mix n match

i have a butt load of updating to do and i'm not going to make 12 different posts to do it.

last weekend gregory and i went to a wester themed party. everyone dressed up as cowboys. some even had toy pop guns which was fun. the band was...i forget their name, i think something like moonshine boys, i dont know. anyway they were awesome. a 3 piece band made up of 2 fat guys in over-all's. one on a standing base, the other on banjo! and then a skinny guy on guitar and lead vocals. they did "cajon and southern" style covers on punk and metal songs. hillarious. and super awesome.

gregory finaly got a reason to wear the superly western shirt my dad gave him. here are our outfits:







we were the bells of the ball, obviously.
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wednesday was my birthday. i turned 25. because gregory is the world's worst planner, all his hard efforst of trying to fix a surprise together fell through. poor gregory. i believe he did try hard because he's not very savvy in the way of keeping secrets either so i could see alot of scrambling trying to be done. the reasons for no party: it was wednesday night and who the hell does anyhting on a wednesday night? people used the old "holidays are here" excuse and said it was too expensive to go out. and theres a party tomorrow night thats suppose to be huge and everyone we know are trying to save themselves for that party.
but he did surprise me with the world's largest birthdat cake!



we ate it at his parent's house. not too many attendee's because people are LAME! so we polished off the top level, the second is in edith's fridge for them to pick on and we have the bottom in our fridge. i've eaten 2 slices from it so we pretty much still have an ENTIRE cake in our fridge!







also, a little 25 years of my life story:

ever since i can remember i've loved to have my hair curled. i once cried because i didnt have curly hair..or red hair. red curly hair was my one true desire as a child. i dont know why, but anyway, my mom would curl my hair and then brush all the beautiful ringlets away. i also wanted to be like shirley temple in the worst way. i would get so PISSED and cry that my mom ruined my hair and that it looked stupid and all that.
i know now that brushing the curls to soften them is whats the norm. what's been done since forever and always, but i still can't help loving the tight curl look. now that i'm 25 i think i'm old enough to wear my curls tight-becuase i can. and because i'm too old for my mom to brush them out.
birthday hair:
not the tightest i've worn out of the house






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it snowed last night!
its been freezing for weeks now and been below 0 for the past couple days. thats cooooooold for these parts!
it only snowed enough to make a light dusting on the ground and then it got colder and froze over so this morning everything was frosted with a light covering of frozen snow. it was so beautiful! the sky was pink and everything else was gently coated in white. i didnt take any pictures until 5pm this evening and by then most of the stuff had melted, and i had roxy, the world's WORST photographer's assistant EVER with me. little miss wiggle bottom made it very difficult to shoot in the dark, which is already difficult. so they're mostly blurry but there was 3 that i liked regardless:

OBSESSED

with France Gall.

especially this song:




how deliciously 60's is this video?! i love everything about it. i want her dress.

little owl

i made this little guy today!
he only took me a half hour. i had just came in from purchasing my materials to make him and wanted to try it out. i had other things to do as well so i couldnt spend too much time playing, i was just experimenting. i only bought brown and white to start with, as i wasnt sure how difficult felting was. turns out its not difficult at all! and actually really fun, too.
only things to keep in mind are (so i've read off the internet) are that the needles are extremely sharp so watch out for the fingers. plus the needles have burs on them (thats how it fuses the wool together) so i imagine it would hurt really bad sticking yourself with it. aaand, the needles are really fragile and can easily break. you have to poke straight up and down in order to keep them from breaking. no diagonal poking, no wiggling while poking. just straight poking.
i had tons of fun making my little guy and i will def be trying to make more creatures soon.

