21 - 27 december

It was very cold this week, so we started with some icy days where the kids could skate in our village. They had great fun, Shen because he could finally skate on skates with only one blade, and Mean because she simply loves to skate. On Wednesday I had a Christmas “party” at work, we had a lovely Chinese dinner together, and afterwards played some board games. Lots of fun! On Thursday my mother came to us to celebrate Christmas eve. On First Christmas day we relaxed at home, watched a Christmas movie, played with our Nintendo’s and had a wonderful stonegrill dinner together. On Saturday Rudy started with the renovation of the kitchen, and we had a lovely dinner again. The kids helped Rudy by tearing off the wallpaper, they where a great help!

14 - 20 december

Brrr, it is so cold outside! This week has turned into a real winter week.
The Monday photo is a souvenir of the play we went to with the kids on Sunday afternoon: Lisa’s big trip. It is a play with accompanying classical music, a live violinist, cellist, and two dancers with a big puppet (called Lisa). Lisa cannot sleep because her grandmother isn’t there anymore, and Lisa starts a trip to find a way to sleep again. It’s for kids from 6 years up.

On Tuesday a colleague of mine said goodbye from work. We had tapas dinner in a restaurant in Groningen. I had so much fun, the colleagues I work with are really very nice men and women! Tuesday afternoon our Christmas cards arrived, and on Wednesday Mean wrote cards for her schoolfriends and the teachers of her school. On Thursday it was snowing really badly, and the roads where not very safe to drive on. I stayed home from work. On Friday morning the kids had their annual Christmas play. It was originally planned for Thursday evening, but because of the bad weather it was delayed until Friday morning. Saturday was a nice day, blue skies but very cold (-10!) even during the day. The road to our house is still not very great to drive on. Sunday was even worse, a lot of wind and snow again, and very cold (-6) so we stayed inside all day (maybe we’ll go to the ice skating rank in the village later, but I’m not sure if I’m coming along J )

Christmas card

We wish you happy holidays and a great new year!

 

We wensen iedereen heel fijne feestdagen en een gezond en gelukkig nieuwjaar!

7 - 13 december

A simple layout for this week.

Monday: Mean loves to play on the “little computer”, my netbook. Probably because she has internet on it then J

Tuesday: Zorro is still with us, hopefully next week he will have a new owner.

Wednesday: When I look to the right, I see my collegue Zwaan

Thursday: daddy and the kids put up the Christmas tree, wonderful!

Friday: Mean her first riding lesson in the riding hall. She fell of the horse, but was a real trooper and climbed right up again!

Saturday: Mean and Joly, a real team!

Sunday: taking photos for the Christmas card. This is the chosen one.

30 november - 6 december

Monday: Mean baking pancakes, she is becoming a real pro in it! Tuesday: the report books where handed out, and Mean had numbers in her book for the first time (instead of the G (Good) etc. she first had). Wednesday: I had a very bad night, a fever and very strange dreams when I slept (or between being awake and being asleep). I stayed at home and spent my time on the sofa (with this photo as my view). On Thursday the fever was lower, but I still felt not very good. The kids had their Sinterklaas celebration at school, and this is Mean singing a K3 song with her two classmates. I went to bed very early. Friday I felt better, but not totally good. I had to go to the swimming lessons with Shen, and instead of having one hour alone in the kantine with my Nintendo DS, I had to sit and watch alongside the pool, it was “viewing-class”. Shen is doing his very best, this is the last class he has, I hope he will have his C-diploma in january. On Saturday it was Sinterklaas, and the children where agitated all day. We opened the presents a little early, but that was very good, because they had lots of time to play afterwards. Shen received the Mario Galaxy Wii game he really really wanted, and they both jumped up and down in joy about that. On Sunday my dad turned 71 years old. We visited him in the afternoon, and I took this photo of him and the kids.

23 - 29 november

Another week in my life. On Monday we ate lasagna, we all love it! On Tuesday Mean could change her earrings by herself for the first time. Thursday I said goodbye to my previous colleagues within my company, it was sad but some of them had already made plans for the future. On Friday I went to Amersfoort to a Drupal introduction course, this looks very interesting! On Friday I went shopping with the kids, and they were allowed to buy something from their own money. Shen chose this lightsword, it is spectacular! On Sunday Rudy and Mean built the Mario racetrack once again to play with it.

