REAL LIFE RESUMES

Well I wished for real life to resume, and resume it did. With a bang.

Aaron got bacterial colitis on Sunday and spent the week fasting and being initiated into the Spanish healthcare system. 

The kids started school. On the first day, I got to say goodbye to a hysterically crying Eliza, and then to Owen and his new friend, Budding Independence, who were incensed at my desire to escort them into school. (In fact, I was told at dinner that his "least favorite part of the day was you walking me to class." Dagger —> heart.)

And in the middle of the week, my feisty, generous, one-of-a-kind grandmother passed away after a cruel battle with stomach cancer. If she's half as fiery on The Other Side as she was on this one, we're all going to have one hell of a guardian angel.