Sierra to Copenhagen

I thought it was absolutely crazy when Michaela went to Copenhagen when she was nine. Now that we have been living the "European Lifestyle" where I send my kids to the grocery store for milk and make them ride city buses alone... going to Copenhagen at the age of nine doesn't seem so unreasonable. :)

Needless to say, Sierra is totally excited and has her bags packed and ready to go. They are gone December 1, 2, and 3rd. :)

Thought I'd tell everyone.

ThanksgivingS done

We had TWO thanksgivings. :) Neither one I was very good at taking pictures though. Thursday and Saturday. Thursday's are hard sometimes because it's just a normal day for everyone here. Work, school, etc.. It was a good day though, even though I spent the first half on standing at random bus stops in order to get kids where they needed to be and eggs that I needed since my car had been in Germany for the week! (Yep, this also means I transported a frozen turkey on the bus.)

...AND because of the pouring rain and a missed bus Scotty and I even justified a $20 snack of some juice and a cookie since it was Thanksgiving. P.S. - I've upped my "Danish level", 40 kroner is now considered cheap. 40 kroner is EIGHT DOLLARS!

Paul was driving home from Germany all Thursday morning which left me to prepare the house and cook the turkey. It was all relatively stress-free since I started so early and I cooked most everything the night before. The girls were a huge help too. I even made cranberry sauce from real, live cranberries!!! How domestic am I!!? I don't think I've ever seen a real cranberry before. I learned you don't eat cranberries unless you "do something" to them first. ick.

So for Thanksgiving Thursday we invited the remaining Americans to our house and had TONS of food. We had everything we needed/wanted... other than some great flyers to flip through but I'm not going to talk about what we DIDN'T get. It was a really nice night, I was happy. :) I think it was a record for number of people served dinner in my house. 8 adults. 10 children. It went pretty well and the house recovered. My house seemed so quiet when everyone left. :)

Saturday we invited another a different family over. Definitely not as crowded but it was a fun night and I got to catch up with my friend who, until she got a real job and moved to Horsens I got to spend a lot of time with her!! :) I miss her and the kids...

I hope my children don't think we are going to have a huge party in two more days. Party time is over at the Happy's. :) I will now scrub the floors and I will enjoy not cooking while we eat leftover turkey for a week. I made turkey soup just like my grandma taught me. I'll make another batch of turkey soup from the Saturday turkey too. :) My favorite turkey leftover is turkey and pineapple and cream of something? soup... put on top of white rice. YAY! I'm looking forward to that! I wonder what other yummy turkey things I can do? :) I'm sure I can figure out something.

I just decided I am going to try and feed my family turkey every day until I can't do it any longer. :) Let's see how far I can go!

Bornehaven

Bornehaven Story.

With the help of a friend I finally translated the newsletter from Scotty's school. On the last page it has funny stories telling about what some of the kids did/said that month. This month Scotty was in it.

His bornehaven has two rooms, the red and the blue. Scotty is in the red room.

One day all the kids were playing together in the blue room. A "blue room" girl was playing with Scotty. Another "blue room" girl came up to them and began playing with them. Soon she realized Scotty was speaking funny (English) so she asked the other "blue room" girl why. The girl said it was because he was from the red room. :)

I thought it was cute. :)

Scotty's teachers say he is speaking more Danish and English sentences and it's hard to sometimes pick out which words are from which language. Now when he tells me something about his day he tells me if it happened in English or Danish. Like, "I needed more soap so I asked in English."

Missing things...

...I miss being warm. Today in Tracy, California is was 20 degrees AND sunny.

I talked to my grandma on the phone yesterday and I miss her too ...and my mom, I miss her too.

I can WHISTLE!

I discovered yesterday that I couldn't whistle with the wire on my front teeth.

But I can whistle now!!! This morning the dentist took off the wire and glue and I look normal again. The chipped tooth isn't too bad, you can't really tell. I will go back in a month for another visit to decide if I want to do anything else with my teeth. My teeth still need some healing time. I can't use them to bite or anything and they still feel "weird", but I'm happy for now. My husband is taking me on a date tomorrow night to celebrate. :)

So this whole thing cost me 2000 kroner ($500). Not bad in my opinion. The only bill I ever got was for the first emergency visit on Halloween, and the most expensive part of that fee was the $300 "after hours" fee. It was only $200 to do the actual work... x-rays, numbing medicine, little piece of ghetto wire...

Both of my two appointments afterwards were free and one even included an x-ray. I don't know if she was just being nice or if this is common, but I always thought dental work here was crazy expensive. I probably would have paid close $500 in the States even if I had dental insurance.

