Welcome to harmony's Roundeo.

After months of hard work, rejection, and patience, we got accepted to a BIGGER apartment! Spencer has done much work and I'm so grateful for him and for our answered prayer!

We have honestly looked at at least a dozen apartments and applied to probably half, maybe applied to less, as most of them were either out of price range or just not acceptable for various reasons. The night we looked at this apartment, I honestly had a good feeling about it. When we were walking to it, a thought in my heart in mind came, "this is it." But of course our experience here with apartment hunting and rejections told me to keep all hope at bay.

In looking at apartments here there's always a compromise, well, this is nice, but it is old and dirty, or it has no balcony, or the washer and dryer have to be cramped into the kitchen, or the layout is super funky and not very functional, etc. Or of course, the price is too high, or the location isn't so great.

But God had a good thing waiting for us. This apartment has the required 3 bedrooms and 2 toilets (with 4 potty-users it's become quite stressful at times, especially for a certain girl with short blond hair who screams and cries when it is not available when she wants it), and a nice layout, a balcony, room for washer&dryer in the bathroom, parking is not required (which adds around 250/month to the price of an apartment!). the kitchen is probably a slight improvement, and GET THIS, it's close by and LESS than what we pay now! (unless we do decide we need to parking, in which case our rent would then only be 100 more per month than it is now).  It's actually close enough that it is the same distance in the opposite direction from Cado's school. Although it's actually on another planet, Planete Charmilles. heheh, I'm a dork. (Planete Charmilles is the shopping center). We are actually hoping to keep the kids in the same schools, though I am already doubting my ability to do that as it would mean being very disciplined and all the weight of it would be on me, no more pedibus (parents sharing taking kids to and from school. school here goes from 9 to 11:30, then kids go home for lunch, and back from 1:30 to 4:00! ugh. Cado stays for "parascolaire" two days a week which means he doesn't come home in the middle)

We had previously made a decision to accept KPMG's proposal and stay until October of 2010 (here), and as part of that decision we hoped to be able to move into a bigger place. After we said yes, they said we realized it doesn't make sense for us to let you go in October, right after the unproductive summer and right before the busy season when we need you the most. They said they would extend him not through October but through the end of busy season. We took their proposal to prayer and personal discussion and decided to take their offer but to stay through the end of the kids' school year. We will be here until early summer 2011. It was a really hard decision because we miss our families and friends and living in America for lots of reasons. When Spencer first told me I honestly moaned. I had a plan, and I wanted to stick to it, and 2011 just sounded weird and too far away. But after discussing all  the pros and cons, we ended up feeling good about staying the extra 8 months.

So, yeah, it's a really great thing that we got this apartment. I HATE moving, who doesn't? But for that extra space and the financial benefits, it will be worth it. Now it's crunch time. We will move in in just a couple of weeks and have obviously done no preparations yet as we just got the news yesterday.  We can live there from the 15th on. Then we fly to the states on the 19th! sheesh. We will be very ready for our vacation!

...took a little longer than I thought..but, it happened.

Yesterday the kids looked like this.

Tonight they looked like this

Did you catch the difference? Look again.

Yep, the kids cut their hair.

The story: I was exhausted and napping on the couch, Daddy was taking care of getting Geneve to take a nap, and Cado and Paisley came in, woke me up and said, "Look at our hair! don't we look like babies?" I glanced (without glasses or contacts) and said, "mmmhmmm." and then closed my eyes and zonked out again. It looked to me like they had gotten their hair a bit wet and styled it. When I woke up, Spencer said, "the kids cut their hair." I didn't believe it at first, "no...really?" Then I looked closer and keeled over from shock.  Mostly because of Paisley. Cado did her in good. Not only did he cut the very front extremely short, but took chunks out further back so that there was no way around having to chop off a ton of hair.

these photos are before I "fixed" them:

These pictures very much show the way they each felt about it! Cado bad, Paisley oblivious. (& what a poser!)

Fortuately she is a beautiful girl regardless and it's not like she had amazing hair anyway. In fact I've considered the idea of cutting it really short for a long time and more recently as I've seen little girls with cute pixie style cuts and thought maybe that's what Paisley needs is to start over. However I don't think I would have done it. So, maybe this is a blessing in disguise.

Paisley recently, pre-haircut

I have these photos below because I actually did cut her hair recently and took some pictures afterwards. I haven't cut it in a long time, but it truly was getting rattier and uglier, so i said, forget it, accept it! she's got to have short hair for now, it looks healthier, curlier, shinier and better. After I cut it I was really pleased and it has been looking better lately as you can see in these pictures.

