Swiss Family Mac

When the effects of medical liability smack you in the face

2011-06-23T19:51:00.002-04:00

Now that I've had a pregnancy in the US and in Europe and am pregnant again, it's easy to compare things.

The most glaring difference is the effects medical liability and lawsuits have had on the American system.

For example, within 48 hours of giving birth (via c-section) to Bettina, I was allowed to walk out of the hospital, get in the car with my husband driving, and go to see Bettina in the NICU in a children's hospital located about 35 minutes away. The nurses only said, "Have fun! Let us know when you are back." And when I finally left the hospital? I only signed two insurance forms.

Yea. Definitely would not happen here.

Here, you have to sign a stack of papers to leave the hospital and be discharged. You are wheeled out of the hospital. They check the carseat before you drive away.

The differences really are astonishing. And sad, when you think about why they are there.

Another difference I've recently noticed is the notorious glucose test. For those that haven't had to take this lovely test yet, you go to the lab or doctor's office and drink an extremely sugary drink- similar to orange fanta but sweeter. Then you sit for an hour and, after the hour is over, you get your blood drawn.

I didn't have to take it in Switzerland. It's mandatory in the US. When I asked the nurse at my doctor's office if I could waive it, seeing how I haven't had any problems in that department, she told me absolutely not and that my doctor's practice has kicked out patients for not complying with tests. Oh, and it shouldn't be a problem, insurance covers it.

Ooooo - kay.

I don't plan on making a stink about it but it just doesn't seem right to waste time and energy to take a test that I'm only taking because it's mandatory for everyone.

Orange drink, here I come.

When I say busy, I mean busy!

2011-06-13T09:05:00.006-04:00

I mentioned we've been busy in my last post and I meant it! Since my last post we've continued to settle in. Marion still asks for friends in Switzerland and I can't blame her- we miss it too! I've upped my hours at work and Brian's work has been absolutely insane.

But the thing keeping us really busy has been the little one growing in my belly.

Yep, Brian and I decided to take on a third kid! This officially makes us insane I think but I'm looking forward to a full house in October. And October can't come soon enough. I'm literally counting down the days at this point. It's so funny the progression pregnancies take. Marion's pregnancy was a time where everything was new and wonderful and extremely difficult. Everything was a challenge but it also had a newness to it. Bettina's pregnancy was different because we were in Switzerland, navigating a new health system and working with doctors and nurses who sometimes didn't speak English. And of course, she had her fair shair of complications too.

This pregnancy... well it's just a means to an end at this point. I puke every morning like I did with the first two which I've gotten used to, sadly. The other day a friend of mine pointed out to me that I've spent almost 2 years of my life puking at this point and it gave me shudders of realization that I hate being pregnant! Pregnancy and I just don't get along. But good news so far- no complications! That has definitely been a breath of fresh air.

So I'm due in October with Baby #3. And this time around we decided to find out but wanted to do something fun. Enter a gender cake.

So this is a fun little thing we had read about awhile back. Basically, when you go to your ultrasound, you have the tech write down the sex of the baby in an envelope. Then, you take the envelope to a bakery and they make a cake that is either blue or pink inside (cake or icing, whichever) depending on the sex of the baby. Finally, you pick up the cake and take it home to find out what you are having!

In my case, the bakery has used the extra icing to ice cakes they were putting out in their case to sell. So when I picked up our cake there was a stack of cakes behind the counter iced in the color. Not exactly how I wanted to find out but oh well, what are you going to do? Luckily I was alone so everyone else was surprised.

Just to recap- Brian and Marion were convinced the baby was a girl and wanted a girl. I was convinced it was a boy, based on the fact that I hadn't been puking nearly as much as I did with the girls.

So we set up a pretty impressive laptop/Skype situation to get Brian's family, located in Oregon and New Jersey, involved in finding out,

cut into the cake,

and found out we are having a little girl!

What a surprise! This was a great way to find out and we couldn't be happier to have a third little girl!

So yes, very busy over here. Hope everyone in blog world has been doing well!

Three years ago today...

2011-06-01T18:40:00.002-04:00

Three years ago today Brian, Marion, and I started our adventure. We hopped on a flight in Philadelphia bound for Zurich, not knowing what the heck was going to happen.

We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed our experience as expats while abroad.

To tell you the truth, it's been hard blogging since we came back. I just miss it so much. I miss my friends and I miss the lake and I miss the ease of everything.

That's not to say we didn't make the right decision. I know, deep down, we did the right thing coming back when we did.

But damn, it's still hard. Just thinking about where we were three years ago, what we did in the last three years, and the people we met and miss dearly... well my eyes get misty immediately.

We've been back nine months now and a ton has happened. I've missed blogging though and while our lives are much different now (do we still count as interesting?), I want to blog about it anyway. So watch out :)

PS- Thanks to those who have emailed and posted comments. I changed emails so didn't notice the comments during my hiatus. So sorry!

I'm busy, how are you?

2010-12-14T18:31:00.007-05:00

Yep, I've gone and done it. AGAIN. Ignoring the blog, damn.

Well, we've been super busy around here. We had a housewarming party so that required trying to pull the house together somewhat. Then there was Thanksgiving- we celebrated twice this year. I also upped my hours at work last month. Seems odd to do but it works great for me. And then we had family events, getting ready for Christmas, and had the chance to get dressed up for a fancy schmancy holiday gala.

We never get to do that!

And on top of all that my laptop has frozen six times since I started writing this post so I'm pretty sure I'll have to get another laptop soon. Definitely won't be getting a Dell laptop, yuck.

This time of year is great and all but I've missed my blog. Some days I even forgot I had one! The horror!

But the good news about all of this is that I was able to take some pictures of the house for you guys!

**Unfortunately the pictures below are obnoxiously huge. I will try my best to get them resized!**

I'll post where the house is right now and, in the future, I'll do more detailed posts with before/afters and information on everything.

So here we go!

Let's start in my favorite room of the house- our laundry/mud room.

I love this room. I love having space to do the laundry that hasn't been scheduled and isn't in a dark, cold basement. Thank you, Switzerland, for making me appreciate how I do my laundry.

Next up is the kitchen/family room. This is where we spend the most time.

I can't stand those hardwood floors. They are not original and are the type of laminate wood flooring that has the grooves in between the planks. That means every time you spill something, like flour or salt, it gets stuck in between the wood pieces. I HATE that. The cabinets look great but they are obnoxious. The previous owners bought new faces for the 50 year old cabinets and then went all MacGyver on then with fasteners to hold it all together. For example, you may try to open one cabinet but you actually will open two because they are loosely fastened together. Odd.

Exterior doors off of the family room lead to a covered porch and three tiered decks. We hope to have some great parties there in the spring.

Back inside we have our playroom off of the family room.

This is another room I absolutely love. The plan was to have this space to keep all of the toys but somehow the toys have spilled over into the family room. Of course.

Next up is the master bedroom and bathroom.

The quilt is from Provence and I'm so happy I decided to splurge while we were there this summer. The bathroom is a large room with a huge soaking tub and a smaller connecting bathroom with a standing shower and toilet. It's separated because the first floor of our house doesn't have a separate half bath. We have big plans for these spaces if we ever hit the lottery.

Also on the first level are the living room and dining room- huge spaces that we rarely use where the dust bunnies like to collect.

Upstairs we have Betti's room,

a bathroom with brown textured tile, Marion's room,

a walk-in attic space, and a huge room we are currently using as a guest room.

The basement is basically one huge area.

The doors off of this space lead to several closets, an office, and a workshop, which has been awesome for our new woodworking hobby.

Whew, it's a lot! And it feels like that too sometimes. Completely and utterly overwhelming at times. We just aren't used to all this space! Our flat in Switzerland was smaller than our first floor here. I just don't know what to do with the space at the moment. But then plan was to try to buy a house that we could keep for a very, very long time. So, while I'm sure this space will eventually feel cramped when we have teenagers, at the moment it feels like we are living in an auditorium!

Halloween, a queen, a princess, and a table.

2010-11-02T20:07:00.006-04:00

A table!?

More on that later.

First, let's do the Halloween stuff. It's our first Halloween in the US that really counts for Marion and boy, was it fun.

I started off the evening by making them pose for pictures.

Everytime I take pictures of them in front of our house I'm struck with the realization that I hope to be taking pictures of them before first days of school, graduations, and proms in this very spot. Kind of weird after several years of a transient existence overseas.

Marion was the queen of hearts and loved yelling, "Off with their heads!" at random times during the day.

Bettina was a princess. Somehow that morphed into a "pirate princess" according to Marion.

Our first stop was our next door neighbor's, home to a young lady named Hannah who Marion is in love with.

Our next stop was to Marion's friends house a few streets over. They said hello and then started running around. Marion had to tell him to slow down because she was wearing heels.

After that stop, we finished off at my parents neighborhood. Marion was thrilled with her candy and asks me non-stop if she can have some. Brian and I are working on depleting her stash; we love Halloween!

Oh, yes, the table part of my post title. Have you heard of the Knock-Off Wood blog yet? I found it this summer and my list of things I wanted to tackle grew and grew. Brian was a little skeptical but I assured him that we could definitely do this! And so, we decided to tackle our first project, the farmhouse table with stretcher,last weekend.

We started collecting everything we thought we'd need. Tools from my dad, tools we had stored away, glue, wood, and screws from Home Depot. But you know how that goes... with every project, no matter how many lists you have, you never get everything.

Of course, we thought we did. But then the saw needed a new blade, we didn't have the right sized square, we needed clamps... I think we've made at least 7 trips to the big orange store in the past week.

Not that I'm complaining. Every first go at a project has some hiccups. And these hiccups were worth is because lookit! We almost have a table!

We are so close I can taste it. But we are going to take the night off and see how the elections turned out. Don't worry though- you'll get a whole post when we finish this table. And more posts when we try to tackle Ana's other projects. I am obsessed with her blog!

So, how's that for an excuse for ignoring the blog? Definitely a new one for me :)

Hope you all enjoyed your Halloween! Happy election/candy eating/resting night!

And now the decorating begins.

2010-10-20T21:27:00.005-04:00

One of the many things different about our lives in Switzerland was our home. Instead of owning our own home, we rented a smaller flat. And we had to answer to our landlords. So Brian and I shied away from decorating our flat. We had bare white walls, with the exception of a pair of maps and some of Marion's artwork- hung with poster gum of course.

It was kind of a depressing way to live. No color on the walls, no pictures. It was very stark and impersonal.

In addition to the white walls, we tried to furnish the flat as cheaply as possible. Everything was Ikea and purchased in Switzerland. We didn't bring any of our furniture, pictures, or artwork from home.

Now, I have nothing against Ikea. They have some great stuff. But it never felt like ours.

As a result, one of the things Brian and I were itching for after our 2.5 years in Switzerland was our own place to settle in to and decorate like we wanted. It's definitely more work having our own place; we have to take care of everything now. But we enjoy it. And now that the unpacking is (close to) over, the fun of decorating begins!

I've been thinking about how to write about our home on here and I think I'll do each room on its own so you can see what we have done and make some suggestions if you choose to do so.

But in the meantime, I want to share my first project: curtains for the playroom! I kind of improvised on these since I'm reintroducing myself to sewing, but I think they turned out pretty well. One project down, about million more projects and blog posts about them to go!

More on the world's longest tunnel...

2010-10-15T16:24:00.000-04:00

I liked this newest article, particularly this quote:

"It's a day of joy for Switzerland," Peter Fueglistaler, director of Switzerland's Federal Office of Transport, said shortly before the tunnel was completed. "We are not a very emotional people but if we have the longest tunnel in the world, this also for us is very, very emotional."

