I've got a lot to update on since last week. We were able to borrow the Mercedes last Thurs and we will have it for another week. This means we are able to go shopping in France and stores that we normally cant get to except by car. Friday we went shopping in France. We didn't get a lot of groceries but we were able to buy a lot of other things like toothpaste and makeup and soap. I'll give you an example of the savings. The new Garnier under eye roller costs 22 CHF here in Switzerland and I bought it in France for 9 Euro. Wth the exchange rate I paid around 11.70 CHF. Since we dont have access to a car very often we tried to load up on things that are cheaper.
I told Garrett that if he kept his toys picked up in his playroom and his room that he ould have a small pet. I was thinking fish or something like that. I really didn't want a hamster because they can be mean and bite. We were considering a guinea pig or bunny. I've been looking on the internet trying to find a pet store that actually sells pets. Most pet stores here sell supplies, but no pets. Saturday we went to a shopping mall that had a pet store. I about fell on the floor when I saw the prices; 159CHF for bunnies, 69 CHF for guinea pigs and 39 CHF for hamsters. A small 5 gallon aquarium with pump and hood light was 89 CHF and guppies were 9 CHF. I told Garrett that it looked like he probably wouldnt get a pet, because that was just too expensive.
We also stopped by an Allegro store, which reminded me of a Sams Club. The hamburger meat we bought from there is really good. It doesn't have the horrible freezer burnt after taste like the other meat we've bought has. I found the Turkish drink that we love uludag, and it was surprisingly cheap. I wish I could have bought more, but we just dont have a freezer. So, off we go to Conforama, which was having a 20 day sale. We ended up with a big freezer, which is now practically empty. I'm hoping to go to Allegro again and load up on hamburger meat. It's so nice to have a hamburger that isn't gross.
So, before we made it to Conforama and bought the big freezer, we stopped by Inter Discount, which sells electronics. Steve wanted to look for a new external hard drive. I noticed a pet store in the next building. So, while Steve went and looked for electronics the boys and I went to the pet store to see if they actually carried pets. Turns out they do. They were quite a bit cheaper than the other store too. They had cute little lionhead bunnies and lop eared bunnie for 89CHF and guinea pigs for 39CHF. The cages were still over priced at 149 CHF, but I saw a bunny cage for 35 Euro at Carrfoure. We went to get Steve and show him the new pet store we found. We had a girl who worked there open the cages so that we could look at them. I was really leaning toward the guinea pigs as they were considerable cheaper. Garrett fell in love with the lionhead bunnies. He didnt want a guinea pig. The girl who worked there told us that they didnt have any guinea pigs and that they couldn't sell the lionhead bunnies because they had just gotten tham and had to make sure that they were healthy. Garrett was upset, but we told him that we could come back next week and look at bunnies. This is when we found out that you had to buy 2. Since they are social animals you have to buy more than one. I told Steve that I had found a rescue on the internet that had one bunny and maybe he could call and see how much she cost.
Sunday and Monday I scoured the internet trying to find more rescue groups. I knew I had heard about one in Nyon, and I wanted to find their phone number or address. After numerous searches I found a website with classified ads. In case your ever looking for classified ads in Switzerland the site is http://www.tutti.ch/ . I found 2 ads in Geneva and 2 in Vaud. It took 2 days to convince Steve to call the ads. The ad in Vaud was in Aigle and he thought that was just too far away. He called one of the ads in Geneva and they agreed to meet him on Tues night. He stayed at their house until around 9 at night. We got the cutest little spotted lionhead bunny and cage for free. I couldn't believe it. He is adorable. We spent a few hours holding him when he got here.
Yesterday, was Charlies first day here and he woke in a foul mood. I guess he thought he would be going back home. He growled and tried to hit us with his front paws. A complete change from the night before when he was so sweet. I put him in the play room to run around. He hates the wood floor and only walks on the carpet. Garrett and I made him a little house from a cardboard box and put a pillow in it. He seems to like it. We also made a Garrett a playhouse out of the freezer box. It has 3 pillows on the bottome. Charlie likes that house too. I put him on the couch with me a few times. He seemed to calm down towards the end of the day. This morning and went and got him out of his cage with no probles. I put him in the playroom and he hopped around and then went into his house. I'm glad that he seems to be settling. I couldn't believe the growling. It was so weird. I wish I had recorded it. I'm not sure he will ever do it again. I'll try to take pics of him and post them. He is cute. He's already 8 months old, so he's full grown and so small.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
April Fools
Well, I don't actually having anything for April Fools Day, but I couldn't come up with a title for this post, and since it's April 1 I thought why not. Yesterday, Sebastien let us borrow his SUV, which I'm very happy about. We decided to go to Ikea and see if the bed was still available. Unfortunately, the top mattress was gone. Why would they keep the frame and sell the top mattress? I have no idea. It didn't make sense to us either. If this was the standard bed I would say we could get any topper for it and there would be no problem. This is a round bed, and so you can imagine the problem. Not many places sell round beds or mattress toppers for round beds. I don't see how they are ever goin to sell it without the top mattress. It was dissapointing. Especially after waking up this morning to severe neck and lower back pain. Grrrrr
So, I got up and checked my emails today, and I got a few pics from the weekend away. I'm not sure who was taking the pics, but they are a little blurry. I'm going to post the pics with Griffen, but I've also thrown in pics of the band that played and Griffens Youth Minister.
