We got the house!

Sorry, no pictures this time.  Just wanted to let everyone know that we got the house we wanted.  Woo hoo!!  They have a little bit of work to do on it, so it'll still be a couple of weeks before we can move in (our sea freight hasn't cleared customs anyway), but we're still pretty excited.

Avery has become a new baby this week.  She is happy and giggly and laughing almost every waking moment.  We are certainly glad she is feeling better, though she did have a spell this week.  We think she was allergic to the antibiotics she got last week.  Oh, and her ear is draining, so we think she has an ear infection, but she's got tubes and we've got drops, so we should be OK.

Kaeli is as happy as ever.  She can already count to 10 in Dutch and she has started her own little language that is somewhere between English & Dutch.  One of her teachers did her thesis on bilingual children, and she says this is quite common, so we won't worry too much... EXCEPT she came home this week talking about her "new Shay" and "new Matthew".  She certainly misses her two best friends from Kids R Kids.  I just can't figure out if she now has two imaginary friends that she has named Matthew & Shay or if there are two kids at her new school whose names she can't pronounce, so she calls them Matthew and Shay.  Either way, I have my worries!  :-)

We took the girls on their first tram ride this week.  It's actually faster for me to pick them up using public transportation.  Their day care is in their equivalent of "downtown", so traffic and parking are horrible during rush hour.  I decided to try the tram.  Except for the 3 block (long blocks) walk carrying Avery, it's actually quite easy and convenient (and much less stressful than trying to park a manual transmission rental car in the middle of downtown Den Haag!

Green or just cheap?

Yes, this is my 2nd post in one night.  I've had this post in my head for two weeks and I thought I would try to write it before I forget.  (I have others, so hopefully I can remember them and write them later, but most of those need pictures as proof.  Kinda like Luis's need for photo proof of the sheep and other animals at Hwy 6!)

So, I can't decide if the Dutch can really claim to be saving the planet by being "green".  I think many of the "green" things that they do really are because they are so cheap (as we are told, their frugality is only rivaled by the Scots, and of course Misty!).  For example, I think they recycle so that they don't have to buy as many trash bags.  They don't drive cars because they're too cheap to pay for parking and gas (which is very expensive and taxed at 19%).  They turn off their lights and other electrical devices to save on the electric bill, not to save the planet. 

I guess in the end it really doesn't matter what the motive is, they are still more green than Americans and they are saving the planet.  Maybe we should change the marketing strategy in the US.  Instead of "Be Green.  Save the planet." we should promote "Be Green. Save your money!"  In today's economic climate, I think it would be a great time to start this new campaign.  Misty, you can use this as yet another reason for justifying your spending (or lack thereof) habits.

In my next post (assuming I find time to take the pictures), strange things that the Dutch do that you would never see or do in America!

Finally, a few minutes to blog!

I knew our lives would change significantly when we moved to the Netherlands, but I didn't expect our girls' personalities to change so much in three weeks.  Granted, they have both been sick, so maybe that explains it, but seriously I have not had 10 minutes without at least one of them attached to me and unable to put them down!  Not that I am against snuggling, but sometimes I really need to do things (like go to the bathroom!).  Anyway, things are really good here.  We just put an offer on a rental home.  Hopefully, they will accept it and we will have a "permanent" place to live soon and will be able to get the rest of our stuff out of storage and have a place that we can really call HOME.  Here are some pictures of the past 3 weeks.  You can tell that our transit apartment is VERY small.  The kitchen is tiny, but it does its job!

Kaeli has been a big help.  She likes to vacuum, especially in her dance clothes!!

If you want to see our potential home, go to this link. 

Hopefully, I will be blogging weekly now, but we'll see!!  Hope you are all doing well and haven't forgotten about us yet.