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.

So Much to be Thankful For!

This was definitely one of the best Thanksgivings ever! I was so glad Dennis and I got to make the trip to Alabama together. This was his first trip back to the States since we moved to Belgium in August 2004. The two weeks we were there flew by, but it was a great visit.

We arrived at the height of Alamaba football fever--Even our pilot updated everyone with the Alabama - Auburn score as we headed away from Atlanta towards the great state of Alabama. I laughed--we were truly back in the South! Once we arrived in the Huntsville airport, we were greeted in another truly American way--a man sitting with his family noticed Dennis' HU t-shirt and yelled toward us, "If you had studied harder, you could have made it to Pepperdine!" =) I love the US and the way people joke freely with each other! That something we miss in Belgium.


Mom and Dad hosted the Thanksgiving dinner at their house this year, and it was a full house! I was off the hook from kitchen duty this year, because I got the "big cousin" job! It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it... *wink wink* We played games, hiked through the woods (i found our clubhouse ...well, what's left of it!) And played on the old tire swing. I really had fun showing them all my old haunts.

Dinner was wonderful! All those great family traditions and comfort foods! Like mom's ham with aprocot stuffing, and grandma's sweet potato casserole! Mmm!

Later mom got out a pinata, which we rigged up in the hall for the kids. (I think we had as much fun watching as they did hitting and diving for candy!) The pinata later doubled as interesting hats...

But the kids weren't the only entertaining ones... (By the way, that's real china on their heads...not paper plates!)

To be continued... =) it's bedtime for me now

What'dya know...!

Hey Y'all! (you like that? I'm getting back to my Southern roots!)

'Lil update needed... No, I'm NOT working 7 days a week! I guess that just rolls off my tongue (or rather finger tips) to say something is 24/7 and it just kinda flowed into my last blog! lol. No, I'm working a normal Monday - Friday job, but I have been putting in a few extra hours with the PWC and SOX audits. Things finally slowed down this week though. I didn't really do ANYthing Friday...I was just "worked out." So I left early to enjoy my weekend!

Secondly, I just realized why I hadn't had any posts on my blog lately. I was kinda wondering why no one felt like leaving comments...? Man--do I feel silly! I forgot that I had put a "screen" on my comments, which requires that I check them before they appear on my blog! So I had like 18 comments waiting to be approved! Ha ha! Thanks, guys, for all your comments over the last couple of months! ; )

Also, I think I forgot to mention in my last blog that we're not moving into our house until next June. The owners of the house are in the middle of building their own house, so they wanted to stay a little longer before moving out. They will pay us rent once we start paying on our mortgage (which will probably start in January.)

Anyway, that gives us lots of time to go furniture hunting-- which we desperately need to do!!! We currently own one big bookshelf, and two fancy TV dinner tables! LOL! (The church apartment we've been staying in was already furnished.) GOOD THING there's IKEA (pronounced ee-kay-a, Matt!)! (For those of you States-side, if you haven't experienced that amazing store yet, you're missing out. I've heard it's in a lot of the big cities now, though. It's like an H&M but for houses! Yeah, yeah...another great European store! Oh well!) We've also been recently introduced to "kringloop winkles" too, which are like Goodwill stores but with furniture! They have huge wardrobes for like ten EUR! Very fun.

I'm so excited about our new house. It's gonna feel like a mansion compared to what we've been living in (nothing more than a dormroom, basically!) We feel really blessed with this house! And we're really looking forward to having a place for all of you to stay when you come to visit! ; )

So much to say... so little time!

Yes, it's definitely been a while! I been so busy, I've totally neglected my blog. =( But I guess it's the sacrifice of bringing home a monthly paycheck!!

So yeah, I'm a full-time working woman now. I've been working for Johnson Controls since July 31st, and I'm really enjoying it. I was kinda worried that I couldn't handle working 8 hours a day 7 days a week, but my days go by so fast, I don't even notice it! I'm currently working as a team member of the UK General Ledger department. Basically, I'm doing a lot of administrative and basic accounting stuff. I get to write big cheques (notice the British spelling!) in Pounds and Pences. lol! I'm also becoming a pro at Excel. Mostly what I do all day is reconcile acounts and try to figure out why the numbers don't match up sometimes. It's often a big messy puzzle-- in other words, a good challenge!

Next line of business...


We bought a HOUSE!!!
Yes, and now we're saddled with a 30 year morgage. Does that make us adults now? =) The house is practically everything we were looking for! It's an old, semi-farm house from around the 1920's (we think...) and it's been completely renovated, including the roof and facade. There are three bedrooms, a small office/sewing room, a regular office, one bathroom, living room, dining room, big kitchen, utility room (that has an additional shower--weird, eh?), and outside is a huge two car garage/workshop. All that's on the ground floor. Upstairs is a gigantic attic where several more rooms could be added. The backyard is very inviting! And there's a shed at the back that acts as a "gate" to the field beyond the backyard. It's completely livable now, but has so much potential for new ideas and upgrades.

