Good Bye Margit Neni

For those who have spent time at our home know that Margit Neni (our dear friend across the street) meant a lot to our family. From day 1, she was always sweet and warm to all of us. We helped her with her garden work (ie cutting her grass, pruning her trees, taking her cake, bringing her a x-mas tree every year, etc) and she would cut us flowers from her garden. For the last 2 years, Mia would visit Margit Neni almost every weekend alone. This summer Ali started to join her in the walk over. They would sometimes stay for up to 2 hours just talking with Margit Neni, eating cookies, gardening, etc. It was a wonderful relationship with an 80+ age difference. They adored each other.

We are sad to announce that 2 nights ago Margit Neni died in her home alone. She had a heart attack and was found the next day by her grand daughter. Margit's husband passed away about 3 years ago and I know they are now together again.

This has been a very difficult time for our family and Mia especially is very upset. She's been crying for the last 2 days and is very depressed, confused but understanding at the same time.

Good bye Margit Neni. We love and miss you!




Mia with Margit Neni in 2004. Best Friends Forever.

Happy Halloween

Had a great time at a Halloween party this afternoon with the kids. Here are just a few snaps of them before we left to go to the party. Will add the other photos tomorrow. After flying all night and only about 1 hour of sleep, I am too tired to think any more.

Enjoy these Halloween 2008 photos:

Terence as a 'villain'




And, after their faces got painted at the party.

Back from DC

We are finally back home from our trip to the Employee Relocation Council's 2008 conference in Washington, DC. Flew all night, barely slept but the weather in Budapest is so beautiful and sunny that it is helping us stay awake and moving. So far, we've only seen Terence as he was home from school today. He's in the back playing soccer with Curt right now while we wait for the girls to get home from the Heidi Ovoda nursery school. Then, the 5 of us are off to a Halloween party.

The conference was fantastic. Move One Relocations was well recognized at the conference. We are happy to announce that we won 4 awards this year and the PR was fantastic! 2008 has been an excellent year for us.

Here is the only photo of Curt and I. I took it on a tour that we did with one of our biggest clients. We toured DC at night. It was beautiful. I was happy when we had the opportunity to get out at one of my favorite sites: the Lincoln Memorial. Incredible!

US Bound for a Few Days

Curt and I have a relocation conference in DC next week. We are flying on the BA flight via London's terminal 5 today into Dulles. Depending on the internet connection at the hotel, I may or may not be in touch before Halloween when we are back home. Have a great week everyone. xx

Being 7 - Terence

First of all, I've always made a promise to myself that I would not always report the good news and / or brag too much about our kids. Curt especially keeps us all grounded in this sense. It's not always easy to keep them grounded in the expat la-la land that we live in but we try. I'm pretty strict about teaching them values, manners, respect for others - especially teachers and other parents, awareness and the ability to make sensible decisions (this may be related to spending money or things like how to do their homework). I can ramble on and on about my ideas of parenting but I won't as it's probably not something that any of you want to hear... Nor is it necessary as I have no secrets and we are only trying our best.

The issue with these blogs is that it's hard not to only post the cute photos and the great things the kids do and accomplish. Well, we all know that kids make mistakes, fight with their siblings, get bad grades (maybe not all kids get bad grades), break the rules, etc. We have two rules in our household that we repeat to the kids all the time: Our jobs as parents are to keep them safe and teach them the rules. These rules pretty much apply to everything so they work well and the kids remember them and can apply them easily.

What I am getting at is that I'm going to try not to only brag about our kids in these blog posts but I'm going to combine a bit of the good, bad and ugly. Well, hopefully there is no 'ugly' but there are some not so good things sometimes and I want to remember these just as much as the good.

Recently, Terence was grounded. He was grounded for the first time ever. He's had many time-outs but never a real grounding where he's lost privileges for a set period of time. I can write this to all of you but please, if you decide to bring it up, keep in mind that he is very embarrassed about his mistake and does not want to talk about it (guess he feels guilty which is a good thing).

