Thursday 31 July 2008: Sarah is a fan of the fan today on this hottest day of the summer so far... She might just melt!

Even later that day...
THE BUNNY IS BACK!!! THE BUNNY IS BACK!!!! I AM SO FREAKING HAPPY THE BUNNY IS BACK!!! MAN DID I MISS THE KID! LOOK AT HER! SHE LOOKS OLDER! IN JUST 10 DAYS SHE GOT OLDER LOOKING! I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR ALL ABOUT HER 10 DAYS TONIGHT! I'M GOING TO SMUSH HER!!!!

Later that day ...
Okay! We hit 30 degrees inside! I am totally melting away. My brain power is minimal. I can't drink enough water! I probably stink of sweat! But life is good and I shant complain because THE BUNNY, THE BUNNY, THE BUNNY will be home in a few hours! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE BUNNY!!! Now I will go melt/work/melt/work/melt. Actually, to be honest, this intense heat feels kind of good. I love these sorts of extremes. I mean I know it's just a few days or a week a year in Belgium. I actually welcome and embrace the heat. It's just freaking hot! That's all!

Sarah says:

It's already 28 (82F) degrees inside where I am right now! Yesterday it got to 29.5 (85F). The fans are blasting on the highest level, yet still, I think I might be melting... I bet it gets to be 33 (91.5F) in here today. I'll keep you posted if I live through it! I almost can't wait to be in my car today with the airco blasting! Last night was crazy hot and hard to sleep. We had the fan on, which is never good while sleeping because you inevitably wake up with a crusty eye, ear ache or Charley horse! I want to close shop and find a cold pool to jump into. Rather - step into gently as I cannot jump or dive ever again! Oh boy - what a day it will be! My water glass is filled and I'm ready to get to it! THE BEST NEWS IS -IS THAT THE BUNNY/THE KID/THE LOOL WILL BE HOME IN ABOUT 7 HOURS!!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HER AND SMUSH HER!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVEN TANGHE! HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

Wednesday 30 July 2008: Just a quick hello from Sarah on this sunny day. Nothing to report really...

Sarah says:

Just another day here in my world. My kid is back tomorrow, glad about that! Had another nice evening with my husband last night without the kid. It's sunny. It's the middle of the week. That's pretty much it! This post would be really, really boring if it weren't for the below You Tube video of Pilobolus performing. My aunt sent this link and it's pretty fantastic indeed. Make sure to check it out yourselves!

Tuesday 29 July 2008: Sarah welcomes Marv to Face The Day and her other housemates Kika and Kike...

Sarah says:
Say hello to Marv! It's been a while. He stopped by to say hi to you all! Actually, we were posing for a photo to send to our kid, who is still away at camp. I took the above and below ones to send her. That's her world -- us, the pigs and right now, camp. I can't wait to see her on Thursday! I hope she hasn't lost her voice and that she hasn't gotten a sunburn or sun-stroke or car-sick. She's prone to all those things if she's not careful, the little bunny! Marv and I are having fun at home alone though. Evenings after work are our own. We can do something together or our own thing. Last night, for example, we had dinner, I spoke to a close friend on the phone for a long time while Marv read, then we watched The Wire season 4, episode 10 (I finally got the DVD at the Kortrijk library after a month or more of trying!!!). Then I read in bed for a while. It was a nice-paced and quiet evening. Each night is like that when nobody needs you. Not to say I don't miss being needed by my daughter and that I don't miss the extra noise she provides, because I do, I do, I do! But I also enjoy these days and will continue to until Thursday when she's home. Marv is away all weekend at Dranhouter so I'll be home with the kid and we'll have a girl's weekend! We have some nice plans. I can't wait!!!

Monday 28 July 2008: It's a new week for Sarah -- will it be a good one? Let's hope so!

Sarah says:

I'm still so tired! What is that? Why is that? And yesterday I had major stomach cramping again - massive really! And my right knee is all swollen and I keep getting headaches. Why? Why? Why? I wish I knew. I hate imagining all the possibilities. I have to run to the toilet right now again! Man, man, man! This isn't good! It's making me tired. I just keep thinking of my bed and when I can get in it tonight and it's early in the morning now! What is my problem? Is this a Monday thing? Maybe because the rain has replaced the sun all of a sudden? I want to feel good. Not old and decrepit! Oh energy, energy, I beckon you back!!! My head is on straight! Now give me back a pain-free body please!!!

I kind of like my hair off my forehead like that! See, I'm trying to remain positive and see some good in the week ahead!

Sunday 27 July 2008: Tired. Tired. Tired. Is Sarah half-awake or half-asleep?

