Update of all people Bell.

1.  Me?  I’m tired at the moment and wishing I hadn’t eaten all the chocolate chip cookies earlier today (much to my children’s chagrin), so that I had some to eat now.  Tomorrow I am going to get my hair trimmed, which it has been needing for quite some time now, so that will be good.

2.  That reminds me that I’m also supposed to be getting contacts ordered this week.  For Christmas I said I wanted new glasses, but I went to my appt and my prescription hadn’t changed much at all.  Also, even though Brett and I know that everything in Switzerland is three times as expensive, it still kindof killed me when I saw the total cost of getting new glasses would be.  And I didn’t really find any frames that I absolutely loved, so I wondered if I should just forget the whole thing and get new glasses when I get back to the wonderful world of Wal-Mart, and they won’t cost half our life-savings.  But now I think I’ll get contacts because how awesome would it be to maybe wear sunglasses, or actually be able to see when I go swimming?! and I’ve wanted to get some for several years now.  Last time I tried it they didn’t work though.  I tried two different pairs and never could stop feeling like I was twirling, so I gave up.  I hope it works this time!
3.  That reminds me that the other day the kids were watching the movie Swiss Family Robinson, and that family is from Bern, did you know that?  And so when Fritz and Ernst were talking about things in Bern, they mentioned Marktgasse, which made me feel totally cool because I know where that is and walk down that street all the time.  In fact it’s where my eye exam was, which is what brought this up.  (This picture is me and my friend Talitha from church.  She’s a cool girl.)

4.  Speaking of things to watch, lately I’ve been absolutely riveted by the show ‘Who’s the Boss?’ because for some weird reason I looked it up on youtube when I was feeding Orrin one day (instead of the Cosby Show which is what I would normally pass the time with).  Tony Danza is cute and HILARIOUS, and I was completely hooked.  I told Kami this and then later she told me she watched a couple shows and was not impressed.  But watch this clip and tell me it’s not hilarious!

who's the boss

5.  Speaking of Who’s the Boss, a show from the eighties, why is it that women’s fashion styles change so drastically so quickly and men’s hardly at all?  It’s a little unfair.  And why were glasses the size of car tires ever in style?  WHYYYY?  And p.s. every time Angela slips off her clip-on earring before answering the phone it reminds me of my mom doing that on Sundays when she wore her clip-on earrings.  And p.s.s. did you know Tony Danza was a boxer before he was an actor?
6. Moving on.  Brett is doing well.  Right now he is sitting on the couch with his laptop on his lap, sleeping.  It’s what he always does in the evening.  Start reading a book, fall asleep.  Start doing work on his computer, fall asleep.  Silly guy.
7.  The other day I asked Brett how much it would cost to feed one cow if you didn’t have any of your own grass or anything, and he started scribbling down figures and doing the math and gave me a very rough estimate.  Then I was asking a few other questions and he was all excited and said, “I LOVE talking about these kinds of things!”  Crazy kid.
8.  By the way, our family spends about $1,000 (well, actually not dollars, but franks) on milk in a year.  We drink about 3 liters a day, and we can get our milk at the farm next door for a frank/liter.  Moo.
9.  Another thing Brett said that I love--  I asked him, “You know how everyone says marriage is hard work?  Do you think it is?”  and he opened his mouth to start saying something, then closed it, paused, and said, “Is this a trick question?”  Ha haaa!  (by the way, he was going to say no, but didn’t want to imply that he never worked on our marriage-as in working on improving it, etc.)   I sure love him.

