Good Morning!

Well, night before last was a better night…Owen was only up at 3:45 and 5:30. And then slept until 6:15. Baby steps. We celebrated by me hopping out of bed and making banana nut pancakes for the crew…not a Monday normal around here.  Last night if I am remembering right he only started getting up at 5 AM so it was an even better night. Tonight should be golden! Pretty sure this jetlag bout could be enough to stop this FS life with a screeching halt. Now I know why husbands go to Baghdad unaccompanied around their 3rd or 4th tour-so the wife and kids can stay put for a bit and avoid dramatic time zone changes!  Buckle up Seth, we might be sending you to the green zone.

We had a very low key weekend. Seth survived the commissary run and we even unpacked and organized all of the groceries when he arrived back. He shopped for 3 hour and 3 carts. He got everything on the list with a few brand downgrades 🙂 Way to save, babe. It normally takes me a couple of hours the next day to put everything away but we pushed through, did it Sat evening and it was such a relief.

A friend bought me the book “Beyond Chocolate”. I heard about it when we arrived and have meant to read it since but I was too distracted by Swiss culture to remember to track it down 🙂 So I am hoping to get into it this week and gain some insight for our last months here. Thanks, Daniela.

And this is the boys favorite read of the week… “The Amazing Adventures of Bumblebee Boy!”  by David Soman and Jacky Davis. If you have never read it and you have kids you have to get it. And when you read it you now can sum up what our days look like around here. I am living in a Bumblebee boy house…and when we read the book the character Sam is named Jack because it only seems appropriate.

We are drinking lots of hot chocolate and hoping for some snow around here. We had some beautiful heavy snowflakes on Friday afternoon but they turned into rain within the hour. I had hopes of a cozy snow day. Now I am not asking for a big enough snow to be pretty for a day and turn into a month of sludge….I want a pretty snow that comes on a Friday afternoon and things clearing by Sunday evening 😉

House hunting is fun and not so fun. The market is picking up. Houses on our list are starting to go under contract within days of going on the market. Hmmmm. This could get interesting. I think I am looking forward more to the paint chip picking. Although knowing me I could make that stressful too. But in the end at least my stress might result in pretty color?! right?!

My 30th birthday is creeeeping up and it is making me a wee bit sentimental. Honestly, I think we have been through some big things that I wouldn’t have expected until later in life so lots of days I feel older than I am. I could probably afford to use a few years of my 30’s for pure fun. More on turning 30 coming soon.

Last Sunday we got out of the house in the morning for some time in the snow! Our friends invited us to join them in Gurnigel with their 2 boys that are close to our boys ages. We had so much fun. I had received some very sad news that morning from a friend back home so in all honesty I wanted to curl up at home and cry but I was so thankful to get out and be refreshed. I ended up being the camera girl instead of sledding because I just wasn’t up for it. But it was super fun to watch everyone else and to yell “SETHHHHHHH” when he nearly tossed Owen off with every bump or curve. I won’t include those pictures. Yikes.  Are you as shocked as I am that God gave me 2 boys and a not so relaxed temperment?!  Yea, me too!

and as Seth and the boys slugged along on our old school sleds our German friends raced along on this speedy thing…it seems even their sleds are faster!

weary sledders after many daredevil stunts!

(this photo taken by Tim Ziert)

how’s that for sledding view?! I am confident this may be the best we ever see while sledding!! Stunning!

(this photo taken by Tim Ziert)

We headed back and had apple strudel and ice cream for lunch!  It may become a Sunday regular! It’s days like this that I don’t mind our church having an evening service.