When you go out for a Mammogram & come home with a Drivers license

And yes this way is much better than the other way around!

A couple of weeks ago i had to go to my three monthly check up with Dr Nala. Since we are still a bit worried about recurrence she checks me pretty good and if i have a little ache or pain she will MAKE SURE she tests and checks it before i can wander the streets again for three months...

At this visit i had some troubles with my breasts maybe because i found Aldi (a great German grocery store, were i bought HEAPS of German/Belgium chocolate) and i had been pretty much stuffing myself with that chocolate. And yes i even brought some chocolate bars to the hospital that day (you never know when it gets really scary) and since i don't smoke anymore i felt i needed some back-up besides my wonderful husband.

Anyway, Dr Nala thought it would be wise, to lay off the chocolate (because it can cause tenderness in the breast area) for a while AND do a Mammogram!

No...
No...
NO...
I KNOW hundreds of women do it every day, but I'm just a girl (don't want my boobies to get squished, they just got big since i stopped smoking, like everything else by the way)! Let me do the ultrasound and you can see everything you need and I'll be fine!

Dr Nala said "No", let's do a Mammogram this time... "OK"...

So the next week i go to the hospital in Bluffton to get my mammogram done. I didn't sleep for 3 nights and i felt pretty cranky. Also because at the farm things where NOT going like they should and it was just overall a bad week. But i went and sat down. This really nice nurse comes up to me and asks if i might be pregnant...?

Uhmmm, "No i don't think so". "Well, didn't you get your test done before the Mammogram?".
"Uhmmm, no, I nobody said anything about that". I asked her if we could just do the Ultrasound???

Turned out we couldn't do that  and i needed to get my blood test done (couldn't just pee over a stick?!?) and had to RESCHEDULE! My day didn't get better at all!  I didn't have my breast squished but i also had to make a new appointment, not sleep for several days and probably eat more chocolate because i was stressed and thus more pain!?!

Oh well...

Driving home from the Hospital i was pretty (read: really) cranky and from the corner of my eye i spotted a police car, and thinking, hmm i need to get my drivers licence. I have a Dutch one but it was (a little bit) expired and i still needed to get my Indiana one. And since i already wasted the whole day with not getting a mammogram done, i thought "Why not?!?"

Got into the BMV, had my social security number, a bill with my name and address, my visa, my passport, my Dutch drivers license and my translation of my Dutch drivers license. I was good to go! Until the nice lady at the BMV told me i needed TWO proofs of addresses... "you got to be kidding me?!" And she sent me away told me to come back with two bills or a bank statement or something.

Driving home i was even more (as in fuming) cranky. And then i passed my bank. I literally saw that little light bulb above my head going on and thought, "hehe I'm gonna print of a statement and go back to the BMV!".

And so i did, parked my car, right in FRONT of the door of the BMV (not the most smartest move but it felt right at the time) and walked in and showed the lovely lady all my papers AGAIN plus the statement. And yes i could do my written test.

Did i mention i didn't study, as in i don't even own a manual...

I turned in my papers and after 10 minutes she called me and told me i passed!!! I just couldn't believe my ears, because i was figuring on coming back at least 6 times before me passing this test and here i was getting my (really ugly) picture taking and with my drivers license permit coming to me in the mail in 10 days... hehe...

Now i have to wait (drive around in my fantastic car) for 6 months and then i can do my actual driving test...

And that is how you go for a mammogram and come home with a drivers license (well, permit is almost the same, right?)

And it is friday again so.... HOP HOP HOP to Verde Farm for Farm Friend Friday!!!

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I am a Ladybug killer...

Freely translated from Dutch –Lieveheersbeestjes – The Good Lord’s little beasts
Freely translated from English – Ladybugs – The lady got bugs

And my gosh I had bugs all right!

At one of the best dairy practical training practices I have even been, I had a close encounter with ladybugs and that changed my mind about them forever.

I was spending 3 months with a fantastic family and they were teaching me pretty much everything they knew about dairy farming in America. I would eat, sleep and work with the family and things were going great. They had converted their basement into a cozy bedroom for me, so I had my own space after hard day learning and working (read working as looking and absorbing on how they worked) and every night I would go to bed, feeling pretty happy about what I had seen and learned.

And then it started to warm up in America…

I was laying in my bed, reading my book, I can’t remember what particular book but the chances are great that it was a Stephen King novel and I didn’t have a little bedside lamp so I had the “big” ceiling light on. You see, this was pretty much a bulb with a wire sticking out of a plastic (not finished) ceiling. Which was all right by me, the house was pretty old and it gave it all a pretty comfy (in a strange way) feeling.

My book was very good but felt sleepy so I decided to go to sleep and i turned the light off…

Nothing is more scary than reading a Stephen King novel and then hearing creepy little noises from above you, after you turned off the light… TRUST ME, I KNOW…

So finally I got the nerve to sit up and pull on the little cord which would turn the light on. And what do I see…Like FIFTY ladybugs crawling out of the plastic besides the light bulb… O my Gosh! They were piling on top of each other trying to get out and dropping down on MY bed!

