New Years in the South of France

We got the opportunity to leave the Belgium gray for 10 days during Christmas vacation and you didn't have to ask me twice! Here are some images of our trip.

Our Christmas "stick"

Natan insisted this year that we not KILL a tree to decorate for Christmas, so we decided as a family to decorate a stick, or lots of sticks actually! For me, the idea was a very hard sell. As it is my most precious of childhood and adulthood memories to cut down a tree at Christmas. (remember this one) Pieter and Natan had to work hard to convince me we could get the same Christmas spirit from a clump of sticks, but I was going to give it a chance.

It is not so easy to decorate a stick!

In the end we lost loads of glass ornaments and all decided that it was a good try, but not really a Christmas tree. Next, year we will find another solution. Check back then!

Monthly Blog Update

No more fooling this just isn’t going to happen more than once a month. I am sorry to those loyal readers who have been requesting more, but I am afraid I just can’t get to it. So, I will do my best to make one REALLY exciting, long and inspiring blog each month.

End of October was very exciting as we created a company studioVerbeelen where Pieter and I are partners. He will continue with his renovation and interior design and I will run Turtlewings as a division of the company. Of course at times we will work together on large projects. It is all very exciting and extremely stressful at the same time.

Maybe not equally important, but equally exciting was our first trick or treating in Brussels. It was organized around one city block, where quite a few xpats lived. (English speaking people living in Brussels) Natan dressed up as a bionicle and Kai as a little devil, which suited him just perfectly. As we set off for the first house Natan held back to see how it was all done. Kai on the other hand, seeing something to eat, rushed through the cracks of all the other children (over 30 in one group!) and stood quietly and politely in the front. He picked one candy from the bowl each time it passed him until he was the last one standing there. Of course, most children took their one candy and stepped away for others, but Kai was so small no one really noticed and after the first house he had it all figured out. The only concept he had trouble grasping was that you where suppose to wait to eat it until you got back home. So, all that was easy to unwrap was eaten immediately. Thinking back on my childhood now I wonder "Why did we wait?" This is Kai’s gift. He just does what he wants and if you don’t agree he will figure it out for himself. Most of the time he really gets you questioning yourself. Why do we conform to so many social rules? Maybe, we should all live life by a 21 month old's rules!

Natan is also growing up fast. He has become a real artist, which doesn’t bother me at all. He has also taken over my drawing table as his own, again not a real bother. He started in a French football (soccer) league in October, but we found it to far away, so he stopped for awhile. He was really sad for weeks, so we found one closer and he is very happy again. My heart sinks every time I see him out on the full size football pitch though. Because I know he isn’t understanding a word the coach is saying and I definately know how that feels, but he always comes back in incredibly happy. Also, I know by the end of the year I will have a little French translator by my side, which can come in handy when shopping in Brussels.
Next September Natan will go to lagere school (Elementary) and Kai will begin kleuterschool (preschool). This means we have to already shop for a new school now. Brussels is a primarily French speaking city, so there is loads of French speaking schools and very few Flemish, but the Flemish system has better education, so many French speaking parents put there children in Flemish schools. To complicate the problem there is not even enough place for Flemish children. So the system is that there is one day that you can sign you child up for one school. You must go first thing in the morning (some even at 3am) and stand in line hoping to get a place. Most parents split up and queue at two different places just to better their odds at getting in somewhere! Crazy! Anyway, we have begun this process, by touring 4 different schools last week, now we have decided between two and we can now wait for the 1st of March and hope to get in one!

November just went by so fast I feel I missed it, but we have worked hard on our company identities and public relations. I have updated the Turtlewings website and have some exciting projects coming up. We finally broke down and left the car-free world and got a really cool Skoda Roomster for our company car. We received a loaner car last Friday until ours comes in and it is very nice! The problem is that because we have been car-free for so long I tend to walk past it more than I get in it! I guess we will get use to it eventually.

Well, that is about all for this month! We will be going on a road trip through Germany for our anniversary in a couple weeks and we will have a very relaxing Christmas and New Years holiday here at home.

Cheers,
Jules

Let's go back a month or so!

