Summer in 20 YAYS! and/or BOOS!

Summer 2012 went extremely fast. Here are the highlights in 20 YAYS! and/or BOOS!....give or take a YAY and/or BOO....

1. YAY! Paul and I left Switzerland to fly to the USA for summer vacation

2. YAY! We got to see our son, Austin, his wife, Jessica and meet our new granddaughter, Ava, for the first time! She is adorable and we enjoyed two weeks getting to snuggle and hold her.

3. YAY! We got to see Laura FINALLY, because she flew out before us to do some Colorado ranching for two weeks. She worked hard on the ranch and enjoyed the wide open spaces and spending time with the McDonald Family. We think they should name their ranch (farm) EIEIO as in Old MacDonald had a farm..... :) Now someone needs to come up with something clever for that acronym.

4. BOO! Paul had to fly back to Geneva to do some work. :(

5. YAY! Laura and I flew to Utah. She went to a fun week of EFY at the Provo Campus of BYU. I stayed at our little home in Orem visiting with Paul's parents, helping them out and going to the temple.

6. YAY! I got to spend time with my sister, Mary Lynne, because she was in Utah visiting too! I saw other relatives as well. I felt very loved!

7. YAY! Laura came home from EFY and we spent the next week going to every restaurant that we miss in Switzerland. That was good and bad......

8. YAY! We flew back to Colorado to spend time in our home and saw our wonderful friends. Our good friend Carol Dean also flew in from Chile! Talk about just what the Dr. ordered! I miss going for walks and visiting with her so much, but we were able to catch up a little. :)

9. YAY! Paul flew back to the USA to be in our Colorado home for 10 days.

10. BOO! There had been a Hail storm in the summer and we spent most of those ten days trying to work out things with our insurance company to put on a new roof and fix one side of the house.....still working on this. Double BOO!

11. YAY! Paul flew alone to Utah for two days to see his parents and help them out. We missed him horribly, so this receives a little boo!

12. YAY! Paul flew home Tuesday afternoon so we could pack and get ready to go back to Switzerland. Boo! --->The car window on the drivers side decided to go down and not go up. The airport is 1 hour on the freeway. My ears, hair and head will never be the same....this is a triple BOO, BOO, BOO.

13. YAY! Paul decided to rent a van to drive to the airport with windows up and plenty of room for pieces of luggage. He is our Hero!!! OXOX (not a YAY or BOO, but deserved)

14. BOO! We had to say goodbye to wonderful friends, neighbors and our dear friend Carol and fly back to Switzerland....YAY!

15. YAY! We arrived back in Switzerland and we forgot how much we love and missed it! We are super looking forward to seeing our friends here!

16. YAY! We unpacked to find all of the America food stuffs and sundries that we muled home with us.

17. Boo! Jet-lag is awful......

18. YAY! Two days home and the Jet-lag is already improving.

19. Boo! Summer is almost over!

20. Yay! We are so grateful for our home, car, job, family and all of the blessing that we have....afterall 44 days of traveling and we made it back all safe and sound! That is a Triple YAY, YAY, YAY, if anything ever deserved one.

Laura heads to the good ol' USA

Yesterday a piece of our heart left for the USA. This is just the second day and we will see her in a week and a half, but already we know that being empty nesters is going to be HARD!

Laura had to change planes in Washington DC, where her brother Austin surprised her with a visit and dinner at the airport. I guess being in the military let's you even surprise your sister behind the international customs area. Early this morning, on July 4th, Laura, arrived in Denver. Oh how we miss her!!!!

Today was Sunday

Today was Sunday, it is my favorite day of the week. Each Sunday, we go to church to partake of the sacrament, strive to learn more of the Savior and be with the other members of our ward family. Today, as I walked down the hall a little voice called out Suuu-i-Sunnn!!! I turned to see my little friend Divine. Divine's family comes from Nigeria and they are some of the wonderful people that we get to rub shoulders with here in Geneva. After Divine and I greeted each other with a hug, we decided that our clothes matched, so we took a picture together. See how we match? :)

After church we had a pot-luck luncheon to spend a little more time together and to say goodbye to the Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Murdock. They have served three years here in Switzerland and France having stewardship over 200 missionaries in that time. They soon will be released to go home to see family and get back to their lives serving in the church, being parents and grandparents. We will miss them so!! They have been great examples of love, service and sacrifice. Before the pot-luck ended, the Bishop presented them with a large book with beautiful pictures of Switzerland. As a ward, we have spent the last few weeks passing this book around so all ward members could write a message to President and Sister Murdock. After the presentation of the book, we stood around them and sang all three verses of, God Be With You Till We Meet Again. Yep, it was a teary moment and a GREAT day.

Pork and Snail

Going grocery shopping in France can

be an adventure. Escargot is EVERYWHERE and in MANY things.

I tried it once a long time ago. It was served in the shell and was chewy and garlicky, but I could not get over the fact that it was a snail. I spent many childhood days having to pick slimy snails out of our California garden to keep them from eating it up, so thinking of eating one of those snails is something that I would rather not do.

