Our ride to destiny

Exactly a year today...

A year ago, and a couple of hours, we were standing at Schiphol Airport, saying goodbye to family and friends. Tears, relief, anticipation... A new chapter in our lifes was about to start...

Now we have seen all seasons pass in Canada. We arrived in Fall, beautiful coloured trees, sunshine, cold mornings and pretty warm afternoons... We have seen Winter, LOTS of snow, a cold I never experienced before, but I refused to put a coat on unless it was freezing... I got my -20, full sun, and I loved it. Clear blue skies and 2 meters of snow, what more can a Dutchy wish for in Winter? Christmas passed (yay, no family gathering with people I didn't want to see anyway ), Spring came and the snow melted... It took till mid-May for everything to melt Then Summer arrived... Hot, dry, clear blue skies... 40 Celsius is a tad too hot for me, but 30-35 is PERFECT. If you can sit in the shade and do nothing, that is Now it is Fall again, and the circle is round... Again, the beautiful coloured trees, the cool mornings and warm afternoons... I love it.

We have done a lot. We took our roadtests for car withing the first 90 days, bought cars, sold some again. We took our skillstest and roadtest for bike, passed those too, bought a bike, we bought a house that we are thoroughly renovating... The kids are doing great in school, and are speaking Englutch together Marc still works for the same boss, I have been working for a law firm...
We made mistakes, we spent money on things that were not...

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With the recent gasprices, and living as close to the US border as I do, I thought I'd try to fill up my tank with US gas. The road to the border crossing is really GORGEOUS. Next time I go there, I'll take some pics and post them (yeah, I know, someone is still waiting for them ).

Anyway... I got to the border, 4 cars in front of me, beautiful weather, window open, cd in the stereo... My turn!
"Hello ma'am, ID please?" So I get my passport and PR card. "Is that a Dutch passport?" "yes sir" "okay. Whatcha ganna do in the US?" "get gas sir" "gonna meet anybody?" "well, yeah, the man of the gasstation of course, but no one in particular" "Whatchadoing in Canada?" "I live here sir, as my PR card says" "Oh yeah, sure, sorry... Would you park over there, and get in for a visa waiver?" (as a non-citizen, you need that...)

So I park my car, get in, and wait till the lady has time for me. That was very soon So I had to fill out a nice green form, get my fingerprints taken, my smiley-face taken on a pic, and all that for only US$ 6 Bargain, isn't it?

Took a while (20 minutes or so) and in the meantime, the friendly man asked his questions to bordercrossers. Most answers? "get gas" "going shopping in Colville". I asked the lady how many times she gets to hear "get gas". Her answer was: Well... about 300 times a day?

We had a nice conversation though, and she...

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07-07-1997...

A date to never forget. 10 years ago, tomorrow.

A lot has changed over the past 10 years, but one thing didn't... The love we feel for eachother...

On the other hand, even that has changed. It grew on us. We have been through a lot together. Poor, rich, sickness, health, joy, arguments, fights, making up. We had 2 beautiful daughters, who are doing great. We had a lot of fun together, and we still do

He was my first real love, when I was 17. We broke up after 9 months. 7 years and a lot of experience later, we ran into eachother again. We never let go.

This is what we looked like on our special day, exactly 10 years ago




I can hear you think: WOW that is BLUE! Yep... And you know why? Because white is not my colour

I loved the dress 10 years ago, and that hasn't changed... It ended its life as a veil above the baby's cradle

~Happy Canada Day~

We put our house on the market almost 3 months ago. After 2 months we changed realtors, because the one we had did nothing, but sending bills. Yep, Real Estate in Holland is big business When we got a letter from him he was going on Holidays early June, something snapped. So we changed realtors.

3 Days after the new realtor put a sign in our yard, we had the first viewers. Almost a week later, they came back, to see it again. 4 Days after that, they made an offer. We made a counter offer. 2 Days later it was a done deal. Our new realtor managed to sell out house in 2 weeks...

But... We still haven't got our visa. So I emailed the Embassy, 3 weeks ago. their answer: "Your application is with the Immigration Program Manager, and a decision will be made, certainly in the near future." Okay, that is an answer we can work with... NOT! So, I asked again, WHEN? We have jobs lined up! People are expecting us, and they told us themselves we should be able to be in BC mid-June... Of course, I never got an answer.

So I talked about it with a Canadian friend. I asked him what he thought of the email I was gonna send to them (last week). He said: I would suggest some changes, can I get my wife to do it for ya? Of course, please! So she made me a beautiful Canadian-style letter, and I got response: The Embassy told me: "We are working on your application these days, and you should hear from us soon." /email. They are very good writers, as you can see

Anyway, I hope they will get me my letter before July 17th. If they don't we have to ask for...

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