Tired...

Sounds reasonable, but it is more than that. Yesterday morining Marcel came down with a bad mood and growled at everything that moved. After a week of hard work we see that this term was really hard on our family.
After study there is not much time for family and other things. The work is done, but...We are glad that we are going away for ten days. After the course we have some extra days off.



We think we will not have Internet from next Monday, After April 9th we are able to mail and skype again. Please pray for us that we will gain some energy and that we have a good course. It would be nice if you could pray especially for the children that this ten days will be a good time for them.

Thank you!

Isn't he sweet...

Tobias Kooijmans
Yesterday afternoon my brother Robertjan and my sister in law Ilona got a son!
Via Skype we could see him today and he is so beautiful. The same srious looks as his father :) It is a shame we cannot drop by and hold Tobias.


Course
Yesterday we heard that we are going to do a ten-days course. We are going to a village nearby London and stay there in a house. The children where allowed to have some extra days off. This means that we are not going to visit Holland during easter.

Sumo wrestling
Trough this link a nice movie about sumo wrestling at Redcliffe.
http://iamtraining
formission.wordpress.com
/2009/03/19/
sumo-wrestling/
Enjoy! :)

Sun...

The last few days it is beautiful weather! Sunday we had a picnic in our garden.


Workshop
Saturday we had a special day 'preparing families for living overseas'
More information about this day and a nice 'Harmen Squirrel-Movie’ on the student blog
click here

Head lice
At this moment we are fighting head lice. The first time we defeated them with special shampoo, but this morning we found another little army.
Again we went to ASDA for help and bought new shampoo and nit combs

Course
The end of March we probably go to the candidate course of OMF-international in Seven oaks. June 8th we travel back to Holland, the preparations already started.
We don't have information about our language study.

Essays ready...

We had to work hard, but our essays where ready and handed in before the deadlines, now we hope we got good marks...Marcel started his placement two weeks ago. Two afternoons per week he is working with the Raikes children. Very nice place to be. Wednesday we have football club and every Friday we do something different (for those working in education, you will recognize these Friday afternoons :))

Wheelbarrow challenge at the Raikes-Centrum

Friday we played hide and seek at the bible college. 1 person searched for a nice hiding place and the others waited a minute or two and went searching. If you would find the person you joined him/her and hid together. he people who hid could also move to another place. We had a lot of fun. The next weeks we are also posting messages at the Redcliffe students blog. Brother Jaap did it the last six weeks and now we are invited to write some posts. he posts are different from our own blog, so it is worth it to take a look: iamtrainingformission Harmen Squirrel will show his own little movies under the name of: DBC...

Give me oil...

No real news......but a funny experience! Stefan became ill yesterday evening.
That wasn't funny. A short stomach bug.
During the morning we saw Stefan was recovered already and he played with magnetix whole morning. In the afternoon the house was filled with a scream:
(if you know how loud Stefan can be...))

THE OIL TRUCK! THE OIL TRUCK! THE OIL TRUCK!
And yes, there it was parked in front of Redcliffe House.
The heating system uses oil and it needed a refill.
Stefan put on his jacket and his wellingtons. This was the best afternoon in weeks!

Sjoerd meets celebrities...

Everyone one wanted to be on a picture with Sjoerd!:



This morning Sjoerd en Gerdine left to Holland, they arrived safely at Schiphol Airport and at the moment they walk around somewhere in The Netherlands. Probably there is not that much staring at him(tall guy) as in England.
Sjoerd probably took a picture of the Queen of England(We still need to blow up his pictures to prove it) and he met Postman Pat.
We enjoyed their stay very much!

Down here a few pictures of Sjoerd and Gerdine's visit to Gloucester and London:
Click at the picture for a bigger picture(and a chance to see the Queen)

Bey Bey

Visitors...

Yesterday Sjoerd and Gerdine arrived.
Drinking coke and eating pringels we catched up.
Today Sjoerd and Gerdine explored Gloucester.
Of course they checked out the athedral, the local pub and the historic dogs ehhh.. docks. Thomas, Leon and Naomi where ill and at home, but they where treated with some nice presents!
Thursday and Friday Sjoerd and Gerdine are visiting London.

Happy Birthday...

HURAY!

Today is Anoek's Birthday. 10 years old already!

This morning we woke her up by singing happy birthday and we put the'Birthday Princess' button on her.
We gave her some presents and then we were of to school.
Celebrating a birthday in an English school is different, but Anoek liked it. The children in her class song Happy Birthday and Anoek received a nice present from her friend Gloey.
This afternoon we enjoyed the home baked birthday-cake

This afternoon we got a real dutch pie from our 'Homefrontcommitee'

plus a nice book to read in every day.

Thomas became a real schoolcounseler today:
He had to say 'I promise' and then he got his schoolcounselor badge on.

One for all...

We enjoy our visitors!
Yesterday we went to Wales. Stefan wish was to go to a castle.
But most castles are only open in the summer.
We where happy to found a nice castle/ruine in chepstow. We drove there trough the hills and had a good time.

On wednesday we visited the ASDA :)
While we visited the Cathedral, Mintje was ill and in bed.
The weather is good. Krijn and Anneleen explored Gloucester.
The kids played in the garden.

Few pictures of chepstow castle: