23 weeks - Furniture

The furniture we ordered, arrived after five days! That's why we have been furnishing the baby bedroom this weekend, which is a lot sooner than I expected! It was a lot of fun and we are very happy with the result. It looks a bit boring/empty on the pictures, but that will change of course. And we still have to hang a shelf, but we'll do that later.
(click the picture to enlarge)

22 weeks - Shopping! :)

De afgelopen weken ben ik op marktplaats op zoek geweest naar een commode. Nieuw kopen leek ons niet perse nodig. In de loop der weken hebben we ook besloten de grote kledingkast, die nu nog op de babykamer staat, weg te doen en een kleinere kledingkast aan te schaffen. Dat betekende dat de zoektocht op marktplaats werd uitgebreid naar een commode en een kast in dezelfde stijl (een bedje hebben we al). Een paar keer zagen we wat moois, maar dat was dan weer vrij prijzig, of te ver weg, of we visten achter het net. Nu wil het toeval dat ik laatst (voor de zoveelste keer) bij de Prenatal was en voor de lol nog een keer door de kinderkamertjes liep... en een mooie kast en commode zag die helemaal niet zo duur waren. Tja...
Vrijdagavond (weer) naar de Prenatal geweest, nu samen, en het boeltje besteld :) We hebben ook nog wat advies gevraagd over kinderwagens en autozitjes en we hebben nu eindelijk een beetje zicht op alle mogelijkheden van de hedentijdse kinderwagens. Alles past overal op en je kan alles omdraaien, het lijken wel transformers. Duur zijn ze ook. Voor de kinderwagen gaan we marktplaats weer opduiken. De verkoper gaf ons voor alle zekerheid nog 'een paar' foldertjes mee:

Verder nieuws: de grote kast die we kwijtmoeten hebben we binnen een dag al verkocht via marktplaats, de kleine in m'n buik doet flink veel aan lichaamsbeweging en ik moet om het half uur naar de wc. Alles gaat dus goed :)

21 weeks

Last Wednesday we went for our ultrasound (20 weeks). Quite exciting, but also fun. The baby is developing normally and we could see it move. I can feel it move a lot as well lately. It's a very special feeling. But I can imagine it could keep me awake when the movements are getting more powerful in a few weeks... We didn't want to know the gender of our baby, so that will still be a big surprise :)

I also had a regular check up at the midwife last week, during which we heard the baby heart beat again.

For the rest, there's not much to tell. I'm now wearing a new t-shirt which I ordered here and I already got a lot of positive reactions about it, which is of course a lot of fun.

Vermist?

Wat is de Nederlandse taal toch moeilijk. Regelmatig vallen mij in de lokale krantjes artikelen op die geschreven zijn door mensen die blijkbaar zoveel mogelijk informatie in zo min mogelijk zinnen willen proppen, wat gewoonweg foutief Nederlands oplevert. Vandaag in de Weekendkrant een artikeltje op de voorpagina over een dementerende vrouw die vermist werd (en gelukkig weer gevonden is): "De 61-jarige dame werd gezocht door haar dochter bij wie ze op bezoek was". Nou denk ik dat men bedoelt dat de vrouw bij haar dochter op bezoek was en daar verdwenen is. Vervolgens werd ze gezocht. Het lijkt mij namelijk raar dat ze gezocht werd, terwijl ze gewoon bij haar dochter op bezoek was. Pfffff... maar ja, dat is natuurlijk een veel te ingewikkelde en lange manier om het verhaal in de krant te zetten...

Positiekleding

Afgelopen weekend bracht mijn schoonzus een doos mee met allemaal positiekleding van haar zwangerschappen. Gisteren had ik geen puf om de boel te gaan passen, maar vanmorgen heb ik eens even alles aangetrokken en de berg in twee stapels verdeeld. De eerste stapel met kleding die niet past, me niet staat, of absoluut niet mijn smaak is. De andere stapel met kleding die past en die ik leuk vind. De tweede stapel is best groot, dus ik ben helemaal blij. Joepie!! Weer wat meer variatie in mijn garderobe! :D
En nu snel de schoenen aan, we hebben straks een afspraak bij de verloskundige.

29 years and 20 weeks ;)

Last Thursday it was my birthday, but I didn't celebrate it that day. I had to work, and in the evening I was singing with my choir. On Saturday our parents and brother and sisters came by and we celebrated my birthday with a delicious lunch. The weather was so good, we could even sit outside in the garden! I can't remember such nice weather on my birthday before.