16 - 22 november

The first picture is of my colleagues who are sitting behind me. They are part of my team, the design team of our department. The Tuesday photo is of the hallway in our office building. There are two photos of me hanging there now, one of Mean which is hanging right on the left. On Wednesday I had a meeting with a colleague who explained some difficult stuff on the whiteboard, I took some pictures of it to remember it all. The Thursday photo is of the parking lot behind our building, my car is parked on the left. It was a beautiful sunset before I left. Friday morning we had a beautiful sunrise. On Saturday Sinterklaas came to our village and we have a party for all the children in the village then. Sunday was a familyday. I had been so busy the last 10 weeks or so, and on Sunday we did all fun things with the kids. In the morning we went swimming, in the afternoon we played with the Wii all five of us, and afterwards we all did stuff we liked ourselves. A nice Sunday!

Two layouts of july 2009

I made these photos at the end of july, when I still was celebrating my holiday. I love blending (as you can see) and I made both these layouts in a natural atmosphere.

9 - 15 november

Another normal and busy week in November.

The first pictures are of parts of my life. In our living room are five water paintings from Cambodia on a Cambodian cloth. One fell down a long time ago, and Rudy placed it on the wall again this weekend. The second picture is of my car computer on the last part of the way home. On Wednesday we celebrated Saint Maarten. The children walked with their pawns (hope this Babelfish translation is correct?) along the houses and sang their Saint Maarten songs. They received lots of candy and presents! The weather was good, cold but the rain stopped when we started walking at 6 PM. Thursdays photo is of our beloved cat Bumba. On Friday just before bedtime Mean checked the photos on daddy’s phone. On Saturday the kids played a typical Dutch game, sjoelen. Mean has her own “sjoelbak”, it’s a little smaller than the standard “sjoelbak”. They had fun in our living room with it. On Sunday we had a Rally-O workshop and competition at our Dog Trainig school. The photo is of Rudy with his black German Shepherd Felyce. He was first with her, and I was second with my Cairn Diya!

2 - 8 november

I found Mean on Monday evening like this: on top of her bed, under a fleece blanket, with Joly the little Cairn Terrier sleeping next to her. She should ly just the other way round. The photo of Tuesday is a lucky shot, it’s not that easy to picture two doggies at the same time. These are my two Cairns, mother and daughter, Diya and Joly. On Wednesday evening I played a little with my camera to shoot some self portraits. Thursday was not such a great day for Rudy, the plumbing was not working okay, so he worked on it the whole day. Friday had a beautiful sunrise. On Saturday evening Mean and Shen played a little play for us, and on Sunday I went to a meeting about Rally-O.

26 october - 1 november

This week was a sad week. On Monday I decided that Bully shouldn’t suffer any longer, so I spent the evening with him on our couch. I spoiled him with nice meals, and made everything as comfortable as possible for him. The photo shows the new chairs we had received on our department, they are great. Tuesday the vet came and put Bully to sleep. The photo was of a few hours before. We brought him to the crematorium for animals, where he was cremated the same day. Wednesday Rudy picked up the urn from the crematorium. The photo shows the kids that evening (Mean wearing horrible blue eye shadow). On Thursday we went eating out and bowling as team mates. One of my colleagues took this action shot of me. Mean hugged her sweet little doggy friend Joly on the floor on Friday. The Saturday photo is of Mean and Shen with their Nintendo DS Lites. The Sunday photo is of Mean showing her little Cairn Joly at the local dog show. It was the first time she did it, the judge was really friendly and he and the ring steward helped her a lot. She got a great report, very well shown!

 

Everyone who was responded on Hyves or sent e-mails with their sympathy: thank you so very much. Many know how special this little dog was for me.

