To the people living in this house

Not my writing.

But fabulous reminders.

Living in this house isn’t always easy. Just like being a teen isn’t easy. You see your friends who seemingly have no boundaries and all the baubles in the world and you wonder why. Why have you been placed in this house where there are horrid things like rules and limitations and boundaries? “What did I do in my former life to deserve this?” you cry to the sky. Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’ve got what you’ve got. Your dad and I believe that it is our job to raise three self-sufficient, independent young people and that’s what we’re going to do. There are too many of your friends that are going to flounder and fail when they’re finally unleashed (if that ever really happens in the heli-parent world) and I promise you that you will not be one of them.
So considering that you’re going to be stuck with us for the next several years – or at least until you figure out how to make millions on your own – I thought I would give you a list. Consider it an “employee handbook” if you will.
Here are the seven things that will make your life at home easier:
We don’t “owe” you anything so you can drop that sense of entitlement at the door. We bust our asses to give you what we can and more importantly – what we think you deserve. When we see those brand new jeans from American Eagle wadded up in a heap or hearing that you “lost” that North Face fleece that you BEGGED for last Christmas, it kinda makes us have no interest in buying you anything more expensive than $15 jeans at Target.
You don’t HAVE to have a phone—especially a smart phone. The only reason why you have one is so that I can reach you. It is your responsibility to keep it safe and unbroken because if it gets lost or broken, your options will be to use the Pay as You Go phone that’s in the drawer until your contract comes due, or do without. All your friends have phones and so does the school office. You can always use one of those to call us if you need to.
You do not tell us what you’re going to do. Rather, if you have an idea of something that you would LIKE to do, come to us with a complete plan that includes where you’d like to go, who you’d like to go with and how transportation is being handled. If you call me from said destination and say that so and so’s mom had no idea that she was bringing you home, I’ll come and get you but I won’t be happy and you won’t be going again. And here’s an insider’s tip: your chances at a “yes” are much better if your room is straight and you ask politely and don’t demand it. If it works with OUR schedule and what we have going on, most likely the answer will be yes. If I say no and you give me attitude, I’ll remember that for the next time. And yes, you have a curfew.
You don’t get paid for everything. There are certain things we expect you to do like clean your room and pick up after yourself. If we need you to watch a sibling, that’s expected as well. If I’m in the yard pulling weeds, why don’t you grab some gloves and help out? You don’t expect me to charge you for all the endless places that I have to take you, do you? Do you hear me asking you for money for feeding you 7 days a week? No. So don’t expect it from me. You want some cash? Do more work. There are chores where you can earn money – do some of those. And speaking of chores..
If you’re going to do something, do it right the first time. Don’t do a half-assed job and then get upset with me when I call you to do it again. And then again. Take some pride in your work…as my dad always told me – would you proclaim to anyone that YOU did this job? If you wouldn’t want people to know you were the one who did it, do it again.
School is your job. It’s the most important thing that you do. Just like Dad and I do our best at our jobs so that we can provide for you, you must do your best. If you can’t keep your grades at least at a “B” level, do not act surprised when you lose your privileges or get removed from a team or club that you belong on. Extra curricular activities are only for those who can keep their grades up. When I check parent portal and see things like homework not turned in and 50’s on tests, expect to talk about it.
You get more flies with honey. Seriously…if you could believe ONE thing that I tell you, it’s that. If the only time you’re nice to me is when you want something, I know that. If you really want to do something (see above) it would behoove you to be nice to me at least a good 4-6 hours before you hit me with “can I”. And if you’re in trouble or grounded? Here’s another insider tip: DO EXTRA STUFF AROUND THE HOUSE WITHOUT BEING ASKED! I guarantee you that your chances of getting a little time off for good behavior will go up tenfold.
I know this may seem like cruel and unusual punishment, but trust me when I say that you will thank us for this one day. When you’re stuck in that million dollar condo and can’t remember if you should put those red yoga pants in with your whites, you’ll be happy that we made you do your own laundry. Or when you get a review at your million dollar job that you’re not happy with, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief because we made you talk to your teacher about your bad grade instead of us rushing in to do it for you. As crazy as it sounds, yes – I promise – you’ll be grateful.

written March 2016 back to London

Hello dear family!
Sounds like a lovely spring in MN.