Recently, I had a run in with escargot again. I found out the hard way that you have to be careful that the sausage you are buying is not pork and

snail. I made that mistake recently, but never again. Paul, Laura and I ate the sausage not knowing that it was full of snail. The next time I went to buy sausage I looked

at the package closer and found that the cute little pig on the wrapper was being followed by a slimy little snail. I asked the Butcher what that meant this time and he said in French, "Escargot et porc tres-bien ensemble." I almost turned green on the spot. I don't dare tell my family.

My new French Phrase this week to use is, "Est-ce avec escargot?" (is this with snail?) ...because if it is...I pass.

At last SUN!!!

The last couple of days have been full of rain, but today the sun showed it's warming rays all upon our lil' part of Switzerland. The lake and mountains around were glorious. Paul and I have had some great walks lately, but the sun and the mountains made this walk among the grape fields overlooking Lake Leman a definite do-over!

She Was Just 17...you know what I mean.... Happy Birthday, Laura!

Another greeting card by Smilebox

A morning walk in France

Today I started my day with a walk in France with my friend. The woods were lovely and the red poppies were a welcome end to the morning exercise. I even found another heart in the path, which I left in place for someone else to find another day. I did some quick grocery shopping and then I was off to meet Paul. He joined me at our train station to go to our Mairie (town hall) to inquire about yearly train passes. The kind woman there did not speak English. I understood every third word, but we got the gist of what she was telling us. At least we think we did. One more reason to keep working on French.

Paying it Forward

Helping someone else when you have been getting so much help yourself, is a blessing and a huge boost to the spirit. I was down at the main train station (Gare Cornavin) in Geneva this week and had the opportunity to do just that.

A family from Australia was wielding their suitcases through the crowd and looked completely jet-lagged and confused. They were stopping people to ask directions, but no one seemed to speak English. Either that or people were in too much of a hurry. I was on my way to an appointment myself, but I had a flash from the past come into my head and heart. It was a year ago that we moved here. I had been them, so confused, tired and lost most of the time.

I had learned to say a sentence, "Ou est le/la ___?" Which is, "Where is the ___?"
A quick look at my watch helped me decide that I had time to catch the next bus, so I walked over to help them. As I approached they gave me their best French and I answered in English. The mom started to cry, right there on the spot. :(

We went to a map, so I could point out where they were going. I was able to walk them over to the tram that they should take to get them to their hotel. We discussed where they were to exit, what landmarks they would be looking for and what they would be hearing and watching for on the tram monitor, and speaker. On the way, I taught them to ask a couple of directional questions. The mom wrote them down and then repeated them several times. I gave them my cell phone number and then they were off on their tram. One year ago I was them and today I started paying it forward. Doing service, no matter how small is a gift!

Hedgehog Heaven

I am thankful for our hedge. I saw another hedgehog come out of it today! Our hedge is about seven feet tall and it completely surrounds our home and yard. It is about a 2 feet thick. So, recently the "hedge trimmers" showed up to groom our massive hedge. It was fascinating to watch the men measure and trim the top and sides. It is quite an art. It took two days to finish and clean up. The next day our gardeners came to take care of the side and back lawns and clean up anything that the "hedge trimmers" left behind. After they left, I went out into the backyard to find a hedgehog walking slowly from one portion of the yard to another. When he saw me he froze. He turned his little head to watch me. He was so cute. After about 10 minutes he walked to a shady portion of the hedge and disappeared. If that is why they call them hedgehogs, then I am glad that we have a hedge.

FREE Hearts, Hands & Feet

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Get your own

It is fair to say that I am fairly frugal when it comes to traveling. Souvenirs in a small village look authentic, but many times they have been made in China. What you see in Istanbul, as exotic souvenirage, <---(new word) can be found in London at some Kitchy store. :( About 15 years ago I started "Hands and Feet." When we travel somewhere my children always knew that I would call upon them for a "Hands or Feet" picture. Whether at our Nations Capitol in Washington DC, in the sacred grove of upper state New York or at the beach in California, I have pictures of my family's "Hands and Feet". I LOVE looking back at the pictures to see our shoe styles, my kids toes in the sand or their hands during different stages of their lives. I want to put all of these in a huge collage for our home one day. Included now is the improved "Hearts, Hands & Feet." My sister told me about the idea of looking for "Hearts" and I have made it my own. Whenever and where ever we travel, we looks for heart-shapes in nature. It costs nothing and is a great loving reminder of a day. I love when Laura has been scouting for a heart and shows it to me. I wish that I had done this when my kids were tiny. It really can keep kids happy and busy. For example, we find a heart shaped rock and put it in our pocket as a place keeper. If during the day we find another, then we compare. Majority wins and we keep the most heart-shaped piece. That way we bring only a small reminder home. Sometimes I collect the tiny heart-shaped rocks and write the name of the place where we picked it up. I have a jar of "Hearts" sitting in my living room. More often, I just take pictures of the "Hearts" that we find. Small stones in our path as we are walking up hiking trails, stones in a rock wall, a tree with a heart in it's bark or even a cloud overhead. They are all over the world. They are my secret little reminders that Heavenly Father Loves me. When Paul or one of my kids find one to point out to me...I just melt and feel more loved.