Moving time!

So today is August 9th. That date might not mean anything to a lot of you, but if you look back at an invitation to our wedding, you’ll remember why it’s an important day to us! August 9th was our original wedding date – before Brent’s heart surgery surprise last summer. We will always celebrate August 9th as a reminder that God has a perfect plan for our lives and is in control of everything. I hope many of you will take a second to pause with us today and thank God for everything that happens in your life, even the bumps in the road that seem impossible to overcome – because those just serve as a reminder that God has something better planned. And in just 5 short weeks, we will celebrate our 1-year wedding anniversary! I vividly remember August 9th of 2009 – we took our engagement pictures that day in Atlanta – and it was extremely hot. Our photographer kept asking us to get closer and we didn’t want to because we were so hot! I know God had a better plan because September 13th was a much more beautiful, cooler, and perfect day for a wedding. ;-)

The past 2½ weeks since we’ve returned from Africa have been spent decorating our home, packing, and moving! I think we’ve been to Ikea and a few other furniture stores at least 5 times in the past 10 days. We had previously bought a TV, washer/dryer, mattress, and couch before Africa, but we just bought our bed frame, dressers, and curtains – so we’re still sleeping on the floor on a mattress, patiently waiting for our bedroom set to come in. Our bedroom is really bright – there is a HUGE window in it, so we can’t wait for our curtains to be finished! Brent and I had never had to buy curtains before, so we didn’t realize how expensive they could be.  Our window is 4 meters across our room (~12 feet) and 2 meters down (~8 feet) overlooks a big traffic circle in Brussels. It’s not very loud, but it’s very bright. Our beautiful purple curtains should be ready in about a week. Brent let me pick the colors to decorate with, so I chose lime green and purple. Our apartment is very open and white, so I wanted some bright colors – and he actually agreed! Don’t worry; the purple curtains are a dark purple – very manly. :-) We also are loving the views from our apartment and the awesome location!

Our boxes arrived last Friday, August 6th and we were VERY excited to get the rest of our stuff. We’ve been living out of suitcases since the first week of May, so we’re anxious to be all settled in to our new apartment – which will probably still take a few weeks, but we’re getting there.  Since I couldn’t find a few lime green and purple items I wanted, I sent my mom to numerous Targets and Ikea in Atlanta before she shipped our boxes. :-) Luckily she found everything I needed! Our apartment is really coming together – we just need some pictures on the walls now. So to solve that problem, we’re going to Paris this weekend! Paris always has cheap art vendors lining the river Seine – I can’t wait to find some big pictures to put up in our home! Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe this is real – I am living in Europe and get to go to Paris to find beautiful artwork. What a dream come true!

I have also started a pet-sitting business to help earn money and contribute to savings. So far, I have quite a few clients and it’s been fun! This past weekend, we watched an adorable Jack Russell terrier named Gus. His owners told me he barely barked and he was fine to be left alone. I left him alone for about 10 minutes on Friday to go let the FedEx man in and I could hear him howling all the way down on the ground floor outside. So we decided not to leave him alone. Luckily he is small and portable and loves being in the car, so it was no big deal. Oh, and Brussels does not experience extreme heat during the summer – we wear sweaters here – so Gus was probably cold in the car. I do miss the California sunshine and the beach! I’ve also been pet-sitting numerous cats at their own homes and I walk a dog named Sully about once/week. It’s a fun job and I get to make my own hours – I just hope I keep finding new pets to watch because we definitely rely on the extra cash!

So here are a few highlights from the past 2 weeks:

The Friday night after we got back from Africa (July 23rd), we were craving Mexican food so we went to Chi-Chi’s - yes, there really is a Chi-Chi’s in Brussels. I cannot recall ever eating at a Chi-Chi’s in the USA, but any sort of Mexican food in Belgium sounded good. Dinner was decent – it was very different tasting Mexican food, but it still satisfied our cravings. After dinner, we decided to wander around the Grand Place for a bit, which is the central touristy area of Brussels. We enjoyed an amazing piece of chocolate (which is one of our favorite things to do – taste new chocolates!), watched some street entertainers, and then wandered back through the Grand Place. We noticed a lot of people hanging around and wondered what they were waiting for. About 30 seconds later, the lights went dim and a really cool light and sound show started in the Grand Place. It was so awesome to see the lights reflecting in this huge square off of such old buildings – it was beautiful! We love stumbling upon things like this in Europe – it really made our night! And now we know that at 22:00, 22:30, and 23:00, there is a cool sound and light show on the Grand Place. Another reason to come visit us!

About a week and a half ago, a new American accountant from Brent’s company also moved here. Brent’s boss had told him when he accepted the job in March that she would be hiring another manager in their department and he has finally arrived! His name is Scott and his wife’s name is Jackie. They have 2 adorable sons as well, Will (3.5 yrs) and Beau (18 months.) We have hung out with them a few times and they are really cool! Jackie is a nurse as well. We even offered to babysit last Friday night for them because it was Scott’s birthday and we knew they wanted to go out and explore the city. The kids were very well behaved and we just hung out and played with them and decided we are still not ready for kids. ;-)

About a week ago, we decided to try a new sushi restaurant I had found in Leuven, which is about a 20-minute drive from Brussels. I had read there were a lot of restaurants in this one area of Leuven called the “Oude Markt”, so we decided to venture out and see the area. What a wonderful decision that was! Leuven is a really neat suburb of Brussels! The Oude Markt is a huge square with like 30 restaurants! We ate at a delicious sushi restaurant – we have finally found some decent sushi. It’s still nothing like our favorite restaurant in San Diego, but it’s much more similar. We were very happy campers – you know how we are with food. We had a really fun night wandering around in Leuven as well.

I apologize for not blogging for so long, but we did not have Internet at our new apartment for a few days and we have also been so busy with moving! It seems like every night, we have to run a few errands and by the evening, we are both exhausted. I have seen quite a bit of the city having to take the tram and metro everywhere during the day so that has been fun too. We’re very excited to go to Paris this weekend – we haven’t been back since Brent proposed to me there a year and a half ago. We’ll be celebrating our 11-month wedding anniversary there this weekend. :-)

As soon as we get our bedroom set, curtains, and a few paintings, I promise I will take some pictures of our apartment and post them! We still have a few boxes and random stuff lying around though, and I am a very neat and organized person, so I can’t have you all seeing our apartment unless it is spotless. Hope all is well stateside!