happy New Year!!

Happy new year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy 2011!!

Bye snowhut

Today the temperatures went up a bit and the sun was shining very bright.
So our snowhut started tp change a bit.

The 20 cm of snow that was on top became brittle.
It wasn't water, but it melted a bit and then went ice again.

The walls are much smoother and more compact.

So in fact the hut has become a bit better except on top.

We're not using it, so we're not in danger of getting the whole lot on top of us.
Mom warned us enough!

Fireworks

Today the shops are allowed to sell fireworks again.

I won't buy it, because I think it's a waste of money.

I think that one show of fireworks in a town is far more beautiful that a lot of noise and simple fireworks in front of every housedoor.

The past years people have bought more and more expensive fireworks, and even it's nice to see, I always have to think that many animals are very afraid of it and that many people don't even have a normal place to sleep or have problems buying food.

So it's a big "no" for me.

How about you?

Dangerous woods

The past week we've seen that not only snow was covering the trees and lanternposts, but also ice.

Mom already said to be careful not to stand under trees and other places where ice was on top of hanging from.

Today it was on the news that large parts of the woods are closed because of the same danger.

During a few hours today it wasn't freezing anymore and I saw quite a lot of snow and ice falling from roofs.
Inside the house it was a a strange noice.

It's sad we can't walk in the woods at the moment.
Today my sister and I arrived home again after staying with our oldest brother.
We now have to make other plans for the rest of the week.

An extra day

We had such a good day that we called mom to ask if we were allowed to stay another day.
She had to laugh, like she expected the call, and said we should ask that my oldest brother. It's his house.

Ofcourse we were allowed to stay.

Maybe we'll go iceskating.
There's a very nice iceskating..eh...floor near to where my bother lives and it's very cheap to go there.

I'll tell about that tomorrow.

christmasdinner

We've had a very good time together.
We prepared gourmet, with lots of meat and salad and sauces and wonderful towers of grilled mached potatoes.

Every one was there and even though we had hardly enough place, we had lots of fun.

I gave presents to one of my brothers and he liked them.
And I got presents too.

After the others had left we tidied the room again and cleaned the mess and then sat down to watch a movie.
We love to stay over at my bother's.

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a merry christmas.

We're finally having a white christmas.
In fact is part of the country snowed in. And they've been told not to leave their homes unless it's absolutely necessary.
Here we have to walk a long way to the main road, because they haven't removed the snow in the neighbourhoods.

It's beautiful to look outside and I feel happy because of it.

Tomorrow we'll have a day at home, with friends and family dropping in.
And the day after we're going to my oldest brother who makes dinner for all of us.
Maybe I'm going to help him.

A white christmas for us

We're very lucky to have a white christmas.
And we're lucky to have good heating.

A few years ago the heating stopped at christmas.
It was freezing, so we had to call the repairman.
It took hours before he came and when he was finally here he said he couldn't make it because he needed a special part.

Brrr...

Almost no busses

Again we had a lot of snow.
My mom had to go with one of my brothers to hospital for a check up and later realised they were lucky to have found a bus to go there.
It took them half an hour longer to get there, which didn't matter as mom always leaves in time and is always early for appointments.

When they were finished she called us at home to tell they were waiting in the freezing cold, trying not to feel the wind, already for over 4o minutes.
We needn't worry, she said, but ofcourse we were not happy with that news.
The trains were not going, so we wondered how and when she would be at home again.

Finally a bus came going into the wrong direction... to town, but they decided to take it anyway, because it would bring them nearer to the busstation and nearer to friends. In case they got stuck.

Well, they managed to find a bus going in our direction and after hours they arrived at home.
Very tired ofcourse.
We made them hot chocolate and bread.

The famous car

This afternoon my mom suddenly called that we had to come down with our cameras.
She pinted outside and there it was: the car of cola, you know, the one from the advertisements, with the lights around it. It was shorter than on TV, but the large Santa was on t.

Two girls and a boy in lovely outfits pulled small car, as beautiful as the large one, and they went from door to door.

At our door one of them gave my mom a large bottle of cola.
It was fun to see how surprised she was.

