music monday Vsomethingorother

Sorry guys, it's been a while since Music Monday and I have no clue where we left off. I've been listening to some new musicians lately (new to me anyway!) and they are so good that I feel a need to tell the world... and my blog is the only platform I have! Oh wow I have a platform... does that mean I should write something political? I think it does.

Ok...

uhmm....

Yay healthcare! It's a right, not a priviledge!

And now back to what's really worth writing about.

I want you to listen to the following three songs. Seriously, take a 15 minute break from whatever it was you were doing (can't have been that important to begin with if you interrupted it to read this here blog) and listen.

These songs weren't composed to be floating around in the background while you're busy doing whatever life demands of you (or you demand of yourself). No, these songs were made to be listened to, and when you do exactly that, and nothing else, the reward you get is wonderful. A peek at a magic world that exists in someone else's reality, a glimpse into your soul, or simply contentment with being in this moment in time, right now.

I think that that's what it's about folks: Right now.

a fairy appeared...

Today the sun was out and we decided to take the kids for a walk in the dunes. I've told many people that one of the reasons I love Den Haag so is that it has all the bustle and culture of a major city, but all it takes is a 10 minute drive and you're in a place that is pure nature, where the air is clean and where you can walk for hours in peaceful surroundings.

We parked the car, loaded Elliot in the buggy and went on our way... kids running off squealing in excitement in front of us (maybe we should take them out more?). We walked for 30 minutes and came a cross a bench and a clearing, and decided it was a good place to stop and have lunch. We sat and ate, the kids ran around, we saw a rabbit or two, and when our tummies were satisfied and we started getting cold from sitting still, we got up again and got moving. We went 10 more minutes at a brisk pace and the complaining started. If you have kids, or have ever tried to undertake a journey of any sort with kids, you know the kind of complaining I'm talking about.

'Moooooom I'm tired.'

'Daaaaaaaaad, I need to pee.'

'I'm thiiiiiiirstyyyyyy' ... etc etc

We dealt with the things we could deal with (like the peeing and the thirst... oh, I just made that sound gross, sorry, that's not what I mean!!) and all that was left was the endless whining of how tired and cold they were. Nothing we said made it any better. Sander gave little Max a ride on his shoulders but he got fed up with that pretty quickly too. I knew we had to come up with a plan because we had a good 30 minutes to go before we would be back at the car... and if the whining wasn't going to subside I might have felt tempted to run and leave them to find their own way, and maybe come back looking for them after dark.

So I had a plan. We would tell a story, all of us together. I would start it off with a first line, and everyone would take turns adding lines, and twists to the story. Turns out the idea was a stroke of sheer genius on my part. The walk back to the car flew by and we had the following amazing story to talk about during the drive home:

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a handsome prince. (me)

The prince wanted to go see the beautiful princess, and so he went on his way, on foot. (Lara)

To get to the princess he had to cross a dark and scary forrest, filled with huge disgusting spiders. (Sander)

He went through the forrest killing every single one of the disgusting spiders with his sword. (Lara)

Then suddenly he heard a voice behind him saying 'why did you kill all of my spiders?'. It was the great disgusting spider King, and he was very upset! (me)

The prince got so scared that he farted very loudly! (Sander)

The stink was so bad that it nearly killed the spider King. (Lara)

A fairy appeared. (Max)

The fairy quickly closed her nose and used her magic to make the horrible stinky prince fart disappear. (me)

The spider King and the prince were so relieved the smell was gone that they decided to be friends. (Lara)

The Prince offered to do something nice for the spider King to make up for killing all of his spiders. (me)

'Yes' said the spider King... 'There is one thing I want you to do for me. I want you to go to the Old Witch, kill her, and steal the big shining diamond from the Old Witch's castle. (Lara)

The prince quickly went on his way but realised he didn't know where the Old Witch lived! (me)

A fairy appeared. (Max)

The fairy knew where to go and used her magic to make an airplane appear so the prince could comfortably fly to the Old Witch's castle in 2 minutes. (Sander)

When he arrived, he saw the Old Witch and used his sword to kill her dead. (Lara)

Then he had to go look for the diamond inside the castle. He went down dark stairs, and through winding hallways with cobwebs, until he finally came to a small door that creaked when he tried to open it. CRREEAAAAK. (me)

The creaking scared the prince so bad that he farted again! The prince realised he had better find a bathroom before going to look for the diamond anymore. (Sander. Oh, the things I could say here)

