Mean Moms :)

Today I read a book at preschool called, "Llama, Llama Mad at Mama" (a very cute book except for one part where the llama has a tantrum and doesn't even get in trouble for it, so I change it a bit) and without thinking, I asked the kids, "What does your mom do that makes you mad?" And then immediately I had this aching feeling like, "uh-oh, this could be bad," but it ended up to be really sweet.

What does your mom do that makes you mad?

Ava: When my mom takes dangerous things right out of my hands.

Maleia: When my mom doesn't let me eat special treats.

Jenny: When my mom snatches my Magic of the Rainbow because I might leave it at people's houses.

Mimi: When she says "no" to candy and tells me to come to dinner right. now.

Steven: When she doesn't let me watch TV all the time.

YOU MEAN MOMS!!

This just reinforced the fact that my kids have stellar moms minus the one who doesn't give her child treats... I mean GEEZ! Poor deprived child. :)

Random 33

33 Random things about Monique:
(I'd like to thank Karen for this idea for a post. I'd rather post it here than on facebook.)

Hoe many of these do you know about me??

1. I miss my motorcycle... dirt bike, if you will. It was white, big, and loud... and my 3 wheeler. (shhh! They are illegal in the states.)
2. A perfect day would mean I was able to wake board and snowboard on the same day... I've never done it, yet. I'd settle for the same weekend.
3. I am cold most of the time.
4. I thrive on a schedule.
5. I now like herbal tea. I am turning European before your eyes, but it has to have LOTS of honey.
6. I have big feet. size ten.
7. My middle name is... oh wait. I don't have one. I would often have my friends guess it, just to hear them think of some and they would NEVER guess it. heh heh heh.
8. I would much rather have a kid kick my child than to have the kid give my child the flu.
9. 77 degrees is what I consider the perfect temperature. Inside and out.
10. I have always tries to cook like I was on a cooking show with the monologue in my head, sometimes even with an English accent.
11. I drink Dr. Pepper when I get a headache... I try to get a headache at least a few times a month.
12. I enjoy baking. Truly. I sometimes catch myself humming or whistling or monologueing. (see #10)
13. I love my family. My whole entire huge extended and in-law and immediate family. All 597 of us. (give or take) Really. There isn't one I don't like. Well, maybe my brothers, but they all married well, so that was nice and makes up for their pestness. :)
14. Hangman is a really fun game.. the first 12 times.
15. I have collected box tops and Campbell's soup labels since I was in Kindergarten. I still do. I also collect Children's literature.
16. I say "turn on" a candle instead of "light" a candle
17. My favorite food is a root named "Jicama."
18. I love to play strategy games, party games, card games, sports, guitar hero, and with my kids. "Work hard, play hard."
19. I really enjoy teaching preschool.
20. My first scrapbook page was when I was 12... I. Was. Hooked.
21. I can't drink pop directly out of a can. It has to be in a clean glass and stirred up so it's not so fizzy. And yes, I say "pop." not soda.
22. I like to see lines in my carpet from the vacuum. It just screams "CLEAN!"
23 I have Clorox wipes and baby wipes strategically places around my home. I think this will continue into old age. They are so darn convenient!
24. My favorite color is brown right now.
25. I lick my fingers when I turn a page, but in a weird way. I actually lightly pinch my tongue with my pointer finger and thumb.
26. I can shuffle and deal cards really fast.
27. I don't like crumbs on the counter and I sweep them with my bare hand like my mom. And I can always remember the sound of her rings scraping on the counter top when I was young shooing them into the sink. What a great sound.
28. I lick and bite my lips when I get nervous.
29. I am a zit hunter and an eyebrow neglector.
30. I have the BEST husband in the world.
31. I have the BEST kids in the world.
32. Some of my Monique-isms include: "um, not so much." "Me too!" "Totally" (in a not-so-California way) "but-ton" (B believes I am an over-articulator) "mount-tain" "kiddo"
33. Things I yell when I am mad: "FOR. THE. LOVE!!!" "You've GOT to be kidding me!" "Oh. Cr-RAP!" (2 syllables)

***I let Maleia type all these numbers for me. 33 is even a random number. :)

Storytime

This picture looks so much like me when I was this age it's unreal. I even had the same teethy smile. :)

The Three Little Pigs as told by Maleia

Once upon a time there were three little pigs and the mom pig told them to go build houses.

The first pig made a house of straw, so the big bad wolf came and said, "Little pig little pig, let me in!" Then the pig said, "No. no. Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin." Then the wolf said, "Then I'll puff and I'll tuff and I'll woah your house in. So the big bad wolf blowed and the house fell down.

