and here we are...

so yep, i'm not feelin inspired to write much on the whole holland experience. so let's just say that it was an...experience. holland itself was great even though the weather was wet and dreary. amsterdam is awesome and i absolutely love it there. i've even picked out my new house. [see below] and am taking applications for renters for those who'd like to live communally in my mansion. it's right between the hard rock cafe and the rijksmuseum...golden! going on a trip of that sort with a 3 yr old and an 86 yr old was quite the ordeal as i've probably mentioned before. we had to lug around a lot of junk and we got lost quite a bit, which isn't too hard when all the directions your given do not include street names. ("turn left, go through three round-abouts, left at a stop sign, right at the second set of lights...")

and i decided to make the trip even more exciting because it turns out i have kidney stones. so i spent a day in serious pain, puking, and at the hospital but then after that, i felt great! except now that i'm home i have to get bloodwork, ultrasounds...etc. super...

it was really cool however, to go to church where norm's oma got married like 60 years ago (sadly the church has been bought by the airport and is being torn down) and where she lived and where her own grandparents lived. it's awesome to be in a place with so much history...

anyways, just thought i'd give a little snippet of our trip. i'd love to go again, maybe when there are actually tulips in bloom tho...

randomness...(naomi, don't read this!)

so i'm at work yesterday in my little basementy office all by my lonesome when i hear this intense rustling sound coming from the laundry room/storage side of the basement. now, if you remember we have had mouse issues before so i thought, super, a giant mouse is scrounging for food.

i ignored it for a long time, but it was getting louder (and kinda freakin me out, but don't tell anybody!) so being the brave, adventurous soul that i am, i decided to have a look. i grabbed a flashlight and a broom then ventured toward the door. opened it slowly... reached for the light...
all quiet... i waited... the noise started again and i determined that it was coming from a metal tube/pipe thing over top of a water heater or gas thingy (i dunno my basement lingo ok?).

i whacked the pipe with my broom and i thought i saw a little nose stick out. i stood there for a bit and watched to see if the mouse came out but it didn't so i got bored, left, and shut the door behind me.

when my boss came back i mentioned that there was a mouse there and she said she'd get a mouse trap later. then she left again.

a while later, i heard the banging again. only LOUDER. so, in i went. this time without the broom and flashlight, cuz seriously, it's a teeny mouse right?

so i'm in there, watching the pipe move around when suddenly a GIANT BLACK HAIRY ARM stretched out of the pipe! now, maybe "giant" isn't the appropriate word, but when you're expecting a teeny little mouse arm and something significantly bigger comes out, it's a little alarming.

my conclusion: it's a squirrel. i considered reaching in and trying to "unstuck" it, but honestly, it'd probably bite my hand off and even if i got it out, what was i going to do with it? it'd probably jump out of my hand and then i'd have a loose squirrel in the house. no, that would not be good. so i left it.

my boss came back and i told her my developing news. so she goes in and whacks on the pipe and this horrible groaning noise came out. something was seriously stuck in that pipe. and it was no little mouse. she decided to wait til her husband came back to get it out.

so this morning i came into work and asked if they'd gotten the squirrel out. the answer i received was "no, but it's quiet now." um...maybe cuz now it's dead....? perhaps? great...

the guy that's doing renovations on the house is coming over later and they said he'd get it out. so i'll let ya know if my squirrel theory is correct or if we've found a really fat mouse. :D

no matter how great a hotel room is, there's still no place like home

home at last, home at last, thank God almighty, i'm home at last. our holland trip was full of trials and tribulations but there were also many good times, fits of hysterical laughter, and incredible sight-seeing. i'll give more details later, not really in the writin mood at the moment. but i promise i'll bring ya'll up to speed eventually. maybe even tonight. but for now, i'll leave you with this:

dank u vel

i'm attempting to say "thank you" in dutch. no, i don't know how to spell it.

so we're here in zwolle this weekend, tomorrow we had to amsterdam for the rest of the week. ryan goes to school here so we went to meet his host family today and went to a church service all in dutch. a 1 1/2 hour service seems like 5 hours when you can't understand it! (i've never heard the *f* word off the pulpit before! but apparently it means something completely different in this language! and yes, there were immature snickers, chortles, giggles and snorts coming from my chair...)

anyways, we're just hanging out at our hotel (bored) cuz it's cold and rainy and there isn't anything to do in zwolle. we went for a walk earlier and the city's way cute but we got soppin wet.

ps. there's a street called "pannekookendijk" (again, i can't spell it but it means pancake street!) and i get a tremendous amount of glee out of all the seemingly random vowels in the words... like if you take out every other letter, you'd still be able to successfully pronounce the words!) anyways, maybe by the end of the week i'll have a better appreciation.

pss. i had bread and hagelslach for breakfast. ooh and chocolate fla is my new favorite food. and gouda cheese, and bread, and...

dooie!! (no, i can't spell ok!?!)

fly away...

so tomorrow we're off on another hamilton adventure! to holland! me= so excited!

so let's review the dutch words i know:
dookie
hagelslach(sp?)
dats nice hey? (not really dutch)
hazella(ch) (no idea on the spelling on that one or if it's even dutch)

sweet. wonder how far that'll get me...

klompen anyone?

ps. random girl-ness...and i'm sure i've said this before but...why are "female" doctors so purely EVIL??? like for real, you can put someone on the freakin moon but you can't find a better way to tell if there's cancer "down/in there"?? come on... and on that note: have a lovely day! :P

ok so my brother is back home (from georgia) and as of yesterday my nephew was doing ok and heading home soon. he had a viral pneumonia and didn't have enough oxygen in his blood. i guess things are stabilized ok enough now for him to go home. he's been on a feeding tube for awhile now(almost a year?) at home and they think that there might be water/spit getting into his lungs which could've caused the pneumonia. i think they're gonna do some more tests once/if he recovers from this. in any case, it's good that he's getting out of the hospital. so we shall see.