bringing me home

I love the balance and symmetry of this shot, and the beauty that Laura brings to it. I've had friends tell me how beautiful she is, stunning really. Her most beautiful gift though is her ability to take you inside yourself to the center of it all. Just a telephone call later (or a luxury 10 days together, in our case) and she's brought you home again, back to a place you loved but lost along the way because you got so bogged down with life and defragmented. Back to yourself. Back to life.

I guess that's what friends are for - bringing us back to life, so to speak. But Laura did that for me in the biggest way during her visit, and for that I'm eternally grateful. So thanks, Laura, for jumpstarting this old clunker!



Laura was the life of New Year's Eve (along w killer fireworks) when she discovered the Dutch love Michael Jackson! She got our hips swinging and the olliebollen flying - yumm, yumm Marijn!

...the beloved wife and companion. Btw, who's that GQ guy kissing on you - oh that's Paul! Can i have some of that?

She brings connectivity to the family, and it was endearing to see her needing some kidtime/familytime during their brief visit. During a mini-crisis of finding a resto in Brugge, she siezed the opportunity for some one-on-one with the boys.


Laura snapped a ton of photos during her visit, but she's never IN a single picture so this one's for her!

miss you too!

Taiwan?

Okay, I'm not looking at the sitemeter anymore because it's freakin' me out a little. With Laura's help, I recently plugged into this website so I could see who's visiting my blog. Well, lately I've had visits from Taiwan, Spain, Morocco and China (UK, Holland, Switzerland don't count since I know family/friends there). I'm not sure what search words brought them to my site, but it's perplexing to say the least.

If it's for the birds, then I must apologize as I've been neglecting my feathered friends as of late due to my love affair with my best friend Laura. But I'll get my rhthym back soon, especially since the birds are singing again and you can practically see their hormones pumping through their little bodies. Egyptian goslings have already been spotted in the Brussels area - but I'm sure that had nothing to do with global warming.

Or maybe they're related to the Verschuuren family in some way, or want to know more about the land of sprouts. Who knows. But it makes you wonder, doesn't it?

off to New York

Alex told me when she turns 14 she'll take Phoebe to New York (as in city) alone - oh boy

Happy Birthday!

Jan. 14th, to my dear, dear friend Laura Kammermeier in Honeoye Falls, NY, who "mac-ified" me and showed me the light!

Jan. 16th, to Phoebe's friends Grace and Sydney in Boardman

Dec. 29th, to my Dad and little John 5th who celebrated in Orlando, Florida

WE MISS YOU!

Phoebe's birds

Phoebe stayed home from school today so we had some fun with a bird quiz. I asked her to name as many birds as she could remember, and this is what she came up with. She wanted to list some boy and girl birds separately since she can tell them apart, but i told her we'd save that for next time. I don't think i could name 10 birds when I was her age. Her number 1 bird is one of my all-time favorites. Funny it's the first bird that came to her mind!

1. Cardinal
2. Merel - what the Europeans call a blackbird, but it's really a thrush
3. chickadee
4. Blackbird, but here she was thinking of the N.A. red-winged version
5. Goldfinch
6. House sparrow
7. House finch
8. Downy woodpecker - this is when she wanted to talk about differences between males and females
9. Dove, as in the wood dove which is more than abundant here
10. Mourning Dove
11. Parakeet, like Piet the ring-necked parakeet who visits our feeder every day around 2 pm
12. Flamingo - this came out of the blue!
13. long-tailed tits, which happened to be visiting our bird feeder just as we both looked outside
14. Bluebird
15. Bluejay, which she knows will predate eggs and slurp up the yolk, which is just how she likes to eat her eggs too
16. kingfisher
17. duck, like the one where the male has a green head she said
18. crane
19. Great blue heron
20. eagle, as in the Bald eagle she remembered
21. Vulture
22. Barn owl
23. Screech owl, which she pronounced something like skeerch owl
24. Barred owl, which says "who cooks for you, who cooks for you aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh"
25. Hummingbird
26. Blue tits
27. Magpie, which she's quick to point out when she sees them here - they're pretty neat birds.

gai Paris

Our day in Paris was definitely "gai", which means happy in French. The sun never stopped shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was a nice day to stroll the streets with the man i met almost 20 years ago. Stijn and I visited the musee d Orsay, which features art from 1848-1914, and loved it. With the highspeed train we made it to Paris and the museum before long lines had a chance to form, and we were back in Tervuren before the girls ballet class the next day. Thanks to Els and Harry, who watched the kids while we were gone, we got to enjoy time together in this beautiful place. I'm not a city person like Stijn is, but Paris is a place I'd like to revisit again and again. And again.

