Jason's Birthday

We had a fun birthday celebration. Katelyn was in charge.

On Wednesdays, there is only 1/2 day of school for children in Neuchatel. So we headed to the Maladiere Center (Mall) to do some grocery shopping. Since our sea shipment hasn't arrived, I needed to get something to bake the cake in. We had a chocolate cake mix and powdered sugar that came in our air shipment. We had a mission.

While we were there, she had to take a picture of the balloon birthday cake. She thought it was fitting since it was Dad's birthday too!The mall is celebrating their 2nd Anniversary. It's a nice place and not too big.

We found some aluminum pans and they were a good size to fit in the oven. We made everything by hand and did a lot of stirring. We did some conversions and the following was the outcome. I forgot, Kate had to buy some sprinkles for the cake.

When Jason arrived home, he had to hunt for his 2 birthday presents. We got him something "Switzerlandee". I think he looks very European in his new scarf and sweater coat.

After dinner, we turned off the lights and sang "Happy Birthday". The cake was delicious!

Jason's drive to work

Jason has been taking some pictures on his drive to work. The following two pictures are from Monday. That is the only day we have seen the Alps.

Today he took some pictures that show the temperature change very well. This first picture is 5 minutes out of Neuchatel. It is raining pretty good.

This is when he was 10 minutes out.

Here he is 20 minutes out. Kate and I saw quite a few cars on our way to school with a couple of inches of snow on their car. Jason said they had about 4 inches at work.

Was Jason driving when he took these pictures??? I plead "no comment". Winter has arrived!

The Room is Quiet!

Since everyone is at school and Jason is at work, I thought I would catch up on the blog since it is very quiet.

I took the boys to school this morning. It was their 1st day and they were very excited to go. I think I was having a harder time. They are going to ride the train back home by themselves for the very first time. I think they will do fine and they have cell phones if something comes up. I am anxious to hear how everything went.

I wanted to share some pictures that I have taken . I thought this one turned out really neat. The sun was trying to shine thru the fog one morning along the lake.

This picture I took this morning. It is the first time for me to see the Alps since we have been here. It is definately getting cold. They are predicting snow for Wednesday and Thursday. Welcome to Switzerland!

Hotel des Arts

Hotel des Arts is our temporary home. I thought I would dedicate this post to Nursie Pooh and Mrs. Peeps. If you have ever been to their blog, you would understand. I am also practicing on this post. I am trying to get a little bit more familiar with how the blog program works.

This is our living room. The kids fight over these 2 chairs. They have the best spot for viewing the cartoons in French and a place to put their hot chocolate! Also, they have good connections to the internet and can keep their computers charging.



Of course I could not resist taking pictures of the bathroom. Kate is very curious about how that bidet works. However, I haven't heard the boys say one thing about it.

For the shower area, I am so thankful we at least have a shower curtain. I think everyone is getting use to handling the shower hose.

The kitchen reminds me of college. I can't wait to have a dishwasher again. The picture is a little bit dark but at least you get an idea of how it looks. The table is also my computer desk.

Lucas helped me to show the size of the refrigerator. We are adapting to it. The wine rack holds ice tea, coke zero and an orange drink very well. The compartment above that is the freezer. It holds 2 ice trays, bag of frozen beans and a bag of left over sauce that I made. I have 3 grocery stores within 5 blocks. It's good exercise to walk but I can't forget the bags or the cart.

The bedrooms are a nice size. The best thing is the comforter on the bed. It definately keeps you nice and warm at night. Kate has some of her stuffed animals that helps make the room a little bit like home.

Kate's 1st day of School in Switzerland

The day finally arrived and Kate was just a little bit nervous. I drove to school without any problems. I was amazed at how dark it still was. I don't know if it was because of the fog or if the sun normally isn't up at 7:30 a.m.

Kate met Ms. Greenbaum and instantly liked her. All I heard after school was how nice she was and she is very nice.

