It's been really cold here and we actually have gotten some snow. Not more then a dusting really, but that is all we can expect here.
See below for some more excellent pictures of the winter wonderland we have been enjoying, but first some more venting. Feel free to skip - no offense taken.
We just seem to have had a lot of bad luck lately. First we decided to move the closet in our bedroom and found the following behind it:
Mold, mold, mold, mold. The Landlord's response was: you just need to keep your house warmer, then that won't happen.
Well, thanks so much for your support. Leland braved the bleach and we got the spot removed.
Then we had Christmas
We have two Christmas days here, 25th and 26th, (first and second Christmas day) On the 25th in the morning we unwrapped some presents. We didn't have a ton, because we did most of our presents at Sinterklaas day in the beginning of December. But thanks to Tammy and Ken and Grandma and Grandpa we had some stuff to unwrap. The boys got some games that they love. They had to be put on hungry hippo restriction though, the noise was driving us crazy. So far so good, a nice quiet Christmas.
In the evening we had the missionaries over for dinner and naturally, we did short circuit. We have an electric stove and the pan with potatoes boiled over (majorly) and there went the power in the entire house. I took a while, but after half an hour we had most of the power back, except for in the stove. We improvised with cooking everything in oven and microwave, which are luckily on a different circuit. Still, it was kind of awkward... The green beans didn't do well in the microwave and became petrified... But oh well. All went well.
Moving on to second Christmas day. We went to my parents in the Netherlands and we left our house at 10, planning to be there shortly before two. We took the train to Mechelen and there had to wait for the train to the Netherlands. It was already delayed at the time so we froze to death standing there for an hour. When we got in the train all was well, it wasn't to busy and we got good seats. But once we were in the Netherlands the train broke down in the middle of a field. We set there for about 15 minutes and then they fixed the problem and we continued on. We should have been smart and have gotten off at the next station, but we didn't. Pretty much no one did. So we continued on and what do you know, the train broke down again in the tunnel under the river Maas by Rotterdam. For crying out loud! We set there for more then half an hour. We lost the electrical feed so there were a few emergency lights on that were working on battery, but we had no air, the windows wouldn't open and the toilets didn't flush. then the train conductor announced that the battery would be dead soon, and then there would be no light in the train whatsoever (we were in the dark tunnel). The conductor also said that the driver hadn't been able to fix the engine, but now he was walking to the back of the train to check the engine there see if that would work. Fifteen minutes later it finally did, we got the power back but now, we couldn't continue towards Rotterdam, because the engine was on the back of the train and apprently they are not allowed to drive in reverse over the regular tracks. We would be going back to the last train station we passed. Then it took another while before the central train comment'or whatever those people are called gave permission for the train to drive back to the last station.... Finally we got there, we all had to get off the train and cram into another small train... Make a long story short, we arrived in Leiden at 4 instead of 2.
On a positive note: The boys were very well behaved during the train ride and the train"not"ride.
Anyway, that's our Christmas. Sometimes it just feels as if our lives are just one blunder after an other (even if we are not always the ones causing the blunders). I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a 'normal' life. But then again, what's normal??
Now to happier notes: The lakes by the Abby behind our house froze over and though we didn't have skates, we had a great time playing on there anyway.
There are four lakes by the Abby and we mostly played on the smaller one. We also went on the larger ones but there the ices was making some ominous noises so we didn't stay on them for very long.
Now to happier notes: The lakes by the Abby behind our house froze over and though we didn't have skates, we had a great time playing on there anyway.
There are four lakes by the Abby and we mostly played on the smaller one. We also went on the larger ones but there the ices was making some ominous noises so we didn't stay on them for very long.
1 comment:
I liked the pictures, it looks like it was a lot of fun to slide all over the place. I agree with you about all the trials that we go through and I don't think anybody has a normal life, they pretend to maybe, but everybody has their own problems. It is good for you to vent, I do it all the time. I think you feel better after you write it down. I hope all is well now and that you can have a great year!!! Thanks for sharing your blog.
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