It's Flashback first of the month at Face The Day and Flashback 1st day of school!!!

There we are, today 01 September 2009! I am just about to hop on my bike in the above photo to go to my first day of my new job! It was a good day but a bit confusing and tiring like any first day of work. My back didn't feel great when the day was over but it didn't feel awful either. I really, really liked riding my bike to work and home but it was hard, even though it is a pretty short and easy ride. It made me tired because I am not in great shape. I had a cold sweat from it even! Not a good sign because I'm guessing that means my heart was beating too fast. Who knows. All I know is that i I keep up riding a bike to and from work it will get easier every day even through wind and rain. I need to get fit! I look forward to trying to lose weight and get in better shape. I am ready to do it, with respect and great care to my back!

That's us one year ago above on 01 September 2008. We were good busy with our previous job and our colleague Nancy had started that day. It seems like ages ago and it makes me sad to think about how much can change in a year in this way...

Above is my Marv and I two years ago today on 01 September 2007. Too bad Heidi wasn't in a photo that day! Via this link, you can see what was going on at Face The Day 2 years ago today!
There above you can see Heidi and me three years ago today on 01 September 2006. Via this link, you can read more about that day three years ago!
And above you can see us four years ago today on 01 September 2005! Click on this link to see more about that day four years ago today!!!!

FLASHBACK 1ST DAY OF SCHOOL! To see Yma on her first day of her new school scroll down to next entry!

Above you can see The Lool today, 01 September 2009, just before she went to school to start the 5th grade!!!! She's getting so old!!! She came home speaking French today! Fantastic!

It was the first day of school for my daughter last year 01 September 2008! She started the 4th grade!! Look at her there above that morning. She was very ready to start her day!
Above you can see my daughter two years ago in 2007 on the first day of the third grade. It's so great to be able to track her growth this way! Above you can see her on her first day of the 2nd grade - 2006! I couldn't find the original photo so I took a photo of a printout I had made. Not great quality - but I least I have every year now!
Above is the first day of school picture I found of her for the 1st grade - so in 2005.

Tuesday 1 september 2009: the first day of school

Heidi says: my baby...

Monday 31 August 2009: Here's 2009, 2007, 2006 and 2005. No 2008 from this particular day!

Today 31 August 2009.
By the way, I went to the "Obesitas Centrum" in Kortrijk today (could they have chosen a worse name other than maybe "Fat-People-R-Us"???!!!!) and I plan/hope to lose at least 9 kilos (20 pounds) by diet alone (and very light, back-friendly exercise)! Can I do it or can't I, folks? The race starts now! If you see me snacking, smack me!
My daughter starts the 5th grade tomorrow!!!!! So I'll have some 1st day of school photos for sure tomorrow. And I start my new job! The 1st of September is always a day of new starts! It's exciting (and scary) all at the same time!
Two years ago on 31 August 2007!
Three years ago on 31 August 2006.
4 years ago on 31 August 2005.

INTERMEZZO WITH HEIDI'S YMA AND SARAH'S AYLA - from 30 August 2009

YMA




AYLA

IT'S FACE THE DAY WITH HEIDI AND SARAH'S FOUR YEAR BIRTHDAY!!!!!! TAKE A LOOK AT THE LAST 5 YEARS IN A ROW!!!! MY HOW WE CHANGED!!! FUN!! FUN!! FUN!

There we are today, 30 August 2009 starting our 5th year at Face the Day with Heidi and Sarah! We may not keep it up as much as we did in the past as life has changed a lot for both of us but we do our best to update it now and then. It's fun for us to look back whenever we want!

There we are one year ago and one day on 29 August 2008 looking fresh and alive! Via this link you can see what we were up to back then. Life was very different. So much has changed!
And there we are two years ago today on 30 August 2007 looking shirt-haired and not that great! Use this link to check back to what was happening with us two years ago.
And there we are above three years ago on 30 August 2006 looking pregnant (heidi) and fat (me). Via this link you can see more about that day three years ago in our lives!
And there we are on our first day of this particular blog, 4 years ago on 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 4 full years ago in 2005!!! Now we can have flashbacks that will include 5 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!

Saturday 29 August 2009: Sarah celebrates the last days of summer with a BBQ and lots of good food before the real diet starts!

Good food today at BBQ at my in-laws house. Yum! Monday I go to diet center so today's meal might have been my last caloric one and I enjoyed every bit of it. One must enjoy at least one BBQ in the summer and the summer is almost done so!

