i HEART california

We made it!

I remembered how much I love America during the flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco. So many friendly Americans!! I had fun talking to random people on the plane, people just start up meaningless conversations with you... Everone offered me help with the kids, Scotty rested his head on the lady next to him. The woman next to Poozie played peek a boo with her while I went potty. Grown ups let the kids skip to the front of the bathroom lines. People were just friendly and nice...

The flights were pretty uneventful and somehow we ended up in Economy Plus. :) Not quite sure how, but if it was something Happy's work arranged then DANKE! :) Economy Plus really is not that much different except I think you do get a fair bit more leg room.

Michaela took care of Scotty the entire time so she gets a zillion points and we ALL slept for about 5 or 6 hours, we had to sleep because the flight was so long and boring... and we were exhausted. :) Thank goodness it was only 11 hours... any longer and I would have gone insane. The last two hours are always the hardest for me. Poozie slept all the way until we landed. The kids did better than they ever have before though. They are seriously some of the best travelers I know. They sit nicely and never kick the seat in front of them, they ask for their own drinks, they conserve their own iPod battery, they are great. Phew.

Nana and Papa were at the airport to greet us and drove us back to their house. It was pretty late, but Nana and Papa stayed up as long as they could with us. :) They left us to eat cereal and watch cartoons and we finally went to bed around midnight. We all slept until 6 or 7 which was really quite impressive.

First place we went to eat: Denny's.

We left Denny's and drove immediately to.......

TARGET

:)

I tried really hard not to go crazy and buy everything I saw. I think I did really good. I need to pace myself.

I'm not sure what is on the agenda today but I'm pretty sure it will involve In-N-Out Burger!!! Maybe right now!

Getting on an airplane today! Bye Happy, see you in a little bit!

The Tooth Machine

It's kinda like the Willy Wonka candy machine that makes Everlasting Gobstoppers.... except it makes teeth. :)

I had a crown put on a tooth today and due to my ignorance about dental procedures I thought I was just getting a little "hat" to rest on the top of my tooth to protect it. Nope, I got a whole new tooth... and this is the super cool machine that made it.

The dentist waved some magic wand thing over my tooth a few times and up popped this 3D image of my tooth on the screen. Then the dentist wiggled her mouse around and the tooth moved around on the screen... you could see every angle of my tooth. Then she moved the tooth around on the screen and outlined the entire thing. After a lot of clicking she had eventually created the perfect tooth just for me. :)

15 minutes later my tooth popped out of the machine like a gumball and after 30 minutes of the nice dentist cramming it into my un-numbed mouth I left with a new tooth. ...and Paul's favorite part was that for all of this super cool technology we only had to pay 480 euros. Root Canal and all... :) He said Germany gets a point.

AND Scotty's first dental experience....

Earlier this week Scotty had his first cavity filled. It was just a little tiny one, and I was terrified for him ...but he was super brave. I didn't even take him to a "kid dentist", I took him to my regular dentist because I like and really trust her. She would stop every time he raised his hand... and after him raising his hand about 20 times she finally finished and he left happy. I was surprised it went so well, but very relieved. :) I wasn't even upset that he didn't get a toy afterwards. :)

No more tooth issues for now.

OH, I also got a "frequent flyer dentist card"! If I take care of any teeth problems for an entire year I get one stamp from my dentist. Five stamps and my insurance will cover more of my dental work. :) Cute huh?

My Crazy Weeks

School is out.

All four kids had school parties and after school parties, treats and snacks were made for each of their events, gifts for teachers were given. Last week was crazy. There is really no quick and easy way to explain how crazy my days have been. Perhaps a hour by hour log will be necessary to prove how nutso my days are. :) I give you today...

I woke up to 13 screechy girls and one whiny five year old boy. I quickly took Andrea to her preschool and returned home to make waffles. Twenty minutes later my German teacher arrived. I tried to learn German for two hours while the 13 girls and 1 boy ran through the house and thankfully ended up outside on the trampoline. Minor drama ensued. German lesson ended. Most of the screechy girls were picked up to go home and I was left with just my own. I hurried Scotty to his speech class, ...arrived on time thank you. I dropped him off at the doorstep and turned around to go back to get Poozie from preschool. A friend was in traffic so I grabbed her two year old too. I drove home. I left two two year olds at the house with Michaela and Sierra and drove back to retrieve my son.... only five minutes late. We came back home, the extra two year old went home. I made lunch for everyone. I took Andrea and Sierra to get the dry cleaning and stop by Staples, which, for some reason, is a much bigger event than it seems. In Staples I bought gummy bears to elude a massive Poozie Temper Tantrum. I came home again, made croutons and dinner and sat down. It wasn't so bad I guess, but I could write a story like this every day and that is what gets a little tiring.

