Take a number please...

Does anyone else ever feel like saying that to theie kids? I feel like that sometimes, but today for sure I do. Today has been a cranky day for my little ones, they got up to early...of course....so they struggled through the day.

Ray is gone at class tonight, so that makes the need to split my attention between 4 kids is even greater. While trying to talk on the phone, I started out with one child following me around crying, by the time I got off the phone I had 3 crying kids standing outside the bathroom door where I had locked myself in so I could try to finish my conversation...sorry Wanda! Don't think I am neglecting my kids, it was an important conversation, it was about whether or not there would be time to get my hair cut on Thursday with a friend of mine.

Did I mention I am a little sleepy because someone had to get up with the kids when they got up at the crack of dawn. So my patients is kinda wearing thin. If one more child rolls their eyes at me I might come unglued. Why does someone always need me when I am in the bathroom, or while I am cooking dinner, or of course while I am on the phone. This is why I need one of those machines that my kids can pull a number out of and wait their turn.

I feel like I should add the disclaimer that I love my kids, but come on, be honest. Don't we all have those days where you remember what your life was like before kids? Before stinky diapers, and pee on the floor, and before breaking up fights. Or are you kids perfect and you have no idea where I am coming from??

I wouldn't give up any of my kids, not for anything. But today I am on knock knock joke overload, and I am now saying for millionth time....please keep your hands to yourself, I am once again picking up food off the floor that Benjamin decided didn't belong on his plate anymore. So Parker, Lizzie, Timothy and Benjamin....please take a number and find a seat, this mom is on a break!

leaving on a jet plane....

This is kinda funny and a little sad at the same time! Ever since my Mom came to visit last month Benjamin will ask me where she is. I will be doing something that I guess makes him think of her, like stuff she did while she was here....like wash dishes, make coffee, cook dinner, change diapers...you know vacation stuff. Anyway this morning he asked again where she was and I told him she was at home in Oklahoma. Well that just set Timothy off. He told Ray and I that he was leaving and could we please get his backpack because he was flying home to his mema.

Well we told him he was going to have to go by himself because I couldn't leave all the other kids and Ray couldn't come because he had to go to school. So he had to fly solo. This was okay with him for awhile and then he had a better idea, he would take Benjamin with him since they are best friends and all! And Benjamin can't really object and if he does we don't know it because we don't understand half the things that kid says!

So anyway he kept this up all day. I tried to give him a snack, a cookie at that, and he said "No thank you, they will feed me on the plane." hmmm...this could become a problem!

Then when I was trying to get the boys ready to pick up the other kids from school, Timothy was so upset because I wasn't dropping him off at the airport first! And then he realized he should probably go with me to get the kids so he can tell Parker and Lizzie bye.

Now tomorrow is the big day, the day he thinks he is going to fly home. I'm not sure what is going to happen when tomorrow gets here and he hasn't gone anywhere. He has even talked to my mom on the phone today and asked her if he can come to her house, of course she said yes...thanks mom! I guess my mom is just going to have to come back here and move in with is since Timothy misses her so much....

Parker the science kid....

Parker loves all things science. I have no idea where he got that from! He loves to do science experiments and if he can't do them then he loves to just read about them, here is a look at some of his books. I think he has more, but I can't seem to find them....insert here Ray saying "big surprise that you can't find something"! Okay, here are his books....


So he has been really wanting to do this one called the toilet paper cannon, well today was his lucky day! I had to capture the moment because he was so happy to be doing it. It starts out by putting some vinegar into a test tube. Well all I had was apple cider vinegar so we used that....


Then we put baking soda on some toilet paper....that is why it is called toilet paper cannon...
And then you stick the toilet paper into the top of the test tube and put a lid on it...


As you can see, he is super excited! Our next step was to head outside and finish it off. You are supposed to shake it up and then the top pops off and the toilet paper shots out....



This last one is priceless! I can't believe I snapped the picture at the right time to get that expression on his face! And then here is a picture of the test tube kinda bubbling out the rest of the stuff...

