Brussels & Grand-Place de Bruxelles

And now, back to my Brussels business trip. I must say thank you to my mother- and father-in-law and my husband Eric for taking care of the family while I'm on week-long business trips out of the country. I've only been on this type of trip twice so far, but I see more in the future.

Brussels is a great city. Europe is so rich with things to see. And lots of things are within walking distance to your location. Since the weather was so great, a group of us walked to The Grand-Place from the hotel for dinner. It's a very busy area for a week night, and beautiful.

This is just one of the streets before entering Grand-Place de Bruxelles. Nice, clean streets, but not the best for walking in heels :-)

 I LOVED the flowerboxes. It was still like late summer there.

and at night

Still lots of people!!

Ketchup Day

It's Ketchup Day!

The day where I "ketchup" on my blog that I've let rest since, oh, September. I needed a break.

1. I'll have to "ketchup" on my Brussels trip in separate posts, because there are WAY TOO MANY pictures to share.

2. I just noticed how much the auto-correction tool on my iPhone has already spoiled me. I misspelled two words in the previous sentence, and had to right-click to correct them. Sheesh, can't Microsoft keep up?!

Renfest 2010
This was our first year experiencing the Renaissance Festival in Waynesville, OH. Genna enjoyed the activities, the costumes and the shows. Clay just enjoyed the rides. Maybe we'll go back in a few years when Clay can sit still better.

Wendel Farm Field Trip
The Morgan Elementary Preschool class goes to Wendel Farm every year (for the past 2 years) to learn about farming, take a hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, and have fun. They have animals you can pet and a corn bin to play in. Our family goes there every year to pick a pumpkin to carve for Halloween.

There were multiple costumes worn for Halloween this year, plus two pumpkins. Genna's original costume (Scooby Doo) was WAY too small for her, but she insisted on wearing it to the school party. And Clay has a new-found love of Power Rangers.

The kids also enjoyed two different Trunk 'r Treats this year. They were definitely into the candy grabbing!

Girl Scouts - Daisy

Genna decided to get involved in Girl Scouts this year, as a Daisy, which is Kindergarten and First grade girls.  There aren't any Kindergarteners in her troop, since this is the first year for this troop, and Girl Scouts wasn't really pushed for that class. I'm so glad Genna decided she wanted to do it, because I think it will build her confidence and self-esteem, and she gets to do activities with girls from her class outside of school. Most of the girls in her class are in her troop. Here's some of the things they've done so far in 2010.

They sorted non-perishable food items at a food drive in Oxford, made ornaments for the tree for the local funeral home, and not pictured, made Daisy t-shirts to wear for events.

Major Injury

Genna had her first major injury of her life at the beginning of November. While playing on the monkey bars at school, Genna fell from them and broke her left humerus (upper arm). I was at work when school called and said Genna fell and may need to see a doctor. When I arrived, she was in the nurses office, covered in mulch, with ice on her arm. She would not let anyone touch her, and she wouldn't move. The principle told me that kids in that much pain typically have broken a bone, but there wasn't any way to tell if that was the case with Genna since she had a sweatshirt on. Eric was called to meet me at school so we could take Genna to the ER in Oxford, at the hospital where Eric's sister works. Children's Hospital would have been the first choice for most people, but I felt Genna would do much better if she were at a hospital where a family member worked. She would be much more comfortable. After a long wait in the ER, and a terrible X-ray experience, they splinted Genna's arm and sent us to Children's for the break, and wanted Ortho to look at it. The ER at Children's-Cincinnati was a HUGE waste of time. We sat forever in the ER, for absolutely nothing. None of us had eaten since lunchtime, and they wouldn't let Genna eat anything in case they needed to give her any anesthesia. We finally left at midnight, with orders to go to the fracture clinic in 3 days, and no pain medicine for Genna. Thankfully, Genna is doing great now, but the broken arm situation was not without a lot of pain, adjustment and stress, and not just for Genna. :-)

Clay's Buddy

Here's a picture of Clay and his buddy, Uncle Greg, putting a large puzzle together at Thanksgiving. Clay LOVES puzzles (so does Genna). He's really, really getting interested in putting them together, and is really good at it for a 4 year old! He can sit still and concentrate when he wants to!

