As I sit here in my lovely new home, I am struck by looking around me that we’ve decorated with things we bought while living in France, or things that remind us of France. It didn’t start out that way, just kind of evolved.  Since we moved in we’ve been taking a laissez faire kind of attitude about hanging things on the wall.

Typically the houses we’ve lived in have had mostly my father’s original oil paintings on the walls. Many of them are still hanging on walls in the cabin. My father painted two kinds of scenes: Colorado and Florida, both being places we lived and visited when I was a teenager. None of which really fit into our new home, although we do have a Florida beach scene of his hanging in our bedroom over our bed. (I know Kim Murray, GASP, if you are reading this blog entry.) But, it seemed to work.

But back to the decorating scheme ...

First to go up on a wall was a print of a steep staircase ascending an obviously European city we bought at American Furniture Warehouse, of all places. Not only did it remind us of old Lyon, it had the right colors and height to hang above the fireplace.

We looked high and low for a good-sized clock to hang on the wall, and when we finally found one we loved it said Cafe de Paris ... France on the face of it. Not planned, just liked the clock. 

In our dining room hang four miniature oil paintings that we bought on various visits to Paris’s Montmartre. We watched each and every one of them being painted by the artist. Also, there is a watercolor painting of sunflowers we bought in Provence. Two framed menus remind us of beloved restaurants that we ate in, one is signed by the restaurant owner, Paul Bocuse.

And last but not least, the oil painting by my father, the last one he ever did for me, of the view we had from our house in France of the medieval walled village that we lived in, Crémieu, hangs in the bedroom hallway.

I've been thinking. At first it was just a tiny little seed in my brain telling me that I miss writing. My fingers itch. Whether I am any good at it or not, I'll let you decide. But whether I am good or not is not the issue here. I miss putting my thoughts down. Do I blog privately, just for myself? Or do I open myself up to the world once again? The seed has begun taking root, but will it continue to grow?

Of course, I woul have to change the name of the blog. But to what? A Former 'new' Jersey Girl? A 'new' Jersey Girl in Colorado?

Are any of my old blog peeps still out there and checking back once in a while?

Time in New Jersey is counting down for us day by day. Next week this time the movers will have come and gone and we will be preparing for the estate sale which is not going to be any fun. I guess we will stay holed up in the bedroom upstairs, occasionally popping downstairs to take the dogs out in the back yard. House emprisonment! 

I have an Exit post in mind and will post it when the time is right. It's bittersweet leaving our home of 10 years, but also very exciting to finally be close to living our dream.

If you have stuck with me all these years, bless you! I will be exiting soon ....

Yesterday I went for an eye exam since it's been 10 years since I last had one. I think my vision is pretty good except for an annoying "floater" in each eye. Most of the time I don't see them but sometimes they bother me for weeks at a time. So before we go off eye insurance I thought it was a good idea.

Last time I got an eye exam it was from our long time optomologist in Colorado. I got both reading glasses and long distance glasses, neither of which I could ever really wear because they were too strong. I went back to him and argued about the prescription but he insisted that it was correct. Money down the drain. He also told me a few other things on that long ago exam. He told me that a had a bad astigmatism and should not be wearing over-the-counter readers because they would harm my eyes. (I've used them for 10 years now.) He also told me that I was a little bit color blind. I've always thought I had a good sense of color and its nuances so I was quite surprised to hear that.

So needless to say I was a bit anxious about going to the eye doctor. I am glad to say I aced it! My eyes are healthy and I don't really need glasses for long distance, just if I feel I need objects slightly clearer. My vision is 20:30. Reading is a whole 'nother matter. But guess what? He said if I'm comfortable with over-the-counter readers I should keep using them, but if I wanted glasses tailored to my eyes then I could fill the prescription. When I asked about the astigmatism and told him what the other doctor had said he said yes I had an astigmatism from the Lasik surgery (it almost always causes that) but it was very slight. I also asked about the color blindness since he hadn't said anything and he just laughed and said I had gotten everything but one right, and by the way, it's mostly men that can have color blindness but it's very rare in women. 

Well. So much for Dr. Straub.

These days instead of dialtion they do a really cool computer scan of the retina. It was interesting to see photos of my eyes. Kind of creepy.

Since my mom had macular degeneration I asked him about that as well since it is hereditary. The first thing he said was "Do you smoke?" I replied that I never have and he said GOOD. Smoking is related to macular degeneration which I had never heard before. My mom did not smoke but my father did. Could it have been second hand smoke for all those years? He said it was very likely. My mom would be furious if she knew that. My dad died from emphysema caused by his smoking. Rick's father also has macular degeneration and is almost blind. He smoked, had lung cancer and one lung removed many years ago. Interesting, yes?

Anyway, long story short, my vision is great! I am going to look into reading glasses to see how much they would cost while we still have the insurance but I'm just as fine with readers which have not damaged my eyes. I am not the slightest bit colorblind.

When our "For Sale" sign fell down a couple of weeks ago after a windy day I took it as a sign. Well, that's that I said to myself. The house is really and truly SOLD. As it turns out, it was definitely a sign. Our buyers had put their house on the market in mid-February and we learned yesterday that they had just sold it. The closing for their house sale is May 20th, and ours is May 12th. This is really happening now. Almost like it was meant to be.

I've been getting a lot of "signs" lately. I can almost feel my mom at my back, guiding me along, nudging me in this direction or that. She loved the cabin too. I had forgotten that she had seen the cabin before long before it was even assembled on our land. She was with us from the beginning. The cabin was built the year after my dad passed and for each year thereafter she always came to visit us and one week of her visit would be at the cabin. 

When we were planning to live at the cabin after Rick was cut loose from Hewlett Packard back in 2006 she was not a fan of our plans. She didn't think it was a good idea at that particular time in our lives. Then the job here in New Jersey came up and plans for full-time life at the cabin were put on the back burner.

I think she'd be happy for us now. Like I said, lately I can feel her right by my side, guiding me all the way.