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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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"!

And Texwisgirl from Run A Round Ranch Report AND Cindy from Yankee Texan Mom for the "Versatile Blogger 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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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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