Snow Snow Snow

It snowed again!!  The snow started in the afternoon on Wednesday and continued through Thursday morning.  It did not stop until it had left another 6-7 inches (15-18cm) !!  It is only the beginning of December and we already have a foot (30cm) of snow on the ground.  It has been enough to disrupt our schedules.  We kept the kids home on Monday because of the snow, we skipped gymnastics on Wednesday afternoon, skipped school on Thursday and no Czech lessons on Thursday.  While the kids school did not close we chose safety over school and kept the kids home anyway.  The school is horrible about clearing parking lots and pathways and I refuse to drop my children off on a main road to cross the street and walk up a side street by themselves in slippery, snowy condtions.  I wouldn't allow that in good conditions so I certaily wouldn't allow it in snowy conditions.  The kids did not mind having a snow day though.  They spent a lot of time outside and loved it.  On Monday they spent two hours out on our road with me while I shoveled and they didn't complain once.  When I was finished shoveling we came back into our yard where they played for another hour.  On Thursday Jason also stayed home and even though he was working it meant I could leave the kids in the house or in the yard while I went out to shovel our road again.  They did take some time inside but by the time I came back from shoveling they were sledding in the back yard again.  It is nice to see them thoroughly enjoying the snow.  It is also great that they have reached the age to play together and have a really good time.  While the kids enjoyed playing I did some not quite so enjoyable work and shoveled our road for three hours.  For reasons unfathomable to me the people on our road do not shovel so I do the entire thing myself.  One of the men our our road spent an hour trying to get his car up the hill through 12" (30cm) of snow!  It would have taken him less time to shovel the entire hill!!  The lady a little further down the hill was outside with a BROOM!! Who shovels that much snow with a broom???  I then went past her and shoveled out in front of her house.  I did feel like I made some progress though when I got to the bottom of the hill and the lady I saw while I was shoveling after the first storm came home and took a brand new snow shovel out of her car.  Now, I didn't see her use it but it is progress over the digging shovel she had the other day.  Maybe by the end of winter I will have a little help shoveling the road.  I will admit though that it is very gratifying to drive on our road now and know that I cleared all of it.  It definitely gives me a "job well done" feeling.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Birthday to a great Dad and Grandpa!  We hope you have a wonderful day. We love you!!

Christopher Pop-In-Kins

Along with the snow last night came Christopher Pop-In-Kins.  The girls love him and were very excited last night when we told them that maybe he would come during the night.  Sure enough he made it through the snow storm and arrived at our house sometime last night.  The girls looked all around the livingroom this morning and finally found him on top of the bookcase.  As it is the first time they have seen him in almost a year we let him touch him but since we don't want to make him go back to the north pole all the time to replenish his magic they won't be allowed to touch him until Christmas Eve when they say good bye to him.

SNOW!!

 Winter had begun in Prague!  We had a small amount of snow on Friday night but last night the snow started in earnest.  We woke up this morning to find about five inches (12cm) of snow on the ground and it is still snowing.  This does cause some problems for us since we had not put our winter tires on the car yet and our summer tires are less than ideal for driving in the snow.  I went out this morning to the cash machine to get money so that I could bring the car to the tire shop but unfortunately the bank machine had no money so I turned around and headed home.  By the time I headed home the traffic was so bad heading in to town that I made the executive decision that the kids would have a minimum one hour delay.  Well, I have moved that to a two hour delay after speaking with a friend who told me the traffic is still horrible going in to town.  Once I bring the kids to school (if I bring them) I will head all the way into town to a cash machine and then head to the tire place to have new tires put on.  That is problem number one which will hopefully be solved later today.  Problem number two is waiting in the wings and that is our septic.  We were holding off to empty it until mid December so that it would be ok for most of the winter and we would not have to worry about the septic man being able to make it down our road.  Well, let's hope this doesn't become a problem and this first big drop of snow melts enough to allow access to our house so the septic can be emptied.  The third problem which isn't really a problem but more of an inconvenience is all the shoveling that is ahead of me since just like last year I will have to shovel our entire road.  Such is life, at least I get to enjoy the beauty of the snow.  The trees are all looking beautiful with the snow resting on all their branches and their is a definite peace in the air when the snow is falling and everything is pristine.