So, I got up and checked my emails today, and I got a few pics from the weekend away. I'm not sure who was taking the pics, but they are a little blurry. I'm going to post the pics with Griffen, but I've also thrown in pics of the band that played and Griffens Youth Minister.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Yesterday, the kids and I made our trip to Allaman. The train only stops there once an hour and it's an odd time, so we ended up walking to the train station. The train was different. It looked more like a tram on the inside.
We stopped by the pet supply place first. I told Garrett he could get a small pet if he kept his room clean. I have no idea were we could get a pet, as no pet stores actually sell pets. The pet store had rabbit cages, bird cages, food and supplies. The rabbit cages were enormous. They made my large dog kennel at home look tiny. It was almost as big as some apartment bedrooms. Did I mention expensive, they were very expensive. Maybe we should try and catch a tadpole or small fish in the river, lol. Seriously, everything here is just ridiculous and not worth it. So, I'm thinking Garrett will just have to stick with the sea monkeys, because nothing else looks remotely affordable for us.
Denner was next door so we popped in there and bought some junk food. Chip, candy, chocolate and coke gummies. I have to say Denner is the best place to buy any type of junk. We bought a kilo of Harbo coke gummies for 7 CHF. You just can't beat that.
I got quite a bit from Ikea. Sadly, I forgot the family card and so our meal ended up being quite expensive. I bought a rug for the playroom/sitting room balcony. It's not thick, but I can throw it in the washer. Unfortunately, it is AU colored. Griffen didn't like it, but Garrett did. I ended up spending way more than I wanted to, and as I went through the receipt and the things that arrived home I realized that there was something for 9 CHF that I didnt have. I can't remember buying anything else. I guess I will have to watch as they scan things next time instead of trying to bag stuff. Oh, I did get 3 orchids. Griffen helped me pick them out. I think that they are beautiful. Ill have to post pics when I get a chance. They also had the bed Steve and I looked at when I first moved here on sale. It's the last one and it was discounted 50% to 449 CHF. I would really love to get another bed, as I wake up with back pain everyday. Seriously though, I know that's not going to happen, but a girl can dream.
When we first moved here, we really tried to get the essentials and not go overboard. Sadly, now we have been here for almost 2 years and we are still living that way. You know, as if we are moving back to the States at anytime. I just don't think thats going to happen anytime soon. Steve just broke down and bought a vacuum cleaner yesterday. Seriously, the way we are living is becoming old and ridiculous. I think it's time we probably looked at selling the house. We just can't afford to keep paying for it. It's not like we can get anymore money out of it or anything, but we could really use the money for something else, like maybe a car. I guess I'm just tired of sending a chunk of our money back to the US every month and us living like we do. Oh, and did I mention that we walked home from the train station with all of our purchases? Thus the real need for a car, sigh.
We stopped by the pet supply place first. I told Garrett he could get a small pet if he kept his room clean. I have no idea were we could get a pet, as no pet stores actually sell pets. The pet store had rabbit cages, bird cages, food and supplies. The rabbit cages were enormous. They made my large dog kennel at home look tiny. It was almost as big as some apartment bedrooms. Did I mention expensive, they were very expensive. Maybe we should try and catch a tadpole or small fish in the river, lol. Seriously, everything here is just ridiculous and not worth it. So, I'm thinking Garrett will just have to stick with the sea monkeys, because nothing else looks remotely affordable for us.
Denner was next door so we popped in there and bought some junk food. Chip, candy, chocolate and coke gummies. I have to say Denner is the best place to buy any type of junk. We bought a kilo of Harbo coke gummies for 7 CHF. You just can't beat that.
I got quite a bit from Ikea. Sadly, I forgot the family card and so our meal ended up being quite expensive. I bought a rug for the playroom/sitting room balcony. It's not thick, but I can throw it in the washer. Unfortunately, it is AU colored. Griffen didn't like it, but Garrett did. I ended up spending way more than I wanted to, and as I went through the receipt and the things that arrived home I realized that there was something for 9 CHF that I didnt have. I can't remember buying anything else. I guess I will have to watch as they scan things next time instead of trying to bag stuff. Oh, I did get 3 orchids. Griffen helped me pick them out. I think that they are beautiful. Ill have to post pics when I get a chance. They also had the bed Steve and I looked at when I first moved here on sale. It's the last one and it was discounted 50% to 449 CHF. I would really love to get another bed, as I wake up with back pain everyday. Seriously though, I know that's not going to happen, but a girl can dream.