In memoriam Bully

Last Tuesday Bully was put to sleep by our vet. He had so much trouble breathing, it wasn’t good to keep him alive just for me. Bully was my biggest doggy-friend. He was born in our home 14,5 years ago, and when he opened his eyes, I didn’t want to let him go. We have done so much together, he was truly my best friend for all those years. I am very sad that I have lost him. I made this in memoriam page for him, the photo was taken just a few hours before the vet came. Bully is cremated, and I have his ashes in an urn in my home. I hope to see him again after I pass away in hopefully many years.

Mean's video

19 - 25 october 2009

A very busy week for us. And some very nice photos to remember it. Monday’s photo is of Shen brushing his teeth in his Diego pajamas. On Tuesday Mean took some photos of Shen and me, and they turned out very nice. Wednesdays photo is of Bully, my oldest Cairn Terrier. He has trachea collaps, and is coughing really bad now. Don’t know how long he will be staying with me, I’m very sad about that. Thursday’s photo is of our cats eating some meat on our sink. On Friday we were all very busy for the agility competition the next day (we organized it, and that is a lot of work, almost 300 entries and an indoor venue). Mean wanted to come with daddy to work already in the horse riding hall, but she couldn’t. She pouted a while… On Saturday we had the big event, everything went very well, we had a lot of fun and at 6 PM the hall was empty. Sunday was a lazy day, but someone that learned driving from Rudy came by with a horse and carriage and the kids went for a little ride with them. Great fun!

12 - 18 october

The Monday photo is of Mean playing her toy guitar. She got it from daddy for her birthday. The Tuesday photo is of the sunrise. I took it from the route I drive everyday. On Wednesday I have singing lessons, this is the front door of the teacher J. On Thursday Zorro came to us, he was one of the litter of Felyce of last year. We are trying to find a new home for him. He is in potential a very good working German Shepherd! Friday was a stormy day, this is Shen at my little netbook. He plays games on it. The Saturday photo was taken in Germany at a German Shepherd training center. We went there with Zorro to show him to someone who was interested in him. On Sunday I went to the clubmatch of the Dutch Cairn Terrier Club. I showed little Joly, she got her last qualification to breed with her. Mean showed Joly too in the Child-Dog show, and became first. Joly had wings on her back (fairy wings) and Mean wore her Ariel princess dress with gloves and a Chinese umbrella. All people cheered and laughed that the little doggy was very pleased to wear her wings!

5 - 11 october

A very busy week! Mean turned 8 on Tuesday, so we celebrated the whole week. I had a very busy weekend too. On Wednesday I prepared everything for the Rally-O tournament on Sunday. Thursday I went out with my colleagues to a restaurant in Groningen. The food was great! On Friday we celebrated Mean’s birthday with her school friends. On Saturday I went to a meeting with dr. Changfu Chang about Chinese adoption. And on Sunday I had a Rally-O tournament about 2,5 hour’s drive from home. Busy, busy, busy!

28 september - 4 october

Monday: one of our trainers leaves the dog training school. Tuesday: Mean can really bake pancakes all by herself! Wednesday: a rainbow spotted from my car on the highway (yeah, I know it’s not safe to open the camerabox, switch on the camera, point and shoot while driving at the same time). Thursday: playing outside after dinner. The weather was good enough, although chilly. Friday: fever blisters on my mouth, no fun! Saturday: I did the puppy play hour and prepared for the dog show on Sunday. Sunday: dog show in Zwolle, my Cairn Joly had an excellent judgment and only needs one judgment more (at least very good) to have permission from the Cairn Club to breed with her.

21-27 september

The monday photo is of a little gypsy boy, he looks sad, and monday was a sad day for me too. The tuesday photo is of Mean taking a shower. Only showing a silhouette. Wednesday is a plant I have on the roof of a little shed on our property, I planted it myself years ago. Thursday is Mean drawing at the kitchen table. Friday is the big photo, I played with my big lens and this is one of the apples in our orchard. Saturday is Mean blowing bubbles with her niece. Sunday we took a walk in the forest, and Mean and Shen pointed at this mushroom, saying "look mom, a baby mushroom!". We had lots of fun walking with our dogs and others of the dog training school.

