It happened....

UPDATED:
In answer to grandma's post... This is NOT a black & white photo. This is a color photo, straight from the camera... no edits. Yep. Wisconsin winter in all its glory.

Six months of Wisconsin winter commences.... NOW.

The fact that I loathe winter with such intensity is slightly dampened by the sheer joy Lydia displayed upon awakening this morning. She has declared 3 times this morning that this is "the BEST day of her ENTIRE life!"

After managing to build one 6 inch show fort and consume 12 mittenfuls of snowy goodness, she was ready to come in for some hot cocoa. Me too.

Overheard by the fly on the wall......

Daddy: What are you going to be when you grow up Lydia?

Lydia: A Cowgirl.

Daddy: But what are you going to do?

Lydia: Ride horses.

Daddy: But how will you make money?

Lydia: Cowgirls don't need money.

Marcus: Yup!

Lydia: Marcus, what are you going to be when you grow up?

Marcus: BIG TOWWWWWW! (translation: BIG COW!)


Yes, we raise our kids to believe they can be anything they set their hearts on...

I'm a little dutch girl dressed in blue.....

Lydia has been learning about different parts of the world in preschool this month. As a special celebration, her class had a Parade of Nations today. The kids were asked to come dressed in an ethnic costume and they would parade throughout the preschool. Since I'm such a procrastinator Since I strategically waited until the day before to put together her costume, I had to work with supplies purchased at Walmart during a post-lunch / pre-nap frantic well-planned shopping spree.

Two sheets of yellow foam, one yard of calico material, one lacy table runner, one set of cafe curtains and 2 hours later... Voila! A Dutch girl! Complete with "wooden" shoes, a skirt with apron and a shawl. And the cutest little dutch girl I've ever seen.... if I do say so myself.

I. WORK. BEST. UNDER. PRESSURE.

Missing Prague Today

My friend, Michael, put a smile on my face by posting this video on his blog today. That smile made possible by Michael was an amazing feat in and of itself since I am quite tired, sick and worn out these days. (And No, do not let your mind wander there....We are not expecting Verbrugge #3. I'm just a SAHM with 2 small children and 1 travelling husband).

Now, back to the video... I enjoyed it so much I had to post it here as well. Enjoy! (And thanks again Mr. Michael)



Story of the Song
The song follows a man driving through Moravia, and finding a village terrorized by a bog monster named Jozin which eats mainly tourists from Prague. The man asks the mayor of the village to give him a cropduster plane to defeat the monster, and the mayor agrees, promising half of the collective farm and the hand of his daughter in marriage if the man is successful. The man takes the cropduster into the air, and defeats Jozin, trapping him, and selling him to a zoo. (courtesy of wikipedia.org)

Aw man..... you GOTTA love the Czech Republic! There's just no place quite like it.

Destined to be a meteorologist

Lydia's weather prediction for this morning:

"It's going to be colder or warmer. OR it's going to be fally or wintery."

Hey, that's more reliable than most weather reports I get. I'm going to her from now on... good-bye weather.com. I have a NEW source!

Report from China

I received this email from Brandon. Made me smile and I had to share....

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What's going on, the sky is blue today? I wonder if the government installed a big fake sky screen way up in the air? Dude picking me up went to the wrong terminal, apparently he thought Chicago was a domestic city in China. I am oh so patient though...

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Insider's note: I'm pretty confident that the last line is loaded with sarcasm. In my experience, 18hr traveling does not generally lend itself to an "oh so patient" Mr. Verbrugge :) Poor Chinese Pick-Up Dude.....

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day........

Literally and symbolically. Today, winter came to Wisconsin. We haven't had "real" snow yet; Just some flurry temptations. But the temps are in the 30s and I am F.R.E.E.Z.I.N.G. I heard parents cheering for their soccer-playing kids on the fields behind our house and I immediately thought "Eww. Maybe I DON'T want my kids to play soccer...." On days like this I would probably win the award for "Worst Soccer Mom"... How bad would it be to just drop your kid off for their windy, freezing game and then head home to sit by a fire in the fireplace, with a fleece blanket and some hot chocolate? After a few years of counseling they'd get over it, right?

And then Brandon left this morning for another week in China. Some symbolic grey, cloudy, coldness heaped on to the real deal.

So where does the sunshine come in? Well, I stumbled across a quiz on facebook that tests one's "True Age". It asks 30 questions about your environmental, social, physical status and then provides you with your true age. Imagine my glee when the results were tabulated and I was proclaimed to be (drum roll please)................ 21 years old! Could there BE a better result?!? I was even honest about occasionally being discontent with my "job" and that I drink 0 alcoholic drinks per day (which doesn't seem very 21-esque to me!). But the results are in which makes it offical. I'm already feeling years younger, much more content and am walking with a renewed spring in my step!

So, please excuse me, but this 21-year old is heading to bed. It IS 10:30pm and WAY past my bedtime after all......

------Postscript---------
If you don't want to sign up for the full facebook quiz you can just google "True Age Test". But be forewarned..... they generally ask only about 5 questions and the first one I took ranked me at "Grandfather/Grandmother Age". Yeh, total bunk.

My heart was hugged tonight........

Dear God,
Thank you SO much for this day.
And thank you for this food.
And please keep Daddy safe in China this week.
And please make Daddy feel good about meeting the people in China.

And thank you for the animals.
And thank you for the sun and the moon.
You are a GREAT God!
Amen.

--Lydia, age 4-1/2

Fall Photo Shoot

It was a rare cooperative-Lydia day so we headed out for a fall photo shoot... I absolutely, positively, most certainly did NOT take approximately 142 pictures in five backyard shooting locations before realizing there wasn't a memory card in my camera. What kind of a scatter-brained mom would do something so ridiculous? Definately NOT me!

Take Two.
It was a rare cooperative-Lydia day so we headed out for a fall photo shoot............ ahem.

My Little Monsters