You Know You're Dutch When...

The temperature is so low in your house that 2 sweaters is a bare minimum if you want to be remotely warm.
During the winter it's warmer outside than it is inside.
You open the freezer and are excited to find a container of ice-cream, only to open it and discover it's full of homemade soup or stamppot.
When looking in the fridge, you never trust that the yogurt or margarine containers contain what the label says.
You were green before it was popular. Why recycle when you can just reuse!
You have a pair of wooden shoes in your house.
Your china cabinet is felled with Delft.
You like pickled herring.
You've eaten oliebollen at New Years.
You enjoy chocolate sprinkle (hagelslag) sandwiches.
You have cousins who wear size 14 shoes and are over 6'4"
You wash and reuse plastic cups and plastic cutlery.
You have soup and open-faced sandwiches for Sunday lunch.
The most frequent phrase uttered growing up was "Turn off the lights!"
You get a chocolate letter every year for Christmas,.
All the tables in your house are covered in tablecloths.
You like krokets.
You know that Vla is better than regular old pudding.
You drink tea with breakfast, coffee at 10 am, tea at 3 pm, and coffee again at 8 pm. (With cookies and biscuits of course!)
You have an afghan knitted by your Oma.
You collect coupons like they're going out of style.
You Oma has a calendar with everyones birthdays and anniversaries spelled out in capital letters (bonus points if it's hung in the bathroom!)
You've been known to recycle aluminum foil. And Ziploc bags.
You own a special utensil that is only used for cutting cheese.
You know that Gouda is the best cheese ever.
You have at least 5 relatives with the same name (and somehow you always know which one is being talked about).
You reuse teabags.
When you hear all the "new ways to save energy" you yawn and say "I've been doing that all my life!"
You ear your sandwiches open-faced. "What? you want another slice of bread? I'll make you another sandwich."
You rarely have both meat and cheese on the same sandwich.
You have never met half the relatives at your family reunion.
You have 100 rolls of toilet paper because it was on sale.
You put a little water into the jar of tomato sauce and shake it to make sure you got it all out.
You have trouble shopping for hats. There should be at least two sizes: 'one size fits all' and 'dutch'
You wipe the last of the butter out of the container with your bun.
All your cookies taste like almonds.
You make the bed in your hotel room.
You have lace on your windows but not on your underwear.
You like dubbel zout drops, and have occasionally tricked a friend into trying one.
You've put mayonnaise on your french fries.
Your kitchen is filled with milk bags drying, waiting to be reused in the freezer.
You drink Heineken out of pride.
You have a front room but nobody sits in it. (Or it's only used for special occasions.)
You have a spoon collection.
Your favourite mustard comes in jars that can be reused as drinking glasses.
You leave a window open year round to get fresh air.
You eat stroop waffles.
You love the colour orange.
You have a vegetable garden because there's no way you're paying that much for veggies at the grocery store.
Your fridge is always stocked with leftovers. Throw out food? Never!
You go to the "Dutch Store" because the smell brings back so many childhood memories.
You have pictures of windmills around your house.
Everything is Do-It-Yourself--it's cheaper than hiring someone.
You use "washandjes" (facecloths that you can put your hand into).
You have to explain what 'om' and 'tante' means when you're discussing your relatives with non-Dutch people.
You own tea towels and over mitts patterned with windmills and dancing women in clogs.
You call it "MELK" not milk.
All your cousins have the same names as your brothers and sisters, because everyone is named after Oma and Opa.

And finally, you know you're Dutch when...

You're laughing along with this list because you can relate to most of it.

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And this is what I do with all the forwards I get... I post them here. lol. ;b

The Parking Ticket

After a successful shopping trip, some friends and I, excited from our great finds, returned to our mode of transportion. When we first caught sight of the little white paper that was all but plastered to the windshield due to the light mist, we became a bit anxious and rather perplexed. The car wasn't in a wheelchair spot, a no parking area, or a time limited parking area, so what on earth did we do to get a parking ticket? Carefully we unfolded the damp note and read aloud:

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PARKING VIOLATION

Province/State...........................

Licence # ....................................

Make/Model...............................

Date/Time...................................

This is NOT a ticket, but if it were within my power, you would receive two!

Because of your Bull Headed, inconsiderate, feeble attempt at parking, you have taken enough room for a 20 mule team, 2 elephants, 1 goat and a safari of pygmies from the African interior.

The reason for giving you this notice is so that in the future you may think of someone else, other than yourself. Besides, I don't like domineering, egotistical or simple minded drivers and you probably fit into one of these categories.

I sign off, wishing you an early transmission failure, on the expressway at 4:30 p.m. Also, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits!

With My Compliments

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Turns out our brothers were bored and had discovered where we were shopping.

17 Days...

...since my last post. LOL, so much for posting on here every five days!

SO, what has happened since I last posted... well, I went to camp. (Yay!) So much fun! Started school (not so much yay, but not bad either)! Cleaned my room, (you have no idea how much it needed it!) and... and... and... a whole bunch of other stuff!

I don't know what to say. Can you tell? I'm drawing a complete blank...........

I read an excerpt from William Byrd's diary today. Maybe I can follow his example? Here goes nothing.

