This is Creepy, Signing Off!

For another summer-long hiatus:) That’s right. School is finally out, the kids are home free (which means my freedom is officially out the door:). Even though we’ve kicked off this summer with a crap load of rain and the defeat of the French and American soccer teams at the World Cup (booo!), there is still SO much to celebrate in the upcoming months.

My parents and two youngest siblings are flying over for a two-week visit, and arriving July 16^th. We’ll be celebrating my daughter Phoebe’s baptism on the 18^th and then heading down to the French Riviera for two weeks of camping on the Mediterranean coast.

And in mid-August, I’ll be heading back to the U.S. for a brief trip, for my best friend’s wedding, which I am extremely excited about!

I don’t plan on getting much writing done over the next two months, but you never know when inspiration may hit! I didn’t reach my goal of finishing a manuscript before July…but I’m okay with that.

I know I can write a book.

I’ve done it before, and I can do it again. But it feels almost like now isn’t my time, and I’m perfectly okay with that, too.

Sometimes you just have to let go and stop trying to force productivity for pride or ambition’s sake, and just be where you’re meant to be, doing what you’re meant to do, without judgment or fear.

In any case, here’s wishing all of you a beautiful summer! See you in September!

Fight for your Right to Party

Like the United States, France adheres to a strict separation of church and state.

Except, not really.

For instance, today is a national holiday. Why? Because it’s Pentecost weekend. And last week there was no school on Thursday… because it was the Ascension. The Monday after Easter is always a national holiday as well. 

If you ask a French person why these are national holidays, when technically, Catholic (not necessarily cultural) holidays aren’t supposed to be sited or celebrated by a government when there’s a true division of church and state, they just shrug. Doesn’t seem to matter much to them, as long as they get their long weekend. To be honest, it doesn’t really bother me, either. I figure, at least, the government is honest about the true nature of their holidays, and don’t try to cover it up by calling it something else or putting emphasis on a non-religious reason for the day off…

Minor Catholic/Pagan holidays are also celebrated in lesser degrees that aren’t official national holidays but are widely-known cultural traditions. Like the cutting of the ‘King’s Cake’ containing hidden figurines on the day of the Epiphany. The exchanging of ‘lily of the valley’ flowers on May 1^st. Or the Chandeleur when everyone makes and eats crepes. Then there’s Mardi Gras, of course,- a time to pig out or go drinking to get all your vices out before the beginning of Lent. Some of these are internationally celebrated holidays. Others are only celebrated in France or French provinces.

In deeper, more rural parts of France, there are carnivals and festivals and traditions that date back to before Catholicism even arrived. Bon fires, the throwing of fiery disks, lanterns, parades and masquerades, etc…rituals that managed to remain intact despite the passage of time. How do I know this? The national news covers them regularly, during their afternoon broadcasts dedicated to cultural heritage. And I have to say, it’s interesting stuff!

So, as bummed as I was yesterday, when I realized the kids had yet another day off school this week, I have to say I’m grateful to live in such a culturally and historically rich nation.

What are some of your favorite low-key holidays? I noticed an increasing excitement about May 5^th in the U.S. these last few years, even though I don’t remember celebrating cinco de mayo when I was younger because... we’re not Mexican, but what the heck… Sometimes any reasons a good reason to party:)

Yoga Me

Taking a little break from the usual to share one of my newest passions. Truth be told, whenever I thought of yoga, I pictured well-to-do real housewives holding stretchy poses while making weird ‘omm’ noises.

But, after four kids, my regular exercise routine just wasn’t doing it for me anymore and I had a lot of unresolved pain in my hips and back from all the baby-carrying. I started to research some of the benefits of yoga and saw just how strong and muscled yogis get from in-depth practice and though ‘why not?’ **Okay. This totally sounds like an infommercial. It’s not, I swear. **

I didn’t have time or money to invest in a studio and while I tried to find a decent at-home dvd yoga program on amazon, it was hard to know the best option for me and I didn’t want to waste my money on something I'd be dissapointed with.

And then I thought ‘Hey, Youtube taught me how to crochet monkey hats and make glasses out of Corona bottles…maybe it could teach me yoga, too.’

So, I started ‘shopping’ for a yoga coach on Youtube, clicking through all the 30-40 minute yoga classes. It took longer than you might expect.

First of all, I didn’t bother clicking on any headline I couldn’t pronounce, so that eliminated about half my options.

Then there were videos that featured someone bending backwards to touch their ankles or some other no-way-in-hell-asanna.

When I’d actually check out a video, I’d end up hitting the ‘next’ button after much of the following:

-Exotic or psychedelic music

-Gongs

-Swedish accents

-Irritating high-pitched voices

-Instructor so far away on their mountaintop, I can barely see what the hell they’re doing

-Diaper-wearing yogis

-Videos that began with ‘Today we’re going to work a willywankomalafidofatcha…sana’ in other words, the ‘pooping pose’.

