Thursday, July 31, 2008

legoization

sabin wanted to try the lego effect on dumpr. you know, she's all about lego and we have ensured that owen and finn are as well!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

world of warcraft

i think i'm slightly concerned. i just helped sabin create a new avatar on world of warcraft. she's been playing for all of 3-4 days and she knows a lot! she knows which ones are close to nature and what powers they all possess.

she has noticed that the girls all have clothes that look really thin and that the boys look really strong.

she's 7.  should i be worried?

Friday, July 25, 2008

clarification

for mom...this is what the lego-ized picture really looks like:

does this look familiar?

i assume this was a rather familiar sight this summer....

since it's all about lego

i had to upgrade and do this lego pic on dumpr.net.  man, i'm totally addicted!

Lovin' the pictures

And I'm lovin' the fun toys available on dumpr.net.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

and now this moment...

the little builder avoids the paparazzi as she selects some wood

removing a nail

arranging it just so

and wacking in a nail with her own hammer that far got for her

quite possibly more than her grandfather is capable of. :-)

at this moment...

here's a shot of what sabin is doing at this very moment (please disregard messy room behind her, it's chaos around here):

i would characterize it as vegging in front of the t.v. because it's hot and you know she doesn't do well in lands that are hot. strangely, her DS is not in her hand, but that's because she's eating a bun with chocolate in it.

to answer your other questions:
in her right hand: the remains of the chocolate bun
in her left hand: nothing
no one has been near her hair with a brush since she got home.
she regularly takes breaks from the DS on her own.
we had no toast, so she got nutella wasa crackers.
her toenails still look good, but we're doing fingernails here shortly.
no braids.
she could probably use that spanking.
she claims never to have chanted.
she ate the chocolatey crust off of an ice cream today and threw out the ice cream itself.

she's actually quite bored and unable to play by herself. we had oliver over yesterday and then had to (rather on an emergency basis because husband forgot) run to anne-marie & michael's for nikolai's birthday party, so there were lots of kids there (see facebook) and that was good. she's been bored out of her mind today because no one was available to play with. she was definitely spoiled by having playmates ready at hand at all times in her cousins owen and finn.

we hear a marked difference in her vocabulary since she got home, it was very good for her.


In Need of Updates

Regarding Sabin:

What's she doing?
What's she got in her right hand? Left hand?
Has anyone brushed her hair lately?
Has anyone made her take a break from her DS?
Did someone make her Nutella toast?
Has anyone filed and painted her toenails?
Braided her hair?
Shouldn't someone spank her until she has a "red hot butt?"
What's she chanting?
Has she had an ice cream cone without the ice cream?

I miss her terribly and want to know everything.

Monday, July 21, 2008

pookalakka has landed

this little girl landed "on time" with a two hour delay (which we knew about, hence my referring to it as on time) and then an hour's wait for the luggage!! karoline and i were lurking in the starbucks window and spotted her coming out together with the attendant. she looked so small in her white summer of fun t-shirt and big red backpack.  here, at first opportunity, she leaped into far's arms.

and here, safely settled back into her room, at her iMac, catching up on all she missed of big and little nerd (that's the name of the shows--store nørd, lille nørd) programs on DR's website.

she says she had an awesome summer and we are very grateful to aunt monica for the opportunity and all of the care and putting up with the whining and general state of chaos and madness and lack of sleep for nearly a month. out of general habit, she has already referred to both of us as "aunt monica" at least five times. :-)  

and the big suitcases of goodies made it safely past the customs officials. they never suspected a 7-year-old traveling unaccompanied would be carrying a small fortune in electronics. heehee.

thank you for a great summer, aunt monica!  see you in a month!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

greenhouse shots

i am so loving this space...it just needs a table now. it smells heavenly thanks to all of the lemon tree blossoms. they're amazing!!!

hope sabin's tomato plant (seen lush and large on the right) is bearing many tomatoes when mom & dad arrive!! it also makes it smell wonderful in there!


tea to darjeeling?

so should one really take coal to newcastle?

or your samovar to tula?

or your lego to denmark...


Saturday, July 19, 2008

You mean this face?


Yeah, I'd feel bad for not blogging the way I'd hoped, but I'm just too darn tired for the guilt to surface...

You have a funny kid. We've shared a lot of good times. I've documented most of our moments in pictures. When you get her back in a couple short days, you'll notice she's nicely tanned and her hair is a little lighter. I can only hope my boys' ability to go hours and hours without a restroom has stretched her tiny bladder just a bit.

Sabin tells me she'd like to come back again next summer. I think it's pretty remarkable that a 7 year old girl can deal with three & a half weeks really far away from Mom and Far without suffering severe home sickness. We've dubbed her "Sensational Cousin Sabin."

Friday, July 18, 2008

not enough sense to come in out of the rain

the work proceeds in full panic mode with T minus five weeks and counting...

a little rain? just cover the drill with a plastic bag.
rafy is so practical.

check out husband's clothes. it's raining more than it shows in this pic.
thank goodness he got a haircut!

rafy's brother pavel continues to measure and cut despite the rain.
it's raining quite a lot more than shows in these pictures!

looking forward to...

seeing this face....

can it really be true that nothing post-worthy has happened in iowa (or omaha) since july 10?

Sunday, July 13, 2008

from sabin's window

the view from sabin's room very early this morning. wish the bird accompaniment showed in the picture.

if that child ever complains about the view from her room, she will be in need of a good spanking...

