After several weeks of rain and/or illness, we were finally able to have our Monday night FFFF: Freeze Family Football (and Friends!). Zari had class, but the rest of the kids went, along with one of Ivy's classmates (who lived in our apartment while we were in the States).

We made a trip to Ikea to return All The Stuff and to buy More Stuff. Not much else to do on the kitchen for 5-6 weeks until the countertops arrive.

I'm getting a big presentation ready for UCSF tomorrow--Whitney Rose Pinger and I will be talking about "Vaginal Breech Birth: Why It Is Important and How To Establish a Collaborative Breech Service."

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Rain, soccer, and more kitchen work

Ivy had a tournament this afternoon, 4 short games. She played a bit but was still quite tired in her post-flu recovery. Inga had an afternoon game (they won 5-0, but she came home depressed because she was yet again put on defense although all of her training and skills is in offense). And more rain much of the day.

My dad and I installed the oven and the crown moldings. I cleaned off the dining room table--I haven't seen the top of it for a few weeks now! We measured and drew up the plans for the countertop and backsplashes and got them sent off to the quartz manufacturer. I did the initial measuring, drew up the plans, and then had my dad come with me and measure again to be sure I didn't miss anything obvious.

Dio and Zari made spicy crab sushi for dinner, along with roasted brussels sprouts (my mom) and tiramisu (me).

I've been waking up way too early the past several mornings, usually between 5:30-6 am--and not on purpose! I just have so much on my mind, mostly planning the next kitchen renovation thing.

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I brought Ivy to a family doctor after school (yes, she was finally feeling well enough to go! No more fever!). Based on her symptoms, Ivy has the flu: 5-7 days of fever, extreme weakness and fatigue, sore legs and back. We came home with multiple prescriptions (of course!) including "Saint Doliprane." They LOVE Doliprane (tylenol/acetaminophen) over here. I filled just the cough syrup antihistamine one.

She also got a prescription for a full spine x-ray since she has had lower back pain for more than a year now. Since Eric has mild scoliosis, the doctor suspects Ivy may have the same so we'll see what's going on there.

And, since French medical care is amazing, our total out of pocket fees were under 11 Euros including the prescription. Had we had no insurance, it would have been 33 Euros total. Nearly unaffordable :)

We went to a few kitchen stores today to look at countertops and finally found one that we both really liked (Quartz Silestone in a pattern called "Blanc Elysee." We are waiting for a few quotes from the kitchen stores, but most likely we'll order from the same place as last time and DIY install it, since it will save thousands of Euros.

We had some brief sun today, then more pouring rain. Rain = snow in the mountains so we are happy!

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Day 6 of The Plague

Ivy is STILL sick! She was looking a bit better in the morning, so we thought she might be able to go to school in the afternoon. However, by lunchtime she was looking just as bad if not worse, and she still had a fever. So no school for her.

I have put almost all of our kitchen things into our kitchen. So exciting. I need to install the knobs and drawer pulls tomorrow. I have also organized all of our craft/sewing/drawing/painting supplies as well as our board games. Everything fits inside the cupboards. I love not having stuff sitting out everywhere (well, there still is stuff everywhere, but it's renovation stuff).

We took a long walk in the rain today to look at countertops, only to find that the store was closed exceptionally becuase all of the people were away at a big job! So weird. We'll go again tomorrow as they assured us they would be open. We'll probably order and DIY the quartz again, like we did in Le Chateau, but we'd like to see the samples in person first before we order.

That's about it for Freeze Family news!

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Going gray

Big day today--our cabinet doors and drawer fronts arrived! To be precise, the 2nd order arrived. The first order had the green ones that we loved so much in the online pictures. But in person, the green was a really ugly, depressing shade of green--think of a dark muddy brown-green.

I was so disappointed because the pictures of the green cabinets were much brighter and lighter. So we made the decision to go gray and I love it. The kitchen definitely feels lighter and the cupboards won't overwhelm the room.

We have the plywood sub-countertops installed and 3 coats of water-based poly brushed on. This will get us through the 5-6 weeks it takes for the quartz countertops to arrive, once they are ordered.

