107 DEGREES

....or 42 Celsius. :)

That's how hot it was today. Actually the thermometer in the backyard said 108! Anything over 100 feels the same though. Hot. :) We don't go out much during the day, especially not to do anything outside. We took Papa's boat out yesterday morning... That was fun. Andrea HATED her life jacket. I am a wake boarding superstar and just as soon as my mom shows me how to connect my camera I'll prove my awesome-ness. :)

First Few Days

More details about our flight here... It was pretty good. Did I mention that SEVEN people told me how well behaved my children were. :) I was very proud of the kids. It could have been much worse but the kids were awesome. ...Even with the secondary inspection of our things in Seattle where they took our Ham and Cheese sandwiches. :)

As we went through the passport check in Copenhagen it was like entering a different world... Once on the other side of the barrier, people were telling me how cute my kids were, making small talk with us, holding doors open, helping hold things.... It was then I remembered what "normal" people were like. Every time we go out now people are talking to us, talking to the kids, commenting on how incredibly cute Andrea is... People are NICE! I love it!! I miss people.

More things I love about the people (Americans) here. I was at Burger King at the airport in Seattle and there were three people in line, including us. We were standing a few feet back from the person ordering... you know, to give them their privacy while ordering... :) We weren't really in a straight line, nobody really knew was next. The cashier asked for the next person in line and we all looked at each other... offering for the others to go first, almost insisting that the other person should go first. Eventually all three of us decided I should go first because I had the most kids. :) In Denmark the other two people would have shoved past me and the four tired kids to get to the front of the line... Of course in Denmark I would have stood three inches from the person in front of me to ensure this didn't happen. :)

I also have found I really miss big freeways. I enjoy ten lanes of cars, five lanes in either direction... It makes me happy... at least when traffic is moving quickly.

... We are now at my moms house. We spent the first few days with Grandma and enjoyed the pool, and picking oranges and plums, and Target of course. :) The kids are getting more used to the time change so I get to sleep in until 4:30am now... which is way better than waking up at 1am wide awake so I'm happy with that. We've eaten lots of food and I am "full" most of the day. I'm approaching the point of being satisfied with food so I can stop binge eating I think. We miss Happy and hope he can figure out a way to come to CA early to go to the beach house with us... I love you Happy. ...lots. Sorry you are missing out on America, but you're a Canadian so you'll be happy with Swiss Chalet and Tim Hortons soon enough. :)

Today I had lunch with my best AMERICAN friend! :) Trini!! I also stopped by my old work and saw everyone and introduced Andrea. I love all my old work friends. Monday I hope to go back for lunch with everyone.

I'm off to the dentist with Michaela and then to WALMART and then to a craft store.

We MADE IT!

We are here. We are tired. The flight went really good. The kids were SOOOOOO great. Everyone is happy to see us. :) We miss Daddy who was left alone at home to work for a couple more weeks. We are enjoying Target and the warm sun and all the food we forgot we loved. America is wonderful... seriously the best place ever.

A few more days and I'll write more because Andrea wants the keyboard. ;)


P.S. Andrea is NOT adjusting to the time change very well. But I do have lots of American reality shows that I can catch up on in the wee hours of the morning. :)

Scotty's Last Day of Bornehaven

I miss his bornehaven.

...and not because this was the place I could drop him off for five hours a day. :)

I really liked it. I feel bad because I've been driving around looking at other bornehavens for when we return. The only problem I had with this one is that I just can't talk to the teachers because they don't speak English... just Arabic... and I need to know what Scotty is doing. :)

-Now I will insert my random comment that Arabic and Middle Eastern cultures may be very different then what we view as normal; but every parent at this school, moms and dads, were all very kind to us. They all gave their kids kisses when they leave them in the morning and the men would hold the door open for me when my arms were full (every day). I feel the need to insert this comment because many people have some issues with people from this area of the world and I think that's dumb. I've had one experience when an Arabic speaking man went crazy and starting yelling at some woman in an elevator... (I was also dumb enought to step in.) ...but I have TONS of experiences watching "white" people being mean and agressive.

Back to Scotty's Bornehaven.

His teacher. I will miss her the most. I never really spoke to her. We did a lot of charades and writing notes and third party translators. :) But Scotty liked her and I think she was very good with him.
His class had a small party with "Ost Bollers", popcorn, and apples. I almost made cupcakes covered in chocolate frosting but ran out of time that day. :) His class gave him a book with pictures of him doing things throughout the year and they gave him a big framed picture with the best pictures of him having fun at bornehaven. :) Scotty really liked his presents. He yelled "WOW!!!" as he opened them and was very happy.


