Smile, Smile, Smile

It's hard to take a picture of Poozle when she is not smiling. So here is her smile...

She had her shots a few days ago too. She wasn't very happy about it, but managed to smile at the doctor on the way out. She did get a fever and I got to use some of our stockpile of American Drugs. All better... and she thought the medicine was yummy too. ...so she smiled. :)

Little Andrea will also get to eat real people food soon too!! I'm a little sad I don't get to go shopping in the cute jarred baby food aisle though. I'll probably have to make baby food like they did in the olden days. I wonder if they even had bananas back then? :) Can I just squish a banana and feed it to her? I may have had three kids before her, but I also had a doctor and some trusty magazines telling me what to do.

Anyways... today was cold. Gee, yesterday was cold too. Today I had great plans to take the kids ice skating downtown... but I quickly lost all motivation when I woke up to snow on the roof. I'm officially tired of being cold; and I've developed an extreme irritation with long sleeves. I can't wear anything but T-shirts or I get grumpy. I do have a reasonable explanation for this though. If I have a sweatshirt on in the house or long sleeved something I will eventually have to start dealing with kids. They irritate me, I get hot. I get more irritated because I'm getting hot. Oh, it's complicated. I just don't like long sleeves and I live in a cold place... it's bad. :)

While I'm talking about cold and clothing... I don't bundle up my children in eight layers when we leave the house. I give them a coat and they have to wear a hat if it's below freezing or windy. Other kids show up at the grocery store with snowsuits, boots, insulated gloves, scarves, hats... like they are going skiing! ...then there are mine with their un-zippered coats.

If we are going from house to car to store and back again I see no need for eight layers. I believe in the "run-inside-to-the-warmth" method. I teach the kids to look for cars and to then run as quickly as possible inside. We look like crazy people; running, yelling, laughing, and proclaiming how cold it is (in English) while we SPRINT inside.

If we are going ice skating; then, yep I'll bring out the snowsuits and gloves. ...Plus I'll admit to heating up the car for at least five minutes every morning. It's too cold for Andrea to breathe. :) ...and that's why I pick up Scotty from bornehaven early every day. I figure a half hour of playing outsde in one degree (C) weather is enough cold play time. He'll freeze to death.

fourth kid = zero pictures

I'm so bad. I will so take pictures of my children right now... This is the only new one I have! :( I tried.

Loads of tidy bits.

I need to do this. :)

The following are the top three British/English words that really bug me. :) I still love you mUm. You are my favorite British/English/Canadian person.

Loads, Tidy, Bits.

Loads: Loads should be used for when you do a LOAD of laundry or when you are taking a LOAD of trash to the dump. LOADS does not mean "lots". You have lots of candy. You do not have "loads of candy".

Tidy: Apparently some people believe that to clean your room means to sanitize the walls and scrub the floor with soap and that to TIDY your room means to straighten things up and make it organized. TIDY reminds me of underwear because of "tighty whities"... Tidy is the most ridiculous sounding word EVER.

Bits: Just say pieces!! The toy has some small pieces. NOT. The toy has some small BITS. Bits are for Bacon Bits... which are yummy and do not involve any bacon. Other than that, BITS shouldn't even be a word.

Luckily my children, despite all the British propaganda they have from school, have only started saying one of these three evil words - "loads". Although after reading this I'm fairly confident that Michaela will fit the words bits and tidy into every other sentence for me. :)

The girls do call candy - sweets, and Sierra asks to use the toilet instead of the bathroom or restroom. (Toilet sounds rude, sorry - I don't know why.)

Oh - Maths. It's not mathS; it's just math. One subject - Math. No S.

It's candy, not sweets.
It's cookies, not biscuits.
You get angry, not cross.
Trash goes to the dump, not the tip.
It's a big truck, not lorry.
Garbage can, not bin.
You get a hug, not a cuddle.

Then there are weird ones. mUm plays "Guess the British word" with me. I missed "flannel" and "chesterfield" last time. Can't remember the others... :)

It's just those three words that make me cringe. I can deal with the others. I wonder if English parents are annoyed that their kids say American words?

I will go tidy up the loads of toy bits on the floor now.

