Wow! A month?

Its been a whole month since I've blogged? Geez! Well, Alexa has been in school. I cant believe the things she is learning. It's just amazing. She also picks up on every little thing we say, then uses it against us. I was feeding Dylan last night and he started to throw a fit and here comes little Miss Alexa saying "Dylan! Chill!" LOL. Friday is her last day until the new year. Tomorrow is her Christmas party. I picked the easy thing on the list.....popcorn...lol. So her Christmas party is tomorrow, and guess what else? CHRIS' 29th BIRTHDAY! Happy Early Birthday old man! LOL. Chris is loving his job. They just moved into a new building this week, and it's across the street from the mall, so he has all kinda of lunch options now. He got his bike fixed and he's riding it to work (probably 2 miles). It's freezing here!! (Literally.....the temperature doesnt get above 30!!) He's a trooper though. He's committed to riding that bike for exercise, so I'm not going to interfere. Dylan is gettng a TON of teeth in right now, and he's being an angel....well...normally. He's kinda being a bear today, but I just put him down for a nap. When he opens his mouth all you can see are spikes of teeth. I think he has about 8 coming in. If he's miserabe, he's really not acting like it. Me, on the other hand, I'm freezing to death. My body has never felt temperatures this cold before!!! I am so damn cold!! At least it's not raining though (actually, that would be snowing....I dont know how to drive in the snow..lol). It's been nice and sunny for about a week now and I am LOVING it. Hopefully it'll stay sunny for chris' birthday party saturday! We are grilling hamburgers!! Woo hoo!! I am REALLY excited about this because I have been wanting a hamburger for a long time now! We are having a few people over to celebrate. Fun stuff. We are still getting moved into the house. We're trying to make all of our stuff fit..lol. We've been making weekly trips to IKEA to make this possible. Now every weekend Alexa says she wants to go to IKEA.

I think she just wants the ice cream though..lol. We pulled out and charged the Hummer so they could ride around, and we got a cool picture of them in the forest across the street..

She loves going to the forest, and we try to let her run around as much as possible. There's a lake with ducks and the trees just look really cool!

While she was in the car with Dylan, she said they were going to the grocery store and they'd be right back. Then she drove off into the mud and got stuck....she needed some daddy rescue. She's still not a great driver, but she's ALOT better than most of the student drivers I see driving around. I have never in my life seen so many student drivers in one city before! Some of them are just AWFUL drivers! It's so irritating getting stuck behind one because the roads are not bing enough to pass them (plus they are usually bordered by tram tracks). It's ridiculous! While I'm on the topic of things that are ridiculous, here's my list I've compiled in the last month of things I find irritating here:

• The toilets are too tall, so I have to put Alexa on the potty everytime she has to go. We've tried stools, and a steph ladder has worked, but GEEZ! There HAS to be a way this poor girl can go to the potty on her own.
• Chris has a complaint of his own too..Why do we have 9 ft of countertop, a 13inch sink, and no disposal? This is a daily complaint . I totally agree though. It's pretty stupid.
• There is hardly any parking at Alexa's school. How are we supposed to drop the kids off if we cant park to do so!?
• I'm having a hard time trying to find ingredients, so I've had to tweak so many things. Cant find cornmeal, grits, chex cereal, or really much other than cheerios and cornflakes, oh and granola. Dont have fruit snacks, dont have sweet potatoes, dont have velveeta, refried beans, rotel, many crackers....besides melba toast.., and brown sugar. (Attention Walmart...please make your way to Europe as soon as possible WITH American brands. Thanks :) ).

I know I have more, but I have to go pick Alexa up from school. Woo freaking hoo. I need a nap in my warm cozy bed.

When it Rains, It Pours.

Why cant that saying hold true for the weather? It never pours here. It just rains ALL THE FREAKIN TIME. I think we've had MAYBE 7 days of sun since we've been here. I am so tired of having to drag the kids out in this weather twice a day. Today I broke out the double stroller to get Alexa to school. I'm tired of having to change her pants/shoes/socks when we get into the classroom because she went puddling jumping on the way to class (which is only about a 200 meter walk (100m from the 100m sign..lol).

Our things finally cleared customs. They are being delivered next week. God only knows how they are going to get the furniture up 2 flights of stairs (I'll take pics ;o) ). I cant wait to have my belts, and purses, dishes, and silverware. The cups here are ridiculous. You take 1 drink and have to refill. Plus, they are all glass. I miss my big Tupperware cups...lol.

I dont think we have plans this weekend. I'm sure we'll end up on the Plein on Sunday,like we normally do, but I think it'll probably be dependent on weather.

"Sinterklaas" is coming to town, so we might take Alexa up there to see "Jingle Bells" (as she calls him). I havent decided which tradition we are going to follow yet. I need to read up on Sinterklaas some more.

What is that?

Silence?

Yes. Things are finally starting to fall into place. Alexa goes to school everyday and Dylan, well, he's just that loveable cuddly baby you just cant get enough of (unless he's trying to examine your teeth or rip your glasses off of your face....then you're pretty much over it!) I'm adapting to the grocery store/lack of food situation. Chris is still bitter they dont sell breakfast sausage though...lol. You know what I'm bitter about!? Just a few things today...

Why should I have to shop in the Childrens Department to buy my clothes? I am 5'4 and pushing 30 (ok, pushing 28, but still). I have EARNED the right to shop in AT LEAST the Juniors Section, but nope. Not here. Apparently here I am the size of an average 12 yr old. Same with shoes. Yesterday, one of the stores was having a great sale on boots, so I went oer there. You guessed it, I wear a kids size in boots too. This is seriously irritating me. They dont make cute boots with heels for KIDS!! GRRRRRR.

Another thing....the toilets....yep...back to the toilets.

They are so high off the ground, my feet dont reach the floor when I sit down. I'm gonna have to get me a step stool just so I can pee comfortably. HEH.

Oh well, off to get the big munchkin so she can make the rest of my day a living hell. I have bruises al over me from her hitting. Now her new thing is kicking, so when she gets mad, she'll kick me.....HARD. I dont let her wear shoes in the house anymore.

Anyway, have a great day :)

Life is good

Life is good...

Too bad the weather here SUCKS. It has been raining all morning. I had to take Alexa to school, and of course she decided to stomp through every large puddle on the walk to her classroom. Oh well. She'll have to deal with the wet socks and shoes. Her rainboots were like 15 ft away in her classroom, but nope. Tennis shoes and socks for puddle jumping sounded like a good idea to her this morning. I dunno what the deal is with the GPS, but it takes me right through the middle of Downtown Hague at freaking 830am. Someone needs to pass the GPS some coffee and tell her to wake up and stop taking me through the highest traffic area she can find. It's raining....again. It has been raining....since....hell everyday since I can remember. It's supposed to rain as far as the radar is predicting. I'm not talking 30%. I'm talking 60% chance of rain. In TX, 30% means it's gonna rain 30% of the day (LOL...I made that up.....seems to hold true though). Here, 60% chance of rain means you might as well just stay inside because you aint getting nothin done today (gotta throw in that slang...I'm missing it..lol). I'll probably never be able to spreken Dutch. My accent is too thick. Even the Australian guy was laughing at me. That's sad. Everyone is telling Chris he doesnt have an accent. They can tell he's from "The States" but they arent sure where. Then they hear me. HAHA. Good ol Texas. How I miss thee :oP. (And your velveeta, rotel, and Mexican food.)

