Am I There Yet?

Haven't had much time to update since Dawg is always hanging around now, wanting to use the computer, always *calling* me for something! It's been fun having this time together, though. We've been going swimming together at his gym, which I love! I've always known that it's great exercise but I didn't think it would make me feel as fit as it does. When I get out of the water, my legs feel like tree trunks, even with just a half hour of the breast stroke. The only downside to this form of exercise is when the pool is crowded. Parisians swim like they drive and like they ski -- with reckless abandon and scant regard for others around them. Whatever space they're in they consider "theirs." And don't get me started on Parisian girls! They like to chatter -- everywhere you go, they going "ba ba ba ba bab ba ba". I suppose like girls all over the world. But it took the cake yesterday when I saw 2 Parisian girls each swimming with a friend, chatting while they were swimming! Naturally, this meant they went slower than everyone else, plus they took up two lanes. Inevitably, I'd have to interrupt my lap to do a few seconds of dog paddling while one of them swam out of my way! Crazy.

So, I'm 35, plus one day. It feels the same, of course. But this is the first birthday I've had where I thought - whoa! slow it down!

Happy Easter! I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I posted here. It's been a fabulous busy month, full of visitors and changes. No, I'm not pregnant, but Dawg got a job. An in-house position better than we had ever hoped for. We were so low around the last time I posted, feeling as if we were standing right at the lip of the abyss, terrified at the thought of having no income, at having to use up our savings. I lay in bed one night, rigid with worry, thinking, "Help us God. Help us. Help us. Help us." over and over. And the next day, Dawg got the call from an American company that wanted him to been the European legal director of their company. More money than we thought he'd get paid in-house, a company car, French vacation and sick leave policy, lots of interesting and varied responsibility, and Dawg really hit it off with the people he'll be working with. Glory be to God. Really. It was an absolute miracle because Dawg only had 2 weeks before he had to leave his current job, and it would have been so much harder for him to find a job not having one. So, we are so grateful to God that it all worked out so well, and right on time. Dawg, who is not a churchgoer, went to church with me the following Sunday.

Dawg's new position begins in May, so he has the entire month of April off. It's great hanging out together, going to the movies in the middle of the day, completely chillin', planning my 35th birthday party & dinner, running around with the sixty-eleven million visitors we've had in the last two weeks. And then next week, we're going to the S. of France for a week. We were supposed to go some friends from California whom I'll call Adam and Madga, but last weekend Adam fractured his back while skiing. He can barely sit in bed, much less sit for 12 hour flight from California. I feel bad that he clearly feels so guilty and sad that he disappointed us and Magda. But we're all so grateful that he didn't do himself a worse injury. Besides, now that Dawg's got this job, we'll definitely be staying on in France for awhile, and they can come anytime.

After we get back from France we're heading to the U.S. for about 6 days to visit friends in New York and to meet Dawg's new employers in Boston. Then we have one more week to relax in Paris before Dawg's job begins.

Very exciting stuff! All I can say is thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, and thanks to St. Jude to whom I did a Novena (last November). I can't bear to think about how we'd be feeling right now if Dawg hadn't gotten this job. The end of this week would have been his last week of work. Wow.