The White Family Adventures Together

Goodbye 2010

2010-12-31T20:25:00.005-06:00

Two much time has gone by since I posted anything on our blog, but I do have some good excuses. Quite a bit has happened in 3 1/2 months since my last post. The biggest 'adventure' of our lives came to an end as we moved back to the US after 22 months of living in the Netherlands. We've moved back to Katy, TX and our new house is absolutely beautiful. We are just about settled now after spending 2 of our first 7 weeks back in the US out of town! The best thing about being back has got to be the weather. The sun shines (most days) and it has been unseasonably warm, even by Houston standards. It seems we've missed a VERY cold winter in Europe and lots of snow. While it it certainly hard to get in the Christmas mood when it is 80 degrees outside, it certainly is better than riding the girls to day care on our bikes on the ice!!

Kaeli and I got to go to the Nutcracker ballet. We had a great time getting dressed up and going to the matinee. It brought back wonderful memories of when my mom used to take me to the Nutcracker in Tulsa.

Avery is our energetic one. I think she gets all that energy by zapping out of me and Bryan. She is absolutely the most adorable, most challenging 2-year old I know. She's stubborn, but gives the best snuggles!

I am looking forward to a year at work where I am not constantly looking over my shoulder. I'm going to keep looking to the future and build upon the successes that I have had over the past 2-3 years. I must admit that it is quite amazing (and a little humbling) to be 'the expert' in a company as big as Shell.

It's time to start the new year off with a clean slate. Bryan has a new job, we are joining a new Sunday School class (we will miss our old friends, but Bryan is going to teach in the new class). The girls are in a new school (and they're loving it). We have a new outlook on our family and on our lives now. Watch out, friends, we are going to be inviting you over often! Goodbye 2010, hello 2011!!!

Kaeli's First Day of F2 and Avery's Puzzles

2010-09-19T15:22:00.006-05:00

Here are some adorable pics of the girls.

Kaeli started her 2nd year at the British School of the Netherlands. As you can guess from the picture, she wears a uniform. She is so darn cute! Her lead teacher this year is Irish, so we are hoping that her British accent comes back with a vengeance before we head back to Texas. Bet the real British princesses can't pull off a tiara with their school uniform like Kaeli!

Avery is still in day care and loving it. She moves upstairs to a new class about a month ago and seems to be enjoying the challenges of potty training with the older kids. She has mastered all of the 3+ puzzles in her classroom and at home (see picture). Her Dutch is flawless, so much so that we can't understand most of what she says, and Kaeli has to translate for us! The 2nd pic really captures her personality. We're in trouble!

Some pics of the girls playing together. They are getting much better at it and are becoming very good friends. We are very excited about this as it gives us a minute or two of 'free' time in the evenings. However, we must be careful as they are also beginning to conspire WITH each other. I know you wouldn't believe it from these two 'angelic' faces, but believe me, they are too smart for their own good!

Family Photos 2010

2010-08-29T07:24:00.003-05:00

So, we got our family photos taken again this year by a friend from church, Krister Evenhouse (www.efg-design.nl). He is fantastic and always captures us being "us". This year, we went to the Rotterdam Zoo. It was great fun, and the pics turned out great! Below are a few 'teasers' and a link to the entire gallery (http://www.oypo.nl/1F665A8FFF4B1660). The password is 'avery', and there's a button at the top right for you to choose the British flag if you want things to be in English. As you might notice, it took a while for Avery to warm up to the camera. Unlike her big sister who was born to be Miss Photogenic.

We've been practicing on the girls' running form, but they still need some practice.

We even got a picture of me and Bryan. Ahhhh....

Sneak Peek of Vienna

2010-07-24T12:03:00.009-05:00

OK, I know, I know. I don't blog near as much as you'd like me to, but I'm doing the best I can. You're lucky I get to blog at all with as busy as life is these days.

Anyway, we are currently in Vienna, Austria. It's our last European vacation before we move back to the US. I'll try to blog more about the trip later, but here's a sneak peek of the fun we had on Day #1:

Posing on the elephants at the Natural History Museum

Playing at the playground across the bridge from a gold statue of Johann Strauss

Me and the girls by the Cathedral and the Cathedral

CenterParcs

2010-06-13T08:47:00.005-05:00

If any of you ever get to live in the Netherlands (or anywhere nearby) with little kids, you've got to take a vacation to CenterParcs. We took the girls last week (or maybe the week before, I don't really remember now). It was a blast!! Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the most fun part, the AquaMundo (or indoor water park) because we were too afraid we'd get our camera wet or stolen! But here are some great pics of the girls and all of the activities. Kaeli got to pretend to be a 'fire girl' and a 'princess'. We went with some of our good friends from Poland (Wojtek is in Kaeli's class at school), so that kept the kids entertained and gave us some adult conversation. I just realized that I did not take a picture of our cottage which had 3 rooms and a full kitchen with a back porch that overlooked a playground and lake. Needless to say, Bryan and I were exhausted by the end of the week. We went Monday - Friday then took it easy on Saturday and Sunday at home. I was so relaxed by Sunday that my blood pressure dropped and I was dizzy for two days. I was back to work on Monday and by Tuesday my blood pressure was back up to 'normal'. Enjoy the pictures! No, there are none of me. Guess I took all of the pictures!

My New Anthem - from the lyrics of "For the Moments I Feel Faint" - Reliant K

2010-05-19T12:23:00.001-05:00

"For The Moments I Feel Faint"

Am I at the point of no improvement?
What of the death I still dwell in?
I try to excel, but I feel no movement.
Can I be free of this unreleasable sin?

[Chorus:]
Never underestimate my Jesus.
You're telling me that there's no hope.
I'm telling you you're wrong.

Never underestimate my Jesus
When the world around you crumbles
He will be strong, He will be strong

I throw up my hands
"Oh, the impossibilities"
Frustrated and tired
Where do I go from here?
Now I'm searching for the confidence I've lost so willingly
Overcoming these obstacles is overcoming my fear

[Chorus]

I think I can't, I think I can't
But I think you can, I think you can
I think I can't, I think I can't
But I think you can, I think you can
Gather my insufficiencies and
place them in your hands, place them in your hands, place them in your hands

Queen's Day

2010-05-15T04:56:00.004-05:00

There is a tradition here in the Netherlands to throw a huge party for the Queen's Birthday on April 30th. Actually, the current queen whose birthday is actually in January, chose to keep 'Konninginedag' celebration on April 30th, her mother's birthday, so that the weather would be nicer for all of the outdoor celebrations that typically take place. So, technically, the Dutch celebrate the queen's birthday on the dead queen's actual birthday. STRANGE!

The story goes that the night before Queen's Day historically brought on alot of rioting, so to combat this, the royal family decided to also celebrate Konninginenach (Queen's Night), the night prior to Queen's Day by throwing a parties throughout the Hague. Surprisingly, this actually worked and now the night before Queen's Day is also a big party. Unfortunately, with two little kids, it's difficult to celebrate this as all of the babysitters are out partying too!

The biggest party on Queen's Day is actually in Amsterdam, which I've heard is a sight to be seen with a HUGE parade along the canals and total chaos. We chose the more family-friendly celebrations in the Hague.

Anyway, we decided to celebrate in true Dutch style this year by hanging out with our Dutch friends, the Grisnigt's, from Kaeli & Avery's old day care. Looking back, it's quite amazing that we are still friends with them. Kaeli and Judith were fast friends, but we arrived in January and Judith turned 4 in April (at which point she left the day care and went to school). In 4 months only, Kaeli wanted to spend more time with Judith and truly missed her little friend when she left for school. Now, we still got to see Judith and her sister, Dianthe, at day care since Dianthe was in the class between Kaeli & Avery, but when we moved day cares in September, I was afraid our friendship would end as well. Luckily, it has not and we continue to get together with the Grisnigt family at least once a month! And I digress....

So, to get back to the point, we all got dressed up in orange (the color of the royal family) and headed off on our bikes to a children's carnival just across the street from our friends house. It rained nearly all day, but not before we get to participate in a little parade. Then birthday party at the Grisnigt's, then back out to the party to see the orange blowup cow, orange tiger, and bouncy castle, which had rain gathered in the top of it which ended up all over Kaeli. Bummer! Rain pulled up enough to let us ride home on our bikes without getting totally drenched. We had a ball! Happy Birthday, Beatrix!

The parade!

The birthday girl!

How cute is this! Bryan in pigtails!!

The orange blow-up cow!

Avery Turns 2

2010-04-18T14:43:00.009-05:00

After our trip to Berlin (see previous post from this evening), I had to go on a business trip to Atyrau, Kazakhstan. Not much to do in the middle of nowhere KZ, but I did get to come home to prepare for Avery's 2nd birthday.

We had a great little party with our Dutch friends and our Polish friends. Pulled out the blow up bouncy we bought for Kaeli's 2nd birthday party. Had a fantastic cake that Grandma made before she flew home. It was a very nice little party and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Then, on her actual birthday, I took cupcakes to her class at day care. No, I didn't make these myself, but I wish I had, they were delicious!! Happy Birthday, Princess Avery!!!

Another month, finally a day to blog

2010-04-18T14:21:00.008-05:00

I really can't believe it's been another month since I last posted on our blog. So much has happened and I have had many blog posts in my head, but they've never made it to the computer. I've either chosen to take a Sat or Sun afternoon nap over blogging, or Bryan was on the computer, or there were more important things to do (spend quality time with the girls and Bryan, do laundry, clean house, catch up on e-mail, househunt, and update my status on Facebook). Oh well, girls are now in bed, Bryan is at dinner with friends, and I just spent a little over an hour folding this week's laundry. Time to catch up...

