http://vandermeander.com                             this is life Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:01:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Last night at the end of Olivia's preschool meeting I was walking over to the people who had the "Meet the Teacher" schedule sign-up sheet. As I approached, I saw a lady pointing at me, saying "That's her. That's your wife, right?", to which the man (whom I've never seen ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2580 It's hard to imagine that I've sent this girl off to school four Septembers now (five, if you include preschool)! She's already doing the math on how many years until she's in middle school. And when I think of how it feels like yesterday that Marc and I were married, ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2578 I watched Mona Lisa Smile last night. I'd seen it once before, but didn't remember much of it. One scene in particular stuck out to me. This one right here (the first two minutes): Now, I don't normally talk about things that may be deemed controversial on here (or maybe I ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2576 Take a good look at this picture. Looks pretty normal. Three kids (who've decided to sit on about 1/3 of the couch) watching a little television. Yep. Nice and normal. Except that little girl in the pink shirt there, at that very moment, has a broken collar bone! Yes. There has ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2572 Yesterday morning I woke up from a dream in which Marc and I were at one of the B&Bs from our trip. We were eating, like we did on our trip, our full English breakfast (consisting of egg, sausage, bacon, baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, toast, and cooked tomato -- that's ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2570 The first full day we had in England we took one of those double decker bus tours of London, where you can get on and off the bus at any point that interests you. The first place we got off the bus was St. Paul's cathedral. I wanted to see ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2567 We really did make it to England and back. Sometimes I still can't believe it. The trip went off without a hitch (after the thunderstorm in Denver that made us miss our connecting flight to London, of course). Actually, the trip went better than I ever could've imagined! It was, ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2564 Tomorrow at this time we'll be nearing the east coast of the United States, making our way towards the Atlantic Ocean and at 1pm London time (which I think is about 5 or 6am Saskatchewan time), we'll be landing at Heathrow. Off we go, indeed. I wonder if it's going to ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2562 I've been thinking about my grandparents again lately. It seemed like the two summers preceding the one we are in now were almost identical: our family away on summer vacation, getting home and finding out the news that a grandparent is dying, funeral a week later. We got home from our ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2559 It feels like things are changing in me, like I'm looking at things in a new way. About a month ago I was laying in bed with my eyes closed thinking. I have a way I see things when I think. When I lay there at night I actually see ... http://vandermeander.com/?p=2556