Christmas wishes

No sunny sky, no walks on the beach, but....
A white Christmas!

Yes indeed, we got some snow here since last week (Thursday) and even now it's still very white in the garden... everything still covered with a layer of snow.

So we have a white Christmas this year!

We wish you lots of love and friendship ....

Enjoy the holiday season and soon we'll be sending wishes for the new year!


Love you all

Halloween party

On Saturday, October 31st I organised a Halloween Party ... those who could not be there, too bad for them! The kids had a great time playing games, the grown up (?) had a few drinks and enjoyed seeing other friends at the party.
In one of the pictures you'll see Niki, the cat... but no worries, that's before people started to arrive, once the party started she got a safe spot in Axelle's room. The evil witch (me) could well do without her pet for one night and anyway, I had the devil to keep me company and the disco cat (Axelle) as well...

For sure we'll have another party in 2010....

So, finally here I am with some pictures of my holiday in Italy this summer.
Sorry it took such a long time, but... the excuse everybody uses: no time!

I've got some problems with this website as well, can not seem to move pictures once I've uploaded them... so they're a little bit mixed. Sorry for that too!

Hereunder, the gang at the Da Vinci Museum at Vinci, the little town we were staying at. From left to right: Valérie (Marc's daughter, myself and Nadine and in front Arno, Axelle and Kris)
In Florence, we saw very beautiful architecture and of course the statue of David.
We had an incredible view at our pool, it was just lovely to relax there.
On our way to Vinci, we stayed one night in Milan....
The view from our house in Vinci was georgeous!
A visit to the tower of Pisa was of course also planned.
A small town close to where we lived... beautiful.... unfortunately I kind of forgot the name
We visited Florence, known for its big cathedral
We only did window shopping on this bridge over the "ARNO"... check the other picture to see what it looks like from the other side and also see Arno (Nadine's son) on the river Arno...

She's got the.... flue!

No no, don't be alarmed, it's not the MEXICAN version, just regular flue!
Saturday it started when we were at Kris and Nadine's for dinner. She got a headache!
So she got a painkiller, but on Sunday morning she still had this headache and was feeling very warm, she had a fever! Also a cough started to add, by Sunday evening she was sick as hell and on Monday not feeling any better.

Called the doctor for a house visit. That's a nice thing here, you do not have to move you sick child to the doctor's office, he comes to see you in your cosy home!

I guess he underestimated this virus a bit, because he only gave her a certificate for 2 days. Today she should be at school, but she's still batlling this virus, still has a fever, still is coughing.... so no school for her!

Went back to the doctor and got a new certificate, she'll be at home till the end of the week, should be free of fever by the weekend, otherwise we'll have to start up antibiotics!

I'm crossing fingers now that I'm not getting this virus! Let's say: I DO NOT WANT YOU STUPID VIRUS! Got too much work to finish, too much shopping to do for my party at Halloween, too much of everything so I can not afford to get sick right now!

As you can read, nothing exciting is going on right now... except that I'm surfing the net go find good deals on hotels and rental cars for next summer. If Marc and his daughters are coming along, I'm sure they're gonna want to see some nice things over there, not just sit at the pool and enjoy a lovely Nancy-made Margarita and enjoy Puska and Jana's cooking! (although we definitely do not want to skip that part either)

So if anybody has some good advise for me... please do not hesitate and skype me, mail me or post a comment.

Thanks! Love and big hugs from sunny but cold (now 1.5°C this morning) Belgium!

A new school

Since September 1, Axelle is going to a new school in a town nearby called Mechelen.
She's taking classes at Pitzemburg Atheneum. She picked the school because starting this grade, she immediately gets English too. Most of the time you do not get this in 7th grade.
She insisted on going to this school for that reason mostly.

Since September 1, we already had quite some excitement! There was a general bomb alert in all schools in Mechelen, so the police was everywhere! Nothing happened but safety measures were enormous!

Axelle enjoys going to school, but there is a lot of work, because testing is almost a daily thing! Tomorrow she has a French and another test... and on Monday she has Dutch....
Next week they are going on a field trip, for 3 days. They leave on Wednesday morning to come back on Friday evening, they are going to the Ardens, that's the southern part of Belgium.

They organise this trip to help them get to know each other and to give teachers also the opportunity to get to know their students.

I'm sure it's gonna be fun!

What can I say about me at this moment... nothing much... It's very busy at work, lots of trainings going on, lots of things to do and to check on. Time flies when you're having fun.
I'm having so much fun that on October 1, I'll be for 25 years working for this company, that does not make me any younger does it!

So I decided this calls for a celebration and in honour of my 25 years at the company, I'm organising a Halloween party.

Axelle is helping me out a great deal, since she's making some of the Halloween decorations together with my friend Marc (who's actually, I did not give away this information yet, an artist). So they are both making spiders to decorate the house.

Of course you'll hear more about this and see pictures about it as soon as the party is over...

That's it for now folks!

Big hug and kisses from an incredible warm and sunny Belgium....