Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Chew on this!

I used to have terrible nightmares!

I started reading Stephen King novels when I was twelve or thirteen… Yes you have “R” rated movies (which I was NOT allowed to watch by my parents) BUT we had a “Riding Library” (the library was in a big bus who would go from school to school and every classroom would get half an hour to go in there pick or return your books. If all the grades had their books the bus would go to the "real library" and restock and drive off to the next school).


Nobody had ever heard of “R” rating the books. They had little pictures on the bottoms which would say if it was a horror book, a comedy book or a romantic book but that was about it. I had an extremely overactive imagination and the Stephen King books were exactly what my i needed, i thought... Nobody stopped me from reading them and so I read them all, my imagination getting wilder and wilder upon every new book. I won't  say the books caused the nightmares but they sure didn’t help!

The worst nightmares where pretty much always the same. I would be in a closed off room. All the lights would be off so it would be extremely dark. And I would be trying to find the light switch… no scary monsters, no scary murders, no gore and blood everywhere but the dreams would “feel” so real, it would completely freak me out. And sometimes this literally meant that I would get out of bed and would start searching for the light switch or the door handle to find the light.

I remember one time; I had the same dream, moving around in the dark touching everything trying to find the light switch. I touched my desk, my dresser, my Ethan Hawke, Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix posters and finally I had reached a little shelf (and yes in Holland we build houses out of BRICK) and so this shelve was drilled in with bolds INTO the wall. Somehow I thought that was the door handle that would open the door to the light, and to safety. So I RIPPED THE WHOLE SHELF PLUS BOLTS FROM THE WALL!!! This sent my mom flying up the stairs (my parents slept right below me) and she would scream in panic thinking I was attacked by a burglar or maybe some strange ex boyfriend climbing into my bedroom (read: Boy Trouble)!!!

As soon as she would step into my room and would let the light from the hallway in, I would wake up, get my heart rate under control and crawl back into bed… well, after my mom did a check, check, double check… As soon as we started to put a little night light in my bedroom, the nightmares would turn into a little less of a nightmare, or at least I would stay in bed… big improvement I must say. Also less damaging on my own bedroom…


In 2006 we had sold our house and farm in Holland before our visa’s were approved to come to America and so we had to wait. We had nothing anymore and were pretty much living out of our suitcases (everything was on a boat towards the USA), we needed to live somewhere, so some of my parents (incredibly sweet) friends let us stay with them, until we would get our visa’s and start our American Dream. They had a little area in front of their hog barn which we transformed into a temporary home.

It was a little two bedroom “apartment” and my mom and dad had the bedroom and I slept behind the bookshelf in the living room/kitchen. We made this little area for me so I had a little “privacy”. The problem was that I could hear everything! As soon as my mom and dad would wake up I would wake up behind my bookshelf…. Not good.

So I decided to wear earplugs. You know those kinds that you push together so they get really small, you put them in your ears and they get bigger again and thus eliminate the sounds. They work great!


I was dreaming…
I was dreaming about cute boys…
I was dreaming about this unbelievable nice dinner with a chocolate dessert… It was sooooo real! And the chocolate tasted sooooo good!

Hmmm… Maybe the chocolate was not that good…..

I woke up and O MY GOSH what is that in my mouth!?! Instead of chewing feverishly on my chocolate, I was chewing on my earplug… Trust me… I RAN to the bathroom, spit out my so called chocolate and threw up!

And yes, mom woke up… asked me if I was all right and if my nightmares had returned because she saw me reading a Stephen King novel and I didn’t have a night light… I told her, “No it wasn’t a nightmare I was having, but it sure was a nightmare to wake up like this!”

I don’t wear earplugs anymore. I rather stay awake. And I don’t keep loose things on my bedside table. Who knows what else I might I stick into my mouth when I am asleep.

Do you have “bad” nightmares???


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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Oh my, oh my... Awards...

