Awesome Summer!

We have had such a great summer this year.
Three whole weeks visiting the homeland. The vacation met all of our expectations. We did so many fun things, met up with so many people, ate so much food...could not have asked for more..well, maybe even more days but when do we ever have enough vacation days. The kids had an amazing time. I actually did not see them much this trip? They were always surrounded by cousins and friends, having a blast. It was a sure shock back to reality when we got back, resuming their routine activities and playing with 1 cousin :-) School does not start until next week for them, so they had a fun time still going to dance camp for a week and this week they are at horseback riding camp which they love. Like I said, this summer has been amazing for them, not one minute of dead time.

We know that there are many people we did not get a chance to see on this trip, and we really missed you guys. Hopefully next time we will meet up. It is hard to see everybody, which is why we usually have a party so everybody can come to us, so next time we come you can be sure we will have a party again, so save the date next summer. Three weeks seems like a long time, but it goes by fast because we try to combine extended family time, immediate family lounge time, friends’ time, taking care of business stuff time, shopping time, kid’s entertainment time, and just Will and I time all in one vacation!
Well, we had a blast, and the kids did great traveling! We always have airline personnel tell us how wonderful they are and so well behaved. I just do not see the need to mention that it is not always like that at home. Lets keep them thinking we have the perfect family and they messed up somewhere at their home :-)
I think I have told you guys before that Will and I can never go on vacation without the not so usual travel drama, so I will just let you know our travel adventure from Belgium to Tracy, and we will leave it at that:

7AM all our bags are packed by the door (plus an empty suitcase we always take to store all our overseas purchases:-), we are ready to leave to the train station which is about a few blocks away from our house, so we all walked. I am standing in line for tickets and the train leaves in about 13 minutes. Suddenly we realize the empty suitcase did not make it. I will omit whose fault this was in this story since this is a matter of opinion:-)
Will decided to make a run for it to get the bag at home while I purchase the tickets. He looks to see which platform to go to and it is platform 8. Chloe is standing outside so she can she Will run and while I buy the tickets the ticket person tells me the platform has changed from platform 8 to platform 1. I yell out at Chloe to flag Willie down when he comes so I can tell him about the platform change. Now, we have about 5 minutes left until the train leaves (and let me inform you, this is NOT Amtrak, when they say in Europe that the train leaves at 3 minutes after the hour it leaves at 3 minutes after the hour).
I ask Chloe if she sees him and she says Yes, he is coming. Chloe comes walking in and tells me Will did not see her and ran down to the platforms!!! To give you a visual of my position: Crowded train station, two kids, three huge suitcases, three back packs. I have to run down to platform 8 but can not leave all the stuff behind and the kids can not stay by themselves in this busy place.
PANIC in my head. Luckily I see a person I know (barely, we had not seen each other since high school). I asked her to please watch the stuff and the kids for me and I bolted to platform 8...just to see the doors close and Willie riding off into the sunset!!!!

NOW WHAT?? I have the entire luggage, the kids, and all the tickets. Will has no ticket, no phone, does not speak the language and had an EMPTY suitcase! If this is not a red flag for terrorism then what is.
I decided to get on my train which was leaving in 1 minute because I did not want to miss our flight, and I would figure out what to do later. My "friend" helped me get all me stuff on the train and I went looking for the conductor. After explaining the whole story he called the train station to get the cell number of the conductor on Will's train. They had already found him and luckily this train was going in the same direction and we reconnected at one of the stops!

Think it's over..haha, we got to the airport and some guy almost runs over Chloe, as I pull her back two cops jump him and make a violent arrest, two more cops come with machine guns..chaos. We got on our flight, ready to go....NOT, a passenger decides to verbally assault a flight attendant and needs to be removed from the plane.
Finally we get to Washington, just to find out we did not make our connecting flight. The customer service agent was so rude to us, I really had to try to keep my cool (Will had lost it in about 35 seconds into the conversation). She finally found some MISTAKE in our booking and if we wanted to continue our journey we had to pay 600 dollars!! We refused and she said we could wait at the airport for months if we wanted to, it would not change a thing. We felt held hostage, so unfair. We finally paid it and of course, no more available flight until the next morning.
We laid out some airline blankets, and slept in the airport!!!

Next day we get on the flight and arrive safely. But because the family did not know exactly when we finally got on the flight, we still had to wait 3 hours until we were picked up!
39 hour trip complete!!
The kids did great though, they just saw this as an adventure. When we woke up in the airport Lainey said: "Wow, this is the biggest hotel we have ever stayed at!!". Always great to have the kids put things in perspective.

