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)!