Sisters Euro Trip: Rotterdam

April 30, 2009

Because we wanted to stay and enjoy the free market in Amsterdam a little longer than everyone else, Keith, Kelly, and I made the trek to Rotterdam on our own. The train ride between Amsterdam and Rotterdam was beautiful! We passed many, many fields of tulips in every color, including this one that had 2 different shades of purple!

Arjen lives in one of the coolest houses I’ve ever been in, a “cube house”. The city of Rotterdam was basically destroyed during wars so most of the buildings in the city are relatively new. The cube houses were built in the 1980s, and while they seem modern for the current day, I imagine they were way ahead of their time back then. The entire house is literally shaped like cubes turned on one edge. All of the rooms have 45 degree angles for the walls and ceilings. The history behind the concept of not just the single cube house, but the whole village of cube house, is very interesting! Floor space is a minimum in these houses, but that just means that you have to be creative with your storage. Art can’t always be practical, and Arjen’s house is definitely a piece of art!

Here is Arjen's living room. Notice the orange built-in couch.

Arjen's kitchen is at the far end of this picture. Notice the slanted walls. I can just imagine sliding down those for fun!

This is the coolest room in the house, the zen room with windows all around, an ultra low table, and pillows and futon mattresses for sitting on. The room just gives off a cool vibe and makes you want to never leave (unless you need to stand up and stretch)!

Many of the Spring Source employees who attended the conference came to Rotterdam for the party. It was really nice to hang out with everyone outside of the conference environment. We enjoyed some wonderful food, did lots of chatting, and mainly hung out in the room of windows at the very top of the house. This room was the coolest hang out spot I’ve ever seen! Kelly and I got the idea to create our own game of Loaded Questions. We started out with a small group playing, but as everyone else joined us upstairs and saw how much fun we were having, we ended up with practically everyone joining in. Jill was busy looking up questions for us online, and we made up a few questions on our own. Everyone had a blast! I love that game!

Before we knew it, it was very late and everyone had to head to their hotels in Rotterdam or to catch the train back to Amsterdam. Since we were staying with Arjen, we just had to repack our stuff, then hit the sack. Keith was leaving the next day to go home, so we packed one of Kelly’s luggage bags full with purchased items to send home with Keith. Between the walk from the train station to and from our Amsterdam hotel, the train trip from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, and dragging all of her stuff up to Arjen’s house, I think Kelly has really learned the value of traveling light!

Keith caught an early train back to Amsterdam for his plane ride back to The States, while Kelly and I caught our train to Paris!

Enjoy the pictures of our Queen's Day celebrating in Amsterdam and in Rotterdam.

Stuck Under Water

Today my poor baby girl cried and kept saying she was "stuck under water"... and she was. :(

This afternoon we had a few hours of sun in between rain storms, so I took the kids over to the Konicki's pool and met Nikki and the girls for some pool time. Corgan seriously makes me nervous around the pool because he will just jump (or walk) right in, so unless he's in my arms, I don't trust him at all. After a while of everyone swimming, jumping in, going under the water and lots of happiness, Annabelle tried swimming with Halle's kick board. Unfortunately, it was when no one was looking. Halle showed Annabelle how to use it earlier, but she showed her with her floaties on so I guess it looked easier than it was. I thought Annabelle was on the steps while I was paying attention to Corgan, when all of the sudden I heard gasping behind me. I turned around and saw Annabelle struggling to keep her head above water and she was a good 5 feet from the side of the pool or anyone/anything else to grab on to. The kick board wasn't even very close to her either. Of course I grabbed her immediately and hugged the heck out of her. She wasn't hysterical, but was definitely very upset. I tried to not show fear myself to keep her from getting more upset. I kept telling her that I was so proud of her for kicking and keeping her head over the water (although from the second that I saw, she was under the water, but kept kicking up enough to get a breath before going back under). She kept telling me that she got stuck under water and no one was helping her. My heart was breaking and I felt like the worst mom ever!

After all of this happened, the weather was starting to get back so we got ready to leave anyway. There was no more swimming after that. I hope this experience hasn't scared Annabelle out of her love of swimming. I don't think it will, but I do think it will make her much more cautious of swimming on her own.

Teacher's Rule!

Last week was Teacher Appreciation week, and I had grand plans of a gift a day for the kids' teachers. I was going to have the kids help me make cookies for one day, have them make cards for another day, bring in a flower that the kids picked out on another day, candy one day, and a gift card with a card from me the last day. But... thanks to the flu, the week didn't exactly go as planned. The only gift the teachers got from us last week was a card from the kids. Annabelle wanted to draw a snake on her card for Ms. Angela. Normally, I would have discouraged a snake as a theme for a thank you card, but Angela knows Annabelle and knows that a snake is a good thing to her, so I let her do it. Plus, she drew the snake all on her own and it turned out really good! That's the first time I've seen Annabelle draw something (besides just a shape) that actually looked like what she said it was. Of course, I didn't take a picture of it, but I'm sure there will be more. For Corgan's card, I drew a heart and let him paint it, then he colored on the inside. On Tuesday, the only day that Annabelle went to school last week, the teachers got their cards.

So, the only good thing is that I had over the weekend to come up with a good gift. Annabelle and Corgan helped me to make paper flowers for their teachers from them. As I thought about it, I wanted to really let the teachers and staff know how much I appreciated them as a parent. I made cards for the kids' teachers, the 2 ladies who are the janes-of-all-trades at the front desk, and the owners. I wrote each one of them a heartfelt message of gratitude to really thank them for the amazing job that they do. I really do love that school! I also gave each of them a Hershey's bar that I rewrapped in the barn theme. I think they turned out really cute, and they all loved it too. The owner even came out to find me when I picked up the kids and gave me a big hug. :) I decided to pass on the cookie-making since I figured no one would really want to chance eating cookies made by kids who had been out sick all week. :)

The cards that I made had a picture of Annabelle and Corgan in front of the school from Corgan's 1st day of school on the front. Here's the card and one of the candy bars:

These are all of the candy bars. I really like how they turned out! This morning the kids were so ready to get back to school! They were so happy to give their teachers their gifts, and Corgan even ran in and gave his teacher a big cuddle hug and wouldn't let go! As soon as Annabelle gave her teacher her gifts, she and Halle immediately began catching up on all of the play time that they had missed last week! They were so sweet (as always)!

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

While we were out running errands after school this morning, it FINALLY started raining! I thought it was hilarious that it's been so long since Corgan has seen real rain that he was actually scared of it because he didn't know what it was!

Sisters Euro Trip: Enjoying Amsterdam, Part 3

April 29 - 30, 2009

Because we had been up so late the night before, Kelly and I didn’t actually get going until after noon. After grabbing our regular morning waffle from the fair, we headed to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum to hang with all of the celebrities and learn a little more about the history of the Netherlands. Of course, we had tons ‘o fun coming up with poses for the pictures. The tour began as a guided tour of Amsterdam’s history with wax peeps to help you really get the picture. The guided section ended when they let you go on your own through an area about the pirates and the war… but really that part was just to scare the crap out of you. It was just like the Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. A line of people (led by me this time that time through) walked through dark rooms where live characters were constantly jumping out at you and you saw grusome things like a man hanging by his feet with his stomach gutted. Kelly was pretty terrified, which made it pretty funny for me.

While we learned a bit about the Netherlands’ history on this tour, most of it was a refresher from the stories that we heard on our bike tour, so we just enjoyed finding creative poses to take with the locals.

Old Pirate Checkin' Out My Bootie

Young Guy Checkin' Out Kelly

The last part of the tour was self-guided through celebrity-land. There were mainly Hollywood and musical celebrities, but there were also a few local celebrities of the Netherlands. Some sport superstars were there too, as were international historical figures. It was amazing how realistic most of them looked, but how fake others were.

Kelly with the Oh-So-Sexy Johnny Depp

Me Workin' Out with Beckham

Savin' the World with Bono

I Had the Hard Job of Being Jon Bon Jovi's Object of Affection

Kelly Rockin' the Mic with James Brown

Kelly Experiencing a Little More of Beyonce then She Asked For

Kelly Invading THE Mona Lisa's Personal Space

Kelly about to Plant One on the Guy Who Made Elvis Sculptures

On the way out of the building, you had to go down quite a few flights of stairs. To keep you entertained during your walk down, there were some celebrity-related things on the walls. One of those things was a mold of J-Lo’s bootie. It was recessed into the wall and lighted from all sides. Kelly reached in to touch it, and it made a fart sound. It was pretty hilarious!