Mom and Dad getting inspired at Salvador Dali's house (Port Ligat, Spain)

One month ago today my parents where here and we were celebrating my fathers birthday. It now seems ages ago, except occasionally when I go to the coffee maker and have a cool idea for our house, then it feels like they where just sitting there exploring all the cool things we could do. Next time we will spend more time dreaming and doing fun projects and less time traveling. Although, they had a wonderful time and saw loads, I think we tried to fit in to much. In the end it seemed they where running for the taxi to the airport only minutes after they arrived. There was so much I forgot to tell them and show them and so much more we could have talked about, but I am not complaining to much. It was brilliant to have them here and we did see a lot from grape picking to Dutch pottery making and from playing in the park around the corner to searching for a surf shop and swimming in the Mediterranean sea in France. I am already planning of the next trip, although I am sure that it will come and go way to quickly. If only they could move Iowa and Belgium just a bit closer together.

Kai is serious about helping with the boats. (Port Ligat, Spain)

Natan and his friend feeding the horses at the neighbors vineyard.

Isobel, Simon and Kai at dinner after grape picking.

Bringing the grapes into the cave.
Pieter scoops them into the bin while dad looks on.

The original press in the cave of Pieter's father.
This is the first year wine will be made there.

Pieter drinking the juice from the new grapes,
which have been in the wine vat for 3 weeks.

Everyone enjoyed the little yellow train up into the Pyrenees mountains.

Goodbye, grandma & grandpa we miss you very much!

Welcome the 4th Verbeelen Girl! Now, we are 4 girls vs. 5 boys

Julie Verbeelen (born just before 6am on October, 22 2006)

T.G.I.F.

So, I have still yet to blog properly yet or get any photo's downloaded from my camera in the last month or so!

What have we done then?

Well, we have been working hard at creating a company or two. We have finally decided for now to focus on the bvba (Dutch abrv. for normal profit company) and see how it goes before seeing if it is necessary to make Turtlewings a non-profit (vzw). So now all our design activities are officially under Studio Verbeelen. We are now in the process of buying a company car. Yes! You heard correct, we who preach a carless lifestyle to all who live in the city, are looking for a car. It will be mainly for business meetings, which are not within convenience with public transport.

Two weeks ago Sat. we began to plaster the back wall in our studio. Getting it all ready for the Turtlewings grand opening in Jan. It started modest because we had our wine&design party the following Friday night. So, because I really didn’t want to stand in the way of progress we continued as I tried to keep it all clean and organized for Friday. Well, by Sunday I lost control and everything in the studio was piled in the middle and there was plaster and dust everywhere. After Pieter had spent two days straight plastering and all the dust settled I spent 4 hours sanding and 8 hours painting during the week and it look fabulous. Pieter plastered the back wall and the front walls and we painted the front a very dark charcoal brown! Wow, amazing, but it was Thursday night and everything was still pile in the middle. Well, to make an exhausting story short. I organized; Pieter cook and we had a brilliant party with 25 friends and friends of friends.

This weekend we are doing absolutely nothing!

p.s. Will try to put pictures up soon, but at this point won’t promise!

Sitting and Writing

Bad blogger, bad blogger! 

So no excuses this time it has been weeks maybe even months since I posted. I still have yet to put up pictures from mom and dad's trip, but tonight I just downloaded a great Widget to my new laptop, which allows me to sit in my favorite chair and post. So, does this mean I will post more often. Perhaps! It could be mainly words, which I will have to get used to because I like having the picture to say most everything so I don't have to carry on so, but I believe that I can do it! 

I hope you can forgive me, but I have a really good excuse this time !

August 2006 in Belgium has been put down in the history books as having the most rainfall and least amount of sun ! Can someone explain this after July 2006 was put down as the hottest most sunniest July in History ?

So, as you see I couldn’t sit and write in this depressing period. It is now getting warmer still very very grey,but that is the Belgian’s favorite color they say ! Another reason for my absense is Apple ‘s amazing crappy service in Belgium. If any of your wish you can write and complain on my behalf. We turned my computer in before we went on holiday to get the noisey fan fixed it was suppose to take10 days, we where gone 12. I STILL don’t have it ! I called yesterday and was a real Amaerican on the phone, since Belgian’s NEVER complain he was so shocked he couldn’t talk.Well, maybe I wasn’t letting him talk, can’t remember at the time, but all that bitching of course does nothing as they still have it and even if I say in the end I won’t pay for such bad service I WILL have to because I am the one in need not them. (I HATE THAT)

O.k. I feel better for getting that all off my chest and I promise that the following catch up blog entries will not be so negative.