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spencer on Monday October 22, 2007

Who wants an update on the apartment search?

I hope you are in a wonderful mood before you read this - it can get discouraging. Of the four apartments we have applied for, we've been turned down for three. One because we were a little late in getting the application in despite the fact that we turned it in right after seeing the apartment.

We are waiting to hear back on the last apartment we applied for, a nice apartment in a pleasant area of Geneva for a decent price. We have been told that they will be making a decision later this week.

We are currently booked in this hotel/apartment until the end of October. So if we don't find something we've got to make some sort of decision. We could possibly move into another furnished apartment (3 bedroom so much bigger than this one) for one month, but would have to move out before December 1st, so would have to find something by that time. Or we could possibly move into a different three bedroom, but have to stay for 3 months, postponing our search to move into something the 1st of February. That's a long time to be in temporary housing, but once again more space than here.

On Wednesday we plan on going on an apartment search with an agency again. We'll see what is available now and later (in the coming months). And, like I said, we are still waiting to hear on the one apartment. We wouldn't want to get a temporary situation if we could get an actual apartment, but it's hard to know when that would be...

So what would you do?

We are going to do one thing at a time - first look at the temporary apartments to see if they are clean/livable, they could be disgusting. Second, try to find out about the apartment we've applied to. Third if we still need to look, go for an apartment search on Wednesday. Fourth make a decision based on more info at that point in time.

Our preferred solution - that we get the one apartment that we still have an application in for - we appreciate all of your prayers, and our kids do too.

Love you all - Spencer

p.s. Harmony has been piecing together possible furnishings from the IKEA catalogs. It's really cool how she's laid out possible options. Pretty exciting if we could have a place to put the IKEA stuff!

8 comments - view comments or leave one

bellrn on Monday October 22, 2007

Im keeping your family in my thoughts and prayers!! Apartment hunting is very frustrating!

On another note, I LOVE IKEA!! What a great store! In fact I was there this weekend getting some finishing touches for my apartment! :)

GOOD LUCK!!!

Virginia on Monday October 22, 2007

I am all out of advice but I am praying fervently for you. I know the Lord knows your situation and he cares about you. It is apparent in small things. For instance, the first time we went inside our trailer after it was recovered, I had a reaction to something. My eyes & tongue burned, my throat hurt and I had a headache. We were only in the trailer a few minutes. The police felt confident that no meth had been cooked inside the trailer and only a small bag of meth was found. They felt confident that there was no contamination. I decided because I had a little reaction that for my peace of mind I would at least call the health department and obtain a meth kit, take some samples and take it to a lab in SLC for analysis. When I picked up the meth kit at the environmental health dept in Provo I was told that the trailer could be contaminated if meth was used in the trailer. Well today when I got home from Boise, I checked my e-mail and the analysis indicated that the results exceed state decontamination limits by quite a bit. So, I feel that my reaction when I went into the trailer was a direct blessing from the Lord. Had that not have happened, we would have taken the Detectives word and used everything as is. Now, a decontamination process by a specialist will have to take place before anyone can go into the trailer to even get an estimate of the repair costs for the things that were damaged. So, I know the Lord will let you know - whether in a simple way or a big way. You just have to recognize the answer. Pray in faith, expecting an answer.

bruce_roundy on Monday October 22, 2007

Sounds like a very methodical approach, Spence. I hope for the very best for you.

We'll keep praying.

love, dad

harmony on Tuesday October 23, 2007

We were looking at pictures today on the computer and all the sudden Cado felt very homesick. I want to go to the house with the dirt (our house had a long dirt hill/planter on the side of the yard). I miss my Grammi! I want to go to Grammi's house! I don't want to live in Switzerland anymore." This was the first REAL homesickness he's felt I think. he said, "Can we just get on a plane and fly there, please?" We cried a bit together and held each other and I said a prayer in my heart. I'm most concerned for my kids in all this, and I would hate to have to make another move only to have it be temporary and have to move again. It would be helpful to have a home as a comfort from homesickness, and also because it is now getting quite cold, and will only get colder so we can't escape and be outside all day which has helped us to this point.

Ikea is unbelievable! I can't believe some of the prices, I mean they're all good, but some are shockingly cheap! It helped me not feel gloomy yesterday to cut and paste photos of stuff and price it out, etc. It wasn't great for the kids, they were pretty bored and ignored! Lovve and thanks to all!

harmony on Tuesday October 23, 2007

oh and paisley also misses it. She said, "I miss my Gammy." and she loves to look at the pictures on the computer, the slide show, and every picture she says who it is. She said today, that's my Jeff a ry! And she says, "my pop-pop!" every time she is so enthusiastic and happy about it, its cute. And Cado also said he misses Doreen and Brian, Josh and Jeff.

