From Jennifer

Highlights from the past few days:

• Today was our big expedition to Ikea. We bought out half the store and now have lights, bathroom rugs and millions of other essential items. The nearest Ikea is in Belgium, a whopping 15 minutes away. The kids thought it was crazy that we went to a whole other country in 15 minutes! Well, it should have been 15 minutes but, naturally, we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a picturesque little town with cobblestone streets, Roman ruins, and some interesting WWII stuff (American tanks) in the main square. Someday when we have more time, we'll have to go back and check it out--if we can find it again!

• The kids are still tired and grumpy, but we slept in till 10 a.m. today, so I hope that will help.

• I actually drove all by myself to Cactus (the nearby "hypermarket") to stock up for the next few days since pretty much nothing is open on Sunday. I've never been to a store like this; it's amazing! They have EVERYTHING!!! You can buy light fixtures, telephones, garbage cans, clothes, groceries -- just about anything you need in one place. I don't think stores like this exist in the U.S., or if they do, I've never seen one. Maybe a Super Walmart? Anyway, driving is getting easier though it's still a little scary. I only stalled once on the way there, which is pretty good considering there was bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way back, so lots of starting and stopping.

• I went for my first walk in the forest yesterday. It was spectacular. I didn't take pictures but will soon.

• We don't have cable or satellite TV yet and watching stuff I don't understand is getting pretty old. There are channels in French, German, Luxembourgish and Portugese, but only one in English -- CNN, which is just too depressing to watch all the time.

• It is COLD here! It was around -1.5 degrees C here and they're predicting snow for tomorrow. The kids, of course, are thrilled by that. We're planning on staying home, relaxing, maybe playing in the snow a little rather than running around like crazy as we have been for the past few days. We don't have much choice, of course, since nothing is open on Sunday.

Here are the kids eating Belgian waffles in Belgium: