Sunday 31 August 2008: Sarah goes for a bike ride with her family on this beautiful sunny day and has a once-a-month headache coming in...

Sarah says:
The bike ride from Kortrijk to Vichte and back was short and sweet and sunny and fun even though my inner thighs itch and hurt a bit all at the same time. I guess I have to build up hard skin there orsomething or at least get a new gel bike seat or something. My arse hurts. My daughter's arse hurts. We are the pleasantly hurting arse family right now!

What hurts more though is my cramps and my head. I'm telling you, I am starting to go through some big hormonal change. My monthly visits get worse and worse. I don't feel right! I'll be going to the doctor soon and getting blood tests to check my hormones. I hate the "what's-happening-to-me" feeling! I need answers. All week and still I have alos had gland pain in my throat - very light pain but annoying evertime I swallow - and I never have that! And then there's the sweating! What is happening to me???

Anyway - I'm quote sure it's nothing serious. But I want to check and will shortly!

Tomorrow is a big day! My kid starts the 4th grade. My husband starts a new job! Heidi and I will welcome a third person to our office! The 1st of September - new bginnings! Woo Hoo!

My Post Secret pick of the week is very obvious of course - about Facebook. All these sights that put you in touch with so many people is the hazy world of the internet, chatting and back and forth emails - well I am sure these things can lead to a whole lot of trouble indeed!!! No doubt in my mind that old flames easily rekindle and a lot of behind the back stuff goes on. Be careful out there folks! By the way - when I saved this Post Secret it was called "Marksfault" for some reason so I guess there is some guy out there on Facebook named mark who is flirting with his high school girlfriend and hopes to hook up with her again, while also hoping his wife doesn't find out! It's all way too easy these days. We live in weird world. The internet has made it even weirder. All the rules have changed it seems. At those moments you do kind of long for the past when things and people were all a little less available...

Saturday 30 August 2008: The Fata Morgana show came to Kortrijk and Sarah and her kid went to see it out and Heidi had her own fashion day!

Heidi says: fashion day for Heidi and Katrijn! Wout made nice designs for businesswomen and Katrijn, Merel and me were his photomodels for one day. We had make-up done, and later on posed in front of a digital lens, melting by flashlamps. I think I might post some results later. Wout will hang some large pictures at a big sale next weekend. I hope it will look ok.

Sarah says:

My daughter and I got dressed up to be one of the 10,000 people in Kortrijk to try to get Kortrijk its 5 stars to suceed in the tasks presented by the Belgian show Fata Morgana. We went into the city for a couple of hours to see what was going on. The sun was shining so bright today and there were thousands of people in the city to watch the program get recorded. We left early because it was all a bit too much and not totally our thing but it was fun to take part and it's always fun to play dress-up! By the time we left, I think Kortrijk had succeeded in two tasks and had therefore received two stars. There was still a cake to be revealed that would feed 10,000 people and the 10,000 glasses of champagne that had to be given out and something about an art exhibit. I assume Kortrijk has gotten all 5 stars by now because it's almost 10pm. We'll see tomorrow when they show it all on TV. I don't really like this show. Never have. But we live in Kortrijk and it is a GREAT place to live and we felt like being there and supporting it all. It was nice for our kid to see. It was very hot though and man did our feet hurt due to bad shoes. I wore my wedding shoes from more than 12 years ago! I guess my feet aren't what they used to be! Although it looks like a wedding dress, the dress in the above photos isn't. It's also more than 10 years old and I'm happy to say that it still fits fine!

Above and below you can see a bit of the sphere. Lots of balloons. Too bad for the birds who choke on them and for the trees they get stuck in - but hey - I don't need to be the party pooper! Yet still -- doesn't that seem like a really easy tradition to just stop doing to help the environment a little?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FILIP AND BEVIN AND YUCATAN!!!!!!

IT'S FACE THE DAY WITH HEIDI AND SARAH'S THREE YEAR BIRTHDAY!!!!!! TAKE A LOOK AT THE LAST 4 YEARS IN A ROW!!!! MY HOW WE CHANGED!!! FUN!! FUN!! FUN!

