A few shots

Stefán is far too cool, he reminds me of one of those banking gangsters.

Winter is here when Kasper and Rósa both need an electric heating blanket to keep warm.

A few couchsurfers, trying to get some packing done before heading out the next day.

Davíð is the new family hairdresser, at least with the boys.

Worst host ever!

Wheel we always try to be the best hosts we can, it doesn't always work. Sometimes I don't get a chance to vacuum, sometimes the kids are not very well behaved, anything can happen, but we try, and most importantly we follow the couchsurfing rules, which clearly state, no profits allowed.

A little before the story:
These hosts I am relating below have been banned, then re-allowed on couchsurfing for breaking a few rules like, charging money to sleep on the couch, renting out there car and having guests property stolen.

I should make it known that I am very against the whole idea of renting out personal cars from people over couchsurfing, not so much because of the money but because of the lack of security. Iceland is a big place and the roads can be very rough. Cars break all the time and there is a fair amount on accidents, so if you are renting a car under the table, who will pay the the claims against you in a car accident? If you are renting a car you don't know anything about, who will save you when it breaks done in the middle of nowhere? No ama here So, it really i just a bad idea.

Now they are back on couchsurfing, hosting in Reykjavík, a popular place to go. And I have met a few survivors from this house. Stories including:
-Having to pay 1500 kr a night, per person.
-Renting the car, then finding out the window would not roll up.
-Accepting a ride somewhere, that they were going anywhere, and paying twice the price of the gasoline.

Then last night I host a couple of nice girls from Germany. They had stayed with me when they first got to Iceland then came back for the last night - after they had just stayed at this infamous house in Reykjavík, and they still looked a little shaken up from the whole thing.

First of all they arrived early in the morning and when the door opened everyone was running around naked.  Two men and one women, trying to get dressed for the day. I guess this was a little shocking.
Then one girl has to use the bathroom, sits on the toilet and the entire thing falls over. Water spills everywhere, water starts spraying out of the pipes. And the smell.... Now if this was me I probably would have made a run for it right then, but these girls are made of stronger stuff then me.
Then they hear that this toilette breaks all the time, it will be fixed later. So they sit on the beddish thing, most of the morning, with a Finnish girl that they are sharing a bed with, who will not get out of her sleeping bag because she is frightened.  So the three of them have a bond, with nearly exploding bladders they then went on a laptop and finally read the references for this host.
Pages of complaints about the mess, bathroom, charging for things and communication problems.
Moral of the story: Take the time to read references before you send a couch request.
*******Side note: Davíð is so excited to try this out now he is planning to surf this couch - just to say he did it.

So so behind - back to Facebook

This having three boys takes more time and energy then one might think,

but I have big plans,

as soon as I think of a good name I will go back to Facebook and create a page for the entire family. And I will not use it for Farmville, I promise.

Then Davíð can get his facebooking fix, and we can properly advertise this kids upcoming birthday parties.

Look for your upcoming friendship request :)

Just need a good name......

Toothbrush memories

Today I had coffee at my friends house, but this is not the interesting part for you, what was interesting is that while standing in her bathroom, checking out my teeth after eating, I looked at her toothbrush and was reminded of an old friend in Canada.
Her name was Tammy.
Now one day Tammy had been consuming a few beer and decided to admit that she uses everyones toothbrush. She said that she often feels the need to brush her teeth and because she does not carry toothbrush around with her, she just uses the ones in her friends bathrooms.
Ending line:
If Ive been to your house, I have used your toothbrush.
Morale of the story: Somethings were not meant to be shared.

Eating with the big boys

Leópold refuses to believe that he is actually a baby. Here you see him eating with his big brothers, and the boy from upstairs who is nearly a brother.
And if you used to live on the base you will recognize all my furniture from the old day rooms, so I would like to thank the U.S. army for furnishing my living room :)

Leó, enjoying those noodles.

So he has to stand to be able to see well enough over the table.

Lucky for us, Rósa is very good about getting any food that does not make it into the baby's mouth.

Washing

Here you can clearly see that Leópold spends far too much time around me, that or I clean too much. Give this little guy a cloth and he starts wiping away.

Mr. T

Angela, a couchsurfing friend from the United States, sent me this great surprise:

 

And what is this? You might ask, well, its a Mr. T tampon holder. Seriously, his head lifts up so you can hide them in his legs. To quote my dear friend:

Both Functional and Fashionable

Thanks again Angela.

And some parting words of wisdom from our hero:

A happy 13 year old

While I always suspected I could behave a little on the immature side, I never suspected that I wrote like a youngster.
Even after I spell check.
According to this site, one that analizes your blog and tells you about yourself, I am female (correct), happy almost always (whatever you say) and between 13 - 17 years of age (someone better tell that to my skin).
To double check the accurateness I looked up my rend and neighbor, Lizzy. 
and they were dead on.
so maybe I am 13.

Staying up late

Davíð is out working on the lighting at Víkingaheimur a.k.a. Viking World and I am bored, really bored.
This kids are sleeping, the laundry is done, dishs - check.
Nothing else to do but fool around online.
Farmville, here I come.
But first I want to share these:
My husbands Aunty Anne lives and teaches in Bhutan (admittedly I didn't know that was a place until she started teaching there), and no surprise, she has a blog. The most recent post I found really funny because I think it talks some conversations about men being like animals, like they really can not help themselves and thats OK.

It seems that most Bhutanese women accept that husbands will have other lovers, and that a good wife should “forgive” her husband.

I also ran across this great marriage advice that I actually try to live by, but sometimes need reminding: 

Let the small stuff go. Things are not always symbolic. Sometimes a dirty sock is just a dirty sock (or something like that). We don’t need to over analyze or over invest in small actions or omissions.

And last, but certainly not least, remember Oregon Trail?  Well, some fun loving people made a pretend movie tailer for it, as though it would be a movie... Anyways, if you played the game, you will laugh yourself silly. I nearly woke up the kids laughing so loud, but if you don't know what I am talking about, you will probably think this video is a little stupid?

Little Monster

If you leave the bathroom door open for 2 minutes this little guy is in there like a dirty sock and the next thing you know, the house is covered in toilet paper.
He just grabs the end and runs.

The Big Walk

A few weeks ago I went on a lovely walk to the Blue Lagoon. Now this is no ordinary stroll, it takes hours, is exhausting and has some incredible views.
Next year I ma going to do all the hikes, but this year I started with this one, that goes over the mountain þórbjörn and ends with a soak in the Blue Lagoon.

Mt Thorbjor (Thorbjarnarfell) is a free standing, hyaloclastite mountain north of Grindavik. It offers great panoramic view over most of the Reykjanes Peninsula on fine days. The northeastern part of the mountain depicts thermal activity an to its north and northeast is an extensive high temperature area. It is split by a fissure called "The Thieves´ Gap" (Thjofagja), occupied by 15 thieves according to the legend. They were eventually overwhelmed and killed by trickery.