I don't want to go to bed!

OK, The best thing about being a grown-up (or being old enough to be a grown-up) is not having to go to bed when you don't want to. The problem for me at the moment is I don't have anything to do to keep me up. I simply don't want to go to bed. And now, since this is going to be a true rambling blog, I feel a true blogger in every sense. I have nothing important or relevent to say. So I'll ramble. I love playlists. I haven't gotten the hang of putting them on the blog yet, so the same one is still on here and you have to click on it to hear it, so I doubt anyone ever listens to it, but I've spent hours making others and I've recently remembered, or been reminded of some great music I forgot about. I am ashamed to admit this as well. I haven't been following music for the past 10 years. Anything 'new' is foreign to me, so recently I've been kinda searching for 'new' music that's new to me that I like, so if anyone has any suggestions (I better think before I ask for this right?) I love The Shins-they're my Smiths for the modern times.
Someone's probably going to hate me for that coment. C'est la vie. My favorite all time song is Reel Around the Fountain. I'm listening to it now, and I have to say I want to die hearing it. I can't describe what it does to me.

I noticed today that someone in their infinite wisdom has created an electronic book. Wireless, paperless access to over 90,000 books, blogs, etc. This is probably a very good itea for todays market, but I, for one, will NEVER EVER own one. I love books and paper far too much. I also hate staring at a computer screen for too long, unless I'm shopping for shoes that i never have the nerve to buy. Anyway this thing just looks like an oversized PDA and I thought what an idiot to use that design. Wouldn't it have been infinitly cooler (and more sellable) to make it actually LOOK LIKE A BOOK! Imagine your sitting on a train, book in hand, that reads War in Peace on the cover, yet you're actually reading a trashy romance novel, or the sports page. People would think you're so tough to sit and read Tolstoy for hours on end when you're really just like everybody else. Yeah, so I swear an oath today to never use one of those things. I know this is a dangerous thing to do, especially since Kevin reminded me I said the same thing about Digital Cameras (I'm such a hypocrite).

That's probably enough of nothing for tonight, but I still don't want to go to bed. Ok I'll put some pictures on here I took when we went on a nature walk a few weeks ago (before the snow ruined everything). I know a few of them look very much alike, but I couldn't choose which I liked best and since I have the power I decided to put them all on. I hate it when I really need a tripod and I can't find it in the two seconds I spend looking for it, then spend the next 20 minutes after I get to what I want to photograph swearing at mysel

f for losing my tripod. These are the best of the bunch, low light, and it only got worse. I wish I wasn't such a wuss about the cold, I coulda got some snow shots. Oh, well, I think I better go to bed. This is sounding really boring.
Oh, By the way, Elise, I make lists too. I think I have about six or eight at any given time. I love that you can make lists on Amazon. It makes me nervous though, to make lists of things (like movies) I'd like to have, because then I'd have to find a place to put them.

Oh, I remembered the movie Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael today. I don't know why that's now on the blog, but that's what you get when you give me the keyboard at midnight. I need to watch it again, to see if it's anything like I remember it. Oh, and Drop Dead Fred. What ever happened to Phoebe Cates? And when's the last time you watched the original movie Buffy and the Vampire Slayer? I actually own this one. If it's been a while and you need a laugh, rent it. Everyone is in that stinking movie, like Batman Begins.

Has anyone else checked out Facebook yet? It's soooo high school it makes me laugh, but I'm on there now. Anything to get me to waste more time on the internet. I haven't put my heart into it or anything, but I like to waste time on the never-ending movie quiz, and yes, i do cheat sometimes. If people are going to be so stupid to put questions on there you can look up on imdb.com, I'm gonna do it. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about.
Peace out.

Happy Turkey Day!

Snow, Snow, Snow

We left for church at 9am looking at a sunny, cold day. The snow started started halfway through Sacrament Meeting and about 3-4 inches were dumped on the city by the end of the services.

