Man charged with trying to attack Dutch royal family

(CNN - Edited by Niels) -- Dutch police charged a man with trying to attack the royal family Thursday after he crashed a car near a bus carrying Queen Beatrix and her family, police said.

Four people were killed and 13 injured in the incident. The driver is in hospital, badly injured, she said. It was not clear if he was one of the 13 injured.

The police are not releasing the name of the driver whose car careered toward a crowd of people who were watching the Dutch royal family riding past in an open-top bus.

Queen Beatrix was in the bus with her family when the black hatchback zoomed past. The car crashed into the low metal railing around a column on the side of the road.

The car also appeared heavily damaged even before the crash presumably from the impact with the people the car collided with when running through the lines of people attending the parade.

Sad Day in NL

Four dead as Queen's Day celebrations turn into tragedy

(RNW) - A car ploughed into a crowd of people in Apeldoorn today during an official visit there by the Dutch royal family. Four people were killed and 13 wounded. The authorities say it was a deliberate action.

An unidentified man in a black Suzuki Swift plowed into a crowd of onlookers in Apeldoorn, 90 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam, during a visit to the city by the Dutch royal family on the occasion of Queen's Day. Eyewitnesses, which included NRC Handelsblad photographer Merlin Daleman, said the driver "clearly intended" to ram the bus carrying the royal family on its way to the royal palace 't Loo.

The Royal Family reacting to the crash

At a press conference at 3.45 p.m., authorities said four people have been killed. Thirteen people were wounded, five of whom are in serious condition.

The driver, a 38-year-old native Dutchman, has been arrested but he could not be interrogated by police as he was being operated on. Authorities did confirm that it was a deliberate action.

Eyewitnesses say the black Suzuki crashed through the crowd barriers at the Jachtlaan at 11.50 a.m. with a speed of about 80 kilometres per hour. He was headed in the direction of the open bus carrying the royal family, which had just turned onto the Loolaan. The car came to a stop when it hit a monument on the corner of the Loolaan. Crown prince Willem Alexander and princess Máxima immediately jumped up and covered their mouths in consternation.

According to eyewitnesses, the black Suzuki had been seen earlier in the day on the Amerfoortsesteenweg. "The car was stopped by police," an eyewitness told Radio 1 news. "He turned onto a side street and took off at high speed... The driver was a 25 or 26-year old man." Other eyewitnesses added that the man was white.

After it crashed, firefighters had to use electric saws to get the drive out of the car. Around 12.17 p.m. he was carried into an ambulance. His body was not covered with a white sheet, which implies that he was still alive at the time.

The bus carrying the royal family continued to the royal palace 't Loo in Apeldoorn. The government information service RVD and the mayor of Apeldoorn later announced that all festivities for Queen's Day in Apeldoorn were cancelled. Many festivities elsewhere were also being cancelled.

Queen's Day is the commemoration of the birthday of queen Juliana (1909-2004). Over the years it has grown into a nationwide celebration of Dutchness and togetherness, attracting crowds of up to 800,000 people in Amsterdam alone.

Gelukkig Koninginnedag!

Happy Official Queensday to all our Dutch loved ones!

A Day in the Life of Daniel

Next Thursday my mommy's group is going to do a scrapbooking day. I've wanted to scrapbook for quite a while and have collected some supplies, but I'm having a hard time getting started. As I was thinking about it, it occured to me that this blog is a big of a digital scrapbook. With my memory the way it is (or isn't, as the case may be), making little mundane entries is the way I'm remembering my boy's early days.