By the time that we finished Madame Tussaud's, we didn’t really have time for anything else before the conference was over so we headed back to the hotel, then off to dinner (which, again, included white asparagus). After dinner, the Queen’s Day Eve celebrations had begun, so we walked around a little checking out the party atmoshere. We were a bit dissappointed in the partying, possibly because it had been so built up by everyone local. One thing that I thought was really strange was that there was a pretty strong Native American presence performing and selling stuff for Queen’s Day. There was a Native American band playing on Dam Square (in the middle of town), and there were Native American artists selling things in the street. Weird. I thought maybe they had something to do with the history of Queen’s Day, but when I asked a Netherlander about that the next day, they had no idea why Native Americans would be so prominent for Queen’s Day.

Anyway, our group sat together in our orange garb and had our own little party seated outside at a restaurant on Dam Square. We had a little strip tease show (thanks to Colin who was trying to make Kelly happy because she expressed that she was expecting a Mardi Gras vibe and was at least expecting to see a nipple), grabbed some more waffles, got some great news about Juergen & Eva expecting a new baby, and did an American Eagle photo shoot on the square. The party ended before Kelly, Keith, and I were ready to stop, so we continued to entertain ourselves in the hotel room by acting out skits that Kelly set the scene for (in a British accent). We have a couple of videos, but those will not be posted to protect the not-so-innocent. :)

The next morning, we made sure we were up early enough to partake in the Queen’s Day free market. Queen’s Day is the only day that a permit is not required to sell your stuff in The Netherlands, so there are people selling things everywhere! We headed to Vondelpark, where only kids are allowed to sell their things. We picked up some clothes for the kids, a few toys and books, some souvineers, and just enjoyed the walk and the food. While at the park we had another urinal experience. There were these extra large barrels with holes in the side where guys could just walk up and pee. These “urinals” were right next to where families were sitting at the park and where kids were selling their things. Without even trying, I think we all saw a few “franks and beans”. I know America is a prude country, but that was just crazy! When we walked to the park, the streets were a little crowded, but when we headed back, they were packed!

About mid-day it was time to head to Rotterdam where Keith’s collegue, Arjen, was throwing a Queen’s Day party at his house. We headed back to the hotel, wrestled through the crowded streets with our luggage and Kelly’s many bags, and walked to the train station to board the train to Rotterdam, the second largest city in The Netherlands.

Enjoy the pictures of our final days in Amsterdam.

Immunity Now!

Last Saturday morning, Corgan woke up not acting like himself. We would soon realize that was because he was about to erupt the contents of his stomach through his mouth. He did this a couple more times throughout the day, but fortunately his sudden cry was enough of a warning sign to grab a towel and keep most of it contained. These "episodes" were accompanied by a low-grade fever and a very cuddly little boy all day long. Poor Corgan was so pitiful, but I did love the cuddling!

By the time we woke up Sunday morning, the worst was behind us. Fever was gone, and the food was staying in his stomach. He was doing so well that we thought it was a good idea to try daddy's idea of going out to lunch then taking a family bike ride for Mother's Day. Everything was fine until the middle of lunch when Corgan started whining and saying "tummy hurt!". As I held him tummy to tummy, I could feel the bubbles in his poor little tummy. I didn't want him to ruin lunch for everyone in the restaurant so I took him outside to walk around while Keith and Belle finished up. Needless to say, we had to scrap the bike ride.

Despite the minor setbacks, my Mother's Day was actually really nice! Keith got me some wonderful presents (including 3 bottles of the Monbazillac wine the Kelly and I discovered that we love while in Paris!), the kids made some really sweet crafts for me at school, we went out with just our family for lunch (even if we didn't make it through the whole thing... just getting ready and going out was worth it), and my day ended with a WONDERFUL, long back rub and scratch!

