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?

Friday’s plan was lots of sewing and then post a Work in Progress before I got into the Morocco photos.  Unfortunately, I never made it because I ended up having a sewing accident and had to go to the ER for stitches.  Warning:  Rotary cutter blades are sharp!!!

The Weapon

As I was taking apart my rotary cutter to put in a sharper blade, I dropped it and immediately jumped back.  My Mother-in-law has given me all kinds of warnings about how dangerous those are after she had one drop on her foot years back.  I thought about that as soon as I dropped the blade, especially since I only had socks on.  Unfortunately, the blade hit the ground and rolled around, with my foot landing on it.  Yikes!!

I don’t do well with the sight of blood (and there was a lot), but I was able to bandage it up to stop the bleeding.  I messaged Thomas online about what happened and told him that it was deep enough that it would probably need stitches, so he came on home to help me navigate our first time with the Belgian healthcare system.

It all turned out okay.  Once he was home, we called a taxi to take us to the local hospital.  They gave me 5 stitches and a tetnus shot and sent me home.  There were, however, a few differences in how everything worked:

• I didn’t have to fill out any forms.  They just swiped my identity card and had all the info they needed.
• No money was exchanged at the hospital.  A bill will be mailed to me, and since I forgot my insurance card, I can work that out afterward.
• They used tough threads that need to be removed rather than the disintegrating kind.  I get them removed by my general physician, rather than back at the hospital.
• I *think* that if I had needed the stitches before 5PM, I could have had my general physician put them in rather than the ER.
• They gave me a prescription for antibiotics, but we had to search for a pharmacy that is open past 6PM.  They’re generally closed then, but they rotate which one is open later, printing the list in the newspaper or online.
• The ER was thorough and good, but more with a tough love kind of feeling.  I was surprised that they didn’t give crutches – yes, I can hobble around without them, but the US would have given me some, at least so I didn’t step on the wound before it was sewn up.  This one was the biggest surprise to me.

It all worked out and though I didn’t get any real sewing done, my friend Sarah is coming over today so we can work on our projects together.

Since I can’t stand the sight of blood, myself, I’ll hold off on posting more photos in this post, but if you really want to see more, they’re on Flickr:

• My Sewing Accident (4 photos)

P.S.  No quilt blocks were harmed in the making of this blog post.