Evening at the park

We have a house

We are all very excited about moving out of this apartment next week. Sounds like Thursday will be the day we get the keys. And our furniture will be here by that time as well. Looking at houses was fun but I'm glad it's over. I'm excited to cook with my own pans and use my own dishes (without cracks and chips) and having more than 3 glasses to drink from is going to be great! I appreciate that we had a roof over our heads the past month and I don't mean to whine constantly about everything that's wrong with this place. The girls will finally be in school and I'll have the house to myself during the day (Emma too). Things are really falling into place. We went out for dinner last night to celebrate. We were going to go Italian but we came upon a Chinese restaurant and ate there instead. It was fantastic! Then, we topped it off with some tiramisu from a small Italian deli just around the corner. One thing I will miss about being in the city is all the fantastic little shops and eateries. The town of Græsted is very quaint and lovely. The main street has 2 "major" grocery stores and a little pizzeria and various other shops. The girls will be able to walk or bike to school. The town is small and situated conveniently among rolling hills and wooded areas. Plenty of horses around so Hanna is thrilled at the prospect of riding lessons. Anyway, that's all for now. Our address will be:
Skovhusvej 35, 3230 Græsted, Denmark

Motherhood

I LOVE my girls and I really enjoy my job as a full time mom, but these days I could reeeeeeeeeeally use a drop in day care. Save 1 day, I've been with the girls every hour of every day since we left and Mama Bear is in need of a break. I'm starting to want a house for different reasons now. School!! The girls can't start until we find a house so we know the location of the school they would attend. Furthermore, we don't have our CPR numbers yet which, I'm told, is a necessity for attending school. You would think it would be easy, that they would just play toys. But fighting is more fun. I'm not a mom, I'm a mediator. And the arguments can be SO STUPID. Who argues over who's Olympic pick is prettier? Or, who farts more? And my all-time favorite, if crack spackle and wing-dang-doodle are swear words. Sometimes it's entertaining just listening to them and their reasoning when it comes to backing up their opinions. Until the screaming outbursts that is. And no one is better than the champion of the world.....Emma. She could be eating breakfast in a certain chair and come lunch time, if you sit in this same chair, eardrums are tested. Or simply being an arm's length away from her is dangerous at times. From out of the blue, for no reason at all, or just to be mean, comes "the slap". I'm still trying to figure out if it's voluntary or involuntary, like a tic, because it has such a robotic quality to it. Here's what I imagine her brain is saying to her body:[Standing...standing...observing...sensing living being approaching...feeling threatened...attackmode...commensing attack...ATTACK...ATTACK...
ATTACK...end attack...look cute as though nothing happened...give evil eye as warning to intruder of personal space that they will get a double dose if they don't back off!...cry if scolded]. Not that she doesn't have a loving side. She does indeed love to snuggle up to you and hog the entire bed (pillow included) when she awakens in the night to discover "I'm not in my bed, what is the meaning of this", gets up and crawls into our bed.

Octopus

Build-A-Bear

Saturday = FUN!

We spent the first part of Saturday in Charlottenlund (a great town with a great name, in my opinion) where we did a little beach combing and sight seeing. We saw a lot of interesting things in the aquarium there. My favorites were the octopus and the sea horses. Also a little fellow that looked a bit like Slurms McKenzie (for you Futurama fans). Then we headed on over to Tivoli, Copenhagen's amusement park. We bought season passes so we need to go there as much as we can to get our moneys worth. Nobody seems to complain about that! I got to ride some fun rides with Hanna. There are still a few we haven't gone on yet that I would love to ride but Hanna is a tad too short for them yet. Anyone care to join me??? It was a long day but it was super fun. And, to top it off, we went to build-a-bear workshop and all three girls came home with a new pet. This was their reward for being good ALL DAY. I told them at the start of the day if they could behave themselves all day we would go to build-a-bear and I swear I've never seen them try SO HARD to be nice. It was amazing. It could be an expensive process teaching them good manners!!

