Three

I can hardly believe that Timmy is three today. It seems like just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital.

Here he is right around his birthday, from birth until now...

I couldn't resist putting up the pictures that had cake on his face... The first picture is at the hospital on 2/13/2006, the second is 2/11/2007, the third is 2/13/2008, and the last one is today.

There are so many reasons why I love Timmy, but I'll just name three.

He is so cute. I love his extra-long lashes and his beautiful, green eyes.

He is so sweet. Especially with Katie. He's always playing with her and trying to make her laugh. This morning, as I was cleaning up his train, without me asking, he came and helped me pick it up.

He's constantly making me laugh. Even though I know he doesn't intend to. He has graduated from calling a sandwich "jerkins" to "swickins". Unfortunately, I keep thinking he's saying "dwinkit". So he'll ask for a sandwich and I keep asking him if he wants a drink!

I love my big three-year-old boy!

Jonathon's 13th Birthday

Jonathon's birthday began with his favorite breakfast. Waffles and sausage. He went to school and, I assume, had a pretty good day. When he got home, my mom was here waiting to take him out. They went to a couple of places, one of which was Toys "R" Us, with $20 from me burning a hole in his pocket. He was so kind to buy himself an inexpensive Lego set so that he could buy Timmy a gift, too. While he was gone, Christian helped me decorate the house with streamers for his party. I wanted Jonathon to feel special on his birthday because Michael was still on his business trip and I knew that Jonathon was disappointed that Michael wouldn't be here. Jonathon and my parents got here about 6:45 p.m. and we ate Jonathon's requested dinner. Lasagna, garlic bread, and Caesar's salad. Yum!

After dinner, Jonathon opened his gifts: another puzzle (jungle picture this time) complete with a roll-up mat, an i-Dog, and a water tennis game from Grandma and Grandpa.

Timmy also opened his gifts: a Buzz Lightyear mini-hovercraft (with wheels) from Jonathon and a WALL-E beanbag chair, Thomas the Tank Engine pajama pants, a Lightning McQueen pajama shirt (sold on clearance as a set, now we know why!) and a Shake 'N Go Lightning McQueen from Grandma and Grandpa.

After Jonathon opened his i-Dog, I plugged it into my i-Pod and all the kids gathered around to watch it.

Then we had Jonathon's favorite cake and ice cream: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream.

So even though Michael wasn't here, we still had a great time and I know it was better because Grandma and Grandpa were here!

P.S. When Michael got home on the 11th, he brought Jonathon two books since Jonathon LOVES to read. They are "Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo" and "Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret", Books 1 & 2 by Obert Skye. Michael has a knack for picking out good books...we'll see if that holds true for these!

13 and counting

In commemoration of my favorite newest teenager on the planet, let me list the top 13 things that I admire about Jonathon:

13. His cool braces (very original choice of colors)

12. His ability to recall and act out funny lines from movies (although this seems to be a trait that everyone in my family has, except for me)

11. His smile (even if he didn't have cool braces)

10. His aptitude for understanding how to build things (another trait that I struggle with!)

9. His general knowledge of animals (lots of Zoo Tycoon!)

8. His love of science

7. His knowledge of plants and trees (he's a veritable encyclopedia when you're on a hike with him)

6. The way he cares about his younger siblings

5. His patience in understanding that sometimes, things just don't go the way you want it to in life, and that's OK

4. His ability to memorize the Articles of Faith

3. His kindness

2. His humble spirit

1.5. The significance with which he places on his being an Aaronic Priesthood holder

1. His desire to live the standards of the gospel

As you can see, I had trouble keeping the list to 13, so I cheated.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONATHON!

Last Young Day

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...

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.

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!

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.