Back in the States, part 1

The next few blogs are going to be about our time at home.  Oh, where do I begin??   The joys of Hamilton...above is just an example of something we saw when we were home and said "I can't believe...take a picture of that!" I guess for starters I could basically give you a rough outline of our time at home and what we did:

- Thursday, Oct 2nd: We flew out from Zurich at 7am and arrived in Cincinnati, OH at 6:30pm.

- Josh arrived later that evening with his girlfriend, Lauren. They came into town for Kari Larkin's wedding that weekend.

- Friday, Oct 3rd: I had an eye appointment, Aggie had a dress fitting and dinner/mini bachelorette party.

- Saturday, Oct 4th: Kari Larkin's wedding.

- Sunday, Oct 5th: Graduation party at my house for Zach, Baby shower for Aggie's sister, Angela, at her house.  We then flew out to DC that night with Josh and Lauren (where they live).

- Sunday - Wednesday: In DC visiting friends and family.

- Wednesday, Oct 8th: Dentist appt for me and our Marriott night.

- Thursday, Oct 9th: "High School" friends night.

- Friday, Oct 10th: Rehearsal dinner for Teresa and Dave's wedding.

- Saturday, Oct 11th: Teresa and Dave's wedding.

- Sunday, Oct 12th: We went to Columbus to visit with my college buddies.

- Monday, Oct 13th: Dentist appt for Aggie and a family dinner and gathering for the Bill side of the family.

- Tuesday, Oct 14th: Dinner with Maggie and Mark in Cincy

- Wednesday, Oct 15th: Dinner with Ferd and Audrey in Hamilton

- Thursday, Oct 16th: Dinner with Aggie's family in Shandon

- Friday, Oct 17th: We flew back.

Whew!  Now you know why we were so tired from our holiday??  I'm tired just thinking about all that!

Before we get into the trip home, I should tell everyone that Aggie and I had a meeting with her surgeon this past week. Recently she has had some eye exams, an MRI, some blood work done, etc.  Basically, we were now meeting with the neurosurgeon to discuss how things were progressing and if she was still on par for a full, positive recovery.  From the way the discussion went and the reviews of the scans and blood tests, she seems to be doing well!  Unfortunately, a few of her hormone levels are still a bit out of whack, and we are unsure of why that is (but medicine can help get this in order).  However, the pitituary gland seems to be "stretching" out and starting to take shape so that's key.  Obviously it's just going to take time to see if all heals properly.  We are just really excited that things are looking up!

So, now we can go back to our time at home.  This blog will be dedicated to our first week home in Cincy.

We got in on Thursday evening and were just really tired after our long trip home.  We had to fly through Amsterdam and Detroit, so by the time we got to Cincy, we were dead from three flights.  My parents picked us up, and we dropped Aggie off at her house.  She hung out with her parents and crashed early.  I pretty much did the same at my place....and yes, we slept at seperate houses that night!

The next day, aside from an eye doctor appointment, I didn't have much on my agenda.  Josh and Lauren arrived late Thursday evening, but I didn't see them (somehow I thought I'd be able to drive up to Dayton to pick them up after effectively being awake for 25 hours straight; that did not happen) so Friday was a good day to see Josh, meet Lauren for the first time, and generally catch up.  Aggie was doin' her thang and hanging out with her sister Ann most of the afternoon.  Then they (Ag and Ann) went to dinner with their other sisters and cousins (Teresa and Susan) that night.  Aggie and Ann were in Teresa's wedding the following weekend. 


Saturday we all went to the Larkin wedding. The wedding was beautiful and the sun was shining!  The reception was awesome too as it was a casual, outdoor affair, complete with hayrides, a blue grass band, and a bonfire.  It was great seeing everyone and Aggie had quite the reunion...her old grade school principal was there, as well as a few of her grade school friends.


One unfortunate thing that happened toward the end of the wedding evening was that one of the guests' mini-vans rolled into the pond!  Let me circle back...the parking for the wedding was in a field near the party barn and pond on the property.  This parking "lot" was on a hill.  We don't have all the details, but long story short, one of the guests' vans parking break wasn't on/working right and away the van went, right into the pond!  The good thing is that the van floated on its own from one side of the pond to the other and 1/2 way up the bank, so pulling it out of the water wasn't aaaassss horrible as it could have been.  On the bright side, it didn't completely sink!


