Quite a day here

It's late and we have to go to the bank at 9h30 and to sign the lease at 11h00, so I'll steal from Betsy's email to friends for the daily update ... and sprinkle with pictures.

So, two great things happened today. The first is that we got everything worked out with Carter's school. They hadn't given his spot away -- we filled out all the forms, toured the school, met his teachers, and have him set to start this Thursday. There's a supplies list about a mile long, and all in French, but they even provided a list of stores that carry everything. Carter's teachers seem really nice. His English teacher is from Louisiana and went to LSU, so she and Glennell and Chris hit it off immediately. His French teacher spoke all in French and kind of intimidated Carter, but she seems really sweet. She says she's going to assign him a special friend, a little girl who is especially good at French, to help him get through lessons and learn more quickly. I see a crush. Either on the teacher (very pretty and very sweet in a very chic Parisian way) or on the special friend. I told Carter he could just squeeze my hand a little if he got nervous during our tour of the school, and he was hanging on the whole way through, never loosened his grip... poor kid is really nervous, but I'm sure he'll do fine after the first couple weeks.

(blogger's note - Carter hugging French teacher)


(blogger's note - Outside EABJM, Calvin "hiding")


(Calvin hiding better, Dad in picture)


After visiting the school, we did a "test walk" - turns out we walked past Calvin's possible school on the way - and it took about 10 minutes to get to our new apartment. Back to Betsy ...

And another piece of good news. We met the manager of our apartment this afternoon when we went to pick up a form for insurance. (They won't give you the apartment keys without proof of insurance...which we failed to get at the bank today because the only two people who apparently could help us were both out at a meeting all day. But cross your fingers, they promise they'll be there first thing tomorrow.) He was very nice, explaining to us about all the other people living in the building, including a Brazilian woman and her husband, a British couple with a 4-year-old, and an American couple, along with several French families. The intriguing thing is that the apartment next to ours is owned by an 80-year-old woman who now lives with her daughter. So even before we move in, I'm suddenly having fantasies about whether we could combine the two apartments and get some extra space, because I know there's a connecting door between them that's currently painted shut. But the REALLY good news is that we're on the second floor...and the first floor is an office. Which means they'll be no-one underneath us on the evening and weekends, which means they'll be no-one to complain if the kids thunder around like elephants after they get home from school. Well, ok, that's probably overstating it. But basically, we have much less to worry about in terms of disturbing people. This is a secret to be kept from the kids, but something that might save us from killing them.

And to finish, here are the boys hiding in the ONE closet in the whole place. OK, a slight exaggeration, but only slight.