France went on Daylight Saving last night...and I woke up EARLY (not on purpose). Ugh. Why??? I feel like I'm constantly sleep deprived, which is not what I would have expected at this age and stage of life.

Ivy's sleepover went really well. Not surprisingly, she was really tired the next day! We now have a guest in Le Chateau for a few weeks, then it's mostly open again starting mid-April through mid-May. Anyone want to come visit?

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Happy birthday (again)!

Ivy is celebrating her birthday with a "soirée pyjama" (sleepover) with her 4 closest friends. She helped me make a cake that has outdone her previous cakes. How can we top this next year??

It's 4 layers of red velvet cake with chocolate buttercream. Mushrooms made of marzipan, ivy leaves made from white chocolate dyed green, moss made from coconut and petit beurre cookies blended with food coloring, and bark made from dark chocolate.

Here's to hoping the girls get some sleep tonight!

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Happy 13th birthday Ivy!

From now until Halloween, we will have 4 teenagers. It was like yesterday when they were little teeny kids ages 1-7.

Once Zari was awake and on a WhatsApp call, we read her birth story and opened presents. Then Ivy, Inga, and Eric headed off to soccer.

The kids' high school back in the US had a trip to Europe over spring break, and they were in Nice today! Inga and Dio connected with some groups of students during their free time. Such a fun blending of 2 worlds that usually don't touch each other.

We had a potluck dinner to celebrate Ivy's birthday with 4 other families. It was incredibly fun and incredibly loud. Good times. This pictures shows a part (but not all) of the kids, plus all of the adults.

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The boys go spearfishing, the girls go for coffee

Eric and two of his Canadian friends went spearfishing today, the first time for the other two. They caught two fish and one cuttlefish. It was a gorgeous day for the first time.

While the boys were out hunting and gathering, the girls had their own gathering at a cafe overlooking the beach. It's debatable who had more fun :) We had Argentina, Taiwan, Canada, Colombia, and the USA represented at the table.

I filmed a new breech module this afternoon. It took about 1.5 hours to set everything up, test the microphone and adjust the sound at least 10 times, get the lighting just right...then I filmed the whole course. Then I got on the computer and discovered that the autofocus kept going in and out of focus. I have to refilm the whole thing!

It's Ivy's birthday tomorrow. I will officially have 4 teenagers as of tomorrow. I can't believe it!

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In hot water

My aunt and uncle left early this morning--too soon! They will need to come back next year.

My dad and mom took a trip to Ikea to find picture frames for the sketches. Now I need to find a place to hang them up.

We're planning Ivy's birthday party sleepover. The theme is mushrooms and forests. We'll make a cake that looks like a stump covered in mushrooms.

Oh, the day started with a surprise, and not the fun kind! The power abruptly went out in the apartment, so I first went to the circuit breaker and flipped the one switch that had tripped. No good, no power. I finally isolated the problematic circuit and it was the water heater. then I walked to the water heater and quickly saw why...it was actively leaking hot water all over the electronics! This wasn't a leak at the plumbing connections; it was from inside the heater itself and signaled that the heater was totally kaput.

So we spent a good while draining the tank...without water because there was no shutoff valve going to the water heater. Then we made 3 trips to the plumbing supply store to be able to install shutoff valves. Then we ordered a new hot water heater, set to arrive tomorrow. So for now at least we have cold water in the apartment, and we can shower downstairs at my parent's.

Always something to keep us on our toes! Thank goodness we were home, because if we'd been gone all day, we would have come back to a completely flooded apartment and likely damage downstairs in Le Chateau.

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Rainy hike, delicious lunch, sketches

I went on an early-morning hike to Mont Boron with my parents and uncle. My aunt opted to stay home and explore Old Nice since she had a knee that was hurting. It drizzled on us the whole time. I felt ok during the hike, but afterwards I got chilled and couldn't get warm the rest of the day!

I had lunch at our favorite restaurant (l'Eau de Vie) with my parents and aunt and uncle. It's fun to catch up and get to know them better as peers. Most of the times I visited them, I was a child. I saw them once soon after I got married...and then 26 years went by! I'm having so much fun getting to know them as people.

