Memories

I have these wierd thoughts running around in my mind. I just need to let them out, so thought here would be a good place. I'm still on my journey afterall, I guess. :) I am pretty tired, emotionally, physically and mentally. Add to that the jetlag, and well, that might explain the wierd thoughts! First full day home and I was running all over. Trying to get the house cleaned, getting the girls out the door on time, and then running back to the airport to pick up our luggage, and then out to mt. pleasant to take cory in to the doctor, he has pink eye in both eyes. Lunch with daddy and then back home. the kids are no longer reading this blog, so now i can get to the real nitty gritty if i feel so moved.

Paris was neat. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the culture. The first few days of our journey were really rough though, because I missed the kids already, and thinking of all the looong days ahead without them, coupled with the shock of culture change, language change and emotionally i was a wreck. i hid it pretty well until we were stuck on the train. it felt like forever since i had had one of my babies in my arms, and we weren't even halfway to going home yet. i lost it. once our roommates left, i just broke down and sobbed. it was completely shocking to me, that not being able to carry on a conversation with most people would affect me in such a profound way. i didn't realize it had bothered me, until i was overtired and already walking a thin line of emotional sanity. you would think with the language issue, that barry and i would instantly melt together and become closer, but we both realized that we had our own spiritual and emotional baggage to attend to, and snapping at each other was easier than moving closer. we still had an incredible journey, and we DID grow closer together, but it wasn't without a few choice words and a few snotty moods.

Rome was unbelievable. It was so overwhelming that I am still digesting half of what we saw and did. While in Europe, I had some very strong emotional and spiritual upheavals that I could easily explain. Now that I am home, I am still experiencing these same emotions, but the excuses are now gone. I feel very much like a doubting Thomas. I had faith before our journey, sure, and at some points in my life my faith felt rock solid. But having gone to Rome, having looked into Jesus' eyes from a copy of the shroud He was wrapped in, having seen two of the thorns from his crown, some of His cross, a nail that pierced His skin... not to mention St Peter's jawbone... it is so denomination ceasing. Every single last Christian church has this exact same foundation. Jesus Christ. Having journeyed to Rome, I felt in a way, so much closer to Jesus. The Christian music that I listened to before the trip now has a higher spark, a deeper meaning. I have a memory now of some things that before just seemed an unbelievable place. I'm hoping over the next few weeks I can really dig deep into my memory and write down all the details of my journey, both the spiritual and the fun, so if i ever feel like my memory is failing, i can just pull out this scrapbook and re-live it. what an incredible gift barry and i were given. to go on this journey and do and see what we did. i'm still reeling that it was real and it actually happened.

getting home, when the wheels touched down in chicago... i've never felt so attached to america before. some things you really take for granted. and some things are just harder to appreciate when you are in the midst of them. like my children. my babies. i always knew i was incredibly blessed with my children. but day to day life can really hide that for me. getting home and hugging them, having them in my arms again, i want to scream from the moutain tops i will never again be so oblivious to my incredible calling in life, to the extreme amount of blessings that surround me each and every day, even on the worst of days. but yet i know. i know the day will come when the trip will have sunk far enough into my memory that it just is. and the day to day life will again hamper the joy of recieving such wonderful blessings, even though they sometimes scream and cry and fight. i'm praying that i have learned a lifetime lesson and that i will always carry a part of Rome, and a part of all that i saw and did in my heart. That this trip wasn't just a celebration of a wonderful marriage, but it will also be the water and sun that helped my seed of faith grow to be what God wants it to be.

home sweet home!!!

we are home!! and we were able to bump up our flight and get in 3 hours earlier than planned. luggage did not follow, but at least we were home!!! more to come later. :)

today!!

today is going to be a loooong day. we woke up about 1am home time, and we will get home 9:23pm home time, IF there are no delays or anything. when we get into chicago, it will be 2ish in the afternoon in chicago, but will feel like bedtime to us, and then we have a 4 hour layover before the short flight to MBS.

we went down to the breakfast this morning here at the hilton. they do breakfast buffets right! it was included in our room, and soooooooo tasty. i ate so much. i haven't been this full since leaving the US!

now we are just packing up and going to head over to the airport a little early. we never made it swimming last night, i was just so exhausted. hopefully we can get a few naps on the plane.