I will write a new blog soon, I just wanted to thank everybody for making our trip everything we could have hoped for! The kids still talk about camping with the family, the family trip to Santa Cruz, swimming with the cousins, going to friend’s houses, tea party with grama and of course they LOOOVE their American Girl dolls they got for their birthdays! They really play with them almost every day! Will and I also had a wonderful and productive time at our marriage retreat, which could not have happened without the lovely babysitting services :-) I truly recommend everybody to go to one of the marriage encounters. You can find them at www.wwme.org or if you need more serious work :-) www.retrouvaille.org.

Can not end a blog without...
Little child of mine say what???

Chloe was not eating her veggies and I told her how she was wasting food and there are children in Africa who are dying of hunger! She replied: "I don't want to be selfish, let’s give it to them!

Lainey was praying before bedtime and said, please God let Chloe have more respect, papa be more patient, and mama....nothing, she is already perfect!!!!!!!!!!!

Until the next adventure,
Love, Lesley

Unleash The Power Within!

About 4 years ago I ordered the Anthony Robbins cd's "Unlimited Power" off an infomercial. I was not in the best place in my life and his infomercial spoke to my heart. They came in the mail a week later, and I listened to the first cd and never opened the rest of them!! One of my issues (heehee, yes, I said one of them) is that I am an all or nothing type of person. Now, this is sometimes a good thing. If it is something I really want to do I always work my hardest when given a task, stay until the last person when working an event, never missing anything when going to a seminar-not even going to the bathroom, doing extra tasks when working, when cleaning the house I will spend hours to create the WOW factor. But, the negative side to this is that I also am terrible at doing a little at a time, the day to day stuff. If I can't make it to a class for a valid reason, I will skip more of them, when cheating on my diet I go for broke, and if I can only clean the house a little bit I won’t do it until it gets out of hand and the WOW factor can be reached again. The little things that go unnoticed are something I really need to work on. (I guess I just realized as I am writing this that I need recognition for things and if they go unnoticed I do not have the same drive, ...interesting.) So the reason I did not do the other Tony CD's is because in CD #1 Tony says to do them for 30 consecutive days so they will become a habit. Well, some things got in the way and I had to skip a few days here and there so my "ALL" rule was broken and so was my focus. I always said I was going to get to them when I had 30 consecutive days. Now, of course I can just shoot myself because I really think this would have helped me BIG TIME during those days. But hey, never regret, just learn right.
After living in Belgium for about a year I saw the CD's in a box and looked up Tony's website and found out he was coming to Chicago for a live event. I just knew I HAD to go. I told Will all excited: "Tony is coming, Tony is coming can I go"? Will kindly reminded me that Tony going to Chicago does NOT mean Tony is "COMING" when we live in Belgium :-). My mind was set and since Will did not feel the desire to spend the money (does he ever?:-) I took my girlfriend Nele and we went to Chicago last October.

Most of you know I went to this event but most of you do not know how much of an impact it had on my life so far. I loved it so much and I have made some major changes in my life mentally as well as physically.
Mentally, it really taught me sooo much about myself and the way my mind works, my human needs and how they drive me, my priorities, my dreams, my relationships, my past beliefs and my goals for the future.
Physically, I have become almost a complete vegetarian (well, I still eat fish, I think this is technically called pescatarian?) but I do make exceptions once in a while since my decision to not eat meat, including chicken is mostly health based, not so much based on principle. So an occasional treat is allowed in my book: Watch out Shorter's Ribs in Tracy, we are coming on vacation! We also stopped eating most dairy (which was easy since the kids are lactose intolerant), and we eat loads of leafy greens daily.

Needless to say, I was the first to sign up for the seminar when I heard Tony Robbins was coming to Rome, Italy. I put myself on the volunteer list to work the event. I was accepted and it was such an amazing experience. I would recommend everybody to go to one of Tony's live events.
For those of you who don’t know what Robbins does and think I have been absorbed by a strange cult (which a lot of my Belgian friends think :-) here is the scoop in a nutshell:
Tony Robbins is NOT a guru. He avoids this term because it comes with the presupposition that people are dependent upon HIM to create their change in life. We are all responsible for our own change.
He helps to coach people on how to find out what they really want AND how to achieve this more quickly and more easily with his techniques. Yes, he believes in positive thinking like "The Secret" BUT he says the secret is only step one of the process. We have to put it into action. We can be positive and say that there are no weeds in our yard a million times, but unless we find a way to get a mower and work in the yard to get rid of these weeds, this positive thinking will get us nowhere and we will not be having people over for a barbeque any time soon :-).
Knowledge alone does not equal power. Knowledge + Action = Power.
I believe everybody can use a coach, including top executives, grad students, homemakers or even the president. We all have areas in our lives we could use some guidance. He also uses NLP (neuro linguistic programming) a specific technique to help people get over certain limiting beliefs or fears (like fear of flying, phobias, helping people to stop smoking, relationship issues, weight loss..)but he does not really go into that as much in the seminar, more focus is on getting yourself out of your past and into your future!
So basically, a man who tries to find out what makes you happy and then helps you find any possible way to get to that happy place !! What a crazy person right. I would NOT go see him, what a psycho cult of happy, positive, motivated people! :-)

