A Very Thankful Thanksgiving

When Eric and I came to Belgium and checked out AMI in Oudenaarde, we were trying to decide which branch to attend--Gent or Kortrijk. Through a series of events that are blurry to me now, we decided to go to Gent, which we are very happy about. We have met wonderful people that we will love forever. We found out later, however, that there were 4 families from America in the Kortrijk branch. They all work for the same company and were transfered to Belgium for a few years. We see them every 6 months or so at stake conference and love visiting with them. They have been here longer than us, so they can help us with lots of stuff, too, which is nice. They even helped us find a store in Antwerp that sells all kinds of American food and things we can't find anywhere. They were kind enough to invite us to their Thanksgiving feast this year. It was just as close as you could get to being back in America! They even had a BIG turkey--brought all the way from France--by their butcher/branch president who could pull some strings. It was the first time I ever tasted sweet potatoes that I couldn't stop eating! We had a great time and are very thankful to have met more wonderful people here. By the way, they think it's probably good that we didn't come to Kortrijk because the branch probably couldn't handle any more crazy Americans. I'm sure they are right. We are glad we ended up where we did!

What are the chances???

For breakfast one morning, we were intrigued. First egg, a double yoke. Hey kids--look at this! Next egg--single yolk. Third egg--another double yoker! Wait a minute. Fourth egg--another double. You're not going to believe this! Fifth and sixth--both single. But that is half with double yokes. Never seen that before. In one container of 10 eggs--yes, 10 not 12--what are the chances of that?? Was it one chicken--not likely. What about the last 4 eggs? Would the percentage hold? Yes, it did. Two were double yokes. How did they end up in the same box? What are the chances?
We think about our chances alot here. What are the chances of us living back in Meridian? By our families that we love and miss? In our house that we hardly got to grow old with? Last week the chance seemed very slight. But, the morning with the double yoke eggs reminds me that anything is possible! This week the word "chance" was taken out of the question.

Handbasket Anyone?

This last week reminded me of a bumper sticker I saw a couple of years ago that said, "Where am I going and why am I in this _ _ _ handbasket?"

First, Tyler came home from school and said they had watched a movie in class he thought was rated R. Sure enough. I looked it up on Google and it was.

Then to celebrate Caleb's 5th birthday, we bought some fancy drinks. We looked carefully at the ingredients to make sure there was no alcohol. They were right next to the kid drinks--on a whole separate aisle than the wine, so it looked safe. We poured everyone glasses and some of us tasted it and thought it tasted a little funny. That's when Eric noticed down at the bottom of the bottle--5% Vol. I guess that means there's alcohol.

So, even though we try to be good parents, I sometimes feel like we are in that _ _ _ handbasket!

Ignorance is Bliss for a while

Before we came to Belgium, a friend suggested that we start a blog to document all the "foreign experiences" we have. Here's a doozie!

Eric was gone in November. When I actually counted the days he was away, it was only 15, but it seemed like much longer.
While he was gone, we went to Brussels on a sight-seeing tour with my niece, Amanda. We saw the obligatory statues (miniature replica shown above) and walked down a cobblestone street with restaurants lined up side by side with bright red awnings, blazing fireplaces inside, and tuxedo clad maitre d's outside "begging" for us to come inside, warm up and eat something (I think) French. It was romantic and I made a vow that I would wow by hubby as soon as he got home with a fancy date to one of those places.
He returned and was excited that I wanted to take him on a date. We drove to Brussels and found the little peeing girl statue--Yes, it is famous--and then made our way down the bright and welcoming cobblestone street. In a flash, we found ourselves being bribed with a free glass of--something we couldn't pronounce--to come sit by the fireplace and be served something wonderful. We asked for a substitute drink and went inside. It seemed like a nice place. The menu had pictures of beautiful platters of seafood and meats. On the opposite page was a list of prices that were all about the same, so we innocently figured that was the price of the food in the pictures. We thought the price was 24 euros per person and figured we could splurge a little--considering we hadn't been on a date for a looooonng time.
The platter came and it was beautiful! We even had a picture taken--too bad it's blurry. It was easily some of the best food I've ever eaten--crab legs, lobster, mussels, shrimp. I was impressed! Then . . .

came the bill. We were surprised to see that it was a little more than we thought. The platter was 45 euros per person and the total was over 100 euros. We were completely stunned and must have walked out with surprised looks on our faces. (I'm sure they've seen it before on other naive tourists.) No wonder the food was so darn good! That was my one consolation.

Now that I think about it, I should have insisted we sit BY the fireplace. I had to wear my coat the whole time. I would say "next time" but I don't think we will do that again.

So, when you are in a foreign country, always ask what the price is, no matter what.

What?????

