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 :-)
