I FOUND CHEDDAR CHEESE!!

OK, so that's probably not the most exciting thing we've done in the last three months since I posted, but it sure is the most recent! I was doing my weekly shopping in our LOCAL grocery store, mind you, and was perusing the cheese aisle. Due to fluctuating pregnancy hormones (I'll leave it at that ;) ), I'd previously been unable to stay in the cheese aisle longer than the time it took to grab some harmless Gouda and be gone. This time, I happened to glance up at the top shelf next to the walnut cheese John likes, and lo and behold, WHITE CHEDDAR! I know I was entertainment for a few of the other grocery store patrons, I believe I talked to myself and didn't try to hide my excitement. I couldn't believe my eyes, so I stocked up. Unopened, it's good until December, but John may end up curbing my pre-buying like he did with the toilet paper. Tell me, how can you pass up a 50% off sale on FIVE-PLY toilet paper? That's just craziness :)

On to more exciting things (for you all, anyway), we've had a pretty eventful three months. August was full of family, starting with John's parents' visit. We had a great time touring the country, and a big thanks to them for (inadvertently) volunteering to be the guinea pigs for all the neat places to visit around here. They decided to call it an "adventure" when I accidentally got them onto the wrong train/boat/etc. Fortunately, I was always able to figure out the correct one, but sometimes it took a try or two. Check out the Albums section of the website to see some pictures of their visit.

A week later, we went home to the U.S., and had a wonderful two weeks with family and friends. We also had two PERFECT baby showers, and we couldn't be more grateful for everyone's generosity. Will and Claire are already loved by so many, they don't know how lucky they are. I must say, though, as nice as it is here in Switzerland, there are a few U.S. amenities that I miss:

1. Wide, straight lanes and large, FREE parking lots. There are none of those here.

2. SUPERTARGET! I know I sufficiently appreciated SuperTarget while I was there, but I appreciate it even more now. Europe could learn a few things from the SuperTarget (mainly, cheap prices!)

3. Being able to comortably drive around without the fear of speed cameras. Don't get me wrong, I drove safely (translation for our parents: I did not put the grandchildren in jeopardy), but it was just really nice to be able to drive without the constant "Ohmygosh, I'm going 2km over the speed limit, I'd better slow down" freak out.

4. American cheese. YUM. I couldn't get enough! And a good ol' box of macaroni and cheese. I don't know whether it was pregnancy related or not, but it was very real for me (John may think otherwise ;) )

In between the Garnetts' visit and our trip home, however, we got to experience the crazy Zurich Street Parade. It's called a "parade", because 35 open-bed 18-wheeler trucks playing techno music and holding lots of dressed up dancing people make their way down one of the streets in Zurich for 12-14 hours. They move VERY slowly, and stop occasionally for responsive crowds. See more pictures in the Albums section of the website. This was the kids' first (and potentially only) street parade, and I think they enjoyed it. They were dancing around a bit, so I'm assuming :) We attended the parade with some other Dow friends, and we were all commenting on how safe the event was. Even with all the crazy people you'll see in some of our pictures, everyone pretty much kept to themselves. There's no way you'd have that sort of safety at home for Mardi Gras Galveston!

September consisted of lots of visits from friends, and we had a great time with them too, as you can see in the Albums (watch a few funny videos of everyone on the "Swiss Horse" outside our apartment patio as well - it's worth it!). Aside from all the sight-seeing, everyone got to experience our local Swiss delicacy, the Gueggeli (pronounced "Googli"). It's really just rotisserie chicken bought from trucks on the side of the road, but it's so tasty! And reasonably priced, as Swiss prices go. Plus, it's a fun word to say :) In the U.S., I would hesitate to buy food from the side of the road (unless it's a watermelon from a cute old man on the way to College Station), but here, once again, it's perfectly safe. The guy selling it isn't scary either.

The last of the friend visits marked the last of our outings for a while. I'm starting to get a little bigger (and hence, more uncomfortable), so we've started getting the baby room ready and purchasing some much needed items, such as a stroller and car seats. After much deliberation, we finally decided on those two items. The picture to the left makes me laugh - it looks like we bought up their inventory! Really, as Swiss standards go, this was a HUGE baby store (and had a free parking lot!!), and had about 100 strollers on display. Even twin strollers! The lady who helped us said that they see quite a few twin parents there. I was a bit surprised, but it might also be that they have everything in stock, whereas most smaller baby stores don't.

One last piece of fun before I sign off for this week (I'm going to try to post weekly now that I have a lot more free time), we had our first snow in the mountains! Actually, the second snow, but the first one to almost reach our elevation level. We saw a ton of it on the low mountain tops as we drove to the baby store (along with a hot air balloon), here are a few pictures...