Settling In

We are still unpacking. This house has lots more room than Belcher St. but we are missing our built-in bookcases and the unit Paul and his dad built for the TV and Isabelle's toys. Paul has rearranged the garage a half dozen times but since, ideally, we would like to be able to put one car in the garage, he won't have the space he did in the basement of Belcher St. for all his tools and kayaking gear.

Isabelle has made friends on the street - there are two families each with three girls and other families with one and two children - the youngest ones are 5 and are nice playmates for Isabelle. Most families in our neighbourhood seem to have taken some extended vacation over the summer, including us, so the last week was the first chance Isabelle had to interact with everyone. Battery operated cars for kids are popular here - Isabelle has been learning to drive the neighbour's cars and, so far, hasn't asked for her own. She is getting a bicycle and helmet for her birthday so, hopefully, she won't be asking for one anytime soon - not sure what we will do when she does ask...Isabelle has a orientation day this week at her new pre-school. After some debate, we have chosen the Montessori School of Greenville. There are tons of choices here for pre-school: every church seems to run a program in addition to quite a number of private schools. The Montessori School offers a five morning a week program which, I hope, will prep her well to either continue there again next year or to move on to the Michelin School where she will be taught under France's school curriculum. We are quite adamant about having education in French since we have the opportunity.

And with that, we are trying to encourage her to speak french as much as possible. She is very stubborn and often refuses now but in the coming weeks we are going to step up both her and our use of french. I have been lucky enough to find a friend in the subdivision with a daughter a year ahead of Isabelle and a son a year behind who is french-speaking. She has included me in a couple of informal gatherings of french-speaking moms so I hope this will help too.

I haven't found a local stamp club yet but have entered two exhibits in a show in Atlanta at the end of September. We will all go for the weekend to see some of Atlanta including the zoo and our closest IKEA store (did someone say bookcases?). After that Paul may be travelling a bit but with Isabelle in school I will stay here.

Well, this by no means brings us up to date, there are lots of adventures to tell about and a few good restaurants too! More to come...