And who are you...???

A mammogram, in my imagination was a terrible/the worst/ incredible scary procedure…But was it really??? NOPE! What it was; it was pretty interesting, to be honest…

I hardly slept the two days before I went, and I have to admit all these Stephen King, Dean Koontz and the other horror story writers I like to read didn’t help, but really, it wasn’t that frightening. Not like the awful,  peeing in your pants feeling that you get with the CAT scan and not as SCARY as feeling like you’re the bad guy with the mask in the Silence of the lambs movie, stuck in a tube that is way too small, SCARY!

Maybe it helps if you have smaller breasts???  It really wasn’t that bad. Not that it was fun, but the nurse was really friendly, explained all my 200 questions per minute in a very patient manner AND her hands were warm! Which I thought was a PLUS!

After we got done, she told me to sit and wait and probably within 15 minutes I could go home.

Well, that did not happen.

They saw “something” high up, pretty much above my right breast and they needed to further “investigate”… So I followed another really sweet nurse and unbuttoned. Good thing those fancy robes only have tree buttons (if you are trembling all over it is pretty hard to undo those little thingies) and she scanned my breast again. I have found out that the more you have intimate parts uncovered amongst total strangers, it easier it gets…. (at least that is what I thought up to last Wednesday…) NOT that it is fun, but it isn’t as scary anymore as it was the first time and I think I had my heart rate under control (for the most part anyway).

Again this didn’t go according to plan. After she took several “pics” she left me by myself in that room. All kinds of interesting tools you got there, plus two computers but not the stuff that you want to play with while the nurse is away… So I just fiddled with my robe and buttons.

She didn’t come back for what seemed like an ETERNITY (I should have asked Bastiaan to come but I wasn’t expecting to do all of this, blame the positive side of me) and when she did, it wasn’t just her, no she brought her superior nurse lady…. “Hhhmmmm….”.

The “new” nurse who was even more skilled in reading ultrasounds and mammograms told me that they had indeed found something “off”, but they weren’t sure what it was. And she wanted to look over herself. So I laid down again. Got gooey stuff all over me and the ladies looked…

Inconclusive.  Just my luck…

BUT it is better to know for sure than to not know exactly what it is and since I already had to go to a surgeon later last week, the sweet nurses told me not to worry (haha….) and talk to Dr. L on Wednesday.

I generally like ALL the nurses, nurse practitioners AND doctors (as you probably know). With that said my trip to the hospital on Wednesday is one of my least favorite.

If you have female problems (whatever they might be) it is nice to have a female doctor. At least I like that… They know what you have and what might be going on in or on your body, maybe a tinsy bit better than their male colleagues . So when I found out I had a man as the surgeon who was going to check out my breasts I felt a little uneasy.  But since I am no sissy and everybody deserves the benefit of the doubt AND because I had seen Dr L. before, I thought I would though it out, get it over with, prove everybody that  there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with me and go home….

So past Wednesday, after being escorted to the examine room by a lovely nurse who said she recognized me from 2 years ago (which was very flattering), putting on a bright pink robe thingy, I sat and waited…

And waited…

And waited some more…

Until I got EXTREMELY upset with everybody and everything! My heart rate went sky high, even higher than with the ultrasound (so yes it was beating almost out of my chest!)! I decided it was not worth the getting upset about waiting part, the doc probably was very busy (it sure didn’t seem like that when I left my little brother in an almost empty waiting room FORTY FIVE MINUTES earlier…) so I waited some more. I didn’t have the guts to go outside my little cubicle, in my paper pink almost fall apart robe thingy anyway…

After almost a full hour of waiting and putting crazy ideas in my head (which happen a lot lately) the doc walked in.  WITH AN ASSISTANT…. And no they did NOT ask me if it was all right that a 20 some year old BOY was gonna see my boobies and they DID NOT apologies for being an HOUR late!

I was in utter shock!

I come from Holland and in Holland we are pretty open about all kinds’ sexuality stuff and yes I know doctors are students before they are doctors BUT I was NOT expecting this and I did not like it! NOT ONE BIT.