At one point the conversation turned to childbirth. She had her first by C-section due to a lethal fetal abnormality incompatible with vaginal birth. She never got to see or hold her baby--such a shame. It's what was done at the time, but imagine how many mothers still grieve from never having seen their child. She had her 2nd as a hospital VBAC and her last 3 at home.

After dinner, my uncle (an artist) did quick sketches of the 3 kids. I grew up wandering around his art studio in Idaho, looking at his landscape paintings, lifescapes, buffalo hides, and antlers.

You can check out his artwork and support him at https://steve-spencer.pixels.com/

We have some Canadian friends over to play cards. They're here for 3 weeks over spring break. They rented from us last year and want to come back to Nice as soon as life/work/kids allow!

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Marathon meeting day

Phew! I finished my last round of meetings just a few minutes ago! Too many meetings for one day.

I started my first meeting at 9 am. This one was for a friend--supervising some finishing work on her apartment renovation while she is out of the country.

11 am: work meeting to go over workshop scheduling

1 pm: interviewing a candidate for a job

3 pm: Meeting to talk about finding a meeting space for a training event

3:30 pm: interviewing another candidate for a job

4 pm: meeting with our accountant (waited for 45 mins, he ultimately was stuck driving so we rescheduled)

7:30 pm: rescheduled meeting with our accountant

8 pm: Team meeting for work

9-9:30 pm: Meeting with one of our instructors

Eric and Dio are off at his late night soccer practice. Ivy had practice this evening, and Inga was at a friend's house all afternoon and evening. My parents and aunt and uncle visited Eze and Monaco today and were blessed with gorgeous weather.

ps--we made it into the Irish Times!

https://www.irishtimes.com/abroad/2026/03/13/st-patricks-day-irish-abroad-how-are-you-celebrating-send-us-your-photos
 

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St Patrick's Day Mass in a French cathedral? Why not?

I had lots of fun playing in the special St. Patrick's Day Mass in Beaulieu-sur-mer. Dio, Inga, and my mom came along. After mass, there was a picnic lunch plus music and dancing in the crypt (which was not creepy like it sounds--it was a lovely huge basement area, newly renovated).

My aunt and uncle from Idaho are visiting for several days. My uncle is a painter and they are both avid outsdoors people. We enjoyed catching up; I hadn't seem them since over 26 years ago!

Inga had a home game this evening and her team won. She still doesn't feel that she's playing as well as she'd like.

I had some time this afternoon to bask in the sun on the beach, stripping down to a tank top and pulling my pants as high up as they'd go. It felt amazing.

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Inga is celebrating her birthday (again) with a few friends, one of whom is back from Vancouver, Canada for a few weeks. I hear lots of giggling and thumping around from downstairs. Since my parents are gone for a few days, they are using Le Chateau for a sleepover.

They have 6 pizzas from Pizza Pili and lots of snacks. Let's hope they go to sleep at some point!

Tomorrow's plan:
- Ivy has a morning soccer game
- I have a rehearsal for the St. Patrick's Day Mass
- After Ivy's game, Eric will take Inga's friends plus Dio and Ivy to a trampoline park

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I took a "sleep-cation" downstairs in Le Chateau while my parents are in Paris with my aunt and uncle. I love being able to go to bed when I want and having no one wake me up at night due to snoring/wiggling/taking the covers. Ahhhh. Maybe it would be lonely after a while, but on occasion it's lovely to sleep solo. Eric's getting over jetlag so his sleep has been disrupted.

What else? I've had lots of intellectually fun stuff going on at work--creating new videos, working on publications, coming up with new research projects, securing translators for our textbook.

If anyone is local, please come to the St. Patrick's Day Mass at the Beaulieu cathedral this Sunday! I'll be playing violin.

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Ivy has spent so much time working on this book report project for her French class! If she doesn't get 20/20, something is seriously wrong with her teacher!

Dio is very despondent because he got 5/20 in a recent French exam, a 3-hour essay in which they analyzed a text. He thought he did well until he saw his grade today...the worst in the class! His teacher has been really strange, sometimes giving him top marks and other times giving him terrible grades and telling him he's doing it all wrong. He just doesn't know what she wants. He's a smart and hard-working kid and this just seems all over the place.