When we first moved here, we really tried to get the essentials and not go overboard. Sadly, now we have been here for almost 2 years and we are still living that way. You know, as if we are moving back to the States at anytime. I just don't think thats going to happen anytime soon. Steve just broke down and bought a vacuum cleaner yesterday. Seriously, the way we are living is becoming old and ridiculous. I think it's time we probably looked at selling the house. We just can't afford to keep paying for it. It's not like we can get anymore money out of it or anything, but we could really use the money for something else, like maybe a car. I guess I'm just tired of sending a chunk of our money back to the US every month and us living like we do. Oh, and did I mention that we walked home from the train station with all of our purchases? Thus the real need for a car, sigh.
Spring Cleaning
I'm trying to get all of the major cleaning done before it gets hot. We don't have an air conditioner here and it gets too hot to do much of anything but sit in front of the fan. Last year we bought an air conditioner and it didn't work. I couldn't get it to blow anything but hot air. So, are we going to try again this year? I don't know. They are expensive over here. Last year we spent over 400 CHF. I just don't know.
Anyway, on to the cleaning and rearranging of the apartment. I have decided that the playroom will be a sitting room from now on. The boys don't keep it clean and its going to take at least a day for me to completely clean it. So, now it's going to be my room. Well, some toys will be allowed in there, but no more eating or drinking or anything else. We are putting their closet in there. Hopefully we will get that built this weekend. Garrett has gotten good about putting his shoes and jacket in the closet when he comes home. Griffen hasnt. He still throws his jacket on the floor and his shoes wherever he happens to be when he takes them off. It's very annoying. It's something that is going to have to change or no more computer.
So yesterday, I decide to clean the balconies. They were filthy. I tried to hold my nose as I swept up the dirt and dust, but when I was done I was blowing black stuff out of my nose and got an instant headache. The playroom balcony was covered in toys and dirt and leaves. It took me 45 min to pick up the lego pieces that were scatteered everywhere. Their grandma put the toys in boxes on the balcony last year. Unfortunately the boxes started falling apart and toys went everywhere. I'm going to try and clean the toys before they are brought back into the house. I think all of the dust and dirt really got to me, because I fell asleep at around 8:30. I had a horrible wave of exhaustion hit me. I woke up this morning at 9:30 with a headache and back ache. I think I may have slept too long. Today, we are going to take the train to Ikea and pick up a few things. Hopefully I can do a little cleaning on the play room. I would love to get a cover for the little black couch in there. It's a weird faded purple color now. Not very attractive. I'm also going to look for a nice rug to go on the balcony so we can go out barefooted.
Anyway, on to the cleaning and rearranging of the apartment. I have decided that the playroom will be a sitting room from now on. The boys don't keep it clean and its going to take at least a day for me to completely clean it. So, now it's going to be my room. Well, some toys will be allowed in there, but no more eating or drinking or anything else. We are putting their closet in there. Hopefully we will get that built this weekend. Garrett has gotten good about putting his shoes and jacket in the closet when he comes home. Griffen hasnt. He still throws his jacket on the floor and his shoes wherever he happens to be when he takes them off. It's very annoying. It's something that is going to have to change or no more computer.
So yesterday, I decide to clean the balconies. They were filthy. I tried to hold my nose as I swept up the dirt and dust, but when I was done I was blowing black stuff out of my nose and got an instant headache. The playroom balcony was covered in toys and dirt and leaves. It took me 45 min to pick up the lego pieces that were scatteered everywhere. Their grandma put the toys in boxes on the balcony last year. Unfortunately the boxes started falling apart and toys went everywhere. I'm going to try and clean the toys before they are brought back into the house. I think all of the dust and dirt really got to me, because I fell asleep at around 8:30. I had a horrible wave of exhaustion hit me. I woke up this morning at 9:30 with a headache and back ache. I think I may have slept too long. Today, we are going to take the train to Ikea and pick up a few things. Hopefully I can do a little cleaning on the play room. I would love to get a cover for the little black couch in there. It's a weird faded purple color now. Not very attractive. I'm also going to look for a nice rug to go on the balcony so we can go out barefooted.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Starting New Blog
Well, for some reason I can't seem to post on my old blog. Not to mention, I never really posted that much to begin with, so I am going to make a fresh start.
Let's see, To play catch up, the boys and I went to the US in Oct. Two weeks before we left I passed out and hit the back of my head. I didn't really get dizzy, I had a weird buzzing in my head and then woke up with postman asking if I was okay. I wasn't really. I called Steve and had him come home from work. He tried to keep me on the phone, but I was so tired that I fell sleep while he was talking to me. I ended up having a cat scan to make sure it was safe for me to gt on a plane. I had concussion side effects for several weeks.
