Lainey Skis!

Today, Jason and the kids and I went to a small "family-friendly" ski area called Atzmannig. The snow was pretty weak considering it was almost 10 degrees (almost 50 in Fahrenheit), but there was just enough to ski on.

We signed Lainey up for a lesson, but kept Aidan with us. He's so good on skis now! He was easily navigating the blue run-his first official (non-training/nursery) slope! No problems, no fear. He's going to rock this weekend in Murren.

As we were skiing down one time, I looked for Lainey in her lesson. She was laying on the snow, not near the other kids or instructors in the kids's area. I'm pretty sure she was making snow angels. Ugh. Why do I keep throwing money into these kids' areas for her?? So I went down and took her out of the lesson. The instructor said that she was happy and smiling, but tired and needed a lot of help going up the slope so maybe a private lesson would be better. Duh, but private lessons cost 5 times as much. Anyway, I know why she's tired...she spends 10 minutes walking sideways up the slope (no lift) for 2 seconds of skiing down. She's little, it's hard work, it's not fun to go uphill, it's the down part that is fun!

So, I took her myself on the practice lift. The practice hill there was very wide and pretty flat so I figured I could help her. But, like Aidan at Rigi, she needed no help. She was so happy going up the lift. She told me she felt like she was in a race and giggled the whole way up. When we got to the top, she fell at first getting off the button lift but when I picked her up and reminded her how to slow down and turn she was fine! We must have done that hill 10 times! She didn't need me at all going down, just for the button lift (which goes between your legs and you need to be kind of strong). She only fell a few times, but each time she was laughing and popped herself right back up and kept going. I'm so proud of her!

Now, I really feel bad about not pushing the instructors in these lessons more. The poor kid was getting tired doing all the hard work of skiing and not having any of the fun. I'm so glad I took her out of that lesson. Her smiles and giggles were so genuine and priceless.

I think with 5 days of skiing and a few private lessons this weekend both kids will be flying! Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn better watch out. Team Barnett may be representing in 2026 Olympics!

Good Things Going On

Just feeling perky today so I thought I'd ramble about why...

1.Went skiing today! Yep, on a Thursday! Dropped the kids off at school at 8:30 and was at the top of the lift by 10am. Amazing how close we live to many great ski resorts! My friend, Sally, and I spent all day in the sun on top of Flumserberg. It was gorgeous! Not cold, super sunny, and not very busy. Unbelieveable views of the Alps, the Walensee (a lake), and forest. We were practically knocking on God's door, we were so high! We skiied until 2pm and made it back in plenty of time to pick up the kids. I skiied almost only red runs today, and a few were pretty steep. I'm getting addicted to this sport!! Can't wait to go again with the family on Sunday, then we're off to Murren to meet Missy and her crew next weekend. This year, I think I'll actually be sad to see winter end. (Weird, never thought I'd say that!!!)

2.Aidan is going on playdates, and lots of them! Last year, he wouldn't go to anyone's house or birthday party unless I stayed with him. He only wanted to play with one or two kids. Now, he's Mr. Popularity. Playdate today, one tomorrow, and one next week. And he's thrilled to go to other kids' houses, so I don't always have to have the rowdy boys here. I'm so relieved he's feeling more comfortable and becoming a bit more outgoing.

3.Lainey. Just Lainey being Lainey. Couldn't be cuter if she tried. She's trying to learn to read. We do sight word games and if she gets one right, you'd think she won the Lotto. If only every kid was so excited about learning! Earlier today, she came up to me and kissed my cheek, then my hand, then the rest of my arm and the rest of my face. She said "I love you so much I can't stop kissing you!" Then I melted. Lainey just being Lainey.

4.Jason may not have to work this weekend! First weekend in forever! I've seen more of the kids' doctor in the last 2 weeks than him. Yea for getting my hubby back (well for at least 2 days)!

Amazing how perky I'm feeling even though I'm one week into Lent and going without 2 of my best friends - chocolate and wine. Maybe the lack of oxygen at high altitudes has made me wacky. I'll take the good mood while I can!

Pictures from Frankfurt/Ski Week

At the Kochbrunnen-a really hot natural spring in the center of Wiesbaden. Water coming out of the ground is nearly boiling!

Juan Carlos, Denise, and Adrian at the Kochbrunnen

Me, Lainey, Adrian and Denise

These 3 were so darn cute together! Adrian wanted to do everything Aidan did...but that wasn't always a good thing! What's especially cute is that the coat Adrian is wearing used to be worn by both Aidan and Delainey!

Who would have ever thought Denise and I would have a picture taken with us and 3 kids! 10 years ago, a trip to Europe involving the 2 of us would have been ENTIRELY different! I certainly would never have predicted we'd be sitting in a hotel room at 8:30pm in Europe with 3 coughing kids.