SEE you soon!!! love, mom and dad

we made it back to paris!

we are staying in a hilton paris hotel for our last night overseas. talk about a nice hotel!! wow!!!! this will be a nice relaxing break before our long flight tomorrow morning.

girls, we checked oovoo, and it was playing it in fast forward!!! it was cute to see you, and very funny to listen to!

well, we are off to take down our luggage cart and check out the pool and see where we will eat dinner.

we can't wait to see you kids tomorrow!!!!!! love and miss you terribly!!! love, mom and dad

I am uploading some pics from the ruins, and our journeys from yesterday. I have to look at a picture that is about half an inch and try to find the best to upload, so I haven't actually spent a lot of time trying to find which ones to upload. so far, we have taken 776 pics, so i do have to pick and choose which ones to upload!! :) I will be doing a lot of reviewing and re-posting when i get home and can spend a little more time on them. :)

hopefully we can blog one more time before getting on the train tonight. love and miss you kids!!! love, mom and dad

vatican museums and the true cross church

Mommy and daddy's fatigue level is starting to affect our sight-seeing. yesterday we had tickets for the vatican museums and sistine chapel. the bike place was closed when we needed to leave for the vatican, so we walked. i was so sore and so tired when we got there, that i didn't enjoy the museum much. it was breath taking, don't get me wrong. but i was so tired i just wanted to sit every 10 feet. we didnt stay very long at all. we saw the long hallway, and the sistine chapel and then we skipped the eygpt and other parts. we walked a distance to find a metro station (underground train), and then took the metro to hard rock cafe. i don't know how we manage, but somehow it seems in rome we have to walk uphill both ways. lol. we take different paths on the way there and on the way back and both times it is up hill. hard rock was such a breath of fresh air. it was pure american, right down to they actually had seats on their toilets!! right after that we walked back and i was walking sooo slow because everywhere on me hurts. my hips, which i feared would give me problems, actually feel great! it is my legs and feet.

we got back to the hotel and rested and took a nap. i woke up 2 hours later, took a tylenol and we were off again. our first stop was san clemente. this church doesn't look like much from the outside, but when you step in, you are just in awe that this is just another one of the churches in rome, right there in the hub bub of the city. we got our tickets (yup, tickets at a church) and went down. this church has some serious history to it. you go down one level, and it is the church from the 4th century. then you go down a level below that and it is the pagan church from before the 4th century church!! this was a self guided tour, and it was so neat to just wander around down in the pagan church and then up in the 4th century church to justimage what it was like back then. then we continued on and went to san giovanni in laterno. this is a basicilia, and very impressive. then on to the church i wanted to make sure we went to. santa croce. pretty church, both inside and outside. i was looking for the relics. a piece of jesus' true cross. when we left our hotel, it was 5pm, and so by the time we made it to this church, it was 7pm. the chapel was closed. we waited around until a daily mass in another side chapel ended, and then barry asked if we could go in the relic chapel, and a priest said he would let us in in a minute. he was a busy guy!! when he came back over to the door, he said we have increased passions. it took us a minute to realize his english was limited, and he was saying thanks for having patience. i was so thankful that we were able to go in there and pray and see. when you first walk into the chapel, you have to go up these small stairs, and it is a very humble looking chapel, with the stations of the cross on the walls. then you get to the top and you have to turn a corner. in a glass enclosed showcase, behind a rope, are 6 small, precioius shrines, each holding a different relic. there was of course the cross, in a beautiful cross shaped shrine. there were two thorns from jesus' crown. there were pieces of the rock from the pillar jesus was flogged on. there was the plague that was on jesus' cross saying king of the jews (but not in english of course). there was a nail that pierced jesus hand. to see these, up close and in person was so chilling. so humbling. you could feel a difference in the room. stronger than what i feel when i am in a catholic church with a tabernacle filled with hosts of a true jesus. somewhere along our journey, we have seen a portrait of people on the ground, and then up above them angels reaching down to us, and then above the angels is God. and one of the people in the painting stood out and had his eyes fixed above. but it showed the clear struggle of human life and trying to keep our eyes on the Lord. and when i was in the chapelle delle croce, i felt so close to jesus. seeing and being in the same room as something that jesus actually touched was so moving to me. we obviously couldn't take pictures, but i hope i will never forget what i saw and what i felt last night. in a side room in the chapel, was a copy of jesus' shroud (the cloth that jesus' dead body was wrapped in), and you could clearly see jesus face in the middle. it was very chilling to look into the eyes of jesus. it was just a copy, but incredibly moving just the same.

this morning we are packing up and checking out. there is a few more churches i want to visit. a little more shopping i want to do. and then we get on the train tonight and head back to paris for our last night in europe and then we head home! we miss you kids and home something fierce! with all our love, mom and dad.

Today we are heading back into the vatican for our last time. We are going to the vatican museums and sistine chapel. Our tickets are for 9:30, so we will be renting bikes again, even though our bums are still sore. If we stand up on the bikes (don't try this at home kids!!), it doesn't hurt, but you have to bike a little faster to maintain balance while standing. Our ride back from the vatican yesterday on bikes while standing was very fast. A good workout too! lol.

