Visitors

So, going back a bit, our friends Alyse and Carlos came to visit.  Visitors— YAY!  Awesome friends we knew from way back when in Indiana-  YAYAYAYAYAYYYYY!!!  We knew Carlos before he even married Alyse, and were great friends with his brother Andre’s family.  In actual fact, Hazel is set to marry their son Dallin.  I’m 110% in favor of that idea!  Here are their engagement pictures from way back in Feb of 2007:

Anyway, Carlos and Alyse lived the past while (yearish?) in Portugal, and Carlos ran a marathon in Luxembourg and then they swung by us!  It was only for a –too short- day, but it was GREAT!  We took them here:

 

Unfortunately, it was rainy rainy.  But actually, I think the Aareschluct was pretty neat in the rain with a little bit of fog.  It’s a cool place.  There were a ton of people there while we were there, despite the rain.  I think because it was a Swiss holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alyse, why didn’t you tell me I should take my hat off for the picture.  Sure, my head was dry, but I resemble this:

Then we went to Lauterbrunnen and hiked up a short way near this waterfall.

 

Then Alyse and Carlos really wanted to go to the temple because it is where Carlos’ parents were sealed.  The skies actually cleared a bit and it was really beautiful out- yay!  The flowers were lovely, which reminds me, when my parents were here we went to the temple and as we came out we saw this weird contraption where the circle of ground where the flowers go was covered with a tarp-like thingee, and air was being pumped in by this generator-looking thing.  So Brett went and asked the guy what was going on, and he told him that it was sterilizing the soil and that way when they put the flowers in, they don’t have to worry about weeds.  Weird eh.

This shot is a lot overexposed, but I think it’s funny because I took it right as Carlos and Jethro started their race and accidentally just got them in the picture.  Ha ha.

 

Then Talmage drove the van around

 

while we all chillaxed on the lawn.

 

Alyse and Carlos are very likeable, can you tell?

 

I had such a great great great time talking with them.  I’m so glad they squeezed us in because it was really awesome to hang out with them.  THANKS you guys!!!

Happy birthday to Hazel!!

