Re-united again!

Jonah and his fishi are re-united again!

Well, it is not his original fish. We searched literally the world for this fish! We found a store in Australia that still sells the fish but they won't ship internationally.
I put a post up on Craigslist and somebody responded that her son has 3 fish and she wants to let me know if one of those is Jonah's. Of course, it wasn't.

I searched on Craigslist Florida. Chicago. Utah. Los Angeles. Phoenix. New York. I found one fish! The lady sold the fish in a lot with other Lamaze toys and I asked her if she would only sell the fish. She responded that she had bad luck with selling something in mailing the item so she's hesitant now. Plus, she does not have paypal.How I intended to send her money?
Well, the lady never responded again after she said she would go to the post office to inquire about the shipping cost...

I wrote an email to all my Mom friends to see if anybody has a fish or their playdates might have. No luck here.

I wrote an email to all the parents at Olivia's preschool and a few responded wishing me good luck in finding a 'wishie' and one parent even offered me another lamaze toy for free just to make Jonah happy again!

Chris finally found a fish on 'frimp.com' something like craigslist that I have never heard of. This lady with the fish lives in New Hampshire and she tried to cancel the ad because her boys did not want to get rid of the fish....Chris mentioned our sad fish story and she said that she will find out if her boys are really attached to the fish.

It turned out that the boys could easily let go of their toy and Chris paypaled the lady money and two days later we held a new fish in our hands!

The fish was nicely wrapped in paper and had a bow...but I could hear the fish's sounds when I wiggled the packet so after 2 long weeks we finally had a wishie again!!

When we gave Jonah this package in the evening, Olivia helped untie the bow and Jonah ripped the paper apart. He exclaimed: 'My wishie! My wishie! Danke, DANKE, Mama!'....and that was it. He held the fish for a few seconds, then put it away on the couch and continued playing with the other toys...

And this is how the story ends.
The fish was his life for so long, he lost it, we looked all over the place for a replacement and once we got it, Jonah could not care less.

Oh well, at least, we tried!

Pictures!

Today I felt like taking some pictures...so I built up our photo booth (LOL), hung an old blue king sized bed sheet over the bar, pinned it tight with safety pins and here a few pictures of our outcome:

Kindergarten / Preschool

Am Montag habe ich Olivia's Lehrerin, Miss Beth, geholfen. Wir Eltern koennen uns eigentlich recht viel in der Schule einbringen, jeden Montag und Dienstag gibt es 'Helping Hands', an denen sich ein Elternteil fuer seine Klasse fuer eine Stunde mit einsetzt.
Es wird nicht viel von einem verlangt, Miss Beth fragte mich letztens, ob ich aus gestaerktem Papier Kuerbisse schneiden koennte....und man sitzt halt bei den Kindern und hilft, regt an, raeumt auf...

Hier ein kleines Video aus Olivia's Klasse. 8 Kinder sind es im Gesamten, wobei der lustige Louie leider krank war...

Schnee....

Wir haben am Freitag wieder Schnee bekommen. Nachdem wir am Donnerstag noch in kurzen Hosen Rad gefahren sind (siehe vor-vorheriges Posting).

Hier steht Jonah im Schneeregen und faengt den Schnee mit der Zunge.
Und als es dann am Sonntag wieder schoen wurde (und es schon wieder fleissig vor sich hintaut) haben Olivia und ich einen Schneemann gebaut.

Dem Bobo ist es ja immer kalt, also hat er zwei Sweaters an und geniesst die frische Luft. Ich weiss nicht, warum das Foto verdreht ist, habe es normal abgespeichert..

Und so sah es am Montag morgen auf dem Weg zu Olivia's Kindergarten aus...

Ist ja eigentlich ganz huebsch, oder?

Riding Vanna

Finally some videos of me riding Vanna!

I already rode her for 25 minutes so she got tired and ...hm...stubborn. She was doing much better in the couple past weeks. I probably should start riding her again a couple of times with the neck strecher (Halsverlaengerer).

The left side is her good side, she bends nicely and sometimes keeps her head low even on a straight line (well, not today).

The right side is her not-so-good-side. You can tell by looking at her how she bends to the outside when going into a right circle. Plus, she always wanted to canter today (no problem with that) however, she never holds her canter for more than a couple of strides. And she still has problems with turning where and when I want so I kind of dislike anyway a full canter circle in this narrow arena.

Vanna is still a work in progress but nevertheless we already achieved a lot. I started riding her once every two weeks after I came back from Germany in August 2008 and three times a week when my Mom was here in June. And this brought us forward tremendeously. Now I am riding Vanna twice a week to keep her in shape.
When I started, she did not know the cues for canter. She did not want to turn right. She wanted to run to the gate of the arena and just park there.
If the gate was left open, she ran outside with me.
She was a mess.

The pictures were taken by my Mom in June 2009. Vanna holds up her head high into the air that made it difficult to steer her or do anything right with her. I tell you - we were not a pretty looking pair!
But Vana has a good heart and she is almost all the time gentle when being groomed and she has never acted up the 3 times Olivia already was able to ride her!

