Immense Excitement

So, if you didn't already catch it from the ticker--we are flying to Switzerland on the 28th!! We found out our visas were approved, and then the next day we found out that we got the apartment we really really wanted. I am so so so so so so so so so so so soooooooo excited! We have some pictures, and actually most of them are of the views from the apartment and it is GORGEOUS. (Do you want to see them?) Seriously--breathtaking. It is in the countryside with fields and a farm surrounding a little hamletish-cluster of some buildings. I am sooooo happy and grateful for these Christmas miracles!!!

So last night Brett and I BOUGHT TICKETS. It was crazy. Crazy awesome. I've never been to Europe or anywhere except Canada and U.S. And before the new year--I will be living there. Crazy. Awesome.

So, as an update on the rest of my life--this week was fun. On Wednesday night I went and slept at Lindsay Ann's house and in the morning we dropped off our kids at the babysitter's (my sister Megan), and we went with our other sister Andrea to Provo to clean my sister Kami's house. (Got that?) Kami and Leo were pretty much devastated when we moved far away from them, and they couldn't survive without us in the Midwest with them, so they decided to move to Provo, so that even though they won't be able to be near to us, they can try to console themselves with the rest of the family. Okay, actually, although Leo still loves to fly, they don't think the pilot's lifestyle is worth it, so he's going back to school at BYU.

Anyhow, Kami would have been there helping us clean her house they're renting before they move in, but she is a little bit stuck in Colombia. (Read her blog for further intriguing details.) So, her house is spacious and she's going to love that aspect, but it is very old and cool and dirty. We worked on her kitchen and it was disgusting, but we seriously had the funnest day. Umm, I don't think I can adequately describe all the funny things, but believe me when I say they were funny. When we got lunch at Subway, when it was my turn to pay I couldn't even do so because I was rendered helpless with laughter. One thing that was strange was that the people had a proclivity to put things into their trees. There was a tricycle, a scooter, a box of trash bags, a weedwacker, car wash. Very strange. Oh yeah, and Lindsay Ann said, "So what you're saying is..." a lot. :)

The next day was also soooo fun. I stayed at Lindsay Ann's again that night, and the next day we went to Andrea's house just to hang out together. It was fun and Megan stopped by for a little while and brought sushi (it was my very first taste of sushi ever. Not my fave.) and later Lindsay stopped by for a few minutes. It was really really neat. And I thought, hey if I lived here, this might be what it would be like. But I don't. And I'm going far far away. And I think I really planned this badly, because instead of leaving from Indiana where we were used to being far away from family, we came here for a while and got used to having them around. And they're kindof like fungus--they grow on you. ;)

That night we went to the WSU Institute Christmas concert, and the following night we went to the ward Christmas party, and let me just say that I ate so much roast beef and I was still dreaming about it that night. It was so good. And I got all teary when Mary and Joseph walked through the "inns" that we were eating at, and everyone told them they had to leave and go to the stable.

So anyway, we are excited for Christmas. Brett quit working at the welding job, and will be working as a consultant at the U of U for the next couple weeks (thanks to our friend Drew). So I will miss him during the week but it will be much more enjoyable for him than the smoky welding job. Then we'll have the last week in December to get everything ready to go. Ahhhh! Anybody who's moved across the world with just the things you can fit into your suitcases and has advice, let us know.

And, I'm also excited because my mom and I have been making many happy batches of chocolate centers (my arms are getting totally buff from beating them) and we will be rolling and dipping and eating and smelling them and that is wonderful.

Tonight I tucked the kids into their sleeping bag beds (they all sleep on the floor--Brett and I have decided they don't need beds when we get to Switzerland, they do just fine on the floor here), and before I went out I said something about we'll be putting up the Christmas tree soon. Then Jethro asked me if we were going to wait for Dad to get home again before we decorate it, and I said no. So anyway, then a little while later Hazel comes out all whiny and said that Jethro said that on the night we decorate the Christmas tree, he's going to stay up really late--later than everyone, even me, and when we're all asleep he'll take the ornaments off the tree and wait until Daddy comes home to decorate. What a kid.