Arrivé à Geneve

Hotel de la Paix

Last night, Jason and the boys dropped me off at the airport and I was on my way to Geneva. The eight hour plane ride was painful but I survived. I have my seating preferences saved with my work travel agency so they know that I prefer aisle seats on all of my trips. So of course, I just assumed that I would have an aisle seat. When I walked on the plane, I realized that I was in a middle seat. I was livid. I Hate riding in the middle seat because I feel crowded in and I can't get up whenever I want. And I like to get up a lot. The people seated around me were fine. There was someone that didn't say a word to me (I prefer this) and someone who also works for the Federal Government in a very similar line of work as me so we talked a bit which was nice. I slept for maybe a total of 1 hour last night.

View from my hotel room

I took a cab to my hotel and on the ride I found out that there is a marathon race today in Geneva so the taxi had to drop be a block and half a way. I have been in Geneva three other times that the marathon was held. It is a funny coincidence because the meetings I attend during this time are not recurring meetings.

View from my hotel room of the Marathon

I arrived at the hotel, Hotel de la Paix, which is a 5-star hotel at about 9am. I was excited to get to stay there because I have walked by the hotel many times in the past and I have never been inside. It is a beautiful hotel right on the lake (Lac Leman). They were very nice and gave me a room right away (even though check-in is not until later in the afternoon). The room is a bit small but its just me so its cozy. The bed is big, with lots of pillows and very comfortable. My room is on the fifth floor (the top floor) and over looks the lake. I couldn't be more lucky. When I got to my room I changed out of my travel clothes and into my pjs and slept for about three hours. After that I took a shower to help me wake up and walked to the other side of the lake (rive gauche) and window shopped. The air was fresh and clean. I stopped at the train station for a sandwich Thon (tuna) which is one of my favorite sandwiches and batteries for my camera.

As I was walking around the town, I passed a movie theatre and decide to see what was playing. I read the little piece of paper showing the movie times and decided to see 17 again (starring Zac Efron, aka Troy Bolton). It started at 2:30pm and by the time I got to the ticket counter it was 2:35 but I decided to see it anyway. With my poor french I bought a ticket and with my poor french asked which theatre it was in. After that we had some confusing conversations in French and I realized the movie wasn't playing until 4:30pm. The 2:30pm show was at another theatre (Balexert) far away. So I decided to come back to my room, blog a little, and then go back.

Mommy at the flower clock

I will leave for the movie at 4pm (or 10am DC time) and then will probably have an early dinner--I'm thinking pizza--and then I will relax a bit more in my room. I'm already very tired.

Jason, Aidan and Leo: I love and miss you so much! I wish you were here avec moi.

Apologies

Well it happened—as I initially feared--a HUGE lapse in time with no updates on our goings on. The last few weeks I have been struggling to make the work and family life balance. I have been more successful on some days compared to others. I’m not going to dwell on it—you don’t want to hear about it because you’ve got your own struggles and I don’t really want to relive it. So, I will just tell you about a few fun events that have gone on.

Also I am leaving on a trip this weekend. I leave for Geneva on Saturday and will be in Geneva until early Thursday morning where I will be heading to Rome (at 6am). I will be in Rome until Sunday and I will then head to Accra. I will be in Accra until Wednesday. I hope to continue to post pictures on the blog and may use it to share goings on with the boys. My Ma will be coming to help Jason with the boys. They are very excited and I'm happy because I know they will be very preoccupied and Jason won't be going out of his mind.

See you!

Star of the Day

Our little Star of the Day. Months ago, Aidan's teacher sent home a note to all the parents that the students would all have a special Star of the Day assignment. Each child had to do a 20 minute presentation about themselves including their families and hobbies. I know! 20 minutes is a long time! It's a long time for me to give a presentation let alone a kindergartner.

Aidan's Star of the Day was on Monday, May 4th. We have been working on it for the past few weeks. We made two Creative Memories digital 20x30 posters with Doris' help. One of the posters had pictures of Aidan from birth through 6 years of age. The other had pictures of his family, including his mom, dad, brother, cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. They turned out really cute if I do say so myself! Aidan and I worked on it together and he picked out all the pictures he wanted to include. He also collected a basket full of things that he thought were some how special to him. His basket included, the Wii controller, his swim goggles, soccer ball, panda, geneva flag, the outfit he wore home from the hospital, his shirt and tie, ben-10 watch, bakugan ball, his two favorite movies: star wars clone wars and star wars, his ewok stuffed animal, and maybe one or two other things.