While I have taken the occasional snowy drive up to the White Mountains or even New Mexico working for Jim, I am not the expierenced winter driver. We live in an area called Koliba, the highest point in Bratislava, with a long, narrow road curving up to our home. About halfway up the traffic stoped.

Rather than slowly following a line of cars stopping/starting all the way up the mountain, we pulled over and decided to walk. Sundays are good for family nature walks, aren't they? Not to sure if Marcy was particularly thrilled, but we survived the trek up to our house.

After hot soup for lunch everyone was happy.

Bremen was so excited about the snow. We suited up (snow bib, gloves, hats, boots, etc) and went outside. A snowman, snowball fight and some sledding ... it was great fun. Oh ... and warm chocolate chip cookies for a late-night snack. Not a bad day.

Marcy

Marcy has taken thousands of pictures since we moved to Slovakia almost 3 years ago. She has posted them on Shutterfly, Photo.net and now this blog site. There are many pictures of the sites, the cities, the people and of course a heck of a lot of pictures of Bremen.

The problem is that she is always the one behind the lens. I've searched through the pictures on her computer and pulled out the rare appearence of herself. So ... here she is ... the one, the only, Marcy ...

Be warned that she may take down this post as soon as she realizes I put it on, so this may be a limited viewing opportunity ... and sorry, no captions as I am trying to get this posted before she comes up and catches me.

Lessons

There is a park that Bremen likes to visit behind one of the malls (Aupark) in Bratislava. There is a big play area with swings, merry-go-round, climbing walls, etc. They even set up trampolines and motorized cars during the summer for kids to play. It seems that we visit at least once a week.

A while ago Bremen and I spent a Saturday morning at the park. Bremen loves the merry-go-round (it's sort of like a big sit-n-spin that 7-8 kids can sit in) and on this morning he was sitting in it with two other kids. One of the children, about a year younger than Bremen, was being bossy and didn't want anyone touching the wheel in the middle. Bremen loves to go fast. Every time he reached out to spin the wheel, the younger Slovak kid would yell at him (in Slovak). Being more sensitive lately, Bremen would pull is hand back everytime the kid yelled. He looked so sad. He looked like he was going to cry.

I watched him from a nearby bench and found myself feeling bad for him. Here's this little American kid that doesn't understand Slovak, surrounded by other children speaking a foriegn language with one particular, mean little kid yelling at him. He looked at me with those eyes, questioning what to do. I told him it was okay and to go ahead and spin the wheel. Another attempt, more yelling.

I found myself becoming angry. How dare this little kid yell at my child. How dare his parent, standing close by, simply ignore the mean behavior of his child. This is where I taught him wrong ... if this kid was going to be a jerk, then it's okay to be a jerk back, "That kid is just mean, yell back at him."

But of course, Bremen is a better man than me. He didn't yell at the kid. He didn't want to. He sat there and enjoyed the ride. When the kid decided to get off, Bremen stayed on and played with the other children. He didn't let it bother him any longer.

I can't stand seeing him hurt, in pain or sad. Can't I shield him from everything, everyone bad in this world? I know I can't and I shouldn't. It's just so hard.

But of course, Bremen is a better man than me. Maybe I can learn from him.

Class Pictures

My mother made keepsake boxes for us growing up, including albums with all of our school pictures in them. I only remember 3 or 4 of the names of my Kindergarten or 1st grade classmates, but it is still fun to go back and look at the pictures.

We just got back Bremen's class pictures and thought you might want to have a look ...




This was the best photo of him ... but it is typical Bremen.








At the Parent/Teacher conference this week, his teacher told us that Bremen and Ellen (the girl sitting next to him) will both run to the dress-up clothes during play time and squabble like an old married couple.

Bremen attends preschool at QSI Bratislava. It's an American-based school teaching pre-K through 12th grade. He has been going since we arrived in Slovakia and loves it. While instruction is in English (his teacher is from Chicago), most of the students in his 3-4 year old class are not native English speakers.