14-20 september

On Tuesday daddy and Shen had a haircut, and Mean got some colour in her hair. She loved it. On Saturday I sprayed some gold in her hair, and that looked great too. On Wednesday my magnetic stickers for my car came, with info about our dog training school. They are really great on my red car. On Thursday grandma picked the apples of our two trees near the pond at the dog training field, the ones that were great are in our cellar now, the ones that where a bit less great are in the cupboard to eat asap, and the rest Is gone into apple-sauce. On Friday we had a BBQ at the school of the kids. It’s a small school (25 kids in total for 8 grades) and all parents know each other. The weather was really nice, and we had a very nice evening together. On Sunday we went to see the baby of friends, and Mean and Shen played in the playground where the party was.

7-13 september

A normal week in my life. I took some photos of normal events, our little Joly on the bed of Mean (she sleeps there every night), the sun through the trees in our garden (loved the light and experimenting with my camera), and on wednesday the sky was so wonderfully colored, I had to take some pictures of it. Wednesday and Thursday I had a computer course in XML, I photographed the building on thursday. When I went to pick up the kids at school (no other children where having lunch, so I could go back to home immediately) I took a photo of the lifesize paper Mean on the window at her classroom. Unfortunately the paper Shen had already been gone… The photo of saturday is of our Felyce, eating an apple in the garden. The apples are falling, and the dogs eat them all the time. Sunday started with some rain, and while Mean and daddy had gone off with Kyona and Joly to train for searching, Shen and I stayed home. He read the toy store book (it had already arrived at my mothers’ house for Sinterklaas) and watched some TV. I took this funny shot of him.

31 august - 6 september

Autumn is starting here, the weather is getting colder, and our life is going on like before the holidays.

On Monday Mean started practicing her flute all by herself. She can play from notes a little already. In a few weeks she will start a beginners course in music (for children), she is really looking forward to go. On Tuesday a digiscrap friend from a city nearby visited to learn more about it. She brought her daughter, and she had a real talent for it! We had lots of fun and made great progress (at least, I hope J ). On Wednesday Mean has her horse riding lessons, and when I picked her up I found her scooping the horse poop. Thursday I didn’t want to cook, so I bought Chinese food from the local Chinese restaurant. On Friday I was so tired, I went to bed early, and while preparing I took this picture of our waterbed. On Saturday Mean and I travelled for almost 3 hours to meet with other Cambodian adopted children and go to a Cambodian party. It was great fun! On Sunday I had a Rally-O tournament not so far away (45 minutes drive) and it was very nice with friendly people and nice weather.

24-30 august 2009

The summer still isn’t over here. This week had lots of very nice warm days. The gas company is working in our backyard on a very big gas transport tube onder the ground. They are digging for weeks now, and are in the construction phase. The photo is taken where the tube is going under the main road near our house. I pass by at least twice a day here. On Tuesday my Cairns went to the groomer, Karin, and she made Bully into a nice old gentlemen (she even washed him, he smelled so fresh!) and Joly became the pretty lady she already was. On Wednesday I went to the pier with Mean to wave a few big tallships goodbye. I took a lot of photos of the ships, but the photo’s of Mean where much more beautiful J Isn’t she pretty? The Thursday photo is of Bully with his new hairdo. On Friday I took the sleepy boy photo of Shen. He wasn’t in my week overviews lately, so he deserved a bit more attention. On Saturday Mean made muffins, almost all by herself. They grow up so fast! Sunday was a very quiet day. We don’t have those days very often. Rudy and I had to work all day long, but we where with the kids, they played and we talked. Shen is here, sitting in his PJ’s at 1 PM (and it’s almost 4 PM now, and he is still in his PJ’s J) playing the Wii. I am cooking in between, we’ll have some nice homemade chicken soup and a whole chicken, slow cooked. Mmmm, looking forward to that!