Sinter Klaas/christmas

Saturday night sinter klaas came to edith's house and dropped off some gifts for the boys.
here are some pictures of the evening:













CHRISTMAS IS IN DA HOUSE:

prized christmas ornaments:




felt trees i made:
i wanted something to look like it came out of a dr. seuss book. i think they're quirky enough just for that.



our tiny table top tree this year:

THE FIRST DAY OF MY LIFE

perfect.



also:

what i've learned

here is a video from a belgian sketch comdey show. they're making fun of the west-flemmish dialect. no one else from the country can understand it because they talk like cave men, yet i've lived here for only 3 years (come february) and I can already understand it (most of it. give me a break.)

anyway, i'm pretty proud that i'm able to understand their crazy talk so i thought i'd show you this video of a computer teacher teaching foreigners the west-flemmish terminology for using computers.



translation:

computer teacher gives introduction
"first and foremost, the computer is your friend. you will learn how to navigate this computer in west-flemmish dialect"

"windows 98 also has a specific language: RUUTE 98" (you can clearly hear the difference between the proper way to say 98 and the west flemmish shit way)

ok ok, everyone stand up
-everyone trys it for a bit-
teacher says: west-flemmish comes from within, let everything out
then he picks on gilbert and tells him he needs to let it out a little looser
the video cuts to another term word but they dont say the actual english word for it, but for reference they're talking about turning on the computer "start"

underline: onderstreeepen
exit
login
log out
backspace

video cuts to the teacher helping a student while gilbert hits his computer
teacher: whoa whoa, gilbert, please!
-turns to other student- whats he doing?
you never hit the computer

if you want to print:
print
hard disk
floppy disk
shut down

then gilbert asks a question regarding something not working properly on his computer and he needs to transfer files to his floppy disk, what does he need to do?
and the teacher answers: thats simple gilbert, you turn it on, stick it in, log in log back out and be done with it
gilbert: ahhhh...now i understand
(mind you gilbert is also speaking west flemmish so the whole foreigner thing doesnt really fit there)

chapels

there are many road-side chapels here in Belgium. i've always found them all very beautiful and unique. i've wanted to do a project around them (i know exactly what the project is but i'm not saying here in case any lurkers try to steal my awesomely awesome ideas). last weekend the rain had finally let up so gregory and i thought it a perfect idea to go snap some photos of the road-side chapels. he did the driving, i did the snapping. here are the photos from last weekend:




















All roads lead to Belgium





Taken today:
gregory and roxy take many naps, here is one captured

November 1, belated

November 1 and 2 are holidays in these parts.
All souls day; the day to cry because your loved one is dead, and all saints day; the day to be happy because they're in heaven (hopefully, right?!)
its tradition to go to the graveyard on november 1 and put flowers down. i think its a beautiful tradition. not only does it make you NOT forget about those who you've burried but it also makes the cemetary look so beautiful, pleasant, welcoming and ALIVE.

this is my third all souls day experience yet only my first time taking pictures. every year i asked gregory to take me to a cemetary and every year he was too afraid of..i dont know, mortality, death, looking like a freakazoid because his girlfriend is treating the cemetary like a tourist attraction?
i guess he's learning to live with me better, or just growing up because we FINALLY went to one. and he did feel a little weird with me taking pictures but i told him they show pictures in the paper so its not that crazy and he let me do my thing...while staying 200 feet away at all times as to not look associated with me ;)











a herpoel and her husband that we didnt know exisited.
(funny story. gregory and janne are related by marriage. but the husband burried here isnt part of janne's family.)

the mystery that is my hair

heres a crazy little story that i may have told before; every time my hair grows people ask me if i've cut it. nope. it just falls differently i've come to tell people. what other explaination is there for people thinking that my longer hair is shorter?
In september i explained this rather poorly to a college of mine. she got the message and too, found it strange. a few weeks ago some else asked me again if my hair had been cut. nope, not cut. blown dried, surely, a little poofier than normal, certainly, but definetly not cut.
but i went to get my hair cut last night. and i was eager for all the oos and ahhs that come with cutting your hair (whether its sincere or not doesnt matter) but there were no oos and ahhs. someone commented on it firs tthing in the morning only because i rode the bus home with her and told her i was going directly to the hair dressers, so she had an obligation to say something. no one commented until the middle of the day! thats a long time for someone not to notice! and i cut a good 3-4 inches off!
how can people notice the minute changes in my hair while its growing but not the drastic change of chopping inches off?
the world may never know.

granted its nothing special. i was only looking for a simple cut anyway, but STILL!
jerks.

BEFORE



SILLY




AFTER




SILLY

Day of the dog/ around town

Dog




"the flash is so bright!"


itchy


after getting into muck. she looks bummed that i wouldnt let her inside


pretty puppy


jumping over the bushes



jumping back over the bushes

Around town:





wagon thingie



barbed wire




berries