{"id":1953,"date":"2009-02-20T11:56:35","date_gmt":"2009-02-20T09:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=1953"},"modified":"2010-05-31T23:45:06","modified_gmt":"2010-05-31T21:45:06","slug":"the-story-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/1953","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve seen yet another meme that caught my eye, this time on Crafty Intentions<\/a> and Dooce.com<\/a>.\u00a0 I like it because it\u2019s about us and our husbands, and I love writing about my husband!<\/p>\n

Here goes:<\/p>\n

What are your middle names?<\/strong><\/em>
\nMy middle name is BREIGH, most people reading here know that by now.\u00a0\u00a0 Strangely, my husband doesn\u2019t have one.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure why, I guess we\u2019d have to ask his parents.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s a European thing!\u00a0 Hrmm, I\u2019ll have to look into that!<\/p>\n

How long have you been together?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWe have been together for almost 10 years (will be 10 years in June) and will be married for 9 years in May!<\/p>\n

How long did you know each other before you started dating?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWe never really dated.\u00a0\u00a0 We first met 15 years ago online when we were both in college.\u00a0 After a few years of chatting as friends we met up and hit it off big time.\u00a0 Knowing neither of us were the type to be able to deal with a long distance relationship, one of us had to take the plunge.\u00a0 It turned out to be me and I moved to NL.\u00a0\u00a0 So we sort of went from online friends, to RL romance that in a short period turned into moving in and getting married.\u00a0\u00a0 Lots\u00a0 of people thought we were nuts, we did too sometimes\u2026 I guess 10 years later we get the last laugh :)<\/p>\n

Who asked whom out?<\/strong>
\n<\/em>If \u201cHey I\u2019m gonna fly over to Canada\u201d counts as asking me out, it would be him!\u00a0 Otherwise it all just sort of happened.<\/p>\n

How old are each of you?<\/strong><\/em>
\nI\u2019m 33 and he\u2019s 34<\/p>\n

Whose siblings do you see the most?<\/strong><\/em>
\nI\u2019d say it\u2019s probably a tie.\u00a0 I have a half sister that I see when I go back to Canada and he has one brother who lives in the south of France.\u00a0\u00a0 We really only get to see either of them every few years.\u00a0\u00a0 Although his brother did live in Holland for the first few years I was here and we saw him lots then.<\/p>\n

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?<\/strong><\/em>
\nJeez, this one goes without saying, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0\u00a0 Living in a country where we have few friends and no family.\u00a0 We are pretty much 100% on our own and not having a support system close by has been difficult.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes it feels as though all we have here is his job and when we look at it that way we sort of wonder why we are here at all.\u00a0\u00a0 Thankfully we\u2019ve made a few good friends though so that makes life easier, plus he loves his work.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll probably always feel out of place here but it\u2019s been so long now I\u2019ve stopped caring.\u00a0 Maybe we\u2019ll get out of here someday but for the moment this is it and we are working hard at making the best of it.<\/p>\n

Did you go to the same school?<\/strong><\/em>
\nNo I went to a small town public school in Canada, he went to a pish posh private German school in Ireland.\u00a0 Completely different worlds.<\/p>\n

Are you from the same home town?<\/strong><\/em>
\nNo. I grew up in Cape Breton, on the east coast of Canada.\u00a0 He was born in Holland and moved to Dublin with his family when he was young, where he stayed until he came back to Holland to go to college.<\/p>\n

Who is smarter?<\/strong><\/em>
\nMy first instinct is to say Xander.\u00a0 Xander by a MILE.\u00a0 He\u2019s incredibly intelligent and he\u2019s had a much better education than I have.\u00a0 He has also had the benefit of growing up in Europe and travelling a lot.\u00a0 He\u2019s experienced many different languages and cultures as a child whereas I grew up and spent the majority of my life in a place where everything and everyone are the same.\u00a0\u00a0 I think I am more \u2018street smart\u2019 than he is and am a lot more intuitive when it comes to people as he tends to be very logical.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m sort of the Booth to his Bones (of course only the TV nuts will get that one).<\/p>\n

Who is the most sensitive?<\/em>
\n<\/strong>This one is me by a mile.\u00a0\u00a0 As I said, he\u2019s quite logical.\u00a0\u00a0 When something goes wrong or something upsetting happens.\u00a0 He sits down and tries to figure out how to fix it.\u00a0 I, on the other hand, get completely wrapped up in the fact that it\u2019s happening at all and have a complete meltdown.\u00a0\u00a0 We are polar opposites when it comes to emotion \/ sensitivity.\u00a0\u00a0 He often wishes I was less emotional, and I often wish he was more open with his emotions.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s something we are both working on.<\/p>\n

Where do you eat out most as a couple?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWe eat out a few times a month and it varies.\u00a0 We often order Spare Ribs from a place called Spare Ribs King.\u00a0 If we want to go out we\u2019ll go to the Pannenkoekenhuis Oude Maas for some traditional Dutch pancakes (OMG-YUM) or to the Dream Cafe in town for some good ol\u2019 back home style food like steak and burgers!<\/p>\n

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?<\/strong><\/em>
\nCanada<\/p>\n

Who has the craziest exes?<\/strong><\/em>
\nhahaha oh god, ME!\u00a0 It\u2019s not fair though because I have waaaay more ex\u2019s than he does so the numbers alone are against me!<\/p>\n