There we are today, 29 August 2008 looking fresh and alive!
And there we are last year on 30 August 2007 looking shirt-haired and not that great! Use this link to check back to what was happening a year ago with us.
And there we are above two years ago on 30 August 2006 looking pregnant (heidi) and fat (me). Via this link you can see more about that day two years ago in our lives!
And there we are on our first day of this particular blog, 30 August 2005 right after our other one that we had started in April 2005 got hacked and disappeared! We looked younger but we both think we look as good or even better today! Via this link you can see exactly where and how Face The Day with Heidi and Sarah began 3 full years ago in 2005!!! Now we can have flashbacks that will include 4 photos from the consecutive years every time! Even if this blog stops or changes, we promise to at least take a photo every end of August for as long as we can!

Friday 29 August 2008: It's Marv's last day at his job of the last 14 years! Time to say so long and move on...

Sarah says:
Marv's last day of the job he's had for the last 14 years!!!! Goodbye job, goodbye car, hello next job... Monday a new life begins for Marv and for me and our daughter. We are all very excited for Marv's future!
By the way, in the above photo I really look like I'm almost 40, which I am so no problem with that - it's just interesting to see how a face really does start to change as you get older. The youthfulness is going away a bit and the adult is taking its place...
Heidi says: It's clean-up-day! I clean up my face, dye my hair and eyebrows and eyelashes. Need to be fresh for tomorrow! You'll see why...

Thursday 28 August 2008: Sarah....

Sarah says:
No comment! Took only one photo and that was it! If I had another I would have used it instead but alas....

Tuesday 26 August and Wednesday 27 August 2008: Sarah can't skip a day on Face so here are two days - one looking sharp and one as a sweaty beast!!!!

Sarah says about today's photo above - 27 August:
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?????!!!!! I sweat like a beast lately. I always have been a bit sweaty but I seriously swear I am going through early, early menopause!!! I have said it before recently and I need to go get some blood tests and see where my freaking hormones are at. I swear I get hot-flashes and I just feel weird lately. It's either hormonal or something else but it's something! I hate sweating so much. It feels bad. It looks bad! It messes up clothes! I need a solution fast! Any suggestions? It's not just the under arm sweating anymore. It's now my head getting all warm fo two minute flashes! Arghhhh! I hate it!

Next to that, all is well! I had a quick visit to Paris today for just a few hours for a meeting and tonight I will happily watch Project Runway season 4 while my husband is out at his goodbye party for his work of the last 14 years. And in just three days my daughter will be home! I can't wait!

The photo above is from yesterday the 26th of August. I didn't have time to post it. I took it around 11:3 pm last night when I got home from a baby shower. The baby shower wasn't that far from where my daughter's camp is. When I passed near it, my heart actually hurt - seriously - it hurt badly!

Wednesday 27 August 2008: Heidi needs...

Heidi says: new haircolour, new skin, new nose, new belly. yaaaaaawn.

FATA MORGANA IN KORTRIJK

1. Laat 10.000 honden in galakledij een Fata Morgana jubileumlied blaffen.
2. Maak een patattesla van 5 verdiepingen voor het hele publiek.
3. Vul de put van K in Kortrijk met champagne
4. Als kunstminnende stad moeten jullie er ook in slagen om een openlucht expositie van 5 jaar gebouwen platgooien op poten te zetten. Van elk gebouw moeten jullie een levensgrote maquette maken, die dan vervolgens met bulldozers platgereden moet worden.
5. Laat een vlam vertrekken in Eisden naar Kortrijk om ieder gebouw in Kortrijk in brand te steken op zaterdag - vergezeld door minstens 200 Kortrijkse sleutelfiguren - die in ground zero feestelijk onthaald worden.

Monday 25 August 2008: Heidi will begin watching The Wire Season 1 episode 1 tonight and Sarah is very happy about that!!!!!!!

Sarah says:

The Wire is the best show I have ever seen so I am really happy that Heidi found season 1 in the library and will start watching it this week. Everyone should start watching The Wire this week! I will finish finishing The Wire and be sad it's over soon. I'm halfway through season 5 and I'm not happy that it will end very soon! I have enjoyed it so much!

Well at least Heidi will have the pleasure and the pain from watching it now and we can re-hash episodes together. She's in for a treat! Lucky gal! If I had known then what I know now I would have been even more excited about watching the first episode ever a long time ago. I have to thank my brother NSM for getting me into that show. THANKS NSM!!!