Maleia: What is our house made of?
Me: Bricks.
Maleia: Ooooo! You'll see why that is a good thing in a minute.

Then the second pig make his house of sticks. Which was another bad choice because the big bad wolf came and blowed that house right down too.

But the third pig made his house of BRICKS, mommy! Just like us! And that was a good choice because the wolf came and said, "Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!" And the pigs said, "Not by my hair of my chinny chin chin." And the wolf said, "Then I'll puff and I'll tuff and I'll woah your house in." But he couldn't. The End.

Maleia: NOW do you see why it's a good thing our house is made of bricks?
Me: Totally.
Maleia: Are there wolves in Hungary?
Me: I don't think so.
Maleia: Oh. (saddened a little) Now we can't see how much of a right choice it is.

This was her second story that she made up:

One day a little pig knocked on a door and the door opened and it was a Zebra. The Zebra said, "Come in to my house little pig. Do you want a "wowi-pop"? And the pig said, "Sure I do!" So they got a movie and some popcorn and sat on down to watch a movie together. The end.

Yes, Maleia is still in LOVE with pigs. As she was telling me these stories, she was wearing her pig pajamas from little Eliza and tucked into her bed with her stuffed Piglet from Disney World, Widdle Piggy (from her pig party two years ago), and Big Piggy (the big super plush one that oinks when you hug it.)

Thanks Eliza for the super comfy cozy pig jammies!

Wake up daddy!

Birthday Party

We went to a pretty fun place that is in one of the malls here (Mammut.) Haley was invited by a boy in her class to his Birthday party and she was so excited because she has a little crush on this little boy... which is funny because he looks very similar to her crush back home MJ. So cute!

Nicolas and Haley were giggling the whole time I was attempting to take their picture. They were so cute.

We are really blessed to have her in such a stellar school here. At AISB (American International School of Budapest) Haley attends a Music class, Computer class, Swimming class, Culture class, Hungarian class, Art class, and 2 after school activities along with her regular class time Education like Math, Science, and Literacy. Her two after school activities are Ballet and Glass Painting. There is also an assembly every Friday morning for the whole school (Pre-K thru 2nd grade) where they take turns performing in front of the whole school. So she gets to perform at least once a month. Then that afternoon just before leaving for home, they have something called "Big Sing" where the kids come in and the Music Teacher has them singing, dancing, laughing, and moving while he plays the guitar. It's so fun! I bring Maleia and Dylan and they get to participate as well.

She is one of 13 students and she has one teacher and an assistant in the classroom. I LOVE the teacher to kid ratio. Right now we are reading "The Magic Tree House" books (Chapter books) together and we take turns reading. She is learning in leaps and bounds this year! What a girl!

Harmony Rebecca Jane Jacobson!!!

So I have a friend (who I actually don't know her middle name, but those just came out as I was yelling her name in my mind) who tried to put one past us all. She tried to post three posts in a row without us looking and if you don't scroll down far enough, you would totally miss it.
If you know her, go see Harmony.

You sneak.

Love you!

Only in Hungary

I was walking through the store recently and heard
"Girl You Know it's True" by Milli Vanilli
and
"You've Got to Pray Just to Make it Today" by MC Hammer
and
"Hero" by Mariah Carey
and
"California Girls"by The Beach Boys
and
was totally singing along. And not so quietly.
And these were ON. THE. RADIO!!
I hear 80s music everywhere I go here.
In the taxis, in the stores, on TV... they love it!
And so do I.

Another reason to love Hungary. :)

Because then you wouldn't know how much Dylan LOVES balls...

I have a boy who LOVES Balls! Anything round Dylan calls a ball. For example, when we would go to Target and he'd see those big red balls out front, he thought he was at Ball Heaven. What a disappointment to be just at a store. Then we would be going somewhere and he would see a balloon waaaaay in the corner of the store and he would yell, "BALL!!!" until I acknowledged where it was. He will throw anything that is round, including peas at the table, you do NOT eat balls. I have to smash them before he will eat them. We had a pumpkin on our front step and we couldn't keep him from throwing it down the stairs every day. When we have rolls, we have to rip his up or he'll throw them. Today he saw a picture of a ball on the back of our powdered chocolate milk bag and he went crazy until we noticed this teeny soccer ball on the bag. Kix is just a bad idea unless you want a floor covered in the little balls.
(Oh, you know I love it!)

