Annie B Garman

Motherhood, Mayhem, & The Meaning of Life

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þorri

Right now in Iceland the country is celebrating something called þorri (pronounced 'Thorri'). Every Icelander that attempts to explain it to me has described it as "Old Food Month." For a whole month Icelanders reflect on the way their ancestors used to survive by eating foods such as dried fish, sheep head, rotten shark, ram testicles, lamb jam, kidneys, liver and fat. This is not a joke. Colby and I went to the flea market and witnessed this first hand. After eating some dried fish and Read More

Immersion Time!

This week a spot finally opened up at Grænaborg Leikskoli (pre-school) and Haley began her journey into cultural assimilation.  She has been on a waiting list since September (they move quick around here).  On Tuesday I got to spend some time at the school getting a tour and meeting her teachers.  When we arrived, the kids all hovered around her, touching her face, showing off the few English phrases they knew ("Merry Christmas!!  one! two! three! four.....). The kids Read More

Not the First Day of School

Haley Jane loves to learn and I love to teach.  We make quite the nerdy team.  When she was 20 months, Colby read her "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and shortly thereafter she memorized the alphabet.  I jumped on board buying Leap Pad learning toys and spent time with her every day "playing school."  Since birth, the world has been our classroom and everything from cereal boxes to street signs have been our curriculum.  I decided this year to start kindergarten with Read More

Germany or Bust!

We just got back from a really refreshing and encouraging conference in Germany.  We took a few days after the conference to see Frankfurt and couldn't get over how little English people knew, especially compared to our beloved Icelanders.  I did charades all week trying to communicate what I needed and still was not successful.  Colby and I both felt like we were in Middle Pennsylvania the whole week because the food was all white and brown.  We had baked macaroni Read More

Helen Haley Meets Reykjavik, Iceland

We surprised the kids early this morning with their last Christmas present (In Iceland, Christmas lasts until January 6th).  Check out the excitement here:Colby and I both had to go to school, so the babysitter still came to watch the girls while Nonny got some rest.  Now, as you know, 90 percent of Icelanders speak proficient and fluent English.  Only old people and young kids don't know English.  Our babysitter, Halla (in her 20's), is no exception.  Nonetheless, after I introduced them, mom Read More

Boot-legged Blog Post

I just sat down, completely exhausted and totally uninspired to try to write something about our week.  Fortunately, Clint already did it and you can just read what he wrote HERE .  I hope this is sufficient, Mom and Dad! Read More

Thanksgiving 2009

At the end of October I had a minor emotional breakdown when I began to imagine missing Thanksgiving back home.  I cried for approximately 7 minutes about how I've NEVER missed a Thanksgiving with my family and the injustice of it all....Colby listened patiently and then gently reminded me that in college I didn't go home for two years.  Okay, true.  So, I had a choice...have a pity party all November or make the best of it.  Familyfun.go.com got me brainstorming about Read More

The Great Cow War

On Wednesday Haley came up to me and said, "We don't have a lot of videos.  Can I make a video?"Me:  "Make a video?  What do you mean?"Haley:  "You know... I'll make my own video then we can watch it on t.v."Me (trying to encourage creativity):  "Okay....I guess you could try.  What would this video be called?"Haley:  "Oh yeah, I already know that.  It's called THE MAN AND THE GREAT COW WAR."Me:  "That sounds interesting....Okay, well first you need Read More

Haley is 5!

I feel like I have committed a crime in the blogosphere by not blogging about my child's birthday.  Yes, Haley turned 5 last month and is now officially a little woman.  She never ceases to amaze me and I cannot get over her brains and beauty (the killer combination).   Haley has made a few friends the last 9 months and it was fun to invite them and see them all play together.  She wanted to play Go Fish and Old Maid, so those were the party games.  We made a creative, Read More

Meet Annie

 

“Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted” -CS Lewis
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