Anyhoo, I had a wonderful experience. I know I already went to the same seminar, but I learned just as much if not more this time. Every time you go you learn something different because you are in a different state. I was worried I was going to be too busy working that I was going to miss the entire event and would miss the lessons Tony was teaching, but it is so strange, I learned just as much this time if not more.
The volunteers were wonderful. Just imagine 150 positive upbeat motivated people all wanting to pay it forward!
We had a person in our group called Alex who has MS. He could barely walk and when he spoke it was very hard to understand him. He comes to all the Tony Robbins events to crew because he feels this seminar changed his outlook on life and he is a much happier person now. He was such an inspiration to all of us, because this guy never let his disability get in the way of any chore. We all worked with him over the course of the 4 day seminar and gotten to know him and how hard he worked. The third day into the seminar, somebody stole his backpack with his computer inside! The whole crew was just devastated, especially since it was Alex and we all decided to pitch in the money and we bought him a new backpack with money in it for a new computer. We gave it to him on the last day and he started crying (actually, we all were!). After the thanx and hugs he proceeded to tell us his "Welcome to Italy" story.

Upon his arrival to Italy he was picked up by the local police because they thought he was mentally disabled and unable to travel by himself. He tried numerous times to tell them that he does this 3 times a year and that he travels around the world to volunteer with Tony Robbins, but they laughed at him and said it was illegal for him to travel alone in Italy. They took his passport, took him to the police station, called the embassy and ridiculed him. Finally after the embassy confirmed his story (three hours later) they sent him to the event in a taxi. Alex arrived 5 hours late to the crew meeting but never told anybody why. He worked his butt off and NEVER used his story to get extra sympathy.
My faith in the goodness of humanity was restored :-)
I came back ranting and raving and Will is now going with me to the next event!!!

I am sooo glad I was part of this, even though I worked from 7am until 2am EVERY DAY and slept about 4 hours a night. What I got back was so much more. As I said in one of my last blogs, I have been identifying with so many clichés lately, so here it goes again: "the more you give, the more you get!!!"

I can not end my blog without
Little child of mine say what?

Chloe asked me if I got my book signed by Tony and I told her there was no opportunity for me to get it but I had something better: I told her "Tony held my hand and kissed it!!!!" She thought about it for a few seconds and responded with a pouty face: " I'd much rather have an autograph then a kiss on YOUR hand!

When Will and the kids picked me up from the airport after coming home from the seminar I was going off talking about how wonderful it was and about Alex who got his computer stolen when Lainey taps my shoulder and asks me in the sweetest, caring voice while stroking my arm:" Can we turn on the music now or are you not done with all your stories?" I am glad my daughter sensed I needed to get this stuff off my chest even though she couldn't care less :-)

Until the next time,

Lesley

The good life

Another month gone by! At this rate I will be retired in no time!
When we used to visit Belgium we would sight see all the time. Now that we live here we have jobs, kids school and practises and family and friends get togethers, we seem to spend little time going out of town. So, we decided to go visit a few famous places in Belgium Will or the kids had not been to.
Our first trip was to "Scherpenheuvel". It is one of the most frequented shrines in Belgium. The origin dates back to the Middle Ages. On top of the hill (Scherpenheuvel means sharp hill in Flemish) a mighty oak tree was visible over a wide area. This tree seems to have been a centre of superstitious practises until a wooden figure of Our Lady Mary was affixed to the tree during the 14th century. In 1514 a shepherd tried to take the statue home. He remained transfixed until the little statue was put back into the niche. Since then the shrine gained a wider celebrity. In 1602 a little wooden chapel was built, which was later replaced by a beautiful basilica. Nowadays, milions of pilgrims come to our lady for guidance.
Why does it hold a special place in my family's heart? Well, after giving birth to me, and ofcourse me being the most wonderful baby in the world, my mom tried for 5 years to have another baby without success. She went to Scherpenheuvel and wrote her "wish" on a piece of paper and placed it in the "prayer box". The next mont... she was pregnant with my brother!!!
The kids loved writing their prayers on the little papers, lighting candles and throwing coins in the wishing well! You should see how sincere the girls were praying after putting their prayers in the box, you would think they were angels! Well, they are ofcourse! It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

My mom's boyfriend Albert is a pilot for gliders and small motor planes. He had a gliding contest the other day and since the weather was gorgeous we decided to go watch! Little did we know that you see him take off and about 4 hourse later you see him land. Great! So we just had some fun on the field, had some greasy, woonderful fries, ice cream to top it off and we welcomed Albert back to land. He passed his exam.