But since they did not ask me if it was all right for the boy to stay, and the doc did not explain to me why or what the boy was doing there, I just laid down, zeroed myself to another planet and let them check my breasts. I do think I said yes and no at the right moments and I was aware of the fact that it wasn't the good news I was hoping for but at least it was over in 5 minutes… tops…

You have to believe me, I am no sissy, and I do understand that young folks need to learn, and they can’t learn from books only. But at least they could have asked me if it was oke, for him to be there…?  Since I have been diagnosed 3 and a half year ago I had never felt so vulnerable and like a number as last Wednesday, and you probably knew that because I have been writing a LOT of funny hospital stories although they were not always funny at that time. This was really not one of them.

And to make matters worse, Dr L. and the boy did not know what “it” was so now we have to do a biopsy. This will be biopsy number two this week. Which again is all right with me, because I rather know, then live with the maybe’s…

So this Tuesday I will probably have a blue boobie and Thursday Dr Nala will say… “YOU ARE ALL RIGHT!!!” See…  those words are worth all the blue boobies, blue ribs and young boys who need to learn!

...

My steel horse

Since I was a little girl I wanted a shiny car. And yes, I was pretty sure what kind of shiny car that needed to be. I had no doubts, nobody could talk me into something different and I wasn’t gonna change my mind.

Because I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 19 (in Holland you can’t get your license until you are 18) I was a little behind on the majority of teens. I didn’t mind because I was still working hard and saving my money for my dream car. But because I had to drive something, my mom and dad got my sister and I a little car to share. She was gonna take it one week and I the other. The weeks that we didn’t have the car we had to take the bus and train to get to school. The car was a good car and i was very grateful that my parents let my sister and i have one, but I wasn’t mine…

Finally after several years of working every weekend, every after schools hour and vacation period,  I had enough money saved up and so I bought my first BMW! I was so happy! So proud and I felt so free! This baby was mine and I did it all myself!!!

The only problem with that car was, (and of COURSE I didn’t admit that while I had it) that it was VERY fuel inefficient. And it would break. A lot! As in maybe, once every month…. Sometimes close to home, sometimes close to school and sometimes right in the middle of where I was going to…

So on a sunny Friday afternoon D. and I were driving home. We had the music on, and we were happy that it was almost weekend. Not that I could do a lot of partying, because I had to work the whole weekend in order to pay for all the fuel and the latest gasket, oil filter or plug for my car… But we were happy anyway and feeling on top of the world driving our own cool car!

In Holland the highways are crowded. And I don’t mean crowded like here, no, its crazy bumper to bumper three/ fourths of the way home. So while we were in the left lane, called the “fast” lane and creeping forward at about 5 miles an hour, smoke started coming out from under the hood….

I whispered to D., “D. this is not good!?!”, and it wasn’t good at all… we had major overheating problems…  Because the highway was so full of cars we couldn’t go to the right lane and park in the grass besides the highway, nobody would let us true anyway…

So after some more panicking we decided to park in the middle part of the highway. And yes we know that this is STRICKTLY FORBIDDEN. But we didn’t know what to do and I wasn’t gonna let my car do any more damage to itself!!! I needed my baby!

So we park the car on the “wrong” side, open the hood and check. I don’t know much about cars but I thought it was some kind of hose that was busted. D. thought the same. While we were standing there lots of cars honked. Lots of “friendly” faces that were laughing AT us. BUT nobody stopped!!! So were standing there besides the highway, car smoking, two desperate looking young girls, and NOBODY stopped…

After some 15 minutes of looking at the hose and getting more and more frustrated by all these people not stopping to help us, finally a truck driver stops at the good (right) side of the road and comes over. He looks in the car and concludes that it is indeed a hose… “Oh well, tough guy we already knew that but thanks for stopping”.

And then things started to click... or so we thought…

While our truckdriver was standing there staring at the hose, a police car stops right behind my parked car…. 

“YOU CAN’T STAND HERE!!!” he yells while exciting his cop car.  I was trying to explain to him that I knew that but that we didn’t have no other choice and I was a little bit surprised that he didn’t ask if we had an accident or something and if somebody was hurt. Nope, he didn’t ask anything at all, he just yelled that we weren’t supposed to be here! The bad thing was; the truck driver didn’t like the police…

And so he starts yelling (to the policeman!!!) that those girls (D. and I) had car trouble and that we could park anywhere we wanted! So while D. and I thought that this couldn’t go any worse, it got worse!

