Looking for a Better Country: Summing up recent weeks

I finished out the school year activities June 11, and since then it feels like all I have done is prepare my house to be packed. As I type this, there is a mover taking a nap in my spare bedroom during his lunch break. There'll be a whole separate post about the move, but I wanted to post about the few other things that have happened since I went to the zoo a month ago. Most of this is random, but you should be used to that by now if you read my blog regularly.

I was walking down a main road of the city in a neighborhood where I used to live, and was shocked to a giant gaping hole in the block of buildings. At first, I thought they'd torn down the building that the Artist had lived in, but she corrected me and told me that she lived above the Naturalia store (on the right). It's still a bit of a shock to see that big open space. It's amazing to think that they were able to tear it down without damaging the other buildings on each side of it!

I said goodbye to Munchkin and Giggles this past month, and then to the Africa Girls. (We took photos together on both of those goodbye dinners, but somehow I didn't get copies of any of those photos!) Anyway, when the Africa Girls and I lined up to take our picture at the Vieux Port, I said, "Let's stand here so that we can have the Ferris Wheel in the background..." I turned out to look and it was gone! I asked them when it was taken down and they said, "Two weeks ago! You need to get out of your apartment more." Wow. I never even noticed. Glad I got this photo of it before they moved it out to the beach (which they do every summer).

For one of the holidays at the end of May, Mr. and Mrs. X wanted to go to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. I happily tagged along. A few days later, that same week, it was this friend's birthday. Guess where he wanted to eat? Hard Rock. The very next day, I was having dinner with a friend, and she asked if I minded to eat at Hard Rock, because she'd been craving American food. I laughed, apologized, and asked if I could introduce her to another American restaurant, because I couldn't justify Hard Rock three times in one week. Anyway, at HR, they sing and give a free dessert, just like in America. But in America, does it come with a firecracker too?!

A few pictures from my end of the year parties...

Laughing so hard. I didn't even know that the lady in the back (with the white scarf) had jumped in the photo until I'd gotten home and downloaded them onto my computer. It'd started with just two of us, and more and more kept jumping in, which was why I was laughing. I love those ladies!

Munchkin likes to give me a hard time about the filters I use on my photos. (I joke that isn't that what Instagram is for? Otherwise, why would they offer all those filters for us to use?) Well, I don't have a fancy camera like he does. Anyway, I took this photo of the sunset one night and there is no filter.

I had a guest come right near the end of June, and so I took her up to the church on the hill to see the view of the city. The lavender was in full bloom up there. I love that.

#onelasttime to see that view of my sweet little city by the sea.

Then we took a boat ride. It was windy that day, so I wasn't sure the boats would be going. (They don't go when the wind is too strong.) It was awesome, because the wind was not strong enough to cancel the boats, but strong enough to make the waves big and fun. We sat in the "splash zone" and cooled off a bit while we enjoyed the sun and the water.

Back when I was in the states, I wanted to buy a skinny Bible to take with me to my new country. My regular one is big and heavy, and with such limited suitcase weight, I wanted a lighter one. I was astounded to see that the kind I was looking for cost $30! I kept walking around the store, seeing if I could find something cheaper that would meet my needs. I saw a shelf that said, "Misprinted Bibles." At first, I couldn't understand what that meant, until I realized they meant misprinted names on Bibles. I found one that had a name on the front AND a different name on the back, and it was only $5! That's my kind of price. Thanks, Naomi Lloyd, for not wanting this one.

Well, I've been holding on to a special fabric for a few years now, saving it for some project that would really show it off. As I was packing up my fabrics, I saw it again and remembered the misprinted Bible. Seems that a Bible cover is a special enough project! I'm terrible at math, so it took me about 4 times as long to figure out the dimensions, and I made three sample versions with other fabric until I got the dimensions right, but here's the finished product!

Most Bibles come with one, and if you're lucky, two ribbons to mark your place. The thing is, I use a read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan that has four readings: two Old Testament and two New. Well, since I was making my own cover, I figured I could put in as many ribbons as I wanted. So I put four! I'm so happy with it.

Since the Julebug (in North Africa) knows how to read now, after having finished her first year of school, I sent a text for her to her dad that was labeled for her to read when he got home from work. Later that I night, I received the following photo texts. A hug:

And a kiss:

And then Joe wanted to get in on the action, so he sent a hug too:

And how about this kiss that will melt any aunt's heart?!

I worked hard and got the house done and ready for the packers, and then went to Aix for the weekend of the 4th of July. The next day, we went to see the lavender fields. I hope it wasn't #onelasttime, because I sure do love seeing and smelling them!

I love these guys!

The lavender was the brightest purple I'd ever seen it. So gorgeous.

We also found a field of sunflowers next to a field of lavender. You'll see postcards of that, but so far, I'd never seen the real thing. Every year, they change up whether they plant wheat, sunflowers, or lavender, so you never know what combination you'll get.