Tag, I'm it!

How long have you been together?
Andy and I have been married for almost 7 years (April 28th). Feb. 15th will mark 8 years since our first date.

Who said "I Love You" first?
Andy - right before he had to board a plane to head back home to SLC - classic! :)

Who is smarter?
That's a hard question. It depends on what we are talking about. Luckily we are both able to help each other out when it's needed...

Who pays the bills?
I do and I love paying the bills - I know, what a nerd!

Who cooks dinner?
I do.

Who drives when you're in the car together?
Andy

Who is the most stubborn?
That would probably be me...

Who wears the pants in the family?
Once again, it depends on the situation.

3 random things about myself...

I can touch my toes without bending my knees - it has nothing to do with being flexible, I have just been blessed with short legs. (I hope you can recognize the sarcasm!)

My hair has grown in curly since giving birth to Rachel.

I love people watching - people are weird and really interesting - airports can be a lot of fun...

I am going to tag anyone that reads our blog and wants to answer some questions... Feel free to email them to me, if you don't have a blog. I'd love to hear from some of my non-blogging family/friends and find out what's going on with them... :)

Computer Nerd

Rachel has become quite fascinated with the computer. We can't really be on the computer when she's awake. She'll tell us to "move" and ask if she can "sit down". It all started the other night. She went crazy just typing away. Rachel loved the sound the keys made and the control she had. Before we know it she'll want to play games... I went on a few websites and her favorite was babytvchannel.com. She had fun listening to the songs. She doesn't let me have control of the mouse for too long. After a few clicks she tells me to move. But then once the song is over I'm supposed to "fix it". Do you have to wonder who's really in charge? :)

Typing away...

Silly girl!

Things I Miss...

Here is a list of some things I miss (not necessarily in the correct order):

• Family that can be seen more frequently and easier. :)
• Friends
• Kitchen disposal
• Washer and dryer that can operate at the same time and the load can be more than 3 articles of clothing - thank heavens for Rachel's tiny clothes! :)
• Sunshine
• Trees - lots of trees with leaves - I'm sure it gets better here in the Spring.
• My piano
• Being able to call my mom any night of the week to just chat (7-hour time difference makes it tricky).
• Jetted Tub - I didn't use it much in Houston, but I'd use it a lot here - it's cold!
• Mild Houston winters
• The YMCA - I miss working out with Allison and dropping Rachel off for an hour. :)
• One-story house - stairs are a pain to vacuum and constantly climb up and down!
• Target - Hey, even Wal-Mart and that's saying a lot...
• Toddler friendly parks - What's with the bars?? - Little ones need stairs to climb up.
• Indoor play areas that are free
• Mexican food
• American cheeses - It must be an acquired taste over here and I haven't "acquired" it yet!
• A library full of books in the English language that doesn't have a membership fee.
• Storytime at the library
• Moms and Tots playgroup
• Elevators with up and down buttons
• Grocery stores that bag your groceries and provide bags free of charge.
• Free public restrooms - I wouldn't mind paying for them if they were actually clean and smelled decent.

I'm sure I'll add more later...

Our Little Performer

Rachel has always loved music - listening to it, making it, and even dancing to it. In the past month she has also gotten into singing a few of the words she can remember. She loves to request "ABCDs". She'll also start singing "I see the moon..." anytime she sees the moon or a light fixture that looks like the moon. The other day as we were walking down the stairs Rachel started singing "Rock-a-bye, don't you cry...". It's really fun to hear her sweet voice. Yesterday when Rachel woke up from her nap I could hear her on the monitor saying "Ashes....down". One can only picture what she's doing up in her crib. Thank heavens we have kept the bumpers on her crib! One of her most favorite things about songs are the motions that go with it. Here are some movie clips of her enjoying music, hand motions, and dance... (Please excuse our attempts to carry a tune.)

Rachel does a really cute job of "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider", but I haven't been able to get it on video yet. She has discovered the joy of watching herself on the video camera, so that's all she wants to do when I pull it out. :)

Where's Daddy?