The policeman and the “good Samaritan” are yelling and were just standing there besides the highway and wondering what is going to happen next.

Finally the policeman had enough and tells the truck driver to go away or he is going to get a ticket. After some more cursing, screaming and yelling…!!!  He finally left. In the mean time the police man apparently called some other coppers and they arrive but instead of HELPING US (or even asking us what the matter is) the block off the highway….

Three lanes of highway completely blocked off by police cars…

The policeman yells (again) that we need to go to the other side of the road…

So D. and I hop in the car, drive (really, really slowly, we really felt like royalty too…) to the other side of the road and park it in the grass. And before we even know what is going on, all 4 police cars left…. “What???!!!”

Within no time the traffic is bumper to bumper again, 5 miles an hour and people politely smiling at us… Ohww, what a day!?

Then we realized that one of my housemates who was still at school (in order to get home) needed to use the same highway, so we called him up. He was maybe 5 miles up the road stuck in the same traffic jam. He promised us he would get there as soon as possible and help us out.

What seemed like forever we finally saw his car and he pulled over,  got us hooked up behind his car (which was slightly smaller and less heavy) so the pulling didn’t go as smooth…  But we were on our way again. After some CRAZY driving and towing our car we made it to his house. Changed the troublemaker hose and put in a new hose.  D. and I drove home, with all the windows open and the air at full blast, because we were too afraid the car was going to overheat again…

I dropped D. of at the train station and got home at 9.45 pm. We had left that same day at 1 pm and the drive normally takes us 2 hours….

D. and I have been in a lot of situations like this, but I never sold my car, well not until it was unsafe (as in really, really unsafe) to drive it anymore (I bought a new BMW)… and I never regret one day driving it. I felt on top of the world driving that car. And it made me realize that as long as you believe in yourself, work hard and long for something and you never give up, you will reach the top. Whatever that top might be for you….

...

Enjoy Life

Well the good news is; I didn't light up as a Christmas tree all nice and shiny. The bad news; more testing and thus more waiting.

The waiting is really the hard part. Once you know you can just go and fight the bastard. But as long as you don’t know, you don’t know what or how to fight it. Even if you wear your best panties!

So last Friday when we went to Dr Nala she told us that although the PET scan didn’t show a whole lot we needed to do more testing because there were several spots that she didn’t trust.

So today (Monday) I will be going and will get my boobies squished, for real this time not like last time… Wednesday we have to go to get the results and Friday we have to get a biopsy done. And then we wait. Next Thursday Dr Nala will give me the news. At least I hope. Any news is better than no news...

Until then, since it is pretty hard focusing on anything at all lately (wonder why…?) and I have all these idea’s for things/stories I want to tell you in my head, but somehow they don’t make it onto the paper. That is why I’m gonna leave you with this great quote I found at my cyber friend Dolores’s blog: Moving forward with Alzheimer’s.  

There are 5 things in life you cannot recover:

A stone... After it's thrown

A word... After it is said

An occasion... After it's missed

The time... After it's gone

A person... After they die

Life is short. Break the rules. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile, Enjoy Life…

So that is what I’m gonna do!

Enjoy all the sweet comments you left me in the last week, which made me feel so special, so loved and so much stronger. Enjoy my wonderful family who I can count on no matter how bad, cranky or desperate I feel. Enjoy my more than fantastic hubby, who makes me feel pretty even if I look like hell. Enjoy the farm where I am so incredibly proud off.  And enjoy my friend for life, crazy black stallion and give him a good rub!

And if Jones is a good boy maybe he can get a good rub too, he’ll enjoy that….

See ya Thursday!

...

Cancer Kicking and panties with sculls

Ok, as you might have read in my previous post things aren't going so smoothly and because we still have no results… hopefully later today… and I can’t seem to muster the energy to bring you a nice “I’m a happy pumpkin in a sunny pasture” post, I’m gonna leave you with a Golden Oldie.

I DID wear my panties with a scull yesterday to my PET scan and yes, I washed it last night AND I am wearing it today to Dr Nala, soooo IF something shows up all bright and shiny on my PET scan (which I am SURE will NOT happen…) I can hit the ground running and kick this cancer thingy in the buttocks. Call me crazy but i just feel a little bit stronger, walk a little taller and smile a LOT more wearing these dumb panties while hearing (sometimes life altering) PET/MRI scan results!

