Almost two weeks later...

You know, I was planning on being a good girl and posting a blog last week but something prevented me from doing that. When I go to my 'blogger's dashboard' I see the news of the other blogs I am following and something caught my eye: a new website! Vivian Maier was an amazingly talented street photographer who got discovered by chance and the guy that discovered her was keeping a blog and now made her a website, is working on a book and even a documentary! I totally LOVE her pictures, wouldn't mind having some prints on my walls really... Go have a look and prepare to be amazed... http://www.vivianmaier.com/

Ok, so I apparently survived Easter. I am still getting adjusted to 1.) Being divorced and 2.) Having no money. Both really mean my holidays aren't really holidays but just boring sitting inside days. Dan was having family over, my kids were working... Oh well. We just got Queen's Day, Pentecost and my birthday coming up and after that I am safe until Christmas.

Last Tuesday was my first time of volunteering at the local hospital. I am supposed to 'shadow' an experienced volunteer for a few days, to see if I like the work and to see if they like me. I am doing the 'eating project' at the moment, that means helping people that can't eat themselves or stimulating people that don't really wanna eat. Have to say: I like it! It helped of course that there was a birthday, with pie, and that I got 2 left over Easter desserts ;) I will be going again tomorrow and next Tuesday and after that we decide...

I am so excited, Dan has sent me a care package and it's supposed to be arriving one of these days. I know there is a too cool Betty Boop handbag in it (black hole size ;) ) and a Betty Boop wallet. And a lot of other stuff he won't say :D Yesterday he and Andrea were both torturing me on MSN because Andrea knows one of the other items in the box. Box is 12"x12"x24" (30,5x30,5x61 cm) so quite a biggie and Dan said there is ballast inthere to stop the other stuff from rattling and that it's not just polystyrene peanuts but also stuff I will like. He even stopped me from eating my blinis with smoked salmon because something in the box will go so well with that.

He and Andrea just keep torturing me... You know, I can totally forget about the box having to arrive or what's gonna be in it but not if people keep reminding me every single day! And Dan is giving totally useless clues, like: one thing in the box is a 'one-of-a-kind',or: 'I am in the box' (riiight IF ONLY!) Andrea and her boyfriend are just laughing their asses off, and she says: 'If my boyfriend sent me something like that I'd cry for at least a week so prepare to cry for a month you!' and : 'He's the sweetest guy in the whole wide world, you just make sure to treasure him!' GRRRRRR! I can hardly stand the anticipation!!!

You know what the very worst thing is? I promised not to open the care package until we have camera-possibility! Because he would love to see my face... So I am hoping it arrives in the morning before coffee and not AFTER coffee because that would mean I'd have to wait all friggin' day until he gets home from work again!

Okay, I am gonna anticipate some more ;) You all have a great day and please help me hope the care package arrives in the morning ;)

 Huuuugz!!!

The garden...(and some good news too ;) )

Last Monday my son and I started to clear out the mess he made in the garden. Well, we got the extra wood he didn't need for the fence to the city dump and after that his back hurt :( He promised to be back every day of the week to clear out the rest, like the branches of the shrubs and the plant rests I raked out of the garden. But he was a no-show all week. He called yesterday he'd be here today (on the last day according to the letter he got) but again: nothing. Not even a phonecall this time.

I threw out a lot of stuff already, like the cardboard boxes and I put some of the stuff in bags. And now MY back hurts like hell. Well, I did have 2 hernia operations over 10 years ago and the doctor said he'd only give me a 7 year guarantee :p I am resting a bit now and will throw out the bags and the rest of the cardboard later but that's it really. I am so not risking my back any further!

A few days ago I was feeling really down. I miss Dan a lot, and the fact I see him on camera every day doesn't really make things any better. The fact that I will be here for another year and a half doesn't help either, especially since my son is talking about me being out of his house in 6 months or so. I do understand that of course but anyway, I was feeling so down I had to be dug up by a team of archeologists ;)

The day after I told Dan this, it was his day off and he had an appointment with a friend we met through Omerta at Golf Mill Mall. He was early and wandered around a bit and totally spontaneous bought me a handbag and a wallet... with Betty Boop! Of course he showed me both when he got home, wanted to see my surprised face ;) And he told me that now at least I have a little something to look forward to... Gosh, ain't he just the sweetest? He remembered I adore Betty Boop AND handbags and remembered my wallet is on it's last legs... Can hardly wait until the parcel arrives :D (I am glad he already showed me the prezzies so I don't have to wait all day until he gets home to open it :p) He is such a sweet and thoughtful man!