He stood at the front of the classroom introduced us to his class: "this is my mom, Amy"- "this is my brother, Leo", and "this is my dad, Jason." He then stood at the front of the classroom, with a pointer (kids love pointers) and pointed to all the pictures on his board and talked about each. He was talking in a low voice and his teacher told him to "use his first grade voice" and he took all of his special items out of the bag and showed them all. I'm not sure why he wanted to bring his shirt and tie that he wore to Kevin and Sarah's wedding but he did and he showed it!

After all that, he took questions. The questions were really funny. In one picture he has a bandaid on his figure--I don't know how they could see it but they did and they wanted to know what it was and what kind of bandaid it was. One girl, came up and asked him where he was in a particular picture -- he said plainly, "I'm right there" and pointed to himself...I knew what she meant and I thought "oh boy, this is going to be good. how is she going to express this?"...she said "No, what I mean is where are you...what place are in--in this picture?" He was in Georgetown. After the question and answers, he could call on rows of kids to come up and look closer at the pictures and his toys and he could answer any questions. All the kids came up and wanted to look and ask questions. Aidan was loving the attention. It was really, really cute.

We are all SO, SO proud of him. We got the May Kindergarten newletter this week and they said they are talking more and more about first grade in their classes and in a few weeks they will go visit the first grade classrooms. I started to cry. He is getting so bad..too big, too fast, too soon. I'm so proud of him.

A Day with Thomas the Train

On Saturday, May 2, we drove up to Baltimore and went to the B & O railroad museum and spent the day (or half of it) with Thomas the train. Just to set the scenery, it was pouring down rain when we left the house around 9am. We went and got some breakfast and some coffee, juice and chocolate milk and then headed up to Baltimore (about 45 minutes away). A few months ago, we got tickets to ride a train that looked like Thomas, well sort of. Our tickets were for 11:30 am and we were told get there an hour early. We got there around 10:30 am and parked and went into the roundhouse. The museum is great and had a number of trains inside that you could walk around in and a number of trains outside (though, again it was pouring). They also had a number of Thomas the Train (TT) activities for the kids include a huge Lego train and town set up, Thomas trains and tracks, TT coloring station, TT temporary tattoos, Sir Topham Hatt and a TT gift shop.

When it came for us to ride Thomas, it was still raining. Leo was really excited when he saw the train. The front of the train looked like Thomas and the rest of the train was comprised of Marc train cars (the commuter train line). We got on and waited for everyone else to get on and Leo kept saying “this take too long.” Once we started to go, Leo said “this train go faster?” For the first five minutes of the train ride, he kept asking if the train was going to go faster. He even asked the conductor that was walking around. The conducter said “No, we’re not going to go faster. We have one mile of track and we have to stretch this trip out for 25 minutes.” Now that is a slow train! One other thing…the Museum is not located in the best area of Baltimore so the scenery left something to be desired. We went two miles an hour in a Marc train car with sticker bushes and a parking lot on one side and dilapidated houses, mud, and sticker bushes on the other. Next time, I think we need to take Leo on a much faster train. He wants to go on a bullet train. I think we should go to New York.

On a some what unrelated note, but important to the story...Aidan was not excited about going on this trip at all. Because Leo loves trains, he thinks trains are for babies. We are now at that stage where it is hard to find things that they both will like. To be honest, I think he actually enjoyed himself he just didn't want to admit it. I'm also having a hard time getting Aidan to be supportive of Leo's excitement and be excited for him. I'm disappointed he can't say and with a smile, "yeah, Leo this is fun" even when he doesn't really mean it because it would mean a lot to Leo. I guess he is just being honest.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Yesterday we colored Easter eggs and made little chocolate cakes in the shapes of eggs, flowers and bunnies. The boys love coloring Easter eggs. I hard boiled 1 dozen Easter eggs but it was not enough. They went through them in about 15 minutes or less. They wanted more eggs but we can't eat more than 1 dozen hard-boiled eggs! We will also decorate the little cakes today with frosting and spring colored sprinkles and candies.