IT is MUCH better then the Grammy's! Much MUCH better then the MTV awards and  defiantly MUCH better then the Emmy's...

I got me some Awards!!! WHOOHOOOHOOOOOOOOO

Thank you sooo much Debra from High heels & hot flashes for the "One Lovely Blog Award"!




I feel incredibly honored to get these awards, although i must say i didn't really know how to implement them at first... I thought to put up a separate page and list them together with the blog hops i like to participate in but then i thought, "Oh well, let's just do it the "right" way" and have some fun!"

Sooooo, here we go, seven things you might not know about me... yet...

1. I love to sleep on my tummy. I thought that sleeping on my tummy would limit my boobies to grow when i was young, but i really could NOT sleep on my side or my back so i gave up the boobies...
2. I feel wayyyyyy better when my house is clean...
3. I wear my heels to feel girly. And yes sometimes i wear them just for myself at home...
4. I HATE spiders. As in screaming, climbing on a chair, getting hot flashes and a heart rate exceeding 300  beats per minute scared of spiders... So pure hate for those buggars!
5. I miss my friends and sister back home in Holland a LOT! Well, you might have know this one already...
6. Once a day i think about smoking. I quit smoking when i had to start chemo and not one day goes by that i don't think about "lighting one up". But i never do...
7. My boobies did eventually come...Yah for me... and yes, I'm still sleeping on my tummy!

Because in the last three months i have seen such fantastic blogs here in Bloggy Land, and if it was up to me i would give you all an award... But i have to pick so i would like to pass the Versatile Blogger Award on to the following ladies and gentlemen, and yes, PLEASE check them out:

Kymberly - Life out Loud... Oh so funny and sooo good!
Sandra - Madsnapper She is one of the sweetest bloggers i have "met"!
Farm girl - My field of dreams Young, fresh and yes a farm girl like me!
Lana - Walking the off beaten path If i needed a second moma, Lana would be it!
Clint - Lyrics of Love and Lore Mr gentleman! And soo sweet with the comments!


And the "One Lovely Blog Award" goes too:
Ria from It's Me Because of her wonderful colorful blog in Dutch and English!

I hope you check them all out and I would love to see you back here next Monday for a new story!

Have a wonderful rest of the week! And again, thank you (as in everybody) who takes the time to read my little "verhaaltjes"...
Leontien


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Monday, May 23, 2011

Trading Places

When I was 14 years old, life was so full of exciting things I almost didn’t know where to start...
Almost…

At that age I had already figured out that I wouldn’t be a good nun, boys where way to interesting to give up. I also knew that I did not want to be involved in anything that had to do with mathematics (go figure that 10 years later I got my masters in Agricultural Economics). I was defiantly not going to be a trucker, well not in Holland, the roads were just too small and there was too much traffic.  And that I loved speed except on my horse, whenever he decided to take off!

What I did figure out however was that I wanted to get my motorcycle drivers license. I thought driving a car was for sissies, so I would be much cooler to drive a huge motorcycle. Not a Harley, no one of those fast ones. Maybe yellow or flashy green???


Of course I would talk about this a lot and it wasn’t long before one of my friends told me, “Well, Leontien, if you really want to ride a motorcycle, why don’t I come over to your house with my 250 cc (HUGE BIKE) and you can try it out?”

I wasn’t really sure if I wanted him to know how incredibly awesome I would be so I made him a counter offer. “I would ride his bike if he would ride my horse. Trade places for a bit and see where we end up?"

So for weeks he bragged to all his friends that he would ride my horse and be really really good at it, make him (the particular horse) do all the tricks those little girls (being me, riding dressage) would do. And me telling all my girlfriends that I would take that motorcycle and speed off into the sunset.

Ah well, being young and innocent can be such a blessing…


Finally the day had come. My friend came over with his motorcycle and parked it right behind our house. I had to do a “take, double take” because that bike was BIG!!! But of course I couldn’t tell him that, instead we went to the barn and I showed him my horse, Flicka (yes after the movie, My Friend Flicka). His name was really Flipper, but I didn’t agree with the fact that my horse was named after a dolphin, so Flicka it was.