:)

BUT - I do say the word proper now. Although I consciously think "Why did I just say proper, it sounds weird." every single time I say it.

I'm better... kinda.

This is what happens when Mommy is "out of service".

Poozle turns into a toy for her older sisters... and Scotty passes out face first on the chair. :)

I'm feeling better though. :) At least I'm out of bed and trying to regain control of the house.

i am sick.

...and when you are sick and typing with one hand while hiding under the covers on your bed you don't need capital letters because that would be too much effort. i don't know why but being sick makes me want to go home. i am bored. i have nothing left in english to read, maybe i'll finish that harry potter book so my daughter will think i am cool. i guess if i was super desperate i could read my husbands boring economist magazines... watching mindless tv in english would be nice right now too. im thirsty. i hope one of my daughters come to check on me soon. andrea is delivered to me when she needs fed, but then i cough and she gets mad at me.

i wonder how they decided which letters would go where on the keyboard. perhaps i'll google it. that will amuse me for a while...

510 more points.

Denmark scored 510 more points yesterday. I got a parking ticket and I have no idea why.

I went into town with Andrea and we did some shopping all morning. I parked in the same place I always park... It's my secret spot where you don't have to pay. :) HA. I've parked there a million times. ...and this time I even pulled in between two other parked cars.

No, I didn't forget my P-skiver*. I husked** it. :) But I don't even think I needed it. There wasn't any signs for parking at all. I don't know, but I was really unhappy about it. I was more unhappy to lose my "secret parking spot". I knew I should have taken the bus.

*A P-skiver is a little clock on the bottom of your car's windshield. You set it to read the time you arrived so you can get a ticket if you stay longer than you are allowed.

**Husk is Danish for remember.

I'll put some pictures up later today because all this typing is getting boring. :)

Be nice... you're an American.

I was getting my kids ready for a play date with one of their friends from another country. :) As I was telling them all the bad things that I would do them if they didn't behave; I told them, "Be nice because you are an American." :)

I do feel as if we need to be on our even better behavior because this could give a families an impression of "an American". :) I don't want others to think we are loud, rude, and obnoxious as the stereotype states. I hate that stereotype... although when we travel I can see where it comes from. :(

I want people to think... "OH, What a nice little American family. America must be great. I love Americans." :)

I know a family from Sweden. I think they are some of the nicest people I know. The kids are well behaved, the parents are friendly... To me this means people from Sweden are nice. :) I know another family from a different country... Their kids are all crazy and mean to others, and the parents seem distant and unapproachable. So to me this means people from there are not as nice. OH! I'm sure there are plenty of nice people from their country... I am just explaining my point... I just think my kids should be polite and well mannered especially as visitors from another country.

I like being an American. Sometimes people think we are British because we speak English, Ewwww... :) (kidding mUm) but I like having the opportunity to say, "Nope, We are from the States." I'm proud to be an American sounds pretty cheesy, but I'm happy to be from there.

...and when people usually ask I usually say "I'm from the States." Not "I'm from America." Sometimes I say "I'm from California"... I may have said occasionally "I'm from the United States.", but never "I'm from the United States of America." or, "I'm from the USA." :) Make sense? Hope so because Poozle just woke up... bye

: )

I haven't been very good at writing... I don't even have a good reason. Mondays and Tuesdays are usually my busiest because I'm trying to get everything done for the week... and then I tend to pass out while putting Poozle to sleep.

Scotty's English speaking teacher's last day is tomorrow... at least I got her phone number so she can babysit for us later. Good Luck little Scotty!

Michaela and Sierra are in ice skating now. WHOO HOO for me figuring that one out too. Actually I'm a pro at this now... You show up, you smile, you say "ya-i tayler lit densk" so they appreciate that you are trying to learn the language... :) Then you just leave your kids and run!! If you stay behind to coddle the children they will become scared; if you just leave them, they go into survival mode and figure it out. :) Sierra about lost it when I first left her at the edge of the rink, but I scurried off and DIDN'T LOOK AT HER and within three minutes she was loving it! (and speaking English to her English speaking teacher) :)

Yes, Obama is the new president. We watched the whole thing on CNN and then flipped through the channels to hear it in every other language. The girls watched it too. They were happy to hear that America is in charge. :)

Now may be a good time to comment on smiley faces since I just stated "America is in charge :) " My husband hates smiley faces. :) I tend to litter my writing with them. Even when I had a paying job I would send out business emails with them. :) I like em'. Typing is so blah. It doesn't show any real emotion, you can't see the sarcasm, which I tend to use quite a bit. :) SO... I'll toss in a smiley to make sure that people don't get offended. I'd hate for someone to get mad at me unless I really was trying to be mean.