Play Date

On Friday we invited Sofia's friend, Matilda, over to play after school.  It is such a nice age for playdates since the kids just go off and play with each other and require little interference from me.  We got home and Matilda and Sofia took off their jackets and headed upstairs to play without even a second glance for me.  They played nicely together and really seemed to enjoy each other.  They eventually came downstairs as part of their imaginary game to play and to put on their mermaid bodies.  Here they are sitting in front of their mermaid rock together.

Thanksgiving leftovers

It has been great to have Thanksgiving leftovers all weekend.  I invited some girlfriends over for leftover lunch on Friday.  It was nice to sit and relax with friends.  It started to snow a bit on Friday night which made for a perfect Saturday.  The kids played in the yard a little bit and since there wasn't enough snow to make an actual snowman, Ali decided to make a snow Peep.  Peep in the Big Wide World is a PBS TV show that the kids have enjoyed for a long time and Jason and I enjoy it too.  After playing outside for a little while we called the girls in for leftover lunch.  The girls really like eating the legs and wings from the turkey so they were happy to see I had put a wing on each of their plates.  While it is definitely not polite to gnaw on a bone in public it is perfectly acceptable to do it in the privacy of ones own home and Jason and I had to laugh at the gusto to which the girls ate their chicken wings.

A letter for Sofia

As I mentioned before, Sofia's good friend Lars moved away this past summer.  I knew they were friends and, of course, were going to be married but I did not really truly understand the depth to which Sofia enjoyed Lars' company.  Since he has left she rarely talks about him but I find little things every few days that tells me she still misses him.  A letter in her bag that she wrote to him, a heart that says, "I love you Lars", a card that tells him she misses him...it really is heartbreaking to find these little glimpses of my daughters feelings.  I'm glad she has a way to express herself though and doesn't just keep it all inside.  We did send a letter to Lars along with the Flat Stanley Project that Sofia's class is working on and we will wait to get the Flat Stanley back but today a letter arrived for Sofia from Lars.  I was very excited for her when I picked up the mail and saw the letter and I couldn't wait for her to open it.  I knew she would be excited to receive the letter.  It is so nice that Lars and Sofia are both at an age where they can write letters and can maintain their friendship.  She has read the letters multiple times since she came home from school and I'm sure she will keep them in a special place.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving Day in Prague always feels different since to most people here it is just another day.  While we still send the kids to school Jason and I still want to celebrate and enjoy Thanksgiving.  It is not as easy to celebrate with all the fixings but with a good scavenger hunt I managed to come up with all the necessities for a good Thanksgiving meal.  To find all the things we needed for dinner I had to go to the British shop to order the turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce.  After the British shop I headed to the fruit and vegetable shop near our old apartment to find butternut squash and sweet potatoes.  I managed to get the sweet potatoes but not the squash so the search continued to the Bio shop which did not have it either.  I decided to try one other bio shop and I was in luck because they had three squashed left.  Since the squashes were enormous I only bought one and headed home. I sent Jason to a shop in town to buy pureed pumpkin and another shop to buy pecans.  At least after almost four years here I know where to go to find everything we need.

We invited two families to join us so we had six adults and eight kids and we all had a great night. Jason and I prepared the house and figured out where to seat everyone for dinner.  I made the sweet potato casserole, squash, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate cream pie and custard pie yesterday so today Jason put the turkey in the oven and we figured out the timing for all the side dishes.  It all worked out great and we served, turkey, sweet potato casserole, mashed potato, gravy, green beans, stuffing and the above mentioned pies.  I had cranberry sauce but in the rush of getting the kids food and sitting for our adult dinner I forgot to put it on the table.  We did have a brief power outage just as we were finishing up making all the sides but we figured out the problem and continued on with dinner.  We had such a great time talking that I completely forgot to take pictures so the only pictures I have are the ones I took before our guests arrived.  Such is life, I guess I was having so much fun I did not think to take pictures.