Our hotel bed is as hard as a rock. When we were doing the tour of st peter's, a seminarian (a guy studying to become a priest) was saying that when you are on a pilgrimage, there will be suffering. so i guess it is just part of the journey. :)

After the vatican museums today, we will probably have lunch one more time over in the 'cheap' district, and i want to make sure i have all my shopping done while there. then we are going to hmm. well, not sure exexactly what we will do be3tween lunch and dinner, i know we will fill our time though! and for dinner we will bike up to hard rock cafe.

rome has been so incredibly nice. english is spoken a lot more in rome than it was in paris. all the restaurants we have been to have an english translation on their menu, and most waiters when they see us say hi instead of bonjourno.

last night we asked our hotel guy where a good italian restuarant was, and we went there, and they didn't open until 7pm. which is pretty normal for the non-tourist type places. they have lunch hours and dinner hours and close in between. so we walked around the forum. it is a lot bigger than it looks on the map!! lol. i think we walked just about as far as it is to the vatican, just walking around the forum. it was amazing though. one of the many things i wanted to be as a child when i grew up was an archeologist. not sure if i ever verbalized that, but it has always fascinated me. so yesterday with the scavi tour and seeing the buildings and walking around underground, right next to these walls that were older than Christ, and seeing the fenced off area where they are still digging. it is just so amazing. same as the forum. you can see these little areas that look like it would have been a house or a store, and these columns. on the far side from our hotel, (when i thought our walk would never end, but enjoying it just the same) was this room, complete with a doorway, and on the other side of the room was just a hill and grass. nothing else around, just this room dug out from the hill. so when we finally get to the restaurant, it was just like the hotel guy said, very reasonably priced, not a lot of tourists and very good. I have cheese ravioli. i have been looking for that since we arrived in rome. :) we have been trying to find and order fetticini alfredo, but every restaurant we have been to has NOT had that on the menu!! the lasagna is out of this world. soooo good. and the pizza. i always order a cheese pizza. and each one tastes a little different, but is incredible. it will be hard to go home and order a pizza hut or little caesars pizza now.

well, i suppose it is that time i need to crawl out of bed and get ready to head down to breakfast. im really feeling the pain of missing you kids. i'm anxious to be home, to america, with fast food and chain restaurants. lol. no, that part i honestly don't miss. but i do miss you kids something fierce. i will always hold a part of rome in my heart though. i will be very sad to leave rome and st peters behind. i never thought we would ever make it here, but now that we are here, i want to come back again some day in the far, far future, if it be God's will.

i'm finding a lot of comfort in the fact that our train station in rome is big and most of it is inside, so tomorrow if our train does get delayed, at least there are shops and a mcdonalds! and warmth. the paris train station was mostly outside, a small part was inside, but it was very small and there were a TON of people all over. seating was not really an option at that station. ok, i'm off now. i sure ramble a lot. :)

miss you kids!! love you to pieces!! thanks for oovooing with us last night!
Love, mom and dad

scavi tour

wow. what an incredible day. i'm so loving rome. i was telling daddy after the tour today that we need to bring you kids back someday, like when you are teenagers. rome is just so incredible. beyond words.

we went and found a laundry mat this morning, and there was a worker there who watched and switched your clothes, so we were able to go have a drink and i mapped out where all the churches i want to visit are located on the map and drew them in. one of them was the church of the snow. maria something. this church was stunning. i knew after walking through there that the middle name of maria for Katharine was just perfect. after the walk through the church, we went and picked up our laundry and then rented bikes. biking to the vatican was a much quicker way to go. but the seats hurt our bums like none other.

ah, but before going to the vatican, we went down to the colosseum, which is just a short walk from our hotel. locked our bikes up and walked around it. very huge, and its age and how well it still stands up is just amazing.

from there we went to the vatican again, and shopped around some, then had lunch for the cheapest we have so far since leaving america! and it was still very tasty. we have found the shops and the food around the vatican is a lot cheaper than over by where we are staying. after some more shopping, and getting a chocolate gelati (ice cream), we went over to st peters and went down into the catacombs. we couldn't take pictures of the scavi tour, but it was incredible. there are two levels below st peters, the first level is where the popes are layed to rest after they pass away. and the second is what they found after excavating the area. we got to see st peter's jaw bone. and his tomb. it really can't be said in words what you think and feel when you see the founder of the christian faith. the bone of him who walked and talked with Jesus, who shared in the Lord's supper the first time he did it before Jesus was crucified. after the scavi tour, we walked around st peters some more. i don't think i could ever tire of being in that church.

now we are resting for a little bit before we head to dinner somewhere. and then if we can summon the energy we are going to go walk in the forum and check out the churches that are in there, or at least are there according to my catholic guide to rome, which hasn't disappointed me yet!! :D

i will go work on uploading some pics to photobucket! can't wait to oovoo you kids tonight!!! love mom and dad

ps we sent you postcards from the vatican yesterday, and have some more we will send from rome. i hear the vatican post is a LOT quicker than rome's, so you might not get the rome post card until after we get home. sereah and natalie, you will have to call aunt tina and see when they come, daddy sent them to our address. we sure miss you kids!!

good morning!