PAUL doesn't use smiley faces. I take that back... he did once and it saved him. If he didn't put a :) in his email to me I would have thought he was being mean and gotten mad at him. Then I would have cooked him spaghetti and beans for dinner... that's what he gets when I'm mad at him. :)

;) and ;0 and :p Those are too much. I don't use them.

I ditched ALL four kids!

Tak very much Ingrid! Paul and I had a wonderful time!

Last night Paul and I went to restaurant all by ourselves!!! WHOA!! The group of people he works with did something good so they got a nice dinner reward and spouses got to tag along!!

It was a very cute place where they bring you a small and pretty piece of something and then they tell you all about it before you eat it. "You will now be eating a sea scallop that was found eighty-two feet off the Belgium shore. It is resting on a bed of pea-puree, made of peas grown in France. Under that is...." It was all very unique and complicated but yummy... okay, I thought some of it was icky, but I did eat it. :) (I just don't like caviar or raw salmon or scallops. The taste was very unique and yummy though... I just don't do the slobbery texture thing.)

And guess what Mikey and Kev?? Our soup cups in this fancy restaurant were black squished cups like the ones I sent you!! So that's what they are for... go drink some soup out of yours!

Anyways, we wouldn't have been able to go out if it wasn't for Ingrid and her family who took Andrea for the evening. I dropped her off with her swing, all her favorite toys, some rice cereal, and a bottle of baby formula (which she didn't like/drink). We picked up a happy, sleeping baby at 11:00pm and came back home where she (and I) slept until 4:00AM!! Oh, those other three kids I have? We had a babysitter come to the house for them and they too were all sleeping happily when we returned. Yay!!

There's even more good news! I found an older babysitter for later, one of Scotty's teachers from the bornehaven. She said that she would babysit for us, and she old enough to handle all four!! ...so we may just try this night out thing again!

Just stuff...

Need to catch up with kids reports... I will have to comment on ziplock baggies, British words I dislike, and the use of smiley faces later. :)


First and MOST important... Andrea has found her feet!!! AND she find them to be very convenient toys to chew on. :) She is still the happiest little thing ever. We were surprised to also see that her little blue eyes are turning darker. :) She even has a little more fuzzy hair on her bald little head.



We moved Scotty's train table from the "toy room" to his bedroom upstairs. He now loves the table like it was new. He was so excited to see it up there... it was better than Christmas for the little guy. He's playing with Andrea now too. I think he kinda likes her... just a little bit though. He will line up toys around her blanket and push buttons on her favorite new singing frog toy. (Thanks Auntie Tiff from many years ago!!) One day in the car she was crying and he even tried to help by showing her his game boy and allowing her to touch the buttons. She stopped crying (for a little while) and I think this made him realize he can make her happy/quiet. Often she isn't even watching they toys though... she's just watching him. :)

Yesterday as I was cleaning up apple juice from ALL OVER the floor she was crying and Scotty was DEMANDING I attend to her. :) At least they are becoming friends. ...and nobody else is allowed to touch her toys. He promptly will take them away and give them to her. :) It's cute and he's sort of being nice, so we allow it.


Last, but not least... Here is Herman. He is a fermenting little "Friendship" cake that will last forever! Hilde gave him to us and he's alive. :) We've been nurturing him every day according to his instructions and when he grows big enough... we will cook and eat him. (First we will split him up and give him to our friends.) In theory we could eat Herman forever!


AND...

The girls went to a trial ice skating class a few days ago. I really liked it. I'm very appreciative when teachers will go out of their way to speak English to them and help them. It makes me smile to see others helping my kids. I mean, their swimming class was good and the teacher nice and helpful, but often I thought the teacher would just let them be instead of actually working with them to tell them how to do it correctly and show them how to do it better. If they like ice skating I'll sign them up... I decided I won't force them to do it. :) I think this is one of those things that if they aren't into it they wouldn't be any good anyways. Swimming you need to know so you don't drown. :) Volleyball... that was just me being mean.