Ivy is still super sick with The Plague, 5 days in! Still has a fever and now has started to have a deep cough. I'm trying to decide if I should take her to our family doctor to listen for pneumonia. I'm usually a "wait until it gets better" kind of parent and, short of it being pneumonia, there isn't much to do about it anyway.

I started feeling sick last night. No fever yet, but definitely feeling icky. Will I have The Plague tomorrow? I hope not!

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Ivy has been super sick the past 3 days: high fever, super achey body, a bit of a cough. She had to miss school today and I'm not optimistic that she'll be well tomorrow.

Our plumber came this morning and crimped all of the connections. In and done in less than 10 minutes! He'll be back next week to hook up the drain lines. Once the plumbing was done, that allowed us to install the rest of the base cabinets as well as the washing machine.

I also installed a shallow bookshelf that goes next to the fridge. It took a bit of head-scratching and oh, did I mention that we accidentally discovered electric lines buried shallowly in our floor when we installed an L-bracket to hold the bookshelf in place? Yeah, who would have thought there would be live wires (135 volts as measured on our voltmeter) somewhere in the floor's concrete? Obviously we had to take the L-bracket out and go with plan B that didn't involved putting a screw into the floor.

The adventures never cease.

Lots of rain today so we had to cancel Freeze Family Soccer evening yet again.

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Ivy is sick with a fever, so she had to miss her soccer game today. Eric is the coach, so he still went. Her team lost 3-2; they were also down a goalie and so were greatly disadvantaged with the loss of two important players.

Inga had a game later in the afternoon; her team won 5-0 and Inga scored 2 goals, one while playing defense (which is not her normal position) and the other in the last 5 minutes when she got put on offense.

Zari and Dio helped plan, shop, and cook dinner: Mimi Thorisson's Pirate Chicken with lime cilantro rice and green beans as the vegetable. It was super delicious.

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Let there be light(s)!

Picture from 2 days ago...we're missing two under-cabinet LEDs but otherwise the cabinet lighting is all done. We poured some self-leveling cement in an area where the previous people had just stopped and left some big unfloored areas.

Otherwise we're at a standstill because we have to wait for our plumber to change the location of the water lines. We were going to do it ourselves--we even bought all the supplies, fitted everything together--but the big crimping tool that the plumbing supply store lent us wasn't working. So now we have to wait.

2 soccer games tomorrow for Ivy and Inga. I told Zari and Dio that they are in charge of helping plan and make dinner, since my mom has been cooking a lot due to me and my dad renovating so much.

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Upper cabinets!

Between breech meetings and video analysis/editing and publication editing, we managed to put up the upper cabinets! I also have several sets of doors on, after I took the photo.

We're starting to get our living room back now that the pile of boxes has been significantly reduced.

It's late so not much else to write.

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42-hr fast

I wasn't super hungry in the morning so I decided to keep fasting a bit longer until lunch. And then I enjoyed leftover chicken & bell pepper fajitas (minus the tortillas because I'd rather eat the good stuff) and dark chocolate with peanut butter for my lunch.

We have the rails almost installed--all holes drilled, a few crowns chiseled down. But they are not yet screwed in all the way as we're waiting for some of the MAP to set overnight. Tomorrow we'll shim everything in as we go and then start hanging cabinets!

Speaking of shims...I can't for the life of me find them here! I called every hardware store in central Nice, and either they didn't have them, or they had these huge plastic wedges that looked more like doorstops than shims. Even the big Leroy Merlin doesn't have wood shims that resemble anything like a shim I am used to working with (you know, a thin piece of wood that tapers down to nothing on one end and is maybe 5mm thick on the thickest end).

So we're just going to have to make our own shims!

Zari had her second first day of class--this week most of her classes start (but not all of them!). It's really confusing because classes start over a span of several weeks, not all at once. She was on Valrose campus today, which is a gorgeous space with beautiful buildings that look more like castles than university classrooms. A nice change from some of her other campuses that were built in the 1960s.

Dio has a terrible crick in his neck and can't turn or tilt it to one side. We were able to get him in to see our kiné friend this afternoon. He's still in a lot of pain and his head is tilted to one side! Poor kid.

Ivy and Inga had orthodontist appointments today. Inga switched over to clear elastics, while Ivy went with dark blue.