One of the most impressive things I have learned while living in Belgium is how beautiful it is to watch the Belgian people eat. It is an art! They wield a fork and knife like a skillful baton twirler and carefully and very neatly cut and eat their food. I sit and wonder how they can make something as simple as eating dinner look so fascinating. I want to be able to do that! However. . . that all changed one night. For our combined activity we had a very special dinner where they couldn't use forks and knives. Instead, they had to use crazy kitchen utensils.

I didn't hear one complaint!! They were all very good sports!

I just LOVE 'em!!!

Hopefully, it was an evening they will remember fondly for a long time!

Belgium Cooking Lesson

Meet my good friend, Marleen. We spend time walking the back roads, paths, and cow trails, of Belgium. As we walk, she patiently helps me with my Flemish and also with my life here in general. She explains how the schools work (since she is a teacher, she knows everything about them), she donates her childrens' "outgrown" toys for my childrens' entertainment, and she helps me find the best bakeries, dentists, hair dressers, (not that I have been brave enough to call them yet), etc. We both enjoy cooking and talking about food and since I really want to learn some authentic Belgian dishes, she suggested that she teach me how to make witloof. It was a very enjoyable afternoon! The witloof was yummy.

London

One more visit to London--I'm starting to appreciate them more each time.

We walked until our feet ached and our ears rang with the highly British accented words, "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform", over and over and over and over and over.

What to watch?

Have you ever had one of those days . . .

. . .the only thing fun to watch . . .

was the. . .

Washing Machine!?

Or the dryer, in this case.

Emily's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Emily!

As I watched Emily during the week before her birthday--the excited comments about how many days until the big day, the jumping up and down for no reason, the big smile on her face--I couldn't help think that this was the perfect age. She is so excited about everything!!!! And she is not afraid to show it. When does that end? At some point, children stop being so excited--or at least showing it. Not this year! Emily showed it every day and when it was finally here, she was grinning from ear to ear all day.

One Perfect Day!

Wanna know the recipe for a perfect day?

Skipping school + going on a business trip with dad + beautiful piles of leaves = hours of perfectness!

Eric had to drive to the Netherlands to pick up some equipment for an upcoming show and asked us to come along--how could we refuse! Emily was more than happy to miss a day of school to oblige. We enjoyed driving along the highway framed in yellow, gold, red, and brown leaf colored trees and visiting with each other. The ordinary work around the house tried to get my attention, but I quickly dismissed any thoughts of laundry and dishes, and enjoyed the time we had together. While Eric worked, we found a park where Emily and Caleb had plenty of entertainment.

Favorite Day of the Year!

On Saturday evening we sat down with our friends--Sipho from Zimbabwe and Irene, a foreign exchange student from Italy--to watch the opening session of General Conference. When the saints from all over the world were welcomed to the session, we felt special knowing we had 3 countries represented in one room, and 4 if you include Belgium.
You can imagine the excitement we felt as President Monson announced the 5 new temples. One in Philadephia, PA--YEA!!! And one in Rome, Italy! What an amazing thing. Irene, a convert of 3 years, travels 7 hours to attend the Switzerland temple. Now it will be only 4 hours. She was thrilled and blowing heartfelt kisses to the prophet on the big screen.

The more I think about a temple being built in Rome, the more gratitude I feel for the truths we know about the gospel spreading across the earth. As we naively drove into Rome last April, we were stunned at the blatant pornography being displayed along the main, and only, road leading into the city. It was hard it imagine the wickedness of that city. And now, they are getting a temple! The righteous will prevail!!! There is no doubt. Also, Rome is the center of Catholicism with Vatican City a stone throw away. Isn't is great to know that one of our beautiful temples will soon be there to bless so many.

And, a note about the Philadelphia temple--Ever since Elder Wallentine has been there, he has commented how ready the people are to accept the gospel in Pennsylvania. They have seen miraculous things and watched many people join the church. Now, they will have a temple, too. The work of the Lord is progressing and to sum up one of my most favorite quotes--"No unhallowed hand will stop the work. . ." It is true!!!

Tonight these 2 sisters will come to our home again for the Sunday Morning session. Irene is going to make us pasta for dinner. Fun--a cooking lesson from an Italian!

We are looking forward to being fed--Spiritually & Physically!

Reflections of life in the USA

Lately I've been thinking about our life back home. This time of year usually found me canning peaches, pears, salsa, and tomatoes--thanks to my dad's green thumb and my ability to only grow enough tomatoes to fill one measly jar. During those busy canning years, I'm sure there were times when it wasn't convenient--like when I was in the 3rd trimester--a couple of times. I remember having sore feet and aching muscles, but at the end it was all worth it. I loved lining up the beautifully filled jars in my storage room and knowing that we had enough fruit to last at least the year ahead. Waffles with pear sauce--Yum! Peaches on peanut butter toast--Yum, Yum! And then the salsa--Wow! So much better than in the stores. (It never lasted a year.)

