nesting...

Dear friends,
It's been too long again, I'm sorry.

I'm now sitting in our new office space. We're renting a little home in the South of the country, sort of halfway between the sea and the mountains. We're settling... We're getting domesticated...

It's been so hectic. I think the physical act of moving our stuff from everywhere to here was the least painful. Then comes the setting up of the banks, and the telephone lines, and the DSL, and the medical insurance, and the rental insurance, and buying the lightbulbs, a bed, a microwave, a fridge, a washing machine (we have our own washing machine!), a dishwasher (first time in our lives we have a dishwasher, it's such an incentive to laziness), a few garbage cans, a million lamps, and so on and so forth.

We're finding it difficult. Settling in a completely brand new place, where we know no one (so we have to discover the stores on our own), and having sold every piece of furniture, every piece of electrical and electronic equipment we owned a year and a half ago... it's draining.

Speaking of a year and a half ago: try picturing Christmas day, and you have lots and lots of presents this year. But the funny thing is, every time you open a box, it's something you already own, but haven't seen or thought about for a year and a half. That's pretty much what it feels like to be us at the moment.

So tomorrow's a big shopping day: a big trip to the furniture stores, to find someplace to put away the contents of all those boxes.

At the same time, I'm still working full time, but trying to be on the east coast schedule to match my colleagues. Which allows me the mornings to run around and do paperwork and other stuff, while I work afternoon and evenings, before I collapse into bed and do it again the next day. Gotta say though, it feels like we're starting to see the end of it. And taking out the garbage and doing loads of laundry does start to make it feel like our place (obviously we're not quite at the stage where we're putting up pictures and frames yet).

P's french is improving quickly. he can even manage phone conversations, which impresses me to no end. and he's much better at the twisty windy driving directions in the area than I am.

As for our little one, well she's about 2/3 ready: I'm just entering the final trimester. So she's a bit over two pounds and 15 inches at the moment, or something like that. I had my first preparation class a couple weeks ago, it was pretty wonderful sitting there and having all this time (2 hours) to think only about my belly!

I must be starting to nest: I've shined our metal pieces (never done that before), and did a little embroidery based on some free trial thing they stuffed into my maternity box. unbelievable!

I'm not managing much in the way of intellectual reading these days, except for baby gear books. So if anyone has any cool readings to contribute, please send my way.

Miss everyone lots,
M