Let's start at the beginning. When Dylan was a few months old, he would sleep as if he were holding a ball in his hand. (BTW, we kicked the thumb sucking habit and changed it into a binky habit. We'll see which habit I prefer when it comes time to say "bye-bye" to the bink.) Ever since he could crawl he would play fetch with himself.

Before we got our stuff here in Hungary, we borrowed this ball and he would not let it out of his sight!

Right when we got our things from the States, I put the balls in his room and this is where we would find him if we couldn't find him. He would crawl up the stairs, into his room, under the changing table, and into the ball bin.

The ball bin then graduated to the play room down stairs. He would take a few out from the bin (just enough to make room for him), throw them across the room, get in the bin, throw the rest out, go out of the bin, retrieve the balls, put them back in and repeat the process.

Back in his "Happy Place!"

This is him saying, "ball" over and over and over and over again.

This time it's a bit crowded. I tried to not get the lid in the picture because on the yellow sticker it has a picture of a baby in a bin with a big circle and a line through it and big letters saying "Not intended for children to play in." The lid is not ON him, so it's okay, right? Notice in every shot I try to make sure that the sticker is covered up... hee hee

We went to a big Russian "Statue Graveyard," so they call it because they took all the Soviet statues out of the city and placed them all together in a guarded area so that people would stop vandalizing them. Hungarians do not like the Russians. There are MANY reasons why. Read up on how Russia used to rule Hungary. Scary stuff!

Dylan found the best statue of all. Two hands holding a big ball. "Ball? Ball! BAAAAAALLLL!!!!" He cried when we left this statue.
Why won't my mean parents let me play with the biggest ball I have ever seen!!! Wah!!

During Christmas this year, he was infatuated with our tree with all the numerous fun-looking balls. He broke this one during our photo shoot and he was thinking,
Why did this ball have this dumb string coming out of it? There. (rip it out) I fixed it!

One day I heard Dylan complaining in the other room as he was trying to put the ball bucket in the little space it usually was, but he couldn't do it because his own body was getting in the way and it was too heavy. He would back in, get in the bucket, and realize he wasn't TOTALLY against the wall, get out try to pull it closer to the wall, get in, notice it STILL wasn't close enough, then repeat the process.

After he got THIS mad, I showed him how to do it. By pushing it. Poor baby.

There. All better. Mommy is helping me instead of taking pictures... hey, wait a minute! Keep helping Mom! Drop the camera! :)

This is my most recent ball picture and I just can't get over those dimples!!
(You can see the yellow sticker (upside-down) a little better in this pic.... dang it. Making me all kinds of guilty for letting my boy play in plastic bins. Okay, not really. But don't call CPS on me!)

For some reason, this is just my favorite ball shot of him... what a cutie! He's not even smiling huge or doing anything spectacular. He even has a little bruise on his left cheek. I just love this shot.

Confession: I get the willies every time I see a play place with balls in it because I think of all the germs and gross things hidden in them. url. When I was around 7ish I remember going to Chuck E Cheese's for a party, going into the huge ball pen, and getting 'slime goo grossness' all over me. I don't know what it was, but it was yellowish and stunk REALLY bad. I gagged and couldn't even look at it while my mom cleaned it off. I have had a dislike for any ball play place ever since. I LOVE it when I see the balls taken out of the Ikea play place here for cleaning. . . I just would like a schedule so I know when they were just cleaned. eulg. So when my kids ask to go in the balls, sometimes I say yes, but when I don't I can just say that we have balls at home to play with. I just can't watch them in them without gagging. Bring on the Purell!

Snow White Ballet

My two girls and I had a wonderful Girls Night Out together at the Opera House in Budapest. We went to go see the Ballet, "Snow White," performed. As always, it was marvelous! Since we have been couped up for the past few weeks, we needed a night out on the town together. They were in awe the entire night and we laughed together, were scared together, (Maleia ducked under her seat a few times when the evil queen came out and I jumped once and nearly scared the girls half to death) and we ate their Hungarian treats at intermission. yummo!

Me and my two adorable girls all decked out for the ballet. Don't ask me who the statue is of. Haley REALLY wanted her in the picture though.

My two girls on the red carpet of the "twisty" stairs leading to our seats.

These two didn't stop smiling until 10 minutes were left when I heard... "How much longer until the prince comes and kisses her, Mom? It's time for her to totally wake up."

We were able to get Box seats and the girls felt so important!

This HAS to be Chris and Jen!!! .
Once again, it was the same Prima Ballerina from "Gone with the Wind" and I swear that she is a clone of my friend Jen.

The whole cast. What a night!

