Journalish/catch-up stuff

So this week has been pretty nice, I’ve just been relaxing as much as I could, and read the first Harry Potter, because the week before was (for me) quite busy.  On Wed (I think) I took the kids all to the church so I could play the piano (I wanted to because I had just printed some free sheet music), and we had lunch there and then they all played quite well which was nice.  I sometimes miss having a piano.

On Thursday, Brett and I went to the grocery store in the morning because Brett was in charge of a dinner for our church group on Friday night (it was a special temple weekend), and it just worked out best for us to get the groceries that morning.  All was well, he drove to work and I drove home, went upstairs to our apartment only to discover that the door was locked and I did not have a key.  I was going to drive back to his work to get his key, but I was soooo afraid that I would get super lost (as I had the last couple times I tried to get to his work) and it would be very bad because I couldn’t call him for directions because my cell phone was in the house.  So I went to our wonderful friend Kathi’s house and first I used her internet so I could pull up the family phone list my mom sent everyone so I could get Brett’s cell phone number (no, I do not have his cell number memorized, nor my cell number, nor our home number—umm, I’m lame-o.  I blame cell phones and their ability to store numbers.) and called him to make sure he wasn’t going anywhere.  Then, Kathi wonderfully offered to go with me to his work because she saw my worry about getting there without getting lost.  Did I mention she is WONDERFUL?!  So she came with me, we didn’t get lost (and I actually think that I’d finally be able to make it there on my own now), and we had a nice chat too.  So that took up a chunk of that day.

That evening I went to volleyball—hooray!!!  It had been a whole year.  I miss having weekly volleyball nights in Indiana.  Anyway, it was really fun.  I jammed my thumb and it immediately swelled up pretty good and was sore. 

The next morning I went to the church and chopped up a LOT of veggies (onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, lettuce) for the ward dinner that night.  It was lucky my thumb had gotten a bit better in the night or I wouldn’t have been able to do any chopping!

Then that night we drove to Zollikofen where the beautiful temple is

 

(image from here)

and Brett prepared spaghetti and spaghetti sauce and salad for our ward.  There was a great turnout and we had a nice time.  There was a fireside with the temple president afterwards, but we had to duck out early because it was already way past our kids’ bedtime.

The next morning (Saturday) we went back to Zollikofen and had breakfast with our ward and then I did a session in the temple, and then Brett did.  What a wonderful place to be.

Saturday night I spent finishing up my talk, and Brett stayed up translating it, and telling me that I have to learn German.

After church on Sunday we were invited to have dinner with a really nice couple, Santiago and Natalia, who are from Uruguay and Brazil and only came to Switzerland 4 months or so before us, and they have a little boy about 6 months old.  We had a great time playing on their Wii and talking about being expats in Switzerland (specifically about getting Swiss birth certificates for our baby boys) and looking at pictures and going for a walk.  It was really nice.

So.  That was (the end of) last week.  Along with sort-of trying to potty train Talmage.  See, potty-training is something requiring LOTS of energy and attention, so you have to be really prepared for it, and I wasn’t.  But Brett thought we were, so he started the process, and then I had to try to keep it going.  Yeah, not so much.  Oh well.  I’m going to quit for a month or so, and then do it the right way.

This week hasn’t been as full, but then yesterday the hospital called and said they had a spot open up for surgery time next Tuesday, so did we want to take it instead of April 20, which is when we were scheduled for, so we decided to do it.  To explain, I don’t think I mentioned this before but I found that Orrin has an inguinal hernia- like Talmage had.  Only, the kindof nerve-wracking thing about it is that it only pops out sometimes, and both times we were at the doctor’s, it wasn’t popped out.  So they just took my word for it and scheduled the surgery, and so now I’m solely responsible for my teeny little sweet baby having surgery.  I mean, I know it’s a hernia and I’ve seen it and felt it several times, but still.  Oh well- I’ll be glad when it’s over because the single most scary and horrible incident in my life so far happened when Talmage had his hernias but before they were repaired. 

So this morning Brett and I met at the hospital and talked with the surgeon and anesthesiologist and got our instructions.  The children’s hospital seems pretty great, and they have a lot of toys which was good for Ethne and Talmage, although in the midst of our discussion with the surgeon, Talmage came running up to him with a stuffed lion and attacked him and said “Rawwr rawr rawwrr!!!”  It was kindof funny and unexpected and the surgeon was really good about it and yelled in fright.  :)

And Brett was going to stay at work late tonight, but then his part hadn’t come in, and he came home early (for once in his life!!) and we went on a nice walk and talked to the grandpa farmer at the dairy, who mentioned that we buy a lot of milk, and it was lovely. 

The end.