Velka Kunraticka

Today I ran the 77th annual Velka Kunraticka, which is a unique race run in a public forest in Prague.  The race is unique because it is only two miles but is on a forest trail with three stream crossings and three successively larger hills to climb up and back down: 90, 120 and 180 foot climbs.  I have wanted to run the race the past three years but the last two it just didn't work out so I really felt I needed to do it this year.  Mary and the girls came to cheer me on and we were fortunate to have an absolutely beautiful day that felt more like September than November. 

Because the race is on a narrow trail runners are started two at a time every ten seconds.  For me, number 1316, that meant I started about two hours after the first runners went.  With the nice weather it didn't really matter and before long I started the race down a completely muddy rutted trail.  After running through the first stream (that's me in the stream in the photo to the right) and gettnig up the first hill I knew I was in for something interesting.  .  My surprise came when I got to the second big hill - on the other side of a stream again - and noticed it was very steep and had a rope run up the side to help runners get up.  It was steep and slippery enough that I had to hold and pull the rope most the way up.  After another stream an even bigger hill climb and a much needed stretch of flat runing the trail went down to the finish.  I was tired, wet and muddy but thrilled I did the race.  The other victory for me was that I got to run the race at all and felt fine doing it.  Since last Saturday night I have been suffering from we assume was a bout of food poisoning.  I felt terrible most of the week and wasn't sure I'd be able to run.  My weight was even down about ten pounds after day four.  However, on Friday I felt things were largely better and yesterday my stomach was fine although I still felt a level of exhaustion.  I am very happy that I recovered in time to run.  I'd like to think my time would have been a couple minutes faster had I not been sick all week but this race wasn't about the time, just the experience of participating in a long running Czech tradition and getting the chance to run through the woods and get muddy. 

Reading

The girls are doing well with their reading.  Sofia is currently reading Rainbow Magic collection of books which she loves.  She has reading homework every night and is allowed to read the Rainbow Magic books.  When she completed a chapter the other night I couldn't believe how much faster she is reading  I thought for sure she would only get two pages read but she proved me wrong.  It is nice to see her enjoying her reading so much.  Ali has also improved in her reading and has moved up from stage 1 books to stage 4 books in just two months.  I took a video of her reading.  She has come a long way!



End of road excitement

Our road turns off the outside edge of a U shaped bend in the road.  You have to slow down a lot to make the bend.  We surprisingly had not seen any accidents here until the last couple of weeks when there have been two.  The first one we did not see but only saw the aftermath.  The car must have come down the road in the middle of the night and rather than follow the road around the U shape it shot straight off the road, jumping the ditch on the side of the road, going through some small trees, across our road and through the fence of the first cottage on our road.  I am amazed every time I drive past it since I can't imagine how fast this car was going to clear the ditch and how lucky the driver was to miss all the large trees and bricked electrical box.  I'm sure the driver isn't feeling very lucky though as he/she must have been very sore and the car must have been a complete wreck.  Last weekend a truck that had an additional back end attached to it must have come around the U bend to fast and tipped on its side.  It took about five hours to clear the road.  Jason had gone out to the store but then could not drive back to our road since it was blocked by a fire truck.  He ended up driving to the next village and across a bike path and up to our village pub where he parked and then walked home.  We all decided to see some of the excitement and headed down our road to watch them finally get the truck upright which they pulled upright and right into the ditch on the opposite since of the road.  We did not stay to watch them get the truck out of the ditch or to get the trailer upright since it was cold and drizzling outside but I'm hoping with two accidents and a road closure that people will start driving more cautiously especially with winter approaching.

Fireworks Night

Every year the kids school puts on an amazing fireworks display during the weekend closest to Guy Fawks Day.  We didn't go to the fireworks when the kids first started at school becuase they were too afraid of the loud noises made by the fireworks.  It wasn't worth it to bring them to something they would not enjoy.  The last two years we have gone to the fireworks and they absolutely love them.  Ali still covers her ears becuase it is so loud but the looks of pure amazement on their faces is worth a million dollars!  The fireworks display is amazing.  It is constant fireworks without any breaks for at least fifteen minutes.  The safety precautions that we have in the U.S. are not in place here so we aren't placed an entire football field away from the fireworks.  We stand far enough back to be safe but we are close enough that when we got home I realized all our jackets and clothing smelled like the sulphur from the fireworks smoke.  The entire area was covered in smoke so this isn't surprising but as kids we were never allowed to be close enough to any fireworks that we would be in the smoke!  While the kids do love the fireworks I think they are a bit overstimulating since Sofia was almost asleep in the car on the way home at 6:30 and they were both in bed and asleep by 7pm which is unheard of for Sofia to fall asleep in the car for a 5 minute drive.  It was a great night.

