i win i win!

Remember how I used to have pictures in my blog posts? That might start happening again soon because we found our camera! Man I was so worried we had lost it. I had just assumed it had disappeared sometime during all the crap-shovelling that goes on in this house on a daily basis and was expecting to find it next to half a mouldy apple underneath a bed next year during Spring cleaning. I almost got it right too: it was in one of the diaper bag's secret compartments, together with a dried out banana peel. Expect pictures again shortly!

I had a bit of a victory today.

I have been battling the evil empire called Neckermann for two months now. It all began when my darling husband gave me a stand mixer for my Birthday this year. All you regular blog readers know this is a vital tool in the Koot kitchen. Unfortunately there is a fundamental wrongness to a woman not picking her own stand mixer and that darling husband of mine, though he meant well and I love him for it, picked a piece of crap. It reminded me of {insert name of random half witted reality tv star here}: shiny but not even slightly useful.

I didn't want to make Sander feel bad so I really TRIED to like the thing. I gave it a good few months before I threw in the towel. The breaking point came when it ruined my umpteenth attempt at butter-cream frosting with its inability to simply cream together butter and sugar. Covered in goop and close to crying I took matters in my own hands and called Neckermann to tell them exactly what I thought about their product.

They didn't care. 

They didn't care that by the time I got the mixer their 7 day trial period was already over, or that they sold me a product of low quality. They didn't care that I couldn't make the butter-cream of my dreams or that the thought of facing the Holidays with this hopeless mixer filled me with fear. They most certainly did not care that I wanted my money back so I could put it toward the much sturdier and infinitely cooler, cherry-red KitchenAid of my dreams. My sole option was to send it in for repair. 

So I boxed it and they had it picked up on October 15th. The big wait began. The Holidays crept up on me, and I found myself going through Thanksgiving dinner preparations with a sore mixing arm, and the fear returned at the prospect of December without a mixer! So I called up my good friends at Neckermann to find out what the progress was. Surely they would have made some progress in a month and a half? A day and many phone calls filled with questions such as 'what was the shipping number again, mrs Koot?' later, they sheepishly admitted that they couldn't find my crappy mixer. I jumped for joy while I told the lady on the phone how awful I thought their service was and that surely now their only option would be to give me a full refund. She wasn't going to do it at first, but I cut her off quickly, speaking very sternly and quickly mentioning something about this not being in the terms of agreement and...

... she caved! 

I won!

HA!!

Oh how sweet it is. It's little things like this I tell you! So I feel good to face the rest of this week, despite having been sick yesterday and today, because it looks like I will be going into the month of December armed with the Mixer of Mixers, the beautiful KitchenAid! 

song of the week

Apparently I can't get someone out of my mind because I can't stop listening to this song this week. Comment if you think it might be you...

In the morning...

... I am two different people.

It sometimes takes me a full hour to even sort of grasp what's going on around me in the morning. Sleep does things to me that seem to go straight to my core and I wake up befuddled and out of the loop, hardly ever refreshed and, for lack of a more appropriate word, awake. I get out of the relative safety of my bed on auto pilot and often an hour later I'll find myself in some place that isn't my home, wearing two different socks, having forgotten to brush my hair, or without milk for the baby. I'm honestly surprised I've never ventured out in my slippers instead of my shoes.

I am Captain Confusion, here I come to fog your day!

For the second half of the morning I turn into a well-oiled machine of effectiveness. I can do a whirlwind session around the house and get the whole place tidied up, the bathroom cleaned, the floors swept, the dishwasher unloaded, the laundry folded, the beds changed and the vegetables for dinner cleaned, in 2 hours. For 2 hours of every day my head is miraculously CLEAR and I can focus on any task at hand and complete it without becoming distracted.

Wow, just typing that made me short of breath!

Only in the morning it seems. As soon as the first part of the day has passed, basically right after lunch time, confusion sets back in and I can literally stand and stare at a wet cloth in my hands for 15 minutes straight, trying to figure out what the best surface would be to clean first, finally throwing the rag back into the sink feeling physically fine but mentally defeated. By a rag.

So anyway :)

Here is a delightful stop-motion music video about mornings in bed!

I'd like her hair please...

... and her freckles. Did I ever mention I have always wanted freckles?

Postcards From Italy from ForYouLoveMe on Vimeo.

Also one of my favourite songs.
I always feel a little better about being a Molly Mormon when I find fellow Molly's who inspire. Even if they mostly inspire me to work harder on getting those freckles.

all is well, all is well.

I know I've been a little MIA but I promise all is still well around the Koot house. Here's a little overview of what has been happening around these parts in the past 2 weeks:

- We had an awesome Halloween! We celebrated most of it on Saturday. Liz came over and we baked and decorated sugar cookies, built a fort to keep safe from ghosts and ghouls, did weird makeup and stayed up waaaay past our bedtime watching movies. Paranormal Activity 2 isn't half as scary as the first one (which is a very good thing since the first one had me sleeping with the lights on for weeks) but Sander managed to get spooked anyway and heard weird noises all night.

 - St. Maarten was commemorated at school last week. The children all walked around the neighbourhood with their homemade lantarns singing and singing songs. Traditionally you put a candle out by the window when you want the children to knock on your door and sing you a song, which you reward them for with a piece of candy. At the Wonnebald they take the children by 'stations' where someone has been dressed up and is waiting for them to pass to give them a piece of fruit and listen to their songs. 

- Last Saturday Sinterklaas arrived in Holland and we were at the very front of the line to welcome him back. The kids were dressed as little Sinterklaas's, and waved enthusiastically at the steamboat as it glided past us and into the harbour. After seeing him come in on the boat we went to find a good spot to watch the parade go by with all the Zwarte Pieten and Sinterklaas on his horse. Of course the kids set their shoes by the back door that night with a carrot for Amerigo, tangerines for Piet, and drawings for Sinterklaas. They were rewarded with toys and treats. Everyone loves Sinterklaas!

- Pictures of Sinterklaas will have to follow in another post because another bit of news it how absolutely awful our internet connection has been lately. I don't know if it's our provider, our router, my computer or what, but it's driving me nuts! It keeps cutting out right when I'm about to upload something, or need to check my e-mails. I seem to remember being married to an IT-specialist though so hopefully my problem should be solved relatively quickly.

- I can't stop reading books, aarrrrrgh! Expect a tip-list soon.

- I got stalked. Does this mean I'm finally famous?

- We had a lovely dinner at TexMex with Liz and she and I went to the movies afterwards. A lady with scary red makeup tried to steal our m&m's. 

- I'm learning to play Eva Cassidy's version of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore'.

Also: I CANNOT WAIT FOR MY FAMILY TO GET HERE IN DECEMBER!

And finally a little song for you to make you feel happier when the winter darkness is getting to you ;)

we had a Birthday Boy...

... who wanted THREE cakes! How silly is that? The sillier thing is that I said 'sure!'. Luckily I had help.

You can tell from Julia's hand and face what her job was.

We wished papa Sander a happy 31st by bringing him cake in bed whilst singing Birthday songs. 

I hope you all had a great Halloween, because we sure did! Expect a spooky post soon...