The Good Life

Life is going by so fast. I believe it when they say time flies when you are having fun. So many adventures, so little time.
Lainey had her First Communion last month. She is such a big girl now! She was extra lucky because her Grandparents came all the way from California to be there for this event. I do not know if it is a big deal in other cultures, but here in Belgium it is pretty big. Which is just common language for saying it will cost the parent a lot of money. The clothes cost as much as mini wedding dresses, the party after is almost always done at a restaurant with a 5 course meal. After the church ceremony we got to the restaurant at 1pm and didn't leave until 8:30pm! Yes, good times. We were lucky the weather was gorgeous and the kids all played outside in between meals the whole day.

We were talking about cultural differences, so I have to talk about this interesting tradition. In Belgium, when you have your first communion party, the desert is always an "ice cream lamb". This vanilla ice cream sculpture represents the sacrificing of the Lamb Of God. Here comes the gruesome part (which I never ever gave a second thought until moving to the US and having my own kids. The child gets a big knife and with all the guests watching has to behead the lam, followed by a nice raspberry cream sauce flowing from the lams neck.... WHAT THE??? I can laugh about it now, because I know first hand the all the kids know this and even look forward to doing this without any kind of trauma being instilled, but I still feel strange describing our culturally accepted act out loud. You had to be there, yeeaah alrighty then, moving on..

It was really nice having Will's parents here in Belgium. They actually were here for three weeks and spend about a week visiting both Rome, Italy and Barcelona, Spain. They also where able to be here when the girls performed in their dance shows. The kids took a Flamenco Spanish dance class this year (keeping up with their Spanish roots). So cute! they looked like real grown up Spanish dancers.
We had fun just hanging out with them like we used to when we lived in Tracy. Except this time I think they were happy to go visit the other countries just to get away from my vegetarian cooking :-). Want to know what Will's dad's first meal in Barcelona was? Not tapas, no paella, not even a Spanish tortilla, but........Burger King!!!! I don't understand, what is wrong with my Tofu filled eggplant?? :-)

Speaking of eggplant, I went to Montreux, Switzerland for my four day final for my health coaching course. It was so beautiful there! My hotel overlooked the breathtaking lake of Geneva with the Swiss mountains in the background. I went running there and the air you breath there will make you run twice as long! The four days were great, meeting many new friends and learning a lot! Of course I passed and am now a "Health and Vitality Coach". I even have my first client already. I am still learning and some time in the future you will get my health blog as well.

Super excited to pack our suitcases because we are leaving to California in two days!! Get ready America, here we come!

Little child of mine say what?

Lainey asked: "how come when couples kiss on TV they look like they are eating a big piece of pizza??

Chloe would not eat her salmon so I told her it was important to eat her fish because it has a lot of good fatty acids. She replied: "then for sure I don't want to eat it because I don't want to get a fatty ass!


BIG husband of mine say what?

Quick background: Will is good at ANY sport, no matter what we do he will be better no matter what. We are taking tennis lessons and after five lessons they ask Mr Will to be on the tennis team... whatever

Lesley: "I am glad you are doing good, but it sucks that I am never as good in any sports as you.
Will: "why would that matter?"
Lesley: "well, it is nice to have you look up to me for a change.
Will: "Well, I can understand that, but you have to look at it differently. Take Michael Jordan compared to the Special Olympics. Even though they will never be better then him, he too looks up to them just in a different way!"
..............silence......................................
Lesley: "You did not just compare me to the special Olympics"

