Clermont-Ferrand, France - 1/10/01

1/10/01

I did my checkbook again today during écrit, and my money situation is pretty desperate.  After rent, I'm going to be living off of about $500 per month.  Including traveling.  How am I going to do this?  I've already decided (Morgan's idea) to cut dinner-and-movie nights to just once or twice a month instead of every week.  Sucks.  We ate fondue tonight and I ate way too much.  I also have a horrible cold or allergies or something.  Feel miserable.  On a higher note, Pûy-de-dôme is covered with snow, and (unrelated), Sarah and I are started to plan our Spain & Portugal trip!  Bedtime.  I love you Jamie darling!  G'night!

Clermont-Ferrand, France - 1/9/01

1/9/01

I got to talk to him tonight.  :)  He had a horrible time catching his plane in Houston, but both he and his bags made it just fine!  :)  Class today.  At least it wasn't teaching, though!  Sarah and I talked a bit about our Spain/Portugal trip - I think it'll be Barcelona, Seville, Lisbon, Madrid, and Bilbao.  In a week!  We actually have 11ish days, so we should be able to do it.  Jamie's too wonderful.  :)  I called him "Veirdo" on the phone and he called me "Socker."  :)  I wasn't planning on staying up this late (it's 1:30am), but Juliette & her Romeo were having loud sex, so I've had to keep my headphones on for a while.  :P  By the way, OU won the national championship January 3rd!!!!!!!  We found out when "international sports" ran across the bottom of the TV screen in Paris.  Bedtime.  I love you, Jamie!!!

Clermont-Ferrand, France - 1/8/01

1/8/01

And now back to my nightly journal-writing.  He's gone.  His plane left at 12:40pm today and it should be landing in Tulsa in less than an hour.  I am just really depressed now.  I don't want to go to class tomorrow and I don't want to teach ever again.  We still haven't been paid for October!  I just want to have a day to lay in bed and cry.  With Jamie's pillowcase (that I love) and the elephant he gave me - Gordon.  I'm going to call him tomorrow night... I want to talk to him now, but that's not really possible with him being in an airplane... I just went over my checkbook (finally) and am pretty worried about how little I have left.  It'll help when I'm finally paid!  I'm going to need a lot of strength to get through these next 6 months without him here.  When we were walking on Rue St Honore in Paris a few nights ago, we went into a jewelry place to get my finger sized - 48 (european) for a thin ring and 49 for a thick one.  She said that's "almost a 5" in american.

We had a good time in Paris.  We played pool!  And I won a game!  I'm so much in love with him and it really hurts to have him so far away.  Now more than ever.  We spent our last day in Paris looking for a restaurant called Henri's Mussels and ended up eating at TGI Friday's.  And singing silly songs and having a wonderful time.  I have more fun with him than anyone else in the world.  I need him so much.

I'm going to go to bed now.  I hope I can fall asleep quickly.  I'm not even going to get ready.  I'll start crunches again tomorrow.  I love you so much, sweetheart.  I hope your flight was alright.  G'night, Jamie.

Paris, France - 1/7/01

1/7/01

Next day!

Miles at age 6

To read about Miles at age 5, click here.


1. What is your favorite color?  "Orange."

2. What is your favorite toy?  "Ninja turtle legos.  And legos like that."

3. What is your favorite fruit?  "It is... grape tomatoes!"
  
4. What is your favorite tv show?  "Ruff Ruffman!" 

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  "Pizza!"
 
6. What is your favorite outfit?  "My basketball shirt which is a tank top, and my basketball pants."

7. What is your favorite game?  "Sorry!"

8. What is your favorite snack?  "Cake." 

9. What is your favorite animal?  "Cheetah!  And tiger, lion."
 
10. What is your favorite song?  "That's hard... The God of Angel Armies {Chris Tomlin}, and the robot song {Mercy Me}, and the God of the City {Chris Tomlin}, and Ready Set Go {Royal Tailor}.  I have lots of favorite songs."
 
11. What is your favorite book?  "Dragons Love Tacos!"

12. Who is your best friend?  "Quint."

13. What is your favorite breakfast?   "Oh - donuts."

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  "Play." 

15. What is your favorite drink?  "Soda."
 
16. What is your favorite holiday?  "Christmas."

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?   "Astro guy - the Astros bear, big bear, and little bear."

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for dessert?  "Cake."

19. What is your favorite dinner?  "What we are eating right now." {crackers, pickles, and cheese}
  
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  "Hmm.. that's hard.  I wanna be a soldier!" 

Happy birthday to my awesome, energetic, imaginative 6 year old!!

