Since we took the girls skating in December they have been asking to go again. Things kept coming up and we never had the chance to go skating again. Jason's mom bought skates for the girls and researched the area skating rinks. We quickly set off for the ice rink in Fryeburg. We all had fun and we were the only ones there so we didn't need to worry about the girls getting bumped by anyone. Ali really enjoyed trying to spin.
After visiting with Jason's dad we headed off to his mom's house which is still in Maine but a two hour drive from his Dad's. It was nice to arrive and know that we would be staying put for the next week and a half. The girls were excited to have all the snow. While I went into town to do a little shopping, Jason and the girls got busy building a snowman . . err . . . snowlady. She was very attractive with her big eyelashes and beautiful hair! I made sure to take a bunch of pictures.
We stayed an extra day in RI with my family since the news was calling for a big snowstorm the day we were going to drive up. We didn't want the 5 hour drive to be any longer than necessary. I'm glad we waited since they got about 2 feet of snow! We had a nice visit with Jason's dad and step-mom. They have three cats which the girls loved playing with. One cat stayed hidden under a bed for most of the time we were
there but the girls kept checking on it. One cat would come darting in and out of the room and the
girls would look around the house to find it. The other cat loved attention and let the girls pet it and brush her. Luckily the cats do not have front claws since Sofia, who is use to Watson, got a little to in the cat's face and the cat whacked her upside the head. Sofia was stunned and cried a little bit and we comforted her accordingly but it was still pretty funny since she wasn't actually hurt. We had planned to build a snowman while there but the air had dried the snow to the point that it just wasn't possible. The girls still had fun climbing the massive piles of snow. It was such a nice visit and it was good to see Jason's dad in good health.
Today we had a birthday party for Michael and Sofia since their birthdays are only two weeks apart. The kids had a great time. They helped decorate the house with streamers and balloons and did a nice job. The party gave the cousins more time to play together and I even managed to make dog and sword balloons for their enjoyment. It was also nice for me to see my aunts and uncles and cousins as well. At the end I even managed to get a family photo!
One of the nice things about visiting it that the girls get to spend time with their cousins. It is fun to watch them play together since they have such different interests. Michael likes trucks...fire, police, garbage, recycling etc and any kind 
of building items...drills, saws etc and my girls like dolls and pretending to be mermaids and princesses. They combined things nicely though. They have spent some time with their cousin Nathan as well. Nathan is younger (two) so can't quite keep the same speed as the "older" kids but he held his own quite well. They all seemed to like running around the house together which surprisingly only led to a few bumped heads. Overall there has been a lot of running and laughter.
Since we can't spend the holidays together now my parents hold Thanksgiving and Christmas until we visit. As I mentioned before my mom made a big turkey dinner for us but my parents also held all the christmas presents as well. The girls had a lot of fun tearing open all the packages to see what my parents and Santa had given them. As the girls kept opening presents my mom kept assuring me it was a lot of packaging and that they should all break down small to fit in the luggage. I had to question her sense of "small" when Ali opened a doll in a hard plastic baby carrier! Luckily we have a lot of duffle bags. :)
On Wednesday we decided to visit with my Aunt Carlene. I have such wonderful childhood memories of spending time with her. She always made it fun for us when we visited with her and we ALWAYS had fun when we were allowed to sleepover at her house. She has always been into crafts and has made us things my whole life from Christmas ornaments to clothing. She has never missed a birthday and a card arrives no matter where I am living. She is always there for us and it thrills me to see her with my children and my 
nephews because I know that my childhood memories were accurate. She is just as warm and loving with them as she was with us. She never misses my girls birthdays and makes them things from hand. Bringing the girls to her house on Wednesday just reminded me of all the joy I felt with her as a child. We arrived to a happy and excited welcome. We went down to the basement (finished) where it was of course a child's dream. There was a large train set up as well as an easel with paints and markers. The girls had so much fun playing there and had the added bonus of playing with their cousin Michael who spends every Wednesday with Carlene.
