Busted!

So I'm going to get my license taken away. The irony: I've never even had a ticket...EVER!

Here's the background. It was Wednesday afternoon and the kids had not been getting along for a couple of hours. Desperate to get them out of the house, I woke up Henry from his nap (something I never do) and headed out the door to meet some friends at a park.

It was a park I had never been to and unfortunately it took me on a road I had only driven a couple of times. When we were about 5 minutes into our drive the kids started arguing again. At this point I lost my cool and started lecturing them. I think my exact words were, "I can't believe I am taking you to the park when you are back there fighting. Maybe I should just turn around right now!" The good thing was that they actually quieted down. The bad news: I stopped paying attention to the speed limit and how fast I was driving.

Fast forward 10 days

I opened a letter and, of course, could only guess what it said because it was in French. I had to wait for Pete to confirm that, yes, I had been speeding that day and I needed to go to the police station. Not good. I guess I should mention they have cameras here that take your picture when you are speeding. Then they mail you a ticket that says how fast you were going and how much your fine is. The fact that this notice was asking me to report to a police station did not bode well.

So on Saturday the whole family hopped into the car and headed to the police station. Through my translator Pete, we discovered that I was going 57 and the speed limit was 50. Unfortunately I was going mph instead of kmph. So I was 42 over the posted limit! In Switzerland, if you are driving more than 25 over you will automatically get your license suspended for 1-3 months.....and if that isn't bad enough there is a fine. Possibly to the tune of 2000 Swiss francs. Yes, you read correctly. 2000.

So the nice policeman took down my information(including my children's names and birthdates, how much Pete makes a year, and other information that I think is totally irrelevant to my speeding) and will be sending my report to a judge who will decide my fate and mail me the ruling. He may have pity on me because I am a "stupid" American who has only lived here for 5 months and obviously doesn't know the difference between miles and kilometers. He may soften his heart because I have never had a ticket before....here or in the US. Who knows? All I can do is wait.

Before I end this ridiculously long post, I need to plead my case since I am not given the opportunity to do that here. That fateful day I was not driving as recklessly as it may seem. In Switzerland, when you drive through a town the speed limit is 50. When you leave the town, the speed limit changes to 80. When I finished getting mad at the kids I was about 1/2 mile outside of the last town I had just driven through. I came to the top of a fairly steep hill and assumed that while distracted with the kids I must have already passed the 80 speed limit sign. So I proceeded down only to discover the sign at the bottom of the hill. Had the speed limit been what I thought it was, I would have only been going 12 km over....or 7 miles over! Not to mention I never even had my foot on the gas going down the hill. I was actually braking to keep from going faster.

So last Saturday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. There were a lot of tears on my part and a lot of comforting words on Pete's part. To quote Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation, "Worse? How could things get any worse? We're at the threshold of hell." My sentiments exactly.

the proof is in the pictures

I sent my parents a card from Switzerland with a picture of a vineyard on the front. A couple months later while talking with them on the phone, my mom told me that they had received the card I sent them from France. I was confused because I hadn't sent them anything when we were in Paris. My dad then described the beautiful "French" countryside on the front of the card. I laughed and told him that France IS beautiful but that the picture on the card was taken in Switzerland. Here are a few pictures to back me up.

A vineyard just outside of Luins...about a 5 minute drive from us
Ruby loves the purple grapes...
...while Alex prefers green
Our first attempt at a family self-portrait
All five of us made it into this one

Back to school

Sadly, on August 25th, after 7 short weeks of summer vacation that included a lot of rainy days and a night in the hospital, school started again. If I thought school added chaos to my schedule in the States, here are the schedules I have to keep up with here.

Kindergarten: M,/T/Th/F 8:25-11 and T 1:30-3
First Grade: M/W/F 8:25-11:45, T/Th 8:25-11 and M/T/Th/F 1:30-3

I also have to remember that Alex goes to the pool on Mondays and Ruby goes on Tuesdays. And in case that doesn't fill up my brain, on Thursday Alex has to be dropped off at the bus stop to take a bus to another town for an art class.

In Switzerland there are two years of kindergarten and so kids start at the age of 4. This meant that Ruby, who might be the smallest kindergartener ever, is in her first year of school.

Alex started first grade this year. After a rocky end to school last year, we were unsure how things would work out.

