Hello world!

Yes, indeed, I'm still alive (and well, thank you!) Can't believe it's been since december last year that I've posted something new: shame on me!!
And the hardest part of it all is: where to begin?

Perhaps the best way to recapitulate is to start with more recent events... If you'll remember (or re-read) my last post I mentioned something about being pregnant (again). Well, that part is all over because last week on July 21th my son Nicolas was born. The little fellow will have all the luck in the world with his birthday cause it's also our national holiday. Always at home to celebrate his b-day, what more could he wish for :-)

I must say it's a very strange feeling at times: looking around me and seeing these two children and then realising they're mine! Really hard to believe sometimes! Especially when I look at my daughter who's now 1 year old and see how much she has grown and changed and learned in one tiny, fast year!!! It's amazing how fast life is going as you get older.

I'll have to leave at this: my eldest is awake from her afternoon nap! i'll try to update again soon...

ciao,
Sarah
xxxxxx

Wish-challenge

My, my, yet another challenge!

Okay, 7 wishes that shouldn't be too difficult... finding 7 other bloggers however... I can only come up with my cousin but her english isn't just so-so, it's even worse... so let's skip the last part of the challenge, ey?

So, these 7 sprung to my mind:

1. I wish that all those who consider themselves all high and mighty would finally wake up and realise that something must be done to preserve our delicate climate & all the wild life!!
2. I wish to find decent day-care for my daughter! The one she's enlisted for now is too impersonal, too many children, too many changes in staff...
3. I wish for a healthy baby. Yes, you read that correctly, I'm once again pregnant! Personally I blame my high fertility, my messed up cycle and a baby that sleeps through the night so her parents can forfill their need for shagging.... Wait wasn't there some wishing for a shag?? (careful what you wish for :-)
4. I wish I won a lot of money so I could stay home a couple of years and take care of my children.
5. I wish to see the two remaining HP-movies quickly.
6. I wish it would snow on Christmas (it's been ages!!)
7. I wish people would just get along with each other... Is that so hard??

Voila, that's it!

Hi!!

I know, I know: it has been ages since my last update... But I promise I'll make it up this time. First things first: apparently I have been challenged to list my top 5 cities I've been to. It's not going to be easy to come up with at least five, haven't really been to a lot of big cities... But out of nowhere in my disorganised head I'll have to say:

1. Athens, Greece: I rather like everything about Greece, so much historical sites *drools*, the food is fantastic, the people are super-friendly and the weather is always GOOD! Hence my number 1.
2. Paris, France: magical city, lots of things to see but rather sour inhabitants and ridiculously expensive.
3. Lissabon, Portugal: especially with the whole new expo site in 1998. Excellent climate too.
4. Köln, Germany: wonderful Christmas atmospere!
5. Switserland: not really a city, but the whole country has such a beautiful environment: ideal for long walks. Which I loved as a 12-14 year old & skiing of course!!

And that's my top 5 for now... It all depends on the freshness of the memories (for example I remember being to Barcelona when I was very young but for the love of god I can't say if I liked it or not)

Anyhoo: list of the countries I've been to: France, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Austria, Switserland, Germany, Tjech Rep, Italy, Netherlands and I think thats about it.

Would love to go to: Londen (a shame I've never been there I know!!), Ireland and I'm sure there are more...

Phew, so far the challenge-part. I'm also glad to say that I've finally read 'Call of the Wild'! It's a beautiful story and I usually tear up when the main character is an mistreated animal and I must say, this time it wasn't differently! Didn't had that book yet but I'm glad I got to read it! Btw, Yoze I've been meaning to write you a thank you-note for the cute little dog you got for Helena. I haven't gotten to it but I'm going to take a pic with her and the dog instead and send that one, what do you think?

I have been reading your NIN-posts too but I'm afraid I don't know anything about them! I can relate to the total obsession-thing, when I was 17 or so I was totally crazy about Dreamtheater... Sadly no one had heard of the band in their life so the obsessiveness died a anonymous and quite dead... A few years later the AR-obsession started and although it mellowed down a bit I've decided to keep it anyway :-) I haven't got the time to find a new one. (Besides he's a good actor so I won't have to watch movies that suck (much))

I've got to go now: Helena is crying *hungry**hungry* so I better go and serve... :-)

BUT I'll behave and update soon, now we finally got *gasp* an internet connection!