Ask Mrs Mac!

2010-10-15T13:00:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been getting emails from people who are thinking of or are moving to Switzerland. And I love it! Seriously, after writing this blog to keep my family and friends updated on what we were doing, I started this blog to help others with this experience. Because when you are embarking on moving your family to a complete different part of the world, there are bound to be a ton of questions and issues.

I won't be posting the questions on the blog because most of them are personal, specific questions about certain towns, paperwork, and moving issues. However, if I get one that I think may be helpful to others I might post it on here.

Either way, keep them coming people! And to everyone else who may be a little hesitant, please don't be. I love getting these questions and will do my best to answer them.

Thanks for being faithful readers everyone; have a great weekend!

The Swiss are about to have a par-tay

2010-10-14T17:16:00.000-04:00

A tunnel party!

The Swiss are about to complete the world's longest tunnel. Why? To move cargo away from the beautiful Alps and onto trains underneath the mountains. Makes perfect sense... if you are from, have lived or have visited Switzerland. ;)

Go Switzerland!

Move to Switzerland, get healthy!

2010-10-14T13:18:00.002-04:00

Since I've been back I've been taking care of all the health related things I've let sit on the back burner. I didn't go to the doctor unless absolutely necessary in Switzerland because 1- I had a slight aversion to doing it due to the language barrier and 2- I knew our time in Switzerland was short lived.

So, doctors visits, physicals and blood tests oh my!

Today I received some of my blood test results. And imagine my surprise when my doctor was blown away by my cholesterol numbers. So much so he gave me a thumbs up. Go me!

And then I told Brian and he said, "Duh, Meghan, we've been in Switzerland eating fantastic healthy food for the last few years."

I didn't feel so proud of myself after that.

But my point is, it was super healthy to do because healthy options are almost your only option over there. Beef is insanely expensive, the bread is so yummy you don't need to eat pastries, and fried food is practically non-existent in Switzerland. Also, fast food isn't readily available; it was easier for me to whip something up at home then drive the 15 minutes to the super expensive McDonald's two towns over.

And that is saying a ton because Rachael Ray I am not.

We're going to try our best to keep up the Swiss-like diet. It's going to be difficult for us but we'll give it our best shot! And then, of course, I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Dude, don't get a Dell.

2010-10-08T15:20:00.000-04:00

Seriously my fellow expats, just don't do it.

I've mentioned my issues with my Dell Inspiron laptop on here before. Just do a quick search for 'dell' and you'll find a small sample of my frustration with my laptop and the company.

It's been a roller coaster with this thing and it all started when I moved to Europe. Imagine my surprise when my charger stopped working after a few months of living over there. The charger says it can handle European electrical loads but I have experienced four broken chargers in the past two years that says otherwise.

When I moved back to the US, I thought my issues with my laptop would be over. This is the country I purchased it in, so hopefully no more electrical issues!

Hahaha. Ha.

My charger hasn't been working for a week and I've been getting a new error message. This message informs me that I'm plugged in to an incorrect charger and must change to a 65W AC adapter. Nope, it is a 65W AC adapter. So I tried unplugging the charger, unplugging the battery, restarting the laptop yadda yadda yadda. Still getting the message. And now my battery isn't holding a charge so everytime my power cord comes out of the computer, the computer shuts down.

Having had enough, I contacted Dell technical support online last night. Apparently they couldn't do anything for me so they quickly got rid of me, telling me to call a 1-800 number today with my laptop's express service code number.

So I did. And now I have a migraine.

I called and explained the situation to the lady I was speaking to. I gave her all the information. She put me on hold. When she came back, our conversation went a little something like this:

Her: "Your computer is registered to a country outside of the US, have you changed the registration back to the US?"

Me: "No, I bought the laptop in the US and never registered it in Switzerland."

Her: "Well, our records show that it isn't registered to the US, did you ever change the registration back?"

Me: "If I wasn't aware that the computer was registered in Switzerland, how would I know to change it back to the US?"

Her: "Would it be okay for me to put you on hold for 2-3 minutes?"

When she came back she said she was trying to access my computer and warranty information. I informed her that the laptop was purchased in 2008 so I suspected it was no longer under warranty. However, the adapter needed to be replaced often while I lived in Switzerland and that Dell Switzerland had covered it because the adapter was failing so quickly, before any warranty could expire on it. She asked me for more information to find the purchase information and then put me on hold, again.

The third time she came back she asked what troubleshooting I had attempted on the computer. I told her and then she directed me to remove the battery from the laptop and see if I still got the error message. I did. So she put me on hold again.

The fourth time she came back she told me the warranty had expired on my laptop but I could purchase an extended warranty plan. I said, yea, no thanks. She said my error message indicated that something else might be wrong with the laptop, like a motherboard issue. I told her that Switzerland had looked at that and, no, that wasn't the problem. The chargers suck. Then she asked me for the reference number that was used for the new adapter that I received in Switzerland. I told her I didn't have it. She said she needed it to put in her records so that a 'higher up technical person' could help with this issue. I said, "Well, I thought you couldn't access foreign records?" She said that this higher-up person could to which I responded, "Great, then he should be able to use the laptop's service code, which has never changed, to be able to see all of the records from Switzerland." Then she - can you guess? Yep, put me on hold again.

The final time she came back she again informed me that my warranty had expired in April 2009 (a year after I purchased it) and, as a result, in the future I would be charged $59.99 for contacting phone support.

That's when my mouth hit the ground and I went in to full "Are you kidding me?" mode.

She wasn't, she was dead serious.

So that's that. I have a crappy laptop, charger, and battery and I'm missing the Swiss support because they seemed to give a damn.

Learn from my experience people! Just say no!

We are definitely not in Zurich anymore.

2010-10-06T20:15:00.002-04:00

Reality smacked me in the face this week; I went back to work!

I'm working three days a week for the company I was with before I left for Switzerland. While I'm enjoying working again, going back has been an interesting experience. Some things are the same and others aren't. And it's odd to sit at my desk, one cubicle away from where I sat two and a half years ago, and wonder, "Did that really just happen?"

It doesn't feel like it. It seems like I was just there, at the office, working on projects. Projects, coincidentally, that are now being run by other engineers and are now in construction.

But it did and I'm so thankful for that. Brian and I challenged ourselves by moving to Switzerland and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. The experience changed us, for the better I like to think, and gave us life long friends.

Marion was lucky enough to make life long friends as well. And she's been missing them dearly. This week, she decided to email some of them back in Switzerland. Well, okay, she dictated to me and I wrote it. Either way, here is one of the emails she sent:

Dear S,

Please come to America to see Marion and Mommy and Daddy and Bettina. If you come to my house, you have to go my school too. I want to play dress ups with you S and Grammie wants to see you too. I want you to play with all my toys. I miss you.

Love,
Marion

Writing that kind of felt like someone ripped my heart out and played football with it a bit; completely broke my heart. But I am so so happy that she has these friends in her life and look forward to helping her keep those friendships for a long time. Even if it hurts to do it sometimes.

It always happens when you move, but it still annoys.

2010-09-27T10:40:00.003-04:00

We are still unpacking over here. At this point we've gotten through most of what was in storage while we lived in Switzerland. That was a lot of fun; there was a surprise in every box! "Oh, we have nice china!" "Wow, dishes and silverware that aren't from Ikea!" "Huh, why did we buy this again?"

It was like shopping for free in the comfort of your own home.

The things from Switzerland have not been so lucky. The good news is that the eight boxes we shipped have arrived and been unpacked. Bad news? The luggage we packed and brought over with us has not all been unpacked yet.

Why? Well, life has gotten in the way. Marion's going to school, Betti's a monster who requires constant attention, we had a massive ant invasion, and we went to the beach for a week.

Yep, life is hard.

But now we must unpack. I'm missing something and it is driving me mad. Now you all must be wondering, what is it? What are you missing?

We are missing our salt and pepper grinder.

Yea yea yea, laugh away. But this salt and pepper grinder is AWESOME! It is a grinder with salt on one side, pepper on the other, and a handle you turn right or left to grind what you want. I got it on sale at the Coop and have been unable to find a replacement online.

It's the little things sometimes, okay?

18 months (and 5 days)

2010-09-24T13:20:00.004-04:00

Betti. Ohhhhh Betti.

My little baby girl is HUGE! I took her for her 18 month appointment today where she weighed in at 28 lbs and 34 inches tall. For all those you don't have a clue as to what size that is, she is in the 92% for weight and 97% for height.

Besides being our little amazon, she continues to be a physical being. When at the beach last week she loved getting into the sand and the water.

She met a cute little southern girl who didn't like the sand. Betti kept trying to give some to her but she kept running away.

I couldn't help but chuckle. My little girl looked like a complete knucklehead next to that adorable, clean southern belle.

It's starting to make complete sense that her first word was 'ball'.

She also loved running out into the waves.

And we enjoyed sitting in beach chairs playing with the water and sand.

It was so much fun to play with her at the beach. Marion hated the sand and water at this age and it made such a huge difference to play with a child who enjoyed it all.

In other Betti news, she still loves it when Marion chases her and beats her up. She's still a little hesitant to jump into situations but warms up quickly. She's learning new things all the time, which is probably my favorite part of being a parent. I love watching them learn and experience new things. And, last but certainly not least, Bettina gives the best hugs ever and has a huge, contagious smile.

We love you Betti Boo!

Just when you think the transition is going well...

2010-09-22T21:15:00.002-04:00

Today at school Marion's class had a visitor. They were talking to the woman and she asked them where they lived. Marion's answer? "Switzerland."

Last week we were in Hilton Head, SC for a family wedding. Brian put Marion to bed one night when Marion started crying, saying how much she missed her friends. Then she listed every single one of our friends, adults and children, and asked when we were going back.

*sigh*

It breaks our hearts to see her react to the move like this. I'd wish for her to settle in and stop saying things like this but then that would be like wishing her to forget. We definitely don't want that.

I guess we will have to schedule a visit soon! Yea, I like that solution. :)

Marion goes to school!

2010-09-07T13:33:00.002-04:00

Today was Marion's first day of school. She's going to a local pre-kindergarten 5 days a week. It's so weird to have her out of the house the entire week!

Brian and I woke her up with a special card for her first day.

Then I forced her to take pictures in front of the house before we drove her to school.

I see myself forcing them to take pictures right up until college.

In other news, our house is looking less and less like a large animal threw up boxes all over it. The walls are still bare and there are toys everywhere but such is life, right?

Settling in.

2010-08-27T19:51:00.003-04:00

The girls and I are spending our first night in our new home tonight. Up until now we've been camped out at my parent's house while I took care of a myriad of things. But now things are (semi) ready for us to move in and so we took the plunge.

Right now it is closing on 8 pm our time and I'm pretty sure my monitor isn't working since I can hear various shouts from upstairs. I hope the rest of the night goes better than it started.

So I'm sitting here, blogging again (finally), and looking around our house marveling at how different our lives are now. It happened so fast. And it is so odd to look around our new home at the things that were in storage mixed with the things from our travels. For example, there are two purple leather poufs we bought in Marrakech sitting on the rug we had in our master bedroom before we moved to Switzerland. So very odd how they all go together now.

And then I start thinking about where I was four, six, eight weeks ago. Was I really on a cruise through the Baltic and North Sea less than two months ago? Did I really spend a week in Provence? Four days in Marrakech? Move my family and some of our belongings to another country? Did all of that really just happen?

It seems like a lifetime ago.