Juan Carlos and Adrian came to visit us for 2 nights. Adrian LOVED playing with our kids. He is so cute! He is already speaking 2 languages and knows to switch to English when talking to us. He can definitely say "Aidan" and "Delainey" clearly!

Playing trains and climbing on Aidan...he didn't mind a bit!

Matching jammies!

Could they be any cuter???

Yep, actually they can!

Ski Week 2010

Involved no skiing. Grr! I had really wanted to take advantage of our (most likely) last ski week in Switzerland but that didn't happen. First, Jason couldn't take time off (typical) so we couldn't plan a week at some fantastic ski resort like most of our friends. That's why we decided to at least go for a long weekend in Frankfurt (plus Denise, Juan, and Adrian were going to be there!). Jason arranged to work from there, because heaven forbid he takes a day off!

Previous blogs have already explained how that trip worked out. Basically, we spent nearly $1000 on a miserable trip only highlighted by getting to see the Fernandez's! That was worth it though (unless Adrian gets sick and Denise hates me now).

The rest of the week was just as low down on the suck-o-meter. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday was spent in doctors, doling out medicine, and throwing up. Now, it's Saturday and guess what we're doing? The kids and I are still not feeling 100% so we're parking ourselves on the couch for another day and Jason is, of course, working. At least he's less likely to get sick in the office!

So, I'm desperately hoping for a miraculous recovery by the 3 of us today and for Jason to not have to work tomorrow. Maybe, just maybe, we can manage to leave the house and do something fun tomorrow. Should I be so bold as to even hope for a half day of skiing tomorrow? Highly unlikely.

Grr! I so wish we had gotten interested in skiing last year! Now with our Swiss days counting down, there are still so many ski areas we want to visit before the winter is over. This week was supposed to knock at least 3 places off our list. Oh well. At least we have our trip to Murren with Missy to look forward to in March.

On Becoming a Kept Woman

I received a letter last week saying my 3rd year of leave from work was denied. No reason, just denied. I have 2 choices: go back to work in September or resign.

I'm trying to appeal this decision, but I'm doubtful.

So, considering we are planning to move to Frankfurt this summer for 12-18 months, it's highly unlikely I can commute to school from Germany. It's looking like resigning is my only viable option.

I'm not completely sure how I feel about it. I never wanted to give up my job completely when I had kids. I like having my career and adding (at least a bit) to the family income. I define myself as a teacher. If I no longer have a job, will I still define myself this way? Plus, I'm only 2 years away from being vested enough to get retirement benefits way down the road. I'll have to give that up (although I could always go back to MI and work 20 years from now to get those 2 years) along with salary steps. If I get a new position (which is tough in this economy) I'll most likely lose some salary.

But, on the other hand, I don't want to leave Europe yet, especially just to go back to work. I haven't been thrilled with the politics of our school district in the last few years and the administration doesn't really value the teachers. I'm not sad to leave that behind. Plus, I am enjoying spending more time with our kids and am not so stressed out about getting things done around the house. Besides, career-wise for Jason, we need to move to Germany. Moving home now wouldn't help his career at all. Most of all, I WANT to go to Germany. I don't want to give up our European lives just yet.

So, unless my appeal goes through, I'll soon be a kept woman.

I have lots of friends who are Stay At Home Moms and they seem happy and fulfilled and not guilty for not adding to the family budget. I know that SAHMs add value to the family in many, many more ways, but I think it's going to be a weird "label" transition for me. I don't want to stay home forever, I know that, and am just a little worried about how hard it will be to get back in the job market.

I'm already looking into my options. I'm going to attend a conference this summer to get some experience with the IB program in international schools. They certainly seem like a better place to work as a teacher! I may be able to work as a sub or assistant or even as a teacher in Frankfurt with the certificate I'll get at this conference.

Plus, maybe this will push me to try to get paid for some of the writing I've been doing. I like writing for the parenting magazine, but it's unpaid. Maybe I'll get the courage up to submit writing to magazines that do pay.

Who knows? At least I have options, and am not desperate for income. I am blessed to have a wonderful husband who works his tail off to take care of me and the kids at work, while I work my tail off to take care of him and the kids at home. I am definitely happier with my life now than I was when I was working part-time and arguing with administrators to stay half-time.

Maybe being a kept woman will be a good thing for me!

Ugh.

I feel terrible. I am not earning my tour guide badge this week. Instead I am earning my nursing certificate.

We were so excited to hear that Denise, Juan Carlos, and Adrian were coming to visit this week. We had planned to do some sightseeing in Frankfurt and the surroundings. Juan Carlos and Adrian came down to Zurich (by train since GM took away our 7 passenger car sooner than they were supposed to!) and the kids and I were going to take them all around Zurich.