Until the next time,

Magical

It’s a small world after all! We went on our first Disneyland trip! Nobody here in Belgium understands how we lived in California and never went to Disneyland (besides Will when he was a kid of course). We surprised the kids at Christmas that we were going for four days to Disneyland Paris and they were over the moon excited.
Do I even need to say we missed our train to Brussels where we were going to catch the bullet train to Paris, and instead we now had to drive to Brussels and pay 100 bucks in parking? Naaah, that's boring stuff.
So, once on the bullet train we relaxed and enjoyed the 2 hour train ride. It would have taken us four and a half hours by car, so this was way more pleasant for all of us. The train dropped us off right smack in the middle of the Disney Village. We were staying at one of the Disney hotels called The Cheyenne. It was a western theme hotel located in a small cowboy village with a real saloon and everything. It was a perfect location with a shuttle every five minutes to the Disneyland Park which was not even a five minute drive.
It truly is a magical place! It was so amazing to me that every little detail is taken care of, it all looked so beautiful.
Since we had four days there we had the luxury to do things our own pace. People told us that we could see both parks in about two days if we spent the whole day there (Disneyland Paris is smaller then Disneyland LA). You know we like to relax on vacation, so rushing to get to the park early (even though we had the early bird passes) was not on our agenda. This is why we decided to go for four days, see; there is reasoning behind our madness. Each day we got to sleep in, have a relaxing buffet breakfast, get a coffee at Starbucks at the Disney Village and get to the Park around noon :-) We were pretty lucky that is was not a holiday or no school vacation (oops, why were our kids there instead of school?? Speak to my lawyer). We never had to wait in line longer then fifteen minutes. We would grab snacks all day (hello 7 Euro hot dogs) so that we could stay in the park until it closed because after about 6pm it seemed that everybody went to go eat so we could literally catch any ride without even a minute wait. We even got to watch some shows were there were maybe ten people in the audience, totally fun!
The park closed at 8pm, so by now the line in the restaurants were pretty good too, since all the little princes and princesses were too tired from getting up so early. Perfect for us! The restaurants in the Disney Village were pretty good, but of course expensive. It felt as if we were in America for a while with Planet Hollywood and Rainforest Café and Starbucks.
I am glad we waited until now to go to Disneyland because Lainey got to go on almost any ride. There were only three where she didn’t reach the height requirement. Chloe only had to pass on one ride! This made it so much more fun for us all, especially since my crazy children are not afraid of anything!!! I really thought I was going to die some rides, but not them. All we kept hearing all day was again, again, again!
We loved all the rides, but the favorites were:
Chloe-Space Mountain, Lainey-Rocker roller coaster (Aero Smith Style), Lesley-It’s a small world after all (so darn beautiful), and Will-the Ben and Jerry’s stand, haha, just kidding, he liked the Train roller coaster.
They really do know what they are doing those Disney people. I have been to many amusement parks but there truly is something magical in the air when you see Minnie walking by and music playing in the gorgeous streets while watching the Disney parade and eating an ice cream from the old fashioned ice cream parlors from the old fashioned movies. Like they say, I did feel like a kid again!
We had a really great time and we still did not want to leave after four days. For sure a trip worth repeating!

Little child of mine say what?

Just something that makes every parent teary eyed:
We are standing on a bridge ready to throw a flower into the water while making a wish when Chloe says; I don't know what to wish for, I already have everything I want?

The kids wanted yet another thing from a gift store to which I replied that we had no more money to spend. Lainey's eyes got watery and she asked in a sad voice: "oh no mom, are we poor?"

Until the next time,
Lesley

She's alive!!!

It has been a very hectic last couple of months. Not to make excuses but, -and now, as usual, this sentence will be completed with the list of excuses- in short our little kitchen project became a complete house remodel with breaking down a wall, filling up the wall holes with new plaster (a new project we discovered after peeling away 7 layers of wallpaper from the last 30 years), new flooring, new paint, new ceilings, electrical work and even gas lines rerouted. Pffffffffff. We were living like we were camping for over 3 months, and had no internet for a part of it. Now, all is done except for the little finishing touches, that will linger on for years to come of course. Next project will be the kid’s room!

The holidays were nice and of course busy. The kids loved their gifts, especially the UGGS they begged us to get for about a year now. Mom loved them too, super easy to get on and off for them and matching almost every winter outfit! I know they are pricey, but I really think they are worth the money, especially here in cold Belgium. The beautiful Christmas dresses they got from Grama and Grampa were a hit! They wore them both Christmas Eve and Christmas day! Santa brought them the Wii and the whole family loves it. My favorite is the dance game where you have to copy the dancers, hilarious and fun for the entire family. My ultimate favorite gift from my hubby, the Kindle!!! I am not kidding, I looove this thing. I am on my fifth book since Christmas! I really like the fact that I have 7 books with me in my purse at all times. I am not a fiction reader, I am however addicted to all kinds of informational books from self improvement, sports, money, biographies, health...you name it. I like to choose my topic depending on the time I have to read which makes it great to always have so many books with me at all times. If I were Oprah, this would be one of my Favorite Things! (I believe it actually was on her list?). Both Will and I had our birthdays and decided to go to London for a couple of days.