Peter312 on Tuesday October 23, 2007

We miss them too. They will get through all of this, it will make the time we come to see them so special, and when you visit us. Mom is not feeling well at all. I am afraid she will have to get on Anti Biotics, and we will have to reschedule the back surgery again. She is very disappointed. We have you in our prayers. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you and Spencer, and especially the kids. But as the Lord said to Joseph, it is but a moment, it will pass. I love you, and miss you all. Love Dad and Pop-Pop!

spencer on Friday October 26, 2007

Update on the Apartment Search - Nothing new yet a whole lot going on. As of Friday night we've applied at three more apartments, one already was rented to someone else by the time we applied.

The other two, and one we applied for a while back still don't have any news. We hope to find out about two of them on Monday (and really hope to get into the one in an area named Carouge). The other one that we may find out about on Monday is very nice, but in a different area and not as close to grocery shopping.

The third is being built and nobody will be at the agency until Tuesday, so we won't find out about that one until after that.

We must be out of our hotel by November 1st! (Yay!, but also it means if we don't find something then we have to move somewhere else temporary). Also, if we can't get into anything before November 1st, KPMG is trying to arrange for us to have a normal size, 3 bedroom apartment until February to help us find a permanent solution. It's much cheaper for them to arrange that than to pay for hotels.

So we hope to enjoy this weekend, since nothing can be done on the weekend anyway as far as home searching. We have a Halloween party at the church!

Please continually keep us in your prayers that we can find a permanent solution (as that will be better for both us and KPMG)!

Thanks - love Spencer

Artigam on Friday October 26, 2007

Good luck with the apartment search. I know it is very difficult and frustrating, but I am sure in the end you will end up witht he perfect place for your family. On another note, I love IKEA too! It is one of my favorite stores. I know Harmony will make the apartment you end up with look amazing!

Tags: switzerland, moving

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Locked Out!

spencer on Saturday October 20, 2007

Usually you don't have to worry about getting locked out of your hotel room, but that's just what happened to us. See we are in this hotel that is like a long term hotel, or a short term, temporary accommodation. So we only have one key to our room, and it's not a plastic card, it's an actual key, but a pretty nice one with divits in it instead of just notches. Our hotel room door locks the moment it's closed, you can't turn the handle, and open it (meaning the handle/knob doesn't even turn. The key locks the deadbolt. Anyway, so if you close the door without the key, you can't get in. Oh, and I forgot to mention, since the hotel is more of a short term residence, the concierge man is only around Monday to Friday, during normal business hours. And apparently he's not reachable at any other time.

So, we went to IKEA today - lots of people and a train ride away. It was fun for the kids and us, just looking around at what we may eventually buy if we ever get an apartment. We came back home quickly before turning around to go to the church for a Filapino night. We got all the coats and kids and stuff and the stroller out the door and as it's closing, Harmony asks - "do you have the key?" and no, I didn't. I should have, but I didn't. It was in the room. So with nothing that can be done, we went down stairs and tried through the little voice door, code entry thing to call the concierge. The number to reach the concierge in the building forwarded us to a cell phone that was turned off. I left multiple messages and we left to go to the church. The Filapino night was awesome, most likely we'll post some videos and such from that later.

The program ran really late and we got back to the apartment at 11:30 p.m. with Cado asleep and Paisley still awake (who knows why?). The concierge never called me back on my cell phone, so I made a bunch more calls to phone numbers I could find around the building, but nothing. Two guys came in that are in another room and said "yep, this happened to me one night and I ended up going to another hotel that night." But they did suggest I try to break in using a flexible card. So I went up to their room to see how the door works and then took out my brand new, but very flexible and less important than a credit card "Video Club 2001" card that I got for renting movies at the rental store down the street a week ago and went to work. After a few minutes of frustration - I had broken into our hotel room!

Here's the card (quick dark picture to show you what I used):

I went down to the lobby to tell Harmony and found her laying on the floor with Paisley (still awake) and Cado in the stroller. Harmony was singing "Savior stay this night with me, behold 'tis even tide".

Now the kids are asleep and so is Harmony, and I'm writing you all so you can be in on the adventure!

5 comments - view comments or leave one

bellrn on Saturday October 20, 2007

That's awesome that you broke into your hotel room saving you from having to find another place to sleep. However, kind of scary that it was that easy to break in? :) I thought the credit card picking the lock was a myth that only worked in movies. :)

Enjoyed reading about your adventure!!!

spencer on Sunday October 21, 2007

No, not just in movies, but also with movie rental cards.