Poor Rachel! We picked up Andy from the airport on Monday. Rachel was so excited to see him. As we were waiting for him to get through customs she kept on saying, "hurry Daddy". After the airport, we had lunch at home and then Rachel actually let Andy put her down for a nap. She is usually a Mommy's girl when it's time to go to sleep, but she had obviously missed her daddy. Andy took off to work after that. When Rachel woke up from her nap she immediately asked for Daddy. I told her he was at work and she started to cry. Rachel hasn't seen him since Monday afternoon. Andy's been working until 10:30-11:00 the past couple of nights. So, Ernst & Young isn't more kinder overseas. Although, I don't know who to really blame - maybe it's the clients who can't seem to get the information they need when they need it! :) Oh well, such is life. By tomorrow things should be better and Rachel will be able to see Daddy once again... On a side note, Rachel thinks it's hilarious to call her daddy Andy or Drew. Silly girl!

Congrats Amy & Ken

It's official! You are now Mr. & Mrs. Hoglund. We are so happy and excited for you two. Rachel and I wish we could have been there. All throughout the day yesterday we thought of you and what you would be doing - getting ready, getting married, taking pictures, the luncheon, and we were sound asleep when the reception was going on. We hope your day turned out just as you both hoped and imagined. Even though Rachel and I weren't there in person, we were thinking of you often. I kept on telling Rachel that Amy was getting married and she'd say, "Craig?". I would explain to her that Craig is married to Natalie and Amy is marrying Ken. She still doesn't quite have it down, but she will eventually. We are looking forward to seeing the pictures of the big day. Anyhow, congratulations and enjoy the rest of forever together.

Our First Visitor

Grandpa Michaelson couldn't stay away from his girls for too long and we were excited to have a visitor! He came out and visited this past week. Not only did he miss us, but he didn't like the idea of us being alone in a foreign country. Andy flew home for Amy's wedding. We wish we all could of been there for the wedding, but the timing and the distance to travel was a little tough. Rachel would of had a difficult time on the quick trip. Grandpa was a trooper to deal with the long flights and the time change - not an easy thing! We enjoyed him while he was here. We took it easy and just enjoyed each other's company. We did a few touristy things and had a lot of fun.

One day we took a bus to Amsterdam and went on a canal boat tour. It was fun to see Amsterdam and the canals. It was quite interesting to learn about the history and functionality of the canals. When we headed back home we road the tram. So, in one day we used 3 modes of transportation - bus, boat, and tram. We got to and from our destination safely and Rachel enjoyed it. Now whenever we walk by a bus Rachel says, "up". She's hooked and wants to go on another bus ride! Here's a few pictures of our adventure:

Ready to board the boat.

Enjoying the boat ride.

Early one morning, when Andy was still in town, my dad and I got up and went to the Aalsmeer Flower Auction. As soon as you walked in the fragrance of the flowers was amazing. Millions of flowers and plants are sold each day and shipped all over the world. We were only there for about an hour, but it was fun to walk around and see how the business operates.

Just a small portion of all the flowers and plants we saw.

Ready to purchase some flowers!

We also visited the Clara Maria Cheese Farm & Clog Factory. We watched a demonstration of how they make cheese and clogs. We also sampled some cheese and bought some. It's been kind of tricky to find a cheese we like. Maybe I'll just have to go there when I want some cheese! :) We were able to see the farmer's cows. Rachel was pretty disappointed when we left, because she really liked the cows. They even mooed for her! :)

Papa and Rachel

And then of course, there's one more picture to share. We found a good Chinese takeout place and Rachel wanted to use chopsticks, just like Papa. She stuck with mac 'n cheese though and let us enjoy the Chinese. It wasn't any fun saying good-bye today, but we are glad we had the time we did together. Rachel is starting to be a bit more sensitive about people leaving. Earlier in the week she cried when we dropped Daddy off at the airport and she did the same thing today with Papa. As we were driving home she kept on saying, "hold you papa". I kept on telling her he'll be back and we know he will. :) We are looking forward to the other visitors we'll have in the future. It's always fun to see those we love!

