"Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change.
And when we are right, make us easy to live with."

Rules of the Road

As I went outside in the freezing cold Friday morning to scrape the snow off our car before school, I was reminded that I never posted about a recent incident that lead me to have to scrape the darn snow off the car in the first place.

You see, I am from Texas. In Texas, snow means possible light flurries that never stick to the ground. Snow means all roads shut down, schools close, car wrecks happen, people light fires in their homes and wonder what to do next cause they have no groceries and the thought of going to the store in the snow......

But here in Zurich, life goes on thanks to great city maintenance of the roads. So it poured snow a couple weeks ago, and I managed to scrape it off the windows so that I could see to drive. We drive to school and at the round-a-bout next to the school, the cops are there patrolling to see who has forgotten to buy their 2010 road tax stickers. Luckily for me, Ryan had just bought one that week and I had just affixed it that very morning! So I saw them, looked at my little sticker and thought phew!

This is the point in the story where I should mention that I rarely look in the rear view mirror. Yes, I know, it's bad. But when you have 3 seat backs that invade 90% of the tiny rear window space, what's the point?

We pull in to the school parking lot and Chance is telling me all the reasons why he doesnt want to go to soccer that day. Here we go again....not sure if it's the age or the personality but sticking to sports commitments seems to be a hard task lately. I decide to sit in the car and work through this with him. Im facing inward looking back at Chance totally unaware of my surroundings. Next thing I know

BANG BANG BANG on the window. I turn around: Cop standing there, legs wide spread, mean look on face, yelling at me in Swiss German. I proceed to say, in German, that I understand VERY little German. At this point he should have recognized the fact that I had no idea what he was saying, but instead he proceeds to continue yelling in Swiss German. I mean, at least switch to high German so I could understand maybe 25% instead of 1%. But no, that would be too nice or too easy. I make out he wants my drivers licence. And again I thank my lucky stars I had it with me that day. Things tend to be forgotten frequently around here with 5 months of very little sleep, the brain still is functioning below par. All I can make out from his babbling is (in German), as he's waving my driver's licence in the air at me, "3 months, 3 months". I continue to say, I dont understand, I dont understand.

Not helping the situation is Chance, who from the back seat is calling out JUST IGNORE HIM MOM, JUST IGNORE HIM.

And I know the guy speaks English.

I finally come to a little and look back as his partner is approaching the car, and realize, we may be making a little scene here as we are in the school parking lot, and all the parents are taking their kids in to school, and the cop car is blocking my car in with lights a flashin. And of course I am the only person driving the really nice BRIGHT RED car in the whole parking lot. They ALL know it's me. So, his partner nicely speaks to me in sloooooooow high German and proceeds to tell me that in Switzerland you are not allowed to drive with snow on your car.

Yip folks you heard it right......yes it is pouring snow outside, yes most cars in the parking lot have snow on them like mine, but in compliance with very CLEAN and NEAT Swiss standards, one will get their drivers license taken away for 3 months for having snow on your car. To make this even funnier, the second cop has a camera around his neck, and he tells me he's taken a picture of my car and sent it to the authorities. And if they find snow on my car again, it's 3 MONTHS NO LICENCE.

At this point I'm now impressed with the amount of German I am understanding. I smile, slither in to school and pray no one saw me.....or better just doesnt say anything. I drop Chance off at school and then get to scrape all the snow off my car. I'm soaked, cold and totally pissed.

And later after the embarrasement has worn off and I am back at home, I think....you know, I bet that those cops followed me with lights a flashin all the way from the round about and I never once looked in the rear view to see it happening. Maybe they thought I was fleeing the law. With my 2 kids in the back, on the way to school.

Baby Lama Speaks Out

Nothing Better

CHANCE QUOTE:

"There's nothing in the world better than a baby like Brooks, even Christmas. Now I don't want to say that about God, cause it would hurt his feelings."

Hot Topic of the Day: POO

At school, Chance's class is studying the digestive tract and he's surprisingly come home with lots of very good information. He can also describe just how and where the food goes, from when it enters your mouth, to when (best part), it comes out as POO. He really likes to describe that part, or even draw it....