Oh and I got some really good news today :) Production on 'The Hobbit' has finally started, part 1 will be out late 2012 and part 2 in 2013. There will be lots of actors in it from the 'Lord Of The Ring' series and some really nice additions too, like David Tennant is rumored to play Elvenking Thranduil and Leonard Nimoy is rumored to be the voice of dragon Smaug. I am so excited! I can hardly wait until the movies will be in the theatres finally, or out on DVD so I can add them to my LOTR collection :)

Until then, we'll have to do with the trilogy :D I watched that with my son at last Christmas, all 3 extended DVD versions, LOL. I believe Dan hasn't seen it yet so I hope he'll watch it with me!

Ok, that's it for today... Have a nice day and an even nicer weekend! XOXOX

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is my mom's 69th birthday! So from this place I wanna wish her a very very happy birthday and hope many more will follow! Today is a beautiful sunny day and I know my little sister Nienke is there with her husband Patrick and their sons Daniel and Jasper, and mom's older sister and her hubby are there too. They planned on doing something nice today so I hope they have a great time:)

In honour of my mom (hihihihi, and because I love them too ;) ) I ate asparagus today... nice, thick, white asparagus with ham, hard boiled eggs and melted butter. YUMMMM!!!! The  first of the season, and hopefully not the last ;) They are quite expensive right now but hey, sometimes you just have to spoil yourself, because nobody else will ;)

Okay, that's it for today ;) Have a great day all, and cya soon! XOXOX

Lots to tell...

Okay, FIRST I want to apoligize for not writing in a whole MONTH! Sorry, sorry, sorry!!! Mea culpa and so on... But not that much happened, my life is quite boring really :p So I waited until I really had something to tell ;)

Last week I spent a few days at Andrea's house. We had big plans but her boyfriend was home early every day ( we thought he had the night shift but instead it was the early shift :p). So we shopped a little, talked a lot and we all cooked once. I met Andrea's best friend, Yvonne. She's exactly 364 days younger than me and a fun girl :) She came for coffee one morning and surprised me with a real Enkhuizer pastry for...breakfast! (Andrea and I are night people :')) I have Yvonne on Facebook and MSN now so...I made a new friend!

The volunteerwork is going to start real soon now too. I have my first appointment through Activite on Monday April 18th, with the coordinator to meet a lady that wants a companion. And the hospital had troubles getting the emails through so they finally contacted me. I have an appointment there on Wednesday, April 20th and the idea is that I will go help on the 'eating project' there, help people that don't want to eat or are having difficulty eating. I have to say, I am really excited! And who knows, I might do up some nice contacts :)

Spring is in the air (finally!) and the building society asked Evandro to do up his garden. I would have done it but I didn't have any tools and he has to throw away some stuff too. So last week when I was away he put up a fence with his dad and cut down a lot of stuff. He left the tools here so I cleaned out the garden and I bought some packets of seeds. Now if he gets all the wood and stuff out I can sow a myriad of summer flowers and we'll have a nice cottage garden :) And I'll have some nice flowers to pick and put inside too ;)

I have sown some plants inside too, like geraniums and carnations and cherry tomatoes, in little greenhouses. And some Nasturtiums (long and double/short) and herbs in the 2 planters. Last year I really couldn't be bothered, I just threw some stuff in the planters ( to see them almost dead when I came back from Chicago :p) but this year...I think I found my gardening 'gusto' again :) I may have to ask Evandro for the garden hose so I can keep the garden watered, in the 'old house' my ex has made a whole watering system so I don't think they'll need it.

Dan has finally sorted out his birth certificate, he's no longer born in 1978 :') So I no longer have a toy boy :p Of course this does mean we can FINALLY get started on the paperwork to get me to the US. I have to fill out some forms, get an international divorce certificate and have some 'american style' passport pictures made and send it all to Dan. And once he files the request it's gonna take at the most 15-18 months before I can leave the Netherlands for good... It's exciting, but also a bit scary, especially since we'll have to get married :') Oh well, I guess we'll both survive that ;)

My babygirl and her boyfriend finally got the key to their brand spanking new appartment today! I am so happy for them :) Tomorrow they'll start painting and put in the laminate flooring, and then it's moving time... Now both my kids have their own little flats :D I am a proud mom!

