Night air

Do you remember reading that Little House on the Prairie story where they ate watermelons that had grown in the night air and they got sick? I don't remember in what exact book it was, but I had to think of it as I was taking a walk tonight.

It's so cool to have the time to take walks after dinner, without constantly thinking either "I have to do this and that assignment, why am I walking instead of working" or "I'm really too tired to walk but it's good for me and will help me get better soon". Tonight, all I had to think about was how beautiful the scenery around our town is, and how lovely the fresh air felt. I could feel that fall is not far away. It gets dark sooner and because it's been rainy, lots of leaves have fallen. But you know what? That's ok.

Soon we'll be closing the curtains before dinner. It'll be apple pie and tea time. I love the coziness of fall. And when we live in the trailer it's bound to be cozy anyway so I might as well enjoy it!

Getting to know each other

First year camps are always exhausting. The point of the camps is to get to know the kids, and have them get to know each other. We definitely achieved those goals.
Not alone did I catch a total of only eight hours of sleep in two nights, I also had to be on the alert all the time. Because with a camp house full of twelve year olds, lots of things happen.

Usually, these things are limited to "Mrs. S, Andy stole my shoe and now he won't give it back", "Mrs. S, I can't find my shoe and I promise I looked everywhere!" or "Mrs. S, I need a band-aid because I fell". This time around however, I received some very different complaints: "Mrs. S, George went up the attic (not allowed) and found pancake mix which he dumped all over our sleeping bags". "Mrs S, George is smoking in the orchard" (Of course smoking was not allowed, and the orchard was off-limits to the kids.) Two minutes later: "Mrs. S, George says he wants to sleep with me" (he said what??? he's twelve!), as well as (different girl) "Mrs. S, George tried to choke me but he says he was only kidding".

Needless to say I went and found George, and the other three teachers and I had some serious talks with him. At first he didn't confess anything! But, after only two hours (!) of interrogation he finally fessed up to smoking, and "some other things that you probably don't allow". He had lied and did so many things against the rules that I took him home on Thursday morning.

After that, things quieted down in the camp house. Of course there was some (ok, a lot) of talk about George, but at least everyone agreed that what he did was not ok. And for some reason, the all seemed to want to be good examples after seeing this bad example. The kids were nice and polite, and some even voluntarily took their dirty dishes to the kitchen. There were no kids complaining about boring games (whiny tone: "I don't want to do that, that's stu-pid), and when we had to clean the camp house on Friday morning everyone pitched in. Boy, did we get to know each other!

Camp II

It's time for the annual first year camp. I'll be back on Friday, probably very tired (because I don't expect to sleep much in a camp house with 32 12 year olds). I'm sure I'll have lots to talk about!

Creepy

When I see a spider, I usually grab a cat, put it near the spider and then it eats it. This is one of the reasons I am happy to have cats. Unfortunately even the cat didn't like this one: it ran away from it!
Thank goodness my mother-in-law was close and was able to kill this horrible creature. Brrrrr!

Mentor

Because I'm graduated and work four days a week now, my school asked me if I wanted to become a mentor. Dutch people know what this is, but for Americans it's something mid-way between a home-room teacher, a guidance counselor and an elementary teacher. Every class of 20-30 kids (I only have 18) has their own mentor. The mentor is the person who monitors their grades and who they can talk to if something is wrong, or if they just need some attention. The mentor is also the person the parents contact when they want to contact school for questions or remarks.I teach my class music, Dutch and study skills, so I see them 9 times a week.The school year is only three days old but already being a mentor gives a whole new dimension to my teacherhood. (Is that a word? It is now.)

My mentor group is a class of first year students (7th graders, for the Americans). Everything is new to them in our school, and most of them don't know any other kids in their class yet. So it's up to me to make them comfortable with each other. I'm really going to try and make them bond, because I want the atmosphere in the class to be as positive as possible, so that when they're settled in and the hormones start acting up there's already a good relationship between the kids.

Yesterday I taught "my" kids 7th period, which was their last period of their very first day of high school. They were so enthusiastic! They told me about how they walked to the gym and it started to rain, how the math teacher's glasses were crooked and how their German teacher told them they would start working when the class didn't have any more questions for him, so they chatted with him all 50 minutes.I think they're cute. And they're my kids!