Bornehaven Stories

Scotty can say his first Danish sentence. "I'm going to the little toilet." His teacher told me that he said it today because he hears the other kids say it. She said that he is repeating lots of words that they say. I wish I could hide behind something and watch him at school... :)

I picked him up from bornehaven and one of the teachers was giving him a ride on the bike. He's too small to pedal the bike so he always sits in the little wagon attached to the back of it. His teacher is very nice... doesn't speak ANY English; but VERY nice. :)

At play gym today I told his teacher that he was in Danish school so she could try Danish with him instead of English... I'm so mean. :) It went okay though. I feel sorry for him sometimes though. He can't talk to anyone. People say that three year olds don't play "with" other kids, they play "next" to them, but it would still nice for Scotty to be able to say "My car can fly" or, "Let's drive fast" or, "You hide here". I watch him talk to kids and watch them just ignore him and it's sad.

I do need to teach him how to say "Don't hit me" and "Leave me alone" in Danish. He gets picked on by the bigger 4,5,and 6 year old boys at school. I picked him up the other day and a huge monster kid was hitting him on the back. Had I been closer I would have picked up that bully by his grubby little snowcoat and flung him into the bushes. I saw Scotty swing back at him though. I'm okay with that. Maybe I shouldn't be. I don't want him to let people hit him. He's got to stick up for himself. So he should probably go tell the teacher. I don't know... but if someone hits him - I say hit them back!

OUUUU BAD PARENT! VIOLENT AMERICAN MOTHER.

I'm not going to endorse hitting. I won't tell him to hit back. I'll even tell him not to hit. BUT If some big kid is pushing him around - kick some butt Scotty! I'm not going to punish him for sticking up for himself. If he has a unprovoked hitting problem than that's another story... but not my innocent little Scotty. :) He's so cute. :)

I'm sure he's not being abused on a daily basis. He still likes going... once he gets there. He does have a huge bruise on his cheek (in case it shows up in any upcoming pictures)... he was twirling around with his sister and he got dizzy and fell on the floor. Goofball. But no matter what he says Sierra did NOT push him. I saw it happen. :)

I love my Volvo

All it takes is one good day of bus riding to remember how much I LOVE my car. After taking the kids to school today I had to give the car to Paul so he could drive to Billund for work. So I am currently carless until tomorrow. :)

Today I had to pick up Scotty from bornehaven which is a short walk and then a seven minute bus ride and then another short walk. Simple Enough... and it was simple enough, but it was so cold and windy! The bad part was that it was a bus route I don't normally take and they have the old, ghetto buses ...the ones where there are three steep steps to get on. Try getting a big stroller and a three year old up and down those steps. ...and once you get on there are no seats to sit on back there... new buses are MUCH better; no steps and seats.

It was just really cold outside and it was misty and Andrea was unhappy and Scotty was tired and needed a shoulder ride... and did I mention it was cold?

Regarding the bus steps. If there is someone getting on the bus with you they will always offer to help you on. The stops I was getting on/off at were not popular ones so I was the only one there. Once a lady got out of her seat and came out to help me... very nice! Another time a guy who had just got off helped me on... very nice as well! See, I'm not just going to write about the nasty people I meet.

SO. I am happy to have "The Brick" (the big heavy Volvo). I'm also happy the family we carpool with is back from their vacation so they picked up the girls! Phew. That ride would have been the big two hour ride that I can't believe I did twice a day last year!!

