Tuesday 30 December 2008: Sarah is no longer happy at all. Not one bit. Totally sad actually! Life sucks!

Sarah says:
Bad, bad news today about friends very dear. My heart is broken and this isn't even at all about my heart. More than anything, this makes me feel lonely. The heart is a lonely hunter indeed - as Carson McCullers wrote... All I know at this point is that what seems hard and sad now will eventually turn into easier and happier. There's a lot of mud and bad stuff to dredge through. Things might get worse before they get better. But they always do get better. And then they get worse again. And then better. I only hope the best for my friends and loved ones and it's really painful to see people hurting. You can only hope for and wait for the better times to come and to go through the bad times while they are here... :-(

Monday 29 December 2008: Sarah is still feeling cheerful!

Sarah says:
All well! I think this will be a good week again.

Sunday 28 December 2008: Sarah is nothing but smiles today... even though she's a tad under the weather...

Sarah says:

CRAMPS GALORE!!! But still happy! Vacation was good and calm and joyous. I feel very positive and even look forward to 2009!

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 24, 25, 26 and 27 December 2008: Sarah celebrates the holidays with her mom and hats...

Sarah says:

There above you can see my mom and I today - the 27th of December in our new prairie hats! My daughter already has a fancy version of such a hat so my mom got each of us a more generic version so we could all pretend to live on the farm in the barn with ma and pa Ingalls... It was a good day at my husband's parents' house celebrating Christmas. Very relaxing and great, great food!

That's me yesterday - Friday the 26th. Went to Gent and saw my friend Joke. It was a cold but sunny day. We had a good lunch and I did a tiny bit of last-minute shopping.

There above you can see my mom and I on Thursday the 25th of Deecmebr - Christmas day - in our Christmas hats! I guess we think we are Russian or something!

And there I am above on Christmas Eve having stars in my eyes and seeing the light!

Last but not least - in one of the two Post Secret books I gave myself for Christmas I found the above post card. It's an ode to Heidi! I hope 2009 will be an enjoyable year full of more energy and less stress and pain for Heidi and hers!

Sunday 21 December to Tuesday 23 December: Sarah and family go to Germany and hang with ASG and TSG for a few relaxing days!

Sarah says:
It was great to get away for a few days before Christmas and New Year! Our friends ASG and TSG were kind enough to invite us to te house they were staying at in Mosdorf, Germany (Cochem). It was supposed to be a 4 hour drive but we took a wrong turn and ended up in the dark riding up and down unmarked mountain roads for about three extra hours! But we got there in the end and had a few relaxing days thereafter as you can see in the many photos below.

The photo above and the one below were taken at a really old, really German-loking castle in the mountains. It was an easy walk downhill to the castle but we had to drag ourselves up the hill after! There I am above and there's my kid below!

Above you can see us dragging ourselves up the hill. I have to give my mom some credit! At 66, she made it up the steep hill sooner or later!

There above are our hosts ASG and TSG.
And one of the best parts of our days there was that ASG and I could hang around reading our Oprah magazines together! Pure, relaxig joy that was!

And that I actually had time to just sit around giving my daughter undivided attention. We finished that book you see in the photo. It was good for her and good for me to just be together - no work, no school, no stress!
I think the same goes for my husband. He had time to spend with our daughter being lazy and he also could go off on his own and make some music on his computer. Good for him, good for me, good for our kid!

And we hung out with Buster the Bunny! You can see him above and below. He didn't like me very much because when he'd come near me he'd thump. Not a good sign.

I think he's giving me the evil eye in the picture below!

There above and below you can see our surroundings. Very German looking indeed. It was a tiny village in the middle of nowhere with one small bakery and not much else - well there was a church of course...

In a few towns over there was a grocery store and we found matzah! My mom made all of us Matzah brei! It was really good stuff. You can see it below. If I were you, I'd google a recipe for it and make it right away! Yummy!
And thanks to ASG who made a whole bunch of cookies, we all had a chance to decorate them. That was really fun.

Of course there was a warm fire as you can see below!

The End!

Wednesday 24 December 2008: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Tuesday 23 December 2008: Thursday veggie day!

Heidi says:

I just read that the EVA (ethisch vegetarisch alternatief) is proposing a vegetarian day: Thursday veggie day. I think that is a wonderful idea! The bond says that if every belgian would stick to eating vegetarian on Thursday (or at least one day per week), these would be the consequences for the world: it would mean as much for the environment as to take half a million cars from the road, or as if people would ride 1100 kilometers by bike instead of driving their cars. A good idea for the new year?

