my stash!

today i was putting away the last of our items that we brought with us from the states. as you can see from the photos, these are a few of my "favorite things"from the states that i won't be able to get here in the netherlands.... well, the toilet paper, kleenex, and paper towel are not my favorite things.... i just bought those items at sam's club to get us started.

while i know this is not a 3 year supply.... it will get me through for a while :) when we return to the states, i wonder if i will have a stash of items that i bring back with me from the netherlands???

oh - i should have included peanut butter in this stash!!! the kids don't seem to mind the peanut butter taste here so far.... but i really miss my creamy jiff peanut butter.... and i'm a peanut butter and jelly kind of gal :)

new school

the boys started school last wednesday. here is a picture of them next to the sign at their school. so far they seem to like going to school and are meeting kids from so many different cultures. they go to school monday, tuesday, thursday, and friday from 9am-3pm and wednesday from 9am-1pm. each of them has 1.5 hours of dutch lessons each week at school.

introducing.... mister!

this statue is in front of our driveway as we approach our house..... i did not put him here, but i do remember seeing this man here when we came to look at the house last november... as we have walked around the property grounds this spring, we have noticed several different kinds of statues all around (stay tuned for more pictures!)

i was outside with the kids the other day and decided to have the kids come up with a name for this guy....i know it sounds a little crazy... but i needed a little excitement around here!

the boys came up with "mister" for his name.... mister?, i said.... how original!

so, meet "mister".

clean up on aisle 1

well, it seems that lately my blog entries are about poop and puke. i guess just part of the reality that my job is being a mom!

helen has been fighting a tummy bug for about 4 days now. yesterday i thought she was turning the corner - she was able to keep crackers, popsicles, and water down and slept great last night. this morning she had a little bit of oatmeal, a popsicle, and some water. so after dropping off the boys at school - i decided to run to the grocery store to stock up for the weekend. i took the stroller and helen rode on the board that i have attached to the stroller while i put groceries in the bag of the stroller. i had about 3 things in the stroller bag when all of a sudden helen had this funny look on her face..... i said "do you have to get sick?" while i'm asking this question, i'm fumbling at the back of the stroller to try and grab a bag just in case she was going to get sick. TOO LATE!! out it came! i thought to myself - now what am i going to do? i don't know how to ask for help in dutch....thankfully a nice lady came up to me and offered to get some help from a store clerk. helen, jillian, and i waited for what seemed like forever for someone to come over to help us.... of course we were right in the middle of the aisle.... in everyone's way....i didn' want to move out of the way.... at least the stroller was covering up the "mess". i had several people begin to speak to me in dutch... thankfully i have figured out the phrase for "do you speak english?" i met a gentleman who knew some people from wisconsin that had lived here 10 years ago..... and a lady who tried to entertain helen with a picture of 2 dogs on her shopping bag.

so this young man came over with one of those industrial size floor cleaners and as he assessed the situation he said "one moment" and walks away. he comes back in a few minutes with a pair of rubber gloves, bucket of cleaning solution, and LOTS of towels! i felt so sorry for him.

now i have a dilemma - i needed so many things from the store.... but i didn't want her to get sick again.... so i kept the fruit that didn't get "soiled" and ran by the bread section to get some bread for my lunch..... oh and some laundry soap because i've been doing helen's laundry for the last 4 days and i was out of laundry soap!

now we're off to the doctor this afternoon! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

beep - please leave a message at the tone

while i don't really consider myself a super religious person, i was raised lutheran and our family attends (well, not while we're in NL) a presbyterian church... i heard a sermon about 4 months ago about being called by God.. the pastor went on to say that you might get this calling at what you might think is 'not the right time' or 'not the calling that you were looking for'. during the sermon, i couldn't help but think that my calling was our move to the netherlands.

last night was one of those times, i wish i could have just said "beep - please leave a message after the tone, God - no one is home".

helen seems to have caught a flu bug and had been getting sick for the last 24 hours....last night (warning - too much information ahead!) she woke up at about 1:30am pretty much dry heaving,,,,, she proceeded to do this about every 30-45 minutes until about 6am. all this in between jillian's two feedings. i can remember saying to myself at 1 point "why me?.... what else?" "beep - no one is home, God"

the boys started school today, helen was sick, and i'm tired! ross got the boys ready and i headed off to school...... just a few miles away.....oh and we finally have a car big enough for the 4 kids now.....AND don't worry ...i have my tomtom!!!!! so off we go! ross had taken me on a practice run to the school on the day after easter (holiday here that day) so i could figure out where to park..... well, that's easier said than done... where am i gonna park this SUV-type car now - ahhhhh and i don't have my stoller 'cause the car trunk is too small to fit my stroller......and don't forget - helen is sick. so we drive around a bit (i think graham was worried he would be late for school) - i found a parking spot and walked the boys to school.... carrying jillian's carseat in one hand and helen on my other hip. (barf bag in hand!)

the boys found their classrooms and settled in - no problem. helen, jillian, and i headed home. i called to get helen an appointment with the chiropractor to get adjusted..hoping this would help her fever and tummy. the chiropracter was very nice and it turns out helen's neck and lower back were out of alignment. helen kept asking for water at the chiropractor... i was afraid to give her any fluids today since she could not keep anything down last night. she kept going over to the coffee/tea station and saying "water, mommy". after the appoinment we went back to pick up the boys from school (early release on wednesdays!) and headed home. helen drank a little bit of water and had some ice chips. ross had already made an appointment with our family doctor (assigned to us through socalized medicine) for later in the afternoon. turns out helen was a bit dehydrated.

even though i would have liked to "turn on the answering machine last night and today" - God helped me through the day..... jillian slept in her carseat while i dropped the boys off at school and also took another nap this afternoon..... so far helen has been able to keep her small amounts of fluid down......ross was able to help me with helen last night.

sorry ross, but i love tom

ross rented me a car last wednesday so that we could go on thursday morning to register with the town of hilversum. what i'm about to tell you is probably one of the scariest moments in my life... well at least it's one of the top few :) i sat in the driver's seat and turned on the car..... well, i forgot that in a standard car - you must put your foot on the brake and the clutch! yikes! i coasted a couple feet! then took about 15 deep breaths.... and said a few prayers.... it has been a while since i've driven a standard car. now i just had to drive a few blocks to the parking garage where i was going to meet ross and the kids to go shopping for food. well, what ross and i didn't realize was due to 1-way roads, i would not be able to get to the parking garage (also, keep in mind this is the first time i've been into the city of hilversum and the first day i've been out since arriving in the netherlands).

so here i go.... off on a 1-way road ....passing the parking garage and i have no idea where i am or how i'm going to get back to the parking garage where i was supposed to meet ross and the 4 kids! i don't speak dutch to ask for directions back to a parking garage (that i don't even know the name of!)......and i don't have a cell phone yet

thankfully i remembered that ross had a tomtom in his backpack which was in the back seat and i remembered the name of the rental car facility! approximately 30 minutes later.....maybe longer.... i found the parking garage!! i won't lie...... i shed a few tears while i was lost

and now i have a cell phone!!!

happy easter!

it's jillian's first easter and i don't even have a picture of her today! oops! she's such a good baby that she pretty much eats and sleeps - so she misses out on the chaos of the other kids :)

the easter bunny visited our home in the netherlands - brought some starbucks cups for the kids and hid some eggs around the house. the kids enjoyed hunting for eggs, coloring a few eggs, and even had an egg relay race! we finished the day with a lasagna dinner!