January - I was busy meeting my new neighbors and settling in and so was Little S. (It's odd to realize that I barely knew these people who are so much a part of my daily life now). I was enjoying the nature around our house and experiencing the first snow of the year. I was lamenting my new kitchen and complaining about it! I had no idea it would get worse!! What I wouldn't give for my old UPSTAIRS kitchen with hot running water and heat. We ran out of fuel and had no heat for three days. (that seems so tame compared to the three months we've been without heat now. I'm used to it now!).
February - We primed the living room in white (but have since decided to insulate it so it was a waste of time, bah). I started really meeting the people in our town. S started and stopped his Judo class because of boredom (my boredom mostly--I make an awful soccer mom). I took lots of everyday photos of the kids and our kitchen (I need to do more of this!). I unpacked my kitchen things and my pottery (and have since repacked it all). Seb went to China. Little S started learning the computer. Charlotte turned 15 months but still wasn't walking. We visited SW France and I fell in love with Toulouse.
March - We visited Paris at night as was our monthly custom (for a few months at least). Our good friend Marcel died. I did a field trip to the Paris Dali museum with Little S's class. We visited Versailles for my birthday. Seb was in full digging mode trying to get the basement prepared. The house next to us sold and we had no idea who bought it but I was hoping for nice neighbors because their backyard backs up to ours.
April - I painted Charlotte's room with clouds and a tree. I got to visit the decorative arts musuem in Paris (great museum if you like furniture). Egg hunts and more visits to Paris. I started planning my art studio. Doc paid me a visit while Seb was in China. I started my kid art workshops.
May - We tore out the upstairs walls and started the big work. Charlotte turned 18 months and still wasn't walking. I finished part two of my first atelier with the kids, papier maché masks. I met our new neighbors and they seemed nice (are still nice but not super friendly so far) We paved our mud pit of a driveway with pebbles (eventually we did it in concrete). I got a giant water heater installed in my kitchen. I started walking Little S home from school, 2.5 miles. Our yard came alive with wildflowers! The annual LO festival came to town and it was a lot of fun. I decided to stop being a frumpy mom and wear nicer clothes (still trying to do this). We put the order in for our windows (see how long it took!--normally it takes six weeks but it took six months). Seb moved his basement dirt pile with a backhoe (regrets I've had a few...he really tore up the yard with that thing). I shared my sketchbook started two months earlier.
June - We did another kid art atelier this time with plaster hands. I started really getting interested in gardening. Charlotte started walking. We tore out an old fence in the backyard that "belonged" to the new neighbors, oops. We camped in the mountains near Annecy and had a great time. I did a printing atelier in the yard with the kids and started organizing my end of summer backyard barbecue with the kids.
July - Seb got third degree burns in the backyard burning the old wood from the attic. The Portuguese workers came for two weeks and left us a huge mess. I moved into my neighbor's house for two weeks. Little S nearly knocked out his front tooth going head first on his slide. Our house was beyond chaotic and I was having a very hard time dealing with it (not much has changed there). I celebrated six months of drawing every night.
August - We were waiting for our windows (dum-dee-dum). We ordered our new front door from a menuisiére and we were waiting on that too. Both kids went to the ER for seperate episodes on the same day!! We housesat for a neighbor (same one as earlier) and my fil came to help us reroute our plumbing dwnstairs while Seb tore out my kitchen and transferred it downstairs temporarily. We spent a week in the mountains on vacation. (it occurs to me we had a grand total of about 10 days of vacation for the whole year, no wonder we're so burned out!!)
September - We were still waiting on the windows (and starting to get really worried). We thought about moving into an apartment for a while but it was way too expensive. Little S started Grande Section of Maternelle. I filled my art journal. I cleaned out closets and gave away huge bags of clothes. I also stripped the doors in the living room.
October - Little S turned 5 and we had a fun party, woot hoot! We finally found out what the problem was with the windows--never ordered!! The tile guys we hired came and ripped out all the floors down the the trusses but we had to wait on the windows before they could come back and put the new floors (tap..tap...tap). I took off for my in-laws for a week to escape the floorless house and all the dust. The heaters got disconnected for all the reno work to get started (still disconnected, sigh) We started looking for people to help us finish the rest of the house because the Portuguese renovation company bailed out on us. We had a local guy work one day for us but his work was really, really awful and expensive so we decided to finish the drywall ourselves because we could at least do a better job than that (still working). I started a once a month collage and a printmaking class.
November - Our windows finally came! I tried to do Art Every Day Month but failed. We alll got bronchitus (dust?) Charlotte got her first haircut and turned two. An anonymous neighbor reported us to the city for not have permits (crazy lies!) and we had to start the process of creating a dossier on the house for the city. We got our new front door and the tile got laid. We also had our living room floors done. We started taping the drywall in S's room (his room is nearly finished by now). Sil got all bent out of shape about something and freaked out on the telephone un-inviting us to her annual Christmas Eve family dinner (still aren't sure what brought all THAT on). Little S 's room got emptied.