One of the presents I got, is a CD with baby a cappella music called "Little voices". It's a CD with pure all vocal, classical music for bedtime, sung by the Swingle Singers. After my family had left, I was quite tired and when listening to the CD I fell asleep during the third song, so I think the CD also works for tired mama's-to-be ;)


In the evening we drove to Oss, to attend a Rock4 concert in our favorite theater De Lievekamp. We had front row seats. I loved the show, especially because it was even better than last time. I think ever since Peter and LucN were replaced by Lucas and Harry the group needed some time to grow closer, vocally. I really enjoyed it, and afterwards we had a chat with Luc and Harry for a while. We got home after 1am, which is way after my normal bedtime looking at the past four months. But I had a great birthday!


The coming week we have an appointment with the midwife and we have to go to the hospital to have the 20 weeks ultrasound. We're halfway!

19 weken

Eerder deze week kwam manlief thuis met twee kortingsbonnen van Lief!. Dat is natuurlijk altijd mooi meegenomen. Vandaag ging ik eens even kijken in de winkel. Het assortiment van Lief! bestaat voornamelijk uit kinderkleding, maar ze hebben ook tassen, accessoires en verzorgingsproducten. Een erg leuk winkeltje. Doordat er wel veel dingen specifiek op jongens of meisjes gericht waren, en wij niet weten wat het gaat worden, had ik mijn keuze vrij snel gemaakt. Vergeet wat ik vorige week schreef over kleding, het eerste babypakje ligt nu in de kast! Een groen truitje met lief! er op en een groen-wit gestreept broekje. Heel lang zal de kleine het niet aankunnen, want het is maat 50-56. Maar om alles op de groei te kopen, is ook niet leuk, toch? Dit worden misschien wel de allereerste kleertjes die dat trappelende kindje in mijn buik straks aan gaat hebben :D

Mama-to-be voelt zich verder goed deze week! Een druk weekje op het werk, maar toch heb ik heerlijk gewerkt en heb ik mijn energie goed kunnen verdelen, zodat ik niet weer oververmoeid het weekend in ga. Ik leer het wel ;)

18 weeks

There we are, 18 weeks and the little baby inside is 20 cm now! Whooo, can you imagine? That's quite big already! Sometimes I feel a little movement inside my belly and I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with digesting my food ;) On the other hand, the movements are very small, so I'm still not 100% sure it's him/her.Although, what else could it be? :P
The amount of energy I have varies from day to day and sometimes even from hour to hour. I just have to deal with it and as long as I go to bed early, I'm quite fine.

Today we were shopping at the garden center, because we needed a birthday present, and we found a lovely music box which plays the all-known cradle song from Brahms. We just had to buy it... :)

Mama Mazzeldagen

Het zijn de Mama Mazzeldagen bij Prenatal. Tot 20% korting op het gehele assortiment! Daar moeten we natuurlijk naar toe. We hebben een heleboel spullen nodig, lijkt me. En het is leuk om ideeën op te doen, toch?
Daar lopen we dan, in een overvolle winkel tussen spelende kinderen en vrouwen met nog dikkere buiken dan ik. De afdeling babykleding slaan we over, als ik daar ga beginnen, dan is het einde zoek. Nee, die kleertjes komen vanzelf wel, daar maak ik me geen zorgen over. Maar de rest! Help, wat hebben we nodig? Alles wat ik zie is leuk of handig of onmisbaar, maar de keuze is zo groot dat het me al snel duizelt en ik moet zelfs echt even gaan zitten om bij te komen. Waar te beginnen, wat nu al kopen en wat kan later nog? Wat kopen we hier, en wat zoeken we wel op een andere plek? Ik ben het helemaal kwijt. Nadat we de winkel twee keer rond zijn gelopen, belanden we in een lange rij voor de kassa met maar liefst 1 artikel. Een badstof hoes met een leuk tekeningetje er op voor om het aankleedkussen. Maar pffff, als ik zo besluiteloos blijf en telkens door de bomen het bos niet meer zie, hoe vaak moeten we dan nog winkelen voordat die baby-uitzet compleet is?
Thuisgekomen pak ik de hoes voor om het aankleedkussen uit en ik ben blij dat hij past (ja weet ik veel, misschien bestaan die dingen ook in verschillende maten?). Het ziet er heel schattig uit en ik ben helemaal blij. Ach, als ik na elke aankoop zo blij thuiskom, dan is het ook niet erg om vaak te moeten winkelen, toch?

