of teaching HS French and 7th season as head high school cross country coach. Ready or not, the busy days are back! Journal clips from the week:

The Last Week of Summer

This week was the last week of summer break. Jeff went back to work at the high school on Thursday, August 17th, so it was actually only a partial week with the true summer feel. Wildfire smoke rolled in from Spokane yesterday, and we went from a clear, single-digit air quality index (green, or "healthy") to an AQI of 209 (purple, or "extremely unhealthy") in a few short hours. We've been hovering between 191-209 AQI for over 24 hours now, and it's giving me a headache. To keep it simple, here are some bland journal excerpts from the week:

19 years of friendship

In August 19 years ago I arrived at SVU as a freshman. The first person I met was my randomly assigned roommate, Lauren. We immediately discovered that we share a birthday and over the next few months, we became best friends. We are still BFFs that talk and send messages to each other weekly. I got to go visit her and her family in their new house in St. Louis this week! It was a quick four-day trip: I got up at 4am and flew to St. Louis on Wednesday, August 9th and flew home on the evening of Saturday, August 12th, arriving home after midnight. I made the most of those four days! 

Gnocchi, Dinner, Hike

We had some good QFT--Quality Family Time early this week: we made gnocchi together for dinner on Sunday (August 6th), had the family over for dinner on Monday, and went on a hike together on Tuesday. Whenever I ask my kids what they like about our family, they almost always say "I like that we love each other." It is true, and even though there are always some disagreements in the mix, we love spending time together. Jay is about to start high school next week and I am starting to really feel how short our time is living as a family of five. I want to do our best to make the most of it!

Talk: The Importance of Love

I spoke in church today! To get into a religious mindset, here's a pretty mountain picture that I took from the Pacific Crest Trail in Chinook Pass earlier this week:

I am a type-it-word-for-word-and-read-it-at-the-podium speaker, so here's my talk:

Weeds & Walls

 Weeds. Walls. Walls of weeds. Walls in our house--drywall! Weeds and walls pretty much sum up the last two weeks at our house. It turns out that weeds grow whether we are there to see them or not, and the weeds around the yard at our future house grew alarmingly tall during the almost-four weeks we were away in July. There were walls of weeds all over the place! It took us two backbreaking, sweaty weeks to get the weed situation almost under control again when we got home. 

The crew put up drywall on the inside of the house this week! Having actual walls up really gave us a feel for the space that we helped redesign, and it's a relief to find that we love how it looks. Walls make the whole project feel so much closer to finished. The contractor told us that he thinks it will be done by mid-October at the latest! Jeff and I slip away almost every night to go on a date-walk across the street and see the progress on the house. Remodeling a house is never something I thought we'd do, but it's fun!

Parental Week

After our trip to France, Jeff flew home with the kids and I got to stay in Denver to spend 6 days with my parents! As the second of five kids, I treasure my one-on-one time with my parents. I have exceptional parents and I loved my time with them. We didn't DO any extreme or earth-shattering activities during my visit, but we did enjoy chatting over dinner every night, just the three of us. 

My Dad and I went on a run together. My Mom and I did our daily artwork together, and one day we even went to a local art show to view Colorado artists' submissions to a competition. 

On the night when Mom was gone teaching her ESL class, Dad and I sat on the couch and talked the whole time she was gone. I felt like a total celebrity, soaking up all of this quiet one-on-one time with my parents!

Paris Walk

After a restful Sunday along the Mediterranean and snoozing in our Airbnb, we took the train back to Paris. The 5 hour train ride from Perpignan to Paris was long enough to require us to spend the night in Paris before flying out the next day. I wasn't sad about it! 

The train window said "Laissez-vous faire rever" --Let yourself dream. That's exactly what I did on the train ride!

Le Lac des Bouillouses

Saturday, June 15th: The weather forecast for where we were staying in Millas was in the mid-90s for Saturday, so we decided to head to the mountains. When we talked with our Airbnb host Antonin on Thursday, he recommended Le Lac des Bouillouses, but later we couldn’t remember the exact word to attempt a Google Maps search. When we stopped for pastries and a gift for our mothers (artisan soap) in Villefranche on our way home Friday evening, the soap shop owner also recommended Le Lac des Bouillouses. He was super nice and wrote it down on a piece of paper for us before we even asked. We looked it up and discovered that it was only an 80 minute drive from our Airbnb, and since two locals highly recommended it, we decided to go!

Abbaye de Saint-Martin du Canigou

Friday, July 14th: adventure #2 of the day wasn’t exactly an adventure, but we did park and walk into the town of Prates to a kebab shop for a quick filling lunch before embarking on adventure #3. The kebab shop was bustling, with half a dozen groups sitting in shaded tables out front. While we waited to place our order at the counter inside, a cute little French girl (age 6 or 7 maybe?) was twirling and playing while her mom paid for their food at the counter. She looked at me with big eyes and I said “bonjour” quietly, and smiled at her. She came up really close to me and looked up at me with bigger eyes and half-whispered something in French. I did not understand what she said. Jeff told me she had asked “what did you say?” So I told her bonjour again. Jeff explained to the girl “nous sommes Americains. Parlez-vous anglais?” The girl nodded, so Jeff switched to English “what is your name?” She answered! I forgot her name, but it was adorable. By this point her mom was done paying and joined us. Jeff asked her how she learned English, and the mom (in French) told him she started learning English when she was pregnant with her daughter. It was a fun little interaction. Kids are always the CUTEST when they speak non-English languages.

Eus

Friday, July 14th: La ville d'Eus (population 377, pronunciation conflicted) was not on our radar until we were on our way to another site and happened to see it from the road, snuggled charmingly into a hillside. "Let's go there!" we said, and turned off the main road. It was a very worthwhile detour, easily my favorite village we visited on this entire trip. 

Lagrasse et Carcassonne

Thursday, July 13th, continued: After Queribus, we kept driving northeast. The roads were narrow and curvy just like before, but we had an hour and 45 minutes before we reached our next destination, which was the restored castle at Carcassonne. The countryside was rugged and beautiful. Scooching to the very edge of the world/road to let giant vehicles pass us head-on was not so fun. But the views! The flowers! We saw half a dozen other Cathar Fortresses dotted along the tops of other hills as we drove. Officially they’re called chateaux, but come on. Versailles and Chambord are chateaux. Cathar country—le pays de Cathar—has fortress ruins. Due to our late start in the morning, we were starving long before we reached Carcassonne.

La Ville de Lagrasse