Monday 22 December 2008: Heidi waits for the Christmas feeling...

Heidi says: I don't find the christmas feeling. I have always been so nostalgic and I have always loved christmas. This year, I miss the feeling. Maybe I miss all my usual emotions.

Sunday 21 December 2008

Heidi says: exhausted.

Saturday 20 December 2008: Sarah's off to Germany and you probably won't se here here till Thursday! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

Sarah says:
I am outy! The rush is over! Time for rest and relaxation before 2009 starts. I think 2009 will be a hell of a year! I can' wait for my one week vacation to start in a small town in Germant tomorrow but I also really look forward to the new year! Very exciting! I may not be on here until Thursday or so! Not sure I'll have a computer to use or internet while we are away! I don't care! It will be great to be off a computer for a bit! Heidi will hold down the fort as usual!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN ADVANCE MS!!!! I'LL BE SENDING YOU WISHES ALL THE WAY FROM GERMANY ON THE 22 DAY!!!!! HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY!

Friday 19 December 2008: Heidi, Sarah and Nancy Face The Night at Face The Day for their office reception! Viva this team of three!

Sarah says:
Friday we had an office reception! There the three of us looking cheery at the end of the evening. It was a nice night. It was also my last work before my vacation which has officially started I am happy to say. I have one week ahead of rest and relaxation with my husband, daughter, mother and friends ASG and TSG in a small town in Germany (Morsdorf). I can't wait to relax, reat, read, listen to good music, eat well! Just what I need!

Thursday 18 december 2008: Heidi got diagnosed and Sarah's mom is in Belgium for 2 weeks!

Sarah says:

I get your frustration Heidi and understand your struggle! I really feel for you!

My mom arrived yesterday and there above you can see her with Heidi and me. It's good to have her here. My daughter is happy when she's around. Our house is relaxed. It's nice to be cooked for too! I'm looking forward to vacation for a week starting next Monday!

Heidi says:
I went back to the doctor yesterday. We talked for an hour. He told me I might have Fibromyalgie. He pushed a flyer in my hands and I read it thoroughly. He might be completely right. Fibromyalgie has a lot to do with tension. The causes aren't known, but people with fibromyalgie have a lot of pain in muscles and joints, on certain points, mostly in the area of the neck, shoulder back and arms and legs. They also have a bad bowel transit or system. They often suffer from chronic stress or angst. And when they wake up in the morning, they are tired.
When I read all this, it scared me because I recognised myself totally in this.
I went over it lightly, like I usually do when I am at the doctor because I want to seem strong and not weak, but the doctor said I shouldn't go over it lightly, because if I don't work on it and change my life, I can get chronically tired and that is not something you wanna get.
So what do I need to do now?
The doctor says: Change your life. Take time for yourself. Rest. Sleep. Relax.

How do you change your life when you're me? I am a nervous type of person. When I was 6 years old, I was in a dancegroup and we had to perform. Right before we had to get dressed and to get ready, I started to cry. The danceteacher let my mother come, and I told my mom I had a bellyache. At the age of 13, I had bellyached every single day of the year. I staid in the hospital for 3 days and got examined completely. I got diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The bellyaches never stopped anymore since then. I don't suffer from them all the time, but I can just get a bellyache that lasts for three or four days and there is nothing I can do about it.
When I was 27, and six months pregnant, the gyneacologist told me I had to stay in bed for 10 weeks, because my uterus was too sensitive. Yesterday, I got diagnosed with fibromyalgie.

My personality is this: I am a nervous person. I like thing to be the way I like them to be. I don't like to sit still. I like to be active. I need a lot of sleep (since I was a tiny baby).

When I get a moment to myself, I can't just sit at home and be relaxed. I always need to do something. It is time to change that. I think it is time to learn the art of relaxation. I have a very long way to go and it scares me a bit. I don't know if I am capable. The good thing about this is: I am healthy in a way (I do feel the pain and the tension, but it's nothing that can be located and so there is no operation needed. Everything looks perfect in my neck and bones and nerves). And it's almost new year. New year means resolutions. For the first time, I can have real resolutions.
I HAVE TO MAKE RESOLUTIONS AND I HAVE TO GO FOR THEM.

So what can I think about and what can I do?
- yoga
- sleep more
- rest more
- keep a book about what I feel every day (fysically and psychologically)
- take the pills the doc prescribed me to relax
- go to a osteopath
- change my life, which is the hardest part. What do I keep on doing and what not?

