Any Questions?

It is May. And 2 years ago we made our first trip over here to see whether we thought we could live in Zurich. I've been thinking about our house in Urbandale, our friends and neighbors, church and schools. Sometimes I think about my little daily drives and routines there and compare them to here. I enjoy(ed) them both.

I(we) still really miss friends - family as well.


So what I'd like to know is - Does anyone have a question for us that I can answer via the Blog?

You can email or leave comment.

I try to write about the travels (of course) and funny observations about living abroad but sometimes wonder it there's anything I leave out. We are starting to forget what some of the differences are here. We really notice the changes at home (USA). For instance - a CA gas station asked for my zip code in order to use the credit card at the pump. Problem was, the credit card I had used a European zip. Fortunately I had a $20 on me.


Speaking of gas - there are 3.78 liters to 1 gallon (WorldMetricCalculator). We are paying 1.89 chf/ltr which is about $7.14 per gallon. What are you paying?

Makes the train cheaper every day!

Amsterdam - a Lifestyle

What you will see here is the locals of Amsterdam enjoying their beautiful weather.


We had great weather while we were there and it was interesting to see how the locals enjoyed it even when they had to be at home. The Netherlands is the 3rd most densely populated country and Amsterdam has a severe housing shortage. As the agent who rented us the apartment said "There are no lifts and only narrow staircases because they must maximize space.

We got a kick out of seeing people with feet hanging out their windows, reading or working in their windows and enjoying each other's company on the small terraces or sidewalks. You have to be careful - if you see a table set out on the sidewalk and people eating, it's not necessarily a restaurant. Or if the front door is open, it is not necessarily a store. Many of the people use the sidewalk or their front step as additional "living space" during nice weather. So the people enjoying their dinner as you pass by are not necessarily going to take your order should you sit down at an open spot. Make sure you look for a restaurant sign!

And it was a good thing they all took advantage of it - it started raining the day after we left. Raining here too as a matter of fact!

American Idol/Switchfoot

OK - We are on 'Continent' delay with American Idol and I just saw the final 3's performances (it's Thurs. night). Even though I already know who got booted thanks to the Yahoo homepage blurbs. Which are not 'Continent' delayed. I watch anyway as half the fun is the barbs between the judges and Ryan S. And I am a Simon C. fan. My husband is OK with this.

Anyway.....watching David Cook sing Switchfoot's "Dare you to Move" reminded me of a little incident on our Amsterdam trip. I have already shared this with my friend J.D. but I will share with all (and apologies to David Cook but he couldn't top the real thing).

We were in the Hard Rock Cafe in Amsterdam this last weekend (eating real, live, imported American food products and adding to Bart's HRC tshirt collection), when Switchfoot came on the video screen. Rachel and Kendra went into high gear with the air guitar and lip syncing at our table. Bart was so proud and at the same time wondering if he should be proud?

Yep, apparently I can get rid of the Veggie Tales CD's now.

Happy 'Belated' Mother's Day!

As the girls and I sat eating our last pancakes in Amsterdam, Tues. - "early lunch", I suddenly realized "Sunday was Mother's Day." I said this aloud and the girls looked at me in shock. "I forgot to call Gma E and wish her Happy Mother's Day! I can't believe I forgot!"

The girls though, start in with "Mommy, we still have time to make you something, right?" "We love you Mommy!"

This was the first time since having kids that I never thought about what this Mother's Day might be like. I'll admit, I've wrangled some flowers, homemade gifts, a spa package and a dinner out of them (Bart included) in the past. And it seems that over time with traveling, my Mom traveling, making Bart responsible for his Mom - I have let things slide on my end a bit.

And Mother's Day is not a commercial holiday here. We don't get many reminders nor does anyone talk about what they are going to do/what they are going to get.


Do I really care that I get something special on that day? No. Is it a nice treat to be recognized? Absolutely. My girls are old enough now to tell me what they think. And at this age - they're still saying some very nice things. So does my husband. On days that aren't Mother's Day. I count myself lucky and Thank God for our many blessings. He gave me my best gifts with Bart and the girls.

And Bart would say that a weekend in Amsterdam with him and the girls should be present enough. Yeah. OK. Sure. Thanks Honey! hee hee

So here are some of the Motherly things I did this past week:

Ate pancakes with my girls on our last day. Due to work 'stuff,' Bart ended up flying out early and we trailed behind. May we just say for the record that Kendra is the "Panacake Queen." No I did not misspell 'pancake.' She actually pronounces it 'panacake' and we think it's cute so we don't correct it.

The dutch pancakes are as big/bigger than your plate and come with all sorts of things either topping them or cooked in with them. We found that a combo of a plain pancake sprinkled with powdered sugar and then a pancake with bacon and cheese suited our needs just fine.