And, because we are talking about panties…. I dug up one of my first posts and it is one that I personally like a lot! I’m fairly sure (keep fingers crossed and/or say a little prayer) that next week I’ll be back with new stories and new HOPES and new DETERMINATION (whatever way it may go...)!

And If I haven’t done so already, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH for all your sweet comments on my Putting things in Perspective post, those help in so many more ways than you could ever imagine!  

Mouse hunt in granny pants

I was almost asleep... You know, right at that point were you feel your entire body come at ease...

With a sudden shock i realise there is somebody besides MY BED! And no I'm not dreaming and YES i should be all alone. "O my gosh, there is somebody besides my bed..!"

And then realizing all in a couple of seconds, I'm defiantly not dreaming, i defiantly should start wearing granny pants and pj's (if there would be a crazy man besides my bed, it's less attracting to wear granny pants, i hope) and i defiantly hear something creepy but it's not a man! I turn over to turn on the light and there on my dresser is see a tiny mouse playing hide and seek with my clothes.

Ok, freak out time has officially started, although it's not a scary man but a little tiny mouse.

So I'm watching this little fluff ball running over my dresser back and forth, climbing up and down and trying to sneak under my bed; "I don't think so buddy!". I'm trying to think of a strategy to catch this little intruder, and as a real girl supposed to do, i call my husband and tell him we have a little problem in the bedroom, and ask him if we have some traps. Turned out we did, which is a good thing but that meant, me getting out of bed and putting on some clothes, which is a bad thing...

EVERYBODY knows if you have monsters in your bedroom, you stay IN BED! That way they can't catch/grab or attack you... (Read your Stephen King novels!)

So after some serious consideration i got out of bed, put on some granny pants and got the mouse trap. We had a little bit of left over sausage and i figured my little mouse would like that. So i set the trap, used some sausage as bait, crawled into bed and waited...

And oh my gosh, two feet away (maybe four feet, but it felt really close) comes my little mouse, so cute, and headed right for my trap!

Haha, got you you little bastard...

At the same time that i was hoping i would catch him, i was also hoping that that trap thing would snap really fast so he won't feel nothing, AND thinking that i really can't watch this because it is so MEAN!

The little mouse grabs my sausage and takes off to a safe place underneath the dresser. No snapping of the trap, no me freaking out about killing a little, really cute, mouse. Just utter amazement. That little bastard stole my sausage!

After Bastiaan got home we tried to catch him but no luck (which wasn't a surprise, he just had lunch) and we set some more traps the next day but so far we haven't caught him yet.

Hopefully he went to the neighbors, maybe he can score some more sausage there, cause he's not getting it from me no more!

...

Putting things in perspective

I wrote this post  in April 2010.
Sometimes i read it to try, to put things in perspective again. This last week has been a bit (read: a lot) of a challenge. Normally i can stay pretty positive and find a way to convince myself that I'm gonna be just fine. This is not one of those weeks.


What Cancer does to somebody like me...

One year, eleven months and somewhat days ago I got confronted with this awful disease. I can tell you, it wasn't and is not funny.

After several surgeries, lots of pain and fear I got 4 weeks of chemo treatment for 4 hours straight every day. When we were done with the IV's we did 48 weeks of chemo shots, 3 times a week, with one of the most terrible chemical substances that people have invented. Things lasted a bit longer because we had to quit a couple of times (weeks) because my body or mind couldn’t handle it too well...

Cancer does a lot to people... So does the treatment of cancer...

It makes you angry

Angry against the world, because every time you go to the hospital, the people that you meet are in their fifties. "Where are all the young people???" "Am I the only one?" Angry towards the people surrounding you. I doesn’t matter how hard they try, they can’t feel, understand or know what you feel. Even if they are by your side 24/7 in the hospital and at home, keep your hair up when you are puking your guts out in the toilet or when you do NOT want to say ANYTHING because you are to tired to the bone or when they hold you until the shaking has stopped…

Angry towards your friends, you thought they were there, but they are not. Angry towards you family, they do not deserve it, but to admit that to yourself only makes things worse. But most of all angry towards yourself. Because you just can’t understand why this had to happen. And if you could have changed it or prevented it. And of course I am MAD because I thought I could change or adapt to anything. I could do everything and I didn’t NEED anybody. Angry because it is not fair. Angry because it shouldn’t have to be this way. Angry because of all the hurt I caused other people...

