Brrr.....

For those living in warmer climates, I want to share the joy of the cold season here in Belgium.

For the last several weeks it has been very very cold. Temperatures are still around freezing when we leave in the morning for school and/or work.

In order to leave safely, we are now putting blanket like covers over the windshield, so we don't have to scrub off the ice (and freeze in the process).

The roads are slippery - very slippery.

The other day, I drove to work and suddenly I started slipping, turning left, moving forward sideways. Then turning right, moving sideways to the other side. I just saw myself totaling that car. When I saw a driveway that looked dry I tried to direct the car that way but it only brought me closer and closer to a telephone pole. I then crashed into a hedge, 15 cm away from the telephone pole. I had nothing, the car didn't have anything, but I was shaking on my legs.
When I got out of the car, I saw a path of destruction, broken off wooden poles, tire marks in the front lawn of an old lady. But luckily, it turned out to be from a previous 'not so lucky as I was' driver.

But on the positive side, it has it's charm.
It has snowed many times so far. One particular day it snowed so much, we all went out for a snowball fight in the street. It was so beautiful, all houses covered under a thick blanket of snow, the tree branches popping out as white arms against the black night sky.
Other times, it just lays a fine layer of snow dust over fields and gardens.

You guys are missing out on something nice here :-)

Picture of a soccergame (click on the image to see how thick the snow really was)

Mendel and her plaswekker

Since Mendel has issues holding her urine at night, the doctor recommended that we use a plaswekker to help her stay dry.

Plaswekker

A plaswekker is a device that will give a loud beeping sound (compare it to a car alarm) when the person wearing a special kind of underwear is wetting that underwear.
High tech all - the underwear has a transmitter that transmits a signal to the plaswekker -> all wireless!

Then - when she is wet and the alarm sounds, she has to get out of bed and turn off the device, go to the restroom, put on a new piece of special underwear, click the transmitter to the new underwear and turn on the device again.

The first few nights, the alarm would go off at around 10PM and again closer to the morning.

But now we get her up when we go to sleep so she can go to the bathroom, and now she sleeps till the morning and gets up when she needs to go to the bathroom. No more alarms go off.

Mendel wants us now to stop getting her up at 10PM so she can try it by herself. I am sure that the promise of a little gift when she is all dry by herself has something to do with it :-)

I hope Sinterklaas went back to Spain

Over the last 3 weeks we have seen Sinterklaas and his helpers at numerous locations:

- At the toystore: the kids got a little goody bag with toys and candy/chocolates
- At the company's Sinterklaas party: this was a good one, each kid got a very nice gift and a few smaller gifts. There were Kermis attractions for them and lots of candies and chocolates.
- At the school's Sinterklaas buffet (but here only his helpers showed up to give them chocolates)
- At school.
- At soccer practice.
- At the chiro

Not to mention at home - but this was at night and we didn't really get to see him or his helpers

Another tooth came out - and how...

For a few weeks Elias had this loose tooth.

It was so loose, he could turn it in almost any direction he wanted, making it very difficult to eat.

Wim and I would feel sick to the stomach just watching him play with that tooth. Really, we didn't understand why it wouldn't fall out.

SOLUTION: let's tie a rope around it and have him pull it out


RESULT: it worked - that tooth flew through the kitchen and our son now looks like a pirate.

Halloween cookies

 


I finally used the Halloween cookie cutters that I bought more than a year ago.

It was a fun project - and tasty too :-)

Halloween tour in Wijgmaal

In true American tradition, we decided to go on a Halloween walk with the kids so on October 25, we (5 adults and 9 kids) went to neighboring town Wijgmaal.

We were supposed to make reservations (which was not mentioned on the flier) and since we hadn't we couldn't participate on any of the tours, except on the 10pm one. Way too late for our small kids.
Since these kind of tours are leading through local meadows, forests and downtown, we would be walking mostly on "public" property rather than private property, so we just started on a tour by ourselves (without paying).

We did make it a point though not to accept any soup and snacks during the walk (which are offered to the paying participants).

The walk goes as follows:
- you follow a path marked by tea lights and/or arrows.
- The path starts downtown but then leads you through 'it looks like' swamps. Not really swamps but a werewolf told us it is and because of the soggy pathways the kids really believed it (and screamed because they came too close to the swamp and they were afraid they were going to be taken by swamp spirits or something).
- The path went by a graveyard. There was a coffin with scary music and smog and someone in the coffin stuck his hand out. He apparently came out as well but I never saw that since Mendel pulled me away too quickly.
- Then we had to walk next to a corn field (of course people in there were running by scaring us), it was almost pitch dark at this point - no tea lights.
- At one point there were 2 withes and a wizard singing songs (really good)
- It ended with a skeleton playing the piano in a very nice park (a bit creepy at night because of all the old buildings and statues).

We walked for about an hour before the tour was over. The kids were very scared at times but they also had fun.
At one point during the tour we told some of the performers that we were a non-paying group and that was why we were not accepting food/drinks, but they decided to tell us a story anyway and directed us to the next stop. Phew ...

It was FUN !!!!

Highlights of my trip to CA

I went on a little CA (shopping) trip because I had a ticket that was about to expire.

I left on Oct 3rd.

Here are some highlights of what I did on this trip:

- It was great to see Jan and Estela again, and of course their kids Julian and Camille. I stayed over on the first night of my arrival and we ended up talking till 2am. The next morning we went to see Camille's soccer game - too cute to see her play.

- For the next 4 nights I stayed over at April's house. I was happy to help out a bit in the household (doing laundry - changing drapes - cooking soup and dinner) since she has been through a hard time. It was nice to chat at night and keep her company.

- Let's not forget the shopping, shopping, shopping,....

- I visited the Monticello school to hear the unfortunate news that Trinh's husband David has just been diagnosed with colon cancer. I really hope it's not too wide spread and treatable.

Sometimes I wonder why so often bad things happen to good people...

- I was able to catch up with Becky over Starbucks coffee - we mostly talked about a certain operation I had done (hmm... someone else is interested??) haha...

- It was so great to get together with my old Cisco crew - we had lunch together, lots of talk and ended up going for pearl tea and even coffee. I miss them, it was always a lot of laughter when we were together (and tears but that was mostly because of the managers :)

- On my last night I stayed over again at Jan and Estela's house, again talking till 2am (ouch - it was a working day for them the next day). We all got up at 5:30am (everyone except Camille) and they waved me out ... snif snif....


And then I had to fly back:

- First of all, with two heavy pieces of luggage and one rolling hand luggage, it was really hard to get all of that to the train and to the check-in counter (no carts in sight).

- Then I spend two hours at the check-in counter because it turned out that they charged me too little for my trip (I payed 250 Euro to change the ticket dates, you would think that was enough). I was arguing that you can't change the ticket price on my halfway my trip - that isn't fair. About one minute before boarding time they let me go, so I had to run through the security checkpoints (cutting in line before everyone - giving me mean looks) and barely made it in time to my gate. It's now 9am and I didn't have breakfast.

- Instead of flying to Philadelphia we made a stop at Phoenix where I was supposed to change my ticket (I still didn't have the correct ticket to fly to Brussels). When they took care of that I had to run back to the plane (still didn't eat).

- When we landed in Philadelphia, I asked another passenger what time it was, it was 7:40pm, while my next plane was boarding at 7:45pm. Again I had to run like crazy to make it to that plane. And again I hadn't eaten - I was starving !!

- I must admit: I refuse to buy food in the plane since I really hate the taste of cold soggy bread. Even when extremely hungry, I can't eat that.

- I was pleasantly surprised on the plane to Brussels: I had 3 seats all for myself. I was gonna get some sleep here !!! A girl asked if she could sit on one of those seats, but thinking back to my tough day so far I just said "no - I want to catch some sleep". Awful huh - but she found another seat where there was lots of space.

- I have never enjoyed a pasta more then I did when they served me dinner :)

- I fell asleep after dinner and woke up when they were serving breakfast. PERFECT!

So these were the highlights of my trip....

Our family portrait (from Elias' view)

Elias' teacher keeps a blog where she posts pictures of the kids when doing projects in the class. It's great to see them doing all those things - very high tech as well (for Belgium).

I was checking out the day they were making family portraits and found this picture of Elias:

He was the only child that drew a family member with a sad face (Mendel). I guess I'll have to find out what that was about, but still, it's a bit funny.

Mendel turns 5

Mendel's birthday(s)

As is becoming the tradition, we had multiple birthday parties to celebrate the fact that Mendel turned 5.

Of course we had to have a little something special on the day itself, even though it was a regular Monday and the day before we left for our vacation.
Alyssa and Caitlin came over..........


Then on the 23th of August, we had a family party with the aunts, uncles and grandparents. The weather wasn't cooperating so we spent most of the party inside. On times like this, it's good to have a small family.

But her REAL party, with all her friends, was on the 30th of August. She had a joined birthday party with Louise who turned 4 (daughter of our friends and a very good friend of Mendel). We rented a pink bouncing castle, decorated with pink/white balloons, made a face painting booth, had a "wand-making" activity, of course the regular swing and trampoline and two hostess moms dressed up as princesses.... did I mention it's a princess party"...?


We were so lucky with the weather! It was the warmest day of the week, lots of sun, and it stayed warm till late in the evening (hence the BBQ that followed).

One month of summer has passed

It's the end of July, which means we are halfway the summer vacation.

The month started off really crappy - it was cold, it was raining. It scared our CA friends from ever moving back to Belgium I think.

But the last two weeks have made up for those bad ones.
The sun has come out with a vengeance. It's been really warm, and the nice thing about Belgium-summer-warmth is that it stays warm till 11pm.

Ok, the nights are hot too, but I'll gladly handle that little discomfort.

Almost every night we are either having a BBQ with friends, going to local festivals/events or just plainly sitting outside and drinking a glass of wine (overlooking our dirty backyard :-)

Which is another point I want to mention: we have seen the first draft of our backyard plan and we love it. We'll get the final plan on August 4, but Wim has to wait for a bit before digging the first hole (we leave on vacation on the 5th...).
--- I'll scan the plan and post it here as well ---

Mendel is riding on her bike again. We had a few weeks where she refused to bike because her old bike died on her and she was convinced that her new bike (a nice pink one with a basket) was bigger and hence not fall-proof. But after gentle persuasion, followed by bribes and not so gentle threats, she is now again riding her bike and loves it.

A year has gone by (in Belgium)

It's true, we're in Belgium for about a year now,
and so much has happened....

- Kids went to a new school. It was a bit rough at first, but they have adjusted really well.
- Wim started working for a new company. Same as with the kids - a bit rough at first, especially when he has to commute all the way to Merelbeke. But recently he has been able to work from home about 3 days a week which is working out perfectly.
- I started a new job as well. Very different from Cisco/Siemens, but I enjoy my time there (limited as it is).
- We have gotten to know most of our neighbors in the street, very much so in the last few months when the weather got better and we love it here.
- We have made several new friends, some really great friends, some school friends, but all in all it makes adjusting to a new life so much easier.

I remember when I just arrived in Belgium, the weather was gloomy, I felt alone, and I was so afraid that we had made the wrong decision about moving back to Belgium.

I am happy to say that we both feel we made the right decision, and even though we do miss California and our friends there, our future is here...

Progress on the backyard

is none ....

On the contrary, we have decided to start all over again, with a new garden designer.

We will meet the new guy this Sunday - I have high expectations of him, I really hope he doesn't disappoint us.

As a result, we will tear up the original design and fill up the big hole in the backyard that was meant for the pond.

Sounds like I'm winning the bet as well (where I was betting we won't have grass/lawn before summer)....

Mendel can ride her bike

She hasn't been very interested in riding a bike by herself, but when she asked whether we could ride the bike to the soccer field instead of taking the car, I told her she should be able to ride without her training wheels before we could do so.

She responded that she can almost do it, and I followed her into the garage, out into the street, and ran behind her while holding onto her for just a bit.... and she was right - she could do it.

We tried for a few more rounds and yep - she got the feel for it and is now officially "riding her bike".

I'm the "Hunchback of Notre Dame"

I already noticed something weird when I woke up this morning - and my first thought was "Did I forget to take out my contacts?"

Nope, wasn't the case, and by the time I reached the bathroom, I realized what was wrong: My left eye was swollen so much I could hardly open it.

I looked for an insect bite but couldn't find one, what the hell is this (and to be honest - with a droopy eye like this, I look like a complete retard, so no way I'm going to work looking like this).

Mendel seemed a bit worried.
Elias just explained that I now looked a bit like the "hunchback from Notre Dame". But not to worry because in the end, his eye would open just a little bit and finally he was able to open his eye completely again - very reassuring :)

I looked it up on the internet and it could be an allergy. That's because Wim has me working the backyard every night I'm sure - haha!

------

It's getting closer to lunch time and the swelling is getting less, I hope to be able to put in my contact in an hour or so, so that I can get to work after all.

Coming from a child

just a little something I want to remember..

Mendel and Elias were sitting in the back of my car and I asked Mendel something.
She obviously didn't know the answer and responded:"Look at my head - it's a small head - of course I can't think with a small head like this".

I hope she will grow out of these "blond" moments :-)

Designing a backyard

-> A very simple hand drawn picture of the current backyard design.
(trampoline at the top, pond right underneath, left is the shed and the top right corner has Wim's vegetable garden, between the veggie garden and BBQ we'll put a playset for the kids, in the middle we have the lawn)

We have been working on our backyard design for months now.
Our basic requirements are:
- area for the trampoline
- area for playground
- area for Wim's vegetable garden
- shed to store bikes and garden tools
- area for the BBQ

We "hired" someone to draw a design which incorporates all of the above, but to our disappointment he didn't make many changes to our own ideas. We changed his plan and went back to have him draw it up again.

As a result, we got a very detailed design:
- price for each and every single work/job
- list of plants
The price tag is of course over our budget.

Wim started his investigation of prices (on the internet) and if we coordinate everything ourselves (and even do a bunch of things ourselves) we can cut the cost in half. Of course it will probably take more then twice as long, but I already gave up on a lawn by summer anyway (which Wim claims will be there before summer - let's vote).

Another obstacle is that we keep making changes. A bigger pond, the orientation of the path, the kind of stones we will use, now we just decided to add to our existing patio,... it seems like it will never end.

This Thursday however, someone is going to come and scrape off the top 7 inches of dirt in the backyard. We need to know pretty good by then where the trampoline and pond is going to be, because that machine will dug the holes for those as well.

So.... we spent all evening measuring pathways....

Almost there.... for phase 1 that is.

Visit to Amsterdam

Very last minute (because Elias was sick) we decided to go to Amsterdam with Luc and Nivea.

It might not happen, but rumors are that "the walletjes" or better known as "the red light district" might disappear, so we had to make sure we got a chance to see it at least once.

Because of the "last minute" decision, but also because of the Holiday "koninginnedag" in the Netherlands, almost all hotel rooms were booked.
So we didn't know better but to book a room with 2 single beds, for the 4 of us. We would deal with the problems when we get there.

We ended up sleeping in one big bed (haha), Luc and Nivea with their heads one way, Wim and I with our heads at the foot end of the bed.

Oh well.. it wasn't luxury, but it was affordable and kind of fun (for once) :)



During the day we explored all Amsterdam had to offer: Van Gogh museum, Coffee shops, souvenir shops, "the walletjes", "outside seating-watching the crowd-while enjoying the weather",...

Of course we checked out one of the live sex shows and I have to admit that it wasn't as disgusting as I had expected it to be, it was actually nicely done with good lighting and music. Almost a bit classy :)

Elias in hospital

On Friday April 25, Elias started having tummy pains. I went to the doctor with him the next day cause he wasn't able to sleep all night and was crying because of so much pain.

According to the doctor it was probably an inflammation of the intestines but when we had to pick him up early from school on Monday, we decided to go back to the doctor's office.