Last Sunday the city of Hasselt organized a kids day all over the town. No cars were allowed so we took our bikes and away we went. They had sand in the street with beach toys, just as if we were at the seaside, tons of different types of jumpy houses, totally fun giant games (like connect four), silly bikes. Really super fun. But, Belgium would not be Belgium if we had good weather to count on, so...it rained!! This was a bummer because almost nobody came out that day. We did not let the weather stop us, so we had a really cool time and nooo lines anywhere. We got soaked...so what!

Another road trip: The Atomium. At the world fair in Brussels in 1958, the first post war event of its kind, bringing together over 40 countries, a giant structure was built as a piece of art. It symbolizes an iron crystal, magnified 165 bilion times, referring to the power of nuclear energy in full development at the time and which was intended for peaceful use. The Atomium is the most visited tourist attraction of Europe's capital.
It was cool to actually go inside it and see the view all the way from the top! Breathtaking. Even though the kids really did like it, their favorite part was playing in the fountain in front of the structure! Kids are so easy to please aren't they?

It was a beautiful sunshiny day in Belgium. Pretty rare for us so the entire country was having a barbecue it seemed. Acting as the followers we are, our family was no different. We had the family over at my dad’s house and after finding out the barbecue pit was missing a part we switched to plan B and my dad cooked up a feast, but we all ate outside so we still felt the barbeque spirit.
Since we had not been in our yard this year, the grass was pretty high. My dad’s mower broke so my brother brought over his lawn mower. Will took charge and tackled the rainforest themed backyard grass mowing job. After he was done and joined us at the table I, being the wonderful wife that I am, stroked his back and said:” Thank you babe for mowing the lawn”. He smiled and sat down. Then he turned to me and said:”I have always mowed the lawn”. I responded with:”I know, and I am thanking you for doing it.”. About five minutes later I look at Will and I see his face, he has the –I am acting like nothing is wrong but I am bugged–look. So, I ask...you can guess it.. “what is wrong?”. He said: I have always mowed the lawn and you have never thanked me for it. I told him that I realized this and it is never too late to start appreciating something, right? After a few moments he could not help himself and went on to say one more time (with a smile this time though): for seventeen years I have mowed the lawn and you never really thought anything of it, just expected it to be done. Okay girls, now I am getting a bit bugged. I said:"I just thanked you for doing something and you are turning it into a reason to be mad at me?" He defended himself by saying he was happy I was appreciative but that my act of kindness made him think of how often I DID’NT thank him before??? "#§çù£&é@". I give up. They call it a cliche, but I am relating to many cliches these days, so here it goes: "Ladies, damned if you do, damned if you don’t". :-)

Little child of mine say what?

I told the girls that our cousin Monica was getting married soon. Chloe asked :"to who?". I answered: "to Shane ofcourse"? she paused for about 6 whole seconds and said : "Good choice Monica!"

We were getting an ice cream and were deciding what flavor we should get. Lainey asked me what the flavor "forest fruit" was. I told her strawberries, rasberries, boysenberries.. She asked me if apples and pears were in there. I told her "no, just everything that grows in the forest" She told me she didnt want that flavor after all. When I asked her why not she answered : "I don't like trees"

Until the next time,

Lesley

Just daily stuff

I can not believe it is already May. This year is going by so fast. I guess I have been the busiest I have ever been before. I love my job, but working full time sure makes me realise how much time I had before we moved.
After we came back from our Tenerife vacation it was my dad's turn to go on his trip to Rome. I had to open the store all week PLUS do my normal job. Needless to say I was beat at the end of the week. Then, a week later, my brother left to Spain so Will took over his job after his normal job, and I had an extra daughter for the week. Three is for sure a lot more then two :-)
Both kids are getting so big and I have truly become the taxi mother. They are involved in so many activities and since the schoolyear is coming to an end our daytimer is filled with dance recital rehearsals, ballet exams, gymnastics performances, pffffffff. I told the girls next year they should only pick two activities each but I have a feeling this is only a reality in my own world since I saw the list of things they wanted to sign up for.
I guess I am glad they like to be involved, unlike me as a child. I always wanted to be home. Most people think this conflicts with my social character now, but as a child I just did not like group activities. I have been part of gymnastics, ballet, basketball, horseback riding, track, piano and guitar lessons and girls scouts....all for about 2 month. Ofcourse I needed all the gear for these sports I absolutely HAD to be part of. I think my parents finally gave up. I have to say I did learn a lesson (besides the self discovery that I basically can not stick with anything). My parents always let me quit right away. Now, I do understand where they were coming from. They came from a generation where the child's input did not matter and they were forced to do certain activities because those were socially expected of respectable families. I think they did there best to make sure we never felt this pressure by overcompensating and letting us join whatever we wanted and in turn quit whenever we had a bad day. So here we are, the next generation. What to do? Will and I try to find the way in the middle so we basically agreed to let the kids pick a few activities they want to join and then stick with it for the entire schoolyear (in Belgium the season of any activity is from september until june). Then they can decide if they want to rejoin or pick something else. The kids know this and I have to say they are a lot better then I was already. They certainly do not like to go to all their activities full of joy all the time, but they know the rule. It is funny though, sometimes they ask me: "is it June yet?" When I ask them why, they simply say:"oh, no reason, just curious". But they do not complain.
They performed their first acrobatic gymnastics performance and did awesome. I do not understand how they are so flexible. They did not get that from either of us. They were dressed up as clowns, and showed their skills. Even though they probably will not continue this next year, they learned a lot and enjoyed the season.