Who has the worst temper?<\/strong><\/em>
\nMe again.\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s part of being the more emotional one.\u00a0\u00a0 Thing set me off easily whereas you can poke and prod Xander for hours and he\u2019ll just look at you and blink.\u00a0 I often wish I was more like him, but he\u2019s had his own issues from holding things in too much so maybe not.<\/p>\n

Who does the cooking<\/strong>?<\/em>
\nMe\u2026 and it\u2019s quite shocking because I don\u2019t really ENJOY cooking. I do it because I\u2019m the housewife and it\u2019s part of what I\u2019m supposed to do.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t come here armed with an arsenal of recipes but I\u2019ve gotten a lot better over the years.<\/p>\n

Who is the neat-freak?<\/strong><\/em>
\nI think I am.\u00a0 Neither of us are neat freaks to the extent of driving the other crazy, in fact we\u2019re both quite messy\u2026 but I am more of a neat freak in terms of things needing to have a place where they BELONG.\u00a0 I hate just shoving things in drawers willy nilly and Xander is all about that.\u00a0 So many times I\u2019ve organized is tool chest or office just to have it ransacked the next day.\u00a0 Makes.Me.Crazy.<\/p>\n

Who is more stubborn?<\/strong><\/em>
\nHIM!!\u00a0 Ohmygodheissostubborn!\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where he gets it but god help me, if that man doesn\u2019t want to do something, go somewhere, watch something or get something \u2013 it ain\u2019t happenin\u2019!!\u00a0 I can\u2019t count how many times I\u2019ve thought something would be a good idea just to spend days \/ weeks \/ months \/ YES EVEN YEARS trying to talk him into it.<\/p>\n

The worst part is 80% of the time, when he finally gives in he says something like \u201cOh this was such a great idea, why didn\u2019t we do this sooner\u201d.<\/p>\n

OH I DON\u2019T KNOW, WHY DIDN\u2019T WE?!<\/p>\n

Who hogs the bed?<\/strong><\/em>
\nHe does, all the damn time.\u00a0\u00a0 He sleeps in the shape of a V with his head and his feet making the top points and his ass at the bottom.\u00a0\u00a0 I dunno how many times I get butt bumped (and not even in the good way!) in bed at night.\u00a0 He flops around like a fish, hogs the blankets, twitches like a mental patient and pushes me around with his arse.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m convinced we\u2019ll be in twin beds by the time we\u2019re 40.<\/p>\n

Who wakes up earlier?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWe are both early birds and are always up within an hour of each other.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s pretty even who gets up first.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s right now though, when Xander is working out of the office he\u2019s always up earlier.\u00a0 He gets up at ungawdly o\u2019clock to get out and beat the traffic.<\/p>\n

Where was your first date?<\/em>
\n<\/strong>We didn\u2019t really date.<\/p>\n

Who is more jealous?<\/strong><\/em>
\nIf Xander is the jealous type he rarely shows it, which I wish he would.\u00a0 Sometimes a girl needs to feel like her man is at least a little jealous, it makes us feel good.\u00a0 I, on the other hand, can be really jealous.\u00a0\u00a0 Like, seething jealous\u2026\u00a0 thankfully I never really have reason to feel that way with Xander though.\u00a0 He makes it perfectly clear that he is a one woman man!<\/p>\n

How long did it take to get serious?<\/strong><\/em>
\nNot long.\u00a0 Our situation didn\u2019t really allow for that whole \u2018feeling it out stage\u2019.\u00a0 I think we probably would have gotten serious very quickly even if we lived locally though.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that when you know you KNOW, and I\u2019ve always known that Xander was the one.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I ever could have turned my life upside down like I did if I didn\u2019t truly believe it.<\/p>\n

Who eats more?<\/strong><\/em>
\nMe *sigh*\u00a0 I\u2019m a comfort eater.\u00a0 I\u2019m working on it.<\/p>\n

Who does the laundry?<\/strong><\/em>
\nMe.\u00a0 God love him he tries but after a few shrunken pairs of pants and tangled bras have come out of the dryer, I\u2019ve banned him from anything except folding towels.<\/p>\n

Who’s better with the computer?<\/strong><\/em>
\nXander, it\u2019s his job\u2026 I don\u2019t have a chance with this one.<\/p>\n

Who drives when you are together?<\/strong><\/em>
\nXander does.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have my license.\u00a0 Unfortunately it\u2019s not possible to exchange a Canadian drivers license for a Dutch one, and I\u2019d have to take lessons and exams which are very expensive.\u00a0\u00a0 I will get it eventually but for now we have other more important things to put our money towards.<\/p>\n

If you want to answer these same questions, feel free to do so in the comments or leave me a link to the blog post with your answers. :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve seen yet another meme that caught my eye, this time on Crafty Intentions and Dooce.com.\u00a0 I like it because it\u2019s about us and our husbands, and I love writing about my husband! Here goes: What are your middle names? My middle name is BREIGH, most people reading here know that by now.\u00a0\u00a0 Strangely, my …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[218,3,52],"class_list":["post-1953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-life-in-nl","tag-memes","tag-quizzes","tag-xander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1953"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5188,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions\/5188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}