Our Trip Part 2: Villefranche(Nice), France

Note: I didn't have time to get all the pictures from this day put on here, but I will come back and add them. We are moving tomorrow and it may be a couple of weeks before we can get the computer on line out there in the wild country so until then...

This was my favorite day of the entire trip! Marv was up and ready early Sunday morning. I on the other hand was sleeping off the nausea pills that got me through the night. He was taking pictures of the coast of France before we could even make out any buildings. The French Riviera was hoped to be one of the best ports because I remember from my childhood seeing a painting that my Grandma Curbo did of the brightly colored buildings there. She never got to visit, but somehow I felt a full circle moment when I got to see the actual buildings that she thought enough of to paint.

We didn't have to get off the boat until a little later that day since our tour wasn't until the afternoon, so we were able to eat breakfast on the boat and then leisurely get on the smaller boat to be taken to shore. I enjoyed taking pictures that day of other boats, houses, and every day scenes from life in France! It was a beautiful Fall day, and helped make the pictures and experience even more perfect!

Neither of us have ever traveled abroad, or knew French, so we were a little nervous. We soon realized that people are so friendly, and most could at least speak broken English. The accents were so fun to listen to! I think it puts a neat spin on our language when spiced up with a french accent. Some words would get lost in translation though, and that would always give us a good laugh when words were misused....more on that later.

We had the most fun going up and down stairs taking us all through the village. I tried and capture some neat things that caught my eye like...

1. EVERYONE hangs their laundry out on their balcony to dry. I loved the colors of laundry blowing in the breeze, and just the realness of everyone has dirty laundry and here it is out in the world for everyone to see.

2. Two well-worn ladies having a morning chat before starting the day at her market.

3. Fishermen gathering up their nets from the morning fishing trip. It all most seemed fake it was so real to see this every day life of the French.

4. Cafes galore...love the easiness of the way people start their day. So simple and unhurried! They know how to enjoy their food, family, and life!!!

We later took our first tour. We got on a tour bus with other people from our cruise and were taken around to see the sights from higher up. We passed by several celebrities homes like Tina Turner, and saw the unbelievable wealth of Monaco, and a neat mid-evil village of Eze. We were able to get off the bus at Eze and take a walking tour of this amazing little village up on a hill. This of course meant many steep hills and steps to climb, but well worth it. At the top we found a cafe and ordered a cappachino, and found a few neat items. As we headed back down the hill to the bus we saw an ambulance rushing up the hill, and later learned that a lady from our group had fallen coming down the steep steps. Our guide came back to the bus late after getting her sent to the hospital to inform us that she had been kilt (killed), but was going to go to hospital to get pickters (x-rays) to make her better. Wow these hospitals over here in France are something else if you can get pictures to bring you back to life!!! We realized that she meant injured instead of killed and that she probably just cracked her tailbone!

The whole time we had to keep pinching ourselves and reminding each other that we were actually in France and not Epcot!!! I could have spent an entire week in this wonderful land. The pebble beaches, bright blue water, brilliantly painted buildings and easiness of this bay was intoxicating to my senses. I will be back someday, but if not for sure I will follow in my grandma Curbo's footsteps and try and paint the scenes that I witness that perfect day in Villefranche!

Our Trip Part 1: Sights of Barcelona Spain/Cruise ship life

Marv and I were given the amazing opportunity to take a nine day trip to see some of the most beautiful parts of the world in the Mediterranean Sea on a cruise ship. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise before, so we were both excited. I forgot to mention that this trip was F*R*E*E! I'm so thankful to our friends and family who made this possible by loving on our kids while we were gone and encouraged us to go.


Our trip started out on a plane from DFW to Newark for 3+ hours and then heading straight to get on another plane for 10+ hours we got off in Barcelona, Spain. There was bad weather on the east coast so that created delays, etc...but we were thankful to finally get back on ground after such a long flight. I had never been on a plane that long! I must say it compares a little bit to child birth with the swollen ankles and calves for me.

We were able to have a quick breakfast provided by David Weekly(provider of the trip) and then Marv and I exchanged some American money for some Euro($1.50 for 1 Euro-not a bargin!) and jumped in a taxi to head to see the Sagrada Familia Antoni Gaudi Cathedral in Barcelona Spain. Our taxi driver spoke no english at all so we pointed to it on a map and prayed that we would get there for a price we could afford! It was beautiful to gaze at ,but it was so crowded we had to be on the look out for pickey pockets as our guide called them. She spoke english pretty well, but gave us our first taste of many tour guides we had that whole week.

We only had a couple of hours before we had to board the ship so I was snapping pictures the whole way to the port in the tour bus. I was a little nervous about the whole sea sick thing, and tried to be prepared. I think until you do it you just never know how your body will react. I've had some vertigo type issues, and get car sick if I try and read. There was lot's of advice, patches, and drugs available to help with any real rough days at sea. For the most part just getting started out on the waters the first night was sending me to bed...well and I was so pooped from not getting any sleep the night before spent packing. Marvin on the other hand was out on the balcony yelling to me to come here...you gotta see this Tiff...it's so cool! Just sitting up on the bed was enough to make me want to jump overboard, so I just let him give me the play by play of how we were pulling out of port at Spain(same one that Christopher Colombus left from to find America) and heading out into the wild blue sea.

