Rebekah's Contact Info

Well, Dad, I'm not sure your posting really counts as a posting, but posting contact info is a good idea.

Home Phone Number: 1-204-285-7842

Work Phone Number: 1-204-789-7081

Email addresses:

(personal) rebekahvanb@gmail.com

(work) rebekah.vanbruggen@phac-aspc.gc.ca

I don't know my supervisor's number, but I'll post it when I find out.

Contact Information

Calling all kids, calling all kids - Now, I know this is entirely boring, but "the parents" (well, it's my idea mostly) would like each of us to post enhanced contact information (perhaps to the blog?). It has occurred to us (in our mostly futile attempts to contact Nettie this week) that we have very little recourse should we need to contact each other in the event of an important occasion or emergency.

I would like us to list the following:
1. cell-phone (including the proper number sequence to call from outside of the country - we'll need to also test this out via Skype (we've just spoken to Lynne and have finally figured out the proper number sequence to call her - it took about 6 or 7 tries though).
2. land-line (if applicable) at home and at place of employment (we'll be updating this information from time to time as our numbers/employers change).
3. alternate email and/or phone numbers (i.e. friend, supervisor, etc.) - who can generally (and quickly) get in contact with us - this information will also need to be updated from time to time.

As I'd said, I know this isn't very exciting, and I'm hoping/praying we'll never need to use this contact information system (except in the possible event of exceptionally good news) - but its worthwhile to have (and will also likely extend the life-spans of "the parents") - this is the "heads up" - we'll talk more about this at our upcoming Sunday Skype date.

Your parents love and pray for each of you!

Love, always and forever!!!

-Dad-

Creativity

Hi all

Alright I will admit that I am not the most creative individual, sure I have an active imagination however that often does not translate well into reality, but sometimes circumstances call for a creative solution and when you are in these situations you have to come up with something.

So as I am sure that everyone can contest one of the challenges of living in a different city from where you grew up is that you are never really sure to get all the things that you need.  I know you are thinking "Wes you have been living in Amsterdam for over 6 months surely you must be use to the city by know and know where everything is!" and I would say yes for the most part I do but there are always things that you need but you are just not sure where to find.  Let me explain.

I have been suffering from allergies and my eczema has been getting particularly bad, especially after mom and dad left, and I have been trying to figure out what it could be.  I have started to change my diet, change my exercise routine, get more sleep, get less sleep, try cold showers, basically I have just been trying different things to relieve the symptoms and nothing really seemed to be working.  Then all of a sudden it hit me I was sleeping on a mattress which has been here since the dawn of time and I am sure that it is full of dust mites, after coming to this realization the solution became easy I just have to find a mattress cover.  Well you think that a mattress cover would be an easy thing to find, at least I did, I figured that I would pop down to IKEA or some other similar store and pick one up for 20 or so euros and I would be off to the races.  Well that certainly was not the case, I actually spent the better part of one day going from store to store and then phoning stores asking about mattress covers and I was only greeted with confused looks and annoying off topic advice "why don't you just buy a new mattress?".  I finally found a store which did have mattress covers but it turns out that they had to be custom made and were about 350 euros per cover (apparently they have microorganisms in them which kill all these things and make them very good to use).  Well needless to say the thought of coughing up 350 euros for a mattress cover is not very enticing and I just figured that I would just buy a lot of allergy medication for that money and be just as well off.

As I returned home grumpy both because of the lack of success and because I was hungry (I managed to gain about 6 pounds while mom and dad were here so now I have to get rid of it so it is diet and exercise for me but the bad thing is that I seem to be constantly slightly hungry as I wait for my stomach to shrink, Thanks mom and dad!) I was still trying to figure out what a possible solution may be.  Then when I was in the kitchen making some dinner (bean chili) it hit me, why not use plastic bags to cover my mattress! This way I solve the problem of the dust mites affecting me and I save 350 euros.  Well I have done just that and I am proud to say that my plastic bag mattress cover works like a champ but I probably will be buying a foam pad to put over my mattress as my mattress now crunches when I turn over.

HAAAZAAAA! Chalk one up for creativity!

Love

Wes

P.S I noticed that mom posted a blog post dad, where is your blog post?

Thankfulness

Sometimes when you are doing the simple things in life, you remember to be thankful. Take chopping wood for example. I was chopping some wood the other day and was very thankful!

Thank you Lord that that wood missed my head.
Thank you Lord that that one landed between my legs and not on one.
Thank you Lord that my toe wasn't in that part of my shoe where the axe landed.
Thank you Lord that it brushed my hair and missed my ear!

Yes, chopping wood is a good time to give thanks. That, and driving in Tirana!!!

Visit to the Relatives

The house where Gramma VB was born and raised. It has been modernized since that time but the basic structure and location is the same.

The house where Gramma and Grampa VB first lived. It is on the side of a sand dune. At the time that they lived there, it was a converted chicken coup. There is farm land all around. Notice the thatched roof.

Behind the sand dunes is the beach/ocean. It was a windy and cold day. Here are Bram and Grace with me.

This is Bram and Grace standing outside there home.

Bram and Grace (Her English Name) were great hosts and Dad and I had a great time.

