Other Bloggers

I follow plenty of blogs, each one bringing something different to the table.  And occasionally during my day one of these blogs pops into mind.  One I follow is called Herding Cats, and she has a series of posts called Taphophile Tragics.  In other words she finds cemeteries and gravestones interesting and writes about them.  I thought she had given up on writing the back stories of these long gone people but it turns out she just started a blog specifically about them, called Beneath Thy Feet.  I happen to live near a really old cemetery; I pass it going to the park, taking my daughter to school, letting the dog out, etc., and as I peek over the brick walls my thoughts occasionally trail back to her blog.  Now I have no intentions of researching the gravestones or taking her ideas, but I did happen to take a lot of photos there the other day.  So here's to you Nicola Carpenter, thanks for maintaining such an interesting blog.
 

Who knows, your blog may be the next inspiration for one of my posts!  Keep an eye out for a follow up post.

Wordless Wednesday #20

Link up here for Wordless Wednesday!

Google AdSense

These questions go out to you fellow bloggers, what's your take on Google AdSense?  Is it worth it or does it just clutter up your blog?  And are any of you using Google AdSense outside of the US?

Living Book

I just had a random fleeting thought, and this is the place for those, sooooo.... I'm sure someone has already come up with the idea but it crossed my mind for the first time today, a living book.  We use these blogs for so many things, why not use one to write a book.  One that is brought to life by the readers.  It's quite simple, I write a short beginning to the story and the readers comment on the direction they want the story to go and every so often I add another paragraph until one day we have a book.  We've all ad-libbed or done improve before, right?  It sounds like fun, a soap opera of words if you will.  Let me know if any of you out there find this interesting... if so, I just might create a separate blog for our collective story!

 

3-Day B-Day

Our daughter recently turned three and we celebrated with 3 days worth of parties.  No, there wasn't a party for each year she's been alive, it just turned out that way.  I didn't see it coming, in years passed it all seemed so simple.  There's always the big party, which we've done every year with our closest friends & family (that live nearby), I was expecting this one.  But since so many of our friends are golfers and this time of year there is guaranteed a competition on Saturday we had to move the party to Sunday if we wanted anyone to join in the fun.  This made it complicated, because it left her actual birthday wide open.  Not wanting to let the important day go by unnoticed we invited the immediate family over for cake and presents.  The immediate family is quite large, plus my mom & step-dad were here, so it turned into a full blown party quite quickly.  Especially when my husband decided to invite everyone to stay on for dinner.  This left me and my mom packing gift bags for the large b-day party late at night after a long day! 

Not even recuperated or cleaned up (the house & gifts, I mean) from the family party we went full swing in the large party at a nearby pancake house.  Even though the restaurant does most of the work, it's still a big event with 20-30 adults & kids going all different directions.  The weather was perfect & the moods were good, it was a success!  We're through Saturday & Sunday, and now on to Monday.  Since my daughter now attends preschool the Dutch expect you to help and join in the party at school (which is nice).  So Monday while she was at school my mom & I filled up snack bags and prepared goodie bags for the kids.  At 11AM there we stood ready for a 3rd party.  By the end of it all I was exhausted, and my parents too.  They aren't used to so many giggly playful kids, especially for days on end. 
Here it is a week later and I can't say I've actually tackled the left over mess.  Since my parents were here on vacation I didn't have the time to reorganize all of the toys (the old ones get packed up and the new ones find a place on a shelf).  As I write this I see there are still streamers and balloons hanging from the living room ceiling and presents & remaining goodie bags still boxed up in the corner.  I guess we all know what I'll be doing when I close off this post.  Despite the work, it was a great birthday weekend for our toddler (and for all our friends & family)! 

10 Days

My mother & step-father visited us from The States for 10 days, they called last night at 3AM to let us know they had made it back home safe & sound.  Once a year we get a week or so together, sometimes we go there, sometimes they come here.  One downside of living far away from your family is the lack of physical time together, but the upside is they get to visit places they never would have seen otherwise.  My mom & step-dad have visited us many times since we moved to The Netherlands, I think this was visit # 5.  Each visit is different, the first few were packed full of tourist stops, like Amsterdam & Brussels.  But by now they have seen the big sights, plus adding a kid to the equation changes things.  Their visit a couple years ago was to meet our newborn, there wasn't any sight-seeing going on then.  This visit I managed to come up with places that pleased everyone, not costly and appealed to the interest of the entire group.  In otherwords, a little bit of history located in nature near a playground! 

My husband unfortunately couldn't take much time off work, but the day he had off we all (inc. the dog) hopped in the car and headed to the sea.  My parents live in Florida, so the sea is much different than the gulf.  Noordwijk held up its end of the deal... rain, wind, cold, and a lot of beautiful wipping waves.  A couple of days I borrowed the car while my husband worked and took them places like the World War II Liberation Museum in Son and the castle & gardens in Geldrop. 

On days we didn't have the car we walked, there is plenty to see in Eindhoven as well, like old cemeteries and endless green parks.  And during one of the schools days my mom & step-dad even ventured to Nuenen on the bus and toured the towns monuments.  Besides seeing the sights they were also able to see my toddlers activities first hand, and enjoy 3 days of birthday celebrations.  We dined out when we could, but they also enjoyed home cook meals thanks to a few years experience on my part!  And of course the bakery, I think my step-dad popped in there most mornings. 

Overall it was a great visit, and we were all sad to part, but thanks to the endless photos we all took (and exchanged) we can remember the trip for years.

Wordless Wednesday #19

Link up here for Wordless Wednesday!

I'll Be Back

In the famous words of the Terminator, "I'll Be Back."  Between my toddlers birthday celebrations and visitors from The States, there's not much time to squeeze in a decent post at the moment.  But within a week I should be back to blogging as usual.  Keep an eye out for Wordless Wednesday though!