Paris:

Bryan's parents came over for a couple of weeks around Easter during his Dad's Spring Break. It was a whirlwind two weeks. They arrived on Sunday and spent the first couple of nights with us, then left on Wednesday for two nights in Paris (last summer when they came to visit, they never left the Netherlands, so it was nice that they decided to venture out a little this time since it may be their last). On Saturday morning, Bryan and I woke up early and headed off for two nights in Paris ourselves. We didn't take the camera because we ran out of room in our two backpacks, but we did get a disposable camera and took some fun pictures. Unfortunately, Bryan's mom took off with the camera and now we have to wait to see them and they will likely not be digital. Sorry, friends, you will have to believe me when I write that we had a wonderful time! Who wouldn't enjoy Paris with the man (or woman) they love!? We walked alot and rode around on a double bus taking in all of the sights. We ate 2-hour French lunches (we even outlasted several French tables!). We got to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night from the roof of our hotel. And we got some much needed alone time, which included 11 hours of sleep both nights!! It was fantastic!

Berlin:

Anyway, got back to the Hague on Monday and on Tuesday morning we all got up, got dressed and packed and out the door for a nice long drive to Berlin, Germany. What should have taken 6 hours took 9 because we had to stop 3 times and each time took about an hour. Oh well, at least we didn't get stuck in the horrible traffic going the other way! We went to the Berlin Zoo (Avery's new favorite word is 'monkey' and she makes the cutest monkey sounds) and Legoland Discover Center (the highlight here was Mommy, Daddy, and Kaeli making Easter bunnies out of legos together). Bryan and his dad went on a walking tour while me and Avery took a nap and Grandma and Kaeli 'rested'. We spent each evening at the swimming pool at the hotel. Bryan complained that the water was too cold, but at least he was braver than his dad who never actually got in the water. Very difficult to do when you are watching two little fish who want to swim on their own! Here are some pictures...

Signs of Spring, Just Kidding!

2010-03-08T13:41:00.004-06:00

Here's the second post of the evening...

I took these pictures earlier this week because the sun was out and the weather had warmed up a little (40 F!), these flowers popped up in our yard and I was starting to think Spring had sprung...

Got up this morning and looked outside the window to see MORE SNOW! Seriously. It was 28F yesterday morning when we went to church, and I'm sure it was at least that cold this morning. Here's what Avery looked like when we walked out to door to ride our bike to day care. Gotta love the Netherlands!

Cologne, Germany

2010-03-08T13:29:00.004-06:00

Hello again, Friends! Apologies for the long radio silence. Too many things going on, and when I do have time to blog, Bryan is usually on the Mac and if I turn on my work computer to blog, I always end up working!

Anyway, we had another White Family Adventure together last month and I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Grandma White came into town to help Bryan with the girls while I went to Kazakhstan. My trip got cancelled at the last minute, but we got to enjoy a day trip to Cologne, Germany. Here are some pictures. The cathedral was beautiful!! We had the most fun at the hotel swimming pool, which we did not get pictures of.

Give me your eyes...

2010-02-03T13:25:00.003-06:00

For the past year I have had the song in my head constantly. I had Bryan download it to the Mac. It's on the iPod that I occasionally listen to if I have to ride the tram or train. It's on the "Mommy & Daddy" CD we listen to on the few occasions when we are actually in the car. And yet as little as I listen to it, I can't get it out of my head. I keep wondering what it is that God is trying to tell me. What is it about this song that moves me so? Is there something I should be doing? What am I missing? Unfortunately, this post isn't about me finally figuring out the answers to these questions. I wish it were. As I lay here on my 33rd birthday (the age Christ died for me, as my husband pointed out to me last week when we celebrated his 33rd), I am hoping that just by writing down my thoughts, I will somehow figure it out. Maybe it's just His little reminder to me to STOP and look at the world around me. His little reminder for me to "Love People"!

Give me Your eyes for just one second

Give me Your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missin'

Give me Your love for humanity

Give me Your arms for the broken hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me Your eyes so I can see

Happy Birthday, My Love

2010-01-24T14:03:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday, Bryan!

I am enjoying growing old with you.

I hope you enjoyed your night out with your girls!!

I love you!

Celesta

One Year Ago...

2010-01-17T05:52:00.002-06:00

One year ago today, Bryan, Kaeli, Avery, and I packed up our things one last time before heading to the airport for our big move to the Netherlands. It has been quite a year! After the first few months when Avery was quite sick and we were all getting used to the new surroundings, things settled in very well. We celebrated Avery's first birthday just one month after finally getting into our permanent house. Our first adventure was to Brugge, Belgium, where we decided never again would we go on a trip and not get at least two rooms to separate the girls so they would both sleep. We also went to Amsterdam and visited friends. The weather was gorgeous this summer and we couldn't have asked for better days to spend at the parks on the weekends. We went to Paris & Normandy, France with Nana and Pa. Then got to hang out in the Hague with Grandma and Papa. We visited Noah's Ark in Texel, NL, and then got to go to Arnhem during a surprise visit from some friends from Houston. Back to Amsterdam a couple of times before Kaeli started her "4 school" and then celebrated her 4th birthday in October. Our big adventure of the year was going to Malaga, Spain, as a family. The weather was absolutely perfect and we spent every waking moment either at the pool or by the beach. The last 3 weeks of December were spent in the US trying to see anyone and everyone we could in a very short amount of time. We spent New Years with friends in Houston and a week with more friends and a little work before heading back to NL the first week of January.

We are glad to be "home" after the holidays and back into our own beds at night and for naptime. We are excited that the sun has come out today since we have not seen it since we got back a week ago. It was fun to have a week of real snow, but glad now that the ice has melted and we no longer have to worry about whether or not the streets are too icy to take the girls in to school on our bikes. All in all, it's been a very good year and hope that this year will be even better as we try to do everything we want to do with the girls in Europe before we head back to Texas for good some time late this year.

As you might have guessed, this is essentially my New Year's letter that I didn't get to write and send before we left the US in January. Hopefully, most of you reading this got your Christmas picture of the girls. If not, please don't take it personally. We were addressing them in the airport while we waited for our flight to leave. I am hopeful that the KLM Lounge receptionist actually took them to the mailbox for us!

'Tis the Season

2009-12-19T20:14:00.003-06:00

I have always loved Christmas. It is by far my favorite holiday. If you ask me why, I really can't give you a specific reason, but I really do love Christmas. Except this year, I just am not in the holiday mood. Maybe it's because I didn't have my shopping done (or even started for that matter) before Halloween. Maybe it's because I've been a little distracted with the whole job thing (I have a job btw. It's my current job, so no changes in the near future. Will know more when we get back to NL and I can start talking to my new boss.). It could be because life has just been a little too overwhelming the past year. Bryan and I had a date night last night and brainstormed on how we could use the extra money we are saving to make our lives less stressful. We couldn't think of anything! We could hire a nanny instead of daycare, but while that helps with some things, it brings with it a whole other set of issues, plus we would have to find time to review resumes and interview potential candidates. Just the thought of the whole process stresses me out. We have finally got the girls in daycare/after school care close to home, but I will be moving to offices in Rijswijk (20-30 minute commute vs. 5 minutes now), so we won't be able to take full advantage of that for long. We already order most of our groceries on-line and have them delivered... guess we could do that more. We have a house cleaner who comes every other week. If anyone has other suggestions, we are open to hear them!!

Anyway, now that I know I have a job, maybe I can enjoy the holidays a little more. I must admit, it is a little more stressful this year since we have to fit in both families at one holiday. Deep breath! Merry Christmas!!!

Why bother asking?

2009-12-19T20:10:00.002-06:00

If you're going to ask me what to get my kids for Christmas, and I give you a list of several great gifts along with specific instructions on items NOT to get them, please listen to me! Otherwise, just don't ask!

Wal-Mart Trip #2

2009-12-16T14:34:00.004-06:00

First item on the to do list today, "Go to Wal-Mart!" OK, so I know it's a little crazy, but I did actually have things that I needed to buy today. Here was my list:

Acteva (yea me, I got a cold sore on my vacation)

Tampons (yea me again)

Pre-paid cell phone (so that our friends and family can actually call us while we're here)

Dress for Kaeli (I forgot to pack one, and she's had two melt downs because of it)

Socks (I've needed longer socks for the colder weather, finally got some)

Shaving Cream for B (told him not to pack anything that I could get at Wal-Mart)

Detangler and toothpaste for K (ditto to above)

Clothes for A (for some reason, Kaeli didn't wear many winter clothes at size 24 months)

Only in America can you find all of these things at one place! I would have had to go to at least 3 or 4 stores in the Hague. God Bless America!! :-)

"Home Sweet Home"... well, almost!

2009-12-15T12:30:00.002-06:00

So, we're back in the US. First stop, Wynne, Arkansas, via Memphis International Airport (we will avoid flying into here in the future, immigration and customs was stupid and exhausting!).

But, we are here. I am getting ready to eat Sonic for lunch (yummy!). I will be spending a couple of hours at Wal-Mart this afternoon. Gotta love the good 'ole US of A!!!

11 Years and counting!

2009-11-25T12:44:00.002-06:00

Bryan and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this weekend. Yep, that's right, 11 years!! We wanted to go to Paris, but couldn't find an overnight babysitter, so we settled for a nice dinner with my bestest friend from high school and her husband who (finally!) got to come to Europe to visit. They just celebrated their 5th, so it was a nice little celebration. We also went to a Sinterklaas party (more on this in a future post once I have the pictures uploaded, you won't believe it!). So, while it wasn't a romantic weekend in Paris, it was a nice weekend to relax and remember 11 wonderful years of marriage. I love you, Honey!

Can we go see the other aminals?

2009-11-25T12:31:00.002-06:00

We caught this clip while we were at the zoo in Spain. Just now getting around to posting it. Bryan's also put together an entire movie of us in Spain. Will try to get it on You Tube soon.

Enjoy!

Avery turns Two!

2009-11-16T13:32:00.002-06:00

The first day of fall is the first day of school. I don't care if school starts on August 1st, fall must start on August 1st. The 1st day of a two-year old is the 1st day she gets mad, throws on herself on the floor and bangs her arms and legs on the floor while screaming. So, Avery turned two on November 15, 2009! Yea! Good times.

Back from Houston

2009-11-14T13:27:00.004-06:00

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Houston. Left NL Monday morning and was back Friday morning. Bryan had the girls to himself again for 3 nights. He's such a wonderful and rocktastic Daddy! I was able to get him a little help in the evenings, so he wasn't completely on his own, but it was still not easy. Kaeli was a tremendous help and a great big sister. Avery had a very runny nose all week and kept waking up in the middle of the night with a cough.

