January 7-13, 2008

Monday: Maren and Parker started school today. They go to St. John's International School. The website is www.stjohns.be. Check it out when you have time. Uniforms are mandatory for elementary kids. They look so darn cute in them. Maren has 22 kids in her class and some are from: Ireland, Canada, Korea, Italy, and England. Parker's class is brand new and only has 8 kids. I only know of one girl from China, and two from Chicago. The others, I have no idea where they are from, because it is of no concern to Parker.

Tuesday: Tony left for Italy today. Hopefully I don't need anything while he's gone, because I don't know if I'm brave enough to leave the house and drive anywhere.

After school today, we got to buy waffles from the waffle van. We have come to find out that there is a van that parks in front of the school, everyday, selling waffles and ice cream. The waffles are made fresh while you wait, and they are awesome. Let me tell you, that was the highlight of my day.

Wednesday: Maren and Parker had hot lunch today. Boy, were they impressed. I asked how lunch was, and Maren said, "It was really nice. We got to eat off of real plates and use silverware." Apparently, it was very good. It better be, for close to $7 a lunch. Can't do that very often or else we'll go broke.

Thursday: As we walked home from school today, Parker saw a girl in his class and he called to her. He told me that her name was Yin Gin and that she was from China and that she doesn't speak English. She turned to see who was calling and grinned a big grin and waved. You could tell that she was explaining to her mother who Parker was. It was so cool to see that even though they can't even understand on another, they are willing to accept each other as friends. What a neat experience.

We were in desperate need of some bread and milk tonight, so I had to suck it up and go to the store a whole 2 minutes away. Huge for me. I feel quite accomplished actually. Tony came home late tonight from Italy. He was able to accomplish some of what he set out to do.

Friday: Tony was home for the day. We were able to pick up our van about 30 minutes away. Hurray! I can't wait 'til can actually use it. I had to drive it home on the freeway by myself. Holy cow was I scared. Obviously though, I made it back in one piece, and so did the car.

Saturday: More running around to do today. Saturdays are crazy here because everything closes so early here during the week. Almost everything is closed by 6:30 except for the Walmar type store,(Carrefour), and it is only open until 8. How do people get things accomplished here? Therefore, everyone is out on Saturday trying to get things done that they can't do during the week. Traffic is insane, and people are everywhere.

Tony bought a fridge today. If I haven't already complained to you about it before, our fridge is tiny. Almost not functional for what we are used to..and don't even get me started on the washer. I know, I know stop complaining.

Sunday: Maren is not feeling well today, so she stayed home from church with Tony and the other kids. I had to go, because I'm already teaching a class of 7-8 year olds. Again, I was freaked out about driving on the freeway, but it wasn't too bad. I only almost crashed once.