There's a first for everything....

Today is Dylan's First Birthday!! Happy Birthday Honey!!!

Today was also Alexa's first day of school. She's going to the British School. She had a great day. She goes 9-11:30 everyday.

Today, I drove!!!! Of course, it wasnt the first time, but I actually had to drive Alexa to school today, and let me tell you, it SUCKS. First of all, the signs are totally different. You can kinda figure some of them out, but others, I have no idea. Secondly, the turn lanes are ridiculous!!! Like 3 lanes turn right and one turns left. Plus, it's only painted on the street, so you dont know if you're in a turn lane until you see the paint right before the light! I've had to cut many people off for that reason. You also cant turn right on red, which sucks. They'd probably have alot less traffic if you could (and probably alot more tram wrecks too...lol).

Alexa and Dylan gave me hell last night. Alexa didnt want to go to sleep, so she was screaming and woke Dylan up, and he didnt want to go back to sleep, so between the 2, they screamed for over an hour, waking each other. Then mean mommy had to wake both of them up at 7am to get Alexa to school. I got her to school and took Dylan shopping. I let him pick out a few presents, picked Alexa up, came home, made his cake, and the TV was delivered. Apparently you can only charge 2500 Euros a day on your bank card....and the TV was 2552, so I had already gone shopping and spent 130. I had to have Chris leave work and bring me cash so that I could make up the difference from what I spent today and how much I could debit in a day. Whoops. Sorry Chris.

We moved into the house this weekend. It's such a nice neighborhood. I have pictures posted on my facebook page. We live across from a park with a pond and a TON of trees, and since they really have seasons here, the leaves are all changing colors. Our house is 3 stories, with 2 stairsways of death....lol. Dutch stairways are ridiculous! They are winding and narrow! Anyway, they are both babygated off. On the bottom floor is the kitchin, dining room, and living room with a coat closet. The Foyer can be closed and there's a toilet room in there (with a REAL toilet!! No platform!!). Upstairs, there are 4 bedrooms, the bathroom, and a toilet room. Upstairs again is another 2 bedrooms, bathroom (with washer and dryer) and a toilet room. My legs are killing me from walking all of these stairs, and having the laundry room on the 3rd floor SUCKS. All of the baby gates are horrible too, but we love the house!

I found Dylan some cake mix!! Nothing to write "Happy Birthday" with or anything, but I found the mix! There's a grocery store inside of the mall, and when I went to get his slide yesterday I decided to go check, and there was cake mix!!! I made him a doggie shaped cake (havent iced it yet.....guess I should. ) I have no idea what to make for dinner though. Both kids have been asleep for a long time. I should probably wake them up. UGHHHHHHHH. Off I go......

Woo busy!

We had quite a busy little week last week. Dylan got sick with a really high fever. I called a Dutch Dr (the one recommended by our relocation sponsor), and the nurse told me not to give him Tylenol, that his fever needed to come out, and when he has his fever for 3 days I can bring him in. Meanwhile Dylan was screaming in pain, but not pulling at his ears or anything...just drooling alot. I wasnt ok with this nurse's advice. How could I just sit and let my baby scream in pain for 3 days and do nothing?! She's out of her MIND! (Obviously she doesnt have kids), so I called Chris shaking and crying. I KNEW something was wrong with him. He talked to his coworkers and got the name of another clinic. I called them and they said it's good that his fever came down (from over 102 to 100.4), but if it gets back up, bring him into the after hours clinic. A few hours later he wakes from his nap and his temp is even higher (39.5F), so I call SMASH (the after hours place). The nurse is speaking Dutch, so I say "Do you speak English?" (I was freaking out....pretty frantic) and the lady says "Dont you speak Dutch?" "No I just moved here!" The NERVE of some people....especially when I'm in mommy freakout mode...lol. So I tell her his symptoms, which he doesnt have many...just a really high fever and drooling...so she says "Well, what do you want to bring him in for? Just the fever and drooling? It's probably teeth." NO! IT'S NOT! HE JUST CUT A TOOTH!!! IT'S NOT HIS TEETH!! So I make an appointment for about 2 hours later and get Dylan some Tylenol and in the tub. At first he was screaming and his little body turned purple (it wasnt a cold bath either!), but then he stop screaming and started splashing a little. Got him out and dressed and when Chris got home, I took Dylan to the clinic. His ears looked great, but his throat was red. I just needed to keep giving him Tylneol for the fever and sore throat and watch him. She said there were a bunch of viruses going around. He had the fever for about 3 days, and now he seems ok. Usually when the kids spike high fevers like that with no other symptoms, it's Roseola, but he doesnt have a rash or anything now. I dunno. Maybe it was just a little 3 day virus. I havent looked at his throat again.

Thursday night we had a parent's conference at Alexa's school. We got to meet the teacher and the other parents. I think she's really going to enjoy it there. She loves going to school. She's the only American in the school though. There are a few British, Canadian, Turkish, Malaysian, and Czech kids, and she's the only American...lol. I'm looking forward to her learning things from different cultures!

Friday we had to be at Immigration at 9am. Boy that was fun. We cant get anywhere at 9am on our own, let alone with the 2 kids...lol, but we got on the bus (late of course) and started our journey. We got in there and there were markers and coloring pages all over the table, so Alexa was a little Princess! she was really good....until I pulled out my gum. Then she wanted a piece (she never gets gum) and she lost it. So homeward bound, I had to take the kids back with me by myself because Chris had to go to work. People on the bus were very helpful!

Saturday we interviewed a babysitter. She's a live in nanny for 2 girls that go to school during the day. She's from Poland and she's working on her dissertation in Mathematics. She came over at 11 and as soon as she walked in the door, Alexa gave her a big hug. That's always a good sign, right? So we talked with her about 30 mins and went and ran a short errand (went grocery shopping) and came back. She was great with the kids! Alexa drew a bunch of pictures with her and had a really good time. We have gotten really lucky with babysitters/nannies.

Yesterday we went to the Plein/Grote Markt and went shopping for a few things and had lunch...like we do every Sunday. I got a new card for my camera and it works now!! YAY!!! So I took a few pictures. I also got 2 pairs of jeans and 2 sweaters. They were having really good sales this weekend. Oh, and Alexa got a bobo. There is a huge L shaped wooden bench where we sat (there were probably 5 tables on it) and she was running up and down the bench (we were the only ones sitting on it, and it was outside anyway), and she cut her hand on the wood. Luckily I had my antibacterial wipes. I stuck one on her hand. It bled for a long time (because of the alcohol), but the waiter got her a bandaid and then she had to tell everyone about it....lol.

That brings us to today. We are hanging out, cleaning the house and doing some laundry. Pretty boring stuff :)

I've got a minute

Things have been quite busy the past few days. Sunday we enjoyed a beautiful (well, rainy)day of shopping and having lunch in the Plein/Grote Markt. It's a nice little shopping area, but it reminds me of all of those pictures you see of the streets of like Tokyo. Just shop after shop, pavestone walkways, TONS of people, kinda dirty too. The kids had a nice peaceful day too, though it was quite cold and rainy. I got a new coat. It's beautiful. Dylan got 2 coats since I overestimated his size. I thought he'd be in 12 mo clothing by now, but he's really starting to thin out, so we're still in 9 mo clothing.