Most of the 2.5 days that I was in Houston was spent at work in meetings (great meetings that have made me increasingly indispensable). However, I did get to see a few friends. For those of you I didn't see, please don't take it personally, it was a true business trip with no time for fun. I did not fully understand how much I missed "home" until my plane began it's final descent into Houston. It got worse when I saw our friends and their kids. We've missed so much since we left in January. Sure, we've had some fantastic adventures, but what adventures have we missed by being half way around the world?!

Did I mention how wonderful and rocktastic my wonderful and rocktastic husband, "the wonderful and rocktastic" Bryan, really is? In short, he is wonderful and rocktastic. The long version is that he is really, really wonderful and rocktastic.

Obviously, my husband wrote the paragraph above. He really is wonderful, but I can't quite figure out what 'rocktastic' means, so I can't verify whether he is or is not rocktastic.

Well, I'm back in the Netherlands and it is cold and gloomy, but I'm here with my wonderful husband and fabulous little girls. We're getting ready for our next adventure, looking for warm places to visit! Let us know if you have any suggestions!!

Halloween Scrooge

2009-11-06T14:21:00.002-06:00

I feel like such a scrooge when it comes to this year's Halloween. I know I have a good excuse (we were flying home from Spain), but we were home by 2pm, which is plenty of time to get dressed up and go trick-or-treating. Yes, they do celebrate Halloween over here. But, alas, we got home, unpacked a little, called all of the grandparents, ate dinner, then went to bed. I could have at least answered the door and given some candy to the lone trick-or-treaters that rang our doorbell, but considering they woke up Avery... I think Bryan did go apologize, but we then turned off all of our lights and shut the doors to those rooms with windows to the front of the house. Bah Humbug!!

Seriously, though, Nana (my mom) made the most adorable costume for Kaeli. The extent of her Halloween was the pictures you see below. She loved it and looked absolutely beautiful. Thanks, Nana!

Spain - yet another White Family Adventure

2009-11-06T13:58:00.004-06:00

We went to Spain last week for our very first week-long European family vacation, just the four of us. We went to Malaga, Spain, on the southern coast of the Costa del Sol. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny and warm during the day, cool enough in the evening to keep the room cool (very good thing since we had no A/C). The pool was a little chilly, but the girls didn't seem to mind and Bryan sucked it up a few times to get in and swim with Kaeli. The water at the beach was freezing, but we were still able to build sand castles. As you can see in one of the pictures, Avery's not much of a beach lover. In fact, she hated having sand anywhere on her! It was actually quite funny, but very difficult to enjoy the beach when your daughter starts screaming any time she gets sand on her hands or feet, and let's not even talk about the time she got sand on her pacifier! Enjoy the pictures!

Bryan and the girls at the Madrid Airport

Kaeli at the beach

Kaeli reading to Avery and vice versa

Avery with sand on her feet. Bryan laughing.

The only picture we got of the four of us

Kaeli Turns 4 (well, almost)

2009-10-11T14:12:00.005-05:00

Kaeli is so very funny. Bryan was coughing alot Friday night, so instead of kicking him downstairs to the couch, I went upstairs to sleep with Kaeli. She woke up VERY early, and as I lay there coaxing her to stay in bed a little longer, we had a very cute conversation.

"Mommy, did you know that this was my last week to be three? I turn four today! Is it time for my birthday party?"

"No, Sweetheart. We've got lots of things to do this morning before your birthday party. Mommy needs to sleep a little more then Avery and Daddy go to gymnastics, you and Mommy have to go buy groceries, then it's nap time..."

"No, Mommy. Not nap, rest! Big girls don't take naps."

"You're right... Then after nap, we'll go pick up your birthday cake."

"Then it's time for my party!"

"Yes, then it's time for your party."

"And then I will be four!"

"Well, actually... Nevermind, yes, and then you will be four."

Technically, Kaeli will be 4 tomorrow, but why argue? It did give me an excuse to tell her to stop something today because "4-year-olds don't act that way". We had a wonderful party yesterday at the Little Gym. We had 3 Dutch friends from her old day care, 1 Polish friend and 2 British friends from her new school, and several American friends from church. The kids had a blast playing and eating Tinker Bell cupcakes, and the parents had fun getting to know each other a little better. And the best part was that I didn't have to clean up and my house was not a mess when we got home. Well, actually, it was a mess because I didn't have time to clean up, but it was not the disaster zone it would have been after a birthday party! Here are some pictures.

Happy Birthday, Princess!

Play Date

2009-10-09T13:08:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures from a couple of weekends ago. We went to the park with Kaeli's best friend from day care, Judith, and her sister, Dianthe. They had a blast (as you can see).

Emotional Roller Coaster

2009-10-09T12:36:00.002-05:00

This week has been very bizarre. I was completely stressed out for the past couple of weeks, leading up to two big presentations and three huge meetings on Tuesday & Wednesday of this week. Everything went very well and I was on quite an emotional high. It was topped off yesterday when there was an article in one of the Shell e-News letters that mentioned my work as one of the enablers for helping Shell Chemicals save $28MM. Then, my bubble was busted! Very long story, but let's just summarize it by saying there are people in this company who should've been fired years ago, and now that they've been told there's no place for them in the new Shell, they're trying to make as many lives as miserable as possible before they leave with a nice big lucrative package, and I'm on the list. So, today, I'm feeling better, but still need to decompress. Drinking my wine now!

Tomorrow is Kaeli's birthday party. I'm very relieved I decided not to do this at our home. So, Little Gym - The Hague it is! Hopefully, the cake lady hasn't forgotten us. I haven't had time to call her to confirm. Just need to get some snacks tomorrow and I should be ready. Kaeli helped me put together the goodie bags last Sunday. She was adorable! It was the highlight of my weekend.

Well, hopefully, I will find time to post pictures of the party tomorrow. It certainly won't be the Water Park party we had with Shay & Matthew last year, but it will be good enough. More to come...

Supervising My Kids

2009-09-27T09:27:00.004-05:00

I, Bryan, thought it would be a good idea to trust my children. They were playing sweetly together in the dining room, so I thought I would help Celesta clean the kitchen. Normally after dinner, one of us cleans while the other ensures Kaeli and Avery don't kill each other over a crayon (or piece of paper or flower...) On Thursday evening, the girls were playing together sweetly. Kaeli was helping Avery color and was being the most wonderful big sister. Besides, what trouble could they possibly find?

"Uh Oh!!" Kaeli's words, not mine. "Avery is about to make a mess!" In all her help, Kaeli was demonstrating to Avery the appropriate way to make handprints. That's right, handprints with paint! Kaeli had gotten out her watercolors, painted Avery's hands purple, and shown Avery how to make handprints on a piece of paper. The art was beautiful. However, Avery's hands were a mess and Kaeli had not considered this aspect of the operation. Hence her "Uh Oh!" For some reason Celesta blamed me for the purple water puddles in the dining room. Maybe it was for my supervision? So much for trusting my one- and three-year old.

Some random thoughts...

2009-09-23T13:12:00.003-05:00

I've had alot on my mind lately. Haven't really had time to write it down, so I'm going to put some of it down now.

Shell

If you hadn't heard, Shell is undergoing a major reorg and over 75% of staff will be reapplying for jobs in the next month or two. We are being told that 20-30% of jobs will be cut! The Executive-level folks have already gone through their round of job cuts and it was right about 30% for them. We're expecting it to be lower on our end of the totem poll, but not much. Bryan does not have to apply for his job, but I must reapply for mine. I'm sure I will have a job, but I have no idea whether we'll get to stay in the Netherlands or have to move back early. I wouldn't mind moving back, but am not looking forward to uprooting the family again so soon. Don't feel like packing/unpacking 5 times in 3 months again either! Oh well, we'll see how things go. Keep us in your prayers as there is a lot of uncertainty these days.

New Schools

The last week has been very crazy. We are moving Avery to a new day care which is closer to our home and my work (though with the reorg, I will most likely have to move to Rijswijk - 20 minutes driving, 40 minutes by public transport). We could only get her in 4 days/week, so the 5th day she is still at her old day care. Kaeli also started the British School last week, sort of. They have this 'induction period' that is excruciatingly painful for 2 full-time working parents. She went for 1-hour two Fridays ago, then last week, she went Tues & Thurs 9-12. This week is 5 days, but only 9-12. Next week, she goes until 12:30 on Mon & Tues, then until 1:30 the rest of the week (I think). So, one of us takes Avery in, another waits around until its time to take Kaeli, then one of us picks Kaeli up and takes her to her current day care for the afternoon, finally, someone goes to pick up one or both girls. It's a nightmare and I've been working nights and weekends just to try to get my 40 hours in. The good news, and the thing that keeps us going, is that the girls love their new schools! We will be glad when we can finally get into a new routine when Kaeli goes full-time starting in October. There's a bus that will pick her up and take her to after-school care, so minimal back-and-forths in any given day. After-school is closer to home (at least 3 days a week), so it will be nice though I must admit I will probably miss my 'commute' on the bike.

Out of Touch

Found out today that one of my good friends from grad school had a baby 5 weeks ago. I didn't even know she was pregnant! She even works for Shell, so it's not like I have an excuse for not keeping in touch... We have internal IM! I also found out that my best friend and maid of honor has to cancel her trip to Europe. I was going to get to see her for the first time in almost 6 years and now I don't know when I'll see her again. This really got me down today and made me miss my friends and family even more than I usually do. I am so out of touch. I've tried to get video chat up and working, but don't have time to sit down and really get it working (guess I could be doing that now, but then you'd complain cause I never update my blog!). So, if you haven't heard from me in a while it's not that I don't think of you, it's just I can't seem to find time to keep in touch. Maybe when I don't have to work nights and weekends...

Avery Talks - but we need translation

This has been a pretty depressing post, so I'll end on a funny note. Avery has been babbling for months now and lately has become quite the communicator. She does more signs every day and can definitely point and grunt to tell you EXACTLY what she wants. She can say, and we can understand, the basics: Mama, Dada, Thank You, Please, but I've been wondering if she's saying more words and we just don't understand her because she is saying them in Dutch.