We had the most horrible experience travelling to Atlanta. I decided to book KLM, as they were cheaper at the time. I wish I could have booked BA, but we were taking Stewie back home with us and taking a dog into London just wasn't possible. To make things worse, before the flight it took me constantly calling KLM to get approval for Stewie. At first they told me no, and then I finally got someone to give me approval. Now, on to the trip. We upgraded our seats and they were comfortable. No problems there. The food was ok as well as the flight itself from Amsterdam to NY. The problems actually started in Amsterdam. There was a huge line to get through the passport check. As we got closer to the booth, I could tell that the bozo in control of our line was a problem. If I hadn't just spent 30 min in line, and the lines hadn't shortened or I had more time before my flight I would have moved. So here I am with two kids and a dog and a complete jerk doing passport control. SO we get up there, and Stewie decides to make a break from his soft carrier like Houdini and starts to run around the side of the booth. I quickly run over and retrieve him and come back to face the retard running our line. He decides to get an attitude and tells me to stand in front of him and not move. I guess he was trying to intimidate me, but I got pissed instead. He asked me when I last entered Europe. I told him in Feb 2010 I went to Paris. The last entry stamp was from Jan 2010 when we came back from the States. So, he asks where I have been living. I tell him Switzerland. This is when he decided to send me to the immigration desk. (He had a nasty attitude the whole time) This was why I knew the guy was trouble, because almost everyone in our line had been sent to the immigration desk. I get there, and the guy at the counter tells me that I have been in Europe for more than 4 months. I tell him that, no Switzerland isn't part of Europe, so I haven't been in Europe but about an hour unless include the flight time. That if he thinks I've been in Europe, which I haven't that they would just deport me, and I have a flight back to the US, so I guess I'm just deporting myself. (We go back and forth for several minutes, basically saying the same things to each other. By then I was pissed from the first guy, and this guy was nice, but I just told him I didn't care, I just wanted to get back to the States.) He goes to get his manager, I tell him the same thing. He asks how we got our residency in Switzerland. I tell him that my husband is a US citizen and works in Switzerland and the kids and I have residency because of him. He proceeds to tell me that he will have to call Switzerland. To which I reply, okay whatever. At this point my frustration is causing my POTs to get bad and I'm getting very dizzy. I tell the manager guy that we are going to go and sit down. This whole process has eaten up our time. I look at my watch and we have 10 min before my flight is suppose to leave. I didn't bring my cell phone and I don't know what to do. I'm hoping that if I miss my flight maybe they will put me in touch with the local US Embassy. I tell the kids as our time of departure arrives and we are still sitting waiting for them to call Switzerland or whatever they plan on doing, that we have missed the flight. Griffen and Garrett just start bawling, because we all believe that we are stuck in Amsterdam. Finally the manager comes up and tells me that they have decided not to call Switzerland and are just going to let us go. (Now, I have wondered what actually made them change their minds. I'm assuming that b/c we were going back to the US it was pointless for them to do anything anyway, who knows??) I tell him that our flight has already left so what are we suppose to do? He tells me that they are holding the flight and we are escorted to our departure gate. I was glad that we got through, but my stress and anxiety levels were high. It was just a horrible experience. The flight was during the day, so the sun was shining the whole trip. Garrett was able to sleep, but Griffen and I stayed awake. We had a short layover in New York and were set to arrive in Atlanta at 9:00, so I thought maybe staying awake would help us adjust better to the time change anyway.
Boy was I wrong. When we arrived in New York it was hot! I mean record hot. We had dressed for cold. We waited 30 min in the customs area for our luggage and I thought the heat was going to kill me. When we finally got to the customs agent, I asked him why they didn't have air conditioning. He said the building was run by the season and the air conditioning had been turned off for Oct. It felt like a sauna in there. I do have to say that there was a really nice woman customs agent who took Garrett to the bathroom while we were waiting. Okay, here is were it starts to get bad in New York. Atlanta had a storm go through and they shut down the Atlanta airport. No flight left Atlanta and so our pilot and crew for our flight were still in Atlanta instead of NY. Our flight was delayed until 10:00, an hour after we should be arriving in Atlanta. Luckily, another pilot and crew decided to go back early and we started boarding the plane at around 8:00. When we started to taxi out, the pilot stopped and told us that extra baggage had been loaded on the plane and he was waiting until he got the weight. It would take about 20 min, yeah right. Well, it turned into an hour wait. In all we didn't end up leaving until almost 10:00. I was thinking if it didn't get any worse than this then we would be in Atlanta about 2 hours late, that's not too bad. LOL, BIG mistake. We did arrive in Atlanta 2 hours late, but then we sat for 2 hours waiting to get on a door, and then almost another hour waiting to get someone to connect the Jetway to the plane so we could get out. All in all, we spent almost 6 hours on this tiny plane, and I was starting to lose it a bit. My claustrophobia started to kick in and I just kept thinking I have to get off this plane. We finally get off the plane and realize that the tram is not working, the elevators aren't working, escalators aren't working NOTHING in the Atlanta airport seemed to be working. I'm tired and stressed with two kids and a dog that hasn't been to the bathroom in almost 20 hours. Now I have to walk the entire Atlanta airport with carry on luggage and walking up escalators. When we got to the last escalator that would bring us to freedom and our luggage I just couldn't go any further. I was literally too exhausted to carry the luggage up the escalator. Luckily, and older couple showed me an elevator in the back. My mom and Maurice had been waiting for us for over 6 hours. We then had to make the 3 hour trip to Dothan. I was glad that Stewie waited until we walked outside to use the bathroom. I couldn't believe that little guy held it for so long. The kids and I fell asleep shortly after getting into the car. I fell asleep as I was talking, I was so exhausted. Needless to say, that was the most horrible experience travelling and the first time the kids and I travelled alone. Maybe the last.
