KE !

I sent my 13 year old daughter to the middle east.

I'll stick that on the list of things I'd never thought I'd ever say.

It will go right under, "Share the dirt with your sister." and "Don't lick the bottom of your shoe."

But, yes, my daughter is now in Dubai ...doing math.  :)

She went with the school math team and quite honestly even I would have signed up to do math if I got a trip to Dubai out of the deal.  Tomorrow she will be riding camels and sandboarding!  :)  I'm pretty jealous... even of the just the fact that she will be warm for five days ...but she sent a text to me saying she stuffed her bag with Cheetos for us so at least we have that to look forward to when she gets back.  :)

Mr. No-Man

Our new friend.  No-Man.  (Andrea doesn't do "S's")

 

Guess what?  If snow is too cold snowflakes don't stick to each other and it's impossible to make a snowman.  Crazy huh?  Who would have thought it would get TOO cold for a snowman.  Yes, it's been that cold here...  well, it was a while ago.  :)  It's just taken a while to post pictures... I've been a teeny busy with that crazy big move coming up in just five short weeks!

Anyways....

Ever since the snow first hit the ground Andrea had been asking for a "no-man".  The only problem was that, with the snow came -15 degrees C, and I learned really, really cold snow doesn't stick together ...like my Canadian husband had said... but now I actually believe him.  :)

So Andrea and I were happy to have it warm up enough to actually make a snowman.  We rolled and rolled and rolled and she loved it.  She was so excited to see the snowballs getting bigger and bigger.  She pranced around the yard singing "no-man, no-man, no-man".  :)

...and we all know what happened next.

The following day all the snow melted and No-Man's head fell off.  Luckily I saw it first and was able to fix him before she saw her new best friend ohne-a-head.  I quickly stuck his head back on and shoved the carrot back in.  Phew.

...but of course it got warmer and warmer.  Then I started wishing I didn't put No-Man right next to the driveway that we walk up every time we enter the house.   As No-Man kept getting smaller and smaller, Andrea's tears got bigger and bigger.  every. single. time. we walked inside the house.

Now there is no snow left, it's all melted and only a little pile of leaves and twigs are in a pile where No-Man once stood, but every morning Andrea still runs to No-Man's spot ...just in case.  :)

One way tickets!

It's a done deal.

We are moving to back to the States!!!

Happy is smarter than the average boy so he arranged for us to get an all expenses paid trip back home! It's a long drawn out story as to how this all came about so I'll skip it all...  I had wrote a story about how us moving home happened and I personally found my description of the events to be quite tame and amusing  :)  Apparently  even my "nice" wasn't nice... or maybe it's just that some people in the world are so two-faced, deceptive, self-serving, and fake ...and when you really look at their behavior there is just no nice way to describe it.  So I can't say anything at all ...unless you call me.  :)

Despite any drama over the past few months we are happy to be going home.  We have been "gone" for nearly five years and that's a really, really, really long time.  Don't get me wrong, it's been a great past five years.  We've made great friends, we've traveled to amazing places ...but now it's time to go home to our family ...oh, and Fruity Pebbles, Trick-or-Treating, and Chuck E Cheese.  :)

The kids are thrilled....  :)

So knowing that we were headed back to America, we opened up google maps and played einee-meenie-miney-mo with the States.  Not really... but kinda.  :)  I now have a new knowledge of where all 50 states really are ...but I still get Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin mixed up.  :)

Anyways....We had lots of different criteria for the place we wanted to live... and this time we picked a place instead of letting the place pick us.   ...and the winner was .....

**New Hampshire**

Go figure.  :)  I tried really hard for California, even Paul was voting for San Diego, but no matter how we looked at it it just didn't make sense...  :(

But we are happy with NH.  ...and we should be there in just six short weeks!

FYI

My nose hairs froze today on the way to school.

Finally... a Pretty Beech Tree!

I forgot to post pictures of our new dining room table and chairs.  :)  ...and this isn't the best picture, but I found it so here it is!  Made from ugly Beech trees that drop millions of Annoying Seeds...

It looks kinda Danish-y, but it will be our German souvenir because I was assured it was made from German Beech Trees.  :)  ...as if it mattered to me.  :)

Un-birthday!

Andrea is insistent that every day is her birthday.  She sings "Happy Birthday Me, Happy Birthday Me..."  over and over again.  She isn't demanding a cake or presents so I've decided it's just easier to go along with it...  :)

She got her friend Krista in on the action too.  :)  They were just so cute singing, "Happy Birthday Me"!  I gave them each a frosted cupcake and a plate of sprinkles so they could decorate it.  :)  We watched Alice in Wonderland and I tried to explain the concept of an Un-birthday, but they both told me NO and wend on singing to themselves.