10.  So, Brett went to parent-teacher conferences the other evening, and came home with some very shocking and disappointing news about Jethro’s performance in school.  We laid down an addiction-recovery program plan for him, and feel that he will soon be back to his usual successes.  Because if he can pull his nose out of a book long enough to do his homework, that should automatically start improving things, right? (We were under the impression that he always finished his homework at school.)
11.  I felt quite frustrated again after we heard about this, about not being able to communicate with Jethro’s teacher, or read the letters and things that come from school.  Grrr.
12.  Hazel wrote me a letter in school today.  She’s really coming along in her reading and writing, although she is sometimes confused at what the vowels say, because of course they’re different in German and English.  Basically she’s learning to read both languages at the same time.  She told me that one of the kids in her class noticed this letter and saw that it was in English and started trying to read it, so then she read it to me like he had read it, with the German pronunciation.  Hard to explain, but it was very funny.

13.  This is her school picture.  Isn’t it cute?  (It looks better in real life, this is a picture of the picture.)  I don’t know why Jethro never had pictures taken.  Weird.

14.  Ethne is crazy.  She says crazy things all the time.  And she likes to sing.  And she likes to watch t.v. (or rather, youtube).  Here she is with her doll stroller that she got for Christmas (it came from the side of the road—awesome find!) and her diaper bag. 

15.  Talmage is cute.  And he likes to get into things and make messes and wear people’s shoes and read books, and lately he has been stealing carrots from the fridge and eating a bit of them and then leaving them around the house.
16.  Orrin is a sweetie-petey.  The poor guy had a rash on his face.  It was pretty bad, but I’m happy to say that it’s definitely on the mend.  He also had a hip ultrasound yesterday (apparently it’s something they do here quite often), and he’s cleared to play soccer.  :) 
17. His shirt says 'Always happy’ and when I bought it I thought that it was rather presumptuous of me to get it.  Who knew if he would be perpetually happy or not at that point?  In fact, I rather feared I would jinx myself buying it, but so far he fits it quite well.  (Even though he doesn’t look all that happy in this picture.) 

18.  A while back I said that I would write about some of my new year resolutions, but I don’t really feel like getting in to them as deep anymore.  You know, because the year’s not so new anymore?  Ha ha.  Anyhow, to be very brief, I really want to PLAN PLAN PLAN our time this coming year (not really our daily time, but our trip/vacation time), since it will be our last year here.  I want to make sure we’ve done our darndest to see as many things as we can, and that what we do do is what is at the top of our list to do.  Am I being clear?  Okay, go HERE (and while you’re there, take a look around more posts on the blog.  It’s… awesome).
That’s how I generally like to roll.  And while that’s all well and good sometimes, I just don’t want to look back after we’ve left Switzerland and feel regretful that I didn’t take all possible opportunities for doing the things we could have. 
So I’ve been planning.  A trip for the whole family in the summer to Croatia, maybe coming back through Italy.  A trip for Brett and I and Orrin in the spring to Spain (except this may not be coming along as well as I could hope because Orrin needs a passport first, and paperwork is DUMB and takes TOO LONG).  A trip for just Brett and I in the fall to Greece.  (Brett doesn’t know about that, but I say- for crying out loud if we don’t just do it now we never will!  It’s our ten-year anniversary this year too, so I think that calls for something amazing, right?)  Also there’s the week that my parents are here to plan awesome things for.  Not to mention EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND!  We have a lot of Switzerland and Europe to see before we go back to the homeland.
19.  I had some other goals too.  For instance, I ordered a post-pregnancy workout DVD and have even done it more than twice!  But I now remember one reason why I don’t like exercising—it really cuts into your relaxing time.  Another goal I told Brett was to be cuter—to buy some clothes that are actually cute (this is my I-just-had-a-baby-and-haven’t-bought-any-new-clothes-for-nine-months self talking).  Brett said that was the worst resolution he’s ever heard, and he said ‘What does being cute have to do with your eternal salvation?’  and of course I had to say that it doesn’t, but obviously not every resolution has to do with your eternal salvation.
20.  I kindof want to go through the year’s pictures and post my favorites.  Wouldn’t that be fun.  We’ll see if I get around to it.
21.  Now I’m going to bed, so The end.

cute ad I want to remember the pose from