2017-07-15 05:14 am

Final Post.

I am, in the expression they use here, wrapping this up. I no longer have the time or the energy to keep going. Everyone is well and we are getting on with life in our usual busy way. It's been nice over the years but I think it's time to stop now. Thanks to all who followed me and conversed. It's been great meeting you. Hope your lives go well.

Love and farewell. Jennell.
2017-04-07 10:04 am
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Quick update.

We are all well. Everyone is home from Schule etc for Easter. Dan and Harry are at work today of course. All the kids are fine and Zinnia is crawling rapidly everywhere and grabbing Peter's toys and throwing them about. We are going to Wales for Easter to spend a few days with my sister. They are putting up a couple of tents in the back yard and the kids are very exited about that. Anna-Louise has decided she wants to be a teacher definitely and teach music as her main subject. She's already got a place to do her degree. She was accepted right away, her first choice.

Hope everyone has a lovely and peaceful Easter.
2017-01-27 01:12 pm
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Family Update

OK, here I am at last with an update. We are all well. Hurrah! Dan is still working way out of town someplace but it's going well evidently. Harry is fine and still at the same place of work. Anna-Louise has passed grade 8 Trumpet and is still with the same boyfriend. Rhys has passed grade 8 in both piano and violin and grade 2 in flute and also some ballet and tap exams and is still writing his everlasting novel, which we still haven't read. BJ passed grade 4 violin and is quite dedicated, amazingly. The Trips passed grade 3 piano and are still dancing. Octavia has started to learn the violin, help!! Krista and Klara were 4 in December and are making Lego houses everywhere. Peter is getting all over the place and is a fantastic talker and never stops talking, in fact. Finally, Zinnia is almost 7 months old and is perfectly lovely. She can sit up beautifully and steadily but has shown no sign of crawling yet which is a relief, actually.

Great news from my brother Georg. Helga is pregnant. She's 43 and Henrietta is 7 1/2. They have been wanting another child for literally years. So far all is well and Helga is fine. We are so happy for them. Another cousin for our gang. They were here at Christmas. It was lovely to see them. Georg and I were very close when we were young and have remained very close all our lives.

I am well. It was my birthday Jan 6th and we went out for dinner. Julian and Alex babysat. They are still in the U.K. and are set to become British Citizens. Skye is now 12 years old and is quite grown up. Anyone that thinks being raised by two men is detrimental in some way should meet her. She's a credit to them both. She and Rhys are, it seems, still engaged. Hmm.

Dan has joined Wills fishing club. This involves going out with a bunch of other men and one lone woman and sitting on stools by a river not moving for hours on end. They throw the fish back after weighing and photographing them. People are sometimes a bit weird. Better than drinking and pub crawling though.

Aron, Dan's brother, is very worried about Trump. He and Sophia don't want their two children, Olivia who will be 7 in April and Daniel, who is 5, growing up in a racist, fascist country. We are worried too. They are thinking quite seriously of moving to Canada. What can you Do?

Anyhow, best wishes and love to anyone who reads this. Have to deal with some crying. Peter has, it seems banged his head. Love to all.
2016-12-31 08:00 am
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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr.

Will update with recent family events after NewYear. House is full as we have family visitors. We are knee deep in people and Children and there are kids sleeping on floors. Have a good holiday everyone.
2016-08-06 09:12 am
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Family Update,

Well, here I am at last. Sorry for the long delay in updating. Anyhow, we are all well and here is the news.

Dan has bought a new car. It's some type of Ford and is called Monty. Dan named it himself. Enough said really. He's now working on a Barn conversion in Buckinghamshire. It involves a lot of traveling so we don't see him too much. Just early morning and late at night. Weekends off though.

Harry is well and still working at the same place. He is happy and is hoping to get the go ahead to go to the Seminary next year. There's been some meetings and discussions. I won't bore you will all the details. He was 22 on June 14th. Frightening that he's so adult.

Anna-Louise has a new boyfriend. He's called Harry. Oh my goodness. It's short for Henry actually. The logic of that escapes me somewhat. He was evidently named after Prince Harry. She will be 18 in October. That will be her last year at Schule. She took a number of exams this year and passed them all with high grades. We are very proud of her.

