My Search for Phantom

So ever since Jen and I deliriously sang Phantom of the Opera tunes while driving around in France, I haven't been able to stop. I've got a hankering to see it again. I even spent 3000 radio station points to enter into a draw to win tickets when the musical stops in Ottawa in August. (3000 points got me 6 entries)

At a work party in May, they raffled off a couple of tickets given to the office. The same person who won those tickets won tickets to the NAC Canada Day Party yesterday so I joked about the draws at work being fixed. I even hinted to him to pass the Phantom tickets my way. But today, I am still ticket-less. So my search for Phantom continues...

Lesson of the Day

Impatience will only make it seem longer.

Oh and Jen...some people have to work AND plan a dance (which you better be at)!

This one's for D.

While traveling these past three weeks, I've come across some things that D. may find very appealing. In one of his previous posts, D. talks about his discovery of Alberta's love for slurpees. He illustrated this with a picture of a slurpee machine at a Mac's convenience store that featured 16 different flavours. While in France, Jen and I discovered a frozen yogurt machine featuring about a dozen different flavours.

And as a souvenir, I brought home the following during my trip to Vancouver. If you would like some D. it will cost you fifteen bucks.

Lee-Wens: the next generation (or some of them anyways)

James and Angela's crew with my boys

Isabelle

(the wild 3 year old)

Annie

(she speaks really well for a 2 year old)

Malachi
(the 8 month old sumo wrestler)

What we've been up to in Vancouver so far...

...lots of Guitar Hero,

wedding rehearsals,
(Theresa the 3.5 year old flower girl is my cousin)

...and eating lots! The kids are sick of restaurants now...lol.
(baby Brendan is my cousin's kid)

The boys are sure getting spoiled though. My dad bought them each a Nintendo DS Lite! I guess Aidan can stop saving up for one now...and he was almost there too. We also visited my grandma yesterday at the nursing home. The pictures are on another camera though.

The forecast for Saturday's wedding is more rain. I don't know what they will do about the wedding photos because they want to take them at Stanley Park and Jericho Beach. I guess that's the risk of having outdoor photos in a city like Vancouver. Today we will be visiting more family members and eating at more restaurants. The madness never ends during this whirlwind trip.

France Pictures

Hey Everyone,

Until I have time to post pictures on my blog along with accompanying stories, you can view some of the pictures on my facebook account. Unfortunately you have to have a facebook account in order to view them. Lucky for you if you do though.

Jess and Jen's Excellent Adventure - the trip home

So Monday Jen and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6am in order to catch our flight home. Because my back has been aching, we opted to take the shuttle bus to the airport instead of taking public transit (which would have been much cheaper, but oh well). The terminal I was leaving from came first. I noticed the guy was having trouble getting my pack out of the luggage compartment because it was caught on something. That something turned out to be Jen's pack. I had to giggle because it was like a sign that we didn't want the trip to end. Anyways, the long flight home was fine until I got to Montreal to make my connecting flight.

If you have read any of Sheldon's posts or have even just talked to him, you are aware of how worried he was about the guys in French hitting on me or bothering me. That did not happen once on the trip because I was not looking my best...frumpy travelling clothes and minimal to no makeup whatsoever. So I got no attention in France at all. But in Montreal, that was a different story. As I was going through customs, the guy asked me more questions than usual. I was tired so I was answering them quietly and unemotionally. Then as I walked past the guy to hand in my customs declaration card, this guy asked me to go to the other side. I thought he wanted me to show my card to the lady. I handed her my card and she asked me to go around the corner. I was confused?

It turns out they wanted to search my bags! So there I was standing there as another guy nicely went through my bags asking me questions like where I worked, etc. Finally after that was done, I checked my pack in again and headed towards the security check. Once I went through the detectors, the lady wanted to pat me down! Geez, I get no attention from the French in France but the French in Montreal were all over me...lol.

Anyways, I am home safely now and madly trying to catch up on things here before the boys and I fly out to Vancouver tomorrow for a family wedding. Yes, my travelling has not ended yet.

During this busy day sometime, I hope to get the pictures from our adventure up. Until then...

Jess and Jen's Excellent Adventure - the final weekend part 2

So today all we did was shop, shop, shop. I don't think we'll see many of the touristy things in Paris because we all know what they look like. Shopping was a must since I still had things I needed to buy. Fun but very tiring. It was very hard to manuever through the crowds on a Saturday too!!

I have finally caught up with Sheldon's blog (and added it to my list of blogs I like). Thank you for keeping me up to date on what's going on at home. I feel very bad for you and everything that you had to go through...but I appreciate you for letting me go on this adventure. Your stress relief will be home in a couple of days with presents too!!

Tomorrow we will be going to church and then going to visit Sacre Coeur. Tonight when it gets dark (after 10pm) we may go for a boat ride on the Seine and see the Eifel Tower lit up at night.

I miss my boys and my hubby. Don't worry...mommy will be home soon!

Jess and Jen's Excellent Adventure - the final weekend

Jen and I have safely driven to Paris and is staying with a friend, Janet Stone. We went to Monaco the day after the Grand Prix. It was a very windy day so we weren't able to go to the beach. Then we drove to Bourges and stayed at a very beautiful B&B. Then we saw a couple of beautiful chateaus. The next stop was just outside Caen. Then we went to visit the Juno Beach Centre. Being there, speaking to the Canadian students who work there, and learning about Canada's contribution to the war made me feel very patriotic. We've even put some of the sand from Juno Beach in a ziploc baggie and we're bringing it home!

Jen did a fabulous job driving in Paris. I'm very proud of her. She knows how to be aggressive on the road. It was great. Tonight, we may go for a walk around and see the city at night.

We are a little homesick and we miss our families but we are sad at the same time that our trip is almost done. I am looking forward to going to church in Paris this Sunday too. It should be really interesting.

Anyways, I'm going to end this entry here so we can go for a walk before it gets too late. Our time is totally thrown off since it is still light here until 10pm so we haven't been eating dinner until 8pm or later!

A bientot!