He went to look for a bathroom and was very relieved to finally find one! He sat down and did his business, only to discover afterwards that there was no toilet paper! (Lara)

A fairy appeared. (Max)

The fairy used her magic to create enchanted toilet paper that wiped the prince's butt all on its own. (Lara)

Happily the prince went back to the room with the creaky door, and found the diamond inside. He put it in his pockets and...  (me)

...his pants fell to the floor! He had forgotten to fasten his belt after going to the bathroom! He quickly pulled them back up, fastened his belt, and left the castle with the diamond in his pocket.  (Sander)

When he came outside he saw the airplane had disappeared. What was he going to do! It was 15.000 miles back to the spider King! (Lara)

A fairy appeared. (Max)

The fairy gave the prince a magic razor scooter that whisked the prince back to the spider King in no time. (Julia)

He was going so fast that suddenly he lost the diamond, and then all of his clothes flew off and he was naked! (Lara)

A fairy appeared. (Max)

Without peeking, the fairy quickly gave the prince back his clothes and the diamond and the prince was back on his way. (me)

The spider King was so happy to have the diamond! (Julia)

The prince was really happy too! He finally went back on his way to see the princess. He told her what had happened to him and they got married and lived happily ever after. (Lara).

We'll definitely be making up more of these in the future, and when we do, I'll share.

got kooties?

It's definitely time for a picture update on the fam. Let's go through them, shall we?

Julia will be starting a new class at school on Monday meant as a preparation for the 'eerste klas' (first grade?) next year. We're not entirely certain she'll make the transition after summer break, we'll have to see how she progresses, but for now she's joining the other kids her age in this new class, led by Meester Marcel. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing to be worried about with her, she's just a very child-like child and might need an extra year of play before she's ready to learn how to read, etc.

  

  

Max has been having fun inside of some things he probably shouldn't actually be inside of. I can't say I blame him, because if I were small enough to fit into a hamper, I would probably get into one as well.

Elliot is in the middle of a major transition. I've started him on a new diet starring mostly solids, which has turns his schedule into something like this:
7am - wake up
7.30am - baby cereal in a bottle
9.30am - pureed fruit
10-12am - naptime
12.30 - sandwich with peanut butter / appelstroop / cheese spread, and juice
2.30pm- yoghurt
3-5pm - naptime
6pm - pureed dinner, and water (so far he's been eating whatever we've been eating, mostly potatoes and  veg, or pasta)
7.30pm- baby cereal in a bottle
8pm - bedtime.

Up until just a few days ago he would wake up twice a night, on average. Usually around 1am and around 4am. It was doing us in, so we finally decided to show him some tough love and put some SuperNanny tactics into play. Sander and I made our bed downstairs, and let him cry it out alone. It took him an hour and 15 minutes the first time he woke up, and only 15 minutes the second time he woke up. Last night was the second night of Operation Night Sleep, and the incredible Elliot didn't wake up at all. Thank you SuperNanny.

I cut my bangs and am finding that my hair is somehow becoming curlier. I have no proof the two are related. I also drew a whale on my wrist that took 3 days to wash off.

Sander scared the sister missionaries by loudly proclaiming he was Satan.

clearly diabolical

And last but not least, Lara has developed a 'fear' of going on play dates but has agreed to a plan to help her get over that. She is also deeply in love with Joe from down the street. (I can't say I blame her, Joe is pretty darn adorable)

One major thing has changed in the Koot household, or 'at the Kooties', is the language. I have finally made the commitment to speak only English with my children when at home. Ever since I found out I was pregnant with Lara I have been telling myself and others that I want to raise my children to be bilingual. Never did I imagine I would have such difficulties with it! Though I am fluent in the English language, it's the language I use to write in my journal, and I even think in English, I have never been in situations much where the daily business all revolved around a language other than Dutch. This makes it tough to switch... and once you're not in the habit of speaking English at home, it becomes even harder to suddenly do so, because you then also have to teach the older children as you go. It was good having my family over recently because it made English the prominent language in our home and I noticed how easily my kids actually adapted to it. I then read up on the subject of being raised with several languages and learned that up until the age of 8 you can easily implement an entire language, and the child will adapt quickly and easily. Children then 'choose' a mother tongue around 8 years old, interesting huh? So with Lara only recently having turned 7 I figure that if I'm going to do this, I'd better start now, and so I did. I still forget sometimes, but the change is happening and everyone is coping just fine.

