Monday, December 31, 2007

Monday 31 December 2007: Happy New Year's Eve from Sarah and Heidi of Face The Day! Let's take a walk backwards before forwards...

Sarah says:
There above you can see sick Heidi and me this afternoon. It won't be much of a New Year's for her but as we were talking about - in the big picture she won't have missed much! She's on the mend but still has a long way to go...


That's us above one year ago today on 31 December 2006. I had stepped out from my post-back-operation bed to meet Heidi on the corner and get some fresh air. It was my year to be house-bound. Again - as Heidi and I were discussing, though at the time, it didn't feel great, in retrospect there was something pretty cozy about being stuck at home at this time of year... Want to see more about this time last year? Check out this link then...
And there above and there below, you can see us two years ago today on 31 December 2005. Funnily enough, Heidi was sick then too. I wonder if she even remembers! So it wasn't much of a New Year then either I think. Check out this link to know more... WRONG DATE FOR PHOTO ABOVE AS HEIDI POINTS AOUT BELOW - THE ABOVE ONE IS ACTUALLY FROM 31 JANUARY 2006! Sorry! - Sarah


Heidi says: I have to put something straight here. The picture above is not at all from the 31st of December. I know that because I was pregnant on that picture, and I wasn't pregnant yet on the 31st of december 2005. The picture must date from the 31st of January 2006 instead...

Sarah adds: Whoops!!! My bad! I was mistaken! I took the top entry of that year rather than the bottom from January and Heidi is correct - it was the 31st of January so I will keep the photo of Heidi above from the 31st of January 2006 and the one of me with the drawn picture of Heidi below from that day but just above these remarks I will place the correct photo of Heidi and me from the 31st of January 2005! Sorry about that!


Photo above is also wrong date and is from the 31st of Janaury 2006! Whoops! Sorry! -Sarah
And there below you can see YMA!!!! this afternoon looking all cute and fuzzy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE FROM HEIDI AND SARAH AT FACE THE DAY! HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD ONE!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Sunday 30 December 2007: Sarah welcomes kids galore to Face The Day today as well as some blond bombshells!

Sarah says:
Welcome blond bombshell number 1 above: FDW! Looking good Filip, Looking too hot to trot!
Above you can see the kid trying to act older than she is...
Above you can see the hag trying to act younger than she is! (haha!!! - at least it's not another unwelcome retard joke!!! :-)
Above you can see the kid along with my godkid and a beautiful blue sky at the skatebowl in Kortrijk...
Ahhhh! So many kids! I'm scared mommy!!!!!!!!
Fave Post Secret this week is an obvious one for the New Year. So cliche. So true. So false...

PS - sorry if anyone was offended my the retard jokes yesterday but they were really kind of funny if you think about it... Retard means "late" in French, right? I'm always late! I too am a retard! And Heidi's medicine -- you have to see the humor in that! You just have too! You can't like "Borat", for example, if you can't appreciate the odd retard joke - as opposed to the normal retard joke... whoops! I accidentally just made another retard joke! I'm sorry!!!!!! I promise there will be no retard jokes in 2008! Only mentally challenged ones!

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Saturday 29 December 2007: We finally have proof! Heidi is a retard! And Sarah is protecting herself from all you sick people out there!!!

Sarah says:
I'm keeping myself safe from all you sickos out there because I am sure I am next but I'm gonna fight it with all my will!

Poor, poor, poor Heidi! Seriously! Pneumonia is no joke! Our gal is ill! She feels awful. Look at her up there, she looks like a ghost of herself. Her cough cuts like a knife. When this all passes, hopefully she'll cheer up! This has been a crappy holiday time for her to say the least!

