Too Cold...

Boy, we have a ban of cold air sitting on top of us. Now that it's done raining, we do have the sunshine, but now the freezing temps. I am not fond. This morning, I had to get up early and take the dear children to school--and I didn't want to go outside. The family I am helping out likes to keep the house cold like Mom and Dad. It was hard to get out of bed this morning....I went to feel the heaters and none of them were on. I turned the knob and nothing happend. They must have them set on a timer. Grrrr! I couldn't wait to get out of the house and into the warm car, and then home--where the heat was going to be on.

Eric is braving the cold today and walked to the gym, about a 12 min walk. I give him credit---for not growing up in the cold---he sure is being brave. He knows how to layer his clothes---three layers of pants, three for shirts, a coat, scarf, hat and mittens. Believe it or not, I can still see him.

Off to get the kids in a few mins. Their mother comes back tomorrow---:) Thank goodness. They are missing her. I dropped one off at school this morning, she was fine...but the little boy clung to me at day care. He goes to a French day care, and one of his teachers speak English a little, so I told her that Mom is gone---and he is missing mom. Just 2.5 hours with the little ones today until Dad gets home.

Better get going. Drinking my last cup of coffee, so I will make it thru the afternoon....

I'm Terrible...

I can't believe it has been such a long time since I've logged in. Where do the days go?

Nothing new nor exciting is happening. It has been a very long three weeks. We have seen nothing but rain, and more rain. I was tired of my feet alway being wet, so I went and purchased a pair of rain boots! I can't stand wet feet--now I am ok with going out in the rain. Although, haven't ventured out much. This past weekend in out little town, they set up a lot of booths for a Christmas Market---it wasn't such a great turn out as it rained all weekend. There is a huge Chirstmas Market in Luxembourg City. We've gone twice, and bought a few things, and tried some traditional food. We still need to make it back to try this hot wine, with spices mixed in it. Everyone is just nutz over it.

Two more weeks and then we are headed to Germany for Christmas. It will be nice to get away and do something different. We'll head down on the 23rd, and stay until the 27th! I am excited for that! Cross you fingers there is a tiny bit of snow. We then come back, for a short three days, for a basketball tournament and then we are off again. We are headed to Switzerland for New Year's! I am thrilled to go. Neither of us have been there before, and Eric wants so badly to try and snowboard. He has been talking about this since the summer months. I don't think he has realized in order to snowboard you need to have snow and snow lands on the roads, and we will be driving up in the mts. I haven't told him yet. We are stuck, as he has never driven in snow before, and I have don't know how to drive a stick, let alone drive it in snow. Hope there isn't a big storm while we are there. Maybe we should look into renting an automatic and then I can drive us. LOL!

I hope all is well with everyone!

Hello Again..

It's been almost two weeks. I am slowly getting back into the routine of things. I recently was in England visiting a friend of mine. It was so nice to get away and not do a whole lot. It's easier to relax when you are in someone elses house, where you can't do anything. No cleaning, cooking etc. I didn't do a whole lot of sight seeing as Eric and I did a TON back in June. I ventured outside everyday, but for nothing too exciting. I found a yarn store, so I am making some scarfs right now. We went to see the movie Up in 3D--that was pretty neat. Just spent quality time together.

I think we decided we were going to go to Switzerland for New Year's. We'll be in Frankfurt for Christmas so we'll just head south. Eric really wants to see some snow, and try our snowboarding. Not me, I will enjoy my hot chocolate.

Until the next time....

Entertainment....

at the wrong time. Last night, as usual, I was sleeping before Eric, and then all of sudden I was scared awake with Eric jumping over me to get out of bed. I said, "what are you doing?" "There is a fight outside, I am going to check on it" he said. Of course I had to follow and see what all the yelling was about. Not that we understood anything, except---"Let me go, leave me alone." Eric opened the windows, let in the cold air to see what was going on. Someone heard the window open and looked up and said, "Pardon, Pardon". We didn't respond, just continued to watch. They finally left this alley, and moved to the center court area, but we still heard them. It was 1:30 in the morning...lovey. Then as we laid in bed trying to get back to sleep, we had a nice discussion about what the number is for the police. We know it is not 911, I think it is 112. We were also told, that you can call the police, but they don't always respond like they do in the states. I'll have to find out the police number.