Our air freight arrived yesterday. I felt so sorry for the poor guy that had to carry it all up all those stairs!! I almost felt obligated to help him but I felt too stupid to ask if he wanted help. But, the girls have lots of toys to play with now. They've been so busy I've hardly seen them. Except for when I have to mediate the arguments over who's toy is who's and trading fairly, etc.. We've got our computer set up so I can surf the net ALL DAY if I want. HAHA...I won't though. I'm excited for tomorrow because I'll be looking at about 12 or so houses that we think fit our needs. Andreas is staying home with the kids so it's just me to get the pleasure of house hunting. I just hope it doesn't rain. It's been doing a lot of that since we arrived. At least we aren't sweating it out like we were the first few days. Very grateful of that. I've rearranged the apartment to make it more livable. The table that was in the kitchen is now in the living room and even though that sounds odd, it works. Now we all can eat together at one table and the kitchen seems much bigger. I made more counter space by moving the microwave and dishwasher too. Mamma is much happier now. Last night I realized my cooking potential when I whipped up a pork chop dinner with creamy sauce and I didn't even have soup or flour to work with. Want to know my secret? Cheese, glorious cheese, marvelous cheese............

Cut the cheese

I'm not sure if anyone besides my husband is aware but I have a dangerous obsession, a second love, a passion so deep it's hard to hide. Yes, it's true and I'm not proud of myself. But now I'm owning it, I'm admitting to it. I love cheese. CHEESE, marvelous CHEESE, fabulous CHEESE, glorious CHEESE!!! And, I'm in like the cheese capital of the world. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the cheese isle in a Danish grocery store. I have fallen to my knees before the mountains of Muenster, the bounty of Blue, the goodness of Gouda. Was that cheesey? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA......I think I'm crazy. CRAZY ABOUT CHEESE! And, not only can you buy all this fabulous cheese at the grocery store but you can also pair it with a nice bottle of WINE. (at the grocery store........so cool) In fact, at the moment, I'm enjoying a nice Rioja with some gouda. Not exactly super fabulous but luxurious none the less.

So, we are in Denmark. Actually living here. Yep. And our apartment is....well....lets just say I'm not a big fan. Big wouldn't fit anywhere in the description. First of all, to get into our apartment you need to climb 8 flights of stairs (great for those buns and thighs, or at least that's what I've been telling myself), not to mention carrying up Emma and/or groceries. Ok, there's no air conditioning either. Yep, we're off to a good start. Tried to do the laundry. A load (which is about 1/3 of the size of an American load) takes an hour and a half to wash (no lie). The washers only have one hose, a cold water hose, so the water needs to heat up to the desired temp once it's inside the drum. Fun! That's not the best part. The washer was ALL MOLDY! Our dishwasher sits on top of the counter and fits about 4 plates a couple cups and some silverware. Easier just to wash them by hand. I'll give you a picture of our kitchen (which holds our washer, dryer, and table) that Andreas can spread out his arms in and touch both walls. Did I say fun?? We have no back yard which is really hard to get used to after owning a home with a yard. Venturing out to the store is interesting. I've only done it once without Andreas because I'm always afraid I'm going to buy more than I have cash for. We pretty much have to walk to the store every day for food since our fridge doesn't hold much. Ok, enough whinning, it's only temporary, right? I guess our furniture is to arrive on the 17th already!! That was the best news I've heard cuz that means it's time to find a house. And I'm so excited to get out of the city. Because it's a little crowded in a city with 1.5 million people. A fourth of Denmark's population is right here, baby! And yes, I actually miss Fargo. I miss my family, my house, my yard, my washing machine, my ice dispenser, my DEBIT CARD!!! I want to rent a movie but I can't do that until I get a CPR number, which is like a SSN. That's right, I can't rent a movie, or check out a library book for that matter, without one. Sigh....I miss America. I guess I am getting used to walking everywhere (usually with one child on my back) and taking the Metro. I hear it can take a couple months for culture shock to set in. Great! Can't wait for that!