I sincerely hope they stay this upbeat and happy...

Mobile Home

Last night I bought a mobile home. Or should I say "manufactured home"? In Holland we call it a caravan. Whatever the name, it's going to be our temporary housing while we remodel our house. We need somewhere away from all the dust and dirt, that is water tight and will keep our feet warm. But it also needs to be put in our back yard because we can't (and don't want to) afford to rent a second house while we remodel this house.

I was having coffee with my mom in law when my dad in law walked in. I was telling the story how I had ridden my bike to some local camp sites to hang up ads asking for a mobile home. Dad in law said he knew someone in town who had one for sale. He called the guy and the two of us went over there (M was at the fire station). He showed us the trailer. It was everything we wanted! It has two bedroom (so we can make one into a closet), seperate shower and toilet areas, a kitchenette (with gas stove and lots of cupboard space), a dining corner and a big couch, and gas heating. It looks old but neat and well taken care of. Unlike so many trailers for sale this one doesn't smell like cigarette smoke and there was no visible fungus. And the best part of it was the price. We were willing to pay no more than €1000, but the guy asked for only 250! And an apple pie, but that was because he said the price was low and so I said ok, I'll bake you an apple pie and we'll seal the deal. So after sealing the deal at 250 I guess the apple pie was part of the deal.

Hurrah! We're going to live in a trailer! (People that know me well know that I am not a big fan of camping. But trailers are ok).

The trailer in the picture looks just like the one I bought. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'll post one later.

Blessed and lucky

Blessed and lucky, that's what I am. I come from what we in Holland call "a warm nest". We have a great relationship with my parents and my brother and his girl friend. We don't fight, we just get along and respect and help each other. My brother and I have had every opportunity to study and broaden our horizons.
I have a great husband and within a month I received my college diploma, my wedding ring and the offical ownership certificate of our house.

The past few days I've seen that I shouldn't take all this for granted. Blessed and lucky. And grateful. That's what I am.

Sad

We're really sad. One of my dad's brothers, who had been an alcoholic for a while, decided on Tuesday that it had been enough. He left a note saying he no longer wanted to bother everyone, and he didn't know what else to do. He was sorry and he loved us. Then he commited suicide. It's horrible. The viewing is tomorrow, he'll be cremated on Monday.

A tale of two bunnies

The people M works with gave us two rabbits for our wedding. They said the way he talks about the cats made them feel that more pets would be welcome at the M+N petting zoo... And apparently he had talked about his new lawn mower a lot so they wanted to give him two other "lawn mowers".

The girl next door was at our wedding too, with her sister and her mom. They immediately offered to watch the rabbits for us when we were on vacation, because they have a bunny too and a big rabbit hutch. We thought that was a good idea and so there they went. This week they are on vacation, so I'm watching them.

I went over to feed them last night and everything was ok. This morning I went over there to check on them, and the door of the hutch was open and I saw only two rabbits, not three! My little brown bunny (whose name is Worm, because that's his boss's last name) was gone.

I looked around and looked around, but I couldn't find her. I went home and called M, who of course could only advise me to go back and look. The neighbors have a walled garden, so she couldn't go anywhere.And when I went back, she sat underneath the garden table, looking at me! I'm so happy... I put her back with the other two and made sure everything was closed really tightly. Phew, what a relief. I don't know what I would have told the little girl if the bunny hadn't come back. Well, I do know: the truth. But I would've felt really bad about it...