Rebecca, the weather looks promising for water temperatures in May during your visit home!! Wish we would be there too.

Here's some of the latest here:
Most of you know Dave is home working and closing on the sale of our house (Friday). Good thing he's doing it, my heart is still broken that we had to sell 😟
He will be leaving Sat night and bringing two precious packages back to London: Kay&Mike!!! 😄
Tomorrow I will do the "check-in" at our long term rental. Praying it goes well. Only Ally & I have seen the house; hopefully it turns out to be a great spot for us since we signed a 3 year lease. The total rent we will pay over the course of that time makes me sick.  We could buy a house in MN with it! We will be house poor now but without a house of our own 😐
But that's how it goes! Container should be delivered Friday. Move-in beginning Saturday. What bliss to sleep in our own beds again! And be re-introduced to our belongings which had made a long sea journey.

Looking forward to settling finally!
I will have the vonage line set up hopefully this weekend so that 952.944.1646 phone number will be functioning again! Alternatively we have enjoyed FaceTime/audio with those of you who have iPhones. Skype is great too. Please keep in touch!

Josh has an assessment at ASL Friday AM. Back in 3rd grade he received some extra support for reading; even though he was fine in Edina Schools, he tested low for reading on the SSAT (test he had to take a month ago for ASL). They are trying to determine if he can continue without support and if they can place him etc. Prayers please that he will have a spot one way or another.

Josh is practicing on a soccer team with friends from ASL twice a week near Wembley Stadium. He missed the registration for games unfortunately. But he loves those two practices!

Jonah&Ally are in Brussels for the final swim competition for the school season the next 3 days! They were really excited about it! Wish we could be there as many/most parents went to cheer.

Dave loves the job here and Jonah and Ally are so happy to be back at ASL. Josh and I will be settled properly by August 😉
I have been keeping my eyes peeled for job options, since ASL hired the internal applicant for the position that I wanted, which is what I expected but still a bummer (& her job was a one year replacement who is returning now). It's important for me to find a job, so probably I will sub next fall, which is great, easy and flexible! Just not as much ££.

Oh, and perhaps most important and exciting for everyone will be the arrival of FINCHLEY on March 18th! Has she forgotten us? What will she think of London doggie life?! Should be interesting! Our family will be complete once she gets here the kids say.  😍

josh wrote this April 2016

My home is very welcoming and snug. I have a dog, Finchley, who is really friendly.  She greets everyone when we come home and we all love her.  In my family it’s my mom and dad, an older brother and an older sister.  We have fun together, love sports, are caring and benevolent. I think my room is good sized and cool. We have a family space where we can chill out and a room where we all sit down for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My school in Minnesota was Creek Valley, and now I'm homeschooled. I will tell you about them both.  Creek Valley was a really friendly school.The schedule was morning work, then physical education, art or music, then math, lunch/recess, Independent language arts, social studies, read aloud, break, read alone time, and then we are done! We have band once a week. My teacher was Mr Wuest.  He was super nice and kind to us. Whenever we had a test he gave us a  brain vitamin a.k.a  a Jolly Rancher. My best friends were Torin, Fletcher, Sammy, Adam, Alex, Riley G, Riley E, and Jimmy. I miss it so much. I had 45 minutes to 30 minutes of homework each day. Home schooling is way different to me because  I have a different schedule, no friends to talk to, but I have my adorable do. My mom is the the teacher and I have lunch at home every day!!

My best - loved part of school is walking thru the doors of my class and seeing my friends and  my awesome teachers.

My number one subjects are math, reading and history. I like math because I work well with numbers and I have success with it. In history class I like to learn about ancient and medieval history and to learn about wars. Reading is really fun because I love to hear stories and I read a wide variety of books. My after school programs are football, swimming, and saxophone.

If someone was new to my school I would say everyone is really friendly, if you have questions just ask.  You need to know your classroom, cafeteria, gym, office, and bathrooms.  The new students must work hard, and do your best, and there will be 30 to 45 minutes of homework.

My friends say I'm funny, hard working, a good student, and a good listener. 

My friends Jimmy, Torin and Hope push the class to do their best, and I wish I would do that more. Torin is a great basketball player and disciplined, and I wish I could be more disciplined  with my training.