The grounding was caused by 2 major things that he decided to do in a small time period. The first was writing on the wall. There's a bit more detail to this story. Not only did he just write on the wall. He wrote 'M I A' on the white wall going up the stairs. I didn't see him do this but noticed the red marker one day and automatically assumed it was Mia who did this. She was with me at the time and I started to blame her. She started to cry and say she didn't do it but Mia often denies responsibility as her first reaction so I wasn't sure if she was just lying and trying to stay out of trouble. The thing is Mia has gotten in trouble before for 'graffiti' (as I call it) and she often signs her name (duh) as she loves writing Mia. I told her that if she was telling the truth then I believed her.

When T came home I asked him if he did it. Quite quickly he said 'yes' as his head drooped down and his face filled with embarrassment and shame. It sort of caught me off guard but I'm also always talking about honesty and how they will get in less trouble (in certain situations they get in no trouble) if they are honest with me. It took me a while to think of his punishment for this. It turned out I told him that he would have to pay to get it fixed and I was deducting the money from his account. Since he framed Mia, he'd have to pay her 500HUF from his account to her account. This hurt him more than the 'paying for the repairs'.

The next day when I got home from work, Erika was in near tears about their behavior. She was talking so fast (in Hungarian) that I didn't understand a word she said. I asked T to translate but his translation was in his favor and he left out a lot of vital details about his naughty behavior. To make a long story short, while Erika was preparing a craft for them to do, he grabbed Mia, convinced her to sneak out of the house with him. In their socks, they snuck out to the street and were chasing passing cars. It was about 5pm so there were more than usual, however, it's a side street that isn't too incredibly busy. When she discovered where they were and what they were doing she freaked out and had to go out and drag them back in. Long story short, we were all upset and disappointed with them. I felt bad for Erika as she was repeating to them over and over about how horrible it would be if something happened to them, but if it happened while they were in her care she'd get into lots and lots of trouble.... Terence and Mia were sent to their rooms with no dinner (I think this idea came from the 'Brady Bunch' or something). I didn't know what to do and was so upset with them. Mia went into her room and cried hysterically. Terence was more in shock about everyone's reaction and his unchanged facial expressions bothered me the most. Honestly, I think he was just trying to keep from crying. I went up and had a stern talking with him about this ridiculous stunt he pulled and how it was unacceptable, dangerous, reckless, etc. He shouldn't put his sisters in harms way nor himself. He should also assume that they cannot always perform the same 'stunts' as he can and if one of them tripped or fell or ... well, you know where I went with this conversation.

Anyhow, his grounding was 1 week of no video games. He has 2 - Nintendo DS (a handheld device) and a Playstation (connected to the TV). Our family has a Wii system that is connected to our main family TV. He was grouned off of all of these for a week. And, he counted down the days, hours and minutes. During the week when he is in school, he almost never even touches his video games but it's on the weekends that he sometimes likes to play. I think it was more the idea of not even having it as an option that got to him the most. The week ended on the day Curt came home from Chicago and Terence made sure to get his fill on this day. It was not easy and now I know what it means when a parent says, this is harder for me than it is for you.

Sorry for the long story but I wanted to document this event in his life. I'm sure it's the first of many groundings. However, if I were to predict, I would imagine it will be Mia who breaks the rules most frequently. Just a prediction. I may end up eating my words... I hope...

Since then he has been a great kid. While Curt was away he was a real gentleman and helped me a lot with cooking, cleaning up, looking after his sisters, household chores (he has his own every week but helped me with others), carrying in groceries and bringing in logs and building fires every night.

Here are a few photos of my big boy. He's 7 years old and wearing 10 year old clothes. We call him our giraffe... he's sooo tall!

My beautiful hydrangeas. The one on the right turns this autumn color at this time of year. I love it. In the summer it is more purple.

Fall Photos

I thought I'd start back with some nice fall photos of the three kids.

The weather here has been spectacular. Very fall like, not too cold and not too hot. Beautiful blue sky, sunny days! We've been very lucky.

This is unusual to get all three of these antsy kids to sit still ... AND pose at the same time! I must have bribed them with something good!

Terence and Mia are especially happy to have 2 weeks off of school for fall break! Today (Thurs, October 23rd) is a national holiday in rememberence of the 1956 revolution.

