New Blog

Hi everyone, so I've been slow on the updates as you know. Now that I'm married, I decided to have a blog about both of us instead of just me, so the new blog page is found at www.dellandveralyn.blogspot.com. Maybe we can keep that one more updated :)

The Story

So, I guess I need to update my blog....a lot has been happening, but the most important update is that I have found someone that I want to be with forever :) His name is Dell Jensen, we met at the single's ward when I was home in the fall. I had a calling as a Sunday School teacher and while I was teaching I noticed that one of the guys was paying attention and smiling...he had a great smile...and there was just a light coming from him. After a couple weeks I found out his name was Dell. Another girl was interested in him, so I didn't think much about it, plus I was in an "anti-boy" mode. I had decided that I wasn't going to worry about boys, I was just going to do what I needed to do, I was going to come back to Rexburg, room with my friends, finish classes in July, go home and work/volunteer at the school in the fall, then student teach in the winter. I had a plan....I didn't realize how quickly that plan would change.



The Sunday after Christmas Dell came up to me and asked if we could get together that week, he found out that I was heading back to Rexburg that Saturday and rushed to ask me out before I left. :) I was all prepared to say that I couldn't because I had to get ready to go back to school, but something about the way he asked me softened my heart and I decided to give him a chance. We met on Monday night for FHE and had a great activity, then we planned our date for Thursday. It was a great date! First we went for a walk in the park and had snow cones, then we went and played games with his family for a couple hours. It was really fun, and I felt really comfortable with his family. They made me feel like I was already a part of their family. After the games he took me to a yummy Chinese restraunt. Then we went to my house and he looked at some of my artwork. We ended up spending 7 1/2 hours together! It was wonderful, and I wanted to get to know him better. It was just so natural and comfortable to be around him and we had similar interests.



On Saturday I left for Rexburg. When I got there I was about to call him to let him know that I got there safely, but he beat me to it! Just as I was pulling out my phone he called me! We ended up talking for 2 hours! I have only talked that long with family before! We talked again on Sunday for 2 1/2 hours....then on Monday for about the same. We also emailed and chatted a lot as well. We talked all the time :) In a way it was good to be 6 hours apart because that really built our communication and helped us get to know each other that way, and we kept finding that we had more and more in common! In January we had a 3 day weekend for Martin Luther King day so I went home to visit. He came over on Friday and played games with my family. Then Saturday was my day to spend with my family in Caldwell, which was great fun. Then Sunday we went to church together, ate lunch with my family, then we went to his home later for dinner and played games with his parents. The weekend was amazing! I realized that I was falling in love...actually, by Tuesday I realized I was in love. We continued talking all the time and improving and getting to know more and more about each other.



It was amazing to find out how compatible we are and we just kept finding out how much we had in common and how similar we are. I never expected to find someone so similar. You know those lists that they tell you to write in young women's that has all of the qualities you are looking for in a husband? He matched all of them...he exceeded it! He is so much better than I deserve! There really is no perfect man out there for everybody, but there is a perfect man for me, and I found him. He treats me so well, makes me feel special, makes me happy,....he just makes me want to be a better person.



We had a 3 day weekend again in February for Presidents day, so I went home again. He arrived at my house just a few minutes after I got home and after eating soup we went over to Oma and Opa's to help Oma with her computer and help them find a hotel to stay in so they would already be in Boise in the morning for Opa's surgery. It was good to see them. On Saturday, which just happened to be Valentine's day, Dell picked me up from my eye appointment and we went to the park where we had our first date. While there he asked me to marry him. Neither one of us had expected a proposal that day, but the moment was right. We went to his house later and made a snowman in his Grandpa's yard, then he had me go on a treasure hunt for my valentine. That was fun :) After dinner we watched a movie with his parents and then he took me home. On Sunday we went to church again, then we went to my house for lunch and played games with my family and spent time with them.