I miss not being able to do that for the last couple of autumn seasons. Our life in Belgium has been different in a lot of ways. Some of the things have been down- right painful. But in the end, I hope it will be like the canning jars. That we look at it with a feeling of accomplishment and memories to last us well over a year.

Our Good-bye to Ryan--We Love You!!!!!!

Gent

Here's another amazing picture of Gent.

Benbows Pond

This is Benbows Pond where many saints were baptized by Wilford Woodruff.

London

Here is a picture of us on the Tower Bridge in London.

Caleb

Here is Caleb in his new Sunday clothes. He looks like his big brother, Jason, huh! That's what we told him to convince him to wear the "not so comfortable" clothes.

Paris with Hal and Ann

This summer Eric's parents came to Belgium and got the "as much as you can fit into 2 weeks" European tour. One of the stops--Paris. Always amazing!

Ryan's Friends

Ryan and his friends!

Ryan's Graduation

In May Ryan graduated from Mountain View High School! I was lucky enough to be able to fly to Idaho to see him on his big day. It was great!

Creepy Creatures!

During the "warm" summer months in Belgium, we have been sharing our house with these lovely guests. Seriously--every morning we wake up and see dozens of them all over the house. They built massive webs very quickly and we cannot believe how fast they set up camp. We find them everywhere--in the corners, on the ceilings, in the kitchen cupboards--everywhere! One day I was reaching in the dish detergent box for a cube of soap and almost grabbed a spider instead. Gross! They aren't poisonous and resemble daddy-long legs, but their legs are longer and creepier. I counted 30 one day when I was vacuuming. The next day there were just as many.

Surprise Dinner

Well, we have been living in Belgium for over 9 months now, and there are still things that we are figuring out. Last week we went to one of the grocery stores here. It's the only store I've found that sells white flour, and it even comes in a big bag--relatively speaking. We were on our way to get the flour and passed the meat counter where they had these delicious sausages as a sample. They were so good, it gave me a little boost of courage to ask what they were. The nice butcher told me their name and handed me a form to fill out. I managed to fill it out and found where to put my name, but was stumped by a number it was asking for. A guy was close by and saw my confusion, I guess, and told me I had to pull a number and then write the number down on that line. Easy enough. I turned it in, finished picking up a few other things, waited for them to call my number, and then picked up the sausages. When we got to the check-out, the clerk rang up the groceries and then asked for that number card I had pulled. All of the sudden I couldn't find it--I didn't realize I would need it again. She went ahead and let me go and as we were leaving the store, I found the number folded up in my purse. Oh well, I had conquered another great feat here! The other day, I thought we should go get some more of those sausages for dinner and thought it will be easy now that I knew what to do. Right! I drew a number, picked up the form, and then tried to find the sausages on the sheet that had hundereds of different meats listed--in dutch, of course. I remembered that it started with "barbeque", but accidentally marked something instead of "barbequeworst". We brought them home and I threw it in a pan. It looked like very thick bacon. I wasn't sure what it was, so I asked Eric if he would call a friend in our branch and just see if I was cooking it right. He talked to the guy, got off the phone and told me they really like it and eat it often and that I was cooking it right. We ate it and it was pretty good and then Eric asked if we wanted to know what it was. It was then that we learned we had just eaten HORSE meat. Thankfully, Eric didn't tell me until after we had finished. I won't ever make that mistake again!

Slideshow of Italy and Austria

Slideshow of Italy

Ryan's Birthday

Happy 18th Birthday to Ryan! He got a camera and a trip to Italy (sort of). What more could a boy want. I think he really wanted a DS, but knew it wasn't very practical.

Pisa hotel

The hotel we stayed at in Pisa looked so cute from the outside. It was a charming little seaside resort that was very tropical and relaxing. . . until we opened the door and saw how "cozy" it was. All the kids had to squeeze onto roll-away beds that were crammed together to fit into the little kitchen/living room area. As you can tell, they seemed to sleep fine.

Ashley in Pisa

Here's the "had to get a picture of this" picture! What a wonder woman!

Pisa at night

Here we are at the leaning tower in Pisa, Italy. Most people here wonder why a person would travel off the beaten path to see this, but we thought it was very cool. Sometimes mistakes have an unexpected result.

Switzerland

Pictures of Switzerland and the Alps.

Ausfahrt and Einfahrt

We took these pictures to start our collection of foreign words that are difficult (or funny if you are a kid) to say.

Brandon's Birthday

Brandon celebrated his 13th birthday on Easter Sunday this year. He was extremely excited to get a DS.

The kids had their easter egg hunt in the house because the weather was very nasty. Thanks to grandma and grandpa, they got to find real Easter eggs.