January
One of our New Year’s resolutions was to explore more of the Brussels area. We started the New Year with fireworks in Brussels, and then did a bit of exploring Brussels in the snow. I also finally got my Belgian driver’s licence, though I still haven’t used it. We finished up the month with a rainy weekend trip to London.

February
A couple weeks this month were spent in Ireland. Thomas worked in Dublin (photos still to be posted), and I flew in for a Valentine’s Day weekend in Western Ireland. We also found out we were pregnant this month, though we didn’t announce our Baguette in the Oven until later on.

March
One of my favorite short trips of the year was a day trip with my girlfriends to walk in Julia Child’s footsteps in Paris. Thomas and I had a quick trip to Stockholm (photos still to be posted), and then I  had a visit from my aunt, while Thomas went to Portugal for work . Thomas and I also added a new continent to our checklist as we spent a couple weeks in Taiwan.

April
Our Asian adventure rolled over into this month with a trip to Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan (photos still to be posted). It was great timing to be there during cherry blossom season. We also celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary with our first prenatal class with the BCT.

May
We spent almost an entire month stateside visiting friends and family and celebrating weddings, birthdays, and graduations in the Dominican Republic, Indiana, Texas, North Carolina, and Boston.

June
Desperately in need of some sunshine, Thomas and I headed to Sardinia this month. We also cheered on the Tour de France as it passed through Brussels.

July
In our final month of my being able to fly, we loaded in the travel with some amazing trips. We spent a weekend in Barcelona, and then made a driving tour of the Slovenian Alps, ending with a weekend in Venice.

August
This month, Thomas headed to the US to work in California for a couple weeks, and my parents came over to tour Europe (photos still to be posted). We did a whirlwind tour of Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Normandy, and the Rhine River Valley in Germany.

September
Heading into the 7th month of pregnancy, we slowed on travel and started preparing for Pumpkin’s arrival. We took more BCT prenatal classes, I went to the physiotherapist to learn birth exercises, and our apartment quickly started to fill with baby supplies. My brother also visited for a few days and we went to the Brussels Beer Festival (photos still to be posted).

October
At the beginning of the month, I celebrated my 32nd birthday with a baby shower thrown by my friends and a Dinner in the Dark. Both of Thomas’ parents visited and we enjoyed touring them around Brussels (photos still to be posted). We also attended a quilt show in Enghien (photos still to be posted) with his mom. Pumpkin arrived on Halloween!

November
The first week of parenthood was spent in the hospital. We shuffled through the second week, and then my mom arrived for support. While she was in town, we were able to hit a few of the Christmas Markets in Brussels, Uccle, and Koln, Germany.

December
We made it through our first month, but our days have really slowed down. Luckily, we were able to quickly get Pumpkin’s passports, and have headed off to Sweden for the holidays.

As you can see, it’s been a full year and I could not have asked for anything more. After the holidays, we’ll be tying up the loose ends in Brussels and preparing for our move at the end of January to San Francisco. Happy 2011 to you!

Pink trees from our balcony

Thanks so much for all the comments on the last post. No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, but it was fun to post on that day. :) It’s great to know that so many people are excited for us. Thomas and I are very excited too. Thankfully, it has been a very easy pregnancy so far – no morning sickness, and no complications.

This week is Spring holiday for the Belgium schools, and I’m enjoying having no plans! I’m a little worn out on travel and still have another big trip coming up in just a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to it, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying the downtime. Eventually, I’ll get our Japan photos edited and posted. Hope you all are doing well and that Spring has arrived where ever you live…

This Tuesday, I took my first hot shower in my apartment in a week. That’s the reason I was grouchy – ice cold showers, no matter how quick, are not fun.

Shower and sink in our bathroom

It all started last Tuesday, when our hot water heater failed to ignite. We fiddled with the ignite button and dials, but no luck. We realized that we have a gas heater, and that we had never paid for a gas bill. Something similar had happened to a friend of ours, so we quickly contacted our relocation specialist to have her check things out for us. She was out of the office for the next 4 days.

As soon as she got back, she reported that everything was good with our gas – it was combined with our electricity and we’ve been paying it all along. She suggested we talk to our concierge and see if she could check if our meter looked okay. Our concierege only speaks French, and my vocabulary does not include hot water heater, meter, ignite, so we used google translate to print out our questions.

This is the happy ending. The concierge sent her husband up to our apartment and he fiddled with the heater and finally got it going. We were trying reignite it incorrectly, though I don’t know why it went out in the first place. Anyway, he showed us how to do it right, and hot water flowed forth. Yay!