The car in the snow.
It was getting darker, so we could see the car better.

It was great!

Armed robbery

I heard that there was an armed robbery nearby in the gardencentre.
In the online paper it said they wanted the money, but we think they were looking for the fireworks for the newyear's celebrations. Or maybe they thought the key was with the money in the moneydrawer.

I haven't been to that gardencentre for ages, but the idea that it happens so close to home is a bit frightening.

It was said they went away ...walking.

Then the gardencentre is the right place as that neighbourhood is a mash of short streets, gardenpaths and corners.

When they tried something like that in the shoppingcentre they would be caught in no time.

Now I hope the surveillancecamera has caught an good image of them.

snowhouse

We have had so much snow!

In the past my brothers taught us how to make a snowhut, and today we started to make one ourselves.
Girl's power!

A few friends helped too and we got a huge amount of snow which we pressed together in buckets before we put them on the walls.

Then a few other girls came and started to ask silly questions.

We just went on working at our snowhouse and closed the gardengate.

Puh!

..and more snow

Maybe it's a bit boring: reading about snow, but when you would be here you wouldn't be bored at all.

This morning we woke up and the bedroomwindow was completely covered with snow.
It had snowed so very much that we couldn't see the street.
The trees had white branches and everything else had a layer of about 10 cm on it.

Soon after it started to snow again.

Right now we have about 20 cm of snow and more is expected.

Ofcourse we had a lot fo fun in the snow. It's nice to have friends living close to my home.
When we were all cold and wet we went inside again. We got hot chocolate and it smelled very good.

Winter and twingiraffes

I am so happy that it's vacation.
It's so very cold and the roads are all ice.

Today I stayed at home and listened to music while I was tidying my room.

Just before I went to bed I heard that in China twin giraffes were born today.
That is unique.
It never happened in China.

Tonight very bad weather is expected: snow snow and snow.

Vacation!

Today was the first day of the vacation!

And it also was a day full of snow.
I can't say again, because we got more snow today than the days before.

The traffic was a complete disaster during the evening. I'm so glad I wasn't in there.
Many people told they needed 5 times as much time to get somewhere.
Some radio and TV presenters returned home, because they couldnt make it.

At home we made some plans for christmas. Mom bought a little box with beads and felt and such to make small puppets. Looks nice.

And she found between the christmasstuff a nice musicbox.

Will we have a white christmas this year?

Today was the last day of school before the christmas vacation.
Last year we had just a few days vacation, but this year it's two weeks.

I had another day of job orientation, but I'll write about that another time.

My sister had a balletperformance.
Just a small one.
Instead of an open lessen with hardly any place for visitors to sit, the combied the classes and gave a performance in a small theatre.

My balletteacher is still ill, so our open lesson was cancelled.
I hope she feels better soon.

I was glad to be home again, because it was no fun eith so much snow and slippery pavements.

An interesting day

Today I had to go with someone to his job to see how the work was done.
The person I went with worked in ITC.

We first went to different clients who had problems with their computer and when that was repaired we went to a place where he showed me things about webdesign.

It was very interesting

Nice evening

My mom had to babysit the children I grew up with so I asked her if I could come with her and she said "yes".
When the smallest child was to bed we all made hot chocolate and had a good time.

One of them showed a paper he made last year and it looked awesome. That was a good inspiration for me.

We had a nice time listening to music and had fun doing things at the computer.

Then I went home, because it was time to go to bed.

I was happy to come home because it was a lot warmer there.

Art and architecture

I love art, not only in a museum but also when I can make it by myself.
I really don't know much about art, maybe because I think it's far more important how I perceive and experience it than what others have to tell about their own experience.
Making art by myself is fun. I love manga style but also realistic, fantasy and other styles.

I don't know much about architecture. I love victorian but that is really all I know about it.
I think architecture is important for the world because otherwise it would be grey and boring.
I love many things of architecture, but I'm more interested in the inside of buildings than the outside.
I would love to have a house with lots of open spacious rooms, with a large staircase. And rooms with a two persons bed, it's own bathroom and a
walkin closet. A big kitchen, a big livingroom with a plasma television and a big garden with a swimmingpool and more.