My mom and I took the kids to Disney World for over a week in November. We went to the Mickey's Christmas Party one night, and I think we all enjoyed it. We rode Big Thunder Mnt at least 10 times with no wait and mother and I were able to get GF cookies, which was nice. I have to say the biggest struggle having to eat out is finding GF food. Disney was actually a nice place to eat if you are celiac. Especially if you are in Animal Kingdom. They had a separate fryer for french fries and chicken fingers, and because it took so long for our food they gave us extra cheeseburgers and fries and drinks. The best service by far. Mother and I stayed GF except for some nuts we got at WalMart that had trace gluten. Luckily I had domperidone which really helped. The kids had a really good time. We went swimming at the resort pool, they painted piggy banks at the club and they had ice cream sundays with almost every topping imaginable. I think they enjoyed swimming in the pool almost as much as Disney. I think next time we will plan less days at Disney so they can play at the resort or stay longer.
After Disney, we drove down to Davie to see my aunt, cousin and their families. We didn't do much but hang out at the house. Rick did take Griffen and Tristan to some play place that had games and skating. They had a good time. Sommer and I took Garrett and Savannah to the beach. They played at the park and when we went on the beach it started pouring rain. Poor Garrett really wanted to go to the beach. I wish we could have gone to North Florida beaches, but I was too concerned about the pollutants from the oil and dispersants. Maybe we can go in another year or two.
We helped my grandmother decorate for Christmas. The kids and I put out her plastic candycanes, signs and candles in the windows. She didn't want to put up her Christmas lights this year. We went and put flowers on Nan, Popsy and Jasons graves. Mother bought a solar light for PawPaws grave. We tried to find an Alabama yard flag. Some of the surrounding graves had Georgia and AU flags. I said that PawPaw would want a flag with all f those other fans around.(ROLL TIDE!!) We took the kids to the Peanut Festival, and it wasn't that fun because Garrett got lost. I thought that he was walking with Poppy and he just wondered off. It didn't take me but a few minutes to realize I didn't see him. We all split up and started looking. I went to the command center at the main gate. Rachel is the one who spotted him. He was with a group of kids who were helping him look for us. Wondering off is something we will have to work on before we move back. It's so safe here, and the kids are so independent. Garrett just doesn't realize how dangerous it is in the US.
I did a ton of shopping. I thought Gamestop would get most of our money, but Toys R US had the best deals on games. We did buy the boys kinect from Gamestop. We had a good time relaxing and visiting family. MawMaw came to Dothan a few times and we all went to lunch. Of course we went and visited her too. We went to Ozark and opened presents up there as we were leaving a few days before Christmas. We were all sad to leave.
The trip back wasnt that bad. Someone was sick on the plane and I did get sick. We went with Air France. Paris was having problems from snow. Luckily, we got a flight the was only a little late. We didn't have to pick up our luggage they loaded it directly onto the plane. We had so much, that I had to get two carts in Geneva. Steve couldn't come and help me load up the bags onto the carts, and my back was in bad shape by the time I was finished. I let him load the bags into the vehicle. Sebastien let him borrow his SUV, which was nice, but we still barely fit with all of the luggage.
Steve took off 2 weeks around Christmas and the New Year. I brought decorations from the US, some store bought and some we made. Our tree is a small led tree we got last year. I let the boys open big presents in the US, so they could be broken down and packed. The small presents I brought for them to open in front of dad. It snowed Christmas Eve and we had our first white Christmas. There wasn't much snow, but Garrett went and threw a few snowballs. Griffen didn't want to play in the snow. I might come back and add a list of what they got for Christmas, but I don't remember myself. Griffen got computer games and Garrett got toys like bakugans and kung zhus. Santa brought Griffen a giant elephant, who is now wearing my Alabama shirt and a silver wolf pendant and club penguin ranger. Santa brought Garrett a giant teddy bear, who is wearing his Auburn Championship shirt and bukugan dragoniod.
We didn't do very much during Steve's vacation. Mostly shopping at ikea and in France. I got an inclined bench and weights. Unfortunately, I didn't use them very long, because I started to lose energy the longer I've been sick. I haven't even been doing my aerobics anymore. I'm just too tired. We did buy 2 closets at Ikea, which we really need. Garrett started his sea monkeys he got for Christmas. They all seemed to die and I let almost all of the water evaporate. He told me to put more water in the tank and now we have several big sea monkeys carrying eggs and a lot of small sea monkeys. He likes to feed them and give them air. We will have to order more food soon. We went to Gstaad and Gruyere. I love going to Gruyere. Gstaad wasn't bad. Garrett talked his dad into buying him a sled. Which, was probably a good thing considering he went sledding with school and had to bring his own sled. We also took the boys sledding in Givrine, but there was no sun out and we could only stay about hour, before we were all freezing. The boys went ice skating with school. They trned the tennis courts across from us into an ice skating rink.
