Amsterdam

Well, Micah and I have both tried to post these pictures many times this week but things always seem to go wrong. But here are some pictures of our recent trip to Amsterdam. I still can't get over how pretty it was there. I am already thinking about the next time we will get to visit. We were only there for two days so we didn't get to do too much. We did have a chance to see the Anne Frank House which was quite sobering. We only took one picture because they asked us not to take pictures inside. So here is Micah standing outside. What makes this city so pretty is all the canals, much like this one. Amsterdam is made up of a bunch of these.

We saw many beautiful buildings, much like this restaurant we ate dinner at our first night.

This is the oldest church in Amsterdam. In the heart of the Red Light District, no less.
Here is a picture we took of ourselves our day of sightseeing.
We rented bikes the second day we were there. Absolutely EVERYONE rides bikes there. We had so much fun!!! Except when Micah cut off an elderly woman on her bicycle, and she yelled at him and called him a "Duma." He tells me that is Dutch for "handsome." We rode all over the city all day long.
My wheels aren't glowing, they are reflecting from the camera flash. By the way, I had the prettiest bicycle from the store. -Micah

Another funny thing is that they had urinals randomly on street corners. So Micah obviously had to try it out. Too bad for him he used it after A LOT of people already had. Once he was done sanitation came to spray it out.

Here we are at the Heineken brewery and museum. Some people think it looks like we are standing behind one of those sets with holes for our faces, but that's actually just us.

This is actually a person, not a statue. I call him King Neptune. He wouldn't let me take his picture until I put money in his little container. Being Dutch, I gave him a 10-cent piece and figured that would be enough.

New Address

It has been brought to my attention that not a lot of people know our new address over here and have been inquiring about it. So if any of you are wanting to mail us stuff here you go:
Micah and Jennie Vander Veen (obviously)
PSC 37 Box 3852
APO, AE 09459
Since it is an APO box we pick up all our mail on base. It will take just one stamp to send us something, just like if we were in the states.

Looking forward to the weekend

I am so thankful that Thursday is just about over because I am excited for the week to come to an end. This has been a good week, don't get me wrong. It even went at just the right pace, not too fast and not too slow. I am just ready to spend some quality time with Micah. We actually have a pretty good weekend planned. On Saturday we are going to work on the house a bit. Our totally awesome landlords are going to bring us a bed while we are gone the next few months. I know that maybe doesn't make sense. You see, we have a queen bed for our guest room but queen beds don't fit up the stairs. Oddly, king beds do and our landlords have an extra king. They told us we could use it if we wanted and they even told us that they would bring it in and set it up while we are gone. How awesome is that! So we have to get the guest room all ready for them to come because before we know it we are going to be leaving for a while. So after we get the room in order we are going to go to Cambridge and go ice skating. I am really looking forward to that because I have never been ice skating outside before. So that is our Saturday. Sunday we are going to Amsterdam for a few days. Micah has to go there for work and I get to go with him. It is going to be great. Well we are watching "Kung Fu Panda" tonight so I should get back to it.

Here are some pictures from our big night on Saturday. We had such a nice time at The Sound of Music. London was beautiful in full Christmas spirit. The train we took brought us right to the theater so we had a little time to look around when we got there. We did a little shopping and then we went for dinner. We had AMAZING seats for the show. We were in row F the first two seats in from the isle. That is 6 rows from the front. We had a great view. As some of you may know, I love The Sound of Music! But the stage production is a little different than the movie. They sang all the songs from the movie and then some. It was so great. Here are a few pictures we took that night.

a couple more pictures

Hi guys,

One big selling point (or renting point, I suppose) for picking our house is the view we get when we step out our front door, or look out our bedroom window. The top picture is from standing on the sidewalk outside the door, and the bottom one is from our window on the top floor.

Obviously, our tiny camera (and incompetent operator) doesn't do the view justice, so maybe you will just have to come out and see it for yourselves. It's a 10-15 minute walk from our house down to the cathedral and surrounding shops and pubs, so if you ever come visit us, (maybe by winning the car naming contest...) there's a lot of stuff to do within walking distance. We also have long skateboards, so if you come on a rare day with dry pavement we could skate down and cut our travel time in half.

Later Skaters, and happy Thanksgiving!