So we already came a long way from where we started and if I would have ridden her more often she would be already much better. But it is what it is and as long as we are making progress each week -even in baby steps - that works for me!

Thank you BarnChris for letting me ride her!

Anyway, I am happy to have finally a video from me and Vanna so that I can see where she needs more training (well, she needs training in every aspect of riding...what I meant was where she needs training the most).

Any suggestions of my horsy friends are more than welcome!

Miscellanious things...

One picture of my adorable son...it was so nice watching him and Dudu drawing together...

Chris and I celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary on the 10th...since Olivia and I have been a little sick over the weekend and my sore thoat never got better, and Chris feeling a little crappy, too, we only had a two hour date in the evening while our neighbors Lisa and Greg watched the kids...well, watch TV I should say since the kids were all in bed and almost sleeping :-)

Chris brought me 12 red roses and a very nice card and made me feel special!

On Wednesday morning I and the kids went shopping at a clothing store and Jonah lost his beloved fish. I spent 30 minutes at least on my knees robbing through the store but for my dear life I could not find the fish.

I looked on ebay and in one auction there is a fish and I put out an ad on Craigslist and somebody replied that she might have a fish for me...but this lady never replied after one day so I don't know if she just plain forgot it or what happened to her idea to help me.

Jonah is doing good so far without his fish, is of course asking for it but does not have a meltdown. Two naps and one night's sleep were going ok without his beloved toy.

Today was so warm again that the kids could ride their bikes in shorts - crazy Colorado weather! Tomorrow they expect snow again...it is true: in the morning you switch on the heater and in the afternoon the air condition!

Since Olivia was not allowed to go to preschool on Monday (due to being feverish still on Sunday evening and the school requires a 24 hour fever free period before entering school again) we visited the barn and Olivia was even able to ride Vanna! Of course, Jonah wanted too...

I am now getting Olivia English riding attire off of German ebay. It is soo much cheaper than here, since everything you find here in the English Tack Stores are imported things from Germany for double the prize!

Olivia will get boots, riding pants, a coat and a helmet from me for Christmas. So far we got one pair of riding pants...but we still have a few weeks until my Mom comes here in December!

Halloween

Puenktlich zu Halloween fing es an, zu tauen. Es war relativ warm, aber wenn die Sonne untergeht, wird es doch wieder recht kuehl. Zudem wehte ein kalter Wind...diese Nacht haben wir erst die Uhr umgestellt, daher sind die Kinder, hier mit ihrem 'Geistigen' Freund Matthew, noch im Hellen unterwegs gewesen, obwohl wir doch erst um 17:30 Uhr angefangen haben, zu 'Trick or Treaten'.

Hier Olivia in ihrem Ponykostuem

Jonah war als Bauarbeiter unterwegs

Jonah ist die ganze grosse Runde fleissig mitgelaufen, hat brav an jeder Tuer Matthew und seiner grossen Schwester den Vortritt gelassen, ist dann aber auch ganz mutig zur Tuer und hat seine Utensielienkiste vorgehalten und dann zuegig umgedreht, nachdem er die Suessigkeiten bekommen hat. Da seine Kiste recht klein war, habe ich ihm immer Candy rausgenommen und in meine grosse Tasche gepackt, die ich mitgenommen habe.

Chris hat derweil hier zuhause Suessigkeiten ausgegeben und als wir wieder hier waren und Chris mit den Kindern um die Haeuser ziehen wollte, hatte Jonah schon keine Lust mehr, weil er muede war. Olivia hat es nur noch bis zum Nachbarhaus geschafft, dann kam auch sie zurueck.

Aber Guenter und Elisabeth, Matthew's Eltern, hatten uns vorher und nachher zu sich eingeladen. Also haben wir den Kindern nur die Kostueme ausgezogen und sind dann wieder zu Matthew's Haus, welches nur 3 Haeuser von uns entfernt steht.

Dort haben wir dann noch bei einem Bierchen und Pizza zusammengesessen, waehrend die Kinder spielten. Um 8 sind wir dann wieder zurueck und ich bin dann recht beschwipst (ich vertrag ja nichts! haha) vor 9 ins Bett gefallen.

Heute war es dann wieder soo warm, dass wir draussen erstmal unsere voellig verdreckten Autos gewaschen haben, mit den Hunden eine grosse Runde gegangen sind und wir sogar wieder in kurze Hosen und T-Shirts vor dem noch vorhandenen Schnee fuer ein Foto posieren konnten!

Dann kamen noch sehr gute Freunde von uns zu Besuch. KT (Katie - lach!) arbeitet seit Maerz fuer die Firma Crocs und sie hat uns ein paar Schuhe mitgebracht...diese hier passen mir sogar! Die Kinder haben auch ein paar Boots und Hiking Shoes bekommen und jetzt guck ich auf die Crocs homepage, weil Katie Schuhe 70% guenstiger bekommt....das muss man ja ausnutzen!! :-)

Ausserdem haben wir heute noch die zwei letzten Waende gruen gestrichen und jetzt fehlt nur noch rot am Kamin, dann sind wir vorlaeufig fertig mit streichen !

Wir waren heute also sehr produktiv!!