Yes, he's putting together a girl puzzle. The only big puzzles we have are Genna's, but Clay doesn't care if it's girly. Neither do we.

Since we seem to like to add stress on top of more stress, we got ourselves a dog. :-) Seriously, we were not even considering getting a dog yet. A friend posted a picture of our dog on Facebook from another friend who rescued him, and I got interested. After discussing the dog with Eric for a few days, our family took a trip to visit the dog. And, we brought him home. Genna named him Patches, which is fitting.

I don't think 3 kids can fit in the cage with this dog now!

Christmas 2010

Christmas is always a very busy time of year, but this year there were a lot of new things going on too. Genna's arm was broken, we had a new dog, a new tree (because of the rotten cat), and the kids get more into it every year.

Genna made sure Santa didn't get her stocking confused with her brother's. She posted notes on the walls for him, to make it very clear. And Santa also didn't bring Genna the right presents. Upon seeing the Playmobil schoolhouse on Christmas morning, she stated "Santa brought me the wrong thing. I only wanted the workshop and the cafeteria, and he brought me the whole school!" Those things would have been much easier for Santa to bring, as it took him two and a half hours to put together the schoolhouse when he arrived at our house!

This year was our first year for doing Operation Christmas Child. It's a ministry by Samaritan's Purse, started by Franklin Graham, to provide shoeboxes of toys, school supplies and personal items to kids in foreign countries that can't afford to celebrate Christmas. We did one for each a boy and a girl, since our family has one of each, and let the kids pick out what to put in the boxes. Then the completed boxes were taken to our church.

The kids had a great time creating these, and we'll definitely do it again.

And finally, the last "event" of 2010 that I need to share. Genna's school, for the first time, had enrichment classes offered after school. These are classes offered after school that are different from normal classes (Spanish, Dance, Dessert, etc.) Genna loves to be crafty and bake, so she decided to take the Dessert Class. We signed her up and paid for her classes, prior to her injury. It would figure that she'd be without two hands for every single dessert class, so I spent 4 Tuesdays helping Genna and her dessert class teacher, the school counselor. She was still able to participate and enjoyed it much.

Yearly King's Island trip - September 2010

Every year we have one trip to King's Island - because it's free. Since I work at P&G, the company buys out the park for two days for all the employees and retires, as a thank you for working there. I decided to do a blog post this year about it, since I got some cute pictures of the kids.

My husband started the tradition of eating breakfast out on the way to King's Island. This year, as we've done before, we ate breakfast at Waffle House in Hamilton, OH.

My kids rarely give me a straight face for pictures anymore! I think they get it from their dad!

Clay wanted two fried eggs, chocolate milk with white milk, and nothing else. Genna had a HUGE waffle with chocolate chips and chocolate milk, and I had 3 biscuits with sausage gravy. Eric had a double waffle with chocolate chips and double hash browns. Clay was the only person to finish his breakfast completely. Genna and I were too full to finish ours, and Eric gave up finishing his since we all gave him our leftovers and we were all waiting on him.

We had a great time! Hopefully next year one or more of my kids will be willing to get on some bigger, scarier rides with their mom!

My Brussels Adventure

Once upon a time (September 19, 2010) I went to Brussels, Belgium. I work for an organization within P&G that brings in professors from around the globe to give technical presentations on their scientific research. Once a year there is a symposium, a large meeting about technical scientific information. Lots of presentations over 3 days about things that are way over my head. Every other year the meetings are held at a global technical site, so this year it was Brussels turn. I am lucky enough to be allowed to go to help assist with logistics and requests during these meetings. I've been on only one other outside the US, to Darmstadt, Germany in 2008.