I also realized that I’ve never posted photos of our toilet and bathroom. Toilets are usually in a seperate room that the bath here. Our toilet room is just big enough for one person to barely stand in. It also has the hot water heater, the breaker box, and a tiny sink that doesn’t really work.

Our toilet room

Our bathtub room has a larger sink, a small bathtub/shower, our washer/dryer combo, and a couple cabinets.  I should mention that these photos were taken with my wide angle, which really distorts things.  It’s a small room.  We use the heater in there to warm our towels on. Unfortunately, there is no fan to suck out the steam after a shower.  Both of these rooms have skylights to make them brighter.

Sink and washer/dryer in bathroom

When I lived in my house in Atlanta, the master bathroom was a constant complaint. I thought it was too small, and I missed having a big soaking tub. In fact, it was double the size of the bathroom we now have, and one of three in our house. It’s funny how your perspective can change…

Recycled Crate Tree Art at Place Poelaert

This post is specifically for my grandmother – Hi Mama C!  I was checking Facebook yesterday, and she had set her status message to: Dallas, I am going through withdrawal. It has been 10 days since you have added to your journal.

I didn’t realize I had been on that long of a break, but here’s what I’ve been up to for the past 10 days.

• 10 – Went to a Troc (second hand store) with Reid and her daughter.   Train to London with Thomas.
• 9 – Toured London on Hop On/Hop Off bus and saw Cirque de Soleil.
• 8 – Watched the changing of the guard, visited Tate Modern Art Museum, saw Avenue Q and Chicago.
• 7 – Toured British Museum and Harrods department store.
• 6 – Train back to Brussels.  Caught up on laundry, email, etc.
• 5 – Volunteered as server at the AWCB Cafe.  Hot water heater broke!
• 4 – Girl Scout cookies arrived! Sorted and dispersed cookies, then on to my troop’s meeting.
• 3 – A day to rest…organized closet and dresser so all clothes fit.
• 2 – Tested out Girl Scout Thinking Day craft with Reid.
• 1 – Shopped for breadmaker, boots for me, and jeans for Thomas – got none.  Dinner and boardgames with Reid and her husband.
• 0 – Checked out the Brussels Antique Market and Midi Market. Edited London photos and worked on blog.

Thanks, Mama C, for the reminder to check in with my blog.  This next week is actually pretty quiet, so there should be more regular posts.  What have you all been up to?

Dallas in the Snow

Instead, it snowed most of the weekend and I spent too much time in front of my computer.  I did some photo-editing (seen throughout this post) and travel-planning, and have been getting ready for Girl Scout Cookie Sales.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned on here that I’m volunteering with the American Girl Scouts Overseas.

Connor at the Playground

Yesterday, Thomas volunteered at his new hangout, the Brussels HackerSpace, and helped them install some new plumbing.  I took advantage of that time and played with fabric.  I don’t have anything to show yet, but I finally have an idea on how to use my leftover scraps from my online quilting bees this last year.

Fall-Colored Path

That’s about it.  This week hasn’t started, but I’m already exhausted. What’s on your agenda?

I’ve posted the rest of these photos on PicasaWeb.  The playground shots are from November, but I just found them on Thomas’ computer.

• More Brussels Snow (8 photos)
• The Playground with Connor (8 photos)

Macro shot of snowflake on my glove

I’m easing back into my regular schedule… In the meantime, here are some quick links:

• Loved this quote on Why I blog:  To be creative. To prove I exist. To exercise my brain. To praise my children. To complain about my children. To write. To photograph. To brag. To cry. To put myself out there and see who bites.
• Found this wonderfully-told story of how a couple met online. Read it! I laughed, I cried, it’s great.
• Amazed at Waking Up in Bavaria‘s gorgeous views outside her home, especially this one and this one.
• Going to London in a couple weeks – got tickets to see Cirque de Soleil’s Varekai! Any other must sees or dos?

Hope you’re having a great week!

So, I am torn – there are pros and cons to both photo-hosting sites.

• Picasa Web shows a larger photo on default.
• Flickr has multiple options for download size.
• Picasa Web allows navigation between photos with the keyboard.
• Flickr has strong communities and groups.
• Picasa Web has a very easy interface for geo-tagging locations.
• Flickr allows privacy settings on individual photos, rather than a whole set.
• Picasa Web is less popular and feels a little more private.

I’m finding Picasa Web a lot more pleasant to use on the back-end than Flickr – I’m even captioning, tagging people, and marking geo-tags. But because of the groups, Flickr is the preferred site for crafters.  For now, I’m using Flickr for my craft photos, and Picasa Web for everything else.  But if I want to search out other photographers’ work, like if I’m going on a trip and want some inspiration, I will still go to Flickr.  What do you use for photo-hosting?