The one fantastic thing that makes her sickness totally worth it, at least from my view, is that she's finally been diagnosed by a wise doctor as a honest-to-goodness retard! Just look at her medicine below! It's clear as day! I mean I knew it all along! The proof is in the pudding! Good thing there's medicine for Heidi to rid herself of her retard ways! Who would have known! Give her a week or two or three and she'll be as good as new and maybe even better because the retard in her will be cured! Viva retard! Viva Heidi!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Friday 28 December 2007: Sarah could care less about New Year's and Christmas but will drink and cheer to you all anyway!!!!

Sarah says:
This has been a good holiday season so far - in some ways anyway. We had a no present policy this year and that felt wonderful to me. I haven't consumed at all. I will when I shop for clothes at the upcoming sales so it's not like I'm trying to be holier than thou or anything like that. I just feel like I don't need anything at all right now. For the moment, knock on wood and prosthetics, I have my health and I am not in pain anymore - to me that is a wonder everyday! When you have lived with daily, hourly pain for year after year, everyday without it feels like a gift and puts me in high spirits. Every ache that pops up, on the other hand, feels like an immediate set-back. Well, that's not entirely true. I have these mega hammer-toes right now that ache terribly for some reason. They are making it hard for me to walk. I have had strange foot ailments ever since my back operation - so I'm wondering if there is some relation... I don't know. I'll ask the doctor tomorrow when I see him. But that hasn't got me worried. I have the feeling right now that I am strong and able. Maybe I am imagining it but this is me without pain. I feel awake mostly and ready. Ready for what, I have no idea - but ready nonetheless. Maybe for a good 2008, though I don't really get into the whole New Year, New Start thing. This year, due to circumstances, I do feel really excited about 2008 and what it will bring. And as I can't say enough, I just feel so lucky to feel this strong right now and that makes the New Year welcome!

So I will pretend to drink and to toast to 2008 and to all of you! And to poor Heidi who really feels miserable!

2007 has been a hard year. The worst part about it was losing Peter of course. From July until now, my thoughts have been busy with Peter everyday. Where as before it was worry and sadness, now it's acceptance and memories I guess - though the sadness still comes so often in waves - with sudden unexpected reminders. Just have to feel it and let it run through me.

2007 meant the end of one job and the beginning of another. The road from then to now wasn't always smooth but now it looks bright and exciting! A lot of the negativity of a former situation has washed away to be replaced with a lot of goodness and joy and motivation from a new situation. 2008 will be a pivotal year for me and Heidi.

2007 meant a great year for my daughter and my little family. She's been thriving this year non-stop. It's such a wonderful feeling to see your kid so at ease and happy and growing so well and becoming this joyful, smart little being. Marv and I can only be proud and shine because of that little Lool!

2007 meant a huge scare when it came to my back after I picked up an old woman who fell in Gent . My back pain returned like a smack in the head. Despair returned so much that I hardly wanted to admit it had happened and stopped talking about the pain I had again almost as soon as I felt something click as I picked her up. It was back to physical-therapy for 3 months, two times a week. It was back to pain showing through my eyes and bad sleeps. It was like a recurring nightmare. But then, three months or so after, the pain just disappeared and I have felt great ever since! I learned I have to be very careful but I also learned that my back will ache sometimes and it won't mean the end of the world. I lived with pain for years and years. If every now and then I have a back ache, I can live with that too without panic.

Life is too short to panic and get negative and worry. Easier said than not done - but if there's anything I want to do in 2008, it's to worry less, take more things in stride, and get joy from little things as musc as possible. I want to spend time doing things that matter to me. I want to consume less overall. I want to beat myself up less for things I can't control. For the things I can control, I want to step up to bat and just do it and take chances and risks - calculated risks.

Here is one of my favorite jokes about worry showing how we mostly do it for nothing:
"Jewish telegram reads: Start worrying!!!! More news will follow!"

There are still a few days until New Year's so you may not have heard the last of all this blah, blah, blah. No matter how hard we try to avoid these New Year's reflections, they get us every time. That's life I guess.

