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At eight this morning the phone rang. “Is Erik there?” the man with the thick Norwegian accent asked.
I looked out the window and watched as my incredibly patient hubby lifted the garbage can and dumped the recyclables out of the garbage into their proper recycling can container. Crap. Wife forgets which is which for the hundredth time while husband is rushing to get the cans out before the trucks come. I hear the roar of the truck and it’s almost nearing our driveway.
“Um….he’s taking the garbage out, can I ask who’s calling?”
The Norwegian accent replied, “This is Sven.”
At this point I figured someone was trying to pull a little prank on us. For those that don’t know me or my family very well we come from a Norwegian background and both sides of the family enjoy “Ole and Lina” and “Ole and Sven” jokes. I listened to the voice and determined it was not my father-in-law Chris, who excels at telling these jokes in his Sunday sermons, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t any other relative calling.
“Okay. Who is this, really? Is this a joke?” I laughed.
“No, I’m looking for Erik? Is Joe his father?”
At this point I yelled to Erik that he had a phone call and Girlie began to whine and wanted outside. She started making the loud “big truck” noises she makes on garbage days. I handed the phone off to Erik and told him I thought someone was pulling a prank on us. He seemed confused but took the call while finishing up the garbage.
Girlie and I watched the “vroom vroom” big trucks drive away down the block and then I listened to the rest of the phone call.
Turns out, silly me, that Sven was really from Norway and had worked as an au pair for a family with the last name Brekke and a son named Erik in the early 80’s. Whoops….poor guy probably thought I was a crazy American.
Besides random strange phone calls from Norwegian Sven, I heard some very exciting news from my Mom today. It turns out that some friends in my parents neighborhood have been chosen by ABC’s Extreme Makeover to have a new house built for them. The DeVries family are wonderful people who have had many challenges in their lives and I’m really happy for this great news for them. In four and half days a new house will be standing where their old one was. Over 500 people have volunteered to help build it and they’ve had to turn away many more. Minnesotans are sure generous, huh!
Susan, the wife, is very very talented. She paints and is musical and she also teaches. For our wedding we had her paint gifts for our bridesmaids and musicians. She painted a basket full of flowers using a rock as her canvas. In the middle of each “basket” she added a special bible verse I had picked out that suited each girl or guy. They look very cool as a garden decoration. She struggles with a heart condition that is puzzling and they can’t seem to figure out how to correct.
Her husband, Dirk, lost his arm at sixteen years old. Soon after his accident my parents moved into a little house on his family’s farm and rented it for a few years before buying the house I grew up in and they still live in. They have three kids who I bet are darn excited right now and I think they’ll be off on a fun vacation this week while the house is being built.
Wow, such a great and generous event. I wish I could be there to see the community supporting them with this. I’m sure I’ll have more updates throughout the week. The show is supposed to air sometime around Thanksgiving, so look for it then.
I bet Obama would have liked to really punch McCain after Friday night. Or…maybe it just ended up helping his campaign? We’ll see what happens.
I watched most of the debate between McCain and Obama. I have a little bit I need to watch on tape still, but I watched over an hour and got the feel for the night overall. My parents arrived for a weekend visit during the middle of the debate and joined Erik and I in watching the rest of it.
Throughout the hour all four of us who are pretty much undecided or leaning a bit towards one direction or the other ALL felt annoyed at Senator McCain for his condescending attitude towards Obama. I believe the phrase…”He’s being such a jerk” was repeated a few times that evening. The phrases McCain continued saying…”he just doesn’t understand” or “he’s too naive” were repeated so many stinking times that by the end of the debate we were all very annoyed at his dismissive and disrespectful attitude toward Obama.
I understand that you need to make the other guy look bad. I get that this is a huge competition to get votes and hold the title of POTUS. I know that political campaigns get dirty and Obama had his fair share of jerky things to say that night, too. It was just that instead of taking the cheap shots constantly Obama said quite a bit of things like- #1…we need to do this. #2 this has to stop or this has to happen,etc. He spoke about a what needed to happen, how he would do it and McCain only had a few of those moments during the debate.
Today I checked out this site called fact check. I feel like this site isn’t favoring one party or candidate (from what I can see at least). After reading this article about the debate it makes me want to scream Liars Liars pants on fire!!!!!!!! Seriously, you can’t believe a darn thing these guys are saying…it’s all a loaded comment and from both of them. Arrrrrrrggggggg. I’m just glad that I’m able to get the facts later and have time to process the whole thing. I’m very curious about how the Palin/Biden debates go. We’ll see.