The only downside of the fireworks night has been for Jason.  This year and last year he had a hamburger which is provided by a caterer hired by the school for the night.  Both times now he has been horribly sick for days after.  I don't know if there is something bad in the burger or if they put something in that bothers his stomach but given the three days of feeling sick I'm guessing it is food poisoning.  Luckily the girls and I were spared!

The Napkin

Recently I was sitting at our kitchen table enjoying dinner with Jason and the girls when I found myself staring at my daughter in shock.  It is nothing serious or bad but it is a habit that has now crossed from Didon (Jason's father) to Jason to Sofia.  For those who knew Didon you know exactly what I'm talking about....the napkin folding!!!  It caught my eye when I noticed Sofia folding her napkin over to wipe her mouth.  She then proceeded to fold it a few more times and tuck it under the side of her plate.  Does that sound familier????  I turned to see if Jason noticed only to see his napkin folded neatly under the side of his plate!  For those who don't know how this plays out, it isn't just folding the napkin over once.  It is folding the napkin over and over into a tiny square so that the entire thing will fit under the edge of your plate.  Sofia hasn't quite mastered it well enough yet to get the entire thing under the side of her plate but I'm sure she will get there soon enough. So Grandpa Didon's fidgety-ness has passed all the way down to his grandchildren.  It's good to know he lives on in his son and grandaughter!

Happy Halloween!

We have not done many fall things this year like decorate the house or make jack-o-lanterns.  Our schedule was very hectic and then I was away and then the kids were on break and wanted to just relax which was fine with me as I was dealing with jet lag.  Today we found ourselves at Halloween already and the time for pumpkin carving had passed.  We didn't completely fail as parents however becuase I did bring back costumes, face paint, and glow in the dark bracelets from the U.S. for the girls to dress up as witches.  So come 3:30pm Jason and I got the girls dressed up in their witch costumes, pinned their witch hats to their hair (since the hats where made for a child with a head the size of a pea!), and painted their faces green and headed to my friend Laura's house for pizza with friends befre heading our for trick or treating.  As the development (which is just down the hill from our house) is really enclosed we did not have to worry much about cars which was nice.  Everyone (those celebrating Halloween) in the development all went together in a big group and whoever was the owner of the next house to stop at just ran ahead to be able to answer the door for the kids.  The kids had a lot of fun and it was nice that the outside time was all completed in an hour since the temperature started to drop and the kids started to get cold just as we finished.  Overall a very sucessful halloween!!

Power Outages

We have had a number of power outages lately.  The one that kicked it off was at the beginning of October.  Jason was working and the girls and I had gone to a friends house for the afternoon.  When we arrived home most of the power in the house was out.  We had randowm power....the livingroom lights, the cooktop and the fridge in the kitchen.  I went to the fuse box and checked everything and everything seemed in order.  Just for good measure I flipped all the switches and flipped them back on but that did nothing.  I went to our main power switch outside and flipped it off and on but that did nothing.  I then called the landlord.  They came out to the house and did all the things I had done to no avail.  She called the electrician who said he could come but wouldn't be able to come until around 8:30pm.  I said that was fine so our landlords left and I waited for them to come back at 8:30pm.  Well, the electrician was running behind and he eventually came around 11pm.  He looked at the fuse box, checked all the switches and then went outside to the main box.  Now, there are two boxes outside.  One that houses the main power switch and then abother box.  I have never been in the other box and don't know what it does but fortunately the electrician does. He opened that box and found that apparently during the day someone had come and stolen a piece out of the box which caused our power outage!  I couldn't believe this had happened!  Who steals pieces out of electrical boxes??!!  Since this power outage I am much more sensitive to any outage.  Whenever the power goes out I immediately run outside to see if anyone is stealing anything from our electrical box!  Fortunately, the recent outages haven't been for theft.  We had a pipe of some sort break in the basement which left us without water for a day which also tripped the breaker.  It took us a while of hunting before we went down into the basement and saw the water on the floor.  We called the landlord and had that fixed.  Our latest outage has to somehow do with the fan for our woodstove.  I'm not really sure what the problem is but the boiler guy was here today and he said it was an electrical problem and that the electrician will come.  We shall see what he says but I don't have high hopes.  My guess is that there is some clog in the pipe somewhere but who knows.  I will wait and see what happens.