Mothersday was lovely. I got spoiled this year. Will and the kids treated me to a lovely brunch dowtown on saturday. It was so nice to have my girls be big enough to start enjoying things us grown ups do aswell. Chloe asked me to go to a spa and get a massage for her birthday???? Where is my baby??
The kids created some beatiful artwork in school including a poem they performed at my moms on sunday. I got flowers, chocolate AND a Swarovski chrystal treasure chest! (For those of you who do not know, I collect these figurines...and my birthday is Januari 2nd :-).

Last weekend Will and I joined our friends Jens and Tanja to see the Alisha Keys concert. I didn't really know many of her songs, besides New York, but man,...she is talented! Not too many special effects, just the piano and her voice. I know you can not know much about a person from a concert, but listening to her sing and speak, she really seemed to be such a genuine sweet, loving person. I really enjoyed the concert and so did Will. He did not even want to go at first, but he really appreciated her talent afterworths. Next week I have to return the favor and join him at a Eric Clapton concert. Lets hope I will be equally appreciative.

Little children of mine did what????

I came home from work on wednesday to find Lainey's front tooth loose and her lip bruised. For some reason we always seem to direct our anger towards the person watching the kids (even though we well know it could have easily happened under our own care). So I turn to Will with THE look and ask him what happened?
They had gotten dish washing soap and water, poored it on the kitchen tile floor and were practising ICE SKATING?!!

Little child of mine say what????

Will got mad at Lainey for something, and raised his voice. Lainey looked at Will and said: "You always yell when you are mad". Will felt bad and sad: "I am sorry Lainey, does it hurt your feeling when I yell?" As Lainey walks away she responds: "No, it just hurts my ears"

Lainey's bed time prayer: Thank you Jesus for everything, please help the people that are hungry, please help the poor kids, and please help Chloe not to be so selfish, amen.

Until the next time,

Lesley

GET COMFY, THIS ONE'S A LONG ONE!!

I always thought it would be an adventurous experience to go on vacation and not know where you were going; just pack up and leave to the airport. We have never done it because with children you want to make sure the places are somewhat kid friendly so we always book in advance. Will did not have to go back to work until the 26th of april, so we thought it would be a great idea to get away for a couple of days, just the two of us. Since we did not have the kids, an adventure like this seemed perfect, because we really didn´t care where we were going as long as we were away. I wanted to wait until the day of departure to find out where to go, but since it was Easter break the Travel agency told us there were almost no "last call" tickets because everything is full, but we can go "last minute" which means you look up to 4 days before departure to get a package deal somewhere. Sounded adventurous enough to me! So we booked 4 days before and booked our week long trip to Tenerife, Canary Islands. Super excited! My late aunt Brigitte used to live in Tenerife and always missed it when she moved back to Belgium for her son's education. So in a way I felt closer to her, going to her homeland.

The kids had no school, so they were happy to stay with my mom for the week. They had a plethera of events scheduled, so I felt like I could leave with an eased heart now that they were looking forward to something too. Both kids have a type of "collection" of souvenirs they keep. Everytime Will and I go somewhere we need to bring Lainey a glass snowball and Chloe a coffee mug, each with the name of the city. So we knew what to do once we got there.

Off we went. After a 4,5 hour flight we landed in Tenerife. Tenerife is a Spanish Island, the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. Just the sun on my face as I walked out of the airport made this trip a success for me already. I love Belgium, but I sooooo miss the sunshine during the long winters and most of autumn. We had a really nice hotel with friendly people, good food and a breathtaking view from our room balcony. What more do you want? When I was younger I always had my vacations planned full of activities, places to go see, excursions... I thought it such a waste for people to just lay out, they were missing everything right? Two full time jobs and two children later, our plan for this vacation........do absolutely nothing! I have officially become "one of those people". I could not wait to lay under an umbrella with my book and my pina colada listening to the ocean waves crashing. We thought seven days was going to be so very long and we would have sooo much time to do nothing and might even be bored. No such thing, the week flew by!

