Details, Details

As you can well imagine, closing up a house and organizing your life for 6 months in another country involves lots and lots of details. A mountain of details, acutally. I've been thinking about this all summer, so I had some things already in mind. This weekend I put together my master "to do" list and started a time line for completion working backwards from lift off for France.  I'm a woman on a mission! One of the first details on the list was: what to do with my houseplants? No problem finding lots of potential adoptive parents. My friend, Lacey was the first to offer, so she wins the prize. Here is the first batch stuffed into Miz Red Belle. They were delivered yesterday. Luckily the biggest plant that reaches almost to the ceiling is very flexible. I just bent over his top and closed the door. Lacey will receive the remainder of the pots next Saturday.

Houseplants...check!

The BIG Announcement!

Drum roll, please! I've done it; I've made the decision to close up my house for the winter and go to France. I couldn't be more excited! This is where I'll pass the winter....Cadrieu. I know you remember it from my month of Melange-ing Magic at Laury's house last September. No one was looking at, much less buying my property, so it was a relatively easy decision to take it off the market and maybe try again next spring. With some minor tweaking, I'll be able to winterize it and just GO! Lift off is scheduled for Sept. 22nd. I'll fly directly from Chicago to  Charles de Gaulle where I'll rent a car and drive to Cadrieu. And guess what? Lucie is coming along on this adventure! She's always said she wanted to be a little French dog and now she'll get her chance. More details to follow, of course, including an address and new email and maybe a new blog (haven't decided about that yet ) But for now, it's busy, busy, busy around here as I attend to the myriad of things that need to be done before I leave. This is truly a dream come true!

The Family

Becky just posted new photos on Shutterfly! Here's the gang. That is Chase in the middle. I can hardly believe how big he's gotten. And talking to him on the phone...who is that man with the deep voice? Surely it can't be my little Punky?? Travis is sitting on a stump, so Chase really isn't taller than his dad. But he is taller than Becky! This looks like it could become a Christmas card photo, don't you think?

PS...you'll want to check back in the next couple of days. I'll be making a BIG announcement!

Sounds of Summer

Right around mid-afternoon it begins....the cicada chorus! Can you hear them? When it's cool enough to have the AC off and the windows open, the sound of the cicadas fills the house. Sometimes they're so loud I even have to turn up the volume on the TV. Heck, I can hear them now and the house is closed up tight against the heat. Are you wondering about the foggy appearance of the video? That's the humidity that condensed on my camera lens in the few minutes I was outside. My glasses fogged over as well. It's definitely summer in Iowa!

The Office Is Open

Remember when you were in high school and took all those interest and aptitude tests to help you figure out what you wanted to do when you grew up? Even though it was a long time ago, I remember like it was yesterday. We took tests and answered many questionnaires. Someone evaluated the answers (no computers back then...how did we ever survive?) and in a couple of weeks we got the results back. Lots of information in both narrative and graph form. I loved looking at the bar graphs. My bars for both scientific and artistic interest/aptitude were very high...in the high 90th percentile. There were several bars in the middle and one tiny bar for mechanical ability. There was one empty spot. I asked my teacher if this was an error...there was no bar in the clerical/secretarial slot. "No," he said, "that isn't an error. Your interest and aptitude in that area are so low, you didn't even show up on the graph!"

OMG! so why am I working here in the church office this week?? The regular secretary is on vacation and she asked for volunteers to sit in her chair. Silly me...I said 'why not?' I'm halfway through my assignment and so far, no one has yelled at me or asked me to do anything hard. I figure I'm safe as long as I don't have to file anything or figure out the computer, the postage machine, the copier that does everything except write your text, the safe, the fire alarm system or call the repair guys if the roof leaks! Anyone...even me....is capable of answering the phone with a smile. I do have the interest and aptitude for that!

Frogs Everywhere!

It's been SO wet! I see at least one or two of these frogs stuck to my house or windows almost every morning and evening. This little guy was on my front picture window last night. It was kind of interesting to see what his bottom side looks like. Those round toenail-like things are suction cups that enable him to cling to glass and the house siding. I'm not sure why they keep climbing on the house...maybe trying to get out of the wet flowers?

Gorilla What?

Gorillapod! Only the handiest little piece of photography equipment in the world! I first heard of these little tripods this May when I went to Montana. Travis bought one for Becky as a Christmas gift. I was amazed when I saw it. Becky has a big SLR multi-lens Canon, and the Gorillapod worked perfectly for her. Surely it would work as well on my little Canon point & shoot. Travis said they were cheap...even better. They come in different sizes depending on your camera size. I bought this one at the local camera shop for $21.99. My guess is you could find them a bit cheaper at Target or Wal-Mart. It's little (6 inches), light (under 2 ounces) and flexible. I leave the adaptor attached to my camera so all I have to do is slide the tripod on when I want to use it. Slick!

This is where I 'wrapped' its little legs to attach my camera for yesterday's hair close up. If you click onto the Joby website, you can see lots of ways to use the 'pod and lots of other products they make to let you be 'hands free' in your life.