I thought I would take a moment and enjoy my last day that I feel young.
Even though I have gray hairs that I've given up pulling.
Even though I have six kids.
Even though my body tells me that I'm getting old.
Even though I'm only 34 and tomorrow is not my birthday, I will feel older.
That's because tomorrow, I will be the mother of a teenager.
I know feeling older and the gray hairs are going to accelerate from tomorrow on...
Monday, February 9, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Taking the Scenic Route
Well, some nut decided it would be OK to let me rent a 5-speed Peugeot for the weekend. I don't speak/read/write/understand any Dutch and I've probably broken about 72 traffic laws since Friday night, but miraculously I (and all of those around me) am still alive.
Even though I've been in Boxmeer for about a week, it took me over an hour and over 20 kilometers to drive the 2 kilometer walk between my hotel and the office. That's because I can walk, more or less, "as the crow flies", a couple of the paths (especially cutting through the train station and over the railroad tracks) are not accessible by car. Driving has certainly been a much different experience than walking. And since I'm not the most expert driver of vehicles with manual transmissions, and have been out of practice for a while, my leg muscles are a bit achy.
And I will never complain again about the layout of NJ roads (well, at least not for a little while). All of you folks from the west that think that the roads in NJ must have been planned by elementary school children, try driving in this part of the Netherlands. You'll be amazed at the simplicity and utter genius of NJ roadway design.
It's a good thing that the company is paying for all the gas I'm burning through.
Even though I've been in Boxmeer for about a week, it took me over an hour and over 20 kilometers to drive the 2 kilometer walk between my hotel and the office. That's because I can walk, more or less, "as the crow flies", a couple of the paths (especially cutting through the train station and over the railroad tracks) are not accessible by car. Driving has certainly been a much different experience than walking. And since I'm not the most expert driver of vehicles with manual transmissions, and have been out of practice for a while, my leg muscles are a bit achy.
And I will never complain again about the layout of NJ roads (well, at least not for a little while). All of you folks from the west that think that the roads in NJ must have been planned by elementary school children, try driving in this part of the Netherlands. You'll be amazed at the simplicity and utter genius of NJ roadway design.
It's a good thing that the company is paying for all the gas I'm burning through.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Birthday Party Times Three
Yesterday, all of us (except Michael, of course) went to my mom's house to celebrate Ashleigh's, Jonathon's, and Timmy's birthdays. They are on the 7th, 10th, and 11th of this month, respectively. Thanks to Michael's brother, Scott, we had ready-made frozen pizza crusts to make the dinner-part easy. After the kids had their pizza, we played some games, one of which was Musical Chairs. The kids each got three prizes total.
Then the birthday kids got to open gifts. Ashleigh got a S'Mores maker and a new Himalayan cat Webkinz. Jonathon got a Venus Flytrap and a puzzle with a mat to roll it up. Timmy got a WALL-E lamp and a GeoTrax Firetruck with a remote. By then, it was 10:00 p.m., so I took Timmy and Katie home to go to sleep. They slept in my king-size bed since there was plenty of room. The rest of the kids - Jonathon, Christian, Nathaniel, Eliza, Ashleigh, and Matthew watched a movie and spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They love spending the night at my mom's, but it was so much better that they got to see their cousins, too. Eliza and Ashleigh always give each other a huge hug and nearly knock each other over in their exuberance!
The dress that Ashleigh is wearing I bought for Eliza for Easter last year. She wore it for Easter and hasn't worn it since. She keeps telling me that it's an EASTER dress, so she can't wear it again. In fact, I tried to talk her into it and told her to wear it one more time and she wouldn't have to wear it again. She got almost tearful, so I let it go. I asked her if she wanted to give the dress to Ashleigh or save it for Katie. I guess she knew that Ashleigh would use it right away and that she really likes it. Ashleigh loves to dress up whenever she comes to our house and she definitely liked this dress! I thought her birthday was a perfect time to give it to her, so we brought it with us. Eliza was pretty excited to give it to her. We hadn't even gotten in the house before she told her about it! Ashleigh went and put it on after we had pizza. Doesn't she look like a princess with the dress, tiara, and especially the sign that Nathaniel made for her? The older boys kept calling Ashleigh "Princess" all night...I hope she realizes that she is, but that it doesn't go to her head too much!
Then the birthday kids got to open gifts. Ashleigh got a S'Mores maker and a new Himalayan cat Webkinz. Jonathon got a Venus Flytrap and a puzzle with a mat to roll it up. Timmy got a WALL-E lamp and a GeoTrax Firetruck with a remote. By then, it was 10:00 p.m., so I took Timmy and Katie home to go to sleep. They slept in my king-size bed since there was plenty of room. The rest of the kids - Jonathon, Christian, Nathaniel, Eliza, Ashleigh, and Matthew watched a movie and spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They love spending the night at my mom's, but it was so much better that they got to see their cousins, too. Eliza and Ashleigh always give each other a huge hug and nearly knock each other over in their exuberance!