Micah

Is it time for Christmas music yet?

Okay, I know that Thanksgiving is not quite here but I already feel like getting in the Christmas spirit. It snowed on Sunday which really put my Christmas spirit in overdrive. And since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here every one is already in the Christmas mindset. So as I blog to you this morning my Yankee Home Sweet Home is burning (smells spectacular!!) and I am listening to Mariah Carey's Christmas album. Micah is in love with this album:). I see that some of you have music playing on your blogs. I should get in touch with my blogging expert and see if she can hook me up with some Christmas carols. What do you think Tanya?? Even though no Christmas decorations will go up this year it still feels Christmasy around here. I am going to need to take a break from some of my Christmas spirit today and focus on my Thanksgiving meal. I love to cook...but cooking Thanksgiving dinner for two is kind of difficult. Any way you look at it we are going to have a LOAD of leftovers in the end. I was informed by my husband that he doesn't care what we have, as long as it includes mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and corn. For someone who doesn't care doesn't it sound like he has quite a few opinions??? Well as nice of a distraction as blogging is, my laundry won't fold itself and my bed won't magically be made....although wouldn't it be nice if they would??

Pictures anyone?

You asked for it...slowly but surely I have come through. Now bear with me because the house isn't quite together. I took a few pictures for you though. The first one is obviously the outside. Micah took this picture this morning in the bitter cold after his run. You know it snowed here yesterday. Anyways, here it is.

And here is our dining room and kitchen. They are both on the first floor. When you come into the dining room is to the right and the kitchen is just beyond. The laundry/utility room is down here too but much to messy and you don't really need to see that:).

And here are some pictures from the second floor. The first guest room is pretty much ready to go, so anyone looking to come for a visit we have a room all ready. Our family room is also on that floor. Take note of the light fixtures...Aren't they great? They are a big part of the reason I wanted the house. Only these two rooms have them. We have a third room on this floor, a much bigger guest room but it is not quite ready.

And of course, me hard at work unpacking.

Hi everyone! I know it has been way too long since the last post. Life has been beyond crazy for us. My house is finally starting to look like a house and that makes me feel so good. We still don't have anything on the walls but that will come. Since Micah and I aren't supposed to put anything on the walls we need to call Noel, our wonderful landlord, and he has to come and do it. I don't really want to put him out too much so my goal is to know where I want everything before he gets here. If you all don't know this about me, I have a problem with commitment. Even committing to where I hang pictures on walls. I like to hang it and look at it for a few days to see if I will like it or not. Unfortunately that doesn't work too well here. You want to know something else about our house? Well, I was so excited because I have a double oven and I have always wanted that. I went to put a cookie sheet in it today and I learned that a sheet will not fit in either oven. Things are so different here.
My favorite holiday is just around that corner and they don't even celebrate it here. All of November and December are devoted to Christmas, no Thanksgiving. We won't even have a church service to go to. Since it will be just the two of us I think we are going to bypass the turkey this year and do Cornish game hens. I have never done that before and I am looking forward to the change.
Well that is what is new in the life of the Vander Veens. Sorry it is kind of boring. Pictures will come soon. Maybe tomorrow...

Hi guys, Micah here. Read Jennie's post first, it is the more exciting one below here with pictures. If you want to read more about draining the Fens (shallow water surrounding Ely, etc.) read this little story. http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/cambridgeshire/fens.htm Notice some of the dates, as well as the fact that they needed to bring in the Dutch in order to get the job done properly. If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much!
Jennie and I also went to a fireworks display last night in Ely. It was either to celebrate Oliver Cromwell, Guy Fawkes, or Remembrance Day. Either, way, it far exceeded our expectations. Not only were the fireworks quite good, like on par with the Sumas 4th of July extravaganza, but we were also probably about 50 yards from the launch area so the blew up right over our heads. Luckily the prevailing wind blew the fallout away from the crowd. But the most impressive thing is that rather than having them on timers, the fireworks were lit by a pair of psychotic guys in orange coveralls with hard hats and, of course, safety goggles. The fuses were very short, and I was more entertained watching these guys almost blow their hands off than watching the fireworks go off overhead. In any event, it was a memorable night.