Laters!!
XXXXXX

Just a quick message to announce very proudly that on the 25th of July my little baby girl was born (52 cm and 3,150 kg)...


... her name is Helena and of course she is the prettiest baby in the world :-)


Greetings,
Sarah
XXXXXX

One month and counting...

Hi!

Yet another fine update from this now very pregnant woman! I must say that time really flew by the last weeks and now it's exactly one month until I'm finally holding our baby in my arms. Well, probably... it's only 4 tiny weeks or worse! It could be even earlier than that.

Must not think about it, seeing as there's still so much to prepare. But I'm getting there (provided the baby doesn't decide to make an early appearance!)

It's really strange when you think about it and realise you won't know when exactly the whole labour process begins but knowing it could happen any moment. Rather scary!!

In two days I have another appointment with my doctor and I'm very curious as to how much our baby has grown since last month. It certainly feels spectacular big now. I don't know how longer I'll have a belly button but I'm not sure it will last another month :-)

I'll definitely be very glad when the doctor will be able to tell if there's a chance the baby will come sooner or if the 19th July will be somewhat managed. Although I'm in doubt about the whole thing: at one hand I want to have the baby asap because I'm mentally but mostly fysically so damn tired, the wheather isn't helping either (waaaay to hot!) and I'm starting to feel cranky because I sleep about an average of two hours a night. Then again I'm not exactly filled with joy with the prospect of delivering this baby into the world. Nope, not looking forward to that at all!!

Yup, it's frustrating as hell! Anyway, I'll stop whining now =)
I'll try to update soon....

Ciao,
Sarah
XXXXX

update

Hi everyone!

A quick update during the working hours (or the hours I'm expected to work)! First of all: thank you, Yoze, for the b-day book!! I've never heard of it before which means I didn't own it so a very good choice!! Unfortunately I haven't found the time to read it so no opinion yet! But I'll let you know asap...
I'm now 24 weeks and 4 days pregnant (it's really starting to show now! A few weeks ago I could still qualify as 'gained some weight, eh?' but now it's impossible to deny :) I had a check-up about two weeks ago and everything was fine. The baby was 23,3 centimeters which was average (which is good 'cause I don't want some hugely large baby... it still has to come out one way or the other ;) the doctor could see if it'll be a boy/girl but frankly I don't have a clue how they see it... Luckily we don't want to know anyway! Everything was okay, the doctor had a good look at the details (the heart, brain, skull, stomac, ten toes, ten fingers, eyes, ears, legs, straight feet, etc...) but the moment when we could clearly see the face was truly fantastic... you realise there's really a little person growing inside you, the baby looked so human! Before you can only see the shape of what it's going to become but now it has its definite shape... Slightly unnerving though when it finally sinks in that it's really a baby you're going to have. (If that makes sense??) It's also becoming more noticably active each day: I can now clearly feel every kick it hands out (whether it's with feet or hands :) and so does Jurgen! (He didn't quite believed me when I told him that it kicks sometimes that hard it hurts a bit until he got a few kicks himself!!)

Now I have to wait until the end of May before I can go back and believe me, that's unbelievably looong!! And the check-ups with my regular house-doctor just aren't that special: draw some blood, weighing, urine sample and feeling if the uterus is where it should be... and that's that. Bit lousy when you get to see your child one month later ;)

Anyway we're fully busy with searching for suitable boys/girls names, thinking about birth cards, putting a gift-list together (I had no idea you need that much stuff for babies....) We already have quite a few things stocked up in the baby's room but I find it too early to put them together (like the bed etc...) because it'll only mean more stuff to collect dust until it's July.

