Hi Beth,

Loving the updates and the photos. I wish we had lovely, old, bold and beautiful architecture like Europe. I look forward to seeing the rest of your photos when you get home.

Sue, I think technically beer is made from "hops" which is a grain, so perhaps the Europeans think beer is a vegetable? Ha ha, Miss Beth certainly seems to be consuming it regularly!

Beth, your blog and photos were again fabulous. Bruges, with all of the canals, reminds me a lot of Venice. Which means that now I want to go there.

I think the mussels looked disgusting. But the waffle made up for it.

Maybe you should have gone into the medieval castle..the photo looked cool! But if all it had was a torture museum then I can see why you didn't. Remember when we went in that torture museum in Tuscany and we all felt sick after? (til we smelled pizza!)

That Michelangelo certainly got around, didn't he? Seems like every city has some of his art. All of which is amazing and I wish we had some here!

Glad to hear the hostel people were nice...is that the one that Juliana recommended to you?

What are you doing this coming weekend? Off to somewhere else or staying put for a change?

STILL missing you....Love, Mom xxx ooo

The pictures are great...so beautiful and I like how you included the food pictures....looks yummy. I have yet to hear mention of a fruit or a vegetable consumed.....do Europeans consider wine a fruit? :)

Thanks for the update. I think we all anxiously await the mext installment and keep looking for it. Keep up the good work of filling in the details of your adventures. Hope the midterm went well and we do need the Xmas list. You really deserve more than a hunk of coal.

Where is the next installment of the blog???? I know you are back in Paris safely, but I want to hear about your weekend in Belgium.

Get posting!

P.S. Christmas list????

Sue and those it may concern: Yes, we found the home. The dog's name was Danger (On account of how nice he is) and turns out he belongs to a 16-year-old girl who lives about 1/2 a mile from here (On the other side of the woods behind my house ). He is 12 years old and it was the 3rd time in his life he's wandered off. And also he is partially deaf and blind, but he was only gone for a day before he reached our house. So all is well!

Beth and those it may concern: Today was the longest day in the history of BGC. Wanita, Jody, Shaila and Yvonne I guess had a meeting about Jody and Wanita's communication problem - And needless to say, that was a catastrophe. And so I got to hear it all day. Also, we are having VERY LARGE problems with kids being rude to each other and arguing and having bad attitudes. So me and Wanita are coming up with a "Focus Word of the Day" program. Some of our choice words so far are: Respectful, agreeable, jovial, considerate, mellow, generous - And so on. And we're going to tape up the word with it's definition and then go over it at circle time, and encourage the kids to tell each other all day: "You are being very considerate!" and such.

Except I think Wanita is planning on using it as a friendly way to remind Jody. Which I predict is going to be a disaster on ice.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next blog entry to hear about the rest of your trip to Belgium but I am also curious.....Lindsay did you find the Golden Retreiver's home?? I have a soft spot for Goldens.

Turns out I can't call you because I don't have an international cell phone plan. But apparently you can still call because I got your message. So call me again and I will try not to sleep in this time.

Tomorrow is a no-school day for me and the kids. Which means extra work for me. Which I am not prepared for, mostly because last week was so exhausting. Also, I really don't want pinkeye and Wanita is now attending, still quite contagious. So it will be an interesting day.

Also, Autumn announced today that her mom and dad are back together. Which promises to provide loads of entertaining stories for us all.

Guess what!

I have a temporary doggie! Kyle and me found him wandering the streets of life (And being honked at quite rudely) and decided to check his collar and such. He is a very large (As big as me) golden retriever, and quite old we think. The only thing on his collar is a tag from the Redmond Animal Hospital saying that he's been rabies-vaccinated with a vaccine ID number, but the hospital is closed on Sundays (Which is vair interesting if you ask me - I guess pets have to wait to have their emergencys until Monday) so we decided to keep him for the night. We didn't want to take him anywhere else because he is so old they might just put him down.

So tomorrow we are going to be super-sleuths (Or as Mary Kate and Ashley would say - Super duper sllleeeuuthers - First class private eyes!) and try to get the hospital to look through records and such. And also come pick him up, because even though we gave him a bath and set up a heater in the garage to dry him out and gave him food and water - he's still quite yucky. And huge. But he is very well trained because when I tried to check his collar he shook my hand!

His temporary name is Shadow, after the Golden Retriever from Homeward Bound. Kyle wants to keep him but I have a No Dogs-That-Are-As-Big-As-Me Policy. But then, I had No Parakeets and No Cats policies also.. And look where we are now.

And in other news, I have new hair! It is darker and cut better but not radically different.

I second your dad. mussels!!! Beth, you are something else!! This has got to be a trip that you will never forget. I am so proud of you. BUT, you take care!! This is pounda talking . Love....

That's crazy that you ate mussels.

....and drank beer. We still miss you!

It was either Lorenna (Who's house we went to on 4th of July) or one of my mom's other friends, but she used to always give me some Belgian chocolates. They are vair fantastic if you ask me.