I do sometimes get frustrated with the French system because it can be so punitive and non-transparent. At least in the US system, the expectations are generally clear and if you work hard, it almost always is reflected in the grades.

My day was interesting. It started with a podcast interview with someone in Australia. I then moved on to several hours of video editing for a few new courses we're developing (a special short course for L&D nurses and an update of a module on essential breech maneuvers). I had a meeting with several heads of OB for the Kaiser system in northern CA. They're looking to develop 2 or 3 breech centers in San Francisco and northern CA. Really exciting!

Eric didn't sleep much last night despite being jet-lagged. I hope it's better tonight.

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Concert!

My mom is always someone who makes things happen. This doesn't change despite living in another country. She went to a concert about 6 weeks ago and was chatting with the soprano afterward. She said, "Why don't we put together some music and have a concert?" So that's exactly what they did! The pianist was incredible and had just turned 19.

My mom was impressed because not only was the soprano a fantastic singer, she also sews her performing outfits! (We grew up in a household that sewed...especially for Halloween or Christmas outfits or formal dances).

The kids liked the concert, which took place last night in a small art gallery, because it was short (30 minutes) and each piece was just a few minutes long. We had sparkly drinks beforehand and a reception at my mom's apartment afterwards. That also sweetened the deal.

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Soccer Saturday

I drove Ivy to a soccer game in Mougins, with my parents coming along. It was cool, overcast, and windy and I was very chilled by the end! Then just over an hour after coming home, I left again for Inga's game at Cavigal.

Ivy's team won 2-1, and Inga's team tied 2-2. Inga was very frustrated with how she played; she felt like she kept missing her shots and couldn't get the ball to go where she wanted it to.

Eric flies home tonight from a brief visit to the US for a writing conference.

Dio went to the gym with a few friends this morning.

That's the latest news. My mom is playing in a concert tomorrow evening with a soprano and pianist. We've been hearing her practice the last several weeks. Should be fun!

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Back home!

I'm home, finally! No travels until mid-April (conference) and then I stay put.

Ivy and Inga went to a practice for A.S. Monaco, which has been trying super hard to recruit them. It's looking likely they will go there next year. Nothing is decided yet, though. They had a great time, loved the other girls and the coach.

Closing arguments on the breech case I testified for are supposed to start tomorrow (Wed) at 9 am Pacific US time. Tune in for a very interesting time if you're into birth-related things!

https://oregonjudicial.webex.com/oregonjudicial/j.php?MTID=md8dda5575a7a99f4e54bb72b7cfd82bb

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Hello from Ghent!

I spent the day observing one of our new instructors teach his first vaginal breech training. It's been fun to listen to the Flemish. I can pick out certain words that are familiar from having taken Afrikaans back at university.

I didn't realize how heavily Flemish-speaking this part of Belgium would be. I was talking to people today and there's a sort of horizontal line running across Belgium, through Brussels. North of the line is Flemish and south of the line is French. I thought that everyone would be fully bilingual but that's not the case.

Ghent is such a pretty city. I was super busy today but even our short walk to lunch and to/from the hospital was lovely. I love the steep stepped roofs, the dormer windows, how the houses line up right to the canals, the cobblestone streets.

I'm going home tomorrow first thing in the morning. I had to miss Inga's birthday today, so I'm making it up by baking her a cake tomorrow. (Yes, they had a cake today...but you can never have too much cake!).

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Portland - Nice - Belgium

It's been a crazy 48 hours. I flew from Portland, OR to Nice, France, slept 1 night, then flew to Belgium. I'm here to observe a breech training with a new instructor. Fortunately this one is a quick trip.

I'm staying in Ghent, which is a lovely city that reminds me a lot of Amsterdam, only with fewer bicycles. I'm right in the Old Town and had a nice walk before it got dark.

I found a sew-on patch to add to my BWB apron collection, and I also visited a chocolate store and came back with some goodies to share with the family.

I had a lovely day and a half with my brother in Portland after the trial. We ate lots of delicious food, went on walks and hikes with his dog, saw various sites around town, and enjoyed his sauna every night. He built it himself, converting an old garden shed into paradise.

I have to miss Inga's birthday tomorrow. I told her we'd celebrate the next day, since I'll be back by then. I'm ready to be done traveling for a while!

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