Babynames and suggestions are always welcome! Just names that aren't too long (Jurgen already has a long last name) Btw, Yoze, I didn't exactly take on his last name... it depends on whether you prefer to use your name or his. For every official form you still have to use your own name so lots of women keep their own. The only thing that marks the difference is that they now put 'Mrs' in front of it instead of 'Miss'. And that's about it :) But you may choose if you like ;)

I ordered 'Snowcake' (Amazon) last week so I can finally see it. It's supposed to be out here since March 14th but I haven't noticed anything so I ordered. Now I can catch up a bit.... *feels ashamed to admit it* I still have to see 'Perfume' for the first time and it's almost out on dvd. Yep, definitely been slouching a bit in the AR-mania-departement. Even the HP (read:Snape)-departement has been bad for worse. Last week I pre-ordered Deathly Hallows... Yes, only last week ;) Sadly enough I won't be going to a midnight release party this year: the bookshop that used to organise these events has closed :( (Well, I couldn't exactly use my Slythering scarf in July anyways...) Still, it's going to be the last one... and makes me feel excited (finally we'll know what will happen to Harry Snape!) but also sad cause I'm afraid it won't end the way I want it to. Does anyone feel the same??

Well, that's all for now, I'll try to behave and update regularly...

Ciao,
Sarah
xxxxx

P.S.: Btw, what do you think about the title 'deathly hallows'??

Combined effort

Hi!!

I hope everyone had exciting holiday cheer all the way back in december and that everyone had a great new year! Does anyone have the same feeling that when one gets older every year seems to fly by faster and faster?? God knows I do! I bet this will be another year where I will look back in March and come to a shockingly conclusion that a) I forgot AR's b-day once more, b) I forgot my niece's and aunt's b-day as well (again) which is of course even worse than point a. And of course there will be the undeniable fact that I'm so close to adding one year to my account. This year it will all add up to the magical number '25'. Sounds wonderful! Halfway to thirty! (No, mustn't think about that!!!) =)

Although I must say that for the first time in years I finally 'feel' my age, which I suppose isn't all that bad considering that I'm married (who would have thought!?! - I could have made serious money out of that one!!), we just signed all the necesaary papers for our loan, our new kitchen will be installed in March, just around the time we will be picking up our new car from the garage.
But most importantly (and scary I might add!) I'm feeling overwhelmingly responsible due to the simple fact that I'm pregnant... Yes, you read that correctly: in July I'll be watchting Order of the phoenix on the 13th, have a baby around the 19th and read the Deathly Hallows on the 21st. Quite a busy month don't you think?
I'm in my 17th week now and before you ask: it's just one baby (my dad got the idea it would be twins... as if!) and no, I don't know whether it will be a boy or girl. A month ago it was too early to tell and now I'll have to wait until 20 March. But I'm not sure if I want to know what it will be... I would hate to have everyone pestering me around about telling them, which I'm sure they'll do if they would know we know. Anyway, last time we could see the baby was doing very well and now I can sometimes feel its movement so I suppose that's a good sign as well. And frankly, I don't really know what I would want it to be... at first I was all for a boy but now I just don't know... For some idiotic reason my family have bets going on and so far according to them I'll have a girl and my niece will have a boy. (Yes, I beat my niece with exactly a month so it'll be a babyboom in my family this year...)
Anyhoo, all suggestions for possible names will be welcomed, of course! (And no, Alan or Severus are not an option (pity!): my husband would never let that one slip by!)

So the next months will be rather busy but I'll try to update frequently (still no internet, shame on me!) with my wonderous adventures as an almost-mum. And if there are a few things I've picked up so far it's:
a) morning sickness doesn't only mean 'in the morning', it's the whole damn day...
b) luckily morning sickness passes after a few weeks
c) drinking tea is not my cup of tea anymore, then again throwing up isn't my kind of thing either so I can live with it
d) you have to enroll in day-care before you even get pregnant
e) having children is horendously expensive! The smaller the child the higher the prices...
f) that I could do with one of those Remembralls: when one takes out the keys and forgets where they are 3 seconds later = definitely pregnant
g) some future grandmothers (cough.my mother.cough) are overwhelmingly excited
h) bigger breasts don't necessary mean better breasts... More sensitive, yes. Better, no.

Well, that's all for now folks, gotta get back to work!

See you soon!
Sarah
xxxxx