I have a lot to think about.

Wednesday 17 December 2008: Heidi and Sarah are just Heidi and Sarah all over again! No time to make interesting pics anymore! Just same old same old!

Sarah says:

There we are again with our mulle and tote! Yes ASG - there's that shirt you love yet again!!!! I am saving the planet by never changing my clothes! Less wash! No hassle! You love it! Heidi is even starting to match her hat to my shirt I wear it so much! Another day with not much to report other than I love the OXFAM shop. We got such great stuff there for not a lot of money. I want to try most of my gifts there as it's almost like doing a good deed. Heidi turned me on to that - so thanks for that Heidi. I always thought it was way too expensive - kind of like solar panels - but it's not and like solar panels it's a little step at saving this freaking planet of ours and the people in it!

Tuesday 16 December 2008: Heidi finds nothing and Sarah knows sprouts aren't for everyone and make a lot of people gassy but try just try this recipe!

Sarah says:
I know that many of you think brussels sprouts are nasty and cause too much gas! I agree about the gas but not about the the taste. I totally love sprouts. The photo above indeed makes them look a little nasty - but trust me - this is a great recipe that you all might want to try!

It's not mine I am sad to admit. I stole it from the Moosewood Celebrations cookbook. Basically you take a pound of sprouts (so half kilo). You cut the stems and put a deep X on each sprout bottom with a knife. In a small dish you put half a cup of soy sauce, three tablespoons of honey and about two tablespoons of red wine (dry). In the meantime, you melt about two tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan. You add the sprouts and the liquid mix along with about half a cup of water. You cook let it come to a boil and then turn it to a simmer and put a cover on and let it all cook for 15 minutes. Stir it a few times in between. Take off the cover and let it cook another 10 minutes? Then take some cornstarch and a bit of water mixed and pour it in and stir. It should become a thickish sauce. Voila! Try it! You'll love it! Just not too many at once or you'll regret it when you get into bed!

Heidi says:

Result of the scan of my neck: NOTHING! Back to the beginning. Pain but no cause and so no help. Fabulous.

Monday 15 December 2008: Heidi and Sarah are here yet again with the same faces as usual... It's Monday. Nothing to report!

Sarah says:
Rather - lots to report but NO TIME!!!

And I didn't forget - my Post Secret pick of the week. Don't take this card wrong. It's just one perspective and it's not mine. I suspect my dad will be around for a while still - but fact is you never know. He or anyone I know and love could kick the bucket tomorrow. I hate how death just steals people away. Today I heard that a musician-friend of my friend Peter just died after a 7 month battle with cancer. Peter only died a bit more than a year ago and now many people who knew Peter are now facing the death of another friend in a similar way and it just sucks! These guys were young so it makes even less sense than watching an older person get sick and die. But I don't want to watch anyone die. This is the part of life I have a hard time coming to terms with. I guess we all do yet we all do have to deal with death. Watching a friend suffer through illness is heart-breaking. Watching a parent faced with a shorter lifespan than perhaps expected or hoped for is not easy. You just see life in another way and as the cliche goes you look at your own life in a whole new way. It's amazing what things like this can trigger in one's head.



And on a lighter side - the below Post Secret card. It just makes me laugh. I have an ongoing bad joke at my husband's expense that he is gay. When he walked in to the room the first day I saw him back in The Netherlands he was wering a pink jacket. A friend of mine who knew I always liked guys with long hair aid to me "that's going to be your boyfriend" because my husband had really long hair back then. All I saw was his pink jacket and a certain swing in his walk and I said to my friend "no way, he's gay"! Turns out that friend is gay. I knew it back then as it was pretty clear but he was in the closet still -- not my husband - but the friend of mine. Anyway -- since then there's alwys been this joke between my husband and me and our friends that my husband is a bit gay. Don't get me wrong - he's very manly too and actually not very gay at all. But there is something a bit gay about him and it's a little game we play. So I like the idea that we met in a gay bar even though we didn't...

Heidi says:
I am waiting for the results of a scan. I am almost certain it will show nothing and I am afraid that I will not have a solution. We'll see. We'll see :)

Sunday 14 december 2008: The train

Heidi says:

How joyful to be on a train, definitely with my sweet daughter and mother!

Sarah says:

Feeling sick as a freaking dog in that photo! Can you tell?