Micah and I spent part of our Saturday exploring our new town, Ely. Ely is known for one thing and that is it's cathedral. Years ago Ely was surrounded by water and this amazing cathedral was the center of it all. It must have been an amazing site. Eventually the Dutch I believe came in and drained all the land around Ely so now it has some pretty good farm land. But the first few pictures here are of the cathedral. We went into town yesterday and went to the open market which they have every Thursday and Saturday. I wanted some fresh asparagus but no one had any. The reason we go to the market is so we can get fresh produce. When we buy produce on base it is first shipped from the states to Germany and then to us, so it is not the freshest.

There is also a little cemetery in one of the lawns outside of it that I thought was kind of interesting. There seems to be little cemeteries just like this one all over East Anglia ( the region of England we live in). Now keep in mind that these two pictures of the cathedral are two very small parts of the whole thing. I just couldn't get back far enough to take a picture of the whole thing. As I drive home from base I can see the whole thing and I tried to take a picture the other day but it did not turn out. I am starting a photography class the first week of December and hopefully I will be able to take better pictures for you all.

The last two photos are of a cathedral in Cambridge. Micah and I went into Cambridge last night to get him a nice wool coat (which yes, he looks amazing in) and some new clothes so he will look a little more British. He is quite the British guy now, very dashing. So we had to park on top of the parking center and I thought we had a pretty good view of this cathedral.

Horray for me!

You should all be very proud of me. For the first time I changed the background of my blog all on my own. Usually my blog expert Tanya does all the work. For those of you who enjoy the world clock you will have to wait for Tanya on that one because I somehow messed it up and cannot fix it. Micah is out flying tonight so I am all alone for the first time since we got here. I really don't mind being on my own. I am so happy for Micah because I know that he is having a lot of fun right now. I am so thankful that he has a job that makes him happy. I think it is rare for a person to have a job that the really enjoy. Anyways...I made my way to base to pass the time. It is now pitch black outside and only 5:00. It has been dark for a while now. Even though most of my days are spent in the dark now I cannot complain. Fall is the most wonderful time of year. I could write a book on how much I love fall. For one thing, I get to wear a lot of layers. My motto is, "the more clothes I can wear, the better". In addition to layers I can wear vests and coats and sweaters...the list could really go on and on. The point is, you should all take some time to enjoy the season because soon it is winter and the beautiful fall is gone.

Finally!!

Micah and I have officially checked out of our hotel room! We are pumped. We will be staying with Mike and Danell tonight but then tomorrow it is off to our own place. It seemed like the waiting would never end...but here we are. Since we will now be living in Ely it will be harder to blog for a few days to weeks. I hope that we can get an Internet connection in the next three weeks. Until then I will most likely be spending some time here and I will try to keep everyone updated when I make my way back to base.
In addition to moving in this weekend, we are also excited about our new church. We have been invited to lunch with a very nice family and then to spend the afternoon. God has been so good to us in the move over here. It is so amazing to see all the ways He blesses us. He has provided a home, good friends, a good church and Micah is loving his job. We are so thankful for all He has done!

Alarming news

Many of you may have already heard this rumor, and i am here to tell you it is true. Jennie tried to vote for Obama/Biden when she filled out her absentee ballot. Luckily I caught it, and after a stern lecture she changed her vote so no harm was done. But it just goes to show you even if you think you know someone pretty well and they are pretty level-headed, you can never tell when they are going to go off the deep end. Let that be a lesson to you.

Big News!!

I know what you are all thinking. Big news for Micah and Jennie must mean a baby. Well just settle down moms and aunts....no babies on the way. But Micah and I did buy a new car this weekend and we are very excited about it. We bought a 2001 white Audi A4. I love it! I think we are probably excited about different parts of it. For instance, the heated seats really make me happy and I like the pearly white color. I don't think Micah really cares about those features. He is more into the turbo engine and things of that nature that I know very little about. But the new car pretty much took up our whole weekend. We are hoping to move into our new house this weekend and that means our household goods will finally be here and we will have our camera again. Once we get the camera I am going to post pictures of the car and then we are going to have a naming contest for the car through the blog. Fun right?! My dad's response to the contest was what will he win if we pick his name. Well, upon much discussion Micah and I have decided that the winner will receive an all expenses paid trip (paid for by the winner) to come visit us! Doesn't that sound great?? We think so too. So, start thinking about your names and get ready for the contest. More info will be posted next week along with photos.

