Ode to Belgium

When you are married to someone who was born on the tip of another continent, who moved to a country across the globe at age 21 only to move again at age 29 ending up in Belgium (of all places) one of the obvious questions that rises early on in the relationship is 'Where will we live?'. I know my answer. I don't have to think about it twice: Belgium.

I want to see the world. I want to explore and experience different cultures. Heck, I would even love to live in another country for several years. I cannot wait (I'm not a writer, but how I wish I could convey my excitement in words) to see South Africa with my own eyes, hopefully at the end of this year. I want to visit SA as many times as we can in our lives. I want our future kid(s) to know that that beautiful country with its world changing history is part of their heritage. But Belgium? Belgium has my heart.

Life is good here. Life is simple. Uncomplicated. I like that. And I'm glad Gary likes that too. Although a job where he can speak English and his family and friends living closer wouldn't hurt. ;)

Yep, good ol' Belgium is where it's at.

Picture of sunset taken by Gary last night and the other two on our drive today. I am still too sick to go for a walk. How I wish I had my 'real' camera to capture those horses in that field filled with buttercups.

In progress

Step by step we are making progress in our new apartment.

Tulips on my late grandma Jeanne's (dad's mom) table.

Spray paint, the field next door and an old mirror (forgot to take a before picture)

Gary got from a friend back when he lived in London and we have ourselves a

little makeover. We also spray painted the frame of a mirror I thrifted a few

years ago. I'll blog about that one later.

I'm happy to report that Bubbles survived the move. It was a little touch

and go there for a minute but he is alive and kicking. Or should I say swimming? :)

All our clothes are unpacked. For me this was my least favorite thing to unpack.
Glad that's done.

We've taken lots of baths. In fact I took a bath earlier today and Gary is soaking
in the tub as I'm writing this post.

I love being away from the city and living out in the open. We live in a wonderful
neighborhood and have seen plenty of gorgeous sunsets.

An American friend living in Belgium recently commented on one of my Instagram pics
that us Belgians buy a lot of flowers. I don't know if it's true for all of us but I certainly do.
They're cheap, pretty and smell good so why not? We've also hung our world scratch map,
a map of Europe and a map of Africa. I'll have to get a good pic of those later on.

Still loving the vintage hutch that we got for free. Right now it's holding a lot of clutter,
but that will change soon. We've gotten a lot of compliments on it.

Not much to say about this one other than 'we friggin' love our kitchen'.

Came home from work one evening this week and found this in the bedroom.
Buying a bed will happen ... eventually. At least we're sleeping in a bedroom now
and not on a loft bed.

More proof that I'm married to a wonderful man? These flowers he gave me today.

So much has been taken care of already but so much still needs to be done or bought. All in due time, I guess. We are here for a few years so there is no rush. In the mean time we have hemmed curtains as of today. Next week we might be getting a couch set for free from my uncle. And in a few weeks time we'll be buying a washing machine. We might just be the only two people on the planet who are excited to do laundry after (then) 11 months (longer for Gary since he lived in that studio for nearly a year before I moved in) of going to the laundromat or doing our laundry at my parents'. So even though it's May, the heating is still on, I'm still wearing my winter jacket and I am sick as a dog right now I really like this phase in our lives. We say it to each other all the time. This apartment has been a huge blessing to us.

A little side note: my older sister gave birth on Monday to the most beautiful baby boy. I am his godmother (together with our younger sister) on top of being his aunt. When I met him on Tuesday and held him for the first time I cried like a baby. How fitting. I was so impressed with how tiny, helpless and precious he really is. How anyone could ever hurt a baby (or another person for that matter) is beyond me.

I hope you enjoy your weekend. It's a three day weekend here in Belgium. Oh yeah!

Ten months

We were married for ten months this past Tuesday and we have little dents (though hard to see in these pictures) in our ring fingers to show for it. Goodness gracious I love being married to Gary. He feels the same way about me. Life (all its ups and downs included) is so much better with my man by my side!

The last picture is by our amazing wedding photographer: Joshua Dhondt Photography.

New chapter

I'm back from my unintended break from blogging.

There were two reasons why I didn't feel like posting anything here:

We are family

Two weeks ago we had family pictures taken by our friend Carina.
Here are some of our favorites.

Check out Carina's sites www.cphotography.be and www.carinaplusdavid.com. If you live in the area and you're pregnant and due before May 14th you should check out this awesome giveaway for a newborn session by Carina (here). :)

Thanks again for the pictures, Carina. We love them! :)