Hazel turned SEVEN years old today!  And the poor girl was pretty grossly neglected.  I was not on the ball before we left for Austria, so we had no presents for her, no cake, no anything.  I am a terrible mother.  [Hanging my head in shame.]  Luckily our friend Kathi brought a present over for her (and then later came again to bring a present for Ethne who felt a bit left out), and her cousin Maloree called her! 
Ethne has been sick, and Brett was late home from work, so when Jethro, Hazel, Talmage, and I sat down to dinner Hazel said, “Can you maybe sing me Happy Birthday before dinner?” and Jethro and I said, “Suuure!” at the same time.  Don’t worry, we will celebrate her birthday later. 
But, I did tell her the story of her birth day.  It goes like this:
Once upon a time, I was pregnant with a little girl and she was breech.  So I went in to the doctor and had a Version performed.  It was successful and actually pretty easy, i.e., not painful.    Before I left, they gave me the straps that had held the monitors on my belly and told me that I could bring them back when I have my baby and then they wouldn’t have to open a new package.
I can’t remember if it was a day or two or three, but soon it was Saturday the day before Father’s Day.  And we thought it would be so cool if she were born on Father’s Day.  So I choked down a little castor oil on Saturday night, it did it’s work, and I went to sleep and slept soundly until about 7:00 in the morning, at which time I felt a contraction.  So, with the only previous birth we had experienced being a long, drawn-out affair, we got ready and went to church.  Contractions came steadily throughout sacrament meeting, and by the end of it, I was in enough pain that I thought I probably didn’t want to squirm through the next two hours on the piano bench in primary.  So I asked Sis. Provonsha if she would play the piano and she said she would (and probably wondered why I was not…) and we went home.  We were fairly excited by this time, and started timing contractions, and found that they were five minutes apart.  So we called my doctor who said to come to the hospital.  So, we took some more time to pack the bag and call our friends the Bodilys to ask if they could watch Jethro.  Luckily, they were home when they ordinarily wouldn’t have been because of flooding in their house or something, and they picked Jethro up and took him back to church and put him in nursery.  :) 
So.  We were finally actually in the car and started driving to the hospital.  At this time we lived in West Lafayette, so it took a while to get to the hospital (a while not being all that long, maybe 15 minutes or so, but longer than when we moved to our house which was about 3-4 minutes away).  By this time I was in some pretty awful pain and was doing a lot of whining.  When we were over halfway to the hospital, Brett remembered about the monitor straps and asked if he should turn around to go get them, and I said, “NO!” 
So we got to the hospital, walked in-stopping for a contraction on the sidewalk and seeing a guy in a car driving past stare at me, and went up to the Labor and Delivery floor.  They sloooooooowly found my file, asked a few questions, and finally got us in a room.  Then the nurse gave me a gown and told me to change.  I went into the bathroom, felt for a moment like I needed to throw-up, so I squatted down by the toilet, at which time I felt a little bit of an urge to push.  So I got up and tried to get dressed, but pretty much couldn’t, so I asked Brett for help, and then managed to get up on the bed, also with his help. 
And I can’t remember exactly how it went next, but within the next minute or two, whether I told the nurse I felt like pushing, or she was just going to check anyway, but when she checked she got pretty excited and told me not to push and had them call the doctor to hurry and soon more nurses were in there telling me not to push, and one of them told me to pant like I dog, and I was like “No!” and Hazel’s head was already out, with the cord around her neck when the doctor ran in and yanked it off and caught the rest of her.  I had been in the hospital for a total of 20 minutes when she was born. 
And she was beautiful and sweet and dark-haired and round-cheeked with the prettiest little lips and elf ears.  :)
So, Brett came home while I was in the middle of telling Hazel this story, and then he said, “So, that’s the fictional story, now I’ll tell you the REAL story.”  And he proceeded to tell about how after we found Jethro under a log, and we felt like it was time for another child, we started searching under more logs, but all we could ever find were pill bugs and ants and centipedes.   Then a fairy came and told us that you can only find your FIRST child under a log, so we had to look other places.  So then we looked and looked… (a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember) and finally we found her in a little nest of grass.
So then we asked Hazel which story she thought was the real one, and she said, “Mom’s was the real one, but Dad’s was MUCH cooler.”  :)
My sister Kami told me that her neighbor just had a baby and named her Hazel and Leo, her husband, commented to her that he really likes the name Hazel and would name their next daughter Hazel if I hadn’t already had a Hazel.  Then he said that he probably likes the name because he likes Hazel, cause she’s so sweet and cute.  Awwwwww.  It’s so true.  She is so sweet.  And a joy.  And has been from the moment she was born.  I just LOVE my girl!!!

Adorable Orrin.

So we’re off to Österreich (aka Austria) tomorrow, so no posts for awhile.   (I already have so much to catch up on, including our fantastic day with Carlos and Alyse yesterday—what great conversations we had!) BUT… I will leave you with some pictures of the MOST     *ADORABLE*      BABY  in the world  to swoon over until I return.  I have to say it, I can’t believe he’s already six months old!!!!   I mean, this was him just yesterday--

And now he’s this handsome man!

 

 

 

Mr. Orrin, please don’t grow.  I’ll eat you up, I love you so.

Football

So, like I said before, I have all these pictures to post, and things to catch up on, but I was out playing catch this evening, and instead I want to ramble about football for awhile. 

I really like football.  But I don’t mean watching pro football or actually playing by official football rules or anything like that.  Mainly what I mean is, I like to play CATCH with the football.  It really is one of my favorite things.  So, I feel like reminiscing a bit, so if you’re in the mood for some “back-in-the-glory-days” stories, keep reading.