I am happy to see that our 3 hours is from when we are actually online, not from when we log in to three hours later. so i am able to still use our time, and if i budget it wisely, maybe we will only need to buy one more card.

today is... thursday! we get to see you kids on monday!!! we miss you sooo much! i do have a postcard with the chapel of the miraculous medal, i will try to remember to take a picture of it today and upload it to photobucket so at least you could take that to little flowers. daddy did take a picture of the plaque that was outside the door of the chapel. if you didn't see it in photobucket, email oovoo or leave a message and i will upload it.

today we are going to be doing our laundry this morning. we will probably eat our scrawny breakfast here first and then go down the street. while it is going we might go get a coffee or something if it is within sight of the laundry. then we are off to visit one of the many churches i want to see in rome, or maybe the coloseum. this afternoon we have scavi tickets, so we are going in the catacombs underneath st peters. we get to actually see st peter's bones. and many other pope's. it sounds kinda creepy, but how could we resist to go see st peter himself?!

i really want to hit some of the shops that are over by the vatican. they are by far the cheapest as for souveniers that we have seen in the couple of districts we have been in. they had hats for 1.80 euros and tee shirts for 4. there is a hard rock rome that daddy wants to go to for dinner, but it is quite a ways away (when walking) so hopefully we can still go at some point.

ok, i'm off to go look up the addresses of some of the churches i want to visit. 'see' you tonight on oovoo! love you!!! love, mom and dad

ps, natalie i can't wait to hear how your program went!! and hayden, i can't wait to hear how your potluck went!!

I was misled into thinking wifi was free at the hotel, and it is very expensive. we'll figure something out. i paid 7euros for 3 hours of internet so i can update the blog and quickly oovoo you kids tonight. maybe just logging in quickly the next few days or something.

today was such a busy day.

oh wait, did i tell you how awesome rome is???? this city is just incredible. i ran out of words to use to describe some of these things, but rome is not even really in the realm of comprehending. it's age, it's beauty, it's charism. we have walked everywhere, we haven't taken a bus yet. they always look so busy and not like much fun. so we have walked. although we have appts in the vatican the next two days (and did today too), and that was a long walk. we walked at a pretty good clip this morning and made it in 45 minutes.

hmm... i'm so exhausted i can't even think of what year it is. lol. but i will try my best to give a quick update on what we did today and then will go upload some photos to photobucket. head over there to view pics, i am just talking on here now, with timed interenet i want to use all the time i can to talk to you kids and not waste it uploading pics. i think when i get home i will take some of this talk and put it with the pics and make it into a photo album of sorts.

ok. this morning we woke up at 6:30am rome time (that would be 1:30am at home with the time change), and we got ready and got all our rosaries together and went to the breakfast, which was incredibly small, but it worked. then we booked it over to the vatican. the audience with the pope started at 10:30. we were told if we wanted a good seat, to arrive around 8:30. so, we arrived right at 8:30. we got the 5th row seat. it was incredible!!!! a little slow for the listening to the other languages, but we knew when he was giving us all a blessing. he extended the blessing to us in attendance, and also to our family members and anyone else who we brought forward in our minds. so any of you who are reading this got blessed by the pope today!!

after the papal audience, we went to a little cafe for lunch. had some very tasty lasagna. then did a little more window shopping. i was in heaven with all the catholic stores down right outside the vatican. i can't wait to head back in tomorrow and do some more shopping! at 2:15 we met with a couple seminarians who gave us an awesome tour of st peter's. wow. wait until you see the pics from this church. the biggest church in the world. and so grand and gold and huge. it was incredibly amazing. there were a ton of people in there and the tour took awhile. the guy giving us the tour knew so incredibly much about the church and the history, it was just amazing. it was an american tour, so it was nice to have that breath of english again!!

after the tour, i was sooo tired, so we went to another little cafe and had some mottzerella pizza. then we started the long walk back to the hotel. i was so tired i took two breaks, and was going very slow, so the walk took us a lot longer on the way back. tomorrow we will either use the bus, or rent bikes. walking that far again just doesn't sound appetizing right now. we are suppose to go and do laundry yet tonight. we will see how i feel after a quick break. :)

we should be on to oovoo tonight kids, so 'see' you then!! miss you sooo much and love you to pieces!!!! love, mom and dad

3/10/09 Wow, what a day!! Let’s see… the train, I won’t lie, was horrible. We slept ok, well, daddy slept great, but the bed was small and up high and pretty hard, so it was hard for me and my big ole belly to roll over, and the rocking motion was nice to lull me to sleep, but everytime we stopped, I woke up. We didn’t actually get into Rome until about 2:15pm in the afternoon. The train was suppose to arrive at 10:15am. Count the hours, we boarded the train at 9pm. I was quietly furious. I had a good long cry and felt better though. We arrived at Rome, and decided to walk to our hotel instead of taking the subway. A nice walk, not too long. Our hotel doesn’t have free wifi though, I’m kinda upset about that!! I want to video chat with you kids!!!! I miss you sooo much!! I get tears a lot and have to quickly think of other things to occupy my mind. There are a lot of little café’s that have wifi, so I will update the blog while drinking a hot chocolate.  the one in rome tastes like hot pudding, and it is very thick too. The one in paris tasted divine.