It makes you scared
Scared that you never get off of the roller coaster of emotions, your sad, happy, angry and hurt, and all over again. Afraid that with every bump, every little thing that hurts, every little change or little mold, it is coming back... Scared that all the statistics are true. Scared because we have to go back to the hospital every 3 months the coming five years, and you NEVER know what “they” are going to say... Afraid you can never have any little kids, and even if you would, and you would die within two years, Bastiaan would be all alone with that little bundle of love... I can’t do that... Afraid that you can not give the people, who you love the most, what they deserve.

It makes you sad
Because live passed you by for the last two years and you can not get it back. Because you wanted to build friendships but didn’t have the energy to do so. Because you wanted to face the mistakes you made in the past, but that didn’t work out. Because this was supposed to be the new country with the new life and possibilities. Because we are shallow and you do not realize that until you have a hole of 3 by 2,5 inches on you leg and so many other scars on you body you do not even want to count them. Because you are hurting of the scars that mark your hart. Because I, like so many others want to put problems, subject and other things behind us.

You Learn
That if you do not have anything nice to say, it is better to stay quiet. You do not rule the world, even if you think you did. Things happen for a reason, it will not help you if you do not accept them. Sometimes you have to agree that choices other people make are for the best of you. You can not run from whatever it is you are hiding from. It will come and get you eventually.

You feel loved and blessed
Because no matter what happens (your yelling, crying, being silent and everything in between) your family is there for you. Because the boy who wanted to go with you (because you felt the need to milk cows in the USA) has to deal with all of this and STILL loves you. Because people that you hardly know came up to your house and gave you food, money, a friendly smile or other things that would comfort you. Because of the friends that did stay are the ones you need to love the most in return. Because ordinary people with ordinary lives felt the need to pray for YOU! And wished you the best and MEANT it...

Whenever you are sick, your mom, dad, husband, brother, sister, family, friends and all the other people that care for you are a little bit sick too. And if they can fight for you, you should fight for them.

It makes you happy
For every day that you can complain, yell or blabber to your family. That you can look to your husband and realise how much you really love him. That every morning you can get out of bed, and you do NOT have to stay in that stupid bed! Because you can go to your work, because it is a dream come true. Running a large family operated dairy is a gift and blessing, and i am so proud that we can. That I can make choices about who what and were. And that every day, is one day is that I can enjoy.

For the first time since April 2008 I feel like myself again, although it is a totally different me. After 5 terrible days, because yes, they put you on all the meds, but how do you get off of them again!!?? Without sleep, with lots and lot’s of pain, and feeling like a zombie who just like a drug addict is missing out on his shot, and doesn’t feel quite alive, I got out of the shower.

And I am glad to be here...

...

Every girl needs a brush!

Yep, us girls need a good spa treatment every now and then! And this is not any different for our cows.

At our farm we have a hospital pen, this is the area/pen at our farm where our girls with special needs stay if they are feeling blue. Normally the ladies will only be in there for a week, but sometimes they stay longer, depending on how or what kind of issues they have.

Because we want to pamper these girls a bit, they already feel “left out” because they had to move to a different part of the barn and leave their girlies and BFF's, we had a big and I mean BIG automatic brush installed!

Cows like to groom. They want to feel clean, and this brush is the perfect way to do that. Whenever a cow pushes the brush it automatically starts to swirl. Not only does it swirl, it also goes up and down, to the left and to the right. It is pretty nifty!  Sometimes they line up or are waiting in little groups until the ‘leading’ lady is done so they can take her place. And sometimes these silly girls go really nuts and while one will have her buttocks scratched, another one has her head up against it... at the same time...!

In the beginning we didn’t know if this brush was going work out. We had read about it but never seen it in action. But the brush is amazing! It seems that because of the cows curiosity always wins it over being scared of the big yellow thing, so every girl gives it a shot eventually... And they love it!