First Flight

Hi guys, it's Micah again. Really not much new has gone on since the last time we wrote, but apparently if you don't update these things people stop caring and checking them out. Work is going well, I just had my first flight yesterday, and we flew over Europe and refueled some fighters, followed by 2 practice approaches and landings back at our base. I took both of the landings since it had been a while for me and I was a little rusty. Flying over here will be a little different than back home, but I think it's going to be a lot more interesting as well.
We're still trying to decide what kind of car we want to buy, and it's a tough decision since if we buy a car off base, the steering wheel will be on the right side and therefore we will be selling it in 3 years, so we have to decide how much we want to spend/lose in the resale, or buy a bit of a junker from the lemon lot on base. Ah well, the mitsubishi will do fine for a few more weeks anyway.
That's really all that's new, Jennie has the flu so I should go back and feed her and give her back massages and rub her feet like I always do. She doesn't realize how good she has it. We are still planning to move to our house in Ely on the first of the month, so hopefully there will be more updates coming.

Pics from Stonehenge and London

Hi Everyone! Well I am slowly learning how to put pictures on the blog so be patient while we are under construction. We have some pictures to share with you from our weekend. Stonehenge was so incredible! I just loved it. But London proved to be even better. What an amazing city. We spent the whole day there and only saw a couple of things. The Tower of London was so much more than I even expected it to be. To see a such a huge piece of history just right there in the middle of the city. We actually stood right where King Henry VIII had Anne Boleyn's head chopped off. And that was just normal for them. I don't know...just kind of crazy. After the Tower we went to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. That too was amazing. It would take days to make your way through that whole gallery. It has something like 58 rooms just full of famous art work. Bless Micah's heart, he wasn't too into it but he made his way through without complaining at all. He was so great!! Anyways...here are some pictures of us at Stonehenge and in London. I hope you like them!

Hi guys, Micah here. We just got back from Stonehenge, that is quite an interesting pile of rocks. Droves of people come from all over just to see it, and nobody knows for sure who made it, what's the purpose, and why it is already halfway fallen over. Maybe in a few years people will look at the barn wall Steve, Joe and I built last month and wonder the same thing. Really though, it was pretty cool to see Stonehenge, and as soon as we are a little more computer savvy we will post some pictures.
We have received quite a few comments about White Lightning, I assure you she appreciates your support. Today on the ride home we were trying to catch a car on the freeway because we couldn't tell if it was a Bentley or an Aston Martin, and believe it or not she struggled a bit at the higher speeds. So...I guess all we may have gotten is a speeding ticket coming to us in the mail.
On another note, the Washington Redskins cheerleaders were on base a few nights ago to boost the morale for the troops (since this is such a rough assignment...) Obviously Jennie and I went to the show, and those girls sure are patriotic, although sometimes a little racy. They do a lot of dances and even some singing in different outfits; it's kind of a little variety show. I should have worn my Seahawks sweatshirt to the event, but I think we all know I'm not that clever.
Congratulations to Tim, Danya & fam for their new daughter and sister Mariah! Once again Jennie and I weren't there, which is one of the worst parts of this whole military gig. Anyway, Thanks for checking in and leaving comments and what not, we miss you guys. By the way, I am getting settled in at work and enjoying it, I'll tell you more about that in the next post.

Another Day In My Hotel Room

So another week has past without a new blog. I really need to work on my blogging. I don't feel too bad because my friend Tanya the blogging queen (I say that with much love) hasn't blogged in a few days either so I am not doing too bad. But to all of you who check in for new blogs and continue to be disappointed, I am sorry. You would think that since we live a different country now our lives would be a bit more interesting...sadly they are not:). Our days are pretty much the same every day. I wait for housekeeping to come clean my room, I look forward to Micah coming home for lunch and I watch a lot of TV and read a bit. My friend Danell and I walk quite a bit these days too. But our lives are going to get a little more interesting this weekend. Micah and I are going to Stonehenge with Mike and Danell (our new friends from Washington) this weekend and Monday is a day off for the guys so we are taking a day trip to London! I am so looking forward to both trips. Stonehenge will be chocked full of history and London is just going to be exciting. I bought "England for Dummies" before we moved here so I have already planned our London trip. I think Danell has her camera with her so maybe I will be able to get some pictures from her to post on the blog. Another thing Micah and I are excited about is that my car has finally arrived!! In fact we have returned our rental and completely rely on White Lighting. Micah was quite worried it wouldn't pass inspection b/c it is kind of ghetto but it pulled through for us. In the UK your car needs to be inspected by the ministry of transportation or something every year and we were pretty sure we would have to junk her. But she came through like the good old girl she is. So that is all I can think of that is exciting for us. I have been trying to get Micah to do some blogging because he is much funnier than I. Maybe we can get him to contribute to the next entry. We will have to wait and see.