By Monday morning, Corgan seemed to have his appetite back and hadn't had a fever or thrown up for over a day, so he was going to school. But... Annabelle had other things in mind for herself. As she was getting ready, she all of the sudden did the "I'm going to throw up" scream. I scooped her up and we actually made it to the toilet just in time for her explosion! She was so upset that she was going to miss her first day of dinosaur week at school, but I think she was also happy to stay home. On Sunday she seemed to be getting pretty jealous of all of the attention that Corgan was getting, so she was happy to have me all to herself. As soon as Corgan and Daddy left for school, Annabelle immediately perked up and was absolutely fine. She ate a ton, helped me do dishes, and was even extra hyper. She never had any of the other signs of the virus that Corgan had. No fever, no headache, no yucky poops, no complaining about tummy hurting, and she was eating like a pig for the rest of the day! I was really wondering if she hadn't thrown up on purpose just to get my attention, except that I know that she really hates to throw up.

When Tuesday came around, she hadn't shown any more signs of illness so both kids went to school. Both were fine all day. Then overnight on Tuesday, Annabelle woke up around 3am to loud claps of thunder and Macy barking hysterically. She came to our room and I let her cuddle in with us. Not a few hours later, she did the "I'm going to throw up" scream. Again, we made it to the toilet just in time! She also started up with the fever and said that she had a headache. It's now 12 hours later, and although she has barely eaten much of anything all day and still has a low-grade fever, at least she isn't throwing up (knock on wood!). She's been a bit sluggish (like a wet sponge ;)) all day, and has developed a little bit of a sour stomach, but hopefully the worst of this is behind us with her. I feel horrible that she probably brought the virus in and exposed her class to it yesterday, but there's no way I could have known that it wasn't over with (or wasn't the real thing in the first place) for her! :(

Something that I thought was interesting about the virus this time around is how both kids are able to communicate about it now. Corgan was able to tell me "tummy hurt" and "eye hurt" (which, with my mom's help, I've concluded meant that he had a headache because I don't know why his one eye would hurt all of the sudden while he was sick, especially since it didn't even look like there was anything wrong with it) and "mouth hurt" (when his throat was hurting after throwing up so much). He was even able to warn me about impending puke explosions with a distinguishable yell, and he could tell me as soon as he pooped in his diaper so that he didn't get a diaper rash from sitting it in for too long (not that you couldn't smell it! Whew!). And the fact that Annabelle was able to tell me about throwing up in time to get to the toilet made a HUGE difference in the amount of clean up we had to do!

When Annabelle started school last year, the teachers told me to expect about 18 months of constantly having viruses and cold, but then she (and even Corgan who had been exposed to it all through Annabelle) should be relatively healthy after that. So far it's been about 14 months, and I'm hoping that they're right and that my kids will have super immune systems very soon! :) Immunity now!

Sleeping Beauties

This picture was taken nearly a month ago, but I forgot to post it then. It's definitely worth post-posting though!

Aren't Belle and Halle just the cutest pair of bff sleeping beauties?! :)

Sisters Euro Trip: Not the Mommy

This post will be a detour from the others. It won't exactly be about the trip, but about leaving the kids at home.

My mom (aka "Grammy") came down a few days before we left for our trip to learn the kids current schedules, give them time to get used to her again, etc. Of course, all of that went super smooth. Corgan is a total Grammy's boy and Belle loves all of her grandparents too, so we had no problems with the transition. My dad (aka "Papa") was here while I was gone too, so I'm sure he and the kids entertained each other plenty! I have been looking forward to this "childless" trip for months, but as the days got closer and closer, I was getting nervous that I would really start missing this kids while on the trip. My sister has never gone overseas so when she started sending me messages getting all freaked out that her phone wasn't going to work over there, and that she wouldn't be able to talk to her baby, it started making me a little nervous too. I was picturing the two of us curled up in our Parisian apartment watching slideshows of our kids on my laptop and crying into our bottles of wine. Okay... maybe I exaggerated a bit (or a lot), but I was still getting a little nervous. I've never been away from Corgan for more than 3 days and Belle for more than 6 (and I remember getting super anxious to see her on about day 5)... and this was a 10 day trip!