Rhys was 10 on June 21st. To celebrate we had an Archery Party. Bit alarming that. Loads of kids firing arrows. Of course, being us, everyone had to dress up as characters from Robin Hood. I was so huge at the time I just sat in a chair and watched. It was a great success all round though and the food was fantastic. Rhys is the same Rhys, of course, busy and into everything. He's still writing his epic novel. No idea when it will be finished, if ever.

BJ passed another Karate exam and, much to our surprise, another violin exam, grade 3. We are stunned, to be honest. He's getting quite tall now and his hair appears redder then ever. He stands out in any group, you can always spot the hair.

The Trips did well at Schule this year, all three of them. They will be 7 in November, time goes so fast. They all passed Grade 1 Piano and are due to take Grade 2 any moment. There's a bit of fighting over who's best. It makes them practice though. Despite having Dan's ears they are all immensely cute and their curls cover the ears anyhow.

Octavia is still very chatty, shades of Anna-Louise here, and bossy. She likes to be in charge. She'll be 5 later this month and we are having a traditional party in the Church Hall with old fashioned games and stuff.

Krista and Klara will be 4 in December. Their hair isn't as red as BJ's but it's still mighty red. They have Dan's ears and my lack of nose and are quite alike but not identical. They are very chatty now and it's quite noisy in our house most of the time. They are inclined to shout which irritates Dan a lot, the trouble is, if you ignore them, they just shout louder. We are trying to get them out of this, but so far it's not having much success. They are gorgeous though.

Peter was 2 on July 28th. We had some friends over with their kids and we ate out back. It was nice and the kids behaved well. Peter, according to everyone, looks like a mini me. Poor little man. So he has the Jen lack of nose. Maybe it'll get bigger as he ages. He talks now a bit and can say quite a lot of words. His favorite word is nein. Everything is nein, nein. Dan told me he's gotten that from me. I didn't realize I said it so much.

Zinnia Maria is now 5 weeks old and is doing well. She's still a big baby and is bald but is very cute. I am fine now and Zinnia is a placid baby, which is good considering how many of us there are here.

Anyhow, will try to update a bit more often now I have gotten fairly organized again. You have to have a good routine with all of us around. Hope everyone is well. Love to all Jen.
2016-06-29 01:37 pm
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Baby.

Message from Dan:

Zinnia Maria was born on Monday June 27th. Jen had a rough time but seems to be recovering well. Zinnia is great. Huge baby for Jen weighing almost 4 Kilos. (Actually 8 pound 5 ounces). She was overdue and they had to induce her. All is going great considering. Everyone else is well.
2016-05-04 11:32 am
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Family Update. Yippee!!!!

Contrary to rumors we are all still here and all still alive. We are all well too, and I have reached the whale stage and can't see anything past the bump without immense difficulty.

Dan is doing yet another roof conversion plus making the garage two stories high. When he told us Krista wanted to know how they will get their car up that high. Klara suggested getting a flying car.

Harry is still working at the same place and driving without incident. He is a very careful driver, which is unusual for his age it seems. He and J are still good friends and see each other often.

Anna-Louise has passed grade 6 in Trumpet and grade 8 in both Violin and Piano plus grade 7 singing. She is 17 now and quite grown up. She is still seeing Hywel, the Welsh boy. She is lovely and no bother at all and we get along so well. It's like having a much younger sister.

Rhys has passed grade 7 Piano and grade 6 Violin. He's also passed several dance exams in both ballet and tap. He's now started to learn the Flute. (I play the Flute myself). He started last month actually. Anyhow, he's still writing what he calls his epic novel. I have found out what it's about. Evidently it's about a boy who dies and finds himself in another world where he has a lot of adventures. I haven't been allowed to read it yet but he told us he's writing Chapter 38 now. He will be 10 in June.

BJ was 8 in January. He's still doing Karate and people will be amazed to hear he has passed Grade 2 Violin. He actually plays tunes now that we recognize.

The Trips are now 6. They like Schule and are popular. The twins are doing tap classes and Aimee-Rose is concentrating, her words, on ballet. They are all still learning the Piano are are very enthusiastic but seem to be fairly untalented. I hope they don't want to start the Violin.

Octavia will be 5 in August. Everyone says she looks just like me, poor little thing. She's very intelligent and a bit bossy. She's liable to stamp and shout do what I say. She wants to order other kids about and they don't like it. However, she's improving and is definitively less bossy than she was a year ago.