Now guess how much we spent on our 3 BOX SEATS, treats, and Taxi ride there and back??? Seriously we got such a deal!

We paid $8 a ticket, $8 for three drinks and two HUGE pretzles (one covered in cheese and the other in sunflower seeds. tastes better than it sounds) and $10 for the ride there and back!
__________________________________________________________________

	TICKET for 1 person	Hungarian State Opera House Budapest VI., Andrássy út 22.
	Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs	16 January 2009. Friday 18.00
		Price of ticket: 1,700 HUF
	Upper Circle Level Boxes Left 11th Number row 2, seat 1

	TICKET for 1 person	Hungarian State Opera House Budapest VI., Andrássy út 22.
	Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs	16 January 2009. Friday 18.00
		Price of ticket: 1,700 HUF
	Upper Circle Level Boxes Left 11th Number row 2, seat 2

Stop the madness!

Update on the Plague in our home:

Both B and I have a Sinus Infection and are on heavy doses of Antibiotics and Sudafed.

Haley stayed home from school bc her belly is not feeling well. Who knows why. We went to the doctor and she thought it might be just all the junk from her cold in her digestive system... we'll see.

Maleia is puking tonight with a 105 degree fever.

Dylan has an ear infection and is taking Antibiotics as well.

We all have been sick on and off since the 28th of December. . . 3 weeks.
STOP THE MADNESS!

On a lighter note, here is a Quote of the Day from Haley:

First off, last month Haley came home to tell me that we needed to buy a present for a boy in her class that she is friends with a likes. His birthday is at the end of January, so we went to Amazon and bought a transformer game that Haley picked out for him since I knew we would get it on time. She was home sick today, so she was keeping herself busy doing projects and stuff. His present came in the mail, so she asked if she could wrap it. She made a card for him, put it in the envelope, wrapped the card, wrapped the present, then taped the two together. ALL BY HERSELF. This was the conversation we had when I was sitting there watching her do all this in awe. His birthday is not for two more weeks...

Haley: Why do boys like boy stuff and girls like girl stuff?
Me: When I was little, I liked boy stuff.
Haley: You did? Like what?
Me: Transformers, He-Man, GI Joes, and other boy stuff that Uncle Ty and Uncle Marc liked.
Haley: I'm glad I have a sister who likes girl stuff because that would be really boring. Are balls boy stuff or girl stuff?
Me: Both.
Haley: But Football is just for boys, right?
Me: No way!! I played football too. And there are lots of girls that play. (I told her a story about me playing in college with lots of girls.)
Haley: Mom, that's just becuase you didn't have Barbies when you were little.
Me: No. I liked playing football. I just didn't like Barbies.
Haley: sigh. That is so weird, but I love you.
Me: Thanks. I guess. And I love you too.

5 Countries : 4 Days

First off, there are many countries without Natural Gas (no heat) so please pray for them...

So we are back and what pictures do I have to show for seeing 5 countries in 4 days?? Not many, but I will give what I have, then Google the rest...

Hungary: This is where we started and finished obviously. We left the day after Christmas, but here are some pics from Christmas day. Full of relaxation I tell you. We just chilled then went to dinner at a friend's home. Very nice.

The loot. This looks like a lot, but we just have a small tree and I had a happy trigger on Amazon.com with all the boy toys...

Girl toys. blah. :) Haley has been wanting this music player since Nona's house in the Summer. Good 'ole Santa!

Now I have been wanting one of these since I was 5. Yessss! I caught him finally taking his eyes off this thing long enough to take a quick pic. Notice the cars tumbling down. I think I played with this more that Dylan did.

Maleia in her Belle dress up and belle light up shoes from Nana watching a new movie with her eyes all lit up. What a blissful Christmas day. Can't you see it in her eyes?

The trash and finally a somewhat open photo of our home... notice B's Christmas present. Madden!! And another PS2 controller so that he can have another opponent.

That's a better smile from you buddy! After a syrupy delicious morning, (hence the semi-nakedness bc jammies are now sticky-fied) Dylan was pretty proud of himself getting up and down from our chairs all by himself.

Austria: The entire way there we would go around a bend and the kids would yell, "There's another castle!" Seriously! There are so many. We would speculate who might have lived there and decided that it might be too cold and scary to live way up on the mountain top. Good thing.



Italy: We went through miles and miles of vineyards that just looked plain since it was winter. Can you imagine what it would look like in the spring/summer?? I can't wait!