No complaints though... In reality I love it, and I'd be bored out of my mind without my kids.

Of course I am just coming off a girls weekend away in Copenhagen, during which we took a train to Sweden, rented bikes, and pedaled through the sunny city of Malmo. :) It was a much needed rest and I'm ready for some more crazy nutso days. Bring it on kids!

...and Bring It they did...

Yesterday Sierra and Michaela had a big sleepover party in which they stayed up until 6:00am. Paul saw them awake when he went to work. :) Sierra said it was the best sleep over party she has ever been to so I guess all my suffering was kinda worth it. It's kinda a right of passage for every kid to stay up all night... :) I guess we finally checked that box. :)

So all the crazy end of school stuff is over and now we are starting to get ready for our big summer trip home. WHOO HOOOO! :) Of course this just means that now I get different crazy stuff to deal with like doctor, dentist, and orthodontist appointments ...and renewing residency permits for Michaela and Sierra who, up until four days ago, I didn't have valid passports for... hee hee. No worries though, it's all under control. :)

I'm headed to bed. It's midnight and, remember, I was up all night listening to giggling girls?

PS. Yes, they do have Staples here in Germany. It's called Staples and even has the same stuff inside. :) ...and Yes, I know you shouldn't give candy to a child just to keep them quiet, but it's all about survival now isn't it.

Mary Poppins

A real life CHIMNEY SWEEPER!

I asked him to dance around singing "Steppin' Time" in my drive way, but he just stared at me. :) He even has a tall brush; and see on his shoulder...? He has a ball on a chain to toss down chimneys.

Here is the deal with this guy... He comes once a year and sweeps your chimney! :) AND if you touch him and take a piece of soot off of him then you have good luck the whole year!

Cute huh?!

I was at a friends house and MY Chimney Sweep shows up at her house. She has an actual chimney, so MY Chimney Sweep climbed on top of her roof and it was very Mary Poppins like. Super cute. It was really fun and we all waved good bye to him with our black soot covered hands... even us moms. :)

Happy just said I already wrote about him, but I can't remember... so here it is again. :)

Norway according to KE

I send my daughter to Norway and tell her to take lots of pictures and these are the pictures I get back... Trees, Pacifier Tree, Mud, Sprite, and a Chip.

I did get this one back, so I was happy. :)

Don't Eat Your Veggies!

The kids are thrilled and apparently it's world wide news. !!!!

E-coli is in a vegetable that people eat and tons of people are getting sick and even dying ...AND it's been traced back to Hamburg, Germany... where I happen to buy all my groceries. :)

I have been buying less fresh veggies lately, but tonight I actually got scared enough to throw away all the veggies in my fridge. We had gone to dinner at a friend's house and her husband kept telling me all about the deadly veggies and kidney failure and dialysis so when I got home I threw out all the healthiest items in my fridge. Oh well.

It's not really worth the risk and there has to be some link to something in the area... Plus, I don't even like cucumbers. :) But it's not even the cucumber's fault.

When the whole thing came out Germany quickly pointed the finger at Spain and their E-coli ridden cucumbers. Turns out there isn't any proof that the guilty veggie is a cucumber, much less a vegetable from Spain ...and now Spain is suing Hamburg, which makes kinda happy for some reason.

I do feel sorry for cucumber farmers though. I feel like I should keep buying their E-coli Veggies and just throw them away. Maybe they need a "Cucumber Farmer Donation Box" in the veggie aisle...

So my kids are happy not to be eating their veggies, but I think frozen and canned veggies are still okay. I'll look into that one.

Scotty has even been telling me that eating vegetables will make him sick and he could die. Great. Five years of telling The Boy that veggies will make him big and strong and now he thinks they will kill him. :)