We are blessed...

As Robert and I are hanging out here on Christmas day... I have to say that we are totally blessed! I realized this after our heating wouldn't work for most of the day and then magically... at about 7pm... it turned on! What would I do without the heat?! I guess we should enjoy the cold while we can....
As some people know by now... we are planning on moving to Arizona next year, if everything goes according to plan. Robert is applying for Thunderbird School of Global Management in the outskirts of Phoenix. We're really excited (especially Robert, seeing as he's the one who has to take all of the tests and write all of the essays to be admitted). Robert is aiming for the 2010-11 school year, so we'll see how that goes!
I (Melissa) will be starting my "inburgeringscursus" (or "immigration course") at the end of January. So my posts from then on will probably be in Dutch ;) or maybe just a mix... I'm pretty excited, but mostly nervous at the fast pace of the class. It will greatly improve my knowledge of the Dutch language and culture though, so that's positive.
That's it for now! Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all!

What's been happening...

Hey everyone!

So it's been a while since Robert or I posted a blog and that's mainly due to the fact that we're not very good at it. But, we wanted to keep people updated, so here we go!

On April 24, 2009 Robert and I got married! We were married in Barneveld, the Netherlands in a place called "Kasteel de Schaffelaar" (aka, a castle!) ... pictures will be posted soon. It was a beautiful day, and everyone there said so (mostly because it was actually WARM, Not Humid, and SUNNY! Three things that don't happen together in the Netherlands very often). My parents and grandparents from the US and Sweden were able to fly over and attend the wedding. It was really wonderful to have them there. My maid of honor, Sara Scott, and Sara's mom were also able to come. Robert's aunt and uncle from Switzerland flew in as well. So all in all, it was a very international wedding party! The ceremony was in English, and was performed by an "ambtenaar" from Barneveld. It was wonderful! (Besides the fact that Robert forgot his shoes! He was wearing borrowed shoes for the ceremony, and it wasn't until after the ceremony was over that I actually found out!)

The day commenced with toasts, dinner, and a party later that night. We took a limo from the castle to our hotel, called "Hotel de Wereld". This hotel is where the surrender of Germany was signed, ending the Second World War. So cool huh?! It was a very nice, modern hotel and Robert and I loved staying there.

We actually got quite a few visitors during our "mini honeymoon". First, Robert's parents were taking his aunt and uncle back to the airport, when his aunt and uncle realized they were missing two pairs of glasses. They called us to see if we had accidentally packed them...(we didn't actually pack our own bags again after getting everything out for the wedding). The glasses WERE with us, so Robert's parents drove about two hours to get the glasses, and then another hour or so to the airport. Crazy!

Later that day we had to take a train back to the castle to get our car. It was really nice to visit the castle again, it's a beautiful area. Someone had packed a bunch of our stuff in the trunk of the car, and we were excited to see everything that was in there. As soon as we opened it, I just thought "oh no".... The top of our wedding cake had been saved for us and was placed on top of everything in the trunk. The problem is... the cream in the center of the cake had melted, as well as the raspberry filling. Raspberry filling had melted all over our guestbook! Oh boy... good times :) We drove back to the hotel and chilled the cake... I think it was saved.

So, that night Robert and I were relaxing (it was about 11 pm), when I got a phone call from Sara. I was supposed to try on a dress of hers before she left, but since Robert and I were away and wouldn't return before they left the country... it was decided that they would come to the hotel as well! They drove about an hour and arrived when Robert was fast asleep. We had fun trying on the dress and chatting in whispers....another visitor during our "honeymoon"! That was fun.

Well, we headed home the next day and got back to every day life. We went on our "official" honeymoon from May 29 - June 8... and more about that in our next post!!

Tot zo!