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.