Poor Forsaken Mia

To Whoever Cares:

Dear Whoever,

Upon this eve I regret to inform you that I am ailing from a sudden bout of disease. Although at an a normal temperature, yours truly is suffering from all the symptoms that inhabit a fever. Upon recognizing the utter barbarism it would be to bestow this ailment upon any other live being, I refrained from going to church, as it was a Sunday. To reward this sacrifice, I was shunted into my bedroom, only allowed the trifles that my nearly bare  room had, to use, and not allowed a proper supper, which brings this author to the present.

 The bias in this snippet has been kept to a minimum, but the injustice of my kinfolk's treachery bring me to a point at which this episode MUST show fury. These feelings started when I came down to beg for a scrap of food. Upon being greeted  by my Gemini, she denounced my claim to being diagnosed and granted me the title of " A mean person " for my concern for our guests and their health. Suggestions such as " why don't you just sleep for the rest of the day?" haunted my nearly infected ears, they forgetting that 4/6 hours of my wake had been occupied with this feat.

Alas, alas, the time has come for me to take my leave and perish the thought of ever being angry at my brethren. But this, as a testament for you, is ended, and so will I try to make the anger do so also.

Not Quite So Enthusiastically Yours,

The Quiet and Long-Suffering,
 Mia.


This post was written when I was feeling very sad indeed, like now. I happen to be in a bit of a pickle.

Mommy, dear, sweet mother that she is, decided that I was the ultimate reason that my siblings wouldn't do their chores. So, she decided to take all my electricity for the weekend if we didn't clean the house. 

My siblings are kind people, but, they say to themselves, the cavemen survived without electricity, so Mia can survive too. 

Is this unfair? I think so! This WILL, most definitely be my last post because pigs will fly before we clean the house.

Goodbye.

Mia's Memories Episode 3: Almond Steamed Milk on a School Day

The third Mia's Memories episode is out! I can't believe, it, really. I do indeed, hope that you enjoy it thoroughly!

MiaSusan

 I love soup.

I especially love this soup, which we are having for dinner.

It is fantastic.

It is marvelous.

I love it.

How to I meet it? Well, it started when we went to Austria. I've been told many, many times by angry family members that I like very a very small collection of food. This food was the only food I liked in Austria- which means it has to be delicious if I like it!

(Try it with bread!)

-M.S

Almond Syrup Recipe

1 cup sugar (brown, white, or half n half) 
1/2 cup water
 almond extract 
Directions: 
1 In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to a rolling boil. Stir to prevent scorching. 
2 Remove from heat. Cool slightly and stir in extract to desired strength, starting with 1/2 teaspoons 
3 Store in a closed container in the refrigerator for up to a week.






(This recipe belongs to this website. I do NOT claim ownership!!!!)

A New Discovery

There are a lot of things that I love in life.

Books.

Food.

A well spun ball of yarn.

And also, Starbucks. Back in America, my mom went there on occasion. We loved Starbucks.  But then we moved to Europe and although there are Starbucks in major cities like Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris, we don't get to Starbucks very often.

For our summer vacation, we went to Austria. We lived on bread, fruit, and other fresh food. We adored it and almost started crying when we had to leave. But we stopped in Munich, Germany on the way home and there was was a Starbucks!  And it was at this particular Starbucks, that I fell in love.  Never in my life had I conceived of such a delicious and comforting beverage . . .a steamed milk with almond flavoring.

Wow! I spent the next week, while my dearly beloved grandparents were here, dreaming of that wonderful drink.  Eventually the gears clicked in my head and I realized that we already had in our possession an espresso machine capable of steaming milk and therefore all I needed was almond flavoring.

I was, meanwhile, coming to appreciate tea as well.  While out birthday shopping with Grandma, we stumbled into a lovely tea shop and there on the shelf I saw it: almond flavoring.  I nearly cried with joy. and we studied our options.

For 20 Euros, there was a large bottle which probably would be unable to fit in any of our cupboards. For 6 Euros I found a delightful little bottle which we ended up buying.  I went home with my treasure, delighted, and willingly shared it with my family and friends.  However, I had forgotten that sharing one's syrup freely also causes the bottle to drain quickly, and I found myself with enough for one more cup, which I have been saving for my birthday.

However, I found an amazing recipe for the syrup, and I can say with certainty that it works. I love it.

The End

A Post That is NOT an Excuse for Not Posting!

I am officially the most lazy person in the world when it comes to blogging. I am so utterly lazy that I haven't even posted!

I just said this to myself and slapped myself in the process. I do feel sorry but I've been busy.

Very busy.

Very busy indeed.

(And No!This isn't an excuse for not posting!)

Well, let's just say that our imaginary world has had the action continually picking up for it. My siblings and I have been writing about it on a separate blog, but that blog is not open for public viewing yet. It will be in three years, though, and we intend to keep it open as a memoir of our three years here.

I will indeed post more, and I intend to do so.

-Mia

(P.S There are absolutely no exceptions, and I'm afraid that we can't let ANYONE read the other blog yet)

Abe's Autobiography: Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The issues basically started as soon we got to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye. With our dear friends surrounding us, including our Grandpa and Grandma, we set off to security and to our gate. But there was a problem: our flight got delayed for a long time, and I needed to save all the interesting stuff to do for the flight. What was a guy to do? We waited in the waiting room until we couldn’t wait any longer.