WHOA. Did I just say something nice about Denmark? :) I told you guys, I don't really hate it here..

My lovely day at the post office.

I'll pay $5.00 for 16 strawberries.
I'll pay $3.00 for a can of soda.
I'll pay $2.00 for a candy bar.
I'll pay $15.00 for a chocolate croissant and juice for Scotty.
Heck, I'll even pay $16.00 for a box of American Lucky Charms.

BUT I HATE PAYING SHIPPING COSTS! (If Scotty ever hears us say "hate", he reminds us we don't say that word.) so... I REALLY DISLIKE PAYING SHIPPING COSTS!I went to the post office yesterday and spent ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS AND TWENTY FOUR CENTS to mail things. See? 500.70 dkk!!! I mailed a 2114g box to California ($60), a 1490g box to Germany ($25), a card to California, and a small envelope to Utah... that's it. I didn't even send $100 worth of stuff!

Going in I knew it would be ugly. I also knew I was going to be irritated so I tried to work my self up for it. I had totally talked myself over it before hand. I knew it had to be done and I was just going to do it and move on. At least my packages won't get taxed when they arrive at their various destinations.

I have more things to send, but I'm now going to send it with people TO the states and have it mailed from there, or I'll just buy a plane ticket. ...and I think I may just email Christmas cards. :) Has it become acceptable to do that yet? :)

And if you are trying to add up my costs I also bought Letters to Santa "kits" for a silly price of $6.00 each. But I've been here long enough to know that 30kroner is cheap...

:) Oh well, now that I've complained I can move on... :)

Impossible to Photograph

I have decided that my family is impossible to photograph. We are in capeable of ALL looking at the camera and smiling. I officially give up. :)

Escaping American

I have a friend. She is leaving me because she would rather live in American than here in Denmark. I can't believe it!!! I'm still deciding if she should be my friend still since she is deserting me... but I guess since she gave me her crock pot I'll still love her!

Anyways... She is selling ALL her things. Here is the amusing part... They are NOT taking anything back other than what they carry on the plane!! :) So she really is selling ALL her things! :) If you think she may have something you want to buy, email her and she can send you a picture or work out a time to walk through her house with a shopping bag.

Her name is Erin, give her a call: 3030-4137... or send me an email, thappy@gmail.com, and I'll give you hers.

She has tons of things but the following are things I know of. I'll tell her to leave a comment with anything else I forgot.

- big new L shaped couch
- sony TV 32 inch, not flat screen (1000 kr)
- 4 standing tall lamps. 4 small ones
- indoor trampoline
- coffee table, kitchen table from IDE mobler (wooden)
- trek mens bike
- plates, cups, kitchen things
- hanging lamp a big one from IKEA
- large white dresser and a black dresser (drawers for clothes thing)
- floor rug
- i pod dock
- two twin beds
- coat hangers
- craft things - paint
- cool baby toys from target. :)
- kids clothes (girl-6, boy 4, boy 1)
- kids toys
- baby crib and toddler bed
- car seat
- child gates for stairs
- kitchen things
- coffee machine
- Anything from the kitchen - plates, glasses, forks, toothpick holders... :)
- things you plug in. :)
- anything that they can't fit into a suitcase and take on the plane. :) A family of five has a lot of things. :)

...and she has a spa that needs cleaned. YOU haul. :)

This is only funny because it's not me trying to sell everything I own.

Closed Door?

Bathroom Doors. Are they supposed to stay closed all the time? My bathroom door is NEVER closed, unless someone is using the potty. :)

I have noticed that everyone I visit, their bathroom door is closed. When people come over and they use the bathroom... they close the door. I think this may be a European thing, but I don't know how much I paid attention to people's bathroom doors.

I don't understand. Do most people keep their bathroom door closed all the time? I like every inside door in my house to be open. I always have my bathroom door open. An open door is helpful to see if the bathroom is in use. When I see the door closed I automatically assume someone is in there.

Is it rude to leave my bathroom door open all the time? I wonder if people show up to my house and leave thinking, "I can't believe her bathroom door was open"! If you have ever thought this when visiting my house, oh well. I like my bathroom door open. :)

Do me a favor everyone... go check you bathroom doors. Are they open or closed? Mine are open.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Fork Nazis

This weekend was busy.