Now that Daniel is starting to get into a routine, I thought I'd post a bit about an every day for Daniel the 4-almost-5-month-old*:

5-6a: wake up, bottle with Daddy, then back to sleep

7:30 - 8a: wake up, get dressed, new diaper, bottle with Mommy
8:15a: playtime (exersaucer, play mat, exercise with Mommy, story)
9a: naptime (or snuggle time)
11a: bottle with Mommy, diaper change
11:15a: play time or errands
Noon: naptime
2p: bottle with Mommy, diaper change
2:15: play time
3p: naptime
5p: bottle with Mommy or Daddy, diaper change
5:30p: swing or bumbo while Mommy and Daddy make dinner and eat
6:30p – play with daddy
8p – bedtime: (bath), PJs, story, bottle, prayer, and special song
11p – bed bottle

* all times are approximate to keep Mommy and Daddy on their toes!

Finally doing something with the pictures...

It's sort of a running joke that we are great at taking pictures, but we have very few pictures displayed in our house. Thank God for this blog or our friends and family around the world would never see us...or more importantly, Daniel!

Dutch dad really liked this picture I took of Daniel a few weeks ago (That's, right, I, Jen, took the picture, not Mr. I-Worked-In-My-Dad's-Photo-Shop-Since-I-Was-11, aka, my husband, Niels. Dutch dad did a little photoshop magic to take away the pesky power lines and sent the picture back to us. We decided not to procrastinate so we got it enlarged and bought a frame, in record time.

Now...where to hang it?

Update: hangs on the wall on the 2nd floor landing.

A whole lot of good and a bit of not-so-good

If months were years and our marriage was a person, we'd be totally legal. Today Niels and I celebrate our 21st month of marriage! Life is good in the de Jong household. Everyone is finally healthy. Daniel slept through the night for the first time in weeks last night. I wrote Daniel's little book. And recently, we've crossed off a few big items on our to-do list. Daniel now has his American passport (with the cutest little photo ever!). We have the apostille (international notary) for his Dutch passport and just have to have more photos taken. And thanks to our tax return (and little Tax Deduction), we were able to knock off quite a few expenses, like all the medical expenses for Daniel's birth, plane tickets for our big trip to The Netherlands in December, another trip to AZ to see Gramma Chi and introduce Daniel to his Great-Gramma Ann, and the big ticket item: paying off the HELOC (loan against my condo)!!

When I lost my job after my second TBI, I had a few months savings to live off of while my house sold. Except it didn't sell. I lowered the price, fixed it up with new carpet and paint, and it still didn't sell. I used up my savings and moved on to my 401k. When that was gone and it still hadn't sold, I started using the equity (ha!) I thought I had acquired in eight years of paying extra on my mortgage. I used that money to pay bills, including my huge COBRA payment each month for health insurance. The loan represented 18 months of desperate living, frustration and a not-so-pretty season of my life as I wondered what God could possibly have in store for me now that I was "medically" retired with a full life of expenses ahead. Enter my sweet husband, Niels, who somehow managed to fall in love with me at my worst.

Since I am the one who handles our finances, I'm the one who has felt the double burden of this debt. I had been debt free other than my home before my head injury, and I felt a little guilty for bringing that debt into our marriage. But last week, we made the last payment and we're thrilled with the huge emotional and financial burden that has been lifted. It feels great to close that chapter.

The little bit of not-so-good is the unfortunate end to the book. Today, there is a sheriff sale for my condo. It's unlikely that a buyer will make a purchase given Everhome's terms, but it's the last big step in the process before the foreclosure takes place. The condo has been one frustration after another for the last 2 years, and finally it will revert back to the lender and I can wipe my hands of it. Some have tried to comfort me by saying that in a few years, most everyone will have some sort of blemish like this on their record. Niels told me it doesn't matter than my credit is toast because everything is based on his income now anyway. But I've always prided myself in my ability to handle finances and so it's frustrating to lose my ability to work in this economy. I tried to sell the house for three years. We paid double mortgages for 18 months. I used up my savings and 401K trying to stay current. I found renters for a short while. I fixed it up, lowered the price, tried for a short sale. And I got royally screwed in the process. It's hard not to be bitter about it, but it's over and we're moving on.

Besides, it's only a little bit of not-so-good and there is way too much good to celebrate in my life instead.

He is his Father's Son: exhibit b