Monday meant that it was time to return to Rexburg, but this time he came back with me to visit and look for some job opportunities in this area. On the 22nd of February, my birthday, he proposed to me. He had been giving me pieces of a heart all week with a message on it, and he gave me the last piece on the 22nd which told me where to meet him. So I met him at the Temple and he knelt down and proposed. He had a ring! I didn't expect that!! I was expecting a ring pop or a twisty tie because I am allergic to metal like mom, but he found a really pretty ring that doesn't bother me. After that we let everyone know that we were engaged. Since then we have just been enjoying spending time together and we have been looking for housing and working on wedding preparations and things. Last night was his last night here in Rexburg so we will be back to emails and phone calls until April 10th when we will be sealed together for eternity in the Boise Temple.



I never expected to go this fast in a relationship, neither one of us did, but it just feels right. Everything is working out, it is almost magical how it all happened/is happening. We found out that there were so many times where we could have met, we even lived in complexes right next to each other, I walked through his parking lot everyday! Even though we could have met then, the timing was right for us to meet now. The Lord's timing is so perfect!! This has been such a wonderful experience; I am so blessed.



We took our engagement pictures last week and got them back, so now you can see them too :)



Click here to see the pictures
Here is one of our pictures. We took one that looked like those Dutch kissing couple figurines :)

Holland Collages

Well, I thought since I mentioned our endeavor to take pictures of all of the different ways to flush a toilet, I would share the collage of all of them. There are two pictures missing because we hadn't started our collection yet, but they were cool. Ome Jan and Tante Annie Hopman had one with a little knob on a stick kind of thing, that went through the center of the tank. You pull up on the knob to flush it. The other one was in Scheveningen when we went to TARZAN. It took me and Laena both 5 minutes to figure out where it was!! I'm not kidding. We kept looking around for it, it ended up being something funky, but I don't remember how it worked. Our favorite one was the one on the floor in the Paleis Het Loo. We called it the "Royal Toilet"...or I guess you could say, the "royal flush." :)














Here is also a collage of the "killer pidgeons". I will never look at pidgeons the same. :P

Here is a collection of all the birds that we saw...yes, we started collecting pictures of all of them too, especially after the pidgeons and the peacock.

HAPPY MEMORIES!!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

The time came for us to get up and go to the airport. We had a great time in Holland and I was definitely glad I went!! We found another cool toilet to take a picture of in the airport. This one was a hi-tech one, but what was even cooler were the tulips painted on the stall doors. I don't think anyone saw us taking pictures of the stalls in the bathroom, but if they did, you know they thought we were crazy.

It was a long flight over the ocean, and a lot more cramped because we didn't have the luxury of getting moved up to Economy Plus. So, we had sore legs just like everyone else. In fact, when I tried to lay my seat back a little bit to sleep, the lady behind me kicked my seat. So I put my pillow up against the window instead. Eventually we started descending and we saw Michigan as we flew into Chicago. It was pretty, and I was excited to get off the plane.

We had another 6 hour layover in Chicago. At least this time part of the time was spent in Customs, then traveling from Customs to the terminal. After playing scrabble for hours and eating dinner the flights for our time were finally up on the boards, and we discovered we were in the wrong terminal, so we got a bus to the next one over. There we sat again, waiting for our flight and playing speed scrabble. However, we remembered that the Chicago airport had these really cool hi-tech toilet seats with rotating seat covers, so this time we were ready with our cameras. In fact, Laena took a video of it. To see what I am talking about, click here.


Our plane ended up being delayed, so we had to wait even longer!! However, we eventually made it home. We were exhausted, the time change was throwing us off and our bodies had been awake for over 24 hours, though the time change made it the same day. Luckily our planes came in at night, so we could go straight to bed.
We were happy to be home.


To see the other pictures, click here.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

This was the day that we had planned to go the the Temple in Den Haag (actually it is in Zoetemeer), but we were afraid that with the money dilemma we had run into in Amsterdam would keep us from going. So as soon as we had gotten back to Tante Marianne's we called home and my Dad put some money into my account so that I could buy the train tickets and then some extra just in case. So, Tante Marianne dropped us off at the train station again (after making sure that we were able to get our money first), this time I bought a round trip ticket. Our first train was delayed, so we missed the connecting train that we originially were going to take. We had a hard time finding a train going in the right direction, but after talking to the conducters and telling them our final destination they were able to tell us whether we had the right train (or at least how close they could take us to our destination). Tante Marianne had really helped in this department because she printed out some of the train options we could take, so I had an idea of where normal train stops and swaps would be.

