President of Lithuania

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus was chosen a person of the year in Europe. Here is a little article I found in one of Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos Rytas.

Pretty cool, huh?

I’ll try and find an article in English.

Happy belated Thanksgiving

My computer time was very limited in the last week or so.  So I apologize.

We had family visiting from out of state. They flew in here, and then we all drove to K&K’s house for Thanksgiving and a birthday party.

The birthday party was great! We all had some drinks (ok, so maybe a little more than some). Even L was drinking from a shot glass, but of course he only had water in there. But he was happy!! He wanted more and more and more. We all had fun! Happy Birthday Mom!!!

T-day was good, too. As usual, I ate way too much, but the food was soooo gooood! And we only have that stuff once a year, so why not?!

Well, I’m going to leave you with this song as my head is feeling empty today. Enjoy! Michael Buble ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’

Letting go

I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad. I guess a little of both. You know when that time comes of letting go of those baby things and you’re not really sure you want to, but you have to, because you can’t be holding on to them forever. Well maybe for a few small things like first outfit, or a blanket, or first pair of shoes, or their lovey, etc. But what about the big items? Like a stroller, a swing, a crib, a playpen. You can’t be storing them forever.

Well my time came today. We sold one of the strollers that we had bought for Lukas. I posted an add on Craigslist a while ago about wanting to sell it. This week one lady e-mailed me asking if I still had it and if she could take a look at it. At first I was happy. I thought if she does like it and she buys it, that would be one less thing in the garage. Plus I would get a little spending money for Christmas. Getting a new something for the kids. When Viktor pulled it out of the garage today so I could clean it up (it got dusty sitting there in the garage for a while now) and after the kids saw it, they fought who would go in it. Lukas only lasted in it for a few minutes and then took off on his tricycle, but Ava enjoyed it for a while. We took her for a little walk in it and she loved it! She did not want to get out of it. She literally sat in it for about an hour. After I noticed that she was falling asleep, I took her out. After all, I did need to clean it. We haven’t really used that stroller with her much, as we always used the double. I got so sad thinking that we might not bring this stroller back home anymore. In like forever! My kids will never be able to ride in it. The thought of keeping it did run through my head, but the people were already on their way, and we really don’t have the room to be keeping it.

When the people came by, Ava was napping. They loved the stroller. They have almost 1 year old girl and were so excited on getting it for her.

When Ava woke up she headed straight outside and started looking all over the place. I think she was looking for the stroller. I didn’t even take a picture of her in it.

But it was time to let it go.

Hungry anyone?

We were going to have scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning. Up until I cracked open the first egg:

Are you still hungry?

Not sure what the others look like from the dozen that we have, but I wasn’t about to find out after I saw this.

I don’t know if I can ever look at the eggs the same way.

Christmas season is officially here

Since they built a mall in our city down the street from us, they have a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony every year. I don’t quite remember when it was last year (I’ll have to look for the pictures), but I think this year they had it a little too early. It was yesterday. Third year in a row. They will have another one tonight. I guess for the folks that couldn’t make it yesterday. Or maybe for the kids that really enjoyed it yesterday, they can go back and see it again tonight.

Yes! We did go. This was our second year. Last year L was a little scared when they turned off the lights and the music came on and the tree was lit. A was too little to really understand it, so she just sat in her stroller the whole time. This year it was a little different. We got there about half an hour early and the mall was already crowded. And I mean CROWDED!!! It took us about 10 minutes just to find parking space. I’ve never seen it this packed before. Seriously. There was already a bunch of people around the tree. Some even had blankets of the ground. I guess they were sitting there for a while.

A wanted to be held. After a few minutes of holding her she wanted to go down and walk around. Then being held, then walk, etc. L at first wanted to sit on Viktor’s shoulders, then after A was out of the stroller, he wanted to sit in the stroller. And so he sat there the rest of the time. When the lights went off and the music started playing, I thought that L might get scared again. I tried holding his hand, but he didn’t want to. He was just sitting there and watching. He did not want to be held. The tree lit up and L started clapping. Then it started snowing. It was bubble snow. Then all the way on the top in one of the balcony’s, one of those smoke things started blowing and guess who we saw?! A SANTA!!! I wasn’t sure if L could see it, so I grabbed him out of the stroller, lifted him up and showed it to him. He started waving right away. The look on his face was priceless!!! He wasn’t even blinking. Just waving and looking at Santa. He talked about him the rest of the night.

Since we were at the mall and I did have some coupons with me from Bath & Body Works I had to stop by there. Viktor took the kids for a walk around the mall. After a little bit Viktor came back with Lukas singing HO HO HO out loud. It was too cute! Turns out when they were walking around, they saw Santa up close and personal and L was sucking on a candy cane that Santa gave him. He was super happy as it was his first time seeing Santa up close.

