While watching the show with my babe tonight, I was excited to here that they would be singing songs from Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame inductees. There was hope. I told sara,”Maybe they will sing Motorhead”. Right out of the gate I was surprised and confused to here Eric Cartman sing a Duran-Duran song. It continued all the way through the first round, and I will say this… they should have sung Motorhead.

This of course prompted me to look up an old friend that was banned in Belgium. Pandora.Com. I logged in with my old username and immediately created a Motorhead Channel. Glory!! My triumph over socialism is complete!

Here are some pictures of the house. Aside from the first picture, these are pictures the owner took last spring when everything was in bloom.

The kitchen is a good size with plenty of storage space. If you look at the part of the wall sticking out in the bottom-right-hand corner, I would like to replace that part of the top and make it stick out further and throw a couple of stools under there. The counter tops are silestone and the fridge and the dishwasher are brand new. The stove is gas which I like.

Here is a shot of the living room. You can tell by the last few pictures how the living room, kitchen, and dining room all flow together. That is one thing I really liked about our house in Savannah. It was nice to be in the kitchen and be able to see and talk to everyone in the living room.

This is a shot of the dining room and one thing I liked the most about this house is the elevated ceilings and windows at the top. Most of the houses in our price range are much older (this is almost 50 years old) and have low ceilings so this makes everything feel more open.The room is a decent size as well with the sliding glass doors opening into the back yard.

Right outside of the dining room is the patio. It’s just a concrete slab which we will probably want to change eventually. Maybe we will build a deck or refinish the patio. It’s a nice landscaped area though and there are plenty of trees for shade. We’ll have to be on our lookout for patio furniture. Now won’t be the best time to buy because it will all be full price, but it would be nice to see be able to hangout in our backyard in the spring and summer!

The backyard is very mature and nicely landscaped. There is a level section of grass and beyond that is natural landscaping with some rock pathways to walk around. There are large trees and plenty of azaleas which will be really nice come spring. It should be a good yard for both the kids and the dogs.

Overall the house will be good for us; it has really good bones and is move-in ready. It is 3 bedrooms with 2.5 baths. There is a large portion of the basement which is finished. Right now it is all one large room but I would like to partition it so there is an office and a separate family room. The floors are all hard wood except for the basement which is tile. There is another part of the basement which isn’t finished but could be and turned into a guest room ideally. I’ll update everyone when we close on the house. Everything is moving on time so far so hopefully it will continue to do so. Hope you are all well!

Email used to be the best way to reach us, but now we got SO much email that throughout the day when I get personal email, I set it to the side to respond to at a later time and well, you’ve all seen how that goes…out of sight, out of mind. So this is something I really will make an effort at improving. I am going to get these damn xmas cards out this week if it kills me! So, i would like to apologize to all of you for being a crappy daughter, sister, niece, granddaughter, DIL, SIL, aunt, and friend. I love you all and maybe this year I will be bugging you so much you tell me to leave you alone.

Anyway, happy 2008 to everyone. I hope you have a great one!

After we found out we will be moving back to the states, I immediately started looking for jobs in the area. The cost of living in DC is incredible and in order for us to afford a house, etc., I will need to work out of the home. It will definitely be an adjustment as I’ve been able to be home for the last 3.5 years, but you do what you’ve got to do! In some ways, I am looking forward to it!

So, what’s the plan for us? Well, Drew wants me to be the “advance party” which is fine with me. That means that by the end of February, I will be moving out there for sure to start visiting schools and figuring out the best place for us to live. The ideal situation, however, is that I will be able to secure a job BEFORE our move and will move out as determined by the employer. This will at least pay for a hotel (or furnished apartment) and rental car that I will need before the rest of the family arrives. The whole family will be out no later than the end of April.

I’ll try to keep everyone updated from here! I’ll leave you with a picture of the snow we had last week. It was really pretty!

Belgium has been really great for our family and we have done some amazing things here, but we are anxious to get back home! Just wanted to let you all know!

We visited the southwest corner of the country, specifically, Counties Clare, Kerry, and Cork. Our first stop was to the Cliffs of Moher. It was very foggy and rainy but that didn’t dampen the spirit or our moods at all. The Cliffs are really beautiful and the boys loved it and didn’t want to leave. We got to hike around a bit and in general it was a great time.
(more…)

Most of you know that the great Drew’s birthday is coming up (wow he is getting old) and he wanted to take some time off and maybe go somewhere. So I started doing research (I always do my research) and looking for the best deals for places we would like to go (the dollar sucks right now). We narrowed it down to 5 places to include cities in Italy, Portugal, and Ireland.

He has been to Italy before; heck he went to high school in Italy. He wants to have us experience it with him, but it’s not a priority. So that narrowed it down to Portugal and Ireland. Both are places I really want to go to but Drew was looking for a country feel (he’s been researching buying a farm in the states - more on that later) so Ireland it was.

I’m SO looking forward to it.

Bon Voyage!

Halloween in Belgium is different than in the states. It seems kids go around on different nights (which I think is dictated by the school or neighborhood they live in) and they dress as scary things like witches, ghosts, goblins, etc. You won’t find a buzz lightyear in the bunch! Traditionally large groups of kids go together from house to house and they will stand in front of your house yelling Dah-may Bon Bons (yes I’m taking french and don’t know how to spell the first word so I spelled it out phonetically. The French is going well obviously :D). The kids scream it until people throw candy on the ground from their window or doors (think of a pinata breaking). This is our 2nd halloween in belgium and we haven’t had anyone come yelling and haven’t seen any kids dressed up around town either.

There is a small population of Americans in the area though, so leave it to them to do Halloween like only an American can! On Friday night, the boys donned their costumes of choice and off we went to Trunk or Treat!

This was really awesome! I’d say there were about 30-40 “trunks” that participated! Most of the participants dressed up and really got into the spirit. There were probably a couple hundred children that walked through with their parents to get candy. The kids loved it and as parents it was just so nice to see the kids experience it. This is something that only Americans could have done (there seemed to be plenty of British and Canadian kids enjoying it as well though)!

Ian still loves the super heroes and I think always will.

And below is master Brum

How was everyone else’s Halloween

Belgium has a lot of history and because of its geographic location, has played a part in so much European and World history. Since we’ve been in Belgium, we have done some pretty great things, been to some amazing cities and countries, but we often overlook what is right here, within a short drive.

Last week we were watching some special on the Battle of Waterloo. I had actually told Drew the week before that I wanted to head out there this past weekend so it was perfect timing that it was on. Before watching this special, all I knew was that Waterloo was where Napoleon was defeated. It was great learning about everything that led up to the battle and even the battle itself was so interesting.

This past weekend we drove 30 minutes out there (yes it’s that close) to see the area. It was pretty humbling standing there knowing that you were standing on the same ground that such an important battle was won on; one that surely changed the course of world events.

In one picture below is a statue that was built of a lion with his paw on the globe, “defending world peace”. The other is a view onto the town. You can’t really see much here, but this is pretty much an accurate picture of the weather in Belgium during the cold months.

Mommy, I don’t really believe that reindeer can fly

Ian said this as we were watching “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (incredible movie). Hearing this come from a 6-year old made me sad. I think I was 7-8 when I found out Santa Claus wasn’t real. My family was getting ready to drive down to Florida for the holidays from Charleston, SC. The station wagon was loaded with the gifts and my sister and I looked at the name tags. “To Jen, From Santa” and “To Sara, From Santa”.

I’m not ready for him to not believe in Santa, but there is only so much you can do. When did you find out by Santa if you ever believed at all? Anyone still believe??