Fourth of July!

As Mondays usually go, Delphine took the boys to school which warranted me a nice sleep-in which I desperately needed. That's about the best part of the day despite this having been the best day of my existence each year since I was a babe capable of wearing an Old Navy American t-shirt. To sum this post up: NOTHING happened related to the 4th of July. Nothing was extra American (except for me) or special or festive or fun. Depressing, right?

As it was my last day in Paris as an independent traveler (mom is coming to town), I finished up some very late blog posts then went into Paris to meet Hannah.

Our plan WAS to go to Sainte-Chapelle since neither of us have gone yet, but literally three minutes after I arrived, it was closed for the afternoon. Seriously? Does the church need to take a lunch break or something? To kill time until 2:15 and hopefully run through before I had to leave, we went off to the post office to find her a special envelope for the embassy. She has had the misfortune of scrambling to renew her passport while her time in Paris is ticking by. We got the 26 euro envelope (yikes!) and then made our way to the cutest pet stores in Paris!! Seriously, I'm not even a crazed animal person but this place brings out the obnoxious American high pitched voice squeals! Cutest puppies you ever did see. And then there's the cats. In all the times I've been in there, I don't think any of them have been awake, let alone moved, once. The puppies on the other hand; jumping and yipping and chasing your fingers across the glass. Ugh I love that place.

So once we pried ourselves from there, I commenced in having a nice photoshoot in front of the Seine while wearing my American 'Guts and Glory' shirt, bright blue pants, and flaunting a nice American flag napkin.

When I called mom that evening, she was already on her way to the airport and she said, "Are you just a walking and talking American flag over there? You're a target! Don't wear any red, white, and blue tomorrow when you pick me up!" Hahaha in fact, I wore my most French outfit to the airport. Striped shirt and black ankle pants. Can't get much Frenchier:)


We got in line for the church but I had to run off to cherche children so I missed out on the beauty of the stained glass but Hannah's pictures looked lovely! When I did pick up the kids, they couldn't even tell me why this Monday was so significant.... dang it, children.It was just another day at the park, just another water fight, just another night of playing, just another night of asian dumplings for dinner. *Sighhhh

As far as technicalities in this job go, there are so many but none that are ever followed. For example, the kids are out of school, therefore, I am done with my job! Wrong. Even despite the fact that my mom is going to be in town, I have to work all night Tuesday and Wednesday morning before we leave for Italy. Ughhhh. But back to Monday night, I finally got to Skype with Jorge and Juneau after having played phone tag a million times this week and even got to FaceTime Jaycee. What a good night! Next up, the morning craziness of picking mom up at the airport!