No, but really. It took me some time, but I finally found an instructor whose videos were clear, professional and fun. If you guys have the time or interest, I sincerely suggest checking out Yoga With Adriene.

Over the last two months, I worked through her beginner classes and up to the intermediate strength & lengthen weight loss classes and now I’m currently on the third week of her REBOOT program.

My energy is up, I’ve lost all the baby weight leftover from Phoebe, and I swear, my body hasn’t been this lithe or fit since I was a teenager. But more than that- something unexpected happened as I started working the poses day-to-day; a deepening and broadening of perspective that I’d heard happens, but didn’t necessarily believe it would to me. I swear, it's taking every ounce of self-control not to start eating kale and researching chakras.

So, yes, all in all, yoga rocks and I’m totally hooked.

Besides writing, you guys have other passions that have become an integral part of your day to day? 

Baby Got Back

Oh, wow. So the kids are back to school today. *cue choirs singing hallelujah* But to be honest, this two-week vacation went by a lot faster than most, thanks to the holidays, which were wonderful chez the Creepy family.

The biggest change for me these last two weeks is definitely the discomforts of the final trimester that have finally settled in. Yes, weight has most definitely been gained this holiday season, though how much, I’ve been afraid to look. But there’s no denying the way my maternity clothes have started to cry uncle around my ever-expanding waist line. Or how my leg and arse muscles scream whenever I try to rise from a seated position or walk any significant distance. I almost can’t believe I still have a little over two months left, and am starting to get a tad panicked at just how my body plans to adapt further to this growing human. 

Not to mention I seem to be incubating a kung fu fighting champion with the bone structure of Wolverine.  This child, bless her, has already kicked the shit out of any muscle tissue I may have had left after my three previous pregnancies.

There are some advantages, however, to raging pregnancy hormones, especially for the writer in me. Vivid, crazy dreams have given wake to some pretty interesting book-premises. And the insomnia that inevitably follows when I wake up after said crazy dreams gives me plenty of time to jot things down.

There was the dream about a father who is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, gets out of jail, and then goes all super-spy-man in order to break his 15-year-old daughter out of the concentration camp/juvenile retention center where she’s being held against her will.

Or the one about a college student who uncovers a conspiracy in her university’s biological research department that begins with the discovery of a rare poisonous plant growing out of the football field. 

And then there was the one with a bunch of different cakes with mouths, singing and dancing and parading around the grocery countertop a la Beauty and the Beast, each one looking more delectable than the next...

Wait, yeah. No, that one was just weird...

Anywhoo, as I was packing away the last of our Christmas decorations the other day, I was wearing my usual Christmas-is-over pouty face. (I hate putting Christmas away!) But I also couldn’t help but wonder what my life will look like the next time I re-open those boxes. What will have changed? (besides the obvious addition to our family?) How will I have changed?  

I guess, like most people, I’m curious as to what 2013 has in store. Of course, I’d love for this year to be THE year—the one where I finally get an agent, a book deal or write THE story. But even if it’s not, I’m looking forward to the journey, whatever it may hold. 

What about you guys? Any big goals or wishes for 2013? Does putting away the Christmas tree and decorations bum you out at all or do you completely look forward to reclaiming your non-holiday living room? 

So Much For That...

So much for an easy month of August.  I thought things were crazy last week.  But then this weekend the shit really hittith the fan.


My six year old daughter, Lily had a stuffy nose and cough for the last few days. Friday night she woke up and said she couldn't sleep cause she was coughing so much.  She slept in our bed but was up quite a bit.  


Saturday she woke up pale and tired, complaining of a pain in her throat and stomache and she ended up throwing up breakfast.  We called the doctor and he came to see her and ordered us to go get x-rays right away, thinking it might be pneumonia.


The x rays came up empty and thank God a pediatrician caught us on our way out and said we should take her to a different hospital quickly (the one we were at didn't have a pediatrics wing).  So off we went to the emergency room at a bigger hospital.  And its a good thing we did.  Because when we arrived, Lily had a sever asthma attack.  Blue lips, pale vacant eyes, and so much trouble breathing she couldn't even speak even while on oxygen.  It was SO scary.  


She was admitted to the hospital and I ended up staying there with her Saterday night and into Sunday afternoon.  They woke her every three hours for nebulizer treatment so she didn't get a lot of rest. We arrived home yesterday and now she's in our bed playing hospital (I have to bring her every meal on a tray and say 'bonjour petite dame' when I enter)


She's got an appointment Thursday with an allergy specialist.  We just might have to find a new home for the newly acquired Grizzly if it turns out she's allergic to cats but the attack could have been brought on by the virus as well.  Guess we'll see!


I'll do my best to visit you guys this week.  I miss my dose of daily bloffee.