Friday we went to Jumboland in Aalborg for a birthday party. (Happy 6th Birthday Paige!) Saturday we went to a friends house in Horsens for dinner. (Thanks for a great meal Kerstin and mother!) Sunday we had three couples over for lunch (Thanks for driving over here my blogging friends.) and then I went out to a birthday dinner for a friend... (Happy 22nd Birthday Lindsey, I'm glad we are both 22 now) My aren't we social little butterflies. :)

My hilarious story of the weekend... so funny. We went to Mackies for dinner Sunday night. Mackies is an American style restaurant in Aarhus right near the big church. It's decorated like a wanna-be Applebees with stuff all over the place and they serve pizza like a wanna-be California Pizza Kitchen. Anyways, they have a "rule" that you can't eat your pizzas or hamburgers with a fork an knife like Danish people do. American restaurant, American customs... "Oh, isn't that funny we ate our overpriced pizza with our hands. ha ha ha ha", says the Danish person.

This is the story:Four of us ordered pizza, including me, and one of us ordered salad. My lack of functioning front teeth means I cannot bite a pizza, I knew I would have to cut it into a piece to get it into my mouth. We had mentioned this to the waitress when we ordered and she said, "No, cutting the pizza is not allowed." We explained my teeth situation... "big scary pogo-stick, concrete floor, ghetto wire holding teeth in place". The waitress was pretty adamant, "No, cutting the pizza is not allowed." We didn't think much of it, she left, we waited for our food.

The food arrived and my salad friend was the only one with a fork and knife. So, like a good mommy, she started to cut my pizza for me so I could eat. WHOA! Waitress is now freaking out.. "NO CUTTING PIZZA!!" "I told you you can't cut the pizza!!!" "STOP CUTTING THE PIZZA!" Short of jumping up and down she was having a full on temper-tantrum ...Salad friend keeps cutting the pizza. Angry waitress is now near tears, "That fork and knife is not for the pizza!" "You have to stop right now!!" ...Salad friend is now cutting faster while explaining it's our pizza... We inform the waitress again that I am physically incapable of biting the pizza. I tell her I will eat it with my hands but I have to get it into small pieces first. Salad friend is still cutting...

The friendly atmosphere quickly disappears... :) The waitress now officially hates us and every other American in the world. We are telling her it's our pizza, it's no big deal, that I have broken teeth... She is saying I should have ordered something that came with a fork then. This is seriously the most hilarious thing EVER. I'm laughing so hard and I can't believe that our waitress is SO UPSET! We told her to send the manager out thinking he would be a reasonable person. Nope, he's crazy too. ...but by now Salad Friend is finished cutting my pizza and I am showing him my willingness to eat it with my fingers.. He rambles on for a good minute in Danish. (A full minute of angry Danish is a lot..) He stops and then we tell him we don't speak Danish. He mutters some English and eventually leaves us and we finish eating. :) ...and we got a different waitress.

TOO FUNNY. I still can't believe this happened. We are plannning another dinner to Mackies with every American we can find, we will bring our own forks and on the count of three we will cut our pizza into tiny pieces. We will put a piece of pizza on the fork, hold it high in the air and yell SKOAL. ...then we'll probably turn and run from the restaurant before that crazy manager comes out.

:)

Psst..

My little brother has a blog now. He and his wife are expecting a baby... little Audrey...

A N Y S E C O N D!!!

I was trying hard not to write about it until I had pictures and details... :)

Cold Hands

Today it was snowing sideways. I left Scotty at bornehaven until 2:00 so Andrea could get a full nap. I thought for sure that he would be warm and snug, playing inside. There's no way they would let kids play outside in this kind of weather....

HA. I picked him up and he was a frozen little Scotty-cicle. He had on his snow coat, his regular coat, and his hat and gloves... In defense of the school the teachers had given the kids the choice to play outside or stay inside. When I picked up Scotty he was one of ten boys who had chosen "outside". They were all covered in mud and sand and were all soggy and cold. :) It was cute though. He appeared to have had fun.

I picked him up and went directly to a sports store where I spent $20.00 on a pair of gloves for him. Crazy... $20.00!! There were $80.00 gloves there too... for a four year old! How dumb is that?!! What parent buys their four year old an $80.00 pair of gloves? A dumb parent... that's who! I'm not too impressed with my $20 purchase... but his hands were SO cold in his $1.00 gloves. :)


P.S.
I'm 3 for 3! Three days, Three flower deliveries.... I feel so loved. Paul's boss sent some flowers today. :)

I even got my own batch of the world famous, and highly coveted, tiramisu! Yum.

What I ate today: Yogurt, Cream Cheese Pie, Tiramisu, Risotto, Scrambled Eggs, Mashed Potatoes... a little better than yesterday.

What I eat.