I drink to you all and wish you all a nice pre-New Year weekend! I hope each of you does something really meaningful this weekend that makes you feel something deeply and truly! That's my goal!

Thursday 27 December 2007: It's babytime at Face The Day! Welcome Seibe and Oscar and some mutilated dolls...

Sarah says:
Check out SIEBE! He was born on the 11th of December. He's the latest child and the first son of Greyn's drummer Filip Tanghe and Els! He's so little and already has the face of a boy! He and his two sisters looked very comfortable last night when we visited their very happy home. Welcome to the world Siebe! It's going to be fun watching Siebe grow up and seeing what a son of Filip's will end up looking like! By the way - I'm all red in the above photo because I had two big glasses of champagne in a short time and I am such a wuss these days when it comes to drinking! I'm drunk within seconds sometimes. I get all warm and red and shiny.
Above you can see Siebe's candy jars. The candy has his name in it. Els showed me a video of the candies being made. It's a great idea really! They make the letters huge and then wrap them up in a sugar taffy role like thing and then stretch it until it's very long. Then they cook it and cut it into tiny pieces and within each piece are Siebe's name. Very cool and very tasty!
And there above is another beautiful, happy baby! Welcome Oscar Dionisio Smith to Face The Day once again! He's my friend Erika's baby boy. You can see Erika, the doting mom, below with Mr. Smiley-Head.
And last but not least - below you can see my happy daughter's strange and scary creations! Should I be worried? Hope not! She says she was being creative. She sorted through all of her dolls and found all these dolls without heads or legs or with crushed bodies - so rather than throwing all the pieces out, she decided to spend two and a half hours reconstructing them into mutilated monster dolls. She said the one with one leg and a beard is supposed to be Borat.. Freaky! But she's proud...

By the way - Heidi has pneumonia of all things, the poor girl! It really sucks because she's been stuck inside her whole vacation with a high fever and a wicked cough and little appetite. She's starting to feel better but it hasn't been a fun time for her and her little family! We wish you well Heidi!!!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Wednesday 26 December 2007: Heidi is still ill and Sarah gets her stripes as a crazy cat...

Sarah says:
My kid received some face paints for Christmas so I of course had to let her paint my face. I felt like a crazy cat all day. I was almost drinking milk from a bowl and scratching myself!
Little did I know she was turning me into a cat! She had already turned her cousin, my nephew Arne, into a little puppy. Net, she turned my mom, who really is quite slow, into a turtle! Good type-casting kiddo!
Scary stuff above!
There's the princess herself above pre-make-up - in her new bathrobe, believe it or not, which she designed and my husband's magical mother made for her. What a stylish bathrobe!!
And last but not least, please meet 4 new additions to our family - 3 Miami prostitutes and one freaky Pinocchio without features and clothes... I guess he's feeling pretty happy though with those three slutty gals! I pray my kid doesn't see these horrid things as role-models and want to grow up and look just like them! She has enough sense to have told me that she never wants to look like them - that they are too perfect and show off their upside-down underwear - whatever that means! Anyway, she had a blast with them and is very happy. So I am happy, I guess...

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Tuesday 25 December 2007: Sarah wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and poor Heiditje is seriously under the weather...

Sarah says:
That's me above with my best Christmas hat and guardian angel praying for what it says below: "Mighty One, if you can't make me thin, then please make my friends fat"!

I'm also praying above for Heidi to feel better. Our poor gal is really ill with a high fever. She'll be okay but there goes her Christmas.... Or maybe it will somehow be cozy when she feels less sick. I hope so!

Below is my little angel child getting all Christmas-y! We had such a nice time at my friend CC's house. They are like family to us and I just love our yearly tradition of getting together and eating a lot and then falling asleep. This time, rather than napping after the big, great meal, we watched hours and hours of an Oprah's Best of DVD. It warmed all of our hearts. I'm not even kidding! I love Oprah. I truly do.