Here's some pics to get an idea... More are posted on my Flickr site (see thumbnails to the right --->)

(below:) It's so wide, that I couldn't get it all in one photo! I'll have to make a panorama later...

Dennis is really excited about this double garage! What you can't see is that to the left, there is a whole other section that is a workshop area. He's already dreaming up projects...! If you look really closely, you can make out the shed with the red door at the back of this picture. On the other side is our field (which is currently inhabited by a herd of chickens and goats!)

The patio is so inviting! I wish I had a picture of the view out onto the patio from the kitchen... it's really charming.

The living room... (okay, you have to imagine it without all the knick-nacks and doilies and flower-dy curtains!)

This is looking across the dinning room area and into the living room. The room is a lot lighter than it looks. The kitchen... which is large enough to be a second dinning room almost!

Check out Flicker for pictures of the attic and celler along with a few more. I would have uploaded them all, but I reached my uploading limit for the month, according to the website. =( So...to be continued until next month! ; )

Kamp!

Two weeks ago, Dennis and I pack our sleeping bags, our tent, and our swimsuits and headed for camp! Bible camp is nestled in the beautiful hills of the Belgian Ardennen. This is a shot taken from the famous "Love Tree"... we hike up the road from camp, which is down in the valley from the tree.

Every morning, Luk taught lessons from the book of 1 Corinthians. He tackled tough subjects like how we can keep each other accountable, how to be in the world but not of it, whether it's okay to marry unbelievers, why sex outside of marriage is less than perfect, and how Gods love for us never fails.

In the afternoons, there were all kinds of activities--swimming, mountain biking, "capture the flag," long hikes, and I even taught 'em how to play American football! (We played "flag football" with the tea towels stuck in our shorts =)

Cards was a popular pastime in the evenings. Check out Dennis' beard--it's his camp tradition!

The last evening of camp is "Bonte Avond" night. No one's quite sure how it got it's name, but it's a night of skits and silliness. Here's us doing the "Focus on God" skit that some of you may recognize ( Mom, remember the spanish version from Honduras??)

And you can't have camp without a bon fire! Collecting wood for the fire takes the place of the afternoon activity on friday, and you should see how enthusiastic everyone is to drag whole trees a mile down the road in the heat of the summer! But seriously, they are! The bigger the fire, the better. And this one was pretty big! (Though the picture doesn't do it justice...)

Pictures courtesy of Luk Brazle. Check out more at www.belgianbreeze.blogspot.com !

oh the unknown!

So i thought I'd be content once I knew I had a job...

Well that big day has come and past! Yeah, last friday was an eventful day for me! Dennis took me shopping that morning (yeah, really!) for a new outfit for graduation. Then during the graduation ceremony, i found out that I graduated with distinction! (that was a shocker!) Afterwards on the way out, I was checking my phone to see if Holly has called, and what I found instead was a message from my agent (that sounds important, huh?!) saying that Johnson Controls was offering me a job!! What a way to start the weekend!!

Me listening to the good news about my job!

Then, to top off the evening, Holly and Luk had prepared us a grilled feast at their new place! It was so great to share that exciting day with friends and family!

Me & Ans celebrating

Holly and Gideon; & The guys playing with fire :)

Now, though, I feel like a anxious teenage girl sitting by the phone waiting for THE Call! Only, it's not a boy I'm waiting around on this time, it a company offering me a job! lol I still haven't gotten the details about when they want me to start and how much their willing to pay me. Bible camp starts this weekend, and I don't even know if I can go yet! According to the lady at the head hunting agency, I am supposed to hear something by today at the latest, so I'm anxiously waiting... and waiting...

pomp and circumstance

No caps and gowns this time, but tomorrow I'll be graduating from Vlerick with my Masters in General Management!!

Yeah, I guess Europeans don't get into the whole graduation ceremony much. It doesn't seem to be as big a deal here as it is back home. No student speeches, no traditional entry song, no caps with tassels. And no hoods for the masters and doctorates. But that's okay...hopefully soon I'll still get to bring in the fat check! ; ) Well...maybe not so fat at first, but income none-the-less!

Dennis and I are SOOO ready to get moved out of our tiny little apartment into a house of our own. After I find a job (which might not be long!) we'll start talking to the banks about loans and start seriously looking for a house. We'll probably go ahead and move into an apartment in Gent while we look, though. Then we'll be closer to Luk and Holly and won't have to commute to help out with church stuff.

Luk and Holly are doing really good, by the way! They're all moved in, and I've spent the night with them twice! You can read more about their renovating adventure and Gideon's new teeth =) on their blog: www.belgianbreeze.blogspot.com

Eating at Luk & Holly's (with the LST students and my friend, Tandy, from AL)