Sarah says:
It's like I can't get enough sleep lately even though I sleep later with my daughter gone and during our vacation too. Maybe sleeping later makes me more tired. I feel like I could sleep for a weeks straight. And I'm not really drawn out by the sun. I don't want to go out into the sun. It's too bright. I think I am morphing into a vampire or something. I did have these two weird dots on my neck that sort of looked like teeth marks. That must be it - I am becoming a vampire! Watch your necks folks!
Above is my Post Secret favorite of the week. There's something both sad and pretty about the statement "we accept the love we think we deserve". We all deserve some good-loving! I hope you all are getting some! It's so nice to feel loved. Those fleeting moments when you really know it is true - that someone deeply loves you. Those are great moments. I used to think I was worth shit and settle for half-assed love. Now I have the real thing. That's a good thing. A great thing!

Saturday 26 July 2008: Sarah gets a haircut!

BEFORE

AFTER

Friday 25 July 2008: Here's Heidi for the last time for a while as she's off to Ireland for 10 days alone with Nico to have fun, fun, fun!!!!!

Sarah says:
Above is early in the morning before work. And below is a little while ago when Heidi passed byto pick some stuff up. She's on her way away folks! If we are lucky we'll see her back here agin in about two weeks after her vacation (without child) in Ireland! Hopefully she'll take some great photos of her and Nico having a relaxing and exciting time! I wish them all the best!

Thursday 24 July 2008: Three BIG CHEERS for Sarah's mom-in-law Trees who makes beautiful things and brightens up Sarah's home and life!

Sarah says:
Why do I look so happy even when I look so tired and ready for bed? Just look behind my bed and you'll know why!!!! My husband's talented mother made that curtain you see hanging there in bright pink! It's totally beautiful and has taken our bedroom up a step. It's an oasis now even more than before. What an eye for detail she has! She's amazing!!!!!
Below you can see the chair she re-did for us in the same material. It's so vivid and pretty. My husband must feel pretty gay in our bedroom with all this pink and purple. But we both love all this bright stuff! Tress is fantastic! Viva Trees! She should be selling her stuff!

Wednesday 23 July 2008: Sarah needs a haircut badly! It's not fair she already looks worn out after three week's vacation! She should look awake!!!!

Sarah says:

True that! I should look awake and fresh and alive and vivid with clear skin and nice hair and wide-open eyes and a healthy glow from all the rest I had! But instead I have had diarrhea for three days straight, my hair is dragging me down with all its grey and lack of style, my tan is fading and I'm starting to pale again. My skin is bad. Even my outlook is slightly grim! I think I got a little depressed after my friend Erika left. I felt sort of soulless ever since. Oh well! This too shall pass! Saturday I'll have a haircut! The sun will shine this week! Friday I'll get my hairy legs waxed and my toes re-polished! Today I ate a great fruit salad I made with FRESH blueberries!! It was like summer on a spoon! Tonight I want to make a great veggie salad and fish. So there are some really good things in my day and work is good. So there! Now you have the rainbow too instead of just the rain!

Tuesday 22 July 2008: Sarah is a bit alone in her own world today at work and at home. Heidi celebrates holidays!

(he's mine!!!!!)

Heidi says: our night out in the museum 'Huis van Alijn' in Gent was a fabulous one. I DJ'ed, together with my very goodlooking partner Mr Nice, and our dear loyal friends came to listen and to dance!!

Sarah says:

Life is very quiet. Busy at the office catching up. Quiet at home without the kid. Quiet at work without Heidi. I am not used to being alone for so many hours a day and at night. I was happy to meet my mother-in-law at Hema today for lunch. To break out of the silent space for a while. Luckily it's busy in one way or another and the day is flying by with all the catching up and getting my head around things and all. By the way - I bought this crazy expensive tooth-whitener from The States to try to get those yellow fangs of mine to match my whiter front teeth. So far, there's only a little bit of change but at least that is something! I hate my yellow fangs. I have tried baking soda - which really does work - but it's too abrasive and my gums get raw from it. One friend suggested fluoride tablets. I'm going to look into low doses of those. I'll keep you posted and hopefully you'll notice a difference in my fangs! Look at the photo above - nice and clean and white in front until you move to the right to that other-colored fang tooth on top. It's thanks to coffee no doubt! But I can't give that up!

Monday 21 July 2008: No photo of Sarah or Heidi today so please welcome Sarah's daughter on her way to camp for a 10-day stay!

Sarah says:

On her way to a 10 day camp with the Chiro... I'm going to miss that little bunny so much during the next weeks. The last three weeks have been so nice together. I remember last year when she went away on this camp for the first time she was so nervous and so were we. Now she was ready for sure and so were we - but 10 days is long!!!! I hope she has a great time but I cannot wait until she returns! Life will be quiet with her away and me all alone at the office with Heidi away... But quiet is good sometimes and I shall try to enjoy this time all to myself. It's rare to have that so I should learn to bask in it a bit...

