Great days to remember.

My parents came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. It was nice, and as always too quick. We surprisingly had some great weather. My parents are really easy to entertain. They would be fine to hang out with the kids in our house or out and around our small little town. We did go on a couple touristy jonts, but nothing big. We visited the city of Gouda, you know, the cheese town. It had an amazing town square with the most incredible city hall--gemeente huis. Of course, we had to visit Kinderdijk. This is a place home to 19 consecutive windmills. We had really nice weather for this visit to the windmills. Ian walked on ahead with my parents and Arden and I stayed behind at the car. She was really tired and not feeling up to the long walk.(Hard day at school?) Well, with much bribing and the promise to carry her for a little bit (not a smart idea), as well as the mention of McDonalds, we headed out on this beautiful day. You could just feel the sunrays soaking into your skin---much needed Vitamin D. I could see my parents up ahead of us a ways so we found a bench along the pathway. We sat down, feet propped up and just let the sun blanket our faces. It was a very good moment. Peaceful, relaxing, and it felt like a special gift just for us. It lasted but a couple minutes but it seemed like the perfect amount to rest my soul and gain perspective. Our little moment was soon over and we spotted my parents and Ian heading back. Arden immediately stood up on a stone table and began to sing a song entitled, "No, no, No". It was pretty catchy, and as you could guess it repeated the word "no", over and over in a jazzy, rhythmic sort of way. It, I think, was a serenade for my parents and Ian as they walked up the pathway!! Ian caught sight of his sister and they began to run toward each other. So cute.

You never know if days like these touch each person involved the same way, but I am glad to have been able to share this day with my parents and my two special little people. I think we laughed and smiled the whole way to McDonalds. . . now that is a day to remember!



Hanging out at a lovely park in Rotterdam.

Eating ice cream at the park, after feeding deer and running around getting dog tired. He is giddy happy!

Gouda's city hall, right in the heart of the town center!




It is so hard to get a still shot of Ian. Constantly in motion and on the go.

Yes, people do still really wear wooden shoes. How cute are these red pair. I hope the girl's parents don't mind that I have their daughter up on my blog as the poster child for "klompen" advocacy. I am thinking about buying some.

A nice candid of Arden with the windmills in the background.

Feet propped and enjoying a gift of a day!!

The life of a child

I'd like to call this: "Pondering's by the waterside". Or more like, "I don't want to cooperate so, here Mom, get a shot of my shoes."


Arden with her new BFF, Bregje. Have fun trying to pronounce that name. It is not easy my friends. They are just too cute together. Arden and Bregje are two of the little ladies that formed the "Meisjes Club", that I made mention of in my earlier post. I would love to see the two of them in action at recess!

Things I am learning. . .

1. Always listen to a 2 1/2 year old, who is new with the potty, when he says, "Mama, I need to go poopy!" Even if he just went 5 minutes ago. Always listen!!! I, for some reason, didn't think that it was that urgent. I told him to go on downstairs and I would be down in a minute. Well, I guess 1 minute was just too long to wait.

2. My Dutch will never be as good as my 4 year old's! Arden has officially surpassed my Dutch language skills. She is making friends, going to their houses for play dates after school, and she and her gal pals have even formed a girls club, "Meisjes Club."

3. There is never enough time.

4. There are a million social networks out their that were created with the main purpose of connecting friends, family and aiding people to stay connected and in "touch". These will never erase the occassional loneliness that we all feel, but they could be useful in keeping the people you love "closer "to you. I am learning that a phone call and regular ol' email are starting to mean more to me than a twitter message or abbreviated blog post of myself and my adventures. . . I do find myself wishing I was a better/more consistent blogger/facebooker/myspacer/twitter/ etc. , but then I remind myself or convince myself that I am soaking in life. Hmm. . . is that the truth? I don't know, but I would like to think it is. . . :-)

5. Life can be a complicated, and beautiful mess, but at the end of the day things get very simple and thankfulness often times exudes from the silence. Sweet Peace!

6. Always have my sunglasses handy! My eyes are not used to the sun after being exposed to such greyness and cloud covered skies. Really, when the sun shines, praise God, but it is like a light of 1 million light bulbs in a tiny bathroom (okay, maybe not that bright). Arden has even quoted about the sun, "Ouch, turn it down!"

7. Coffee always tastes better when someone else makes it for you.

8. I am learing that when I start to wonder if I could ever possibly braid the hair on my legs, then maybe, just maybe, it is time to shave my legs. (The crazy things that go through our heads!)