I think I started liking it a lot when I was in high school.  I would play catch with Derek or my mom or sometimes Wyatt and after my brother-in-law Jared moved to Minot, with him.  (And can I just say that he has a bullet that is pretty much the fastest and scariest I’ve ever had the pleasure of catching.) 

One memory that I love is when our friends the Veazeys had a barbeque at their house on Memorial Day (I think), and had a whole bunch of families over, and all the kids around mine and Kami’s and Wyatt’s age started playing football (the Nordquists and others), and of course it started out two-hand touch, but moved to tackle and we were so hot and sweaty and we kept playing and playing and it was so fun.  One of those memories that makes life as a kid seem so idyllic. 

I remember when Brett and I were engaged and it was about a week before our wedding we were playing catch together with Drew in front of our apartment and I jammed my finger, and of course it was my wedding ring finger, and I was like- oh, awesome—now my pictures of our rings at our wedding with include a black and blue finger.  But I think it got better really quick, so it wasn’t.

I remember one time our ward in Indiana we had a ward activity at the park, and the missionaries were there, and one was a big guy from Tonga, and we somehow started playing catch and we were way way far apart and were just bombing it to each other, and afterwards he was like, “man-I haven’t thrown it that far to a girl before in my life, and you were getting it right back to me.”  (I have a bit of a pride problem when it comes to my throwing arm.  Need to work on that.)

I always brought my football with me to YW activities and would play catch afterwards with the guys.  My high school had a powder puff football game fundraiser against a different high school, and I was one of the few girls on the team that could actually throw the ball.  It was fun- we won (though nothing really glorious from me in the game).

So I went to my email and searched for ‘football’ and it came up with a couple fun stories.

This was one I wrote to my sister:

I was playing catch with my football between
games with Brother Allred, and he can throw with his
right and left arm, and by the end he said, "You've
tired me out---BOTH my arms."  He also said I could be
quarterback on his flag football team.  Thankyou.  I
know.

Another time I wrote my brothers and sisters asking about some wedding details my mom wanted me to decide and I had no idea, so I wanted their advice.  My brother Derek helped me out with these words of wisdom (each in a separate email):

WE CARE EVEN LESS THAN YOU, LOVE DEREK

BUT HEY LET'S PLAY SOME FOOTBALL WHEN YOUR
DOWN.LOVE,DEREK

YO YO YO KAYLI  LOVE,DEREK

LATER.  LOVE,DEREK

And my sister Andrea wrote about our powder puff football game we had at USU (just a really casual thing between apartment buildings):

The second major error of Kami's letter was not
mentioning the football game we played Saturday
morning.  I slept at Kayli's house so I would be there
for the game.  We were awesome. Kayli caught a
beautiful pass for the one and only touchdown, and
Kami and I were stern and unforgiving linesmen who
stopped . . . everything--hence the other teams dismal
0 point final score.  Kami made one of the most
incredible flag pulling when the runningback ran to
the outside, and Kami, on her way to grab the flag,
slipped on the ice, and GRABBED THE FLAG WHILE SLIDING
ON HER TOUSHIE (how does one spell that?)!  IT WAS
PHENOMENAL!  We were awesome.

Okay, and the following stories which Andrea told in the same email have absolutely nothing to do with football, but were funny, so I’m sharing anyway (plus it talks about one of the first times Brett and I did something together—play pool.  I think it may have been that very week that we started liking each other):

First and foremost, Kami failed to mention that when
Andrew and Brett challenged Kayli and I to a pool
game, that I HAD NEVER PREVIOUSLY PLAYED POOL, and
Kayli only once or twice.  And we still beat them.
Three times.  (That was another of Kami's errors, she
mentioned one win--when there were many.)  They were
humiliated, beaten down, and grossly disenfranchised,
but Kayli and I did not spare them.  We gloated.
Often and with fervor unlike any gloating that has
come before.