Sunday 20 July 2008: Hair today, gone tomorrow... Sarah's Marv shaves his vacation beard. Sarah will miss it badly - being a fan of hairy beasts!

Sarah says:
Marv grew a beard during our vacation. I like beards. I wish more people did and didn't tell him it looked bad and all that... But he has to like it - which he did - but it's just not done in Belgium. Tuesday it's back to work so it was time for him to shave... I'd relly like him to grow a full beard! All on and wild! But that will never happen. I look happy in the photo below but in fact I'm a little sad to say goodbye to the beard!
It's Post Secret Sunday. I chose the below one about shuffle-mode on an ipod and being spontaneous because that's what vacation feels like! It allows you / one / me to be spontaneous, which is GRAND!!!!! Everyday life has a lot to offer and I am really fortunate to love my job and family life and to have some good friends to pass time with. Even so - the spontaneous days only come during vacation. No plans! Or just some here and there. Meals just come as they come at odd hours or here and there when we are moved to eat. We wake up late. Plan the day based on the weather or our moods... It's really fantastic! Today, for example, my husband, my daughter and I played Monopoly for 5 hours straight!!!!! I'm happy to report I won by a landslide! Then we got a movie and are busy watching it. I have seen it - Moulin Rouge - so I'm sitting here at the computer and watching the parts I want to see again. Tomorrow is the last day to sleep late. Our daughter goes away to camp for 10 days. And it's back to work for us on Tuesday. In some ways I look forward to working again because I love what I do and I feel great and comfy at the office. But I will miss the ease at which the days pass during vacation. I'll miss that feeling of total relaxatin and the ability to shut down and let go and enjoy. There's still half of a summer left so that's a great thing. The days are longer. The weather is bound to improve. My husband have our evenings free since our daughter will be away for a while. It can also be nice. A movie here. A cafe there. A dinner out one night if we feel like it. A game or two with friends. It's all good and I can't complain I guess...

Saturday 19 July 2008: Goodbye Erika, Neil, Oscar, Coco-Rosie, Cato, Cookie and Cleo the pigs...And aren't genetics odd???!!!

Sarah says:
Man I hate saying goodbye! Just when you get all comfy and catch up and have some good laughs and some good looks into the past and towards the future, BANG! Time's up! It would be nice if good feelings could last just a bit longer sometimes! BUT - we had the time we had and that was treasured and good. So now It's until next time! This is really the painful part of living so far away from close friends and family. You get this lump of sadness and almost dread in you heart and head the moment they are gone again after seeing them. I walk around in a rainy cloud for a few days - feeling slightly numb and shattered I guess. Great to see Erika, Neil and Oscar. Felt like home...

Now here's where genetics get weird! Look above at the photo of me, Neil and Oscar. We look like a family! Oscar has my coloring. I could be his mom!

And look below! My daughter has Erika's coloring! She could be her mother. Nobody would ever know! My daughter has Erika's light skin, light eyes, light hair. Oscar has got my dark eyes, slightly darker skin and all that... Why did our babies get the colorinf of our husbands?! It's just one of those things that can drive a mom crazy for a second. Most of my friends here in Belgium look more like my kid's mother than I do! It's kind of strange and funny.
And alas - it's time to say goodbye to the guniea pig babies tonight. They will be going to the same home as their brother from the last birth (Krik-Krak) went. They will go along with the new babaies from the other furry pigs from before too. It's really sad to see them go. They are terribly cute and sweat and their mom is just sitting in her cage all alone now. Who knows what her instincts are telling her. One day 4 babies and the next day they are gone. There's something truly awful about that. But we had to do this. Today we will reunite the mom and dad (sister and brother) again and hope they don't fight as much as the last time. We know that the mom is not pregnant this time (as she was last time already) - so we can only hope that will somehow make a difference.

FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!!! 18 July 2008: Heidi goes to Holly...days!!!!!! And Sarah, Erika and Heidi meet up for a bit with kids galore...

Sarah says:

Happily (as my kid would say), we ran into Heidi while we were walking to the center of Kortrijk and we got to take a photo of me, Heidi and Erika together for Face The Day. We welcome Erika and Oscar as very special Face The Day guests.
Erika, Oscar, my kid and I also had Belgian waffles in the center. Oscar's dad Neil Smith actually has a Belgian restaurant in New York City of all places and he from outside of London no less. But I can assure you that this was the first REAL Belgian waffle that Oscar has ever had!
Even later that day, Heidi and Nico stopped by with Yma and Oscar and Yma hung out on the floor together pretending to make food and eat for a little while. Fun to see these kids together. Yma is 6 months older than Oscar. They both have these wonderfully expressive eyes as you can see. Check out Yma below. Heidi says she was fake smiling here. Even her fake smile is a very special and beautiful one. Look at those eyes! You can almost see what she'll look like when she a lot older. She's really not a baby anymore...