Aside from the amazement of what we just did, I'm adjusting to living in the US. I've driven more in the past week than I did in some months in Switzerland. I can understand everything that is going on around me and sometimes it hurts my head to hear that much talking. I spent an hour walking through my local grocery store, memorizing where everything was and being amazed at the price of everything. I bought strawberries on Monday and ate some today (still good!). And I've been to Target five times.

It's been a wild week but we're getting there. The hardest part of this transition, by far, has been missing our friends. We might as well start saving now for visits to see everyone!

Tomorrow begins our final phase of our move. Brian arrives after finalizing things in Switzerland for us and I can't wait to see what differences really stick out for him. And to see Marion and Betti's faces when they see him. That will be priceless.

Why hello there blog, how are you?

2010-08-21T06:43:00.003-04:00

I've missed you, blog. I've been a little busy though. Since I last wrote you I have:

- Sold all of our household items and gave the ones that couldn't sell away.
- Packed up what we wanted to keep and mailed seven boxes to our new home in the US.
- Packed up the extra stuff that didn't get mailed and brought it with me on the plane (seven very large bags plus two carry-ons).
- Managed to forget that the very fragile snow globe a friend gave me had water in it when I packed it in my carry-on. Heathrow security confiscated it.
- Arrived to the heat and humidity of Maryland and promptly switched my jeans and sweater Swiss weather for shorts and t-shirts.
- Crashed in exhaustion after my flight.
- Woke up and saw my girls for the first time in two and a half weeks.
- Had a full day of errands where I bought: a car, a refrigerator, a washer and dryer, and some small necessities from Target (it was like returning to the mother ship).
- And finally, yesterday, I moved all of our stuff out of my parent's basement and into our new home.

Now I have a house full of boxes and will be unpacking and organizing for the rest of the week.

So, blog, aren't you jealous? Trust me, I'd rather be here writing to you but things must be done. I'm sorry, I will be back soon!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

2010-08-13T13:04:00.000-04:00

Okay, not really, but it makes me giggle. :)

So, I'm a little late with the prize post. Big surprise, right? I'm leaving Switzerland after 5 sleeps, my flat is a complete wreck, we just got back from our last trip (Marrakech), and as I write this a stranger is going through my kitchen to take away as much free kitchenware as he can manage.

Yea, just a wee bit busy.

But don't worry ladies and gents! I did not forget about this giveaway. Thank you so much for all of your comments! They were a lot of fun to read. After reading all of the comments, I decided the best way to choose a winner was to write each of your names on a piece of paper from my trusty "Big Move Book" and pick one. How appropriate, right?

If I lose this notebook I am screwed.

Anyway, there are all of your entries in one of my Migros bowls, waiting for my wonderful hubby to pick one.

So, who will it be?

Congratulations ToadMama! You are the winner of some fabulous Swiss loot.

Thank you all for entering and following us on this adventure. I hope you stick around as we settle in to the US, get back into the American groove, and make our new home ours. You can't get rid of us just because we are moving back to the states!

So stick around, I won't let the dust settle on this joint for too long. Thanks again for following!

The final farewell to Switzerland giveaway

2010-08-01T03:12:00.001-04:00

As I make list after list to get this move completed, it's becoming pretty clear what my favorites are in Switzerland. And it is pretty random. My musts from Switzerland are muesli, chocolate, wooden toys and Migros bags.

Yep, random. But there is a good reason for each.

Muesli because it's so much easier to purchase the good stuff here than make your own mixture in the states. Oats, raisins, nuts, yum! It's all there and makes making your very own birchermuesli super easy.

Chocolate. Well, I've talked about this before. Nothing beats the good stuff, period!

The wooden toys in Europe are unlike anything I've ever seen in the US. Stop over at my favorite toy store, Spielba and you'll see what I'm talking about. I love the durability, the uniqueness, the designs, and the simplicity of them. And my kids love them too. I'm having a hard time not buying a ton (shipping prices have stopped me from doing just that more than once!).

Finally, Migros bags. Something so simple but makes such an impact.

I've been using these since I arrived in Switzerland; just picture me in the above image but with a stroller and two kiddies! To Brian's dismay, Migros changes up the design of the bag every few months so I now have a stack of bags I want to take home.

So, a goodbye Switzerland giveaway. One lucky winner will receive a bag of muesli from my local Migros, one Migros shopping bag, one bar of chocolate, and a wooden rattle (that you can ditch in favor of an extra of the previous prizes if you aren't thrilled about having a rattle).

For good measure, I will also throw in a Swiss cookbook to be purchased at the airport as I leave the country, providing the store that I bought the last copy in has it in stock.

That's some good stuff people! Here's how it is going to work this time around:

First, leave a comment telling me which prize you would most like to have (and why if you are feeling chatty!). That'll get you one entry.

Second, become a follower of my blog and then leave a comment letting me know. If you are already a follower, you can leave me a comment letting me know that. Being a follower will get you a second entry. See? Sometimes it is good to be a follower :)

Deadline for this giveaway will be Friday, August 13 at 12 noon EST. Good luck!

Oh the bags are packed....

2010-07-30T08:39:00.003-04:00

10 pieces of luggage, 2 strollers, 2 carseats, 4 carryons, 2 kids, and 2 brave grandparents.

The little ones leave tomorrow. :(

Last Dance

2010-07-28T16:25:00.007-04:00

I had big big plans for this week for this blog. Finally, I'm back in Zurich and so I was going to spend my week catching up! Yippee, lots of posts about all our latest travels! That was the plan at least.

Then I realized, it's Marion and Betti's last week here. And, even worse, my friend Claire and her family are leaving this week too.

Ahhh, so goes the life of an expat. This is the hardest part. :(

Our friends threw us a lovely going away party yesterday. Here are some shots from the party.

Some of the best girlfriends I could ask for. I have been truly blessed here.

Marion got first crack at the cake.

Trying on crowns and striking a pose.

Tom didn't want to be left out.

Then he ditched his pink hat, put the dragon hat on, and enjoyed scaring the girls.

And, finally, big hugs.

The only way I'll get through this is to repeat my new mantra: "This isn't goodbye, this is see you later."

The big family trip, part two.

2010-07-21T14:53:00.001-04:00

Part one was about getting to and on our cruise ship. Here's part two: our first port day, Copenhagen!

Brian and I didn't do a ton of research on this port. Our "research" consisted of a quick Google search the night before we left. However, we found some good info during that Google search. One, there was a hop on/hop off bus service that would pick you up from the pier and take you around the city. Two, the little mermaid is vacationing in China for the summer.

So, using that information, we decided to take advantage of the bus service and got on one at the pier. From there, we hopped off at the Nyhavn stop, because it looked pretty.

Don't you agree?

There was a huge anchor in this area that Marion decided to pose with.

Girlfriend likes to pretend she is shy sometimes but don't let her fool you, she doesn't have a shy bone in that body of hers!

Next we wondered over to and up the Strøget (pronounced stroyet). It's the main shopping road in Copenhagen.

The first thing we saw was a Guinness World Records museum. Had to get a picture of Marion there.

There was a pretty fountain about halfway up...

...and a cute cafe that Marion found while on an "adventure" behind the Royal Copenhagen store.

We saw a lady stroller-pooling...

...and an invisible man.

And we saw this little guy outside of a shop.

Not sure what he is. Troll? Either way, Marion was not a fan.

We finally made our way over to Tivoli Gardens. Since we had Marion with us on this port day, we decided to let her have some fun at the second oldest amusement park in Europe.

Sadly, everyone else had the same idea so while Brian waited in line...

...I took Marion to the Build-a-Bear store directly next to the entrance of Tivoli. Well played BaB.

While I was following Marion around in the store, I noticed an interesting word in the Danish language.

See it? To the right of Start?

According to an online translator, it means "quit, finished, end, at an end, over" in Danish. Hahahaha. I love when you find weird little things like this amongst different languages.

But back to my family friendly trip post...

We got in to Tivoli and had a blast. There are some gorgeous buildings inside.

There are also some random peacocks running around.

And last but not least, rides. There were lots of rides.

This one was the big hit with the kids. It was a kidsize free fall ride. They rode it over,

and over,

and over again.

But then we dragged them away to do one ride on the carousel,

say hi to the little mermaid's twin since the real one was on holiday in China,

and go to the kick ass playground at Tivoli. Really, it was awesome.

After a little bit it was time to head back to the ship. Betti passed out in our borrowed backpack.

Marion was hyper as always while waiting for our bus.

But we found the bus and made it back to our ship in time. Not before I captured a moment between Brian and Betti.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Anyway, Copenhagen. I really liked it. I didn't get the sense that there was a ton to see and do for tourists but I'm glad we went.

Next stop aka part three: Warnemunde and Wismar, Germany!

What we did today.

2010-07-19T14:16:00.005-04:00

Or, why I haven't finished part two of our cruise series yet.

I am in Provence, France with the girls and my mom having a wonderful time.

But I haven't forgotten about my blog to do list. It's on my mind while I smell lavender, take pictures of Marion posing throughout Provence,

shop, eat baguettes and sample fresh goat cheese, I promise. :)

Vive la France!

The permit renewal situation

2010-07-16T02:37:00.001-04:00

Before we get to part two of our trip, I'd like to discuss Swiss working permits. We are here under a B permit and it is sponsored by Brian's company. It is good for a year and the Swiss government sends you the renewal paperwork every year in order to renew and have your new permit before your old one expires.

Hahahahaha.

It sounds good in theory but it never happens like that, at least not in our experience. This year was especially painful.

We received the paperwork, took our new passport pictures for them, and took everything we needed to our Gemeinde house to be processed. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Turns out our permits ended up on someone's desk waiting for approval. Problem was, that person was out on burnout.

What is burnout you ask? Burnout is something that is diagnosed in Switzerland for people who have worked too much. A doctor will write out the diagnosis and then person gets a long vacation from work to rest up and recover.

Can you imagine something like this in the US? Nope, me neither.

Anyway, we didn't have the new permits by the time they expired on June 1. Brian didn't have them for his multiple business trips outside the country and we didn't have them when we left for our family trip on June 28. However, we did know that we had been approved when we left so at least we left with the knowledge that we should be receiving the new permits soon.

Fast forward to our arrival back into Switzerland last weekend. We hand over our passports to border control when the officer asks, "Do you live here?" and we know what is coming.

"Yes", we replied, "but we don't have our new residence permits yet."

"When did you apply for them?" he asked.

"Months ago" was our answer.

"Hpmh" grunted the officer, "That tells me that something is wrong."

"No, we know it has been approved, we just haven't received the new ones yet since we were on vacation" I replied, trying to be as polite. Meanwhile, Brian was muttering under his breath behind me, "WE didn't do anything wrong! The person was on burnout! YOU guys are the ones that took forever!"

The officer swiped our passports, confirmed that we were legal, and then we were sent on our way. Interesting to say the least- we did everything right and still got a scolding!

Turns out the timing was beyond comical. We picked up our permits at the post office the very next day and then Brian went directly to the Gemeinde to deregister.

Go figure.

The big family trip, part one.

2010-07-15T04:23:00.006-04:00

We returned from our vacation last weekend and are busier than ever. There are more pieces to this move than I ever imagined. Every time I think of one thing to add to the list it ends up leading to three more items being added.

But screw all of that, I don't want to talk about it right now. Right now I want to tell you all about our trip! We spent almost two weeks on a cruise ship visiting the Baltic capitals. It was a great trip and this post is part one about it all!

Brian and I had never been on a cruise before but had heard great things about this one. So when friends of ours who are experienced cruisers mentioned that they were taking this cruise, we jumped at the opportunity to go too.

