Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Birthday Gift


A couple of weeks before son's birthday, daughter started looking for a birthday gift for him. She had some great ideas but, unfortunately, not enough money to buy them. Again, I told her she could just draw a nice picture, he surely would like that. But she thought he deserved something bigger.

Son is a fan of the local soccer team. The team is a mediocre team in the European soccer world but once every blue moon they have a miracle season and win the championship or some other big titel. The soccer players of the team are a fairly big deal here. Not like Beckham or Ronaldinho but enough to where everybody knows them.

Daughter, in her search for the perfect birthday gift, had an idea. Somehow she must have found out that one of those soccer players lives in our neighborhood. She must have went to his house and rang the door bell. When the poor guy actually answered the door she asked him for an autograph for her brother. The very patient soccer player gave her a pile of autographed cards.

"You can't just ring the door bell of people you don't know!" I told her. "I can't believe you did that!" Then I turned the cards to read the guy's biography. He is married and has 3 kids. I guess with 3 kids you understand all kinds of crazy behaviour.   


Daughter was so excited about her achievement, that she gave her brother the autographed cards right then and there. And then she kept on looking for the perfect gift.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Ballett Recital




Daughter as seaweed. Very, very elegant and graceful arm movements. 

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Good Days and Bad Days


I had a bad day. Not just your usual, harmless bad day but a horrible day. It was one of those days that no matter what I did, or didn't do, nothing went smoothly. Thankfully, those days are very, very rare; I don't think I could take many of them.

It all started in the morning, little things that went wrong. A conversation I didn't want to have. Right then, I should have went home and gone back to bed but there was shopping to do, ballett and karate classes I had to bring the kids to. So, I kept on going and this is what I had achieved by 6pm:   





By 7pm I had realized that I had also lost my wedding band in between getting xrays at the hospital and going home.
Horrible day.

Looking back now, there are a few things that did go right in all this mess. Daughter and Son are fine. They were a bit shocked - an airbag in your face will do that to you - but otherwise they are ok. The other driver is ok even though her car is not. 
The police officers and ambulance drivers were incredibly nice and understanding. Daughter was even able to ride upfront in the ambulance, pushing bottons when needed.
And husband, my very, very patient husband, who came, saw and fixed everything that could be fixed.

The next morning I woke up to a normal day. I even found my wedding band again.
  

Monday, March 23, 2009

Birthday Boy!!!




Very, very early in the morning, birthday boy got woken up by our lovely singing...




For some reason his sister is always very, very interested in his gifts. Sometimes we have to stop her from "trying to help him unwrap"... 


Breakfast at Oma's. My two favorite guys.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

To Lisa and Justin in NY




Daughter was born in NY State. A fact that she is very, very proud of. Because, as everybody knows, NY is cool. And so is daughter.

Imagine her excitment when a package from Lisa and Justin arrived, all the way from NY. Imagine her face when she saw this t-shirt. Imagine my face when she wanted to wear it to school in the freezing cold. 
Of course, while I was all busy talking her out of it, her brother sneaked out of the house to school wearing HIS "I love NY" t-shirt. Because, even if you weren't born there, it doesn't get cooler than NY.   

Snow?


The weather forecast is predicting snow. 
Again. Spring is still not really happening. Starting to think, that winter might just turn into winter again I am trying to immerse myself in as much color as possible.



I even made husband have breakfast with me at my new favorite place.
Patiently, he didn't complain that they don't serve scrambled eggs or anything hearty, really. And he refrained from rolling his eyes at the light blue walls and the pink cushions. 



I am thinking about quitting my job and starting work there.
In the meantime, if anyone else wants to have tea at "Bitter Sweet", give me a call, I will happily go there with you!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Breakfast with Fairy Godmother


Spring is getting here very slowly...

So, Fairy Godmother and I decided to perk things up a bit.
Breakfast at "Bitter Sweet", "my" coffee/tea shop if I owned one...
  





We felt very pink and light blue and happy after spending our morning there...

Monday, March 16, 2009

11pm, last night


Daughter and Pig fast asleep.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

P!NK


Most of the time I can't make it to the concerts. I am either working or it's a school night and the kids have to get up early the next morning but last night everything fell into place and I got to go with husband to the P!NK concert.     






I had no idea she is such a great performer. She was very, very impressive.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Early Saturday Morning


If you get out of bed early enough on a Saturday morning the world is all yours. No cars, no joggers, no noise.
You have to get breakfast at the bakery around the corner that has opened at 5am and smells of fresh baked rolls. Get some coffee and danishes and some old bread for the ducks.  

The weather is getting milder. I believe winter is finally over. 
 


And no, this is not a robot duck like husband and son tried to convince us of... 

it is a princess duck...


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A Dog for Life by L.S. Matthews

Son has to give a book report in front of his class. After deciding on the book "A Dog for Life" by L.S. Matthews we spent hours on the computer do some research. The book is about two brothers and their dog. When one of the boys gets very ill, their mother decides that "Mouse", the dog, needs to go to an animal shelter. Typical adult, she doesn't understand that her son NEEDS his dog to regain his health. The younger brother, John runs off with Mouse, trying to bring her half across England to his uncle, whom he has never really met. Knowing only the name of the village they have to reach and without much money, John and Mouse try to reach safety and thus save the sick brother at home. 
It is a great story, well written and of course, very fascinating for little, adventurous boys.
 
Son and I were trying to figure out the route John took but couldn't find any of the towns descibed in the book, however we stumbled upon the author's email address and son decided to write her an email. 
 
Two minutes after mailing it he went to check his email account for an answer. And five minutes after that he checked again. And again. After the fifth time I told him to stop it. Being very realistic I told him, that most adults, and authors in general, are very busy people and they normally don't reply to children. If they do, it will be a very short, polite answer with a reference to an interview they gave a few years back. And it will take some time. Like a month or so.

Son looked at me disapprovingly and said: "Fine. I will check my email account just one more time."

And there it was. The reply by the author. A very, very personal and lenghy one. One that answered all his questions. In detail. One that gave him advice. One that put a huge grin on his face. 

Monday, March 9, 2009

Husband and Rob Halford, the Metal God ~~ Judas Priest


Husband at the Judas Priest, Megadeth and Testament Concert...











Husband and Rob Halford. Concerts and guitars, loud, loud music. Husband had a blast. 
I don't think he will mind doing the dishes today. And the laundry. And dinner.