I left Cincinnati, bound for Chicago, IL at 3:20 p.m. The flight was perfectly smooth, and I found I was travelling with 4 other colleagues. After our layover in Chicago, three of us did not have confirmed seats on the flight from Chicago to Brussels. We came to realize that the three of us were not getting on the plane to Brussels because the flight was oversold and there weren't any seats left. About an hour after the plane left we were told that we would have to go through Warsaw, Poland then Poland to Brussels. So, instead of arriving in Brussels at 9:20 a.m. on Monday, we would arrive at 8 p.m. on Monday. 11 hours later! We received meal vouchers in Chicago and $800 for not being able to board our original flight. I was still in good spirits at this point of the trip, except my feet hurt from wearing heels. I wouldn't normally wear heels for travel, but since we were supposed to arrive at 9:20 a.m. and go straight to the Brussels Technical Center for P&G, I thought I ought to dress appropriately. Oh, and I wore a dress. Anyone who knows me well knows that I DO NOT wear dresses, except on very rare occasions. The dress was very lightweight, comfortable, and not bunchy for travel. I also wanted to save all my pants and shirts for my days in Brussels since the temperature was to be cooler than it is in Cincinnati right now.

I removed my shoes during the flight from Chicago to Warsaw, hoping that in 8 hours my feet would feel better. Little did I know that they would continue to swell. I'm not a seasoned traveler, so I don't know that this is normal. While the flight from Chicago to Warsaw was smooth, it was not comfortable. The seats looked nice, but did not recline far enough, was at the back of the plane, and I could not sleep. I slept maybe an hour or so. The service was inadequate, and the meals were as well. I decided not to eat since I had eaten before boarding the plane, which seemed to be a good idea since the meal was like dry bread and a little lunchmeat and cheese. But I had no idea that they wouldn't come back to offer anything to drink!!! The breakfast was just as lacking, and I skipped it, since there wasn't much time to arrive at Warsaw. Once I realized we'd be walking a while through the Warsaw airport to get through security and find something to eat, I removed my shoes, and went barefoot. Luckily there was a children's store that carried Crocs, and I was able to find a pair of flip-flops that matched my dress.

Swollen before - and not two days later

Shoes I wore on the plane

Warsaw airport was a nice, spacious airport. Had to take a picture of these interesting helicopters.

Also, Chicago and Warsaw had these play areas for kids. Such a great idea!!

I also took a picture of the recycle bins because I thought they were cool.

I don't know why I'm fascinated with recycle bins, but I love seeing them around.

The flight from Poland to Brussels was heavenly compared to what we had just previously experienced. We received dinner, which was delicious (as delicious as airline food can be) with Belgian chocolate and Cherry tart for dessert. The seats were much roomier and reclined nicely, and we had been put in business class seats. Yippee! However, our nightmare was not over. We arrived at the Brussels airport on time to find that our luggage was no where to be found. They didn't even know where it was! We had to provide our hotel information and information about our bags, and finally go to our hotel. Our cab driver drove a Mercedes, which was very smooth, and he sped the whole way to the hotel. I think we got there in 15 minutes, which should have taken us about 30! Our beds never felt so good - BUT we had to wear the same clothes we traveled in the entire next day. We were ecstatic when we heard our bags had arrived at the hotel and were already in our rooms. The weather in Brussels was unseasonably warm, and we had an enjoyable dinner outdoors near the Grand Place.

My Favorite Niece!

Recently our family had an opportunity to keep my favorite niece, Sofia, overnight. I can call her my favorite because she's my only niece. She is 3, and I love to squish her with hugs.

The Friday evening I picked her up, I, along with my kids, my sister-in-law and her two boys, went to Free Friday at the Cincinnati Natural History and Children's Museum at Union Terminal. I must give my sister-in-law Katrina a big THANK YOU for going and helping me keep an eye on our kids. It's definitely tough and anxiety-provoking to take 5 children to a busy museum!