Since we didn't really know what to expect, we hedged our bets against all four of us sleeping in the same room and my tendency to get motion sickness and booked a mini suite with balcony. The room ended up being bigger than some hotel rooms I've had in Europe. Very nice.

Betti enjoyed playing behind the curtains and on the balcony.

We left from Dover, England. We could see the white cliffs and Dover Castle from the ship.

After finding our room on the ship, we explored and ended up in the main dining room for dinner.

Here's beautiful Betti.

And Marion. I was able to get this picture of her eyes, which I am forever trying to explain to people. Usually her eyes look brown but actually they are a bluish-greenish-gray with a brown sunburst in the middle. When her eyes dilate all you see is the brown. Other times, they look blue, or gray, or green. Very interesting. I've been debating for awhile what to call them for her new passport when it needs to get renewed. I think I will call them hazel.

During dinner, the exhaustion began to get to my three traveling partners.

We quickly bolted from dinner before making a scene and crashed back in our room.

The next day was an at sea day. We spent the day exploring the ship some more and shivering on the pool deck.

Betti enjoyed pushing the tables around.

Marion enjoyed dancing after they cleared the pool chairs off the deck later in the day.

Mommy enjoyed getting her nails done with Marion and watching Marion fall asleep because she was so tired.

Priceless.

Stay tuned for part two- Copenhagen!

Drama, sob stories, and excuses oh my!

2010-06-27T16:08:00.003-04:00

So I feel like a broken record around here... we are busy, very busy. But this week we got a special surprise: corrupted picture files (on both primary and back up drives) from over a span of 15 months.

To say I was upset would be an understatement. I was a wreck. Thinking we had lost pictures from half of our time here and Betti's first year of life felt like someone had ripped my heart out, stomped on it a few times, played some football with it while blowing at it with some vuvuzelas, then put it back all bruised and beaten.

It sucked.

A very talented friend has our files and we are hoping that he can recover the pictures.

However, I had planned to do some posts for you all about our travels I never got to around here. As luck would have it, those are the pictures that were lost.

I know, it's amazingly horrible luck, no?

Anyway, the purpose of that was to give you something to read while we are traveling for a little bit. Sadly, I've got nothing. So I hope you enjoy your time wherever you are for a bit, Swiss Family Mac is officially on a short hiatus.

However, I'm sure I will have an abundance to say when we get back. So, faithful readers, stay tuned and we will see you in July!

15 months.

2010-06-19T03:47:00.008-04:00

My little swiss miss is 15 months today.

Betti has grown in to herself and has such a little personality. She is still a little timid and hesitant to jump into situations. But that's okay, she doesn't have to be outgoing; Marion will jump in to any situation and show her how it is done!

She is a cuddler and is extremely physical. Betti walks, runs, and climbs. She gets pulled on, pushed, carried, and jumped on by Marion. And she loves every single minute of it.

But the thing she loves the most is carrying her blanket and bear around.

Usually she'll find a spot, lay down, and get comfortable.

I'm so jealous of her. Wouldn't it be nice to have a huge, soft stuffed animal to snuggle up to?

Sometimes she'll change it up. She'll crash into a pillow on the floor, find a corner on the couch to snuggle in to, or (if you are really lucky) decide your lap is the place to be.

And when she snuggles, you can really tell how huge she is.

My baby girl is massive! She is wearing clothes that Marion was wearing at two. Here are some pictures of Marion right before her second birthday.

And yes, that is a chip clip in her hair. Eh, it worked. But now you can see why we marvel at Betti's size! At least until she can understand what we are saying, don't want to give her a complex...

Anyway, Bettina. Yes, she is my physical child but she is making progress with talking. I can understand why it is slow and steady in the speech department; Marion never stops to let her talk! She now says Mama, ball, and baba (bottle). But while she is lacking in the actual word department, she definitely communicates. Lots of grunting and whining, oh joy! She also points a lot and follows simple directions, that won't last long I'm sure. ;)

While she may not talk yet, I'm okay with that. Because I know what it is like to have an extremely vocal child and I don't want to find out what it would be like to have two just yet!

Happy arbitrary month birthday Betti!

My two monkeys

2010-06-16T16:43:00.007-04:00

Brian's been away for work but that doesn't mean life is boring here.

Marion's discovered the joy of playing with Betti in her crib. Yea, I don't get it either but it keeps them happy for a solid amount of time.

Unfortunately, I waited to long to grab my camera to capture this moment. Marion was getting antsy.

Can you hear her frustration in these pictures?

"Mooooooooooooooom, I WANT to GET OUT of HERE!"

Yep, she's full of drama and energy and she doesn't stop at any point in the day. That's probably why she crashes so hard at night.

She doesn't look like she is going to move at all, so snuggly in her bed with her headlamp. But this girl doesn't stop for sleep. I've seen her sit up and then put her head on her knees and sleep in that position for awhile. And then she'll decide to sneak up on Brian and I in the middle of the night and sleep (kick, snuggle, elbow) in our bed.

What am I going to do with these two?!

Six years, woot!

2010-06-12T02:16:00.001-04:00

Today Brian and I celebrate six years of marriage. But really, we celebrate the six years and then usually marvel at how we've been putting up with each other for much longer than that.

We met the second semester of my freshmen year in college and started dating in summer 1999 after being friends for awhile.

This shot was taken after one of Brian's football games. He was an All American football player in college; he hates when I tell that to people. :)

We got engaged on June 5, 2003. Despite having been together for four years, Brian managed to surprise me with his proposal. Sneaky! One of my aunts took some engagement photos for us, this is one of them.

We made it official on June 12, 2004. It was a beautiful day in Baltimore after a week of pouring rain. We were very lucky!

Then we welcomed Marion and became a family of three.

And then, as you all know, we became a family a four when Betti was born.

And now, eleven years after we started dating, life couldn't be better.

I love you Brian!

Cars, playing soccer.

2010-06-10T02:04:00.003-04:00

I love European sports.

Happy World Cup weekend everyone!

Random Swiss radio strikes again!

2010-06-09T03:47:00.003-04:00

First song I heard this morning was "Things That Make You Go Hmmm...".

That was followed up by Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.

You just never know what you're gonna get. So much better than a box of chocolates first thing in the morning!

The Swiss even have fancy public toilets.

2010-06-08T02:05:00.001-04:00

Check this baby out.

Clean and functional. A seat for the ladies, up high so the gentlemen don't piss all over it. Soap and fresh water on the left to wash up afterwards. A hand dryer so you don't leave with wet hands. And clean, did I mention clean?

I think I might cry during my first trip to a public toilet when back in the US this fall.

Badi Days

2010-06-07T03:51:00.001-04:00

The sun has graced us with his presence the last few days so we've taken advantage by hitting up our local badi (swimming area on the lake in case you have forgotten). Going to the badi on a beautiful day is still my favorite thing to do here. Maybe these pictures will help explain why!

Bern, need I say more?

2010-06-04T15:03:00.001-04:00

I've been telling Brian how wonderful Bern is. So on Monday we spent the day in Bern and I finally had a chance to show him this great city!

We made a mistake in telling Marion where we were going and that bears would be there. So the entire ride down she was asking about the bears. Naturally, the bears were our first stop.

And look! Two new cubs! Marion was thrilled.

Betti, not so much.

I feel like I say this entirely too much on here about my youngest. Here's the deal with her- she is slow to react to things. She processes and processes and then wham! She hits you with a megawatt smile. I'm just too impatient to wait around to catch the smile part I guess.

Anyway, the new bear park. It is very nice!

Such an upgrade from the pit.

We continued our way through Bern to the Cathedral, stopping to take in the gorgeous scene over the front door and to go inside briefly.

A friend told me that this scene is about judgement and shows the mayor of Zurich going to Hell on the right and the mayor of Bern going to Heaven on the left. Apparently the two cities had a major rivalry.

Now I have no idea if that is true or not, but I like it anyway.

We continued up the main street, Marktgasse, and stopped at Einstein's apartment where he worked on the theory of relativity. Maybe it is because I am an engineer and Brian is an accountant, but we found that place way cool and learned some interesting tidbits. For example, did you know that most scholars believe that Einstein's first wife (who he met at university, go her!) was a partner in his work on relativity?

After managing to learn a little bit about Einstein while dealing with Marion in the tiny apartment, we headed over to the Bundesplatz in front of the Bundeshaus, Switzerland's parliament, to watch the fountains.

After watching some teenagers next to us, Marion decided to take her umbrella and head out to test her luck.

The first time she came back dry. The second time she was *this close* to getting a face full of water. She ran back to Brian, turned around to watch the fountains, and said, "Daddy, I don't think this is a good idea." :)

We ended our day at the park next to the Bern Munster on the riverfront. The sun came out while Betti snoozed in her stroller, Marion and Brian played on the playground, and I watched them all.

*sigh*

I'll miss you Bern.

Moving here was hard, but leaving...

2010-06-02T12:34:00.003-04:00

The fam and I went to Bern on Monday (post to come this week). Bern is my favorite city in Switzerland. I can't really put my finger on way, I just love the atmosphere, the bears, and the main street. It just has a great feel to it for me.

As we were leaving, I realized: I will never come back to Bern.

And holy hell, did that realization set off some feelings.

We aren't even that far away from the move, actually. I mean, yes, two and a half months will be here before we know it. We know people who are leaving before that so we haven't felt the pressure of the move yet.

But when I realized the finality of it, the fact that I will probably never see Bern again... that really just put it into perspective. And I think this feeling is why leaving here will be so much harder than it was leaving Baltimore to move here.

When we left Baltimore, we knew this move would be temporary. We knew that we would see our loved ones again and live near them again. Yes, the separation would be hard. But we would be back eventually.

This move... well, who knows if we will ever get back to Switzerland. And, if we ever do, it will surely be different. Our friends, expats themselves, will no doubt move on or back to their homes in time. The plus side is that we will have friends scattered all over the world to go see. The downside of that is that we will friends scattered all over the world.

These last two months are just that. Our last two months- in Switzerland, living in a postcard, with our friends.

Brian said it best; this whole situation is bittersweet. We are heartbroken to be leaving this life we have created here but excited to have a home and grow our lives back in Baltimore. It will be one of the hardest things we ever do.

So we've decided to spend what free time we have enjoying our time here instead of squeezing a ton of trips in. That's not to say we won't be traveling, we will. But we hope to enjoy this awesome quality of life Switzerland has to offer (if the sun ever comes out again) before we move back.

Bring it on.

Single Ladies, Marion style.

2010-05-28T16:15:00.003-04:00

It's just too good not to post.

Marion turned 4!

2010-05-27T03:25:00.000-04:00

And I didn't even blog about it.

*hanging my head in shame*

So here is her post.

Our original plan was to barbeque at a local park. But it ended up raining and didn't stop for weeks. So last minute we were able to rent a party house on the lake in our town. It is a fantastic place- has a kitchen, a yard, and plenty of space for Marion and all of her friends.

Brian managed to get a pinata for Marion's birthday and it was a huge hit. And when I say huge, I mean literally, this thing was huge.

Everyone got a turn beating the crap out of this dog. Some were more enthusiastic than others.

But that dog was well built and was not budging. So some of the dad's helped it along. The placement of the hole was rather unfortunate...

but it didn't stop the candy grabbing madness.

I bought candy for the size of the pinata and not for amount of kids so everyone ended up with a very large bag of candy. Sorry parents!

Afterwards, the beating on the dog didn't stop.

Poor thing. The dogs pieces quickly became costume pieces.

Ahh well, money well spent, right? A pinata and dress up wear!

Then it was cupcake time. As you can see, Marion was waiting very patiently to blow out her candles.

Finally! Look at that huge grin on her face!

And then she dug right in.

