the grandkids

I miss my grandchildren so much.  

Ryan and Mel's boy Hunter is already one and reminds me so much of Ryan, especially in this picture.

Hunter as Nacho Libre

Jenny and Tyler have just taken a new job in Denver and are moving in two weeks.  Poor Jenny, they just moved into a new house in April, she just got it all fixed up, and now they are moving right before Christmas.  I feel terrible that I'm not there to help.

Hadley Dru, she has my chins and my name.

The Party

So what's better than entertaining five boys and having them sleep over?.... anything.  Just kidding.  Josh had a great birthday and then a great party.

 Josh has the exact same kids in his class as last year and when he walked in with the same treats as the year before, all the kids went crazy.  (Thanks to Julie Pia's Can't Leave Alone Bars, Yum.)  The teacher put a lit candle on his desk and then the kids put presents on his desk as well.  They leave the candle on his desk lit all morning.  Not something you would do in the states. 

 Speaking of things one wouldn't do in the states.  The other day his class, with one teacher, took the tram downtown, the teacher divided them into groups of three, they searched for things all over town in their groups, no parents, no teachers, no supervision, crossing streets and literally running around downtown, and then they met the teacher back at the meeting spot an hour later.  

Josh got home on his birthday at noon and then he and I went downtown for lunch.  Side note again - we split a pasta and each had a drink and it was over 30 francs.  Eating out is ridiculous here.  We then stopped by my book club that was meeting downtown and then headed home.  The plan for the evening was to have dinner at our house and then take everyone ice skating.  It was raining so after dinner we decided to stay inside and play games.  We turned off all the lights, and played hide and go seek in the dark with just one flashlight.  Our flat is tiny, but it was amazing how many great places these kids found to hide.  We piled up mattresses and did gymnastics and then we had cake and ice cream.  We had a left over cake from Kelly's birthday that I was pretty sure was too old to eat.  Before I brought out the real cake, I put candles in the yucky one and as Josh blew them out I smashed his face in it.  The kids were shocked.  They stayed up quite late watching movies and by Saturday morning I was done with birthdays and sleepovers.  Two weekends in a row was a little much.

Josh after the American Embassy Halloween Party.

Book Club
(Now you know why I never put pictures of myself on my blog.  I cut all my hair off after I saw this picture. yuck)

Noah, Jethro, Hazel, Nathan, Roman, Josh

Josh's fake cake.

Flips in the family room

Happy Birthday My Sweet Boy!

Josh turned eleven today.  How I love my thoughtful, tender, smart, wonderful sweet boy.

Josh at age three.

Two of Josh's nephews,  Josh's twin is on the right.

Josh's niece, Hadley (the goldfish),  turned six months on Josh's birthday.

Happy Birthday Jana!

This is the first time in eleven years I will not be spending November first with one of my best friends.  Happy Birthday Jana!  Wish you were back in Switzerland like last year.

simplify, simplify, simplify

Last Thursday I had a Stake Relief Society meeting in Zolikofen.  It took us less than twenty minutes to get there but for many of the ladies that were there it was an hour to an hour and a half away.  And nearly every ward had their full presidency there.  That was the first shocker of the night.  Would I travel three hours in all just to go to a meeting?  I am so spoiled having lived in the West all my life.

Second shocker.  There was nothing on the table.  No table cloth, no flowers, nothing but a table with papers and scriptures.  Even the refreshment table was just a few little snacks and some individual bottles of drinks.  Now I'm not saying decorations are bad, but are they necessary?  It was a wonderful meeting with a wonderful spirit.  I sat and listened without being distracted by all the beautiful things laid out on the table.  Maybe that's just me and my short attention span.  But one thing I know for sure is no one spent countless hours filled with stress and neglect of important things in order to have decorations and handouts, and gifts.  Now I am as guilty as the next guy and the beautiful displays can add a lot.  My question is only, do we go overboard at the risk of stressing out the person in charge.  Same meeting, same spirit, just with a lot less stress.

Friday afternoon Kelly had five of her friends come over for her birthday.  They were all so cute during the day.  Having surprised her at our house in the morning with cakes and candles, giving her gifts at school, and then bringing more gifts to her party.  My third shocker was how excited these cute kids got about a bumper ball, a little bag of candy, and a fairly simple dinner.  They were just so excited and so very appreciative.  I felt like it took very little to thrill these sweet kids.  It was also such fun to hear their conversations in Swiss German and hear Kelly talking fluently right in the middle of it all.

Kelly riding her scooter to the grocery store to get things for her party.
No car needed!

Kelly and Jamileh

Safia and Kelly

Vaithi and Kelly

Aya, Tashi, Jamileh, Safia, Kelly, Vaithi

Keith had been out of town most of the week and finally got home late Friday night.  Saturday he still had meetings all day and all night.  We missed him but Kelly had a fun party and most of the kids slept over and they had a fun morning as well.  My sweet friend Lori, took Josh for the night and he was thrilled to be away from all the girls.

Sunday was the best Sunday of the year.  It was our Primary Program and it was wonderful.  Josh gave his part in German and did really well.

Due to an earlier posts about even the cows here making fun of me, I have been trying to walk everyday.  Monday and Tuesday were great.  Wednesday I got up to go and dropped my computer transformer box on my foot.  Oops, can't even get my shoe on.

Seriously?

Happy Birthday My Sweet Girl!

Kelly, thank you for fourteen years of  laughter and fun. 

I am so proud of you.  I love you.

Staying close to home ain't so bad.

Sometimes we get so busy taking friends to the popular places in Switzerland or leaving Switzerland to see other countries, we miss out on some of the cool places just around the corner.  Kelly had young women's Friday night and then stayed at her friend Lara's house so she could go to her first dance on Saturday night.  Josh, Keith and I took a train to a cute little town called Le Landeron.  Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and went to Neuchatel to have a picnic by the lake.

I must say how much I appreciate hand me downs.  My daughter Jenny has hardly had to buy a thing for her two boys thanks to Britney Nelson and Josh has benefitted greatly from Christian Nielsen's hand me downs.  Thank you both.  So Josh had a friend over the other day and I noticed that he was wearing one of Christian's hand me downs, in fact he said it's one of his favorite shirts.

Nathan (in Christian's shirt), Ryan, and Josh

I took a walk the other day and passed some cows in a field.  They were completely quiet, just chewing on grass, but as I passed by, one started mooing and then like five others mooed.  I know they were talking to me and after being "on vacation" in many ways for fourteen months, I must say I agree with them.  I have two months with no travels and no guests and I am vowing to get back on track.  That's the last time a cow will poke fun at me.

Our last day

Thursday was our last day in Scotland before we flew back to Switzerland on Friday.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  We took a tour bus with a live tour guide all over Edinburgh.  We had done tours like this before but always with a headset and recording.  The live person was much better.  We saw a lot and learned a lot.  Edinburgh is a big, crowded city, but it was beautiful.  We went to the Edinburgh Castle which was quite fascinating but I think I've seen enough castles fo awhile.