It's good to subject oneself to public transportation to remember how much you appreciate your car. Of course this would not have been possible anywhere else we've lived. The buses here really do go everywhere. The buses even go to the ice skating lessons we were going to go to tonight, but we'll start on Wednesday instead. It's too cold and dark now. :)

Michaela's Blog

Michaela has requested I write something "interesting" on my blog. She is my most devoted reader and frequently quotes my blog word for word when we are out talking with others. :) She is very good at repeating what I say as well. I'm just waiting for her to say, "My mom says they should tear down Europe and build another America." PERHAPS MICHAELA SHOULD NOT REPEAT WHAT I SAY TO OTHERS ...at least not that last sentence please. :) But I guess she's just being a good ten year old girl. :)

I will now promote Michaela's blog. :) It used to be a "Harry Potter Question" blog but her questions really had no answers because she would find the things Little Miss J.K. Rowling had overlooked. SO It has changed into an anything blog. Actually, she wanted it to be a dinner blog so she could report on what her mother feeds her. This idea came to her because I have been feeding them some interesting dinners while Paul has been away... Hot Dogs, Eggs and Toast, Tacos ...some of Paul's less favorite things. (Since Paul got home last night I had to make a dumb meatloaf and I should write a little story about my attempt to get 500g of meat at 5:30pm on a Saturday since my meat had gone bad and I had already made the mix. Finding meat did not go well since every store was closed. GRRRRR. Is there a good reason for stores to close at 5pm on a Saturday? I had to find meat at the 7-11ish store." We ate our meatloaf, Happy was Happy - mission accomplished. :) )

SO. Follow the little link to her blog... it's on the right hand side over there -------------->

The Wii Stealer

Scotty has developed a plan for how to steal the Wii from whichever of his sisters is playing it.

- He goes to the potty (whether he has to or not).
- He will yell for whoever is currently playing the Wii. "RA RA help me!" or "KE help me!".
- His sisters will respond by going in to help him put his pants back on and hold his hand as he steps off the stool.
- He then shoves them to the side and RUNS back to take their Wii controller and steal their spot in the chair. Little turd.

Speaking of Wii... We need some friends to play MarioKart with and some friends to visit in Animal Crossing... AND some friends to send our Wii Music music videos to. So if you have a Wii and these games we'll play with you. :)

Pictures!

I just took pictures (and about 40 movies Michaela and her friend made) off my camera... here are my favorites. :) Coke can froze outside. Brrr.

Oh, and Scotty cried when he got home from bornehaven today and saw that the tree was no longer in the driveway.

My Tree and Me

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree...

I have had my Christmas tree sitting in my driveway since December 31st. It is now very dead and prickly AND covered in snow, but I have held onto it so i can take it back to the store to get my 150 kroner back ($30). ...or so I thought!

When I bought the tree at Bauhaus they gave me a coupon and said if I bring the tree back they will give me my 150 kroner back. "Great Deal" said I, and I tucked my coupon away in a special place.

Today... feeling very proud that I had not lost the coupon (although I nearly washed it yesterday), I attached the prickly, dead tree to my volvo roof with some bungee cords. *Note: Do not use bungee cords to attach large, dead, heavy, prickly things to your rooftop. Once I was bleeding and could no longer feel my fingers I was satisfied it was attached securely. ...actually I knew it was pretty sketchy but I figured I'd drive slow.

So off I go,
in the snow,
driving slow,
but the wind did blow,
and I said, "Oh No". :) hee hee

Yep, tree was now dragging behind the car attached only by a bungee cord hooked to a branch. I contemplated continuing like that. ...maybe just pretend I didn't see it hanging by a bungee cord off the back. ...maybe it would fall off and I'd just keep driving.... BUT, NO. I was taking it back to the store to get my $30!

I stopped and reattached it. ...now I am covered in dirty car dirt because I had to crawl up on top of the silly car and the special bonus was that for a while I had my cold finger stuck in between the tightly pulled bungee cord and the pokey tree branch. ow.

Off I go again and I finally arrived at the store with a new hatred for this tree that I once decorated so lovingly.

I took my receipt inside and gave it to the guy I told him I had my Christmas Tree with me. He just looked at me and I thought he didn't speak English. So I repeated, "I have tree" and pointed at mt reciept. He looked at me for a while more... I now noticed I was covered in pine needles. He then said, "Why?"

Turns out you don't need to take the tree to the store. He didn't want my tree. The receipt was really a gift card that I could use to buy 150 kroner worth of things in the store. O. K. At least I got to wander through the homedepot-like store and spend $30. Problem was that I didn't want any tools. I thought maybe a flashlight would be handy but it was 700 kroner for a good one!

I ended up getting a Harry Potter poster for Michaela, a snow shovel for Sierra, a ruler for Scotty and some pink square pots that were on sale. :) Pretty good trade for a dead tree... problem was I didn't trade. I still had the tree.