Amazingly enough, my 13 month old finished her cupcake before my 4 year old.

This girl loves to eat.

Before the celebration was over, we attempted to get a family picture. All I wanted was four people looking at the camera at the same time.

Maybe we should have attempted this before the sugar high set in.

Now, my four year old. Four sucks. Two was manageable- distraction worked really well for Marion and she never had huge tantrums. Three was a little harder but bribery worked wonders. Four. Wow. Well, Marion has always been confident, independant, and social. She is an outgoing person and knows what she wants and isn't afraid to say so. But it was manageable until a couple of days after her fourth birthday. Then a switch went off and from that point on, it's been difficult. Imagine Brian or I asking her to do something and one of two things happening:

1- She will ignore you.
2- She will tell you no, I don't want to.

It makes me want to tear my hair out.

However, aside from her asserting her independance, she continues to be super sweet. She enjoys talking to people, says hi to everyone, and is kind to others (she told me she liked my jacket the other day). Half the time I wonder where she comes up with the things she says; the other half I wish she would just settle down for a second!

Sooner or later, we will figure out a way to handle her asserting her independance. Or we won't and she will walk all over us for the rest of her life. I hope it is the former :)

So here's to you, my four year old with a mind of her own! We love you!

Grilling it up in the sun.

2010-05-26T13:05:00.000-04:00

One of our favorite things to do here when it is nice is to grill out at Park Im Gruene. So when the weather was nice for TWO WHOLE DAYS in a ROW(!!!!), we decided we must get out of the house and enjoy the sun.

So, off to the park we went. Lucky us, it was bounce day at the park so it was complete and utter madness.

We got there early enough (9:50 am) to grab a picnic table and get on the grill first. Do not, I repeat, do not go to the park late on a Saturday or Sunday. Especially on bounce day. Spots will be few and far between.

But we got there early and had a wonderful time.

Marion on one of the bounce houses.

Marion and her friend Starla with happy faces (Park Im Gruene has these chairs for use for free. I told you this place rocked!)

Digging in to the spread.

Betti and Jet in their swim gear.

Marion, ready to spray anyone in her path.

Betti, not as thrilled as Marion to be in the water.

Betti hightailed it out of there.

My girls.

Lounging.

Ahhhh, it makes me sad to see that the weather forecast is for rain for the next week. No more rain, please!!!!!!!

Wasserauen-Ebenalp and the Seealpsee: our Saturday hike.

2010-05-25T12:44:00.024-04:00

I've heard rumors that the Swiss hiking times and classifications are exaggerated, usually against you. Despite knowing that, I've been wanting to try out hike #2 for awhile. The summary said easy, and although it said steep in some portions I figured we (read: Brian) could just carry Marion for those portions.

We totally underestimated this hike. While it is easy for adults, not so much with kids. And "steep in portions" is actually about 50% steep.

Despite that, we went with some friends, completed the hike, and had a lovely day. The weather was perfect, the kids helped each other along, and it was a perfect way to spend a Saturday.

We began our day with a cable car ride up (take your half fare card if you have one, they accept it).
Once at the top we admired the view, tried to count how many people were going to paraglide (a ton), and started on our way down to the Wildkirchli cave.

The cave wasn't far from Ebenalp. Marion LOVED the cave but was sad that her friend, the big hungry bear, wasn't there.

After the cave there has a little hut and church followed by Ascher, a small guesthouse and restaurant.

We stopped there for a short snack and then continued down towards the Seealpsee where we planned to have lunch.

This was the steep part. Doable with kids, but proceed with caution!

Towards the end of the steep portion of our hike, we came upon a turnstile. In the middle of the woods.

I got nothing. If you know why this is sitting in the middle of a hiking path, please share!

My favorite part of this portion of our hike was when Marion's fear of ants (came out of nowhere) sent her into hysterical fits that made it impossible for her to walk. We took turns to try to console her, reason with her, move her along, but this girl was so over the edge nothing really worked. Finally the ants subsided and she was back to her old self. Finding a flower patch helped.

Eventually we made our way to the Seealpsee Gasthaus, settled in with drinks, and let the kids play on the playset.

Happy kids with ice cream!

Have I mentioned how gorgeous it was? I can see why the Swiss spend all of their time outside when the weather is nice.

We left the Seealpsee and continued down to the cable station. On our way, we realized that there were a TON of paragliders above us.

Yes, those aren't birds. Those are all paragliders! Insane.

We were not 10 minutes down from where we had lunch when Marion announced that she had to go pee. Brian helped her out and I just couldn't help but to document the process.

Sometimes it sucks being a girl. And poor Brian, Betti's on his head and Marion's taking her sweet time!

Betti finally passed out on the way down.

And then Marion decided she didn't want to walk. So Brian carried her on top of our sleeping baby.

What a man :)

The cherry on top of our day were the cows we ran in to at the end of our hike.

The one on the left checked out Brian's bum.

I'm not even lying.

It was a full day and the kids were pooped once we got back to our cars. So we left pretty quickly to get them home to bed. Great, great day. I hope for more of these in our future, if only the weather would cooperate!

Sunshine is here again.

2010-05-24T09:39:00.002-04:00

Woot woot! And boy have we been celebrating.

The weather perked up big time on Saturday so we went on a hike with some friends. It was a long but beautiful day. The Sunday forecast was good too so we went to Park Im Gruene for a barbeque lunch. And then today? Still absolutely gorgeous outside. We went to the badi.

So I owe you at least two posts on all of that because, trust me, this pathetic little teaser will not do them justice. But I've got my hands full with the munchkins, trying to keep this house somewhat respectable, and going out for a girls night in a little bit. So, for now, these two pics will have to do.

Our family near the Seealpsee in the Appenzell region.

Don't our girls look happy to be there?

And Betti enjoying a bottle at the park yesterday.

Hope the sun is shining where you are. Be back tomorrow!

Oh blog, how I've neglected you.

2010-05-20T07:52:00.002-04:00

But I've been busy, I swear!

In the last two weeks I've been entertaining two kids while it rains while packing up our winter stuff and clothes for a short trip home (3 days to be exact, painfully short). And then during that trip home I visited my old office (going back to work this fall), saw my new house (loved it!), picked out paint colors (wanna see? I would be willing to bore you with them if you were willing), ran a ton of errands (missed you Target), met new and old friends, had a ton of dinners out (gained some weight, typical for a trip to the US no matter what the time period is), and surprised the shit out of my sister at her surprise baby shower (she jumped two feet backwards and yelled, "holy shit!" baby is okay).

Brian watched the girls while I spent the weekend in the US. It rained the whole time. He now appreciates what I deal with every day AND mentioned he no longer thinks that the money we pay for Marion to go to Spielgruppe is a waste of money. Every Dad should have to go through kiddie bootcamp like that. Brian kicked ass during his. The kids were alive and the house was (for the most part) clean! He rocks.

So blog, I apologize that I have neglected you. Be back soon, I promise. Ciao!

Rain, rain... you drive me nutty.

2010-05-05T05:42:00.003-04:00

It's been raining since last Friday.

It's gonna rain until next week.

We did manage to have a fantastic party to celebrate Marion's 4th birthday despite the downpour. However, the weather hasn't put me in an good enough mood to write about it yet. I hope to do so before the end of this week though! Because my rambunctious, social, talkative, clutz of a 4 year old deserves it. Or maybe I'll just have her write it. Now that would be interesting.

We bought a house yesterday.

2010-04-30T06:50:00.004-04:00

Without ever stepping foot in it. Just a little crazy, right?

Thankfully my parents and our real estate agent were a huge help giving us their opinion on the place, along with almost 200 pictures. And we had the inspection so we have a good idea of the condition of the house.

Still, kind of weird to buy a home this way.

Brian has a holiday in a couple of weeks so I will be flying to Baltimore to see our new house in person. Hope I like it!

Dinged again.

2010-04-29T02:15:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to write about our trip to Italy last summer for some time. This is as good a place as any to start.

Yesterday I received a souvenir from our trip to Italy. 180.80 euro speeding ticket in the mail. Brian or I were apparently going 77 km/h in a 60 zone by a speed camera evidently.

Yes we were in Italy at the end of August in 2009. Apparently that means nothing. They found us! And if we don't pay up in the next 60 days, the fine will double.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

Ballenberg Ost

2010-04-28T02:19:00.002-04:00

After our brief stop at Ballenberg last year, we decided to return this past weekend to explore the Ost side of the museum.

Someone (sadly, me) forgot to bring the camera during this outing so you'll just have to picture this in your head.

It was a beautiful day to walk around and explore the old buildings of Switzerland. We saw a man making chocolate, a man making pottery, an old smithy, a woman making cheese, a man making soup, cows, chickens, pigs, a woman making textile crafts, and a working sawmill.

Surrounding us were spectacular views of a lake and the Alps.

borrowed from ballenberg.ch.

Gor. geous.

We had lunch on the terrace of a restaurant overlooking a playground. And then Marion enjoyed a carousel ride before we continued our stroll through the park in the fantastic spring weather.

It was awesome. If you live near there, go. soon. But not this weekend, because it is supposed to rain.

We will be back. And, hopefully, this time I will have my camera!

Swissies

2010-04-27T08:08:00.003-04:00

We had to get new pictures for the girls to renew our Swiss residence permits yesterday. After many stops and some finagling in the picture booth at our train station, this is what I got.

They look so pissed... so Swiss.

This is a country where most of the people think that smiling is a sign of a weak mind.

But then again, there's this. Brian lost his keys while out for a run a couple of weeks ago. He searched and searched and came up with nothing. This morning, he checked in at the police office. Someone had turned them in.

So the Swiss will not smile at you but they will respect your things. And we are so thankful for that!

The joys of a time difference

2010-04-25T04:27:00.002-04:00

Thanks to our Slingbox, we enjoy a little bit of American TV on occasion. The best time to watch is in the morning here, roughly 4 am EST. That's when gems like this appear.

And to think I might have missed this had I never moved to Switzerland.

Quintessentially Swiss: Freitag Shop

2010-04-23T02:13:00.001-04:00

Back in October, our friend Zach visited us. Since he's an architect and likes funky buildings, I decided to take him to something that is quintessentially Swiss: the Freitag shop.

Freitag was founded by two brothers in the early nineties. They make bags and other products out of recycled truck tarps, bike tires, and airbag material. Their shop in Zurich is a tower made out of containers with a lookout on the top.

These bags are durable and very Swiss. Chances are you'll see a bunch if you look out for them while in Zurich.

So we stopped by, checked out the bags, and climbed the tower.

The payoff is the view at the top.

Not too shabby.

Freitag also has some open containers and chairs next to the shop for lounging so you can rest after dropping some major dough on the bags.

So go, enjoy, and happy shopping!

Earth Day, Google style

2010-04-22T04:13:00.003-04:00

I love how Google makes pictures out of their names for holidays. This is what I see today on google.ch.

I'm curious.... do you see the same image on Google wherever you are?

Happy Earth Day!

PS- Been a big week in our house, very very busy. And I noticed that I have a huge backload of drafts in my post queue so stay tuned, spring cleaning ahead!

Yep, that's them.

2010-04-15T15:16:00.004-04:00

I was going through my pictures from France when I found a picture that thoroughly captured how my girls view food.

Betti: "Why is my bottle empty? There isn't any left!?"
Marion: "What exactly is this stuff you are trying to get me to eat?"

Monkeys!

And then you wonder, when did I learn that?

2010-04-14T08:13:00.002-04:00

Marion had an unfortunate incident in the bathroom the other day.

