Peaceful Sundays

I love weekends.  I love them so much sometimes I wish they would never end.  :)  Some days when everything is closed on Sundays it really annoys me but weekends like this one remind me of how great it can be when everything slows down for a day.  This morning Paul and I slept in and lazed around but I can only take so much of the computer these days so I decided to sit out on the balcony in the sun surrounded by blue sky and trees.  It was wonderful.  Paul joined me and we discussed baby names... things are just so peaceful today and I love it.

Friday night we hung out with some friends and yesterday we woke up early to make it to a used baby items sale and the market before they ended.  I realized when looking through the baby stuff that I had no idea how European kids sizes work.  We figured it out though and bought a baby jacket, pants, and winter 'suit' that is just a super thick onesie that can close around the hands and feet and has a hood- super cute.  We did a TON of grocery shoppng and even started our first bottle of vanilla extract!  So easy to do- bottle, vanilla beans, and vodka and about 1-2 months later... extract!  I can't wait to use it.

Oh, and I forgot to say that when I came back from the states, I came home to our amazing stroller!  Paul and Billy put it together and I can't help but push it around the apartment.  It is beautiful.  Definitely not the most compact and not something you want to pull in and out of your car but for us it is perfect.  Here's what it looks like with the bassinet and regular.  The bassinet can be taken out and carried very easily and we'll probably use it in our apartment too during the first couple months instead of buying a roll-y one since we're limited on space and money.

And hopefully our bathroom will be remodeled by November!  We definitely arent 100% sure but supposedly they've taken measurements and our half of the building will finally get new bathrooms.  This will be amazing but the catch is that we'll have to use a temporary bathroom that they'll set up in the basement.  Our neighbors said we could use theirs but they have a baby girl and are pregnant with another... so we dont want to bother them too much.  It will just be hard being about 30 weeks pregnant and not having a bathroom in the middle of the night and having to walk up and own 4 flights of stairs to get to one.  We'll just have to take one day at a time.  :)

Im sure Im forgetting to say something but there's always next week!  Stay tuned  :)

Pictures galore!

(Those are pictures when Paul's family visited.  These show Paris and a small town in France, Freiburg, Germany, and the rock and area where Paul and Shawn climbed/hiked.)

So we're finally back to normal... bittersweet but it is nice to not have to go anywhere.  We loved all of our vacation time though and miss the company.  My trip to the states was amazing and it was not easy to leave.  Even on the car ride back to the airport I was stuffing my face with Chickfila.  I flew in to Orlando where I stayed with Jenny and Blake for a couple of nights before we met up with Jayce, Rachel, and Carli in Tampa.  I got in at 10pm and was up bright and early the next day for my haircut and a full day of shopping with my dad!  It took me awhile to figure out the US prepaid phone system though so I finally called my dad right as he was pulling off the interstate- perfect timing!  I bought tons of clothes, shoes, tolietries, and snacks for us and luckily still was under my weight limit because I still had shopping to do with my friends.  Meeting up for our Labor Day Reunion was awesome.  I really had a great time hanging out with everyone and I love how real we are with each other.  They are amazing friends.  We ate at some of my favorite places, had a wonderful beach day (where I accidentally dehydrated and burned myself), watched movies, cooked dinner, and just sat on the couch together.  Wonderful wonderful community.  I really do misss it.  Coming home I was able to fill up my extra suitcase and the delta agent guy was very impressed that they were both just under the limit.  Go me!

I really appreciate Paul letting me go to the states even if it meant he couldn't go too.  I am so lucky to have him for a husband.  He liked everything I brought back for him including his very own Discover magazine.  :)  My friends even bought our little guy a few pairs of clothes!  I should have gotten some more including some socks but oh well.  Im eventually going to have to succumb and start paying the expensive prices here.

Today is a holiday for Zurich city.  My work gave the whole day off and Paul got a half a day but made it into a whole day.  Im really enjoying his company and took advantage of his translating skills to get some detergent to wash our new diapers.  Im hoping I had a good reason for getting unbleached cotton because we have to pre-wash them at least 3-5 times until they start soaking up water... That takes a long time when we have 2 loads worth of diapers and each load takes over an hour.  Here we go!

Oh, and I signed my new contract for work- Nov 30 will be my last day.  My family is hoping to come the week before Christmas.  So that gives me a few weeks to relax which will be nice at 35 weeks.  We can get all our paperwork and baby things in line!  And I've been reading one of my many new books I brought back with me- Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and omg, I can not put it down.  Im already halfway through and dont want it to end!  But that's a good update for now.  I'll leave this with tons of pics from our road trip with Billy and Jess.  :)  First is the castle that was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty in Germany and then pics are from Austria in the mountains, at a glacier, and in Innsbruck and then Paul holding up the box wine starts our Italy pics in Cinque Terre.