The Rest of the Week

Okay, so bare with me here. I put a ton of pictures and tried to organize this post in chronilogical order, but it didn't work that way. So I did the best I could, I hope you can understand it. Enjoy it any way! ;0)

I did so good and got half the house cleaned this week, a major feat if you know me well. LOL Dave was so sweet and helped get the last couple of things done, like make Kaitlyn's bed and take laundry downstairs to the laundry room, boxes that needed to go to the trash out, and boxes that needed to go to the garage or storage room space under the stairs in the basement. He had been at ward leadership meetings all morning and decided that since he knew that I had been trying to get the house clean for the holidays he would bring home a yummy treat for us. PASTRIES and BREAD!! There is a bakkerij (bakery in Dutch) or broodverkoop (breadstore in Dutch) in Moosel on his way home from the church that has REALLY good baked goods.

This building above is the city hall! It is huge, built in the 1400's. There are carvings ALL over this building that are depicting scenes from the Bible, Belgian Kings, the city's Chiefs (equivilant to a Mayor I think). In the basement of this building was statues with the clothes of the times from about 1930 to current day and yearly pictures of their "city council" since 1890!

These pictures are of the church, Saint Peter's, across the square from "City Hall." It too is huge! (Hey Mom! The sky is blue today!!) We went inside the church and immediately could tell we were in a VERY OLD building because of the musty smell, most older buildings smell the same here.

I have no idea what this is, but it is solid wood and has carvings all over it. Inside the church it appears that they televise mass because there were industrial lighting and teleprompters near the alter.

This is looking from one end of the building to the other. It was so weird to see people (teenagers) RUNNING through the church. We didn't ever see that in Italy or in our church buildings in the United States.

We are going to have to check out the churches in the area next month to see if they have Nativity scenes set up like the churches in Italy did. Just as Dave was making that comment we turned around and there was this Nativity behind glass. I am so glad this picture turned out!!

Once I got cleaned up Dave took us into Leuven. There is a yarn, quilt, cross stitch store that I have been wanting to check out. I think I'm in love!! It had yarn, fabric, floss, and everything I could possibly want for my hand crafts! Of course, being in Europe the prices are not what I'm used to and it is a little bit more expensive. So I will only be going there when I'm in desperate need and won't be building up my "stash." The store is in the middle of the city, just off the city square, and we just happen to have my camera with us and it was "market" day. We were a little bit later then normal for the market, but we were able to walk around a little until we found the shop I was looking for. Here are some pictures of downtown Leuven.

The center of cities and towns all over Europe look like this on "Market" day. I love going to the market! There are vendors selling everything you can think of, food, clothes, crafts, shoes, junk, antiques, and everything inbetween. We see kids in uniforms, school or scouts, of some kind running all over the place, playing games, chasing their friends, and just being kids! It's great, but at the same time it's crazy because their are no parents with them. These kids are as young as 5 or 6!! We can also see street performers, musicians, artists, and gypsies!

Here are pictures of our upstairs, bedroom area, that I just spent the last two days cleaning. I feel so good about getting at least half the house done. Next week I get to get the rest of the house done before Thanksgiving. There's nothing like having a clean beautiful home for the holidays. Now I just wish we had more family around. Oh well, the missionaries will have to do for the day.

These are pictures of Kaitlyn's room.

These are pictures of Aimee's room.

These are pictures of Wendy's room.

These are pictures of the our bedroom.

I believe this was actually taken on Monday morning.

It was such a beautiful day today! The sun was out ALL day! It made me so happy and I was able to get so much done!