Recovering my blog

I am sorry for not writing much lately. Alot has been going on and I have been spending alot of time trying to recover things from my other blog. The good thing is that I think I was able to get all my postings back, so now I just have to repost them to this new blog site. My other time consuming thing is trying to figure out whether I want to stick with this blog site or try a new one. I am hoping to find one that will work for me and not cause problems in the long run like the other website did. I hope to have some new posts very soon, and in the meantime, I am going to be backing up all of my old ones. So, check back frequently!

Jordan's Choir Concert

We have had several late nights this week for different reasons, but one was because Jordan had her first choir concert. She joined choir in January and has loved it, and she was so excited for her concert. They sang three songs, so their part was pretty short (since it was mixed in with concerts from other grades), and she was in the back row. So, I didn't get a good view of her, but she enjoyed doing it. Watch the little clip and see! Sorry it isn't a better view. The first song was much better and she got into it more, but I hadn't figured out the video function on my camera yet.

The Grump Squad (sometimes!)

Here is a previous posting about Jordan and Camille for all of you who did not see it before.

"No, I don't want to walk anymore, I don't want to look at anything else, and I don't want to go to anymore museums!" This is something that we hear from time to time from either Jordan or Camille or both when we are out exploring the world. Don't you just feel sorry for them? What poor little girls! They are able to not only travel around Europe at such a young age, but even better, they are able to live in the heart of it all. Jordan and Camille are great travelers. They love to fly or ride on a train, stay in a hotel (their 2nd favorite part) and visit the souvenir shops (their #1 favorite). ...And generally, they are very well-behaved when Lee and I are enjoying a wonderful museum or cathedral, even if they aren't enjoying it along with us, but sometimes, they let their fatigue show and let us have it. That's ok. I will take all that good with a little bit of bad any day. You know...atleast we got to see most of everything, and the best thing of all is we got to share it with them.

The latest comment from Jordan when we are in a great museum or standing in front of historic landmark or experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime event (and she has repeated this to me several times) is "When I get older, I want to come back here and do (or see) this again." I think to myself, "Wow! That is wonderful that she enjoys this so much that she wants to do it again," but I quickly wake up from my dream because this is not what she meant. She explains to me that the reason she wants to do it again is because she doesn't enjoy it now and feels that she would like it more when she is older. Hang on a second. Here we are standing in the middle of Anne Frank's house where she spent hiding for more than 2 years of her life, and you are telling me that you want to "redo" this whole experience. While her train of thought throws me for a loop, she is right about some things, and that is that I am sure she would appreciate everything she is experiencing now more when she is older, but that still doesn't mean she shouldn't do her best to enjoy it at the moment it is happening. The one thing I do know that is certain is that when Jordan loves something, she wants to do it again, so I guess it isn't too bad for her to not like it and want to do it again as well, right? Atleast she is consistent.

I hope that both my girls have the opportunity to "redo" Europe and all the sites, because not only is it amazing to see it once, but it is even better to see it twice, but we don't know where life is going to take them, and therefore, I would love for my girls to embrace life as it happens. In the meantime, Lee and I will do our best to enjoy the next wonderful thing we have the luxury of visiting, and while I hope for Jordan and Camille to enjoy it even a little, the best thing I can ask for is it to shape who they are as a person. I love my little girls! (sour faces and all!)

Problems

I am sorry to give you all a new place for my blog, but while I am having problems with the other site, I figured that this is a good way for me to keep you all up-to-date with us and for me to keep a creative outlet going. Hopefully, my other blog will start working again soon, and I will let you know if/when it does. I hope the new site works for you. If you have a problem with the language, chose "taal" at the bottom of your login screen and change it to English. I had this problem at first with some of my friends' blogs, but once you figure it out, it is all good.

Genereous, Fierce, and Completely Unwavering

So sweet and generous! Camille gathered up all of her allowance money that she had been saving (about 10 euros) because she wanted to give it to a charity that her school is collecting money for. I thought, “Wow. What a generous and selfless thing to do! How wonderful for her to even think to give her own hard-earned (bed-making, helping mommy pick up the house) money.” I was truly inspired by her gracious act of giving, and just in awe of the sweet little girl we are raising. I later asked her about the charity that she is helping out, and all she could tell me was the name, no details or anything else. I asked her if her teacher told them about it, and she said “no,” which made me wonder, “what made her so motivated to give her money to a charity she knows nothing about?” When I asked a few more questions, I found out the real reason, which is, and I quote, “If we raise the most money, then our class gets to have an ice cream sundae party.” Ah-ha. The real truth is out. So, instead of her giving her hard-earned money for the sole reason of giving, she is hoping to earn something out of it. I guess this is own way to get kids to bring in money.
Even with the incentives and false pretenses, Camille is still a sweet and generous girl, and she is one who will always find a way to get what she wants. I love and hate this about her. I hate it because her stubbornness lurks up all the wrong times and for minute details, such as not liking or wanting to put her socks on when we have to leave for school or deciding on a whim that she hates her pants that she had currently been wearing for the past week when we are late for something or sitting down for no reason in the middle of a dirty, busy place and refusing to get up when my hands are full and I can’t carry her, and the part I hate is that once she decides to do something, she won’t budge. She makes me so frustrated at times that all I can do is cry because I know that she won’t change her mind no matter what I do, and that disciplining her or taking something away from her for her behavior just makes the situation worse and therefore doesn’t help. I do my best to be strong and not waver from my position, but it is really hard to do when I know that she is not moving an inch. Ughhhhhhh!!!!!!!
Although frustrating, I do love that she is stubborn and strong-willed and doesn’t take no for an answer, because these are great qualities to have later in life. I just wish she would save up all her stubbornness for later because instead, I get to have the joy of handling it now, and if she is good at getting her way now, you better watch out for her when she grows up. She is fierce in every way, shape and form. Fierce in character, life, play, and love, and I love my fierce little girl, and even though she fries my nerves at times, I wouldn’t change a thing about her.
These pictures were taken at the Abbey at Villers-la-Ville in Belgium, and at this particular moment, Camille refused to take a picture with everyone else, and instead chose to put her head down, walk around and pout. As you can see, I was able to get a smile out of her for a second, and only one second.

Visit from Mom and Dad

If you couldn’t already tell by the past few postings, we have had visitors for the past 2 weeks. My Mom and Dad came to visit and we were so happy to have them come to Brussels and see where we live. We did our best to show them around Belgium and introduce them to Belgium food and customs and our favorite things, as well as showing them the smaller things, such as the grocery stores and how to throw away glass, etc. I also took them to all the places I visit on a daily basis, just to give them an idea of how our life has changed.
We were tourists too and went to Brussels several times to see the Grand Place, the King’s palace, the Mannekin Pis, and other things. We also took some drives into eastern Belgium and into the Netherlands (Heerlen and Maastrickt), Brugge, and Amsterdam. It rained alot and it was cold (and we even had snow) and this kind of put a damper on our plans, but we still got out and enjoyed ourselves. We just repeated some things a few times.

While I am sure it was strange being in a new country, I think they overall liked Belgium and enjoyed themeselves. I hope we didn’t wear them out too much because we are tired and I am sure they are just as exhausted as we are (especially now with the jet lag). Most of all, we really appreciated having them come all this way to see us. It was a wonderful present and one that we really needed. Thank you Mom and Dad! We love and miss you!