It's Been a Long Time

I know, I know... it's been ages since I've posted anything on our Clements Family Blog. I'm so sorry and have many, many excuses:

1. I've been working as much as I can lately. In the office I have no time to blog. And, even if I did, I have no photos with me to post. When I'm at the office I come home late - between 6 - 7pm. When I walk in the house I get covered with kisses and hugs. The kisses and hugs are from the girls. Terence is now outgrowing and too cool for PDA (public displays of affection). The only time I can get cuddles from him is at bedtime when it's just the two of us and I'm reading with * him.

About 1 night / 10 days, Erika (our nanny / housekeeper) will coordinate dinner for us. She makes an amazing turos gomboc (sp?) which is Terence's favorite. Turo is something we don't have in the US. The best way to describe it is to imagine sort of a sweet ricotta cheese. The translations all call it 'cottage cheese' but I think it's very different as it's not lumpy nor does it taste similar. Anyhow, the dish she makes are dumplings with the turo mixed in. She then makes a sweet sour cream topping that you can pour over it. Very low fat ;-) and very dessert-like but she serves it as a meal so I'm okay with that once in a while. The other dishes she makes are grilled or friend chicken with parsley potatoes, pea soup and bean stew. These are the dishes that she often makes as the kids love them.

The other nights of the week I try and prepare something quickly. I'm not very good at freezing suppers as I never think it tastes the same as freshly cooked. Our family is also horrible about eating leftovers. Earlier this week I made a fab crispy lime chicken thigh dinner that was much easier than anyone could have guessed. And, since it is broiled in the oven and not roasted it only cooks for about 11 minutes! Most of my recipes come out of my coveted Everyday Food little cookbooks by Martha Stewart! Love cookbooks but if a picture comes with it, it's a bonus for me! The internet is also a great source...

2. Family illnesses. This is my second excuse for being out of touch. First, Ali had a high fever and spent a day home from school, then Mia got it a few days later, then Ali got it again with vomiting, then I got the flu (minus the vomiting). Most of this was while Curt was in Chicago at a conference. Hence, blogging was far from my mind.

3. I had more excuses but no longer can remember.


* Note: I wrote 'with' instead of 'to' intentionally in my first point when I wrote about reading with Terence. His reading in French has become very good. His reading in Hungarian is even pretty good but English seems to be the last language he's learning to read in. I guess I've never pushed it as I feel he (and Mia now) has a lot to learn at one time. Naturally, his love of books and our reading every night has gotten him naturally learning to read in English. While Curt was in the US he picked up a reading light for T. He can either clip it to his headboard or just hold it in bed. He, like I did when I was a child, stays up in his bed reading, reading and reading. Well, I still think he's looking at a lot of pictures but the sweetest thing is that often I hang outside his bedroom door and I hear him reading out loud. It's adorable to hear him slowly sounding out all the sounds and words so carefully. Just like everything else he's learned (ie skiing, bike riding, potty training, feeding himself, etc), he cannot be pushed into before he is ready. Instead, he makes the decision to do it and then focuses on it until he's got it. He's only competitive with himself and not at all competitive with others yet. Therefore, he's rarely faced with peer pressure. What a relief!

Eastern European Marketing

I drive by this shop on my way to work. It's one of these types of shops that used to be all over Hungary when I first got here in the late-90s. The windows are filled with odd combinations of items - sometimes bras, sometimes car tires, sometimes fans, sometimes cleaning products...

Most of these style stores have disappeared but this particular one seems to still be in business. They must have bought the property a million years ago and are just holding onto it.

Last week while Curt and I were passing it (actually on a Saturday driving into the city) I looked over to see what they had in the window for sale. I first laughed that they had fans at this time of year. When I looked closer I saw they were at least marked on sale.

However, the sale prices were all different and if you can see from this close up, they varied from 33% to 35% to 36% off. What on earth?

Halloween and Fall Decorating

We've slowly started putting up our Halloween and fall decorations. Last week we put the orange lights on the house, hung our witch off our front upstairs balcony and put up a few skeletons, bats and headstones. This week we are putting up a few more decorations that can last through Thanksgiving.

I love this time of year and we are having a beautiful fall season. It's warmer than usual and even hit the mid-20s Celsius this weekend which felt really odd.

