Espana

So here's the itinerary;

Wednesday, November 5 - Depart Ottawa

Thursday, November 6 - Arrive Madrid

Friday, November 7 - Tour Madrid

Saturday, November 8 - Day trip to Toledo

Sunday, November 9 - Church in the morning, travel to San Sebastian in the evening

Monday, November 10 - Tour San Sebastian, travel to Bilbao in the evening

Tuesday, November 11 - Tour Bilbao, especially the Guggenheim

Wednesday, November 12 - Back to Madrid, stopping in Segovia on the way

Thursday, November 13 - More Madrid

Friday, November 14 - Depart Madrid, Arrive Ottawa

Saturday & Sunday - November 15, 16 - Collapse in happy exhaustion.

Sounds like fun, eh? Now to get up the courage to ask the bosses for the time off!!

Tim ... if you're reading this ... it's still tentative but what do you think?

San Sebastian

Awhile ago I referenced this song by Justin Rutledge and I finally found the lyrics.

San Sebastian
I arrived in San Sebastian with an ocean on my mind
when they asked me what I came for I said an ocean I came to find
there was soapstone, slate and marble on the terrace where we died
now my heart's in San Sebastian with my tall and bonny bride

I arrived in San Sebastian and I lay my money down
with an arrow in my shoulder
your mare was a chestnut brown
and the harvest fell around us and it bound us to the tide
now my heart's in San Sebastian with my tall and bonny bride

I would love to ask Justin Rutledge what this song means. I have no idea. All I know is that the melody haunts me and I long to visit San Sebastian.

Another Recipe

As requested....please see here for my Sausage, Spinach and Feta Pasta Extravaganza!

Sweet Potato Soup

As requested ....

Roasted Garlic and Sweet Potato Soup
1 whole head of garlic; separate cloves but keep skin on
1 red onion, peeled and sliced
1-2 sweet potatoes (1 large, or 2 med), peeled and sliced thinly but not too thinly (mediumly)

Spread these ingredients on a cookie sheet and brush olive oil over top of them. Place in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 min, turning over once. Once done, peel off garlic skins.

Combine in a pan with:

4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp curry
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp thyme

Bring to boil and simmer for 15 min then puree in food processor or with hand blender.
Serve with cornbread.

Enjoy!

Crochet

This is my latest ongoing crochet project. It's going to be a nice cozy blanket when it's all done. It's only about a quarter of the way done. But it's an easy and fun project because you do each square on it's own first and then piece it together so it's very portable. The yarn is a nice chunky, wooly yarn.

Another silly list . . .

[A is for age:] 29 .... yikes!
[B is for booze of choice] Lime margharita on the rocks.
[C is for career] Wife.
[D is for your dog's name:] No dog ... never a dog.
[E is for essential items you use everyday:] Computer
[F is for favourite song at the moment:] San Sebastian by Justin Rutledge
[G is for favourite games:] Trivial Pursuit
[H is for hometown:] Ottawa
[I is for instruments you play:] Piano.
[J is for jam or jelly you like] I don't eat a lot of jam but I'd have to pick homemade peach.
[K is for kids?:] none.
[L is for last kiss?:] This morning.
[M is for most admired trait:] In others; ability to think up something to say in social situations.
[N is for name of your crush:] Husband ~ Reuben
[O is for overnight hospital stays:] Dislocated pinky finger when I was 11.
[P is for phobias:] Attacking squirrels on dark forest paths.
[Q is for quotes you like:] "Have a peppermint." Mrs. Harris in Anne of Green Gables.
[R is for biggest regret:] Not sure I have any.
[S is for sweets of your choice:] Anything chocolate
[T is for time you wake up:] Around 6:45am ... ugh.
[U is for underwear:] Uh? Yes?
[V is for vegetable you love:] Zucchini
[W is for worst habit:] Whining about life being sooo hard.
[X is for x-rays you've had:] 1 for my little finger and several of my bite for braces.
[Y is for yummy food you make:] Sweet Potato Soup
[Z is for zodiac sign:] Taurus

A Post about Travelling

If you know me you know that I love to travel, I love to dream about travelling, I love to plan my travels (or someone elses) and I love to reminisce about travelling.

All this to say, we have some future travelling up our sleeves although I'm not sure we'll actually get to it as we've commited to purchasing a piano from a friend of ours. Yes, that's right, a piano. Maybe you know that I've been playing the piano my whole life. I'm not excellent but I get by and I do enjoy it. It was kind of hard not learning to play the piano in our family as my father is an organist and a pianist. I took lessons when I was 7 for a year and then just learned on my own. I don't love to play classical pieces, mostly I love to play singable tunes. Since moving out of my parents' home, I have become quite rusty but have still always dreamed of having a piano in my home. I know I'll never be a great concert pianist but that's ok because I still love making my little bit of music. I'm not sure where the piano is going to go but our friend tells us that we just have to bring the piano into our home and it will tell us where it should go.


