The Visit

Many of you may know my mother. She is a special lady. A lady who is very lucky for many reasons which she overlooks. One obvious reason is that she gave birth to such a wonderful son, so wonderful in fact that they decided it was not possible to top him so they stopped having children right there. Once again I know I have some skeptics in the crowd who will claim they stopped having children because I scared them to death. Well obviously they are alive and kicking, and you can once again just go away! Another reason my mother is lucky is that her son crossed the seas and she therefore had a reason to visit him. The third, and possibly final, reason this lovely lady is so lucky is the fact that she will have no clue that this blog was published. Ah yes, she will be able to travel Europe knowing none the better. And trust me, I will keep you all updated on her actions, because we all know she would do the same!
So the time finally arrived when I was to be reunited for a short time with my family. My Dad, Mom, Sister, Grandpa, and Grandma all flew the ocean in order to wish me hello (for only a couple days) and travel Europe (For many more days). I guess we know who is really lovedJ Anyway, I arrived at the airport in Amsterdam to meet them and we exchanged the usual I have not seen you in two month hugs and greetings. It was pleasant, and I have nothing more to say about that as it has little relevance to the story and well all know I keep all stories on a precise and determined plotline.
That day we took the shuttle (not the space shuttle you dork, the ground ones that are really just a glorified bus) to our hotel. It was then that my mom opened her suitcase and holy crap was I surprised. I will give it to my mom that she is a very caring and considerate person, and I did in fact ask for some of these things in the suitcase as well. She did not disappoint that is for sure, and the suitcase was overflowing with gifts for my host family. Now the interesting thing is when she pulled out a package and said, “Oh I wonder if this is still good”. Now I have heard this response in connection with discoveries under the couch or maybe that pile of cloths in the corner, but never while traveling abroad have I pulled out something from my suitcase and had such questions. I was a bit confused until my dad explained that my mom got on another one of her kicks again (my mom gets on a new one ever other hour, sometimes two at a time, in which she can focus on nothing else except her newfound interest. Sometimes she is an interior designer, jewelry crafter, head chef, or travel agent, heck onetime she thought she could make a bundle of extra cash off cute bunny rabbits so she started a breeding center in our backyard with 5 rabbits she picked up from the local pet store. It failed, and when they all escaped they also ate her flowers and laughed at the irony of the situation).
So anyway, she took this questionable object and quickly exited the room and returned with it wrapped in ice announcing that she could not find a fridge to store it. I then asked what possibly could be so important that it must be taken overseas despite the fact that it should be refrigerated. She responded, “Well it is cheese for the pizza Dustin” as if this is just a normal thing to take over to Europe. Needless to say I still am amazed that she did such a thing. I mean this woman went to school for a long time for crying out loud and she brought cheese to the freakin Cheese capital of the world?! Oh my mother, ya gotta love her.
Ohhhh wait, I’m not done yet, I have to keep going being as she can’t defend herself. I mean usually you can only get one little thing in before she totally rips apart your own stupidity, at my count I have a good 10 days before this is even going to backfire on me. We will just worry about that laterJ So some of you may know that I am a pure bread Dutchman, and my Grandfather was born in the wonderful town of Eda in the South part of the Netherlands. We therefore rented a car in search of his birthplace so as to gaze upon the plot of land which began such a splendid family. To our dismay the home which he grew up in for his first 3 years of life was no longer there. It was demolished to make room for a new home, but the location was still beautiful. The countryscape was typical Dutch with small fenced in land for animals and crops belonging to the stout brick homes dotting the countryside. We pulled over the rental van to take some pictures when my mom glances out the window and announces “Hmmm…. Looks like a bunch of dogs over there.” Hmmmm….. is pretty much the only response I could provide to that comment (actually my dad and I proceeded to make plenty of other comments, but I am sure you all can make your own, just check the pictures).
Yea, my wonderful, and very educated, mother thought those looked like dogs. YEA WHEN YOU ARE 3!!!

And finally, I am going to close this section of the blog offering my humblest apologies to my mother who will read this in 10 days and surely find a way to get me back tenfold. Yet, I am sure that all of you out there who know this splendid woman will agree that she definitely has it coming to her!:-)




Oh yea, I almost forgot, she never tried to start the bunny farm, but I could see it happening. Really, I honestly could.