In the 3 years that we have the brush up and running, it never broke.  And so a couple of weeks ago, when I was bragging to a real nice gentlemen about that the brush was, “Soooo GOOD and it NEVER broke! Next day… what did it do…. It broke! “Yeah I jinxed it!”  So i am not gonna say that again!

It took us about 2 weeks to fix the thing and you should have seen the looks on our girls! They were NOT happy with us! After we put it back up we had not 3 or 4 girls waiting in line but 6 or 7! They were soooo content!

I wish we could have those brushes in every pen/group on the farm and so all the girls could groom themselves, that would be fantastic! But those brushes are worth almost as much as one and a half cow! So we are still dreaming about putting one in every pen… What we are doing now is putting a little brush in at the end of every pen. It is like two little brushes were you sweep the floor with, in an L shape, upside down (should have taken a picture…) and we hung it up at the right height.

Now the girls can still have a perfect shine on their coats, and feel mighty clean, even if they are not in the hospital pen!

...

Weels in Motion...

Yes, this is a huge machine!

And yes, this is my little sister in the driver seat! The picture is a little foggy, but that is why it looks like she is racing over the feed alley...! But in fact, she is almost standing still...

I just thought this was a great picture for a Wordless Wednesday! And yes were doing a Linky Thingy at Pinke Post, please check it out (there are some amazing Wordless Wednesday's up!)

Huge machines are needed to feed all our girls! More about our girls in my next posts...

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!


....

Crazy Americans and yard obsessions

Even before you actually enter the country you can see it from the skies… You don’t even have to look that closely, it is just beautiful and it is everywhere here in Indiana!

And yes of course you guessed right away that I am talking about YARDS...! And no, not any yards I am talking about American Yards and Lawns!

me mowing the lawn

I have NEVER ever seen such huge lawns with sooo much grass! Yes, I was used to yards and lawns with some grass, but overall it would be scrubs and trees and flowers. I was in for a big treat because here you have just lots and lots of grass and a couple of trees and scrubs… Found out later that it sometimes (depending on the year) that flowers and such might get too cold in the winter and to hot in the summer, so to keep your yard looking nice people pick plants that can survive this great climate change between summer and winter. Another thing i learned is that we only have 2 seasons here, summer and winter, no messing around with spring and fall...

Now, we were not used to all this grass and in 2006 when we had our first spring here you can image our surprise when we saw grandpa’s, grandma’s, men, women and teens cruzing around on their lawnmower with a big heavy “barrel” behind it…

We check and found out that it was to flatten the ground, so when the grass would finally start to grow the smoother your ride would be! Amazing! We never flattened out yard to get a smooth ride! We were always pushing and pushing our lawnmowers and if we were lucky we would run over the electric cable… (Oh, sorry daddy…) and could quit early!

Bastiaan mowing our yard

But the most fantastic thing about these smooth well maintained lawns is the fact that sometimes there are “things” in the yard. And yes “things” vary from, houses that not have been painted in 50 plus years, buses, cars, farm equipment in all stages of life, tires, toys, lots and lots of toys, shoes, scrap metal, barns that have not been occupied in this century and oh did I tell you, cars…sometimes with flowers, sometimes with all kinds of gorgeous weeds...

We would see these beautiful yards/lawns, mowed all the way to the neighbors property line, yes besides the road too (both sides!) and think oh my gosh! And then you would really look in the yard and you can see 3 different layers of paint on the house all coming off, or a vehicle that people have been mowing around for over 15 years…. And we would just stop and stare.

I know this is not very polite of us, but we just could not help it.

Americans spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on good looking lawn mow machinery, and gallons of gas to run that fine piece of equipment but they did not save up some money to buy some paint for the house they live in, so the house can match their beautiful yard? Or remove the truck where the snakes and other varmints live in out of their yard, so their kids can play safely? I can also think of smoother lines you can drive with your green grass eating monster then making circles around that old piece of junk?

Jan willem and Roxi mowing the yard

But then again, maybe I am just a new Duchie and should look at this a different way….

It is absolutely gorgeous to see all these beautiful lawns, and when we were back in Holland last year I must admit I was kind of disappointed to see grass as tall as my hips besides the roads. I also talked to Bastiaan and almost got him to OK the fact that I wanted to store my old BMW in the yard and make a flower bed out of it….

