Not to be Left Out...

Julia and her friends Jack and Anna

Death Ride Buddies
Julia couldn't bear to be the only Passey kid who didn't Death Ride. So back we went to the atomium for one more jump.

I think she liked it.

First Day of the Last...

Here is a picture of the first day of school.

It is the first day of school, but it is also...

The first day of our last year at ISB.

The first day of Sarah's last year of High School.

The first day of Anna's last year of Middle School.

The first day of Matthew's last year of Elementary School.

The first day of our last chance to wear sweaters to school on the first day.

The first day of my last year to jog alone in Woluwe Park.

The first day of our last year of freezing our bums off watching Benj play Rugby.

The first day of our last year of really cool field trips.

The first day of my last year with everyone home.

I could go on and on...

I am usually optimistic, because there are plenty of things to be happy about. I like to look forward. But every now and then I feel the need to pay tribute to the end, to indulge in nostalgia for a few moments, and to recognize the goodness in our lives and the fact that time moves steadily forward, changing our present in a myriad of ways.

Our lives are pretty amazing.

Thank you.

Death Ride

From Wikipedia:

The Atomium [1] is a monument built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it is 102-metres (335 ft) tall, with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. The top sphere provides a panoramic view of Brussels. Each sphere is 18 metres in diameter.

From Real Life:

That's me...and Anna...

And Sarah...

And Benj and Matthew ready to slide off the ball...And the view (a little askew)...

And how the whole thing is held together...

And the truimphant seven: Benjamin, Sarah, Anna, Me, Matthew (just a sliver), Annie Grow, and Roz Hawk. What a great way to end the summer.
And if you still don't believe it, watch this...

What in the World?

Did any of you ever subscribe to National Geographic World as a kid? I did, and my favorite part was the last page where there were random pictures of everyday items shot as super close-ups. The idea was to guess what you were looking at. I offer for your enjoyment the Passey version of National Geographic's "What in the World." I will send chocolate to the winner. Be specific.

Cherry Picking

Coming from Texas, where cajolling edibles from the earth is an exercise and mystic roulette, I am in love with Belgian soil. Things grow here. Spontaneously and without watering three times a day. Things grow in such profusion that people ignore red ripe cherries drooping from their overburdened branches. They ignore the little wild strawberries that spring up all over and taste like you think those strawberries will that you just paid $3 for at the grocery store. They ignore blackberries growing with wild raucousness just down the street. We, however, appreciate just how miraculous these things are and set out to rescue all the abandoned fruit we can. We always check with the owners, who so far have never been home. We only glean over public easements, and just to be safe, we harvest after dark. Which would be OK if we didn't use ladders and bring 6 people along.

Evidence:

So far we have brought home 6 lbs of cherries and 8 lbs of raspberries. The strawberries don't last long enough to weigh. The raspberry bushes are still producing. I love this place!

Love at Home

I just had to document this moment so that when life is normal there is evidence of the love at home.

This is normal...

Is this really necessary?

July is sale month in Europe. Unlike the US, where every month is sale month, Europeans only have sales in July and January. On the first of the month (some stores start a few days early) everything goes on sale. As the month progresses, so do the markdowns. By the end of the month, the stores are just about empty, ready to restock for the winter. As you might imagine, it is a madhouse. We went shopping 3 times the first week to make up for the 3 previous month of shoplessness. I bought some T-shirts for 3.97 euro. Whoooo Hooooo!

Then I put one on.

Look what was attached to the side seam:

5 mattress sized tags! Care instructions in 16 different languages. I ask you--is this really necessary? I have to decide if I am going to keep the tags on so I remember how to wash this 3.97 shirt or if I want to live in comfort without direction. Which would you choose? Here are the languages in case you have chopped one of your tags off and you need to know how to wash your shirt in Greek.

Catch-Up

Since it is almost August 4th, I am now going to tell you what we did on July 4th. We ran. All of us. We joined the American community for the 4th of July 2/5/10K. Kim, Benj, and I all ran the 5K. Benj won. He is kind of a beast in the running arena. David, Sarah, Anna, Matthew, and Jubes all did the 2K. Anna came in fourth. She has vowed never to run again. We made tie-dye T-shirts for the run and because we have a family tradition of making shirts for the 4th. We skipped last year, but as the kids say, we skipped most things last year. This was my first 5K and wow, was it long. At least the course was pretty. We ran around the former Imperial Palace, past the US Ambassador's estate, and around a lovely lake. All in all, it was a great way to spend the morning.