I have a big fantasy since I probably never will get such a house. But a girl has to dreams, hasn't she?

Statue

It's a pity I can't tale photos of the statue I made at school.
It's not large, about 20 cm I estimate, but my family likes it.

It's made of clay and has turned almost white now.

From the side the face looks very real. One way or another I caught the silhouette very well.

Yes, I'm proud of it, because I know I'm not a real talent with clay.

Did you ever make something that turned out very well?

I've won at Rena Designs!

Scrapbooking is a lot of fun.
My sister and I have made wonderful scrapbooks.
When I came online I didn't expect to find people who love scrapbooking too, and I didn't know much about it.

Then I found Rena Designs.
She's got a wonderful blog and regularly organises a give-away.

I participated last week, because I loved her crapmaterial.
And I've won!!


I feel very happy about it.

Thank you very much, Rena.

Dance

As a very young child, at the age of 2, I used to stop playing when I heard music. My mom told me that I would listen for a moment and then would start to dance in front of the speakers.

I wanted to go to balletlessons like my older brother, but I had to wait until I was 6 years old.

I'm having balletlessons since I'm six years old.
I love it because of the music and because I can put my soul in it.

I have been on stage too and it was a good experience. People who look at you and think the dance you made is good. It made me feel proud.
Maybe you know what I mean.

I love dancing so much that I do it every day, even when it's not for
practicing.
I'm also happy to dance because I wanna make my family and friends proud.
I have many things accomplished.
Not only did I perform every year with my group, but I was also one of the soloists a couple of times, and I did the choreography of parts of dancepieces a couple of times.

I've had a classical ballet training, but this year I started a new course which schedules different kind of dances, like jazz, dance expression, and streetdance.

My final exams are next year and I'm not sure if I'll take lessons that year.
I take my exams very serious and I want to do well.
My parents tell me not to stop, because dancing is such a good way to relax and take everything from my mind.

So I have to make up my mind.

It's friday so...

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Safe Internet - 10 golden rules

Safe internet is of utmost importance. No matter the age of the kid or young person, there should be a certain amount of freedom within boundaries.
Safety is not only a matter of devices and control.
Children should develop an inner need and attitude to be safe.
Both the school- and the home-environment should teach a child how to behave online in such a way that it's able to safeguard it's own privacy and safety, both online and offline, the safety and privacy of others, and the safety of the computerequipment.

A safe computer

Safe internet starts with a safe computer.
That means that each computer should have a proper firewall, virusscanner and spywarescanner. Set them to update and scan each day.
In the settings it can be arranged that everytine the browser closes the temporal files will be emptied.
Block sites which are unwanted.
Some browsers allow add-ons that block advertisements. Use them well.

Information

One of the best ways to make people aware of the dangers and problems of internet is to inform them.
As children are younger and younger when they go on internet, information should be given age-appropriate, clear, and with rules that allow no exceptions.

When children grow up, these rules need adjustments.
Information and explanations should be repeated and the dangers of not following the rules should be explained well enough. Young people tend to get curious by what they're not allowed to do. A booklet with paper and magazine articles about what happens with people when they not follow the basic rules of internet is a perfect means to convey information and rules when these young people reach a certain age.
Ofcourse the parents, teachers and others are role models, so they should behave accordingly.

Rules

1. Never ever provide your real name on internet.
Use an allias you like.
As always the law gets insight from real life and creates rules afterwards. Some sites state that they should give real life information according to the law.
Make children aware that sites which require real name and other private information should not do so, and they should consult the parents what to do.
As small children won't use bank accounts, taxforms and online sites that require true private data this rule applies always.
Schools often make the mistake that they use schedules mentioning the names of the pupils. These schedules should be behind passwords, or the school can use the aliasses children use online. Pupilnumbers seem to be unfriendly, but they guarantee more safety online.

2. Never ever give the name or other information about yourself, your family and friends online.
Not in mail, not in blogs, not at all.
So don't mention where your father works. No names, no addresses, no phone numbers.
Don't mention the name of your school, nor place a link to your school on your site. Those who know you, know where to go. If necessary only provide the extension of the url, so family members and friends know where to go.