We finally made it to Zoetemeer and with the simple directions that the Temple President had given us on Sunday we were able to find the Temple. It was so beautiful, and such a wonderful experience. So peaceful! It was definitely worth all the trouble of getting there. What a great way to end a trip!!

When we left the Temple, there was a little restraunt-type place nearby, so we stopped there for lunch. When Laena spoke in English, the lady seemed to give a look like "If you don't speak my language what are you doing in this part of Holland for?" So, I tried to talk in my limited Dutch. That seemed to make her smile. So, not knowing what most of the stuff on the menu was I smiled and asked for my favorite dish, that I knew how to say "Kroquet met potat, astublief" (I will fix the spelling as soon as I find a my Dutch dictionary). That is my favorite lunch dish to order! It is a breaded....well, I don't know how to explain a kroquet, but you usually order fries to go with it, and you can't eat fries in Holland without the famous fry sauce!! Yummmm.... What did we drink? That was simple too. I almost always ask for "appelsap" (apple juice) or "sinasappelsap" (orange juice) because apple juice is easy to say, and orange juice is really fun to say. :)

The way back was much easier since Tante Marianne printed out the time schedules of the trains we needed to catch and which track they would be on. There was also a sign saying which stop was next in the train, and the conductor only announced that stop, instead of a lot of extra talking. We bought a bouquet of roses to give to Tante Marianne as a "thank you" in the Den Haag station (roses are cheaper in Holland). I was going to come up with this big story of how some stranger thought that we were so cute that he gave us flowers or something like that, but the bouquet was so big that it was too hard to hide behind my back, so there was not story to accompany the gift when Tante Marianne picked us up at the station. It sure brought a lot of attention on the train though. Everyone kept looking at me, especially this one guy (which is where the story originated). Anyway, it was a wonderful way to end the trip.

After dinner, Ome Jan and Tante Annie Bruijn, as well as Chantal, Remco, Nico, and Marian all came to say goodbye. Once they left we finished our packing and weighed our suitcases. It would be our last night in Holland.

For all of our pictures click here.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Amsterdam!! Today Tante Marianne had to go back to work again, so she dropped us off at the train station and we took the train into Amsterdam. We had a map of the city that Tante Marianne gave us to help us get around. I also remembered reading about a canal bus, it is a little boat that drives around the canals to take you to all the tourist areas. I knew that there was a ticket that you could buy that would allow you to canal bus hop for a full 24 hours. So, once we found the ticket place that is what we did. We ended up going to the Rijksmuseum, Coster Diamonds, which shows how they cut diamonds, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rijksmuseum.


We found more killer pidgeons during our stroll through Amsterdam.

It got a little nerve racking in Amsterdam when Laena went to get some more money from her debit card and the machine ended up eating it. We had anticipated using her cash for today's and tomorrow's adventure, so it kind of made us nervous because I didn't have enough money to pull off of my debit card, so we just had my cash and my credit card to work with. A lot of places don't accept credit cards, but I was able to use the credit card to enter the rest of the museums which was good because we could only use cash to buy the train ticket back home. I had pennies left after I bought the ticket, but we made it back home...even though we had a hard time understanding the conductor. :)

For all of our pictures click here.

Sunday, Septmeber 30, 2007

Laena and I went to church in Holland for the last time today. The Temple President was there as a speaker, so we talked to him and arranged a time where we could go to the Temple on Tuesday. What perfect timing!! Did I forget to mention that the first time we went to church, one of the missionaries there thought that I was Laena's mom? I think Laena was much more insulted than I was with that news because I thought it was a little humorous. Anyway, moving on...

After church we had a delicous spinach salad and soup for lunch. Yummmm.... Then we went to the molen museum, which showed how windmills work and how they were used back in the day when the mill keeper and his family lived in them. Pretty cool!!

How would you like to carry these pails around all the time?

Then we went to Stompetoren, where the WWII memorial is with some of our family. Our Oma's sister, Tante Trien was married during WWII. Her husband and father-in-law were part of the Dutch underground railroad, and ended up getting killed by the Germans, along with many others. So this was a memorial to some of those men.