Another gross error in Kami's letter was in respect
to the bull riding we did on Kayli's couch.  After
watching the okay movie 8 Seconds we rigged the
couches (put one on top of the other) so we could have
our own bullriding.  It was awesome.  We were awesome.
I was injured.  While Kami was riding the bull, and
Kayli and I were moving the couch around, Kami swung
her arm back and HIT ME IN THE MOUTH RUDELY AND
WITHOUT CAUSE.  The injury was not life threatening,
but Kayli and I started laughing so hard we let go of
the couch so Kami fell off, and we all layed on the
floor laughing hysterically for several minutes.  My
stomach hurt worse than my mouth.  It was hilarious,
and thus unfortunate that Kami chose not to share it
with you.

Okay, now let me tell you about the time when playing catch saved my sanity.  Once upon a time  I was pregnant with my first baby who was due in August sometime, and that was good because I was taking a summer class of Human Anatomy taught by Andy Anderson, which class is THE SINGLE MOST INFAMOUS and DREADED class at Utah State (very good class, just takes a LOOOOT of work).  So anyway, I had Jethro three weeks early to my surprise, and so was still in the class.  I called my professor from the hospital and told him that I had missed a test because I had had a baby.  He told me that was fine, I could come in the next day and take it, or I could drop that score (one test score was dropped).  I was like, umm, I’ll still be in the hospital tomorrow, I guess I’ll drop it.  So thus began the closest I’ve ever come to a mental breakdown, as over the next week or two I was in terrible discomfort, having had many many stitches, and I had to go to the cadaver lab still (I had Brett come with me for support, and when we got to the bottom of the staircase we had to climb I honestly about started crying, and Brett was like, “do you want me to carry you?”), I failed the next test I took, and I started to think that I would never be able to finish school and that I had made a big mistake and my life was ruined (remember, this is postpartum me speaking).  I remember calling my lab leader guy because the professor went out of town, and I was crying on the phone to him and he was being really nice but was probably thinking I was psycho.    ANYWAY.  I remember after a few days when I felt a little better physically, Brett and I went to the park, had Jethro sitting there in his car seat, and played catch.  And for the first time I felt like I could breathe, and a little bit like there just may be hope for our life.   (Postpartum hormones are dreadful.)  So there you go, playing a little catch saves your mental life.

Another time I remember when Jethro was still a baby, we went to a ward activity, and Brett and I sat Jethro down on a blanket near us, and we started playing catch, and Brett threw it to me, and I touched it but didn’t catch it and it ricocheted right onto Jethro’s head.  THAT was embarrassing.  And sad for poor little Jethro.

And that is the end of my reminiscing about football.

Today

So, last night after Brett and I went to bed and had just gotten to sleep, Jethro woke us up because he was sick.  So we told him to get a bucket and try to go to sleep.  About ten minutes later Brett got up to clean up Talmage after he threw up.  Then ten minutes later, I got up to clean him up again.  Then Ethne woke up and said she felt sick, so we gave her a bucket.  Which she used.  Then Hazel, except she got some in the bucket, thought she was done, and proceeded to throw up on her bed.  Then I got that cleaned up, got Talmage cleaned up one more time, and went back to my bed, wondering just how many- or few, rather- minutes I would stay in that time.  Then Orrin woke up, so I fed him and he filled up his diaper so I changed him, and he pooed all over while I was in the middle of changing him. 

It is times like these, folks, when I feel I have a LOT of children.

Luckily today most of them seem to be feeling better and no one has thrown up again.  It is so weird to me that they all got sick within such a short time of each other—like maybe it was something they ate.  But Brett and I ate the same things they did and didn’t feel sick.  Oh well.  At least we got it all done in one fell swoop.

So- this neat blog is doing a giveaway today of my sister’s homeschool/summertime learning units I talked about earlier.  Go enter to win! 

And I leave you with this ADORABLE kid singing.  I love when he does this.  Sometimes he does it at church when we’re singing a hymn.  It’s so cute. 

Big stuff and little stuff.

1- I was playing with Ethne outside the other day and noticed that she had a bunch of crayons in her pocket.  So I said to her, “Hey, you have crayons in your pocket.”  And she said, “They’re for in case of emergency.”  (She later explained the emergency as feeling like coloring but being far away from home.)