Ok, onto what we did since the short time we arrived in Rome this afternoon. Let’s see. First stop was the hotel, getting checked in and showers. Hot showers. Oooh, that felt sooo goooood, even though the water pressure sucks and the shower door is broke. Then we walked to the Trevi fountain, because we had to pick up our audience with the pope tickets, and it was in that area. Rome streets (or the maps, take your pick), are soooo much easier to navigate! We didn’t get lost AT ALL today!! And still were able to enjoy walking the streets and just marveling at all the buildings. Anyway… we get to the Office of the American councel of the bishops (or something like that), to get our papal tickets, and we were greeted by a very American sister. She is so American in fact, she grew up in Saginaw, MI!!!!
There was also a priest there, very American accent, and all English was spoken. It was such a breath of fresh air to be able to hold a long conversation with someone and get that feeling of home. It was great. She showed us on the map where we will be sitting. When I booked these tickets, I thought we would be pretty far away from the pope, but actually we are sitting right THERE. There are four sections right by the pope, and we have special tickets and get to sit in the upper right hand side, the pope speaks from the middle. We are like up on the top, and she said the whole bottom will be FULL of people. He does speak some of the 1.5 hours in English, and, get this… are you ready?? All the religious items we want to have blessed, there is a time during our visit he will ask and he will actually bless them right there!! So we went shopping and got all the rosaries I said I would buy for everyone tonight. Sister told us of a shopping district that has a bunch of religious, high quality items so we went there right after talking with her for a little while. Oh, and if you check the Vatican website after …7am tomorrow (will I even have this posted by then??? LOL), you MIGHT see a picture of us. That’s right, we actually have a running chance to meet, face to face, THE POPE!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am for tomorrow.

So, after we bought all our goodies for tomorrow, we went through the pantheon. Wow. Pictures can not even begin to describe how huge this place is. The cement used to build it (and this was AD 100something, if I recall right) is 19 FEET thick!! Way awesome. After the pantheon, Sister suggested we head over to a little piazza that had a couple fountains and artists selling their work, and have dinner there in front of the fountains. It was dark, and we found a little café that had candlelight, and we had our dinner there by candlelight under the warmers. The weather in rome today was awesome. I’m not sure how warm it was, but very sunny and when we first got in, we had sweatshirts on (no coats) and we were warm by the time we got to the hotel. When we left the hotel for a late lunch, it was already starting to cool off, but not anywhere near as cold as Paris was.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. It was about a 30 minute walk. That is when we found out we don’t have wifi. The reception lady is pretty cranky too. She sounds like she got up on the wrong side of the bed. LOL. But we are not in the hotel room long, so we don’t mind if it is not perfect.

Ok, that is all for tonight. Hopefully sometime tomorrow morning we can find a café with wifi and upload this and some pics to photobucket before we go to the audience with the pope.
Going to go call you boys and then when you girls get home call you too! Daddy and I are awefully tired tonight! Love and miss you lots and lots and lots and lots!!! Love, mommy and daddy.

Now we are on the train, I am typing this in word and will copy and paste it when we get to our hotel. We should be arriving to Rome in 15 minutes, had our train taken off on time, but we are still 1 hour away from Florence, which I guess is about 3 hours away from Rome. Our little cabin in the train is smaller than the flower bathroom, and we paid a few dollars extra to have it be a 4 person room instead of a 6 person room. I awoke several times last night to find the train sitting still. The sleep wasn’t too bad, we couldn’t hear a train whistle or anything, but we are in the caboose. Well, technically, there isin’t a caboose, we are just in the last car of the train. We are traveling through the mountains right now. At one point when I woke up last night, there was a bit of snow on the ground. I am most looking forward to arriving in Rome and getting to our hotel and relaxing. The couple that is sharing our cabin with us are Italian. They don’t speak any English. It is amazing how much you can still communicate without using words. I think that has been the thing I have learned the most so far this trip. Speaking is a very small part of communicating. Well, that is all for now. I will upload the pics we have from yesterday when we get a chance. I am really missing you kids and sometimes have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from crying. But being busy and seeing all the sights and thinking about posting it and sharing it with you helps a lot. Be good, I can’t wait to ‘see’ you on oovoo tonight!! Love, Mom and Dad

wifi at a cafe! whoo hoo!

