The Good and the Bad

Hello!! It's been a few days and a lot has happened...mostly good with a few bad that are so minor I really have to count myself lucky on this trip. God has definitely been looking after us. As for the good...Paris!!! We made it safely there and back and had an absolutely wonderful time...which I will be sharing very shortly. I have been putting it off...not sure if I just wanted to savor the time in my mind before sharing or the fact that the 400 some pictures are a little overwhelming for me to try to pic out the few to share on here. I will definitely share more on facebook when we get home...it's easier to upload more pics on there. We have almost finished our audit work...only a few more things to do at the distribution center tomorrow and Friday. As for the little things that have gone wrong...

1) My favorite bracelet broke when we were visiting the Arc de Triomphe. My bracelet with Aiden and Max's name. I got the bracelet at my baby shower for Aiden from my mother-in-law and she expanded it with Max's name when he was born. It has broke a few times and I've always been able to recover the pieces and get it re-strung. This time...I was walking down the steps to go under the road (over to the arc) and felt my bracelet break. I was able to catch a lot of it (luckily I had my rain coat on). However I was missing a lot of the letters of the names. We continued to the arc and I had to fight back tears while I was there. Aside from my wedding band, engagement ring and my grandmother's ring...I think this might be the next favorite piece of jewelry (for sentimental reasons of course). While we were across the street at the arc, I realized my bracelet most likely broke when I took my camera off my wrist for a tourist to take a pic of Leslie and me. We walked back under the street and over to where we took the pic. God gave me the best gift ever! I saw a silver piece of jewelry and it was mine! I found 5-6 more pieces of my bracelet! Now I have all of Max's name and all but the 'I' and 'E' for Aiden's name. I didn't recover it all, but the fact I found that much in the midst of all the gravel made my day! So there is one 'bad' and a really big 'good' thing on my list.

2) My corporate credit card has been stolen over the internet or something. I had to close the card and will hopefully receive my new card on Friday in Belgium.

3) Last night I knocked my glasses off the nightstand. I woke up to realize the lense had popped out and I can't get it back in. However, the CFO here in Europe was nice enough to take me to get them fixed today. Hopefully they will be fixed and I will have them for the trip home :)

4) When checking out of the hotel this morning, my personal credit card was declined. I called to let them know in advance I was travelling however I had a feeling the call didn't go well and I worried they didn't get all the details, but they assured me they did. Something is wrong because I am nowhere near my balance. So, I call them and they are not open 24 hours a day like some 'nicer' credit cards. ugggghhhhh! I just hope no one has compromised my card and it can be easily fixed. Luckily Leslie still has her corporate credit card and was able to take care of the bill.

So...other than that we have been VERY lucky on this trip. I am lucky to even be on the trip and that my job allows me to do this. I feel very blessed and also to have such a great travel partner!! We've had such a blast...as you will see in the pics.

Stay tuned....Paris will be coming...in multiple sections of course.