Don't let these cute smiles fool you. The first day didn't go off without a hitch. We decided the night before that I would take Alex and Pete would take Ruby, since she was the youngest and would need a French speaker to help her. The problem with this plan was that my French is not very good and I didn't understand half of what Alex's teacher said to me. Here's a breakdown of the day.
*Ruby would not get off of Pete's lap and decided that she didn't want to go to school after all. Luckily, another English speaking dad overheard her and introduced his English speaking son to her.
*Alex came home for lunch practically in tears and informed me that I didn't buy him the right school supplies. In my defense, a lot of the things on the list don't have an English translation because they don't exist in the US. Not to mention, I couldn't figure out why in the world a first grader would need-not one but-TWO permanent black markers!
*Around 1:45pm I received a call from Alex's teacher wondering why Alex was not back in school. I had assumed that he went back at 2pm like last year when in fact it had changed to 1:30pm. The teacher had reminded everybody in the morning, but I of course had not understood.

Since that first day 2 weeks ago, I would love to say that things have settled down and we have figured everything out. Unfortunately that would be a lie. Here are a few high/low lights:

*Unfortunately on Thursday I forgot it was bus day and sent Alex to school instead of the bus stop. I received another call from his teacher (who must think I'm a moron by now) that I would need to pick him up and drive him there.

*Alex came home one day and told me that he needed his books covered. So I covered the 3 text books he had with the plain side of a grocery bag just like my mom taught me. Apparently in Switzerland, every book needs to be covered, including small paperback notebooks (think about the bluebook you used for college exams)....and here they cover them with stuff that is like wrapping paper. In the end I covered 13 books and went through 2 rolls of wrapping paper!

*Another day I received a call from Alex's teacher telling me that I needed to come pick him up early... not because he was in trouble but because he had blood running down his forehead. He was playing soccer at recess and had a small accident. Fortunately is was a small little gash that didn't require stitches.

*At the beginning of week 2 Ruby decided that she was done with school. Every day this week has begun with Ruby crying about having to go. This culminated in an all out sob-fest on Thursday when Ruby was crying so hard that she choked and threw up. We called her in sick that day.
Tomorrow is Monday and we have another chance at redemption...and if nothing else, the countdown to fall break has officially begun.

I'm a big kid now

Pete look-a-like #3 has grown so much since we moved that I feel like I need to provide an update on him. His hair has gotten so blond and it is really curly. The first picture was taken two weeks ago and the one below was taken a month earlier. Henry loves reading books and will sit on your lap as long as you are willing to read. He loves his blue bunny silky (thanks Jan) and playing with Alex, who always gets him laughing.

He has been walking for about 6 weeks. His favorite shoes are his green Crocs. The first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is find them and ask someone to put them on. I think he would sleep with them on if we would let him.

He is still a man of few words. His vocabulary consists of mama, dada, ba(ball), boo(book), bu(bunny), hi, got(chocolate), and goc(Crocs). He is getting good at animal sounds, although he needs a little work on the cow sound.

Mer de Glace

We rode a train staight up the mountain (literally) to a glacier above Chamonix.There is an old hotel at the base of the glacier

that has been used by adventure-seekers for over 100 years
Ruby and Alex appreciating the flora and fauna of the Alps
St Ruby - the new saint of Alpen mountaineering
The girls recharging their batteries before the trip to the glacier
We descended 326 stairs to explore a cave cut into

France's longest glacier -- 4.5 miles long and 700 ft deep!

Alex walked down and back up by himself but

Henry (obviously) and Ruby (3/4 of the time) had to be carried.

Getting into the cave requires crossing this

adjustable bridge -- the glacier moves 1 cm per hour
In the heart of the glacier
Henry's favorite part was the freezing cold drips falling on him from the ceiling
Brrr! Where's the hot chocolate?
Exiting the cave with the ice field behind us

The train we road up the mountain

Chamonix, France

One of the last trips we took before school started was to Chamonix, France. The road we took winds through the French Alps and is only open in the summertime. Henry didn't nap like we planned and Alex and Ruby watched a movie, so Pete and I were the only ones who really enjoyed the breathtaking views.

A shot of us with Mount Blanc in the background. You can see Mount Blanc from our house and in this picture it seems a lot closer than it actually is.

In front of the church in the middle of Chamonix
the Alpine Slide
Pete and I took turns going up with Alex and Ruby

Alex was old enough to go by himself and

Ruby took turns riding with Pete and me