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 :-)