Hi guys!!! we left you another oovoo message. Leave us one back!! we will get it as soon as we get to our hotel in rome.

we had a fun and busy day again today. first we took the subway to the miraculous medal chapel, and to our great disappointment, it is closed for 4 more months because of construction on the road. :( I was so sad I almost cried!! They gave us directions to another church, St. Vincent de Paul which was down the street. St. Vincent was in his coffin high above the alter. We got a few miraculous medals that they had there for you kids and for anyone else who wants one. They are not blessed yet, so when we are in rome we will try to ask to get them blessed somewhere. after that we took the subway to the church on the hill. wow, no wonder it has this name! i have never seen such a majestic looking church. all the steeples in it were doomed, and inside, oh wow. we couldn't take pictures inside, but it was beautiful. Then we took a walk down the side of it, and found a tourist street, bought a few souviners for you kids!! There was an art plaza full of french artists selling (and painting!) their work. Then instead of walking down the steps (we are done with steps. more in a minute on that), we walked down these cobblestone roads that were steep and at the top of a very steep hill. It was gorgeous!

Then we went to the shopping mall. Can you believe I found a mall? This thing was huge. but it didn't have seperate stores, it was all one store, and in an old building with a beautiful center dome. They had some cute clothes, but some of the kids' clothes were over 200 euros (which equals about 250 in our money), and well, that was a bit expensive, so we are still looking for some cute paris outfits. we did buy katharine a small little blanket bunny like cory's rattle bear at the mall but that was all. then had lunch at a little sandwhich shop by the opera.

stairs. i don't think you guys can even start to imagine how many stairs there are here. the subway is chuck full of them. sometimes you have to go up stairs just to go down about 30 feet later. stairs are everywhere. last night, at the eiffel tower, mom had the brilliant idea of WALKING down the steps from the second story of the eiffel tower instead of waiting in the huge line for the elevator. about 1000 steps (i exaggerate not) later, we make it to the first story. then we wait for the elevator. because the stairs were closed. LOLOL.

so at the sacred heart today (church on the hill), we get off the subway and head toward the street. it's a subway, so it's underground, but it isin't like really far underground or anything. well, that is the norm. this one... we must have went UP 10 flights of stairs or so. in a subway. we saw the line for the elevator, but i was impatient and didn't want to wait. guess what? now if i see lots of people in line for an elevator, we wait!! lots of stairs and lots of walking. :)

we are now sitting at a cafe that has wifi. had some dinner (a hamburger and fries. i called them french fries at the last place and well, they didn't look too kindly on that. LOL), and now are enjoying a cup of hot chocolate and coffee while we wait for our train. We will try and use the cell tonight, but not sure if it will work on the train. otherwise, we will try and oovoo tomorrow after school. have a good evening! we love you!! love, mom and dad.

ps you kids and anyone else who is reading, i feel like i am writing this to myself!! lol. you can leave a comment for any (or all) posts by clicking on the 'comments' section at the end of each post, it is in small print. 'see' you all in rome!! i am excited to be able to EAT. i have not been fond of the french cuisine, and have been living on baguettes and all the yummy desserts they have here!! LOL

I tried to get some of the eiffel tower pics to load, but it is giving me errors. so we will try again in Rome. the pics below are: Stanley and Mona Lisa, my favorite painting at the Louve (that we saw at least!!) it is baby Jesus asleep on Mary. Mom and Dad in front of the Louvre, and stanley in front of the Louvre, a fire truck!! Love you guys!! -Mom and Dad

Stanely with some street vendor bunnies (there were a TON of pet stores on that stretch of our walk. every other store they were selling puppies and rabbits and gerbils. it was a pet lovers paradise!!) Below in the red shiny thing is what is believed to be Jesus' crown of thorns. Stanley at Notre Dame, and then just the front of the church. There was so much detail everywhere it was almost overwhelming. last pic is the inside stained glass, breathtaking.

Good morning!! Two nights in a row now that we slept very well. Walking and fresh air probably helps that out a lot!! The Eiffel tower last night was fantastic. Soooo great to go at night. Stanley was very tired from his other journeys that day, so he napped through the eiffel tower. But i got an incredible picture of the eiffel tower and a full moon. i will try and see if i can upload it quick before we head out for the day. trying to get an earlier start today than yesterday, we still have two churches to visit today, plus shopping!! and if there is time, the arc of triumph. we still have one full day in paris on our return visit from rome, but at that point we might just be ready to head to the hotel, which is by the airport and therefore a hike and loong train ride, plus we will have all our luggage that day. so not sure if we will want to sight-see or just head back to the hotel and rest.

our hot water at the hotel went out the day we arrived. luckily for us, it was after we took showers, but today we are starting to feel very stinky. tonight we go on the overnight train to Rome, so probably no showers there either. once we check out, i think our wifi connection is broken, so i am doing up one last page before we arrive at our hotel in rome. :) i uploaded a TON of pics to the photobucket, scroll down to get the website. i will try and post the important ones on here, but am finding it very time consuming.

i sure am missing you kids!! i hope you are behaving and have a WONDERFUL day at school. brag it up that your mom and dad are in Paris!!! :D maybe you can even print a pic to take into your teachers!! we love you VERY much. i can't wait to go shopping today so i can be spoiling you overseas. i *think* we found a mall type place. ooooh, i can't wait!!! i will do one more post and try to get a few pics uploaded quick before we pack up and head out. otherwise, 'see' you tuesday morning!! We love you!!! Mom and Dad

Picture of the subway, stanley waiting for the train, a picture of the green little machine, and stanley and mommy eating breakfast. I was so hungry i started eating before the pics, so that's why it is half eaten. ;)

more pics to come, off to the eiffel tower and dinner!

miss you guys! love you!! love, mom and dad.