Also, now that I've blogged about it there is truly no going back!

blackberry (no this isn't another baking post)

This just had Sander and I in tears, we laughed so hard! Be sure to watch it through to the grand finale... Oh Ronnie <3

lemon cake, anyone?

Lately I have been suffering from a lot of headaches, and I have to cancel appointments on several occasions because of them. I know (at least I'm pretty sure) why I'm getting them and it's just something I have to wait out for a bit, so I've been refraining from complaining, thus containing my disdain. Oooh, I'm adding that to the rap song I'm writing. Ok maybe I'm not really writing a rap song, but that sentence proves that I could if I wanted to.

Back to the headaches. Yesterday I couldn't go to church because the thought alone of opening my eyes made my head explode into ten quatrillion tiny pieces, and everybody knows you need to keep your eyes open in church. As the morning drew to a close my headache started melting away, and suddenly I had all this energy that needed to be used, and so I did the only logical thing: I baked a cake. To be more precise, I baked Martha Stewart's Lemon cake with Whipped Lemon Frosting.



This cake has it all if you're a lemon enthusiast like me. Lemon juice and zest in the batter, more lemon juice the frosting AND even more lovely fresh lemon juice in the syrup made to drizzle on the cakes before assembling and frosting.

The recipe even calls for cooked and sweetened sliches of lemon to garnish the cake with. They made the thing look picture perfect, but I hate to say they tasted just awful, so I don't think I'll be going through the trouble next time unless I'm baking for the Queen or something.

It turned out so delicious. The whipped frosting (egg whites, sugar, salt and water, with lemon juice stirred in after the whipping) was light and fresh and a beautiful glossy white, complimenting the yellow and moist cake really well. Definitely a keeper. I can't wait to serve it with a pitcher of fresh lemonade after a sunny rooftop barbecue when the weather gets warmer. Find the recipe here and be sure to invite me over when you make it!



iconic wisdom

I believe in pink.
I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner.
I believe in kissing, kissing a lot.
I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.
I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.
I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

-Audrey Hepburn



how I came to enjoy Lady Gaga...

... in a healthy way, is an interesting story. The first time I ever heard a Lady Gaga song I was very, very disturbed. I was at the movies with Lara one afternoon about a year and a half ago (I guess that makes me quite late in discovering the Gaga). We saw a movie about a little boy who has embarrassing parents but cool grandparents and discovers a parallel world of tiny people living on his grandparents' country estate, or something. To enter this world the boy had to be mummified with a piece of magic rope which then started shrinking with him still in it. It scared the bejeeses out of Lara, and to this day she worries about this little boy's welfare. Weird portal ropes and cartoonised little people aside, this was a fun children's movie and Lara and I had a good time bonding and such. I think most of my bonding is done during movies, but that another story for another time. As the movie comes to a close, the end credits start rolling and we get up to leave, Lara and I are treated to the following lyrics:

'I wanna hold 'em like they do in Texas, please

Fold em' let em' hit me raise it baby stay with me
(I love it)
Love game intuition play the cards with Spades to start
And after he's been hooked I'll play the one that's on his heart'

At this point I'm hardly even noticing the song, too busy making sure we've collected all of our belongings and trying to stop Lara from running up and down the aisles so we can go home. The song merrily plays on and that's when I hear the words that shock my mother heart:

'Oh, oh oh oh oh, o-o-o-o-o-oh
I'll get him hot, show him what I've got.'

Excuse me? Get him hot?? Show him what you got?!
It's funny actually. Whoever decided that this was the perfect song to end this film with, did very much realise they were targeting an audience of children and their parents, so they Disneyfied the song. They got a choir of 10 year olds to sing it, and simplified the music. Somefrickinhow the obviously childless genius who made that decision, also made the decision to not change the lyrics at all. No, the lyrics were perfectly fitting as they were, really complimenting the movie! The really scary thing about all of it is that Lara loved this teen-bop version of the song and as we walk out the door I just know she's going to memorise exactly and only that one line, and regurgitate it over and over on the tram on the way home. I'll get him hot, show him what I've got.

So when we got home, I got on the computer and typed 'I'll get him hot, show him what I've got' into the computer. Lucky for me the family filter was on, a necessary precaution when your fingers often type faster than your brain can think, so the only thing that came up were song lyrics. And that's the story of how I first came to know of the existence of Lady Gaga.