I always felt it was strange that people went on vacation into a foreign country, only to just eat at chains they know from home. Will and I love to experience the local kitchen, local music, all their culture has to offer. So, that being said, here is a sample of our colorful menu: Chicken wings at Hooters, Onion loaf at Tony Romas and Ribs for dinner TWICE. I know, not the Spanish experience right :-) We do have a good excuse, Belgium does not have these chains, so for us it was a moment of nostalgia for American goodies we live without all year. We have to admit, it was not exactly the same. The wings were super duper greasy and the onion rings were cold...can not say anything about the ribs..they were scrumptious. American customer service can not be beat though, I think they forget to train them on that when they open up American chains overseas. Maybe they assume they already know. Besides these splurges into chain-ville, we stayed pretty loyal to the Spanish tradition. I have always loved the Spanish culture, which is why I lived in the south of Spain for 3 months as a teenager. I love the food, love the music, love Sangria and of course the Spanish people and language. I was trying to practice my Spanish as every person starting rambling on in super speedy Espanol since Will said he was "Mexican". He changed his answer to "American" midway our vacation :-)

We ate Tapas every day! Spanish people like to eat a variety of different foods in very small portions. I love this because you get to eat all day long!!!If you get tired from walking in the sunshine and eating all day, do not worry, just take a siesta, because EVERYBODY else does, they actually close down the stores for it! I could soo get used to this, a government ordered nap everyday!
Another favorite Spanish dish of mine is "Paella". My aunt used to make it all the time. A huge pan filled with rice mixed with seafood, meat, chicken and veggies and wonderful spices. I ate it almost every day in our hotel. Perfect with some homemade Sangria! I gained 5,5 pounds this trip. "Thank God for big boobs- They totally take the attention off your tummy" (source:my good friend Jenny Clark whom I have certain things in common with:-)

We also met a few gifted guitar players. They played Spanish music together at this cute cave type bar called Santa Fe, Mexican bar! We laughed because the only thing Mexican in this bar was maybe the interior. The owners where from Madrid. But these guys were so good, we went back three times to hear them play!
We walked a lot along the "Malecon" which was the long boulevard along the beach filled with terraces and shops that went on for miles and miles. I think we walked about 5 miles every day, but it took us most of the day. Our kind of walking is more like step,step,step, drink on a terrace, step,step,step, tapas on a terrace.
The good life!

One day we took a bus to the harbor town "Puerto de la Cruz" about an hour and a half away, which is the village my aunt used to live and owned a restaurant in. Since my aunt passed away a year ago from cancer, it meant a lot to me to go see her place where I used to visit her as a kid. It had been 25 years since I last went to visit her over there before she moved back to Belgium, so I did not remember much of the location, but I did have many memories of the square her restaurant was on and of course the restaurant itself. I could see the picture clear in my head. When Will and I got off the bus we were a bit disillusioned when we saw how huge this "little" village had become. It had become a spread out city of about 40000 people! With no known address it became clear that we would not find this place just by walking around. Especially since there were squares all over the place. With only 3 hours before the bus was taking us back we decided to make the best of it and explore around a bit. We walked along the ocean, and were heading inland to find a place to eat. Inside my head I asked God and my aunt if by chance there was any way to help me find the place, even though I knew this was not realistic. But of course, who am I to say what is realistic to God right? Will wanted to turn left, but I thought we should turn right, even though we came from that direction before. We walked into a small alley which opened up to another square. I went on the tell Will that my aunt's square looked kind of like this one, with buildings kind of like...this one, and a big wooden front door leading into a court yard kind of like...oooh my gosh Will, THIS IS IT! I have never been so shocked in my life. My first reaction was (excuse my French) "Man, this shit really works". I guess I learned my lesson - to never under estimate the power of a prayer.