I think all the kids had a great time. My kids love going there, and it's awesome that they have a free Friday every month during the summer. Sofi was very fascinated with the different vehicles you could pretend to drive. No pictures of Clay, since he doesn't sit still long enough!

On Saturday, after a loooong night of various kids waking up (thanks to Eric for being such a good dad overnight), my husband decided to go get donuts for breakfast. We all loaded up in our over-sized pick-up truck (the only vehicle we have that will accommodate all these kids!) and headed to Ross Bakery. Ross Bakery is famous for the size of their donuts. Just look at the one Sofia had!

Her parents warned us that she would get hyper with such a nutritious breakfast, but she was just fine. My kids probably helped her run off the energy.

My ever helpful SIL Kat called Saturday morning to tell us about Safety Day that McCollough-Hyde Memorial Hospital was hosting at the new medical center in Ross. So, when the temperature warmed up, we once again loaded up and headed there. They were giving away free bike helmets.

Sofi appropriately picked a football to have painted on her hand. I said it was in honor of her dad who loves OSU football. Clay and Sofi got the same type of bike helmet and a set of elbow and knee pads. Genna got a cute pink one with the face of a cat. They also got to sit inside a fire truck, and take a look at a medical helicopter, go inside a house that fills with pretend smoke, and slide down an inflatable fire truck slide. BTW - Clay got a red ladybug painted on his hand. Genna wouldn't have anything to do with face painting.

And this is my favorite picture of Sofi from the weekend - pretending to be a cowgirl :-)

Love ya, Sofi!

First Day of School 2010

It's finally here! The first day of school for the 2010-2011 school year. I think I was as excited about it this year as the kids were (well, at least as excited as Genna). I got all sentimental about 2 months back when I realized Genna would be in school all day for the first time, and she'd get to take a lunch box and have lunch at school. She was really looking forward to having lunch at school too.

As usual, Clay was the first one up. Genna likes to lay in bed until the very last minute (like her mom).

Yes, he's smiling! He's a fairly happy boy, unless something doesn't go quite his way.

Genna's look is because she's not quite awake yet, and because she didn't know I was taking the picture. She looked at me at just the right time when the camera snapped. I didn't warn her, because I knew if I did, I'd get the back of her head.

So, I tried to take a picture of the two of them on the morning before school was to start, and this is what I got:

See?! She was not in the mood. And, of course, since Sissy did it, Clay did too.

So, I already had planned to get to school before the kids arrived on the bus to take pictures of their first day. I've never done that before - I've always just taken their picture before getting on the bus. The preschoolers come in first off the bus so that they aren't trampled by all the other kids.

Clay was oblivious to me being there taking pictures. He was too busy making sure he was holding another child's hand into class. He's the one with the Lightning McQueen backpack. Once I finished taking pictures of Clay, I raced to Genna's class to take pictures of her arrival. She hadn't made it in off the bus yet.

She spotted me right away. Wanting to know why I was there, and scurried into her classroom trying to get away from my camera. But, she was okay with me being there.

Once I told Genna bye, I headed back down to Clay's room to take a few pictures of what he was doing. Oblivious, again!

Working hard on writing his name

Man, this boy has some serious concentration going on! I took 3 pictures of him, and he still didn't know I was there! Finally I made him smile for my camera.

Looks like a happy First Day of School!!

Withdraw

I'm having blogging withdraw. I'm missing it :-) It's weird, I know. So, I'm just going to post some pictures I've taken recently. Some are poor quality because I used my cell phone. It's so handy!

Taken at Berea, KY off I-75 (http://www.berea.com/) They boast "Where ART'S Alive!" teehee. Guess my dad will live forever in Berea. (FYI - his name is Art)

Rolling storm clouds, August 15, Hamilton, OH

Enjoying some of my wildflowers. Can't wait for it all to be filled with blooms.