ga schlittle

`The amazing Tree`






Trainpictures, on our way to and...


...from the Christmas celebration

Slayriding? I`m not sure what it`s called in English but that doesn`t really matter. It was LOADS of fun, that`s what matters! We were invited by some friends, also a young married couple (Brandy and Andy) to go and have some fun in the snow. They just bought a slay and we were able to borrow one (incl. steering wheel and brakes!)
We went to a place called `Sörenberg` http://www.soerenberg.ch/bahnen/ and saw lots of Dutch cars (and people) -Dutch Swiss-snow-lovers- there.
We took the slay `road` and had so much fun that we walked half way up again after reaching the finish, to slide down a second time. Having fun like little children! Halfways we discovered a tree covered with snow, so beautiful and worth posing for.
It snowed the whole time, and by the time we came back in Luzern we discovered it had snowed there too! : Bigtime! Everything was covered in about 20-25 cm of snow and last sunday, the 20th, the coldest temperatures this winter were measured in luzern: -19 C. Very exiting and most of all: So beautiful!
After church we took the train to Lukas`s ant, and celebrated Christmas there with the whole Maerki family. It was nice but also a bit confusing to meet up with all of the ants, unle`s, cousins and grandchildren. I`m still not sure who`s a child of who but I`ll figure that out some time.. :) Back in the train we took another picture because we forgat to take pictures at the Christmas celebration.. (Might have helped me keeping all of the families apart but unfortunately we forgat;)
We had a very nice time there and the weekend was over already..
Today at school the kids sold our last handcreme and we learned that the `Every Cent Counts`- action at the Radio/Television, brought in over 7 million Franks in Switserland for Malaria!!! Fantastic news.
I have to go, we wish everyone a Very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

December & Malaria...

View from our living room (Mountains!!)



Wow.. already halfway december! Time flies!!! I notice with our fulltime jobs it`s hard to keep track of time. At school there are so many wonderfull preparations for Christmas going on, and I am enjoying the atmosphere this decembermonth at work every day. Unfortunately exept for the Christmas tablecloth Sinterklaas (my mom) gave me when I was in Holland, there isn`t much Christmas in our home yet! But soon I will have time to get into our attic and find our Christmas box somewhere!
Being back home, even if it was just for a very short time, was wonderful. It was so nice to meet my family and be able to find everyone healthy. I enjoyed it very much.

Also, my calling as a nursery (?) Sunbeam teacher is going very well. We almost made it to `remove`:) all of the parents from class and my 3 two-year-olds are being so nice to me- they didn`t even cry! And they are listening so well.. I hope it`s not just my weird accent that they`re fascinated with, and they won`t turn into disobedient children in a few weeks- but I`m really proud of them.

At work, at school, the teenagers in our class were very busy the past week producing handcreme or lotion. The Swiss television and radio have recently started a huge project called: `Jeder rappe zaehlt` which basicly means, every cent counts.
http://www.jrz.ch/www/de/drs3/jeder-rappen-zaehlt/155091.event.html
With this project they are collecting money for the many many people who suffer because of Malaria (about a million people, especially young children, still die because of Malaria each year)!
Dutch radio has participated in similar projects this for the past 3 years now, and now CH copied this. 3 Radiomoderators live in a glass box in the middle of city and shopping center Bern. They make radio there, don`t eat for a whole week and people can donate money by requesting songs that they in turn pay at least CHF 10,- for. Some people donate CHF 100,- in turn for hearing their favorite song at the radio!

So our class participated in producing and selling handcreme. Within 1 day all of our handcreme was sold, so we have to make some making more, but the kids gathered 750,- Franks already!! Isn`t that great? They worked so hard decorating the boxes and selling them.
I am so very impressed time and time again, by their endurance to get something done. It takes some of them a whole schoolday to type with a special p.c. system the words: `Lavendel Handcreme`. (So we could stick that on top of every single box.) I would -in many cases- have given up a long time before they do. I learn so much from them and am thankful everyday that I can walk, ride my bike, pick up something that fell down, go to the toilet without needing help, move and talk the way and when I`d like to. To work with teens and children with so many different disabilities and handicaps, (sometimes even in their young age progressive), often makes me very humble.
Back to malaria, you can take a look at www.jrz.ch - there is a webcam where you can follow the radiomoderators 24/7 livestream aus der Glasbox. It is wonderful to see how much money is being donated for more research, expensive medicine and musquito nets.