Grilling Adventure

Before I went to the States I was making dinner on the grill.  I was very organized and had marinaded salmon for the girls and I to eat and then one piece of salmon that I could throw on the grill for Jason when he got home from work.  I made salad with home made dressing and rice to go with the salmon.  I prepared everything put the salmon on the grill and flipped it over.  I went inside to prepare all the plates and then went back out to the grill to take the salmon off.  I started to lift the lid and to my surprised flames came shooting out everywhere!  I was quite startled and dropped the lid back on the grill.  I thought that I must have imagined all the flames so I tried to open the grill more cautiously but no, I had not imagined all the flames.  The enire inside of the grill was on fire.  I turned the gas off hoping this would stop the flame but it did not.  I then noticed that the flame was coming from the grease catcher under the grill and realized that the flame was not going to go out on its on since it was a grease fire and it had an entire pan of grease to burn from.  I decided to use the long grill spatula to tap down the fire and luckily that worked..  Once I had that flame out I cautiously, using the spatula, lifted the lid of the grill.  There were still spots of flame inside the grill so I poured baking soda on all the flame areas and successfully put out the fire.  While I was proud of myself for fixing the problem I was very angry becuase now I had no salmon for myself and the girls to eat for dinner.  It was already late and getting close to bedtime so I fed the girls salad and rice for dinner which they didn't seem to mind.  I however, was very angry and didn't even feel like eating at this point so I got the kids ready for bed and waited for Jason to come home to figure out dinner.  Since we couldn't sue the grill until we cleaned it out Jason decided to just cook the salmon in the oven.  After preheating the oven however, we lost power.  When the lights went out Jason gave up on the salmon also.  It was a good thing we had leftovers in the fridge!

Back from the U.S.

Last week I spent a whirlwind week in America.  I had not been back to the States in one year and eight months and it was time for me to make a trip home.  Since Jason had been back to the U.S. about five times in that same period we decided that I would go back by myself and save the money of bringing the entire family.  I only went for 9 nights which is not enough time to bring the kids through the jetlag.  As I wasn't bringing the kids I had a vision of relaxing but that did not happen.  To many stores to go to and family members to visit that my days were spent rushing from one place to the next.  It was good to see everyone though even if I had to rush to do it. 

We managed to fit in some family exercise while I was there.  On the Saturday after I arrived (I arrived Thursday night) my mother, aunt, and both of my sister-in-laws ran a race together.  My Dad and one of my brothers came to watch and cheer us on.  Unfortunately my other brother had to work that Saturday but it was nice to have most of my family together for the event.  The race was a 5K race for lung cancer that ran through Roger Williams Park in Providence.  The park was very hilly but despite the hills, not having trained for speed, and battling jet lag I still did well in the race.  I came in 2nd in my age group for women, 11th among 254 women and 29th among all 370 racers.  It was not my best pace ever (8:12 min/mile) but I'm happy with my results and it was fun to run in Roger Williams Park and it made me happy to see my Dad, brother and nephews at the finish line.  I had to laugh though after the race when my family told me, "there was noone as old as you that came through before you.  Every girl that came through before you was young."  Of course they were right because the woman who finished in my age group before me was only thirty but I had to stress that I was not old!