Once on board we got a quick snack...wow the food is amazing and available 24/7! I forgot to pack my wheelbarrow so I was good about the amount of food I ate ,and we walked alot! We then headed to our cabin and began to unpack. We found a plate of fruit (fiber would keep us going on this fast paced trip!) As a reward for getting unpacked we decided to grab a quick nap. Not long into the nap we hear the command that it is time to grab your life jackets and be counted on deck! So we headed with absolutely everyone else on the ship to our assigned deck for a muster drill I thought they kept saying Mustard drill, but anyhow... I was so sleep deprived by this point that I felt as if I was in a deep fog, but Marv led me, put on my life jacket and propped me up against a wall until it was all over. I finally got a little more sleep and took a nausea pill to help ease my stomach. We showered and headed to our assigned dinner time and table at 9:15. We sat with a lively group, all from the group of around 100 people who were on this same trip thanks to David Weekly homes. Many were feeling great and decided to stay out later that night, but Marv and I did the old folk thing and headed to bed!

I will try and post on each day and include pictures over the next week. If you ever get a chance to take a cruise I can highly recommend the Royal Caribbean Cruise line and this specific cruise ship...Voyager of the Seas with Captain Frank. (Marv does a great impersonation of him!)

Buongiorno!

Blue Ridge here we come

Here are just a few pictures of the boys helping knock out a wall, Daddy ripping out the old a/c ducts in the master bedroom, and our new friend and neigbor's dog Henry the hounddog! Julia is standing in her room, and asked me if I could tell she was smiling from ear to ear about all the room she is going to have. Even with the mask on I could see that gleam in her eyes and knew she was just about to burst!

The demo is finally done and we are entering into the fix up stage of this house project. As always this is taking about three times longer than we had hoped, but now that all the yucky stuff is out of there we can start making it look like home. It is a little bit like building a new house; just with the old shell already being there. We are picking out cabinets, floors, sinks, faucets, doors, rearranging some of the rooms the way we would like, and adding on a gameroom/schoolroom and garage.

The neighbors out there are already being so kind, friendly, and helpful. It's gonna be weird for this country/wanna be city girl to get back out to the country, but I'm up for it. Marv and the kids on the other hand can not wait, and squeal with excitement when it's time to get our "Blue Ridge" clothes on and take the trip to the dirt road and fresh air. It only takes about 10 seconds after the car is put into park to find the kids off exploring and running through the field looking for critters and anything else exciting. There is nothing like being cooped up for these past 6 years surrounded by concrete and neighbors, and then getting to have 10 acres to do with as we please. Marv has great plans for barns, animals, hay, and more animals. I will be happy with this move, and know that my country heart will come back in time.

Y'all come visit us in Blue Ridge. We hope to be in by Christmas! Also would you say a prayer that our house here in Frisco would sell, or at least lease! Not the best time to try and sell a house, but we know God is in the details.

Pedro, Huck, and Julia Roberts

What fun to have all three of these amazing, well-known super stars come visit our humble abode on halloween!

We just had too much fun hanging out with friends, passing out candy, beggin' for candy, and sneaking candy. We usually go to our church fall festival, but got a taste of getting to be out with our neighbors last year and decided to try it again this year! My kids had never been trick or treating for real as of last year, and we realized that it was an opportunity to get out and see families that we haven't seen in a while since we are now homeschooling.


As you can see from the pictures each child has their own style, and don't mind acting a little as well! Jacob ,my favorite middle child in the world, came up with his own costume. He even climbed up in the tree to find his fishin' pole. I did splurge and spend two bucks on that hat, but other than that he was trying to save his poor ole parents a buck. Julia wanted so bad to be Hannah Montana, but with just getting back from our trip we didn't start looking until Oct. 30th. She was happy with this get up though as she loves to be glamed up. I'm surprised and happy about the way her hair turned out. She looked beautiful and very much like a miniature Julia Roberts! And then there is that first born of mine with the deep man voice that still scares me when I hear it coming from the back yard and think there is a man out there playing with my kiddos! He is in the phase of not going all out, but still wanting to have fun being someone else for a night. We came across this Pedro wig, mustache, and bolo tie kit and just had to have it, since Jeffrey does a mean Pedro impersonation! I kept telling him he didn't need to worry about wearing the stache since he has been growing his own, but dad finally took care of that and helped him shave for the first time the other night! (more on that later)

I'm so thankful that it is now my favorite time of year November through January is all about celebrations of our Lord and spending time with family and friends! I have so much to share about our trip, how the house is going in Blue Ridge, and life in general...hopefully I can find some time to get these posted soon!