Oh well!

the hair pile

After I collapsed on the floor and commenced moaning. Cado said, "What!? what's the matter?! I thought they looked good! Why does it look horrible?" He seemed genuinely surprised that we weren't thrilled with the job he did! kinda sad. (My earlier unintentional approval probably didn't help). Then I said, no, this is a boy haircut you gave her, she used to have hair on her forehead, now its gone. It's...horrible."  I told them to leave the room so I could be alone. Paisley wasn't too affected by the whole thing. She tried to say she told him not to, but I'm quite certain that's not the case, when Paisley really doesn't want something everyone in the neighborhood knows. She's a screamer. She said, "I wanted to be Beadiant (obedient)..."

After their haircuts, before Mom's haircuts

Anyway, no punishments were doled out, no raising of voices, not even any tears from me. Cado was upset about it enough on his own, and after basically putting himself in time out, apologized, and we made sure they understood this would NEVER happen again. I'm so glad Geneve was spared due to being asleep. I think I would have been the most upset about her hair and most likely Cado would have attempted to do hers too. Yes, Cado was the cutter. Paisley just allowed it but did no cutting.

After Mom's haircuts. Yes, my kids think they are models! they pose instantly when the camera is out.

In the end it's just hair, and it's kind of funny and cute, and almost a rite of passage of childhood. After all, I was involved in a similar scenario at a similar age. Paisley did say tonight quite sadly, all of a sudden , a bit tearfully, "I miss my bangs. I didn't want a haircut. They were beautiful, and now they're not." Cado after observing her haircut tonight said, "She does have a boy haircut."  That being said, I think she's just as beautiful, and just a bit more spunky looking, which goes quite well with her little personality anyway.

This is where froufrou headbands do the most good, and Rapunzel wigs become even more precious. Good thing we have both.

Cado was being very sweet today at the park and until now. He was playing really cute with his little 2 yr. old friend James, playing frisbee and being a very big big brother. Then Paisley was really sad about her feet being cold and hurting.and he said putting his hand on her shoulder, "I know you're sad Paisley, but it will be okay. we'll be home soon." And was just being super attentive and loving and sweet and comforting to her. He gets in these moods where he is such a big boy and you can see that he's made a decision at that moment to be that and that he feels really happy and good about it. He was saying things like, "you're soo cute Paisley!" and such.  After awhile of occupying himself wiht her and her needs he said, "When I feel Jesus and the Holy Spirit, its like a warm blanket wrapped around me." :) cute. His choice to be sweet, kind and loving made me think of the power of our choices for good or bad and how they affect us and everyone around us. His choice to love made him happy and full with more love and changed Paisley's perception of her pain and her tolerance for it, and she in turn became very loving to him, and their loving each other and sweetness filled me with sweetness and love toward them! Love really is a powerful thing, and it is a choice. When we got to our elevator I could see that Cado just wanted to serve her. He was filled with a desire to make her happy. So he lifted her up so she could push the button of the elevator and then as we were getting into the elevator Cado's love for Paisley was so great that he just had to give her a big kiss, and then she grabbed his cheeks and pulled him in and gave him one back! Love begets love, it is something we choose, cultivate and nurture, and the rewards are great and worth any efforts. It makes me sad that so often people have the mentality of it being someone else's fault that someone is unloveable or that they just "fall out of love" or don't love each other anymore in a marriage. The choice must be made and remade to love others and it will fill us up and change our lives and others.

DO try this when you feel like eating a few fabulous and easy "Mexican" meals for a few days in a row:

1. Make a Chicken tortilla soup for dinner. My mom has a great recipe...that I don't have, so I made one with a combination of these recipes: this; and this

Musts: avacado, tortilla strips: cut corn tortillas thin and throw them in hot oil for a few seconds.

2. The next night cook up some chicken breasts in a pan with olive oil, garlic, onion or onion powder, s&p, and lemon and lime juice. And chop them up and have Chicken Tostadas (fry corn tortillas flat and add chicken, ref. beans, lettuce, tomato, avacado, cheese, salsa, sour cream, jalapenos, etc.) And if you want have a little of your soup on the side.