She told me about it after: "Mommy, the crumby water splashed in my face and made me sick!" *cough*

Translation: As Marion was going number two, she happened to look down and was splashed in the face as her poop fell into the water.

Now, before she goes to the bathroom, she announces to us that she will never, ever look down again so that the poop water doesn't splash her in the face.

Life lessons people, we all learn them at some point. And sometimes, you learn them after getting poop water splashed in your face.

Poop water or no, it's fun to watch Marion learn her life lessons.

Our wine winner is...

2010-04-12T12:15:00.002-04:00

#3, eNVy! Congratulations!

I can't figure out how to post the random number generator results for some reason so you'll just have to take my word for it.

eNVy, please email me your address so I can send you your bottle of wine!

April Giveaway: Wine!

2010-04-09T02:03:00.001-04:00

In honor of our wine trip last weekend I am giving away one of our favorite bottles of wine from Switzerland, 4 red (pinot noir) from Weinstamm.

Brian and I found this vineyard when out for lunch with friends at the Rhine Falls last year. We ended up meeting the owner at the Zurich wine boats last November and we've been a fan ever since.

I'll use the random number generator like I did last time to pick the winner out of the comments. Deadline for comment entries will be Monday at noon EST.

And, if I don't know you in real life, please don't be offended if I ask for some sort of proof that you are of drinking age (whatever that age may be wherever you are). :)

Good luck!

Wine country, Part Deux.

2010-04-08T02:01:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we drove to Beaune for their market. It was a fabulous market, even in the pouring rain.

Look at those artichokes!

Marion reminded us that we needed to get a carrot for the Easter Bunny. We taught her to ask, "Une carotte, s'il vous plait." S'il vous plait was a bit of a mouthful for her.

Sadly, it was just too rainy. So after picking up some things we went back to our apartment for lunch and a nap. And wow, was lunch good. Some fresh bread, comte cheese, rotisserie ham, and the best jam I've ever had- Williams pears with vanilla bourbon. Wow.

After we stuffed our stomachs and took a rest, we ventured out for another stab at Beaune in the rain in the afternoon.

And guess what we found?

A carousel, of course.

We also found a fantastic fromagerie and a bakery with yummy macarons.

You don't come to France to diet, you come to indulge.

Easter Sunday brought better weather so we spent the day driving through the countryside.

Our drive was followed with a nice Easter lunch (5 courses was pushing it with the girls, but we did it), a nap stop at the apartment, and then a walk around Pommard.

It was a very nice trip. Of course, we probably would have been able to sample more wine had we been there without the girls. But then we probably would have spent more on wine too. So, good thing we took the kids I think.

Brian, however, is already planning our return trip, ohne kinder, in the distant future.

Wine country... mit kinder.

2010-04-07T07:26:00.010-04:00

Brian and I went to Burgundy, France for the long Easter weekend with the girls.

Now, before you ask me if I've completely lost my mind, let me explain a few things.

First, we knew we wanted to travel since Brian had both Friday and Monday off. Second, we knew we wanted to get out of Switzerland because Switzerland is a ghost country over the holiday. Everything is closed.

So, our solution was to go to wine country. Yes, with the kids, but such is life!

The drive over was brutal; we hit traffic at two toll booths, Betti screamed the majority of the way, and during all of this Brian attempted to get on a conference call for work- when he had a signal.

It made for an interesting trip.

But we made it there, safely, and early. So we went to Chateau de Pommard for a tour and wine tasting.

The excursion was mildy successful. It started off well, out in the open where our kids were cute and entertaining.

Then we ventured into the cellar aka an enclosed space. I can't say that I soaked up all of the information that the tour guide gave us since Marion was constantly picking up rocks from the cellar floor, asking that I take a picture of them, and then putting them in her pocket.

I did manage to snap a few other pictures while we were down there.

After the tour, it was time for wine tasting. We managed to taste all of the wines they offered, albeit with interruptions. The girls played outside for most the time...

...but stopped in to check on us too. First Marion brought us some more rocks, then Marion came running in to announce that she had to go poopy (so glad she yelled that so that everyone else could hear it). The rest of the time we tried to prevent Betti from eating rocks, flowers, and anything else she found on the ground.

Despite all of that, we did buy some wine. So mission accomplished!

After our wine tasting we drove around Pommard briefly to get a lay of the land. We saw this truck during that drive.

What can I say? I love the play on words between all of the languages we come across.

We then found our apartment and settled in for the night. Stay tuned for the rest of the trip!

Chocolate overload

2010-04-01T03:35:00.003-04:00

This week our playgroup gathered at a local park for an Easter egg hunt.

It was a little chilly but we had a great time!

We started out the morning with snacks, including my friend Rachel's delicious hot cross buns.

After a quick bite the kids ran around a little bit. Marion refused to hold still, however, I managed to get this picture of her. :)

Next, we gathered the kids up for a walk. They waited (patiently?) to hunt for the eggs.

Then they were off!

Alot of the trees had stashes of eggs at the base of them.

Somehow, the kids seemed to find these stashes in groups.

Marion was quite pleased with what she found.
She was even happier to break into the chocolate.

After a brief chocolate break, the kids tried egg races.

They got it, at first.

But they quickly realized there was a faster way to run and keep the egg on the spoon.

My little stinker dug into the food while we were doing the egg races.

She's going to be a tough one. You can just see it on her face.

"Yea, I ate the food you left here. This chocolate chip muffin is good. What are you going to do about it?"

Happy Easter everyone!

Heidelberg: The rest of the trip

2010-03-31T02:14:00.001-04:00

I just realized that I never posted about the rest of our Heidelberg, just the chocolate store. Guess you can tell what I really enjoyed in that city!

After the chocolate store, we walked along the main street, stopping at various shops.

We found a great shop where you could make your own tourist shirt.

Marion chose hot pink with 'purple sparklies'.

After lunch Marion treated us to a game of 'yell as loud as you can in Betti's face'.
Unfortunately, Betti loves this game. Townes, our travel companion, did not. Marion slowly learned this over the course of our trip.

The following day we got lost but eventually made it to the Heidelberg Castle.

You could see portions of it without buying a ticket to the group tour but, unfortunately, could not see inside without that group tour. The group tour was 50 minutes long... we decided to not put Marion, or ourselves, through that torture.

However, you don't have to pay extra to see the big ass wine barrel at the castle. This thing holds 228,000 liters.

I wonder how many Marions that would be?

Other highlights of the castle: great views...

and a cool clock.

On our final day in town, we walked along the Philosopher's Walk. It was a beautiful day for a work out, I mean walk. But well worth it when we found our picnic spot.

The Philosopher's Walk is across the river from the castle and has great views as well.

I really enjoyed Heidelberg. It was nice to spend several days in one city and really get to know it. If you get the chance, go! And don't forget to swing by the chocolate shop.

When toddlers attack

2010-03-30T07:44:00.000-04:00

She spots you.

She charges.

And then, when she is close enough, she falls into you with a fit of giggles.

Marion's world

2010-03-23T09:04:00.012-04:00

Last night I bought some socks, brought them home, and asked Marion to put the pile on my bed.

She said she was counting them out.

Right now Marion's enjoying her lounge chair in the nice weather while Betti naps.

Strawberries and bubbles add that special touch. Unfortunately she has a special habit of shaking the bubbles bottle and spilling it everywhere.

That doesn't stop her from making it work.

Such a cutie, I wish she would look at me when she smiled once in awhile.

What is that about?

Gotta run, she's created a 'beach' outside and wants me to join her on the lounge chairs. She'll be the perfect spa partner one day!

Celebrate!

2010-03-22T08:03:00.004-04:00

We had a small get together on Friday to celebrate Betti's first birthday.

First, Marion and I made cupcakes for Betti- green cake, pink icing, and sprinkles.

Next, Betti got dressed up in her birthday outfit and played with her friends.

And finally, Betti devoured a cupcake.

Maybe we'll get a better reaction from her after her next birthday cake?

Marion, on the other hand, loved the cupcakes. I think she had two, although she could have snuck some without me noticing. And when Brian got home, she shared his by taking the first bite. She managed to bite off the entire iced top half, stinker!

One year!

2010-03-19T05:02:00.006-04:00

My littlest girl is one year old today!

She's gone from a blue baby, pissed at being in the world...

to an observant, inquisitive toddler running after her sister and parents.

Nothing about her pregnancy or birth was easy. She convinced us that even if we wanted to have a third child, there was no way we'd attempt it overseas again.

She's made up for her trying entrance by being a joy to be around. She loves "head kisses" (touching your forehead to hers), emptying the plastic recycling bag in our kitchen, and playing with her sister.

Until it goes too far.

She weighed 10.26 kilos (22.6 lbs) and was 79 cm (31 inches) long at the doctor's yesterday. According to her pediatrician, "A big girl!" She prefers vegetables to fruit and loves cheese and pasta. She has also been caught eating markers, chalk, and crayons.

Betti loves her bottle and is always coming up with new ways to get around while drinking it.

And she loves getting caught in the process.

We can't wait to see what she does next.

Happy Birthday Betti!

Has it really been a week already?

2010-03-18T05:38:00.001-04:00

Wow, time flies when you are busy planning your life. Who am I kidding, we've been busy planning for the last several months. But while we've been planning for months, nothing was happening. I can plan with the best of them but I had to wait on alot of things. And, amazingly enough, everything happened in the last week.

Here's the rundown...

Brian's contract is officially up in a few months. We decided we would like to stay through the summer for various reasons and, last week, we received approval for that.

At the same time, we've tried our best to prepare for the move while we waited for approval. That has included looking at and applying to preschools for Marion, contacting our daycare provider for Betti, and looking for houses. We started the process for all of these way back in December and then...

On Wednesday we received word that Marion was accepted into our first choice preschool.

On Thursday we heard from our daycare provider who thinks she can accept Betti but will know more in July.

On Friday we put an offer on a house.

On Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday we negotiated with the sellers of the house.

On Wednesday we came to agreement and went under contract on the house.

It's amazing how everything came together all at once. Of course we are far from over but I won't bore you with all of the details of our move. But needless to say, I have several good reasons for not posting lately! And, while these developments have been excitement, sadness is always right there with it because each step is one step closer to leaving Switzerland and our friends. But I'm trying not to think about that right now... we still have a good amount of time here!

So what did you do this week?

Gentle Schmentle.

2010-03-09T15:33:00.004-05:00

I'm throwing the word gentle out. My girls have fun without it.

Note: Betti's true reaction was so much better than what I caught on camera. She just gets a little distracted when there is a camera around. So take what you see here, multiply by about a thousand, and then you've got the insanity I witnessed today.

Apparently winter wasn't ready to suck it.

2010-03-08T12:40:00.002-05:00

Hard to believe we were at the park having a picnic a week ago. It is freezing here right now! Boooooo.

He might be on to something...

2010-03-05T02:24:00.001-05:00

Our friends over at Viva Pierre brought this gem to my attention.

Enjoy!

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Olympic International Houses

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Skate Expectations

She's a tough one

2010-03-04T12:47:00.003-05:00

Marion and Betti's rough housing resulted in blood today.

I guess the good thing that came out of this is that I now know when Marion really knows she has done something wrong. In the time it took me to get to Betti, Marion had booked it into her room and into her tent. She wanted no part of what was to come.

Hopefully that means Marion will not lay on top of Betti and hit her face into the floor again anytime soon.

And my little toughie... she stopped crying and was giggling again as soon as I picked her up. Rugby may be in her future.

Changing things up

2010-03-04T02:05:00.001-05:00

You may have noticed things are a little different here.

Well, it took two years, but I was sick of the black background. So I lightened things up.