There are 8 students in her class. She is in the English speaking classroom and has French class 2 days a week. Tomorrow she will go on a field trip to see a play - "La sorciere du placard aux balais" (The Witch in the Broom Cupboard). I hope that goes well.

I was able to take some better pictures in the afternoon when I picked her up. I thought I would take a picture of the parking lot that we park in. It has a very nice garden. It is actually parking for the apartment complex right beside the school. They have 15 minute parking on one side which parks about 6 cars at the most. Many people park on the curb but I am not brave enough to do that yet. I am guessing there is about 150 students that attend the school from preschool thru 5th grade.

Kate is on the top floor which is called the 4th floor. Ground floor is zero here. She takes the elevator up in the morning and also at lunch time.

I thought the logo for the school is great. There are about 25 nationalities attending this school. At Christmas time they have a "Christmas around the World" where parents and children have a table and they give a little presentation on their cultural traditions.

I have already been given a parent volunteer form. Kate is making sure I sign the dotted line.................................... Ha Ha

2nd Attempt at Bern

Hello Everyone!

Today I am going to add more pictures of our adventure, I hope. The internet connection at the hotel isn't always that great and it takes forever for the pictures to upload.

We started our day a little bit later and there was lots of sunshine and happy moods. I forgot the guide book back at the hotel but I figured I could find my way. Our goal was to see the Bear Pit. The kids had their cameras and all the pictures from today are provided by one of them.

I thought I remembered the way to go but I didn't turn left soon enough and we walked a lot farther than we needed to. I would guess 2 miles more. The boys were good about it. We got a different perspective of the city. We saw it from the other side of the river. I thought this was a great picture of the Parliament building.

We walked upon Einstein's Museum that looked like a great place to spend a few hours. The kids begged me to go in and ask for directions. I did and the woman was nice enough to give me a map. She recommended walking along the river and we weren't far. We will visit the museum on the next trip.

The river was beautiful and it was a fun nature walk. I think we were about half way when we ran into a fence and the trail was closed. There was an alternate path but of course it was all uphill. It was too steep to push the stroller so I carried Kate and Devin pulled the stroller. Kate got scared because she thought we were in the middle of the "bear pit". During our long walk about, I was able to convince her otherwise. We ran into a nice woman and she pointed us in the right direction. We finally made it to the bear pit. It had been at leat an hour since we left the train station. There was only 1 bear and his name was Pedro. We were a little bit disappointed because we thought there was going to be more bears. People were feeding him and continued to beg for some more.

We were all in agreement to walk right back up thru the downtown area. It didn't take us more than 20 minutes to walk up the hill. The kids couldn't believe I made them walk so far out of the way. I told them it was a fun adventure that they would never forget! Of course they were starving and they spotted a Mc Donalds. The boys didn't want to eat once they saw the price of a meal. $13 for everything you see in front of Kate.

There was a German bakery right next door and the boys bought some doughnut like balls. They loved them. They thought they got the better deal of 1 Fr per ball.

We ran into the clock tower Zytglogge-Turm. It was built in 1530 and has so many functions.

We were all tired from the walking and decided to head back home. We remembered to get on the right part of the train this time. When we walked out of the station in Neuchatel, this was our view. It sure is beautiful.

I believe the kids had a great time and did a wonderful job taking pictures. Of course, I had to take the last picture of the day.

1st Train Ride

We got up at 6:00 a.m. I wanted to make it as close as possible to how it will be when the boys go to school. It was still dark out. The train was leaving at 6:56 and we left the hotel at 6:30. We had to walk up a hill that is very steep and pushing Kate in her stroller was a workout!!!! It was a cold morning but my head was dripping with sweat by the time we reached the train station. Kate kept asking me if I was crying.

We made the train and thought this isn't so bad. As we go along we couldn't see a thing out the windows. Then we saw the rain. I packed the only 2 umbrellas that we brought with us on the airplane but we didn't have our warm raincoats on. I knew then we were in trouble.

