our new European lifestyle...

My plan for our new life in Europe involves lots of walking and biking. We will be 3 to 4 miles out of town, but very close to things like the beach (surfing!) a castle, and an art center/theatre type place. We also will have a nice long paved driveway.

Long paved driveway are really good things to have if you have children and bikes. Since we were under our 1500 lb weight limit, we wound up being able to take all of our bikes and our bike trailer. A few folks need new helmets, and the baby is months away from being old enough to ride in the trailer, but we have a long paved driveway. The baby can sit and watch us ride and ride. When I was the Artist's age, I was really into this book series about a girl named Trixie Belden (come on Trixie fans, give a shout out!). She lived in upstate New York and her and her friends rode horses and solved mysteries. Perfect! I, being a tomboy towhead like dear Trixie, was Trixie, our friend was Honey, and my sister was Di. (Interestingly enough we had prescribed roles for Star Wars play when we played with our friend, Mike. I've gone over that time and time again with the Explorer.) Our bikes were our horses. We would ride up and down our long paved driveway and pretend to solve mysteries. We even had our own club, "The Originals", which had a songbook (typed painfully on a typewriter and kindly copied by my Dad at his work) and meetings (a few). We tried to solve a mystery even (like the mystery of who was breaking into the Lucy Elementary bookstore). Our mascot was of course the Bobwhite. I wonder if I'm assuming too much from my readers. Have y'all heard of this series? It's so good. Nancy Drew was too much into boys and lipstick for my tastes, but Trixie felt just right. (Once she saved her brother's life after he was bitten by a copperhead by sucking the venom out of the wound!) Ah, Trixie, I love you.

By the way, in Star Wars play, Mike was Luke Skywalker, my sister was Princess Leia, and I was Hans Solo.

Oh, now about our lifestyle. Today we walked to lunch. I thought it would be hardest on one of the kids. Not so. It was hardest on me! My hips are just aching. When the boys were little, I rode my bike around for miles almost every day with them in the bike trailer. I would walk at least a mile a day with the big one in the stroller and the little one in a (very uncomfortable) backpack (and he was my fattest baby believe it or not!). Now, a mere few blocks of baby carrying in a nice comfy wrap has me aching and complaining.

I have to get in shape! (Another flashback, anyone remember get in shape girl?)

Trixie has a website! http://www.trixie-belden.com/