Brian disapproves, saying the black made my pictures pop. I had no idea I was living with a designer.

Hope this color is easier on your eyes!

And our chocolate winner is....

2010-03-03T14:05:00.000-05:00

We have a chocolate winner!

I was going to ask Marion her favorite number but when she responded "A,B,C" I realized that was a no go. Betti just slobbered and pounded on my keyboard. So I had to resort to a random number generator. One of these days those kids are going to earn their keep around here.

Anyway, the results from www.random.org declared Caitlin as the winner!

Congratulations! I'll be sending your gift off in the mail within the next week.

Thanks for participating! I think I'll do a giveaway once a month from now on so stay tuned!

Heidelberg: The Chocolate Store

2010-03-03T02:56:00.002-05:00

We traveled to Heidelberg with our friend Kacey and her son Townes. Both of our husbands were working up there so we road tripped it! We decided to explore Heidelberg on our first day there. So with no real plans, we strapped the kids into the strollers and started walking. And walked some more. And then some more.

Turns our our rental was a little further away from the main street than we thought.

So we were a little tired when we walked past something beautiful.

Beautiful fresh flowers?

Eyecatching, gold leaf window display?

Chocolate store!

It was only 10am, but we stopped. And I'm not ashamed to admit that.

The store was even more gorgeous inside.

And we loved the quotes painted across the ceiling.

But the best part, by far, was the hot chocolate. It was thick and delicious and seriously yummy.

Oh. my. god.

Marion loved it in there. The gentleman who was in the store at the time got a kick out of her. Despite my many 'No's, he gave Marion many, many, many chocolates.

I'm pretty sure she enjoyed that store as much as we did.

So if you are ever in Heidelberg, stop into the Chocolaterie St. Anna No. 1. You won't be sorry.

And stop back later today to see who the lucky chocolate giveaway winner is!

Fasnacht

2010-03-02T02:48:00.002-05:00

The Sunday before we left for Heidelberg, Brian and Marion caught our town's Fasnacht parade. It is nothing like the big parades you would see in Basel or the bigger cities, but it was fun.

Marion came home covered in confetti.

Popeye's backside.

I don't have an explanation for these guys (girls?).

You go little town!

A beautiful day on the Zurichsee

2010-03-01T07:42:00.001-05:00

Suck it, Winter.

A little giveaway...

2010-02-27T09:12:00.002-05:00

We were in Heidelberg this past week. Brian was up there for work so we took the opportunity to join him and explore. It was wonderful; the highlight was a little chocolate shop we found. Heaven.

So that got me thinking...

Some of my favorite blogs do giveaways. Why haven't I?

I'm going to start. And I'm going to start with chocolate.

This giveaway will be for Lindt's Fleur de Sel Dark Chocolate and maybe a little treat thrown in.

Sorry, no Heidelberg chocolate. That is long gone.

You have until noon EST on Wednesday March 3 to leave a comment on this post. I will randomly pick the winner and announce that evening.

Good luck!

And sometimes, I really love the German language.

2010-02-22T02:01:00.001-05:00

hehe.

11 months.

2010-02-20T02:26:00.001-05:00

So, in one month I'll have a one year old. How did that happen?

Anyway, Betti was eleven months old yesterday. She's walking and moving all over the place. She's growing way too fast for my liking; she weighs 10 kilos already! I am quickly running out of clothes for her. And Grammie, no, that does not mean you should go out shopping and send her clothes.

Other than the extremely mobile 11 month old, we have had one crazy week!

We managed to get out of the house on Monday but have been housebound ever since due to a nasty virus Betti picked up at some point. She's been a mess.

A cute mess.

And of course she gets this whopper of a cold when Brian is out of town for work. Isn't that always the case?!

Marion's been handling being stuck home a variety of ways.

Dancing.

Drawing

on the wall.

And learning to write her name!

Thank goodness Brian came home last night.

Catch up: Malta: Take Two

2010-02-19T02:25:00.001-05:00

Yes, I am still catching up on vacation posts from summer 2009. But don't you worry, there is an end in sight.

Where we left off: Brian was in Malta for work (he spent the majority of the summer there). However, we were able to visit Glasi Hergiswil during one of his weekends home.

After two months of missing our husband and father, we decided to go down to Malta for a week. We searched for an apartment, asked a friend of ours to join us to keep us company while Brian worked, and off we went!

We arrived in the evening so took that night to get settled in. The next day we hopped on a boat to the blue lagoon on Comino, one of the islands that makes up the country of Malta.

Of course, Marion found a friend on the boat. This girl makes friends everywhere she goes.

Once we arrived we got on a speedboat to check out the coves in the blue lagoon.

This one had a 'window' according to Marion.

After our quick boat ride, we got to swim a bit.

Thank goodness. It was HOT.

The rest of the trip we tried to find pools we could get in to because it was so hot. Luckily, a resort was right down the street from our rental.

Betti chilling on the lounger. Look how tiny she was!

Marion in the pool.

My lovely friend Emma and her son- she was a huge help!

The girls passed out after an active day at the pool.

Although we only saw Brian in the mornings and evenings because he had to work, we still had a great time!

And being late to post this has some advantages. It's nice to see the sun, even if it is in pictures!

Olympic spirit?

2010-02-18T02:23:00.002-05:00

Olympic spirit not entirely available to international residents at NBC.

No downhill skiing point of view video for me. Boo.

For realsies.

2010-02-16T05:26:00.000-05:00

I was wasting what little free time I have on facebook the other day when I saw this:

The ads you see when you have a European IP address are odd, no?

My next thought was that this had to be a scam. This couldn't possibly be for real, could it?

Oh, it's for real. And they are advertising on facebook.

Thanks to Google, I found the webpage for this project.

So the US holds a lottery for green card applicants while Switzerland cuts their permits in half.

Interesting.

The End of Switzerland

2010-02-12T07:24:00.004-05:00

Chantal, over at One Big Yodel, posted about a Newsweek article today and I would like to share it with you.

Here you go: The End of Switzerland.

Now, the end of the article says the author lived and worked in Switzerland. I'm not sure where though. I find that Swiss cities are still some of the cleanest I've ever been to, the trains are 99% on time, and the highway construction is way more efficient than in the US.

But the rest? Well, I can't say I disagree with it all.

Feel free to give your take here or head on over to Chantal's blog to join the discussion.

Chateau d'Oex, part deux

2010-02-10T02:36:00.000-05:00

Saturday brought nice weather so we busted out of our apartment after Betti's morning nap to explore the town a little bit more. We did some window shopping, checked out our restaurant options, and decided on pizza. While we were sitting there, a band stopped outside to play.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
They really got into it. The chef in our restaurant then rewarded them with some bottles of wine and they got even more into it. Marion loved it.

Lunch was good except for the annoying preschooler sitting at the table. So we gave her our camera. Here is a lunch experience through the eyes of Marion.

After lunch we walked around the town a little bit more. Chateau d'Oex is a small town but it was so nice outside we stretched our walk as long as we could.

Notice the British flag in the last picture. This town was full of Brits. During our walk we stumbled upon a balloon museum.
Our afternoon included more pool time.
Seriously. Going on vacation with kids? Get a pool. It's a lifesaver. Unless you have a child like Betti, who doesn't get excited about things like pools.

Sadly, the next day brought some of the best weather of the week and it was time for us to go. At least we were able to see some beautiful views on the way out.

The good weather didn't last for long though. We found ourselves in a massive snow storm on the way home. Did you know that snow plows in Switzerland travel together so that they can get the entire road at once? Makes sense to me, no plowing snow into the other lane. However, it completely sucks if you get stuck behind the plows. Luckily we did not. But we saw a ton of people on the other side of the road that did.

After a long drive in the snow we managed to make it home safely so that Marion and Brian could make me a yummy birthday cake.

A perfect end to a perfect family celebration!

Chateau d'Oex

2010-02-08T07:56:00.012-05:00

Last year I was told about the International Balloon Festival in Chateau d'Oex, a small town in the French section of Switzerland. The festival takes place at the end of every January. We missed it last year but I thought it would be a perfect getaway for our family for my birthday this year so I booked it straight away.

Brian had some work come up at the last minute so I took the kids and drove down to set up shop with them by myself.

We arrived a little early, which didn't make the property manager too happy. But I had a screaming hungry baby so I really didn't give a crap.

We settled in and went to bed so that we could wake up and enjoy the pool in the building where we stayed.

Marion doesn't care where we go as long as there is a pool around. It's amazing how a little water can make a vacation. Note to self: always book a hotel or rent an apartment that has a pool!

After some pool time, Brian arrived and we went out for a walk to see the festival, some balloons, and take a helicopter ride.

After the helicopter, we went into the event hangar to catch the end of the children's day facilities. Marion had a snack and enjoyed the free bouncer

Brian and I marveled at the proximity of the absinthe booth to the play area.

After some bouncing we headed into town to get some groceries then back to the apartment.

The next day we decided to go up the mountain for some sledding. The weather wasn't so great (snow!) so Brian went down the mountain with Marion while Betti and I hung out in the restaurant at the top. Then it was back home for rest while Brian did some solo skiing in the afternoon.

Friday brought some more crappy weather (more snow!). Betti and I took the opportunity to relax at the apartment while Brian took Marion for her first ski lesson. She couldn't contain her excitement and prepared for her lesson super early.

Night glow was scheduled for Friday night and I had been looking forward to it for awhile. The website didn't say it was canceled so, despite our thoughts that it may not happen because of the weather, we decided to take the kids out for a night snow walk.

It was canceled.

So back we went, praying for better weather on Saturday.

To be continued, since this is getting kind of long. This is kind of a boring post (sorry!) but that is what happens on 'relaxing' vacations, or vacations with kids that have relaxing moments!

Ice skating on the mountain

2010-02-03T03:55:00.005-05:00

Or, Marion's first ski lesson.

For some reason she calls it ice skating. We don't know why. Anyway, she wanted to try it out and we figured, 'Why not?'

So off Marion and Brian went during our trip to Chateau d'Oex. Except her lesson was in Gstaad. Fancy schmancy.

She did really well! The instructor said she was coordinated, balanced, and athletic for being on skis for the first time.

Maybe all she needed was some skis for her to be graceful? God knows she isn't balanced or coordinated on her own two feet!

Betti's walking!

2010-02-02T09:46:00.005-05:00

That's reason enough for a two post day! She did five steps yesterday, used this morning to rest up, and now is on a roll. So thoughtful of her to give me a preview last night so I could have the video camera ready today.

That makes her three and a half months ahead of Marion. I knew second kids had a tendency to do things faster, but seriously?

The best souvenir mug ever?

2010-02-02T08:43:00.002-05:00

We thought so.

Bern Bear Attack

2010-02-01T02:57:00.005-05:00

So I'm a little late on this. Back in November, a mentally handicapped man managed to get into the new Barenpark in Bern.

A police officer shot the bear in an effort to save the man. The aftermath has been interesting and so very Swiss. My favorite part of that article is this quote,

"Everyone is responsible for themselves," said Puzo, who was not on duty when the attack occurred. "It's like going to the Amazon, being in a boat, being told the water is full of piranhas – and you still jump in. People are more dangerous than animals."

Personal responsibility. Love this in Switzerland.

Shall we venture to guess what would have happened had this event taken place in America?

My guess: Animal put down due to being a risk to society and a lawsuit from the victim for the enclosure not being foolproof.

What do you think?

On another note, here's one more big difference between Europe and the US. Reporting. If you feel so inclined, you can check this link for actual photos of the bear mauling the man.

Incredible. I never realized how tame the news is in the US until I came here.

