Fall Fun!

We had a Fall Festival at Brandon's school this weekend, and he and I won the pumpkin carving contest! Woohoo! This is our winning entry. Apparently the judges shared our strange sense of humor. The prize was a gift certificate for the BX. There is still some negotiating to take care of on that issue. I thought Brandon could pick out a nice fall shirt, but he has something else in mind...a game. Go figure. (He does look a little creepy all lit up, doesn't he?) He gets to go to work with Russ on Friday. We are decorating the offices so the kids can go trick or treating there. Here is some gee wiz info on Belgium. Did you know that they didn't celebrate Halloween here at all until around 5 or 6 years ago? We Americans brought the craze over here, and now local stores sell Halloween decorations. You'll even see some houses and businesses all duded up for the Holiday. Some Belgians aren't too into it, though. They think it's a little too scary. They have Halloween parties and haunted corn fields here, but they don't trick or treat. Darn those healthy people!

Yesterday was fun-filled as well! Jess is off of school this week for Fall Break, so we went to the market at Peer for a morning of shopping! We went a little crazy at one booth selling beautiful scarves. (Scarves are VERY big here!) They were 3 for 10 Euro! Of course, that meant we had to get a few. We ended up with 6. I think that shows a great deal of restraint for the two of us. It could have been a lot worse! We had to stop off at Leonidas for some chocolate to restore our energy for more shopping. After picking up some dried pineapple and mango, speculoos cookies, a new purse, and some fresh vanilla waffles (shopping is hard work, so we had to refuel!!), we headed home. Jess got to relax for the rest of the afternoon, but I was off again. I had a class on how to make a Fall floral arrangement in a pumpkin. I've never done this sort of thing before, so I was a little hesitant about it, but it was a blast! I think it turned out pretty good, too. It was lots of fun getting together with the girls, sharing laughs, and making a big mess. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it all. I think it's time for more chocolate.

Walking In The Woods...

I went for a walk on this bike path the other day and happened upon this beautiful house in the woods. I just had to take Russ back with me this morning to check it out. I think you'll see why in just a minute. How is this for a country home? Nice! It's hard to see in this picture, but just on the other side of that fence is an in ground swimming pool. Farm living is tough here. I love the thatched roof, too. Belgians like to keep these little deer around. I've heard that they raise them for food, not unlike cattle in the US. I think some people just like them as pets. There is a little buck in the middle, surrounded by his ladies. That isn't the reason I wanted Russ to see this place, though. Let's look in the other field behind the house. Hmmmmm. What is that out there? Wait...could it be.....

That's right. It's the big daddy of bucks. He was huge! He kept checking us out to make sure we weren't getting too close. I wonder if I should go get Maynard. I bet he'd love to have another buck to play with...

Thursday

This morning started out pretty normal. It was raining. I'd sent the kids off to school, and the house was dark and quiet. I was upstairs in the bedroom when all of a sudden, I heard a huge crash and something skittering across the tile floor. It's hard to figure out where sounds are coming from in this house. It has an open floor plan, and the living room has a cathedral ceiling that opens up into the loft office upstairs. It also has tile and hard wood floors throughout, so any little sound is magnified and tends to echo throughout the entire house. My first thought was "CRAP! Someone's in the house! Where on earth are they?????" My second thought was "It had better not be a ghost, because although I think it would be really cool to see one, I DON'T want to see one when I'm by myself!" (OK, I don't really believe in ghosts, but when you are locked up tight in a house alone, there is no way for someone else to be in there, and you hear a huge crash, your mind does some crazy stuff in the span of about 5 seconds!) I stood in the bedroom and listened. Nothing. Quietly, I tiptoed out the bedroom door and into the hall. Still nothing. Then I peeked over the railing and down the stairway. Hmmmm. Now things aren't looking quite so good any more. I can see part of my artificial tree (don't judge, I don't have a green thumb!) that normally sits in a pot in the alcove beside the stairs. It's laying on it's side. This is a pretty big tree, so it's hard to knock over. Now I'm thinking that someone might have somehow gotten in and hid behind the tree, then knocked it over when getting back out. Ugh! OK, I can handle this. I crept over to the other side of the balcony in the hallway and peeked over. Nothing. I don't hear anything, so I slowly descend the stairs. As I reach the bottom, I see that the crash I had heard was indeed the tree falling, and the skittering sounds were from the little clay lizards that were hanging onto the side of the pot (again, don't judge). The crash had sent them flying across the tile floor. I didn't see anyone there (living or ghostly), so that's a good thing. I started to head around the corner and check out the other rooms, when I noticed something. My Fall wreath that was hanging above the alcove is on the floor behind the tree. Oooooooohhhhhh. Things start to make sense. I didn't want to mess up the plaster and brick work there, so I had used a sticky hook to hang the wreath. Apparently sticky hook+humidity=falling wreath. The wreath was hanging above the tree, and when it dropped, it hit the top back part of the tree, sending it crashing forward to the ground. It's either that or the ghost is back up in the attic, giggling with his friends and trying to figure out what to do next to scare the crazy American. I'm going with option #1. I bet you thought today's little story was going to be something educational about the canal, didn't you? What on earth were you thinking?