Alexa was supposed to start school at Tasid yesterday, but once we found the house we wanted, we decided that a 30+ minute drive would not do. Plus, they only had room for her Tuesday/Thursday, which was ok, but we immediately started searching for a school near the new house and found The British School of the Netherlands was right around the corner. Plus, they are building a new campus, opening in January, that is really close. We went in yesterday for a tour and it's PERFECT! They follow the same principles and teaching methods that I like (the group rotation, where at Tasid they all had to sit and do things together). Of course Alexa walked right into the room and started playing with everything, so they said she wont have a problem fitting in at all. She's one of the smallest kids in the class though, which is weird because about 2 months ago she was almost 30 lbs and over 37 in. They teach the kids to be more independent. As the years/semesters progress, they teach them to drink from a cup without a lid, to pour their own milk, butter their own toast, etc, as well as putting on their own clothes. Each child has to bring a raincoat and boots because they get to play out in the puddles during recess. This truly is the ideal pre-K. One of the pluses of this school is that she will get to stay there until we move. With Tasid, it's more like a daycare than a true school, but this is a school, through 11 yr olds (whatever grade that is). We got so lucky we inquired when we did because this week is the end of one of their terms. They dont allow admission during terms, but the new one starts November 3rd, after their break, so Alexa will start at her school November 3rd, which happens to be Dylan's birthday!

I cant believe my baby is almost 1! I'm going to cry! He is SUCH a joy and SUCH a happy baby. Totally opposite of Alexa, though she's teaching him some really bad behaviors. My goal this week is to either find somewhere that makes little cakes (or even a cupcake or 3), and if I cant find anyone, I'll try to find the ingredients (which has been unsuccessful so far, but if I set out ONLY looking for those things, I might find them). I havent talked to the family yet, but I have a cute little idea. Hopefully they will read this. When I get Dylan his cake and candle on his birthday, I'll set up my webcam and try to find a program where we can talk to a bunch of people at once.....like a conference call where they can sing happy birthday to him and see him blow out the candles and everything too. I'll keep everyone posted so yall can watch too, if you want. Oh, and guess what!?

WE'LL BE IN THE NEW HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got the phone call yesterday. We were also able to negotiate rent down for Shell..lol. We get to move next week!!! All of our stuff should be through customs by then, too. I am just beside myself excited! Everything is falling into place now. Alexa has a school that she will be able to stay in and make friends, we got the house, our things supposedly arrived yesterday, I am just so excited!! I want to go run around in circles!! LOL. I might do that later if it's not too cold or raining....and if Dylan wakes up ok. He felt a little warm when I put him to bed last night (after giving him Tylenol), and he cried out twice, but he's still sleeping now (at 10am, which isnt unusal for him). I might take him by the Dr today. We'll see. I have alot on my plate today. We just got the note to go to the Dr (well, Chris is supposed to have it today. We'll see), and I need to go for a followup from my surgery, and I might need to take Dylan in too. I need to get all of our medical records faxed over from all of the Drs too. I also need to get a thermometer (yeah I know....mommy of the year here). I found a babysitter online through an ex-pat site. She sounds wonderful. Right now she's a nanny for some school aged kids, but she's free during the day (while her kids are at school) and on the weekends, and at night. We are interviewing her Saturday. She has a degree, is certified in CPR, and sent pics of herself with some of the kids she has nannied. This is going to be great. If she works out, we will be able to take the language classes on the weekends, and possibly even have some time to ourselves! Going out to dinner with these 2 has been a very challenging task! Many places dont have high chairs. Alexa wont sit still in a chair/booth, and Dylan can't sit still. I did, however, take my scarf I had Sunday and use that as a "seatbelt" so help him sit in the chair without falling out. Gotta do whatcha gotta do, right?

Everything is going great right now. I'll keep yall posted on the website for Dylans birthday. Other than that, I'm out! Love ya guys!

We did it!

Ok, now things are really starting to sink in. We got Alexa in school. Now we found our house. Here it is.. http://www.funda.nl/huur/rijswijk-zh/huis-74795644-park-de-wervelaan-23-s-m/fotos/#foto-1

We just have to do a few negotiations about furniture, and since it's vacant, we'll be good to move in! Yesterday was very hectic. We were supposed to meet the agent at the first house at 9am. Well, Dylan doesnt usually wake up until 10am, so I let him sleep until 8:30, fed him something quick, and in the car we went. Boy was he grouchy trying to get there! He's going through a nasty phase where he doesnt wanna do anything that's not his idea...lol. Alexa was a little more cooperative. She enjoys getting out and looking at houses. We got outta here at 8:45. We knew we were gonna be a little late, but didnt expect the surprise we got....a draw bridge!!!! We had to sit and wait in traffic for this boat to go through....and it was a regular street....nothing spectacular. There are canals everywhere around here, but I had no idea they were actually navagable! Pretty cool. So we get to the house. Traditional Dutch house. Nothing special. Built in the 1900s. Upstairs, the rooms were connected by french doors. The 2 rooms on the 2nd floor connected and the 2 rooms on the 3rd floor connected. Just what we need, Alexa keeping Dylan up, or vice versa, and us keeping 1 of them up. So that house was a definite NO. Then we get to the second house. When you walk in, there's a huge mirrored closet. The real estate agent and Chris almost walked into the mirror. It made the place look HUGE, and it was a gorgeous place, so it was a close second (next to the white house). We almost quit there. Alexa was screaming because she wanted to run up and down all of the stairs, and they are Dutch stairs....very dangerous, so we kept telling her No. We had to end up dragging her out of the house. Then we decided we werent doing this anymore! We didnt see anything we fell in love with like the white one. The RA wanted to show us this last one. We walk in and it's so open and airy. Everything's really bright and white, and there are windows everywhere. It actually felt like "home" when you walked in. We talked for a minute weighing our options. There's not a huge backyard, but there's enough for Alexa to play around in. Across the walkway, you can see our neighbors backyard (it backs up to ours) and they have a ton of toddler toys. That was our selling point. With the white house, we would have no neighbors, and apparently it's in a bad part of the city? I dunno. But here it's like a little townhome subdivision, so we'll have neighbors, and they obviously have kids, so that'll be great for all of us. We told the RA to go on with the paperwork, so we shall see :). After all of this house shopping, we had to get our bank cards from the bank at Chris' office. Then we went and looked at another house, and went grocery shopping. We finally found a grocery store that wasnt ridiculously outrageous. They had little shopping carts for the kids to push around too. OMG I shouldve known that was gonna be a nightmare! Alexa kept running into people, and walking in front of them, but she does have enough manners to say "excuse Me" LOL. people thought that was cute. She wouldnt let us help her, and she wouldnt let us touch her cart, so the checkout was a nightmare too. She was standing in front of people ramming her cart around. When Chris grabbed her cart to stop her from hitting people, she would throw herself on the ground screaming. I was just beside myself. She will NEVER get a cart again. I keep telling Chris she doesnt mind because he doesnt make her, and he saw her true colors yesterday....finally. Hopefully things will be better once she starts school. I know I say that everyday. I'm really holding out hope.

