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!