Spring is in the air

Bonjour to all of the wonderful people who read this blog! I know some of you are thinking that it's about time that I went about writing a new entry. The problem is that you can't really write about life if you haven't had much experience with it; and sometimes you get so caught up in the living of it that you forget to write about it! In an attempt not to write all of your eyes fuzzy, here are the highlights of the past couple months “en bref”:

• Matt's 30^th Birthday Party: That's right folks, we needed to celebrate Matthieu's initiation into the world of thirty-somethings in style. Thus, the idea of a surprise party was hatched. After a lot of (and I mean a lot) of emails in French; some false alarms with people at church not realizing the date had changed (they asked how his party had gone); and me permanently bonding with the Paris metro (to bring all the party stuff in at one time by myself was next to impossible, so I brought it all in several trips, sneaked into the church and hid it in the Sunday school play room...) the night of the party arrived. The greatest part about the date change was that Matt's mom and sister could be there to celebrate with us, so the “plan” was to meet them at the church and then go out to dinner. Little did Matthieu know that when he opened the door downstairs there'd be between 30-40 people singing happy birthday to him. After a few minutes of complete shock—he thanked everyone for coming and asked if we were celebrating any other birthdays as well! I don't think it was really until the end of the night that it finally sunk in that all this was just for him! ; ) For me the evening passed in a blur—I remember the hi's and the goodbye's at the end and something fuzzy in the middle, I'm just not sure what exactly... The American couple that's doing our marriage counseling told us that this was good practice for our wedding day!

• On the Hunt for a Job: Most of my time these days has been spent on the fabulous activity of job hunting. The great thing is that it seems like my blood, sweat, tears, and compelling cover letters have paid off! I went in for an interview this last Thursday at a private preschool in the hopes of getting the Kindergarten teaching position up for grabs. And from the way she was talking at the end of the interview, while not 100% certain, I've got a good feeling that I've got the job... only time will tell! As for the specifics: it's a Montessori school, currently their student body represents 18 different nationalities, the teaching is almost completely in English (except for an hour in French every day), I'd work all week days except for Wednesday (don't you just love the French way of life?), and live happily ever after! If you want to check it out, the link to the school is: http://www.rainbow-pre-school.com/

• Speaking of living happily ever after, Matt and I have officially found our castle to do it in. Granted, it's a bit smaller than the average castle (40 sq m or 430 sq ft), but I hear that the downsized look is in these days. What it lacks in space, it makes up for in Parisian charm and accessibility (it's literally right across the street from the metro line). Yet again we're reminded of how fantabulously great God is—we had all but given up hope on an apartment within the city limits (it's mind-boggling expensive) and then poof! God gives us one that we love in a great location—like usual, going beyond our expectations. Here are pics of the living/dining room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. We're hoping Matt can move in there sometime in June, so that we wont have to deal with moving when we come back.

Well, to accomplish my goal of not writing a novel, I'll leave you all for now. Stay tuned for an update on my birthday, life, etc...