Can't remember if I already posted about my visit to the doctor. Anyway - he said to be careful basically. He said dieting / losing weight won't help my back problem but will help my knees later on when my back problems come back as the knees kind of take over when the back pain kicks in. Less weight is better for the knees so less weight I must have! I'll do my best. Anything to postpone further back operations! He said I can walk a lot and swim and bike ride but the minute I have lower back pain I should lie down a bit and rest and de-swell the painful spot with heat and anti-inflammatories. As fr as sitting at a computer all day for work, I just have to make sure to take breaks and walk around during them and stretch.

Friday 28 August 2009: Sarah's off to the back doctor for a check-up! Fingers crossed!

Went to see Inglorious Bastards last night. LOVED IT! But I left the cinema with lower back pain so I wasn't happy about that! I have to go to the back doctor today for a check-up. I hope I'll be okay. I also have an appointment Monday at the obesity clinic for advice on how to lose weight. We'll see how that goes! I'll report back!

WATCH THIS SPACE BECAUSE WE STARTED THIS BLOG THE 30TH OF AUGUST 2005, WHICH MEANS WE'LL HAVE 5 YEARS IN A ROW OF PHOTOS TO LOOK BACK ON!!! :-)

Thursday 27 August 2009: Another day passes as Sarah rests her back, tries to lose weight and dilly-dallies around before real life starts again...

Hieidi came by to cut Ayla's hair in the afternoon so we were able to get the above photo! Ayla loved her hair, by the way! Heidi does a great job! She's got talent! Monday will be the last time for a while that I can go to the Monday market with Heidi and then get soup for lunch. I'll miss that! It's soon back to real life for me! Not that this hasn't been real life - it just has been a different sort of life. It's been good! I trust the future will be good too! :-)
Another day... Not much to say about it. Pretty much the same as yesterday but hungrier! I contacted a center today at the hospital that exists to help people lose weight. I am waiting to hear back and to make an appointment. I am trying on my own and it is way too hard without exercise! I am hardly eating and only eating good stuff. At first I lost some weight pretty fast, which is what tends to happen. Then it slowed down and now it's just not doing anything! I am trying to be really healthy about it all. That's why I am seeking help with it. I just hope they don't suggest liquid diets and all that. I still want to be able to enjoy food! I will try to be open-minded and I will keep my fingers crossed that finally I will lose weight, which will help my back I hope! If it does, that will make the journey of it all healthy! We'll see!
I think the above photo shows the exact same initial weight loss as a photo like this a couple of weeks ago. Started well but now just stuck at same level. Story of my life of weight loss. One day I hope it all clicks!

Wednesday 26 August 2009: Heidi makes herself up for a day full of searching a job and Sarah prepares for next week...

Heidi says: glad to be that far already. Now I just need to find something. If I can't get a temp job because of my pregnancy, then I will try to do several courses to improve my general knowledge. Then I will at least be able to put that on my CV...

This is the last week of resting by back. Nxt Monday lots of paperwork and next Tuesday I start my new job. I'm preparing a bit! The days pass and I do what I need to but mostly I do a whole lot of nothing as I have to make sure my back is in good order for next week and for this new chapter! I feel good and without pain and even sat a lot today and felt okay so that's all good!

Tuesday 25 August 2009: Sarah is hungry!

Just got my eyebrows done and now am waiting for lunchtime! I am HUNGRY!!! I am eating so little and at first it showed but now it's all going really slowly. I'll do anything to avoid back pain at this point so I really look forward to dropping pound after pound. It's about time! The question is if I will be able to lose some weight and then keep it off. I have cut all bad things our of my daily eating with the occasional cheat here and there. It's good but I am feeling really, really hungry today! It's time for lunch!

Monday 24 August 2009: HEIDI IS PREGNANT AND DUE MID-FEBRUARY!!!! Big news at Face The Day!

Heidi has a baby on board and Yma will have a little sister or brother as of mid-February!

CONGRATULATIONS HEIDI!!!!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday August 21, 22 and 23 2009: Sarah has a great weekend at home and in Kortrijk with friends...

