Well this is bittersweet for me. We have been waiting for our house to sell for a long time now and while I can’t wait to give up that extra house payment, I will really miss our house. We’ve moved around so many times and this was the first place that I have really called home. I know it was more than the house; it was the friends I made and the area itself. But I loved this house and it was perfect for our family. I am kind of sad that chapter in my life is coming to a close completely.

The house is set to close on March 2. They received the Powers of Attorney finally so everything should be in order. I’ll update you on what happens.

Posted in Leaving Savannah | 1 Comment »

Why?

That’s all I want to know. Why do I have to watch dancy, prancy French looking things during the pre-game show of the Superbowl? Why? I get enough of that crap where I am, so I why must I suffer through it on US TV. Am I being tested? Have I sinned? I don’t know and after the artsy opening I just watched, I don’t care.

If this game sucks it will not be because of bad players or bad refs… it will be because everyone is so creeped out by some dips attempt to make art out of a base and violent thing like a football game. Where do they find people to make this crap. Is there beauty in this stuff? Yes. There is beauty in all things, but why do they have to make it weird and creepy? Crap!

Double crap!! It’s Midnight here and this had better not be crap. That’s all I’ve got to say. I hope it goes better, cause I can’t take anymore football player glamour shots or weird sequences about growing up and doing ballet AND football.

Billy Joel’s voice cracked!! Then he got artsy. This is going to go on all night. WTF!! Some deaf chick was signing, waving her arms everywhere!! I didn’t know Florida was the new Seattle. The thing that really sucks is I’m watching on the armed forces network, so I don’t even get to watch the commercials, just public service announcements about really strange things like how to own a pet. Really. How to own a pet. Yup.

Posted in Belgium | 2 Comments »

That’s right, we got an offer on the house. Thank God. We have had an offer before but everything fell through. The house has been on the market for about 9 months now so it is about time that something happened. We are pretty tired of paying two house payments!

If everything goes well, we will close on March 2nd. Yay.

Posted in Leaving Savannah, Moving | 4 Comments »

Sorry I have sucked lately, been extremely busy…which is a GOOD thing!

I have tons of photos to upload but let me leave these to wet your appetite.

I found this absolutely fascinating. In case you are craving bread in the middle of the night and it happens you run out, you’re in luck. We don’t have 24 hour grocery stores here, but thats ok! We don’t need them. We have the bread vending machine!

Posted in Belgium | 4 Comments »

Whenever they have these sales i will stock up on candles as they are always great gifts to bring to people’s houses, etc. They are having a Buy 1 get 1 free sale right now!

Posted in Deals | No Comments »

We just wanted to wish EVERYONE a very merry christmas! I hope Santa treated you all well this year! I would like to thank you all for your cards, gifts, and phone calls. It is definitely different being away from the states but you are all in our thoughts!

We had a pretty good day yesterday although after drinking in the middle of the afternoon, a few hours later I remembered exactly why I don’t like champagne. Today will just be spent together; a sharp contrast to last year. Drew will work this week, but next week we will taking a trip to Prague which is going to be awesome! I will take tons of pictures!

I hope you have a wonderful day and end the new year right! We miss and love you!

Posted in Family life | 1 Comment »

It seems like the last month has been non-stop. Our weeks have been very busy and on the weekends we are trying to just chill out but there is so much to do. We haven’t really done anything cool to tell you about.

I finally found a hairdresser thanks to a friends recommendation. So, I got my hair cut and highlighted and I couldn’t be happier about it. We will try to take some family pictures soon.

We put up a christmas tree last weekend and this weekend I baked some. This week I am going to be brave and take some cookies over to my neighbors. I have yet to meet them and I’ve decided that armed with goodwill cookies, I will go with me my two words of french and a well-crafted note to introduce myself. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes

Oh… and those Xmas cards i was preparing a couple of weeks ago.. yeah.. they are still on my desk. So, it looks like you will get them after christmas. Better late than never I suppose.

Posted in Family life, Belgium | 1 Comment »

The days are getting colder, wetter, and much shorter here. The sun usually rises by 8 am and sets by 5 pm. But with winter upon us…that means it’s CHRISTMAS TIME!

Our Christmas won’t be very extravagant, but it will be nice. Last year, Drew was in Iraq and the year before, it was less than a month before he got sent over. So, this year will be sweet and we are all very grateful to be together.

We’re going to pull out all of the decorations soon and get a tree probably next week.

Autumn here was really beautiful, but I’m looking forward to winter. Here is a pic i took out of the sunroof when i was driving home one day.

Posted in Belgium | 2 Comments »

I suppose this living in Europe thing has it’s perks as it seems I am getting cultured. During some of our Grown-Up Time we’ve managed to get out and sample some of the local foods and local shops.

We recently went to a production of Oliver! (which was great) a little while ago we went to a museum in Lille, France, called the “Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.” I’m not much of an art museum person, so i knew I wouldn’t be able to spend all day there; Drew appreciates that kind of thing more than me. But we spent about 90 minutes there and for me, it was perfect. We got to see some works by Raphaël, Donatello, Van Dyck, Goya, Rubens, and Picasso (just to do a little name-dropping there). Alot of the paintings were pretty neat, although I think I was most impressed with the building itself.

This sketch by Picasso was my favorite.

Posted in Travel, Belgium | No Comments »

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! Our Thanksgiving was as typical as it can be for living in a country that doesn’t celebrate it!

Our day started by getting up early as usual and taking Ian to school. No, he doesn’t get the day off. Drew took him and I cleaned the kitchen from the night before (we baked coffee cake and pumpkin cheesecake ahead of time). It is a real pain in the ass to cook over here b/c our dishwasher does not work and our sink is tiny and we run out of hot water pretty easily; so it seems we wash dishes all day long as the hot water returns.

Anyway, after the dishes I started getting ready for the day. I decided to make an apple pie so I peeled apples and had enough to make two.. so two i made

The next thing I need to make was rolls. They don’t have rolls here like we do in the states and a baguette of french bread really isn’t the same. I have never made rolls before so I knew it was going to be an experience; but what the hell. So, I got my yeast and made my dough; i thought i was pretty cool kneading my dough (just call me Sara Crocker). I made my balls and set them down to rise. An hour later I go to check on them and they haven’t risen. Not one bit. sigh.. I decide to cook them anyway. They rise to about the width of a golf ball and about half the height. They look really cute :). Luckily they taste fantastic, so I guess in this case, size doesn’t matter.

We deep fry our turkey and it turns out perfect. There is no way the turkey could fit in our oven. It is tiny! But we had a good day and just hung out together.

I hope everyone else’s day was good. I’ll be sending out Christmas cards on Monday so hopefully everyone gets them in time.

Posted in Family life, Belgium | 3 Comments »