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I was feeling a bit off this morning, so I thought I'd stay home and take it easy. But then I saw the kitchen walls just crying out to be sanded...and then when the sanding was done, I figured, "I might as well paint them." So by the end of the day I had 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint up on the nice smooth walls! Oops, how did that happen?

Dio and Zari both had soccer games today. Zari's was 2 hours away so she was gone all day.

I switched my fasting day to today instead of tomorrow just because I wasn't super hungry. I am hungry now, of course! But it's almost bedtime and I am so excited to sleep. I get extra cold and tired on fasting days.

Tomorrow's plan: install the top and bottom mounting rails and then start hanging cabinets!

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Luminescent

My sister made me all sorts of glass art, mostly in the form of little dishes. But 3 pieces were purely decorative, and I am so in love with them! I finally got them mounted in Le Chateau, above the kitchen sink.

This evening our family went to a sound & light show called Luminescence at the Notre Dame Basilica. Ivy said, "It was amazing! It was the best concert I have ever been to!" The show traced the history of the basilica in Nice via a 1-hour concert, narration, and choreographed lights inside the entire cathedral.

Inga and Ivy both had games, Inga's lost 1-0 and Ivy's lost 2-1. It was a disappointing day for everyone.

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Immigrants, they get the job done!

We went to The Place Where Hopes & Dreams Go To Die (aka the Préfecture) and...amazingly...they didn't die this time! We received our long-term visas, which has been a process spanning over 10 years and several rejections. We are now officially immigrants and not just on a visitor visa. We can now work in France and don't have to go back to the Bad Place for 10 more years!!!!

Let's go back a few hours earlier, though. We were woken up at 6:40 am by the Ikea delivery people, ahead of schedule. About 3/4 of the order was delivered and our living room is taken over by bags and boxes.

Our next stop after the Préfecture was Ikea, and we were so happy (and hungry) that we celebrated by eating a hot meal at the cafeteria. I would have been fine with a 1 Euro vegetarian hot dog, but instead we splurged and got a proper meal.

Next stop: Leroy Merlin, the huge home improvement store. We popped in just to look at cabinet pulls and handles, but then we realized we needed a few more supplies for the kitchen renovation (wall smoothing compound, screws, anchors, blue tape).

We got home around 2 pm. Eric went into his office to work on his next book. My dad and I got to work applying wall smoothing compound (enduit garnissant) and we got it all done in just 2.5 hours. We were on fire!

Tomorrow we will sand the walls and prime. Well, maybe Monday, but knowing me, I'll probably work on it some over the weekend 🙂

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Let there be light! (and power)

I tested about 2/3 of the outlets and switches I had wired, and everything worked! I love that feeling. I joked, "I am so skilled. I can tell my colors apart and I can push wires into holes."

Tomorrow our kitchen arrives from Ikea (most of it--we're still waiting for most of the doors and drawer fronts). We'll be applying the skimcoating (enduit de lissage) and if we get that done by the end of the day, I will be very happy. Maybe we'll also get a few cabinet boxes assembled.

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Inga is Baron Harkonnen

We discovered that baby Inga, in her "Dude, where's my neck?" stage, is Baron Harkonnen's doppelganger.

Renovation news: although it looks largely the same as the end of yesterday, we did a ton of work--mostly wiring and plastering in several outlet boxes. Almost everything is in that can be installed prior to the cupboards.

I had some breech meetings today and worked more on some upcoming publications.

Ivy feels sick. There's been a nasty flu going around and she may be the first victim in our family.

Zari has yet another college application to finish tonight (McMaster). We are getting so good at shortening essays down to the exact word limit!

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Wiring

Major upheaval in the Freeze household...our living room is almost taken over entirely by the dining table and there is stuff everywhere and of course dust on top of all of the stuff. But the work is coming along on schedule, maybe even a bit faster than I had anticipated. We have all the wiring run and most of it plastered in now.

Between this work, I also did video editing and other breech stuff and met a friend at an apartment she's buying; she had all sorts of contractors and engineers there to give her their opinions. Very interesting.

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Messy, dirty work today...so much dust that we could only see a foot or two in front of us!

But the electrical lines are all cut into the walls now...all the kitchen stuff given away...big Breton armoire carried downstairs

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Dio had a soccer game this morning, which I watched. It was a lovely sunny day. His team lost 3-1 but I think Dio played well.

