What a day...?!

No viewer for house, disappointing news re money, can't open the pic of my new sofa. Oh! how we have laughed (not much) today. However, you will be relieved Toti Freysson that there are no skirting boards in house...lots of wood to varnish at some point tho?!Two tired boys and one tired and jaded mummy...but we still managed to fit in playtime and snuggles. Nothing else to say that we havn't said already...this week is going sooooo sloooowwlly, I can't believe its only wednesday. Still, in theory, tomorrow we can say you have been gone a week and that means we are one week nearer to your return. Hooray!! J was telling me again at bedtime how much he misses you. Well, what he actually said was ''It's not missing him exactly, but I miss coming home and seeing my Dad's smiling face''. We all do. Night night all, Love 3B's xxxx

Who´s the daddy!?

Hello my beauties ... who´s the daddy? That is the question of the day. As Áslaug has e-mailed a picture of the sofa to mummy I had to find another picture, so here it is, an old picture of the world famous (in Iceland) band Sixties. Can you see which one is daddy? Clue: He´s got a lot less hair these days (ed. and a double chin) ... wink, wink ...
It´s been a strange day for all of us but because we have each other it doesn´t matter, we´ll always be okay. Sometimes you just gotta jump and hope for the best ... it´ll always work out cos we´re such a lovely bunch of people and we go so well together ... like strawberrys and cream ... or coco pops and milk ... or chocolate and ice cream ... or mummy and daddy ... or Jolyon and Elijah ... or mummy, daddy, Jolyon and Elijah ...
I love you all and wish I was there ...
I really should have smiled on that picture, shouldn´t I?
Yours forever,
Daddy

New Job - Same Old Daddy

Well - my brain has been fried with too much reading. It´s like doing homework for eight hours ... your brain melts. Anyway, the day was good and I met lots of people that I knew from the olden days and everyone was really nice. We´ll see if they´re still nice when I start to boss them about ... just joking ... There´s not much else to tell about today as work is all I have done. I hope you guys are doing okay and that everyone will soon be healthy again. I love you all very much. The picture of the day is me and grandad trying to set up a computer program called ´Skype´ so that it will be cheaper for us to phone each other and so that I can set it up at grandmum and pops´ when I come back. On this picture, grandad Freyr has just seen 2 pink elephants. Daddy Toti is doing the sign for ´no´ because grandad can´t keep them as pets. See you now... bye ... bye ...

Still no picture of the sofa

Sorry folks, Hallgrímur Geirsson hasn´t been in this pm so I´ve not got a picture yet ... but I´ve got something much better ... a picture of nana and grandad (who sent me to Garður with three tons of toilet rolls this morning ... I don´t know what they think I´ll be eating up there, lots of wiping bums to be done, eh!?). Had a productive morning pulling nails and screws out of the walls and getting things ready to be painted.
I went to see Jolyons school and the principal, Erla M. Sveinbjarnardóttir, is really nice. Her grandson was 8 years old when he moved from America to Garður so she knows what it´s like. She took me in to meet all Jolyons classmates-to-be and they were really nice. They think Jolyon is a really cool name and they think coming from England is really cool ... and they all speak english. I also met Jolyons teacher. Her name is Heiða Hrönn Sigfúsdóttir and is also very nice and smiley. Her e-mail address is heida@gerdaskoli.is if Jolyon wants to e-mail her any questions. The third person I met was Jónína Holm, who will be in charge of Jolyons Icelandic studies and will make sure he doesn´t fall behind. But the biggest help will be from his new friends in his class, they promised they´d take good care of you. They´ve all been practicing your name and they were competing to see who could say it best.
I also went to see my new boss, he´s nice too and it should be a good job even if I don´t get to boss people around as much. I still get to boss them around a little bit. After that I took some plokkfisk (or plucked fish, if you like) which is made from haddock, to amma Sigga. She always asks about you and my dad thinks she loves us more than she loves him, her own son ... Anyway, off to read the homework my boss gave me. I love you all so much and wish I was there.
Daddy the dude
PS. nana told me off cos I took a picture of her with her mouth full of food :-) tee hee hee ...

Melted like Noa Sirius chocolate ...!

Two best boys have melted the Viking clan on those two pictures ... x-box in jammies, mummy? It´s obvious daddy isn´t home. Today didn´t quite go as planned as I couldn´t get hold of Hallgrimur to take a picture of Aslaugs settee and I didn´t manage to meet up with amma Erna. I did get the paint brochures though and me and grandad Freyr went and picked up nana Kristin from the airport.
This evening I´ve got together a load of stuff to take to our new house ... paint brushes, tea bags, coffee (to prepare for the army of painters that I´m gathering), hoover, brush, towels (for freshening up),tool box, drill(yep, grandads new drill set) and proper trousers and a shirt to put on for meeting Jolyon´s teacher and principal-to-be tomorrow. I need that cos I´m getting up early to go and do some filling in the house in the morning before I go to meet them at 1pm.
I know there is a quarter missing over there but there are three quarters missing in our new house (the two most important and the boss ... not to mention some furniture :-). It feels very lonely and I try and keep myself busy so once I´ve posted the paint samples off (in a forty foot container cos there´s so many of them!!!) and bought some filler I´ll be off to Garður to get faffing. I´m hoping to meet some more neighbours as well and the principal said I could meet Jolyons class ... hope that´s okay Jolyon, I´ll make sure they don´t find out that I´m strange. I love and miss you all from the bottom of my heart (which feels empty but is actually so full of love that it hurts) and I so look forward to coming home before x-mas. P.S. I´m on nana Kristins computer so I´ve not got any pictures to post with this one, sorry.

