Back again

Wow, the last few weeks have flown by! Sorry I haven't been around for a while, I seem to have had a writers block and nothing seemed to flow, so I just left it. Well I'm back now.....

What has happened in the past weeks? Well I turned 39 on the 16th and am holding on with both hands. The number 40 sounds scary to my ears and I don't know how I'm going to react when next March rolls around. What I do know is that I want to have a party.......we'll see if I laugh or cry!!

I decided that I wanted to spend my birthday doing something crafty, so I coloured in and cut out these lovely butterflies (my favourite embellishment at the moment) and made these cards. The kids thought I was a little mad, but it was my birthday and this is what I wanted to do! I received lots of birthday greetings and spent quite a few hours on the phone. All in all it was a good day.

The hubster took me to the opera a week after my birthday to see Verdi's relatively unknown "Alzira". It was sung in Italian and luckily for the audience there were sub-titles on a small screen above the stage. I thought it was a brilliant idea. At least you were able to get an idea of what they were singing!

Melissa has finally finished her 60 page paper on "Diabetes Mellitus Type II" and will hand it in today. She is hoping for at least a "B" grade. We are all glad that she is finished and life can become normal again for a few months before life changes again in September. Perhaps she can start dating again, now that she has time.....

We went to Basel after church yesterday to visit The hubster's grandmother who had taken a turn for the worse. René, (father-in-law)  was also at the nursing home with us. We had hoped she would reach her 100th birthday (her birthday is in July), but it seems it's not to be. She was very weak and wasn't coherent the entire time we were there. The doctors had put her on morphine to ease the pain as she was refusing food and water. We stayed for 3 hours and said our goodbyes. It was sad. I've know Omi, as the family call her since October 1988 and I even stayed with her for 6 weeks when I came over to Switzerland in February 1989. We had an interesting time as I couldn't speak German and she couldn't speak English. We used our hands and facial mimics an awful lot during those six weeks! :)

We saw her reguarly, and for the last few years before we moved away from the Basel area, we used to visit her nearly every Sunday evening. I have fond memories, and am grateful for her help with the Swiss/German cuisine. My potato salad recipe is from her as is my salad vinaigrette. 

Jordan and Daniel got a little bored so they took turns playing around with her wheelchair (I got side-tracked and didn't take any of Daniel....sorry kiddo!)

We got a phone call from René this morning informing us that Omi (Mina Zoller-Ludwig) had passed away at 00:15 this morning. We're now just waiting for information regarding the funeral. Another generation/era has come to an end.....

I went to the doctors this morning regarding the pain in my shoulder. If you remember, I fell on the ice last month and it is still causing me pain 7 weeks later. I have to have an MRI on Wednesday but he's pretty sure the tendon is not torn but just strained. I'll keep you informed....

It's my oldest brother, Brian's birthday today. He is 17 years my senior - work it out yourself to find out how old he is today :) He is already a grand-dad.......such a strange thought! 

I am the same age my mother was when she had me. I couldn't imagine having another baby at my age, although I don't think my age is the issue, rather that it's been 11 years ago since our last baby was born and 19 since our oldest. I can only imagine what my mother must have been feeling when the doctor informed her that she was pregnant! I wouldn't be too pleased either! You have so much more freedom when the children are older and I can only imagine how hard it was for her to lose that freedom especially as she thought she was finished having babies!

I was 19 years and 10 months old when I had Melissa. Can you imagine if that were Melissa? She is exactly the age I was when I found out that I was pregnant. 

I am glad that I was blessed with the opportunity to get married and have my children when I was young. I am aware that not everyone has that opportunity and I know that I have been lucky. 

Hugs all,

Rebecca

A busy week

This week has been busy. The two younger kids and the hubster have been off school and we have been enjoying the time together.
Sunday morning didn't get off to a great start as we were running late. Aaron got up at only 08.20 and we usually have to leave by 08.35, so you can imagine things were a bit hectic! As Aaron was in our bathroom, Mr D had to go down to the boys bathroom to fix his tie. I thought it was so sweet to see both father and son fixing their ties together. I just had to take a photo! (the quality is bad, I know!)


We got to church at 08.55 and I jumped out of the car and forgot about the snow and ice and promptly slid and fell over. I fell on my right side and hurt my shoulder. It has given me a bit of pain this week but it is managable; now it just aches. Church was ward conference, so I didn't have to do anything except listen - that was nice.
In the afternoon, (after making a batch of cookies) I went to Julianne's surprise baby shower. I could only stay a couple of hours as I had to pick Jordan up from the Conrad's but the time I spent there was fun. Julianne's due date was 7th February but the doctors decided to start things earlier. She went into hospital on Monday (1st) for a planned C-section on Tuesday (2nd) morning. Tini Lauener called us all up on Friday and she organized the surprise party for her.

Tini made a diaper cake - isn't it cute?

A ton of food - I imagine Etienne, Julianne's husband is still eating it some of it now!

Renée

Madelein and Courtney

Roseanne

Tini

Tini's son Joni

Roseanne playing the "guess what chocolate is smeared on the diaper" game. Even though we knew that it was chocolate, it was still kind of gross holding the nappy/diaper up to our noses! I got all them right - mars, twix and milky way! Yeah - I know my chocolate!!

