I want to SCREEN!

WHY ARE THERE NO SCREENS ON THE WINDOWS??!! ...and I don't care how many reasons anyone can come up with - they will never be good enough. How are you supposed to leave a window open without a screen to keep all the bugs out?

SO. In my ongoing attempt to bring American-ness to my Denmark house... today I built screens. :) Well, I made one... and maybe I should have waited for Paul because I ran into a few engineering problems and a slight design flaw. Whatever though... I have a screen on a kitchen window and the hour I spent on it was well worth it when I saw THIS!
I spoke out loud to this spider. I said, "HA!! take that you dumb little Danish spider... I'm from America and we don't let ugly little bugs like you into the house." Michaela will be so proud. I'll make one for her window next. :)

In my opinion, I feel the lack of screens is a HUGE problem with Danish homes. The windows all over Europe are very modern and they look really nice. It's fun how they open all kind of odd ways too, but I haven't seen one that slides up and down or right to left like in the States. Windows that open don't leave much room for screens because they would open right into the screen. Windows that slide are just right for screens. :)

No air conditioning + lots of windows + 16 hours of sunlight = 1 hot house.

You have to open the windows or you will melt... and once you do.... in come the bugs. Ewwww...
Paul took a picture last summer of our kitchen ceiling COVERED in bugs because the light was on and the window was open. I hope this years "new and imporoved" screens keep them out better.

Oh yah, that little design flaw I talked about... Remember my before mentioned statement: "Windows that open don't leave much room for screens because they would open right into the screen." I am so smart I put the screen on the inside of the window!!! TA-DAAA
...but now I can't reach through the window to open, close, or lock the window ...because there is a screen in the way. The best darn screen in Denmark I might add. :)


Scotty helped take care of Andrea while I was crafty with my screen. :)

Here she comes!!!

Andrea is taking crawling steps with her arms! ...her feet and lower half never move... but she makes her arms go forward!!







Writing about this would never convey how incredibly cute she is... so here is Poozle thinking about crawling. She's been doing this for two days now. :) I couldn't decide what movie to put on here because each one makes me smile, so I put all three - it's my blog and I can do what I want. :)

You can tell she's concentrating so hard, but then sometimes she gets so excited at the thought of whatever she is trying to get at, that she falls. She often gets stuck and Scotty yells, "She's stuck!!!", which is cute in itself. Scotty gives her a lecture once I have her sitting up again, he tells her she's not very good and that she should just "Stay there or you get stuck."

Her "scooting" makes me happy... it makes everyone happy, everyone in the house cheers her on, even Scotty... But then until I realized that in 54 days I will have this little, MOBILE child on an airplane for 11 hours. 11 hours of trying to contain a little girl who's only concern in the world is what she can can get at to put in her mouth next. Toss in a three year old and you have a party!!

Scotty is feeling better, he really wanted to go to bornehaven today to ride bike #3 (the bikes have numbers written on them - Bike #2 is "bad", Bike #4 "is okay", and I haven't heard anything about Bike #1... in case anyone is wondering). I let him go to school, but I know that he'll need the potty before lunch.... so I used my best Danish translator to write a note to his teacher explaining the situation and to watch out! I hope she gets the point. :) I think/hope he'll be fine.

Plan for Day 1

I'm feeling very grumpy today so I'll write what I will do as soon as I arrive in America. That will make me happy.

It will be late when we finally arrive in California, but I will most likely want to eat something. I just googled In-N-Out Burger in Woodland, CA. While I was typing I was remembering they don't have one... so I was thinking of what else would make me happy. BUT - I read they are opening one in Woodland!!! If it is open by then, I will definitely go there... I'll have a double double and fries! YUM.

The next morning we will probably wake up at 4:00. Never fear though, because in the wonderful USA there are always things to do at 4:00 in the morning! So Denny's for breakfast it is... Hashbrowns! Yum!! or Nations... I'll have to google them later. I'd rather have Nation's hashbrowns - WAY bigger portions! :)

Afterwards it will still be early so we can always go to Target for some aimless roaming of the aisles... We'll buy some sandles or flip flops... since we don't own any. I'll buy some fun, cute, and yet very unnecessary baby items for Andrea... and Scotty will get a frisbee and ball (so he can play with them at grandma's. :)

That's all the typing I have in me now because I am hungry but have nothing good to eat.

Scotty has been sick and we can't go more than 50 feet from the potty... It's been great.

Super Best is the Super Best!!

WE HAD ROOT BEER FLOATS TODAY!!!!

Super Best has a real American isle!!!

- Pop Tarts
- Hershey Kisses
- Cake Mix and Frosting
- JIF Peanut Butter
- Grape Jelly
- Skittles
- Root Beer and Dr. Pepper and other sodas
- Shredded Wheat
- Marshmallow Fluff
- Dryer Sheets
- Weight Watcher food
- Chili
- Salt and Vinegar Pringles
- Enchilada Sauce
- Muffin Mix
- Cookie Mix
- Salsa
- Lucky Charms
- Mustard
- Heinz O's (like spaghetti Os)
- ...and more!

