Lost in translation

Sometimes we see signs or things around town that either sound a little funny from an English speaking perspective or have been translated just a bit off in a way that is endearing.

Here are a few.

On the way to the grocery store today we saw a sticker on the back of a car that said
"BAD BOYS FOR LIVE"
and we are assuming they meant "FOR LIFE"
Doesn't have quite the same ring misspelled-- or maybe they are such 'bad boys' they don't care about spelling mistakes?

On the corner of our street, until very recently, there was a mortgage company called
"ARisk"
that not too surprisingly went out of business after less than a year.

Our neighborhood grocery store is changing ownership and will change names from "Edah" to "EMTE"
which sounds like "empty" to us, and not exactly what one looks for in a grocery...


Enjoy

Brothers in Arms

James and Will are doing well during this period that can be well, pretty stressful. We would love to have answers to all the open ends we have in the next six months, we are stressed with getting the house ready to sell, and having little ones at these ages really often calls for two different sets of skills to address two different kinds of needs,- just not possible to do at the same time. It is apparent in James' behavior sometimes; he is never overtly jealous or mean to Will but he has been a little feverish the past few days and you can tell he misses the 2:1 attention at certain moments.
We do our best to comfort when we can-

And Will is slowly becoming more active and amenable to company-

There are even occasions where James can be a big help, for the most part-

Maya Kirstine Alstrup-Lopez

was born Tuesday morning October 2nd, 2007 at 6.27am. She measures 20 inches(50.8 cm ) and weighs 8 pounds and 16 ounces (4.026 kg).

Their blog is:
http://peanutrocksdk-lo.blogspot.com/

Maya Lopez... or is it Lopez-Alstrup?

We just found out that our dear friend Dorthe gave birth early Tuesday morning to a little girl, named Maya. Dorthe is the mate of our dear friend Keith Lopez. In short they are a super-talented artist pair (she photography, he printmaking) who met at the Rhode Island School of Design in graduate school. We attended their incredible wedding in Denmark in the summer of 2006 (Dorthe is Danish). If you are an avid Hollandsenieuwe reader, you might remember that event.

Details are scant, no photos yet, as is to be expected at this time-- we realize only too clearly how tired they are right now. Dorthe has been working on a blog of her own and when it is up and running we will post it here. Until that time we send out ALL of our heartfelt joy and love to this trio.

Keep on movin' don't stop

We are still busy, but the slight increase in sleep and the development of a routine means we are branching out beyond simple survival to other things. Hooray!
Mike has made enough headway with his editing work to attempt a morning of bathroom remodeling. We will post photos when the bathroom is finished...

I do not think Mike emphasized Will's growth quite enough yesterday. At one month, Will weighs what James weighed at TWO months. Maybe it is because I've had this little bug nursing around the clock for a month that I find it important to make the distinction? We went yesterday to this cafe in a local department store. A woman came up to ask me about Will and said-- wow, he is really big for one month. I have been practicing my Dutch a lot lately, and I managed not to panic when she approached. I told her honestly-- I don't know! They make a growth chart for kids here, but don't give any percentile information. With James people always said-- oh, isn't he small! Just one of those things I guess-- too big or too small-- people always speak in extremes.

The BIG questions for us right now all revolve around what we will be doing next. I have completed about 10 job applications, and feel really satisfied about the places where I have applied. Several of them are on the list of Colleges that Change Lives. Though Mike says, "don't all colleges change lives"-- (he has a point) these schools were chosen by the author Loren Pope-- see Wiki article-- as distinct. Of these schools I have applied to Ursinus, McDaniel, and Goucher Colleges. I have also applied to Antioch University New England, SUNY Albany, University of Hartford, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Hamilton College, Wheaton College, and The Citadel. These jobs all begin in the Fall of 2008, or nearly a year from now. So, the applications are out and it will be months before I hear anything about these jobs.

I focused on jobs in political science and/or environmental studies in the Northeastern part of the US. I am most interested in the positions at the smaller liberal arts colleges which emphasize working with students and teaching. I have a feeling that those jobs would suit me best. I applied to the Universities (SUNY, Massachusetts, Hartford) because they were a good match in our target area. Though officially a University, I group Antioch with the Colleges because it is a small school focusing on just a few disciplines. The Citadel application was kind of a "wildcard"-- it seemed silly not to apply to a job that matched my qualifications in Charleston.

On this side of the Atlantic, we are still working toward putting the house on the market. This is not a task that can be rushed, so we are just trying to recognize that we've taken on a lot and that getting stressed out about it is not productive (don't I sound convincing?) We want to get the maximum out of this house, and so we think it is worthwhile to properly finish the job before advertising it. Selling the house will enable us to move back to the US by the end of this year. If the house does not sell right away, we will stay through April of 2008 at the latest, when my contract expires. Naturally, there are benefits to both options. While we long to be home to spend more time with friends and family, we don't want to rush going back if its not the wisest choice. On the other hand, though we dread a Dutch winter, we'd love the extra time with our friends here and the chance to enjoy this house Mike has toiled so hard over. Staying here also means not uprooting the boys repeatedly, and maybe even having my new employer pick up the tab when we do move. Leaving could mean Christmas with the family, then going to Charleston for 6 months or so to work and enjoy a mild winter.

I have told Mike repeatedly that it is truly a GREAT time for me to be busy with a new baby. Normally, to have all these loose ends would drive me crazy, but it just doesn't bother me these days.

In closing, here are some AM videos of the boys. Sorry the James video is so dark--- it was early and the sun was not up.

A month of fun days

Will went for his first health checkup on Monday; strange to think it is already one month. No surprises- he is about exactly the same stats that James was at two months for weight and length. It is such a random thing, especially at this age, to compare to siblings - let alone the whole population of babies in the Netherlands. I know as well as anyone that growth spurts will come when they will and everyone develops at their own rate- my personal record year was 7 inches between six and seventh grades. James (and Will) are happy and healthy in all the ways that really count and that is truly all we care about.
But that extra chin still looks like good insurance with winter approaching...

Here are Mom and Will at our friend Heleen's 2nd birthday party-

Will relaxing with his spiky hairdo-


James tentatively thinking about jumping into the game in his new favorite dinosaur shirt (thanks Aunt Julie)