25 - 31 january

Monday’s photo is of a work meeting, it shows two of my colleagues. On Tuesday my colleague Jantje visited us at work with her little son Sven. He was so cute, smiling at us and playing! Happy boy! The Wednesday photo is the birthday announcement of Yara, the daughter of another colleague. On Thursday we had to work on our sink again, the water is not flowing nicely. On Friday morning it snowed so bad, the children could make a few snowmen in the afternoon. Saturday was a beautiful day. It was freezing, but the sun was warm and bright. I could make beautiful pictures of the children and the dogs. On Sunday Rudy had to go under the sink again to try to fix it. It’s a bad problem!

18 - 24 january 2010

On Monday I had my second first aid training. We had to practice all kinds of bandages, so I was a patient too! Monday’s photo is of our two cats on the couch, Ischa and Bumba. They are inside a lot now that it is soo cold. Wednesday’s photo is of my side of the bed. We bought this neckroll around Christmas at IKEA, and I’m very happy with it. Ischa was sitting really weird on the couch on Thursday. Friday’s photo is of Shen playing a game on the netbook. On Saturday we went to McDonalds with my mom. It was a celebration of Mean’s adoption day (which is in November, but we hadn’t had time to go before, mostly because of the bad weather, McDonalds is about 12 km away from us). On Sunday we went eating out and bowling with the trainers and the volunteers of the dog training school We had lots of really good food and fun, and Mean could play some bowling too!

11 - 17 january

It wasn't easy to take a picture every day this week. It seems I have
covered all the normal subjects and it's hard to think of new ones. Monday
evening I asked the kids if I could take a photo of the two of them. They
are not always into it, but this time they were, so that was a bonus. The
Tuesday photo is of the new rack we have in our kitchen. It's from Ikea and
I love it. It fits perfectly in our kitchen. The Wednesday photo is of Beef
Chimichurri, a dish from Argentina. It is sold here so you can make it
yourself with only adding a few things (beef strips, clotted cream, paprika
and beans. I love it, it's not a favorite by the children though. The
Thursday photo is of Diya, my little Cairn bitch, on the couch. She lies
there almost every evening. On Friday I visited Mean's horse riding lessons
again, and it was the first time she galloped. This was not intentioned
though, so Mean wasn't very happy and she said she didn't want to ride this
horse again. The Saturday photo I took for my EOL project (Encyclopedia of
an Ordinary Life). These are some of my favorite books. And on Sunday we had
a new years party at our dog training school. The activity committee
organized it, and they showed us their new outfit.

4 - 10 january 2010

It is still winter around us. Lots of snow this week. It looks beautiful, but is not nice to drive in. The Monday photo is of the TV corner in our living room. Last week we bought a few closets for the DVD’s and for other stuff (like from the Wii). It looks so much better now that there’s no clutter in that corner anymore! On Tuesday the kids started an ice-skating 3-days on the ice skating rank in Woldendorp. They had so much fun doing that, on the first evening Shen skated 20 rounds (of about 300 meters) and Mean 10, but the next three days they both did 20 rounds. It was great that the iceclub organized this event. The Wednesday photo is of my way back home from work. It started snowing in Groningen around 2 PM, and when I left it was very hard to drive. It took 2 hours to get home, which is normally about 40 minutes. I was really tired afterwards. On Thursday and Friday I had a Photoshop CS4 course, that was great! Inspirational and also great fun. The photo of Thursday has been taken at 7 in the morning at the train station of Appingedam. The Friday photo is of the medal and diploma Mean and Shen earned for the ice-skating 3-days. Saturday was a very cold day. The kids had a birthday party. The photo is of last Sunday, we drove in Rudy’s car to our fathers for a happy new year drink, and I took the photo in one of his many mirrors (he’s a driving instructor). The Sunday photo is of Mean playing her Cambodian Xylophone. She has lessons at the music school in Delfzijl, and learns to play the small xylophone, but the songs worked out on this big one also!

28 december - 3 january

A week off from work. On Monday we picked out new wallpaper for the kitchen. Rudy had already prepared the walls, so he could start with the work really soon. Mean and I visited IKEA in the afternoon. On Tuesday Mean, a friend from school and her mother and I went to a movie, Anubis and the revenge of Argus. It’s a Dutch movie, and Mean and I love the TV series of Anubis also very much (it’s a children’s TV series, but heck). On Wednesday we used our new BBQ pan for the first time. Don’t these baked breads look yummie? On old-years-day we went to IKEA again, and bought several cupboards so we can stow away some more stuff in our home. My mom came to celebrate new years eve with us. The picture is taken at midnight, we live a few kilometers from a village, and this photo is of the fireworks in that village. We had a quiet new years day, we had the grilled meat again, we all love that. It started snowing again on Saturday, and I took lots of photos of the coletits eating from my buffet. On Sunday we could skate again in our village, so we went there with our kids. The weather was really sunny, so lots of nice sunny snow and skate photos!

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 )