I do

Fish and confetti

Confetti confetti confetti

Because we had made a mess of our M's sister and our brother-in-law's house while they were on their honeymoon, we did expect our house to be slightly upside down. This is just a hint of what they did to our house...
- There's confetti everywhere. In the bed, in the oven, in every drawer. In every cup, on every saucer, plate. Between the socks, in the plant pots. Everywhere. Everywhere. Confetti Confetti Confetti...
- Our 1/2 bathroom which had white walls, now has a whole under water scene painted with fish and plants and even a fire truck on it. I'll post pictures when I'm done vacuuming all the confetti confetti confetti away. It's really pretty. Made us wonder why we hadn't thought of that sooner.
- All my books which were sorted in order are mixed up on the bookshelves. And of course on the bookshelves there's also confetti confetti confetti...
- All the picture frames in the whole house were mixed up in random order. All the clocks too, basically everything that was attached to a nail is now on a different nail.
- Our 1/2 bathroom was filled to the ceiling with boxes, which all had something (rock, pine cone) in them. There was also a tower of empty plastic plant containers which of course toppled over as soon as we opened the door.
- All our clothes were put on different shelves. The drawers in our chest of drawers had all been relocated. And of course: confetti confetti confetti.
- I'm sure we'll find other things. We got home from our honeymoon at 11 last night and cleaned up until 1:30. Now M is back to work and I'm cleaning and vacuuming.
Good thing about all this is that I was already planning to clean out all the cabinets and armoires. Now I can't put that off anymore and in a few days we'll have a very clean house....

We had received a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle (without example) with a secret message on the back as a "first step" to our wedding present of M's brother, sister and significant others. The secret message had to be texted to an unknown phone number. We then received a text saying the mail man would deliver the second step soon. This morning we received a 4 page schedule with how to find the clue to our where our present is:
find book so and so. Write down the 5th letter of the 4th word on the 19th line of page 235.....And so forth, 4 pages long! We won't be bored tonight.....Well, I'm going to fix some lunch and then get back to the confetti parade...

We're in Switzerland...

But here's a picture of us on our wedding day...

Taking a break

Tomorrow is the big day. We leave for Switzerland on Saturday. That's why I'm taking a break, I'll probably be back in about two weeks...

Graduation

Today I will receive my official diploma. I will be a bachelor of music education (as well as a bachelor of primary education). I'm so excited!

Musical cat

Dennis just jumped on the piano stool. He touched a key with his paw: e'. He looked up because the noise startled him. Then he touched another key: e''. That's exactly an octave higher.
It sounded nice and he didn't even look up. I have a musical cat! It's rubbing off!

Traveling Cat

My Dennis has been a source of worry for me again. He decided to take a little vacation and not show himself around or in the house for an entire week. M and I had already discussed the fact that he was probably dead or lost, when he walked in the back door, attacked the cat food and begged for attention.

It made me wonder. What did he see? Where did he go? How many mice did he kill and eat? And did he secretly come by the house without telling us?

It's amazing how independent cats are, yet how cuddly he is now. He won't go away from us and lies down close to where we are all the time. I believe he thinks he is the King who deserves all attention now, because if we ignore him for over an hour he draws attention to himself by either crying out or using his nails.

What can I say.. I am but his humble servant...

Almost done

Today I presented my thesis and passed with an 8 (out of 10, equivalent to the american A)! I'm so proud! They gave me all kinds of compliments and told me I was no longer a student but a colleague.

I have to complete 1 more assignment with the school choir (next week) and then I'll get my diploma on the 29th. I'm so proud!! Despite the mononucleosis and working part-time, I managed to graduate from this full-time college within the regular 4 years. I'm so proud!!!!!

Panda dream

You haven't heard from me in a while and I'm too busy preparing for the wedding and rounding up my studies to write a lot. So long live Youtube, once again!
Now this is beautiful music. It's written for the "Pandadroom", an attraction at the awesome Dutch theme park "De Efteling".

Sunday afternoon

Because I finished writing my thesis this week, I gave myself the weekend off, school wise.

Today has been a lovely lazy Sunday. We slept in, had a slow breakfast and then decided we would do nothing today. Well, hardly anything, anyway. So we spent the afternoon sitting outside on our terrace, enjoying the lovely view of a freshly mown field. The cats had fun chasing after mice and birds and we read our books. It was almost weird to just sit and be lazy, it's been so long since I've done that! A while ago that was all I could do, but then I couldn't enjoy it. Now I had the choice so I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Yesterday I worked in the garden, pulling weeds and watering. The beans are little plants, the shallots as you can see have started growing greyish green leaves and last night we had the first two strawberries! I just took a picture of one of the plants and noticed a few other red ones.

Oh, how I love the summer! Three more weeks of school and then I'll be off for about two months. But today was a nice little foreshadow, I can feel my batteries recharging...