Ahhhh..... sweet relaxation at last. Whoever thought going on vacation to Paris was relaxing... well, I have a few words for them!! LOL... no, we are having a wonderful time, we are just walking. a lot. did i mention how much walking we are doing?? phew. i'm tired!

this morning it took us a bit to get on the subway. we went down to the train station two blocks down from our hotel, and the ticket machine was coins only (they have no dollar bills, only $2, $1 and on down coins). and our credit cards don't work in the subway ticket machines for some reason. so we walked around, went back to our room for a minute to grab the umbrella and then headed to the little train stop right across from our hotel and low and behold, this ticket machine takes dollar bills! so we are off! we stop by Notre dame, and well, let's say we take the scenic route! ;) but we were so incredibly in awe of all the buildings down there, we didn't mind! i found a starbucks coffee, so i got a refreshing cup of mocha. it was not raining hard, but it was lightly raining, and a bit chilly. Found a store that had some paris gloves, so i got those. that wind is bitter! then we finally found notre dame, and walked around it. what an amazing sight. then we walked in. truly breath-taking! stunning. being able to attend mass there was just so incredibly awesome. after mass we walked around inside the building.

after mass and touring the notre dame, we went right across the street for lunch. we had an incredibly tasty half chicken and french fries. mmmm... the bathrooms at the restaurant cost .50 euros to use!! although, i found common curtisy is to hold the door open for the next lady when you are done. LOL then we took a purposeful scenic route to the louve. that was pretty amazing too! we went inside, and there are some really neat things in there! daddy and i are not huge art vans though, so we looked at the highlights, stumbled upon some others and then said let's go back to the hotel and rest!! at that point, we had been on our feet for 4.5 hours, so we were dead tired.

resting for a bit now, then heading to go see the eiffel tower at night. hoping to find a mcdonald's or other (cheaper) fast food type place near there. here near the hotel, there is not any internation chains, like subway or mcd's. purely little mom and pop type sit down places. really neat to go to, but harsh on the eating out budget!! lol.

ok, off to go upload some pics to share. i have a TON of them!! i'm uploading the pics to photobucket, since there are sooo many and the computer (or wifi connection) is pretty slow to do it one by one, so i will put the highlights and all stanley pics on the blog. if you want to go see our other photos they are at: http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b174/barrymissy/ password is Missy.

ah, what a feeling to wake up in Paris!!

I miss you kids!! I had a wierd dream about church, and of course you kids were there, but it was a different church. Speaking of church, behave for Uncle Kevin and Aunt Tina today! And enjoy your classes. We are going to be going to Notre Dam for mass at noon today.

We had a very long, but very cool day yesterday. Just walking around the streets, soaking in the culture. Stanley was a bit jet-legged (he is not used to the time change), but is feeling better this morning so he should be ready to go get some more pictures!

Pictures to the left, first one is where we ate dinner last night. Very traditional restaurant. There was one other party that was traveling, but most everyone there was french. We asked our hotel front desk guy where a good place to eat would be and he suggested that restaurant and said they have an english menu! So I was all over that!! :p Very wonderful dinner. The place didn't open until 7:30pm (here!), and we were one of the first ones in. By the time we left the place was packed. They had heaters out front so when you were done with dinner you go get tea or coffee or wine (which, BTW was fantastic. We got a small glass included in our dinner, and I had a sip.), and go out in the screened in room and people watch and visit. I thought the neighborhood we were in was quiet (and it is really), but at night, the streets were just hopping with people. All day we were crossing the street and saw people going about their business, but come evening, trying to cross the street was like playing frogger with cars! They have cross walks, but no lights in some streets. Or maybe we just didn't see them? We finally found all the street signs. They are up high on the buildings. Not down on the streets. :) It was a really neat experience just walking around last night. We did get our train tickets, BTW. Tomorrow evening we will take the overnight train to Roma. ;)

Ah yes, I got side tracked in my typing. Second picture is a really cool building at night, down by the Nation train station, which is really close to our hotel. And the statue is also right by the Nation.

Their police cars are very different looking. Oh, when we went to buy our train tickets last night, we saw some military with automatic weapons! I wanted to take a pic, but thought I better not. LOL. I will try and get a pic of their police cars, and also these little girl truck things that I see all over that I haven't quite figured out what they are yet. :P

Off to go get our breakfast and then we will probably go see some sights before mass. We are buying the all day subway pass today, so we will probably head back over here for a rest before we go enjoy our evening, so I will update some more then. With Stanley too!