Helicoptering it

2010-01-28T13:59:00.011-05:00

We are currently in Chateau d'Oex, a town near Gstaad in the French part of Switzerland. I decided to book a vacation here with my family to celebrate my birthday (this weekend!) during their Balloon Festival.

I'll write more later on our lovely trip to the mountains, as Marion likes to call it.

What I wanted to write about now is the helicopter ride we enjoyed yesterday. I'm not sure what compelled us to take a helicopter ride but Brian and I decided to just go for it. So we found ourselves waiting in line with an impatient toddler

and a not impressed infant

for our turn in the 'copter.

Finally we all loaded in and we were off!

And off pretty much sums it up. The move our pilot made to get into the sky almost made my lunch come up. And my ears popped right away. But it couldn't have been that bad. Marion continued to yell and look out the window

and Betti just chilled.

During our short trip I tried to snap as many pictures as I could out of the windows. It was gorgeous up there. Gorgeous and CLEAR! I love clear, sunny days. We don't get enough of them in Zurich in the winter.

Anyway, my frantic picture taking paid off. The pictures came out much better than I expected.

After a landing that almost induced my lunch again, we were back on the ground where I rounded up the fam for a quick picture before the helicopter took off again.

So glad we dragged the kids up there. :)

Snowshoeing!

2010-01-25T05:55:00.000-05:00

On Saturday we went snowshoeing in Sattel to celebrate our friend's birthday. Coincidentally, his birthday is on the same day as mine. Small world, even in Switzerland!

We started things off with a bang in the minibus- cans of prosecco, mini bottles of kirsch, and wine.

Once we arrived at the ski shop, Brian took a moment to work.

An accountant's work is never done.

Next we all were given our snowshoes and instructions on how to put them on.
We were told the snowshoes were a one size fits all thing. Then they saw Brian's feet.

With shoes and ski poles in hand we rode the gondola up the mountain.

Once at the top we got our shoes on and prepared for our hike.

And then we were off!

Here's Mt Rigi at the beginning of our trek.

We continued into the night.

We were very lucky with the weather though- it was a crystal clear night and we could see our path thanks to the moonlight. Halfway through our hike we stopped to admire the view.

I promise it was gorgeous. Picture mountains lit by moonlight and lights twinkling in the distance.

We hiked some more and then came to our decision point, according to our guide. In my mind the only decision I was going to have to make Saturday night was what to drink with my fondue but our guide surprised us.

Continue down the groomed hiking path or go off piste down the hill?

We chose to go off piste.

Halfway down we realized the hill was bigger than we all thought it was.

But we all made it, save for a few falls, and hiked back to the restaurant where Brian removed my snowshoes for me. I was beat.

Then it was time for some gluhwein and fondue!

It was a great night for a good friend. Happy Birthday Marjan!

Therme Vals

2010-01-22T04:19:00.008-05:00

Last weekend I went to Therme Vals with some girlfriends to celebrate my upcoming birthday.

First impression, not so hot. The hotel hasn't really been updated since it was built in the sixties. Everything's clean and the rooms were functional but it screams sixties, which I wasn't expecting.

Then we went to the spa.

Wow.

Gorgeous doesn't cover it. This spa, well known because it was designed by architect Peter Zumthor, is amazing. Truly breathtaking. And unfortunately I can't show you everything because pictures were not allowed in the spa.

But I can snag some pictures from the web.

Here are the stairs down into the pool area.

There were six pools in total. A 32 deg C main pool,

fire and ice pools (41 deg C and 14 deg C), a flower bath (33 deg C), a sound bath (35 deg C), and an outdoor pool (36 deg C winter, 30 deg C summer).

The sound room was my favorite and is shown in the middle picture above. It was enclosed except for a small passageway. Light reflected up through the water and onto the stone walls while relaxing sounds were played. Basically relaxation in a stone box.

The entire spa was constructed of Valser quartzite, a stone local to the area. So local that everything is built from this stone, including a local bridge.

In between spa trips, we enjoyed a walk around the small town of Vals.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner at the Hotel Therme's Red Restaurant.

The dinner was fabulous and, at the end, the girls surprised me with a birthday dessert platter!

It was a great weekend. We came home relaxed and wondering when we would go back- always a good sign of a fantastic trip.

So if you get a chance, go! Be sure to book early- hotel and spa treatments. This place books up early! And enjoy!

Music: It never gets old

2010-01-22T03:25:00.003-05:00

I've been listening to the radio again because, let's face it, you can only listen to the same mix CD so many times before it drives you absolutely insane.

I listened to the radio when we first arrived here. Unfortunately, I couldn't listen to the radio while pregnant because German had a tendency to make me nauseous. I can't explain it. The sounds of words I didn't understand just made me want to hurl. I just don't do pregnancy well.

Now is a good time to get back into listening to the radio.

And I love it. Listening to the radio here never gets old.

Now that I know some German words everything sounds like "Blah blah blah - word I know- blah blah blah blah - another word I know - blah."

So I get a real kick out of the radio because it tends to go like this: "Blah blah blah - Aretha Franklin - blah blah - Respect - blah blah blah - Bruce Springsteen - blah blah blah - word I know - blah."

Then an English song comes on. This morning I heard Bon Jovi's Who Says You Can't Go Home while I was driving through our Swiss town to drop off Marion to her Spielgruppe.

I love it.

An odd morning sight

2010-01-20T03:53:00.004-05:00

We had to make a morning run by the Aldi the other day. Betti needed some diapers, stat.

While we waited in the parking light, I saw the following.

Chickens in a compost pile on a smidge of land in between the grocery store parking lot and the train station.

Huh.

We aren't in Baltimore anymore.

10 months.

2010-01-19T09:44:00.007-05:00

Ten months old.

Well, my littlest monkey is getting in to everything these days. She is a fan of anything electrical so tends to go for laptops, the TV, DVDs, the DVD player, etc. Just when I think everything is out of the way, she shows me that I don't have a clue about babyproofing and finds something to eat/chew/destroy.

Betti is so close to walking it scares me. Marion was starting to crawl at this age. Betti is crawling, standing, cruising, and walking when holding onto hands or anything that can be used as a walker. She is exhausting!

As she gets older, her personality shines through even more. She is a happy baby but is definitely more shy and apprehensive than her older sister. She also has some separation anxiety. I wonder if it is because I was working when Marion was a baby and now I'm not? Who knows.

Here's a great example of the difference between my two girls.

Now Marion would have loved this as a baby. She would have laughed and laughed. Betti? Well, not so much as you can see!

They continue to enjoy each other. And I continue to try to teach Marion the word 'gentle'. It's not an easy thing for her. She is definitely her father's child.

This is what I deal with about a million times a day.

Sometimes it ends with a giggle. Other times it ends with a scream.

Today Betti wasn't so sure about things.

Anyway, just two short months before Betti's first birthday. Where has this year gone? She has grow up entirely too fast. Insane. Cliche, but insane.

Learn from this guy kids

2010-01-07T16:13:00.003-05:00

Don't speed in Switzerland. And definitely don't get caught speeding repeatedly in Switzerland. Especially if you are worth millions.

The Swiss don't mess around.

Our trip back to Zurich

2010-01-03T07:44:00.006-05:00

We decided to fly back over New Year's Eve, hoping that the flight wouldn't be full and the airports wouldn't be crowded.

Apparently every family needing to fly had the exact same idea. There were twelve infants on our flight. TWELVE! And that's only the lap kids, aged two and under. There were a ton of kids older than that as well.

Economy was fully booked. So, when we arrived, we got super lucky. We were there three hours before our flight and got upgraded to World Traveler Plus. It pays to be early! It made up a little bit for Brian's hellish trip to Baltimore during the snow storm.

After checking our seven bags, carseat, and stroller (and that was packing light), we had dinner with my family outside of security. Soon it was time for goodbyes and we made our way to security.

Security wasn't as bad as we were expecting. Seems they are more concerned with flights going to the US rather than leaving it- security was really bad for flights going to the US at Heathrow.

Anyway, we got through security and waited to board. Soon we were airborne and about 45 minutes later, the first kid crashed.

Due to the excessive amount of kids on the plane, cots and baby seats wer ein short supply. So we set up Betti in the empty seat next to me and, surprisingly, she crashed soon after Marion.

Brian celebrated our triumph with a few small bottles of wine.

Then Betti woke up after two hours. But honestly, I was thrilled with the two hours. What more can you expect from a nine month old who is all "Oh what's that?" or "I see a light, pretty!" or "Who is walking by? Who is coughing? Who's baby is crying???"

Brian and I spent the rest of the flight trying to get her back to sleep and fighting the interruptions- turbulence and seat belts, the guy who kept wanting to serve drinks to passengers using an extremely bright flashlight, the kid who would not sleep but rather wanted to scream... it was definitely a battle with her. But Brian soon triumphed and we got a little bit of sleep.

We arrived in Heathrow and the place was empty. It paid to fly on a holiday there. Terminal 5 was as close to peaceful as I think it ever gets.

Soon we were in Zurich. Gray, rainy, cold Zurich. Some things never change.

Right now we are working on recovering from jet lag. We are hoping the girls get back on track tonight, Brian and I need our sleep!

Hope you all enjoyed your New Years!!!!

Our visit with Santa this year

2009-12-29T09:21:00.000-05:00

Classic.

Nothing in the world like it

2009-12-28T08:59:00.006-05:00

The excitement of a three year old at Christmas that is. Here's Marion when she realized she got what she wanted from Santa- a magic princess dress. (crazy excitement at the beginning of the video)

9 months (and one day).

2009-12-20T11:58:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Betti's nine month birthday. And, well, we got some snow.

Just a little bit.

Brian was also supposed to fly in to BWI via London yesterday as well. Due to a late take off in Zurich, a snow storm in London, and the blizzard on the east coast, he spent the night in Boston and is currently on a train to Baltimore. We're hoping his luggage makes an appearance soon.

So I'm a little late with Betti's 9 month post. :)

The munchkin continues to move! move! move! She loves to dance, cruise, crawl, and basically get in to everything. Since we arrived in Baltimore, I've noticed she takes a little longer to warm up to people than Marion. Marion is and always has been a people person. No separation anxiety for her, she wanted to be with people from the get go. Betti needs a little time to warm up but it all smiles when she gets used to you.

And then it is fun all around!

Christmas fun with Marion

2009-12-18T09:27:00.002-05:00

Marion took Baby Jesus. We have yet to locate him.

Grammie then allowed Marion to decorate the tree. She came up with this all her own.

Daddy was not amused.

I'll let you know when we find Baby Jesus.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-18T06:35:00.000-05:00

Good news Americans

2009-12-17T20:59:00.000-05:00

I discovered that both Target and Wegmans sell the Lindt Excellence collection!

I'm not ashamed to admit that I did a little dance in the chocolate aisle when I saw them there.

And then I was crushed to see that Wegmans was sold out of the Fleur de Sel chocolate and Target didn't even stock that flavor!!!

I'm considering writing the Target corporation to ask them what their problem is.

In the meantime I'll just have to wait for Brian to arrive on Saturday with early Christmas chocolate.

A big difference

2009-12-16T20:41:00.003-05:00

The other day Marion and I were out running errands. Marion was overcome with holiday spirit (or bored out of her mind while we waited in line, however you look at it) and began to sing. She sang "Santa Claus is coming to town" and "Somewhere over the Rainbow" which was then followed by loud "Happy Holidays!" directed at fellow shoppers.

In Switzerland we would have gotten a ton of nasty, disapproving looks.

In our local jewelry store and Target Marion received thanks from people for brightening their days, smiles, and some spontaneous singing partners.

I barely noticed the crowds as a result. :)