Dear Refrigerator

Dear Refrigerator,

After a year of living with us and providing us with COOL, we have finally reached the sad day in which we must part. When we first met you, you were tall and strong, and we were happy that you were around. We cheerfully decorated you with pictures, magnets, and word-poetry. We thankfully packed our milk, our lunch meat, and our fruit into your cool bottom compartment, and stacked our hamburgers, popsicles, and ice-cubes into your frozen upper compartment. Soon we learned how your over-zealous attempts to cool our food would often freeze our lettuce and turn our juice jug into a giant un-drinkable popsicle. I did not keep track of how many heads of lettuce met their frozen end in your icy embrace.

Day and night, you kept your trusty motor running. In fact, you were so hard-working that you only took a break for a few minutes every day. You faithfully extracted water from the air and collected it on your refrigerator floor, where the cold pool would slowly leak out your door, toward the kitchen wall and even sometimes all the way into the basement. We never had you diagnosed, but I sometimes wondered if you thought you were a dehumidifier instead of a fridge. You worked so hard at trying to being a dehumidifier that you did not feel the pain of the rust which resulted along your side from the constant stream of water you released.

Perhaps it was because your door would not close properly, or perhaps it was from the stress of your door swinging open harder than you could handle, but when we moved you, it appears you had been overworked at some point or another. The large burn mark left on the linoleum remains for us as a reminder of your dedication and perseverance as an appliance in our household, and we will always remember you for it.

We hope that the Great Refrigerator Round-Up people treat you with all the dignity and respect that you deserve. The house is just not the same without your loud, constant humming, and we certainly notice the loss of your presence.

Sincerely,

Your old family

I'm an Aunt!!

Happy birthday Robert John! We are excited to announce the much-anticipated birth of Robert John Mulder, born on August 10 at 9:12 a.m. to proud parents Jeremy and Sarah. Congratulations Mom and Dad! Robert weighed in at 7 lbs, 1/2 an ounce, and measured at a lengthy 23 inches - possibly 2 of which are toes... :) It was quite something to finally meet this brand-new nephew, and to hold him only three hours after his birth! He's tiny, beautiful, and healthy. Early predictions that he had no nose and would be born 5-month-old size and able to eat an entire box of crackers were apparently unfounded, as Robert has a beautiful button nose, and is not yet interested in vegetable thins.

Toxic Skewers

We bought a set of BBQ utensils late last summer on clearance at Canadian Tire. It came with a flipper, tongs, and four skewers. Since it was late in the summer, we didn't have an opportunity to use the skewers, and they were retired into a drawer until we pulled them out again on the weekend. Anticipating a fantastic meal of corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, and shish-kabob for a few guests, we prepared the food and skewered the meat. However, halfway through cooking the meat, we discovered a fatal flaw in our BBQ skewers: as it turns out, the "stainless steel" handles are actually plastic covered in a thin layer of metal. As most of us probably know, plastic melts when heated - and heat is a natural part of the cooking process, especially when grilling on a BBQ. The result? Well, our food was still edible thankfully, but the skewers started bubbling toxic black plastic ooze, and they are now somewhat distorted. Who designs such a product? What other non-sensical kitchen impliments have they come up with? Plastic frying pans? Glass forks and knives? Perhaps a rubber kettle? So much for those skewers . . .

Almost August!!

So, it's been a while... the summer moves by quickly and it's hard to believe it's almost August already. August!! It's almost our house-move-in-iversary and that hot, sticky, busy day is still so clear in our memories. We've done some changes in the house since then - almost all the upstairs walls are painted, and things have been rearranged and rearranged again. The baby's room is looking really nice, although it's still kind of a collecting ground right now for miscellaneous household items which don't have a spot at the moment. The entranceway is looking good as well, with the new stairway in and the floor almost finished. Our refrigerator reached the end of its lifespan this past Tuesday, and unfortunately for it, no one was sad to see it go. In its place is a brand new fridge which doesn't leak water into the basement or run on exorbitant amounts of energy, for which our electricity bill will thank us.
There is a fly buzzing around my living room which is driving me CRAZY. Unfortunately the fly swatter has run away with the battery charger in all the renovation confusion, and I have yet to find their elusive hiding place. I imagine it's probably somewhere with SOS pad and Pom-pom-on-a-stick, which are a few of Kitty's favorite toys which have been missing for some time.
No baby yet out in Lucan for Sarah and Jeremy - (s)he's just a little too comfortable in there. Can't wait to meet the littlest Mulder!
A big congratulations goes out to Jared and Michelle (Westra) Wilms, who were married last week Saturday in a lovely ceremony in Ancaster. We wish you the Lord's blessings as you start your married life together! Welcome to matrimonial bliss :)