December - My car got stolen and recovered, but the back seat was burned. It snowed an awful lot but it was really nice. Seb sliced open his finger and cut a tendon requiring surgery. We spent Christmas with my friend Dee and her boyfriend and then went to Normandy to see the in-laws (except for sil). We made it to the end of the year alive in one piece and still married...MIRACLE!!
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What a crazy year. Just reading all this makes me dizzy. It seems that around June things got really awful! It's funny because we recently saw a magnetiseur for Little S at mil's request--like many French people she loves alternative therapy and she will usually pay for it if we'll only just go. Magnetic therapy is used for diagnosis and then healing of certain sicknesses and magnetiseurs are often considered psychic too because they're extremely sensitive people. Little S has terrible tummy problems so we were seeing this guy for that. We'd never even seen him before. As we sat down though he touched *us* and swung his magnetic pendulum between us (I thought he was going to say you guys are incompatable! we'd been bickering all day) and he said "oh wow you have a huge home problem...you have a curse on your house and someone did it in the Spring. It's someone practicing black magic. I see fire so be careful" We were a little dumbstruck. He went on to say that it wasn't anyone in our family but someone in our community and it had to do with a profound jealousy. He said when we bought our house someone wanted it but didn't get it so they got mad seeing us in the house. Wow. We knew that we were in competition against a lot of people for the house but the owners chose us even though we had a low bid. We don't know who the other bidders were, just that there was some reason the owner didn't want one particular person to get the house. It was an old neighbor rivalry thing. Okay so it's kooky but how weird that he picked up on that out of nowhere. I know a lot of people don't believe in this type of thing and even we feel weird thinking of someone practicing black magic. He told us black magic is really common in France and that the Catholic church recognizes it. He also suggested we get our house blessed and he gave us some holy water to do it ourselves!--Poor little S. He apparently does have stomach problems. The magnetiseur zeroed right in on his intestines and said, "Oh yes it's all blocked up" without us saying a word.
6 comments:
CREEPY POST! You had me dizzy too with everything that has been going on. My god you have the most exciting life. Seriously. I come here never knowing what it will be! And you and your husband seem to take it so well. I mean, obviously there will be bickering with everything you guys go through, but seriously, you amaze me.
As for the pendulum guy, I knew a man who did that when I was in France and I don't know if I believed but he certainly did. A lot of people did! And if he picked up on all that, wow. I wonder about the fire thing, if it was what happened to Seb with the attic wood or if there will be more fire. Please be careful!
I hope you guys can undo the hex and finally have some peace with your house.
Haha sorry! That's what our friends tell us. My whole year was creepy though. I realized that when I started typing all this a few days ago (took me three days to do it!) It's really interesting to read through your year though and condense it like this. That's what's great about a blog. I know another blogger who did this and I wanted to do it too. My year was def crazy though!
It was really freaky what the guy said. I'm not at all sure how he came up or could have come up with it. The whole curse issue -- I haven't told anyone irl about it except my mom but I was dying to share it on my blog. I've seen a psychic before so I'm not opposed to that way of thinking and everyone knows I love astrology and Tarot and all that, but hexes? Black magic? I've never thought much about it. I was curious what other people thought.
As a French, I am very "Cartesien", don't believe in God or black magic, but I always live by the motto: "on ne sait jamais"....and act accordingly to never offense anybody.
While living in Paris, a friend of mine got cursed by an African man she angered and got many problems, this was creepy enough!
As you know, in Florida, we still have "Vaudou stories" coming from Haiti and more older, from Africa.
Every cultur have his bad spirits or demons, even the good old French Catholics (smile)
Obscurantism or not, I would follow some of the advices and I say it again, change my keys to the house.
Bonne chance pour votre adorable famille, vous le meritez et dans quelques annees, avec Seb, vous vous rappellerez tous ces problemes et vous en sourirez car ils auront rendu votre couple plus soudé.
Yveline
I love your blog, started reading when you were living in Mexico. Your tenacity is to be admired and you are brave! Good for you persevering through good times and not-so-good. Here's to a wonderful 2010.
Linda
I agree with Yveline: I would definitely change the locks if you haven't already, even just to give you peace of mind. If someone wants in, they will get in anyway, but at least you've changed the locks. When I did it, it felt like starting anew. Good feeling.
Also, is there anyone else who can install the windows? Just feeling the negativity of those awful people in your house will be hard! Could they deliver them and you could have someone else install? I don't know if that is even a possibility but I worry about you! Those people are so terrible!
Also, wanted to add that 2009 pretty much sucked for everyone I know. I really, really hope 2010 is better for all of us!
What a crazy (but never dull!) year, Chris. I would wish you a calm, peaceful year, but I don't know that devout remodelers get calm, peaceful years. I do hope that 2010 is a good one for you--the best yet.
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