You see I am not a sissy, but I did NOT like that at all! It would have sent me flying if it were spiders but after all, it where just ladybugs, right???

So I decided to talk action, I couldn’t just lie there and pretend to sleep. So I got out my cigarette box (yes I know, the good old days…) took all my cigarettes out and decided to stuff them (as in the Ladybugs) in there, to let them go in the real world tomorrow morning. One by one I caught them and stuck them in my box. After I got them all crammed in (or so I thought), I put them beside me on the table and watched the box for a while.

Those stupid little buggars crawled so much that eventually they came out of the box! So I put my lighter on the box to seal it off, that’ll teach them!!!

Pretty content with myself but all awake again after my “hunting” I picked up my novel and read some more. Feeling pretty sleepy again I turned off the light…. And YES, the sound of hundreds of little feet started crawling above my head AGAIN…



This repeated itself three times! I would stuff Ladybugs in my box, try to sleep, get fustrated, stuff more ladybugs in the box, try to sleep...

At one point I knew I couldn’t stuff more Ladybugs in my little box, it was already crowded as it was, so I decided to do two things: you might know (if you read "Mouse hunt in granny pants") I normally sleep without peejees but on this occasion I thought It would be better to put on a t-shirt and to build myself a little cocoon of blankets and just hoped they wouldn’t crawl underneath the blankets…

I think I killed HUNDREDS of Lady Bugs in those months… and I can’t say I’m sorry…


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Tractor Disaster!

I love my live on the farm! But that doesn’t mean I am good at everything that I sometimes need to do as a farmer…

I have had multiple experiences with tractors and maybe it is safe to say I should stay away from tractors, or everybody around me should stay away from me if I’m trying to drive one!

Bastiaan in front of a tractor







When I was 16 years old I wanted to get my tractor drivers license.

In the Netherlands you just can’t go hop in a tractor and drive around your farm or on the road. If you get in an accident, get pulled over or do something stupid you are in serious trouble, with the police, mom and dad or the insurance company. And since I liked to do it all (not the get in trouble part)… I wanted to learn how to drive a tractor and get my license.

Across the road from us our neighbor farmer raised hogs and owned and operated crop fields where they grew asparagus. I used to work there every weekend, after school and on my vacation days and he had a tractor. I asked him if he could teach me how to drive the tractor after and during work and that way I could practice for the exam. After weeks and weeks of practice, with a very patient neighbor (i DID NOT have a natural talent) the day had come to do my written exam and driving test. The AG teacher from my high school came to my house and we checked the tractor and went inside to do the written exam.

I had studied really hard and had my mom and dad gave me “fake” tests to see if I could pass. I would pass every time! We were in our own kitchen and the teacher gave me the papers. I ended up doing the test 3 times!?! I was so nervous I couldn’t get the answers straight although I knew what they were! Eventually my mom vowed for me that I really studied hard and the teacher should let me do the driving test and he would see I could really drive a tractor… Maybe the cookies that my mom gave him helped too.

The teacher put some pillions out in the field and I was supposed to drive the tractor with trailer in a big S, drive straight, make turns, park the tractor and back up with the trailer and park in a designated area.

Well…. I did it…

The tractor were we feed all our
cows with.





But I hit my hand on the door handle and I didn’t go fast and it didn’t go smooth. When I got off the tractor I was very flustered, adrenaline rushing true my body, still incredibly nervous,  I went over to my teacher. He just looked at me, looked down and looked at me again. I had no idea what I needed to do next but he looked in SHOCK!

While I was standing there in front of him, awaiting my verdict, thinking about all the things I did wrong ( I didn’t run nobody over so it couldn’t be that bad???) I decided that if I didn’t get my drivers license this time I surely would get it next time because I would have better control of my nerves!

After 3 grueling minutes (I know it doesn’t sound long, but I can tell you it was!) he said that I had passed!

Whooohoooo!!! I was so happy, I hugged him and told him thank you!!! Then he said something I didn’t understand… “You better wash your face”.

Wash my face? Why would I was my face after driving a tractor???

Well, when I went inside and looked in the mirror, while my mom and the teacher were catching up, I saw that apparently i busted my hand open when I hit the door handle and because I was so nervous and sweating I tried to wipe away the sweat. I wiped the sweat away all right… but all over my face was blood from my hand!

I looked like I was killed, slaughtered and left for dead! No wonder my teacher looked so shocked!

Putting new sand in the barn every week with

a little tractor

I really don’t think I passed my tractor drivers license test if it wasn’t for my mom and her cookies and if my teacher didn’t feel incredibly sorry for me.

And since this is only the beginning of my disasters with lovely red/white/blue and green tractors I can tell you, there is more to come…

Happy Friday!!!

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