Jessica's Senior Pics

Jess and I had a little fun yesterday. We took some pictures for her Senior page in her yearbook. When you live in a place as gorgeous as Belgium, it's easy to find the perfect backdrop. Of course, having the perfect model as well, makes it... well... even more perfect.

I can't believe our baby is all grown up now.

We're excited for her, starting on a brand new adventure, but we're a little sad for us.

Maybe she'll change her mind, and just live at home while attending a nice Community College. Yeah. I know. Not gonna happen.

Saturday

When you have teenagers, your days can begin very early. Very, very early, if their activities take place in countries other than the one in which you live. So this is how we spent our Saturday. Driving to another country...

so that Jess could to this...
And hours and hours more of this. It's all good, though. They won their games and had a great time doing so. This time next year, we'll be back in the States and Jess will be off at college. I'll be looking at these pictures and feeling sad that we aren't sitting on a hard, wooden bleacher seat and cheering her on to victory. Isn't it crazy how slow a day can feel, when life is speeding by?

Birthdays And Anniversaries, Oh My!

16 years ago yesterday, our little baby girl was born. To make it even more special, she was born on her Dad's Birthday! (Top that present! I bet you can't!) I can't believe how fast time is flying by! Just look how young these two were! Things were much slower back then. We had no idea. Now, it's hard to just get everyone in the same room at the same time! It was after 7 pm before everyone was home and we could celebrate the birthdays. Russ is working crazy hours right now, and Jess is tied up with soccer practice on most days. Ahhhh...the modern family. We did have a great celebration, though. It was worth the wait. Jess is very excited to have turned 16, and Russ is very pleased to be...um...35. With every one's crazy schedules, Jess decided to postpone her party until she has more free time. Just to make sure she didn't feel sad that she isn't having one right now, Brandon and I filled up her room with balloons while she was at soccer practice. She got a big kick out of that. Today is Russ and my 20th Anniversary. I can't believe we've been married that long! (I also can't believe he's put up with me for that many years! People commit crimes and get less time than that!) Anyhoo, it's been a fantastic 20 years, and we are looking forward to many, many more together.I snuck over to the base and filled up his car with balloons while he was at work today. He doesn't even know it yet. Hee hee hee. He's going to have to do a lot of popping before he can drive home tonight! He might be rethinking this whole 20 year thing. He's probably wondering when he'll be up for parole!

So Far, So Good

*Disclaimer to Nana...you are probably better off missing this post. At the very least, look no further than the first picture. You won't like it. You just looked, didn't you? Darn it. Don't say I didn't warn you!*

I know I promised lots of lovely adventures for the New Year, but these things take time. We're taking it nice and easy this January. It probably has something to do with the weather. It's cold. And it's been snowing a lot. Maybe that's just my imagination, because I'm told it rarely snows in Belgium, and if it does, it melts almost immediately. Apparently, I have a very vivid imagination. This is what my canal looks like today. (Yes, it's my canal. I called dibs.) There wasn't much going on there today. It was just me and a couple of frozen ducks. They have a very vivid imagination, too. Remember the Ice Age 3 Ice Sculptures exhibit in Brugge that we went to? It seems that they didn't anticipate all of this snow, either. Heavy snow built up on the roof of the massive tent that housed the ice sculptures, and caused it to collapse. The exhibit met an untimely end. Luckily, no one was hurt in the incident, but they came away with interesting stories to share with their friends and families. At least we were fortunate enough to see it before it all came crashing down. It was a very impressive exhibit. In all, we've had a pretty great New Year to date. I'm trying to stick to my resolutions. It's only been 4 days, so it's going well so far. You might want to check back with me next week. Still, I managed to actually enter the gym and.... (drum roll, please).... worked out! I'll give you a minute to recover from the shock. I also came up with another resolution to add to my list. No one in the family is allowed to adopt a snake. This one never occurred to me until the New Years Eve party at a friend's house. We were all having a good time until Brandon came up to me and said, "Hey, Mom...check this out!" (Nothing good ever starts with this phrase, by the way.) Yes, it's real.

Then, to make matters worse, he passed it off to Jessica. They took turns carrying the thing around for hours. In it's defense, it was very tolerant of their attention. It tried to make the occasional run for it (or slither), but for the most part, it just let them do what they wanted. I let them have their space. I am not a fan of snakes. This is one resolution that I feel confident will make it through to the year 2011 intact.

In all, it's been a pretty quiet and relaxing new year. Well, I did get that call from Denise, telling me about the man carrying a kangaroo by the tail through her back yard this morning, but that's another story...

B Diddy & The Princess

Yes, that would be a great title for a movie, but for now, it's just the kids. Thanks to Tim, Brandon's new nickname is "B Diddy", and along with a new nickname, comes a new pose. The UFC pose is out for now and the B Diddy pose is in. Times, they are a changing. Today was Brandon's first day of school, and he headed out pretty early this morning. Jess gets to relax until Monday, and then it's her turn. Jess is a little harder to get pictures of lately, because she's been doing her own thing with friends in the area. (How quickly they dump you for younger and cooler people to hang out with.) We've been continuing our bike rides along the canal, taking advantage of the nice summer weather while we can. It won't be long now til fall. We are still settling into the area, and learning more each day. The kids and I took a nice LONG drive yesterday. It entertains us to try to pronounce the names of the towns that we travel to. We've found it's easier to give them nick names, so Bocholt is now "the Bah", Opglabbeek is "the Op", Gruitrode is "the Grrr",... well, you get the idea. You can't imagine the stories we made up about the town of As.

I will share a little tidbit I recently learned about Leonidas chocolate. (They are the BEST, by the way! We got addicted to them when we were living in Peer.) Did you know that they didn't originate in Belgium? In 1910, a Greek fellow names Leonidas Kestekides got a Bronze Medal for his chocolates at the Brussels Universal Exhibition, and the Gold Medal at the International Exhibition in Ghent in 1913. This (and the fact that he fell in love with a young lady from Belgium) made him decide to settle permanently in Belgium and open a few tearooms. It was very successful, and has been a family run operation ever since. So when you dig into a box of those famous Belgium chocolates, give a nod to the Greeks as well. It was a team effort!