To this day I’m still not sure what my friend thought of my horse but we decided to ride the bike first then the horse.

In order to ride the bike properly we went to the little alley besides our hog barn. He explained all the handles, the pedals, the gas and yes the brake. He drove up and down the alley and came back smiling like crazy. Yes, he was going REALLY FAST! According to him I needed to “get a feeling for it” and so I rode with him on the back and yes it was EVEN FASTER!!! Maybe i wasn't the speed devil i thought i would be..?

I wasn’t even sure if I could do this…

But it was my turn, and i couldn't back out. He again, explained all the handles, pedals, brakes and gas and I got on. Oh my Gosh, I was really gonna do this…

I drove 10 meters (maybe 30 feet give or take) and got myself into a tractor tire rud (more like a gully), and the damn thing (the bike) was just too heavy for me, so next thing you know, because yes, I was also driving 1.5 miles an hour, the bike tips over!!! I fall on my side and the bike falls half on top of me and my friend has to run over (luckily not that far) to come and rescue me! I didn’t get hurt, well, not fiscally but my ego got a HUGE DENT! This was not how I imagined it to be, I was going to fly into the sunset, not get toppled over after 30 feet!


After I recovered from my embarrassment it was my friends turn to ride my horse. He was still chuckling over the fact I did so poorly and I’m sure if we had cell phones with Internet access it would have been sent to EVERYBODY!

So we saddle up Flicka and got him into the riding pen. I explain to my friend with what foot he needs to stand in the stirrup, how to use his reins and what to do to make Flicka go forward or stop. Did I mention I rode DRESSAGE??? He puts the left foot in the stirrup and with a little push from me, the literally falls onto the saddle…

Yes, boys are anatomically different build then girls…
So when you fall onto a saddle like that, something is going to hurt. BIG TIME!!! He didn’t only turn blue, no he turned GREEN! And he whimpered instead of screamed. Which made it even worse.

He got off Flicka, with again a little help from me and sat on the ground for at least 15 minutes. By then the color in his face had returned and I had put the horse in its stall.

We decide to tell everybody that “it just wasn’t our cup of tea…” and left it at that.

My appetite for being cool and riding a motorcycle went away that day. Now I’m just cool driving my car with the air conditioning on high…



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Thursday, May 19, 2011

I’m a monster!

No…! I’m a vampire… oh well, maybe a vampiry monster… who’s to know…

It was another round of tests in 2009. We just found out that the Interferon (chemo) did something with my eye sight and it needed testing.

 It was extremely frustrating for me to accept that when you (yes, you) get a little “auwie” (pain) somewhere, the doctor, husband, wife, kids, tell you to not be such a puss and get over it, where as I whenever I had a little “auwie”, little pain, rash, concern, or imaginative problem, I needed to be checked out completely, by different doctors multiple times!

So when I told the doctor that i thought my vision was getting a little blurry, guess what she told me to do…. Yep, get my buttocks into the best eye doctor’s office and have me checked out.

I had NEVER been to an eye doctor before. I didn’t need it. My vision was perfect and there was absolutely no reason to go there. So I was very surprised to see all the “tools”, huge chair and several interesting bottles on the desk. The eye doctor was a very sweet young man and asked me what the problem was. I told him about the cancer, chemo and blurry vision.

First we started with the eye test. Looking true a funny tool thingy and read the letters or numbers. I thought I did pretty good. Then he started to put my face in some kind of a cup holder and I needed to look true several little discs with holes in them and read some more numbers and letters. After the readings and me still thinking that I did pretty good, we started with the (incredibly nasty) light in the eyes.


While he was shinning that bright light in my eyes I needed to look up , down, right, left and again with the other eye… I figured this was gonna be it and he would tell me I would be fine and that I needed to be a little though and not be such a puss and then I would go home.