2.  We finally, FINALLY got everything together and went to the embassy and turned in Orrin’s paperwork for his citizen born abroad stuff and passport stuff.  So, hopefully after filling out forms and paying money twice (soon to be thrice when we get him his permit for living here), we’ll be good to go and maybe Brett and I and Orrin can finally go on a trip I wanted to go on since April!

3.  For most people, school is almost (if not already) out, but here the kids go until the middle of July.  Then they go back the middle of August.

4.  The month of June is going to be kindof crazy.  We have guests coming (which I could NOT be more excited for!!!!!!  YAYY for Alyse and Carlos!!), most likely a trip to Austria (if we can get the kids out of school),  Brett will be going to Brussels, Zurich, Austria (hence our trip there), and Berlin for almost a whole week.  Besides that, Hazel will be turning seven and Orrin will turn six months!!  I swear that’s impossible, but that’s what the calendar says.

5.   I was sick the beginning of last week, but got better after about three days.  Then Brett got it, and had a much worse case than I had (had to prove that he’s a man), and had to stay home from work on Friday and got worse Saturday and Sunday because he was really dehydrated because nothing that he tried to eat or drink stuck.  So after the kids were in bed that night, he was using the bathroom and passed out.  He konked his head REALLY hard on the tile floor, which left an awful-looking blood-blisterish bruise, with tile lines and everything (he’ll have fun explaining that when he goes in to work), in the middle of his forehead and the very top of his nose between his eyes, and made his nose bleed.  I was on the computer, and I heard a crash, but it was such a big crash that I was sure it came from outside the door to our apartment in the hall where there is a door in the ceiling that you can pull down the stairs and go up to the attic.  Anyway, when he came to he called me, I went in and saw him on the floor with blood everywhere and his forehead looking like someone had smashed it with a bat.  Quite the sight.  So we got him cleaned up and I called a great friend from church to come over and give him a blessing.  He also happens to be a doctor (very good trait in a friend), which I was glad of because in the middle of the blessing he passed out again.  So, our friend left us with some medicine to help keep something in his stomach and some instructions for me and told me to call him in the night if we should need him.  Brett woke up much better, and has improved a lot today.  So that was exciting.

6.  So, two different people told me recently that I should learn German.  One was the sample lady at the grocery store.  Yeah.  When she started her spiel, I stopped her and said, “English?” and she asked if I knew any German, and if I lived here, and I could tell for sure that she was about to say I should learn (with a bit of a condescending/irritating manner), but then she asked how long we were here for and I said maybe 6 months or a bit more, and she seemed to think it was okay then.  The other one was a neighbor who’s daughter will be in the same kindergarten class as Ethne this coming year, and we talked for awhile.  Her English was okay, though not super, and she asked if I knew German and I told her no, but my husband and kids do, and she basically said, “Oh you have to learn!”  I didn’t explain to her that we aren’t here permanently, so I don’t know if she would have reacted differently or not to that. 

Then today I asked Brett to call a doctor’s office for me (it seems nurses never know German), and we got in an argument because he thinks I should learn German and I … don’t.  It’s so dumb because we have had this argument so many times.  Over and over.  I was so mad and was like, why can’t you just graciously help me out for the few little errands that I can’t take care of? and he was like, why can’t you be bothered to learn enough German to be able to take care of these things yourself? and we go around and around and it makes me SOOO mad.

But then he apologized later on, and that made me feel so better. 

7.  I had the best afternoon the other day.  I took Talmage on a walk past the farm and up the hill a ways, then we came back to the backyard, and were lying on the grass feeding little clovers to our neighbor’s guinea pigs and just relaxing, then Hazel and Ethne came out and they were all playing so nicely and running around and the air was so nice and cool and the warm evening golden light was coming down on them and lighting up their heads and I couldn’t stop hugging them and I just felt so full of love for them and for my happy life.  It was just one of those precious moments that you want to bottle up. 

