All ready for summer

This is going to be a little bit of a random post while I'm long overdue with posting! I should make it my daily routine, but I can't seem to find that routine.
I will give it a go at some point.
It has been really nice weather this past week. Warm & sunny. Technical it isn't really summer weather yet but 21 celcius is enough for us all to go to the beach. That's warm weather in this country. I can go to the beach whenever I want to go while I live 5 minutes from it. Only I didn't have a nice bathing suit. The ones I have are either too much skin or not a lot of skin. So I needed to find something in between. I hate to go shopping for bathing suits while I'm a little bit blessed up front and most bathingsuits are made for girls with almost nothing up front. I really don't want my "things" to hang out or be seen on the beach. So, after shopping for an entire week I found my bathing suit! YAY! It's a tankini. It's by my fave brand Esprit and I love it!

Not me! Monday

Not me! Monday is back again!!

Not me! Monday is originally from Mycharmingkids.net MckMama, the founder of this website, posts every Monday her 'Not me! Monday' blog post.

While driving during my driving lessons my driving instructor pointed out to me that there was this weird fly on my sweater. I grabbed the fly and I certainly did not threw it into the window of the car, while thinking that my car window was open. Definitely, did not happen to me.

I'm aunt 16 times (number 17 is coming in october) and when I was babysitting last week I really wanted to see my favorite tv-show. It was not me who put the kids to bed way early so I could see that tv-show. I'm not an aunt like that!

American friends & Amsterdam

Last week I posted a blog about that fact that I can drive. That same day I had yet (again) driving lessons. This time around everything went PERFECT. My driving instructor was blown away. See....I CAN drive!!! Anyways...enough about my obsession with driving! It's probably driving you'll nuts!

Past week has been a crazy week. I worked all week and then on Friday I had to clean the house and do grocery shopping for the weekend, while my friends Sarah & John came over for a short weekendbreak.
Sarah & John are originally from Texas but they have been living in Germany for the last 1,5 years. John is with the US army and is stationed there.
It was really fun to get to know them a little bit better. They also brought their cute labrador puppy Bèni! Makes me want to have a dog too again!

While English is my second language and I normally don't speak it a lot it was good to actually have a chance to catch up on my English! Not to mention that I love having people over. We took Sarah & John to Amsterdam. Both of them wanted to visit the Anne Frank house. I've been in that museum a couple of times already, it's a nice place but after 30 minutes you've really seen it. Although the museum is really cool and it's cool to see that actual diary, rooms and wallpaper. I think it's good way to picture and think of World War II and also about how Anne Frank lived. However the museum about World War II and the jews that made a huge impact on my life was not really a museum but a Concentration Camp called Terezinstadt near Prague (Czech). If you are ever near Prague, you should visit it! It's impressive! It makes you think how bad the war was!

Anyway to go back to the story we decided to let them go in the Anne Frank house and we went off to find a restroom. When they were done we decided to have lunch and the something real Dutch is: pancakes! So we went to a place that served pancakes. Not hard to find in Amsterdam! The diner we ate in was named 'Sara's' and so we thought it was really suitable. Sarah should eat in Sara's, right? It was a really small diner but the pankcakes were really nice! After lunch we took them to see more of Amsterdam including a tour through the redlight district. Although it's a bit of a nasty place to go, it is a big part of Amsterdam plus the buildings in the redlight district are very old. Mainly because it was situated near the harbor and in the 16th century loads of V.O.C ships came in and you could find most fishermen in the bars ( in that district). The city itself was established near 1000 a.c.

Anyways we walked around and showed them bits of Amsterdam. The city is quite big but not as big as London or New York. I wish I could have showed them more but we only had one day. On Sunday Jeroen and I took Sarah and John to the beach here in my hometown Katwijk. After lunch they left again to go back to Germany. It was a short trip for them but hopefully they had fun. We surely did. We hope to visit them in Germany sometime this year or otherwise definitely next year.

I CAN drive!