Our Tante Ita and my Oma's nephew had stained glass made to put up in the church's windows as a memorial. We also got to drive by the old farmhouse, where our Tante Trien and Ome Piet had lived when the Germans burst in, killed the men, and burned down the farm. It was a really sad story, but it does make me proud to hear how my relatives fought for their country. I had heard this story when I first went to Holland when I was 11, this was the first time I was able to see the memorial or the house, so it really brought it to life. It is a story I will never forget.



For all of the pictures from the day click here.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

The weather for this day was rainy and drizzly so we took advantage of the "not good for site-seeing" weather and turned it into a packing day. We also played scrabble, and watched a movie, as well as update everything on the blog. This was a lot easier to keep up when I was in Holland, as you can see.

Friday, September 28, 2007

It was washing day again! The final washing so we could get a head start on our packing. While we were waiting for our clothes to wash, we went for another enjoyable walk through Purmerend. After our clothes were finished we went to Zaanse Schans again to grab some more souvenirs. Actually, it was for a specific souvenir that we had only seen there, and also some Dutch cheese to take home. Patrick had asked for some new wooden shoes too, since he had outgrown his old ones. He said that he wanted a black pair if they had one, but if they didn't then he just wanted a cool pair that no one in our family had ever had. Well, we found a very unique pair in Zaanse Schans!! I saw them, and said "Those are Patrick's shoes!!!" The shoe hanging up on the beam in the picture to the right looks just like Patrick's new shoes. When I gave them to him he started laughing, but not as hard as Oma laughed when she saw his new "Cow klompen".





After buying the shoes and the cheese, we went to go shopping in some other stores, and while we were looking in one store we found the hardware section where the toilets were on display. Now, I don't think I have yet mentioned our "toilet hunt", so let me explain. We found that toilets in Holland, don't have the same kind of handle as the toilets in the U.S., and depending on how old the toilets are, there are lots of different ways to flush a toilet. Sometimes it took us a while to figure out how to flush them. So, by this time, we had already started our toilet hunt and we had been taking pictures of the different ways to flush a toilet. So, we took advantage of the display toilets and Tante Marianne helped us look for any that we hadn't taken a picture of yet. These were of course, more modern toilets. You may think we are weird, but we had a good time and thought it was pretty funny.


After coming home we watched an Andre Rieu performance on DVD that we had borrowed from Ome Jan and Tante Annie Hopman. He is an amazing violinist from Holland and he and his orchestra are always really funny in their performance.

To see the rest of our pictures from this day click here.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Volendam!

We had a great time on this day! We went to Volendam to shop for souvenirs!! Woo-hoo! It is one of the best places to get souvenirs because there are a ton of options at a decent price. We also went into a little photo studio that dresses you up in traditional Dutch clothing and g

ives you some props to hold. It turned out really cute! Laena got to hold the accordion, I got the basket of flowers, and Tante Marianne got to pour the kettle. That made a great souvenir for each of us, plus our mom, and Oma.
We also picked up some new wooden shoes for Ardella and Dad. After shopping around for a while, Tante Marianne and I took a "koffie tijd" while Laena continued shopping. She came back with these huge bags filled with 15 pairs or so of slippers that look like wooden shoes! It was pretty funny, and she made the store keeper really happy!
We took the back roads home which are even smaller than the regular roads. They really are not meant for modern day cars, only one car can drive through at a time. It was a pretty drive though, and there was a beautiful sunset to greet us when we got home. Then we sat back and watched a movie to complete the day.

Click here to view all of our pictures for the day.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

After we ate breakfast, Laena, Tante Marianne, and I went to the Groningen Museum. It contained mostly modern type art, which is not my favorite, but the set-up was kind of neat. It was raining the hardest while we were in the museum and was still raining a little when we got out. So we went to a little cafe to eat some sandwiches for lunch until the rain stopped. Then we returned to our hotel to check out and continue on our adventures.

Our next stop on our way home was down to Apeldoorn, to visit the Paleis Het Loo. That is one of the palaces from the Royal family. It was big! We got there with only an hour left to tour, so we couldn't go through the stables or those huge gardens, but we did get to see the main part of the paleis and a little of the gardens. However, we did get to see a peacock in the parking lot, that we chased around the car trying to get a picture of it. It was growing back its tail feathers, so we couldn't get a picture of it fanning its tail.

