Wednesday in Holland!

We landed at 7:30 am after a great short flight. As I said to my seatmate, "this sure beats driving to Jersey, some else is at the wheel and I can watch a movie and play online solitaire!" Danny enjoyed the flight and trying all the food in its neat little airline dishes and watching his own movie screen. He chose HP part 2 and really got lost in it. Jerry's coworker drove up to Amsterdam to pick us up and Jer was happy to not rent a car on our first visit. We hit alot of traffic on the way down to Rotterdam, but we saw our first windmills, both modern wind turbine style and the old fashioned ones. The whole country is below sea level and as you are driving along and you are basically even with the water it is pretty bizarre! We arrived at our hotel and it is right on a canal, in the harbour in the centre of the city. The theme of the hotel is water, and the hallways are curved like a cruise ship and lit with a wavery blue light. The views are amazing from our window. The gist of the day went like this. Danny crashed in the car on the way to the hotel, then dragged himself upstairs and slept for two hours. Jerry went to coffee and meeting with bigwig Peter Penning who picked us up at the airport. I hopped on the computer and set up a date to view an apartment at 4pm...go me! The guy from Jer's company sent an email which did not impress me. He has one place for us to see Friday. We will see it, but meanwhile....I will take command, lol!
We all left the hotel at 1:30 and went right down to the harbor, a five minute walk. We got tickets for a 2pm harbor tour on a really cool boat(not the pancake boat)! the tour was about an hour and a half, excellent history, very cool views of the cargo shipping areas. Rotterdam was the largest shipping port in the world for a long time, and still is very busy with boats coming and going from all over the world. They had food on board and Danny got a hotdog (made with real meat mom!) and a huge piece of pie with real whipped cream. I had a coffee and ginger biscotti, yum!
We went back to the hotel and met up with Mabel the agent . She was a godsend! A friendly gal, with a rental and interior design business, so the furnished flats look like HGTV! She zoomed us around the city, sharing facts about neighborhoods,shopping,sports areas,etc. We saw one place that we loved, the house was old, rooms with lots of character ,neighborhood great, but the place was the second and third floors, and the stairs were at more than a 45 degree angle and the stair risers themselves were at the top only 2,3 inches wide. The climb was challenging, but the descent was like going down a ladder. We just thought "how could Molly do it?" Then we went to another place, totally different. Over the budget, as Allie knows always happens on House Hunters International! It is right on the water in an old electricity plant, totally industrial and super cool. Then when we were going there, Mabel said she had a brand new apartment that would be ready April 1, that was near the first neighborhood, by a park, and a lake with sailing and swimming. So she thought maybe we could stay in the loft one month, then move to the lake one. The apartment will be used in May for the National volleyball Team of Holland to come and stay in while they ready themselves for world competition.  Kind of a cool idea, trying out one real city experience and one more suburban. I will attempt to contact other Realtors tomorrow to see if we can see more.
We found an awesome chicken place for dinner, they had spits turning in the restaurant with the chickens on them. Oh my was it good. Then back here for our water fun. The pool is lovely, on the 8th floor of the 16 floor hotel. There is also a sauna,steam room and large rain shower shower, with sea salt scrub to use. It was great to soothe our plane weary muscles, and after being up for 34ish hours we were ready for sleep!

U of M hoops!

The girls and Jerry went to the U of M game tonight vs. Penn state! Charlotte was so thrilled to meet the point guard, Courtney Boylan. She invited the girls to come back and report on how they do in their tournament on Saturday. The next home game we can make is 2/16/12, so I think that is how we will clelbrate the big 1-9 for Charlotte!

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Phew! Dinner is done!

Well it seemed to be a big success! I will post some pictures soon of the eating and game playing and general bon homie! the guests arrived at 6, and Molly, who had been standing at the door since 5, was waiting to greet them. They enjoyed appies of cranberry salsa with cinnamon chips, artichoke cheese dip and cheese tray with fruit. Then we all got score cards and went down stairs to start the games. I played darts with Jim Cuthbertson and thanks to the three bullseyes he got, we won! Molly and Charlotte manned the Wii bowling station, and poor Danny couldn't win a game. After a little more than an hour we came upstairs to eat. Main course was a large Michigan salad(I even candied the pecans!) and Turkey pumpkin chili or spinach tortellini soup with chicken, and baguette,corn bread or cheese bread.
Desserts were black bottom cupcakes, tiramisu-ski, peanutbutter candy dipped oreos and chocolate dipped strawberries. Lots of Great lakes beer, red wine, soda and coffee topped things off.  And then the gag gifts...they were so well received, from the plastic pear, to the rhino bookends, to the can of Vienna sausage, they brought loads of laughs to the group. It was a hit I hear tell and I'm glad I could do it for Jer.