Piano's are not cheap. We also need to buy a couple of new windows ... big bay windows. Anyway, we can still dream of travelling because that costs nothing.



Reuben and I have been talking about going to Madrid ever since his friend, Tim, moved there last year. After coming back from Barcelona, we realized we needed to go back to Spain so that we could see it more in depth. 2.5 days in Barcelona was not nearly enough time, especially since it was at the end of our trip and we were exhausted. Anyway, at the moment, Reuben is thinking of going in January. I desperately want to go and see Madrid as well but ... Reuben's plan is to sleep on the floor of his friend's appt and stay up all night partying with the locals where as my plan would be to stay in a nice, cozy hotel and get enough sleep to function during the day. I'm not sure our plans are compatible at the moment. I'd hate to be a party pooper but it would take all of my energy not to be.

There's a town on the north-eastern coast of Spain called San Sebastian. I've heard of it before but ever since Justin Rutledge came out with the song titled San Sebastian, I've been longing to go there. I'll have to type out the lyrics and post them sometime soon or better yet, find a link to the song so you can hear it. It's just beautiful.

Other travel dreams; my father (our gardener who just happens to be a world famous bio-chemist) received a wedding invitation from this guy whose getting married in San Francisco. Actually, the guy is a former student of his with whom he still keeps in touch. I've been to San Francisco before. Back in 2002. It is a grand place and Reuben wants to see it.

The date of the wedding is Nov 15 so it's kind of a good time to be going, shoulder season for travel, you know? But airline tickets keep going up. . .

Last night, we played this game called Ticket to Ride. It's fun but just looking at this map of the United States made me want to hop in the car and just go . . .sigh!

Other destinations: Scotland, Ireland, England, Holland, Italy, Austria, eastern Canada.

Patio update

We installed the patio at the end of June.

And our gardener spent 3 solid days beautifying it.

We plan to add more plants in the spring, including the tulip bulbs we saved.

WereRabbit

There are rabbits. They have been living under our deck and reproducing and eating our plants for the past 6 months. They are kind of cute. But annoying. Today after work, one of them attacked me. As I stood at the end of our path, it darted out from the garden and used my foot as a launching pad to get across the yard. Those are claw marks from a rabbit. A Wererabbit. Somebody please tell me it's ok to kill it and leave it out on the lawn with a sign on it's back warning all the cute rabbits that if they dare to live in our yard, there will be a price to pay.

I may be overreacting.

Update on Camera Purchase

Our new camera.

Camera Obscura

So I had this big plan to buy Reuben a Digital SLR camera for his birthday because our camera is getting dated and he is always trying to get the best out of it, always fiddling with the settings and tripods and lighting, etc. I did lots of reading and research. I checked people's blogs who wrote about what camera they had and whether they liked it or not. I learned more about cameras than I ever have before and hopefully, I'll retain some of that information. So, Reuben's birthday is in two weeks and I was going to wait till the last possible day to buy so we'd have the longest possible time to return it if we he didn't like it. Well, last weekend our camera broke. I pulled it out of my bag and the display screen had a crack in it and the screen was blank. I didn't say anything to him about getting a new one but on Monday he sends me an email saying "check out this camera, I think we should buy it". My whole plot was sunk! Maybe it's a good thing though because it turns out that he doesn't really want a digital SLR because they are so big and heavy. These are the cameras I had picked out.

Nikon D60

Sony A200

And this is the camera Reuben picked out.

Panasonic TX5 (this is a picture of the TX3)

Any tips, advice or thoughts??

This is my nephew . . .

I was trying to get him to smile and of course, he did it when the camera was not on! You can probably tell from the pictures that he's getting to be quite a big boy already. He was 9 lbs when he was born only 5 short weeks ago and now he is already 12 lbs. He has very broad shoulders. And the thing you should know about him is when he is fussy in the evening, he really likes his soother! Diana and the kids came on Wednesday night and Mike is coming up tonight and they are staying until Monday morning. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a nice day and we can all go to the beach. It's neat having all 3 nieces and nephew together! They all need lots of attention so there is never a dull moment.