To be internationally-minded means to think internationally, not just think of yourself and where you are, but to be globally minded, concerned for the whole world.
I think I am internationally minded because I like to meet people from all around the world because they all have different accents and personalities and different food. I love to travel and experience different sorts of cultures. I  have lived in the UK and America.

I went to visit your school, heard the presentation, and our guide was Kit. I learned that there are eight different subjects.  And the grades are on different aspects like presentation and communication not just a test.

 In my spare time I play football, swim, do art, read, FaceTime with friends, be with my dog, cook a little bit, and go outside as much as I can.

I have visited Florida, Tenerife, Egypt, Morocco, France, Belgium, Cyprus, Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, and Amsterdam. I would like to visit Scotland, California, Iceland and Hawaii.

I recently laughed at myself on home videos when I was 5.  It was my birthday and I was opening presents and I got all excited with my little toddler voice.

Last night I came home and my dog got all excited and came running to me.  She always makes me happy.

Good teachers, work that is at the right level and is engaging, nice lunch and recess or breaks, classmates who are good listeners and respectful.

My hopes and dreams are to be a good business man someday or maybe in my dreams a professional football player!  Also that there would be no more violence or terrorism in the world.

I have a variety of interests including football, swimming, saxophone, electric guitar, cooking, reading, Clash of Clans, art, dogs, and just spending time with my friends.

First few days in CH!

Friday August 9th.
Landed.
Exhausted.
Found D at Airport!  Did not find J's luggage =(
J became acquainted with his new home.  D had done an amazing job of getting our things settled, having received the shipment a couple weeks prior.
We were so happy to see F!

Saturday.
Went to Ikea.  No more needs to be said....

Sunday.
Continued sorting.  R decided to move into the walk-in closet.  Oooohhhh.  Aaaaahhhh.  The joys of such wonderous creations.
The three happy transplants went to the beach and even swam in Lake Zurich.  All three of them.  Even wimpy R.  Lake Zurich is warmer than Lake Ida!!  I swear!!

Monday. 
School orientation.
R drove the car for the first time and didn't even crash.

Tuesday.
R successfully delivered J to school via bike and scooter and collected him as well.  They didn't even get lost in the mountains.  Well not really.

Wednesday....
The task:  a big grocery shop.  The challenge:  all items are in German.  The difficulty:  feeling so ignorant.
Can she do it....
To be continued.....

Update July 2017 (posting December 2018!! from the drafts....)

Blog update.

August bank holiday - Edinburgh 

Little did I know that the weekend we chose to visit Edinburgh was the Fringe Festival!!  What a fantastic visit we had - Harry Potter Tour, shows, climbing Athur's Seat, Josh making his stage debut, it was a great weekend!

2016-2017 offered the opportunity to resettle fully in London.  Jonah - senior year, Ally - sophomore year both at ASL, and Josh began his first year at Halcyon in 6th grade. 

Mom took up yoga teacher training and then began looking for work.  Dad continued to be pulled in all directions at TR.  Finchley remained the family mascot.

Where to start?

The school year started off without incident and all three seemed to settle in nicely.  Ally took a school trip backpacking into the French Alps near Chamonix.  Amazing photos and with her swim pals Lauren and Anna P.  Jonah's alternatives took him to Italy.  Lucky for Jonah, he had JD and Jagger on his trip.  Now those three can create a dynamic of FUN that certainly made for a memorable trip.  I'll let Jonah give you the details!  

Josh - 6th grade at Halycon London International

Josh went off to a week at a PGL type centre with the 6th and 7th graders from Halcyon.  He had a fantastic time and came back having made lots of new friends particularly with the 7th grade boys.  Josh continued to play soccer with Kinja (Wed and Fri practice and Sunday matches), school Tuesday 8-9am, and Swiss Cottage Thursday evenings.  He also kept on rockin his guitar lessons with JanMichael and his saxophone lessons with Paul.  He joined the after school ensemble at Halcyon and enjoyed music as a group.  We heard incredible accolades from his digital music teacher throughout the year and feel that Josh has some special music within!  