Now, I'm back in Prague and I'm exhausted!  My jetlag when I arrived in the States was acceptable but my jetlag upon my return to Prague has been awful.  I have not been able to sleep at night.  Yesterday evening I was sitting on our couch and I put my head on the coffee table for a minute and I actually fell asleep I was so tired!  Unfortunately that sleepiness did not carry over to bedtime and I was up until 3AM!  The kids have been great though and have been entertaining themselves.  I have at least been able to relax during the day even with my kids home from school since they have school break all week.  This afternoon I decided to get out for a walk with the girls.  I figured it would be a good way to reward them for having such good behavior all morning and I'm also hoping it will help reset my circadian rythm by being out in the sunshine.  We had a fun walk through the woods on a beautiful fall day. 

Firewood

Last year we did not need to spend any money on firewood since our landlords had a big stack at the back of the yard that they said we could use.  We went through all that wood last year.  It was great to use the woodstove since it is connected to a back boiler which in turns sends hot water through all the radiators thereby heating the entire house.  Since our heat is electric heat and can be expensive it is nice to keep it as low as possible and mainly heat with the woodstove.  It is also just cozy and nice to have a fire going in the livingroom.  It has been quite chilly here for a while now and the girls have been asking for a fire.  We managed to come up with enough wood on Sunday to have a fire which was enough to take the slight chill out of the house.  The nights have been getting down into the high 30's (4 C) and the days have been in the high 50's (13-16 C) so the chill has definitely started to set into the house.  We have not yet turned our heat on since Jason and I like to hold off until November if possible before turning on the heat.  Knowing that the cold was setting in I knew I had to find somewhere to buy wood.  A friend gave me a name of a company outside of Prague that delivered wood.  We checked their prices and they were cheaper than going to Hornbach (a Home Depot type store) so I gave them a call and fumbled through my order.  They were going to deliver last Friday but they didn't so I waited for them to come today.  The company called me this morning and asked if they could come around 4pm which wasn't a good time since I had to pick the girls up so they offered 3pm which I took since I didn't want to have to wait another day.  I decided to run some errands before they came but of course as soon as I was in the check out counter at hornbach they called becuase they had arrived at 1pm!  I guess deliveries are the same everywhere in the world...you never really know what time they will arrive!  I rushed back home and showed the men where I wanted the wood.  The stacked it where I asked and then left.  It is nice not to have to stack the wood myself.  After I pick up the girls today I think it is time for a roaring fire!

Negative

Normally I don't like to receive negative news but I was very happy when I called the Public Health office today and they told me the the tick that was attached to Sofia tested negative for Lyme.  It is nice to know I can stop worrying about that.

The Latest Craze

No, not fashions or kids toys....this is more about me and my latest craziness.  I picked Sofia up from school yesterday and her PE teacher told me she found a tick on Sofia's head after swim practice.  This definitely sent me into a tailspin of crazy!  Having had lyme disease myself and having a parent who is now on a six month course of antibiotics for lyme disease it is something that is very real to me and quite stressful.  I definitely don't want my daughter to get lyme and not be diagnosed for years.  I immediately took the tick out of her head and put it in a bag.  I called her doctor and made an appointment for a bloodtest a month from now.  After getting off the phone I decided this was not acceptable and I called the doctor back.  Her doctor was good and told me to bring Sofia in to her office in the morning.  She also told me that she spoke with a collegue and found out where in Prague I could bring the tick to be tested.  Last night I got my ducks in a row (thanks mom) and had all my arguments in place as to why I believed she should start antibiotics as soon as possible.  I went to bed but did not sleep well and had a lot of dreams about ticks and other insects.  I obviously did not do a good job of hiding my concern from the kids since Ali woke up in the middle of the night in tears becuase she thought she had a tick on her head.  I dutifully checked her head and sent her back to bed. 

We headed to the doctor this morning and the doctor agreed to prescribe antibiotics for Sofia for a 12 day course of medication.  I then left to bring the tick to the Department of Public health to be tested.  I will know on Monday or Tuesday if the tick had lyme disease or not.  If it did have lyme then I will insist her medication be continued for an additional 16 days.  I'm not as concerned about getting the doctor's approval anymore though so it doesn't seem as stressful.  I'm hoping that the test on the tick itself will tell me it did not have Lyme and that Sofia is safe.