Well, this past weekend, my fears were confirmed! We went over to a Dutch friends house and Avery was babbling along, then said "Die" and "deze" while pointing out a variety of things. Well, come to find out, she's saying 'this' and 'this one'! Guess we need to practice our Dutch more. I feel pretty bad that we don't even have the vocabulary of our 17-month old!

Oh, and to make things worse, Kaeli is fluent. When we have play dates with her Dutch friends from day care, she'll only speak Dutch. Her friend's mom has to translate for us! We are sooooo sad!! Oh well, we're taking lessons and getting better every week. We'll be able to understand them both soon (I hope).

More adventures

2009-09-23T12:58:00.004-05:00

So, these trips actually took place several weeks ago, but better late than never...

Our boat trip in Amsterdam:

Bryan's friend, Frances, keeps a boat in Amsterdam. He likes to toodle around the canals, meet perfect strangers while waiting to go through the loch, etc. He invited the fam to come for a ride. It was supposed to be a couple of hours, which turned into about 5! 5 hours on a boat with a 3 and a 1 year old! The first 2.5 hours were fantastic. The last 2.5 were a struggle, but it was a gorgeous day and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as you can see from the pics. Kaeli got to help drive the boat and got attacked by a BIG kissy fish (read: Frances giving her lots of kisses).

My trip to India:

OK, so it's not an Adventure 'Together', but it was an adventure. I had to go to Bangalore, India, for work and left Bryan home with the girls for a week. Luckily, Bryan's Mom ('Grandma') was able to fly over and help him out. Good thing, as Avery got sick the day after I left! I had a very good time. Got lots of sleep. Work was very productive. I didn't get to see much of India, unfortunately, but did enjoy some delicious food, good shopping, and a beautiful hotel! It reminded me alot of Mexico with a gorgeous 5-star hotel next door to a field full of cardboard homes. Traffic was awful! I had a driver all week and I just fastened my seat belt and closed my eyes!! Got home safe and sound. The girls missed me a lot! I think Bryan did too!! Here are some pictures of my hotel.

We found our new DiGiorno!

2009-09-19T12:48:00.002-05:00

We've been struggling to find good pizza here in the Netherlands. Sure, there is a Domino's (but you actually have to pay a toll to call them to deliver) and a Pizza Hut (good pizza but no delivery), but we've had to settle for New York Pizza, which happens to have pizza that tastes good, but the crust is a little too chewy and tough.

We've also tried frozen pizzas (very convenient!), but have not been lucky enough to find one that even remotely meets our expectations (even Kaeli won't eat more than 1 piece), until last weekend. Kaeli and I went to a new grocery store by the Little Gym while Bryan and Avery had their Daddy/Daughter time. I thought we'd try another new pizza, especially since it was called "Texas Pepperoni". Got it home, waited until Friday night, family movie night, then baked the two pizzas in the oven. They were delicious! Kaeli ate 3 pieces, Avery had two, and Bryan and I had our fair share. Now, granted, these pizzas are significantly smaller then typical frozen pizzas in the US, but we ate all but one small piece! Almost as good as DiGiorno!

Avery's First Haircut

2009-09-13T13:35:00.003-05:00

Wow! Has it really been over a month since my last post? I really can't believe it. Things have been a little hectic, but I'm not exactly sure what I've been doing. Oh yeah, two weekends were spent either in India or recovering from my trip (I'll have to post about that another time).

Anyway, we took Avery for her first haircut this weekend. Kaeli was quite a bit older when she got hers. Below are the pictures. Oh, as you can see, Kaeli got a haircut too! Enjoy!

Noah's Ark (de Ark van Noach)

2009-08-07T14:28:00.005-05:00

Before we left for the Netherlands, our small group from church bought us tickets to see Noah's Ark. A man from the Netherlands has built a 1/14th sized replica of the actual ark. After 6.5 months, we finally found the time to go and visit. Here are the pictures. By the way, we had a blast and it was the best going away present we could have ever gotten. Thanks, again!

Frollicking in the Garden

2009-08-07T14:10:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday afternoon, I got inspired to take some pictures of the girls. Mainly, it started as an attempt to capture Avery's cuteness and then it turned into me trying to be creative, then into Kaeli showing off for the camera. We got some good video too, but I haven't figured out how to post those yet (or get them off of the video camera). I'll have to get B's help for that!

Kaeli posing and dancing:

Avery being adorable:

Mowing the yard (Bryan is proud that it only takes 15 minutes to mow AND weedeat).

Amsterdam

2009-08-07T13:51:00.003-05:00

That's right, 3 posts in one night (and at least one more after this one).

We've been to Amsterdam several times, but finally remembered to take the camera this time. We visited our Shell friends from Houston, Karel, Alison and Eliska Kapoun. They've been here just about a year and live in Amsterdam (so glad we live in Den Haag, not Amsterdam). Three strollers and a pregnant woman (no, not me, Alison). We walked ALL over Amsterdam. Then, came back to their apartment and had a great lunch. Enjoy the pictures!

Arnhem, NL

2009-08-07T13:41:00.004-05:00

I posted a couple of posts ago about our trip to Arnhem with our friends from New Ground, Jody, Abi, and Sam. Here are the pictures which I finally got off the camera.

And here are pictures of Kaeli being cute and Avery telling us that she's tired of us dragging her around the Netherlands!!

We had a great time walking around in the rain. Kaeli especially like the ice cream! The cathedral was gorgeous and the Rhein River was very pretty as well. Of course, it's always good to spend the day with friends, especially those from Texas. We miss you Licatino's (and all the rest of you too!).

Afternoon in the garden

2009-08-07T13:30:00.004-05:00

This picture was taken a long time ago, June 30th, to be exact. I think Bryan's dad took the picture, but I really don't remember. Like how can all fit into the wagon?

Smarter, more adventurous, and just flat out more stubborn!

2009-07-25T12:58:00.002-05:00

OK, so with the exception of this second adjective, many of you might think the subject of this post is a comparison of me Bryan (ha!). Sadly, this is a comparison of Avery to Kaeli! At 15.5 months old, she is buckling and unbuckling the buckles on her high chair at day care and on the carseat (not to mention the buckles on the babies' bouncy seats at school!). She holds the rail and walks up the stairs of our home (she's already given up on crawling). The girl throws tantrums like a 3-yr old (oh, wait, she's just mimicing her sister). She knows what she wants and will do anything to get it. She climbs up on footstools and jumps across "the divide" to the couch.

Incredible! Next thing we know, she will be potty-trained and reading!!

Business Travel

2009-07-17T00:57:00.001-05:00

I'm feeling a little guilty this morning. I know Bryan took his current job because there was less travel and so that I could travel more, but every time I have a trip, I do feel quite bad for leaving him at home alone with the girls. This trip is a little worse than usual. Historically, I have made a concerted effort to minimize the amount of time I spent away from home. This included getting up at 4AM to catch the earliest flight to London, as well as getting the last flight or train home, only to encounter delays which got me home after midnight. For this trip, I decided it was worth a try to make my travel plans as relaxed as possible. In order to get 2 full days at the refinery (oh, btw, I'm in Cologne, Germany, again visiting one of our refineries), I left a day early on a mid-afternoon train and am now sitting in the train station lounge a day later getting the first train home (leaving at 8:48am). I chose a hotel within walking distance of the train station so I could get up leisurely this morning without worrying about getting a cab and hitting a traffic jam. I even stayed at the Hilton, which had a Fit & Well Center that offered massages (of which I got one last night.... first massage since we moved in January!). I made it a point to go to sleep early and get up as late as possible. I am well-rested and relaxed for once. And yet, I feel guilty about all of this! OK, so I don't really feel THAT guilty. I feel much guiltier when I take the girls into day care when they're sick. Besides, my trips aren't near as glamourous as the trips that Bryan took in his last job. I mean, I spend all day in a refinery. He got to spend the day in a cabana in Miami! I eat dinner alone in the hotel lobby bar. He ate 5-course meals with several colleagues and/or customers. The only big difference is that he traveled when we only had one kid! Now, he's outnumbered! Oh well, I guess we could always get an au pair!! We've talked about it, but just can't bring ourselves to have someone else living with us. Hopefully, the girls were good this week and they will not be too mad at me for leaving them with Daddy. I'm sure they had a wonderful time bonding. Now, it's back to reality and to being the best mom I can possibly be.

Visit with Friends

2009-07-12T12:59:00.001-05:00

I don't think I fully realized how much I truly miss all of our friends until this weekend. Jody & Abi Licatino (friends of ours from Kingland Baptist Church in Katy) came to the Hague this week (Jody works for Shell too). We had a wonderful time with them for dinner and then again today as we spent the day in Arnhem, The Netherlands. We didn't do anything extremely exciting or earth-shattering, but it just felt so good to have a real connection with someone and to be able to talk about anything. I miss having folks to "do life" with! OK, so it's only been 6 months. There's still plenty of time for us to make more friends, but it just makes me feel a little lonely. I miss you all!

Ahhhh Paris!

2009-06-28T07:03:00.007-05:00

We went to Paris two weekends ago. Sorry it's taken me this long to actually blog about it. We've had grandparents in town since June 11th and will have them here until July 3rd. My parents were here for two weeks (they went to Paris with us), then they left and Bryan's parents arrived and are still here until Friday. Wish we could have spread the help out over the summer a little more, but it's still nice to see some familiar faces!