After a long but pretty uneventful flight we made it to the States. The girls have been having fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa as well as their cousins. Jason and I have done a bit of shopping already. We went to Walmart and Stop & Shop
and the selection is amazing. I forgot how many options there were in the stores. It also surprises me every time someone in a shop says something to me in English. It has been fun shopping though! We just bought Ali her booster seat since she is finally big enough to move into it. Her timing was good though since it is much cheaper to buy a booster seat here than it is in Prague. On Sunday my brothers came to visit with their families and my mom made a big turkey dinner. It was fun to have Thanksgiving in February. Yesterday Jason and I took the girls up to NH to visit with our friends. It is just over 2 hours to drive to our friend's house but well worth the trip. The girls had fun playing with Reagan and Gracie and Jason and I had a great time with our friends, Melissa & Mike. We got home late and the kids went right to bed and actually slept until 6am rather than the 4am they have been sleeping to since we arrived.
I have spent the day packing...running clothes, skiing clothes, regular clothes, appropriate footwear etc. I have also added a few empty duffles to ensure we can fit everything we buy to bring back with us. The upside is that if we forget something we can always buy it! No worries about finding a particular product in the States. I am excited to head home and see everyone. I'm also excited about simple items like bakery pizza and dunkin donuts. It will be a long day tomorrow but it will all be worth once we get to Boston. I will try to blog during our time in the States but I make no gaurentees. I plan on being busy visiting, shopping, skiing and eating!
I'm happy to report Ali is fine and is only vitamin deficient. She is deficient in Vitamin A & D which is apparently very common here in the Czech Republic. Being from the U.S. we don't think much about those vitamins since there is plenty of sunshine and everything is fortified...bread, milk, cereal, flour etc etc. Here we have seen the sun maybe 5 times since fall came around and nothing is fortified. Another aspect of living in a different country that we are now able to deal with. We now have vitamins to give Ali twice a week. I wasn't sure if she would be able to take them since they are gelcaps but she took the first one just fine. When we arrive in the US we will make sure she has all the fortified products we can get...milk, juice etc and we will also stock up on childrens vitamins. We will also make sure the Sofia starts taking vitamins every day so that we don't face the same problem with her.
On Friday night Jason and I went to an engagement party for our friends Ondra and Lauren. It is fun to see people just starting their lives together. I had to laugh at myself when I thought, "aren't they a little young to get married?" since Jason and I were the same age when we got married. We are very happy for them and they are both so kind we wish them the best.
On Saturday morning, I headed out to a baby shower. Our friends, Chris and Laura, are expecting their second baby boy. We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet the new addition to their family. The shower was a great morning with friends. All the gifts were so cute. (Not cute enough for me to have another though!) I bought the baby swim trunks and swim diapers. I figured he needs to be ready to join our pool crew this summer!
Today we are off to visit some friends who live just out of town. Their place is easy to get to though since the train goes right to their village. Our life has been so hectic that we haven't seen each other in a little while so it will be nice to visit. It will probably be our last chance to see each other until April since when we come back to Prague from the States our friends will be going to the States for a month. After our visit there we will head back for Church. Our Church is moving to a new space this week. The space is bigger and nicer as well as being right around the corner from our apartment which is great! No more schlepping across town on Sunday evenings. We can have the kids home after church in minutes.
This year has seen us visiting a lot of doctors. The trend is continuing. As I mentioned before we have been bringing Sofia to an ENT for her ears. We had the blood and allergy tests completed and I spoke with the immunologist today to get the results. All of Sofia's test came back fine so I will be scheduling another appointment with the ENT after we get back from our trip to the States. Ali has complained on and off again about her knee pain which we first really noticed at the time she had the allergic reaction to Augmentin. We wrote the pain off as part of the allergic reaction but lately the pain has really started to bother Ali. I brought her in to the doctor last week to have it checked. The doctor looked at her knee, took xrays and blood. We went back yesterday for the results. The blood tests all came back fine but the xray showed something on the bone. The doctor said it is not cancer but it needs to be checked b/c apparently where it is is also where her bone is growing. It is a little worrisome but I'm trying not to stress over it. We are going to see an orthopedist on Tuesday so hopefully he will shed more light on the problem.