Well, the fun just started after that!

He put some drops of stuff out of those little bottles, in my eyes…. Red and yellow stuff and made me look true the little discs again. But this time it hurt! I did NOT sign up for this, yep the little puss came out!

The last drops were something “special”…

He put them in my eyes and told me to sit and wait until they had enlarged my pupils so he could look into the back of my eyes. “Okiedokie…”

About 15 minutes later I could NOT SEE ANYTHING up close anymore and only a little bit far off and the LIGHT! O MY GOSH, THAT LIGHT… I was pretty scared but apparently that‘s normal. He looked at the back of my eyes and found some “disturbing” things. Which was not funny but it was what we (as in the oncologist) found out later was expected to be a side effect of the chemo.

What was funny though was the fact that I was so HIGH AS A KITE of all the drugs they gave me and the fact that I had these HUGE pupils only made my mood even BETTER! We had to go to the hospital right after we got done at the eye doctor for chemo treatment and i really thought this was my day...

To every nurse, and yes I mean every nurse, doctor, patient, or whomever wanted to listen at the hospital I literally yelled; “I’M A MONSTER, I’M A MONSTER!!!”


And no, they didn’t get it… well, until they saw my eyes and understood my joke…
And then there were the ones that just thought I lost my mind, even after seeing my eyes…
And there was Bastiaan, pretty embarrassed to walk beside me, to make sure I didn’t run into any doors or walls…

Oh, it was a great day and I had one of the best chemo treatments ever! I’m pretty sure I fell asleep halfway true the treatment because of all the excitement and yelling but my gosh it was fun!


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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

"Mommy...
Why are my nostrils black but am I'm I almost white???"


"Cause you are a little package from Heaven..."

Ahwww, Brown Swiss baby calves are soooooo sweet!

Have a wonderful Wednesday and I hope to see you tomorrow, right here, to read a new blog post!

"Oh! before I forget!" You can find more pictures at our Farm's website:
Four Leaf Clover Dairy

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Three times is the charm saga! Anniversary day TODAY!!!

Today is the day! Our One Year Anniversary for our third wedding!!!
Whoohoo....

And because Bastiaan and i went to the Netherlands and i haven't been in full "blogging" mode yet i thought what better way to celebrate our wedding day with the Three times is the Charm Saga!!! Yep, all three stories in one with new pictures! Hope you enjoy, and yes this Thursday were back with new "life experiences"...


Wedding number one;

Some people get married once
Some people get married twice
Some people get married three times to THE SAME guy… and yes this would be me...

How do you get married three times, well, it isn’t because I really wanted too but sometimes life throws you a little curve ball and you just have to go with it…

Bastiaan proposed to me in November of 2007. In a really nice restaurant in Fort Wayne, we had been together for over 6 years and he figured it was time, and so did I, so I said “YES!” (And we got a free dessert from the people sitting next to us in the restaurant which made it extra nice).

We set our date to be on July 5th 2008 so our family and friends would have enough time to come over and book a flight from the Netherlands, Canada or Australia. At that date we would have the party and our church wedding. Of course we just started milking on the 20th of November and everything was still very hectic, exciting and stressful but also an immense adventure and we were loving every moment of it!

Because Bastiaan’s visa was going to expire in February we needed too make sure he would be "safe" and we decided to get married in the Courthouse in Bluffton, just to get the paperwork done. Go to Holland make sure the visa’s were in order and then get “really” married in July. For us this “wedding” was a necessity. We would of preferred to have done it on the same day as our church wedding but if you have so many people coming from abroad you need to give them proper time to make arrangements and plan flights. Telling them in November you are going to get married in February is not enough time, we figured.