Driving a car isn’t that hard, right? That’s what I thought until I started taking driving lessons. I think I’ve taken around 40 lessons so far and my instructor still says I’m a terrible driver. Yesterday he was so mad that he kept yelling. I know that this is part of the deal. I mean, most instructors yell. But to be honest I don’t think I’m a bad driver. Okay- I still need to work on some things and need to improve my driving skills a little bit more. But you know what?! I CAN drive without hitting people or other cars. That’s quite something, don’t you think? Not to mention that I surely think I can drive long distances too.

Anyway my driving instructor disagrees and has forced me to take a few extra lessons. Also he wants me to sit in the back of his car next week while he instructs another student. Just to get the “ hang” of it. Right! Let me tell you, I’ll be glad when I pass my test: no more lessons and no more crazy instructors!

Not me! Monday is BACK

Not me! Monday is back again!!

Not me! Monday is originally from Mycharmingkids.net MckMama, the founder of this website, posts every Monday her 'Not me! Monday' blog post. I love it and thought I should participate in it. In the last 5 weeks or so she didn't post a 'Not me! Monday' while her baby boy was taken into the hospital with severe supraventricular tachycardia. He had surgery and is now back home. He's still not cured but for now he's able to be home. If you want to read more about this go to MckMama's site, be sure to check it out. You don't want to miss the writings of this lady!

My best friend got married 1,5 week ago. I promised to make some sort of newspaper about the bride and groom for all the wedding guests. It was surely not me who started to make this newspaper two days prior to the wedding and then tried to print it the evening before the wedding. It surely didn't happen to me that we ran out of ink, so we had to run to the shops on the wedding day to get it printed. That didn't happen to me! :-)

I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday to get rid of this infection on my leg. It was big, red and nasty. So I went in and the doctor said it was infected sebum. He had to make a cut to get it out....I surely didn't cry and said over and over again that it was soooo painful. I'm not a baby like that.

I also did not go shopping after the minor surgery on my leg. Nope, definitely not me. I couldn't walk but I thought it was a waste not to go shopping while I still had my student card with free public transportation on it. Yesterday was the last day I could use it, while I'm not a student anymore. It definitely wasn't me who traveled all the way to Rotterdam and has now an infected leg. Nope not me.

My best friend got married!

Enjoy some pics of the wedding :-) It was a blast! Really weird to think about it that she's married now... I still need to adjust to that, haha.

Worship stars?

This morning my boyfriend e-mailed me this video. It's about the worshipmusic industry. Somebody just wrote a song about it, just to heat up the discussion onworshipmusic.

I love worshipmusic and I know a few people who are actually in worshipbands so the way I look at this video is as one big laugh. Of course I do understand why the guy made this video. It seems that worshipmusic is what's hot in christianmusic at the moment. There are christianartists who switch to worshipmusic just because it sells at the moment. Mainly because they can't continue to live without any dime.

I'm sure all the big names are earning quite some money through the music they make. But I also know that those big names are making a difference in the world by either donating their money or telling people about God. Still itr's good to keep questioning yourself about the music you buy and like.


So here's the video, don't get offended, it's good to see that somebody actually dares to write a song about this!

Vtech, 2 years later...

It's two years ago, today, that 32 people were killed on Vtech University. Please remember those people today and pray for the ones that lost their friend/familymember or loved one that day.

 

New application

Blogger has a new application! I now can post messages by sending an e-mail or a text message to my blogger account. It's pretty interesting and also very easy. Now I can blog wherever I want to blog! Yes!

On another note...I failed on my driving test. I hate it but I already expected it. My next test will be somewhere in the end of May, so there's enough time to practice!
Other than that, things are going well. I'm still looking for a job but there are a few possibilities coming up. I'm also going to be an aunt again (number 17 is on its way) :-). And in a few weeks Jeroen and I are together for 1 year! Time flies by when you are having a blast!

Driver license

The day has just started and the sun is out and shining bright! I love the fact that it’s almost spring. That means that summer is on its way too and that I can hit the beach in a couple of months! That’s the nicest part of having a beach right near your house, when you have time you can always go and you don’t have to travel far. At the moment I’m still looking for a job. It’s frustrating because I know what I want and know where I can get that job but for some reason they never invite me for a job interview.