That's me above on Sunday the 23rd of August! Just had brunch at my house with Steven, Tilly, Hilde and kids. It was really good! I ate too much though for someone on a diet! It's a self-made diet though, which means some cheating will happen for sure because I don't even know the rules of the diet! All I know is that it will be better for my back if I weigh less - and better for my general health as I get older so now is the time and as I have got this time at home it has been kind of easy to control what I eat and to eat a lot less. It's weekends that mess it all up though and it's the going out into the real world where there is stuff to eat everywhere - ahhh! But I am doing okay with it other than the brunch. I just hope I can keep it up! Right now the fruit is fresh and the sun is shining and it is really easy to eat just a little here and there of all this fresh and very good for you food. But what happens when the rain, dark and winter sets in???? We'll see!

Above you can see me and Tilly on Saturday the 22nd hanging out at a flea market in Kortrijk. This time my back hurt a lot less, which is a great sign - and I sold stuff and got more than Euro 50! Last time it was about Euro 36. It's great to get rid of old stuff this way. We give a lot of stuff away too but for now we are holding on to some of the stuff to try to sell it. We keep the money in a go-out-to-dinner-or-the-movies fund. That makes the whole flea-market thing more fun! The weather was great and the atmosphere too and it's nice to just sit there with the kids and with friends. We have one more to go in Wervik on the 20th of September. That's Tilly's hat in the photo, by the way. Not mine.

I took the above photo of me and Laurent Lampaert at Tilly's birthday celebration Friday night. I put this photo on here just in case Ine is still checking this blog from time to time. HI INE!!! Anyway - Laurent is my friend Ine's brother-in-law and he's also a friend of Tilly's (see above photo of her and me an flea market). She turned 36 Friday the 21st and Laurent was there too. I had heard about him and even wrote about him once on here after Ine's baby was born because he made a fantastic birth card (like a lottery ticket where you scratch something off and under you find the name of the baby - via this link and scrolling down to birthcard you can see it). Here's a link to his website (Nookyalur) if you are interested in his design and website work.

Friday 21 August 2009: Happy Birthday Tilly! And Sarah welcomes Ayla to Face The Day as they have spent two nice days together!

That's me and the kid today keeping each other company and happy! It's kind of nice to have all this down-time with her. We can be lazy and not feel guilty as rest for my back is necessary. We also have a walk together a day and today did the grocery shopping with the help of my bike - hanging all the bags on the bike and wheeling it home as I can't ride a bike yet thanks to my back. But we are getting the stuff we need to get done, done - just at our own lazy pace. This kid of mine is a real joy to have around. I am enjoying every second of her. She'll start the 5th grade in one week and she's growing so fast! I am treasuring these times together as this year will also go quickly no doubt and then next year and then she'll already be in the next level of school and a whole new school and almost a teenager! I wish she could stay 10 forever! :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TILLY!!!

Thursday 20 August 2009: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SARAH'S DAD!

Just another day over here in Belgium - a hot, hot day. I took a walk again today - this time with my daughter - and I do feel it in my hips and back and knee, which pisses me off! Oh why oh why oh why.... Anyway - I just have to accept it and deal with it and welcome pain back into my daily life I guess. At least I had almost two pain-free years... Yep - that's me you hear feeling sorry for myself... It will pass!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Wednesday 19 August 2009: Heidi cuts Sarah's hair!

Heidi stopped by and cut and thinned my hair today! It was needed. I had a mop of heavy hair to reckon with. Did you know Heidi completed her first year of hairdressing studies and has two more years to go? It's great having a friend come over to your house to cut your hair. She also cuts my kid's hair. We are Heidi's guinea pigs. I am going for the "rocker chic" style - a least that is what it is called in the photo I showed Heidi. Good work Heidi!

My friend Valerie also came over for a couple of ours today - so for me it has been a very eventful day! We went for a walk to the center of Kortrijk and had a drink on a terrace and I am happy to report that my back feels quite okay. I am icing it as I write anyway -just to be safe because there is a minor ache - but all seems well today so that is encouraging! It's good to have visitors and to take walks! Good for my mind and body!

Tuesday 18 August 2009: Happy birthday Toni! Sarah is feeling restless and bored and yearns for some action and activity! Watch this space....

I am bored! Bored! Bored! Bored! Long to get up and out and turn back on and be active and have activity! This afternoon I will go to Bio Planet! I can't freaking wait! It's just a nature food shop but it sounds like a dream vacation to me at this point! I feel okay though I have to say I do have some back pain still. I need to get strong and then stronegr for my new job that will now bgin on the 1st of September instead of today. I have to start taking a walk each day! I will start today!

Watch this space and anticipate shrinkage! It's a must and it's already starting! At least there's that goal to keep me busy and healthy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TONI!