Look at my daughter below at her camp last night when we dropped her off. Both my husband and I were missing her so much last night and today and feeling really bad about sending her to camp this last week. She'll probably have such a great time! I'm even sure of it! She'll go kayaking, wall climbing, tree climbing, swimming, hanging out in a tee-pee, making totem poles and things like that. But she was the youngest there and only 1 of 3 girls! She just looked so innocent. When we got there she said she was feeling "bibbery" in her belly. She was so nervous. But she found one girl and they linked up so that was good and she felt more at ease thankfully. But this was really one camp too many. Maybe not for her but certainly for us. That's the hard part of both working full-time. You sometimes aren't so sure about what you decide for your kids. This is one of those moments. We both feel rotten. Again - she's probably more than fine but still. She's been away a lot this summer and enough is enough. We want her back full-time!!!

Sunday 24 August 2008: Sarah's kid is back but soon to be gone again! Yma is loved more than she'll ever know!

Heidi says: my sunday: fleamarkets and BBQ and 'aircastels'. Yma had so much fun and so did we! In the evening, I cleaned Yma's little face with Mustela milk and put her in a nice warm bath with 'goodnight bath gel', changed her bed sheets and put on her new pyjamas. She fell asleep in five minutes. Being a mum can be so wonderful. I love Yma more than I can ever tell...

Sarah says:

This little bunny of mine was away all week at her grandparents' and then at a friend's and today she's leaving for a one week sleep away camp and I miss this lovely lady so much that I can't wait until Friday when she's back and life goes back to usual. Well - sort of usual anyway. In a week from tomorrow, my husband starts a new job that will have him home later at night so that will be a change for us. But I do look forward to having my daughter back home as she has been away a lot this summer! This morning the three of us had a nice breakfast together finally and today we are spending a lazy day together until she leaves for camp. She's been having a great summer. And I shouldn't complain because the first month gave us loads of family time together. But now the days are getting a little shorter and darker and colder and it's time to family-up again! It's not that I'm dying for the summer to end but I do look forward to a more regular schedule again.

And now time for my fave Post Secret's of the week. I guess I'm in parent-mode as you can also see above. I liked these tow postcards. The first about how being a parent defines you - and how the stretch marks are worth it! My back operation was worth it. Every single bit about it all was worth it to have this amazing 9 year old in my life and in my husband's life and in our lives together.

And the second card below about good fathers are a great thing to see! I agree 100%. There's few things nicer than watching fathers taking good care of their kids. My husband is such a good father. I love watching him in that role. It's probably the most important one of his life. For that alone, I chose well!

Saturday 23 August 2008: Sarah thinks the Brussels Bozar "It's Not Only Rock & Roll is NOT Rock & Roll at all and the Royal Palace NEEDS saving lamps!

Sarah says:
We went to Brussels on the train with our kid and with friend Steven and Tilly and their three kids with the plan to visit the exhibit at the Bozar: It's Not Only Rock & Roll. I'm sorry to say because I was really hoping to like it - especially because a lot of artists displaying happen to be musicians I like very much - musicwaise anyway - but it was a bunch of crap if you ask me and my husband and Steven and Tilly! Not all of it was crap. For example, there were some striking works from a member of Sigur Ros, Das Pop, The Kills, David Bryne and I didn't hate the Devendra Banhart stuff though I didn't love it either. I don't know - it was just sort of the feeling of: don't quit your day jobs folks! Where as I really love some of the music of a lot of the "artists", the artwork is something else entirely I'm afraid. It just seemed to take up a lot of space while not giving out any sort of meaning. Taste is taste and I'm sure others would disagree with us and would love the stuff. But it just left me feeling like it was all a bunch of hype with no spine.

Before that, we stumbled upon an unusually open-to-the-public Brussels Royal Palace. We walked through a bunch of overly-decorated and decadent rooms - meeting and sitting rooms mostly, and more than anything else could only take notice of all the burning lamps and large single-glass windows. At the end of the tour there was an area about making the earth a better place. It just didn't add up! The Royal Palace could start by replacing all those bulbs, by which I mean thousands and thousands all burning at the same time, with saving lamps or just shut them off! And then they could put some double glass in all those windows. After that, they are welcome to lecture the public and the Belgian tax-payers about how to save the world. In the meantime, they should start practicing what they preach!