With my recent injury I've discovered I'm prone to wallowing in self-pity. I would do terrible with actually having to endure a severe injury that had permanent side affects. I am SO annoyed at this entire thing. My lip and nose are HUGE.... but there are no other signs that my face hit concrete. This may sound good, but it just means that when people look at me they just think I have an extremely fat nose and a funny looking lip, which I've also decided is bruised so it looks like I have a mustache.... Yippie!

Back to the topic: What I eat.

Let's see, what did I eat today?

Breakfast: Oatmeal from yesterday and then Andrea and I shared a jar of baby food, peaches I think it was.
Lunch: Yogurt and cream cheese pie. (See, yesterday in a fit of self-pity I made myself a cream cheese pie which is basically cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, and lemon juice. I am now proceeding to eat the entire thing because it doesn't hurt me.)
Dinner: more cream cheese pie and a chocolate milkshake.

Sounds healthy huh? I was doing good until lunchtime when I realized I didn't want to squish food down my throat anymore and got grouchy about the whole thing. I bought a new flavor of yogurt but I'm pretty tired of that too. Mashed potatoes are even getting old and they are my all time favorite. I want to chew something. It's only been two days of no food. I'm being a sissy. I need to get over this... I have a long way to go. I'll try better tomorrow and report back.

HAPPY MOMENT:
What made me feel better was when I received flowers from all the other moms at school. :) I am loved. They all pitched in and had some flowers sent to the house for me! AND a friend from Paul's work also sent me flowers too! I haven't had flowers delivered to me in two years and now I get two big bouquets in just two days!! So girls, if you want some flowers delivered just smash your teeth into concrete.

Off to bed I go. There is always a small hope in the back of my mind that I will wake up the next day and my face will be normal again. :) For some reason I've decided that I heal better while I'm sleeping.

Fine, here are pictures. Say something mean and I will ban you from my blog forever. First one is me in the dentist chair after she glued a wire to my teeth. Smiling because I hadn't yet seen what she had really done to me. Second picture is me, three minutes ago...

And. All three kids went to the dentist today. Their teeth are all perfect. Even Scotty had his turn. He was very brave. Good kids with good teeth. I take a little credit for that. :)

And. There's a chance my nose is broken. HA! Nothing I can do for it anyways. Sierra had a doctor's appointment today too so I snuck in some questions about my nose. Sierra is fine... a clogged saliva duct sometimes causes a ball to form on the inside of her cheek.

Halloween

Our Halloween party was great! YAY! The games went well... The trick-or-treating was a success. Everyone was happy. Andrea was a little dirt bike rider. Scotty was a hockey player. Sierra was a witch and Michaela was a Harry Potter person. :) I was a cat and Paul was Superman. I think I should have worn his superman cape though... for when I went flying through the air off the pogo-stick and landed on the concrete floor... face first.


Then I saw this...
I was not happy. I am still rather unhappy at the whole situation...

When I fell I landed on my chin and mouth and my two top teeth got pushed in ...so rather going straight down they were now pointing towards the back of my mouth. ..and turns out I chipped the tooth next to my two front teeth. :) Happy Halloween to ME!

HA I just thought... Now I can sing the "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" song!! :) That is probably how long it will take for this all to be fixed.

Anyways, there I am in the middle of the Halloween party bleeding everywhere with my face swelling more and more by the minute. Super. Phone calls were being made, I don't know by who or exactly what was going on. I was getting dizzy so I went outside. I wanted Paul to stay with the kids because I didn't know what was going to happen and I just wanted the kids to go trick-or-treating. This was actually better because the emergency Dentist didn't know any English. Luckly she understood my friend's husband's Swedish...

This not so gentle dentist gave me some shots then pushed my teeth back into place. Hmmmm... not the highlight of my day. Then, in order to keep them where she pushed them, she glued a piece of metal wire across the front of them. Seriously?? Is this really the high tech solution of 2009? People have been to the moon, hearts can be transplanted from one person to another... I think we need to focus on dental work now if the best treatment for holding teeth in place is glue and a metal wire. ...As long as it works I guess. So now I have a wire glued with huge "glue balls" on my front four top teeth. Boy is that cute... no pictures... sorry!

I go back in a week to have some more x-rays. If I'm a good girl I can get this wire thing off my teeth in THREE weeks. So with a bit of luck I'll be able to eat my Thanksgiving Dinner and TRULY be thankful about it.

My mouth doesn't hurt. My lip is really fat and that is the most annoying thing. What hurts the most are both of my legs... somehow I hit the front of my thighs on something because they each have a huge bruise on them.

So....

I'm fine. I look funny because my lip and nose are still pretty fat.

I'm not in pain... I'm annoyed and frustrated. ...and hungry because I can't chew.

BUT - the kids all went trick or treating, so Mission Accomplished!