Fave shots of kids w Max and Jackie

... at Brussels kerstmarkt on a day when the sun really tried to shine. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that two of the youngsters are always near each other. In fact they were inseparable during the entire trip. See if you can find the lovebirds.


... by fruitmarket in Tervuren. Fridays are market day in our town and the kids couldn't wait to spend a few euros on Belgian wafels. Unfortunately the wafel man wasn't there that day so the kids bought snoepjes (candy) instead.


Oops, meant to save this one for the end. Kelley, better keep this one away from Tres. Yes, Phoebe and Jackie were like peanut butter and jelly, and it was sweet to see their fondness for each other. Funny thing is that Phoebe was showering Max with kisses too, so will be interesting to see how this love triangle evolves.


Finally the kids got their Belgian wafels in Brugges. It was a chilly but sunny late afternoon, and the warm fresh wafels hit the spot and gave the kids enough energy to make it mostly around the town.


Our trip to Dinant citadelle, which the kids didn't even want to do initially. They preferred to sit around in their secret place all day doing things we'd rather not hear about, which is exactly why we decided a trip to a castle was in order. Plus, they needed exciting pictures to show their teachers, not just photos of kids munching wafels!

this is the best i'm gonna get

I don't know why this image was deleted from the previous post, but here it is! I guess I'm still getting used to the keypad on my new macbook pro and may hit a stray key now and again. Really can't complain, now can I? It makes a lovely addition to our family but i have to watch that i don't spend more time with it than i do with the kids!

waiting for the fall

Our best friends Laura and Paul and their boys came to visit us in Belgium over the holidays. Every day was a non-stop party for kids and adults alike (see laura's blog for more party stories http://transition2ny.blogspot.com/). The kids were so thrilled to play with their longtime friends Max and Jackie and to have sleepovers for 10 days, yes you heard it right - 10 DAYS! Because the kids were happily occupied 24/7 the adults actually had some relaxing moments, like while sampling all the beer/wine Stijn had stockpiled on the patio "bar" table. All the stories, the laughter, the good cheer, the microburnouts (just a few) filled the house with good kharma, although I don't know if houses can actually have kharma. Nevertheless, the house "feels" different since we probably laughed/screamed/drove away any house spirits that might've been lingering. I've been waiting for the high to wear off, but it's just not happening, and I'll just drink more Leffe, Duvel or Delirium Tremens (love that name) if it threatens to.



So what were some memorable moments from this reunion of long lost friends? Well, I don't normally catch spontaneous actions on film, but Laura's reaction to Stijn saying, "is this the best i'm gonna get?" was great. We had successful family outings (is that possible?), and the photo below is from our trek to the Brussels kerstmarkt. The boys took Alex, Phoebe and Max ice skating, which was a big hit, and Laura and I took Jackie and Thijs on the ferris wheel. With the obligatory Belgian frites met mayonnaise and some hot chocolate or gluhwein, our tummies were full for the tram/metro ride home.



An afternoon out for the parents included a lunch at Hoegaarden brewery and a walk in the woods where we admired the simplicity and longevity of this old chapel.



Sharing a cup of tea with Laura is one of my favorite memories of our time together. This teatime came with a Belgian wafel smothered in cream and free entertainment for the teashop - our kids! The kids loved this pitstop with hot chocolate, ice cream, cookies (complimentary with tea), coca cola - yummmmmm! This made for a calm car ride home, NOT, but at least we were able to make it to our car. Will never forget almost missing the opportunity to walk 653 steps to the top of the citadelle only to find the gate locked shut. Luckily we caught the last gondola back to the top!



Exploring a castle in the quaint Wallonian town of Dinant (southeastern Belgium). Thanks to Czar Stijn, we actually made the trip to see the citadelle in Dinant w our 5 supercharged kids (while he sat calmly/quietly behind his desk at work all day). It was a fun trip, although by no means the least stressful. This was a great way to end our trip and get us dreaming about our next adventure(s)!