2532 Montgomery

After a couple years of trying, we finally found a house! Very quiet location on the edge of the city, close to the girls school and a waterfall with some nice trails. It's in the middle of a block of houses, so you don't see the street at all, only a bit of forest and some backyards of the neighbors. The basement has really tall ceilings and it was built in 1999 so it shouldn't have too many problems. 

Such a relief to be able to know where we will live, and to have a place that we can move into that doesn't need much immediate attention. We still have big plans for it, but those can wait until after we get settled. Now we can start to get excited, and all the other pieces can fall into place. This was holding up the whole process. 

At school this week I watched one of my students throw a pen to a classmate. This is not allowed, so there was a consequence, but afterward, he insisted he hadn't done it. In front of the class, he made a big show of getting angry at the injustice of the situation, so I sent him out. After class, one on one, he continued to insist he hadn't thrown anything even though I saw him do it. I have never had a case of such extreme lying before. Another sign that it is time to leave Dutch education!

Yesterday Auntie Claire arrived! We left not long after she got here to visit friends in Leiden for dinner - nearly a two hour drive. One of my former students and her parents. She is now finishing up with college. Fun to see how much she has changed over the past ten years. 

Celebrating our new house!

A trip to Leiden to see old friends.

Our new house. 

Danny & Judith

Our German friends came to visit us this weekend with their two kids. Fun to see how well the four kids play together even though they can't understand much. It's a busy house with four adults and four kids, but they are great guests. 

Thursday and Friday are holidays this week, and the girls also had Wednesday off, so on Wednesday we went to the science museum in Amsterdam and then out to eat at Naomi's favorite greek restaurant in Utrecht. It was a lot of fun, but another long day. 

Mother's Day on Sunday was a bit of rest, and we took a nice walk in the forest. On Monday Naomi took the car to visit a friend, but was an hour late picking me up from work, so I wasn't happy, and Heleen needed to leave the girls on their own for dinner. 

On Friday we met Clifton and Karmen at the dunes, and that was a lot of fun! Our normal burger place switched to take out only as they couldn't find the wait staff, so we brought some burgers to the dunes and ate dinner at the huge picnic table. 

Science museum in Amsterdam.

Greek restaurant in Utrecht.

Naomi's old student house.

Finished the compost bin for a colleage.

Fun at the dunes!

Dinner with Danny & Judith.

Book Launch

I worked hard on the final formatting of the novel this week, and the changes turned out well, so yesterday I told a lot of friends and family that it was finally ready, after ten years! Feels good to get it out there and to be able to move on to other things. Nice to be able to connect with some old friends as well. 

https://www.dutch-domes.com/published

We thought we were going to be able to move on from the house hunt as well, but yesterday the house we wanted to buy failed its inspection. Starting to get frustrated and discouraged at this point. Hopefully something will pop up soon, but we have been saying that for over two years. Just want to know where we will be living so we can decide what to bring with us. 

Finally got some May weather this weekend! So nice to be able to spend some time outside after such a cold and rainy spring. We also met the lady who is buying our house, and she is wonderful. She is happy with the improvements we made and will also take a bunch of our stuff that we don't want to move. Big relief that she is not one of the typical Apeldoorn types. 

The book cover.

Building a compost bin for a colleague - I happened to save just the right pieces of wood!

Fancy lunch in the sunshine.

Naomi and Amélie baked macaroons. 

Happy Mother's Day!! 

Roma

We battled the insane crowds in Rome to catch a glimpse of some pretty cool places. Got to walk around the Colosseum but tickets to go inside were booked weeks in advance. Saw the Forum but didn't go inside as that required tickets too! Had to wait in a long line just to go inside the Pantheon, our favorite building in Rome. 

We dealt with some rain, and enjoyed a wet, fancy, birthday dinner for Naomi. We tried fresh black truffles. On our last day we also dealt with some rain. Naomi and Abigail stood in the two hour line to get into St. Peter's basilica and a thunderstorm hit halfway through. Their small, broken umbrella didn't do much to keep them dry. Claire, Matt, Amélie and I didn't want to brave the line, so we found an amazing ice cream spot and watched the torrential downpour from inside. 

Our apartment worked out great, and it was really important to meet all the family in Rome and show our girls some of the sights. The crowds were out of control. The metro was unreliable. One time it took us two hours to get back to the apartment. Everything was damp and didn't dry. Glad we were able to recover a bit in Switzerland with Claire and Matt! We had some amazing food and enjoyed the sunshine, hot tub, and some nice walks. 

We got back home late on Friday night, and this weekend is all about getting settled back in and I am trying to wrap up the novel. I updated the print version, and now I need to order more proof copies. The ebook is just about finished. Once I check the proof copies I can start sharing it with people. 

Local birthday breakfast treats!

Why does a simple grocery store lunch in Italy taste so amazing?!

Fancy birthday dinner.

Fresh black truffles.

Squished by the crowds.

So busy!

Finally a bit of space.

Amélie loved the ruins.

Amazing that the oculus is 27 feet across!

The Vatican was packed.

Much better than standing in a thunderstorm!

Fun at Auntie Claire and Matt's!

A delicious lunch inspired by Roman street food.