Our trip started off with a mishap. After Wes left us in Amsterdam, we boarded the train. When it came into the station there were two sections coupled together. We boarded the section that was closest to us from where we were standing on the platform. We should have noticed that everyone was getting on the other section but we didn't. There was one other passenger in our section and she got off at the next station. At the 3rd station, the train came to a stop and then we felt a slight jerk. About 5 minutes later we discovered that the jerk was the sections uncoupling and you guessed it - we were on the wrong section. We were told that another train would be coming through in 20 minutes so not wanting to waste our time, we found a cafe and ordered some coffee and Dad wanted another chocolate pastry (his favorite). Bram and Grace fearing that something had happened when we didn't arrive phoned Wes. Wes in his typical nonplussed attitude told them that he didn't know what happened because he knew we were getting on the train. As it was they had to wait in town for their granddaughter to get out of school and in the meantime, we arrived.

That evening we sat around talking, eating and drinking strong coffee.

The next day they drove us around the countryside. We saw where Gramma and Grampa Van Bruggen had lived when they first got married and the place where Gramma was born and raised. They took us to a museum and we went out for lunch. Bram use to grow tulips for a living so he explained about the industry and showed us places where different flowers were grown and prepared for exporting.

That evening Grace served your father's favorite meal - Snet (Green Pea Soup).

On Sunday, we went with them to their church and later that afternoon, we caught the train back to Amsterdam. The return trip was uneventful.

Overall it was a very pleasant time.

I survived . . .

The Fort Garry EMC Youth Retreat!

Unfortunately I have no pictures to prove that I attended said retreat, but my muscles and sense of tiredness would attest to it.

On Friday night, we all met at the church (all 17 youth and five adults), packed up and drove out to Winkler Bible Camp, which is near, you'll never guess . . . Winkler. Once there we had a session then all piled outside for some s'mores around a campfire, along with a rousing game of B-sk-ice-ball (Basketball on a very slippery ice rink - I stayed huddled around the fire with a few sane youth discussing the probabilities of two people in a room having the same birthday . . . there was other topics discussed, but that's the one I remember best, not because it was necessarily interesting but because there was some very definite numbers being tossed around.) Afterwards, we returned to warmer areas and played board games. I retired at 1:00, though some youth stayed awake until 5am.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of waking the girls at 8:30 (water splashed on anyone not moving quick enough) for breakfast at 9. Afterwards we had a session, a retreat of silence, lunch then free time outside. During free time I helped to set up for the group game. This required walking all over the camp in very deep snow (think thigh deep), finding places to hide "food" and "water" stickers. The group game was called "survive" or something like that, and involved a lot of running and tackling people - not necessarily because we were suppose to tackle but because as you reached out to tag them they tripped in the deep snow taking you down with them. The day was a very pleasant temperature, which made it nice to be outside, though that did mean we got very wet. After the group game, we all trouped back inside, tired and wet, where we dried off and chatted, and played some more games before dinner. After dinner, we had a third session, a talent show (there are a lot of musically talented youth in this group), and then an hour of broomball to finish the evening (yes I played . . . well I participated, I'm not sure you can call shuffling after the ball as playing, though I did manage to hit the ball a couple times, never in the correct direction, but at least I didn't sit on the sidelines . . . I think my feet would have frozen inside my shoes if I had because the temperature was beginning to drop and my boots were soaking wet.) Afterwards, we sat around and chatted. I turned in at 12:30, though some of the youth stayed up until 4:30am.

On Sunday, I again was privileged to serenade the girls awake with a rousing, and slightly off-key, rendition of "Good morning to you!" We ate breakfast at 9:45 (I was starving, considering I normally eat at 7am on Sundays), had a long session, ate lunch, packed up and went home.

All in all the retreat went well. No one died, no one suffered any serious injuries (one guy attempted to stop a sled with his face and was rewarded with a pretty good snow burn), and everyone appeared to be friends at the end of it. I came home tired and maybe just a little bit grumpy (Rachel took off not too long after I got home, she said she was going dancing but . . . I'm not too sure that was the only reason). Anyway I survived the retreat and lived to tell the tale. I hope that you all had a fabulous week and am looking forward to more postings to meet the 154.5 posting challenge.

HI everyone

Alright I have a challenge for you, but this is a long-term challenge and one that needs to be carefully planned to be executed.

I noticed that we had 53 posts in 2009 (this was good considering that the blog was started in October so it was only around for 3 full months before the year was up) and then we had 103 posts (or something like that) in 2010 and that was for the full year.  This year was have currently 8 posts (9 if you include this post) and my challenge to my family is to beat the 2010 number of posts by at least 50%, yes dear family I am suggesting that in 2011 we aim to have at least 154.5 posts.  Do you think you are up for the challenge?!?!?!!?!

I know that it will be challenging, what with our amazing abilities to forget our cameras whenever we travel anywhere, but I think that this is something that we can do.  Don't forget you don't have to be traveling to post on the blog recipes, stories (both cautionary and exciting are acceptable), random pictures (you don't have to be on holidays to take pictures, Lynnette as I recall you enjoy photography and I am wanting to become a better photographer so in order for this to be done more pictures are necessary.  Mom you said that you don't take pictures because you are not any good, well I am not going to disagree but in order to get good you have to take more pictures) etc.  Use your imaginations and JUST POST!!!