I just re-read this. I inserted my "random comment" because no "DanishDanish" kids go to this bornehaven. Being from California I wasn't phased with Scotty being the only blonde haired boy in the room. :) I like that he viewed them all as just kids so maybe he'll grow up and be a reasonable adult when it comes to things like this.

28 more hours.

28 hours to go!! This means my shopping list is almost complete. It's not so long this time. Last time I had TONS of food and baby items to bring back. Now it's just things I can't get here.

Here's my list from last year: I made the things that are on my list this year red.
- cat tags/collars
- hanging file folders
- pancake mix
- umbrellas
- scotty pull ups
- infant swim diapers
- cat flea stuff
- white sauce - graham crackers
- dryer sheets
- folding sandwich bags
- rolling pin
- peanut butter
- parmesan cheese
- kettle corn
- frosting
- pancake syrup
- garbage bags
- infant tylenol - kid vitamins - memory stick
- poofy shower things
- happy's salad dressing

Here is my new list. It's full of things I CAN'T get here. I'm now willing to pay $3.00 for a glue stick and have resigned to making my own pancake mix and frosting. However I refuse to buy batteries and shoes here. WAY too expensive. (unless someone knows a special place to buy batteries, I've honestly never really looked for a deal)

- Batteries: AA, AAA, square ones, one for thermometer
- Various Medicine
- Lunch boxes
- Shoes and socks
- Mini cupcake holders
- Ranch dressing
- Hair things
- Antibiotic cream

...That's all I have so far! Mostly I think we will be bringing back clothes. ...except for Sierra who has a million things to wear since Michaela grew a foot the last two weeks. :)

I'm excited to leave and go back to North America, but I have moments every day when I don't want to go. I don't want to leave Paul here all alone, him in the quiet house for three weeks sounds boring. I'm also starting to miss all my friends. Scotty's last day of bornehaven was sad... I'll need some circus peanuts to make me feel better. :)

Sorry...

Busy! Sorry, I haven't even had time to get on the computer really. I blame it on the light. It's light until after 11pm now so it never really seems like night time, and that is when I normally sit on the couch and play on the computer. It's like my night time has disappeared. I never even see it dark unless I'm up at 1am with a kid.

So real quick catching up... Last Saturday I had a birthday party for my friend here at our house. We played some silly games and had a good time. I like my friends. :) I have tons more friends here than anywhere else I've lived. It's so much easier to make friends here, I think that part of Denmark is great. - I remember in Portland there was a mom at the girls' school bus stop. ...our kids were friends, we lived around the corner from each other, but I never once invited her over for dinner or coffee. That would have been odd for me. ?? Don't know why. We would stand on the corner talking for a while and we always had things to talk about, but it never amounted to any "real" friendship.

Here I'm so busy mostly due to the fact that I am at someone's house for coffee or lunch at least 2 or 3 times a week. : ) See Paul, I have busy days too! Like today, I was gone all day... with my friends. I even made a new friend today! ...someone who I met with for 2 hours but I'd willing call her up and invite her family over for dinner. You wouldn't do that in the States, at least I wouldn't have, maybe someone else may have. Perhaps I'm just different now. :) A little more brave and outgoing when it comes to meeting people. SO. I like my friends. I will miss them when we go back to CA and Canada. I'm actually a little sad I'll miss out on things they will be doing without me. ...nothing a little "America" can't cure though!

...Anyways - pictures from our birthday party ...and my super cool cake. Holly (cousin Holly), I didn't use marzipan, just good ole' American Rice Krispie Treats.
My friends are from Italy, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, and Sweden. I'll let you try to match them up. :) That's a lot of languages in one room.

NEXT - School picnic at Mindeparken.
There we are... that's a big chunk of the school too. 75 people were there.

First, I feel like a loser for never visiting Mindeparken until now. We went the day after my party. It's a REALLY cool park! ...it's right by the sea and it's a really neat place. Something that has to do with the Queen is nearby, but I'll let anonymous explain that one...

You can check your matching countries to my friends.
Left to Right: Italy, USA, Poland, Sweden, Belgium
Did you guess right?
The picnic was a lot of fun with all the families. The weather was perfect too! Lucky, since the day before it rained all day. :)

So that's me catching up with my excitement. I've been busy trying to get organized to cross the planet too, but I think I'll write ALLLLLLLL about that tomorrow. Off to make lunches. Three more nights of making lunches and then I get a BREAK. WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Marshmallow Eating Contest

Hilarious! :) I forgot to show this. We went to an American/International "people" Picnic at the beach a while back... It can't be a proper American gathering with an eating contest of some sort... SO - Here are the kids participating in the Marshmallow Eating Contest. :)

Scotty is devastated that he didn't win. Most nights at dinner he wants to finish first and "win"... and we continually tell him it's not a race. But here I was telling him to eat faster, faster, faster!!!