We were already flabbergasted when we went to the courthouse to get a marriage license. Question one; ‘Have you been married before?’, ‘ No…’. Question two; ‘Do you have any children?’, ‘No…’ Question three; ‘Do you have mental problems?' ‘HU? NO!!!’. Those questions plus the actual license cost us $9.00 which was shocking (Yes, the price as well as the questions)! They told us now that we had the license we should get our witnesses and we would be ready to go…


On January 18th it was COLD!!! As in we (Dutchies) are not used to this kinda weather! But because I wanted to make sure this was at least a little special, it was our wedding after all, I wore a skirt (never mind the fact that an hour before I was still running around in coveralls on the farm trying to get things in order and Bastiaan was working on fixing a tractor!) and Bastiaan got a nice new shirt and my mom & dad and brother were coming, all dressed up too after running around on the farm all morning. Because of the dairy start up we hadn’t really had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people who could stand in as our witnesses and so my parents were going to be our witnesses.

We agreed with Bastiaan’s parents and my little sister that we would put them on speaker phone when it was time to do the ceremony so they would listen to us say our 'I do’s'. We did not want them to feel left out, but we also didn’t want them to travel two times, after all the June wedding was going to be our “official” wedding, and we rater had them there at that time!

So on this cold day we went to the Bluffton Courthouse and which was another SHOCKER where out of the courthouse and married for the very first time WITHIN 15 (if it lasted that long) MINUTES!
Before Bastiaan and I knew what was going on we were officially married! The only thing I really remember was the major saying those things that we only hear on TV or in the movies, now for real right in front of us which was pretty amazing! And naturally my new husband being very sweet and handsome was amazing too!

After we got out off the courthouse we went to the Mexican restaurant to celebrate and got a great lunch, after that it was pretty much back to business as usual…

Soon after our “Court Wedding” Bastiaan and I picked the venue and the church and met with the priest, picked what we wanted to eat and who we would love to have at our special day and THAT was pretty much the extend of what he wanted and needed to do… (Being a boy and planning weddings apparently doesn’t go together…).


Me and a friend on the other hand decided on getting organized and we got a Marta Steward planning guide (haha, yep) and the next months we were extremely busy getting everything done and ready. In the beginning of April 2008 the first wedding invitations went to our 200 guests all over the world…

On April 15th I got a phone call.
‘Sorry, but you got cancer…’.

Within 5 minutes our whole world as we knew it changed.

Four weeks after getting “the news”, being true several surgeries and debating different types off chemo, we canceled the wedding...

Together we decided to fight this beast first, make sure we were healthy and yes then we would get married, for Real. But at that time we really did not know or realize how bad it was going to be...

Wedding number two;

I had my wedding dress…
It was gorgeous…
It didn’t fit anymore… I was too skinny.

We were done with the first full month of chemo and into our three times a week for 48 weeks "period", and yes, I had survived so far. I also survived the surgeries and yes, I even survived the fact that we cut my hair (all that was left of it) and I found out that I was more vain then I ever thought I was going to be about the whole hair thing.

Apparently losing your hair doesn’t seem too bad until it is gone… And yes, every Sunday Bastiaan would drive me to the farm so I could do the payroll for our boys who so desperately with him, my parents and my brother were trying to run the dairy…

We didn’t even think about the wedding that we were supposed to have in July… We were in FULL SURVIVOR mode.

Our Catholic priest was also in full survivor mode.

On our way to Ohio is a beautiful church. Exactly like we have them in Holland (big, old and tall) and as soon as Bastiaan had asked me to marry him I told him I would love to get married in that particular church. We only had one little problem…. Bastiaan was not raised Catholic…


We met with the priest and explained that we would love to get married in his church and join his parochial. He told us getting married there would be all right if we went to a “marriage session” and he had to ask the bishop. Of course we also would have to go to church every Sunday and raise our “soon to be” kids Catholic… The session is a whole blog post on its own, trust me…

We went to church, went to the session and got to know the priest a bit better. After we got the "news" he came over to our house and we had an ointment for the sick and he told us he would be back and check up on me.