3. The next day for lunch make a YUMMY salad like this: lettuce (any works, i used butter lettuce, but iceberg, romaine, etc. works) topped with last night's chicken, diced tomatoes (i had leftover from the tostadas), cilantro, avacado, feta cheese, crushed tortilla chips or leftover strips, and a white dressing (here it's a yogurt or french or provecale dressing) and some dashes of lime juice.  Warm up a bowl of your soup.... And go to your happy place.

That's what I did.

Oh yeah, and for extra INDULGENCE, make this:

I have not figured out the melted sugar thing very well though, it wasn't the right consistency, it was hard, I ended up reheating it and adding water...But this dessert for me, even though it is super rich, is the same as when I have pumpkin pie in the house, as in I think about it and want to eat it all the time!

And this doesn't go with my Mexican theme, but I loved this soup (and so did my family)

And now I know why I don't share stuff very often! It takes too much time, and I didn't even make the post pretty or add pictures! How do people do it? I hope this post helps someone somehow and then it will have been worth it!

This is our Halloween day. I started with a 9 am photo shoot, then Spencer and the kids joined me afterwards at the park nearby my shoot as well as our friends the Gillespies. We took pictures for each other, played at the park and then went driving through the beautiful fall colors to find some pumpkins. The patch was pretty funny, a tarp thrown on the ground on an obscure farm, with a can to put your money in, honor system style. We got tiny pumpkins for a large price. Then we carved them and got ready for the Halloween event at the church. Cado was Optimus Prime, Paisley was BArbie Rapunzel, and Geneve Penelope the purple dragon ( friend of Barbie Rapunzel).

We had a fun time at the party. The kids got to walk out on a catwalk to show off their costumes, play some games, do some activities and of course trick or treating at the doors of the church. It was a very full day. We miss Halloween in the States and with family, but until we can do that again, we're glad we at least have the church party and some good friends.  Despite some early costume preparation, I still stayed up super late the night before finishing Cado's costume and prepping for all the photos the next day. But it turned out to be a really nice, fun day despite the tiredness and busyness! Hope you had a nice Halloween too!

So, I really am very lucky to have such great girlfriends here, and so many! So, in the summer one of these friends, Jessi Berg said "we need to do a girls trip, let's go to Zurich!" 9 of us were able to go (and two babies.) I have never done something like this, and so I was very excited. I felt very fancy and mature somehow (I know that sounds really lame!) to be doing a ladies only trip like this, and to such a cool destination!

We decided to take the train (it's a three hour ride) and go on September 5th. It was so fun to do it this way, it meant we were all together and got to chat the whole way (and back) which is what we women do best! Jessi was our amazing trip planner and guide as she used to live there. She planned it all out, and gave us an itinerary and all sorts of helpful information. And her love of the place added so much to the experience. The rest of us didn't have to do anything but show up! 

On the way there, it was pretty funny, she was telling us what we were going to do and about the train station and I suddenly interjected, "Oh yeah! At the train station right now, there's a dinosaur exhibit!" And Jessi immediately said, "We don't have kids." Maybe you had to be there, or be a young mom with young kids, but it was funny. I was all excited about the dinosaurs, and she reminded me that we were free to do girly things today!

I did indeed leave my 3 cuties with my awesome, capable and supportive husband. He never once made any protest of any kind about me taking this trip. It was no big deal for him. I am still breastfeeding, so I was ready to get back to feed my baby when we got home at 11 pm.  I left Spencer wtih no preparations like dinner, or tips or anything, a birthday gift to buy for a girl friend of Cado's (and the party to go to along with it), and Paisley actually got some sort of rash of spots while i was gone, that we thought was chickenpox, (but have since doubted); and Spencer just took it all in stride! (Thanks honey!)

(oh, another great thing about this day was I was able to fit into a skinnier pair of jeans finally! see above!)

So, we did not look at dinosaurs in the train station, and to Cado's dissapointment I didn't even take a picture (though I brought him a treat so I think it was okay in the end)! Instead we did some window shopping down the Bahnhofstrasse which is a big shopping street with some chocolate shops and a cool toy store, ate lunch at a cool upscale department store, strolled through the flea market, went on a boat ride on the lake, ate bratwurst (so yummy!), toured the old town, shopped at the coolest wooden toy store ever (Wait, what's up with all these toy stores? we didn't have kids!), went in the cathedral, walked and talked and rode trams, ate a yummy dinner at a modern italian place with a cool vibe, and took plenty of photos! 

It was a really nice, fun, relaxing, memorable tour of a cool European city, with a bunch of really great women and friends. Thank you ladies! And especially Jessi! Let's do it again! Christmas market in Bern anyone??