Despite the above negatives, we had a great time at the palace and at the Bozar and in Brussels in general. It was a lovely day which ended with a tasty meal of leek and pumpkin pasta at Steven and Tilly's. These sort of day trips are so fun!

Friday 22 August 2008: Heidi is belly-aching her day away as Sarah just looks tired and small-eyed as freaking usual. Same old. Same old.

Sarah says:
Greetings from Face The Day! Heidi is having belly problems and I look tired. It's the end of the week. We have a weekend ahead to look forward to. Life has been good to us so far. Face The Day is almost 3 years old! Can you imagine that we have taken photos every single day for 3 freaking years? I think I missed two days only in that whole time. That's pretty cool.

Heidi and Sarah from Face The Day wish you all a Great Weekend!

By the way - I think it is really sad that the BigFoot was a fake! I have been waiting my whole life for someone to find the real Bigfoot and Nessie! These stories get me all excited every time. Whenever they turn out to be fake, I just want to crawl up in a fat ball and cry and tear my eyes out!

Thursday 21 August 2008: Heidi and Sarah finally have the Justice CD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TILLY!!!!

Sarah says:

Heidi and I have wanted this Justice CD for a year already and finally we have the mofo!!!! That's about all we have to share today.

Other than:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TILLY!!!!!!!

Wednesday 20 August 2008: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SARAH'S DAD!!!! And Heidi and Sarah welcome Wigbert to Face The Day!

Sarah says:
Heidi and I are pleased to welcome the Belgian singer, songwriter, guitar-player Wigbert van Lierde to Face The Day! Wigbert passed by our world today and was kind enough to be willing to have his photo on this here blog. Besides being very friendly, my oh my does he have very blue eyes! We apologize that we all turned out a little too orange in the above photo but my camera is to blame for that. I still haven't really figured it out. Look for Wigbert's new album out soon!

I of course have to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my father today! Below you can see a funny photo of him and my kid making silly faces when my dad visited here last! As old as he is - 68 today I think - he seems forever young and healthy and forever full of energy! I'll be happy if I feel and act so alive at my dad's age!

Tuesday 19 August 2008: Can somebody tell Sarah what her problem is?

Sarah says:

What is my problem?! I never had such a sweaty head before. Look at me up there! I am a slimy beast! I sweat a lot lately! Could this be very, very early flashes of the big M already? I have heard of a lot of people going through menopause at my age (37) - well starting it anyway. I swear I am getting hot flashes lately. No joke! Maybe because I was born with only half the normal size womb and only one fallopian tube - maybe my body is already ready to throw in the reproductive organ towel! It could be! I hope not though. I am not ready for that quite yet. I am done with having kids. That is for sure - but not ready to have saggier boobs and more facial hair! So if it's not that, what is it? What is making me feel all hot-flashy these days? Seriously, what is my problem?

Monday 18 August 2008: It's a Monday for sure! Rainy, choppy, sleepy...

Sarah says:
It's just a typical Monday. Rainy. Sleepy. Nothing more or less than that... The good thing is that Heidi and I are both finally fully back on the job...

This video below taking the piss out of Facebook is fantastic! I was very busy with Facebook for a few days and I'm already totally overwhelmed by it - turned on and totally turned off by it all at the same time. It's fun finding friend but I don't want to poke or get poked by anyone or freaking play scrabble! Where do people find the time for this? And indeed - you haven't spoken to someone for 25 years and then all of a sudden you do just because you can even though there was never really a connection! It's so weird! But I truly have enjoyed finding a few people again and seeing what they look like now and what they are up to. There are also a few people I fell out of touch with due to time and place but no sort of negative falling out or anything and it's really good to be back in touch. It's just so distracting!

Sunday 17 August 2008: Happy Birthday again to Nico! And welcome Valerie and her Tom (not my tom-marv) to Face The Day!!!!