Sorry, I haven't been on the blog all week. Tuesday and Wednesday, there was a basketball tournament, and I volunteered there all day. Guess, nothing excited happened on Thursday and Friday....Saturday we were up and moving at 7am!! Basketball started at 10 and we needed to leave at 845am. Played games until 2, then we left to go to another game, at 330. We arrived to the gym, and we looked in the windows and it was not even close to basketball. There was ball room dancing! :) We just laughed! So we called a Dad and he told us how to get to the other gym in the town. I've never seen such a thing in live, only on t.v. It was interesting. The cadet team won 103 to 68 or something. We finally moved onto the last game of the evening for 8pm.

Today--lazy! Love it. Eric just left for a game. I stayed behind as I am going to help make pizzas for the women's and mens games this evening. Right now, it is 2pm which equals an English movie! I am going to move to the couch, and hopefully take a nap too, after our eventfull midnight entertainment. Ahh.

Until the next time....Aloha

The Netherlands

Today was a "holiday" for us. The gym was closed for the day, so no practice! We decided to drive over to Holland. It is only a two hour drive to the lower part of the country. We ended up in Maastricht. It is a pretty good size city as there is a University there. A lot of people ride bikes--we haven't come across a place like that, yet. I did read online, that bike theft is big. What we did get to see, it was beautiful. We started in downtown, and walked thru the stores and did a bit of shopping. Ended up on the water front and walked along for a bit. We eat lunch and then ended at a bakery--they lady was super and gave her favorite bread. It was a tad expensive, but it was worth it. We walked thru some random stores, and in on particular store, I found the best christmas gift for those who live in the cold country. I picked up one, and then Eric said, why don't you get three, so they don't fight! So, I got three. I don't know why no one thought of this IDEA in the bitter cold north. You'll just have to wait! :) The people there were very friendly, in our opinion. We also felt lost with the language. We laughed as we said we were just starting to "understand" German and French. (Like we really understand)....but the street signs etc. Sortie, is exit Luxembourg....Ausfart, is exit in German and now Uit is exit in Dutch. The only cool thing I did notice, was the lotions or whatever it was you looked at, it had English and Dutch. You don't find that a lot.

We had to drive thur Belgium on the other side of the country this time. Opposite IKEA. I was shocked at the difference between the houses from Luxembourg to Belgium, I mean right over the boarder too. The house tend to be cement in Lux, and brick, it is more like slivers of brick. It was very different. On our way back, I also noticed, the house here (lux) are more colorful, as brick is basically dark. The towns were a bit run down too.

Tomorrow and Wednesday, there is a kids basketball tournament. I was suckered in volunteering my time. Why not, nothing better todo. I was placed in the cafe---perfect!

Belgium

We decided to take a mini trip over the boarder to Belgium. We were asking locals here, really how far from the boarder is Ikea. They were saying 5-10 mins--it was 10 seconds pass the line. It was too funny! What a nice trip, it was about a 30 mins drive from where we are. There are no highways, so it is the country roads, with the cows standing on the side. It was BEAUTIFUL with the fall colors, the smell with a bit of fog in the air too. We didn't have too much time yesterday to drive to far into the country as Eric still had to work, but the point of the trip really was to get me out of the country. Not that I can prove I was out of the country expect for a reciept. No longer stamp at the boarders. We found a few goodies, their new item is ORANGE hot pads and gloves. Of course I picked some up. We use towels here, but now I'll be baking in style. They are not staying, I will bring them back.

It's kind of nice, the kids will be on a week break next week which means there are tons of test this week. The schooling and test are much different over here---so hardly any of the kids show up for practice. All the coaches get to take it kind of easy this week. I've enjoyed it.

Wish for some sunshine next week for us. Starting Sunday and five days after it's suppose to rain with a 60% chance. Not looking forward to that.

ONE game this weekend! :) Very exciting. Sunday is a National Holiday, so nothing will be open. At least it is Sunday, I am already use to that---it really is hard when it's a Saturday and you don't know about the holiday.....hope you have food.

Think that's it for now.

Recipe Alert!

Found a great easy pasta dish for a light lunch! :)

1/2 box of pasta--I used bow tie noodles
3/4 cup salame--I used speck, as that is what is widly sold here in Europe. It was about 1/4 cup.
1 green onion
1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes--diced
1/2 cup olives--sliced
Parmesan Cheese-
I added, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 red pepper.

It also calls for Italian dressing--however, I added a swirl of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Cook Noodles...and add to bowl, mix everything together and enjoy!

Beth