3. Your passwords should not be given to anyone but your parents.
Keep them in a booklet beside the computer, so you won't forget them.
Allow your parents to know the password too, so they know you trust them and they can trust you.
When you're requested to give your password and you're not sure if you should give it...ask your parents.

4. Don't save private information on your computer.
When you need to keep certain information available. Use the booklet beside your computer.

5. Never agree to meet someone without others in a chatroom, unless you're absolutely sure that person can be trusted. The basic rules of internet apply there too.

6. Never agree to meet someone offline unless your parents are involved and one of them goes with you.
Because there are people with bad intentions who  act like a child, or act like they're your age to make you believe you're safe, make an appointment at a public place and never ever go without someone else.

7. Never send pictures or place them on your site without your parent's consent.
Pictures often reveal private information and enable criminals to find you.
Older young people often attend social networking sites like hyves, facebook and such and love to share their photos.
Don't.
It's fun and others do it too. But do you know that quite some young people didn't get a place for practical training or a job because their potential employer had a good look at a person's behaviour at those sites?
When you really feel the need to share photos with friends, there's no need to make the whole world watch them too.

8. When people or messages make you uncomfortable inform your parents.
If necessary they'll inform people who can take action, like forummoderators, siteowners or even the service providers.
Ofcourse you'll behave perfectly OK online too. So you won't bully, won't use use improper language, won't gossip, etc etc.

9. Don't click any buttons that make you agree with installing something, or buttons you don't expect on a site.
Often they contain virusses or trojans which will infect the computer.
Most problems you'll encounter at sites with games. Sometimes unintentionally clicking a picture brings you to a site that makes you press a button to agree you want to leave that site. Just close your browser. If necessary use taskmanagement to do so.

10. Keep your emailadresses in a booklet, not in your emailprogram.
A worm can infect the computers of all your contacts, a hacker can access all your contacts.
It's best to get an emailaddress online with a trusted provider, like gmail or yahoo.
Even in the emailenvironment you should behave properly and refrain from improper language, as many emailproviders keep the mails for future reference.

11. Stay OK.

Yes I know: the stay OK rule is a number eleven in a list of ten.
But it's important you won't make the mistakes others made.

So don't stay online too long.

Use a good chair, place the keyboard and screen at proper heights and adjust those heights often when you're growing.

Don't eat when you're online, because it is very habit forming and it makes you overeat without even realising it.

Homework first.

Be aware of the fact that all information online, whether it's given through chat, MSN, in forums, on sites, in comments or anywhere else can be used by those who don't have good intentions.
Posting somewhere reveals your emailaddress.
So it's a good idea to keep a special emailadress for school, family and real life friends, and have another emailadress for your activities online. Some even use a special emailadress when they go to a new place on internet.

Be aware that all laws apply online too. So you can't take an image or photo somewhere and post it on your blog because you like it.  Copyrightviolations can result in legal action against you.

Remember that in case you find unwanted information online, someone steals your blogtexts, bullies you, etc etc. there are people who can deal with it. Don't hesitate to contact them or have your parents contact them.
Sometimes young people want to solve their own problems, which is indeed a sign of development, but when you've caused problems to your computer, don't go to the first forum you see. Let someone deal with it who understands computers. Ofcourse you can learn a lot then.


Don't forget your real life friends or to have fun with your family.

Theatre

I'm not sure if I like theatre.

I've been less than 10 times to a real theatre.

But I've been involved in theatre at school.
Only when I have to make a play with schoolmates I like it.
But when the actors in a play that don't really act well, I need to bite on my lip to keep my mouth shut.
There is no fun when the acting is bad, it distracts me too much.

But when the acting is good, I can enjoy the play a lot.

I love to act. I did try to get in the theatre classes of school,but they took only those who were really good in acting. I just had too little experience.
Too bad for me, more fun for them. I don't have a problem with that.
As long they don't make fun of those classes, I think its fine.

Well it think this is enough for now. Thanks for reading it.

Music

I love music!