Well, our vacation was a success, but never a vacation with Will and Les goes without unexpected adventures! Just when you think nothing can keep you away from home but flying piggs and erupting volcanoes!? Welcome Iceland volcano ash cloud. Nobody is flying anywhere. This was the biggest peacetime flight disruption in Europe EVER. For almost 6 days there was a no fly zone! Well, we always wanted to be a part of history! Be careful what you wish for.
Luckely Will and I are pretty relaxed people. We saw people around us stressing, worrying, even crying. We both chuckeled thinking about both our moms and how they wouldn't have been so relaxed in this situation. The not knowing when the volcano would stop and flight will resume, having to have your phone on 24 hours in case there was a flight available would have stressed them out. I have to say we were a bit concerned the first day because we missed the kids after being gone a week and the not knowing when we were going to be back was hard. For all we knew we could be stuck for weeks. Also school was starting with all the sport activities they have, and finding a place for them was a little tough because my mom had booked a trip herself so she was not going to be in town at all! We worked it out where Chloe went to spend the week at a friend's house and Lainey went with my sister in law and brother. The kids were sad but once we negotiated an extra souvenier for ever day we stay longer they were ok ;-). Once they were happy, then we were happy, and we enjoyed every minute of our extra time. Will and I finally finished our books, we got to go back to some of our favorite hang outs, experienced a local food festival and flee market and we got to really relax. When they called us friday to tell us we had a flight back, I can honestly say that we would not have minded staying another extra day.
We got back safely, but ofcourse we can not have a trip whithout something going wrong during the travel part (for more details, ask brother Ronnie about our last travel adventure to Mexico), Willie's backpack was stolen during our trainride from the airport home:-( I was so upset I started crying because our video camera was in there. Not that I care about the camera, but I was sick to my stomack because it had a years worth of video footage of the kids on there. I felt like it was my wedding day all over again (for those of you who do not know, a bag was stolen in the church during our wedding ceremony with our chrystal cake top and all our best baby pictures we had picked out for the wedding video, heart breaking). Anyhow, I was very upset that day and could not shake the feeling, until I saw a mom and dad crying on TV because they had lost their children in a tragic accident. Then it hit me: all they have left is video camera footage of their kids, but at least I have them with me to make plenty of new memories!!!
Did I mention both our cars were towed during the extra delayed days in Tenerife? Not even going to go there... : )

Little child of mine say what???

Funny how everybody views heaven differently. I was helping Lainey feel better after she found out a priest had died and was explaing how she should not be sad because he is happy now in heaven and that is a great place. Chloe jumped in with a sweet and totally sincere voice and said: "Yes Lainey, heaven is a wonderfull place, where everybody is nice and sweet...and you can eat WHATEVER you want and NEVER get fat!"

Lainey's solution after I told the kids about the video camera loss:
"We can just do everything all over again!"

This one is about Will: We were wondering why a waitress in Tenerife who we asked to take our picture kept retaking the foto? When we asked if the camera maybe wasn't working right she responded by pointing at her teeth and tried to tell us the pic was showing too many teeth in Will's mouth? Haaaha, not the camera's fault is it;-). I laughed for about an hour.

I have tried my best to add a slide show to this blog. To view full screen just click on the slide show.

If you have not fallen asleep by now, Until the next adventure!

Time Goes By Fast

After reading my own blog it just dawned on me that I have not blogged this month! Time just seems to fly by, I can not believe it is almost the middle of april. Time flies when you are having fun right!!As life goes on with the day to day stuff we had a few fun celebrations again.

This month, Albert (my mom's boyfriend) celebrated his retirement. After turning 65 he thought it was time to throw in the towel and enjoy life to the fullest. We had a small get together and toasted to this new chapter in his life. I am pretty sure my mom is going to have some major claustrophobic issues with this recent development. Come on ladies, who would not go crazy with their husbands at home 24/7? Just kidding Albert, I am sure it will be a blast :-)

My dad turned 63 on March 30th. He is treating himself to a week in Rome at the end of the month. Will, myself, my brother and his girlfriend took my dad out to a fancy dinner at one of his favorite restaurants for a nice 4 course meal. Afterworths, we convinced the restaurant owners and the waiters to come with us and celebrate at one of the local pubs. We were supposed to go have only one drink, but ofcourse, it never is just one. After dancing all night and two blisters later we put our tired butts to rest at 5am. Happy Birthday dad!!

From birthday parties to Happy Easter. The Easter bunny is not as popular in Belgium. He does exist, but he does not hide the eggs. Our eggs are dropped from the sky by the Easter Bells! These would be the giant Church bells from the church in Rome (the Catholic mothership) and they fly from Rome all over the world while dropping eggs everywhere. So the eggs technically are not hidden, they just get dropped from the sky so naturally they are scattered all around and hidden in bushes and trees and such. Makes sense right? Why hide the eggs on purpose Mr Easterbunny???!!!:-)
Another small difference here in Belgium is that the eggs are not real eggs...they are chocolate eggs in all different sizes. Nice little bonus. I do have to bring back some egg coloring next time, because coloring eggs together does add a certain charm to it!
The kids missed the family a lot. It is always hard on holidays because we have such a small family that it just isn't the same for them. Hunting for eggs with your sister and one cousin just doesnt have the same feel as the big group of screaming kids trying to get as many eggs in their basket as fast as possible. We did have a very nice brunch with many goodies at my mom's house with my aunt Chris, cousin Steve and our Grama as special guest appearances for the holiday. Good times.

Our kids have been begging us to go stay at a hotel for months now. They just love the whole atmosphere around it. It does not even matter which destination, as long as it has a pool. This week is Easter vacation so Will and I thought it would be the perfect time to take them on their hotel experience. We took the train to Antwerp and booked a very nice room at the Radisson. After having fun on the train (for sure the way to travel in Europe in stead of by car)we got off right in front of our hotel. We first all enjoyed a Starbucks treat ofcourse, than we checked in, had some fries and went straight for the Wellness Center. We had so much fun. The kids enjoyed their first sauna and steamroom, relaxed in the jaccuzzi, swam in the pool and even dipped in the polar bear bath! It was a blast. After a warm shower we all climbed in the big bed and watched a movie with tons of snacks. We never left the hotel :-) Simple fun, totally worth it with minimal luggage and no work involved. We will absolutely do this again. Fun family trip: Check.

Little child of mine say what?:

Chloe and Lainey were brushing their teeth in the bathroom and Chloe complained of a stomach ache. Will tried to console her and asked: "Ooh baby, is it bad?" to which Lainey answered after a confused pause.."Ofcourse it is BAD,.. there is no GOOD stomach ache dad!!

I debated putting this next quote in my blog since it is super duper embarrassing for me, and even though I already know that I will regret this decision forever, I still decided to write it:-):
Chloe and I were grocery shopping when I felt a sudden air bubble work its way through my bowels and softly into the outside world:-). Sly as I thought I was being, Chloe,distracted from the pasta aisle, walks up to me and whispers: "mom, did you fart?" I had to hold my laugh and quietely nodded yes. She answered: "I knew it! I recognize your smell anywhere"

Big mistake...HUGE

Until next time,

Lesley

Common thread: always a reason to celebrate

Three months ago Will had received news at work that the GE contract was up and could not be renewed due to low UK call volume and the British recession. In Belgium an employer is obligated to give you a minimum of three months notice so Will had some time to look for another job. For some reason we were not really worried, we have been through this a few times before and it always seems to work out. He was bummed because of his coworkers (he has made some great friends) and he was going to miss them. They all wanted to get together for drinks to say farewell to Will.
Well, the day before his last day his boss called him in to ask him to stay on another 6 months since call volume had picked up a bit and they were hoping with summer coming it was going to be even busier. Will accepted the six month contract and we were happy to hear that his schedule was now going to be a lot better for us! Once again proof that worrying about things before they happen really is not of any use. Of course, Will's friends decided to still get together for the goodbye party and just changed it to a welcome back fiesta, really any excuse to party hardy those guys :-)

My dad, which most of you know, has a wine wholesale business and retail store. He goes twice a year to a big wine venue were wineries from all over the world come to present there wines to hopefully get the opportunity to export their products to these winesellers. He decided to make it a company trip, since my brother and I both work for my dad, and we all went including Will and my brother's girlfriend Evi. Since this venue was close to Brussels we stopped at the Brussels airport for a...Starbucks coffee and off we went (you know if there is a Starbuck within a 20 mile radius I AM SO THERE). We had a great time tasting wine after wine after wine.. We found some great products that we decided to purchase so I guess you can say the trip was a success and we had fun. Thank goodness we brought Evi..she doesn't drink and drove us home.

"Carnaval!!!" known in America as "Mardi Gras" has come to our town last weekend. The words "Mardi Gras" litterally mean "Fat Fuesday" in French. The Catholic tradition started ages ago where everybody partied, ate and drank lavishly on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday because they were getting ready for a 40 day fast before Easter. Today, we still have a party on that Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, but the big parade and street party known as "Carnaval" happens on different days during Lent for every town because many of the floats appear in more then one city.
The kids had so much fun. They dressed up and they take a big bag with them to town because all the floats throw out candy!! They both came home with a bag filled to the top with goodies. How fun is that?! The weather was a bummer this year, because it sprinkled and it was a bit windy, but we still had fun. Music in the streets, everyone is out. It is for sure a must see when visiting.

Will had other plans this weekend: a boys trip to...Poland! He and his friend Ward took a plane and flew off into the sunset for four days to Wroclaw, a big city in Poland. He said it was a fantastic city with lots to see. The people there make very little money. The two of them ate a large meal, and you know Will can put down some food, including many beers and their bill was eleven dollars. They felt like kings. Boys will be boys and they never came home before 6am, because there was always just one more good Polish beer or wodka to try. When in Rome...

Little child of mine say what?
Lainey is always very quick with her answers, and very correct. We call her Judge Lainey since she always wants to make sure thing are correct and just.
I think I held Lainey on my hip for the first 4 years of her life, but this last year she has grown quite independent. But just the other day she asked me to hold her again and as I picked her up I asked her: "why do you want me to hold you, is it because you love me so much?" she answered "no, because I dont want to walk". I went on and jokingly told her: "wrong answer Lainey, you should say its because you love me so much". Lainey replied: "No mama, you should always speak the truth, because otherwise you are a liar".
Thank you judge Lainey.

Until next time,

Lesley