London is really cool. It is such global city but does not feel like a NY or San Francisco. No tall skyscrapers all over, lots of neighborhoods or districts. We did the double decker tourist bus (super touristy which is not like us usually, but years ago we tried it and realized you can see ALL the must sees in one day and then go on your merry way and enjoy the local life and hangouts the rest of the trip) which we now do in every major city we visit. Will was happy to finally see the famous bridge he sang about when he was a child, eat the original fish and chips, drink an English pint and sip some English tea.
I do love the English, they keep it simple. No fancy stuff, just straight to the point. The way out of a place is labeled "way out", the subway is called "underground". Makes sense right?
We combined the trip so we could also go to see my instructor speak at a seminar he was giving. For those of you who did not know, I have been taking a course since September to become a “health coach” with Joseph McClendon, the health coach guru. I love it and at the end of May I have to fly to Switzerland to do a 4 day “internship” and a final! There are quite a few Americans in my class as well, since Joseph was an instructor at USC/UCLA. I will keep you posted on my progress, but so far so good!

The kids are doing great. They are so excited to go to California this summer! Too bad people just can’t get along in the world and the oil prices keep rising because this sure does make it hard to get affordable tickets! My mom was just saying how the prices are exactly DOUBLE from when she used to come visit! Oh well, at least we know what we are working for right?
We are coming from June 26th until July 21st!!! That is almost 4 weeks! I forget how many weeks it is before company starts smelling like fish? I should call Will's dad to find out :-)

The kids are very busy doing all their sports, mostly dancing. They both had a jazz dance show and Lainey also had her ballet recital. They were super cute! Will has been running and just ran a 10K in 46 minutes. Not too shabby for an aging man huh. He is also playing recreation basketball with two teams now, so I better start getting my butt into the gym to keep up! Being a whole lot younger than him can only get me so far:-). I have just started running myself, I just could not do it during the winter, waaay too cold for me here, and since my cheapo husband will not spring for a gym membership, I guess he is going to have to deal with the winter Goodyear around my waist.

On a positive note, my dad is doing very well! He has finished all his Chemo therapy and they just did a scan which revealed that the tumor in the kidney is gone and the lymph nodes are back to its normal size. The left over malignant cancer cells in those lymph nodes are stabilized for now. He feels great but is still always tired from the chemo but this should get better in 2 months or so. All he has to do now is go back every 3 months to have a checkup scan to see how things evolve. The doctor said the cancer could come back in 6 months or 6 years, nobody knows but since my dad responded so well to the chemo he has high hopes this could last a long time! And if it comes back, they do the same thing again. So all in all this is the best we could have hoped for!

Little child of mine say what????

Conversation between Chloe and Lainey in the back seat of the car:
Lainey :"I don't understand why the baby in mommy's tummy had to die?
Chloe: "the baby was probably too handicapped to live so God took the baby to heaven"
Lainey: "Really,... I don't get how a wheel chair could fit in mommy's tummy?"

Chloe asked me what a "Casanova" was. I told her it was somebody who likes girls a lot and probably has lots of girlfriends, to which she replied: Oh, you mean like papa before you guys got married.

Until the next time,

Lesley

Let it snow, let it snow.