17 - 23 august

What a great week, the weather was super great, we had a great festival just around the corner, and the kids started school again J

 

On Monday the kids went to school again after the summer break. They had a good start, everything went fine. On Tuesday Mean baked pancakes all herself for the very first time. She wanted me to take a picture alike Spongebob. The Wednesday photo is of Mean jumping in the canal next to our house. She loves to swim. On Thursday grandma came again, and we played a game called Pinguin Panic in the evening together. On Friday I went to the Chinese doctor with my mother again. Saturday was the start of Delfsail, a great event in Delfzijl, our community. We watched all the big ships sailing in the harbor, and went to a big free pop concert with Mean. She loved it! On Sunday Rudy had an obedience exam with Kyona, our almost 1 year old “puppy”. Everything went very well, he passed it. In the afternoon we went to Delfsail again, and had a great afternoon with nice food, some attractions and of course the great views of the ships.

Delfsail 22 august

I had to share these photos with you. This weekend for four days it is Delfsail (www.delfsail.nl) in our community. We live about 7 km’s from the town of Delfzijl, where the big harbor is. We went by bike to the pier which is the entrance to the harbor this morning (it’s only about 2 km’s from our home) and we sat there to watch the big tallships come in for the festival. The weather was great, and we were there for about 2 hours. I took food and drinks with me, and of course my camera, and took some great shots. The atmosphere there was great, all wonderful people loving the scenery!

In the evening we had a big free popconcert of Marco Borsato, the biggest male singer in the Netherlands, in the harbor of Delfzijl. He sings mainly in Dutch, and Mean loves a few of his songs. So she went with us. We had a super great time there, the concert was wonderful, the atmosphere was wonderful, and afterwards we saw the fireworks through the tallships. The weather was nice, no wind, fine temperature, it couldn’t have been better.

Today we’re having an obedience exam at our dog training school, and afterwards we’ll go to the festival again. Hope you like the photos!

10 - 16 august

This was a real summer week. The weather was very nice, lots of sun and the children could play outside most of the time in their last week of vacation.

 

The trees are carrying lots of fruit. The walnuts are really nice this year. Our black German Shepherd Felyce is really fond of water, and loves to swim. Mean had a phone conversation, her first real conversation I mean, on Monday with a school friend. Very funny to overhear! My Cairn Terrier Bully has very long hair, he is going to the dog groomer next week. He didn’t see much through his hair, so I made him a pigtail on top of his head so he could see better. He didn’t like it at first, but got used to it very soon, and seemed to enjoy it! On Saturday Rudy had his birthday and we celebrated our 24^th wedding day. We had a great day, with an afternoon of family water fun and simply enjoying the nice weather and each other’s company. We had a BBQ and loved it. On Sunday the weather was great also, and we spent the afternoon with my sister, her boyfriend and their youngest daughter. We then went to the Chinese restaurant and had a great dinner. Loved this week!

3-9 august

A week with wonderful summer weather. Only negative thing: I had to go to work again, so spent four days inside. But the kids still have vacation here. On Monday I took a lot of photos of the cats and the kids. They where having so much fun outside in the evening. Mean can swim in the pool all day, and evening. The photo of Wednesday is of Shen and his Nintendo DS. He is almost glued to it. Thursday I visited a newborn baby. He was born on Saturday, and he and his mother came home on Wednesday. He was so pretty! Wish you a long and happy life, Raphael Julien! On Friday was my day off. It was very hot, so I did the groceries very early. In the afternoon I spent some time in the pool, and for dinner Mean made the preparation for pancakes. On Saturday I had a meeting with the editorial people of the Cairn Terrier club (I’m a member too) and afterwards we took this photo of the group. Sunday was a very busy day, the afternoon was cleaning time for the dog training school canteen. Tomorrow the training season starts again, and everything is ready for the season!

27 july - 2 august

I still have vacation from work this week. We spent it at home. On Tuesday I went to the Lifelines health check. In 8 weeks I’ll get the results. Wednesday my niece Yvonne and her boyfriend Stefan arrived. They stayed at my mother’s house (Yvonne is very asthmatic and we have 5 dogs and 2 cats) but we BBQ’d 2 times, went to the Chinese to dine with my mother and father, and we went to the playground with Mean and Shen. We had a great time!

