Checking in...

Well our flight was an hour late leaving Tampa. We had plenty of layover time, so we weren't concerned about missing our flight...but there were at least 50 people that had to get re-routed.

We got into Atlanta without any problems, but we found out that our flight into Paris was going to be leaving an hour late. I thought that they'd make it up in the air, but we were at least an hour late landing in Paris on Friday morning, and it took us almost an hour to get through customs, get our luggage and meet my brother at the pick up area.

Once we got to Jeff's house we got settled, then Mother and I went to the Eiffel Tower. When we got home, we decided to take a little nap and try to catch up on the jet lag. We had a typical French dinner of cheese, tomatoes, and bread with olive oil and basil...and of course wine. Yummy.

Saturday, Carson had his first communion ceremony and the came back, had lunch and started getting ready for Carson's birthday party...blowing up balloons, etc. My brother Jeff and his wife Mary Jane, my mother and I went to Montmartre and had dinner in this quaint little cafe, then went to the Au Lapin Agile for a French musical show. It was a little different. We had to sit on small wooden stools and after an hour and a half, we were ready to go. We walked up the the hill to the square and had a glass of wine, then took a cab back home.

Sunday we got up and blew up more balloons and decorated the courtyard for Carson's 8th birthday. They had 15 little boys at this party, so mother and I went back to Montmartre and toured the Sacre Coeur...back home, had a little champagne and then went out to dinner at Cafe La Jatte for mother's day. It was a wonderful evening.

Today, mother and I went to the Notre Dame and the Pantheon. They were simply breath taking. So much history. I had already been to Notre Dame, but not the Pantheon. The architecture is so amazing! On the way back to the metro, we stopped by a little cafe for a quick piece of pizza. We came back around 4:30 and decided to just relax for a while.

I'll try to upload pictures later if I can figure out how to do it from Mary Jane's computer!

The day is finally here...

Mother and I leave today for Paris!!! My aunt and uncle will be picking me up at 9:30am and then on to pick mother up. I was able to get my boarding pass all the way through to Paris, but I couldn't get mother's because they changed planes on the leg to Paris and the seat that was confirmed doesn't exist. Arghh. I wish I would have known that before yesterday. There was nothing to do about it since it was within 24 hours of the flight. Oh well. The lady from AirFrance said that the flight wasn't sold out...so hopefully she can get an aisle seat.

Our flight to Atlanta leaves from Tampa at 12:20pm...then the flight to Paris doesn't leave until around 6:50pm. We'll have a little bit of a layover, but that's better than a short turnaround time...especially in the Atlanta airport!

Talk to you peeps later!

1 More Day!!!!

Oh my...I'm so excited...and totally stressed out! Mother and I only have one more day until we leave for Paris!!! I decided to take the day off from work tomorrow so that I can get everything packed, get my nails done and have a pedicure and hopefully relax for a little while.

28 Days and counting...

We are down to 28 days to go. April is going to be a very busy month for me, there are so many activities going on in our Beta Sigma Phi council...Advisory Board meeting, Legacy Tea, City-wide Rituals, Founder's Day. The month with fly by before we know it!

Heading back to Paris!!!!

My mother and I will be leaving for Paris in 37 days. We'll be staying with my younger brother and his wife and three boys (under the age of 10) in Neuilly-sur-Seine which is west of Paris. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again...and spring time in Paris!!!!

Hopefully I will be able to see some of the things that I didn't see the last time I was there back in the fall.

I'm a little worried about the flight and all the circulating "sick" air. Coming back from Rome last year I caught a terrible URI and the virus attacked the nerves in my left ear, so now I have permanent severe neuro-sensorial hearing loss. It is very difficult only hearing out of one ear...you can't tell where a sound is coming from and it's hard to hear in a group when everyone is talking at the same time. I sure hope nothing happens to my "good" ear.

Such a long time...

I still haven't posted pictures of Rome, but I've been under the weather since I got home from Europe the end of September. I ended up with a bad URI and then at the tail end of it, I lost the hearing in my left ear and ended up with Labyrinthitis. I was so dizzy I couldn't get out of bed for two days without well...for not a better sounding term..."tossing my cookies" and then had to wean myself from bed for the next week. Holding onto walls as I went...looking at a computer monitor was terrible. My eyes kept wanting to go in circles. Not a nice feeling. By the following Monday I felt good enough to sit behind a computer, so I decided to go back to work, but only with my husband driving me to and from work and that lasted for 4 weeks!

I'm finally driving again, but I still can't hear out of my ear and I am a little "bobble headed" at times. The doctor had me on several high dose rounds of steroids and antibiotics, but nothing has seemed to work, except I that I've gained 25 pounds!!!! I feel like a huge blimp! On top of everything else, now I'm depressed!

I've had an MRI and a CT scan and they both came back normal...which is good...but is very perplexing as they still don't know what it going on. The doctor said I may never get my hearing back now which is a huge let down. This whole ordeal has been going on for almost 3 months now and I'm getting really tired of it...but I will persevere, there's not much I can do.

I read on the internet today about Eustachian Tube Disorder and a lot of the symptoms sound like what I have (except for the severe neurosensural hearing loss) so I'm going to print it off and take it to my ENT for my next appointment.

I can't believe Christmas is less than 2 days away! Yikes!!! I'm still wrapping a few presents which is very unlike me. I usually have everything done by no later than mid-month. Oh well. I'm sure everything will get done somehow.

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope that the New Year will be filled with good health and happiness!

No pictures...yet

So sorry, but I guess sitting in the Fiumicino airport in Rome for 7 hours with the cold airconditioning pouring on me...or maybe it was the trip in the airplane coming back with the recirculing germs!!!! Any way...I got a terrible cold, then I ended up giving it to my husband! I'm finally feeling better, but it's still hanging on in my chest. It's hard to believe that we are back almost two weeks now! Time sure flies by.

Hopefully I will find some time tonight to upload some pictures. I'm going to put a PowerPoint presentation together...but I'm looking for some website that hosts a "slide presentation" of pictures.

Anyone out there know of one?