Here are a few pics.

yuck

Last night, Viktor went out to get something from outside for a second and left the door open, and this big thing flew in. Kind of like a mosquito but 100 times bigger. We tried of getting it, either killing it or were hoping it would fly out, but no luck. The thing kept hiding from us. Then later when the kids were in bed, it showed it’s face and started flying all over our living room, dining room, not sure if it made it to the kitchen. We tried getting it again, and I was so going to kill it and flush it down the toilet, but, no luck. It was getting late and the bed was calling my name, so I thought that I will deal with it tomorrow. I didn’t think that that who knows what you call it was going to make it upstairs, but to tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of it flying up there and then landing somewhere on the bed, or my head. YUCK!!

This morning I got up, looked around and nothing. Until I walked in the bedroom downstairs and looked down, there it was, just laying there on the carpet. And the kids were already playing in that room for about 15 minutes or so. I’m glad Ava didn’t see it and eat it, as she puts everything in her mouth, and I mean EVERYTHING. The flying thing was dead. I ran to the kitchen, got some paper towels, picked the thing up (yes! I was really….umm……scared to get it, but I had to, for my kids) and guess what I did with it afterward? Yup, you guessed it! Threw it in the toilet and waved bye bye. (didn’t actually waved to it, but thought to myself, thank god it is gone!).

Now, you’re ready to see what I’m talking about? Here it is! (the picture is not the best, but I had to do it fast instead of taking my time trying to get a good shot of it)

I love nice, warm, sunny weather. But when it is in the high 80’s in the middle of November and I have to turn my A/C on, I’m not sure I like it anymore that much. We need a time to cool off, right?! I know I will probably complain when it gets cold and rainy, but that’s what winter is supposed to be (where I live), and that’s why we have those hot coco’s, warm fuzzy blankets and pj’s, nice and warm slippers, the heaters, and then of course the fire places, etc. I miss hearing that crackling in the fire place. Oh and the smell is so good! But no! we can’t have that just yet, because it’s freaking hot out here! Although it is supposed to be cooling off to high 60’s low 70’s, or so they say. 

I’ve been really having a hard time coming up with titles for my posts. So from now on, all my posts, well, maybe most of them, will have no title. It is kind of weird, but I’ll see how that goes. And now that I really think about it that when I would want to post something and would start thinking about the title, I couldn’t come up with one, so I just wouldn’t post. It’s not the case for all the time, but sometimes.

So from now on my friends, my posts will be titles.

Lazy day

It was a lazy Sunday for us. I got to sleep in a little and then my hubby cooked breakfast. How sweet! He said when he was downstairs with the kids, he was bored when the kids were playing, so he decided to cook. We had egg muffins and potatoes, and coffee. I took my time going through the paper, actually the adds, while sipping my coffee. After that, we just wedged around the house, did absolutely nothing. Took a late shower, and after the kids naps, we decided to head out to Costco, as we ran out of milk and eggs this morning, and some other things. Even though it was cloudy and drizzly and not so warm outside, it felt nice to go out. I usually don’t really like to go out when it’s cold, unless I have to, but today it felt good. It was a Washington weather. Our evening was the same, just lazy. Viktor watched football most of the day. And he really enjoyed it! It’s been a while where we would spend most of our Sunday at home, therefore, he doesn’t get to watch football much.

The only downside is that our kids have colds. Nothing big, just congested noses, little coughs and some sneezing. L is already getting better as he is on his 4th day, but poor A is just on her 2nd day.

*ETA: when we went to Costco and got the kids in the cart, the car next to us started pulling out. Before they started to pull out, I took a step forward pushing a cart, and they just started driving back. Just shook my head and started to walk, when another car who was waiting for that spot, just started driving in it, and the guy driving it gave me the look like ‘don’t you see I’m driving’. He totally just cut in front of the cart where my kids were sitting. Couldn’t he just waited like 5 seconds until I passed that spot?! Urgh!! V wanted to tell him something, but I said don’t worry about it, lets not get our day ruined over some…..umm….assholes.

It’s funny because we go to Costco pretty often and we’ve never had that happen to us before. Some people!

Date nights

We’re starting this new ‘tradition’ (or we’re trying to) that every Saturday night is a movie night for Viktor and me. Since we don’t get out and we miss going to the movies, this is as close as we’ll get to our movie date nights.

Last Saturday we watched The Bourne Identity. We saw The Bourne Ultimatum in Lithuania in the theater this summer and I have forgotten what went on in the first movie, so we had to watch it. While I was putting the kids down, Viktor drove to the movie theater and picked up some popcorn. There is nothing better than having some popcorn from a theatre with extra butter and some salt. It’s not the healthiest, but oh so good! So I better go and start getting the kids for bed, so Viktor and I can watch a movie. Not sure what we’re watching tonight though, maybe The Bourne Supremacy, since it’s also been a while since we saw it. Or maybe Viktor has something in mind. And for our snacks, we’ll probably have some microwaved popcorn and Cookies N Cream ice cream. I’m really looking forward to that!