On a particular Tuesday, don’t ask me what Tuesday cause I really don’t know, he told us he would come by and we needed to have my mom and dad present. I had no idea what he was coming to do. I just knew I had to keep my Big Mac down that I had the day before after my nice shot of chemo, and focusing on keeping my body still (from trembling uncontrollably) and try not to fall asleep. That was all I could focus on.

I asked Bastiaan what the priest was coming to do, but he had no idea either. We finally came to the conclusion maybe he wanted to do another ointment of the sick???

But that was not what he came to do…
He arrived with a briefcase, candles, ointment and a booklet. It just didn’t make sense to us.

I was wearing my oldest, and I mean OLDEST, sweater and maybe (I cant be completely sure) I wasn’t even wearing a bra!?! Bastiaan was wearing his favorite (I don’t wanna come out, cow poopie stained) jeans on and mom a dad just arrived from the dairy so they didn’t think about dressing up either. The priest looked a bit confused by our appearances but didn’t say a word.

We all sat down on our couch and he took out all his instruments, lighted the candles and put on his nice “thingy that he wears around his neck” cloak dress. Bastiaan was just looking at my mom and dad and I was just in THE "chemo" zone…


He preformed the ointment for the sick and steamed, and yes I mean STEAMED, like a STEAMBOAT that can’t stop, into: “do you Bastiaan Meeuwis Oostdijck take Leontien Martina Francina Wilhelmina Maria van de Laar to be your wife?”

“WHAT???!!!”
“Oh no no NO…. You can’t marry us in these clothes, on our couch, without anybody knowing, in poopie stained jeans, without family and friends, ON OUR COUCH!!!”

Bastiaan said “I do”. And so did I. My mom and dad signed the papers he had brought.
I puked and went to bed.
Bastiaan let the priest out.

Mom and dad called my brother (it was too late to call my sister and Bastiaan’s parents in The Netherlands) and went to work at the farm.

Bastiaan and I talked about that day a lot. We figured the priest thought I was in such bad shape (and yes he probably was right), I might join the Good Lord soon, so he better marry us while he could so at least we would be joined together in front of God.

But what this priest did not know is that I am stubborn. As in very, very stubborn. And I wanted to marry my love the right way. In a church. In a white dress that I already had for 6 months. In front of our family. In the presence of our friends. And defiantly DEFIANTLY NOT on our own couch! Bastiaan and I decided to kick this whole cancer thing even harder in the butt so we could do it the proper way.

But with another priest.
All we had to do was fix me…


Wedding number three;

Ever heard of a Rose Ceremony? And NO I’m not talking about the Rose Ceremony at The Bachelor… What about a Hand Fastening Ceremony? No??? Me neither, well until I met our new minister that is!

Being sick sometimes means you meet new people… I know sounds a bit strange but let me tell you how that goes.

My mom and dad had to go to Cleveland to renew their passport. At the Dutch Embassy the met a very sweet gentleman named Arnie. My mom and dad started chatting with Arnie about dairy farming, and ended up talking about me. You have to remember this was in 2008 and emotions of me being sick and undergoing chemo were at the tip's of everybody’s tongues.

Arnie told my mom and dad that he had a dear friend, Mr. John Regan and John was a cancer survivor himself and helping others when or wherever needed. He told them, “If I needed somebody to talk to, I should just call his friend John”.

Well, not long after I decided to give this Mr. John a call. And it was great! Not great because the subject (cancer is NOT a funny subject) of our discussions where so good but because I could relate and he was a very VERY positive and good humored man. I had never seen John, never met him or even knew where he lived, but 'it' and the talking to him felt good.

Soon after we got done with all the chemo in 2009 I asked John, who happened to be a minister, if he would mind coming up to Indiana and marry Bastiaan and me for REAL this time in a little church in front of our family and friends. Luckily he said yes.