Well, I think that's about it for now! I'll try to post more often, and even tell about the boring stuff :p

Have a nice day and cy'all soon!

Well if nobody will pay me I'll just...volunteer!

Today I had an appointment with a coordinator at Activite, the care organisation here in Leiderdorp. Kerstin, my casemanager at Social Services, told me to look for volunteerwork if I can't find a 'real' job and so I sent some emails to places like the hospital, a hospice and Activite.

The people at the hospice are very lucky, they have a waiting list for volunteers at the moment. I will give them a call to ask how long that waiting list is, I have approximately a year and a half before I leave for the States so if the list is long...

The hospital....well they didn't even answer me. I guess that means they have enough volunteers :p Personally I would have answered someone that wants to volunteer but hey, I am not working there... I do think that in this way they don't really promote volunteering.

The coordinator at Activite had another place for me where I can ask if they need volunteers and Kerstin gave me a site too that I can look into so all and all I hope I won't have to sit at home here and be bored to death :')

Last week I picked up my new glasses. Apparently that change at my right eye made quite a difference, I can't watch tv anymore with my 'computer glasses'. But they both look good and I am very happy with them :D

This weekend I had a visitor at home, first time since the divorce really! Well, that is not counting my kids of course... My sister Andrea came for a sleepover. I went to pick her up at the station Saturday and we had loads of fun, with Dan too. She likes the food I like and she was really happy with the sauerkraut and pineapple ovendish I made. Sunday evening I took her to the busstop, it was really cold, so we both were like: nah, no scooter ;)

Andrea and I went through my wardrobes too, I still have way too many clothes! Well I got to throw away a few and Andrea took a few home but most of my clothes are basic classics, I just need a representative job to show them off ;)

And there we are again, back to me 'whining' about work :p I think I should stop writing for today!!

Have a nice day y'all!!!

Blegh...

Blegh...the weather really sucks today. It was supposed to be just foggy but apparently all the clouds decided to releave themselves and so it's raining. On a Saturday. Really GREAT :(

Well, it's not like I'm scared I'm gonna melt or something (oh if ONLY that was possible :') ) but today I was gonna pick up my new glasses, they finally arrived after a 3 week wait. But the store is rather far away and I'd be soaking wet by the time I got there. And wet is not the look I was going for really :p The glasses have to be fitted right and so on so I prefer to be dry, well at least my hair. Guess I'll be going Monday then...

Today just some grocery shopping, don't care to arrive wet at the supermarket :p Guess I'll be making some endives mash or something for the weekend, with gravy and sausage.

Yesterday the game I still play, Omerta, had a reset. As far as I know nobody got any vouchers or prizes or anything so we all started out as Empty Suits. For some strange reason I automatically fell into rankslut mode, something I hadn't done for the last 2 versions at least. Took me 6 hours to promote to Shoplifter and then I realized...Dan was at work so couldn't play and I'd have to wait hours and hours for him to make Shoplifter too so we could heist together :p That kinda took the rankslutting away again :)

Well at least I got my old nick Roma back, been playing with that nickname ever since version 2.2 until last version some horrible nicklamer STOLE it! And it was fun to see many old friends return to the game, I even got excuses from some old enemies ;)

So, I'll be playing in moderation today ;) Y'all have a fun day too!

Yaaay...got new schoolbooks!!!!

I don't know if I ever told you how disappointed I was with the basic training course for doctor's assistant. Well, just to recap: VERY disappointed! Especially one little book with a lovely title has proven to be an insult to my intelligence :p It's Dutch grammar and teaches you how to spell and how to write letters. I was like, ehm... DÛH!!!! The rest was very much like what I already studied for my Medical Office Skills, just worded different and much shorter.

But lo and behold! I was about to search for exam dates, I'd like to do one or two exams a day and preferably all in at the most two weeks, and I have to set the dates well in advance since Social Services is gonna pay for them and they already had a little... difficulty paying for the course :p But...very MUCH to my surprise the mailman had a package for me! A heavy one even! 

I wasn't expecting anything but when I opened it, I found a folder and 4 books, of which one in the folder. 3 of the books are about anatomy, physiology and medical terminology and the one in the folder is about management and administration. In fact, more of what I already had in Office Skills but this time they go way deeper! 

There was a list with it, for homework, spread over 33 weeks! So I have really something new to sink my teeth in :) And to keep me busy for quite a while. I am back to studying :D

Have a great time all and remember: you're never to old to learn something new ;)