Last night, after a very packed day of work preparing for our move, saying good-bye to lots and lots of folks at school and at the Issy basketball club, and then finally dinner, we decided to flop into our few remaining chairs to watch a movie.
Todd started pulling on his ear and kept saying it hurt 'super bad' and that he could hear the pool in his ear. Uh oh! He had a cold a few weeks back that just wouldn't totally go away. And, it was obvious he had a fever. Yes, we mothers all know what this means -- ear infection.
As is always the case, this could not have been more perfectly timed! (Ha ha - can you hear my sarcasm?) Our days are packed to the gills, but Mark was able to take Todd to the doctor today. Sure enough, it was confirmed. Todd has a really, really bad ear infection.
So, here's what we got from the doctor. The prescription:
What would you expect? Perhaps an antibiotic like Amoxicillin? Here's what the prescription calls for:
- Amoxicillin - 3x per day for 7 days
- Anti-inflammatory pills to take 1x per day for 5 days
- Nose Spray to use 3x per day for as long as needed to clear and heal the nasal passages
- Doliprane (which is France's Tylenol) to take to reduce the pain (even though we have loads of this already at home, it was prescribed for Todd at a special dose)
Now, that ought to about cover everything, don't you think! Here's all the medicine:
All of this medicine cost 9 euros. Gotta love that!
But, best of all, we sold our refrigerator today and the Amoxicillin needs to be refrigerated. (However, it's chilly enough outside to put it on the balcony. That will do for the next few days, I hope!) And, we need to give this to Todd 3x per day for 7 days, and we're flying to America on Sunday morning. How do you do medicine 3x per day when you are flying back in time 7 hours?
Now you can see why I say the timing of this couldn't be any better! Oh dear! But, we're very thankful to have gotten medicine for Todd now so that he is not in agony on the airplane Sunday. Poor kid.
We've had several wonderful good-byes in the last days. We gave a Bible to Ryan's teacher after school yesterday. He was very touched by this gift and said so several times. He said it was his first Bible - amazing! Ryan told him that it has 'les beaux histoires' (good stories) inside. His teacher chuckled and said, "I know!" We hope he'll read it!
And, one of Ryan's friends stopped me to let me know that they had a gift for Ryan at the basketball club. So, we stopped by. Look what they gave to him!
It is signed by all of his teammates. Isn't that awesome?
His coach gave him a great coach good-bye -- we'll miss you, you've been a great kid to coach, keep playing basketball, write to let us know how you are doing, keep working hard in school and so forth and so on. He was rather chocked up by the time he kissed Ryan's cheeks affectionately and said the final good-bye. So nice.
And, Ryan's class did this for him:
I'm not sure what Todd is doing in this photo, but Ryan is awfully proud of this shirt! His entire class signed it for him. And, a few other teachers added their signature too.
Ryan got this note from his friend Aurélien:
It says "Have a good stay in America. I will never forget you my friend Ryan. Aurélien" On the other side of the envelope it says that he made this card all by himself.
Here's the note inside:
It says, "Ryan you are my best friend. You are the only one who has never made fun of me or insulted me. I have loved having someone who is so much like me, I have liked you so much and you were so nice. Without you I will feel alone and that bothers me a little because there are not many people like you on this earth. 'Gros bisous' (which means lots of those French kisses on the cheeks) I hope that you don't miss me too much. Aurélien your best friend. 'Ha ha - attack!' (to go with the photo). Guard this letter all of your life; do this for me. Aurélien Caralié"
Now, how's that for a good-bye note from a 10 year old boy? Wow! Ryan certainly has found some wonderful friends here in France.
In fact, we have ALL found some amazing friends here in France! We have been richly blessed by the people in this land.
So, let me get back to the title of this blog and share our hills with you. I just have to put photos in the blog (which I plan to make into a book one day as a record of our time here).
These are the photos on the way to one of our grocery stores, Intermarché:
Down the hill we go...
Now, let's pretend we've already filled a rolling cart with groceries, and now we are headed back home. UP the HILLS we go!!!!
Not done yet...here's the rest of the crazy long hill:
Looks like fun, right?!? I'm tell you, we are NOT going to miss these hills on grocery day. I will be gleefully filling my truck with bags of groceries, and driving home!
But, that's not all. That was just one of the 4 grocery stores we visit every week. (Two others have a similar walk to this one that I just showed.)
Here's the walk to the grocery store where we get most of our groceries - Lidl. Lidl is a bit like Aldi in the USA. We try to buy most things at this grocery store, because it's the cheapest. Here are the hills we walk to Lidl:
I'm missing the first part of the hill, right by our home, but this will do for the rest:
Then, we walk a little ways where it's rather flat to then go down a big, long hill:
Down, down, down we go...
And, see how wonderful the sidewalks are? We get to deal with potholes, but on the sidewalk! If it isn't potholes, it's cobblestone to drag the carts through. :-)
So, let's pretend we have filled up two large rolling carts with groceries for the next 6 days. Now we are going to drag them home. Here we go up the very long hill...
...still more of this hill left...
...we're far from done...
... our turn towards home (and a reprieve from hills for a little while) is about a city block away. You can do it, you can do it!!! Can't you just feel your heart beating?
Finally, there's a part of this walk that is flat. Then, we descend again...
Just around the next bend, and down another two blocks or so and we are home!
It takes about 7 minutes to walk to Intermarché, 5 minutes to walk to Carrefour City, 5 minutes two walk to Monoprix and 15 minutes to walk to Lidl. (Just for the record.)
Now, perhaps you can see why we are thrilled to be moving away from these hills!!!! And, perhaps you can understand, just a little bit, our horror at the sound of one our children saying, "I hope we live on a hill again in America!"
What?!?
Why on earth would you say such a thing?!?
Oh, I know why.
YOU DON'T SHOP FOR GROCERIES HERE!!!!!
There. I feel satisfied. I did the best that I could to document the hills in our lives in Paris.
"I will not miss walking you, hills. But, I will miss how you make it easy for me to eat rich French food and not gain weight."
Oh, the irony of life!
1 comment:
Oh how quickly Sunday comes. May you have a safe journey and return to the USA!
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