My first driving lesson starts in one week. I’m planning on getting my driver license in 2 weeks. It’s a very ambitious plan, especially because you need to have at least 30 or 35 lessons to be a reasonable driver but I’ve booked all my lessons in two weeks time so we’ll see how it goes. I’m 24 and I really need a driver license! Not to mention that the age in The Netherlands for driving is 18 and that I could have got my license way earlier but the costs have kept me back. Right now I’ve paid 1971 euro’s for lessons and the final test. It's almost 2000 euro’s! Which is 2532,60 dollars! I have to pass otherwise it will cost an additional 500 euro's. It’s crazy. I could have gone off to the US to get it there but then they won’t let m drive in The Netherlands, so there was no choice.

This week I’m heading to Belgium. One of my friends does an internship in Genk and so I’ll be visiting her on Thursday and Friday. Belgium is a whole other country than The Netherlands, but they speak Dutch too and so I don’t really see it as going to another country plus it costs me 3 euro’s to get there. I do look forward to be somewhere else for a day.
Other than that I’m working fulltime for my dad at the moment. He has his own company and advises other companies in technical installations. I’m doing the administrative side of it. He’s off to Frankfurt on Thursday so I’m glad I will have the rest of the week ‘off’.

Recipe

I love to try all kinds of salads on my bread, for instance egg salad, or salmon salad.

Normally overhere you put it on little pieces of toast/bread at birthday parties but I just like to eat it at lunch and put it on my bread.

So today there's a recipe for Ham & Leek salad

Get 2 leek and get some ham, chop them both in small pieces and add whiskey cocktail sauce to it.....voila, DELICIOUS on a white bun!

Note: The cocktail sauce may be a Dutch thing....we usually poor it on schrimps but I think you can get it in other countries too.

Decorating

I officially moved back to my parents place. Everything is moved but not everything is unpacked. In the craziness I re-did my room too! There's new wallpaper and well basically new stuff. I can't show you everything because my room is still a mess but here are some pictures:

This is the new wallpaper:


And this is one of the two old chairs I refurbished with a new 'coat' it's actually sheepskin and from IKEA! I LOVE IT!

Nostalgia

This week I've been thinking about the bands I liked (and still like!) when I grew up. I was a big Hanson & Kelly Family fan. To this day I still love their music and try to go to their concerts whenever they are around.

I remember that I had a huge crush on the drummer of Hanson (Zac) and a huge crush on the singer of The Kelly Family (Paddy) I was obsessed with them, seriously! ;-)
You can imagine that the hormons of teenager set off easily, mine actually did!

Today I was surfing through the web and came across a video of Paddy Kelly. Paddy is still a Kelly but he's not in the bpart of the Kelly Family (as in band) anymore. Actually he joined a monestary. I barely could imagine that a 'hot' guy like Paddy joined a monastary! But yes he did.

To be honest I really admire him for that. He has had the rock 'n roll life, probably had many women around him fighting for his attention and well lived that lifestyl but still it wasn't that fulfilling so he quit the lifestyle and went to a monastary to learn more about his catholic faith and in the end joined the monastary. He's now called brother John Paul Mary.

I'm not a teenager anymore neither am I still obsessed & crazy in love with Paddy or Zac or someone else (other than maybe my boyfriend ;-)) But looking back and seeing how the lives of Paddy Kelly and Zac Hanson have evolved into something meaningful makes me admire them even more. Being a christian myself I find it hard to fully give everything up for God and Paddy did this! He gave his fame (and probably fortune) up to live a simpler life and a life of celibacy. Wow. I only wish more famous and not so famous people could do this.