Sunday we had a very busy day!  Aggie and her younger sisters were hosting a baby shower for their oldest sister, Angela, who is expecting in December.  She had a great time seeing family and friends and entertaining.  Meanwhile, I was at my house, attending a graduation party for my brother Zach.  My cousin, Brent, and his baby, Sophia, made it in from Baltimore and it was great seeing them along with all my other family members.

Late in the afternoon on Sunday, Aggie came over and we, along with my brother Josh and his girlfriend Lauren, drove up to Dayton's airport for our flight to DC.  We were going to be in DC visiting friends and family until Wednesday (Oct 8th). Stay tuned to read about those fun times....

We're back, and we're tired.

(*Picture taken in DC's art museum.)

A picture speaks a 1000 words right?? Seriously, though this is how we feel. I'm going to be honest with you, Aggie and I haven't had time to update the blog because we have been go, go, go, and we are tired! Of course, our appologies because we feel we have let our Blogger fans down....(similar to how all you Bengals fans are feeling deprived). Anyway, we are finally back in Zurich after our fun, long trip to the US of A. We will fill you in on that trip in the next blog. In the meantime, lets circle back to September....

Last time we wrote, Aggie and I had the pleasure of hosting my Uncle Terry and Aunt Phyllis here in Zurich. We had also celebrated our one year anniversary, gone boating with friends and to a few parties and BBQs. We had plans to return to the US in October (2nd-18th) so the time between Friday, September 19th-Tuesday, September 30th needs to be noted now.

Over these two weekends (Sept 19 and Sept 26th) we had tossed around the idea of going to Octoberfest in Munich with a few friends, but opted out. We have been before (me twice, Aggie once) and loved the experience, but we didn't have the motivation to put our "drinking" hats on. (Are we getting old?!) Anyway, instead, I ran a 1/2 marathon and we went hiking!

The 1/2 marathon was on Saturday, September 20th, and the race was in a town called Uster which was about 20 minutes outside of Zurich. It worked out great as Aggie and I went to pick up the race information on Friday evening after work, and then went out to dinner to an Italian restaurant near our place that we really like. Saturday was race day and the event took place in the afternoon. We ran into a few other E&Y people at the event who were either running or there to support friends and family. It was a beautiful day and the race was a success!


One thing Aggie noted is throughout the town where the event was being held, people in the race just left backpacks, clothing, and bags all over the place, with the intentions of picking up their items afterwards. Only in Switzerland would one even consider doing such a thing! Anywhere else, those bags would be snatched up by bad men wanting to flush them down the toilet! (That's a bit of an inside joke, but I'll fill you in. The other day Ag woke one of her girls - Cila - up from a nap and Cila told her that she was having a bad dream about a "bad bad man who tried to take me and flush me down the toilet!"...Ag just laughed and told her "Alle ist okay, Cila. Wir ist keine schlecht manner."!!)

Cila at dinner

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. The evening after the race, we went to went to our gym and sat in the sauna and steam room which was nice. Sunday we went to our friends, Dave and Ali's, for a BBQ which was fun.

The work week came and went. Friday night (Sept 26th), Aggie and I chilled and had a fondue dinner, which was delicious! The next day we were up bright and early for a hike with John and Helen in Sottel. Sottel was about an hour away from Zurich, and the weather report was predicting sunny, warm skies. I'm not sure what "blew" in over our mountain, but the weather was not to be desired!

When we arrived in the town of Sottel, we found the trail and started to climb...and climb....and climb. It was quite a challenging first hour to say the least! The sun never came out during our climb up, and it was quite chilly. Once we got to the top, there was a nice little restaurant which served some awesome squash soup and apple cider. That warmed us right up and away we went to hike some more.

Well, the trail led us up the mountain a bit more and though some woods. Then, the fog set in.


We had a hard time finding the trail signs and all we could hear were cow bells around us, klinking and clanging. It was funny because we really were just waiting to have a run in with a bull. We finally made it down the mountain and to the train station. Off we went, back to Zurich. We grilled out at John and Helen's the next day and John served up some spicy, extremely tasty dishes.

We worked a few days and then left for the states on Thursday, October 2nd. The next blog will be about our adventures home...there were quite a few (including two very fun weddings)!


PS. Aggie is doing well health-wise. She had an MRI recently and a blood test and eye exam this past week. Her horomone levels are still not where they should be, but they are improving which is good. Her eye exam was great. We meet with her surgeon next week to discuss the MRI and her progress so lets all say a prayer the meeting goes well! Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers.