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...