Paris, France - 1/6/01

1/6/01

I'm tired... we had a pretty hectic day.  Top of the Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, and Montparnasse, with the Champs-Elysées, lots of people, and long lines thrown in.  We had dinner at a crêperie near Montparnasse... not bad.  Jamie had his first crêpe ever at a little stand near Trocadero; the crêpes were too thick and doughy there, but at least he got to try one.  We saw Chicken Run in English tonight.  Last night was Charlie's Angels in English!  Bed time... 

Paris, France - 1/5/01

1/5/01

Next day!

Jamie's spork broke in the Louvre cafe

 

Paris, France - 1/4/01

1/4/01

I'm all ready for bed, but I've only done 100 crunches (nope - 50) so far.  It's hard to do them after a week without!  We just walked along the Champs-Elysées today, nothing else.  We saw Meet the Parents (Mon Beau-Père et Moi) today in English.  It was pretty funny...  Pizza Hut for dinner!  Tomorrow I think we're going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the top of Montparnasse.  (The 59th floor was closed today, so we put it off.)  We played 5 games of pool tonight and Jamie won all of them.  I'm not in a very good mood right now.  Guess I'll go to bed.  Jamie's tired.  

Paris, France - 1/3/01

1/3/01

(sigh)  Jamie and I are in Paris, but, once again, I'm not feeling quite right.  My tummy is bothering me a little bit, and my throat and chest are making breathing difficult.  I wonder if I'm getting asthma, like mom did.  (getting = developing)  The train ride here wasn't bad, and the metro wasn't even too hard with the suitcases.  (Probably cause Jamie carried them both up and and down all the stairs.)  Don't really know what we're going to do tomorrow, but we both want to go see a movie.  Yesterday, we saw Dr. T and the Women, but I didn't really like it.  The ending ruined the movie.  We ate at the Chinese restaurant yesterday (in Clermont) and Jamie liked it.  It was his first time in a Chinese restaurant, and he did really well with the chopsticks!

France - 1/2/01

1/2/01

Next day!

Clermont-Ferrand, France - 1/1/01

1/1/01

I'm really slacking off on journal-writing with Jamie here.  :)  Milan sucked.  We didn't get to see anything but a Da Vinci science museum - even the church where "The Last Supper" is kept was closed - on a Sunday!  We're in Clermont now and it feels good to know that we won't have as much baggage when we move on to Paris in a couple days.  It's also pretty nice knowing the language and knowing my way around the city!  The train ride was long today - 9 hours total.  From Milan to Lyon we were in a smoking car, which made things even worse.  Then I had to wait in line for nearly 30 minutes to get my ticket from Lyon to Clermont.  Time for bed!

Jamie in my dorm room eating peanut butter and peanut m&m's

Milan, Italy - 12/31/00

12/31/00

Next day!  [Yep - another entry that just says that!]

Gisèle, Age 8

(For Gisèle at age 7, click here.)

1. What is your favorite color?  "Green."

2. What is your favorite toy?  "Ay-yi-yi... so many to choose from!  I think, yeah.  I think my favorite toy is cars."

3. What is your favorite fruit?  "Hmm.  What's the plum & nectarine thing again?  Aprium."

4. What is your favorite tv show?  "Fetch."

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  "Wow.  Umm... like at my school?  At my school, I think it'd be... I like eating breakfast for lunch like where you eat pancakes for lunch." 

6. What is your favorite outfit?  "Wow, this is hard.  Ok, my favorite outfit... can you give me some ideas here?  Ay-yi-yi.  I like comfortable & cute outfits, I can tell you that.  Cause the thing I wore for my girls day was comfortable & cute & I really liked it.  My favorite outfit is... I can't think of anything!  I put different outfits together, ok?"

7. What is your favorite game?  "Ok... game... Sorry, the Doodle one... I think the Doodle one is pretty funny.  I like Doodle & Sorry."

8. What is your favorite snack?  "My favorite snack... well, I like those cheese little cow things, and I also like bananas as a snack."

9. What is your favorite animal?  "Elephant."  

10. What is your favorite song?  "Brave."  {Moriah Peters}

11. What is your favorite book?  "Umm... Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher.  I also like Junie B. Jones."

12. Who is your best friend?  "Can I have it plural?  Michelle, Amecia, Madison Howell, Vivian, Jillian, Leilani, Angelina, Sophia, Ilana, uhh... wow, that's techinically all the ones I can think of!  Oooh - Kenley!  Kenley is my friend."

13. What is your favorite breakfast?  "I think my favorite breakfast, I think this is where I got it from - umm, that place we went for Mother's Day and that place in Louisiana, they're puffy and they usually don't have anything inside and they're covered with powdered sugar... and I also like waffles & chicken."

