Saturday, July 26, 2008

Moving...

Just a quick note.
We are moving August 1 and will be without internet access till at least the 8th of August. Our home phone number should be the same, but in case something goes haywire with the transfer of the number, we can be reached at our mobile phones.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Questions....

Okay, let's play a little jeopardy:
Here is the clue:
This was the reason Leland used the vacuum cleaner on the roof of the house.
(i am making it multiple choice)
What is...
a) The roof was just dirty and he was in a cleany mood
b) He wanted to scare the cat that was on the roof making a lot of noise
c) He used it to suck up the water from the gutter
d) he used it to suck up the umbrella that Stoney had dropped in the gutter while 'fishing'.

And the correct answer is .... d (allthough I must say that b is not all that unlikely)
The boys have great fun with the skylight in our attic. On this day they had taken their umbrellas upstairs, hung them out of the sky light dangling on their cords and of course Stoney's umbrella got hooked behind something and didn't make it back up. So Stoney comes back downstairs and tells Leland that he went fishing and lost his umbrella.
Leland tried to reach out over the roof, but couldn't get the umbrella. He tried hooking it on to something, but still couldn't get it. Finally he got the ingenious idea to use the vacuum cleaner. He hung the vacuum hose out of the sky light and abracadabra ... Back up came the umbrella.

An couple of days earlier the boys had also played with the sky light and -unbeknown to us - opened it up all the way and then left it that way. Then a huge rain storm came over and next thing you know, a puddle the size of lake superior on our bed. (our beds are right under the skylight)


Other questions
These are all question Stoney has, that usually seem to be in need of an immediate answer right at bed time:
  • "Do Daddy kangaroos have a pouch and if yes, why?"
  • "Do sharks eat Octopusses?"
  • "What happens when snow hits fire? What if it is a lot of fire and just a little bit of snow? "What if it is the other way around?"
  • "What happens when water hits the sun?"
  • "If ham is meat from a pig, how do they get the blood out?"
  • "What happens when paper gets wet? what about plastic? what about metal? what about rubber?"
  • "How does a caterpillar know how to build a cocoon?"
  • "What happens when lightning hits water?"
  • "Why does Santa not get dirty when he goes down the chimney?
And on and on....

Then there are Stoney's other questions in the category "I don't know". Meaning, that that is the only answer i can give to the question.
"Why is the bus late?" (I don't know)
"Why has the train conductor not come yet?" (I don't know)
"If we are not stopping for a train station, then why is the train slowing down?" (I don't know)
"Why is that car going faster then the train?" (I don't know)
"Why does that cloud have a silly shape?" (I don't know)
"Why is that man riding his bike so fast?" (I don't know)
"Why didn't they make a bus station closer by?" ( i don't know)
And on and on... Like Niagara falls, going on and on.
At least in the first category, i could look up the answers in an encyclopedia or the internet or something if I wanted too.
Monty got a "big-boy-bike" for his birthday and this weekend he finally rid it. He was a littel afraid of it because it is so much higher then his trike. But now he likes it.
Here is the first pictures:


Monday, July 7, 2008

Leland Graduated!!

In the category ‘weird’ :

  • I finally have ten nails on ten fingers again. Long story, I got an infection under one of my nails several months ago and it fell off. Well, it finally grew back.
  • Most absurd find in the fridge: A live caterpillar crawling on the inside of the door.

THE BIG NEWS

As many of you may know by now, Leland passed all his exams and is now the proud owner of a master’s degree in European politics. (He will not get the actual paper diploma till march or so - but that is an entirely different story)

As to the question if he would recommend anyone else to take classes here he would say that when studying a topic like he did, it’s definitely worth it. You wouldn’t be able to study the European Union in the depth that he has studied it here, back in the US.

By the same token though, the classes here have turned out much harder and more intense than any of the master’s classes he had previously taken at George Mason. Add to that the professors here are not very predictable. They say they want you to use your own brain, but then grade you down when you disagree with their personal opinion.

But one way or the other, thoughts about hiring a hitman for certain professors aside, he passed!!! Yeah! Now the job hunt is getting started. (well, it already started, but now it is getting up to speed in earnest.)


Meanwhile....
The boys have their summer break which covers the months July and August. Since we are moving and stuff, we are not planning on going anywhere. Because I have to work most of the summer (which I hate, by the way) and Leland will go crazy if he is home with the boys for two months straight, we enrolled them in a summer day camp. The kids have been three days last week and really liked it. We love this summer camp thing. They are really focused on different age groups and have very fun activities. Plus, it is an absolute steal. They get snacks included in the price and have a bus pick them up at the end of our street and drop them off at the end of the day. All for 3.50 a day(euros of course).

I was kind of nervous about sending the kids there, but it turns out that several of their school friends go there as well and we are happy they have a good time.

In a couple of weeks they will go stay with Oma and Opa for a couple of days, which will give them a nice little get-away too

This weekend they stayed with some friends from church who have three boys about the same age and it went really well. Monty didn’t pee or poop in his pants and didn’t wake up screaming for mommy in the middle of the night. Very good. If he had done any of those things, the people probably would have said: "we’re not having this kid over again." But now they may actually be invited for a sleepover again some time.

Here are some pictures from the boys' "end of the year" school party. The kindergartners did a dance, (even if the pictures look somewhat stationary.)