I thought I finally had the kids' illnesses under control. We visited the doctor yesterday, got newer better cough medicine, Lainey's antibiotic seems to be working, and Aidan only has (supposedly) a viral cold. Both kids slept through the night and were feverless since yesterday.

I had hoped that today we could take Juan and Adrian into the city for a walking tour. I knew we wouldn't stay in the city long, but I thought we could at least show them a few of the city sights. Not so much. As we walked down to the train this morning, Aidan threw up. Twice. Then, Lainey saw Aidan throwing up, so her gag reflex kicked in and she threw up a bit. Nice. Welcome to Zurich, Juan and Adrian!

So Juan and I brought the kids back to our apartment and I put the kids down on the couch and handed Juan a map of Zurich highlighted with things to see and a train ticket. At least Jason can take Juan out later tonight and I'll stay with the kids.

I feel terrible. They traveled all this way and haven't seen anything because of my sick kiddos. At least I know they understand now that they have kids, but seriously. Could the timing be any worse?? I just really hope that Adrian doesn't catch whatever it is my kids have. I've been sanitzing and Lysol spraying everywhere, but Adrian loves Aidan and Lainey and wants to follow them and do what they are doing. We can't really separate them. I hope Denise and Juan don't hate me after this week!

All we saw in Frankfurt...

...was the Children's Hospital.

What a nightmare weekend we just had. We drove up to Wiesbaden, Germany (near Frankfurt) on Saturday morning. Denise, Juan Carlos, and Adrian were meeting us there because Denise has to work in Frankfurt this week and we wanted to do some scouting out of the area since we are moving there in the summer. We had great plans to see the towns of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt on Saturday and Sunday then Monday and Tuesday Jason was going to work at the Opel office in Russelsheim while the kids and I went visiting schools and looking at areas to live in.

We did about 25% of what we planned. First of all, we didn't realize that it was Fasnacht weekend in Germany-think Mardi Gras for 4 straight days. Everything was closed.

But more importantly. Lainey got really sick on our drive up. Friday night, she woke up around midnight and asked me to lay with her. This isn't all that unnormal, so I didn't think much of it. But as soon as we got in the car on Saturday, she started coughing. Constantly. Her asthma inhalers didn't help a bit. We kept going, since we were meeting Denise and Juan there. She just kept getting worse. We managed to meet up with Denise and walk a bit around Wiesbaden. Lainey was up and down. For a few hours, she'd act normal and be having fun with Aidan and Adrian, but then she'd have a huge coughing fit. Saturday night was horrid. She coughed ALL night.

Sunday morning, she still wasn't great, but she was in a good mood, so we all tried to go to Frankfurt. We were hoping to take this tour train called the Applewine Express. It was a tram that took you around Frankfurt and gave you apple wine and pretzels on the ride. Well, it was Fasnacht so it wasn't working normally. We tried to just ride trams, but the kids were cold and honestly, Frankfurt isn't so pretty. So we found an Irish pub for lunch. During lunch I noticed Lainey was really hot and still coughing. I decided we'd be visiting the Frankfurt ER. I asked the waitress where the nearest hospital was, and we left Denise and Juan and went to the ER.

They were really nice and between English and German, we figured out she had a temperature of 104 degrees and the beginning of pnuemonia! They gave us prescriptions for anti-biotics, fever medicine and a steroid for the cough. We were grateful we now had an aresnal of meds to make her better. Unfortunately, none of it is working yet! She's still miserable.

We cut our trip short and came home Monday instead of Tuesday. Jason did go to work to check out his new team and office and I did visit one school and drive around a tiny bit. Poor Lainey coughed the entire time, but at least with the medicine her fever stayed down.

The school visit was great. I really liked it and so did the kids. It felt like primary schools back home, only with 15 kids instead of 25! I think the kids will enjoy it. The living areas, were harder to figure out in snow and in a car with a sick kid, but I saw one cute village that may have potential. Wiesbaden, at least the parts we saw, didn't look like much. I liked the Taunus Hills area much more. It's definitely not Zurich, but we know we'll probably never live somewhere as pretty again. Germany is more like Michigan, very flat and more industrial. Still, it will be nice to have more conveniences. like stores and a bigger airport, than we have in Zurich.

At least we got to spend time with Denise, Juan Carlos, and Adrian. The kids and adults all had fun together and made me hate being away. I desperately hope Adrian doesn't get sick from my kids, though. I'll feel horrible, but there's nothing we could do. In fact, JC and Adrian are coming here later today because Denise has to work. I've not been much of a tour guide, and I feel bad for their trip, but I think they understand. Sick kids can really throw a wrench in plans!