Me, I'm doing better. The reality is really starting to set in that we'er not just on vacation. We are living here. It's a weird feeling....knowing we might not ever go back to where our families and friends are. I've never done anything like this before, so it's all new to me. It's been hard to adapt. We've been here for what? 3 weeks now? Ya know that show "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Going to live in a new culture with a different language kinda makes you feel like one of those people that miss one of the first questions. Everything is so different here than what I'm used to. Kilometers instead of miles (MPHs). I try to convert it in my head just so I can get an idea, but I'm clueless. That, and the temperature....it's in celsius. Many people dont know how to convert C to F. I do, but I dont want to have to do that. I just want to be able to say "Oh...it's 11 degrees outside....it's cold" and not "11 degrees...go look at the F thermometer...oh, that's about 52 degrees....it's cold" I know that's petty, and it will come in time, but I just dont feel comfortable here yet. Most people speak English, so that's really helpful, but I wanna learn Dutch! I wanna be able to communicate with these people in there own language, live the way they do, and think the way they think. It's just so hard having been taught a totally different way to do things. Oh well. It'll come. I've rambled on enough today. It's laundry day. Since the washing machine is the dryer too, and hardly anything fits in, this is going to be an all day event.

I promise

I promise I'll get out and buy a battery for my camera today.....as soon as Chris gets home. It's apparently pretty fried, even though the plug claims it's dual voltage. I'm gonna replace the batery and see if that's my problem. If not, I'll steal Chris' camera. I use it way more than he does. I just have to pry it away from him. Today has been rather uneventful. The kids are fighting, as usual, but timeout seems to be working well. I got real tears, so I think I'm finally getting through to her....I'm not taking her crap anymore. She threw a hard plastic ball at Dylan's head today. I told her to go to timeout and she shrugged her shoulders and said "I dont care." I went ahead and explained what "I dont care" means....AFTER she sat in timeout, so I think she DOES care...lol. I told her she's not getting "chances" anymore. she knows she's doing something wrong. I shouldnt have to reinforce the rules 500 times a day. If she hurts Dylan, she goes straight to timeout. No "Dont do it again." No warnings. Straight to the chair. She's so tired of being in this small apartment. She doesnt have anywhere to run around, and we live on a major street, so she cant just go outside and play. We do live across from a park, but it's more like a field.....just some grass.....and an ugly statue (I didnt even notice the statue until Chris pointed it out to me a few days ago and we've been here how long? LOL). Not sure what we aer doing for dinner. I'm tired of cooking. The kitchen is way too small. I cant even wash a cookie sheet in the sink! And the hot water burns my freezing numb hands! (Dont tell me to turn it down.....I know that, the hot water sterilizes things!) Speaking of hot water, I'll go off on one of my tangents.

I HATE the faucets here, whether it be showers or baths. You can feel the hot and the cold water mixing as it comes out, so in the shower, if you stand on one side of the water, it's cold, and the other side is hot. WTH is that?! Why is that happening and why has it never happened before?! I guess I always assumed it was warm water coming out, not just hot and cold mixed. UGH. Add it to my "Sucks" list.

The House

Here's the house we've been looking at..

http://www.pararius.com/Family-house-for-rent/Rijswijk-Zh/Julialaantje/437495/

We are going to look at more tomorrow. I'll keep yall poosted ;)

Woo

1 down and 1 to go. Today has been such a hard day. Chris had to fly to London, so I was stuck here with the kids. Dylan woke up in a terrible mood, and Alexa, well, she's just being Alexa. Last night she told Chris I was being a bitch and today she's telling me "I dont care." You'll care when you sit in timeout for the rest of your life. (totally kidding). Every toy Dylan touches, she grabs from him, even if it's his. She hits him. He hits her. Everytime she walks past him, he start swinging at her. I am just so tired of the constant yelling and screaming between the 2 that I just PRAY for nap time.

We got Alexa into school yesterday. She'll be going Tuesdays and Thursdays 9-2. She's so bored. that was one of our first priorities. Now to the houses....we saw that white house yesterday and fell in love. Chris wants to lok at a few more, but I REALLY want this house. It has a big backyard! That's almost nonexistant here! Friday we will be going to look at more houses. Should prove to be fun. Dragging the kids through houses telling them not to touch anything sounds just like the day I want to have...lol.

I woke up this morning and it was FREEZING! It was 64 degrees in my house! I immediately turned the radiators on. I thought I was gonna die. It was SO COLD. Even Alexa sat bundled under my blanket until it started to warm up in here. At least it was a beautiful day. We cleaned and went for a walk to the grocery store. Nothing too interesting today. I REALLY hate having to go grocery shopping every other day. I cant wait until we move and I get a big fridge/freezer!!!

Ridiculous

Woke up today and the house was 64 degrees. Will type more when my fingers thaw.

Bon Voyage

Wait, that's French. Vaarwel. There, that's better.

Susie just left to go back to Houston. It's actually funny, because I thought I heard thunder, so I jumped outta bed before they left and asked if they looked up the flight status. Chris said no, same I came and sat down here (with my wannabe Starbucks coffee), and pulled up Schipol airport. It said no Continental flights were leaving today. Hmm.

Then I went to fly2houston.com to see. Same thing. No flights match my description. Why? THE STUPID TIME DIFFERENCE.

It's, what, 11:45pm over there, 6:45am here, so it's a different day, so when I looked up the flight info, I shouldve put "Flights arriving tomorrow" in Houston. That's one of the worst plane rides.....home. It's a 10 hour flight, you leave here at 10am and get there at 1pm, so you're following the sun the whole way, even though it'll be near bedtime when she arrives. It's a blustery 55 degrees here. I'm sure she'll be landing in 90 degree weather. Good ol Texas. How I miss thee and your warm weather, but I'll just keep dressing in layers for now.

Shout out to Susie for everything she's helped us with during the move, and up until now. Thank you so much! Without your help, I'd probably be institutionalized...lol.


Today will prove to be a rather busy day. Chris is dropping Susie off at the airport right now, then has a meeting at work, then we have apoointments to look at houses, possibly a meeting with a preschool, and most likely a duo of grouchy toddlers (Dylan is almost 1! Can you BELIEVE it?! ) Should be fun (sarcasm).

Things we take for granted

Chris told me we werent shipping any of my candles/fragrances. I think I'm making him eat his words. This blog goes back to the toilet....

The bathroom and toilet room are 2 separate rooms here. In fact, they are down the hall...not even next to each other. 1 bathroom, 4 people using it. The toilet room is just that...there's a toilet and a sink with only cold water (yeah...it's freaking FREEZING cold water too) and enough room for you to turn around and bend over to pull your pants up. What a waste of space, but what gets me is that there's no ventilation!! No fan, nothing! So you sit there with your poop on a platform with no fan. You have to continuously flush the toilet so you dont have to inhale the toxic fumes. The back of the toilet is slanted, so you cant sit air freshener there (who would wanna smell lavendar crap anyway, right?), but I really wish I wouldve brought something. I brought my Scentsy burner, which works great on a converter, in the living room, but it doesnt go throughout the house (namely, the toilet room). I'm thinking about running an extension cord to the toilet room, building a shelf, and putting my Scentsy on it.