Since that frightful afternoon I can't say that I've had too many encounters with Lady (is that her first name? do you think I can call her by it?). I don't watch a whole lot of tv, or read a lot of news but sometimes the pictures of her outfits were just impossible to miss. At that point all I thought of her was that she is obviously a very creative woman, without any scruples. Then I came across this:

And I thought, 'Huh?'. Hold the phone. (pun intended) That's the same girl?? I knew the blonde hair and ridiculous outfits are a marketing thing, she might even call it art and self-expression... but I didn't see this coming. She is one incredibly talented Lady and unfortunately I had never before been able to see that because I couldn't get past all the hoo-hah. Not because I'm someone who can't get past hoo-hah, but because there was just so much of it going on in Gaga-land. I was happy to find out she isn't just the craziness and sex she is selling at the moment.
And that was it. I've not given her much thought since that little revelation, until this morning when I came across something completely adorable. Someone must have seen the same movie as Lara and I saw, and must have had the same worries as I had, because someone went and turned some of Lady Gaga's lyrics into little works of vintage children's book art, with the help of arist Andrew Koulb.

.

How very clever! Now I can be a responsible parent AND turn my young and highly impressionable family into Lady Gaga fans... what a relief.

The Fruity Fishface...

... starring Elliot Koot.



the wall of gum...

...and other Alkmaarian finds, the wall perhaps being the only one not actually located inside a shop. When we go to Alkmaar, we go to shop, and nothing else. The finds were many though, the shopping Gods were on our side and (oh the joy) the children were not! Kimberly and Liz deserve a medal voor babysitting 6 children and even trying to take them out to the park in the snow. But I digress. The finds:

The wall of gum:

And the quiet dinner for 5 (thanks again dad!):

the girl

It's been a month but I thought you might still like to hear about Lara turning 7 years old last month. It was a lovely day, and extra fun for her to have her grandparents and aunt Marissa and cousins there with her to celebrate. She had been asking me to make her a ladybug cake, and I saw a good opportunity to try my hand at making my own fondant from scratch for the first time ever. Yeah, I should have given it a test run first... but things turned out ok-ish. Not the best tasting cake ever, but it looked okay, despite my cracking fondant. Good thing children don't care when it comes to cake, Lara absolutely loved it.

It's not easy having a Birthday right smack in between Sinterklaas and Christmas, or should I say, it's not easy on the parents. I'm pretty good at stocking up on presents all year round and keeping them in my secret special gift hiding spot but even then.. The sheer amount of presents that the month December necessitates in this family just won't fit in that one spot! Nevertheless, I am supermama and manage it somehow. The one thing I feel I should mention is: do not call me in December expecting me to know what my children want/need, because by that time I am totally, completely and frustratingly fresh out of ideas. The same goes for June, come to think of it.

The ridiculously large present was a guitar I found somewhere for 7,50 EUR. Best find of the year! It's pretty low-quality (not surprisingly) but great for her to play around on and learn some basics. Now that the quiet and rhythm has been restored in this house I'll start teaching what little I know about playing guitar.

Sigh, seven. If she does things the same way I did them (and let's send up a really special prayer she doesn't) I could be a grandmother in 15 years. Does not compute, does not compute, doe8s n^#t co18*#tHXxrg gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

ERROR

feast your ears....

... on the lovely Agnes Obel. I can't stop listening to her, and I want you to suffer the same fate. It's for your own good, trust me.

Denmark sure does produce a lot of lovely people, I've been noticing. 

it's a sleep trip, into bed you hop

Max' first night in his big boy bed was a success! Unfortunately the following nights were a little more troublesome (the highlight being when Max managed to lock Sander, Elliot and I into our bedroom at 4am) and we had to become a little more resourceful and creative. We now use the following method:

1. Usual bedtime ritual (prayers, read a book, sing a lullaby)

2. Give him a good night kiss and we tell him we'll be back to check on him in a minute. If he's still in bed he gets another kiss, if not he gets put back into bed with a (soft!) spank.

3. Repeat #2, leaving more and more time in between checks if he remains in bed. Usually it only takes 3 checks (approx. 10 mins) for him to be asleep.

4. Lock him in his room. This is absolutely necessary as there is too much trouble he could get into if he were to start wandering, such as locking us in again.

Max' favourite bedtime books are the Nijntje (Miffy) books, and his most requested lullabies are Choo Choo Train (I have it on a Doris Day CD, can't find it ANYWHERE else. If you have a tip please let me know!) and The Good Ship Lollipop. The latter was one of my faves to ask my mother to sing to me when I was a lil' girl.