This one sent us to the Emergency Room of the Imelda Hospital. He wrote a note for the reception area so we didn't have to wait and they saw us almost immediately.
The pediatrician on duty scheduled an X-ray and an echo of the intestines (which was really scary because the technician spent so many time checking little details and taking pictures and measurements that we were sure he found something very serious).
But no... they found nothing.

The pediatrician did prefer he stay in the hospital because he was in so much pain (pain medication given by infuse works better for tummy pain) so I stayed in the hospital as well. And the next day/night too.

While in the Hospital, Elias had a great time. Someone came and played games with him, he could watch video's all day, mommy serving him on every whim....

On top of that, he was feeling great, even when they removed the infuse.

Back home however (on Wednesday 30 April) the pains came back (but because of the long weekend we had trouble getting to the same doctors). When he was still suffering on Saturday, I decided to put him again on a very strict diet (as in the hospital) and that did the trick.

I am every day giving him a bit more "normal" food, and he has been fine since then....

He is back to eating regular right now (as far as regular goes with Elias), but still, I'm keeping an eye on him, just in case...

Kids.... nothing but worries :)

Happy Birthday Elias!!

WOW - the celebrating days are over.

I think we overdid it a bit - we had 3 birthday parties this year (as opposed to ONLY 2 in the US :-)

1) A party together with a classmate (who was celebrating his birthday in the same week) in The Nekker (Mechelen). It was a lot of fun, playing in an indoor playground and we even went to the outside playground cause the weather was so great (but it was so tough keeping a tab on all the kids that we drove them back inside after a while.
Almost all kids made it to this party - surprisingly because we were very late with sending the invitations (because of the chicken pox saga).

2) On his actual birthday we had kids over from all our friends. A big group (12 in total) which caused small accidents on the trampoline (they either don't want to jump, or all jump at the same time).

3) And of course a party for the relatives. We decided to have only one party for both Wim and my relatives, and it went great :)
Unfortunately Elias wasn't feeling so good by the end of the day because of tummy pains (to be continued).

Elias has the chicken pox

A week after a playdate with a friend, the mom called me and told me one of her kids had the chicken pox, so we should watch our kids.

And yes, sure enough, a week ago, Elias had two bumps on his face. But they looked nothing like the chicken pox, more like mosquito bites.
Then yesterday after school, he suddenly had more red dots, itching like crazy.

So this morning at 7:45 I went to the doctor with Elias (don't you love the hours here in Belgium) but he was just very confused. He thought it were insect bites as well. After much persuasion, he continued looking at every single one dot, until he found one that had a liquid inside, a sure sign of the chicken pox.
The reason why he had such a hard time diagnosing it was because Elias has had a vaccination for it, unheard of here in Belgium.

Here in Belgium most kids get the chicken pox in first kindergarten (age=2.5) when they start school, so Mendel can continue going to school because the chance she is spreading it is very small (since they all have gotten it).
Elias however should just stay home for the rest of this week (instead of the normal 10 days) because he has a mild version (because of the vaccination).

I have two new best friends.

Not just any friends ... friends that I've wanted since I was about 16.

For those who are still clueless... check out the following link:

Dr. Erwin Lemmens Website

Looking forward to summer now - if summer ever happens in this cold country (did I mention it snowed the day after Easter - kids liked it though)

More than a month later... (work-wise)

Time flies when I'm at work.

I've learned so many new things and am now putting them to the test.

I'm still struggling - plain Java coding is a lot simpler and straight forward - but I've created a few simple web pages (with lots of copy and pasting from others).

The 4 colleagues that work on the same project that I do turned out to be a lot less boring than I originally thought.

I really should NOT rely on my first impressions!!

As far as the project goes - it's very different to work on a product for a single customer, and if this customer is the Flemish Government, even more so. Oh, our end users will be prison workers, people who guide prisoners while they are behind bars.