I'll keep yall posted.

Sending out an SOS

If you can read this, please send Velveeta, Nesquick Chocolate milk, and oatmeal.

Kidding.


I'm having a hard time getting adjusted to this. I'm ok with the weather now. It rains everyday, and it hovers around 60, but I'm learning to deal. Oh, and I dont melt in the rain. That's good to know. (LOL). I think we are all finding this place to be a PITA when it comes to food. After endulging in the worlds worst Mexican food yesterday, we decided we are going to open up a Gringos over here. I think I have convinced Chris to open a Fuddrucker's instead. Oh, and a Taco Bell too. I really dont even like Taco Bell, but when you dont have it, you want it. Oh, Super Walmart too. Nothing is open 24 hours, so we have decided we want to pollute the Dutch population wiht a 24 hr mega store.....lol. So we've got Gringos, Fudduckers, Taco Bell, and Walmart. Anything else? Oh....I think Chris said something about a donut shop.....with real kolachies....but we found a bakery that had them (and Chris called them kolachies and the guy laughed at him). I think we should just start our own American city in the middle of this country. Actually, we'll take over the beach. I'll put some heat lamps over there so I can lay out without freezing to death, and I'll put Gringos and Fuddruckers on the beach too. Sounds good!

I'm really missing my American brands. I think I know why many of the people here smell bad....their fabric softener and laundry detergents stink, so they'd rather smell like B.O. thank this crap. When I come home I'm shipping Gain Apple Mango Tango and Downy Orchid Allure back for my clothes. I'm tired of drowning myself in perfume to get on the trams so that I cn only smell myself...lol. I also miss Ritz crackers (cant find anything even close), Motts Apple Juice (I dont even KNOW wth this apple juice is, but when I can juice my own apple, I'll be happy), Velveeta, Rotel, my egg roll wrappers, breakfast sausage, pillsbury, hash browns, cheez its (are yall wondering what I AM eating yet?). For breakfast, I eat a croissont....with cheese and butter. Well, it's actually closer to lunch time because I have to inhlae about 5 cups of coffee to get warm, then it's lunch time. The croissant is brunch. Then I usually cook dinner around 6. Tonight we are having basil chicken and pasta with green beans. I need to learn to cook more things because dining out inst really....what's the word.....possible....with Alexa the Independent and Dylan. Our Mexican food adventure was a nightmare yesterday. We have to get her in school...like yesterday. Speaking of yesterday, we went to the beach to have lunch. It was about 60 degrees with 30 mph winds. It was pleasant (ly cold), but the kids enjoyed it. The seagulls were just drifting (have you seen videos of the indoor skydiving? That's what they looked like.....they werent even flying!) There's something wrong with my camera, but I do have a few pictures here and there from Chris' camera. I'll post them later.

Chris finally got his housing exception, so we are gonna go see where the houses are today. There are very few things open on Sundays (though IKEA is.), so there's not a lot to do. I dont think Realtors are around on Sundays either. Susie will be leaving Tuesday morning, and Chris has to go to London Wednesday (just for the day), so I'll be on my own. Wish us luck!

This is so gross

The toilets here totally gross me out. There's no water in the bowl! You poop on this platform and it sits there, smell and all! It's so disgusting. Then when you flush, it clears it. Apparently the Dutch LOVE this concept because they can "see" what they've done. Me, I find it repulsive. I dont even wanna poop! I just keep flushing and flushing. GROSS :oX. Alexa, on the other hand, thinks it's great too. Toddlers and their poo (rolling eyes).

Been a long few days

Geez, time seems to fly here. I cant believe it's been so long since I posted last. It's cold again. It was getting progressively warmer, and yesterday it was 70 degrees. Today it's back in the 50s and my rings keep falling off my fingers are so cold. It's actual beautiful outside. I can see the sun!! I think I've seen it 3 times since I've been here. We went to the salon this morning to get Alexa's hair trimmed and we walked around window shopping and drooling at the chocolatiers. YUM. We made it back and everyone is napping (I'm headed that way). We got al of our air freight yesterday....the baby walker, potty seats, high chair, and clothes and hangers. Now we have nowhere to put it all..lol. Meh, oh well. We still have suitcases sitting around too. We test drove a BMW yesterday. The double stroller barely fits in the trunk (have to take the tray off), so we will probably continue shopping, which leads me to this...

I cant freaking BELIEVE the carseat laws here!! Kids only have to be in a carseat until they are 3. No rear facing/forward facing, nothing. ANDDDD....They can sit in the front seat in a car seat! How insane is that?! Of course, Dylan will be 1 next month, and we put him in rear facing anyway, but I'm sorry. Alexa will be in a car seat until she's 65 pounds (or can drive....lol). She seems to be doing better now that we got her toys and potty seat. ( Thank GOD I put that in air freight. She has been using the potty to excuse herself from dinner.....and I have to put her on the potty! )

So yeah, not a whole lot going on still. Still havent started looking for houses yet, but we are car shopping :)

Wow, what a week!

And it's only Monday. We had to fill out a move in inventory on the house. We had to count every fork, every knife, every plate, every cup. It was ridiculous. We also had to make note of every stain, every chip in the floor, EVERYTHING. This place sounds deplorable if you read our list....lol. So we had to do that, and also a valued inventory for our air freight and sea freight items. That's what we stayed up doing last night. Chris wakes up and goes to work this morning, and someone stole the GPS and his case for his sunglasses (they werent in there...lol) out of the car. I had to pee very badly and ran up to the apartment and forgot to lock it. My bad. Then he calls about the apartment. The dishwasher is missing ALL of the wheels (wait, I think there's one out of 8), the washing machine/dryer is making a "off balance" sound, and the carpets are horribly stained. We arent used to living like this!!!!! Chris called the management company to gripe and complain and they told him there's nothing they can do and we just arent used to these dirty european slums...lol. Chris said fix everything or else, so they are. I mean, this place is kinda dangerous. Some of the window latches are broken, and the kids could fall out of the windows! So poor Chris had a helluva day. Alexa is driving me INSANE. She better hope a Dutch daycare has a space open before boarding school does!!! She is just being EVIL. She's freaking HILARIOUS at the same time, with the things she says (she calls everything a "silly (g)doose"). She's currently slapping the computer saying "That's Daddy's computer, get off! Get off! That's Daddy's and that's Yours (pointing across to mine.) " She is soooooooo whiny and just a brat. I'm sorry, but to put it bluntly, she's being a BRAT. She wants blue play doh, I take it out and she screams she wants pink. She's being downright testy, defiant, and dangerous!!!!! We need to get her into school...NOW. That's ll be my job for the week.

Write that on my to-do list.

Blah

Rain Friday, Rain Saturday (with 40mph winds), Dry Sunday, Rain Monday.


