Corn Dogs!! Yippie

First attempt at a corn dog --------------------------> Final corn dog made. They gradually got a little better. :)


HA. I tried to make corn dogs. I'll try again, but I'm willing to share my first attempt. This is something that one shouldn't have to make from scratch... right up there with pie dough. Just go to Safeway, pay $6, take your frozen box of 20 corn dogs home, microwave one for 60 seconds, ENJOY!!!

Making them from scratch was a long and messy process that in theory was simple enough, but let's just say this was the trial run - now we have a better idea of what to do.

First "oopsie" as Scotty would call it... I made the oil so hot that the needle on the thermometer sped past 180 and did another loop and passed 180 again... and that little needle never really stopped. I didn't realize oil could be so hot!! (and yes I've been told it will explode, that would have been "big oopsie #2".)

I simply thought that the corn dog would just cook faster for my hungry children in the hotter oil so I plopped the hot dog in. ...The moment that wiener hit the oil it turned dark brown and the stick burnt in half. At this point we determined hot oil to be one of the most dangerous things ever brought into this house and the kids were banned from entering the kitchen for the rest of the cooking process.

We cooled off the oil for a good 30 minutes and tried again. It went okay after that. Nobody got burnt so as far as I'm concerned it was a success. Scotty did eat three of these creations, but then again, he probably can't remember what a real corn dog tastes like. The girls gave their approval, maybe we'll try again... maybe.

MINI DOGS

This was my great plan to make "mini corn dogs". Before I started this I envisioned freezing them and later just heating them up as a wonderful afternoon snack. HA. I ended up just dumping them all in at once and stirring like a giant oil & hot dog soup.

Happy Mom Day

Happy Mother's Day Mom and mUm

I know enough to know that you both miss your grandkids way more than you miss Paul and Me... so here are some pictures of them. We'll see you both soon!!















(she's peeling grapes for Poozle...)

4 MORE TEETH!

Little Andrea has been watching the rest of us chomp down on food for nine months now... and she wants in on the action!! She decided to pop out FOUR teeth in one day! This brings our grand total to SIX! :) What a big girl. She is 3/4 of a year old, you know.

Her top four teeth have officially come through. -As of today, from biggest to smallest: top right-right, top-right, top-left, top left-left. (That will make sense to me later when I finally get around to translating that page of her Danish baby book.) But her new chompers really did all show up one morning because I had been checking daily for the last week since she has been in a bad mood and you could see the white of them through the gums. Now you can feel them all. :) Now I am afraid of her bite when she is giving me "hugs" into my shoulder.

So she now prefers to feed herself and put those little toofers to use. "Squishy Food" is so beneath her. Big girls eat cooked carrots sticks, broccoli, peeled grapes, banana slices, plum pieces, sweet potato squares, toast, scrambled eggs, and the occasional cookie - her obvious favorite!!

Michaela and Sierra

Michaela and Sierra are great.

I am sick. I feel terrible and Paul is gone so this leaves me at home with four kids. I've had offers from help from all my wonderful friends here, but in all honesty I've been able to function; I just haven't been happy about it. ...but if I get stuck I know who I can call. :)

But last night was pretty bad so Michaela and Sierra took over Mommy Duty. They made macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, and bread for dinner. They fed Scotty and took care of him while I got to take a nap with Andrea. Michaela helped Sierra with her homework. Sierra helped Scotty go potty. When I woke up from my nap Michaela took Andrea and Sierra made lunches for the next day. When it was time to put Andrea to bed I went to bed with her around 8:30pm. Sierra and Michaela put themselves and Scotty to sleep.

I woke up at 10:00pm and found everyone asleep, lunches in the fridge, and only a small mess in the kitchen. :) So I went back to bed. Thanks for helping guys... ROOT BEET FLOATS AND GUFS FOR YOU!!! :)

But no trip to Germany today. :( Paul will come back here.

Unrelated questions:
- Corn meal. Can I get it here? What's it called? I want to make corndogs and I almost used cornstarch.
- Laundry detergent. My plan was to import more "Tide with bleach"... but it's heavy, so any ideas for a good laundry detergent from Denmark or Germany? I'm now willing to try.

More ER (Emergency Room)

I've changed my mind though... I've decided it's not really an Emergency Room. It's more like a place where doctors have more time to spend with you, they can run tests on you, you can sleep there... like a little doctor hotel where you check in for as long as your appointment lasts. Emergency Room sounds scary... We'll call it the "Little Doctor Hotel". Scotty even thought it was a hotel because we slept there for a while...

Anyways... Scotty was still seeing "tiny things" on Monday (and his fever was completely gone). He tries to grab them and you can tell he is actually focused on them when they are "there"... I think they are dots because I drew a picture of dots and asked if that is what the "tinys" are.

Him seeing spots at random times concerned me so I called the Hospital back to ask them about it. They said to bring him in... so off we went. I had to promise Scotty a hundred times that nobody would poke him and make him bleed, and it makes me happy he believed me and went along willingly. He was also happy to get a chance to play with all the toys he didn't feel like playing with before.

Long story short again... The same doctor happened to be there, she met with us for an hour or so: asking us questions, talking to Scotty, playing games to watch his movements, taking his blood pressure, checking his eyes and heart... He's fine. :) ....and I am the paranoid mother from America.