Krista and Klara are 3 now. Hard to believe. They are small and cute with their red curls. They are full time at Kindergarten now and love it. It makes for a peaceful house when almost everyone goes off to work or Schule and I'm left with just Peter. He will be 2 in July. He's the most easy going friendly little one anyone could have. He is full of smiles for everybody and hardly ever cries or fusses.

Anyhow, Barbecue fans will be happy to know we had one on Sunday. It had an animal theme. That is, everyone had to come as an animal. Dan and his workers were Lions and I was a Cat. I think I frightened our own real Cats by attempting to meow to the tune of God Save the Queen. Dan and his men plus his Elvis Group, which is now called The Elvis Appreciation Society, sang Jailhouse Rock and danced. It was, quite simply, alarming, but the kids all liked it except Rhys who said it made his ears hurt.

Harry and J did a Guitar duet dressed as Mice complete with tails, and Anna-Louise and Carly did a Flute and Clarinet version of Let it go from Frozen. Anna-Louise arranged it herself and it was very good indeed. Rhys, BJ, the Trips, Octavia, Skye, plus Will and Anna's oldest three daughters and William and Minerva did a mass tap dance on the Deck. It was noisy and very funny to watch since several of the participants couldn't actually dance and they also had trouble with their costumes which were a mixture of Cows and Sheep.

Our neighborhood Opera singer sang and our Postman, who is Scottish, did the Highland fling. He was wearing his clan kilt plus a bear hat and at one point we all discovered that true Scots do indeed wear no underwear, but it was a very brief view luckily.

A small group of people who meet in our Church to discuss Foreign affairs, or something like that, who are all over 60, sang The White Cliffs of Dover wearing Rabbit ears, and two elderly men from around the corner of our road played something, no idea what, on some lengths of copper tubing while dressed as Rats.

We finished with the usual can-can and kicked our shoes off. It was a fantastic evening.

Hope everyone is well. It's lovely and sunny here.
2016-03-25 03:51 pm

Family Update.

Quick note to be followed by longer post after Easter.

We are all well. We have several family over for Easter and the house is crowded. Harry and Anna-Louise are both staying with friends which makes things a bit better.

Anyhow, long post coming up after Easter. Have a great weekend anyone who reads this.
2016-01-13 05:47 am

Note.

Have transferred last few entries over from my L.J. which I'm not going to renew. Will be posting sporadically here from now on. I have my entire L.J. saved on my PC so it's not gone. May post a mass of text here from it one day. You have been warned----- evil cackle.

Evidently L.J. will revert to basic so it will still be available, yahoo.
2016-01-13 05:45 am

December 3rd 2015 Update.

Well, despite my advanced years I'm pregnant again. I thought I had started the change as they call it here, but no, I'm pregnant. Anyhow, just had it confirmed that's it's a girl and she's healthy. I waited to post to make sure all was OK.

After all of us having some stomach bug we are now fit again. Having a whole mass of kids and adults being sick was bad. Anyhow, everyone is coming here for Christmas. No idea where they will all sleep but the kids are eager for sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags again.

Off now, will be back later. Oh, Harry passed his driving tests first try and is now driving about in a seriously old car. Can't remember if I said that before and haven't time to check.
2016-01-13 05:41 am

October 7th 2015 Family update.

Very busy and just had a few moments to spare to update this. We are all well. The kids are back at School and Harry is working in an Old Folk's home at the moment. Dan is doing a Barn Conversion out in Bucks someplace. He has a lot of traveling to do. I am very busy with the kids and Peter is walking everywhere and grabbing things. He can say Dada and a lot of mumbles that Octavia says is Chinese.

Exams went well and we were all very pleased with their results. Rhys took another Violin exam and Anna-Louise a Trumpet exam. Will post more later as one of the cats has brought in a live mouse and it's just run up the curtains.

Andrea is doing the School run and they'll all be in in a moment so I must rescue the mouse.
2016-01-13 05:36 am
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Summer 2015 update.

Family update.

Well, here I am at last. We are all well. Dan has a new loft conversion and is busy. My little Evie would have been 23 on May 21st. Just think she might have even been married by now!

