Hy's Belgium Adventure August 28-Sept 15 2010

I am visiting my sister's family in Belgium. Mark has some workshops he needs to attend to complete his online course requirements so I am assisting in caring for their daughter, Hannah. Hai's Mark not to be confused with Hy's Mark. A couple of days after landing, Hannah started school. This is a big thing for her as she is not yet 3 (turns 3 on the 15th Sept). Not only that but she is going to the local school where they speak Flemish. Flemish is a dialect of Dutch. We (mother, father and I) are all nervous for her. Her first 2 days were great. She doesn't cry and goes off to play with the dolls each morning. This is so easy says Auntie Hy.

4am Friday morning. I am jerked out of sleep by this shrieking and screaming. I think Hai is being attacked. I run out of my bedroom (downstairs) and promptly slip and fall against the wall. I don't see anyone or hear anything at this point. I go back and grab my glasses and go upstairs. I see little Hannah and go pick her up. Now I hear sound from downstairs and go down and see Hai in the kitchen. She tells me we just got robbed. She calls the police. Here is what I think happened:

Hannah wanted milk. Hai said no go back to sleep. Hannah insists on milk, Hai offers her water which she already has next to her bedside. Hannah demands milk. Hai gets up to go to the bathroom to wash out sippy cup before refilling it with more milk. Hai sees a light moving around under the door of Mark's office (room next to her bedroom). A strange man then comes out of the office. Don't know why but Hai's first thought is 'Hy invited some guy over, maybe to fix something'so shes like "Who are you?" Then her brain wakes up a bit more and realizes that Hy wouldn't do that especially not at 4am. She then demands "WHO ARE YOU?" He puts his finger to his lips and goes "Shhhh". Hai starts yelling at him, he quickly moves down the stairs, Hai throws Hannah's sippy cup at him. (Hannah is very upset her mom did this) This is where I come in as Hai is yelling and screaming at this point. What happens next is robber jumps out living room window, Hai jumps out after him. She is in her t shirt and underwear running down the street. She follows him to his getaway car where his partner is waiting. They jump in and take off. The few seconds this takes, Hai is memorizing their plate number.

The robbers had drilled a hole (will try to get picture from Hai) under the latch and released the lock. The locksmith says they were professionals as they were talented enough to only have to drill 1 hole in the exact spot.

So this is the reason why I am missing some pictures. They stole my camera which was in my purse which was sitting at the kitchen table. They almost got my purse which ended up on the ground outside the window. This would have been very bad as my passport was in it. They did rifle through everything and only took money and the camera. Hai has replaced the camera with a spare she had so I'm good for pictures now. Unfortunately they got away with some jewelry though not expensive in value meant a lot to Hai as mom gave them to her. I think Mark is still sorting out what is missing as he was still away at his workshops for a whole week after the incident.

Needless to say I contributed not a lot to this incident. I only have a pretty sore back, neck and knee to show for it. It would have been great to see Hai hurdle the window though. She is also sporting some aches and pains. Overall an experience I don't recommend to anyone.

August 20, 2010

Oops this one is out of order.

As before, Erika and Aimee both won their classroom speech competitions. Today they competed against all the yr 5 and 6 students. Last semester they both got to this level but not to the next level of representing the school. This time Aimee apparently does an amazing job delivering and wins first place. Her topic was "Most Important Invention" and she decided on the toilet. During her speech, Erika burst out laughing and the other students were like "why are you laughing, haven't you heard this so many times already?" Erika shakes her head no. Aimee had kept her speech a secret as she suddenly developed this shyness in practicing her speech at home in front of her family. Erika's speech was on one of her favourite topics; chocolate. She found the subject too daunting until she narrowed it down to a specific topic; Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Hmmm, do you think passing them out to her classmates help her win? They are not sold here so they are a bit of a novelty.

August 22, 2010

Sorry, I won't have any pictures for the next months worth of news. You will find out later why. :)

Today the girls had their Grand final soccer game. They played the Ravens who we have never won against, only lost and tied. It was a very energized match with the other team hungry for the win. They had the advantage most of the time but our defense (led by our own, Erika) worked extra hard and fended them off. There were some very close moments when they had great shots at our goals but our goalie was also on fire (it was her birthday so she had something to prove) and blocked all attempts.

Our mids and strikers had a bit of a tough game finding it hard to push the ball up the field. With the persistance of our shortest player (Aimee), who worked around 2 of their defenders then with a perfect pass to her teammate who power kicked it straight into the goal. We won 1-0. The girls were ecstatic.