Things That Make You Cry

So there I was in the kitchen yesterday, making a last minute treat for FHE, when my son comes up to me crying. (It is, unfortunately, not unusual for my children to cry about the food I make, but that's life. Have some more mushrooms.) I was, however, making something decidedly un-disgusting. A little concerned about the tears from nowhere, I asked him, "What's wrong, honey?"

"I'm just so happy, Mom! I'm just so happy that you're making cake!"

My son. Brought to tears of joy by cake.

Exciting stuff!

We have our new assignment! We will be leaving Prague with its castles, clean and convenient public transport, endless Nutella and Nutella-substitutes, $10-gallon gas for . . . .

. . . Colorado Springs! Hurray for the west! Hurray for mountains! Hurray for keeping our cold-weather gear and skis! Hurray for transcontinental airplane trips with seven kids (oh, wait . . . )

BYOTP

Let's just pretend that I haven't been around for, oh, like 9 months. (Which coincidentally, is just enough time to bring a li'l human baby into the world, which I DID NOT do.)


We had a broken arm happen at our house this week, due to misuse and abuse of the trampoline. Briellen broke both bones in her forearm, and I took control of the situation . . . like one of the Keystone Kops. I couldn't do anything right, and my poor little girl sat in a chair howling, holding her arm with it's new improved S-bend, while I tried to get my dead phone charged and get a babysitter for the other children.

We finally got everyone in the car with their wide variety of odd clothes (they had all been dressed normally to start the day, but had dressed down before the Calamity). As they all got out of the car, the broken-arm girl started howling again. "I want to go play! Why can't I go play? It's not fair!"

After x-rays, the doctor explained our options. She could have her bone set right away, with no pain relief, or we could wait several hours for surgery with anesthesia. After explaining, he said "I think, the second is better, yes?" I thought so.

She ended up having surgery on her arm and staying overnight at the hospital for two nights. During that time, she was 1. traumatized by waking up from surgery with no underwear on ("Why, why, why would they take my panties?" she sobbed), 2. discovered that jumping in the hall was painful, 3. tightrope-walked on the back of her bed, the couch in the play area, etc., 4. ran up and down the hall repeatedly, 5. learned to draw with her left hand 5. ate "yucky" food (soup, goulash, and rye bread seem to be the mainstays), 6. watched too many movies, 7. read her favorite book on Insects, 8. made friends with her roommate, an eight-year old with a broken leg, 9. played with her toy spider, Janie, 10. listened to her Dad read The Secret Garden (the whole book.)

My husband was incredibly noble in staying overnight at the hospital with her, taking on the nurses and the cultural differences in level of expectations. Our cultural expectations, for example, were that the hospital would provide toilet paper while the nurses expected us to bring our own. (They also expected us to bring our own hospital clothes, combs, etc. I guess most hospitals expect you to bring your own comb--I just couldn't remember to bring one, and Briellen ended up with a notable case of bedhead.)

Meanwhile, I held and comforted everybody at home, but unfortunately let them out of my sight twice. The first time, two people tracked green food coloring out of the pantry and throughout the house (the culprits were pretty easy to spot, though). The second time, I found the bathroom door locked, and discovered that the three-year old was cutting the one-year old's hair. (He didn't scream at all, though. And she really did a very good job, despite the fact that she had somehow gotten SCISSORS.)

I did not win Mother-of-the-Week honors this week, but we all survived. And it was something to feel what a hole Briellen leaves when she's not in her rightful place at the center of our family. When we picked her up from the hospital, Ammon kept reaching out to touch her and chuckling. We all pretty much felt the same way--so glad to have her back home.

Stockholm.

So, here I am in Stockholm, Sweden. Here are a few of our more memorable moments (so far): (By the way, I am using a Swedish keyboard and stuff just isn't where it ought to be. So pardon any ö or ä!)

Poland-- We drove through on Corpus Christi Day, which is a Catholic holiday (which is the same as a huge national holiday in Poland.) There were parades being set up in all of the small towns, with banners and pennants and saints' pictures with candles and tree boughs. We felt like the whole parade when we would whizz through a small town in our 12 passenger behemoth.

Lithuania-- On the way to Vilnius, we saw several old farmers working their fields with horse-drawn wagons. We wandered around the old town and saw a couple of knights (actually military guys, but ACTUALLY wearing shining armor.) The young ladies posed for a picture, of course.

Latvia-- We camped by the Baltic Sea. The kids lost no time getting in swimsuits and jumping in the water. They were frozen by the time we pried them out, but ready for more. Also, the most powdery sand I've ever felt. I ran on the sand and felt awesome. For about 100 yards.

Estonia-- We wandered around Old Town Tallin until late at night. The nights were getting longer the farther north we went. A group of breakdancers on the town square fascinated Brigham so much that he had to go join them. He broke out some of his sweet moves and got a huge round of applause. (I'll post video when I have a chance. It was hilarious!)

Finland-- We camped in Finland for a couple of nights, and stayed at a cabin at the Arctic Circle for another few. Favorite quotes:

Briellen (at the lake by where we were camping. Incidentally, and not related, we couldn't drink the water there.) "Daddy said I could just tinkle in the lake. So I did. Five times!"

Late at night at the Arctic Circle, Vilate put her arms around my neck, and said in the saddest, weariest voice, "The sun is broken."

Sweden (the first time) Lovely, etc. Delicious cookies.

Norway-- beautiful scenery. Gnats. Biting gnats. We looked like we had the measles. Especially Vilate, who had an especially bad reaction to the gnat bites. No benadryl, either. Norway is also outrageously expensive. We're talking $20 Happy Meals and $40 pizzas. Ouch.

Sweden (the second time)-- still lovely. Still here!

We have a few more days before Denmark and the last part of our trip. So far we have only lost or worn through four pairs of shoes and collectively outgrown three dresses. Not bad!

Checking in from the top of the world

We've been up here at the Arctic Circle (Rovaniemi, Finland) for the weekend and have really enjoyed it. We spent most of the day visiting Santa Claus (and buying his stuff. cough, cough.) Time can really sneak up on you here during the "white nights" of summer. It's impossible to have any sense of time when the sun is always up and it's always light outside.

A few fun things: Ammon loves salmon. He will shovel in a whole steak and yell for more. Alan bought some fresh-caught fried whitefish fingerlings for everyone to try this morning. All of the fish-haters booed and made snide remarks, while Vilate kept asking for "one more." She ate the whole lot of them, heads and all. It was impressive!

Sweden tomorrow . . .

The North Pole. Pooh Found it.

When I was young , whenever my family left for a long trip, we had a tradition of waking up at an unearthly hour (3:00 am? 4:00 am?) to get a good start on the day. For us kids, this mostly included stumbling out to the car in our pajamas with as little actual disturbed sleep as possible. Luckily for me, my children must have it in their bones--five of them were up (and three dressed) by 5:00 am. We're not leaving until 8:00 am, but I already have a grrrrreat start on the day. Thanks guys! (Seriously. I was able to throw in the last load of laundry, call my family, and make the oatmeal cookies that I didn't have time for yesterday. There are so many more hours in the day to do stuff with when you don't use any of that time sleeping. Awesome!)

So, we're off to the Arctic Circle (not the one with milkshakes, but if you happen to live close to one of those, have a milkshake for me. And maybe a hamburger and curly fries, too. Go crazy! But keep the calories for yourself.) Our internet connection will be spotty, so blogging will be random (what, MORE random?) but if there are any great pictures and/or stories (and you know there will be), I'll try to post.

(Also, for all of you house burglars who read my blog in anticipation of knowing when we are out in order to rob us us while we're gone, our landlord is going to be here the WHOLE TIME we're gone doing landlord-y things and making our house even better. And he's a tough man to tangle with. So do not even THINK of robbing our house.)

Primary

I had the chance to make a card for a family who is leaving (an incredible family, who we will miss dearly) and so I thought I would share a piece of it with y'all. (In case you are wondering about my card-making skills, I used only ink. No glues of any kinds, which always cause weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth as wrong things are glued to wrong things and smeared on other wrong things.) Anyway, I thought this little portrait of our primary with fingerprints was kind of fun.