Harry has finished Uni and was 21 on June 14th. He is away with friends on a Europe trip at the moment and we have bought him a car. When he gets home he is having driving lessons. It's not a very new car but it is good for a start for him. More later on his degree which was a BA in Theology and Philosophy.

Anna-Louise is busy and has lots of friends. She is still singing and learning the Violin, Piano and Trumpet. She's very good too. She is lovely. Like Harry she is a real credit to us in every way. She is still going out with the same boy. They have broken up at least twice but are together again at the moment. He's an only child called Hywel. He's Welsh.

Our darling Rhys was 9 on Monday. He's still learning the Violin and Piano and dancing. We are having his proper party next Saturday but we all went out to Dinner on Monday, his request, to celebrate on the actual day. He can now converse quite fluently in Chinese so we went to a very nice Chinese restaurant and he ordered everything for us in Chinese. Everyone was most impressed.

BJ is back to full health now and is his usual lively self. He was allowed to keep his plasters and they are hanging in several pieces on his bedroom wall. A most unusual decoration which has to be shown to all our visitors. Well, they mostly already think we're eccentric, so----

The Trips have been enjoying Schule. They are all still going to dance classes and learning the Piano. Aimee-Rose is doing ballet and tap and the boys are doing tap and street now.

Octavia, according to everyone, looks just like me, including the lack of nose. I can't believe she'll be 4 in August. She's very intelligent and Rhys has taught her to read. She keeps asking to learn the Piano.

Krista and Klara look like two mini versions of BJ complete with the red hair. They are talking quite a lot now in both English and some German. They aren't identical but look quite alike. I think it's the hair but Krista has grey eyes like Harry and Klara's eyes are now green like Dans.

Peter will be a year old at the end of next month. He is walking holding on to furniture at the moment. He has the usual blond hair but it looks as if it's just going to be wavy like Anna-Louise's hair. Pleased about that. He is very cute anyhow and smiles at everyone. He's a very friendly baby.

Anyhow, I am well, and busy as always. We are not taking a Vacation this year but will just have days out in Cecilia. Oh, and the cats are all well too. JB is now almost 8 and is the boss cat. Brian is 5, Janna is 3 and Amy is just 2. They bring us presents regularly and if they're dead the kids bury them in the garden with a little ceremony.

Anyhow, we are having another Barbecue in two weeks. The last one was a great success and Dan's men came dressed as Red Indians. Female Red Indians, I must explain. Two of them have tattoos. Octavia, in particular, was most impressed and wants a tattoo of her own. Seeing large builders dressed like that was somewhat weird but most people know what to expect when they come to our Barbecues.

I was a Cowgirl and Dan was Doc Holiday. We had a Bonfire and fireworks. Any excuse really. We also had our usual turns and Rhys sang a miserable song about a dying Cowboy which was a great success. Dan and a whole mass of men sang Hound Dog. No idea why, except most of them were from his Elvis group. They strummed imaginary guitars and danced. It was quite alarming actually but the kids loved it and a lot of them joined in. We didn't have any bother from neighbors because we invited them all and most of them came.

We finished with the can-can and we all kicked our shoes off, the back yard was covered in shoes and some of them went next door and had to be retrieved. Anyhow, have to finish now. Andrea did the Schule run in Cecilia. We have great neighbors. Love to all.
2012-01-29 12:39 am

Update on me and mine.

It has been ages since I looked at this and I now have 8 kids. The youngest, Octavia, was born last August. My older daughter now plays the Trumpet as well as Violin and Piano.

Will post some more later as it is now nearly 1am.
2010-10-02 11:41 am

About me.

Decided to start using this at last. Here is some {boring} info about me:

I am married to Dan, who is Jewish and Polish-American. I am German but left home when I was 18. I have two brothers and a sister. My sister is married to a Welshman and lives in Wales, my older brother is a Priest and my younger brother is married with a child and still lives in Germany.

Dan and I met in New York when I overbalanced and sat on his knees by mistake. We then moved to Scotland and then Paris and finally London, where we still live. We have seven children, the youngest three are Triplets who will be one year old in November.

Dan has his own small building firm and I am an accountant working from home. Our oldest three kids are at School and number four is at kindergarten. I like to sing and play the piano and the flute. My older daughter plays the piano and the violin and has singing lessons. My second son also plays the piano and the violin.

I am interested in Photography and Writing, among other things, but most of my time is taken with the kids.