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...

The Lord Bless You and Keep You

This is one of the songs that our school's choir will sing in our wedding service. They'll sing it a little slower, though. I think this version is a little fast.
Long live YouTube!

It's over!

This is a little video of me, singing Van Jonge Leu en Oale Groond (what do you think, Janneke?). It's the leader theme to a popular tv series here in the Netherlands.

I'm pretty proud of my exam. I passed, my grade was 6.5 out of 10. That doesn't seem very high (5.5 is passing) but that's ok. I agreed with the comments the jury made. After I "messed up" (ie played some wrong notes) I got a little tense and found it hard to relax and let the music flow. And that could be heard. But the jury also said that they could hear I had made a lot of progress in four years. When I started the conservatory I was terrified to play in front of musical people, and the slightest wrong note could make me panic (not exaggerated!). Now, I started a piano piece but noticed it was a little too dark. So I stopped and asked the light technician to give me some more light, and then started over. And that went well!
Considering the fact that three months ago I still slept about sixteen hours a day, I'm pretty darn proud of myself. And I'm so glad this is over!! Now all I have to worry about (college wise) is my thesis and 2 small assignments and then June 29 will be my graduation date!

Very close

Monday the 21st is the date of my final practical exam. I've been very worried and stressed about it, but now I'm pretty confident. Monday night we had the dress rehearsal and last night was the last walk through. It didn't go very well yet, but that's why they were rehearsal. The teacher that guides me told me he was confident and he thought it was a good exam. My piano teacher told me she had never heard me play like I did in four years, and she had never expected me to come this far! Boy was I flattered... And I know I'll pass, otherwise my teacher would have told me to cancel the exam.
Even though I've had sleepless nights and worries, today was a stress free day. M and I worked in the garden. I planted tomatoes, peppers and zinnias that I had sown eight weeks ago. I sowed radishes, lettuce, carrots, beets, leeks and planted potatoes. I've noticed before that working in the garden soothes me. I think I'll be ok. It's only an exam, it's not the end of the world...
(And those of you that have been following me closely know that it's a big step for me to say this!)

Green

You Are Mint Green

Balanced and calm, you have mastered the philosophy of living well. Your friends seek you out for support, and you are able to bring stability to chaotic situations. You're very open and cheerful - and you feel like you have a lot of freedom in life. Your future may hold any number of exciting things, and you're ready for all of them!

What Color Green Are You?