Brandon's daily drive

Warning!

In 1 km, your car MIGHT hit a tree!!!

Wednesday's Simple Pleasures

1. Drive-thru McDonald's latte
2. Attending Bible study with no children on my hip!
3. Sunny and 75

How the beach looks in Germany

We took an overnight trip to Tropical Islands this weekend. It's a Zeppelin (blimp) hanger in Germany that has been converted to an indoor tropical paradise. It houses a rainforest, beaches, pools, waterslides, indoor play park, restaurants, miniature golf... The indoor temperature is 75-80 degrees and the sun shines through the building's "skin" so you can even get tan while inside! It was amazing. Lydia thought so too....

Beach bum

"Does this swimming suit make me look fat?"

Having fun is hard work!

Never enough smiles...

My little school girl

Today was the BIG day. After much, much talk and preparation, the first day of school finally arrived. I arranged for Nina (our sitter) to come stay with Marcus so I wouldn't have to rush with Lydia at the preschool. Until Nina arrived, Lydia seemed pretty oblivious to whole "school" concept. But when Nina came, Lydia proudly informed her, "I'm going to school!"

My worst fears were confirmed when Lydia and I walked into the classroom, met the teacher and then 5 minutes later, Lydia let me know how she felt about the situation. She looked me in the eye and said "I think you should go now". What was this?!? My little girl was pushing me out the door? I had to be sure I heard her right. I asked her "Do you want me to stay with you for a few minutes?". And all doubt was removed when she again stated clearly, "No. I think you should go now". All the stress and anxiety about my darling girl's emotional well-being was stripped away in that one self-assured statement.

Really though, I was so proud of her and her independent self. I recall my mother saying I did the same thing to her once upon a time. Such is the circle of life.

Done making lemonade....

Repaired in record time, really, for a Czech auto shop, we picked her up Saturday morning, handed over our 9500 Kc ($470) and drove away hoping to never return. I suppose a $470 repair bill once a year is to be expected when one is driving a 10-year old car. And what a bargain... they even washed and vacuumed it! It hadn't been vacuumed for a year so that alone probably took half of the shop time.

Ahhhh.... my mobile, carefree self is back and it feels so good.

The Baby Marcus Fan Club

Clark is hands-down Baby Marcus' strongest fan. When Baby Marcus doesn't make his appearance at any given event, Clark is easily the one person in the room who is most disappointed. In true celebrity form, Marcus is oblivious to his awe-struck devotee.

Unfortunately, I worry Clark may be a conditional fan and as soon as a fresh, new babyface arrives on the scene or Baby Marcus becomes Toddler Marcus, his current most-dedicated fan will turn his affections elsewhere. Ah, but such is the difficult life of being a star. For now we will savor every kiss and hug sweet little Clark sends Marcus' way.

Someone's been watchin' Mommy....

Monkeys need love too!

Don't worry though... I don't hold Marcus by the neck to burp him!
Thanks Sunny for sharing the pics...

Tally to date

AAA Taxi is reporting a sudden surge in taxi usage in Prague 6. Coincidence? I think not. This morning's tally:

Home to doctor appointment: 270Kc or $13.50
Doctor's clinic to music class: 100Kc or $5.00
Music class to home: 330Kc or $16.50

Grand total for 3-1/2 hours? $35.00

Granted, we COULD theoretically walk 8 minutes to the closest bus stop, take the bus to the tram transfer point, ride the tram to the stop nearest the doctor office and then walk the remaining 1/2 mile. For some reason, with 2 kids and an overloaded stroller, that didn't sound so fun to me at 8:00 this morning.

I'll file this under "Costs of living in a foreign country". Is that tax deductible?

Disclaimer

The following video contains 9 minutes of viewing pleasure. View only if you have significant downtime or compulsive interest due to the fact that you are a blood relative or just plain miss Lydia immensely! If you have only limited time, Lydia's ventriloquistic performance of "Amazing Grace" at the 7:45 mark is worth a view.

Enjoy!

Lydia's Bedtime Story

Yikey Schnikey

Correction: it wasn't the radiator seal that blew... it was the engine thermometer. Thereby rendering my temperature guage useless. Probably useful information to have had when I proceeded to drive an extra 3 blocks to find an appropriate parking spot. Yeh, things aren't lookin' good...

Thar she blows!

