Thursday, August 31, 2006

back to school

Damn it, vacation is over already!
Has it really been 2 months? It certainly didn't seem that long!
I guess I could get used very easily to staying at home!
Provided that my love's paycheck was a bit better, of course!
Hum, a lot better, rather.
Anyway, 2 months at home and I never had the time to be bored!

But September is here, so time has come to go back to school.
Tomorrow I'll have to get up when the alarm clock starts ringing, instead of just pushing my love out of bed : "Get up, you've got to go to work!"
Tomorrow, I'll see my colleagues, I guess I'm not too unhappy about that, I kinda missed some of them, I have to admit it...
The good thing is : I won't see my students till Monday, I've still got time to adjust!
So till then, I'll just pretend I'm still on vacation and enjoy these last days as much as I can!

Monday, August 21, 2006

Juliette

Our niece Juliette was born on August 16, one day late. waow!
I'm Auntie Elo, or more precisely Tata Elo, as we say here in France!
She's really cute, more than I expected in fact!
Not that I thought she would be ugly, of course not, but you know, new born babies aren't always really pretty... But my sister in law had to have a caesarean, and little Juliette looked absolutely beautiful, even just a few minutes after she was born!
Anyway, now she's here, we're aunties and I hope we'll be able to play our role and have a real relationship with our niece...
Her father is a nice guy, but unfortunaly he doesn't seem to be very fond of our side of the family.
A few days ago, when we went to the hospital to see little Juliette, we felt that he had suddenly changed, he seemed more friendly, he invited us to his home for dinner, for the first time in 6 years we felt there was real communication between us.
It was about time! But hey, better late than never, we're not going to criticize his efforts!
However, last night I visited the website he created for his baby, and I was kinda shocked to see that there were several pictures of Juliette with his parents, Juliette with his sister... but not even one of Juliette with her other grandparents, none of her 3 other aunties either...
Same thing for the baby's blog : "today grandpa and grandma came to see me", "today I took a nap on my auntie's shoulder" etc... all referring to our brother-in-law's parents and sister, no mention whatsoever of his wife's parents and sisters!
As if none of us had come to see the baby! As if none of us existed, actually.
my mother-in-law spent more than a week at his place, doing the housework, cooking him dinner, taking care of his oh-so-wonderful dog, and went to the hospital everyday to spend time with her daughter and granddaughter, and there isn't a word about her, not even a photo...
I probably shouldn't focus so much on "details", but it hurts.
Let's pretend that it's just a misunderstanding. Let's pretend he just "forgot" to talk about our side of the family, but that he meant to, of course. Let's pretend he gives a damn about us.
I'm mad at him, because although none of them will say a word about it, I know it hurts my parents in law, and their daughters.
I sure hope that as soon as my sister in law is back from the hospital, this will change.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

A year later

ok, I haven't written anything for ages, more than a year actually, but it doesn't mean nothing happened in my life at all, quite the contrary in fact, so you can stop sniggering!
In fact, I've been sooooooooo busy that I had no time to write! Ah! Now you feel jealous, right? Well, if you don't, you should.
First of all, I got married.
Well, not exactly married, since I'm french, and in France gay people can't get married. Yet. But I hope it's gonna change one of these days. I'm pretty sure it will, actually. Let's just hope it happens in my lifetime!
So, anyway, my sweet Angeline and I signed a PACS, wich is the closest we can get to marriage. It's a partnership contract, in fact ; it gives us obligations, like if one of us has debts, the other one will have to pay for it too, and it doesn't give us many rights, but at least it says that we're a couple, so I guess it was worth it!
We celebrated the event with our family, and it was a very special moment for us.
A month later, we celebrated it with our closest friends, and it was very different! I had planned on wearing a silk dress and very nice handmade jewels that were made especially for me, but unfortunately I didn't get them on time, so I had to change my plans.
It's a shame, really, since I had never spent so much money on jewels, but I figured that it was a very special occasion, so it was worth the expense... So now I've got very pretty jewels in my drawer, they cost me more than 10% of a month's salary, and I don't know if I'm ever going to wear them...
Anyway, I was so mad not to have my jewels on time that I decided not to wear my silk dress either, so I wore everyday clothes, and had a wonderful time.
A silk dress wouldn't have been appropriate , anyway!
We had rented a house in the countryside, part of an old farm, actually, the landowner lived in another building next to it and had ducks, geese, sheep, and a horse, and it was really funny to see a dozen ducklings cross our yard, just a few feet away from our table while we were having lunch, to go to the pond.
Picture me in a silk dress, preparing a barbecue in a farm in the country, with the ducks and stuff? I guess I should be glad my jewels were not ready on time, after all!

So well, we signed our PACS and celebrated it with our family in April, and partied with our friends in June.
I know, it's a lame excuse for not writing anything since last August, I guess that a blog is supposed to be something you write on regularly...
But hey, give me a break, this is my blog, I can do whatever I want!

Anyway, now that we're officially a couple, now we plan on having a baby.
There's no way we can do it in France, of course, so we're going to Belgium.
After an appointment with a doctor, then another one with a psychiatrist, an hospital in Bruges accepted us, so we had another appointment with a nurse for the paperwork, and we should be able to do the first IA in September.
We just can't wait!
The only drawback is that in September, I won't be on vacation anymore, so I'll have to take days off, which is quite difficult for a teacher...
And since there's very little chance it will work on the first attempt, I'll probably have to take days off several times.
Well, I'll have to manage. I guess I'll have to explain a few hings to the headmaster, let's hope he's more open-minded than he seems...

Our families know about our "baby project", of course.
My parents have known for a long time that we planned on having children, one of these days.
I told my Mom about it several years ago. She was quite hostile at first, but she gradually changed her mind. Now she's enthusiastic and impatient (she recently told me we should start preparing the baby's room! Keep cool, Mom, I'm not even pregnant! )
I never actually talked about it with my Dad, since we almost never talk about very personal things... Not that we're not close, we are, but that's just the way it is!
But my grandmother told me he was impatient to have grandchildren.
Yes, my grandma knows about it, she actually asked me two months ago if we planned on having kids. This question was kind of a shock to me, since my grandma is a catholic.
I guess she's much more open-minded than I ever expected!
My in-laws are less enthusiastic, however.
When we finally told them about it, they didn't seem too surprised, but not exactly overwhelmed with joy. Angeline's mom told us that they would support us, which is the most important, I admit it. But she also told us about a dozen times that of course, our child would have to see a psychiatrist. Of course.
Her dad told us that having a kid was serious stuff (no kidding?), that it was not like adopting a cat or a dog. I just loved the comparison.
Angeline is very happy that they reacted so well.
According to her, her dad was just a bit clumsy in his choice of words, no big deal, I'm over-reacting, as usual.
I might be.
I do have to admit I'm a bit touchy about this subject!
And I often over-react.
Well, let's say they just need a bit more time to get used to the idea.
Let's hope they'll also finally get used to the idea that we might not be totally stupid and irresponsible.
And maybe they'll even notice someday that their daughter is no longer six years old.
I love them, I really do, but sometimes they get on my nerves, especially my father-in-law.
But they're really nice people.
And my mother-in-law has called us several times to know how our appointments in Bruges had gone ; she does seems genuinely interested.
So I guess it's gonna be fine.
I suppose they still have plenty of time to evolve, anyway.

For now, they're going to be grandparents for the first time in just a few days, since
Angeline's older sister is pregnant, and she's due on August 15.
The baby will be our first niece, we're very excited about it!
And we just can wait to know her name, since the parents decided to keep it secret!