A couple of months into planning this wedding John asked me what kind of ceremony we wanted. “We didn’t know, just a nice one would be fine with us”… John suggested two things; a rose ceremony or a hand fastening ceremony??? In the mean time our relationship (John’s and mine) evolved from calling on the phone to writing emails and when I read “Rose Ceremony” I did a double take and thought “OH NO! Anything else then whatever it is that reminds me of the SLIMY BACHELOR (and yes i watched EVERY week...) from TV!!!” So we decided to go with the Hand Fastening Ceremony…

My next email to John was: “And what is the hand fastening thing exactly, do I need to bring a piece of rope?” (yes pretty blunt...)

His answer: “This is a slightly different type of wedding ceremony which is called hand fasting and it is of ancient Celtic origin and it is where we in the USA got the expression "Tying the knot" from, to mean someone is getting married. I have a beautiful white and gold-trim piece of rope specifically designed for use in this ceremony. I drape it over the hands of the bride and groom as you make your vows, then TIE THE KNOT. It is loose enough so you slip your hands out after the vows and I hand it to the best man or maid of honor.”

I think he kinda knew that I had this strange idea in my head about hand fastening after reading all those disturbing Stephen King novels…

I talked to Bastiaan about it, and he thought it would be just fine.

Between October 2009 and May 2010 we had sent new invitations, made a new guest list (because all the great new people we had met running in and out hospitals and operating a large dairy), dusted off my wedding gown that had been moved back and forth between our house and my mom’s house for two years in order for Bastiaan not to see it, did major remodeling to make sure all our friends would have a place to sleep…. Well, I just wanted a new bathroom but I had to give Bastiaan a good excuse… and planned the wedding of our dreams.


On May 15th of 2010 Bastiaan and I stood in front of Mr. John (who we met for the very first time in the flesh that day) and he wed us. The ceremony was beyond beautiful. The little church was full of loved ones, flowers and laughter. The Hand Fastening Ceremony was new to almost 95% of all the people that were there, so very interesting and humbling for most of us. There was some crying, some laughing some praying and some "just being happy". You could feel it in the air...

Just like how I got my horse this wedding was a gift from above.
If you ever where a little girl… trust me… this was the wedding you had wished for. After surviving this awful disease, after loving each other was made into a very hard thing to do, moving to a different continent, doing something you have never done before (dairying), we stood in front all our family and friends and felt as one.

Our first time getting married was good, because Bastiaan and I already knew we belonged together.
The second time getting married was tough, because Bastiaan and I were tested to no end in our love, our strength and our determination.
Our third time was perfect, because we overcame and had all the people who we love with us to celebrate.

It was a good day.



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Thursday, May 5, 2011

It's a post... NO! It's an Interview!!!

Right at this moment i'm sitting in Bastiaan's mom and dads SUNNY garden in THE NETHERLANDS and thus have left my mom and dad & brother at the dairy, probably in the rain... 

Since all this blogging addiction really started two months ago i have met some really great, sweet and inspirational people, on of those is Patrice from Everyday Ruralty and she asked me if she could interview me for her blog Everyday Ruralty and Farm Chicks who Blog.

And of course I felt really honored and said "Yes"!

Below is the link to her blog, I hope you have fun reading, and maybe find out something about me that you didn't know yet... ;-)

Barn Chicks who blog - With Leontien of Four Leaf Clover Dairy


I hope to do a post on Monday like usual, but i can't promise anything! Have to spent some quality time with my little sister, Bastiaans parents and grandma and lot's of friends! Oh, and do some dancing, go looking at things that have changed in the last 5 years, and EAT! EAT LOT'S of DUTCH FOOD!!!

Hope to see you all soon again probably plus 10 pounds...
Leontien

Monday, May 2, 2011

Three times is the Charm... I DO!

Ever heard of a Rose Ceremony? And NO I’m not talking about the Rose Ceremony at The Bachelor… What about a Hand Fastening Ceremony? No??? Me neither, well until I met our new minister that is!

Being sick sometimes means you meet new people… I know sounds a bit strange but let me tell you how that goes.