Below is another nice Christmas photo of my mom with my kid. The day was full of laughs. All silly stuff. So cozy and relaxing. Last year when we were at CC's, I felt like hell. It was my first trip out - 10 days after my back operation - and it was tough! This year was different! No pain at all! Fun! Fun! Fun! So strange how life changes from year to year and moment to moment...

And below you can see CC with her fabulous daughter KC and me with my darling mushy-head kid also known as The Lool! We girls has so much fun in CC's bedroom away from the men. We laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed some more! I love that my kid has this friend-family! My family is all over the place. My mom is here at Christmas, which makes it cozy for my daughter. It's double-cozy to have these traditions with friends lined up. I see that my kid thrives at these moments. It sometimes makes me wish I lived closer to my family - that I could just call up one of my many brothers and say "let's meet for lunch today" or "come to my house for Christmas" - things like that... All that just makes me all the more thankful to have friends here like CC!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Monday 24 December: Sarah wishes you a very happy Christmas Eve and would give you a warm, homemade chocolate cookie if she could!!


Sarah says:
Nobody sang a better Christmas Eve song than The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl -Fairytale of New York!

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead on a drip
In that bed

You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God It's our last

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Sunday 23 December 2007 Heidi is sold and Sarah's kid and some bursts of fire light up her life...

Heidi says: I am sold!



Sarah says:
That's my kid and me above at the light parade in Kortijk! We walked with tons of others through the streets of the city with lanterns in hand. There was light and fire bursts everywhere. It was pretty cool. It was a good, lazy day of doing a whole lot of nothing.... By the way Heidi - whatchotalkinboutwillis? I don't get the "I am sold" thing? I mean I know that's what the sign says. But is that some secret message or something?

It's Post Secret time! I chose two faves this week. The first one just shows how hard this time of the year is and will be for a lot of people! These cozy times of the year can feel totally empty and lonely and dark for people who feel alone. You can feel more alone surrounded by people. You have to pretend you are happy though because these are supposed to be happy times! My heart goes out to a few people I know who are facing rough times right now. It can't be easy at all with all this holiday cheer brewing around...

And the below Post Secret just shows how much you can love someone. I love my daughter more than life itself. That is for sure. Nobody else even comes near to what I feel for that little munchkin. I think she feels the same about me to tell you the truth. That kind of love can almost feel painful if you imagine losing it... I hold on to it for dear life.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Saturday 22 December 2007: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONA!!!!! Sarah goes to a beautiful old pool in Roubaix, France to see some great views of art...

La Piscine in Roubaix, France is a beautiful art museum which once was an public pool. The building is art in itself. I had a nice day there with my family. I am so tired from yesterday but it was a perfect way to spend a sleepy day. If you can, check out this place! You can eat there cheap too...


Friday 21 December 2007: Party photos continued!

Sarah says: There we are before things got started...
There's Heidi showing off her stuff...
There's my buddies CC and GM!
There we our with the DJ! Heidi liked him so much she took him home to bed with her!
There we are with my little Rock & Roll kid!

There's Heidi's little Rock Star!There are a brother and sister DJ team, steping in to give Mr. Nice and Haydee a break!And there I am with my mother who flew in that morning from Florida and was suffering from really bad jetlag by the end of the party. It was 100% time for her to head home. Funny thing is that my dad fell asleep at our office a few weeks back due to jetlag and my mom was pretty much sleep-walking there last night...

It was indeed a blast and as Heidi said, thanks to everyone who helped and to all those who came! It was a great way for me and Heidi to close one year in preparation for another. It's going to be a big, important challenging ad exciting year for us! Viva 2008! But first Christmas.... Let's not rush things...

Saturday 22 December 2007: A Friday Evening in December




Heidi says: The party was a blast! Thank you Tom, Nico, Trees, Frans, Nathalie, Bart, Judy, Dirk and bartenders Valerie and Davine for helping us!!!! It would have been very difficult without you!!