Friday, July 11, 2008

wordle


i made a wordle of your posting on what you've been doing:


isn't it like so much fun!!!  you can make your own wordle here.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

do you think?

do you think that if a stray cat shows up at your house and you start feeding her on a regular basis (so that she actually meows at the window below your bedroom in the morning when it's breakfast time) and you buy iams and science diet for her and you name her lila and one afternoon, you find her sleeping comfortably in your favorite chair...that she's your cat?

she's a pretty cute tortie with some persian ancestry
but not enough to make her stupid.

Tooth Fairy's Mission Accomplished

There are three golden dollar coins under Sabin's pillow. I had to go peek, because I heard the Tooth Fairy fluttering about out there. She's very tiny, you know, the Tooth Fairy can hardly fly on a windy day, let alone in rain. She's hardly bigger than a butterfly, I understand. She couldn't make it the other night because we were having thunderstorms. Tonight, the weather was perfect. So it's a good thing we stopped at the bank to get some special coins just today. The Tooth Fairy is a thief and she robbed my wallet. I suppose that's how she makes sure she's gifting in the local currency.

Our Day

Here's what the past 3 days have looked like for us (in words):

* Cereal or berries for breakfast
* Nintendo DS
* arguing over Nintendo DS games
* webcam time (not today)
* 10:15 swimming lessons (everyone doing well, learning a lot of good skills)
* Back home
* More Nintendo DS (or Wii)
* Lunch (sandwiches, ramen noodles, melon, berries, milk)
* More Nintendo DS
* 1pm swimming pool (though we learned that after 3pm, the swimming pools become less zoo-like when the daycares take their kids away from the pools on buses. So today, we watched a 1pm movie ~i napped~ and then went to the pool at 3.)
* Sunscreen
* Watch me!
* Warm up on the towel
* More sunscreen
* more watch me!
* pack up and head for home
* shampoo hair at pool shower
* press wet pool butts once again into car seats (does that EVER dry out?)
* head home for cracker/yogurt snacks
* Steve pickup
* I depart for work at radio station
* Kid pickup before bedtime
* One last go at Mario Kart on the Wii
* Brush teeth
* BFG (book)
* to bed at last


Today, we had a play doh project where we put together many snowmen, a container ship and a full set of silverware.

Bugger they don't allow cameras at the swimming pool.

Tomorrow will be similar, but then on Friday we head for Omaha after lunch. There, we'll enjoy the hotel swimming pool and the big zoo. Also planning to enjoy the company once again of Grandma and Grampa as they prepare to meet us halfway and share our hotel room. Am hopeful that Ralph can fall asleep without the television on this time around. :)

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

slag heaps

on the declared premise that a girl looks for a man who reminds her of her dad, husband burned all kinds of nasty stuff in a slag heap this afternoon:

bits of roofing

even screws and a pencil!

it's starting to be a real house!


i shall avoid typing too much and let these pictures of the writing house from yesterday speak for themselves. :-)





Saturday, July 5, 2008

cooking without a kitchen

determined not to eat another kebap or pizza, and inspired by the fact that the weather has been glorious, i've been cooking outside. if i'm going to cook, i have to, because, as we know, i have no kitchen. this evening, we're having this:

foil-wrapped potatoes (diced)
shredded carrots (2, fresh ones that came with their tops on)
shredded zucchini
dollops of organic garlic butter (i bought it like that)
salt & pepper
once the foil was put together on the ends, a glug of white wine for moisture

these little lovelies
lamb marinated in olive oil, garlic and a squeeze of lemon
salt & pepper

all that's left is to bung it on the grill and serve it up with tzaziki

A New Complaint

I tucked your child into bed tonight and left the room. Started to get Owen tucked and realized his allergy meds were in Sabin's room. Went back there. There was one last complaint that needed to come out before I left. Sabin's Nintendo DS thumb is hurting really bad.

Another funny thing happened at fireworks in Platte tonight. It was the 9th inning of the baseball game and we'd just arrived. We parked near center field and walked over to peek. Sabin said, "Bugger we don't have a pickup!" That's the preferred method of fireworks viewing in Platte. I assured her our blankie was just fine and spread it on the ground.

I asked her during the fireworks if it made more sense to watch fireworks in the summer when it's warm outside. She said "No, because when you watch fireworks in winter at New Year's, it's really dark and you can see them much better." Never mind the fog, I guess.

Note to outsiders: Sabin is Danish and the Danes do fireworks on New Years Eve. It's not terribly cold, but usually there's been a lot of alcohol. Then you stumble outside at midnight and shoot off your own fireworks... no organized municipal fireworks, because if you're not 10-12 feet away from where they're being launched, you likely won't even see them for all the fog.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

This Show moves to South Dakota




I should probably blog about our 8 hour drive yesterday. I should tell you about the many zillions of times I was asked if we were there yet. I should tell you about being asked to break the many hours into minutes and then into seconds. But then I'd have to relive all of that. I could tell you about

Though it was 100 degrees here yesterday, it's in the low 70s today and too chilly to go to The River. Instead, we went to the Enterprise, out to Shorty's for lunch and then we went out to Sam's place to see the sheep. This trip ended up with me leaving the Trio for Dan to babysit in a tractor for the rest of the afternoon. He told me they were "would pretty tight." Something about them being put into a big wagon where they threw dirt and rocks at the tractor.

We're fighting mosquitoes and runny noses. Hopefully, we get out of South Dakota with simple hay fever and not West Nile Virus.