My mom and dad had to go to Cleveland to renew their passport. At the Dutch Embassy the met a very sweet gentleman named Arnie. My mom and dad started chatting with Arnie about dairy farming, and ended up talking about me. You have to remember this was in 2008 and emotions of me being sick and undergoing chemo were at the tip's of everybody’s tongues.


Arnie told my mom and dad that he had a dear friend, Mr. John Regan and John was a cancer survivor himself and helping others when or wherever needed. He told them, “If I needed somebody to talk to, I should just call his friend John”. Well, not long after I decided to give this Mr. John a call. And it was great! Not great because the subject (cancer is NOT a funny subject) of our discussions where so good but because I could relate and he was a very VERY positive and good humored man. I had never seen John, never met him or even knew where he lived, but 'it' and the talking to him felt good.

Soon after we got done with all the chemo in 2009 I asked John, who happened to be a minister, if he would mind coming up to Indiana and marry Bastiaan and me for REAL this time in a little church in front of our family and friends. Luckily he said yes.

A couple of months into planning this wedding John asked me what kind of ceremony we wanted. “We didn’t know, just a nice one would be fine with us”… John suggested two things; a rose ceremony or a hand fastening ceremony??? In the mean time our relationship (John’s and mine) evolved from calling on the phone to writing emails and when I read “Rose Ceremony” I did a double take and thought “OH NO! Anything else then whatever it is that reminds me of the SLIMY BACHOLOR (and yes i watched EVERY week...) from TV!!!” So we decided to go with the Hand Fastening Ceremony…


My next email to John was: “And what is the hand fastening thing exactly, do I need to bring a piece of rope?” (yes pretty blunt...)
His answer: “This is a slightly different type of wedding ceremony which is called hand fasting and it is of ancient Celtic origin and it is where we in the USA got the expression "Tying the knot" from, to mean someone is getting married. I have a beautiful white and gold-trim piece of rope specifically designed for use in this ceremony. I drape it over the hands of the bride and groom as you make your vows, then TIE THE KNOT. It is loose enough so you slip your hands out after the vows and I hand it to the best man or maid of honor.”

I think he kinda knew that I had this strange idea in my head about hand fastening after reading all those disturbing Stephen King novels…

I talked to Bastiaan about it, and he thought it would be just fine.

Between October 2009 and May 2010 we had sent new invitations, made a new guest list (because all the great new people we had met running in and out hospitals and operating a large dairy), dusted off my wedding gown that had been moved back and forth between our house and my mom’s house for two years in order for Bastiaan not to see it, did major remodeling to make sure all our friends would have a place to sleep…. Well, I just wanted a new bathroom but I had to give Bastiaan a good excuse… and planned the wedding of our dreams.

On May 15th of 2010 Bastiaan and I stood in front of Mr. John (who we met for the very first time in the flesh that day) and he wed us. The ceremony was beyond beautiful. The little church was full of loved ones, flowers and laughter. The Hand Fastening Ceremony was new to almost 95% of all the people that were there, so very interesting and humbling for most of us. There was some crying, some laughing some praying and some "just being happy". You could feel it in the air...


Just like how I got my horse this wedding was a gift from above.

If you ever where a little girl… trust me… this was the wedding you had wished for. After surviving this awful disease, after loving each other was made into a very hard thing to do, moving to a different continent, doing something you have never done before (dairying), we stood in front all our family and friends and felt as one.

Our first time getting married was good, because Bastiaan and I already knew we belonged together.
The second time getting married was tough, because Bastiaan and I were tested to no end in our love, our strength and our determination.
Our third time was perfect, because we overcame and had all the people who we love with us to celebrate.

It was a good day.



And no! This is not the end! The love story continues… I sure hope you'd stick with me!

And I just want to say thank you all for so many lovely, encouraging, humor full, sweet, fantastic, empowering and just absolutely WONDERFUL comments! For everybody who has read my blog in the last two months, if I would see you in person I would give you a huge kiss and hug and say THANK YOU for bringing me so much joy!