After the Paleis, we crossed over another dijk and headed to Hoorn. There is a 5-star Chinese Restraunt there that Tante Marianne had been to before, so we decided to eat there. It was soooo good!!! Yummy!!

For more pictures of our Groningen adventures click the link below:

Groningen adventures

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Well, the update for the rest of my trip to Holland is long overdue...like a year overdue!! Sorry about that.

Anyway, on the 25th we took a trip to Groningen to visit my friend Linda. She was actually going to stay with us as an exchange student when I was in high school, but it didn't end up working out. However, we have remained friends even though we never had the chance to meet. So, we were on our way to meet her for the first time.

Groningen is on the other side of Holland so we had to cross over a large Dijk to get there. I got to be the navigator again. Groningen was full of one-way streets and lots of students on bikes! It was a little difficult to find the right road that would lead to our hotel, but with some help we finally found it. It was a pretty neat hotel. It is an older one, but the bedroom made you feel like you were sleeping in the forest under some trees because there were lots of wooden beams. That was really fun! Plus, we actually had a view out of our window rather than the building wall next to us!! Woo hoo! Click here for a couple pictures of our hotel room

We met Linda, who became our "tour guide" for the day and showed us Groningen. Not only were there hundreds of bikes, but there were also hundreds of birds! Click here to see a couple of them. We went to a cafe for dinner and talked for hours! We all enjoyed ourselves, in fact Tante Marianne felt as though she had been friends with her for a long time, even though they had just met. After dinner Tante Marianne went back to the hotel, while Laena, Linda, and I went to visit Linda's apartment and then went to the theater to watch a movie.
What a wonderful day!

Monday, September 24, 2007

This was a rest day, or a "personal day" since we had done a lot the last few days and we were going on a road trip on Tuesday/Wednesday. Tante Marianne went to town to get a printer cable while we stayed home. I spent most of the day trying to do updates and organize photos; I accomplished a lot. We watched a movie in the evening while I continued to update the website. The pictures from our road trip are coming your way soon.

In the meantime, enjoy a little scenic video I made during our drive into Alkmaar one day.

Click here

Sunday, September 23, 2007

We weren't feeling well in the morning, so Laena and I didn't go to church, but we were feeling a little better around 1:00 when we had originally agreed to meet up with Tante Annie Hopman. Together, Tante Annie, Tante Marianne, Laena, and I went to Winkel to watch the Bloemencorso (flower parade). All of the floats are made with flowers! It was really cool!

After the parade we went over to Margriet and Paul's house to visit them. While there Cora and Rick stopped by with their children. The kids were really fun to watch. Then we went home with Tante Annie to eat dinner with her and Ome Jan. Dinner was really good, heel lekker! They are really funny too; we had a great time.

For all the pictures from the day click here

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Today was Emy's birthday, so we went over there to visit with her and Andrie. Marian, Ome Jan and Tante Annie Bruijn, Bea, Theo, Tante Iet's sister, and Dionne all showed up there during the same time as well. It was a fun gathering; I am glad I was here for Emy's "sweet sixteen". Afterwards, we returned the videos and rented a few more, then we went grocery shopping.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Our adventures for the day took us to the town of Delft to see the Royal Dutch Porcelyne de Fles pottery. Made by hand since the 17th century. They are celebrating their 350th anniversary this year! It was interesting to see all of the pottery. They are so detailed and it is all done by hand! No wonder it costs so much.

After we saw that museum we stayed in Delft to visit the Nieuwe Kerk and the Oude Kerk (new and old church), which was also neat to see. The Nieuwe Kerk holds the tombs of royal family members from the House of Orange, while the Oude Kerk holds tombs of other famous people, like the painter Vermeer. However, we weren't able to find his gravestone because we only had 10 minutes before it closed to look. Ah well, at least we can say we were there.

Since all the places close at 6:00pm, it was time to leave Delft and head out to Kinderdijk to see the 19 windmills that are still in use today. We arrived there just as the sun was setting, so we were able to make several beautiful pictures. Any earlier, and it they all would have been daylight pictures, any later and it would have been too dark. Perfect timing!!