Mom began substitute teaching at Halcyon the past spring and continued to do so throughout the year.  Much of the time helping invigilate exams such as SAT and ACT exams with special accommodations for students and also the IB exams. What a privilege it was to be at school on the day of the student council elections, because Josh put himself out there for the role of treasurer and made a small speech in front of the ENTIRE SCHOOL.  Mom was very proud of him that day and he certainly seems comfortable speaking in front of groups.  Well done Josh.

Josh's closest friends this year were Ben, JJ, Swann, Conor, Daniel and Freddie; also Willem and Sam and Cosmo from 7th grade. 

This year Josh fell in love with scootering - skateboard park style scootering.  He would love to spend all weekend at the local skate parks and now masters heading over to the outdoor or indoor parks all on his own on the bus 31!  He also buses to school all on his own every morning and afternoon and take the tube to soccer on Wednesdays and Fridays!!  

Josh LOVES his iPad and enjoys Clash Royal and a ton of other games.  

But perhaps the most impactful part of Josh's year was joining the Boy Scouts.  He quickly became keenly interested and enjoyed attending the weekly meetings.  He also went on several camp trips with the Most Amazing Dad.  Highlight of all was the trip to Normandy France, where Josh discovered he is amazed and sorta obsessed in a good way with WWII.  

Ally - 10th grade

Balancing swim practices and school work coloured Ally's year, along with maintaining her Instagram account and keeping continual tabs on her friends via chatting, video messaging, FaceTiming, Snapchat and all other sorts of social technology connections. 

Megan, Josie, Riley, and Kat were her closest friends, along with swim pals and this spring Graham.

Chemistry proved to be an interesting undertaking and dominated the study hours.  English, Pre-calc, Band, Spanish 4, World Civilizations, Health and Phy Ed rounded out the course load.

Ally's enjoyment include hanging with her friends, going to get FreakShakes, anything involving food - making cookies, decorating cookies, baking cakes!!  Also they like to go around London and take photos, view street art (Leake Street), go shopping, and visit markets.

Ally rocked her school swim team!  She also continued to make a splash with her club team and qualified for the British Nationals in two events 400IM and 200 IM and will also do the medley relay.  

She was awarded two WorkX week-long "mini-internships" with ASL, first at General Mills and secondly with GTB advertising.  

JONAH SENIOR YEAR!!

Jonah started off senior year by joining the Cross Country team, a choice for which we were so proud!  He had some great races and prepared himself well for the winter swim season.  Unfortunately he ended the season a bit short (refer to the Italy school trip above) but nonetheless we were very proud of him!

JD, Jagger, Ned and Jonah became the best of pals this year and what a great group of young men.  They think for themselves and are bold enough to speak against the majority.  Olivia and Jonah spent as much time as possible together, studying, going out to eat, to movies, walking the dogs, hanging at each other's houses - continually together really!! 

Jonah's school work continues to shine when he puts in the effort and sometimes takes a hit if he doesn't.  He's got it in him and we know he can soar when he sets his mind to it!

At the end of the year he began to take an interest in weightlifting and working out - with JD at ASL.  And cooking breakfast!  The boy who never ate breakfast!  And perfecting the art of macaroni and cheese!  

October 2015 (posting this in December 2018!!) digging out of the "draft" folders....

update - October 2015

Jonah.

He's in 11th grade at Edina High School.  Over the summer he was working at Airmaxx Trampoline park but he didn't get enough work hours, so he also got a job at Punch Pizza.  He golfed when he could and played in some tournaments.  He really loves the game of golf and has a great game.  He played in the Resorter's Tournament in Alexandria and held his own really well.  He had quite a following with all the VanAmbers out there cheering him on.  The best thing is that he enjoys the game.  He also enjoys swimming on the high school team, but doesn't train outside of the season.  Until September when he decided to join Aquajets Swim Club to get in shape for the boys season.  It's fun to see him swimming, being part of a team, and improving. Now he swims Tues-Thur, works at Punch on Mondays and Saturdays.  The rest of his free time should be studying - he does well in school - but doesn't put in the hours of homework you might expect from a junior.  He loves to play video games - that could be his favorite thing of all, however as parents we don't want this to interfere with life =)  We insist homework and chores be done first.  Nothing wrong with gaming,  and it's certainly fun just don't want it to interfere with things we need to do.  He likes to read, watch sports, cook mac & cheese, and listen to music.  He has a blue Ford Focus that we got for the kids to drive and being the first one he doesn't have to compete with anyone to use it!  We did have a pea green Ford Focus that was quite nice but he accidentally rear-ended someone and unfortunately, although it didn't seem to have too much damage, the car was considered totalled. It's awesome to have him driving and it gives him a great amount of independence.  He loves to go to Chipotle.  His best friends are Josiah, Caleb and Evan.  He enjoys participating in the Wooddale Senior High Ministries.  This is the first year he doesn't have a music lesson or music choice in school - he was in choir last year.  However this year he chose to do DECA and has an interest in International Business.