Love you kids! Miss you!! Love, Mom and Dad

We took a little walk. Bought you kids some post cards, walked around trying to find the post office and when we finally found it, it was closed. oh no! so we will ask where we can buy stamps when we head down to dinner in a few minutes. Then we were in search of the bigger train station to buy our tickets to Rome, but the roads where we are at are so confusing. With both Dad and I studying the maps, we still got mixed up and we thought we were walking AWAY from our hotel and we ended up right back here! So we are resting before we head down to dinner.

The neighborhood we are staying at is pure France. This is not a tourist district. We are outside the main part of Paris, where most of the maps cover. Which is really neat!! We can see and hear and live how they do! There are very few people who speak English (or who will admit to it, LOL). All the little pastry shops and the lunch we had, everything is in French. All the streets and billboards, French. It is very cool and very educational, even for old fuddy duddies like your mom and dad! :)

Here is a picture of a pastiers shop:
And dad and mom, dad has a fresh baquette. mmmm, it was so tasty! daddy was in his glory!! and we also got chocolate eclairs. wow, was that ever rich and delicious!
and some random pictures down the streets we were walking:
And the parking here is crazy!! You should see all the cars parked like you boys, Hayden and Cory, park all your hotwheels:
Off to go get some dinner and see if we can still get our train tickets tonight. Love you! Mom and Dad.

Pizza place we ate lunch at and watched people and cars go by.
Mom's 'lemonaide' i had with lunch (AKA sprite. LOL):


Dad's Coke Light (AKA Diet Coke, and in a glass bottle!):


In our hotel room at last! And time for a snooze.We flew through 7 times zones from Chicago to Paris. And the six hours difference is hard! But we will adjust. We are getting ready to head out for the evening, gotta send you kids some post cards, and buy our overnight train tickets to Rome. More photos to come later today.

More pics of traveling

Stanley up in the clouds
More pics of france from the airplane
daddy and stanley on the subway/train on way to the hotel:

plane pics

Here are the new pictures. :)

Daddy and Stanley on the first small flight to Chicago Airport.

All the planes at Chicago Airport. One of them is the big one we took to Paris.
Stanley by the big airplane we took to Paris.

Internet connection is being a little slow, and I want to go head and take a nap. I will upload the rest after naptime! :)

Hello kids!! Be sure to check the oovoo account, we left you a video message!

We are in Paris!! Yay!! Our first flight was delayed, but the second one was on time, and we even arrived 40 minutes early. It was a very long flight. Very hard to sleep on the plane. Daddy and I are VERY tired and just waiting for our room to be ready so we can go take naps! I have lots of pics to share, but our luggage is stored right now and the cord to the camera to upload pics is in the luggage. I will put the pics up as soon as I can, just wanted to log on and say we made it here!

The train from the airport to the hotel was very long, with 3 different transfers. Trying to find our way through the train stations was hard, but we made it! Once we got off of our last train, we walked around lost for a little while until this very kind gentleman helped us find our hotel, he only spoke french and his accent was very thick. I'm glad Daddy took a few years french and was able to somewhat communicate with him! While waiting for our room, we ate lunch at a little pizza place right next to our hotel. Cory you should see all the smart cars here!! I will be sure to take lots of pics for you!

Talk to you all soon! Love, Mommy and Daddy

Uh-oh! First flight is delayed.

Here is a very sad Stanley as he sees his first flight is delayed. Looks like we will fly out of MBS at 4:30 instead of 3:48. At least it won't affect our Paris flight (yet). Free wifi at MBS! yay!! More to come,
Love Mom and Dad

Stanley says goodbye

There sits stanley, a lot sad having said good-bye's to you kids, but excited for you to go and have fun with your aunt's, and excited to go on his trip.

Mom and Dad will miss you kids terribly. For Mom, the hardest is always the good-bye. Once we get moving, and you get settled into a routine, all will be well.

Not sure what time we will be able to update the blog. We arrive in Paris at 9:30am, Paris time, so about 3:30am here. It is a lengthly train ride to our hotel, but we will update as soon as we can, check tomorrow morning!!

'See' you then!!

Mommy and Daddy love and miss you!!!

Baby Katharine Maria

Thank you Sereah, Natalie, Hayden and Cory, for behaving a lot better for baby Katharines ultrasound. Here are some pictures from it if you forgot what they looked like. :)

Here is her foot:

Here is her face:

And here she is yawning:

You kids are all sleeping soundly, so I better go head to bed too.

Love you much!

Mommy (and Katharine!)

Getting ready

3 days until mom and dad depart. Mommy is getting pretty teary-eyed frequently throughout the day thinking of leaving you, my babies. Packing, preparing and organizing is in the final stages.