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.