I felt better leaving the Little Doctor Hotel this time... she said he was healthy and Scotty was skipping along was eating an ice cream.

AND I changed my doctor today. It was very simple, I just told the lady at the library/borgerservice the name of the new doctor I wanted, but did cost 165 kroner!! ($32)... Come to think of it, I didn't fill out a single form... just paid them and my new CPR cards will hopefully all come in the mail...

I guess $32 isn't that bad, but I did leave Paul at the old doctor because I didn't want to pay $64.00. :) I just changed myself and all the kids were free to change too. :) Sorry Paul, don't get sick! Odds are he'd get sick in Germany anyways... He's there this week, was there last week, and will be there next week. :/ We are going to drive down on Thursday to hang out in his super nice hotel since the kids are out of school on Friday. This trip will probably backfire on him though because I'll see the 4 star hotel he is at while I am living in the squallor of my 4 kid house.

Little Kid ER

Scotty has been sick. I took him to the doctor. I officially hate my doctor. If you are ever searching for a doctor in Aarhus, Denmark; email me, I will tell you where NOT to go. I won't continue to complain about my doctor though, that would make me a victim... :) Monday morning I will go to the borgerservice and get a new doctor... and maybe mention that mine is a loser.

Anyways.... Scott had a fever for a few days, and it has seemed to be a common thing for him over the past few months. He'll just have a fever and seem so tired and not want to eat, but nothing else is the matter. Then, as soon as I'm ready to take him to the doctor after a few days, he is fine again. ?? This time his fever was actually making him feel sick so I scheduled him an appointment. Now, it's not this one particular incident that really concerns me... it's the continual fevers that I don't like. Usually I wait for the after hours doctor to open and go there, but I decided to give my "doctor" another try.

Long story short, we ultimately ended up in the after hours clinic three days after our "doctor's" appointment because the penicillin that Scotty was given was seeming to make the fevers worse... and he became very scared of "scary tiny things" that I can't see. :(

The after hours clinic sent us to an "Emergency Room for kids". The doctor said it was where the "really sick kids with bad diseases go"...... Now..... Had I heard that statement a year ago I would have been very scared, but I knew enough to know this was probably just a translation miscommunication... she was not suggesting Scott had a bad disease.

We went to the ER at Skejby Hospital (where Andrea was born) at 9:00pm. It was a very cute ER. It had toys and window art and little footprints on the floor. They saw us immediately and gave us our own waiting room with a bed, chairs, some toys, and our own selection of juices. They also gave Scotty a Popsicle. This made Scotty happy.

Then the nurse came in and did some things that didn't make Scotty happy... took his temperature, took some blood, gave him medicine... I eventually got Scott calmed down after all that... We both laid down on his little hospital bed, he draped his little arm around me and fell asleep. :( Scotty and I slept while we waiting for the results of his blood tests and for the doctor.

At 11:30pm the doctor came in and asked me lots of questions and examined Scotty again, who was not happy to be awake... I was happy to have someone to tell all my concerns too.

Scotty's tests were normal and he seems happier today. He's still taking the penicillin and has three more days of it. He still sees "tiny things", but they are not always scary... mostly only scary at bedtime, but he "sees" them throughout the day. I don't know what that is all about but I think I will go visit the little kid ER tomorrow to talk to them about it.

Hostage Situation

We have a hostage situation here in Denmark... it involves a birthday card I sent to mUm, my mother-in-law.

The day after her birthday I found a letter in MY mailbox which had two pictures of mUm's birthday card along with a ransome note.

OH. Oops. Okay... I just translated my "ransome note" from the post office.

I ASSUMED... Denmark being Denmark and all.... that it said the post office would wait for me to pay the necessary postage and then they would send the card to mUm.

...and I thought this was silly because of the effort involved to send their letter to me. They went to a lot of trouble to take pictures of my letter (front and back), print another letter to me, assign my "case" a 15 digit FAKTURANUMMER (invoice number), and to then mail me all this on a very nice piece of photo paper...

BUT. I just translated the letter. It says "We forgive you this time for not putting the right amout of postage on. We sent it to your mUm."

So I'm sorry about all the bad things I said about the Danish post office in the last 24 hours. The post office is probably one of the few institutions here that hasn't annoyed me (besides their ridiculous prices). HOWEVER, for this particular situtation I had gone to the post office with the sole intention of mailing this one letter. I handed mUm's letter to the post office person and paid her for the stamp. I did not stay long enought to witness the stamp being adhered to the envelope, so ultimately it was my own fault.

Some other highly useful information about the mail here. :)

- Most of the mailmen ride bikes. They ride through the weather with little bags on the back of their bike. When they have a big package to deliver they come in a truck though.

- You can't mail a letter from your home. You can only recieve mail at home. There are mail boxes along streets or you have to go to the post office. Sounds simple, but this one errand is the one I usually put off the longest. Don't take for granted sticking a letter in your mailbox and having someone pick it up.

- It costs ~$1.20 to mail a letter within Denmark ...and Denmark is pretty small

- You can't use envelopes from the US... (of course), or else it will cost alot more. I have to fold over my long envelopes about 1/2 an inch on the end and tape it. ...then it's the right size.

- The post office has really cute little gifts to buy for birthday presents for little girls you don't really know. :)