. . . pregnant and thirsty!

Today was a typical day in the NL -- drizzly and overcast for half a day, clear and cool for the other half. I am really getting accustomed to most thing Dutch nowadays, but there is one little thing that I am beginning to get pretty annoyed with living in the Netherlands . . . more on that later.

Day 15 - Patience is a virtue . . .

Today is yet another day here in Eindhoven that we are still not in our new house. Basically, our 40-foot container has been here since the first week of June, and they are just now getting around to looking at our paperwork -- goes to show that governments around the world are more similar than we think. So apparently they had issues with Keith's car that we were bringing with us, and have been going back and forth about that and who knows what else. As of today, that is looking to be resolved, but still no word on when actual movers are bringing our stuff to our house.

The Dom, the Rhine . . . and bachelor parties??

Keith and I were able to spend the weekend in Germany to celebrate our 5 year anniversary (we have no belongings in our house, so we thought we might as well get out of town!) . . . we drove a little over an hour to Cologne (or Koln) and spent a drizzly afternoon enjoying the city, stopping in cafes, and walking next to the Rhine River. What follows are some highlights from our day . . .

Driving into the city

Not the same Maggiano's we're used to!

5 years, 8 months, 11 days . . .

Today is our 5 year anniversary . . .

and time sure does fly. There's a long story behind how we met, but to make it short, Keith and my stepmom worked together and she was dying to hook us up (though Keith was hesitant at first). Once we finally met, he called to ask me out, and we've been together ever since. I'm sure I will get a call from her today (like I do every year), wishing us a happy anniversary and asking where her flowers are that we should send her. ; ) In all seriousness, I really am grateful that she saw something special in him and pushed to get us together. That was almost nine years ago, and I thank God every night for blessing me with a husband like Keith. Every relationship has ups and downs and ours is no exception. But at the end of the day, there's no one else I'd rather be with. We have fun, we laugh, we argue, we have real conversations, and no one knows me better. While this is only our 5th anniversary, and things will undoubtedly get even better and worse than we ever imagined, there is no one else I'd rather go through this life with. "He's her lobster . . ." (as Phoebe would say)

Learning to read . . .

After being in the Netherlands for a week now, I've made a wonderful connection with my students in regards to reading. Those of you who know me know that I love learning. And it is not often that as adults we find ourselves in an environment where we feel truly lost, or where we know absolutely nothing about something. Times like that are the perfect time to learn. I've said many times that my absolute favorite class in school was an astronomy class I took my junior year of college -- astronomy was something I knew practically nothing about and I LOVED learning something new. So I am kind of feeling like that lately . . .