We are almost two monthes back in the Netherlands and are kind of settled now. In order to keep you all informed about us we decided to make a weblog so you can all see how we are doing!!
First we want to apologize for not answering our e-mails the way we always did, but the last couple of monthes were pretty busy. Slowly we are getting back to our normal routines and that gives us the time to keep you all informed. I will start with telling you the story of the first weeks after we landed in Amsterdam on the 12th of August.
After we arrived at Schiphol airport at about 8 in the morning, we first went to Starbucks to get a bit of caffeine before driving two hours to Harkstede (the town we rented a house). Because we didn't have all our belongings, we spent the first couple of weeks at my mothers place. 
She was, of course, very happy to see us and spoiled us rotten. After getting the key from the real estate agent, we were able to take a look at our rental. It was nice and spaceous, but the interior was very 70's with green carpets, green washrooms, green wallpaper in the kids bedroom and even a green kitchen!! Not exactly the colours we would pick, but it was all clean and working and with some paint you can fix a lot.........Next day we went to City Hall to get registered and to get our Dutch drivers license back. The last was a little bit harder then we thought and we are still struggling with the Dutch authorities to get this fixed.
We also had to find a school for Sanne and Daan, because by the time we knew where we were going to live, all the schools were closed!! The Chistian school in Harkstede however was very happy to except them both because they could really need more students. The school has about 60 students, divided over preschool and grade 1 to 8. Although the school already started that week, Sanne and Daan didn't need to start until the next week.
Because our container with our belongings would arrive on Friday, we spent most of the Thursday painting the livingroom, so we could put
everything in the right place. Friday morning (8.00) the movers arrived and within 4 hours, our new place was one big chaos. Although the cabinets were all placed in the right spots, there were boxes everwhere!!!!! 
It took us about a week to go through all the boxes and turn our house into a place we could live in. In the meantime, Samantha started working and Thijs, Sanne and Daan went to school. I spent most of my days unpacking boxes, putting furniture together and painting the livingroom. By the end of the second week we were able to move from my mothers place (which is about a 3 minute drive from ours) to our new HOME. Living in our new place, I had to arrange TV, Internet, Electricity, Gas, Phone, Insurance, etc. It was almost a full time job to get it all done but fortunately I didn't start working until the 1st of September.
It is now about a month since we moved into our house and it is really starting to feel like home, thanks to all the work we did and of course, thanks to IKEA!! The kids are all doing very well at school, Samantha loves her 
job, and I am getting used to the idea of being back again. I must say that almost everybody at work really tries to make me feel comfortable and they succeeded.... However I still miss Calgary, Alberta and you guys, but it is a different kind of missing which Samantha had.By the way, we also bought ourselves a car. It is a small car (Opel Corsa) that fits almost twice in the Cherokee but only uses 5 litre/100 km!!!! The whole family fits in it and also fits our new............ dog!!!!!!
Yes, we are getting a dog. She is a mixture of the Labrador Retreiver, Golden Retreiver and the Flatcoat Retreiver, but only 5 weeks old yet. More news about her in the next postings probably.Well, this is it for now. One of us will write more about us in the next weeks. If you want to respond to this blog, the best thing to do is just send us an e-mail so not everbody can see what you write....
God's Blessing and a big hug from us all !!!!!!!
Henk