Heidi says:

After three nice and interesting weeks, i will withdraw myself from this second home, and spend some time at my first home! It's almost holidays for Heidi! Olé!

I had a haircut at lunch and as always, I don't like it. I will like it in a couple of days. Haircuts are horrible! They are never what you expect them to be. They only are what you expected after a few washes... Thankfully, i am aware of that! :)

And now, let the last hours begin!

Thursday 17 July 2008: To all those who... ... Sarah's got a boring photo today so offers a couple of Oscar happy and sad!

Heidi says:

To all those who still have their Flemish flag hanging out of their window, you're *é"#^´%s...

It's becoming a little bit shameful to live in this country with everything that's going on in the government. And then you have these dumbasses who hang their flemish lion out, even though the flemish holiday was on the 11th of July. To make it even worse...

Now, to end this with a positive note (for me anyway): I ran 54 minutes yesterday. Another personal record that's broken. I might only do a short run on Friday, because my body feels a bit painful today...

THIS IS A LOUSY AFTERNOON, WITH A COMPUTER THAT DOESN'T WANT TO COOPERATE. I AM TIRED AND READY TO CRASH. THIS ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE...

Sarah say: Just a regular photo of me today as I couldn't get Erika in one with me. We had a fine day together though. Catching up. Laughing. Discussing stuff. We hung out in the kithen as I prepared food for dinner. It felt very adult. We have grown up. It's a nice feeling. What's really nice is knowing how close we have stayed after all of these years and that we can just pick up wherever we left off and continue to be nostalgic and live in the past a little if we want to too. Sometimes it's as if we are still 14 years old. My daughter was looking at us often as if we were out of our minds. We can't help it - we regress sometimes. And it's fun! As for Oscar - well he remains lively and lovely. As the pictures above show, there is a fine line between happy and sad with a 15 month old. By the way, the shirt I am wearing in the above photo was a gift from Erika. On her last visit, she tried to give me a shirt that was like three sizes too small. Though it was flattering to know she saw me as thinner than I was - I really couldn't wear that shirt so... When I first saw the shirt this time - I was sure I'd be way too fat for it and again that she had seen me as smaller than I am. But alas - the shirt fits and even looks good - so there you have it!

Wednesday 16 July 2008: A little break outside can do miracles... As can a really cute baby and a visit from good friends from New York!

And later that day, Erika and I and the families had a nice walk outside to mess with the jetlag a little bit and get some fresh air! Erika is like a monkey on my back... Can never shake her. Nor do I want too! It's so good to see her. We have had a lot of of laughs and man is she married to the ever so funny Mr. Neil Smith and together they have the ever so darling Oscar Charles Dionisio Smith! So glad to have them all here for this visit!!!

Sarah says:
Welcome Oscar to Face The Day! His mom and dad, Erika and Neil, will grace these pages too over the next few days! It's so great to have them here! Oscar is lighting up the house already with his big smile and laugh!

Heidi says:
I couldn't sit still anymore, my shoulder was hurting like crazy and so was my right hand, and my eyes were not seeing clear anymore. I went outside, read a page in my book and took some pictues of myself. Refreshed to go!

Monday 14 July 2008: Another day in Sarah's life during her vaction! Nothing to report but fun and relaxation I'm afraid...

Sarah says:

Later that day Heidi and I were reunited for Face The Day! She is now officially paler than I am thanks to my south of France tan I'm afraid!

Heidi says: Sarah, these colours aren't true! I am not at all as tanned as I look in this picture!!! I look orange there, and tan, but I didn' even sit in the sun yet... And I don't use tanning creme. Time to check your camera, dear...

Sarah says:

Stopped in at the office to do some administration today and got to see the lovely Heidi! Always good to see her of course though we forgot to take a photo! I have to get used to bringing my new camera along. It seems to delicate at this stage!

Tonight we picked up the guinea pigs, who seem well and healthy! Then we went to see some friends - Steven and Tilly and their kids - and had a late evening of constant laughter and talking crap. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Oh yes - and though I missed one set of Sunday Post Secrets I haven't missed this week's. Below is my favorite one because I read three books during my vacation and totally enjoyed myself!!! I'll write more about the three books another time! I love eating up books! I can't say I'd eat the pages literally but it sure does feel like a great meal as you drink up all the words and munch on each character. I hope I'll continue to read! I think the computer and TV in my life get in the way of reading. I have to make reading more a real goal of mine! It feels so good - what a great escape!

I'll see Heidi in a little while and I'll bring my new camera and will try to take a photo of us together and get Face The Day totally up to date! I have missed it while I have been gone!