Anyway, back to Paris... We had a fairly rough and bumpy start to things. We got to the train station OK and even made it to Paris (3 hours by train) OK, but then we had to go from one train station to another in Paris to catch our next train to Bayeux, France (i.e., Normandy). I had it all planned out. I had looked up instructions for how to get from one station to the other by the Paris Metro (subway). It was only supposed to take 15 minutes, and we had 2 hours. Problem #1: All of the escalaators and elevators were broken, so we had to get all of our luggage and two strollers with kids in them down into the subway station. Not fun. Then, I waited in line for a good 15 minutes to get our tickets. Then, we followed the signs in the direction we were supposed to go and then tried to use the ticket stalls for people with luggage, but my mom got stuck with Kaeli, Avery, and a stroller! Noone could help us get her out!! That took a good 15 minutes as well. Finally got her out and made it to subway train platform, only to find out that we were at the wrong one. I went and found the right one, unfortunately, it was another broken escalator away, so up more stairs and down some more and we were finally at the right platform, sort of. The next train was not scheduled for another 30 minutes, which was AFTER our next train to Normandy was supposed to leave. Well, actually, there was another platform right around the corner that had a train in 10 minutes, so we still might make it. Got to the next stop with 15 minutes to spare, but then couldn't figure out how to get from the subway station to the train station. Escalators worked, but didn't go where we needed them to (or so we thought), so back down and up a different set of escalators then more stairs until we finally got to the train station (just around the corner from the 1st set of escalators!). Bryan had run ahead of the rest of us to try to find the actual train... it had not left yet. So, now Bryan, me, Mom, Dad, two strollers with Kaeli & Avery, and our luggage are all running to catch this train. We get on with 30 seconds to spare!! Another 3 hours later, and we arrive at the Bayeux station where we have to practically jump off as the train pulled away because we couldn't get the door open! Of course, once there, the only way to get where we needed to go was by stairs!! Needless to say, we took a taxi to the hotel.

The rest of our trip was relatively uneventful (thank goodness!). Of course, the rocky start made everything else that much better. We took a 1/2 day D-Day tour where we got to visit Point de Hoc, Omaha Beach, and the American Cemetary. We also spent quite a bit of time exploring Bayeux itself. There is a beautiful cathedral there that was not touched during the war. It was an incredible place to visit and certainly made me proud to be an American. The French who live in Normandy are still appreciative of the soldiers who liberated them from the Nazis.

Paris was pretty neat as well. Bryan and I didn't get to see much of Paris. By this time, the girls were pretty exhausted and tired of being drug to adult things, so Bryan and I took them playground hopping near the eiffel tower (an overglorified radio tower, as Bryan called it). I think we met more Americans than French, which was fine with us because the Parisians aren't near as friendly as the folks we met in Bayeux. The eiffel tower is pretty amazing! Bryan and I got two very nice dinners out to ourselves while my parents watched the girls. Overall, it was a pretty amazing trip. Of course, Bryan and I are going to have to go back without the girls so that we can enjoy the romantic side of Paris, but until then, we'll just enjoy the memories we got on this trip.

Lots of Pictures - Enjoy!

2009-06-03T01:59:00.002-05:00

No time to blog (I'm at work), but I wanted to share these with you all as soon as possible!!!

www.efg-design.nl
Click on the first photograph and it will enter the website, you will see us there.
Please send lots of people there and feel free to leave a comment!

Here is the link to the complete gallery of images: http://www.oypo.nl/pixxer.asp?id=1378B82D4D10970E&taal=en
There is a password on it: (enter the name of our daughter who's middle name is Elyse, all lower case)
When you access the site, use the flag to toggle the language if necessary.

Facebook

2009-05-28T13:15:00.002-05:00

Since I blogged last night, I was going to spend some time catching up on Facebook tonight, but it won't load. Seems I get this blue circle thing and FB just won't load. So, what do I do? I go google it and it seems there is something wrong with FB and Mac compatibility for some reason. Oh well, guess I will have to accept my friend requests later. Or, pretend I'm doing something for "work" on FB and do it from my work computer.

By the way, for those of you who are my dearest friends, shame on you for banning yourselves from blogging (you know who you are!). I now have time to actually catch up and you all aren't blogging! What's up with that?!

Brugge, Belgium

2009-05-27T13:48:00.006-05:00

Our first trip out of the country as a family was this past weekend. We had a 4-day weekend and drove to Belgium on Thursday morning. The weekend didn't start out so good. A 2.5 hour trip turned into 5 hours because of road construction (should've taken the train!) and I knew it was going to be rough when Avery coughed the whole way there (sitting upright in her carseat). But we still had a great time! Thank goodness I only reserved two nights in the hotel though!! Next time, we're splurging for two rooms. We had plenty of room, but it was extremely difficult to get anyone to sleep (very cute though to see Kaeli & Avery making each other laugh while trying to go to sleep... I hope they always have this much fun together).

We enjoyed a trip to the interactive archeology museum (Kaeli got to be an archeologist and dig for bones and the girls got to dress up on midieval dresses),

a tour of the chocolate museum (with free samples at the end!)

and a brief tour of the canals by boat (my favorite picture is of the golden retriever hanging out watching the silly tourists float by on "his" canal).

After LOTS of Beglian fries, Belgian waffles, and of course, Belgian chocolate (it really is to die for!), we made it home (only 4 hours this time) safe and sound, with one day to spare for lots of laundry and grocery shopping.

Overall, I'd say we had a pretty great adventure!

p.s. For those of you begging for pictures of me and Bryan, hope these are good enough!

Can you tell which one is which?

2009-05-17T12:12:00.010-05:00

So I just uploaded some new pics from our camera to the mac and had to look back at Kaeli when she was Avery's current age. Look at these two pics. Can you tell which one is Kaeli and which one is Avery?

Life is OK here. We had a rough week, but a great weekend. Except for all the rain of course.

They say bad things come in 3's. (1) My bike got stolen, (2) I hit a car while parking in front of day care on Friday and totally scratched up the entire right side of my van, (3) still waiting... will let you know if/when this happens.

I haven't taken a picture of me on my new bike yet, but here's a picture of what the bike looks like and you can just imagine me on it with the girls.

(Kaeli, Avery, Avery, Kaeli. Avery has more hair!!)

A Little Bit of Home

2009-05-09T12:23:00.002-05:00

Today was a good day. The girls are so much fun these days. They laugh all of the time and if they're not laughing then their usually making us laugh. Sure, they have their moments (don't we all!), but for the most part we have two perfect little angels.

After we got up and ate breakfast, Avery took a nap and Kaeli and I waited for the grocery delivery guy to show up with our weekly groceries. Yep, we got our groceries delivered! I went online and ordered (the website is completely in Dutch), picked a two-hour window for delivery this morning, and TahDah groceries showed up on my doorstep. Normally, Bryan likes to take one of the girls grocery shopping on Saturday morning, but since he went golfing, I decided I would try this to keep my sanity and make sure we had food in the fridge for dinner.

Then, we went to the brand new The Little Gym here in the Hague. It was great! Kaeli walked in and said "Mommy! It's just like my Little Gym in Texas!!" Very cute! Then, she was a perfect angel while Avery and I did a 50 minute "mommy & me" class. Avery was adorable. She loves to throw herself backwards and hang upside down. She also liked walking around during circle time to meet all the other babies. She was a big flirt! Then, the bubbles came out. She couldn't get enough of them.

After Avery's class, Kaeli got her turn for her Big Girl class. It's not a combo dance/gymnastics course like in Katy, but it still was great. She loved running around the gym and doing forward rolls and walking on the balance beam and hanging from the bars. Of course, she understood every word they said in Dutch. She's amazing!

The teachers were amazing and it even though the class was mostly taught in Dutch, it still felt great to experience a little piece of home. Then, for fun, we went to McDonald's for lunch. Gotta love American fast food!!!

After nap, we went to the park and met some new friends. We had to leave sooner than I would've liked, but I needed to go get my new bike. It's great (and locked down tight). I can't wait to start riding it soon. Maybe I can ride it somewhere tomorrow?! (Didn't think I'd ever say that about riding a bike!) Hopefully, I will get a picture of this one before it gets stolen!

Then we came home and ate dinner. Put Avery down for the night and watched Kaeli color pictures. She and Bryan were chatting and she started singing a song that I had never heard before. When Bryan asked here where she learned that song, she said that she learned it when Mommy & Daddy were getting married and she was with God. She also told us that we were going to get married again and that she and Avery and Nana and Pa and Grandma and Papa and God and Jesus would be there. We would have to take a car to get there and she gave directions: Make a left, then a right, go straight for a little bit then make a left and make another right. It may be a coincidence but these are the exact directions for how we get to church from our house! Bizarre! And she repeated it twice (once to Bryan when I was putting Kaeli down and once to me when I got back downstairs!). We thought this conversation was interesting and very thought provoking. I wonder how she comes up with these things sometimes or if she knows something we don't know.

OK, girls are in bed and the house is mostly clean, so I'm going to try to go spend some quality time with my hubby. More to come...

Stupid Fund

2009-05-07T13:47:00.002-05:00

Some folks (like my friend Misty) have an emergency savings fund, but not the White Family. For the past 10 1/2 years (have we really been married THAT long?), Bryan and I have had what we call the "Stupid Fund". This is a savings fund for when stupid things happen to you. I've never really understood why we call it that it until today. My bike (yes, my most beloved possession since we moved to the Netherlands) was stolen this morning, right under my nose. At 6:30 when I came downstairs with Avery, it was sitting in front of our house. 15 minutes later, when I came down with Kaeli, it was gone!! Yep, got stolen. Probably by some punk kid who walked by and thought it would be fun to steal a moederfiets (mother bike) with two kids' seats on it. I'm sure it will show up on Markplaats.nl (similar to Ebay) in the next day or two (I will keep a look out). Many of you will gasp at the $$ lost by this "stupid" encounter. In fact, I hesitate to tell you, but considering this post is all about the Stupid Fund, I must admit that this incident cost us around 850 euros (more than $1000). Between the bike itself, which was covered by insurance but won't be able to make a claim because we don't have the two original keys to the bike lock, all of the accessories (namely, two child seats, a windshield & saddle bags), and the cost of the new lock and labor for the locksmith to replace the house lock because the key to the house was in the bike when it was stolen (don't ask...). Yep, that's what the Stupid Fund is for. Now, I've got to go shell out another good chunk of change to get a new (or hopefully, gently used) bike. I cannot live without one here!!

Celesta's Top 10

2009-05-03T13:46:00.003-05:00

(NOTE: This is blog #2 for tonight, so don't forget to read the other one. It's priceless!)