ALLY.

Ally is in 9th grade at Valley View Middle School.   She babysits in our neighborhood and over the summer did babysitting for Grace & Anna often also.  She enjoys making homemade body products like bath bombs, lip balms, and skin scrubs.  She decorated her room almost entirely by herself.  She spends a lot of time on social media like snap chat, instagram, texting, and you tube.  She has a swimming account called caps.n.googles which has over 10k followers, and a you tube channel for her bath products and DIY.  She also likes cooking sweets - brownies, cookies, cupcakes.  Much of Ally's time is spent in the water - she swims a lot!  Right now she's on the Edina HS girls swim team.  The coach referred to her as "the one with the really long legs" the first time I met him; then when he met Dad he said "well that explains a lot".  She has dropped a lot of time this swim season.  She will return to swim with Aquajets after HS season is done.  She has a amazing coach, Kate Lundsten.  Most of all, she enjoys being on a team and swimming swimming swimming!!!  Ally plays the flute in the school band.  For her 15th birthday Ally paid 1/2 of a very very nice DLS camera and with it she has become quite the photographer!!!

JOSHUA

Josh is 11 years old and in 5th grade at Creek Valley Elementary School.  He is a wonderful friend and always being social.  He loves to ride his bike to school or around the neighborhood.  Josh's favorite sport is soccer.  He plays with the Edina Soccer Club.  He also loves to watch the sport on TV any chance he gets - especially Premier League.  Josh enjoys drawing cartoons, reading cartoon books, and looking at photo albums.  He has a thing for music - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and recently now he started to play the saxophone.  He loves classic rock and knows more musical groups than I do...especially the Beatles, Michael Jackson, GunsNRoses.  Josh has recently become more and more interested in football.  He also ran in the elementary cross country race and did great representing his school. He loves to run around the neighborhood with his pals and sometimes they come and have pillow fights in the basement with the couch cushions or play legos up in his room.  

FINCHLEY

Finchley the dog is loved by all.  She is almost one year old.  She's mellowed a bit and isn't as mischievious as she used to be always looking to chew on something she shouldn't have.  We love to take her on walks and she loves to be with us all the time.  We can't imagine our life without this fluffy black pup!!

Dave & Ricki

Since returning from London summer 2014, Dave and Ricki have continually been presented with other options of going abroad again.  Each time they find a reason it's not right or the other side doesn't quite come through.  They haven't been searching for this, it seems to just keep coming back to them.  Finally a position with TR that Dave really wanted to take was just too interesting to pass up, and low and behold it seems that they'll be back in London within the next year.  Jonah was incredibly excited (as in, can we move tomorrow?), Ally was excited but then sad about leaving her swimming teams, Josh was upset and declared that he has just made all these wonderful new friends here....

Not sure if all of them can return to ASL - that's our big prayer right now.  Lord please open space for all three of the children to return to ASL!

2016-2017 wrap up

In this post - looking back to last year!

August bank holiday 2016 - Edinburgh
Little did I know that the weekend we chose to visit Edinburgh was the Fringe Festival!!  What a fantastic visit we had - Harry Potter Tour, shows, climbing Athur's Seat, Josh making his stage debut, it was a great weekend!

2016-2017 offered the opportunity to resettle fully in London.  Jonah - senior year, Ally - sophomore year both at ASL, and Josh began his first year at Halcyon in 6th grade.