Ive been sick off an on since we came back. It has really worn me out and I'll be glad when this is over. . The kids started public school and Griffen has fallen behind on his American school. Garrett has fallen behind on his homeschooling, but he does seem to be picking up some French.
Griffen had a weekend away this past weekend with church. He seems to have enjoyed it. They participated in games, had a band from the UK play and went hiking. He tells me things in spurts, not all at once. I'm sure I'll hear what they did for the rest of the week. He was given a little spending money and he bought the bands poster and their cd. I haven't listened to them yet, but Griffen liked them. They participated in the games and hiking with the kids. Griffen said that they were funny and acted silly.
We went Wed to get our new residency cards. They are biometric now and we had to have our pics and fingerprints taken in Lausanne. While we were there, we got Griffen salomon hiking shoes. Steve bought me a new pair of sunglasses. I haven't been able to find my maui jims. I was complaining when we left that I couldn't find them. When we went to one of the malls they had a special going where you put a ticket into a machine and it would give a coupon for one of the stores. One of the coupons was for 20% off at the eyeglass store. We went in just to look and I tried on almost every pair of sunglasses. I ended up with a pair of Pepe fashion glasses. I really liked the Dior, but they were over 500 CHF. They didn't have any maui jims, which are the best quality glasses, but these look good and I really need sun glasses. We did run into Migros while we were there. I checked out their sunglasses to see if I could get a cheaper pair, but they were 50CHF and didnt look as good. We got a 10CHF off 50CHF purchase coupon from Migros, so I got a few things we needed and Garrett and Griffen got their chocolate bunnies for Easter. We also found a Casino, and I found nacho cheese Doritos and cool ranch Doritos there. I was so excited. I'd love to go back sometime. This was the first time the kids and I had ever been to Lausanne. We haven't gone anywhere lately because I just haven't had the energy. Especially on Sat when we have to walk to the train station.
Let's see, To play catch up, the boys and I went to the US in Oct. Two weeks before we left I passed out and hit the back of my head. I didn't really get dizzy, I had a weird buzzing in my head and then woke up with postman asking if I was okay. I wasn't really. I called Steve and had him come home from work. He tried to keep me on the phone, but I was so tired that I fell sleep while he was talking to me. I ended up having a cat scan to make sure it was safe for me to gt on a plane. I had concussion side effects for several weeks.
We had the most horrible experience travelling to Atlanta. I decided to book KLM, as they were cheaper at the time. I wish I could have booked BA, but we were taking Stewie back home with us and taking a dog into London just wasn't possible. To make things worse, before the flight it took me constantly calling KLM to get approval for Stewie. At first they told me no, and then I finally got someone to give me approval. Now, on to the trip. We upgraded our seats and they were comfortable. No problems there. The food was ok as well as the flight itself from Amsterdam to NY. The problems actually started in Amsterdam. There was a huge line to get through the passport check. As we got closer to the booth, I could tell that the bozo in control of our line was a problem. If I hadn't just spent 30 min in line, and the lines hadn't shortened or I had more time before my flight I would have moved. So here I am with two kids and a dog and a complete jerk doing passport control. SO we get up there, and Stewie decides to make a break from his soft carrier like Houdini and starts to run around the side of the booth. I quickly run over and retrieve him and come back to face the retard running our line. He decides to get an attitude and tells me to stand in front of him and not move. I guess he was trying to intimidate me, but I got pissed instead. He asked me when I last entered Europe. I told him in Feb 2010 I went to Paris. The last entry stamp was from Jan 2010 when we came back from the States. So, he asks where I have been living. I tell him Switzerland. This is when he decided to send me to the immigration desk. (He had a nasty attitude the whole time) This was why I knew the guy was trouble, because almost everyone in our line had been sent to the immigration desk. I get there, and the guy at the counter tells me that I have been in Europe for more than 4 months. I tell him that, no Switzerland isn't part of Europe, so I haven't been in Europe but about an hour unless include the flight time. That if he thinks I've been in Europe, which I haven't that they would just deport me, and I have a flight back to the US, so I guess I'm just deporting myself. (We go back and forth for several minutes, basically saying the same things to each other. By then I was pissed from the first guy, and this guy was nice, but I just told him I didn't care, I just wanted to get back to the States.) He goes to get his manager, I tell him the same thing. He asks how we got our residency in Switzerland. I tell him that my husband is a US citizen and works in Switzerland and the kids and I have residency because of him. He proceeds to tell me that he will have to call Switzerland. To which I reply, okay whatever. At this point my frustration is causing my POTs to get bad and I'm getting very dizzy. I tell the manager guy that we are going to go and sit down. This whole process has eaten up our time. I look at my watch and we have 10 min before my flight is suppose to leave. I didn't bring my cell phone and I don't know what to do. I'm hoping that if I miss my flight maybe they will put me in touch with the local US Embassy. I tell the kids as our time of departure arrives and we are still sitting waiting for them to call Switzerland or whatever they plan on doing, that we have missed the flight. Griffen and Garrett just start bawling, because we all believe that we are stuck in Amsterdam. Finally the manager comes up and tells me that they have decided not to call Switzerland and are just going to let us go. (Now, I have wondered what actually made them change their minds. I'm assuming that b/c we were going back to the US it was pointless for them to do anything anyway, who knows??) I tell him that our flight has already left so what are we suppose to do? He tells me that they are holding the flight and we are escorted to our departure gate. I was glad that we got through, but my stress and anxiety levels were high. It was just a horrible experience. The flight was during the day, so the sun was shining the whole trip. Garrett was able to sleep, but Griffen and I stayed awake. We had a short layover in New York and were set to arrive in Atlanta at 9:00, so I thought maybe staying awake would help us adjust better to the time change anyway.