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  "Well, during fall, I like to jump in the leaves and rake them up.  That's what I like to do in fall.  In winter I usually like to stay inside, so I'll leave winter out.  In summer, one of my favorite things to do outside is go to the pool.  And spring, in spring I like to go outside, find more snails for my collection, build forts out of sticks... that kind of stuff."

15. What is your favorite drink?  "Milk."

16. What is your favorite holiday?  "Ay-yi-yi, so many to choose from!  I looove Halloween, especially Thanksgiving, too... I like trying new things at Thanksgiving and I like all the gravy!  Is my birthday included as a holiday?"

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  "I like to take myself to my bed."

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for dessert?  "Let me think here.  I like the cakes you make.  Well, I technically like everything you make, Mom, so it's kinda hard."

19. What is your favorite dinner?  "I like having meatloaf.  I also like having macaroni & cheese for dinner.  And I like having enchiladas for dinner."

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  "An author or a famous singer or both, cause some famous singers like Jamie Grace write their own books, too."


Gisèle, you are an amazing 8 year old.  It's so fun to watch you grow, and I can't wait to see what's ahead of you!

Venice, Italy - 12/30/00

12/30/00

My head still isn't all the way better and now my tummy feels funny.  I hope it's all better tomorrow.  We're in Milan now.  Went all the way to the airport and were told we didn't have a reservation at that Holiday Inn.  Went back to the station and then took a taxi to the hotel.  Bed now.

 

Stitch Fix #13

Stitch Fix is a personal shopper service that I've enjoyed for a while now.  (I hate shopping for clothes for myself!)  You pay a $20 styling fee for each Fix, and 5 items are sent to you.  You can request certain kinds of items, and they're sent based on a sizing & style profile that you fill out beforehand.  You can even request a certain price range for each type of item ("as cheap as possible" for jewelry, $50-$100 for pants, etc).  The $20 is applied to anything you purchase from your Fix, and if you buy the entire box you get a 25% discount.  (If you don't buy anything, you lose the $20.)

This was July's Fix.  After June's disappointing box, I was really, really hoping for a good one!  I had requested the same thing as the previous few boxes - easy summer tops (no ironing) that would show off my waist.

The first thing out of the box was Market & Spruce's "Belvedere" Knit Top ($44):

 Yay!!  The fit was great.  I especially loved the v-neck - not too deep, and just the right width.  Jamie said it made him dizzy, but I was really cute under a colored cardigan.  Keeping!


Next up was Renee C's "Naya" Knit Top ($48):

This was just... eh.  I didn't love the big print (the... butterflies? across the bust & tummy?), the cut didn't do anything for me, and the colors were dull.  No, thanks.


My next possibility was the "Shenley" Mesh Detail Knit Top from Loveappella ($48):

This was a great color, and I really loved the mesh detail on the shoulders and upper back!  The material, though, was just too stretchy and it was too tight overall.  I thought about requesting it in a larger size in my next box, but there was no guarantee that the stretchy material would fit me any better in a larger size.  I told Jamie that, if I can get to a point that I have no unwanted lumps & bumps, I may request it again.  For now, it had to go back.



Next up, Market & Spruce's "Elaine" Ikat Print Pocket-Front Knit Shirt ($44):

I was surprised by how much I liked this!  I'm not usually a fan of ikat print, but I really liked this one in the bright pink and navy.  I had a loose, flowy fit, but somehow still had shape, so it wasn't tent-like in the least.  Keeping!


The final shirt was the "Montgomery" Cross Front Knit Top by 41Hawthorn ($48):

Another flattering top! This is ruched on the sides, and the faux-wrap front is high enough that I don't have to wear a cami underneath.  Yay!  Keeping!


I was so happy to get a good box after the previous one.  I kept 3 out of the 5, and really wanted to keep a 4th one.  (I pushed my next box back a few weeks later than scheduled since I was keeping so much).  I thought the stylist, Lauryn, did a great job paying attention to what I had requested, so I asked her to style me for my August box, as well.  That should be arriving in just a few days, and I can't wait to see if she does as well with that one!

If you'd like to try Stitch Fix for yourself, I'd love for you to use my referral link.  (If you order a Fix, I get credit to my account!)

Venice, Italy - 12/29/00

12/29/00

My head is really spinny right now.  I don't know why, but I'm really having problems.  Today we walked all the way down to the Piazza di San Marco & went in the Basilica where St. Mark is buried.  We also went up a clock/bell tower - good view, but cold.  Have to go.