I rose today at half past 7 and dragged my feet through my early morning routine. I skipped my jog because I played ultimate frisbee yesterday. I was not hungry, and ate nothing more than water. I watched the final 5 minutes of the movie Persuasion which was, incidentally, a very good five minutes. I cannot recall if I ate anything before school, but I don't believe that I did. I began my school and ate a lunch of Zoodles just prior to noon. I drove my mother and sister to the doctor's at half past 1; then I updated my Facebook account and proceeded to pick up my mother and sister. We went together to the local department store and I walked up most isles most intrigued with the interesting things I found. Upon returning home, I made my bed and fulfilled other household chores. I ate just rice and stew for dinner. I then sent a couple emails and posted on my blog. I was in good health, good spirits, and good humour all day.

I think that's a lot alike to his diary. Cool, eh? Yeah, I thought so. ;b lol!

I Love You This Much

Here's a song by Jimmy Wayne. It's better with music, but I really liked it and thought it was rather clever, so here it is. :)

He can't remember
The times that he thought
Does my daddy love me?
Probably not
That didn't stop him
From wishing that he did
Didn't keep him from wanting
Or worshipping him

He guesses he saw him
About once a year
He could still feel the way he felt
Standing in tears
Stretching his arms out
As far as they'd go
Whispering daddy
I want you to know

[Chorus:]I love you this much
And I'm waiting on you
To make up your mind
Do you love me too?
How ever long it takes
I'm never giving up no matter what
I love you this much

He grew to hate him for what he had done
'Cause what kind of father
Could do that to his son?
He said 'hate you daddy'
The day that he died
The man didn't blink
But the little boy cried

[Chorus:]I love you this much
And I'm waiting on you
To make up your mind
Do you love me too?
How ever long it takes
I'm never giving up no matter what
I love you this much

Half way through the service
While the choir sang a hymn
He looked up above the preacher
And he sat and stared at him

He said
'Forgive me father'
When he realized
That he hadn't been unloved
Or alone all his life
His arms were stretched out
As far as they'd go
Nailed to the cross
For the whole world to know

[Chorus:]I love you this much
And I'm waiting on you
To make up your mind
Do you love me too?
How ever long it takes
I'm never giving up no matter what
I love you this much

Squash 2

Guess what!!!! I won my first ever game of squash!!! ;b Yay!!!! Then I proceeded to lose the next 2... I'm 1 for 10. ;b

Hymnsing

Pics from the hymnsing last Friday. :) Sorry, they're only the one's at the coffee place, I'm too shy to take pics while we're actually singing. ;b

I don't recall if I've posted about hymnsing's before, so for those of you who don't know what exactly they are (but can probably make a pretty good guess anyway... ;b), what we do is get together at a park and sing praise songs while people walk by. Lots of people stop and we frequently get to talk to people who sit on the benches to listen. It's also really neat to see how many other Christians there are out there! Watching the people walk by singing along is one of the most amazing things in the world. I never realized how many Christian's there are out there until I started going to them.

Anyway, pictures!!!

^^Sheryl and Brittany being interupted in the middle of a good conversation ;b^^

(You can link to their blogs on the side of this blog.)

^^Marissa and Kelsey smiling graciously for me and my obnoxious camera.^^

^^Guys who didn't know that their picture was being taken. ;b lol!^^

^^Andrew, Stephanie, Nikki, and Jeff participating in the exhilarating conversation.^^

^^Ruth, Brittany, and Heidi looking gorgeous.^^

Civic Holiday

OK, so it's a bit belated, but HAPPY CIVIC HOLIDAY!!!! (I don't really know what the civic holiday is for, but that's OK.) :)

I was invited to Marissa and Kelsey's birthday celebration on Monday, and I had an awesome time! :) First we went to the beach, then we went to Kelsey's for volleyball and cake and all that awesome stuff. At the beach I got a really really really bad burn on my back. (Really bad like: reclining the seat while driving, so I won't have to lean back on it; taking showers like you do at camp (hair in only); cringing every time someone gives you a hug...) That lasted about 2 days. Moral to story? When 4 different people come up to you within the span of an hour and question whether or not you have sun screen on, PUT IT ON!!! =P

Anyway, I've got a nice (if oddly placed) tan right now.

Another funny story! Krista came along with me to Kelsey and Marissa's, and when we left at 11, her car wouldn't start! We were both like... 'no way'. So after 10 or 20 minutes of trying to turn the key (it was locked or something) we called a family friend. We were advised to jiggle the steering wheel while turning the key.

About 20 minutes later of jiggling the steering wheel, the key, the emergency brake, the stick shift, pressing the brake, doing all five at once (wish I had a picture for THAT!). We gave up and called for someone to pick us up.

Everything from the beach was still in the trunk, so we were soon reclining, eating chips and crackers, and reading books while waiting to be picked up.

This all would have been awesome if it weren't for the fact that I had to go to the bathroom. Then it started to rain a bit. It would, eh?

Then our ride came. He took the keys out of the ignition, took Krista's club and hit the keyhole a few times and wouldn't you know it, the car starts! After a short Timmie's run (*cough*bathroom*cough*break*cough*) we were on our way!

Moral to this story? When something doesn't work, you hit it. Works for our TV.

^^The culprit^^

^^Krista reading^^

^^An attempted self portrait^^

^^Time I got in bed^^

Good times! Good times!!! =D