Well, after a year of peaceful driving, the lemon strikes back! Forty-five minutes in bad traffic was just too much so she threw a hissy-fit (literally), hissing and spewing smokey filth all over Prague 6.

Our good friend Billy came to the rescue, determined the seal blew on the radiator hose (hopefully that's the extent of Ms. Lemon's attitude problem) and called a tow truck for us. Lydia and I walked away from the scene and took a tram ride to the closest McD's to drown away our sorrows with a good ol' fashioned Happy Meal.

Lydia is still talking about our broken car and wondering if Mater (from Disney's Cars) has come to get it yet (he has). I'm wondering how we'll make it through the next days of doctor appointments for Marcus and preschool initiation for Lydia while Ms. Lemon sits in her time-out chair awaiting a thorough analysis.

What was that I said about learning to embrace Plan B? Hmmmm......

The men in my life

Easter Monday

We've come a long way since our 1st Easter Monday in the Czech Republic. Oh, how naive we were to take a weekend trip to Germany that fateful spring of 2005. Only to be savagely initiated into the ritual that Europeans call "Easter Monday". How were we to know this holiday would be observed with the same dedication as Christmas? And that we would arrive in Dresden, Germany only to discover nothing is open on Easter Monday... not even (gasp) Wal-Mart?!?!? Normally, we could roll with the punches. But when you have a 1-year old to feed, things get desperate pretty quickly. So Lydia's dinner, bedtime snack and breakfast that year were purchased from the Dresden train station.

Having been indoctrinated early on, we wouldn't dream of such a silly plan these days. We have come to really enjoy the Easter Monday holiday and now embrace the forced relaxation. This year, we invited some friends over for a brunch/lunch/play outside in the sun day. And although my pre-party planning was thrown into panic mode when the 24-hour grocery store's shelves offered no pastries or bratwurst rolls AND closed early the night before (I could understand enough of the announcement over the P.A. system to know I was under being given a 30 minute shopping deadline. Hooray for comprehending some Czech after 2 years. Boo, because now my pulse was racing).

I am happy to say that 2-1/2 years in Prague has made me quite good at embracing Plan B. This wasn't the first time (and won't be the last time) the grocery store's inventory was depleted to bare shelves. So grab the frozen knedlicky* and lets have a party!!!


*Knedlicky - Czech dumplings filled with any variety of ingredients. Our breakfast variety had blueberries or strawberries or apricots. Quite tasty in a unique, I-had-no-other-options, Czech sort of way....

1st Annual Nad Helmrovkou Tot-trot

Ready?

Notice Lucy's (in the pink) sneaky way of edging out the competition?
We'll have to have a talk with her parents about this...

...Set...

GO!

FYI... Lydia was in a strong 2nd. That is until she determined the best course of action was to perform the now famous Lydia-Go limp-Flop just 5 meters before the finish line. Quite dramatic, my girl.

And then it's time to say "goodbye"...

Without a doubt, the most difficult part of living in Prague is the coming and going of friends. It seems that just when you really get to know someone, it's time for them to leave. We always say "let's keep in touch", but deep down we know that blogs and email are no substitute for the real thing. And so it happened again today. We had to say goodbye to Jess. Not only is she a huge part of our church fellowship, she's also become a huge part of our lives. Yes, this is the Jess who accompanied us to Spain and also teamed up with Sunny to enable my much needed one-night-o'-sleep. She's returning to America to get her degree. There is no doubt that she is doing the right thing. It doesn't make it any easier though.

I often wonder what Lydia thinks of all of these farewells. Does she "get it"? Probably not, since in her mind America is a hotel. She must wonder though, if that "America Hotel" is getting pretty crowded -- with her friends: Eloise, Lillian, Ms. Emily and Mr. Jon; Michael; and now Jess ALL there. (Don't worry family; she knows that you are in a house.)

It just gets harder and harder to say good-bye as you "grow up".

So, farewell for now Jess. We love you and will always remember you with fond memories... especially every time we place that Texas piece in the puzzle of America.

Easter Sunday

Lydia in the passageway to our church building/family center for Easter Sunday service.

Our Family - Easter 2007

Update

Nellie's out of the cone. Lydia avoided scarlet fever thanks to her protective mommy and will start preschool next week. Marcus is a half-millimeter away from his 1st tooth. We had a lovely weekend and will post some pics as soon as I can set aside a couple hours of uninterrupted time. Hmmmmm........