I've been promising this list for a while. It's turned into a Top 10 list from my original Top 5 list. I hope you enjoy it!

Top 10 Things I Hate about The Netherlands (so far)
10. Our washer, dryer and dishwasher are about half the size of our US versions and the cycle lengths are about twice as long, so it takes 4x longer to do our weekly laundry and dishes. Not good for two full-time careers with two kids. They tell me my clothes will last longer, but I'd rather have a bigger washer and dryer and an excuse to shop for new clothes! Luckily, this is no longer as bad as it was in the apartment. Our new dishwasher is awesome, BUT our new washer & dryer… The cycles are shorter, but you can only use one at a time! Yep, that’s right, I can either wash or dry, not both! VERY annoying.
9. The company that managed our transit apartment: They warned us that service was poor in the Netherlands, but we've really only found this company to really live up to those standards. I wouldn't call it poor service, more like NO service. It took 3 weeks to get a phone cord so that the phone would work (luckily, we had packed one in air freight). They never did get me a key to get my new bike out of the storage room in the entry hall (we have at least 10 keys to this apt, but none of them worked, the repair crew for the apt upstairs unlocked it for us).
8. Paperwork, paperwork, oh and did I mention paperwork. You would think they would have more e-filing or other electronic versions to fill out all of the forms we have to fill out, but I think the only one we've found is the US Embassy. Not only do you have to fill out hard copies, but 75% of the time you have to go somewhere in person to turn them in. Like I have time for that!
7. The Dutch safety/security paranoia: If there is one thing that the Dutch will pay for, it's security. Maybe this stems from years of them getting their bikes stolen one after the other, but really, should I need my own credit card reader, PIN, and randomly electronically generated 2nd PIN to log on to online banking? Probably explains why I had 10 keys to our tiny transit apartment and why I have to show up to everything in person. Oh, and all of my credit cards (personal, work, gas) have there own PINs that I can’t set. I’m never going to remember these!!
6. Flu season: I thought it would be nice to move in winter... the weather can only get better from here. What I didn't consider was cold & flu season. They tell me it's the worst year for this ever. Over 50% of the population were ill in January/February when we arrived. Children (including mine) got hit the hardest. There was an "epidemic" chest infection going around, which of course Avery caught. Bryan and I avoided it for a while, but that didn't last. Bryan just got over a cough that lasted 4 weeks. Hopefully, Swine Flu doesn’t make it here! Oh wait, there’s already a case of a 3-yr old here. Cross your fingers we don’t get it too.
5. Stairs: Because of the lack of land, everything is built UP, which means stairs, stairs, and more stairs. We’re on the 2nd floor (Floor 1 here), Kaeli and Avery are on the 3rd floor (Floor 2), and the kitchen, living area etc are on the 1st floor (Floor 0). So, when Avery wakes up hungry at 2:30AM, one of us has to go up one floor to get Avery to stop the crying, down 2 floors to get a bottle, back up two floors to feed her in the glider, and back down one floor to go back to bed. Now that we’re in a bigger house, hopefully, I’ll be able to let her cry a little. Though, after my friend Misty’s incident, I hesitate slightly to do this. (Since I wrote this the first time, we have since purchased used microwave and fridge for the 2nd floor. This has been great!)
4. The Dutch lack of modesty. (This should probably be #1) We went to the pool this weekend and were in the “family changing room” to change the girls. Bryan and I went to the private changing rooms to put our dry clothes on, but most mommies & daddies just changed in the family room. So, there we were, changing our little girls while a Dutch couple were completely naked and in no hurry to put any clothes on. It was all I could do to just keep my head down and not freak out in front of Kaeli. There are some body parts of people that I just DO NOT want to see!
3. The birds: Sure, I like the sound of birds in the morning, but come one, not at 5AM and not until 11PM at night. Shut up already!
2. Day and Night are really messed up here! In the winter, it’s dark 18 hrs a day. In the summer, the sun is up 18 hours a day. This really messes with me and my sense of when I am supposed to be awake and when I am supposed to be sleeping!
1. Everything is so darn expensive! There are a few exceptions (see #10 of the things I Love), but for the most part, it is extremely expensive to do anything here!

Top 10 Things I Love about The Netherlands (so far)
10. Cheap flowers, cheese, and wine! At least something is worth what you pay for it!
9. The international community here is amazing. Don’t get me wrong, I totally miss my friends, family, and colleagues back home, but there is something to be said when you are in a meeting with 6 people and none of them are from the same country!
8. Dinner out: So I don’t like the fact that very few people go out to dinner with their kids (read, no booster seats or high chairs most places), but it does make for an amazing date night! If you like to eat and leave, you wouldn’t like this place, but if you like to sit and enjoy several courses and a few glasses of wine, then you would love it here. We sat for 3 hours at a restaurant (we had the table for 2 in the corner by the window!) and noone was trying to push us out the door to let then next customer sit down.
7. The spring weather: They tell me this weather is not normal and that it’s been 3 years since they had weather like this, but it has been absolutely beautiful here since the first week of April.
6. Bicycles: I have fallen in love with cycling. It will probably be one of the few things I miss when we move back to the States, but we bike everywhere! I take the girls to day care on the bike. We picked the girls up from school on Friday and rode our bikes to Pizza Hut for dinner. We even took our bikes to the restaurant last night for date night!
5. The flowers: Even in winter, there are flower shops all over the city with the most beautiful flowers, and they’re one of the few things that are actually cheap here!
4. Public Transportation: It's not always as convenient as we'd like (it still takes Bryan an hour to get to work), but at least it exists and it can get you just about anywhere you want to go.
3. Everyone actually follows traffic laws and uses their turn signals! Need I say more?
2. Lives don't revolve around work. People actually work 40-hour weeks. Noone ever comes in early and leaves late unless it's part of a flexible work arrangement that they have developed to help them spend more time with their kids.
1. SNOW!! OK, so it did snow in Pearland this December, and it snowed during Christmas a few years ago (which we missed... By the way, Luis & Alexis, we finally had to throw our snow ball away when we sold the house. Very sad day). But, it snowed on my birthday and several other days as well. I'm going to enjoy having 4 seasons again!!

My Brush with Dutchness

2009-05-03T13:06:00.002-05:00

Since we've arrived in the Netherlands, I've been amazed at the things that people will carry around with them on their bikes. (If you didn't know, the Dutch are known for their cycling culture. They bike everywhere and in ANYTHING!) Here are some of my favorites:

Suit & tie
Stilettos and a mini skirt
Umbrella (it rains alot here, so this wasn't surprising, but I'm amazed that their ability to ride with one hand, hold an open umbrella in the other, and not crash!)
A bass (you know, the big stringed instrument that looks like a giant cello)
An exercise ball (yes, the big yoga/birthing ball. the lady was holding it under one arm while steering with the other)
A box bike with 5 kids (they have these bikes with big boxes on the front to carry cargo, but most folks have bench seats in them for kiddos, some of them are retrofitted with car seats)
The scariest one was the lady with a kid on the front and one on the back in bike seats, plus she was carrying a baby in a Baby Bjorn. No Joke!!

So, to the point of this post... I have been making fun of these people for 4 1/2 months now and wondered if I would ever fully understand "why". Well, today I was one of them! We have our van here, but most of the useful places to go shopping are in downtown where the parking is in parking garages under ground with very small parking places and low clearances. Needless to say, I'm not about to take my Odyssey into one of those unless I really have to.

BUT, I needed a new vacuum cleaner. We had bought one for 10 euro from a buy/sell Yahoo group for expats, but it didn't work very well. When the cleaning lady complained this week, I finally gave in and went to get a new one. Luckily, I went while the girls (and Bryan) were asleep, so I hopped on my bike (with the two seats and saddle bags of course) and rode downtown to a place called MediaMarkt. It's like a BestBuy on crack. Anything and everything you could ever need that plugs into a wall can be found here. In addition to the vacuum, I needed to get a toaster, and a hair dryer and straightener for when my mom visits in a month. (I didn't want her to fry hers or her hair!) Long story short, I found everything I needed except the toaster (they had plenty, but I wanted a cheap one), checked out, then carried my loot to my bike. For some reason, it wasn't until then that I thought, how in the world am I going to get this stuff home?! I tried a few different configurations, but none seemed to work that well. Finally, I put the hair dryer in one of my saddle bags, the straightener in the other then plopped the vacuum cleaner box onto Kaeli's seat on the back of the bike. It was too big to fit IN the seat, so I layed it on TOP of the arms of the seat. It was so wide that it also covered about half of my bike seat. Oh, and did I mention that I didn't have any straps to hold it on? There was just enough room left on my seat for me to sit (rather uncomfortably), and I strategically leaned back against the box to hold it in place between me and the back of Kaeli's seat. I'm sure I looked hilarious. Probably should have gotten a picture, but when I got home, B and the girls were still asleep and I really had to go potty! Will have to save that extra laugh for another time!! Here's to fitting in! :-)

Sermon on the Mount

2009-04-26T12:48:00.003-05:00

In 30+ years of attending church, I have never heard a sermon like the one we heard this morning at our new church in the Hague. Don't get me wrong, I miss Alex's preaching ALOT (the podcasts help, but it's just not the same), but this was amazing. He preached the Sermon on the Mount. No, that's not a typo, he didn't preach about the Sermon on the Mount, he actually preached THE SERMON... by memory... in its entirety (sp?). It was unlike anything I've ever listened to before.

I was riveted, I hung on every word, I was moved by the simplest of phrases that have for years only been memory verses. It was the first time that I felt like I experienced a glimpse of what it must have been like to hear Jesus preach in person.

If you've got 30 minutes of uninterrupted time (I know this is a luxury for most of you), I would highly recommend going to the church's website and listening to this (click here). [I'm not sure why the sermon is called "The Singer", just ignore that.] I promise it will be well worth the 30 minutes. You could even use it as your quiet time because you will be listening to the WORD of God! I know that it won't have the same impact as being there, but listening should be one step above reading. I hope you are blessed 1/2 as much as I was this morning!

I miss you all!

It'll never happen again!

