Background Check

Before I start blogging my trip to the French Riviera, I wanted to give a little background information about how it came to be. I've had so many people ask I thought this might be helpful...and good for me to have written down as well!

Russ and Thomas were friends in high school. Thomas was an exchange student from Sweden...and landed in a small town in South Texas! They kept in touch and visited each other while Thomas lived in L.A. and Russ lived in Austin.

When Russ and I got engaged, he called Thomas to let him know and told him that he wanted him to come to our wedding. We didn't really expect him to, but we were thrilled when we got the phone call that he was coming and bringing his girlfriend Lotta with him. (I wasn't actually thrilled about the girlfriend part because Russ had mentioned that he wasn't crazy about his previous girlfriend. I would be spending the week of my wedding with an absolute stranger--it could go either way!)

They finally arrived and we immediately hit it off (whew!). Lotta fit in wonderfully with all of my girlfriends and out wedding festivities, luncheons, pedicure appointments, etc. We had planned to leave for our honeymoon a few days after our wedding so we could spend time with them. We said goodbye at the airport and flew away on our honeymoon.

Soon afterwards, we received a phone call that they were engaged and wanted us to come to Sweden for their New Years Eve wedding. We did and had an amazing time!

They came to visit again in Texas, we've been back to Sweden (as a surprise for Thomas' 30th birthday bash), and there was talk of our next meeting being away from either of our homes.

I receive an email...just a catching up, checking in email and at the end, Lotta says, "Oh, we're going to France to celebrate my brother's 40th birthday. Want to join us?" At the time, I thought there was no way. Of course I wanted to go! Just in case, I checked airfare and it was much more reasonable that I dreamed.

I obsessed about this for weeks. Went back and forth on whether we should go. Money. Riley. Really those were the only reasons not to. I could think of a thousand reasons to go!

I booked a flight, they made an error, a supervisor unbooked it. I let it sit for a couple of weeks, knowing that airfare would continue to increase. I was getting a haircut and Amy, my stylist and I were discussing the whole ordeal. She, of course, thought I should go and was missing the opportunity of a lifetime--I did too!! She said, "Go to Bunco tonight, ask your girlfriends to raise their hand if they think you shouldn't go...and see what happens." I did. Of course nobody raised their hands.

The next day, we'd booked our flight (and the price didn't increase one bit)! Riley would be with our parents and the only thing I was worried about was them spoiling him rotten while we were gone.