In the morning

Today I tried to finish the last posts I have for this blog because I know that when we get back from London it will be London this, London that and I will not want to post anything Switzy related for a while. Tomorrow morning, early morning, we will head out. Jachen's grandma will drive us down to the train station where we will hop on our train and head to the Flughafen{airport}. I LOVE riding on the trains, that could be my most favorite thing to do here. Our plane takes off at 10:20am Zurich time and we land 10:55am London time. London is an hour behind if that was confusing for you. From there on we will head to our hotel, unload and then go and explore. We have no set plans for our first day and really don't have any set plans for the week. We only have the places we want to go and know at some point we will go to them. Which for myself I like everything planned out, every detail. But I do enjoy the occasional whim and unplanned type vacation. However, I am sure once we get there we will plan a bit more. This past week I have been making us drink a packet of Emergen-C each day to help keep us from getting sick for our trip. I know, I am crazy. I like to be prepared. IF I had more packets of Emergen-C I would bring some along and still have us drink it each day. I don't want either of us getting sick. Can you tell I am super serious and pumped for this trip? I won't be bring my computer with me, but I will have my Itouch where I hope to keep in touch a bit as well as would love to skype family at some point.

We found a park

There aren't many parks in Switzerland. They just aren't park people. It is a sad thing for many reasons, but mostly sad for us/me because you can't just go sit outside and enjoy an afternoon at the park. I love being able to go picnic outside somewhere. However, today we found a park...well park-ish. We brought our lunch and enjoyed eating outside.

THE best bread I have eaten so far and it came with a mini Swiss flag.

Jachen got himself a big ball of meat, literally. Blended beef with some herbs than baked.

My poulet.

Fireworks and swiss decorations have been out for a few weeks now. While we are in London, we will be missing Switzerland's holiday like unto our 4th of July. However, they celebrate the day "that three guys promised to kick out the Austrians" as Jachen put it. However, by Jachen's description of how they celebrate it here it doesn't sound too exciting so I am not too sad we will be missing it. Next year.

An amazing drive home

Jachen keeps surprising me with more and more beautiful drives. And they are just drives on the way home taking a different road. This is by far my favorite. Saturday night we went out and when we headed home we went home in a way that brought us up, around and behind the mountain that is behind our home. It was a breathtaking drive. I wish you could see it in real life instead of through my dinky Itouch camera I had with me. WHEN you come visit us, we will for SURE take you on this drive and you will see such beautiful rolling hills that go on forever.

A loud little river we found on our drive

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

This view right here, just to the left is AMAZING. It didn't capture well enough in the photo I took so I will have to attempt another time to get a better photo.  Just to the left of this you can see hill after hills which then turns into mountains.

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

Coming from the other direction, the tree I practically hiked to the other day.

Brockenstube

Friday night hangout at the Brockenstube{thrift store}. This is one of the two we go to the most, this is the one with way to high of prices. Something that is cracked or broken is still like 6francs when it really should be 3francs...at least in my experience with American thrift stores. Books start at around 6francs and go up. Basically everything should be half the price that it is marked. This thrift store is owned by a church, Salvation Army, so they want to make money for it so prices are high. So that explains it. However, you can find some gems here, if you are willing to pay a few francs more than desired.

Such a cute and tiny pocket dictionary...to bad it was German/Italian.


Kaitlin, I saw this book and thought of you. I almost bought it for you, buttt I didn't.

Jachen sure likes to model at the thrift store.
He was really excited about this "Wizard's" coat.

Farmers milking stool. I saw this last year at Fasnacht and had no idea why they were wearing these on their bums, now it makes sense. Thanks Jachen.

Our home

The wait for you is over. You can finally see what we/I have done to our main level part of home. It has been somewhat of a mystery till now because I wanted to have it all in one post and it took me awhile to get all the videos filmed. I sound like a super dork in each and every video, turns out. Oh well, at least you have the information and I can move on from waiting and waiting to finish this post. We like our home and feel blessed that we could start off marriage with a house. We will enjoy a house while we can because I am sure in the US we will be living in an apartment for many years. You can see more details of our space over HERE where I have posted some{many} photos of our decor.

Jachen putting together the Ikea frames while we watch Pride and Prejudice

The before/work in progress of our living room and dining room

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

Jachen putting together our shelves for the living room while watching Arrested Development. Jachen became really good at hammering and building while looking up at the show.

Our chandelier before I spray painted it. We almost got ride of it because the black was making it drab, but good ol spray paint saved the day!

Jachen hanging our birch tree curtains we used as backdrops for our wedding. His mom made them into curtains for us.

Finally, the after of our main level~the living room, dining room and kitchen.

Part 1 {living room/family room}

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

Part 2 {Bookcase}

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

Part 3

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

Part 4 {Dining room}
This is the light fixture that was here before we replaced it. Where we have the dining room now is where the living room was before so this light fixture made more sense in a living room space.

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

This boat key holder was the only thing on this wall before. I took that down and painted the framing on the white board and covered a bulletin board with the matching fabric in the living room. The bulletin board also serves as our key holder. I even dressed up the back of the white board eraser with the matching fabric.

I added art to our stairs that leads to the second floor.

Part 5 Our Kitchen

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

I also made a video of our upstairs bathroom. Not that its fancy or anything, but it sure is quite the improvement to what it was before.

Untitled from Monica Duschletta on Vimeo.

Professor Jachen

Professor Jachen. He is the new adjunct professor of Quantum Physics at Oxford University. He teaches Monday and Thursdays in room 210 on the East Wing. His office hours are Monday 2-4pm and Thursday 2-4pm and Friday 9-11am. He has a Bachelors in Advance Physics and a Masters in Bow ties. Just kidding, this is what he wore to church today, looking a little like a Professor.

Jachen exposed

I have accepted the fact that my babies have a 50-50 chance of having cheeks like their daddy when he was a baby. Oh boy. Jachen is the cheek KING. Look at those things! I have told Jachen that he was a funny looking baby, BUT I can say that because he was a dang cute kid, teenager and adult. At some point in life he lost the oval shaped head and huge cheeks, I would say he looks pretty different now from his baby photos. Another great thing about living in the house that he grew up in is that I can find photos of him here. So here Jachen is chubs, rolls, missing teeth and all. Turns out I am posting a lot of his pictures. Look at that little Swiss boy.

Below, is the age of where he starts getting SUPER cute.

MY FAVORITE ONE, below.

And, now he is all grown up.