My Winnipeg trip

You are probably wondering how the trip went since I posted last week that I was heading out to Winnipeg for Lorien's wedding. In summary, it was a good trip. I left on Wednesday afternoon with a stopover in Toronto for 2 hours. Both of my flights went well with only minor turbulence. We had individual TVs to watch with tons of selection from movies and TV shows. I decided to watch a light hearted movie called "Horton Hears a Who" based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. When I arrived Aunt Liz, Uncle Rick and Marjorie were there to greet me and bring me to their house.

On Thursday, Lorien dropped off some glass candle holders for me to put ribbon on and otherwise I didn't see her until the BBQ later that evening. It was a nice little job for Marjorie and I to do. Otherwise, I pretty much read my book all day which was great! That evening the Kammingas hosted a BBQ for those involved in the wedding to meet eachother. We met at a park and had some fantastic food and fellowship. And then the mosquitos came out. I had always defended Winnipeg against those who dissed it because of the mosquitos because I didn't think it could be that bad. Well, I've since changed my thinking. The swarms of mosquitos were unbelievable and eventually, I overcame my distate of bugspray and slathered myself with it. Also, interesting was the increase in dragonflys as they came to eat the mosquitos.

When we arrived home from the BBQ Karin, Josh and Elyssa were just arriving as well. They had had a good flight except for a slight delay.

On Friday morning, Karin and I picked up Anne-Marie and Lorien and went to Cora's for breakfast and then to a Spa to have manicures. Unfortunately, we were a little late getting to Cora's so that by the time we got our food, we had to leave. I also had one of my really bad headaches and couldn't eat because it was making me soooo nauseous. Thankfully, by the time we got to the manicure place my headache was getting better. I had waited too long to take an Advil because I wanted to take it with food. Our manicures were lovely and we had a nice time!

That afternoon we helped to decorate the hall a bit and then joined George and Dora van Popta at my Aunt and Uncle's place for dinner and then headed to the church for the rehearsal.

On Saturday, the Wedding Day, we woke up to stormy skies, wind and rain. We got our hair and make up done and the wedding started without too much delay. Lorien was beautiful! And the ceremony went off with out a hitch (except that they got hitched!:)). Afterwards, we went to a park/golf course to have pictures taken. It was still cool, windy and rainy but no torrential downpours so we made do.


Elyssa was a very good girl but it was a long and tiring day for her as well.

Here are Lorien and Chad at their reception. What a great time that was! Lots of stories and memories were shared. Such love filled the room. I'm so glad I could've been there!

We were in bed by midnight, which wasn't too bad and got to sleep in till nine o'clock. Although, we were quite exhausted the whole day on Sunday. It was a nice, quiet day with two wonderful sermons by Lorien's dad at Grace Canadian Reformed Church.

On Monday, Karin and I showed Josh and Elyssa the area in Winnipeg called the Forks, which has a great market place and a path along the river.
The plane ride home was fairly turbulent but I was just glad to be heading home to my Reuben.

Book List

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Mark in red the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your blog

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Bible -
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch - George Eliot
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
Emma - Jane Austen
Persuasion - Jane Austen
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Dune - Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
Ulysses - James Joyce
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
Germinal - Emile Zola
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession - AS Byatt
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte’s Web - EB White
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Faraway Tree Collection
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
Watership Down - Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Any on this list that I haven't italicized that you would recommend?

Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside My Window...
There is a monstrous back hoe, a couple construction guys and a dump truck. They are all working to expose the top of the University’s tunnel system for repair.

I am thinking...
About going to Winnipeg tomorrow for my best friend’s wedding. I can’t believe it’s already this weekend! I’m excited and nervous, especially about flying alone even though I’ve done it tons of times.

I am thankful for...
Being able to get the time off work to go to Winnipeg and relax a little when I get back.

From the kitchen...
We’re having leftover salmon burgers and steamed broccoli for dinner.

I am wearing...
Summer tan pans, flip flops, a brown and white vest/blouse combo and cute clip in my hair!I am creating...Hmmm … not big on the whole creating thing but I am working on crocheting a cozy blanket for our living room.

I am going…
To Winnipeg.

I am reading...
The Source by James A. Michener. About the history of Isreal as told archeologically.

I am hoping...
For coolish weather and sunny skies for Lorien and Chad’s wedding. Also for no turbulence on my flights.

I am hearing...
Paint being rolled on, a generator, moving of furniture on the floor above, voices of my co-workers…

Around the house...
I wish I was at home right now to answer this.

One of my favorite things…
Seeing Reuben’s phone numbers appear on my Called ID when the phone rings.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...
Fly to Winnipeg … but I think you already knew that! Get a manicure! Be as helpful and selfless as possible on the Wedding Day.

