Hamster wheeling!

Hvordan går det så med at være 2 fuldtidsarbejdende forældre:

So how is life being two parents working full time:

Kristian er rigtig glad for sit arbejde og vi er rigtig glade for den ugentlige løncheck, men for søren altså hvor er det en omstilling af de større at holde Cirkus Frikke kørende på en måde, der er til at holde ud for alle parter. Kristian er (eller har I hvert fald været) udpræget B menneske, men lige nu skal han helst køre senest 06:45 OG huske en madpakke! Gisp. Jeg er blevet til sådan een, der hænger ud på kontoret/laboratoriet til det er halvsent, fordi jeg først møder ind 9:30, og eftersom jeg egentlig altid har prøvet at arbejde efter devisen : tidligt I gang og tidligt hjem, så føles det også lidt sært.

Kristian really enjoys to be working again and we all enjoy the weekly paycheck, but getting the whole Cirkus Frikke functioning every day is quite an adjustment. Kristian is (or at least used to be) a B person, but right now he has to be out of the door no later than 06:45 AND remember his lunch box! Gasp. I am becoming that type of person, who hangs in the office / laboratory semi late because I don’t get in until 9:30, and since I used to always opt for working by the philosophy of: early in/early out it feels a little strange.

Vi har prøvet at finde et godt tidspunkt at købe ind til hele ugen. I Danmark gjorde vi det fredag aften en time inden lukketid (butikkerne er fyldt op til lørdag morgen, og der er ikke et øje – genialt), men her vil vi gerne ha vores fredag aften til at koble helt af. Og med størrelserne på supermarkederne herovre, tager det pænt meget længere tid fra man går ind til man kommer ud igen, Så lige nu prøver vi at få det gjort torsdag aften. Her er et lille snapshot fra ugens indkøb, der egentlig er vores familie I en nøddeskal. Luca fjumser med nyindkøbt dims (denne gang hot wheels biler), frk 13 årig står med næsen I et sladderblad og vil helst ikke anstrenge sig for meget med noget så kedeligt som at hjælpe til, mens den pligtopfyldende side af Ulrik troligt skubber varerne ned til mig – dog med en lettere ugidelig 16 års attitude:

We have tried to find a good time to shop for the whole week. In Denmark we did it on Friday nights one hour before closing time (the shops are filled up for Saturday morning, and there is no-one there - brilliant), but here we like to have our Friday nights free to wind down completely. And with the size of the grocery stores here, it takes much longer from you enter until you are back out, so right now we are trying to get it done Thursday night. Here is a snapshot of this week's shopping, which is basically our family in a nutshell. Luca fiddles with newly purchased gadgets (this time hot wheels cars), Mrs 13 year old stands with her nose in a tabloid and would rather not try too hard with something as boring as helping with packing, while Ulrik dutifully pushes the goods down towards me – but not without a slight “I couldn’t care less attitude”, as you would expect from a 16 year old:

Men vi har det godt. Weekenderme er knap så actionprægede som de har været, men vi kom da I corn maze I søndags (samme sted som sidste år). Denne gang valgte vi, eller dvs Teresa kommanderede, at det skulle være drengene mod pigerne I mazen. Teresa og jeg vandt stort og nåede at gafle et par karameliserede æbler ned, inden vi så resten af familien igen – og vi snød næsten ikke!

But we are doing well. The weekends are not as action-packed as they have been, but we made it to the corn maze Sunday (same place as last year). This time we chose, or rather Teresa commanded, that it should be boys versus girls in the maze. Teresa and I won big and managed to gulp down a few caramel apples before we saw the rest of the family again - and we only cheated a little bit in the maze…….

Stuens møblement er blevet udvidet med en skænk, der egentlig var ret grim, men den kostede kun 30$ og var helt perfekt I størrelsen. En halv time på amazon.com, en hel dåse limspray, og temmeligt meget tålmodighed og klistrede fingre senere, så den sådan her ud (og ja, vi savner stadigt Californien):

The furnishing of the livingroom has been expanded with a dresser, that was actually quite ugly, but it was only $ 30 and was perfect in size. Half an hour on amazon.com, a whole can of gluespray, and quite some patience and sticky finger later, it looked like this (and yes, we still miss California):

Field Hockey sæsonen er I fuld sving med Teresa  som Goalie, og det var lidt sjovt at se hvor lang tid det egentlig ta’r at få alt udstyret på. Heldigvis havde hun hjælp af fra resten af holdet:

Field Hockey season is in full swing with Teresa as a goalie, and it was hilarious to watch how long it really takes to get geared up. Luckily she had help from the rest of the team:

Vi har været til skole hjem samtale med Luca, der sad og var helt rød I hovedet og næsten ikke turde sige noget – lille pus. Hans lærer er simpelthen så sød og han klarer sig godt, men på vej hjem I bilen begndte han at græde over, at han ikke kan li at komme hjem fra skole og det så kun er Ulrik der er hjemme :-( Torsdag morgen var han rigtig ked af det og havde ondt I hovedet/ondt I maven/ikke sulten/træt osv osv. Jeg kender godt symptomerne på at trænge til en hjemmedag med sin mor, så skolen blev aflyst og han kom med på arbejde. Det var rigtig hyggeligt faktisk. Han fik lynhurtigt sat sit fingeraftryk på mit hjørne af kontoret, og min undergrad var færdig af grin over hvordan han heppede på musene, der fik taget blodprøver. “you can do it mouse”, “good boy”, “you’ll be done soon”. Han syntes også det var vældig spændene at få lov til at fylde en 96 brønds plade med gult vand OG der var hans yndlingsmad til frokost (pommes frites). Nu kan han godt klare nogle flere skoledage :-)

We have been at the parent teacher conference with Luca, who wore a very red face and could hardly speak because he was nervous. His teacher is really sweet though and he's doing well, so there was really no reason for him to be that affected by the situation. But on the way home in the car he started crying because he does not like to come home from school and then it is only Ulrik who is there for the first half hour ;-(  Thursday morning he was not feeling well and complained of headaches / stomachache / no appetite / being tired etc etc. I know the symptoms of needing a day off with ones mom, so school was canceled and he came with me to work – growing significantly hungry on the bus. It really was a good day. He quickly marked his territory in my corner of the office, and my undergrad was very entertained by him cheering on the mice having blood samples drawn. "You can do it mouse", "good boy", "you'll be done soon." He also thought it was very exciting to be allowed to fill a 96 well plate with yellow water AND he had his favorite food for lunch (french fries). Now he is ready for some more school :-)