So Close, So Far Away

Lance hard at work outside his "office"

One would think that with such a short "commute," Lance would be "home from work" much earlier here. Well, kinda true... but not really. Lance's hours in France have been nothing close to 9-5 as he seems to always get caught by the time difference and when quitting time for him rolls around (7pm) he gets swamped with work/emails because it is the middle of the US work day. But that is an aside, and not for much longer.

Lance has been able to spend a lot more quality time with me and the kids while in France because he "comes home from work” for lunch and sometimes to help put the kids to bed. Family lunch is one thing that will be very missed. The irony of this statement is that Lance's "office" is located in our "French Castle" (Ellie terminology). Lance's office is in one of the bedrooms that is downstairs and is relatively removed from the rest of the house (an ideal situation for someone trying to work from home). It is connected to the house via a random internal staircase as well as an external door. So in the morning Lance “goes off to work.”

The funny thing is that Ellie is the only person in the family who does not know Lance is actually in the house and is never all that far away. When she did not ask too many questions about him “going to work” we decided it was in everyone’s best interest to keep a tight lip because if she knew where Lance was she’d be bugging him all day and I’d be spending all my time trying to keep her from bugging him. And when I say that Ellie is the only one who does not know, I am not exaggerating. Cole knows where the office is as I have often gone down there with him when Ellie is at school. In the beginning it seemed harmless – I mean how is he really going to tell her, he’s only 1? But now when the 3 of us come into the courtyard from picking Ellie up at school, Cole points to the door and says “Dada.” I think Ellie just thinks he’s crazy but little does she know that he is 100% correct. Very funny.

We’ve debated on whether we should tell her or not but as the ruse has gone on long enough she may be bitter that we uhm…misled her slightly. My attorney informs me that an error of omission is technically a lie…oh well. This will be one of the many things that we can tell her about when she's 20.

Gottta love the look of joy on their faces as they greet Dada, as he “just came home from work.”