Sounds good and I'm excited. BUT a box of Cake Mix is $18.00!!!! I about died! $18.00??!! I could import suitcases of cake mix and pay for my plane ticket this way! Actually I'll make this into a math word problem for Michaela:

- I have one 20 foot container that costs $5000 to ship from California to Denmark. In America I buy MANY boxes of $1.00 cake mix. How MANY would boxes of cake mix would have to fit into my container to make a profit considering I could sell them for $18.00 each when they arrived in Denmark? ...and would they fit?

Frosting was $10.00. A small tiny bag of Hershey kisses was $10.00. It was hilarious to see the prices!! I paid $20 for a six pack of Root Beer and $4.00 for a single serving of Lucky Charms. :) I also got a can of the O's to see if Scotty approves, they were only $4.00.

They also had things from the UK. Marmite? Shreddies? and some other things that may make some British people happy. :)

Needless to say my daughters were excited for Root Beer Floats. (It only took us an hour to find plain ole' vanilla ice cream that had not been violated with marzipan or black licorice...at 7-11)

I do think that SuperBest is getting their food shipped from a "food from home" website, which is smart. What is really smart is that they put it in the store next to the Danish Language school where all the forgieners learn Danish. :)


Kelli, I looked - No Crystal Light or Tea Drinks (I can't remember what exactly it was you addictivly drink.) :)

She's Trying!

Go Andrea Go!!!

She isn't happy to just sit anymore... this little girl wants to go.

Little Poozie watches the rest of the herd running around the house and you can just see it in her eyes... SHE WANTS TO RUN!

This stage is difficult though because she isn't happy to just "sit" and play. She tries to crawl and get at things she can't reach, but then she usually falls forward on her head and gets stuck leaning on her face. She understandably does not like this. I sit her back up and the cycle continues. :)

I went to the beach!

It was nice and sunny today (again) and pretty warm, so in an effort to be happy and enjoy Denmark I quickly packed the kids in the car and drove to the beach. - The beach should more appropriately be referred to as the "shore" or the "edge of the land". It's not a California beach... by any means. Or at least not what I think of when I think of a "beach"; it is some sand, rocks, a few shells, and some tiny waves just big enough for kids. It good enough for us and is pretty and relaxing.

Anyways... we took a blanket and a towel and played in the sand for an hour or so. Sierra dug around in the sand happily. Michaela watched after Scotty and played with him... and I created a wind barricade with the stroller and all engineered all of our belongings to protect little Andrea from the wind.

At the beach today I had a Huge Mess Realization:;If you decide you don't care whether or not your child makes a huge mess of themselves your day will be much easier. - Today at the beach Andrea sat on the blanket with a cookie as happy as can be. I had a bib on her but she yanked it off 32 times, so I stopped playing the "put-the-bib-on-Poozie" game and gave up. However in an effort to mantain a clean baby I started wiping her mouth with a wipee after every few cookie bites ...and like a normal eight month old she verbally protested everytime I did this. Finally I gave up and let her just make a HUGE mess. She was happy and I was happy... until I had to finally touch her and all her drooly, slobber-cookie-glory. I just dipped her in the water and she was all clean.

Kidding. I did not put my child in the freezing water.

I'm hillarious. ...SO. I think we have a few more days of sunny warmth before some rain comes back, but I'm pretty sure the worst of the weather is over. The sun gets up pretty early too... so do all those dumb birds. As an "ex-bird girl" I should love all those little Passerines out there but I HATE them. ...4 am and they are chirping all over the place like I live in a giant bird enclosure at the zoo. Birds are great to listen to in the afternoon, but I don't want to have anything to do with them before 7am.

That was our day in case anyone was wondering. Paul missed out. He is in Germany again, but should come home Thursday in time to see the girls school plays on Friday. We have another work dinner to go to this weekend too... but I don't think my babysitter can handle Andrea though... I don't know why. I need Nana. :) I'd actually buy a plance ticket for Nana just to have a good worry-free babysitter for a couple weeks! :) Nana want to come over this weekend and watch the kids? mUm? :)

My Jealousy

I am actually jealous. I don't think I've ever been jealous before, not a REAL jealous... but when you have a real jealous you know it - its no fun either. :(

I often acknowledge that others sometimes have things I want:

- a neatly decorated "magazine" house, opposed to the toy fest I live in;
- a nice fun car, opposed to the long seven seated station wagon "brick" I drive;
- a mega stroller, opposed to the squeaky puny one I push;

... but when it comes down to it I like all my stuff just fine and I think what I have is perfect for me. I'm not really jealous.

HOWEVER....

The last American family is leaving and going back to the States... back to a normal life with soccer teams, Targets, libraries, Safeways, girl scout cookies, American TV, holidays, dollar stores, etc... AND I AM JEALOUS. : (

I'm happy for them.

But I want to go too...

So I was in a bad mood. I was grumpy. I didn't like anything for a day. ...just being honest. Today I am finally over it.

It's a definite mind set you have to be in to survive here away from things you know and prefer. So I've gone back to trying to get what I want with things that are here... and being happy about it. :)