Boy was I wrong. When we arrived in New York it was hot! I mean record hot. We had dressed for cold. We waited 30 min in the customs area for our luggage and I thought the heat was going to kill me. When we finally got to the customs agent, I asked him why they didn't have air conditioning. He said the building was run by the season and the air conditioning had been turned off for Oct. It felt like a sauna in there. I do have to say that there was a really nice woman customs agent who took Garrett to the bathroom while we were waiting. Okay, here is were it starts to get bad in New York. Atlanta had a storm go through and they shut down the Atlanta airport. No flight left Atlanta and so our pilot and crew for our flight were still in Atlanta instead of NY. Our flight was delayed until 10:00, an hour after we should be arriving in Atlanta. Luckily, another pilot and crew decided to go back early and we started boarding the plane at around 8:00. When we started to taxi out, the pilot stopped and told us that extra baggage had been loaded on the plane and he was waiting until he got the weight. It would take about 20 min, yeah right. Well, it turned into an hour wait. In all we didn't end up leaving until almost 10:00. I was thinking if it didn't get any worse than this then we would be in Atlanta about 2 hours late, that's not too bad. LOL, BIG mistake. We did arrive in Atlanta 2 hours late, but then we sat for 2 hours waiting to get on a door, and then almost another hour waiting to get someone to connect the Jetway to the plane so we could get out. All in all, we spent almost 6 hours on this tiny plane, and I was starting to lose it a bit. My claustrophobia started to kick in and I just kept thinking I have to get off this plane. We finally get off the plane and realize that the tram is not working, the elevators aren't working, escalators aren't working NOTHING in the Atlanta airport seemed to be working. I'm tired and stressed with two kids and a dog that hasn't been to the bathroom in almost 20 hours. Now I have to walk the entire Atlanta airport with carry on luggage and walking up escalators. When we got to the last escalator that would bring us to freedom and our luggage I just couldn't go any further. I was literally too exhausted to carry the luggage up the escalator. Luckily, and older couple showed me an elevator in the back. My mom and Maurice had been waiting for us for over 6 hours. We then had to make the 3 hour trip to Dothan. I was glad that Stewie waited until we walked outside to use the bathroom. I couldn't believe that little guy held it for so long. The kids and I fell asleep shortly after getting into the car. I fell asleep as I was talking, I was so exhausted. Needless to say, that was the most horrible experience travelling and the first time the kids and I travelled alone. Maybe the last.
My mom and I took the kids to Disney World for over a week in November. We went to the Mickey's Christmas Party one night, and I think we all enjoyed it. We rode Big Thunder Mnt at least 10 times with no wait and mother and I were able to get GF cookies, which was nice. I have to say the biggest struggle having to eat out is finding GF food. Disney was actually a nice place to eat if you are celiac. Especially if you are in Animal Kingdom. They had a separate fryer for french fries and chicken fingers, and because it took so long for our food they gave us extra cheeseburgers and fries and drinks. The best service by far. Mother and I stayed GF except for some nuts we got at WalMart that had trace gluten. Luckily I had domperidone which really helped. The kids had a really good time. We went swimming at the resort pool, they painted piggy banks at the club and they had ice cream sundays with almost every topping imaginable. I think they enjoyed swimming in the pool almost as much as Disney. I think next time we will plan less days at Disney so they can play at the resort or stay longer.
After Disney, we drove down to Davie to see my aunt, cousin and their families. We didn't do much but hang out at the house. Rick did take Griffen and Tristan to some play place that had games and skating. They had a good time. Sommer and I took Garrett and Savannah to the beach. They played at the park and when we went on the beach it started pouring rain. Poor Garrett really wanted to go to the beach. I wish we could have gone to North Florida beaches, but I was too concerned about the pollutants from the oil and dispersants. Maybe we can go in another year or two.