It gives me happiness, supports me when I feel down, gives me the creeps etc.

I mostly love pop music but I also like classic and rock.
I love, seriously love Japanese music. I like a bit of all but don't give me metal, it gives me a headache.

I don't really understand what they say. Some words, but thats all. I think Taylor Swift is a good singer.
Maddi Jane, someone who has some clips on youtube, is a good singer too.

It seems I like most songs with soul.
But I don't have real music preferences. Everything is just fine.

Movies

I love movies that are: romantic, funny, fantasy, have action and even a bit sadness.

Apart from the children's movies, my first movie was something with dinosaurs. I remember that I cried the first time, and a few months ago I just saw a piece of it and I had to cry again. It was on a sad moment.

I love the movies: Harry Potter, Camp Rock , Twilight Saga and the movies of Hayao Miyazaki. Those are good.

It seems that I'm not a person who is addicted to movies. I'm glad I'm not because I don't like to see a movie thousand times.

We're going to:

Oh yes! Oh yes!

We're going to......

We almost arrived too late at school because of the slippery roads.
It took us ages to get to the busstation. It was very dangerous.

Then there were too many people for the amount of seats in the schoolhall, because all the parents were there too.

Ofcourse someone had to tell things we already knew before they put a large map in front of us all and then our group was announced.

We're going to: Linares in Spain!!

I can't wait...

I can't wait.

This evening is very important to me.

Next year, in spring, I'll participate in a student exchange and this evening we'll hear which country will be our partner country.

As soon as I know more I'll blog about it.

Ice and school

When we woke up the world was covered in ice.
It was freezing and all the water from the rain and melted snow was changed into ice.

I had to go to school, but it was quite a job to get there.
First I had to walk...ahem...slippery slip, through the neighbourhood. The streets were mirrors.

Then I arrived at the main roads were parts of the streets had been treated with salt, so the cars drove rather fast. That was dangerous, because at the crossings there was more wind and so there suddenly was ice again.

So watching the trafficlights wasn't enough to be safe.

I nearly fell three times.

I was just in time at school.
The teacher of the first hour kept the door open for those who were a bit late and she let me in too.
That safes me coming back to school at 8 tomorrow morning, which means I have to be up at 6. So I was very grateful for that.

Going back home was far easier, but when I came back from ballet it was freezing again.
I was so happy to be home again!

I want shiny nails: help!!

A few weeks ago I was in the shoppingcentre where they were hosting a special event.
It was for kids my age and a bit older.
It was too crowded, so I went.

The next day a friend showed me her nails.
Someone had moved a block of something grey over them and now they were very shiny.
Clearly it had been some polish thing.

Now I wonder what that grey thing was.
Who can help me?

Trains and snow

Today it snowed so much that traffic came to a stand still.

Even the trains couldn't move forward or back and thus the main traffic stations couldn't be reached, because trains blocked the rails.

Last week all trains came to a stand still because there was a fire in the communication centre, today the snow caused problems.

People were brought to some larger stations where they got coffee or tea and had to wait in the cold.
Nothing special was organised for children or people who need a bit of extra protection, like pregnant moms.

Then they were loaded in trains, hoping the train would stop at their own station. Otherwise they would be in an intercity and had to find a stoptrain to go back to where they wanted to be.

We can fly to Mars, but we can't deal with snow.

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No busses

Today I went to school for the first time after the flu, but after a few hours I started to feel bad again. So they allowed me to go home.

Maybe I was lucky to feel ill again.

I was home before it started snowing again. The whole afternoon it snowed very small flakes and that created a wonderful white blanket.

My sister needed to go to her balletlesson.
She decided to walk to the trainstation and take a bus there.

Turned out that they stopped riding, because it was such a mess on the roads.

I had a quick look on Twitter and it turned out that many people complain about the traffic. For 300 meters someone used 35 minutes!

I wonder how it'll be tomorrow.

Let it snow!

I heard from my family that the weather here is going to change.
It will snow a lot more than monday. The snow from monday is almost gone so it's nice.
It will get be like 2cm à 5cm, the people on the television said it would be bad but they already said it isn't going to be as worse as they said.
I love snow so it will be fun, too bad I'm sick, but it is nice to look at.
Well I think this is it about the weather here for today.

