Welcome 2011

So by the look of things, I have not done very well with my blogging in 2010:/ So one of my New Year Resolutions will be to do better with informing other's of what we've been doing. Granted, not every day or week is an adventure, but living here in Europe has proved to be very "enlightening"? Enlightening about me, my family and how to really view our little "world" we are living right now;) I had served a mission in Australia so felt like I "knew" what living in a foreign country would be like, but I had forgotten that every foreign country is different, just like every state in the states is different and has it's own way of doing things. With that being said, there has beeeen ........ how to say this........... much GROWING..... living in a different country and dealing with the culture and attitude differences. I'm not saying that it's good or bad............ just saying it's different. I, on the other hand have to remember that I have a tendency to "pull inward" when I am feeling "out of sorts" and these the last few months, that is what I have been doing. With doing that, I don't communicate well with......... well.............. anyone. My family, my friends and just about any other associates. So with that being said, that is another thing I want to change for this new year.

We were excited this year to ring in the New Year with our good friends Monica and Jon Thiessen and they were accompanied with Monica's brother Kelly and his Wife Marlene Bird. They had gone on a Mediterranean cruise for Christmas and used our place as a "home base" of sorts as they flew to their "port of call" city Barcelona, Spain. Since we have Ryan Air that flies into the Eindhoven Airport and from here fly to Barcelona, they flew out and back from here after picking up the Bird's at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany. This also gave them the excuse to spend the New Years with us since we couldn't go on the cruise with them:/ It was a nice time having them here, Marlene quietly doing my laundry and washing my dishes every time someone ate, and I told her that she was always welcomed to come and stay with me for the year;) We played domino's, ate junk food along with some "good food" and rang in the new year with a BANG:) On the evening of New Year's Eve we also had the Van Eijk family Rob, Megan, Chris and Collin and Renanta and her daughter Angelique. Between all those who bought fireworks to "blow up", the men figured the total to be around 400-500 Euros, it was fun to be a part of the city celebration! Last year we didn't know anything about how European's celebrate the New Year and was pleasantly surprised by the "light show", so we told the boys that we would be a part of it and "blow things up" as they put it:) The night ended up being foggy so instead of seeing the city "all aglow" with the "light show" we were only privy to the neighborhood shows. It ended up that a neighborhood down the street had a pretty good show for the evening so it was a great night all in all. The boys enjoyed lighting their boxes and rockets and no one got hurt!

On Sunday I was released from the RS Presidency and put into the Primary Presidency. I could feel it was time for a change for me. I loved working with the sister's in the RS, but I guess the most frustrating thing was feeling like no matter what changes we tried, nobody here is really interested in doing anything:/ I did initiate a "book club" that some of the older sisters have really enjoyed and taken a liking too, but trying to get the RS evening activities (COSI) meetings going the way they should has really been hard, and a lot of the sisters don't seem really interested in helping others, just complaining that there's no one to help them. Some of the unrealistic "ideas" and how they expect the RS president or Bishop to change things is interesting. I'm not saying the whole ward is that way, we have a lot of people who go on their merry way never asking for help and keep within their own families or friends, but you know if you have a handful of people that are that way, they can can really put a strain on a ward:( It also gets frustrating because most of the "its always been done this way" and trying to change thing that thinking now and help them realize that it's not the ward's problem, well, they just don't seem to get it. I'm the kind of person that can only take so much before I just tell it like it is, and sometimes that can cause hard feelings. I don't want to be "mean" about it, but really, when do you become an adult and take charge of your life? So, I felt like broken record, counseling that if you allow people to continue they won't change, and you can only do that for so long before you just feel........... ineffective. Nancy, the RS president in this ward is an angel, and when people are rude and mean to her, she just loves them more. I hope to grow up to be like one day;) Alas, I'm not yet and might not ever be, but at least I have a role model to try and pattern myself after.

The new adventure will now be trying to work with children with no way to communicate:/ The Primary President is willing to try it so we will see how it goes;) I hope that I will be able to learn from her as well. We have a meeting on Thursday so it will be interesting to start this new adventure.

On Friday it will be Sheldon and mine's 22nd anniversary. We are going to spend 3 days in Bruges, Belgium. I have always wanted to see the place so we will go by ourselves because I don't think the boys are really interested about the lace shops and chocolate stores. We will hopefully take a canal cruise and other things while we are there too. It looks like the weather will be rainy, but we have umbrellas so we are good:) It'll be nice to get away. We want to do that more, and now that we only have about 18 more months before we are to leave here. The time will fly by! If we don't get order's to Germany then this might be our last time over here for a bit so we want to see as much as we can!