Our final destination was Aviano, Italy where the Air Force Base is. Here are my favorite parts of Aviano:

1. The mountains. They remind me so much of Colorado and I loved just traveling through them. They were wonderful.

2. The commissary. I have heard how AMAZING it is to shop at a real commissary, but I never got to experience it first hand. Holy cow!!!! It is soooo cheap! It was 98% American stuff and I was in heaven. $800 later we left feeling really good about our purchaces. Red Meat (Hungarian meat is gross and we Americans need it I tell you.) Then a few other staples here and there... like cereal, strawberry quick, oatmeal, brown sugar, powdered sugar, etc. I even found a 12 piece China set for my China hutch for $50 at the BX!! The commissary rules. Go military. 3. The bowling alley. We bowled and all three kids LOVED it! Dylan was a little concerned the first time we threw the ball down the alley and he didn't think it was coming back, but when it came out the ball retriever, he yelled and clapped, "Wow!!! BALL! BALL! Wooooah! BALL!" And he was happy just watching the ball go down the alley and back out the retriever clapping and laughing all the while. Then he noticed the other people bowling with different colored balls... he went to investigate a few times. 4. The Hotel What? It's not as cool as I think? It really wasn't, but it was just so nice to be in a different place where you didn't have to worry about cleaning, calling, organizing, etc. We just enjoyed each other and took it easy. What good that did. The day we got home, we were all sick. 2 of us is on Antibiotics still, the two girls still have coughs and nose issues and I have a little of everything.

We watched the laundry...

played ball... look at that lefty!

Good aim Maleia!

Look at that follow through! Wrong leg, but GREAT hand position!

Tackle! Get 'im girls!

My thoughts exactly. Love those cars!!

Do I find it sad that we took more pictures in our hotel room that outdoors? Nope.

This was my ideal Christmas. Cuddling with Dylan, playing ball with my family, being together, what more could a girl want? (Besides an Eliptical, but don't let B know. It's sort of a touchy subject right now...)

5. The play ground in the back of our hotel. We frequented this often. We DO have a playground in our backyard in Hungary, but this one was HUGE. The military sure does cater to kids.

Haley could really sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" and mean it! It is so not cool to zip your coat up all the way BTW.


If that hat came in my size I would totally get it. Go H&M. It is so warm.

And who can resist this little fella? No, not dada, say, MAMA...

My little man. Look at those boots. Poor guy. He had such a hard time walking in those things! Sorry to say it was so funny!
(I am a sucker for the AFHV -America's Funniest Home Videos- where people are always falling.)

SEE!? lol. Poor guy! He would just keep saying, "uh-oh!" lol. I had to wipe a tear I was laughing so hard. Oh, it was that funny. He was smiling too when he knew he had an audience. I'm not that mean! :) He never got hurt. promise! And I picked him right back up... after a picture of course.

Slovenia: We went home a different way so we could see more of Europe and as we drove through Slovania, we noticed that in every little town, there was a big church in the middle of it. They were all different and just so quaint.



Croatia: We were only in Croatia for an hour, so there wasn't much to see, but it looked rather similar to Slovenia and it was getting dark by the time we got there, so no pics, sorry. This one is on the list to go to because we hear the beach is AWESOME. Here is something to look forward to.


All in all it was a great trip. 9 hours there and 7 hours back. Guess who drove back?? :) Okay so the way back was a little shorter and there wasn't any McDonald's, so we didn't stop, but still. We didn't get out and walk around much, but we saw a bunch from the car. Since it was in the 10s and 20s Feirenheight and we knew we would be back in the Spring when it was warmer, we postponed our trip to Venice and the neighboring cities until it got warmer.

In addition: Dylan goes around saying, "Thank thee" instead of "Thank you" because at almost every prayer I try to get my kiddos to say "thank thee" more than "bless us," so when Dylan "says" a prayer he folds his arms, bows his head and goes, "Thank thee, hepus (help us), aye-men!" Perfect. I couldn't have said it better than that. :)

**So the pictures that have a lot of green in them I obviously did not take since it is Winter time, but I found all the castles except one that we saw on the way. Also, we couldn't post ALL the churches that we saw since there were so many, so I picked only a few.

Okay, this was our only halfway descent shot of the driving part of our adventure... I had three to choose from. It was a tad chilly, but a wonderful trip. In the end, our girls said, "Mom. That was a long way. It was 4 movies there and 3 movies back!" I caught myself more than once saying, "Two movies left until we get there!... Only a movie more left until we reach the border!... Only a half of a movie left until we can get out of the car! etc." The kids understand that better than time. :)
We are going back in the Spring. Anyone game?