UGH, does it EVER stop raining? I venutred out today to the grocery store. It's in Rijswijk, so it was a good 30 mins by bus (because there are so many stops). Chris actually works in Rijswijk. I head out the door, and had just missed the bus, so I walked to Centraal. It's about 2-3 miles. Got to Centraal and hopped on the tram to In de Bogaard....again. Went into Albert Heijn looking for cough drops, baby vitamins, and a few other things (milk and cokes), and came ot with my bag weighing over 50lbs (AT LEAST). Yeah, can you imagine my little 100lb body carry a 50lb bag?! I'm sure my legs were shaking. My shoulder is quite bruised, but I made it back alive. That was my first trip out by myself, and I did it! YAY. I also did it when school was getting out, so it was CRAZY!

Dylan ended up getting a snotty nose last week. Then Susie got it, then Alexa, and now my throat is sore today. The kids seem ok. Just a minor cold (not swine flu....lol). I had to grab some meds for everyone at the grocery store. I got back and everyone's asleep. Alexa clearly doesnt feel well, so I gave her some medicine, and she's standing beside me singing her ABCs now...lol. Oh, she can kinda write her name too. Of course, it's a letter here and there, not in a line, but it's a start. She still makes her As upside down, but they are perfect upside down A's.

Off to make spaghetti.

Took the weekend off

Nothing exciting has really happened, so I decided not to bore you with details. Friday Chris went to work, so we sat around, until we decided to go grocery shopping. What a NIGHTMARE that was. I thought the grocery store was alot bigger than it really was. It was an Albert Heijn on the corner, and there's a huge AH in Rijswijk, so I figured they were all the same. Boy was I wrong!!! There were MAYBE 6 aisles. Then, with a double stroller, people were giving me some seriously dirty looks. Alexa wouldnt keep her hands in the stroller, it was WAY too big for the store, there were too many people in there, and it was just a nightmare. Then Chris came home with flowers for me. That was nice, but I was still stressed from grocery shopping. Made a pizza for dinner, and drank...and drank...lol. We all chatted about where we should live and where Alexa should go to school. Then Alexa decided to get up at midnight and stay up until 2. I'm having a hard time getting her to bed. Saturday we drove around Voorburg with Alexa. Then we went to the mall (In de Bogaard) looking for a single stroller (and didnt find one), but Alexa did get a new "soccer ball" and I got some laundry baskets. Then we came home and I cooked tacos. YUM. Chris said it was the best meal he's had so far....lol. I'll eat/make tacos anyday, so that's fine with me. Alexa and Dylan both made it to bed by 10 last night, and didnt make a peep! She came in and crawled in bed with us about 9, and we all got up about 1015. Then we decided to go to Amsterdam to the Hard Rock Cafe to have lunch, so we packed up the car and headed up to Amsterdam (30 min drive). We passed the airport, so Alexa was facinated by the airplanes again. Driving here is insane and I just keep my eyes closd the whole time. It's scary. When he have to drive on the cobblestone streets, Alexa yells "Are you shaking me?" from the back. After heading in from Amsterdam, we decided to go through Wassenaar again. We looked at the houses again, and I think we've narrowed it to Wassenaar or Rijswijk. We'll have to see when Chris gets his housing exemption. When we were driving through Wassenaar, Alexa was kicking the back of Chris' seat. I was sitting in between her and Dylan. Finally I grabbed her legs and told her to stop and she started screaming and didnt stop, so I just ignored her. Then she says "Chris will ask me to stop if he wants me to." Susie and I started laughing, of course, but it wasnt supposed to be funny. She needs to listen to me!!!! We are trying to train her to hold our hands and stay with us while we are out, so we dont have to always use the strollers, but it's been quite unsuccessful. She runs as hard and fast as she can away from us, like it's a game, laughing and screaming the whole time. Real funny Lex. So now we are home and I am going to try to catch up on laundry (which will never happen). Our washer is a dryer too, so it has to wash and dry the same load before you can take it out. It takes all day to do 1 load and the washer only holds 5 lbs of wet clothes, so that's like 2 pairs of jeans and 2 shirts. Anything more comes out wrinkled to hell, therefore, I am now admitting, I will never catch up on laundry unless we sit around the house for a week in the same PJs all day....lol.

Homesick Already?

Well, we've been here for 4 days, and I'm not in love with it yet. Sure, this is a GREAT opportunity for all of us in every way, but, I dunno. We are in temporary housing until Chris files for an exemption so we can START looking for a house, so I guess just knowing that makes it feel more like I'm living in a hotel than an apartment. For starters, the amenities here SUCK. The freezer consists of 3 drawers about 4 inches deep. No shelves, nothing. Just drawers. Alexa keeps opening the freezer saying "There's nothing in it" because you have to open the drawers to see in them...lol. The kids had 'American Pancakes" for breakfast (think the pankcakes from a McGriddle ). They were yummy, but not something I could eat for breakfast. Too Sweet. I want some Pillsbury Frozen Grands biscuits with Morello Cherry Preserves. YUM. They dont have much by way of frozen foods here, though. I certainly havent seen Pillsbury. There is a bakery and a cheese shop around the corner, though. I really only like cheddar, Parmesan, and Feta cheese. They certainly arent named that though. Seems like they are just named "Young" or "Old" like 48+. I cant find a Ritz type cracker. I found a "Creme" cracker, but I havent opened it yet. I guess I just need more time to get used to all of this. I miss my Cheez Its though......and Cheetos :(.

Yay For IKEA!

We just got back from IKEA. We got Dylan one of those cheap high chairs (since his isnt here and he has nothing to eat in), 2 dressers, a bunch of towels, Alexa a kitty cat pillow, blanket for me, and rigged a bumper pad for Dylan, among the other miscellaneous kitchen items I cant live without (heh). We had dinner there too. Alexa had chicken nuggets and Chris had Swedish meatballs and some kind of sandwich with mayo, boiled egg, and some kind of shrimp looking creature. I had a few french fries and watched them eat their mystery food....lol. I also grabbed a jar of fruit baby food for Alexa, knowing she'd eat that (because Dylan wil still eat some applesauce, so if he eats it, she has to too. Dylan stayed home with MiMi). The trip to IKEA was a nightmare. It was rush hour through Centrum, and there's construction the GPS didnt know out, so we had to make some serious circles to get outta downtown, but we made it there safely (well, as safely as we could with Chris driving a standard.) Today we drove around Wassennaar. That's where The American School of The Hague is and pretty much where all of the Ambassadors live. Gorgeous houses. Very green. Many green parks and paths and walkways. The walkways go up to the beach spelled "Scheveningen" Pronouced, from what I could understand "Sk(hock it)-ay-vee-in-gen." They have many little shops in the town, and cute little second hand shops for kids clothing. I found a hair salon too....abunch. Kinda excited about that. We sat in on Alexa's preschool class today....without her. I'm not ready to show her off in public yet. IKEA was a nightmare with her. All in all I had a great day. Might feet are sore, and we were at IKEA for like 3 hours, but my feet are ok, so mental note, those shoes are ok to wear for short periods of time. Nothing exciting going on here. Chris is putting the dressers together, then he's going to work. So yeah. that's it. BORING.

I think I'm ok today!

