I have exciting stuff to say. Today I have changed my bed sheets, I have started laundry, I have made dinner and cleaned the house!

hehehe now maybe you can understand why these posts are getting longer in between. :)

Naw, last week I helped Wim and the guys with the tuin...shoveled lots of sand. Makes me a stronger person with all this muscle (watch out, i can shovel sand). Naw was also just good to feel useful...with something that did not necessarily involve children. Except for Vera. Everything involves Vera, to an extent. Sand was no exception:

And now, after much work by the guys, it is really looking great. They took out the bricks, raised the level, and put tile in place of it. They will be adding plants but as of now here it looks:

Look now and see how tired this old man is:

Also at Central Station I heard this loud live music so I of course went to take a look. Annoying French students were playing horns and commanding people to dance. Which of course no one did. They just wanted to watch annoying French kids play instruments. Ah but it was fun music, well done. I knew they were French by their clothes. I knew it before they even talked. HA

Michiel is becoming quite attached to me. Told me his views on marriage: "If you are married you only have half a heart. If you are not married you have a complete heart. Because when you're married you must give half your heart to the other person. I will never get married because I need a whole heart. Are you married Ashley? Ashley are you married?"Me: "No I am completely not married."Michiel"Lucky! Stay that way" Ah he cares about my heart. :) 

Also I went to his football training last week and he won't stop talking about it. He is quite proud of himself, and proud to show off to me. He tells all the neighbor kids that I played football in America and always asks me to play with them. It's gotten to the point that he is not excited to play football with anyone unless I'm there. He asked Äshley when I come to America can I watch you play in the stadium? Have you ever played in the stadium?"Sorry to disappoint Michiel, nope. When we play it's always Ajax vs Feyenoord. Although he never remembers that until I remind him. Sometimes I'm Barcelona. Sometimes I'm PSV. Anyway. Enough football talk.

Other news. GertJan and Marlies bought a new house in Utrecht. It went alot faster than they had thought. It is a beautiful house. It is also old. So there's lots of improvements to be done before they can really move into it, but they said something about early October or so. Really went fast. So in one year I would have lived in three places: Amsterdam, Schiedam, and Utrecht. Yeah Imma be a busy duck getting ready maybe I think.

For those who have asked, nope I'm still not sure when I come back. I haven't expanded my ticket yet...waiting on a few things before I decide on the date. But you'll hear me.

Don't know what else to say...
I changed my bed sheets, made dinner and washed dishes, and now I'm going to do more laundry. Ta ta

Hello April

Happy April! Already the 4th month of the year.Celebrated by sending my mom a picture of a pregnancy test ... then you look closely at the result and it says "Just Kidding!" - well we all laughed, but my poor mother. Once I explained its April Fools day she sent back a "haha of course haha" but i'm sure it was sent with many sighs of relief. 

Sara (the au pair before me from Sweden) came for a week long visit last week...was really great to have her here. I might go to Sweden for a bit this summer to see her. 

This next picture tells me that I need to sleep better. Look at those shadows under my eyes! 

Watched the neighbor kids also - they are suuuuper cute and sweet and its nice to have the extra money. :)

Went to two more Haystack concerts. Super fun. Damaris and I go to another one on Friday

Ed Damaris and I went to a beach on Sunday. It was cold. But it was a good time. And there were these statues...in the middle of the plaza...kind of reminded me of Portland. I loved them!

He was so sad. I needed to stay with him for a while

Smiling people on a despairing statue

And of course, one huge one eating Herring

And we had some food and drinks

Fun with the kids...Michiel on my back and Femke biting my leg. "Wat ben je aan het doen?!" Femke: "Ik ben een HONDJE, natuurlijk! En je benen goed smaken!" Well, good to know. But painful.

I stayed with Jenny and Wim, had a nice long Skype conversation with Jacqueline, got to see Vera a lot, Eerd came over, spent time with E & D, had a party at friends of J, W, E & D...ah yah, was really a great 4 day weekend.

Here Wim bbq's spareribs. In the rain. With an umbrella, of course. His hair shouldnt be rain upon.

My Verje poof

Teaching Michiel a secret handshake that I must have learned in the ghetto

And I know I need to respond to emails...sorry guys it's just a ton easier to write general blog posts to everyone than individual emails to everyone. But I will respond, I promise, just give me some more time...please don't take it personal. Skyping is also difficult because in Amsterdam my internet is completely not strong enough for Skyping/streaming for some reason. Ed's tried to help and it is alot easier to use internet now but still not good enough for Skyping, a real pity, but for most of you we'll have to stick to emails.

Love from the other country