Biker chick

Guess what? I finally bought a helmet and riding jacket! Now I can hop on the back of my husband's Vespa and experience the joys of motorbiking or ... scootering, as it were!

Reuben has had his Vespa for just over 3 months now and he hasn't even remotely gotten tired of it. And after spending a lot of the weekend on the back, I can see why he feels that way.

I did not think I would like riding quite as much as I do. Although, the seat of the sporty model he got is not designed for 2 people, we both fit and the Vespa handles the extra weight (not that it's too much extra weight ;)) just fine.

After riding out to our friends' place yesterday for 25 min, it was like getting off of a horse. My legs were stiff and sore and so was my back as there is nothing for me to lean on. But I think, as time goes on, my body will get more used to it.

I'll try to post a picture soon!

Ride on!

New Post

Well, dear friends, I think I'll just ramble on a bit about things for now. I don't have a lot of pictures to add to this post as I am at work and don't have them with me.

Last weekend, was another busy weekend for us. We traveled down to Waterdown and stayed with Reuben's parents. On Friday, we celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary as well as Jared's 22nd birthday by having a photographer take some family photos and then having dinner at the West Plains Bistro. Very scrumptious!

On Saturday, we attended the wedding of Melissa Bremer and Gerald Alkema. Between the ceremony and the reception we went to a birthday party for my Oma N. Mostly all of the Nyenhuis children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there.

Sunday was a quieter day but since we had church at 11am and left for home by 3:30pm, it was a very short day.

On the drive home, we drove through Toronto (unfortunately, you can't get around that) during a torrential rainstorm. I was driving. Past Toronto the rain died down so Reuben put the pedal to the metal and we made it home by 9pm. Woohoo!

After the weekend, we have not had any energy to do anything this week. I must confess that we spent some unnecessary hours just watching T.V. this week. We hate 2 out of 4 dinners in front of the T.V. Although, on Monday night, our gardener(my dad) came over and I did do some weeding, dead-heading and cutting back of a vine (which is going to take over our house if we don't watch it). So, I am satisfied that we got something accomplished this week. I also got one load of laundry done ... woohoo!

Last night, we had a birthday party for 2 ladies from our church. It was a small gathering but quite nice. It's nice to catch up on how everyone is doing and what's happening in their lives as I don't often manage to do this on Sunday especially when we are gone so much.

5 more sleeps until I hop on a plane to Winnipeg for my best friend's wedding. I'm already getting nervous about it. Partly because flying makes me nervous and partly because Reuben isn't come with me and I think I will be really lonely, especially at night. I'll have to bring some Hardy Boy books along to help lull me to sleep. (That's what I do at home when I can't sleep.)

Our Front Patio

Our patio is almost completed. It's not quite what I envisioned when we first started (see photo on right side panel) but still looks awesome and is 100 times better than what was there.

Before After

Our plan is to extend the garden to follow the "curve" of the patio as well as add a bistro set so we can sit out there in the evening. It's much quieter than on our back deck because we back onto a very busy road. We are also thinking of putting out some nice big flower pots.

5 of my most Favourite People

Left to right: Hadassah(18 months), Mom(years), Elyssa(8 months), Dad(years), Nethaneil(3 days).

I am back from a whirlwind trip to see the newest member of our family, my nephew, Nethaneil. He is beautiful and snuggable and of coures, lovable! My father, Karin, Elyssa and I hopped into my parents' brand new Subaru after work on Monday and made the long trek to Fergus (no more Arthur, the Broersma's have moved to the big city!:)). We hit some construction on the highway so our drive was more eventful than we would have liked. But we made it none the less and it was all worth it once we got to snuggle with our newest family member. Only 3 days old, he did a lot of sleeping. Apparently, he's calmer during the day than at night, so far, so we didn't hear a lot of crying. After a good night's sleep, we all went for breakfast at the local family restaurant. Everyone there was amazed that Diana was out and about after giving birth only on Saturday! She's a trooper.

I remember a year and a half ago when we went out for breakfast at the same restaurant just after Hadassah was born. She was already a couple of weeks old then.

After breakfast, we just hung out at Diana and Mike's new house all day. We didn't do much. Mostly just stared at Nethaneil and tried to keep cool! It was a scorcher of a day! Hadassah and Elyssa got along well.

Nethaneil slept.

Woke up.

And slept some more.

Around 3:30pm we decided to hit the road for the long trip home again. It was also a long trip due to construction and Elyssa needing to be fed but it was good and we made it home safely.

Good News

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