My European Tour, Part IV: Back to Paris and Coming Home

I easily made my way back to Paris, but when I arrived it was pouring. After I soaked myself trying to find the Metro, I got smart and took a cab. The good news about the drenching rain is that it seemed to somehow "wash" Paris. It smelled less, looked less dirty. This was also helped by the arrival of much cooler weather that evening that persisted over the rest of my stay.

I finally got to meet up with everyone, and we headed straight over to Musee d'Orsay. Again, a beautiful museum, and I was very excited to see some of my favorite pieces from Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Degas. Apparently you can't take pictures in there but I managed to sneak a few.

We walked back over the Seine toward the hotel and found this supercool bridge...all the locks had couples' names on them. I wish I had gone back and put a lock with our name on it! Totally random, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Then I saw these superhuge flowers and knew I had to take a picture of them for Larkin. 

That night I learned we were right down the street from "The Opera"...as in the operahouse from Phantom of the Opera...that was pretty awesome.

I also got the to FaceTime with the kids that night and found myself getting really emotional. So much so that Larkin proceeded to try to wipe my tears from the iPhone screen. Kellen even gave me a few huge smiles, but thankfully did not seem at all concerned about me being in the phone instead of there. I am so grateful for that. I needed to see them happy and doing well.

Then the next morning while I was getting ready for the conference, my FaceTime rings again...this would be past midnight Texas time. It's Patrick...I answer and he says "Did you know Wal-Mart had wifi?" So we proceed to chat via FaceTime, me fresh from the shower with no make-up and he sleep-deprived and looking for what the kids need since they were coming home the next morning. That man is completely lost without me and I love him for it. I missed him so, so that call really helped me get through the next few days.

And then it was time to work. The meeting was great. All went well work-wise. The best part of the conference was that in place of our usual lunch fare of either cold sandwiches or fish/chicken of the day we were served hot French food with cute little salads, awesome mini desserts, and more importantly WINE...in the middle of the day!

The wine however caused the need for a mid-day coffee run...to where else? Starbucks! LOL! You know I can't stay away! The funniest part is that the coffee was about the same price there in Euros as it is here in US$...meaning my $5 coffee was more like my $7 coffee....OOPS!

The first day of the conference also marked the death of my curling iron. It had been hanging on through the European voltage, but finally succumbed an hour before I was to report to the meeting (and before I had finished my hair!). I am now the proud owner of a European hair straightener (let me know if anyone needs to borrow it! LOL!).
The second morning of the conference, I got up early to visit Notre Dame. It was absolutely beautiful. I sat through a short French mass, and then took a few pictures.

I also lit a candle for my family...for our Kellen. That's his candle in the middle in the picture below.

The rest of the trip was a whirlwind. I managed to run us into some accidental shopping while looking for the Starbucks and found the rest of my souvenirs. I even accidentally kicked around the soccer ball with French kids in the plaza in front of our conference center (the Palais Brongniart). I became very confident with my navigation of the Metro, too. We had a pretty awesome gala dinner, too. Let's just say the French start with champagne and appetizers, then feed you a long drawn out dinner with wine freely flowing, then personally invite you (table to table, no microphone announcement) to join them for after dinner drinks and dessert (this would be second dessert). Then there was the after-after party...a good time was had by all...and much Starbucks, water, and Aleve was consumed the next day ; )

Our last day there I was literally counting down the minutes. The best part was seeing an autism study on the "big screen" that proved exactly what I (and so many autism mothers) already knew. Antibiotic treatment can induce severe negative behavior changes in children with autism...please refer to my prior post Regression and a Confession. And it just helped to push me in the right direction...the doctors didn't know. But I knew...without anyone ever telling me, I knew when I saw it, and then the mothers told me...and then my own science told me. The right people have been talking to me all along, and it was time for me to start listening. I need to start trusting my instincts...and trusting the mothers that have forged their own path without waiting for doctors or published science to catch up. But that's a post for another time (and there will be oh so many).
I was lucky enough to have FaceTime one more time with the kids that night. Larkin was excited (Patrick seemed pretty excited, too), but not only did KK give me big smiles, he stole the phone out of Patrick's hand and put it right up to his face. At one point, I'm pretty sure he was trying to feed the phone, but he was definitely trying to kiss and trying to see me as closely as possible...I loved it!
We barely slept that night and were up at 4am to get ourselves together and wait for the shuttle. I had packed my fancy European straightener, so I decided to try our Jennifer's "curly hair stuff" (titled Foxy Hair) to see what it would do with my temperamentally wavy hair. Not much was going on as it dried, so it ended up in a bun by the time we got to the airport. Once we made it through the various levels of security, I took it down...to see some seriously foxy hair. Remember that episode of Friends where Monica's hair kept getting bigger? That was me...sadly no pictures were taken (thank goodness!).

Our plane ended up being about an hour late for takeoff...during which I had the breakfast of champions = latte , chocolate croissant, with a chardonnay chaser! The breakfast of all nervous fliers! LOL! I managed to get on the plane without too much stress, but did shed a tear when we took off....I had never been more ready to get home to my family. Flight was ok, we watched Breaking Dawn which was a good 2 hour distraction. Then I took a little nap (yay me!), then read for awhile, then started freaking out as we hit some bumpiness getting closer to Houston! The descent felt like a roller coaster, and the group of high school kids on our flight proceeded to throw their hands in the air everytime we hit a bump and say "Wooooaaaahhh!" LOL! Then after a less than ideal landing, they broke out into applause.

I'll  never forget stepping off that airplane. The heat, the humidity...I was HOME! I could feel my European dried skin instantly moisturizing...could feel my chapped lips plumping up again. I'm a Texas-grown girl, and my soul said...you are HOME! Then I couldn't get through customs fast enough!

Suffice to say, I had an amazing reunion with everyone. The kids were great. They were excited to see me, but didn't seem at all traumatized that I had been gone. I had never been so grateful to have 50 questions coming from one while the other was pulling me off for something he needed...all while Patrick proceeded to fall asleep in my lap whenever I was sitting still. My life was back...and crazy as it was...I missed it terribly.

Jet lag was fun, my first time, but not too terrible. Less than 48 hours after I landed, I had to do a 5K race...and while I contemplated taking the timing tag off my shoe due to fear of embarrassment, I managed to post a PR with a time of 26:07! I think I've been training all wrong, and I must add French wine and Belgian beer to my marathon training plan next year ; )

So ends my European adventure. I'm glad I went, it was an experience I needed, and made me appreciative of all that I have...and even all that we have ahead of us.