Skipping school in Rotterdam?

In Rotterdam many kids skip school and now they want to try to keep the kids in school by visiting them at home when they're not attending school.

They even want to make the parents pay a fine when their kids are not going to school.

I think that's OK when children are below 12.
But the law states that children above 12 are responsible themselves for going to school. Those who skip school make up their own minds and they skip school without their parents knowing.

So punishing the parents for not knowing seems not to be right.

What do you think?

I love snow

Today we were surprised with snow.

At first it got very dark. It was just 2 in the afternoon, but it looked like it was evening.

Then suddenly someone called "snow! snow!" and we looked out of the window and saw the first flakes.
Soon it was like looking at a wall of white spots.

The wind pushed them forwards, so they flew horizontal.

Ofcourse we went outside to have a bit of fun, but I've got the flu, so it was just for a short moment.

There's more snow expected on wednesday.

Flu

I don't like it when I'm not well.
I've got the flu or something like that. Just like my brothers.

Thursday I came from school feeling very bad and since then I've got headaches and I'm nauseated.

Some of my friends have the same too.

I try to sleep as much as possible not to feel so bad.

Wish me well.

Donations needed

I'm not very good at asking money, but I have to.
Let me explain.

In 2011, early in the year, we'll go with school on a 10 to 14 day educational trip to Spain. It's a student exchange program, partly subsidised by the european union.
It's not a vacation, but a learning experience.

We need to find money to pay for part of the trip ourselves.

I'm one of twins.
My twinsister takes part in the exchange program too, as do almost all children.
But that means for my family twice all the costs.

I'm one of 6 children.
3 of my brothers have autism.
One of them has classic autism. He is severely socially and communicative impaired, as they call it.
Which means that he doesn't go to school and doesn't like to deal with other people.
When we come home from school he likes to hear us tell about what happened there and he like it when we go to his room and visit him. We listen to music or play a computer game. Sometimes I have so much homework that I tell him that I will come and sit with him, but only when he keeps his mouth shut and leaves me do my homework.
We don't have a car, so we always need extra time to go to school or balletlessons.
So you can understand that I don't have so much time as other kids of my class.
And I don't have grandparents, or rich aunts.

I and my sister have to find sponsors for the trip, just like the other kids of our classes.
So I was faced with the choice between spending time with my autistic brother and begging for money or do things for other people for money.

I tried to get a job at the shoppingcentre, but now with the recession there's no place for me.

With the class we're trying to think of a special event, like selling second hand clothes or something like that, but there's still the individual part for me and my sister needed.

So I've made this blog. Not only to tell about my experiences before and during the trip, but also to try and find sponsors.

So what do you think: would you like to sponsor me?

I can put a link to your site on my blog, write about your blog or write a guestpost on yours.
Or maybe my mom can help you set up a blog or a site. Just an idea.

When you want to sponsor me and/or my sister you can contact us through the contactform and my mom will get in touch.
That way you can be sure the money is used for the purpose I ask it for.

Thanks a lot.

Contact

Contact Form

First and Last Name: E-Mail Address: URL Message:

Safe internet - 1

Over and over it's stretched that young people need to be careful on internet.
So I think it's kind of strange that so many sites require us to give all our data.
Each time we do, it's stored somewhere and what's stored can be stolen.

In fact, safe internet is not only for kids, it should be for everyone.

It's strange to see that many people have a blog with lots of photos of their children, their house, their neighbourhood. They forget to ask the people on the photos if they want to be on internet.
Here, in The Netherlands, we have a law that states that we are not allowed to put the photos of other people on internet without their permission.
Schools and sometimes even online papers often forget that.

Welcome!

Hello.

Welcome here.

I'm YeYe.
I'm living in The Netherlands and we have to make a blog for school.
Because I don't want to make something just for the sake of making it, I've decided to make a real blog.
So you're going to read here about me and my life, my hobbies and what's happening in my world.

I hope you're going to like this blog and you'll become a blogfriend.