Yeah! getting closer to be a real American…. To bad Bastiaan isn't ready for some lawn ornaments!?!


...

If you want to catch up on some Crazy Americans;
Crazy Americans and public Restrooms
Crazy Americans, now where is it that you left your keys?
Crazy Americans smoking like a chimney



Oh Canada... Bambi Drama!

Gentlemen.

Lovely little Bambi.

The wilderness called Canada.

A big truck and stupid boys.

Those are pretty much the ingredients you need for an absolutely TERRIFIYING story!

As you probably (hopefully) have read in my previous “Oh Canada” posts, my time was pretty amazing there. I worked hard, loved the family were I stayed with, made some great friends and adored the horses. But you can’t have all good things, sometimes there are some “not so swell” experiences that you have to deal with too…

We had a day off. It was the second time I spent at Touchstone Farm and we were going to go to Edmonton, visit some cultural places AND go shopping! Yes I was wearing my incredible high heels and we were feeling pretty girly and happy.

My sweet friend had a car, nothing fancy but it drove well, played good music and got us to where we needed to go. My friend was driving and I was enjoying the beautiful view of mountains, trees, valleys and… A DEER! A fawn I think is what they are called when they are not fully grown yet..? It had the same spots a Bambi had and just looked soooo elegant and cute standing beside the road.

She was on the right side of the road, still in the grass and we could tell she was thinking about crossing, I don’t know much about deer, we don’t have many in Holland and I was just surprised that it was there in the first place, right besides the road, but my friend was telling me that deer are a pretty common sight in that area. Because of us talking about the deer and thinking about what this fawn might do, my friend slows down. Behind us is another car and it slows down too.

But on the other side of the highway, a truck (with one of those HUGE bull bars) is speeding towards us. I look at my friend and we are wondering if he is going to slow down….

He isn’t…

The deer decides to cross the highway and we breathe a breath of relief when we see the little fluff ball safe on the other side of the road in the grass.

But then it stops and turns around…

It comes back towards us. But that truck hasn’t slowed down. And at this point the deer is at exactly the same “level” as us AND the truck. The truck hits the deer while it is trying to come back to our side of the highway. In slowmotion the truck with the HUGE bull bar hits the little animal…

I close my eyes

In matters of seconds, but what looks like minutes we get hit by an incredible BANG!!! And I see the deer sliding of the windshield over the hood on top of the highway. The truck hit Bambi. Because of the force and the speed of the truck and because we were almost NOT moving at all, the impact made the animal just catapult towards us and literally got DROPPED on top of our car…

We stopped, I started bawling and my friend started crying and she was the one that saw everything because she had her eyes open all the time! We got out but were actually too amazed by what happed to really LOOK at the deer. The car behind us stopped also and two older gentlemen rushed over to us and asked us if we were all right. NO, we were not, but seeing those friendly faces helped a lot. The two older gentlemen concluded that the deer was dead.

While we were trying to get ourselfs under control, the truck had stopped too… and two young men stepped out and walked casually towards us, yapping about their "hit"...

and LAUGHING…!!!

I was bawling all right but when I saw those guys smiling, I got SOOOOO MAD! And I wasn’t the only one! My friend was equally mad! But those stupid boys with their smirks on their faces even had the audacity to ask us where we were from, what we were doing and if we wanted to go out with them later that day!!! By that time the older gentlemen had dragged the dead deer towards the side of the road and got a little upset with the younger boys too. They friendly asked the boys to leave. Which after some hesitation they did… But not after commenting on the dead deer and possibilities to get our phone numbers…

When our tears had dried up, the sweet gentlemen had checked our car and we were capable of driving again we took off towards Edmonton. The guys had convinced us that we still needed to go, to take our minds of off things and that the dead deer and stupid boys should not ruin our day.

A half an hour later we found out that there was more wrong with the car then we thought and after hosing it down at some people’s house with water, there was a LOT of blood and fluff still stuck to the car, we decided to go home, we weren’t in the shopping mood anymore and we defiantly didn’t need some “new” boy attention…

I do remember going back to the Edmonton Mall a couple of weeks later, our hosts really thought we would have fun there once we GOT there. It was indeed a pretty place to visit. And yes, when I think back about this beautiful fluff ball and those STUPID boys, I still get a little (read; a lot) bit mad…. What a couple of LOOSERS!