Mom took up yoga teacher training and then began looking for work.  Dad continued to be pulled in all directions at TR.  Finchley remained the family mascot.
Where to start?The school year started off without incident and all three seemed to settle in nicely.  Ally took a school trip backpacking into the French Alps near Chamonix.  Amazing photos and with her swim pals Lauren and Anna P.  Jonah's alternatives took him to Italy.  Lucky for Jonah, he had JD and Jagger on his trip.  Now those three can create a dynamic of FUN that certainly made for a memorable trip.  I'll let Jonah give you the details!

Josh - 6th grade at Halycon London International

Josh went off to a week at a PGL-type centre with the 6th and 7th graders from Halcyon.  He had a fantastic time and came back having made lots of new friends particularly with the 7th grade boys.  Josh continued to play soccer with Kinja (Wed and Fri practice and Sunday matches), school Tuesday morning football club, and Swiss Cottage on Thursday evenings.  He also kept on rockin his guitar lessons with JanMichael and his saxophone lessons with Paul.  He joined the after school ensemble at Halcyon and enjoyed playing music in a group setting.  We heard incredible accolades from his digital music teacher throughout the year and feel that Josh has some special music within!

Mom began substitute teaching at Halcyon the spring of '16 and continued to do so throughout the year.  Much of the time helping invigilate exams such as SAT and ACT exams with special accommodations for students and also the IB exams. What a privilege it was to be at school on the day of the student council elections, because Josh put himself out there for the role of treasurer and made a small speech in front of the ENTIRE SCHOOL.  Mom was very proud of him that day and he certainly seems comfortable speaking in front of groups.  Well done Josh.

Josh's closest friends this year were Ben, JJ, Swann, Conor, Daniel and Freddie; also Willem and Sam and Cosmo from 7th grade.

This year Josh fell in love with scootering - skateboard park style scootering.  He would love to spend all weekend at the local skate parks and he now masters heading over to the outdoor or indoor parks all on his own on the bus 31!  He also buses to school all on his own every morning and afternoon and take the tube to soccer on Wednesdays and Fridays!!
He also enjoyed playing basketball with London Sports.

Josh LOVES his iPad and enjoys Clash Royal and a ton of other games.But perhaps the most impactful part of Josh's year was joining the Boy Scouts.  He quickly became keenly interested and enjoyed attending the weekly meetings.  He also went on several camp trips with the Most Amazing Dad.  Highlight of all was the trip to Normandy France, where Josh discovered he is amazed and sorta obsessed in a good way with WWII.

Ally - 10th gradeBalancing swim practices and school work coloured Ally's year, along with maintaining her Instagram account and keeping continual tabs on her friends via chatting, video messaging, FaceTiming, Snapchat and all other sorts of social technology connections.

Megan, Josie, Riley, and Kat were her closest friends, along with swim pals.

Chemistry proved to be an interesting undertaking and dominated the study hours.  English, Pre-calc, Band, Spanish 4, World Civilizations, Health and Phy Ed rounded out the course load.Ally's enjoyment include hanging with her friends, going to get FreakShakes, anything involving food - making cookies, decorating cookies, baking cakes!!  Also they like to go around London and take photos, view street art (Leake Street), go shopping, and visit markets.

Ally rocked her school swim team!  She also continued to make a splash with her club team and qualified for the British Nationals in two events 400IM and 200 IM and will also do the medley relay.She was awarded two WorkX week-long "mini-internships" with ASL, first at General Mills and secondly with GTB advertising.

JONAH SENIOR YEAR!!Jonah started off senior year by joining the Cross Country team, a choice for which we were so proud!  He had some great races and prepared himself well for the winter swim season.  Unfortunately he ended the season a bit short but nonetheless we were very proud of him!

JD, Jagger, Ned and Jonah became the best of pals this year and what a great group of young men.  They think for themselves and are bold enough to speak against the majority.  Olivia and Jonah spent as much time as possible together, studying, going out to eat, to movies, walking the dogs, hanging at each other's houses - continually together really!!Jonah's school work continues to shine when he puts in the effort and sometimes takes a hit if he doesn't.  He's got it in him and we know he can soar when he sets his mind to it!At the end of the year he began to take an interest in weightlifting and working out - with JD at ASL.  And cooking breakfast!  The boy who never ate breakfast!  And perfecting the art of macaroni and cheese!