Very different than an ACD server :-)

How to loose your teeth really fast

This morning when Elias just woke up, he asked Wim for a clean handkerchief cause he was going to pull out a new loose tooth.
It's the third loose tooth, he already pulled out two of them.
The first one was hard labor - weeks of wiggling and being afraid of it falling out.
The second one was a lot easier - go to the bathroom and pull out that wiggly thing.
This third one is .... well, different.
He apparently was trying for a while and came back to our bathroom complaining that he couldn't get it out, that it was bleeding a bit and that we should pull it out for him.
No problem ... Wim took the handkerchief and tried to pull.... only to realize .... it wasn't even very loose.
Ok, if you really tried you could get it to wiggle a bit! WAY too soon to be pulling this one out.
Elias was very disappointed and asked for a little rope to pull it out (which we didn't give of course - trying to explain that tooth wasn't yet ready to be pulled).

We are now watching him carefully - making sure he doesn't get a hold of a hammer or so ;-)

The Tooth Fairy Takes An Inflation Hit

Summary of first week back at work

I survived my first week at kZen (part of foresee.be, part of cronos.be).

It was boring in the sense that I spent entire days reading eBooks. I'm learning about the Spring framework. Will soon learn more about Hibernate framework and JSF.

Since I have not done any web development before, I am learning so many new things, more than in the last 7 years at Cisco (sad actually). It's quite exciting...

The "people" seem to open up a bit. Still quite 'nerdy' but at least one of the guys (that I hadn't met before) brings a bit of life to the group.

They probably think I'm a very quiet girl as well....

Looks can deceive ;-)

First experience with an Indian restaurant in Belgium

This Saturday we went to an Indian restaurant (Himalaya) - the first time since we are in Belgium.

I found it on the web, it looked cozy, I made a reservation.

When we got there, the entire restaurant was very full, so it must be good, no?

We ordered:
- sweet lassi
- rum coke (this, they didn't understand - rum AND coke???)
- glas of red wine (which never showed up, except on the bill)
- vegetable pokora (shouldn't it be pakora - and no - it was nothing like in the States, more like a vegetable rosti, very greasy and just not Indian tasting whatsoever)
- Vegetable Mixed Vindaloo (a spicy dish which was good, but again, I missed the Indian taste but maybe this is a Nepalese dish)
- Chicken korma (just chicken in a coconut sauce, no carrots or peas, and very very sweet)

Can you tell we were disappointed?

Not giving up though - we'll just have to try another restaurant next time.

The "mean" girls

When Mendel, Caitlin or Louise talk about the "mean" girls, we all know who they are referring to: two girls (sisters) in Caitlin's class that used to bully them the first few months of school.

Now, the past few weeks, these girls are no longer mean to them and they have become friends (most of the time), but we can't get rid of their original name.

Every time we see one of the girls at school Mendel will point and say (quite loudly): Look mommy, the "mean" girl. But she is nice now, she is my friend.

This weekend when at a school event, she ran to me and showed me a piece of candy she got from the "mean" girl.

I'm trying to work on her, calling the girl by her name, but she keeps forgetting that girl's name.

It's funny as hell, I think, but I'm mortified that one day the mom will hear this (if she even understands of course)...

Importing a car in Belgium is hard labor....

After 5 months in this country, our Volvo is still driving around with it's Californian license plate.

So far, every stage that the paperwork has to go through, we need to resend the same documents to this instance. As if none of these government instances talk to each other.

Right now, we need a "gelijkvormigheidsattest" and after several calls, it seems like we can get this from the Volvo dealership (they will send the original documents to the Belgian Volvo Co). I hope we don't need to make any modifications for Belgium...

It's been fun driving with a CA plate though, many people stare at our car (I like the attention ;-) and I've heard that this plate is not registered with the local police, so even if I get "flashed" for speeding, they can't send me a ticket.
That might explain why I haven't gotten a ticket so far :-)

For those who knew I was also looking into a teaching career

It took me a while before I understood what classes exactly I would need to take in order to be able to teach. It's called GPB and can be done as part of the "adult education classes", two half days a week for instance.
CVO Mechelen

Then it took me a little longer to figure out which classes I can give. After getting in touch with someone from KIHK, it became clearer - I can give a bunch of classes: biology, fysics, chemistry, .... Since I have a masters degree, I can give almost everything: ten minste master + BPB

But the website where I found this information was still not very clear to me so I got in touch with both schools here in Keerbergen I was interested in:

1) The Atheneum in Keerbergen (grade 3, 4, 5 and 6)) didn't have time to meet with me at this point, they only meet with new candidates in June. Too far away...