8.  Sometimes I worry about Jethro a little.  He doesn’t really seem to have friends here.  Although he would just read all day and probably not care, but I would like to see him have someone to chum around with.

9.  Hazel put holes in another pair of jeans today.  It’s to the point where she doesn’t have a single pair of jeans/capris to her name without a hole in the knees.  She is so hard on jeans!

10.  It’s so funny how Talmage “talks.”  For example, the other day when Orrin was crying, he started this little sing-song, “Uh-uh wahhh baby” meaning, “don’t cry baby.”  And as we were walking past the farm animals, he would say, “Bye-bye neigh!”  “Bye-bye moo!” as he went by the horses and cows.  He calls all colors boo (blue) because it’s the only color word he can say, and he calls his toy car his “vroom vroom” and his pajamas with dogs on them his “ruff ruff.”  He also counts a lot, it always goes, “eeh oh eeh oh eee!”

11.  That’s about it.  I have to get to bed.  But I have lots of pictures I want to post (including one of Tile-head, if he lets me post it.)  Goodnight.

The last days of Mom and Dad’s visit.

I’m squishing all the rest of the days with Mom and Dad into this one post, so hold on to your hats for this whirlwind tour.
First, I wanted to go to one place (called Piotta Ritom), but it ended up taking a lot longer to drive than google told us, and when we got to the very top of Susten Pass we found that the final bit of the pass was still closed for winter.  WHAT?! Ruff.   So, we got out at the top and walked around in the snow.

We had jackets, but not very warm jackets, and it was pretty chilly.  Doable when the sun was out, and it peeked out every little while.
 
Dad.

Mom.

Glacier.
 
Swiss family Bell.
 
Throughout all our travels the kids took turns riding with Grandpa and Grandma.  What a headache.  By the end of all the squabbling and crying every time we got in the cars, I wished we had said that we all drive in the van.  Oh well.  The kids had fun talking on the walkie-talkies.

We drove back down the pass to Meiringen where we took a little cable car up to the Reichenbach Falls. 

So picturesque.



So, these falls are famous because it is where Sherlock Holmes died.  See the little white star (actually you can’t even tell it’s a star in this picture- but I circled it so you can see where it is)? 
 

So here is Jethro being Sherlock.

We only bought tickets UP on the cable car, so we could hike down.  Which was fine, except it started raining a little when we got up to the top (we had to go up before we started going down again), and it was making the rocks slippery, so we were in a rush to get down, for fear it would open up and start pouring on us.    Which is too bad, because the trail was really quite neat—it went down by some chateau’s, past their fruit trees, through the fields, then it would cross a road and go down through more fields.  I thought it was so so cool.  If we hadn’t been moving along fairly quickly I would have taken more pictures because it was a really beautiful little trail - different than most.  p.s. we never got poured on.

So.  Fast forward to the next day.  We drove down to the French part of Switzerland (which looks SURPISINGLY different than the German part—the houses and city have a completely different look) to go to the Chillon Castle, on Lake Geneva.  It was a bit rainy and overcast, so I’m taking this opportunity to post some of the internet’s pictures of the Castle, because it is lovely.



 
And here is my little family in front of it.



I really wanted to buy this wooden sword and shield for Talmage.  You can see how much he loved them.
 
Can you see Jethro and Grandma?

Cutest boy in the UNIVERSE.
\
And then, all too soon, it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to go home.  When we told Talmage it was time to say goodbye, he started to cry.  You can see why—no one’s more fun than Grandpa and Grandma! 

The day before they left, there was a huge, complete, wonderful rainbow.  (My camera couldn’t even get the whole thing from end to end.)  My dad said something like he’d never seen such a big, perfect rainbow.  And I said, “Of course- it’s a Swiss rainbow.”  It was a bit of a joke by that time.  Everything’s better in Switzerland, you know.  :)
 
Fun fun fun times.  I wish they were coming back next month!!!!!!!