Monday: Toine and Jane's eldest daughter Zoe spent a few days with us. So I took she and the girls to la piscine(yes, if you are keeping track, thanks 3 times to the pool in 8 days. This time I did not even bother wearing a suit. I figured the two older girls can play with each other and the two younger girls had each other. I did go down to the beach part of the pool with the Gemma and Tabea. It was actually a lot better and more peaceful. There were two quasi-circular rock "walls" in an area, creating a little lake pool.
Then there was also a dock to jump off. Mostly teenagers were jumping off the dock. The girls stayed in the lake-pool. It was so peaceful because you could not hear or see as many people. It was like a mini retreat area at la piscine. While we were there a swan came and was swimming in the lake with the kids.
Some little puck-kid decided it was his duty to throw pebbles at the swan.
I wanted to tell him stop, but I don't speak French. When he was walking past me to go back to his parents, the lady beside me said something to him in French. I am not sure exactly what she said, but I can only assume she was telling him not to throw stuff at the bird. I heard her said "ne" and "pas," so I know she told him not to do something. The kids did not enjoy being reprimanded and made a rude face at the woman. I just wanted to pick up the rocks and throw them at him at the point. Despite the kid, all in all, Monday was good.
Tuesday: I don't really think much happened. It was the first time I started feeling a little homesick. I was listing to Kairos podcast for the week of Aug 4th [I have gone back and re-listen to all the previous "Summer of Love, Too" sermons]. This was the Kairos service on the day I left. It made me a little sad I could not be there for that one and then I became said thinking about everyone at home. I was sad about not just the people at Kairos, but also everyone else.[side-note: I actually did write a good-bye message to the people at Kairos, but never posted it. Maybe I will dig it up and post it in the very near future.]
Tuesday after lunch was when we tried to do Raylen's school project. She has to collect branches of different trees. We went to the parcoursvita, a nearby walking trail. I guess they are all over parts of Switzerland. They have little exercises and stretches you can do through the trail. It is actually a really nice idea. It is where Rich, Andrea, the girls and I went walking my first full evening in town.
Raylan and Osian rode their bikes, while Tabea, Gemma and I took the car. I wanted us all to ride the car, but Raylen said Osian did not want to ride the car; Osian wanted to ride her bike. I did not have a bike at this time, nor a helmet, so I could not ride anything to get there and I did not feel like having a fight over this topic. So, Raylen and Osian took off before us and we came a few minutes later. When I got there, Raylen said, Jande do you have my folder. I thought to myself, "No, its not my responsibility." So Raylen, Gemma and I hopped back into the car and drove home to get the folder. When we got back to the parcoursvita and Raylen says to me, what trees are we looking for again. I got out the list and starting reading them off. She said well how does that one look. I told her, "I don't know what these trees are." Then she said, "Well mommy wrote the traduction[that what she says instead of translation, its French]." I am almost positive I looked at her and said, "Are you serious, I am not arborist." She said, "You don't know, I thought you would know." So I told her we would have to go on the computer at home and look all these up and try again later this week. I however did not want this trip to be a bust, so I said we would stay and go on the trail anyway.
Raylen was not happy with the hiding spot Osian and Tabea had chosen to hide the bikes. So, they spent another 5 minutes trying to find spots to hide the bikes. Then they decide just to ride the bikes, and I told them know. Gemma informed me you cannot ride bikes on those trails; apparently parcoursvita is only for people on foot. Raylen and Osian could not settle on a spot and they were determined to ride their bikes. This fight I was willing to have and win. So they decided we would just go home if they had to walk with their bikes. So home we went. That night there was a sleep over with Kelly[the girl with an American mother, Pam], Osian and Raylan. It did not go too well. The girls were up with after 1:30 when I went to sleep. The next morning Rich was ready to ban sleepover, but Andrea got him to agree to no more group sleep overs.
Wednesday: It just rained and we did not do much. Raylen loves Monopoly, so I think we played a game with free parking[not official Monopoly rules and makes the game last much longer]. After that I taught her Monopoly deal. We played a round of that and some Skip Bo. Gemma and Tabea played with each other. And every so often you would here Gemma scream, "Please Tabea will you play with me." You see, Gemma can be a bit bossy, rude and blunt and Tabea will just stop playing with her. However, Gemma likes playing with her; so Tabea will stop playing with Gemma and Gemma will beg and plead with Tabea to play with her. I just let them work it out.
peace, love and applesauce
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