Next up is potty training. Oh goody.

like, love, want... need

I'm not a materialistic or greedy person (who just chuckled??) but I have a recurring dream. In this dream I am blonde, wear lots of white and work as a permanently smiling hostess on a cruiseship with many colourful colleagues. And whenever I wake up from this dream I can't get a certain cheesy Jack Jones song out of my head. That's not the dream I want to talk about in this post though.

The recurring dream I really want to share with you is the one that leaves me filled with desire, the one that speaks to that very essence of being a woman that resides in every single one of us females. That dream is about luscious, red, red boots.

Red Boots. I WANT them. Badly.

I think I would look simply and immodestly perfect in every situation imaginable if I had on some frantastically awesome red boots.

In fact I'm quite sure the whole escalator incident would not even have happened at all if I had been wearing red boots. I just know they would give their wearer groovy superpowers like the ability to jump great heights and distances while on a moving surface, or the ability to say 'escalator' instead of 'elascator'. I'm quite sure Amelia Earhart was wearing red boots when she first flew a plane, and also utterly positive she was not wearing them on her last flight. I think it has also been researched, perhaps even historically and scientifically proven, that upon leaving the garden of Eden, Eve was granted red boots to help her cope with the unforgiving world and all those children.

Red Boots. I clearly NEED them.

Notice how the red boots are in focus, and the dog is blurry? Do you realise what that means??

 I MUST HAVE RED BOOTS!

Am I being clear on this? I'm not sure I'm making myself clear.

Wow.

Okay, so I thought I'd give this sharing-my-shameless-worldy-desires-with-the-entire-internet thing another shot, since when I last tried it I ended up with a fabulous sewing machine. My blog seems to be my letter to Santa and Santa is a strange and karmic creature of digital nature who finds joy in pleasing ME! You wouldn't believe the size of the smile on my frontispiece (yes, that is a synonym for 'face') right now. I just know this is going to work again. I shall keep you posted on all boot-progress!

group shot!



dogpile on the escalator

Happy New Year everyone! After two of the most intense weeks of our lives, it was time for my sister and I to say our goodbye's again. The weeks were intense for so many different reasons! Two major reasons are to be seen right here:

One afternoon when they were finally playing quietly upstairs I went to check my emails. The computer is in the same room my parents sleep in and keep all their things. Upon entering the room I found both Benson and Max happily chewing on numerous pills. Heart pills, blood sugar regulators, valiums, blood pressure pills, sleeping pills... the works. They had unpacked every. single. pill. that my parents had brought with them and spread them all over the bed, behind the bed and on the floor. They are fine, thank heavens, but you can imagine the scare and the ordeal of having to pick up and recount all that medicine. When we found the extremely allergic Ella sucking on a sugar coated peanut the next day we very nearly lost it. She's fine too.

Another reason was Marissa's talent for losing bags. The worst case of loss being her purse containing all of her vacation money, her new camera, her daughter's life-saving allergy medicine, credit cards and her driver's license. The poor thing had to spend a valuable holiday afternoon at the police station. Apparently whoever found it wasn't feeling the Christmas Spirit because nothing was ever returned or reported. We hope they were really poor and used the money to feed their family something warm instead of the usual bread crust for Xmas dinner.

Yet another cause for intensity was a constant worry over people falling down, and a couple of them actually doing so. I thought we had lost mom when I heard her scream, tumble and land with a thud by the front door. It took her a minute to become responsive, but she was able to get up and go to the open market... even though she suffered a constant migraine for 5 days to follow. She's recovered and has, once again, promised to be careful, go slow, and watch where she's going. We don't want to have to call Rob for assistance again! The second to make a tumble down the stairs was Marissa, she got off with a bruise. Then dad nearly went flat on his face when carrying a laundry basket down those lethal steps. Finally, let us take a moment to remember in grateful silence all the gajillion times one of us nearly kicked the bucket while trying to make our way across the icy roads but somehow, against all odds, reached our destination safely.

I can keep this intensity list going for a while, things keep springing to mind as I type. Like all the unfriendly (but actually really downright nasty) 'customer service' we received on our shopping expeditions, or the immobilating fear of waking someone up when you have to pee in the middle of the night. Or how about trying to keep the kids out of the Christmas presents until it was actually time to open them, or attempting over and over again, against better judgment, to get a picture of all of them looking cute and smiling at the same time. Who am I kidding, getting all of them to look sanitary and sane at the same time was nearly more than we could handle, forget 'I'm ready for my close-up now mr. Demille'.