Poozle.

Cutest thing IN THE WORLD!!

Not Groundhogs Day... and our Trampoline.

I found out what yesterday's holiday was. It was "Grundlovs Dag". (Thanks Kelli!) I thought this meant Groundhog's Day... you know, "so many more days of winter or so many more days of summer..." But after I heard it was Grundlovs Dag I thought it was unusual that it was such a big deal. Flags everywhere, flags on the buses, no work or school... Turns out it's "Consitution Day" not Groundhog Day.

AND... today is Denmark Father's Day. I didn't know until I read a comment on my blog so Paul has to wait until later. Acutally, we won't even be here on June 21st, the American Father's Day... so Happy gets Father's Day on the Sunday before. :) He is S U P E R excited. :) I am S U P E R excited to have just two more weeks before I go back to California/Canada.

Paul just made me yummy buttery popcorn. Hold on...

It was good.

So. ...We now own the biggest trampoline in Denmark. :) Our friends moved to Germany this week and they passed on their enormous trampoline to us. It's huge. The kids love it. Our neigherbors hate it. Scotty and Sierra screach and scream and laugh SO LOUD. They spent a good three hours out there today. :) I think it's great ...espically since we had to retire our smaller trampoline when it started to fling springs off into the air as the kids jumped on it.

...and P.S. Scotty isn't allowed to ride his scooter on the trampoline anymore. :) It's not the safest activity. :)

Thanks for the trampoline Annie!!

Holiday today?

Today is a holiday. I have no idea why, I just know my husband is at home, my kids have a half a day of school, and I can't go grocery shopping. ...and there are flags everywhere.

Remember I wrote about the great weather? Well the last two days have been littered with pouring rain and hail storms, not lasting too long, but still capable of getting one sopping wet.

I feel personally responsible for the bad change in the weather. I gave to car to Paul for the week because of his sore back... and as I turned over the keys I said, "You take the car. The weather is great, I'd actually like to walk around and take the bus." Mr. Denmark heard me and showed me who was boss. So I'm sorry to everyone for ruining their weather. I have the car back now so things should get nice and warm again in time for whatever holiday is today.

Now for my apology for not writing so much. Sorry. It's been sunny and the bus riding thing really puts a dent in my free time and energy at the end of the day.

OH!! I went shopping last night at 9:30pm!!! I think I finished all my overseas Christmas shopping too. (I buy my Christmas presents right now, so I can deliver them to family during the summer because I HATE paying for shipping.) Anyways, the "city" was "open" until midnight last night. It was like a "Day after Thanksgiving" shopping day... lots of people and things were on sale (still too expensive to actually buy). Paul came home from work and so I decided to ditch the kids. I hopped on the bus and went into town ALL BY MYSELF! :) It was fun., but I kept looking around like I was missing something... or someone.

I did learn that my bus does not go all the way into town after 7:00pm... which posed a problem when I wanted to come home. :) However, I was pretty pleased with myself that I could figure out where to walk without getting lost and find a new bus stop. It's taken me forever (1.5 years) to easily navigate my way through the downtown walking streets. So here's my helpful tip on moving to a new country. Go to the downtown area and walk around for two days straight... draw a map if you need to. :) I still can't find a toy store I visited in in December of 2007. :)

Last week

I forgot to click "Publish Post" so this is old... from this past week.

The weather has been perfect here the last couple weeks, especially this last week! Sunny and 23C-ish (~76F). It's been bright and warm so that makes us all happy. Yesterday we threw water balloons around and got out the water guns and hoses. :)

I can't believe how great the weather has been. 2/3 rds of Denmark is walking around sunburnt. The other 1/3rd is finally happy to show off their unrealistic fake tans that they have been working on all year.

Today we went to Tivoli again, and Scotty has a new found love of Putt-Putt. Putt-Putt is miniature golf. :) The boy played SEVEN games of putt-putt. That means I watched him hit a little white golf ball into a little hole 84 times. He never got tired. He loved it. He was so patient with himself and even others when we had to wait our turn. Sometimes we waited 20 minutes behind people just so he could power through the hole in 9 seconds and we could wait another 20 minutes behind the same people at the next hole. :) He even enjoys watching other people play... and he laughs at them when they miss.