I`m also looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my family in law. Christmas is celebrated here similar to the way it is celebrated in the States. Everyone is buying presents for everyone and the Decembermonth is a very good time to think about others, who might not be blessed with everyting we enjoy each day...

It doesn`t look like we will be able to send around a lot of Christmas cards and whishes, but to those of you that reads our blog we would like to say:

Enjoy the atmoshpere of Christmas and we hope we will all be able to think a little more often, about what our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ did for us, and how much They must love us, when Jesus came to this earth to live and die for us..
And also, think of how They would like to have us help, love, and serve others, the way they would, so that we also can serve Them.

That you will feel warm and be bright and shiny happy these cold and dark Christmas days, encircled by those you love is our wish and prayer for all of you!

Have a great Christmas and Start of the new Year!

Stake Ball

Us right after a dance sweat dripping down our faces...;-)




Last friday there was a ball in Zürich at the Stake House. We went and we had such a nice time there! It was a blast and so much fun ballroom dancing with Lukas and remembering all of the steps and turns we once learned. There was a life band with church members that did such a wonderfull job making music, there were professional ballroom dancers and a very nice dinner. We forgat to make pictures but there was one made there so that`ll still come.
I absolutely love this time of the year with the streets covered with fall leaves, the cold -hat,gloves and warm coat-proof, but often sunny weather here. Preperations for Christmas, lights and decorations everywhere.. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners coming up this week. In Luzern we have so many Americans now that they organized a Thanks giving dinner at Church this saturday, the day before there will be a 200-man staff Christmas-dinner at the school I work! A Christmas dinner before Saint Nicolaus (Sinterklaas) has even visited us! That seems the wrong way around but I absolutely love this time of the year!
Have a great week, I hope y`all enjoy the end of the November month as much as we do!

P.S. Lukas`s new hobby: baking bread (It makes our appartment smell sooo good I love it!)

P.P.S.
A quote I found (related to exercising -or not exercising):-)
“The difference between tenacity and stubbornness is that one comes from a strong will and the other from a strong won’t.” – Anonymous.

BED

NEWS: Our bed finally arrived!! We were lucky to have exactly 1 hour to rent a truck that was booked out the whole saturday exept for this one hour. Because we lived close by we could rent it. Lukas spent his saturday carrying our matrasses, lattenbodems, and massive wooden pieces of bed (heavy) up our 8 stairs to our roof appartment- and than building the whole thing together. He did a good job and our matrasses are sooooo nice!
We need some time to get used to the space the bed is taking (it seems like it`s consuming the whole bedroom but that`s because its somuch bigger than the matras that used to be there, and probably bc it`s white too..) -But we both love our new `Cinderella bed`. (that`s the official name, no joke;-)

So here are the pictures, I`ll try to get them into the right order this time, and not the wrong way around:))

work

I started working again!
It`s nice to have a distraction and everyone is being so kind and good to me at school. They send me home at noon to rest.. I notice I`m still tired and sleep a lot but I love being back. The weather is nice here, it was kind of rainy and very obviously autumn yesterday, leaves Everywhere but now its nice and sunny again.
Lukas is having fun at school too, he studies hard and is doing well. We heard the mexican flu landed in `central Swiss` now.. That`s our area - but we try not to panic :) jk- we hope to stay healthy and take care of ourselves so our immune systems are able to handle this flu - If it comes..
I`m looking forward going home to HOLLAND in exactly a month to celebrate `sinterklaas` with the whole family! It will be the first time going back since august the 8th and I`m exited.
It`s sinterklaas his b-day at December the 5th, a real old Dutch tradition. Unfortunately Lukas can`t come because he has tests the whole day- how can they possibly plan TESTS at Sint Nicolaus`s birthday???!!
In between, I`m trying everyday to keep my `endo-diet` ( http://www.endo-resolved.com/diet.html ) which in the beginning, seemed impossible to keep...
It`s getting a little better now that I`m used to it but is still hard. All I`m hoping is that it will help a bit in keeping me endometriose free and healthy!

