What’s been going on around here.

Today was the very last day of the kids’ three week (plus one Monday) Fall Break.  I had the kids do lots of cleaning up the house.  Sometimes I don’t get kids.  Like Jethro cleaning the bathroom.  I’m folding clothes in the front room, so I can hear what he’s doing.  I hear him spraying the tub, and then immediately afterwards he’s spraying it with the shower head.  So I go in and ask, “Did you actually wash the tub before you started rinsing it?”  And he admits that he hadn’t.  So then I say, “You can’t just spray on cleaner and rinse it right off and expect anything to get clean… you’ve got to scrub all the nasty stuff off… blah blah blah” and he says “But that’s how you did it when you taught me.”  Really.  REALLY?!  Sigh.

Anyway, we got laundry done, dishes done, bathroom cleaned, rooms cleaned, vacuuming done, and we were all ready to go to Jethro, Hazel’s, and Ethne’s first swimming lesson.  I thought I knew just where I was going, and I had the directions written out, and I left with thirty minutes extra time just in case.  What an idiot.  I should have left with three hours extra time.  As it was, we didn’t ever make it.  Partially because I got lost a couple times, and then it was rush hour and the traffic was awful so I didn’t want to keep trying.  It was awful.  There is nothing I hate more than getting lost and feeling like such a loser.  Plus I had to pee so bad at one point I thought I was going to have an accident.  ;)  I finally got to a little grocery store and stopped and went in with Ethne and asked if they had a bathroom and the lady said no.  I was like, seriously- this is an emergency.  Anyway, I did get to a bathroom without any accidents, so that’s good.  So so lame though. 

What else?  Well, last week we really really came close to renting this one house.  It was nice in some ways, not as good in others (like a teeny tiny kitchen the size of a closet with zero counterspace (although we could have improved that a bit)).  We really want to get into a house instead of our apartment, and our view would have been this:

So yeah, that was a biiiiig pull.  On the other hand, the kids would have been going to a one-room school that includes grades 1-6.  One class, one teacher, all the grades.  So weird, eh?  Actually that wasn’t something that worried us.  But in the end, we didn’t feel good about it.  Kind of sad.  But the right house is out there somewhere right?

On the positive side, when we came home one night after looking at the house (for the third time), we saw a hedgehog in the yard in front of our apartment.  He was so cool.  We all petted him.  Well, not petted so much as patted very lightly.  Hedgehogs are rather sharp and poky, you know.

Then Brett saw him again in the same place another night when he came home late, and then last night we came home when it was dark and saw him again!  So now we’re all friends and Talmage named him Poky.

I’m trying to remember what else has been happening.  We have been getting excited for Halloween, especially after our friend whose husband works at the American Embassy told us that the Embassy will be having a Halloween party that we can come to.  Also, we went to Bauhaus for the kids activity on Saturday morning, and they got to carve a pumpkin.  That was pretty awesome, especially considering how expensive pumpkins are here.  We’ve also cut out scary ghosts and bats and witches and jack-o-lanterns and taped them to our wall. 

Another day we went to the Schwarzwasserbrucke and played around.

Orrin likes to vacuum sometimes.

In sad news, my favorite horse ever, Fahs Elle, is going (maybe already has gone, I’m not absolutely sure) to horse heaven.  Sniff sniff.  I’ve ridden her since I was a kid.  My kids have ridden her.  I am so sad to think that when I go home next summer I won’t get to ride her.

 

Oh yeah- really big news—Ethne lost her first tooth yesterday.  After she was messing around with it constantly, we held her down and Brett yanked it out.

She is soo super cute with a gap-smile.

 

Also, she can make frightening faces.  :)

She hasn’t put it under her pillow yet because she wants to take it to school.  Actually, she really wanted it to come out at school because then she would get a special tooth container for it (at least, her friend did when her tooth came out at school).

My red-headed boys are so handsome!

Hmmm, what else?  Tonight I made some yummy tomato soup and cheesy bread, and Talmage ate a lot and then said, "Now I have enough strength in me to go hiking!"

Jethro and I had a race to see who could read faster. We read one chapter (actually a prologue) to a book neither of us had read before (Jurassic Park). I took 6 minutes and 22 seconds, and he took... 5 minutes 40 seconds.

Most exciting news for last:

We’re having a BOY!!!!!!!!!! 

What a surprise—everyone thought we’d have a girl.  Ethne cried at first.  :)  It’s a huge boy run in the Rasmussen family- Nicolas and now Andrea, Lindsay and I will all have boys.  Pretty much I am thinking constantly about boy names since I didn’t have one picked out already.  I’m so excited (and slightly terrified) at the thought of three boys in a row!  ;)

And now I must go to bed.  Goodnight.