I love to see him so excited about stuff like this. Even his teachers at school told me how much he loved to learn new things and he is so inquisitive. I am so proud of the little boy he is, and I can't wait to see what he does in the future!

in timpul meu liber de astazi.....

Today was a pretty fun day. I tried out some new things and of course cleaned and did laundry. No day is complete without at least one load of laundry, and most days it 3 loads I have to do just to stay on top of it! But it's not do the laundry, or hanging the laundry to dry, or even folding it that drives me crazy...I hate to put it away, which is why I have a huge basket full of clothes on my bedroom floor waiting to be put away, I guess there is always tomorrow! Okay this blog wasn't supposed to be about doing laundry, it is going to be about the fun things I made today!

For starters I made peanut butter!! You can buy it here, but I think it is really gross and it is not cheap for the amount you get. I never buy it unless I am desperate and the kids really want it. So I thought I could make it and I found a recipe for it and it was so easy. I am embarrassed to say how easy it was. All I did was put peanuts in my food processor and grind them up with a little salt and sugar. It tastes just like natural peanut butter and it hardly cost me anything! So here is a picture of the finished product....


Then I thought I might make gold fish crackers, but I couldn't get them to look like fish so they just look like crackers. They taste like cheeze-its and everyone loved them! They were also pretty easy to make. And I used my food processor again. About the food processor, Ray bought that for me about 2 months ago because I just had to have it. Well after he bought it, it stayed in the box for about a week because it kinda scared me! I didn't really know what to do with it, and it had all kinds of blades and stuff to go with it. So after I finally took it out of the box it sat on my counter for a few weeks before I used it, and then I only used it to make bread crumbs...not to exciting and not what Ray had in mind when he bought it for me! But now I used it 3 times today... I had to make bread crumbs to go it my meat loaf! Anyway, enough of that rambling and here is a picture of how my crackers turned out....




They are cheddar but for what ever reason orange cheddar is hard to find so I used white cheddar and that is why they are white!

Well since I made peanut butter today and it was so easy, I wanted to make something with my peanut butter. And what is the best thing to make with peanut butter....no, not cookies...Reeces peanut butter cups....

They taste just like the real thing!! I was so excited about this. I wanted to make them for Ray because he loves them and we can't buy them here. This was the most time consuming thing I made today, but so worth it! Now I have to go to bed because tomorrow bright and early I have to go to Parker and Lizzies school for parent teacher conferences....fun!

Hey...where did your culture shock go??

I think it is settled, culture shock is over. That is what Ray said to me today as we are standing outside of Flory's (our language teacher) block apartment waiting to start language class. It most be because we have gotten used to so many things here that it all just seems normal. Like the man walking down the street by where we are standing screaming about who knows what. We just looked at each other and say, "oh, that's just that crazy guy who lives around here."

I never thought I would get used to seeing all the block apartments, but I guess I have. I don't stare in amazement at them as we drive down the street anymore....


I guess I have also gotten used to seeing the horse and wagons going down the street with the people inside yelling for old iron. I don't reach for my camera every time I hear them coming down the street.

All the traffic and trams and buses and all the honking just seem common place now. The fact that the grocery store smells like raw fish and dog food at the same time is something I have gotten past.

The tile floor all through my house doesn't bother me anymore and I almost like my pink living room walls...almost!

I have gotten used to not using a dryer to dry my clothes and I'm amazed at how washing my dishes by hand doesn't bother me at all. I can't get past the fact that the coffee creamer here sucks. I have almost gotten used to using the water filter for all our water, but I still dream of the day I can just use water from the sink again, and a garage disposal!

Though it is still far from being my home, it is at least closer to being it. I don't look around and hate what I see, I look around and see familiar things now and that in itself is comforting to me. I am proud of how far I have come, I don't know if you are supposed to say you are proud of yourself, but I did and I am. There are days that I still long to go home and see my family and my friends, but those days are fewer and I love the friends I have made here.

Is it bed time yet...

Today was an interesting day....we had a test in Romanian and we got hit by a car on the way home!