And I walked behind my girls as we climbed the stairs to the apartment we rented. OMGosh! Steep Stairs! Not as steep as those to the secret annexe in the Anne Frank "Huis" (house) but pretty darn close. So we always followed or tried to lead - just in case someone stumbled.
And soaking our tired feet in the reflection pool in the Museum Square. Ah, that felt good. We enjoyed ourselves and I'll have to tell you all about it. HOWEVER, I am still trying to tackle the Mt. Everest of laundry. Will it ever stop? It has never been this bad before! Why am I blogging when I could be folding laundry?

My point - Happy Mother's Day to all of you mom's who are reading this. Remember to enjoy the foot soaking and pancake eating moments with your kids. These times are precious and God given.

We've had almost 10 yrs with Rachel and we realize we are at the half-way point should she change her mind about living with us forever. (Excuse me, do we get a vote?)

And the first thing I did when the girls and I dropped our bags at home was call my Mom!

I deceive myself & Zermatt

Well, I didn't actually deceive Zermatt, just myself. But I am splitting hairs and you will understand the title in a moment.

I thought I'd have more time for Blogging this week. I didn't. We returned from Zermatt Sunday afternoon and the computer started making the weird clanking noises again. So I spent most of my Monday trying to backup all the files since Febr. and get laundry done. This was after all the laundry and packing so Rachel could go from Zermatt to the week-long school trip to Anzere (in mountains of the French speaking portion of Switz.).

I am still looking at 4 loads of unfolded laundry - if you need a towel, grab it out of the pile. 50% of Bart's dress shirts are hanging on the drying rack waiting for the iron - if you know anything about his wardrobe, that's a lot of shirts. And I don't like ironing but that's a whole different story and could take up an entire blog by itself. Also managed the process of switching/sorting the girls wardrobes (winter to summer) and figuring out what needs to be ditched or given away. Did I mention the weeds? So hours of weeding being done.

Because we leave for Amsterdam tomorrow. And somewhere I cook and repack AND get my hair done. Because I thought this would be a "dead" week. HA HA HA

Enough of why I have no time for blogging.

Here is the Matterhorn. It is one of the coolest and impacting sites I have seen in nature. Not that there aren't other mountains I may love more, it's just such a striking visual. Sitting there by itself saying "look at me." So we looked and I took just a few pictures.

Here is the bull that would have prefered to stomp on us rather than get into that truck (he was NASTY!!!):
I have to add a correction here: the animal above is not a bull. I was revisiting my pictures and realized the biological mistake. But you have to understand - this animal came out of the barn breathing fire and saw 8 of us standing on the path to watch the process and wanted to burn us up. I was actually torn between taking a picture or keeping a close eye on the girls (whose heads you see) as I was afraid we were being mistaken for Rodeo clowns. We were a bit worried as Bart was wearing a red backpack! When they finally got this beast into the trailer, it took awhile before it would even move "into position" with the others - the man inside was using a tazer gun of some sort on it to keep it from pushing him into the wall. It was NOT happy.

Most Swiss cows are happy cows. Like the cows in California. And they are "genteel" looking. I might have to do a post of the Swiss cows. We are generally out there hiking with a bunch of them loose in the fields. BUT - I do not EVER want to come across this gal because she has a whole lot of PMS goin' on. She acted like a bull - just didn't have the right stuff. And here's hoping they keep her behind the electric fence!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Once again, the Matterhorn:
Another school family was in Zermatt at the same time - K and I walk and "do stuff" together and their girls are virtually the same age as K & R so we had a great time with them.
And the Matterhorn - with hut thrown in for variety:
Who are these children and why are they on our train?

And the Matterhorn:
The traveling icicle:

This icicle was being used in all manner of ways (for funny photos - keep it clean folks) by all the tourists up at the top of the Gornergrat station so the girls had to get in on the action.

And the Matterhorn:
Kendra practising her product endorsement skills.

Sidenote: It cracks me up whenever I see the Coca Cola glasses. On American Idol in the US, I'm sure that the Coca Cola slogan on the cups of Randy, Paula and Simon are not "blurred." But we are getting the feed from the UK so the logo's are blurred - I'm sure because Sky/Europe is not paying some licensing fee of some sort. But it is SO OBVIOUSLY Coca Cola that it cracks us up. Why bother?
So, Yeah, we saw the Matterhorn. And as I told my friend K, I must have taken 150 pic's of it alone. That 2G camera card is a blessing AND a curse - I can fill that thing up in 4 days (using a Canon Dig. Rebel) no problemo. Which is why it takes so long for me to backup all the files when the computer is in rebellion. Speaking of which, it's time to give it a break before it goes up into flames at my feet (not to mention, I am working on not compulsively sitting in front of the computer - I am a compulsive word person: books, mags, computers - AHHHH).

God spoke through a burning bush, why not a burning computer?