Jasmin and Jenny having fun with their diapers/nappies! :)

On Monday I had to get Melissa's laundry finished so she could pack when she came home from work. I ironed for most of the day and my shoulder was really killing me! As I was housebound, Roland took the boys sledging and they were out all afternoon leaving me to get my tasks done in peace :)

On Tuesday we decided to go skiing and went to Krumenau in Toggenburg, a small family ski resort 45 mins. away from home. The weather was okay but the snow conditions were perfect; soft powder snow. We were there for about six hours and had a great time and I only fell over once!On Wednesday evening Melissa flew off to New Zealand. Can you believe it? My baby girl on such a big adventure? She and her friend Susanna will be in NZ for three weeks and will be staying at my brother, Keith's place in Christchurch. We decide to drive the girls to the airport and we picked up Susanna and her mother, Maria on the way. We left home at 17:45 and got to Zürich airport around 19:10. We met up with the Boos family who were saying goodbye to their daughter, Daniela who will be in Australia for the next 2 1/2 months to improve her English. All three girls were on the same flight to Dubai and even got to sit next to each other!
Susanna's luggage was heavier than her allowed 30 kg weight limit, so things got a bit heated while she had to empty out three kilos of "stuff" before they could check in. Luckily Melissa only had 26 kgs! We left home with plenty of time to spare but by the time they finally checked in it was 20.30 and it was time for them to make their way to passport control to be able to get to their gate in time. The gate opened at 21.05 and their flight to Dubai was planned to take off at 21.45. We said our goodbyes and off they went! Boo hoo!
I was so mad at myself that I'd left my camera at home on the table. I'd gotten it ready and with Melissa leaving everything to the last moment, things turned a little hectic and I forgot it! At least I had my phone with me and was able to take at least one photo of the girls while they were waiting in the check-in line. I took some photos with Roland's camera but Melissa took that with her, so I'll have to wait for those photos.
Melissa called us on Friday morning letting us know that they had arrived in Christchurch safely and that everything had gone well. There was no problem with any of the flights (stopovers in Singapore and Sydney) and that she was happy with the standard of Emirates. I am glad that she in such capable hands and am grateful for Keith and Sue for having them stay.

On Thursday the hubster wanted to go skiing again but I didn't want to. So he and the two boys went together. They went to Brand in Austria which is just under a hour away from here and had a super time. This time the weather was fantastic, and the hubster said that the boys improved their skiing techniques quite a bit. I love it when the boys spend time together.
I was happy to have the day to myself. No cooking for anybody and no specific time to be home! I read in bed until 10:00 and then got myself ready to go into town. I got the boys' present for their dad (a cd voucher) and also got one from myself; I got him a new pullover. He'd already got his new planner last week. After doing some grocery shopping I took advantage of my spare time and went to visit Julianne and baby Edison Taft at the clinic. He is so cute! All he does is sleep and she has a hard time waking him up and keeping him awake to eat. A mother's dream, right?!

I thought it funny that all of us are in blue/turqouise.

Friday the husbter turned 47! Doesn't that sound old? It may sound old but he isn't.
For his birthday treat, he wanted to go to the new spa in Bad Ragaz, so that is what we did. Aaron had taken a day off work, so we left all three boys together and we went to spoil ourselves.
It was so relaxing and it felt like a holiday. We were there for nearly 6 hours and we slept for at least 1 1/2 hours of that. We swam, we went in the saunas and steam baths and then relaxed on the beds that were there, then we swam some more. We came home thoroughly relaxed.


For dinner I cooked us all some rib-eye steak with green beans and a salad. For dessert, I'd made a mississippi cake (made on Thursday evening) and that was eaten with lots of fresh cream.
Roland in his new pullover.

Well that was my week and what a busy week it was. I am now looking forward to a lazy weekend. Perhaps I can finish my book........

Hugs all,

Rebecca

Melissa turns 19

What's so special about the 13th January, you might ask yourself? Well, it's the day that our baby girl was born. Melissa Anne Diezi was born on a Sunday at 5.10 pm after a very long 15 1/2 hours of labour weighing 3450g and 50 cm long. She had blue eyes and dark hair.
Here she is at 3 weeks:
Here she is at 6 months:

And now she is 19! Where on earth did the time go? It only seems like yesterday that we were celebrating her 18th birthday and what do you know, it's January 13 again!

She took the day off work and spent it leisurely. She got up at 9.30 and took a nice bath and then we had breakfast together - croissants! She's asked for mexican for lunch so I made some chicken tortillas and we made wraps. After lunch, we went into town to do some birthday shopping. She'd already had her main birthday present in November - some special shoes for work - Joya shoes to help with her back problems. Since wearing these she hasn't had any more backaches. They are a sister company to MBT shoes.

So after dragging a "screaming" Daniel out of the house, we went into town to do some girly shopping - poor Daniel. Well it's not my fault that it was Wednesday afternoon and he didn't have school. Jordan had gone to a friends house and I didn't want to leave Daniel alone.
She got some clothes and some make-up and some very expensive Estée Lauder Idealist skin refinisher. I hope it does its job! :)
When we came home we had some cake - a black forest gateaux - and then she left for Institute.

She is having a party/sleep over on Saturday and has invited about 15 of her friends. We're getting rid of Daniel and Jordan so we'll have the space to put people. It's Singles Ward on Sunday and they will all have brunch at our place and go together. I'll let you know how we survive - thank goodness I've got ear plugs! :)

I'm off to tend Stephanie's twins this afternoon.....I'm excited and anxious at the same time.

See you later.

Hugs,

Rebecca