We finally got the kids in bed at around midnight. This time change is terrible, but I'm pleased to say Alexa slept all night! The night before she woke up screaming. Not a pretty sight, but she seems good to go. I think I heard Dylan once, but yesterday he had a bit of a runny nose, so I think we've got some teeth coming in. Chris and I woke up at about 7:00 this morning. I dunno about him, but I feel great. Got up, got dressed up (in heels....I'll update this later probably cursing myself. I'll post a pic too), fixed my hair and did my makeup, grabbed aa cup of coffee (with a scoop of chocolate milk to make it mocha :o) ) and here I sit. We have a driver coming in about 20 minutes to take us to tour Alexa's preschool. I'm gonna try to get to IKEA today to get a blanket and maybe a chest of drawers since it's cheap there. Chris found an LED TV for us yesterday on clearance for a little less than 2000 euros. Those LED TVs (not LCD) are absolutely AMAZING! Oh, and I have at least found 2 pseudo-American stores. One is like Best Buy, the other like CVS. They have Burger King EVERYWHERE (my FAVORITE fast food place) and Subway, McDonalds, KFC, and Dominos Pizza....lol. And IKEA!! AHHHH. I LOVE IKEA! Speaking of finding places, I have yet to see a nail salon (I need my eyebrows waxed) or even a hair salon! (Alexa needs a trim). I know the weather sucks here, and everyone seems to wear their hair up, but where do they get it cut?! We are going to "The River Oaks" (Chris term....equivalent to Beverly Hills) of Den Haag (or the Hague in Dutch) "Wassenaar". Apparently that's where we will be living, and that's where a good deal of American ex-pats live. Hopefully I'll find some things there. Right now we're in downtown Den Haag......equivalent to living in downtown NYC and it SUCKS. Cant wait to get to the 'burbs. lol. Oh, and while I'm speaking Dutch...lol....I learned a few things.... "Treinen Stoppen" ->"Trains stop" Cant figure out what "Vonen" is though. Guess I could look it up while I'm sitting here. Off to drink coffee, go schopping, and learn Dutch. Vrede uit.

Day.....am I on 2 now?

I am so exhausted....and starving. Apparently I'm burning more calories walking places than I am taking in, and I'm constantly starving. WTH do these people eat here?! We came here back in 2005 for a visit and sampled the Duch cuisine and werent fond. Now we're back to the Bitterballen (minced meat and mashed potatoes rolled nto a ball and deep fried) and Frikandel ( fried hot dog......does it get any healthier when they fry it? Think not). I keep seeing/hearing people talk aout Stroopwaffels (or something along those lines), and they sound DELISH! I cant find them though, and I surely dont know how to cook them. Hell, I cant even store the ingredients to make them in this apartment. At least Chris agrees we need to find a house ASAP. Today I woke up at 1045am with a little princess right on my heels. Luckily I was able to pack some food from home to bring with us, so the princess and I had a pop tart for breakfast. This by far has been the hardest day sleepwise. I am absolutely exhausted. All of the running around and literally walking for 10+ miles a day has caught up to me. I didnt think I'd make it up today. After breakfast I got in bed with Alexa and we watched Blues Clues. I tried to take a nap, but got a phone call. We just kinda hung out until Chris got home at 3 and Chris and I headed out to get some things. (I need a freaking blanket. I'm freezing to death!!!) But of course, everything here closes at 5:30 pm, so it's absolutely pointless to go anywhere in the evening. I guess you could ride the trams/trains around for some evening entertainment. Totally kidding, but after our 2 hour excursion the other day (I've lost track of all days/time), today we decided to find the bus/tram that goes by the house. It was a 3 minute bus ride. Kinda embarrassing, but anyway, we found it, so hopefully we wont be walking too much more. I didnt buy any new shoes today, but I guess I'll get some of those with the blanket tomorrow. We have a busy day. We are going to tour the Preschool tomorrow, and possibly going to look at houses. DEFINITELY not wearing heels. Going for the jeans and tennis shoe look (sexy, I know). We found out our air freight will be arriving tomorrow and our sea freight the 20th. God only knows when it'll clear customs, but WTH are we gonna do with 3-3ft long boxes packed with clothes, baby walkers, and potty seats, and shoes?! I guess we'll live out of boxes. I dont even know where we will put the boxes. Oh, and Dylan's crib just got here too. No more falling off of the bed (it's a platform bed, so it doesnt hurt, it just scares him. He tries to go off head first instead of feet first). So yeah, nothing too exciting today, just exhaustion and starvation. I keep asking Chris what these people do. Do they eat out (like the French), or cook (which I cant imagine given the limited space), but he said they mainly eat breads and fruits. (No wonder these people are so skinny. They walk all day and only eat bread and fruit!!) Still havent found a Walmart-esque store. Still looking though. I want a store that has everything I need in 1 place. I'm tired of walking. Anyway, it's 20 thirty here (whatever that means. I have a hard time with this 24 hour clock thing, but that's what my alarm clock says. ). I think it might be close to my bedtime, but the kids are wired. I'm exhausted. Peace Out!

Day 1

The loud mouthed toddler SCREAMING at the top of her lungs. I knew she slept too much yesterday, but I just thought she was exhausted from the flight. She would NOT settle. Then she woke Dylan up, so they were both up. Susie told me to go back to bed and she dealt with the kids (a SAINT I tell ya!) So I woke up at 1015am this morning and everyone else was still asleep. I kinda just hung out for alittle while, then Dylan woke up, so I got my list of all of the things I need together, woke Chris up, then Alexa, and around 1pm we headed out the door to get the necessities. Chris said we werent gonna walk like we did yesterday, so I wore heels and he drove to the "Mega Stores". He freaking lied. Mega Stores is like the Mall of America in size. It was raining and it's about 63 degrees. Umm...that's freezing to me. I'm dressed in layers with my heels. I'm from Texas. It was 93 degrees when I left and the HIGHS are in the 60s...MAYBE.... here?! OMG it's cold. So today it was raining and I wore my bra and a camisole with 2 long sleeved shirts and a jacket...lol. Everyone else seems to be adapting well to the cold and walking. I dont adapt well. I'm freaking cold, I drive my car when I need to go somewhere, I dont take trains, I eat fast food, and I have frozen food in my freezer. I'm an AMERICAN. I wear heels when I go shopping. I go to Walmart when I need something easily accessible. Here, OMG My feet hurt SO BADLY. I cant even explain! I could barely walk into the house, but we're here. And Where is Walmart?!? I need a freaking booster seat. I made dinner, gave the kids a bath, Chris hung Alexa's DVD player for the car on her wall, so she's watching a movie, and hung Dylan's crib toy on the wall, and they are both in bed. It's so hard to get them to bed before 10pm. Dylan doesnt have a crib here, only a twin bed, so Susie pushed her bed up to his and they are sleeping on a "king sized" bed together. Hopefully we'll get crib tomorrow. Poor Dylan is all bruised up. He thinks he can walk and keeps hitting his head on these wood floors. He cruises around and Alexa comes and knocks him down. It's only a matter of months before he's as big as she is though. I'll upload some new pictures onto photobucket and post the link......and here comes Alexa.....this time change has us all screwed up. It's 11pm here and 4 pm there. We'll eventually get on a schedule....... EVENTUALLY.