Finally, my mom took us to get a snack and by the time we returned we were beckoned into yet another waiting room and from there we landed onto a depressingly large plane. I ate candy that my faithful grandma had packed me and was (so my sisters tell me) more involved with it than the dramatic exit a chapter of my life was taking. It was fun at the beginning (by that I mean the first ten minutes), and the candy helped but after that, we were all so tired that we fell asleep.

As soon as I woke up, I got my first view of the Netherlands, and I thought it looked wonderful. An hour later we landed at Schipol, the main airport in Noord-Holland, and we were greeted by not much security, Daddy (who had left three weeks ago), and a Real American Starbucks. We picked up our luggage and went outside to wait for a cab. Due to circumstances beyond our control we had to wait a little bit for the cab and finally we reached Melkpad: the home of our dreams.

I thought it was perfect for us. All the doors were shut, and it was very dark inside, but Daddy explained that he wanted all the rooms to be a surprise. As we walked in through the door, Daddy showed us the small room on the left: a tiny toilet room with a minute sink. Ahead of us were two doors, and the right was the kitchen. We went into the kitchen and they were dazzled, I was anxious to see my bedroom.

Finally, after we toured the main floor, we got up to the second floor and we explored the toilet room, the bathroom, Ella’s room, and FINALLY mine. My first thoughts were “It’s so small!” and “Why do I have girl bedding?” and I had good reason to think these! My bed-adorned with a flower printed duvet- was rented but still, I wanted my masculine essence at least acknowledged! And as for my bedroom size, if I tidied it everyday it would suit my purposes, but it was small!

The exploration of all the trivial or “other” parts of the house was rather dull and so was the unpacking of all of our baggage, the air shipment arriving not ten minutes after our arrival. The really interesting part was when we went into town, which was a three minute walk. We snacked on “gevulde koeken” (round cakes with almond paste in the middle) and admired everything. The first thing that we admired was ABN Amro (the bank) which we found out to be pronounced as Ah-Bee-En Ahm-roe. In one word? BORING. And it took FOREVER. 


By the time we had walked around the whole of the town central, we were all exhausted (from the plane and from the walk,) and we were thoroughly tired of discovering new things. Every inch of the country seemed to scream at us "Welcome to the Netherlands!"

My All-Time Favorite Soup Recipe

Hello! This soup brought us through some very tough times- sickness, health, depression- but even now, a night where we are all perfectly fine, we are still eating it. If I had any skill in lying or indecency   as to do it, I certainly would and say that this recipe was my own, or at least a family recipe, but now, you can find this delicious soup recipe here.

Enjoy!

Abe's AutoBiography (Chapter One)

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

By Abe A.

(With Mia Susan)

Dedicated to my favorite (stuffed) friends: Scurvie and Pup

CHAPTER ONE

Hello. I was born into a family of girls. Was I happy about this? NO. But I’ve grown used the realty of my sisters. I know that some of my story will seem crazy, but I’ve grown used to it.

My story starts on a certain day. It was just a normal Friday pizza night. That night we were having my favorite pizza: New York Pizza. We were going to watch The Sound of Music and we jokingly called it “The Sound of Moo-sic” after a book involving cows. We were very happy that night, because my parents had just come home from the Netherlands and we had missed them.

The movie ended soon and my mom told me to go to bed. They took Ella, Sadie, and Mia into the office for unknown reason. Suspicious? I think so! Well I was somewhat thirsty, so I went downstairs to eavesdrop, or “get a drink.” I snuck to the office and started to listen.

They seemed to be talking about something important: I could tell it by their tones, and then I started to make sense of it: We were moving to the Netherlands for three years! I crept back to my bedroom and tried to make sense of it.

How did I feel? I didn’t want to go AT ALL, but then I always wanted adventure, and wasn’t this the perfect chance? I went to bed full of questions, but technically I wasn’t supposed to know so who could I ask?

The weekend started out to be pretty boring except for that evening when we went to Chick-Fil-A. I ordered chicken nuggets and as usual I ate whatever anyone couldn’t finish. I loved Chick-Fil-A: it spoke to me. We were just leaving when my family started talking about our move. They were trying to talk about it without having me know that we were talking about it. For instance;

“What will we pack for our short little vacation to the Netherlands?” Sadie asked.

“Well, because Holland is far away and because we are staying there three yea-… I mean weeks, of course we will pack a lot.” Mommy replied

“ I can’t wait to see how our little poochy-kins will react to our move, I mean trip of course…” Ella gushed.

See what I mean? Partly because of sin nature and partly because I wanted to show them how smart I was, I put in:

“Can I bring my toys to the Netherlands? Or will I outgrow them in three years.”

The shock was more that evitable. They stared at me as if I had just turned green. “You know?” They said in unison. He-he. I love a good joke. Soon we were all laughing and discussing room decorations. An hour later we were all gathered around the computer looking at bedroom textiles and one month later we had found the perfect house: Melkpad (which literally meant “Milk Path”)

There was only one slight issue: I had a bedroom the size of my mom’s old closet. I love toys. I have a lot of toys. What can I say? They are a lot of fun, and I spend all day playing with them. My current room was by no means big but wasn’t small. Plus we had a basement, and the basement at Melkpad was unfinished. Where would I keep all my toys? And plus, what would I do? In America I played spies with my sisters. And the backyard was big and spacious at home. I could spend hours getting the basement messy and we could not clean it up for days! But here every section of the house is occupied by someone at all times and thus we are inclined to do a daily scouring.

I had my doubts about this move. I was a little but afraid that I wouldn’t make any friends. What could I do, though? A thousand sleepless nights wouldn’t change the fact that we were indeed moving.

What I Hate...

I hate Generalizations