Chateau d'Attre

While passing near the town of Brugelette recently, we were checking out the fields of mustard and other farmland when this beauty popped up out of nowhere. The last thing we were expecting to see in this rural area was a huge mansion. Turns out, this is an 18th century castle called Chateau d'Attre. How cool is that? It was built on the foundation of a medieval fortress, and sits on a 17 hectare (a little over 42 acres) estate of beautiful woods and gardens. The castle and gardens are open to the public from 2 to 6 pm on Sundays during September and October. I doubt we'll be about to fit it in this year, but it will definitely go on my list of places to further explore in the future! If you are interested in finding out a little bit more about this beautiful chateau, then check out this link! http://www.chateauxduhainaut.be/

Weekend At Ramstein

We decided to head out to Germany again for the weekend, but this time, we were heading to Ramstein AB. Russ has been here before, but the kids and I hadn't seen it. Besides, it has the extra bonus of being the home base of some friends of ours from Alaska. Whoohoo!This also means another means another trip on the Autobahn. With the leaves starting to change into their fall colors, it was a beautiful drive. In the US, I knew a few people who drove cars like BMWs and Mercedes. Here, just about everyone has them (European and American), and I'm quite sure that the reason why is mainly the Autobahn. Ramstein AB! This is the fancy new KMCC- that's Kaiserslautern Military Community Center. This is a huge complex that was only opened about a month ago. This part is the fancy new hotel. What they don't tell you on the phone, however, is that they only rent rooms in the new building to people without crumb snatchers (kids)! When we checked in, we were directed to the old family units on the other side of base. Darn kids!Here's where we ended up. They were actually very well maintained and clean. If you are in the process of moving to Ramstein, this is where you will likely spend your first month or so. It was a nice little 2 bedroom apartment. The only real downside to the place was the bathroom. This shower/tub combo was something out of a 1950's horror flick that takes place in a mental asylum. You can practically hear the scary music playing when you take a shower. I kept looking over my shoulder for an escaped patient wielding a dagger. Fortunately, this did not occur. (Screech! Screech! Screech! Screech!) This was the big draw to this base! This is the largest BX in the entire world and it just opened last month! It was really big and impressive, and is basically just like a mall in a huge city. I had flashbacks of Dallas while we were walking around inside. There is a massive food court with all the fast food we know and love from the states, as well as lots of interesting local shops all along the main corridor. I did realize something while shopping, though. I have been spoiled by the small town atmosphere of Belgium. I'm not a big city girl any more! There were so many people and so much noise that it was really overwhelming. It's been over 4 months since I've had to deal with crowds, and I'm no longer used to it. I think I'll head back to Belgium, small town life, and peace and quiet. Suddenly Internet shopping sounds really nice. We had a fantastic German dinner with our friends Saturday night. I finally had real Wiener Schnitzel, and it was delicious. It was also huge! (Tip for eating in Germany- order one dinner and two sets of silverware! They feed you really well there.) And Dajana--I finally had a real German pretzel and it was REALLY yummy! Back on the Autobahn and heading home to lovely Belgium.

We weren't too far into our trip back home when we came upon this glorious view! Wow! Pictures just can't capture how impressive this was.

This is an area of Germany that we'll have to check out when we have more time. It was already pretty late on Sunday afternoon, so we hit the road again.

I thought this was pretty cool, too. They planted crops on the side of these steep hills. How would you like to be the one plowing on that angle? Not me!
Apparently Sunday is harvest day in Germany. We saw quite a few tractors working away in the fields.
We had a great weekend exploring yet another place in Germany. Once more thing to cross off of my list of things to see in Europe. Hmmmm, I wonder what's coming up next.

Random Friday...

I just wanted to share a few interesting things that we've seen while driving around Belgium lately. A windmill on a stormy day.

A thatched roof on a lovely old house. (Looks like something out of Hansel & Gretel, doesn't it?)

A construction worker robot, waving his arm to signal drivers to slow down. Uh.....what?????

In The Mood?

Just what do you suppose he's in the mood for? And is this a good thing or bad thing? I'm just sayin'...