So anyway, in the last few days, I made sure that my iMac was all set up with a skype account for Annabelle (only because it wouldn't work for them to use my account or Keith's account, since we'd both be using them on our own computers... so don't go tryin' to add Belle to your skype contacts.. haha!). We tested everything out to make sure we could video skype, and even made sure that Kelly's family back home could communicate with us too. So, that definitely calmed Kelly and made me feel better too.

While in Amsterdam, we caught up with the families back home via video skype a few times at the end of the day. I was surprised with Bellee's disinterest and Corgan's excitement over the whole thing. She barely wanted anything to do with us, while he continually said "Hi Mommy!" over and over again with a huge grin on his face! I think having even that limited contact made a world of difference!

It seems like it has been so long since I've just been an adult first and not "Mom" first that it felt really strange, yet liberating. Starting with getting on the plane, I felt like I was missing something with just carrying my backpack and not checking a stroller and car seat at the gate! Then on the plane, I didn't have to worry about entertaining anyone else or whether anyone else had to poop (or had already pooped) or needed to eat. It was great!

On the trip, it was so wonderful to not have to get up at any certain time because someone else woke up early, to not have to worry about feeding anyone but myself (and occasionally Kelly or Keith), or to worry about keeping on a schedule so that naps and bedtime still happened at an appropriate time! I could go to museums and didn't have to worry about anyone screaming or touching things. Well... most of the time. ;)

On the last night of our Paris trip, Kelly and I were discussing that we really didn't miss our kids as much as we thought we would. Not that we didn't miss them, but the days were so filled with so much and the fact that we got to see them over skype really helped.

Having said all that, when I got off the plane in Melbourne and saw Keith and the kids standing just outside of security waiting for me, my eyes teared up! Corgan yelled "Mommy!" and ran to me, while Annabelle hid behind Keith's leg and wouldn't even acknowledge me at first. She warmed up within seconds though, and I was hugging both of my kids and realizing just how much I really missed them!

So, in summary, it was great to take a break from being a Mommy for over a week, but I couldn't be happier to be back to being Mommy again! And HUGE thanks to my parents for taking such good care of the kids. I'm sure that knowing that they were in such great hands is a big part of the reason that I was so comfortable being away from them. Both kids have been talking about missing Papa since he left, and even though Grammy hasn't left yet, Belle is already saying that she's going to miss her when she leaves!

Sisters Euro Trip: Enjoying Amsterdam, Part 2

April 28, 2009

The next day, Kelly, Jill, and I took a country bike tour of Amsterdam with Mike’s Bike Tour. Our tour guide, Petra, was hilarious! She was very entertaining and informative at the same time. She showed up at the tour saying that she’d just had a joint for breakfast and was ready to go. She seemed like what I would consider to be a typical Amsterdamian (yes, I know that's not a real world). The bike tour started out riding through the city on our way to the country. We stopped on the “skinny bridge” over the Amstel river, which is a bridge where a protest was staged in the early 70s. The women of Amsterdam were upset that there are lots of places for men to pee (like the “urinals” mentioned in the last post... even if it is just a cylinder that runs off into the canal), but not many places for women, so they staged a protest where they all assembled on the skiny bridge, lifted their skirts or dresses, and peed all at the same time. The protest didn’t help though. They just ended up with soggy shoes. From this bridge, we also got a look at some very old buildings that have started to lean because the ground below them is sinking. Petra told us that the law is that if you can’t fix your leaning building, you must sell it to someone who can. Interesting. One more interesting thing is that "Amstel" beer was named such because it was made from the Amstel river... the same river that people used to empty their "waste" into before the city had a sewage system. Yum.

The tour quickly left the city and headed into the country. Our first stop was at a real-life windmill that doubled as a house. The Holland windmills are mainly used to pump the water back in to the canals. The windmill that we stopped to see had been destroyed at one point (as were most of the windmills in the area, until the people of Amsterdam realized that they could make money off of them when tourists came to see them), but they rebuilt it because it had commonly been painted by Rembrandt. We had fun taking pictures of this windmill and coming up with silly poses (although I'm sure they've all been done many times before).