Day 0

Or D-Day I have been calling it for the last 3 months. Septemeber 27th, we boarded the plane to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Susie (my Mother in Law), came with us to help us out. Lord knows we couldnt have done it without her! 10:45 am, the driver arrives to pick us up from the hotel we had been staying in for about a week. We sold our house and all of our furniture in the matter of a few weeks. The 4 of us (Alexa, Dylan, Chris, and I), all had First Class tickets, so we were allowed 3 bags apiece, plus a carry on, a personal item, 2 carseats, and a double stroller. Can you picture this yet? The entire living room of the hotel was full of luggage, so they hauled it out to the car (I had surgery 3 weeks ago, so I supervised), and off to the airport we go. It was about a 30 minute ride with the Bulgarian driver. He looked like a stereotypical Russian mafia man, but I digress.....to the airport. The kids ride with their grandparents, and Chris and I were in the van. We pull up to the airport, get a skycap, and onto the booking agent. He looks at us and says "Oh My." Yep, 13 checked bags later, we were on to security. SO glad it wasnt too busy. I had to take the DVD players out of Princess' Dora rolling luggage (she's in love with it...thanks Nana), her Nintendo DS, the laptops and all of the electronics, the kids had to come out of the stroller and go through the metal detectors, take my jewelry and shoes off, and get myself through the metal detector, then comes Chris with his 15 laptops, belt and stuff....he's no help...lol. He and the TSA agent couldnt get the stroller down. I had to go back through and collapse it, then come back through and pull it back out, put all of the kids and their things back together, get myself together, and flag down a motorized cart. There was no way we could lug 4 carryons, Alexa's things, and a carseat through the gateways. We get on the cart and the lady is laughing at us, Alexa starts screaming, and everyone starts looking like we're beating her. She wanted to ride on the cart too (couldnt take the stroller on the cart), so Chris is pushing Dylan behind us while Alexa is sitting in my lap. Thank GOD for the President's Lounge (thanks Continental for the President's Lounge and the family room in it, but that's all I'll be thanking you for....) So....a screwdriver, 2 Bloody Marys, 3 White Russians, crackers, cheese, and chips later, we are ready to get on the plane. We get a cart to the gate, and THEY'RE ALREADY BOARDING!!! We are on the first row, in Business Class, and they have us split across the plane! Alexa and I were on one side, then 2 people in the middle, then Susie (or Chris...they kept switching) and Dylan on the other side. The people in the middle didnt even offer to switch seats with us, so we just yelled across them. Ehhhh, I'll blame that on the 3 extra Apple Juice and Vodkas and the glass on champagne. So the lady in between us decides she is going to try to sleep at 7pm (CST). Ummm...my kids dont sleep that early...sorry. So at 8:30pm when Dylan started getting fussy, she started getting all huffy puffy with her sleep mask on. We got him some milk, and he drifted off to sleep. Alexa, on the other hand....NIGHTMARE (surprise?, Nope.) She didnt want dinner, but she wanted the chocolate that came with dinner (sleepyhead lady in the middle had dinner before everyone else also), so after the chocolate meltdown, out comes the cart of ice cream, so I said screw it and she had ice cream, a piece of chocolate, 2 bites of polenta, and a carrot for dinner. She spit the fontina and spinach stuffed chicken. Then she had to go potty every 5 minutes (word of warning.....toddlers find airplane bathrooms VERY amusing). Then she didnt wanna sleep, she didnt want anyone talking to her, she screamed when her programs were over, kept sliding down in the seat (which made her CARES choke her and start screaming), and had night terrors. I ended up falling asleep about 1 hour before the plane landed. So about 9 hours later we arrive in Amsterdam. I have a headache from getting less than an hour of sleep, and Chris was still drunk. We then had to get the kids and the carseat with all of our carryons off, and wait for the stroller (it was gate checked). As soon as we got off of the plane, we asked for the stroller. 15 minutes later, after everyone walked through us with the toddler wanting to scream and run around and we're trying to hold on to Dylan, we get the stroller, load them up, and somehow made it to baggage claim. This was a nightmare because Chris and Susie were both rolling carryons tied to another carryon, so they were steering 2 at a time. THEN came the luggage. We had NO IDEA where we would even begin! It was 8am here and we didnt see any carts, just the luggage carts, so Chris grabs 4 of them and we stack them TO THE TOP. The carseat kept falling off, they were impossible to steer, it was a mess. Then we got a Dutch customs agent to helps us to the taxi. We had a driver for a bags and had rented the car, so we start asking everyone in the airport where "the knot" tied on the pillar is. No one knows. So Susie stands with 2 carts and Chris and I start our trek to find "the knot." Either these people are freaking blind, or they were just being rude, because you cant miss this damn knot. Chris finds the driver and leaves me and the carts and kids with the driver. Then he comes back with Susie and the other 2 carts and the driver is floored. He couldnt believe all of the luggage. This isnt a vacation. We're freaking moving here. So we get to the taxi, get the luggage in, then get in the car. It's been awhile since Susie has driven a standard, so she kept killing the car. Well, not only is it standard, it's a diesel, so the ride for awhile was freaking HILARIOUS!!!! Finally we pulled into the turn lane and switched drivers to let Chris drive, and we made it to our new house. It's a cute little place. 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room, bathroom (with no toilet) and toilet room. We are on the second floor, and the house has hardwood floors, so Alexa walks round stomping and yelling and singing SO LOUD! I feel sory for whomever lives underneath us. If we tell her to stop, she does it more. If we ignore her, she does it louder. We gave up. Chris and I headed off, by foot, then train, to the grocery store. We bought a few things, and came back to everyone sleeping. Good deal. We'll put our things away and get settlled in. Well, we have no dressers. Nowhere to put bras, panties, or even shorts for that matter. oh wait. I havent even TALKED about the weather yet. We'll get there in a minute. So, no drawers and only a wardrobe for clothes. Umm....hmmm....how is this gonna work? Chris and I have about 10 hangers of clothes apiece and everything else is either folded on a shelf or in the luggage still. Got back with the groceries, everyone woke up, and we decided to go to dinner. We walked to Den Haag Centraal and took the train to Delft to have dinner. The trek to Den Haag Centraal is about 20 minutes, but we did make it to the train, then we had a trek to the restaurant. On the way back, Chris and I are EXHAUSTED, it's about 10pm, the kids are passed out in the stroller, and we start walking back to the train station, get on the Stoptrein to Den Haag Centraal (the train that stops at every city....lol). Then we start walking home and GPS queen Lindsay tells Chris we arent going the right way, but he'll hear none of that. 2 hours later (yes, I said 2 hours.....it took us 20 minutes to GET to the station), we make it home. Should've listened to me huh Chris? We get home and CRASH. Then who wakes up screaming at 4am? You guessed it.....

Background

Let me give you a little background first. My name is Lindsay. I am a Texas girl, born and raised. Went to Texas A & M University, where I met my husband Chris, and finished up at University of Houston. Chris and I have been married since 2003, but we've been together since 2000.We were blessed with our first child, we'll call her "Princess Alexa" for lack of more appropriate termonology, in 2006 and our last child, Dylan , in 2008. I am a stay at home mom for the time being. In June 2009, Chris decides he would like to post out of his current position with a major oil&gas company and try to be an expatriate. Well, if you know me, I just smiled and nodded. I mean, then, we had a 2 year old and a 7 month old. Ex-pat? Really? Well, he did it, hence this blog. He got a job, and I got relocated.