Customer Service

Last night our cable went out. Why? I don't know. At first I thought maybe it was because of the rainy weather. So, I figured I would sleep on it. Well, I woke up this morning and we still weren't getting any channels. I wanted to call customer service, because it's Friday and who wants to go without TV all weekend, right? Well, let's just say Dutch customer service is a little different. First of all, it costs money to call customer service even though you are a paying customer. I think I was on the phone for about 30 minutes at 10 euro cents per minute. So, the phone call only cost me about 3 euros, but it's still irritating that it cost me anything. And then, like the U.S., you don't actually get a person but a menu of options. Not a big deal, right? Well, there's no English option. So, I took my best guess and pressed number 3. After being on hold for about 5 minutes a kind Dutch man answered the phone. I asked if I could get some help in English. He said he would do his best - thank heavens! And he actually did a really good job. After trying a few things we were able to get everything fixed. So, I survived my first phone call to customer service. I'm not always the nicest person when I call customer service, but this time I was extremely nice. Why the change of the heart? I was just extremely grateful to have someone help me in English. It's funny how our perspectives change...

We have definitely noticed that customer service has a different meaning here in The Netherlands. For example, no one bags your groceries - well, they don't even give you bags, you have to buy them. And no one asks to help you out to your car. You have to put a coin deposit to get a grocery cart (I've seen this occasionally in the U.S.), but it's at every store here. Of course you get your coin back once you return the cart. You usually have to go back into the store to return the cart though, which is a pain with a toddler. When you go out to a restaurant, unless you want to spend the whole evening there, you've pretty much have to ask them to take your order and bring you the check. And even then it takes forever. I guess in America we've gotten too used to having things right away. They're just a little more laid back here. We are trying to learn and follow along.

The next time you have to call customer service about losing service or something going wrong, just think of me. At least you aren't paying for the phone call, the menu options will be in English, and eventually you may even get an English speaking person (although they might have a heavy accent because you're really calling India)!

In love with...

Rachel has fallen in love with herself! We have a WebCam that we've been using the past couple of weeks. The first couple times we used it, Rachel thought it was pretty neat to see her grandpas, grandmas, uncles, aunts, and so forth... Well, when we made a call this past Saturday to grandparents in Texas, she was crazy about it. But it wasn't the grandparents on the other side she was crazy about, she was crazy about watching herself on the video. It was hilarious! When we said good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa Michaelson, she was pretty upset - not because they were going, but because she couldn't see herself anymore. We tried to call Grandma and Grandpa Smith, but we didn't have any luck. So, we just turned on the WebCam and let her go wild. She loved it and here's a video to prove it. She sure is hamming it up! :) At least we know she can entertain herself...

O, Christmas Tree...

Okay, so this year we actually got a real Christmas tree. It was nice, because that's what my family always had growing up. And ever since we've been married we've had an artificial tree. However, where is one going to store an artificial tree in Holland? So, we opted for a real one. The only issue we had with the real tree was when it was time to dispose of it. What does one do when you live in a foreign country? You can't read the Dutch newspaper or notices about possible solutions... So, we came up with our own. I don't remember who's idea it was first, but it worked. I simply cut it up branch by branch and disposed of it in our trash can. We have a "split cart" trash can here. Basically our trash can (which is the same size of the ones in the U.S. when you are provided one by the trash company) is split in half. The front half is for garden and food waste. The back half is for all your other trash. So, of course I couldn't fit the whole tree in one trash day. So, for a couple of days our tree looked like this:

And then this:

If you have ever wondered what a Christmas tree looks like without its branches, I have now done you a great service! So, needless to say, our tree is gone. Our "Refuse Collection" company has turned our Christmas tree into compost, so it wasn't too wasteful to get a real tree. :) We'll see what we do next year, maybe we'll figure out a better solution!