Good news

I had this ....the pain is gone, why did you go to the doctors, you whiney and those antibiotic pills won’t be needed after all ….moment. It did not last for long as the pain is back. Big time.
The diagnosis was made by me, previous experiences with bladder infections and Google. I did not need antibiotics! I spend 20 euro’s on a healthy natural cranberry cure for Peet’s sake!

The pain has worsened over the weekend so I decided to go to the doctors anyway.
I am stubborn and don’t like going to a doctor as they normally make you feel silly you came. Today I went to my new doctor expecting the same treatment. But instead he took it very serious. More than I did even.

As soon as I enter the doctor’s practice the pain seems to be less, always. Like I faked it before. I feel like I have wasted everybody’s time by coming before I even have seen a doctor. He will probably just tell me to take a pain killer and get over myself.

The waiting room is a peculiar room. It’s so quiet. The people are so quiet. Until a new patient enters the waiting room and we all wish the new person a good morning. When the new person has taking a seat the silence takes over again. Shuffling feet, a cough, a few whispers, a sniff, a scratch, a sigh. Then a mother and her child enter and the silence fills with a child’s voice who doesn’t understand the awkwardness and silence you normally occur in waiting rooms. The mother tries to talk softly back and looks up nervously at the other people. We all laugh letting her know we understand.

The silence and the child’s voice get interrupted by a loud male voice wanting someone to come with him.

Me and husband came out with a lot of instructions this time. Antibiotics and hospital appointment. An urge plead that if it would worsen to make a call.

So I came home and had that moment were I thought I was being silly because the pain was less.
Now I wish for more of those moments. I have real pain. A pain that is taken seriously by my new doctor and that is the good news I wanted to share with you today.

¨If you trust Google more than your doctor then maybe it's time to switch doctors. ¨

Jadelr and Cristina Cordova, Chasing Windmills, 08-21-06

Ramblings # 1

I love popcorn. I love sweet popcorn. And I am eating a whole bag of microwave popcorn right now.

I am in bed while my stomach hurts from a bladder infection I am suffering from. Yes a wonderful start of the weekend. Although the popcorn really is.

The mysterious parcel remains a mystery for now as I still haven’t received it. Argh!

Today the children drew a lovely chalk drawing on the blackboard saying for Miss Serwa (instead of Sarah) Melt! So cute.

I need glasses. Although it is very hard to find that one pair of special glasses that will suit any mood, outfit, facial expression, hairdo …. Every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year……… I have three pair of sunglasses to survive the summer…brown, black and brownish black and I would love to have a red, blue and green pair to …..How will I ever find one pair of glasses that will suit everything? It’s not an easy task! Actually: it is nearly impossible……

My ¨mother’s day¨ drawing is beautiful!!! I am really happy with it. I will frame it and hang it up in my ¨button¨ room.

I received another pretty vintage apron. Yeah!

I finished my bag of popcorn.

And I have red toenails.....

Mysterious parcel

I love getting postcards, parcels, letters well actually anything coming throw the letterbox or delivered by the postman. (Except; bills, tax, anything costing me money)

A sweet card from a friend saying that she thinks of me or a postcard from an exotic country or a parcel with wonderful vintage bought goodies. It’s especially wonderful when you don’t expect it and you come home from a tiring day and a card is waiting for you on the mat. An ¨old school¨ card can make your day. For me it beats all the text messages or online e-cards I have gotten.

But when we came home today there was a letter from the postman saying that he tried to deliver a parcel and he would try again tomorrow.

At this point I looked puzzled at my husband as he looked as puzzled back. It did not say who it would be from but it was large as they needed to hand it over to me instead of throwing it through the letterbox.

Coming back on the whole: ¨it’s wonderful when you don’t expect it¨ part, because I now know I have a parcel waiting for me but it isn’t that fun when you cannot open it straight away especially when you do not have a clue who it’s from and what it is!
I wonder who would send me a parcel without me knowing? Actually I am not as much wondering anymore as being obsessed about it.

Could I have won something? Did I pay for something and forgot about it? Is it a gift from a secret admirer? A gift from a friend or family member? What is it?!

Hopefully I will find out tomorrow and you will to.

For now my beautiful mantel piece which looks great under the huge clock in the living room and my lovely vintage aprons I bought on marktplaats:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

4 weeks – 12 times –480 minutes = …. kilo’s and ….centimeters?

I want to lose weight. I have many reasons for wanting this. And today I made a real effort to achieve that,
because I entered a slim belly test.

They needed 100 people to test this method. A method of training which concentrates on the belly area and where they promise you to lose at least 2.5 centimeters up to 23 centimeters around the waist and train the rest of your body. We need to where a stomach belt and train for a month and about 40 min. a time. Charlotte, my husband and I are one of the lucky ones to be able to do this.

In a month time we will find out how many kilo’s and centimeters we lost starting on Monday 31st of May.

It’s so exciting. I really hope we will see results. I promise you all a before and after picture of me on 25th June. 2nd of July.  (Without Photoshop!)

I will post you every week on Friday our week results.

I hate nature and love buttons

I had to look this up because I really did not know the translation. But I have an extra day off (yes….again!) this weekend due to NL: met Pinksteren EN: at Whitsun. Yesterday I helped my mom move to here beautiful new house. It was a real delight helping her and her ¨man friend¨ (lol) shaping and making a home of the furniture. At the end of the day it felt homey and cozy and all a home should feel like.

Congratulations mom. I love your home. We hope you will have a terrific time while living there.

The sun is shining today. It’s hot and lovely. Still I am indoors. My throat is closed up and hurting. This is a wonderful outcome of my yearly hay fever. Ow I do love nature right now. Pff.

Instead of enjoying the sun outside I made some fun inside making these bracelets.

Delayed ¨mothers¨ day present

Today was a lovely day. I got presents and I truly love presents!

One of the girls age 11 calls me ¨mommy¨ so in return I call her ¨daughter¨, a silly something that is actually quite adorable. She came up to me telling me she had a ¨mother’s day ¨ present for me. A homemade bracelet and a cuddle cow named ¨Cowie¨ and a drawing but she was finished just yet. I will show you when I get it. How sweet is that? I felt really lucky.

She got a huge hug and kiss. Love her.

Scary

No, this is us relaxing and doing weird girly stuff and looking ghastly while doing it.

The scary part for us (read: Charlotte) was the movie we watched….

Charlotte scares easily and she is very gullible. When we were young she believed stories about witches living nearby or that her Barbie doll’s hair would grow back after we cut it. And when we would have sleepovers she nearly ran home barefooted whenever we would tease her with scary noises or while talking about gremlins.

Now at the age of 27 it is much better……until we watch scary movies.

It was gezellig! love you Charlotte...!

More finds I found today:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

and Found

The sweet little thing was found!
Her owner picked her up yesterday evening and was very happy we found the little bugger. Just forgot to ask the name of the dog. Until then we will call her ¨smelly dog¨

Lost ....

A little cute (smelly) dog was wandering outside of our door. We spotted it on our way to my husband and friend as we decided it was a little selfish if we would eat the chocolate cake we made all by ourselves. It was only a ten minute drive. (My husband will stay with his friend while Charlotte will stay the night with me doing all girly stuff…)

When we came back ten minutes later the dog was still doing the whole alone wandering thing.

So we thought it was a good idea to ask the neighbors if they knew where the dog belonged. It apparently belonged to a house in our street but nobody was home. So we left a note:

Dear Neighbor,
You can find your dog at nr. 39
Greetings

My vintage suitcase came in handy when we transformed it into a ¨dog bed¨.....

So sweeeeeet!

Hopefully this cute and lovely (but still smelly) thing will be found soon.....cause the cats are freaked out!

Second hand finds

Those moments where you wish you had a camera go lost when you try to reenact them. Like today when Charlotte was surfing from an escalator but we did not make a picture of it, so I send her back up the escalator but then I accidently filmed her instead of making a picture and the moment of fun was lost.

Today was another treasure hunt day like we had on Queens day. We actually made a promise to each other to meet on our Wednesday’s off work. So you will probably see more posts about our bargain finds.

Driving

My husband and father in law were working hard today on the homemade hallway closet.

They were sweating, tired and hungry so as a good wife and daughter in law I said I would take care of dinner. (The shops are closed because of Ascension Day (yeah! another day off!) so it would be chips from the local ¨snackbar¨ easy peasy and only a 5 minute drive.

I got in the car and started driving. Suddenly a police car with his flashing lights sped behind me wanting to pass to get to the emergency it needed to get to.

As you all know from a previous post, I consider myself a good driver. But it is weird that I lose that confident feeling as soon as a police car drives behind me as I forget how to drive.

I think too fast or maybe to slow, anyway not clear and focused. I start sweating and my heart starts racing. I first started to drive slow, maybe he could pass. Realizing that would be impossible because I could not go anywhere I started driving faster. A car in front of me realizes the police car behind me looking nervously in the back mirror. Finally a roundabout; I jerked at the steering wheel and turned right. (And no, I did not have to go right) I sighed a little but then I realized the police car also wanted to go right! Crap. Was he after me?? But then it swirled passed me with great speed and I ended up standing in the middle of the road taking a second until I felt totally normal again. I turned the car eventually and headed to where I was going. I had to drive around the car that drove in front of me. Apparently the person in the other car needed a breather too while awkwardly parked in the middle of the roundabout.

Finally the hard working men got there food and they did not even realize it took a little longer than normal.

Thank you, husband and father in law for the hard work today!

Couch testing

Our bums are spoiled and not complaining. We have pampered bums, achy feet and tired minds. You maybe feel puzzled by this but it isn’t that strange when I explain myself a bit better.

We have lived in our house now for about 6 months and we still have a lot of furniture we would like to replace with newly bought. Like a new couch. We now have a black, leather couch that feels cold in the winter and HOT in the summer. Not to mention the fact your skin sticks to the couch like chewing gum when the weather is wonderful.

Today we went couch testing; and this involves a lot of walking and talking to salesmen and woman who try to convince you they have the perfect couch for you.

We sat, we hopped, we jumped and we lay on the couches. We laughed and cheered when we saw the most wonderful couch and screamed with joy!!

Now we just have to show the people the money…..

Addiction

I am addicted. Not to smoking because since the third of April I haven’t touched a cigarette again. (feeling proud!) Not to drinking because I don’t like taste or the effect of alcohol. Not to gambling, I don’t like to gamble with my hard earned money. But I am addicted and BIG time!

¨Hi everybody, my name is Sarah and I am addicted.¨

¨Hi Sarah….¨ Reply of my fellow addicts….

¨It is really hard. It’s a decease,¨ I explain. ¨I know it affects my everyday being. I feel sad when I don’t do it.¨ Heads nodding up and down, agreeing and understanding.

¨Even my husband and dear friends have to suffer from it. But even though, I cannot stop, I will not stop, I won’t ever stop. It’s an addiction I and my friends and family have to live with.¨ People look at me confused.

¨Yes, I understand know. I have acknowledged the fact I am addicted. And that is good. But I also have acknowledged that I will never be able to stop buying stuff online REALLY ridiculously cheap!!

¨My name is Sarah and I am addicted to secondhand internet shopping. (Especially MARKTPLAATS (dutch ebay, it’s online treasure hunting)

¨And my favorite online addiction, find? Hands down this lamp and all of my buttons!’’

Second best find?
My retro chair in the bedroom:
   

Only the true addicts know that this addiction will never be beaten with these kind of beauties out there!

It’s quiet on the other side

That is what we sing at football games, when the other team is losing, although it’s also very quiet writing into space. Someone asked me, what I liked about that. My answer:

It’s my diary that will last forever. A chance to document my feelings and experiences and when I am old and need reading glasses and have grand children, I can read back (and laugh)
Isn’t that marvellous?
And then it doesn’t matter if people read your blog…if you do read my blog PLEASE COMMENT!
But no I am kidding…I am writing for myself…and my closest friends and family….
And others: SO PLEASE COMMENT!

Hoorn??

I wanted to show you my birth town Hoorn....

Ok. So we arrived in Hoorn and I forgot to take pictures. So we ended up shooting pictures (while sitting in the car and drving. That is reason they are so bad) from fields, sheep, cows, a mill, random views, us in the car, on the Dijk where; if you squint your eyes, you can see Hoorn and de Ijselmeer (the water), pictures of me blown away by the wind and my Husband who doesn't seem to smile....

Billie

Today I had a working day of ten hours without a brake and 60 children all wanted something from me. We had a sports day today. 5 hours of sporty games and ¨fun¨. Running isn’t my strongest point and running, hopping, skipping and doing that all holding a little girl that did not want to leave my side ain’t either.

In the end though I got this drawing of a dragon named ¨Billie¨ and the dragon is ¨spit purring¨ (he off course meant spit firing uuuh I mean spitting fire....) Yes, that makes my day worthwhile!

Scooby

So the cat that lost his leg and tale died. My mother, my girlfriend, my husband and I are all so very sorry for our friend and cat. The cat had to suffer so much and in the end he couldn’t go home to his owner that loved him so much. Sometimes life is very cruel.

Today we went to the vet so our friend could say goodbye.

Rest in peace, dear Scooby.

Button mirror

We were¨ een beetje dom¨....Yes, we were a little dumb!

I finally finished my mirror today. For a few weeks now I had the plan to spice the mirror up my husband and I bought together with a side table we really loved. I was actually planning to decorate the mirror entirely but this just suited me better. I just love the result. It will hang in the hallway resulting in the mirror being a spectacular welcoming for anyone that loves creative beauties.

So, this was the idea; I wanted to show my button mirror on my blog and also to change my blog picture in to something else. The mirror would be perfect and we only had to find a way to include the blog title.

We, my brother in law and I were talking about writing it reverse and hang it opposite the mirror and then take a picture of it. Ok, that was dumb because we could easily write on the mirror….(we had a real epiphany moment there.)

Lipstick would be perfect and was all we needed. But because we still had the whole reverse thing in our head, we ended up writing the blog title in reverse…..and we only figured it out when we finally made a picture that we shouldn’t have done that.



Bugger that was dumb! We spoiled my lovely lipstick and we still didn’t have the result we wanted.

After a few laughs we tried again….and VOILA…my new blog picture.

My brother in law loves the camera also:

Thank you for helping!!

Kus,
Je schoonzus xxx                                                                                               

Legendary creature: Lilith

¨For the most part she is considered a succubus, a powerful demonic creature who seduces men and sometimes eats children but has even appeared as a screech owl.¨

My husband inherited this creature from a previous relationship. She named this cat Lilith and the cat wears that name with pride. Now after two years she has grown on me. She doesn’t bite or scratch that often anymore….maybe due to the fact my friend and I call her Phyllis….

An ode to my lovely Alana that loves to lie on the orange chair

My husband’s best friend nearly lost his cat the day before yesterday. They had to amputate his leg and his tale, a horrible story.

I love you Alana. I think you are purring sweet!