2009-04-22T13:46:00.003-05:00

This will never happen again, so don't get used to it, but I actually posted two blogs before my friends Sterling, Misty, and Jenn (ubber bloggers) added a new post to their blogs!

I am enjoying my quiet evening in Germany, watching the Rhein River pass by. I miss Bryan and the girls, but it is nice to have some "me" time even if I have to work some while doing it. The trip did not start off well. My train was 20 minutes late an I only had a 15 minute "layover" at the Utrecht train station, so I had to wait 2 hours for the next train to Cologne. Then, that train was 20 minutes late getting into Utrecht! Oh well, I'm here and life is good. If you're reading this before Friday, 11AM Houston time, please pray for Bryan. He has the girls by himself for two days!

If you're not already sitting down, you might want to...

2009-04-21T13:53:00.005-05:00

In one of my recent posts, I mentioned that Kaeli has been saying very funny things lately. I forgot about a recent story that is totally hilarious, so sit down before you read this (and hold on to your chair because you might fall out of it!).

Bryan was giving Kaeli a bath the other night and she asked what the pink things on her chest were. Instead of telling her they were "chest buttons" (you know, like a belly button) like I do, he proceeded to tell her that they were nipples. Kaeli then wanted to know why she had nipples. Bryan told her that whenever she became a mommy that she could feed her babies milk with them. When she got out of the tub, she came running to me to tell me (OK, now imagine Kaeli in her cutest voice with complete and utter excitement in her tone):

"Mommy, when I become a mommy, I'm going to feed my babies with my nickels!"

Our First Day Trip (at least the 1st one where we remembered the camera!)

2009-04-20T13:37:00.018-05:00

We went to Keukenhof this weekend (www.keukenhoff.com). We had a great time. The earlier you get there, the better because the crowds and buses loaded with people start to show up between 10 & 11. We got there about 9:30 and pretended it was Easter because we got zero pics last Sunday (long story!). Here are the pictures. Enjoy!

Here is Kaeli posing in from of the "pink" tulips and Avery in front of yellow ones.

Our attempts to get a picture of them together.

Avery touching the flowers.

K-Rae, the super model (we're in trouble!).

Pictures of the tulip fields and other flowers (most of these Kaeli took herself!)

From the mouth of our 3 1/2 year old...

2009-04-19T13:56:00.003-05:00

OK, so I was going to post our cool pictures from Keukenhof (a big tourist attraction here in the Netherlands with LOTS of tulips), but Bryan is on the Mac (where the pictures are), so I'm going to post something that will hopefully make you all laugh.

So, as most of you know, Kaeli is a talker. She's never been shy and certainly loves attention (Bryan and I argue as to which of us she gets this from). Anyway, we had the preacher from one of the churches we've been visiting and his wife over for dinner last night. Of course, Kaeli wants to say her prayer, which is usually quite cute. She learned it at Kids R Kids: "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food. God bless everyone. Amen. Let's begin." Instead of this adorable little prayer, out comes: "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our poopy. God bless poopy, poopy. Amen. Poopy, poopy." I was totally embarrassed!

Other things she has said lately:
"Daddy, you are sooooo strong. Just like Snow White." - Bryan wasn't sure whether he should be proud of this or not.
"Mommy, if you can't reach the scrunchy ball, Daddy can get it because he's strong and handsome like a prince!" - This one made him laugh.

Gotta love being a parent!

Avery's 1st Birthday

2009-04-14T13:30:00.014-05:00

Today is Avery's Birthday! I can't believe she is 1 today. This year has been such a blur. As soon as the sleepless nights were over, we started talking about the move. Then, the sleepless nights began again. Maybe that's why I can't remember much (except the pregnancy and birth which I do not want to do again!).

Anyway, we had a 4 day weekend and got to spend some great quality time together as a family. We had a picnic at a park just down the street and met a couple of other families from the US that we know through work. Kaeli rode her bicycle (Thanks, Carlsons!) all the way to the park. Just 4 weeks ago, she could barely ride it just down the sidewalk. Here are some pics from the party.

But, more about Avery since today is her birthday... We think she is super cute and she still has gorgeous blue eyes. Her hair is growing out and is looking a little curly in the back. She is such a funny baby, well, I guess I should say she is such a funny toddler because she is certainly toddling. She laughs at everything, especially her big sissy, Kaeli. On Sunday, she started giggling for no reason. She was giggling so hard that Bryan couldn't get her dressed! She was bound and determined to be walking before she turned one, and today she walked all day at school and all around the house this evening. Along with walking, she has become alot more confident and thinks she can do just about anything her big sister can do. She climbed up both flights of stairs this weekend. She refuses to eat anything that she can't feed herself, but also refuses to hold her own bottle! She is off of formula and on to soy milk, which she loves. She drinks sooooo much of it. I don't know if it's the new surroundings or the weeks of sickness, but she has become much more cuddly. She never liked to snuggle when we were in the US, but now she will nuzzle with just about anyone who holds her. She has also started giving kisses and waves "bye bye" and even says "Dag" (that's "bye" in Dutch). She got a birthday hat at day care today. We put it on her at home and she didn't like that so much, but she did love the cake that Kaeli picked out for her. She's now sleeping soundly with her little bottom up in the air, just the way Kaeli used to sleep.

More pictures of the birthday girl:

My (not so glamorous) trip to London

2009-04-08T14:40:00.004-05:00

So, I called my mom this week (I had missed her when I called the past two weekends). We had to briefly discuss their upcoming trip to NL (can't wait to see you all!) and our plans to go to Paris as a family. Pretty cool, but I had to make it quick because I was running out the door on my way to London. "That's exciting!", my mom says to me... Well, not really. All work and no play, but I thought I would share with you all my journey to London on Monday so that you are not too jealous of me getting to travel Europe while we're over here!

05:45 Alarm rings and I get up to take a shower and get ready
06:00 Kaeli (or Avery, I can't really remember now) wakes up yelling "MOMMY!" (or possibly just crying, can't remember that either!)
07:00 I am dressed, so Bryan walks out the door for work and I finish getting the girls breakfast and dressed for school.
07:15 We're out the door on the bike to ride (OK, they get to ride, I get to pedal with an extra 70 pounds of kid on the bike) 30 minutes to day care.
08:00 Leave day care and bike to 2 grocery stores (we're out of milk and I am being a loving wife by not going out of town with no milk in the fridge - Avery is off of formula now, so this would have been detrimental to our marriage. 1st store didn't have soy.)
08:45 Back at home to finish packing and put together stuff for Kaeli's swimming lessons since Bryan would be taking both girls by himself (dinner for A, snack for K, swimsuit, towel, etc)
09:00 Walk 15 minutes to the office with my suitcase in tow
13:00 After several hours of working, I call my mom as I'm walking out the door.
13:30 Walk 5 minutes to tram stop, take tram to train station, buy train ticket, miss train, get back on tram to the other train station to catch next train to Amsterdam. Once in Amsterdam I take a ferry to the other side of the river to another Shell office bldg where I have a meeting at 3pm
15:00 Almost late for my meeting (which I am facilitating), but all goes well.
17:30 Leave offices, walk back to ferry, take ferry back to train station, take another train to airport (suitcase and laptop bag still in tow)
18:00 At airport with 1 hr until flight leaves. Walked briskly to the very end of a very long terminal (why do I always get the gate at the end?), just in time to get through security and board the plane.
19:00 Flight leaves NL
20:00 (19:00 London time) Arrive at London Heathrow. Tired of public transportation, so I took a taxi to the hotel.
21:00 (20:00 London time) Make phone call to US to make sure work is getting done on some projects while I sleep!
22:00 (21:00 London time) Wait! I forgot to eat dinner. Down to the hotel restaurant to grab something to eat and then off to bed (luckily, I couldn't connect to the internet so I did go to bed).
22:45 (21:45 London time) Sound asleep with no kids or husband to wake me up in the middle of the night! OK, maybe the trip was worth it. Ha!

See, not so glamorous afterall!! Of course, the worst part was the following morning when I got into a cab to get to my meetings and he pulled out a map! I should've known I was in trouble!! Was 15 minutes late for THAT meeting. I hate being late!

Inspired...

2009-03-28T13:43:00.011-05:00

OK, so I was inspired by my friends' blogs (Aimee & Misty) to post comparison pics of Kaeli & Avery. We've really never had any doubts that they look alike, so here' s the proof. Oh, and by the way, Avery took her first two steps on her own tonight. We didn't get it on video or camera, but all four of us were in the bathroom and saw it. We celebrated!!

Kaeli (top) & Avery (bottom) at 2 months:

Kaeli & Avery (11 months)

Backyard has Pretty Flowers

2009-03-15T15:27:00.002-05:00

Our new backyard is tiny at ~10'x15', but most homes lack even what we have. However, beautiful purple, white and yellow flowers are growing through the grass... Kaeli loves to pick the purple ones for us.

Kaeli Always Looks Good No Matter the Weather

2009-03-15T15:22:00.002-05:00

It's pretty cold over here in the Netherlands. The highest temperature we've felt is 46 F. We always wear our heavy coats, scarves and something to cover our ears. The sun doesn't shine often but Kaeli thinks she only looks pretty in this outfit when wearing sunglasses!

2009-03-15T15:20:00.001-05:00

Kaeli and Avery were princesses today in our new living room.

Home Sweet Home

2009-03-09T14:20:00.003-05:00

Yes, we are finally in our new home. It is so nice to finally know we are not going to move again in a couple of days or weeks.

New blogging goals:

1. Post something once a week.

2. Don't feel guilty when I don't post pictures.

3. Post pictures once a month.

We'll see how that goes!! More to come... I have to go be the unpacking fairy... AGAIN!

No, still no pictures...

2009-03-01T12:30:00.002-06:00

Sorry, still no pictures yet. I've got several pics on our camera, but now I can't find the cord to connect to the computer and upload them. I know there are two or three of them around here somewhere, I just can't seem to find them right now. We are moving to our new house this week, so hopefully I will find one soon.