I hope you never hit a deer, and if you already did, I hope the deer died quick and that you walked away fine! AND that you didn’t have any Canadian boys hitting on you because they thought it would be cool to pick up a girl after they killed Bambi.

…

We won! So... Kidnapping your husband guidelines!

We won Whoohooo! Yes, i am talking about the Ice Cream Flavor Face off contest!!! So my present and THANK YOU gift, from me to you; Kidnapping Guidelines!!!

These are easy to follow and no, it doesn’t have to be your husband, it can also be your wife, best friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, (and yes it would be lovely if you can ask him or her to marry you on this trip…) or soon to be fiancee! It's always good to hit two flies with one swat, or so my grandma used to say...

Just make sure it is an (almost) adult and you HAVE TO FORGET about work, troubles, sickness, pain, worries, money, kids OR cows!

So you pick a date, call his or her boss to make sure they can leave for a while, but you also have to make sure the boss is in on it and don’t spoil the surprise. Grab some favorite jeans, pants, shirts, hiking boots and toiletries and stuff them in the back of your car the night before. Think of good excuses to give to him or her so they don’t find out that you have hidden them! Good excuses include, “It is in the laundry basket, yes it is been in there for over a week”,” The dog used it as a new playmate”, “Oh sorry honey I ruined it with the bleach, but I will get you a new one soon” and/or “The cat pied on it and now I need to wash it again”…

On the day of, put your designated “victim” in the car, take his or her keys, phone, blackberry, I-Pad, laptop and other play toys from them and put them in a zip lock bag and store them in your glove compartment of your car! Tell them to enjoy the ride/drive/flight! And no they can’t have their toys back until you get back in the car to drive home… I know this will be a little bit of a challenge for some of us, but trust me, it is worth it!

Arrive at the The Quail Ridge Inn in Sevierville and enjoy 2 or 3 days of relaxation with your loved one AND George and Anita! They are absolutely fabulous and they will make you feel at home in their beautiful log cabin and cook the most INCREDIBLE breakfasts AND (yes, I know it is almost too good to be true) desserts! There are NO tv’s in your room, you are in the middle of the mountains, right in front of the Smoky Mountains, and you have very BAD reception. So it is the perfect time to enjoy your loved one and the KING SIZE bed (o my gosh it is HUGE!!), the Jacuzzi, good food, trees, raccoons, butterflies, birds, deer, flowers and bears (who steal Anita and George’s peaches) and mountain views, rivers waterfalls and green meadows!

So you see it is not that hard…

I am so glad that we are blessed with a super mom, dad and little brother so we COULD go away like this last weekend and we enjoyed it too the fullest! Yesterday we came back and it was back to business and cows as usual but everything was a little better to bear because we were refreshed. Maybe sometimes you just need to be refreshed to do the best job possible…?

Besides the fact that we had a great time with each other and Anita & George …. IT IS OFFICIAL…. Because of all of your votes WE WON!!! I got this fantastic news on my blackberry, yes I snuck out, dug into the glove compartment of the BMW, opened the zip lock bag and checked all my messages and all of your comments on the “kidnap Bastiaan post”. “Don’t tell Bastiaan, though!”

So this great news was a little cherry on top of Anita’s great dessert!

I would like to thank each and every one who voted in all the rounds and yes if you want to read how we got to the top…
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Little Brothers!
Ice Cream and multi Colored Peppercorns
Kidnapping Bastiaan... and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream...

Or if you want to go give George and Anita the pleasure of your and your kidnapped person's company…
The Quail Ridge Inn Bed & Breakfast

Or if you want to learn some more about everything dairy and / or cows…
The Progressive Dairyman Yes, Whoohoo we won!!! Super article if i may say so myself! ;-)
The Proud to Dairy Website

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH and I told you before but I will tell you again… YOU’RE THE BEST!!!

Thursday (blogging life) will be back to normal! So we’ll probably do a new “Crazy American’s” then but now I am going to catch up on some work. We are going to have a big group of people coming to tour the dairy today, so that is going to be exiting enough! And yes tonight I will be off to go and read some of your fantastic posts that I haven’t been able to see in (what looks like) ages! Hehe…

 
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