The dress that Ashleigh is wearing I bought for Eliza for Easter last year. She wore it for Easter and hasn't worn it since. She keeps telling me that it's an EASTER dress, so she can't wear it again. In fact, I tried to talk her into it and told her to wear it one more time and she wouldn't have to wear it again. She got almost tearful, so I let it go. I asked her if she wanted to give the dress to Ashleigh or save it for Katie. I guess she knew that Ashleigh would use it right away and that she really likes it. Ashleigh loves to dress up whenever she comes to our house and she definitely liked this dress! I thought her birthday was a perfect time to give it to her, so we brought it with us. Eliza was pretty excited to give it to her. We hadn't even gotten in the house before she told her about it! Ashleigh went and put it on after we had pizza. Doesn't she look like a princess with the dress, tiara, and especially the sign that Nathaniel made for her? The older boys kept calling Ashleigh "Princess" all night...I hope she realizes that she is, but that it doesn't go to her head too much!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Bloggin' from Boxmeer
Well, since I'm spending the weekend in a cozy, quaint town in the western part of Europe, I figured I'd tell you all about it so that you can be jealous. The name of the town is Boxmeer.
Vital statistics:
Country: the Netherlands (not Holland, Holland is technically 2 regions in the western part of the Netherlands. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague are all part of Holland.)
Language spoken: Dutch (though luckily for me, many people speak English)
Closest neighboring country: Germany, about 5 minutes to the east. I'm told there's no speed limit in Germany. I won't be driving there any time soon.
Population of Boxmeer: about 20,000
Number of bicycles in Boxmeer: about 120,000. Seriously, every kid and their parents have and use their bikes all the time. And all the bikes look the same, not like the mountain-type bikes that we use in my neighborhood. These are the ones with the roundish handlebars and the little fenders over each of the tires. And they would all probably be classified as women's bikes in the U.S., because the don't have the cross bar. You should see the schools and even the office parking lots at my company, there are bikes parked as far as the eye can see. I'll try to get a picture for a later post. I can' tell them apart either, if I ever parked one amongst the masses, I'd probably come home with someone else's bike every day.
I'm fairly certain, by the way, that the reason most people I've met look fit and healthy is because of their bikes. They don't just sit in the garage, gathering dust, like mine does.
Why I'm in Boxmeer: Conducting some meetings for the senior management of the division of my company that I support, the Animal Health division, which is headquartered here in Boxmeer.
Why is the Animal Health division headquartered in Boxmeer: Well, the founders of this division were Dutch and Boxmeer happens to be very close to some cattle farms. In fact, there are some right in town. It was decided to put the animal health business right next to their customers (a long time ago). We make medicines and vaccines to keep cows, pigs, chickens and fish nice and healthy so that they can be sent to the slaughterhouse disease-free so that people that eat the meat don't get sick (we also manufacture medicines for dogs, cats and horses, but of course nobody sends those animals to the slaughterhouse. At least I hope not).
Anyway, my very observant son Christian pointed out the irony of the animal health business to me a few months ago:
Christian: Dad, what do you do at work?
Me: I'm a Compensation & Benefits Director for the Animal Health division of my company.
Christian: What do you mean by Animal Health?
Me: Well, in addition to keeping dogs and cats healthy, we make medicines that keep cows, pigs and chickens healthy.
Christian: What do they do with the cows, pigs and chickens? Are they somebody's pets?
Me: Well, they may be, but they ultimately become the chicken and steak and pork and bacon and ham that we buy in the store.
Christian: Wait a minute, so you keep those animals alive and healthy so that somebody can then kill them?
Me: (after pausing for a moment) Well, since you put it that way, yeah, that's exactly what we do.
Christian: (after giving me a slightly quizzical look) Oh. Weird.
Leave it to an 11-year old to categorize a fairly complex $3 billion dollar a year business as "weird". Yet he makes a a great point.
Amount of hours I work a day while I'm in Boxmeer: Boxmeer is 6 hours ahead of eastern standard time. I get to the office at 8:30 AM and work a full day, until about 6 PM. Yet, around 2 PM, all of the people that I know in NJ are starting to get to work, because it's about 8 AM there. NJ people need things from me, particularly my boss, so I work until they go home, which is about 6 PM there, which makes it about 12 AM in Boxmeer. Then I go to sleep, get up about 6:30 AM and start all over again. Glamorous, eh?
Most exciting thing to do in Boxmeer: Drink a lot and scream in the street (at least that what somebody's doing outside my window right now).
Most exciting thing to do in Boxmeer if you're LDS and on a business trip: Blog.
I'm here through the weekend, back in NJ on Wed, Feb. 11, so feel free to come back and visit me. I don't have much else to do on Saturday besides blog and sleep.
Doei! Vaarwel! Adieu! (all means goodbye in Dutch)
And don't let the time of the post fool you. It's after 1 AM in Boxmeer right now.
Vital statistics:
Country: the Netherlands (not Holland, Holland is technically 2 regions in the western part of the Netherlands. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague are all part of Holland.)