Paddy (now)


Paddy (then)

Life in the FLDS

I just finished reading a book called 'Stolen Innocence' by Elissa Wall. Elissa is a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). She was fourteen when she had to marry her cousin. She escaped the FLDS at the age of 18. Now, 23 years old she's married to another former FLDS member and has two kids. The book tells the story of Elissa in the FLDS from her birth to her big escape. It's a mind blowing book and I really couldn't stop reading. What I found interesting is that while she was living in a small town in Utah, she was so indoctrinated with the FLDS lifestyle that she didn't know what the 'real world' was. Elissa was one of the key witnesses in the trial of the State of Utah versus Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was the prophet of the FLDS and is now behind bars. If you haven't read the book yet, go and get it! You seriously don't want to miss it!!!

Awakening: the book

Passion is one of the student ministries I love and support. Last year this ministry went on a world tour to 17 cities around the globe.
The Passion World Tour has come to an end but the memories will always be there! I was lucky enough to be at two of the tour stops: Paris & London.
This spring Passion will publish a book with pictures and stories about this world tour. The pictures are taken by Jeremy Cowart, an incredible photographer and the words are written by Passion founder Louie Giglio.

I'm very excited about this book. Can't wait to lay my hands on it. You can see a glimpse of the pictures that are going to be in there at awakeningthebook.com BUT I'm also posting a few of the pics that Jeremy took of my friends and I here in this post. Click on the link above and experience it!

I'm getting old!

January is the month of my birthday. I was born on the 15th, two months too early. I guess I couldn't wait to come out. So this year I'm again a year older. It doesn't really matter to me but of course you get the usual birthday pranks. One of my best friends texted me the morning of my birthday saying that next year I will be 25, which if you round up, will be 30! Thank you Marianne. I think she forgot that she is turning 25 in november this year. Then there's my nephews and nieces who believe that I'm way too old for my boyfriend and that a man should be the one that's older in a relationship... Right! And they are only 10 years old.

I had a really nice birthday this year. Last year Fiona was in Holland and we had dinner at a really nice Malaysian restaurant. She's originally from Malaysia. Anyway I think the spicy food ( I mean REAALLLLY spicy) didn't do me good because my stomache felt horrible the whole evening. It was quite hilarious actually. This year I spend my birthday at a worship conference. Tim Hughes and Al Gordon were in Holland with Worship Central and so Jeroen (boyfriend) and I went the entire day. It was amazing and what a perfect way to spend my birthday!

The next day I had a big party for my friends and family and of course I got spoiled! I have an amazing group of friends, seriously and I can't thank God enough for that.

Graduation is coming up soon (I hope) There's still some things I need to do but I hope to have it all finished by february 1. I have been looking for a job in journalism/pr/communications for nearly two months now and I can't seem to find anything. They either don't take me or they take me and just don't pay me enough, it's horrible at the moment. It's frustrating but I have my hopes up and hope to find something in the next 3 weeks. Please continue to pray.

BACK!

I haven't been updating my blog in a loooooong while, but I will today! Yay!!! So what happened in the past 1,5 month?? Well loads of things. Sinterklaas on the 5th of december is always fun! For the ones who don't know what Sinterklaas is, I will explain shortly. Sinterklaas is translated into English as Santa Claus. So on the 5th of december all the Dutch kids get presents. They get either presents the regular way, or hidden in a surprise box with poem (so they have to dig up their presents) The adults get presents too! So why the 5th of december? Well the real Santa Claus (Saint Nicolas) died on the 6th of december, so I guess they started to celebrate his generosity on the 5th of december!?!! And when the Dutch founded New York (then New Amsterdam) they brought their customs with them, but seriously I'm not sure why the Americans celebrate Santa Claus at christmas....haha.

People ask me quite a lot if we also give each other presents at christmas. When I answer with a 'no', they immediately ask what we do at christmas. Well to be honest, we have two christmas days (december 25th and 26th) and we celebrate the birth of Christ with going to church both days and have a really nice meal with family (both days). It's not as boring as it sounds, trust me. It's nice to have a long and very nice dinner with your relatives. At least, for me! haha

New Year was great too, we celebrate it here with LOADS LOADS of fireworks and hang out with our friends or family. I spend it this year in Ermelo, where my boyfriend lives. It was great and we had a nice time.

Wishing you all the best for 2009!!!