Causing mischief at the mall for Michelle's bachelorette party

Does this girl know what she's getting into? :)

Congratulations you two!!Baby Vander Deen at 24 weeks

July 12

One month later

No, St Catharines has not been covered over by a volcanic eruption, neither has our home disappeared into a hole in the ground, nor have we been transported to another planet. Actually our phone lines were down for quite a while over the past month, and with no phone comes no internet as well. Last weekend Mike and Dad fixed the problem and we are back to a dial tone again. However, we have been working on the baby's room (former office) and so the regular phone jack for the internet is not so accessible right now, and that will have to suffice as my excuse for not updating this blog in more than a month. I didn't even write one update in the whole month of June!
Things are going well for us over here. Mike is done his first year of teaching, and was glad to see the end although also sad to say goodbye to his first class. It was a good year, and he certainly enjoyed it and is looking forward to September and starting fresh again. For the summer he will be busy driving a flower delivery truck to Buffalo a few times a week, as well as working on curriculum development and, when he has a chance, working on some things around the house. And then of course there are a few stints of camping which I am VERY much looking forward to enjoying!!
Things are going well with me as well - I've been feeling quite well, although the days at work seem to be longer than they were before, and I wonder how I am going to feel in a few months, if my feet are already as sore as they are now at the end of the day. We had an ultrasound about two weeks ago, which was really neat. Everything looks good with the baby, and it was hard to believe he/she was squirming around so much in there when I couldn't feel it!! I can sometimes feel the baby moving although it's definitely not very strong yet. After an interesting painting fiasco in the baby's room, it is now painted a lovely Serengeti Plains green, and Mike has been putting lots of elbow grease into cleaning up the hardwood floor in there. When we first painted the room, it turned out to be a fluorescent minty green which we were NOT too impressed with, but the colour now is quite perfect!
Other than that, things continue on their merry way, excep for the "T" buton on this lapop which seems o be going hrough some personal roubles. There's a baseball game going on in the park, so I think I'll go check it out! Until next time...

Ultrasound pictures - a little hard to see what's going on, but after being

on the fridge for a few weeks, we can recognize him/her quite easily

Twenty weeks

15 Weeks

In order for me to have two posts in the month of May, I should probably write one right now or I won't get to it in the next 6 days, because days have a way of flying by without you really noticing it at all. Unfortunately, my decision to poast something has left me in a bit of a bind, because I really don't have anything to write about. Surely something must have happened in the last 3 weeks that is worthy of reporting to the world, or at least to those out there who care to read about our lives. Let's see. Well, I should definitely post a CONGRATULATIONS to Marty and Rachel Breimer Speelman on their wedding on May 12. You had a lovely day, and you looked so happy! May the Lord bless you as you continue your walk down life's path hand-in-hand.
We planted some annuals in the garden over the Victoria day weekend, which we are really enjoying, except for the part that the squirrels enjoy them as well. We have also been enjoying watching baseball games in the evenings in the park across the street. It's great to just be able to sit in our sunroom and have some live entertainment when we get home from work!
I came home this evening driving through an intense thunderstorm and some driving rain, which normally would make me quite excited. However, the knowledge that my dear hubby, a good size group of grade 6ers and a few others were on an 18 km hike from Beamsville to the school and were probably trapped in the woods with lightning all around did not make me very excited about the storm. Thankfully, there was a phone call from Mike as soon as I got in the door saying that all is well, they were back at the school before the rain started in earnest, and they got to watch lightning hit a pole, shoot blue sparks everywhere and shut off the power. But everyone's ok, the weather cleared up again pretty quick, and the campout is still on, although perhaps they will camp inside. Air mattress anyone?
Three and half weeks until our first ultrasound appointment! That sounds a lot closer than it really is. Time has been doing weird things - sometimes I wonder where the days have gone, yet when you go hourly, like this afternoon, three hours seem like three days. I believe something strange must have happened with the earth's rotation or the fourth dimension or something this afternoon from 2-5, because that was way longer than three hours. My feet were ready to fall off by the time 5:00 rolled around and the thought of standing up from this computer desk doesn't appeal to me at ALL, at least not yet.
Sorry, no new pictures to post. There's still the ones from last post if you like :)

Still Alive in St Kitts

To all those faithful blog-checkers, I am here to relieve your fears about our well-being. We are, in fact, alive and well, despite the silence of the blog. It's been quite busy lately, and I haven't really had much time or motivation to sit down and think of something to write. Let's see, when was the last time I posted... something about the first burgers of the season. Since then, we have had quite a few burgers, almost too much for me. Today, I backed out of the burger and had a sausage instead. There is such a thing as too many hamburgers, and I'm a little worried about what my BBQ-loving hubby has in mind for the summer's meal plans...


