Yes, I’m happy to say that Steve and I are back in Southern California with our kids, precious grandsons Isaac & Oliver and our friends. We arrived home in time for Memorial Day weekend. Lots of American flags flying and red, white and blue decorations too. Trying to feel proud and patriotic during a time […]
Snail Mating Season
Just a quick and fun Blog to get me back into the writing mode again. On our morning walk through our village today, I saw loads of snails crossing our path crawling along slowly on our walking trail. I also saw a number of small group of snails huddled together. Of course I stopped to […]
Now Boarding – Finally!
We are going home to visit our family – finally! We have been living in an unsettled world for the past eight months. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world, our lives, the way we live, travel and communicate – possibly forever. After having to cancel two trips home to Southern California this year, we are […]
Time to Celebrate!
In this blog post I am taking a break from thinking about the pandemic. I think you will appreciate the break as well. Back in January, before any mention of Covid-19, Steve and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary during the latter part of our visit with our kids and grandsons in California. We began […]
Living with a Pandemic – The New Normal Part II
In my previous blog post, I wrote about winding up our extended visit to our family in Southern California, and what would turn into a pandemic. I continue below with our arrival back in France in February 2020. Preparing for our arrival back to France in February, Steve and I had arranged to stay overnight […]
Living with a Pandemic – The New Normal
After five months (and counting!) living with a pandemic, I have gathered my thoughts and began writing. This is the first in what will be a series of blog posts about “Life During a Pandemic”. It is February 4, 2020 and Steve and I are at LAX airport waiting to board our plane back to […]
Max is Back!
WOW, Steve and I are back in France after a five week visit to Southern California to see our kids and precious grandsons Isaac and Oliver. This time I left for America healthy and returned to France healthy TG. On the previous two such trips, I returned to France very ill. So I believe that […]
Home Is Where Your Heart Is
To me, home is where our kids and precious grandson Isaac are. We are finally home again after my 6 months of chemotherapy treatments and 2 months of recovery time. We are back together with our family and Loving It!! This is my “Happiest Place on Earth” with my kids and grandson Isaac, awaiting the […]
I Crossed the Finish Line!!
The final leg of this Marathon that I have been training for this past six months has finally arrived. With six chemotherapy treatments behind me, I Have Crossed the Finish Line – I Have Beat Cancer Once Again!!!! I am now able to recuperate and allow my body to recover and heal itself. I’m Back […]
Hugs, Not Kisses
To all of you that have been following my Cancer Journey, I am so grateful, thankful and happy to say that two-thirds of my chemotherapy regime is behind me. I also have great news – the weekly blood test results and recent CT scan have shown that the chemotherapy is working!! It is killing the […]
A Long and Winding Road (continued)
My narrative continues with my stay in the pulmonary wing at Le Centre Hospitalier de Béziers (CH Beziers). After the fluid was removed from my right lung, the fluid was sent to the lab to be analyzed and the results confirmed that it was a lung infection. However after a more in-depth investigation of the […]
A Long and Winding Road
Let’s see where do I begin? This blog post is a long time coming as I have not written a blog in many months, for good reasons, as you shall see. When Steve and I moved to South of France almost 4 years ago, after living in England for almost 7 years, I told Steve […]
Light the Night Walk
WOW, it has been a long time since we have been in Southern California in September. However, due to our 3 month plan of visiting our kids and grandson Isaac, this year we ended up there mid-September to mid-October. This is exciting because it meant that we were with our family for the Jewish Holidays […]
Our UK Visit
It had been nine months since we had visited our friends and relatives in England. We were going to have a very busy schedule. We began this adventure by visiting our friends Jemma, Kevin and Sienna in a quaint village in Greater Manchester called Marple. This was our first introduction to Sienna who had just […]
So Far Away
Our grandson Isaac is 9 months old already. Time really flies when you are so far away (almost 6000 miles away) from your grandson, especially the first year of his life. They grow so quickly in that first year. It’s times like this that I feel so far away from our grandson Isaac (and our […]