So, I started this list about the Top 5 things I hate and love about the Netherlands. Unfortunately, I had problems posting it last time, so I copied and pasted into WORD, with the full expectation of copying and pasting back into this blog. BUT, it doesn't work, so if anyone can tell me the trick to pasting into this text editor, I'd greatly appreciate it (NOTE: I'm on a MAC, I wonder if that has anything to do with it?) I'm too lazy to retype everything, so you'll just have to wait patiently for me to figure it out! Besides, I now have a Top 10 list, so I promise it should be worth the wait.

Things are going well here. It will be much better once we are in the house and Bryan and I can sleep in the same bed again. For those of you wanting us to have 3 kids, keep dreaming! I thought of several of my friends in TX this week (not that I don't think about and pray for all of you on a regular basis, but there were some specific incidents this week that made me think of a few of you more distinctly).

First, Sterling, I thought of you... You no longer have to worry about us staying in the Netherlands because all of our allergies miraculously disappeared. In fact, I would say they have gotten a little worse! My eyes are still watering ALL the time. I go to a specialist this week. Hopefully, they can find a cure. I think I'm losing my good eyesight (not to mention the headaches and fatigue caused by the constant struggle to see).

Next, Misty, I thought of you... When (yes, when!) you come to visit us, I know just the place I'm going to take you. I found a scrapbook store! Yes, that's right, a scrapbook store in the middle of downtown Den Haag!! It really made me miss "scrapbook night".

Finally, I thought of Luis & Alexis and how incredibly difficult it would be to get around this town with twin babies. Bryan and I try to use public transportation (the tram) when possible. If it's just one of us with the girls, Kaeli walks and Avery gets carried. If there are two of us, like this weekend, we like to take the stroller so that we don't have back pains the next day. We need two people to get the stroller on and off the tram. BUT, if we had twins, it would be nearly impossible to take the tram by ourself with the babies!! I must admit that I have seen double strollers with twins walking around, but never on the tram. I guess they all just get the little buggy for the back of their bikes that doubles as a stroller. This would make the most sense.

OH, almost forgot... I was very Dutch this week. We got our Odyssey last week (which almost made me cry. Seriously, I almost cried!), but had to take it in this week to get some things done on it to make it European (turn signals on the side, fog light in the rear, and orange headlines instead of white). So, I was stuck one day (my day off with lots of errands to run) with only my new bike. After dropping off the girls at day care, I took the van into the shop and rode the tram back to the Hague (took almost an hour!). Then, I hopped on my bike and went to the bike shop where they installed my new saddle bag on the back. While they were doing this, I walked to the department store (got Kaeli a new scarf) and the grocery store (we were out of salad and I needed a Coke). Went back to the bike shop and put my purchases in my new bags and installed my Garmin on the bike (yes, they make a gadget that holds the Garmin and you can put Garmin in Bicycle mode!). Then I ran the rest of my errands by bike! I don't know how many miles I rode, but by the time I was done, my bottom was sore!! Then, I picked the girls up from daycare.... on the bike. I'll have to post a picture of my new wheels soon... if I can ever find that stupid cord!

We got the house!

2009-02-14T13:30:00.003-06:00

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?

2009-02-07T12:20:00.002-06:00

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!

2009-02-07T11:33:00.009-06:00

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.

We're Alive!

2009-01-29T07:48:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the long silence. We are alive and doing well. We made it into our temporary apartment last Wednesday and just got the rest of our air freight today. Who knew we'd miss Avery's bath seat so much!! Avery has been sick so I have not had much time to do anything. I will try to write more later and of course post pictures, but I just wanted to let everyone know we're doing well. More to come...

We Made It!

2009-01-20T06:15:00.005-06:00

For those of you wondering if we made it to the Netherlands OK, we did! We arrived around noon local time on Sunday. It was rainy and cold and we had a hard time finding our taxi driver, then once we did, we had to walk in the rain to the van and the suitcase that was holding the carseat (and Avery) fell over. Avery was fine, not even a peep, but it still freaked me out. Of course, all Kaeli was worried about was "My Stuff" that I had dropped from my other hand to get Avery. We'll work on that! Kaeli was a trooper. She pushed the stoller full of suitcases half way through the airport!! The flight wasn't horrible. The girls slept about as much as could be expected. Avery threw up about 5 minutes before pushing off from the gate, so Bryan and I frantically cleaned the car seat and Avery and changed her clothes so that we would not be responsible for delaying the flight. Of course, the flight was delayed on the runway anyway, but at least it wasn't our fault!!

Kaeli and Avery started their new school yesterday. They only went for a couple of hours. They are there for about 6 hours today and tomorrow and then full days on Thurs and Fri. It is a Dutch-speaking day care and Kaeli seems to be doing OK so far. I think the bread with chocolate spread and sprinkles for lunch yesterday may have helped a little! Avery had no problems, she even took an hour nap while she was there.

We're still in the hotel, but will hopefully be in a temporary apartment starting Wed or Thurs (move #4 of 5!). Then we can start looking for a "permanent" place. No, Misty, it's not really going to be permanent! I'll post more pictures soon, especially of Kaeli's dance recital the day before we left the US, but these are some that we took in the hotel on Sunday. Kaeli is becoming quite the photographer, so you may end up seeing several without her in them! I will try to keep up with additional pictures of her.

I'm off to check e-mail for work. Lots to do and noone over here wants to call my US mobile phone!!

Garmin

2009-01-09T20:24:00.004-06:00

OK, so we finally broke down and bought a Garmin. Mainly because we won't know where the heck we are when we get overseas. It's been a great toy and we've actually found it useful here in the States. I just got around to installing our NL maps. It took over an hour! Either I'm losing my technical savvy or this was just too darn complicated (and didn't come with instructions!). The Garmin website was useless. Oh well!

On a happier note, Kaeli had dance today. She's a wonderful dancer!! I can't wait for her recital next week. We will video it and post it at some point. May be a little while since we're leaving the very next day!

8 days and counting... I'm in the process of trying to organize for the air freight packing/move to the hotel which is Monday. Not that I really have to do all of this organization, but if I don't they may ship something that I need or ship something that belongs to the apartment and we'll lose our deposit! Guess that's one more down side to living in a Corporate apt.!

Well, I think the girls are finally asleep and Avery has stopped coughing (for now). Bryan is at Guys' Night, so I'm going to try to get some sleep. Oh wait, Kaeli isn't asleep. I just heard rustling from her direction. Guess I'll go try to get her to sleep!!!

No, this photo really doesn't have anything to do with this post, but it was cute, so I thought I'd share.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T19:43:00.002-06:00

Here we go! I really can't believe 2008 is already over, but if you had asked me a year ago if I thought we'd be moving overseas in just two weeks, I'd have told you you were crazy. Here's to a fabulous 2009!

Our Little Fish

2008-12-30T17:55:00.004-06:00

Kaeli had her last swimming lesson the week before Christmas. These are pictures from that lesson. She's always loved the water, but we are continually amazed at how quickly she learned to swim. Her favorite stroke is "pizza arms", more commonly known as the breast stroke. Now, if we can only find swimming lessons in the Netherlands. We've been told there are lots of options. Just need to find them!

Since she no longer goes to swimming, Kaeli has decided she needs to wear her goggles in the bath tub.

This makes for tremendous bath time fun. Speaking of bath time fun, here's a recent picture of the girls taking a bath "together", a common theme around the apartment these days.

Our Addresses

2008-12-29T11:30:00.002-06:00

OK, so I started sending out our New Year's letters today and remembered that I put a note in the letter to check our blog for addresses, so here they are. I'll post the NL address once we get one.

Our Apartment (until Jan 12th, so don't send anything after ~Jan 7th):
2495 S. Mason Rd. #121
Katy, TX 77450

US P.O. Box (All cards and letters will be forwarded to Celesta's work address in NL. No packages please, they will not forward them! You can send things to this now, but we won't get it until we get to NL and possibly several days after that.):
Name
c/o Celesta White
P.O. Box 4074
Houston, TX 77210-4704

Please keep in touch!!

Bye Bye

2008-12-22T20:26:00.007-06:00

Bye Bye, Home. "We will miss you!"

Bye Bye, backyard. We will miss you too, but not your

weeds!!

Bye Bye, Master Bath. We enjoyed you for the year we had you.

Bye Bye, Astro. Don't let Grandma and Papa spoil you too much. Stay out of their trashcan and don't let them feed you cookies!

Our First Blog Post

2008-12-21T20:46:00.004-06:00

I've been meaning to start this blog since we first made the "big decision" to move to the Netherlands, but am just now finding time to set up the blogger account. Kaeli and Avery are asleep, Bryan is having a Wii night with Eric, and I have to stay awake long enough to put clothes in the dryer.... hence, I've got a few moments to actually start this blog.

For those of you who didn't know we were moving and are just reading it now, I'm very sorry for not letting you know sooner. It kind of came as a surprise, and life has been a whirlwind since we decided to accept the assignments. Shell is transferring me to the Hague to start a new group in Shell Global Solutions - NL which will enable us to build Reliability Modeling and Dynamic Simulation (that's what I do now in the US) competency in our NL office. Currently, all 5 of us that do RM/DS sit in Houston! Bryan gets to continue his current job, just from the Shell Chemicals Rotterdam office. Since his boss sits in Singapore, and his job is a global role, it really makes more sense for him to sit in Europe. Then he can work with all timezones in a day without having to hold telecons at crazy hours. So, big changes coming our way, but at least we don't have to come up a brand new job learning curve. We feel pretty fortunate on that front!

If I were to give a full recap on our blog in a single posting it would take a while, and the laundry is almost done, so here's the brief version. After we found out we were moving, we decided to sell the house (my assignment is officially 4 years, but we're expecting 3-4 years). We put it on the market in October, expecting it to take a while to sell in today's market and economy. Well, less than two weeks later, we had the house under contract and they wanted us out by December 5th. We were able to push that back to December 15th, so this past Monday we closed on the house. This meant that the movers came the previous Thursday and Friday to pack up most of our stuff for either sea shipment or storage (housing is a "little" smaller over there!). Now, we are in a temporary apartment just around the corner from our first home. Very strange to not only be in an apartment again after 5 years, but also to say goodbye to the house. As Kaeli said, "I will miss it!"