I took it to the dump and saw the place where Christmas trees go do die. It was almost sad to see a huge pile of dead prickly trees that people once danced around singing. :) I was more than happy to unstrap my tree and toss it in the pile though. :)

I'm buying a smaller tree next year.

How are you?

As promised I walked to the store today. I do not believe I will do it again. It was so cold and windy I thought I would freeze to death. Half way there I thought about getting on the bus or calling a taxi for the way home.

I was okay out there for about three minutes. Then I turned the corner and the wind hit me! Andrea quickly fell asleep in the stroller so I tucked her away safely in her little confined warm spot for the rest of our little journey so at least she was safe. It took us about 15 minutes to get there and that was with me speed-walking.

There were lot of people out walking. Why? It is so cold out there, but yet I passed so many people on the sidewalk... none of which said a word to me, much less looked at me. On the way back I was frustrated with Denmark in general for various reasons: store was out of bread, groceries were too expensive, I dropped my apple bag, it was cold... Then a not helpful person put me over the edge.

After we left the grocery store I was trying to push Andrea and my dumb stroller up a steep walkway which led up to the sidewalk. Ten pounds of carrots and potatoes and eight liters of milk, along with all my other groceries make for a heavy load. Add a nice layer of ice to the non-salted path and you get me unable to make it up the hill without being pushed back down the hill by the stroller with Andrea and our groceries slipping off into the bushes on the side. It may have been funny if it wasn't so cold. It may have been funny if the dumb man would have offered some help instead of just sitting there.

Anyways, that's why I was frustrated for the way home. THEN I started passing people on the sidewalk. I couldn't stand just walking by all these people and not even saying Hi or smiling at them. When a person walks directly in front of you, you look at them... it's the natural thing to do! So I started saying "Hi" to people. I looked right at their cold faces and smiled and said, "Hi". I said "Good Morning", I said "Hey", and my personal favorite... I said "How's it going?", to the large group of older people at the bus stop." People don't understand why Americans say, "How are you?" when they greet a total stranger. (We do it to be nice. It's a habit. No, I may not really care how they are doing, BUT it's polite.)

Funny... I didn't say Hi to everyone to be nice. I was not feeling very nice, I was feeling freezing. I found myself thinking, "HA - Take that! I said Hi to you and you don't know me!" It was like a little point for me everytime.

I did make it home. I learned I need to wear a hat and buy a coat... some boots would be better than my sneakers too I guess. After I make some purchases perhaps I'll try that whole walking-to-the-store thing again. :)

Sun on the Side

I think it's getting lighter outside. It's 9am and it's bright outside. Yippie!! The ground has white snow on it so that may make it look lighter, but at least it makes you less tired. Actually I think we get a few extra minutes of sunlight every day... so soon enough I'll start to complain about it being sunny until 10pm and trying to convince Scott to go to bed/stay in bed when the sun is awake.

The sun was out yesterday and I remembered something I learned last year about the Danish sun. The Danish Winter Sun doesn't go up and over the sky; it never is directly up in that "high noon" position. It only does this "rainbow" move off to the side. Fine enough, right? Nope. It's not so good because this means that the sun is right in your eyes all day long. :)

I guess I just thought the sun went really fast across the sky. :) Not really. :) I never really gave it much thought.

Okay, Andrea and I are off to WALK to the store. BRRRRR. At least it's warmed up to -1. BRRRRR. But this baby fat isn't going to go away by itself. Every day I've created a super great excuse for NOT walking to the store and once even sent the girls. :) But it's been five months and my pants are still a little too tight when I first put them on. :) (Shhhh... don't tell anyone!)

Snow and more skating

What should you do when it's -3 outside and snowing? You should round up every blanket and pillow in the house, plop them in a big pile in front of the TV, make some popcorn, and watch cartoons with your kids. What do I do?? I take all four children into town via the bus, to go ice skating at the outdoor rink. :)

It was worth it though because Scotty went ice skating again. He's my hero! At first he told me no, but after watching the girls for a while he said, "I need skates, I go in big circle." So the girls took turns on Andrea Patrol and off Scotty and I went. He even got stable enough to have the girls help him!