Finished with our sightseeing, we began the journey home, but since Tante Marianne had never been there before, she needed a navigator. Being in the backseat, where I could turn on the light to see my map, the job fell upon me. I never had to navigate anybody before, but thanks to an excellent map we got to where we needed to be. It was a really good thing I bought that map before I came! Also, thank you Tante Tina for the guidebook, it has been well used!!

For all of our beautiful pictures from today's adventures click here

Thursday, September 20, 2007

We spent most of the day in Purmerend doing laundry. While we were waiting for the washers, Laena and I took a stroll through the nearby park and took some pictures. When we got home we played around with Laena's panoramic setting, then we looked at the pictures on the t.v. so that everyone could see them.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

We took a scenic drive through the country on our way to Bea's house. On our drive we stopped in the town of Neck to see some of our ancestors that are buried there. Then we drove on through Wijdewormer to see the house where our dad was born, plus Ome Jaap and Tante Iet's old house across the street.

After that we went to Bea's so that the four of us could go see Zaanse Schans. I didn't remember it being so big. We had a fun and took lots of pictures. It was really windy, but it didn't rain while we were there.

Later we went to Purmerend with Bea, Theo, Frank, and Dionne to eat dinner with them. It was good to see all of them again; they are so much fun to be around!

For more pictures of us click here

Click here to see a video from inside the paint mill

and then here

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Today was full of fun! After Tante Marianne got back from her physio in the morning we drove to Den Haag. We were able to find a parking space in a parking garage that ended up costing 9 euros for 4 1/2 hours!! That is great! Especially compared to Amsterdam costing 24 euros for 5 hours. After we parked we went to watch the Prinsjesdag parade where the Queen rides by in the golden coach to open up parliament. The first spot we were in was right on the corner, but we were in a big crowd. Laena held the camera as high as she could reach to get over the crowd, and Tante Marianne, being taller than us could see, but in order for me to see Laena had to squat down so I could stand on her legs. Then I could see really well!!

While I was up on Laena's legs, I saw that there was a big screen down at the opposite corner showing everything, so after the parade was all done we walked over that way to listen to the Queen give her speech to open up parliament (similar to the state of the union address). Tante Marianne thought that it was strange that the people next to the fence weren't leaving their spots so she asked one of them if the parade was coming back and they were, so we had really good spots the second time around! We were so close that we could see inside the carriages and we could see Queen Beatrix. We waved to her and she waved back!! Of course, she was already waving, but she looked at us! If the day would have ended there, I would have been completely satisfied, but it got even better!!

After the parade we ate a broodje kroket, then headed off to the paleis to try and catch Queen Beatrix, Willem Alexander, and Maxima waving from the balcony. However, by the time we were able to cross the roads they had gone in for soup. Then we went to Panorama Mesdag and saw the amazing panoramic picture!! Afterwards we stopped for "Koffie time" then saw the Parliament buildings.

We then drove to Scheveningen to get a parking place and eat dinner before the musical Tarzan started. Dinner was at a tasty Chinese restaurant. Yummy! Across the street from the restaurant was the thing that brought us down to the Hague and Scheveningen...TARZAN! The musical was amaaaaaaaazing!! Fantastic!! Fabulous!! The songs are still going through my head...of course I don't think they will be coming out soon because I got the cast album after it was over. The actors were incredible and funny! They were also very acrobatic, walking around like apes...flying through the air above your head...stupendous! It gives you goosebumps being there in person, sitting in red velvet seats, feeling "the vibrations", everything! It is a good thing we had an hour long drive to get back home or I would have been way to excited to go to sleep.

For all the pictures from our fantastic day click here.

For some video footage of the parade click here

Monday, September 17, 2007

Tante Marianne had a hair appointment today, so she went to do that and got back around 2:00. Laena and I stayed home and did some planning and played around with our pictures on the computer. It was pouring rain most of the day, so it wasn't good weather for sight seeing. Instead we went to De Rijp to get some bread and check to see if we could withdraw cash with our cards. Then we went home and watched one of our rented videos again before we had to take it back.

We also played scrabble again in the evening. This time we got creative and used all of the letters to spell medical terms. We were so proud!