The weather conditions are really strenuous this year. We have had snow for about a month now off and on. Great for the kids and snow fun, bad for day to day business. We have a large Christmas market in our town called “Winter land”. It is the total picture perfect Christmas card come to life. Wooden mini log cabins all over serving warm holiday season goodies like waffles, split pea soup, fried dough balls with powdered sugar, glüwein (a warm beverage made from red wine, herbs and fruit pronounced: gloovine), and of course in the middle of the market a giant indoor wooden café where people young and old gather to drink and be merry until the wee hours of the night (not us of course). Right next to this cafe is the big skating rink. Will decided to take the kids skating already while I finished up my last hour at work before I would meet up with them. So nice to know that your husband is out strolling in Winter land with the kids, totally taking care of, I am so lucky....(can you feel it coming)...I call Will to tell him I should be there in about half an hour when I hear a certain uneasiness in his voice. I did not want to tell me over the phone but persistent me made him tell me, so he reluctantly said: “I lost the kids"......What the???!!!!!&&&&###. Will said he was buying a warm waffle and when he turned around they were both gone. Let's pause for a second, is it just me or does it seem things like this always happens on somebody else’s watch? I parked the car and started looking for them, after picturing my kid’s faces on a milk carton, when Will called me to tell me the security guard had the kids. They were lost for about 20 minutes. Chloe was feeling okay, but Lainey had a bit of a trauma. Every time she wanted to bring up the subject she started crying again. All ended well and we all went ice skating after wards, well, I was the designated picture taker so I stood on the side. They had such a blast, even though they all fell pretty hard and very often!
Still continuing the snow fun, we all went out to our old neighborhood with snow clothes on the go build a big snowman! We all worked very hard and Will told us that this was actually his very first snowman of this magnitude. It takes quit a gentle touch to roll the snowball bigger and bigger without eventually breaking in pieces. Once again, a successful Serrato family adventure.

We also celebrated our St.Nicholas Day. In Belgium Saint Nic comes on December 6th. This does not mean we celebrate Christmas on the 6th a swell. Over here, Santa has nothing to do with Christmas. On the 6th we celebrate Saint Nicholas' birthday (which really is that day), and Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We do pass out presents on Christmas but they just come from the parents and family members. Of course our kids are lucky and we partake in both our culture's traditions, so they believe in both "Saint Nicholas" on the 6th, the saint who rescued some children back in his day arrives in Belgium from Spain by boat and delivers the packages on his white horse, And "Santa" the big bellied, raindeer riding guy with helpers. The difference in the gifts is that the ones from St Nicholas are not wrapped and the ones from Santa are wrapped under the tree. We also do not leave cookies and milk but we leave sugar cubes and carrots for the horse. Funny huh, so different but yet kind of the same. Well, let's just say the morning was a success and they loved their gifts.

Happy Birthday to Will! Will had his birthday on December 16th. He turned 42!! Wooow, what a mature person. For his birthday Will thought it would be a great challenge to tackle a small home project…tear out the entire kitchen including wall and build a new one!! Happy Birthday to you :-) Will and my mom’s boyfriend Albert have taken on this huge remodel and have been going at it for about a week now. Tons of challenges with an older house of course. Who ever said walls are supposed to be straight? After the new kitchen we are also repainting the entire inside of the house and replacing all the flooring of the first floor. We had hoped it would be ready before Christmas but by now we realize our holidays will be spent at my mom’s and brother’s house:-) It will be soooo worth it when it is all done! It is pretty cool to have a handy hubby.

Staying in the birthday theme, I should mention that we celebrated Lainey’s birthday with her entire class! Lainey’s birthday you ask? I know, her birthday was in September, but the class party never came to be due to a variety of circumstances. We finally booked the indoor play land party she insisted on getting. It was a really cool place. They all first play (the place is packed with jumpy houses, trampolines, games, climbing structures…. Then they all get food (choice of hamburger and fries or crepes-this is Belgium :-) After some more playing they get an ice cream of their choice and at the end every guest gets a toy to take home! The party lasts as long as you want. I thought this was a cool formula and it was only 10 bucks per kid!!!! No mess in my house and they had a blast. For sure worthy of repeating.

Little child of mine say what?

Driving home from school, I was singing to a song on the radio going all out, including pretty inventive dance moves, when Chloe jumps up and yells: “Mama STOP PLEASE, we still have to live here you know!!

Lainey was in the bathroom when Will got out of the shower, stared at him and said: “papa, did you know that if you did sit-ups you could get abs?!”

We want to wish everybody a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!!!

Until the next time,

Love, Lesley