So today, he must have been thinking about that:

CHANCE: Mom, how do babies come out if they are in your tummy and your tummy can't be opened?

I take a quick moment and decide, well, the truth is always best, right?

ME: Well, Chance, girls have a canal that goes from inside your tummy to in between your legs. So Brooks came out that tube between my legs.

CHANCE: Like poo? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! BROOKS IS POO, BROOKS IS POO!!!!!!!!!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Trickery

Meet Harry Potter's most avid follower:

We've got the light wand and the clue game, and a really cool box of magic tricks Mimi gave Chance for his birthday. We've even taken the broom out of the pantry to give it a go. And recently Ryan spent an entire Sunday bending coat hangers in to the perfect glasses, and afterwards it left him a little koo-koo:

So the only thing missing was an invisibility cloak.


I still haven't heard of the end of this, and no matter how much or how many which ways you explain to him that magic is not real, somehow to the 6 year old mind, it still is. "Mom, I want a REAL invisibility cloak". So we made do with him wrapping himself in a blanket and us pretending that we didnt see him dragging that blanket about the house. The other night I tried again to explain that it wasn't possible to get an invisibility cloak and I was told "I'll ask Santa for one for Christmas cause Santa can make ANYTHING. And if Santa doesn't bring it, then I'll know that magic isn't real. Anyway, how can magic not be real if Santa can fly and go down chimneys". Try to explain that one gracefully.

Best part of all this magic stuff was on Thursday after school. All week Chance has been going to school wearing his HP glasses and painting on a scar on his forehead so that his friends will think he is the REAL Harry Potter. So his friend Jan comes out of the classroom straight to me, with his eyes wide open with excitement...."Chance is going to bring me his broom to school tomorrow. He promised me I could use it this weekend to fly!". I looked at Chance with the look of "ok, this has gone way too far....". Chance quickly saves himself by saying, "Well Jan, you know my mom has to have the broom at home so she can sweep>" Ya good save there little man. Poor Jan, probably missed everything the teacher said all afternoon day dreaming about what flying adventures he'd have all weekend long.

No Laundry on Sunday's

People that are moving to Switzerland are often scared by the stories of laundry room confrontations, and strict adherence to rules such as NO LAUNDRY ON SUNDAYS. When our Swiss friends upstairs moved to Canada to do an international assignment like ours, she put me in charge of the sign up sheet. The sign up sheet allows us to maintain Swiss order, with 3 time slots per day that you can sign up for. Of course Sundays are omitted. December came and went and it was time to print sign up sheets for this coming year. I decided to do a little experiment, primarily out of laziness, you see......it's easier in excel to drag the mouse down the spreadsheet and have it fill in automatically each day of the month. Going back to erase all 4 or 5 Sunday's of each month would really put me over, especially since time is precious around here and really there is no need to waste more nap time than totally necessary. But a twinge of me just wanted to experiment, to see whose panties I could wrinkle by leaving Sunday on the sign up sheet. Up until now it was just me that would sneak in a load or two each Sunday afternoon, occasionally finding that the German girl had snuck one in two. So today when we went down to sneak in a load, guess what? A SWISS PERSON HAD SIGNED UP FOR LAUNDRY ON SUNDAYS. Is the sky falling?

Chance's Book

Jane gave me the idea to make the boys a book every year to commemorate their life, their milestones, interestes, etc. I hope to make one every year going forward. Chance just got his book for his birthday, and was delighted. If you'd like to check it out, you can read the whole book online via the link in the right hand column.

Milestones

Christmas Day Boredom At Its Finest

Daddy Santa brought me a camera for Christmas. Yes, my very own camera, and a little more advanced than I am used to, but still dumbed down enough for my lacking camera knowledge to handle. Daddy Santa got really excited checking out the features of my new little toy, and when left alone for a little while, pictures were taken in abundance........then I got a hold of them and had a little fun of my own.