When Seth mentions a trip for some reason as soon as I am over being bummed that he will be gone I launch into my list of what I should try to accomplish while he is away. I am confused at how I plan on accomplishing more with less help but somehow I think free evenings will help me accomplish superwoman achievements. What on earth gives me the desire to surprise him with a potty-trained child, losing 5 lbs from not cooking him great meals, complete classes for my continuing ed, host a tea, work on DIY projects, finish articles for a deadline with World Moms and continue to keep up with normal life stuff without my super husband?!? Well, this week I have been oscillating between supermom and damsel in distress. I am embarrassed to say leaning much more towards the damsel in distress.
There have been moments of: icing mini lemon cupcakes for a tea with a crying baby on my leg; being up all night for 2 nights with a very sick baby; taking long walks to wear out energetic boys; letting the boys stay in their pj’s extra long; a half completed continuing ed class; hardly any fresh veggies; little sleep (wait I already mentioned that); silly boys telling terrible knock knock jokes and getting a good laugh; a kids kitchen that has been nagging me for a DIY marathon; more sunshine than last week!!!; lots of yoga pant days; wanting to cry when I hear Seth has stepped foot in Trader Joe’s and target without me and LOTS of missing Seth and missing being there to make big decisions on the house.
Enough complaining!! Twice now my friend Daniela has offered to have the boys. On wed she walked them to the zoo. It allowed me to get a few things done without people on my legs! She has been a God send. Today we are working on getting into the doctor. Our doctor is not working this week so hopefully we will get in easily somewhere else and Owen will be on the mend soon.
Only one more day until Seth makes it back home! Hope he skips the movies on the plane and takes advantage of the sleep!! I might be flying off to a deserted island when we meet him at the airport.
ps- the great news is that spring is coming!!! This is a picture I took last year….reminds me of what is to come!
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Well the bad news is we are nearing the end of our last fondue season in Switzerland…the good news is we are nearing the end of our last fondue season in Switzerland. It seems we have acquired some baby tummies around here, only not the sweet, human kind, the “fondue baby” kind. It doesn’t help that each and every guest that comes has been dreaming of a pot of hot, bubbly fondue when they come! We do it for the guests, I say! Recently we had friends for fondue and we were trying to figure out how many times we had had fondue since we arrived. Because we have had 26 guests Seth said at least 26 times…that number is not really accurate because thankfully we had groups of guests which means we didn’t eat it THAT often. Here is the evidence of how many pots we had with guests…the rest are unfortunately unaccounted for. At least we won’t look back longingly on our time here wishing we had just enjoyed it. We have!
Last night I had a girls night out with some gals at the Fondu Hutte…here are some not so great pictures…
We ordered herb fondue and sun-dried tomato fondue. They were both delicious!! I am often scared to stray from the plain old cheese but these were both worth trying at home. If you are local and you haven’t tried the Fondue Hutte you will have to try it out! It’s a cozy set up with furs and blankets around, a fireplace and just generally very wintery and Swiss looking. Great for tourists as well. It isn’t cheap but a fun treat during fondue season. I believe they are only open November through February for fondue and they mainly do group reservations so you have to get a table on one of the few nights when it is open seating. Which I believe is Wednesday and Thursday! So hop on over before they close for the season!
Back to the fondue baby tummy… my goal for the coming months is to get into shape before our move. Unfortunately stress doesn’t normally do amazing things for me like help me miraculously drop the pounds! My attempts to exercise with the boys is comical. Yesterday I did crunches with Owen on my stomach and Jackson whipping around the exercise band. Fun times, I tell you. I am looking forward to Spring when the birds are chirping, the sky is blue and the temps are above 7 measly degrees. I can meet Seth at the door and leave for a walk before he even realizes that he has been abandoned with the starving housebound heathens boys. Here’s hoping for a healthy Spring! And the loss of fondue tummies!
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Our Swiss friends have been telling us about their apartment in the mountains since we arrived. It is in Grindelwald where we went with my brother Graham and my sister-in-law Tina. This past weekend they lent us their place for a few days. I kept it a secret from Seth until his birthday so he only knew about it for a couple of days before we went. I was actually hesitant to go at all considering it would require all of the packing of snow gear and resettling of kids with sleep. But we decided to give it a go and thought it might be a the perfect break from the house hunt stresses. Turns out the kids slept relatively well but the house craziness continued with numerous interactions with the bank and our realtor, i.e. messages in the night and wee hours of the morning. We still haven’t heard the final word on our counter offer but we are hoping for news tomorrow when the bank is back to work.
After a relatively snow free winter here in Bern it was fun to have some really snowy days! We left Bern Friday around lunch time and started with lunch at the Trucker Bar…sounds delightful huh. Seth had read they have the best burgers in Bern….after which I decided it’s just better to wait until the US for burgers. It looked good but was a bit scary. But then again it might have been the atmosphere that threw me. We hit the rode, arrived in the afternoon and geared up to sled and play in the snow. The next morning we went sledding at a place around the corner where they offer ski lessons and lots of winter sports. Seth and Jackson got sled passes and rode the automatic ramp up and the sled down. That afternoon we went to the indoor pool at the sports center. On Sunday we woke up to big beautiful snowflakes. We played in the snow with some oh so grumpy Kolb boys and had a big pot of fondue before packing up and heading back home. The boys slept like champs last night once they were back cuddled up in their own beds. The trip might have been just what Owen needed to jolt him back to being a sleeper.
Here are some pictures from the weekend.
Grindelwald
view from balcony
(not sure if you can tell but it appeared a bird landed in the snow and left his wing markings)
a bit deep for snow angels
happy boy
rosy cheeks
Heidi was our main read of the weekend
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Last year we had a house full of chicas for a fun week! I braved heart-shaped whoopie pies which was fun but very time consuming!! This year I decided to skip the whoopie pies and we started the day with pink waffles, whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast. The boys were delighted and that started the day off with HIGH energy! They managed to sustain that energy until Seth walked in from work at around 5:30.
I tried to defuse the wildness by plopping down on the couch with a stack of books. I went through our stack of books on the shelf and pulled out all of the love books just to make it extra enticing and festive for V day. It lasted a few minutes and then they were back to wild. We filled our day with making cut out cookies, playing with friends and ended the day with a heart shaped pizza for dinner. No candlelight in this house this year! This year with the chaos of our schedule we just decided to make it a family gig and postpone the romantic dinner until the dust settles. (Did I mention we are considering gutting a foreclosure house?!….the dust abounds right now)
We have a long way to go on our journey of learning to love each other well but I hope our little family celebrations teach the boys a bit about loving each other better! I hope each of you had a happy Valentine’s Day wherever you may be!
We are heading to the mountains tomorrow thanks to a day off for Seth and some generous friends who offered to lend us their chalet in Grindelwald. Hopefully I will be back Monday refreshed and with lots of pictures!
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