At the Beach in December
WOW – It is December and we are at the beach here in Southern California! Steve and I are at Hermosa Beach walking on the pier enjoying watching the waves roll up against the sand and taking pictures of the many seagulls flying around us. The sun is shining, it is warm with a windy […]
Thanksgiving in the USA
It was another picture-perfect beautiful day in Southern California – 82°F / 28°C. It was so exciting to wake up this Thanksgiving morning and realize that we are here in Southern California to celebrate our precious grandson Isaac’s “First” Thanksgiving. Once again Liz’s parents, Mark & Diane, spent hours preparing countless delicious dishes, and opened […]
Back in the USA
We are back in Southern California again to be with our kids and grandson Isaac, as well as our friends, for the holidays. The holidays will be so very special this year as we celebrate Isaac’s “First” holidays. It is just a week ago that Steve & I left France and arrived in Los Angeles, […]
October 31st 2016 – To Life – L’Chaim
Halloween is one of my least favorite holidays of the year – however, it is a special day for me. A celebration of life. My life. I am so thankful and grateful to be alive. You see it was 16 years ago today that I heard those fearfully dreaded words, “You’ve got Cancer”. 16 Years […]
Spring in South of France – Coming Full Circle
We have all heard the saying “Time Flies” and we are really finding that to be true, now more than ever. This is our second spring in our new house in the South of France and the first full year for the garden. We had just started planting the garden last spring. Besides the warmer […]
Opening a Bank Account in France
Long before moving to France, Steve and I were customers of a worldwide bank, which simplified having accounts in the USA and the UK. As we began to look ahead to retiring to France, we asked the bank to open an account for us at their French affiliate. This turned out to be very easy, and […]
A Big Birthday
I LOVE celebrating Birthdays – especially mine. I have always felt that a birthday is an important day of the year. When everyone in our family lived close by, we always celebrated our birthdays together. But how do we do that now that Steve and I live in the South of France, and our sons, […]
Retiring in France
There I was on Facebook, staying in touch with my friends in the USA, England and France. As I was scrolling through the different posts I stopped at a post from one of my friends in Southern California who shared a link to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk. This fundraising event […]
Introducing Good Lane
There are a couple of new entrepreneurs in town – Los Angeles – Jonathan and Adam! Jonathan (my son) and Adam have been friends since high school. After years of almost daily bike rides together, they’ve combined Jonathan’s artistic abilities and Adam’s management and operations experience with their passion for cycling to create Good Lane, […]
Where’s My POUBELLE?
“Poubelle” in France – “Rubbish” in England – “Trash” in America In any language, it is a necessary component to running a household. The past three months we have had the luxury of putting our household trash in the large trash bin planted on the construction site affectionately known as ‘home’. This has proven to […]
A Walk on the Wild Side
We were back in England for a few weeks to visit relatives and friends, attend a few events and for a few doctors appointments. As it turns out we were able to spend a few days with my cousins in Sheffield (where my mom was from). They live in a village called Apperknowle in Derbyshire, […]
You’ve Got Mail!
Things we take for granted – such as receiving a letter. The first time we realised that we did not have a mailing address was when we went to Darty, a major appliance retailer, to order a washing machine. The salesman asked us for our address, a simple enough question in any language. Steve looked […]
Settling In
I know that you have not heard from me in a few months, this is due to the fact that we have been in the middle of moving into our new house in South of France. It has been a transition period, moving to a new country, learning a new language and learning about a […]
Winter in Southern California
I thought that I would give all of you a little tease of what we are experiencing as Winter in Southern California through pictures. We are having a wonderful time here with our family and friends, as well as this beautiful and warm weather. Wishing all of our friends, relatives and readers around the world […]
I Jumped Out of an Airplane at 12,500 Feet!
WOW! I DID IT! I am an official Skydiver – I jumped out of an airplane at 12,500 feet! I know that many of you are wondering how did this idea of me wanting to jump out of a plane came about. The truth of the matter is that I have wanted to do this […]