On a non-political note we had a great weekend with my parents. Saturday we headed to an apple/pumpkin farm and picked out a few pumpkins (three to be exact. A Daddy, Mommy and Baby sized pumpkin), fed and pet the goats and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Girlie also learned to say the sound that a monkey makes…it’s pretty funny to hear her running around screetching and laughing at herself for being sooooo goofy.
I’ve got an organic sampling update for ya. Girlie loved these Annie’s rabbit cracker things (attempt on making goldfish crackers that are organic). They’re supposedly 80% organic and I think I ate more than the kid. Whoops. They were actually not too expensive (on sale!)
Organic=1 Non-O=0
Lunch’s main course today was veggies dogs. I was a bit afraid to feed them to the kids thinking they’d freak and demand the real ones. They were also a bit slimy before cooking..bleh. After microwaving a few seconds, chopping them up small enough to satisfy my fear of choking paranoia, and serving them up the result showed….
Organic=2 Non-O=0
I picked myself up from the nasty grocery floor after dramatically fainting due to the RIDICULOUS costs of organic milk. We typically go through at least one gallon of whole milk a week and one and half to two gallons of skim. Brekkes like their milk…and cereal…and Girlie loves her sippy full of whole milk.
After taking a deep breath I grabbed a half gallon of Organic Valley Skim. I think I’m going to buy a cow instead of milk from now on. I’m sure the childcare kids would love coming here even more…I’ll just have to figure out how to break city laws by having a large animal in my backyard. There’s also the question of where to put the poo. Erik would be happy to turn lawn mowing responsibilities over to said bovine…hmmm…I might have a plan!
The big taste test just went down a few minutes ago at lunch. I opened my nice little carton of skim, took a drink and hmmm…..nope. My taste buds were treated to a cardboard-like aftertaste or some weird flavor after every sip. I drank it all down, but it was almost like something was stuck in my throat afterwards. Strange. That leaves the score at…
Organic=2 Non-O= 1
The last little taste test of the day was not done by yours truly. I’ll let this photo do the explaining.
I’m not sure if the paint counts as organic or non-organic. It’s a non-toxic paint and she hated it on her hands and especially in her mouth. I guess she’s more a fan of the toxic variety…great.
Hi friends. Supposedly you don’t have to be a member of facebook to look at this page. If you’d like to see our summer of 2008 photos you can find them at this site.
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41161&l=04737&id=619426224
I went to the grocery store today with a mission. What mission was that you ask?
In truth I had two goals for the trip.
#1: Keep child from eating through all the cardboard containers and also from knawing through the plastic to get at the bagels I buy. Darn Girlie eating cardboard. I swear she gets enough fiber!
#2: Check out a lot of organic foods, buy them, and sample them (not all in one day…although I’m pretty sure I could do it.)
I spent a lot more than usual..arg…but hey that means I’m stimulating the crappy economy. Go me! The biggest things were all the cleaning supplies. I’d actually been wanting to “go green” on dishsoap, toilet bowl cleaner and general shower/tub cleaner for quite a while now and I finally have. I’m pretty sure I have to keep a mandatory supply of my Clorox orange smelling disinfectant wipes for the table and diaper changing mat areas, but I’ll have to check with the state lisensor about this rule (because there are seriously thousands of rules on everything from how to change poos to food to sleeping mat thickness to discipline to sickness to obviously cleaning supplies…blah blah blah.)
I’m excited for the next week of sampling. I’ll be sure to tell you some favorite finds and hopefully I won’t have too many negatives to report (except for the hit my wallet’s going to take). Now, I’m off to give Erik the bad news…ahem…I mean good news–I’m saving us many years of life, right?!
I forgot to post this yesterday, but oh well. My friend Jess had this on her blog which led me to the Simple Woman’s Blog, which led me to post this here. Whew…it’s fun to find new blogs, isn’t it! So…if you like this fun little activity take a look at the Simple Woman’s site and find how to incorporate simplicity into your blog each Monday.
FOR TODAY September 23, 2008…
Outside My Window…birds are singing
I am thinking…about friends I miss
I am thankful for…my cozy house
From the kitchen…I’m freezing garden green beans and eating apple crisp
I am wearing…jeans, teal tank top and teva sandals
I am creating…manners in my daughter and kids I care for each day (at least I hope!)
I am going…outside to play after the munchkins wake up
I am reading…Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
I am hoping…I can reflect God’s love to others
I am hearing…quiet little noises suggesting Girlie is about to wake up
Around the house…I have the windows open and fresh air coming in
One of my favorite things…my comfy bed (preferrably with a hubby there to cuddle with!)
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: choir practice, lunch with a friend, my parents are visiting this weekend, heading to the pumpkin patch.
Here is picture thought I am sharing…
I loved kayaking on Lake Pokegame in Grand Rapids, MN. Very relaxing!
