Girls just wanna be girls!

A day of fun in Holland celebrating Nadine's going away to college...

Celebration of being GIRLS!

Oh Glorious Shopping !

Nita hard at work on Nadine's formal : ) What a mom!

Gorgeous in Pink!


Playing in downtown Eindhoven...

What a blessing friends are!

Poor cake... He shouldn't have given us so much trouble!

Correction to bed pictures...! ("I'm Still Alive" post)

Sorry Scott & Shirley...

That's not our guest bed! haha! You'd think I would have learned my left from my right by now, huh?

So just to make it clear to everyone, the canopy bed is OURS : ) and the rod-iron bed is the guest bed. But we still hope you will want to come visit!!

; )

* random fun fact *

Did you know that you can make your very own

Scratch & Sniff pictures

by painting with kool-aid?!

Kool-Aid Paint:
1 (1/4 ounce) package Kool-Aid (any flavour or colour you want to use)
1/2 tablespoon hot water
=D

I'm still alive!

I know, i know... I owe an apology to those of you who have faithfully checked my blog only to find nothing new since January!!

I'm sorry! ; )

So, let me catch you up a bit.

January was an exciting month for us because we officially became house owners. Once we signed and our mortgage began, we decided we better start thinking about buying some furniture to fill up our new house that we'll be moving into this summer... (If only we knew how expensive furniture was! We're gonna be lucky to fill up two rooms by the time we move in!! haha)

Hard at work....

So our schedules quickly became full with leafing through ads during the week and checking out different stores on the weekend. Shopping is hard work! : ) Doesn't leave much time for getting the normal house work done... And in our cramped apartment, the clutter and dirty dishes pile up fast! I'm really looking forward to all the space we will have in our new home. A whole separate room for laundry! And a kitchen with a DOUBLE sink! Ooh la la! And a bedroom large enough that we can each get out of bed on our own side... (I'm sure Dennis won't miss me fumbling over him to get up in the mornings!)

Our first purchases...

Dennis testing our couch ~ shopping for bed slats is a new experience

Our guest bed (right) ~ Our bed (left) which has a 20 WEEK delivery time!!! insane.

One of the ways we've been channeling our moving excitement lately is by throwing our energy into packing. That has a double benefit--first, we get our packing done a little earlier, and hopefully a little more orderly; and second, the clutter gets boxed up, which leaves our apartment looking better and better! It's handy that Dennis can bring home an endless supply of Chiquita boxes. Let's hope our clothes don't end up smelling like bananas...













11 days and counting...!

And now, the rest of the story...

On wednesday of the second week, we picked Matt and Toni up from the airport and took off to Mentone, AL. Mom and Dad had scouted out a really perfect cabin there complete with a remote-controlled fireplace and hot-tube on the back deck! The view from the deck was incredible. The cabin sits on the edge of a ridge overlooking a wide valley. (Which made for some eerie winds when it stormed the last night!)


We celebrated Christmas a few weeks early the first night. Even brought a little tree with us to put the presents under before we ripped into 'em!

(Darth Vader meets Mary Tyler Moore??)

Escaping to a cabin turned out to be a great idea because we had so much catching up to do! I hadn't seen Matt & Toni in over a year, and Dennis hadn't seen them since we moved to Belgium. Since it was the first time we were all six together as a family, we spend half the day on Thursday trying to make a family portrait... but it's a lot harder than it looks!! Especially when trying to balance a tripod on a hot tube cover without falling in...

And for a more relaxed pose...

Something I really enjoyed was that we split up the meals, and took turns cooking and sharing some of our favorite dishes. Below is mine & mom's avacado salad creation with mexican ranch dressing (a recipe I stole from Rosies! mmm!) Matt and Toni spoiled us with their fabulous mulled wine. And I tested out Carol Brazle's famous Witloof pizza on an American crowd... not sure if they knew what to think about it though! : ) Must be an aquired taste...

I'm not really sure what was going on in this picture, (below) but no, I don't think it was a baptism...

After a wonderful trip and a to-be-expected emotional parting, we got home to Antwerp and hit the ground running... only one weekend to buy the last minute gifts, and then on to Christmas at the van Erps in Holland. This year it was fun to have Rene's new girl friend, Katrien, celebrate it with us. And the tradition continues...Ans had a new "project" for us to do before we got our Christmas "bonus" (a.k.a. pocket money). Hanging on the Christmas tree were four clear balls, each with a slip of paper inside. On the paper was a riddle, which we had to solve to get our bonus, and we could "buy tips" by decorating a Christmas ornament. Turns out, mine and Katrien's were not too difficult, but Dennis and Rene spent the whole afternoon making ornaments and trying to solve theirs. See if you can figure it out...

He who makes it, doesn't need it.

He who requests it, doesn't keep it.

He who buys it, doesn't want it.

He who has it, doesn't know it.

We spent New Year's in Holland as well. I'd almost say New Years is a bigger deal than Christmas there... Every year the van Erps invite a ton of friends and neighbors to sing songs and bring in the New Year together. We spent the whole day before making "oliebollen"--a kind of dough with bits of apple and raisins that's fried and then sprinkled with powder sugar, which is a big tradition. We spent Saturday night singing in the New Year, and once the big hand struck 12:00, everyone headed outside to shoot off fireworks. It's impossible to describe the atmosphere then! Nearly everyone in the neighborhood is shooting off fireworks at the same moment! So fun!

After what seemed like two months of preparing for and enjoying holidays, I must have needed a vacation just to catch up!
I feel like I hadn't gotten much done in anything lately! But now, a few weeks into January, I finally feel back on track. : ) I've caught up on my "thank-you" letters, hit the January sales, straightened my apartment, and even brushed up on some finance in preparation for an interview next week.
AND FINALLY posted my Thanksgiving Blog...!! =)

Speaking of preparing for interviews... please keep my job situation in your prayers. Johnson Controls is "restructuring" meaning many jobs are moving to Eastern Europe. I haven't lost my job, I just have to move to a new position within the company. The "default" positions are in Accounts Receivable, which is kind of a step down from General Ledger, where I am working. So I am interviewing for a position in Finance. However...the required experience is quite a bit above what I have, so we'll see how that goes.