Yeah,yeah, what did Pat say? End of September? I always said St. Nicolaas, the day that the Dutch kids get their presents from this nice Bishop who lives in Spain and has black helpers (like St Nick´s elves). I thought that he would give me my present i.e. a finished house. Well, it looks like we have to invite our (indoor) painter and his father to our Xmas dinner!!

I really hope that the rest will be finished and all in working condition by then, but just Friday we saw that the diningroom ceiling was sagging. It´s old and all the work being done upstairs didn´t help, so we´re debating to have that replaced as well. Just as we did with the whole front porch! You can see the porch pictures on this blog. The painters are painting it now and ewveryone has done, is doing a great job.

Jeff, our electrician, has put in recessed lights and arranged two places for ceiling fans so we can have two sitting areas, one on the front porch and one on the side.

It´s Sunday and our Mexican  (ouside) painters are back and painting the rims around the windows and front door. They work on weekends from 1PM till sunset and during the week from 07.30AM till sunset! And NO siesta!!

 

The upstairs has now all new flooring and it looks great, although it still has to be sanded and finished, but that´s the last thing that will be done up there. First the carpenter has to finish up as well as the painter. When they are ready upstairs a crew will come in to finish the flooring.

 

Yerik is doing great. His first report card had all A´s and 2 high B´s. This weekend he and Pat went to visit George Mason and another school in DC. A great opportunity for Yerik to see the nation´s capital. Duke, BC and UNC are also on his list, but we´ll see where he ends up going. It also depends on an exam he has to do in Kazakhstan and the kind of State scholarship he can get. He´s really settled in here. Made friends and is becoming a very good ultimate frisbee player!

Last weekend we did volunteer work at the International Fair in Raleigh and I ate oliebollen!!! This is a typical Dutch sweet that is served in every Dutch household on New Year´s Eve. I might find a recipe on-line and try to make them myself, my father used to make them when I still lived at home and my kids were small.

 

Pat has been moving from the office/lab they had at BD to a new place in Raleigh and was very, very busy/frustrated during the last couple of weeks. I hope they can now settle in to their new place and things will be better for him. He also spends a lot of time at NC State in the lab there, but as far as I know he´s still enjoying his work.

As far as my job concerned, I sometimes get fed up with the ignorance, rudeness and hysterics me and collegues are exposed to day after day. On the other hand, not one day is the same and it´s an interesting job I´m glad I got into when I arrived here in Durham. I take as many Spanish calls as possible and believe me there are many of them!

 

On top of all this we had the worry about my son Joost´s back surgery. A year and a half ago he had a hip replacement due to avascular necrosis and this time a hernia (2nd one in the same place in 6years) and pinched nerves between his discs which made it nearly impossible for him to function without pain. They flew him from Ibiza to Palma de Mallorca where he was operated on Thursday. The doctor had told Laura, our daughter in law, that it would be a 3hour operation, but in the end it took nearly 5hours!! The doctor got a surprise when he opened up Joost´s back. He later said it was far worse than what the several CAT scans and MRI´s had shown.

I just talked to him and he is doing better, The first 40days it´s rest and some walking, after that he can start with physiotherapy to strengthen his back muscles.

Things like this makes me hate the distance there is between the US and Europe and the fact that I have a job. I used to just get on a plane and be with him, like I did with his previous back operation in Barcelona. From Amsterdam that´s a 2hour flight and I was always hopping back and forth because of my parents as well.

You see what love does!!! If it were not for Pat I would be in Europe. I admit I sometimes have a hard time not being with my kids, but I guess all parents have that, spècially when they go through a rough time.

Pat always jokes that if anything happens to him I can sell the house and move back (I had alsways said that), but now I say: ¨forget it, all the work we put into this house, all the agony of not even being able to get to my winter clothes (stacked in the barn or the shed) I will stay here and at least enjoy the house and know that all we went through wasn´t in vain!!! 

 

Well this is it for me this time. Pat will write his part, he promised me to do that after coming back from DC!