Well, the cooking is going well...how well will it taste?!

I made turkey chili,cranberry salsa, and tiramisu so far. And baked the chicken to put in the chicken tortellini soup! and some appies! Danny,Charlotte and I went to the dollar store and got cute prizes for the games tournament. Everyone is excited to have "Daddy's friends" over, which is so funny. They think Jerry goes out to play every day I guess!

my tiramisu, Susan and Alli's recipe :)

Extremely Loud is extremely thought provoking...

LLL had their first field trip today, moving the Laughing Ladies out of the Library and into the theatre! We went to see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which we read a couple of months ago. I wasn't a huge fan of the book, it seemed choppy and it had too many story lines going on. In the movie, it seemed like they filtered out all the side stuff and just concentrated on the main story. Sandra and Tom were fine, but the young boy was the real star of the show. His performance was spectacular. The one thing that bugged me about the book was that they did not mentioned Asbergers at all, when it was obvious to me that Oscar has it. At least in the movie they say he was tested for it and it was inconclusive (whatever that means). I found the way all the things he felt and saw, kind of the way he felt them, to be particularly hard for me to watch. Does Charlotte feel these things. Because she has ID also, she can't express these things? I wish I knew what was happening in her head, but will try to think of Oscar when she is freaking and maybe find a new kinder way to deal with things.

Told ya I'd be right back!

Well  here I am! Thursday was a busy one for sure...
Coffee with a friend from the knitting group at the library was fun. I had hoped to see Nancy there to, but she didn't feel up to it.
Back home to help Danny work on how to research, for his Florida keys/Islamorades project. He is making a map and needs to have flora and fauna information to include it. We also did a cool atom sculpture and worked on it with relation to the periodic table of elements. It was cool.
Dealt with problems with transportation to school for Charlotte-- how ironic is it that she heads out to willingly get on the bus and the next thing I know the drivers is at the door saying they do not have a form for her to be transported. WHAT?! So in she comes, I go get on the phone, and figure I'll be driving her. However, they have the bus turn around and come back for her...okay then!
so the day went on and dinner was in the oven when I got a call from Cammy, her Mom had had a car accident and she needed help. I jumped in the car and drove the 50 min down to Oakwood hospital. When I got there I was handed Cassandra immediately. Cammy had run out without a diaper bag and the baby was stinky and hungry. Also Cammy was not allowed back with her mother with the baby. So I offered to take her to Target to pick up some diapers etc. Off we went, I chanced hanging a right turn while waiting for the satellite to kick in on the GPS and there on the right was a Target..GOD is good. Cass and I shopped for diapers, formula, a bottle, and a new sleeper because she had soaked through hers. Payed and changed her all up in the bathroom(forgot how stinky those explosive poops can be!) Then we went to the Starbucks inside the store and got busy on the bottle. Boy she was happy with that! Dry and fed we headed back to the hospital, where by the time I parked, Cammy's Mom was ready to leave. She ended up in my car, with the baby, and we drove to her house. Turned in all the Target goodies, and the baby(darn!) and then turned around to head home. We don't know about the damage yet, but I have a feeling it is bad..
Oh boy.

And she's back! Blogger Universe take note!

Like anyone is reading this but you Kerry! Face it, you have one follower, and that's just because you made Jerry sign on! But who is this for anyway? It's main goal was to keep you accountable to a daily journal, which worked for about a year....then I slacked off. But I am sooo back on. I promise myself. 2012 has alot of adventure in store and I will want to remember it all.
Today I got to go to work! Now for many this would not be a cause for excitement, but since I only got 4 hours in the month of December, this shift was welcome. I also have a shift Saturday, so that makes 12 hours for the month!
Jerry is in Minnesota for the week, after last week in Tampa, so I am Mom-central. This week is much better though, because Charlotte is more under control. I don't know why or how, so many factors in play, but for the moment I am not questioning it.
Today Danny and I had Ashley Court. Many of our friends/residents had died in the last month, our friend Delores died last night. It is very sad, but a part of life at an Alzheimer's facility. Danny is so popular there, they love his sweet young face :)
Winter is here, tonight temps in the 20's, and I am happily in front of the fire, blogging and watching House Hunters Int. (Lyon, France!) and all is well!
Thanks for reading...