Truth be told though, I never would have left the house if it wasn't for a friend who had agreed to meet us there. Thanks Kerstin! After skating we went out for some $6.00 hot chocolates and I then made the super-smart decision, based on a desperate need for milk, to take all the kids shopping at the mall; which was packed because it was the first Sunday of the month... when stores are actually open and willing to take people's money.

It was okay though. We found a swimming suit for Michaela which she promises she will wear and we found the cutest little $60 ice hockey skates for Scotty which I didn't buy. :) ...soon

OH yah, the snow... According to my standards it snowed lots! I LOVE watching it snow. I LOVE taking pictures of the kids playing in snow. Snow is fun and I wouldn't mind living somewhere where it snowed lots... only for a couple weeks though. :) There is still snow on the ground and according to our car, and the banks and gas stations on the way to school this morning it was -7, -8, and -10 degrees. BRRR... so the snow isn't going anywhere. :)


Check out little poozle. She is thinking about rolling over. We don't leave her on the couch by herself anymore. :) She thinks flopping onto her side is fun. Her sisters cheer her on and Scotty just looks at her. He does call her by name though... Usually when he's saying I need to, "put and-ah down"

Happy, hurry home. I had to catch a maimed mouse at 2am all by myself.... a definite boy task. :) Buy graham crackers and froot loops. Scotty says the froot loops from Germany are "bad", and I agree - yuck...

Another Year...

WHOO HOOO! Here we go for another year!!

I did look through my little blog yesterday and it was fun to re-read what I wrote and see where we've been the last year. I read about the first day I found cream cheese, how I learned to cook and ride the bus, when Scotty started talking and going pee-pees in the potty AND then to bornehaven, and I just skipped over August and that whole "giving birth thing"... I did look at all Andrea's pictures. :) She's so big now!! :)

New Years Eve was fun. We had a family come over with their kids and we had a small party. There were disco lights and dancing, tablebombs and sparklers, and jello and unhealthy things to eat... so according to the kids it was the great! Scotty and Andrea didn't quite make it until midnight. Poor Number 3 passed out in a beanbag chair still gripping the wii remote control in his little hand.

Midnight was, as expected, CRAZY!! Last time we watched it all from a balcony and you could see the whole skyline light up. (I refer you to last years blog post for a video. :) ) This year we went outside in our driveway and fireworks were exploding ALL around us... in every direction there were huge fireworks exploding high in the sky!! You'd hear the "zzzzzzzz" of one shooting up into the air and you would turn to watch it only to hear the "zzzzz" of another one wiggling up into the air. I'd never seen them so close before! I still can't believe regular people are shooting these huge, explosive things off!! I don't think I could name anything that Denmark does better than America, but the Danes have the firework thing down. :)

After a half hour of "grand-finale" worthy fireworks we went back inside because we were frozen. I stayed outside by myself for a while and listened to the "zzzzzzz" of fireworks zipping off into the sky. It was really cool. They don't shoot straight up, they squiggle like a snake slithers... very neat. I think everyone should put this on their list of things to see before they die: See New Years Eve Fireworks in Denmark.

3 and 4 slept through it all. The booms were so constant it was a continual noise so it didn't seem to bother them. I tried to wake 3 up but he was so warm and snuggly in his little bed I couldn't bring myself to do it. Andrea woke up at 1:30am when the rest of us were finally ready for bed... so I spent some 2009 time with little "Poozle" before getting to sleep. (Poozle is her new nickname; short for Caterpoozel of course)

We also did our New Year's resolutions today too... We have 13 and they include... pet the cats more, listen to more music, get an allowance, and eat our vitamins. :)

Paul left for Boston today and he has a layover in Iceland. I told him to buy me a present at the airport there so I could have something from Iceland. :) I think Iceland sounds fun. AND I hear they have Taco Bell there!

Here's my test of uploading a video through google instead of youtube. I dislike youtube. I don't know why, I just do. You are allowed to dislike something for no reason IF you acknowledge you don't have any reasons opposed to making up reasons. However I do have a youtube account to share videos. If you search for rabbitbearbug you might find all my movies. ...all seven of them. :)

... It's Scotty at Play Gym (in Danish)!