Wow, it has been a while since I have updated you all. Almost a week. I have been checking our blog almost everyday and I have been loving all the comments. Thank you so much for the notes. Even though we have been checking our blog we have had very little time to sit down and "blog". But now that Friday is here and coming to an end things are slowing down for us. As many of you know today is Micah's birthday! And what did we do to celebrate???? We signed a lease on our new home! If you would like to check it out go to http://www.cheffins.co.uk/cheffins-property/welland-place-ely-5238. I hope that link works.... it should:). We are very excited about the new place. It was very hard to find a place with the wash machine not in the kitchen or a kitchen without carpet. So the home we found is quite British but includes some of the luxuries we Americans take for granted. We are a little frustrated because we can't move in until November 1 but I think we will make it.
We have been driving among the Brits for a while now and we still are accident free! Not so much close call free, but close calls don't count. The things that seemed so scary about driving here, such as the roundabouts, now seem fairly easy, and logical. If they are used correctly they really help the flow of traffic. Micah and I bought a GPS this week.... it saved us! We would have been so frustrated without it. It is almost impossible at times to get around without one. It will even work in the States when we someday make our way back there.
We had the coldest day of the year here yesterday. Those of you who know my LOVE for cold weather know that I was in heaven! Most days this time of year are cold and blustery and do my heart good. I hear that in the coming months it will get dark around 3:30 and not get light again till 8:00, we will have to see how that goes.
Micah will be heading back to work next week so I am sure I will have a lot of free time... So expect quite a few new blogs next week!

Our First Driving Experience...

Well, Micah and I rented a car today. Let me tell you, driving on the wrong side of the road is a bit more difficult than I first thought it would be:). So far not accidents, but day one isn't quite over. We haven't left base yet with it and probably won't until Monday when we begin house hunting. The speed limits are quite fast off base and those roundabouts are crazy. You know the roundabout by Whatcom, that is nothing like the roundabouts here!! You go zinging through them and just hope you know what you are doing:). I think we will be ready by Monday.
Micah and I are still adjusting to the time difference. We are pretty tired. For those of you in Washington we are 8 hours ahead of you. We have been trying to get up early but that is harder than it sounds. Everyone tells us to just keep getting up at a normal time and after a while things will get better.
Well, we are off to another drivng lesson on base....wish us luck!

Safe and Sound in England...

Hello Everyone!
Micah and I have arrived safely in England. We flew into London last night and got to our hotel around midnight London time. We had a great flight with a little turbulence but nothing too bad. We flew on a 777, what a way to fly. The plane wasn't even close to being a quarter full so we had our choice of seats. We just watched movies and ate some food. Both the meals they served were good, which was a surprise for airplane food.
Micah and I are currently living in a hotel on base and we will be here for a while. Our sponsor family is so great!! Josh works with Micah and his wife is Elizabeth. When we got to our hotel on base this afternoon Elizabeth had already been then with magazines for me and info on local letting(renting) agencies. I opened the fridge to find milk, eggs, meat, cheese... all the basics. She even got the things I would need to make spaghetti just so we wouldn't have to worry tonight about anything. I hope Micah and I have the chance to sponsor someone while we are here so we can do the same for someone else.
We will start house hunting next week and we will keep you all updated on what we find. Once we find a house to live in it could take around a month until we can actually move in. So that just means more hotel living for the two of us. I am very much looking forward to moving into our own house and getting all my clothes back!! It is kind of chilly here, much like Washington, and I am missing my fall clothes:).
Please remember to pray for us as we begin our lives here. We are so excited to be here and we know that God has a plan for us in bringing us here. Check back in a few days for another update!