Zari had a game in the afternoon--they lost 8-0!

I took a walk with Inga, Ivy and my mom. We stumbled upon the "vide grenier" in the port, which was fun. I think it happens twice a month.

I've spent so much time trying to give things away, waiting for people to show up and then them not showing up (and some who did, thankfully). This reminds me why I don't like giving things away to individual people! For the 30-40 messages I've sent, it's not worth my time.

We started a new series tonight: Silo. Last night we thought we were watching the 3rd-to-last episode of Travelers, since the first 2 seasons had 13 episodes. But no--episode #10 in this season was the last one! It took us all by surprise.

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Demolition!

Everything is disconnected and demolished. Tiles and wallpaper removed. Trying to give away the leftover cabinets & oven to avoid hauling them to the landfill. The subway tiles came off easily. It was so satisfying to pry them off, especially when they came off more than one at a time.

I've drawn a schematic of the electrical work that needs to be done. My goal is to get it done by Friday (when the cabinets arrive). We'll probably spend Monday prepping the room, sealing it off with a big tarp, etc. Then we can cut the wall channels on Tuesday, wire and patch up the walls on Wed & Thursday. It's optimistic but I think it's doable.

Ivy and Inga had soccer games today. Zari and Dio went to a sport activity, playing volleyball and chair soccer (similar to ballon prisonnier but with chairs and soccer balls).

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Au revoir à la cuisine

We're giving away our kitchen tomorrow morning! Everything is unhooked, cleaned, and ready to be taken away bit by bit. (We're keeping all appliances except the oven, which is a non-standard size and won't fit in the new cupboards).

Our "kitchen" is currently residing underneath the piano in Le Chateau. We'll be eating there with my parents for the next several weeks.

We took a trip to Ikea today to order the new kitchen. Those lovely green-gray cabinets are so new that they don't even have any samples in the store, anywhere! The employees haven't even seen them yet. We ordered them anyway with big hopes 🙂

The order arrives next Friday (yikes!) so we're super motivated to get everything prepped in time. The biggest task will be electrical--we have to run a few new lines for the other wall of the "L." And there are always unexpected hiccups.

I had a late-night breech consult (family in Australia, colleagues in the US, hence the weird time) while the others watched 2 episodes of Travelers. Soccer games tomorrow for Ivy and Inga.

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Freeze family vs the water heater

(we won)

I showered this morning and the water felt like it was getting colder. But since I was just getting out, I didn't think much of it. Then Zari showered and yelled that the water was cold. Sure enough, I checked the water heater (electric 80L) and it was dead. No lights, nothing on any of the buttons.

Time for some detective work. Since my electrical engineer dad is here, I knew we could figure it out.

Step 1: Test the connections to see if there is power coming into the heater (yes, 240 volts)

Step 2: Start testing all connections inside the mess of wires, following the flow of electricity.

We found that the power came into the first little white box but was not coming out of it.

Hmmm...my dad said, "It's probably some sort of fuse. Let's see if we can buy a replacement part."

With a little Dr. Google and Dr. YouTube, we found someone showing how to reset the little breaker inside the little white fuse. We followed the instructions and voila, it worked!

It's funny because 2 nights ago I was helping Inga with her physics homework and they were studying electrical circuits, amps, volts, voltmeters, etc. I said, "Hey Inga, today I got to use a voltmeter to help fix the water heater!"

Also, guess what is happening soon based on this picture? Shelf full of tools = kitchen renovation is beginning!

The goal is to empty out the kitchen over the weekend and begin demolition on Monday.

My mom took Zari on a hunt for the "best bakery in Nice." They visited a few places and came back with several different pastries to try. While I'm not sure they are truly the "best in Nice," they were delicious!

Ivy played at the Coulée Verte with a boy in her class, from the Canadian family who rented our apartment while we were gone. Then she left straight from there to go to soccer practice. Zari is still at her practice. Dio is working on physics homework (reflection and refraction). I helped Inga with a dictée and she has now done it twice and eliminated all but 1 error.

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I woke up at 5 am, not on purpose, and was awake until the 7 am alarm clock. I woke up the kids and then went back to bed!