This morning the Easter Bunny came and left Easter baskets for the boys. He left them at the bottom of the stairs. The Easter Bunny left Aidan a book, a Star Wars game for his Leapster and a duck Webkinz. He left Leo a new car, a book about the Apollo 11 mission and a new Thomas movie. The Easter Bunny also hid Easter eggs around the living room and dining room. The boys were eggcited (corny!) when they came down the stairs and saw their Easter baskets and eggs hidden around. They had fun searching for the eggs and then opening them and sorting the candy.

Today we will also spend a little time outside. It is nice and sunny but still a little cold. Yesterday Aidan and I bought a few flowers at the store and we will plant them in the front yard. I'm so excited to spend a little time outside in the (small) yard. It really needs a little color. In fact the whole neighborhood could use a little color. It actually makes me wonder how much flexibility we have in planting in our yards but I'm going to take the chance.

Tonight we will have a small Easter dinner of ham and Aunt Pam's hash brown potato casserole (always a fan favorite). As much fun as we are having celebrating Easter, I told Jason this morning that it feels a little (well a lot) lonely without a lot of family and friends to share the holiday with. We're pretty used to it by now but it still doesn't get easier to be honest. In fact, perhaps, in some ways, as the boys get older it gets a little harder.

That being said we are looking forward to a fun, family Easter! Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Birthday Rushell!

I'm not sure if Rushell is able to read our blog but just in case... Happy Birthday Rushell!! We hope you have a wonderful day and get time to celebrate you! We love you!!

We asked Rushell if she wanted to come up to DC this weekend to celebrate her birthday and Easter but she said she was "going into the field" and did not know if she would be back on Friday or Saturday. We also asked if she wanted us to come down there but I think I was too late and she was already "in the field." I'm guessing she can't take her blackberry with her!

Spring Break

Aidan's spring break was last week. Unfortunately I did not get to take time off to spend with them because work is really busy (I know I always say that but it always is...I'll save that maybe for another post). I had all day meetings with folks outside the U.S. for three days straight. Yesterday I managed to leave work a little early at 3pm because 1) I needed a break and 2) Aidan begged and begged and begged for me to leave early.

Why you might be asking yourself was Aidan so anxious for me to come home early. As much as I would like to think it was because he wanted to just be near his mummy he actually had something in mind. He wanted to go to the fabric store or as he calls it "the sewing store." He likes to draw on fabric and then he wants for me to sew the pieces together. His first and only piece art looks like this:

Bobba Fett

It is his only piece of art because I really can not sew. He has drawn two other pictures on fabric that are both waiting for me to sew together and now he has two more yards of fabric to decorate. I took sewing lessons in middle school (remember the apron?) and one year when I was about 14 or 15 (I think) Auntie Pam tried to teach me to sew. I made a pair of shorts and some pillows for my sister, Heather. Perhaps, I am not even remembering correctly because I have the sinking feeling that Auntie Pam made the pillows for Heather. With Aidan's new love of drawing on fabric and sewing, I have come to the realization that I have NOT made Auntie Pam proud. Let me show you (I think it's a little funny)

After we stuffed it this is how I closed the little guy off! Perhaps we should have chosen white thread but when we were shopping at the store that hardly seemed like much fun.

This is the corner under his arm, stretched from the stuffing with exposed thread and bunching on the right.

I do not have unrealistic sewing expectations of myself. I think Bobba Fett is actually quite funny and Aidan seems to like him and doesn't pay any attention to the sewing quality. On the other hand, I have looked into taking sewing classes and may consider them in the near future. I also find it quite funny -- the things we do for our children's entertainment and happiness. Who would of thought I would be hand sewing a project for Aidan? It seemed like a reasonable request so I didn't think twice about it.

The boys have not done much else this Spring Break. Jason took the boys downtown to a Museum and they went to the library, Aidan got his hair cut and they built forts and other fun things. Leo is not feeling well and we don't know if he has a cold or allergies. Last night, Leo woke up crying and sounded like he had croup but he slept in this morning until about 9 am. The weather is changing so much that the allergies are beginning to show in all of us.