The boys are cuddled on the couch listening to a Curious George audio and thawing from our snowy time. Now don’t be deceived, the morning hasn’t all been this peaceful. Oh, and now it isn’t again. Owen has pressed his strong-willed little self between me and the keyboard.  We’ll see how this works.

Let me describe our morning for you before I share some happy snow pictures. As Seth was getting ready this morning he commented on how the boys behavior has improved dramatically.  I couldn’t agree entirely after our Monday.  I said something like “buckle up buddy, I try not to make those proclamations so early in the morning, it tends to jinx us”. When I came out to the kitchen the boys were already at it. Jackson wanted to blue bowl that Owen had and on and on. After breakfast I popped in Sesame Street sharing video and what do you suppose they did while watching it? they fought over toys. We finished up, played and had snack time which went pretty well. It’s our first really snowy day, and although my inner voice was screaming “curl up with a book and hot choki and a cozy quilt”  the good mommy voice fought me with “take your kids outside already”. SO we proceeded to spend the next 30 plus minutes gearing up for snow play. We stepped out, I snapped a few pictures, Owen pulled off his gloves screaming, and in flew a little bird. As in, during Owen’s commotion a little bird tried to find refuge in our house since his outside peace was clearly gone. I let the boys play a few minutes outside and shoveled the walkway just to not cancel out all of the work of gearing up. And then we spent the rest of the morning getting the little guy out. He was beautiful but he pooped on everything he landed on. Computer, lamp shades, toys. And somehow I am laughing about it. (this may be coming before a good cry)

Did I mention Owen is still waking up in the night?! And that I really need him to. Not want him to. NEED him to. I am so tired and so grumpy. Oh yea, and we are waiting for a response on an offer we put on a house. So stress levels are high and bird poop is widespread. Both boys are now at my ankles, Curious George has been halted because they started fighting over holding the book and the page got torn. Off to a pb&j lunch.

Thankful for beautiful snow, a warm house, friends around the globe, leftovers so I don’t have to cook tonight, a niece on the way any day and  pb&j. Wait, I think that rhymes.

so forlorn waiting on mommy to say it’s go time

see the bird perched on the book shelf? not a great picture but you get the idea!

my father-in-law may have to read the blog today to tell us what kind of bird we hosted today!

People often ask what exactly Seth does. Nope he isn’t a CIA agent. He is currently the chief of the American Citizens Services Unit of the Embassy. He issues passports to babies born abroad, takes care of details related to death of Americans in Switzerland, meets with disgruntled Americans, takes care of issues related to American’s in prison in Switzerland, preschool talks on diplomacy and things like that. In addition to Americans in Switzerland he takes care of Americans in Iran. Previously he was issuing non-immigrant and immigrant visas.  Basically, he is doing lots of different things and working hard…so your tax dollars are not being wasted!

The Embassy is about 15 minutes from our home which has been a super duper perk of living in Bern.  Seth is able to hop on a tram that takes him about a block from the Embassy. You can’t ask for much more than that in terms of ease.  Here are a few pictures I took back in the summer when I was going to post some pictures of the Embassy…then life happened and here we are in a new year. oops.

Last week Seth went to school with Jackson and was the parent of the morning, sharing about his occupation.  Jackson was proud as a peacock as you can imagine. He sat in the front of the room with Seth and acted as the host for the presentation. I just can’t imagine where he gets some of these personality traits?! At Jackson’s preschool he showed them passports and special lights to detect fraud. The kids enjoyed getting to try them out. Seth said throughout the presentation Jackson added in his 2 cents, often completely irrelevant but at least he had a captive audience. Following Seth’s presentation Jackson and his class made passports with their teacher as their craft.

Not sure the kids were impressed with the suit and tie but you do what you gotta do to represent the good old United States of America abroad. Up next in July is a position in the newly named Foreign Assistance Office in DC.

Good Morning!

Well, night before last was a better night…Owen was only up at 3:45 and 5:30. And then slept until 6:15. Baby steps. We celebrated by me hopping out of bed and making banana nut pancakes for the crew…not a Monday normal around here.  Last night if I am remembering right he only started getting up at 5 AM so it was an even better night. Tonight should be golden! Pretty sure this jetlag bout could be enough to stop this FS life with a screeching halt. Now I know why husbands go to Baghdad unaccompanied around their 3rd or 4th tour-so the wife and kids can stay put for a bit and avoid dramatic time zone changes!  Buckle up Seth, we might be sending you to the green zone.

We had a very low key weekend. Seth survived the commissary run and we even unpacked and organized all of the groceries when he arrived back. He shopped for 3 hour and 3 carts. He got everything on the list with a few brand downgrades Way to save, babe. It normally takes me a couple of hours the next day to put everything away but we pushed through, did it Sat evening and it was such a relief.

A friend bought me the book “Beyond Chocolate”. I heard about it when we arrived and have meant to read it since but I was too distracted by Swiss culture to remember to track it down So I am hoping to get into it this week and gain some insight for our last months here. Thanks, Daniela.

And this is the boys favorite read of the week… “The Amazing Adventures of Bumblebee Boy!”  by David Soman and Jacky Davis. If you have never read it and you have kids you have to get it. And when you read it you now can sum up what our days look like around here. I am living in a Bumblebee boy house…and when we read the book the character Sam is named Jack because it only seems appropriate.

We are drinking lots of hot chocolate and hoping for some snow around here. We had some beautiful heavy snowflakes on Friday afternoon but they turned into rain within the hour. I had hopes of a cozy snow day. Now I am not asking for a big enough snow to be pretty for a day and turn into a month of sludge….I want a pretty snow that comes on a Friday afternoon and things clearing by Sunday evening 😉

House hunting is fun and not so fun. The market is picking up. Houses on our list are starting to go under contract within days of going on the market. Hmmmm. This could get interesting. I think I am looking forward more to the paint chip picking. Although knowing me I could make that stressful too. But in the end at least my stress might result in pretty color?! right?!

My 30th birthday is creeeeping up and it is making me a wee bit sentimental. Honestly, I think we have been through some big things that I wouldn’t have expected until later in life so lots of days I feel older than I am. I could probably afford to use a few years of my 30’s for pure fun. More on turning 30 coming soon.

Last Sunday we got out of the house in the morning for some time in the snow! Our friends invited us to join them in Gurnigel with their 2 boys that are close to our boys ages. We had so much fun. I had received some very sad news that morning from a friend back home so in all honesty I wanted to curl up at home and cry but I was so thankful to get out and be refreshed. I ended up being the camera girl instead of sledding because I just wasn’t up for it. But it was super fun to watch everyone else and to yell “SETHHHHHHH” when he nearly tossed Owen off with every bump or curve. I won’t include those pictures. Yikes.  Are you as shocked as I am that God gave me 2 boys and a not so relaxed temperment?!  Yea, me too!

and as Seth and the boys slugged along on our old school sleds our German friends raced along on this speedy thing…it seems even their sleds are faster!

weary sledders after many daredevil stunts!

(this photo taken by Tim Ziert)

how’s that for sledding view?! I am confident this may be the best we ever see while sledding!! Stunning!

(this photo taken by Tim Ziert)

We headed back and had apple strudel and ice cream for lunch!  It may become a Sunday regular! It’s days like this that I don’t mind our church having an evening service.