January 26th was Chinese New Year. This is not an event we have celebrated or have particularly thought about in the past but this year Sofia had a chance to learn more about it. It is another benefit of having the girls in an international school. They get to learn about traditions from all over the world. Her friend James is British/Korean and his mom brought a little of her culture into the class room. She brought some of the traditional Korean clothes that children wear in Korea for the New Year celebrations as well as typical Korean food. The clothes are so fun and colorful and the kids really enjoying trying them on.
Before Christmas I had asked our landlords if their "guy" could come over and install a curtain rod in the kitchen so that I could hang curtains for the patios doors. Marie, our landlord, came over to show me that we already have a curtain rod in place. I told her I was aware of the curtain rod but the curtains that I bought don't work with that style curtain holder. She told me that I could just sew on something or other and I looked at her blankly and asked where I could have that done. She told me we could do it together! I was surprised and grateful for her help. We finally were able to get together this week when she came by with the furnace guy. She told me she would just take the curtain and do it for me. She had the curtain ready and ironed the next day! She came over with a ladder and Jason hung the curtains. I'm very happy with how the curtains look but I'm doubly happy and grateful that we have such nice landlords.
Jason took an unexpected day off on Friday. He has been so busy with work and this month has seen a lot of illness in our house that we haven't had a lot of time to just relax together so he decided to take a much needed day off. We brought the kids to school and then headed into town. We relaxed for a little bit at Starbucks, did a bit of shopping, had lunch, and then decided to go to a movie. We went and saw Yes Man. It was a very funny movie. The movie ended at the perfect time and we headed off to get the kids from school. They were surprised to see both of us at pick up time. We played charades on the way home which the kids love since I introduced it to them a couple weeks ago. WE played with the kids for a little bit until Iva arrived and then we headed out for dinner. We finally remembered to make reservations at Cafe de Paris which our friends Kurt and Sara told us about before they left Prague (thanks guys!). The restaurant is very small and the food was delicious. The steak was cooked perfectly and the desert was incredible. I love creme brulee but most places serve it cold and I really like it warm. I was thrilled when I took my first bite and it was warm. Next time we go I'm ordering the larger portion of creme brulee!
I have been struggling with my running lately. My feet have been hurting a lot and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I realized that it was my new sneakers. They must be too narrow for me and are cramping my entire foot which leads me to compensate throwing off my stride and making my thighs really sore. Over the weekend I decided to throw in the towel with my new running shoes (I had been fighting it since they weren't cheap). On Saturday I did a short 5 mile run with my old nikes and it felt so much better. I realized then that the asics (my new shoes) aren't wide enough to let my fore foot and toes really flatten/stretch out. Today was my real test though since I ran 11 miles with my old nikes. My pace was faster, my thighs didn't burn/hurt and the pain in my feet is a lot better. I had no idea a running shoe could make soooo much difference. I will definitely be visiting Marathon Sports when we go back to the States in a couple of weeks to buy a couple pairs of running shoes that fit my feet properly!
Saturday night was Burns Night. The Scottish contingent at the girls school holds a Burns night supper every year. For those of you not familiar with Robert Burns you can read about him HERE. We went last year and had such a great time. I have been looking forward to this since we walked out the door last year. 
Last year I had no idea w
hat we were getting into and I wore a strapless dress. A strapless dress is not ideal for the vigorous Scottish dancing so this year I bought a halter dress and low heeled shoes. I also told our babysitter to not expect us until close to 3am since last year we didn't realize how late it would go and had to leave early. I was ready to go! This year the dinner was in a new location which was newly renovated and beautiful. As you arrived the bagpipes started to play which sounded lovely. It was so nice to have a night out with friends in such a fun atmosphere. It is fun to see all our Scottish friends in their kilts and all the ladies dressed up. We won the raffle again this year for a bottle of whiskey which I have put on the shelf behind the one we won last year. It was a lot of fun (even though I did have one klutzy moment) and I'm looking forward to having fun again next year on Burns Night! Here are a few pictures from the night.