Sarah says:

Meet Tom above, Valerie's boyfriend. They came over today with 5 kids!!!! Plus my daughter and her cousin were here so that made 7 kids!!!!!!!! total. That's a lot of kids in my home. We all know I have just one kid and that a lot of kids can make my head spin. But it was all fine and good and fun and nice to have them all over. I loved my house today because it allows for the kids to be in one room and the adults to be in another room. The space was good. I love my house lately to tell you the truth. It's really felt like home this summer and I am so happy with the paint job and floor renovations we have done downstairs in the last couple of months. It's great to have our garage now connected to the rest of our house. It has changed the house for us big time. We just enjoy it and use it more and everything seems to be getting into better order. It all feels a lot less chaotic.

Now back to Valerie and Tom. They are happy and that's great to see. The kids are happy. We met Tom's son too and he fits right in. Really fantastic kids, all of them. And the youngest one Fre is now talking a lot. He looks so much like Peter to me. It's wonderful to see Peter's spirit coming out of his kids. In that way, he really feels close and it doesn't feel like he's totally gone.

Tom is a sweet guy and is obviously giving Valerie and the kids a lot of joy. Joy is good. It was a nice day. It's a nice big bunch!

Look at the sky up there. Loved that sky tonight. I sound really positive don't I? Imagine that!
And there above you have my favorite Post Secret this week. It speaks for itself. At the party last night, man did I enjoy the music. There were so many blasts from my past. It's just always good to hear Led Zeppelin blasting, for example. And watching people dance. Fantastic!!! It's tribal sometimes. At one point, everyone was stomping his/her feet on the wooden planks of the dance floor. It was a great effect. All those beautiful people. So many of them so into and committed to music. I'm sure thanks to all that dancing and music there was a lot of sex too after that party! Lots of love in the air! Lovely!

16 August 2008 + early morning 17 August 2008: CONGRATULATIONS TO STEVIE AND ELISA ON THEIR MARRIAGE ON THE 16TH AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICO ON THE 17TH!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO STEVIE FROM VLAS VEGAS AND ELISA FROM ZIGGY ON THEIR MARRIAGE SATURDAY!! IT WAS SUCH A NICE PARTY! GREAT ATMOSPHERE! THEY LOOKED SO HAPPY. Stevie was all clean and proper and looking great and Elisa too in one of the nicest wedding dresses I have ever seen which suited her so very well. They look like they will have a lovely life together. We wish them all the best!
There's Heidi and me above rather early into the party. My eyes and head were still clear.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICO - WHO TURNED 36 AT MIDNIGHT!!!!

We realized that in the three years we have done this blog, we have never had a photo on here of just me with Nico alone without Heidi. So there above you finally have such a photo to celebrate Nico's birthday. It was my outstanding gift to him! After all, it's the thought that counts, right Nico? Just kidding of course. We'll give you a present one of these days! Any special wishes?


And we have never had a photo on here of just Heidi with Tom ad of just Tom and Nico together without anyone else. Well maybe we have had them alone but surely not the other combos! Isn't that exciting! In this blog's life, that is huge news! Haha...

And above is the scoop! I don't know if there has ever been a photo of me on Face The Day in which I looked so intoxicated and red in the eye. I have to admit, when that photo was taken, well, I was feeling a little bit happy. It was a fun night. I felt totally free and in the mood!

Saturday 16 August 2008: Sarah is tired...

Later that day...
So we went to Bellewaerde today and had a good day. Good weather! Too busy there though. Couldn't go on a lot of rides but did get to go on the upside-down rollercoaster with my daughter. Above you can see my kid and her cousin Arne who is visiting for the week. He's the son of my husband's brother. He's a couple of years younger than my daughter. They have a really good time together and we love having him over...
And Marv with the kids! Arne looks a lot like him and like my daughter.
Marv being silly as we waited on line for a freaking hour for a 3 minute water ride!!!!! Taking silly photos at least killed some time!
That's my absolute favorite ride in the world. When I die, throw my ashes off such a ride at high speed please!!! I just go up there and fly and listen to Tindersticks songs playing in my head. It's seriously the best feeling ever. The closest I get to zen. I went three times. I could have gone 3000. You feel like you are flying! At least that's how I imagine it feels. Great stuff!

Sarah says:
Man I'm tired!!! Off to a fun park today to go on rollercoasters and spin around and up-side-down. Tonight, a late party that starts at 10 pm. I need some coffee. I need some color in my face! I am becoming old.... But it will be a great day and I will enjoy all the fun!!