Saturday 13 December 2008: The christmas t(h)ree

Heidi says:

My dreams have come true: Nico, me and Yma decorated a christmas tree!! aaah, life can be sweet!

Sarah says: I felt good when this photo was taken before I went out to a lying-down concert Saturday night. I came home really sick. Still don't know what made me sick. I think it was raw egg on a pizza I ate before the gig...

Friday 12 December 2008: Heidi faces the day while Sarah defaces the day with her dumb face...AND they welcome Jan De Campenaere from Venus in Flames!

Sarah adds:
Here's an update! We had a lovely visitor this afternoon whose face we wanted to grace Face The Day with. Please welcome special guest Jan De Campenaere from the Belgian band Venus in Flames to Face The Day with Heidi and Sarah! Via this link, you can check out the music of Venus in Flames. We are very happy and proud that Sound Performance will be making Venus in Flames' CD and we were very pleased to meet the friendly Jan today!

Sarah says:

I am so glad it is Friday. I long to sleep late tomorrow morning and to clean up my house, which is so messy it is screwing up my head! We neeed to food shop badly! So many things that need doing to put some order into our lives again! Tonight I'll go to the winter walk of my daughte's school so that will be invigorating as well as relaxing. Tomorrow it's errands and chores followed by a night out and to a lying-down gig of my good friend Filip D. Sunday it's time to put up our Christmas tree and hang out with my kid and husband and make a nice atmosphere. Can't wait!

Thursday 11 December 2008: Heidi and Sarah return from Hanover, Germany on another little, noisy, warm plane and are happy to be on the ground again..

Sarah says:

That photo was taken when we were about to board the plane. I hated that plane. We almost missed it by the way. We were at the wrong gate because they changed it. The one on our boarding pass was not right. We realized at 18:30 when we were supposed to have boarded our plane. We made it though because our plane had been delayed by 15 minutes. That would have sucked if we had missed it. One night in Hanover is enough!

Wednesday 10 December 2008 : Heidi and Sarah make themselves sick with the Starbucks way-too-sweet vanilla bullshit thingy at the Brussels airport...

Sarah says:

Heidi and I went on a road-plane trip today - to the Brussels airport to get a plane to Hanover for a short trip. At the airport we got a Starbucks vanilla toffe latte. IT WAS DISGUSTINGLY SWEET and made us both feel sick! NEVER AGAIN!!! We got to Hanover and stayed at a hotel at the airport. Traveling went very smoothly other than the plane being way too small, noisy and warm...

Tuesday 09 December 2008: Heidi and Sarah are hiding in their heads and hoods and pulling faces today for you....

Sarah says:

I just used all my writing time to write in yesterday's entry. All I can add now is that though my photo yesterday was more fresh-faced than I felt - today there was no reason at all for me to show you all my face - hence my hiding behind a super-model! I am actually just showing you my inner super-model. Heidi is showing you how fluffy she can be and her inner beast!

Monday 08 December 2008: Happy Birthday to Sarah's mom and to her friend Rachel and to her sister-in-law Tess! Heidi and Sarah are close up today...

Sarah says:

We are still not on top of things here at Face The Day! This entry is late - though we did remember to take a photo. And there's just never enough time in our days and nights to get on here and write something worthwhile anymore. I miss writing. Life is about work and about raising my kid these days. Not much room for much else most of the time. I'm not complaining. I am lucky to totally love my work and obviously totaly love my kid! My husband and I have made some changes lately to make life groove better for the both of us and our daughter. Little things such as getting up at 6:50 each day in place of 7am so we all get downstairs by 7:30 and have breakfast together without rushing as much as we did before. We are also trying to be in bed earlier - by 10 pm when possible. We have become bad sleepers - always wound up and waking up in the middle of the night with racing thoughts - so by getting in bed by 10 pm we feel a bit more rested than we did before. And we have been watching the series Brothers and Sisters this week from like 9pm to 10pm. That gets our minds off our days and we get to be together and to relax and unwind. It's all good. I'm glad we are learning to live with our busier than ever lives lately. Snce my husband changed jobs and gets home each night at least two hours later than before but leaves at the same time as before each morning - I have struggled with the new pressures on me to be totally in charge of our daughter's needs as I race home to get her in time and get her fed and do whatever chores need doing such as cleaning the guinea pigs' cage and that sort of thing. It's all a bit too much. But we are slowly but surely looking for ways to make things better and it's working. So far so good...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TESS!!!!!!!!!!