21-26 july

Our second week of vacation. We where near Paris (France). We visited a middle aged town (Provins) which was great, but not so great was that our navigation system was stolen from our car there (very strange: they left the children's DVD system in the car). There was no damage to our car, we can't understand how they did it (it's not possible to open the car door through the handle inside when it's locked, and they also left the thing that is attaching the system to the front window which makes no sense). Well, we didn't let this spoil our vacation. We went to Paris for a day, showed the kids the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre-Coeur, and sat on the treps of Montmartre. We also had dinner in a Cambodian restaurant, which was great for Mean. And the last three days of our holiday where spent in Disneyland Paris! We had a great time, allthough our feet where mess each evening. On sunday we went home at around half past two, and arrived at nine thirty in our home. We had a great time!

13-19 july

Holiday week! Fun in the sun in southern France. We had a very nice time. We visited the mediterranean sea two times, had a blast in the pool on the campsite. On saturday we left for another week of holiday near Paris. The kids loved to play there with other Dutch kids.

disney in paris!

Having dinner in hotel new york.

6 - 11 july

Okay, here's last week!
6 july: my  birthday! We had some bad weather on tuesday. On wednesday my office celebrated the launching of a service with ice-cream for all employees. Thursday: our little girl is very tired this week of the kids play week in Delfzijl. On friday we left for France. The photo is of the pool at the Novotel in Beaune, France. When we left saturday morning early at before 7, we didn't know we would be in trouble just an hour later. At 8 we got a flat tire at the autoroute, and we lost 2 hours. After that it was horrible. 160 km of traffic. We detoured, and detoured, and finally arrived at 9.30 PM at our destination, only 550 km away from Beaune. On sunday we rested and played in the pool at our holiday parc!

6 - 12 july

No internet yet...

pool

panne langs de autoroute

mean s new hairdo

She wanted to have "short" hair. Is n t she adorable? We re in Beaune now!

29 june - 5 july

This week we had really great weather. No fun to go to work every day! The kids had a great last week at school. On Thursday they celebrated the farewell of two of the teachers, and on Friday, the last day, the parent council took all the kids at school (all 25) to a nice park with lots of fun to do for them. And did I tell you the weather was so great? I went along on Friday, and it was much fun. I took almost 500 photos!

The photo of Monday is of Mean working on the Wii FIT for the first time. She loved it! I have trained on it myself three times the past week, and I really enjoy the steps exercises. And the balance stuff is great to do too!

The photo of Tuesday is of one of our linden trees. They are blooming right now. On Wednesday I had a performance of my singing class. It was the last time in this building, as it will be torn down. There were 11 songs performed, I did “Unexpected Song” from Song and Dance, a musical.

Thursday was really warm. The kids enjoyed the pool in our garden after they returned from school.

The Friday photo is of Mean. It was really hot in the children’s park, and she loved to cool down in the water. I really love this photo! On Saturday we put up the tent the children received from my mother as a gift, and they slept in it during the night. We had our first BBQ of the season too! Sunday was the greatest day. The weather was really nice, sunny all day, almost no wind, wonderful. I already packed some stuff for our holiday (we leave on Friday) and we BBQ’d again. Super!

22-28 june

A new template, a new look.

Monday: the Bluetooth thing in my car so I can call handsfree. I got it from Rudy when he had his new car with built in Bluetooth handsfree set. Tuesday: Mean brushing her teeth in our bathroom. Wednesday: we picked berries in our garden, and ate them really fast. This was all what’s was left. Thursday: the school musical was this evening. It was great! Friday: two friends from China visited us from today until Sunday. Shen really liked the lady very much. Saturday: Shen got his second swimming diploma today. He is now going on for his next diploma! Sunday: our Chinese friends left today. We hope to see them again some day, maybe here, maybe in China!

15-21 june

Monday: a tired Mean lying on the couch just before dinner. Tuesday: daddy and daughter in our garden. Wednesday: because Mean is horse riding, Shen wanted to make the pancakes this time! Thursday: I had to visit the dentist to fill two caveties. Friday: the flowers in our garden. Saturday: we had a demo of flyball at the dog ambulance open day. Mean was in the demo team too with little Joly. Sunday: it was fathers day today, so Rudy had to unpack the presents the kids made at school