We helped my grandmother decorate for Christmas. The kids and I put out her plastic candycanes, signs and candles in the windows. She didn't want to put up her Christmas lights this year. We went and put flowers on Nan, Popsy and Jasons graves. Mother bought a solar light for PawPaws grave. We tried to find an Alabama yard flag. Some of the surrounding graves had Georgia and AU flags. I said that PawPaw would want a flag with all f those other fans around.(ROLL TIDE!!) We took the kids to the Peanut Festival, and it wasn't that fun because Garrett got lost. I thought that he was walking with Poppy and he just wondered off. It didn't take me but a few minutes to realize I didn't see him. We all split up and started looking. I went to the command center at the main gate. Rachel is the one who spotted him. He was with a group of kids who were helping him look for us. Wondering off is something we will have to work on before we move back. It's so safe here, and the kids are so independent. Garrett just doesn't realize how dangerous it is in the US.
I did a ton of shopping. I thought Gamestop would get most of our money, but Toys R US had the best deals on games. We did buy the boys kinect from Gamestop. We had a good time relaxing and visiting family. MawMaw came to Dothan a few times and we all went to lunch. Of course we went and visited her too. We went to Ozark and opened presents up there as we were leaving a few days before Christmas. We were all sad to leave.
The trip back wasnt that bad. Someone was sick on the plane and I did get sick. We went with Air France. Paris was having problems from snow. Luckily, we got a flight the was only a little late. We didn't have to pick up our luggage they loaded it directly onto the plane. We had so much, that I had to get two carts in Geneva. Steve couldn't come and help me load up the bags onto the carts, and my back was in bad shape by the time I was finished. I let him load the bags into the vehicle. Sebastien let him borrow his SUV, which was nice, but we still barely fit with all of the luggage.
Steve took off 2 weeks around Christmas and the New Year. I brought decorations from the US, some store bought and some we made. Our tree is a small led tree we got last year. I let the boys open big presents in the US, so they could be broken down and packed. The small presents I brought for them to open in front of dad. It snowed Christmas Eve and we had our first white Christmas. There wasn't much snow, but Garrett went and threw a few snowballs. Griffen didn't want to play in the snow. I might come back and add a list of what they got for Christmas, but I don't remember myself. Griffen got computer games and Garrett got toys like bakugans and kung zhus. Santa brought Griffen a giant elephant, who is now wearing my Alabama shirt and a silver wolf pendant and club penguin ranger. Santa brought Garrett a giant teddy bear, who is wearing his Auburn Championship shirt and bukugan dragoniod.
We didn't do very much during Steve's vacation. Mostly shopping at ikea and in France. I got an inclined bench and weights. Unfortunately, I didn't use them very long, because I started to lose energy the longer I've been sick. I haven't even been doing my aerobics anymore. I'm just too tired. We did buy 2 closets at Ikea, which we really need. Garrett started his sea monkeys he got for Christmas. They all seemed to die and I let almost all of the water evaporate. He told me to put more water in the tank and now we have several big sea monkeys carrying eggs and a lot of small sea monkeys. He likes to feed them and give them air. We will have to order more food soon. We went to Gstaad and Gruyere. I love going to Gruyere. Gstaad wasn't bad. Garrett talked his dad into buying him a sled. Which, was probably a good thing considering he went sledding with school and had to bring his own sled. We also took the boys sledding in Givrine, but there was no sun out and we could only stay about hour, before we were all freezing. The boys went ice skating with school. They trned the tennis courts across from us into an ice skating rink.
Ive been sick off an on since we came back. It has really worn me out and I'll be glad when this is over. . The kids started public school and Griffen has fallen behind on his American school. Garrett has fallen behind on his homeschooling, but he does seem to be picking up some French.
Griffen had a weekend away this past weekend with church. He seems to have enjoyed it. They participated in games, had a band from the UK play and went hiking. He tells me things in spurts, not all at once. I'm sure I'll hear what they did for the rest of the week. He was given a little spending money and he bought the bands poster and their cd. I haven't listened to them yet, but Griffen liked them. They participated in the games and hiking with the kids. Griffen said that they were funny and acted silly.
We went Wed to get our new residency cards. They are biometric now and we had to have our pics and fingerprints taken in Lausanne. While we were there, we got Griffen salomon hiking shoes. Steve bought me a new pair of sunglasses. I haven't been able to find my maui jims. I was complaining when we left that I couldn't find them. When we went to one of the malls they had a special going where you put a ticket into a machine and it would give a coupon for one of the stores. One of the coupons was for 20% off at the eyeglass store. We went in just to look and I tried on almost every pair of sunglasses. I ended up with a pair of Pepe fashion glasses. I really liked the Dior, but they were over 500 CHF. They didn't have any maui jims, which are the best quality glasses, but these look good and I really need sun glasses. We did run into Migros while we were there. I checked out their sunglasses to see if I could get a cheaper pair, but they were 50CHF and didnt look as good. We got a 10CHF off 50CHF purchase coupon from Migros, so I got a few things we needed and Garrett and Griffen got their chocolate bunnies for Easter. We also found a Casino, and I found nacho cheese Doritos and cool ranch Doritos there. I was so excited. I'd love to go back sometime. This was the first time the kids and I had ever been to Lausanne. We haven't gone anywhere lately because I just haven't had the energy. Especially on Sat when we have to walk to the train station.
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