9. I am still learning to forgive myself.

10. that it is okay to not really have an agenda for every single day. And it won't kill me to be a little more deliberate and calculated with my time. Ohhhh, we are all such babies.

Loving Oprah.

How many of you guys out there love Oprah? She is undeniably easy to love. I love the fact that I have a new American/Dutch friend that loves Oprah and shares her magazines with me. Great stuff for you to think about and munch on. The most recent issue of "O" Magazine, February 2009, features a tiny little blurb about Myngle (Stefan's new love/job). For all of you Oprah fans check-out pg. 42 (I think), bottom of the page in blue, there you will see it in ink, Oprah promoting Myngle.com. Keep your eyes peeled, there is not much to it, but it is exciting for the world Mynglers. Well, it was pretty big news in our family at least. I am thinking hard about signing up for some courses in Italian or Dutch. . . hmmm. . . which side of the family do I want to communicate with the most?

A Message from Stefan

Here is an email that Stefan sent out to some of his friends and colleagues at Little Rock Christian Academy. I thought it would be nice to post another update, but from the "horses mouth." Ha. Ha.


Dear Friends,

I hope this message finds you well.
I just want to drop you a line to share a bit of what I am doing as of lately.
As most of you know, when I left Little Rock Christian, Kelly and I moved to the Netherlands where I attended business school at the Rotterdam School Management, Erasmus University.
I finished the intense program in December and I can't be thankful enough for the incredible ride these last 15 months have been. Kelly and the kids have also adjusted well. We miss Arkansas and our friends, but we are also thankful for the stretching and growing experience that living in a new country entails.

As of this month, I have started working for a company called Myngle in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Myngle is the newest online platform for live interactive language learning. Today I have the privilege of combining my experience in education, my love for languages, and my newly acquired business knowledge to contribute to the expansion of Myngle.com around the world. Gosh, I miss many of the people from LRCA, but comparing the daily grind... frankly this is way more fun... (I think Kim knows what I am talking about!).

I don't want to take too much of your time with the details of how Myngle works. You can catch a 1:25 min video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRPIZ_K1q38

However, if you are interested in talking to me about what Myngle can do for your school, university, language club, next trip abroad, special project, yourself... or simply would like to catch up and could care less about Myngle, drop me line and let's chat.

I look forward to share!

Ciao, Daag, Adios,.. See y'all.

Stefan R. Booy

Business Development Manager Partnerships
Myngle B.V.
129 Wibautstraat
1091 GL Amsterdam
The Netherlands
web: www.myngle.com
email: Stefan@myngle.com

Back in Action

Hello, hello, everyone. Happy New Year. I bet all of you are in full swing in this new year. We are. Stefan started his new job with Myngle on Tuesday and Arden started a new School on Monday. We are adjusting to those new changes and are looking forward to what this year will hold. As of now, we are staying in Ablasserdam. We are hoping that our landlord will give us another 6 months to stay put. This would give us a chance to have better ground to make a decision about a longer-term living situation. But, we have yet to hear "officially" from our landlord. So, we continue with life as if we have a "yes, you can stay" in our bag.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Italy. We stayed with Stefan's parents for two weeks. Arrived just after Christmas and left on the 9th of January. We were able to celebrate the New Year with his parents and Peter, Annarita, Nicholas and Claudia. We also hosted some new friends from Stefan's school. One of our friends, Yang Yang, just so happened to be traveling in Italy over the holidays. She and her mother made there way over to Pollenza. During this trip to Italy we may have seen some of the grayest days possible in Italy, but we were with family and ate, and ate some good food.


Our last meal. So very appropriate that it was pizza.


Arend and Jeanne are situated in an amazing location. They are on the eastern side near the Adriatic. They are about 20 minutes from the sea and an hour from ski slopes.

Claudia started walking on this vacation. It was one of the highlights of our trip. Always a blessing to be able to witness one of the major "first". Go Claudia go.


We took a day trip to Assisi. A very beautiful city, well known by the famous saint, Saint Francis. After touring the amazing basilica, I tried to get a picture of the kids near the arched walk way. Near impossible to do, without extras in the background.


Some of the unbelievable views that people live with everyday. I took this picture because it shows you what you could have right outside your window in Italy. This home had a view of the entire Basilica, it's well groomed lawn and the rolling landscape that out stretched beneath the hill upon which the home and basilica were perched.




Loving this picture. Those Schafers . . . they are everywhere. We have always been well known for our passion for sanitation.



Just being boys. Stefan, Ian, Peter, and Nicolas.


I have no funny caption for this shot. Stefan could not be any less Italian in this picture.