We walked around the boys' school real quick. The school is on Fall Holiday until the 27th of October. We finished some paperwork and decided to go back to Bern to walk around. It's only a 5 minute ride but Kate informs me she has to use a restroom. Well there is one on the train but I didn't want to miss the stop. We made it to the station but I forgot you have to pay 1 Fr. I found my change and we ran in. I have to say their restrooms were probably cleaner than mine.

We made it outside and it was sprinkling. I thought maybe it will clear up. We walked 1 block and took the above picture. It started to rain harder and that was the end of our sightseeing. So we went back to the station and caught the next train back to Neuchatel which was leaving in 10 minutes. We ran up to the platform and hopped on the train.

It doesn't end there. Before each stop they announce the name of the station. Well, we got to one station and they said quite a few sentences all in French. I thought that was odd but didn't instantly do anything. Then I asked an older gentleman if "this train to Neuchatel" with hand movements. He looks at me shaking his head and pointing to the front of the train and going a mile a minute in French. So we grab everything and hop off the train. The train had separated and the front half was leaving us and heading to Neuchatel. It's amazing what can be communicated with hand gestures and tone of voice! So we learned a very important lesson - Trains can break apart and go in different directions. Also, Read the sign on the outside of the train car! We ended up catching the next train a half hour later.

Ending on a Good note - Air shipment arrived and the boys had a great time riding their scooters in the rain and Kate playing with her dolls. We made some good Hot chocolate with Marshmallows!

Fall is Here!

Hello everyone!

We are finally getting caught up with the time change and have been busy learning how to get around town.

The leaves are beautiful right now. We took a drive over to Le Locle to see where Jason works. We took the scenic route and it was beautiful. However, it is a road that has lots of curves. The drive reminds me of the road between Angel Fire and Taos (New Mexico). Kate was definately a little pale when we arrived. The following is a picture of Le Locle area and France is only a few miles away thru those 2 mountains.

We have been walking along the lake everyday. It is only a block away. We wake up to a fog but it burns off by the afternoon.

The kids and Maggie have been enjoying the park that is across the street. It gets very busy during the day, so we try to head over after dinner for a little while.

We will be heading tomorrow to Bern. It will be our first train adventure and lesson for the boys. We have 10 days to get them comfortable riding the train system. Check back in 2 days to see how well we did. Adios!

We're Moving Out!

The house is sold and the packers arrived. It was a process. One day we did everything that went into Storage in El Paso. The next day was everything we wanted mailed to us by air. We were allowed 500 lbs. Two days were for packing up the house and one day for loading the trailer. Boy, did we fill up that trailer. They say 1 in 10,000 fall into the ocean. That might not be a bad thing. I feel for the guys that have to unload all that stuff and take it up 3 flights of stairs to a flat in Neuchatel. Yikes.

The Journey Began

We woke up at 5:30 a.m. Thursday, October 9th and headed to the airport. We had 12 pieces of luggage, 6 backpacks and 1 dog in a crate. It was crazy. Jason and I were tired from the day before. They loaded up the truck with all of our furniture, we cleaned, we kept packing things in our suitcases and made some last minute phone calls to make sure everything was ready to go. We were sad to leave our family and friends but we were all anxious to begin our new adventure.

We had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta. We saw our dog Maggie out under the airplane in her crate. We were happy to see she had made it that far. The pilot talked to her while he was inspecting the airplane.

We began our flight to Zurich at 4:30 p.m. Lucas decided he was going to watch as many movies as possible and get Johnson & Johnson's monies worth. We couldn't believe he didn't sleep a wink. It is a very long flight, 9 hours. We landed at 7:30 a.m. Switzerland time (11:30 El Paso time)

There was a nice young woman that was waiting with Kate's wheelchair when we got off the plane. She took us all the way down to pick up our luggage. She had us cut in at the immigration lines and so it took us about 5 minutes. Maggie was waiting for us by the luggage and in great shape. We had all of our luggage and packed into a van within a hour. The 1 1/2 hour drive to Neuchatel was long and very foggy.

When we arrived at the hotel, I think the woman thought we were crazy when she saw all of our stuff. The crazy Americans had arrived!