2nd attempt..!

2nd time around..and now I have the room sizes, so I can't give the Freysson more grief about it!! J's room will be 17cm or 7'' bigger. We Burtons had a lovely chilled trip to Portland Basin and then for lunch at Frankie and Bennys-both boys were fab and melted all the staff. It made me sad to know a quarter of our fab family was missing. Emotions have been up and down all day, esp when it was sterilising bottles time!! Eli B was very sick (literally) this P. m, which is a bit of a pain without a washer..Deb has come to the rescue tho. And Kristina came to the rescue when we ran out of cat food-makes me sad when I think of how I won't have such help and friendship in our new home (well, not for a while). Onto a new routine again tomorrow..must go now-bath and snuggles in demand. we love you babe-our hearts hurt without your company. Lots of Love J,J and E xxxxxx

When do I get my early night?

It´s not happening. After staying up last night at a family party, I went to visit amma Sigga tonight, and that always means a late night. So, got up this morning and spoke to my lovely family that is too far away. Then me and dad had a nice chilled morning sorting out computer stuff as he is setting up an internal computer system ... I don´t know how it works either.
After a lunch of fried egg on bread and tomatoes I went to Kringlan to sort out phones and paint brochures. At the phone shop they informed me my phone was locked so they were unable to put an Icelandic SIM card in it. I´ll have to phone Orange and sort it out. Then I found that the paint shop wasn´t there any more. By the time I got to a paint shop it was 10 minutes past two and it had closed at two o´clock. Things always go so smoothly when Faffy Freysson is sorting.
I did get to the new house though which was good. Had a short walk around the village, to the dodgy shop which is actually very nice and sells all fresh veg and freshly baked bread and pastries (I bought myself a chocolate doughnut ... ha, ha, ha!!! No one can stop me ... unless the Burtons phone ... then I´ll have to stop).
The house is in good shape and not too much to do before moving in but things that we will want to do gradually (Burtons don´t call it that ... they call it faffing about!) and I met our Neighbour from Garðbraut 77, Njáll Karlsson, who was born and raised in the village and seems like a nice enough bloke, although a tad suspicious about people from Reykjavík. After having a discussion with him about how ridiculous the house prices in Reykjavík are I think he decided I was okay.
After having haddock for tea I drove my dad up to Mosfellsbær for a birthday party and I went to visit amma Sigga. We discussed everything under the sun from the morality of business folk to debating whether whales have their babies on land or in the water. I actually had to read through her Norwegian Encyclopedias to sort that one out ... and hey ... I never knew I could read Norwegian. Whales are too heavy to get back into the sea once they´re on land by the way ... not like seals. Before I knew it it was past midnight. Just then my dad phoned me (I had his mobile) and asked me to pick him up, which I did and that was my day. Now, I´m off to bed, far too late. The picture with this one is of the Jacuzzi ... just because I can. Goodnight you all.

2nd Burton-only day

Apart from a broken boiler clock on Thursday and a broken washing machine today, the 3 Burton's are ticking along. We all went to sing and sign this morning and the theme was 'going to bed' . Jolyon was sure we would find out the sign for 'book' today and didn't ask Marie, our teacher..it was a bit spooky when we did find the sign for book, half-way thro' the session. J just looked at me with that oh-so-sure-and-confident Burton look. We didn't see much else of Jolly-one then, as he spent the day playing with Cameron-very important when you will soon be leaving your best friends for new friends in new villages. Eli B was very emotional but enjoyed his bath and massage. And Mummy...well, she managed to do all the jobs before 9pm. Too worn out to be bothered to have any 'Joanna' time, but she will try. She did enjoy the pix from our new house but waits with baited breath for the room sizes..? Take care vikings -we love you.xx

1st day in Iceland

Well, here I am. Back in the land of Ice and Snow where the midnight sun and the hot springs blow. NB. There´s actually no Ice and snow, the midnight sun disappears around 4pm and I can´t see any hot springs out my window.
It felt very strange being on my own and actually having time to do something. I didn´t know what to do so I ended up not doing anything, really.
Went to a family party last night (I wore the clothes you told me to, Joanna ... cos you´re the boss ... even from a different country)! It was good fun to meet the whole lot in one go and there were many people there from my generation. One of my aunts said to me, "it´s great to have all the children here!" It´s been a while since anybody called me a child, at nearly 32 with a wife and two beautiful children of my own.
Today will be a sorting-and-writing-lists day and I think I´ll go and visit amma Sigga later tonight.
I love you Joanna, Jolyon and Elijah and miss you loads.
PS. our new house is beautiful.