2) The Middleschool in Keerbergen (grade 1 and 2) wanted to meet me right away. I talked to the director for an hour and a half but was very disappointed when I left. My masters degree is too high to teach middleschool. Apparently we are not allowed to teach those first two grades because they want to protect the job of the "regular teachers". According to the director, a kindergarten teacher would be allowed to teach math in first grade, but I, although much better qualified, can not.
Big bummer.

So that was the end of my short lived "teaching job hunt".....

No longer a SAHM

As mentioned before, I interviewed on Jan 8 (one hour), they told me they were going to send me a contract on Jan 9, and today on Jan 18, we have come to an agreement so I will start working for kZen, part of the Cronos group.

That was easy :-)

I must admit that I am really lucky with this opportunity:
- I can work 3 days a week from 9am till 3:30 pm (with one hour extra on one of these days so I have 19 hours a week).
- I can start on Feb 11 (after the Krokusvakantie of the kids).
- I can work from home if the work permits it.
- It's only 12 km from our house (15 minute drive)
- It's PERFECT


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Another step closer to adulthood

For the last 3 weeks, Elias was struggling with one of his front tooth being loose. He kept wiggling with it but refused to take any action to help that tooth to come out. It was becoming a real hassle, that loose tooth.
Eating cookies would hurt, brushing his front teeth became painful, the next tooth was showing at the back and mom and dad got worried it would grow in the wrong direction (seeing huge orthodontic bills in their future),...

I made a dentist appointment but the earliest appointment date was early February, so we were getting a bit frustrated. But then it happened: yesterday evening we helped Elias brush his teeth and we saw that the gum around that loose tooth was getting lower and lower, I got worried something might be wrong, but Wim gave Elias a handkerchief so he had a good grip on his tooth and Elias pulled it out just like that.

We put that tooth in a little wooden canister for the tooth fairy, who put some money in it during the night.
Elias was really excited with that in the morning: "Mom - I didn't really believe in the tooth fairy, but now I know she is real!!". What money can do......

 

The New Year is going full steam ahead.

WOW - 2008 is already in full swing, Wim is back to work, driving to Merelbeke every day now and the kids are back in school.

Filling out Elias's school agenda, I had to write 2008 instead of 2007.
It made me think of my own school days, how I thought it was really cool to write the new year (and often still writing the old year). Made me just chuckle thinking about that... I must be getting old.

On Monday I returned my laptop, some servers and monitor to Cisco. I kind of hoped that I had a chance to say goodbye to some of the TAC engineers, maybe even have a quick lunch with them. But as I was "accompanied" by their manager, he walked me to his office and quickly walked me back to the front door. Five minutes in and out.
And that was the end of my Cisco career.
I didn't feel sad though - just one chapter that has closed.. on the the next one.


Speaking of the next chapter, on Tuesday I had a meeting with someone from Cronos (where Wim works). It was a "she", which I always have a tougher time talking to :-) For some reasons I'm more used talking to men when it comes to work.
But either way, she asks what I want to do, explaines what they are working on, asks if I am interested and what hours I want to do.
If I will work 3/5, this means I need to work 22.8 hours a week.
If I work half time, I need to work for 19 hours.

Since I don't have after care for the kids, I wanted to work on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 till 15:30 (with a half hour lunch break, but this brings me to only 18 hours a week). She suggested I could work a few more hours on Friday to get to the 3/5. I wanted some time to think about it and sent an email yesterday eveninjg saying I wanna do the half time, so I have Fridays off.
I am now waiting to hear back from her because they want me to meet someone else to discuss the salary and such. I'm not even sure if they want me though...
I'll just wait and see.
I hope to hear back pretty soon so I know whether I can start with the teaching classes or not (they start on January 28).

When I discussed the day with Wim, he was wondering whether it is worth to work half time in engineering. If I could find a job in a school and work full time there (which is only 21 hours a week), would I make the same?
Which would I prefer?? Not to mention the days off during Holidays....

Tough decisions...