As you all know my 2009 has started a little, shall we say, bumpy. Things are looking up but we had a minor stutter this past week, hence my lack of blog posts. We lost our internet connection for 4 days. Granted this was my fault since the bill was late but the bill has been a little late before and they never stopped our service. Our neighbors service was also stopped for late payment so I guess the internet company is getting a little touchy if your payment is a tiny bit late. Being without the internet is quite difficult. On top of the annoyance of not being able to just look something up I also had no skype. My skype rings out to my mobile phone if I don't pick it up so normally losing internet service wouldn't be a problem but this time it was b/c I ran out of skype credit (which is needed to send the calls to my mobile) and since I had no internet I couldn't add any credit to my skype account. To continue with my stumbling of 2009, we came home yesterday evening and had no water. Fortunately there were water trucks outside so we filled a couple buckets to get us through the night. We woke up this morning and still had no water. What is a girl to do...thank God for deodorant and perfume. I took the girls to school and went to a coffee morning for the parents in the girls class. Luckily for me my fellow class rep was leading the meeting. All is well now though. We have internet and water. I have learned my lesson and make sure I pay the bill early so the internet company doesn't turn us off again. I will hope that the construction around us doesn't break any more water pipes.
Today Sofia and I got up early, skipped breakfast (per the Doctor instructions) and headed up to the doctors office. We had to go back this morning to have Sofia's blood taken since we couldn't do it on Monday. We arrived early which was great since there weren't many people in the office ahead of us and it is a "take a number" place not a scheduled appointment. We took our number and sat down. We were quickly called in by the nurse. Sofia did pretty well and only cried a little bit while they were taking her blood. We finished about 8am which I thought was great b/c then I could get Sofia to school almost on time. Well, best laid plans..... After finishing with the blood I took Sofia back out to the reception area. I put her jacket, hat and one glove on when she started to wilt. I thought she was just being silly so I just took her other hand to put her glove on and she just continued to wilt. I looked at her and noticed her eyes roll back in her head and she dropped. Luckily for her I had a hold of her so she didn't hurt herself fainting. I quickly yelled, "PROSIM" since we were in a Czech doctor's office and the lady next to me was already up and getting the nurse. They were over to us very quickly and picked up Sofia and brought her to the bed in the doctor's office. She came to very quickly but had to be convinced to eat chocolate and drink water. She was groggy and I don't think she understood what was happening. We stayed there for quite a while. They took her blood pressure a couple times and listened to her heart. After all was well they let us go. Sofia was still a little tired so I carried her to the tram. I knew things still weren't right when she told me she didn't like the donut or chocolate muffin I bought her. I let her sit on my lap on the tram and by the time we reached her school she was all better and ready to play with her friends. I guess she is just like me....we need all of our blood in our bodies and without some of it we just pass out.
Over the christmas break Jason and I took the girls skating (as we previously posted). The girls loved skating so much that they "skate" all around the apartment. We decided we would try to get to an ice rink so that the girls could skate again. Last week I went on the search for skates for the girls and myself. I found skates for Sofia and me but Ali's feet are just too small and I couldn't find any skates for her. We will just have to rent skates for Ali this year and hopefully buy her skates next year. Fortunately the skates we bought Sofia are adjustable and therefore should fit her for the next couple years. I am hoping we can buy the same skates for Ali next year. I was excited to have new skates as well but with bronchitis etc. I hadn't been able to use them until today. Today I went to an ice rink that was outdoors. I thought it was an indoor rink when I headed there since it was slightly drizzling outside but realized when I go there that it was an outdoor rink. I decided to stay and skate anyway. I was the only one on the ice for the first 20 minutes which was fun. It took me a little bit to get use to my new skates since they are more like hockey skates but they have a toe pick. After skating for a bit I decided to have my skates sharpened. This helped a lot and while I am no where near my high school days of figure skating I'm not too bad either. It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to skating with the kids as well as skating with some friends.
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