Anniversary Dinner

See the squint? That's because the sun was actually shining!

and the nachos were yummy!

Anniversary

We're off to Breda for our 17th wedding anniversary!

Wedding

Tomorrow is my sister in laws wedding. I will finally be able to wear my red dress (and am thanking God I still fit into it!). This wedding has had its trials and tribulations, especially the last few days. There are churches here where you are not allowed to light a candle, take pictures, play non-christian music or have flowers, can you believe it? It's so inexplicable that I will not even try.
Instead, here are some pictures from our wedding. Enjoy!



(and if you feel an overwhelming desire to read more details about our wedding, you can click here)

Engagement

Herman asked me to marry him in Swahili. I was so surprised I didn't know how to say yes anymore! I hadn't expected him to officially ask me to marry him anymore. We had already written our engagement announcement (a poem written in english and dutch) and were celebrating our engagement with our family when he popped the question. It made the celebration extra special for me. Turns out he called the Kenyan embassy in Amsterdam and asked to speak to somebody who spoke Swahili. He then asked the man to teach him how to say "will you marry me". The man had a good laugh and then told him all :-)
We bought our engagement/wedding rings together as well and exchanged them at our engagement party (as you can see in the picture). At our wedding we put them on again, but this time on the right hand instead of the left. No going down on the knees and being presented with a ring here! Dutch "nuchterheid" at its best. Sometimes I pine for a bit more romance in my life, candles and surprise weekends away and gifts on Valentines day. But then I get a grip, take a good look at my husband and realize that we're doing pretty well without the extras. And when they do come (and I have a few poems to prove it!) it makes for some extra special moments.

YEEAAHHHHH!!

Two posts in one day!?!? What is the world coming to?
But this is to celebrate that I am sitting at home, with a fixed computer (fixed so well that we will soon be able move the computer to an actual desk instead of having to lean over the couch to type anything). So I thought that would be worth mentioning.
And I want to write at least a little bit about our weekend...

We went and saw The Kite Runner with free tickets that I had got through my work. On Sunday we took the train to Kampen and walked an art route. Basically people open up their houses and artists show off their work. Saw some fun stuff and some stuff that was just garbage. Had lunch in the sunshine (with our jackets on, but the SUN was there!).


Went shopping on saturday, trying desperately to find Herman some nice clothes for his sisters wedding. I DON'T LIKE SHOPPING! We had a long dinner on friday evening and did some major talking and got down to the depths of one of our differences without killing eachother in the process (tears were shed though). And we got some close personal time ;-) So methinks it was a succes!


I hope you can make some sense of the pictures. It took me forever to upload them, and I can't seem to get them to align properly!

16 years

16 years is how long Herman and I have been married. Today is our anniversary. Although that is up for discussion as we got married legally on april first and had our church wedding on april third! We always count the third as our "real" wedding day though.
In Holland a church wedding is not considered the legal wedding. So everyone has to have an official wedding ceremony and then add on the religious ceremony of choice. Usually this is done on one day, but we chose two because on the first of april we could get married for free and we wanted to place emphasis on our church wedding.
We organized our wedding by ourselves, made our own invitations, and decided on how we wanted our church service. It was a pretty low-key, low budet affair as I was still studying and Herman had only just started working so money was kind of short! I was so laid back about the whole thing that I even went to school to do an exam on the day between our ceremonies and I had a nap in the car on the way to our photo shoot on the day of our church wedding. My, I have had some people amazed at that! Some other day I will see if I can get some pictures of our young foolish selves posted on here!
One of the good habits that we picked up in the last 16 years is to go away for a weekend every year around our anniversary. So this weekend that is what we will be doing. So far we have gone to a different city in Holland each year, and then we fill our time with a bit of shopping, culture, sleep, food and sex (not neccesarily in that order ;-) ). And on the serious side, we often do a bit of evaluating and making goals for the next year or so.
So it might be silent here for the next couple of days! I will have to see if I can do without blogging (and checking who's lurking!) for a while.

Life in general

Can't believe it's been so long since I last posted something. I find myself so tired that I can't think of what to write, that's part of the problem anyway. And if I want to keep this fun (which I do!) then I don't want this to turn into something I have to do. I'd rather just want to do it and enjoy the proces!
I figure it's about time we started planning our lives a bit more instead of just doing what happens to come by. That's my way of getting a grip on situations, to sit down and plan, make lists and DO something. Herman and I have hardly had any time to talk since we've moved. I mean conversation which reaches beyond the obligatory "how was your day". Time to pick up our date nights. I want to plan a sleepover with Marinda. She has a new big bed, so we'll get together and do something girly. And I want to do some major roughousing with Tristan. He doesn't like to cuddle so I have to pummel, push, tickle and poke him in order to give some form of "affection" which he's willing to accept. And I want to get back some structure into our meal times. It's always a lot more fun when we sit down at the table to eat at the same time instead of grabbing something and then eating in front of the tv. Easier said than done though, seeing as I have little cooking inspiration!
Enough on my list anyway. Right now I will go and see if I can make myself useful doing something in the house, that shouldn't be too hard!!

Alternative Date

Herman and I went on an alternative date this evening, to the library! I come there a couple of times a month, but it's not Hermans place to be. But it was an easy option to grab a look at magazines about houses, to see if we could get some good design ideas.....
That totally didn't work! All the magazines were filled with dark greys and browns. Most definately not my choice of style, and not even Hermans style (our styles differ, but we agree on this). It saved us money though, as we were planning to buy some magazines to help inspire us. Now we'll just rely on our own common sense and see where it gets us.

One of the things I'm going to miss about living here is the library. I have this sneaking suspicion that the library in our new town will not carry quite as many english books as I would like. This library doesn't either, but I'm glad for every english book I can get my hands on. Obviously I could buy them, but I consider that to be a pretty big waste of money, seeing as I read so fast. And if I bought every book I ever read, then I'd have to be a millionair :-)

Last summer we were in a monastery with a really old library. We weren't allowed near the books, could only smell (you know that musty, booky smell) and see them from behind a gate. Some had been laid down in a glass case to admire safely. I find the thought of those old old books thrilling. It would give me such a rush to hold one in my hands, realizing that it has been treasured through the centuries. It's like holding a real live bit of history in your hands. Cool!