I had a very productive breech work day.

Best news, though: my parents arrived this afternoon! They unpacked, ate a late lunch, and then we went on a walk to enjoy the sunshine.

We're going to order our new kitchen cupboards at Ikea this Friday. Our top 2 choices are pale gray LERHYTTAN and a brand new door style in a soft gray-green called AXSTAD. The counters and backsplashes will be a quartz that looks like white marble with gray veining. I haven't yet seen the AXSTAD in person. As long as it isn't too in-your-face green, I'm leaning towards that!

What would you choose?

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I woke up drenched in sweat and super shaky...but not sick at all! It helped to get some food in my body (I had just done a 36 hr fast, as usual). I went walking with my friend and then ran some errands, so I hit my 10,000 step goal well before the end of the day.

Lots of breech research today, like yesterday. I wish I had a treadmill desk or a stationary bike or something so I can move when I have to be at my computer!

We're back into the school and soccer rhythm, which is much more reasonable over here.

My parents arrive tomorrow for their annual wintering in Nice!

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7 am came way too early! But I am glad to get back into a routine. I had grand plans to run, but then I opened the window and it was raining. Nope! Not today!

I did breech-related research all day and my head feels like it's going to explode. It requires a lot of focus but it also mildly boring and repetitive and that is a hard combination to sustain for 8+ hours!

Zari is working on her last application, due this evening. She's writing an essay about the history of the rue Droite for one of the essays.

I did some electrical sleuthing this morning and figured out which appliances are on which circuits, in preparation for our big kitchen renovation this month.

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Another application done, this one about 10 minutes before the deadline!

Zari is honing her college application essay writing skills. She must have about 20 different essays now. We're really good about helping her cut words until it reaches the limit--changing a phrase here, omitting a phrase there until it's exactly 150 or 200 or 350 words.

Zari had a soccer game mid-day and her team lost 9-1! Yikes. She had 2 good opportunities to score but neither went in.

I'm not looking forward to our 7 am wakeup tomorrow after 2 weeks of vacation.

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y=x turns into s(t) = A sin(2πft + ϕ)

aka the Freeze family used to be a slope and is now a wave

Do you get it?

One more day of winter break...then back to reality!

Dio and Ivy had friends over today. Eric went spearfishing and came home with 3 sea urchins but nothing else. Very disappointing.

I made curtains for Inga's tiny hallway room out of a vintage linen sheet I found at a thrift store. The sheet had been patched and repaired multiple times, including a straight cut across to remove the worst threadbare areas, then a French seam to put it back together. I darned a new hole and then turned it into several small curtains, further prolonging its life. It's a beautiful sheet with a hand-embroidered monogram and intricate edge.

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Down to the wire

Zari has 8 minutes to finish a university application. 7 minutes now! She better hurry.

We had a family over for dinner and games and conversation, with 5 kids Dio's age and down. It made me realize how we definitely not have been as social as we should have been!

I did sprints this morning; it definitely took some pep talks to myself to get me out the door! But I always love how I feel afterward.

Nothing planned tomorrow. Hopefully some sunbathing on the beach if it's full sun...a few kids are inviting friends over...

5 minutes and the clock is ticking. Hurry, Zari!

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Eric and I went to the sporting goods store, Spoc, which has a large used section. Eric needs new skis, since his old ones (bought used) are delaminating and separating layer by layer! I was shocked by how expensive skis are, used ones included! And new skis--may as well buy a used car. 🤣

Zari is working on 2 more applications that are due tonight.

What else went on today? Not a whole lot, honestly.

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Big deadlines

Tomorrow is the deadline for the Common App (used by many US universities) and Zari is finishing specific application essays for some universities. She's done great at writing and revising her essays, with lots of input from us.

I was hoping to go hiking today but Zari's applications took precedent. We all slept in a bit; I was the first one up a bit after 8 am and I stayed in bed for a while reading. I was in no hurry to get out of the warm covers.

I did sprints later on this morning and I'm glad I got out and made myself exercise.

Not a whole lot else going on today with most shops closed for the holiday. Lots of people out on the Promenade enjoying the beautiful weather.

The kids are starting to eat their gingerbread houses. Let's see how long demolition takes!

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