Yes, a little worrying, but I could have mentioned that since the door was only "locked" because it was shut, it was possible to get in. In fact, with the key you can lock the deadbolt, without it - as was are case, the deadbolt can't be locked. So, at least, if we lock the dead bolt I don't think it would have at all been possible to get in.

marisdavid on Sunday October 21, 2007

Hi you Switzer’s. Well I tried to send you message earlier and when I got it all typed I lost it and didn’t have time to do it again. I hate this computer for that reason. We had Rita Somfai our Hungarian friend over and her roommate and fixed a good dinner, but we had so much I wish we could of had you to dinner also. Joy and Dave and kids left early this morning. Lincoln played at the conference center in SLC last night it was the big Suzuki concert with over 3,000 kids in it. Kurt Bestor composed the finale piece for all of them and conducted it. They had piano’s, organ pieces, flutes, guitars, harps, viola, cello, violins and voices, I think that is all, it was good, but brought me back to the concerts in LA School’s that were like that. Well I had a really nice vacation to Cal. Because Fran and I layed around and did very little and anyting we wanted and went to see wicked at the Pantages, and that is such a fabulous theatre that it was fun just to see it. Wicked was good, but as far as the story line I like his book Confessions of the Ugly Stepsister better, and too many good friends I know have told me absolutely don’t read the book Wicked, so I don’t think I will. I have been reading the book, "A Thousant Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, author of the "Kite Runner". It is tough, it is hard to understand how we are so blessed and others soooo misfortunate in this world, the gospel is a wonderful blessing though. They are about Afganistan, and have made me think and wonder about my friend, Maria that was a refugee from there that I met in Hungary. When I told my friend and old neighbour Vicki about you she was very jealous. Well you are having some experiences, bet you never thought you’d be laying on a hotel floor late at night singing hymns while your baby took care of you, ha. Life is a myriad of amazing things. What’s with this facial hair Spencer? The moustache is okay but I don’t know about that chin stuff, does look a bit French though. Micah got his mission call this week to McAllen Texas. None of us guessed it right, but his stake president did. Jan told Luke well guess you can just plan on Texas. It is Spanish speaking and is very close to the Mexican border. I feel good about him not going to somewhere foreign especially where it might not be to healthy, I feel he is still fragile. Real Estate is slowing everywhere and I get concerned about our development. If we don’t get infrastructure in this winter I think we should forget it for I don’t know how long. Well I am not doing paragraphs as you have already observed. I am having enough pain lately, would like to think it is just fall, but my low back and left hip have been hurting enough that I really feel like I walk like an old woman and am finally getting a MRI Thurs. So guess I’ll see what I find out. My friend went to the Dr. for this stretching weightless machine and it cost her 5600. Insurance doesn’t pay any of it and your not sure it is going to help so it leaves you rather helpless. I don’t know what Tami has decided I need to call her today. She was very dissappointed not to get to the Retreat and Tori’s baptism. We had fun only 12 really stayed, when Lena got worried about beds and told them to bring pads and sleeping bags, all Marylyn’s family decided to only come Sat. And then then went shopping and we really hardly saw them, it was kind of a joke. But we did have fun and laughed a lot and everyone got along. I guess next year they are planning camping which will weed out a lot of gals or they may decide to make it a family reunion, not sure. Grandpa and I signed up to go on the Martin Handcart Trek and then I have had these problems and don’t know if I could possibly do it or not. Life is busy. It hasn’t frozen here yet even though we have had 3 snowstorms, the sun is out today and it is beautiful after snow and stormy yesterday. How is church there, is it all in French? Or do you go to a English spking ward, they usually have an international branch that speaks English I think. Or are you going to do immersion? Well love you all- Be good my little Paisley and big Cado. I wish you could come to our Halloween Party again. X OXOXOXOXO

Virginia on Monday October 22, 2007

Spencer, what an adventure. If anyone could figure out how to get in, It is you. You are so handy. It has always been a gift or talent you have had. Your family is lucky to have you. I was hoping when I returned from Idaho, having been gone 5 days, that you would be in an apartment. Have you had any word? Have you looked at more apartments? I am praying for you. You are all making the best of the situation. I am here alone in this big house. I wish I could send you at least half the space. I love you all.

harmony on Friday November 2, 2007

How did I miss this great big comment from Great Maris? Well, I'm glad I found it. I've found that its best to write in a word document first and then copy and paste it, but actually if you write a blog on roundbook (not comments though) it will save automatically every few seconds! thanks to my brilliant and handy husband Spencer. He really is great I must say. Grandma thanks for the update! I'm sorry your body isn't feeling so well. I am very glad you made a visit to California when you did, you and Fran we're quite helpful! That was really nice of both of you to make part of your vacation helping me. We are doing well, feeling much better having gotten into a bigger (not permanent) place, and feeling that KPMG is taking our situation financially and residence-wise seriously. Did you have your Halloween party? Crazy that Micah got his mission call to Texas. I wish that the Grotegut side of the family was better at emailing or blogging or keeping in touch somehow! It would be nice to feel connected to each other. We have been going to French and the English ward once. I think we'll go to a French ward while we're here, otherwise it can start to feel like you're not even in a French speaking country, with so many English speakers all the time. The ward we're in where we live now is called Saleve and it meets at 2, so we have to get on the bus here at 12:59, it takes about 30-40 minutes to get there from where we are.