Yesterday, shortly after Curt departed to Chicago, Mia got a high fever and complained about her body aching. She did have a crazy busy Saturday so I'm sure her body was really run down. We went out for brunch with Terence, Ali and a few other families then the playground for fresh air. Mia had barely enough energy but she didn't want to stay at home and rest. I know how she feels and actually after her Motrin took effect, she was feeling more energetic and her fever dropped.

We came home by about 6pm and decided to all get into our pjs and watch a movie. I just downloaded High School Musical 1 and 2 so the girls are loving that. Terence watched Scooby Doo (still one of his favorites) on the other TV.

Today I decided to keep Mia home and spend the day with her. On the way home from dropping Terence and Ali off at their schools, we stopped and picked up our pumpkins. We are so excited to find real orange pumpkins every where here! When we first moved here it was impossible to find an orange pumpkin any where. Sometimes a green or gray pumpkin would turn up at a green grocers but now they all have orange pumpkins so we were very excited and picked one out for everyone in our family.

When we got home Mia helped me decorate and put some of the gourds we picked up in my turtle bowl. Kerry - I got inspired after seeing yours already filled on your blog.

The Pottery Barn website also inspired me. I love their things and can drool over their website's photos any day. I'm loving this table right below on the left. It comes with 2 leafs which would be great. I've made a pact with myself to not buy any more furniture until the kids stop drawing (accidentally or intentionally) on it. I probably have a few more years.

Yesterday's Busy Day for Mia

In addition to dance class and fun with her friends Bailey and Leah, Mia's friend Istvan came over at around 3:30pm to go with us to their classmate's birthday party. Their birthday friend's name is Eszter and she has a French dad and Hungarian mom. Istvan is in the same situation with a Hungarian mom and French dad. Both moms are very lovely and include Mia in the Hungarian / French group. The funny thing is that Mia only speaks French to Istvan and not Hungarian.

The birthday party was at the zoo's indoor playhouse and started at 4:30pm. When Curt and I came back to pick them up at about 6:45pm (the party ended at 7pm) they were both still buzzing with energy. We stayed around for another 45 minutes so Terence and Ali could also enjoy the fun in the playhouse (after playing in the playground and feeding the ducks across the street).

The following photos are before and after shots of the 2 birthday guests.

BEFORE

AFTER

They were both so tired on the way home that they fell fast asleep. We had the movie 'Cars' playing on the our car's built-in DVD player so the car ride home was very quiet with 2 sleeping beauties and mezmorized T and Ali.

3 Kid Pyramid

It started with horsey rides then they formed this pyramid. So glad I was able to reach the camera and capture it in time.

This was the next photo

Saturday Hike in September

A few Saturdays ago we had Carl, Wendy and their kids over after the girls dance class. Their daughter, Bailey, also dances on Saturday mornings at the same time as Mia. We know them well because Carl is a manager in our cargo division. Our lives continue to overlap as they've moved out into our area of Budapest and their 2 children now attend the French Lycee with Terence and Mia.

The main purpose of our hike was to get out to the horses that are kept out in the field and feed them carrots which we often do on the weekends. I came fully stocked with carrots. Unfortunately, the horses must have all been out on a run as they were no where to be found.

The hike was a bit long and many of the kids needed rides along the way.

If you look closely into the sky in this next photo you'll see all the hang gliders - the sky was filled with them. The hill in the distance is a popular area for hang gliding.

Towards the hike back home, we were all spread out. I ran ahead keeping up with Terence while the others kept their own pace. This is what it looked like when I looked behind.

There's a rock quarry that doesn't seem to be worked in any more right near our house. We got to rest a bit here. The kids love to hang out in it and climb around on all the remaining rocks. Here are a few shots.

We seemed to have a few props on the hike. Leah carried the Barbie video camera during most of the journey - even pretend video taping during many parts. We also had Carl and Wendy's kite that T found a good way to carry after we had fun flying it for a while.

2 of our 3 dogs. Blue, our border collie, doesn't sit still for long enough to capture a photo.

Greta (almost 10 years old) is on the left and Kiraly (7) is on the right. Even they were tired.