Language spoken: Dutch (though luckily for me, many people speak English)
Closest neighboring country: Germany, about 5 minutes to the east. I'm told there's no speed limit in Germany. I won't be driving there any time soon.
Population of Boxmeer: about 20,000
Number of bicycles in Boxmeer: about 120,000. Seriously, every kid and their parents have and use their bikes all the time. And all the bikes look the same, not like the mountain-type bikes that we use in my neighborhood. These are the ones with the roundish handlebars and the little fenders over each of the tires. And they would all probably be classified as women's bikes in the U.S., because the don't have the cross bar. You should see the schools and even the office parking lots at my company, there are bikes parked as far as the eye can see. I'll try to get a picture for a later post. I can' tell them apart either, if I ever parked one amongst the masses, I'd probably come home with someone else's bike every day.
I'm fairly certain, by the way, that the reason most people I've met look fit and healthy is because of their bikes. They don't just sit in the garage, gathering dust, like mine does.
Why I'm in Boxmeer: Conducting some meetings for the senior management of the division of my company that I support, the Animal Health division, which is headquartered here in Boxmeer.
Why is the Animal Health division headquartered in Boxmeer: Well, the founders of this division were Dutch and Boxmeer happens to be very close to some cattle farms. In fact, there are some right in town. It was decided to put the animal health business right next to their customers (a long time ago). We make medicines and vaccines to keep cows, pigs, chickens and fish nice and healthy so that they can be sent to the slaughterhouse disease-free so that people that eat the meat don't get sick (we also manufacture medicines for dogs, cats and horses, but of course nobody sends those animals to the slaughterhouse. At least I hope not).
Anyway, my very observant son Christian pointed out the irony of the animal health business to me a few months ago:
Christian: Dad, what do you do at work?
Me: I'm a Compensation & Benefits Director for the Animal Health division of my company.
Christian: What do you mean by Animal Health?
Me: Well, in addition to keeping dogs and cats healthy, we make medicines that keep cows, pigs and chickens healthy.
Christian: What do they do with the cows, pigs and chickens? Are they somebody's pets?
Me: Well, they may be, but they ultimately become the chicken and steak and pork and bacon and ham that we buy in the store.
Christian: Wait a minute, so you keep those animals alive and healthy so that somebody can then kill them?
Me: (after pausing for a moment) Well, since you put it that way, yeah, that's exactly what we do.
Christian: (after giving me a slightly quizzical look) Oh. Weird.
Leave it to an 11-year old to categorize a fairly complex $3 billion dollar a year business as "weird". Yet he makes a a great point.
Amount of hours I work a day while I'm in Boxmeer: Boxmeer is 6 hours ahead of eastern standard time. I get to the office at 8:30 AM and work a full day, until about 6 PM. Yet, around 2 PM, all of the people that I know in NJ are starting to get to work, because it's about 8 AM there. NJ people need things from me, particularly my boss, so I work until they go home, which is about 6 PM there, which makes it about 12 AM in Boxmeer. Then I go to sleep, get up about 6:30 AM and start all over again. Glamorous, eh?
Most exciting thing to do in Boxmeer: Drink a lot and scream in the street (at least that what somebody's doing outside my window right now).
Most exciting thing to do in Boxmeer if you're LDS and on a business trip: Blog.
I'm here through the weekend, back in NJ on Wed, Feb. 11, so feel free to come back and visit me. I don't have much else to do on Saturday besides blog and sleep.
Doei! Vaarwel! Adieu! (all means goodbye in Dutch)
And don't let the time of the post fool you. It's after 1 AM in Boxmeer right now.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Here We Go Again!
This is the fourth time in the past 3 months that Timmy has gotten a little cough that has gone into his lungs. My poor little guy!There are things to be grateful for, though:
- Healthy lungs (most of the time)
- Doctors
- Modern medicine
- Owning a nebulizer
- The insurance paid for it
- Albuterol refills for a year
- TV, so that an almost 3-year-old will sit still
- And mostly for a special, sweet boy like Timmy
Friday, January 16, 2009
Say Cheese!
Katie is growing up so fast! Last night I found TWO teeth on her bottom gums! They look like they just broke through because they are still hard to see.
I had to take quite a few pictures because she stopped smiling after the first two pictures (do you blame her? every time she did, this flash of light practically blinded her!).
Then she kept sticking her tongue out every time I tried to get her lip out of the way! My cute, adorable girl!
I finally got this one, although it's still kind of hard to see her teeth, especially since my finger is covering one of them.
I had to take quite a few pictures because she stopped smiling after the first two pictures (do you blame her? every time she did, this flash of light practically blinded her!).
Then she kept sticking her tongue out every time I tried to get her lip out of the way! My cute, adorable girl!
I finally got this one, although it's still kind of hard to see her teeth, especially since my finger is covering one of them.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Little Miss Laughs-a-lot
Christian was throwing an orange segment into the air and catching it in his mouth while making a funny sound. Katie thought it was hilarious!
Katie's Belly Laugh from Amanda Maldonado on Vimeo.
Katie's Belly Laugh from Amanda Maldonado on Vimeo.
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