First the test! I'm not a test taker, in fact there is nothing I hate more then taking a test. I am also not a good test taker. I took my drivers test 3 times before I finally pasted it....but that has nothing to do with getting hit by a car today! Anyway back to the test, I don't check my work, I hurry through it and I am usually the first one done, and not because I know all the answers!

Just for some background on our Romanian class...I am the slowest student! This doesn't bother me, it actually takes the pressure off of me! Our super sweet teacher is very easy on me! So anyway, I'm not as up to speed on things like Ray and Erica are. That's right, there are only 3 of us! So this is one class where you can't sit on the back row! So I took the test and yes I left some blank but I was surprised by what I did know...so that's good!

Then there was getting hit by a car...we went to get all the kids from school. Our kids and our neighbors daughter. We are sitting in traffic in a tunnel and of course I am driving. When all of a sudden we jerk forward...we just got hit by a car! Of course I kinda start to panic and I look at Ray and say what am I supposed to do know? Of course he says...I have no clue! Well then here is the guy who hit me standing by the drivers window. I roll it down he starts talking...of course I'm just looking at him because I have no idea what he is saying...a good chance to practice my Romanian! So I say nu vorbesc limba romana! That means I don't speak Romanian! And then he starts talking in English...thank God!

There was no damage to our van, but there was damage to his car. I had to get out of the car in the middle of all this traffic with people trying to go around us. What you need to understand about driving here is that these people don't mess around. They want you out of there way and they want to get where they are going and they are going to honk at you until you move! Anyway this guy keep making me look at his car and the damage. I almost felt like I should apologize to him because he hit me...almost!

No one was hurt and we made it home. I thought I was going to cry, but that only lasted for a few minutes because then Lady Gaga came on the radio and how can you cry and sing along...not possible!

So to end our day I made a cake and ate most of the icing out of the can before I put it on the cake, but no one seemed to notice!

The worst dinner ever....

So today was Halloween, and I guess for some of you it still is and you haven't gone trick-or-treating yet! But for us it is over and the kids are in bed. Since this is the first time the kids haven't gone trick-or-treating, I wanted to do something special this weekend for them. Yesterday they spent all day doing lots of fun stuff, and today we went to church and then we went to Burger King for lunch, and I wanted to make something fun for dinner for them, you know, a kid dinner!

So that is were my trouble started! I think I am a pretty good cook, my family eats what I make with little to no complaints, I'm not the best cook...my mom is, but I'm not the worst one either...one of my sisters is though! Anyway, I was so excited about dinner, we had pigs in a blanket with chips and junk and then we had caramel apples....none of that went as planned!

Here is the pigs in a blanket....


These look very similar to what I would have made in the States. I went and searched for what I thought looked like little weenie things, and I thought it was going to be great... But lurking inside that yummy puff pastry was a nasty sausage thing! Ray ate one and spit a little grisly thing out, and he said, no big deal and kept eating then it happened....he bit down on something so hard I heard from across the table. What happened next was so gross, Ray pretty much threw up on his plate. Dinner was over, well except for Parker who kept right on eating and never could figure out why we stopped!

So like I said before I wanted to make caramel apples, but I had a hard time finding caramel here, and I bought what I thought was caramel because it said caramel right there in the package...so not true! So here are the apples pre-dip, and yes those are spoons in my apples because I couldn't find little sticks either....


And here are my apples after I dipped them and put them in the fridge for maybe 30 minutes hopping they would harden up a bit...

ummm yep, that is the caramel, but really not caramel, all at the bottom of my apples! It was kinda like slime, it wouldn't stick to anything except the kids. Seriously, Ray gave Benjamin a shower after all this and he still had some of it stuck to his arm! So I ended up scraping it back into the pot and cutting the apples and just letting the kids dip them in. The kids loved it, Ray on the other hand didn't want to try it. I guess after the pigs in a blanket he just wasn't going to go there. Plus he thought it was strange that the caramel was black and not light brown....

It looked kinda like chocolate, but it didn't taste like chocolate, but then again it didn't really taste like caramel either...so I guess on the bright side only one person threw up my dinner, and at least that person threw up on his plate so I didn't have to clean the floor! And the kids thought the entire thing was so funny. I guess they had a good Halloween after all!