Spring is definitely arriving, making my morning drives to work quite scenic with all the orchards in bloom. I'll have to get out there and take some pictures. Spring has also brought out the rugby team which practices in the field across from our house every Tuesday and Thursday, providing some free entertainment. Our grass is growing, and growing, and growing, and I think we're going to have to break down and get ourselves a lawn mower as the reel mower doesn't function like a real mower.


We bought a new car a month ago, a 2003 Oldsmobile Alero. So far we're really enjoying it, the most appreciated difference from the Escort probably being the ability to have normal-voice conversations on our long trips to visit family. If anyone out there is interested in purchasing a sporty 1995 Ford Escort Wagon, 260,000 km, we are putting it up for sale. It's got a great engine, good tires, a/c, automatic locks and windows (I'm starting to miss those), and can fit an amazing amount of stuff into it, which is particularly handy if you do a lot of moving around or camping. It does need a mechanic's help because it makes some strange noises when you turn, but with a little love this car could take you places. Last year, we took it to the Adirondacks, up and down mountains and it didn't complain at all! Brave little car.

My two sisters are off on a one month adventure to Europe in 25 minutes. They are probably sitting in the waiting room right now, or maybe even on the plane, bags packed and stowed, cameras ready, and the excitement flowing through their veins. I'll miss them a lot, but they're bringing along the pins I gave them so they've got a little piece of me with them for their pictures :)

Perhaps I'll post some pictures of the last little while, since pictures are always nice.

Another dinner outside - BBQ'd of course, but this time it was shish-kabob

Mike wore this to school one day to see what kind of reaction

he could get from his students. Actually, it was Clash Day, and

I think he did a pretty good job clashing!This is my failed attempt at a picture of glow-in-the-dark bowling.

We went bowling with all the Vander Deen siblings last weekend

after celebrating Mom and Dad VD's 25th anniversary with the

family at the Mandarin.

This disgusting creature was on our bedroom wall yesterday morning.

It is bigger than it looks, and really gross, and there better only

be one of them.It belongs in the zoo. This is NOT a photo-shopped picture.

I think it could have eaten me in my sleep.

Now what is all this stuff? What is going on at the Vander Deen household?

I saved the best picture for last. :) Yup, if you think you've figured it out, you're right! Our lives are about to change in a most significant and exciting way, for come November, D.V., we will be welcoming the newest little member of our family into the world! This week, we got to hear his or her little heartbeat at the midwife's office, and it was such an amazing sound! Other than being really really tired, I've been feeling pretty good, which is quite a blessing and really makes being tired nothing to complain about at all. It's still somewhat unbelievable to us that we are going to be PARENTS, but we trust and pray that God will give us all that we need to bring up this child in the fear of His name.

First Burgers of 2007

'Twas the first day of real Springtime and the Rachel sat outside

To eat her cheese and crackers at noon by building's side

The lunchtime sun was glorious, bright and cheery warm

On days like this a lunch outside will surely be the norm.

The Rachel came home happy, full of lots of vitamin Ds

Absorbed from being outside in the bright and cheery breeze.

The Rachel and the Mike were feeling summer's promise

They thought, I know one supper which for months has been amiss.

And so the rusty shed key was taken from its spot

And they rolled out the trusty Barbeque which for so long was forgot.

Out came the buns and burgers, they were prepared with glee

For the first barbequed meal of 2007 for this young family

Alas, the buns were freezer-burned, the patties, they were dry

The mayonnaise was weirdly colored, its smell had gone awry.

Yet the Rachel and the Mike, ignoring the substandard taste

They ate their stale burgers, they would not let them go to waste.

For now we know that whatever the case, any burgers from now on

Will be much better than last year's leftovers which thankfully are gone.

What was I thinking

Somehow, someway, Mike got me to play Medal of Honour with him tonight. While he didn't manage to keep me playing for as long as he might have liked, I think he enjoyed hunting me down while I was running around blindly with a bazooka, hitting walls, falling off buildings, and getting stuck in closets.
I have a feeling those hundreds of hours of playing in university may have given him a bit of an edge. I'll have to pull out the Boggle and show him a thing or two :)