The phone was a cause for anxiety as well. When it rang we quickly learned that stories of woe would be shared. Andrew calling to let us know he broke his ankle the day Marissa left and had to have a pin put in, his first ever sugery. Mom's best friend calling to let us know her home had been burgled three nights in a row over Christmas, with her in it. Dad calling to let us know he had run the Nissan into a parked car during, what should have been, a 5-minute drive....etc etc. We still hold our breath and suffer great blood pressure whenever it rings.

I can hear you thinking 'my goodness how did you even sleep?' and in hindsight I wonder the same! I think we were all so exhausted that nothing could keep us from passing out cold the moment we saw a pillow after 8pm, which can't have been much fun for our guests a couple of times.... (it really wasn't you!).

So when the time came to take Marissa, Benson and Ella to the airport it was a bittersweet feeling. Having to say goodbye to your only sister, but getting the calm back into your house.... having to wait who knows how long to kiss those little kiddo cheeks again, but getting the calm back into your house..... knowing you won't be right there anymore when you need a hand with the kids or would like some advice, but, well you get the idea. It's a good thing we managed to give these two weeks a fitting ending at Schiphol.

Imagine the following: You are tired and filled with anxiety over the trip you are about to make with your two small children. You are not feeling too well and trying to figure out ways to make this go as smoothly as possibly. You enter the airport, your big sister helps you load your bags onto a trolley and you head down to the departure hall. To get there you have to go down a really long escalator. It's the one that everyone pushing a luggage trolley has nearly gotten seriously injured on because everyone forgets to let go of the red handle-bar, enabling it to start rolling down the escalator in front of you, where you see everyone still on it turn into bowling pins. Luckily your sister is experienced and no longer makes this error. She lets go of that red handle-bar of reckoning with plenty of time to spare. Even so, you have let her get on first just in case. Your mother has kindly taken your two children off your hands and is guiding them onto the escalator and you follow lastly, with what I'm sure is the worst stress-induced headache ever. You are now all on the escalator and people continue to get on behind you. You enjoy standing still for a bit and look outside, perhaps trying to imprint the look of the Dutch sky onto your visual memory for future bouts of nostalgia. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. You see the grand airport hallway starting to appear.

Wait. Why is Karina suddenly frantically looking back and forth? Why on earth is mom trying to hurry back up the escalator with your children? Why are there people staring at your escalator with a look of horror etched on their faces??

Then you see what has happened. Somehow the suitcases on the trolley in front of your sister have managed to slide off the trolley, down the remaining meters of escalator and onto the off-ramp, landing themselves in such a manner that they're all piled up and squished together high enough that even an olympic gold medal hurdle runner couldn't jump over them. Not only could you not jump over them, the trolley is in between everone on the still moving escalator and the luggage barricade awaiting you all at the bottom. You have a vision of a huge dogpile at the bottom of the escalator, with your 3yo son and your 1yo daughter at the very bottom of it.

Yes, this happened, and yes it was the scariest thing ever. I was completely helpless! When some amazing onlookers reacted with the speed of light and swiftly came to our rescue by pulling the bags off the off-ramp before anyone fell down, I was more relieved (and grateful!) than I can express in cupcakes. In case you're having a hard time imagining this whole experience, I have made a visual aid, which should make things a bit clearer:

I know, I should do these for a living.

Marissa deserves a medal for not letting this final scare get to her and making it home safely with her lil'uns.

I should mention that even though there was much scary intensity, there was also intense happiness and love going on at the Koot home these last few weeks, more than making up for any of the bad things that happened. And let's not forget: it's not the love and happiness that still have you laughing so hard you're drooling a few Christmases later!

out with the old...

.... in with the new.

I am loving my KitchenAid, people.

To get the 'old' out I have set the goal to have the people of the internet (that's you!) updated on all things Holiday season-related. We put my sister and her 2 adorable little munchkins on the plane back to Utah this morning. I love them and I'll miss them, but I have some free time again, bless them! And boy do I have some gooooood stories to tell. Stories involving escalator pile-up's, bags being lost left and right, psychic board game players, and a bowl of orange snot.

You're gonna want to stay tuned.

I'll be back.... soon.