Marco was born in The Netherlands, but he should not be considered typical Dutch. Although born in Haarlem he has lived in Portugal for the first few years of his life and moved with his family to Saint John, New Brunswick in Canada in 1989. He attended the University of New Brunswick and Memorial University of Newfoundland. He graduated as naval architect in 1994, hung around in Canada for a few more weeks and then moved to the Netherlands. After being a homemaker for 6 months (waiting to be waived for Dutch military service) he started a job as design-engineer with Nevesbu in The Hague in 1995. He stayed there till he moved to Texas.
Lynnda was born in Kerkrade, Limburg. If you can read Dutch try this BNG site which includes
some interesting information about Kerkrade. For example: did you know that the
town of Kerkrade was already known in the 14th century ? And that Kerkrade has
its own encyclopedia online (although that will not be interesting for
non-Kirchroatsjer)? She has lived there for 18 years and attended Highschool at
Katholiek Gymnasium Rolduc.
After
graduation she moved to Eindhoven to attend Hogeschool Eindhoven. She graduated
as an engineer in Industrial Management (Bedrijfskunde) and was hired by KPN
Telecom right after graduation. Starting at the Bedrijfsbureau in Maastricht,she
moved on to planning and control and switched to the BU Mobile Network in 1995 in The Hague.
Lynnda was doing her final
graduation project for The Schelde Groep in Vlissingen.
As a good
employer should do, they took care of a place to live and so she ended up in a
house on the Singel. They told her that after new year (this is in 1993) an
older gentleman would join her in this house.
Marco came to Schelde Groep
for his second workterm and turned out to be the "older" gentleman. By the way,
they told him the same story and we both expected some middle-aged person as a
roommate. But it turned out otherwise.
After a long distance relationship
(Canada-Netherlands) for a year and a half, tons of letters/phonecalls and some
difficult decisions later, Marco moved to the Netherlands. We married on April
4,1997 at Rolduc (isn't that a
coincidence ?). We decided to go to Texas after e-mail contact with Marco's
friend Russell, who already was working for ABS. ABS was looking for engineers
and that's the story. Now, we've been here for 12 years, moved 3 times and still
have a job. Marco changed jobs in 2003 when he went to Exxon Mobil, Lynnda is
still with ABS. The good thing about leaving and starting somewhere new is that
you learn a lot about yourself, , you get to know a lot of people from all over
the world and do different things than at home. A great experience !
On
April 14, 2003 our son Julian Roelof was born and on December 2, 2006 our son
Yannick Nicholas. They both have the American and the Dutch nationality
(according to some people they also have the Texan nationality :) So now we
learn about some other things as well, I'm very interested in different teaching
and schooling methods and how Americans think about education and upbringing.
Unfortunately I have to tell you that till now I'm not very impressed...That's
one of the reasons I started looking for private schools since Julian will have
to start 1st grade this fall. Homeschooling would be an option for me too, but I
don't have the patience for it. We found the Redd school and we all liked it so we will
see how that will go.I am back working fulltime after I changed jobs and became
manager. I miss my Fridays off, and sometimes it is very hectic. I am
determined to go back to Europe to be closer to my parents. We just
have to wait for the right opportunity.
Personal update, 18 July 2010
Ik denk dat de nieuwe frequentie maar gewoon 1 keer per maand wordt, op een of andere manier is er teveel te doen in het weekend. Vandaag hebben we Julian weg gebracht voor een week op hemofilie kamp, zo'n 4 uur rijden hier vandaan. Hij was erg enthousiast, maar ook nerveus en toen ie vanmorgen bij de check een te hoge temperatuur had dacht ik even dat ie niet mocht gaan, maar wat creatief koelen was genoeg en uiteindelijk mocht ie toch mee. Yannick begon op de terugweg als te zeuren wanneer we Julian weer gingen ophalen, dat wordt nog leuk.
Verder is het gewoon druk; Julian is aan de 2e sessie zomerkamp bezig, Yannick amuseert zich prima op school met alles (al is ie vorige week gevallen en heeft een kanjer van een snee onder zijn wenkbrauw). Ik ben nog een keer naar Washington heen en weer geweest, maar dat is het voorlopig. Op 31 juli vertrekken we op vakantie naar Washington D.C. en Canada. De hotels zijn gereserveerd en de auto ook, de route is nog niet helemaal definitief.
Mijn verjaardag was rustig, ontbijt 's morgens en cake en ijs van mijn afdeling, 's avonds ben ik met de kinderen gaan uit eten, Marco had een vergadering. Vrijdag met Julian naar de Symphony voor de Planets van Holste en Space muziek (star wars, ET). De muziek van Holst was gepaard met beelden van NASA, heel erg mooi. Julian vond het prachtig, maar tijdens het laatste stuk viel ie in slaap, het was al 3 uur na zijn bedtijd.
Ik ben weer de medische molen in gegaan; had al een tijd last van "doofheid" aan mijn rechteroor, en toen ik zondagavond daarbij duizelig werd vond ik het genoeg. De KNO arts heeft een test laten doen en inderdaad, ik hoor rechts beduidend minder. Wat het precies is, is nog niet duidelijk, nu zit ik op medicijnen om te kijken of dat helpt, maar die maken me zo mogelijk nog duizeliger, niet bepaald prettig. Hoe dan ook, ik zal ook de alternatieve weg bewandelen en kijken hoe of wat.
