Snow

A blizzard came through... and funny, but when I type the word blizzard I suddenly want a Chocolate Blizzard with Butterfinger from Dairy Queen. I guess that up until this point in my life the word "Blizzard" meant chocolate ice cream... now it means, shovel the driveway for an hour in below freezing temperatures.






I now pick up the kids with sleds... and it's kinda fun. :)

To get Andrea in the house I bribe her with a plate full of snow. Yes, I know it's dirty... She likes it though and gets her in the house. She would play outside in the snow all day and night if possible.

Here are the dirt throwers. They don't use salt for the roads here, here in Hamburg they throw dirt all over everything... makes for a huge dirty mess after the snow is gone, and it's not all that effective. I'm sure it's healthier for the roads and stuff... I'm not sure why dirt has been determined to be the best way to deal with the snow. ...and for the record, never once have I seen a snow plow taking snow off the road. It's getting pretty silly. Giant slushy mess...

The TREE

Here is our tree.

Our tree doesn't match... and my personal opinion on the matter is that if your tree has a color scheme then you are boring.

Our tree is a free for all... and that's the way life is around here.

Happy Birthday Happy!!

Happy is another year older... but we aren't going to talk about that. :)

We made him a big breakfast this morning and then he took Scotty to the store... and we haven't seen him since. :) He should be back pretty soon, he better be back pretty soon because we have a babysitter booked for 4:00pm. Good Ole' Michaela... Happy and I will go out shopping for a little bit and then out to eat dinner at a little restaurant nearby. :) We'll come home, have cake and ice cream with the kids, and send everyone to bed... and start wrapping Christmas presents.

Boring, but at this point boring is good.

PS. All these pictures are just random... Happy likes pictures on my blog so he'll be happy to see them. :)

If Scotty was German....

If Scotty was German he would start kindergarten at Goosacker Schule. :)

I got a letter in the mail saying Scotty would have a spot at the Goosacker School next August. Nice. Goosacker... Maybe that name sounds cooler to a German person. :)

Anyways, This letter gave me a date and time to show up with Scotty. No problem, I'll just have the secretary from our International School call Goosacker and tell them Scotty was already enrolled in school. Our nice secretary called... Goosacker said I still had to bring Scotty in.

I asked our secretary what would happen if I didn't comply. She said the police might become involved... OK.

I asked what the police would do. She said they might take Scott to school for me... OK.

Scotty might think that was really fun! What an experience! :) I just wasn't sure if the police would return him to me so I figured I better take him to see the Goosacker people.

So I took Scotty out of school, to take him to visit the school he's not going to. In the snow, in the middle of Andrea's nap time... super.

I thought that maybe they would just want to see that Scotty was alive and well and then we could just go home. I even had an official letter from the International School and Soctty's school records. We went in, I showed my letter. They didn't care. :) They asked if Scotty would be attending Goosacker. I said no.

Scotty still had to go off with the other German kids to "meet his new classmates". :) I had to have an hour parent interview and fill out all the forms...

It's all part of the process... :)

The process gets better...

The next week I had to go back to pick up their "report" on Scotty. Turns out I now have to take Scotty to a doctor because he doesn't speak or understand any German. Hmmp.

Well, if a five year old German kid doesn't speak or understand German then okay... send him to the doctor, but my little boy speaks English, not German... oh, but he can call me a dumb cow in German, "Du bist eine dumme kuh." Maybe I should have mentioned that...

Instead I mentioned... "When we got to this silly country I tried to put him in a German school, but everyone told me NO... so don't come to me nine months later and try to make me feel like a loser because we aren't fluent in German. Ich spreche ein sehr bisschen Deutsch!!!" ...but I was nicer, because they were actually being kinda nice about the whole thing. ...but not really. :)

We'll see how that doctor appointment goes... or maybe I'll take my chance with the German police.

Pretty snow though huh?

Photo Shoot 2010

I haven't done Christmas cards in a few years, and I've had really good reasons/excuses... but this year I decided to do it.

These are NOT the winning Christmas Card Picture... I can't spoil the surprise! That would take away from the excitement of getting the card!

Thanks Shelly for coming over and pooing penguins to make us laugh. ...and Shelly, I know you took about 200 pictures, but I chose the very first one you took. :) TAK and DANKE and THANKS!

Just for you mom. We are #1.

Santa better not bring anymore laptops.

"No Paul, your car can't be in our Christmas card.

I can't believe I made those four little people!

PNP

click here ------> Santa's message to Scotty

Pine Nut Lesson

Where do pine nuts come from?

PINE CONES!

I bought this pine cone in a grocery store and translated the directions. Then I bought another one for a friend here and even mailed one to a friend in the States because I thought it was super cool!

You are supposed to wash it in warm water and then set it by a radiator where it will stay warm ...not ON the radiator because when you do that it gets too warm and the little "leaves" start popping off the bottom.

So it's been a few weeks and my little pine cone finally opened up. See the picture? When I bought it it was closed completely... but now it's open with the little "leaves" opening up and folding out. :)

When it opened I pulled a pine nut out. It was in a little pine nut shell. So CUTE! The shell opened easily because I think it had dried out... but then the pine nut inside was moldy and gross looking... oh well. I had envisioned shelling out pretty beige pine nuts, just like in the store. Nope, it was moldy and yucky... but the idea in theory was super cute and it amused me for a good three weeks. So I still liked it.

I think I'll buy another one and try it again. Maybe I got a bad cone...

:)