Here are some more pictures; one of our Kitchen Table! The fruitscale and jar are presents from a very special family that came to our Wedding all the way from the States! The Tree is also a wedding present from Lukas`s best man and best friend. The tile is a weddingpresent from my Institute teachers in Holland, and the roses are from Emmeloord, my mom and dad brought them. They stood for at least 3 weeks!
Don`t we have a beautiful Kitchentable? :-)

This is me with short hair again! I love it!! (before-after!)
And.. last but not least, my new Swiss bike!!! I drove it to work the first 1,5 months almost every day. (25 minutes to and 25 back). It`s so nice to be able to get up the hills without having to step off! (I could`t make it with my old dutch bike, it had 3 gears, the new one has 28!! :))

Have a great November month!

Carrotsoup

Alright, I`ll try and get some pictures on here. These are from the album, that was recently finished. Josien brought it from Holland!
Maybe it get`s boring, marriagepictures again, but I can`t get enough of it! :) And dreaming away what a great 2 days that were. 3 Actually, because we had a reception in Switserland also for Lukas`s family.. Also a great evening that was organized so well by his sisters..
I`m making carrot-soup for the first time in my life.. without a recepy.. thats exiting.. ! :) I hope it tastes like carrotsoup after I`m done..
:)

Later that evening when Lukas came home from his hometeaching, when I (literally) made him try the soup:

His only comment was:
`Hmm.. ... ... It tastes like.. Dirt.. and then later on.. it starts tasting like.. Nothing! You try it! You see? First dirt,.. and rigth about.. Now!: nothing!

Thank you very much. I think it DID need onions and more salt?
Or maybe it`s the Swiss carrots! :) That must be it.. !

:-)


Below: the famous mountain `The Rigi` seen from (the area around) Luzern..

Underneath: Weddingpictures !

The long lasting fall-break...

A little update from CH:

And so it came to pass, that my fallbreak turned into an unexpected hospitalvisit.. The operation lasted 3 hours and I was able to go home 2 days afterwards.

I was so glad with the support and help from the Westveer Family that was here and visited us at JUST the right time and moment. They were great and we loved having them over.

I`m doing well and recovering quickly, just still quite ired.

It`s called endometriosis, - something lots and lots of woman are supposed to have. But it varies and comes in many different shapes and severities. In some cases it doesnt bother you, in others it hurts terrible, makes you sick and can, at days, disable you to live your life the way you would like. In my case it was called diagnosed `severe` but they managed to operate 95 % `away`. We were lucky and blessed to find a good docter here that know a alot about endometriosis specifically and I trust that he will give me the best treatment.

Autumn and almost winter-like weather has made place for the late-summer weather. There`s SNOW in the mountains and I enjoy the vieuw here every day, its soo beautiful!

Also, I was called as a Nursery Teacher in our ward yesterday: a new and challenging calling! I`m exited to learn a lot!

Later!

Autumnbreak

The blessings of working at a school.. We loved watching and listening to inspiring words of General Conference last weekend at church and are still enjoying great late-summer like weather here in CH. The coming 2 weeks are hopefully enough to bring some order into our small 2-room appartment. We might get company from Holland so its not only comfortable but pure nessecity to get our home ready for visitors and get boxes organized and out of the way. Thank goodness we are blessed with a huge attic that we can use to store our stuff..!!

Have a great week!

Fall!

Since their are many Catholic holiday's during the beginning of the fall... I'm granted a vacation for 2 weeks!! Lets unpack those boxes!!! And the weather is still great here, beautiful colors and great temperature. Maaike :)