Our next stop was a factory where they make both cheese (gouda, to be exact) and wooden shoes. The cheese tasted wonderful, and the shoe-making process was pretty cool. I was a little disapointed that they don’t make the shoes by hand, but the “copy machine” that they use was really neat. We got to take some fun pictures with an extra large pair of shoes too. Here's Kelly and Petra, our tour guide.

On the rest of the tour, we also saw a Picasso sculpture that stays outdoors (it’s one of only 2 in existance, the other is in Chicago), the Hilton where Yoko and John Lennon stayed and wrote all over the walls (this room was never “cleaned up” and rents for about $3000 euro/night), rode through Vondel park, and saw fields of tulips. The tour was 4 hours long, but we never really got tired… just a bit cold since it was around 40 or 50-something degrees and raining for part of the tour. It was great, and I’d highly recommend it!

After showering and recovering from the freezing cold, we grabbed Keith, Ben, and Nina to head out for a tour of the Anne Frank House. It was crazy to be in the house where all of that actually took place. I have seen the movie at least once in school, but I’m looking forward to watching it again when I get home. Kelly has committed herself to figuring out who turned the family in. Her current working theory is that the secretary did it because she was in love with Otto and wanted him for herself. She may have a little more work to do to prove that theory though.

Next we were all starving so we found a nice restaurant for dinner. Apparently white asparagus is really in season right now, because we discovered that it was everywhere. Kelly and Keith split an asparagus soup, and both had a traditional Dutch meal, but I was all about the brinner so I skipped dinner and went straight for the french toast dessert for my dinner. It was super yummy, and I don’t regret it one bit!

At Kelly’s insistance, Keith, Kelly, and I hit the casino before calling it a night. Everything was electronic so I didn’t really trust it much, but the minimums were really low (like 20 euro cents) so I saw down and tried my luck at the electronic roulette wheel for a while. Kelly and Keith were doing well at roulette too, but they eventually ran out of the initial 20 euro that they had gambled, so they moved on to blackjack while I stayed at the table. I realized that about 1 out of 10 times, the same number would hit twice in a row (see… don’t trust a game that isn’t run by humans and subject to human randomness), so I started betting my regular numbers plus whatever number had hit previously. I ended up doubling my money with that strategy. Good times.

Enjoy the pictures of our 2nd full day in Amsterdam!

Sisters Euro Trip: Enjoying Amsterdam, Part 1

April 27, 2009

Keith actually had work to do while we were in Amsterdam, so Kelly and I planned to spend some time on our own. We had great plans for early days filled with sight-seeing, but between the time change and not having kids to wake us up early, we didn’t get up quite as early as we’d hoped most days. Our first full day in Amsterdarm didn’t begin until after noon. We wanted to catch one of Keith’s talks that day, so between our late start and having to be back at the hotel for Keith’s session by 4, we didn’t venture too far.

We hit the fair again, this time for some waffles (which became my favorite food of the whole trip… they weren’t quite as good as real Belgian waffles from Belgium, but they were close… especially with powdered sugar and fresh strawberries!), then just walked around the city looking for the Anne Frank House and ducking in to many of the little shops. Surprisingly, most shops and attractions close by 6pm, so after Keith’s talk we stuck around for the big SpringSource mixer, and got to hang out with my Fancy-friend Jill, who had arrived that afternoon.

After the fun-filled mixer where we helped ourselves to a couple of bottles of wine, Jill, Colin & Nina, Kelly, Keith, and I headed out to see the crazy part of Amsterdam- the Red Light District. Being a Monday night, it was pretty slow, but fun to see with everyone else. While walking through the Red Light District (which we aren't allowed to take pictures of out of "respect" for the um... girls in the windows), we noticed these large, tall cylinders on the street. We came to find out later that they were urinals, only there was no where for the pee to go. So basically, guys just peed on the wall and it ran out into the street. Yum. Anyway, we hung around the Red Light District for a little while checking out the shops, before we stopped for some coffee and cake.

It was getting late so Colin & Nina headed back to their hotel, but the rest of us hit the fair for some munchies and to check out the ferris wheel. That thing was HUGE, and the view from up there was beautiful.

Enjoy the pictures of our first couple of days in Amsterdam!