17 weeks

Whoo! A lot has happened this week. I went shopping with my mom and found some nice clothing which I will be able to wear the coming months. Martin and I also had an appointment with the midwife. We heard the heart of our little baby beat - it's so special to hear this! We are also slowly furnishing the baby bedroom and clearing out things. For instance, I'm reorganizing my wardrobe and we're moving some things from the baby bedroom that can be stored in the attic. We also visited a store which left us overwhelmed with ideas. We could have spend a lot of money there, but we didn't. I'm sure we can find cheaper places! We're not going to spend 900 euros for a baby buggy! We're also almost done organizing things with the day care center. And, most important: I feel less exhausted in the evenings!! :D

16 weken

Wat een heerlijk weertje gisteren!! Ter ere van Anne's 65e verjaardag zijn we met z'n elven naar Zutphen geweest en daar hebben we eerst koffie/thee gedronken in De Pelikaan en daarna hebben we een boottocht over de IJssel gemaakt in zo'n luxe sloep. Heerlijk in het zonnetje gelegen op een kussen voorop de boot en gerelaxed :) Daarna nog lekker uit eten en toen was de koek ook wel weer op. Een ietsje pietsje meer energie zou ik wel graag weer willen hebben, want zelfs na zo'n dag "niets doen" ben ik kapot. Maar, het was wel erg gezellig. En wat hebben we het getroffen met het weer!

's Avonds na thuiskomst nog even op internet gedoken, want ik heb er iets gelezen over "tintelende vingers" en dat dat ergens op duidt. En laat ik daar vanavond nou opeens last van hebben. Weer zo'n raar zwangerschapskwaaltje? Na een snelle google search vonden we dat het kan duiden op het Carpaletunnel syndroom of op een hoge bloeddruk. Tja, ok. Nou ja, na een nacht slapen is het vrijwel helemaal weg en aan het einde van de week moeten we toch weer naar de verloskundige dus dan kunnen we het eventueel nog vragen. Zal ook wel weer goedkomen. Voel me verder prima hoor! :)

Zonnebloemen

Nooit gedacht dat die paar kleine zaadjes het zo goed zouden doen!

KeK-weekend

This weekend VPS KeK had to perform twice. Of course, I came along to make pictures, and to capture audio and video material. Don't ask me if they sang okay, because I was quite busy operating the three different devices (photo camera, video camera and sound recorder). But, as far as I can judge their performance, it was great. The audience was really enthusiastic and so were the guys themselves.

This summer all the audio and video material will be used to make a cool movie of the group, which will hopefully lead to some nice bookings. All I am now waiting for, is my own hoody with "vps KeK crew" on it ;-)

McDulls lawn

Our garden is beautiful (thanks to the previous owners of our house), but slowly we're changing small things to make it more a garden of our own. We had to cut back a lot of bushes and trees in the past few months and planted some new bushes, because some died last winter. On one side of the garden we have a lot of roses. First, I loved them, but not anymore. There's always the problem with when and how to prune the rose bushes and fighting the plant lice. It's been said (and probably true) that roses put a lot of energy into flower production. So it's important that they get proper food care, which of course, I never give them. Our roses are blooming now, but I'm sure they could be ten times prettier if cared for better. Oh, and I haven't mentioned the enormous thorns that make it almost impossible to weed between the bushes and that during winter it's an ugly sight just to see the leafless, prickly bushes.
No, I'm not so fond of roses anymore.
But what has this got to do with McDulls lawn? Well, last week I've removed a part of the rose bushes to make a two square meter big grass-land. Our guinea-pig loves grass and now he has a nice place to browse! :) And I think there might be a good chance that we'll get rid of the other rose bushes as well....

Only one question remains.... will the grass grow under this tree? We'll see....
McDull loves his lawn, he started eating grass as soon as he saw it!

Going to Norway

Planning a holiday is supposed to be a nice activity, right? For us, it often comes with some stress. That's because we are always a bit late with planning our holiday. In the past we would always go camping and we never made reservations or whatsoever. But the past few years we like to go a bit further away and reservations are inevitable.
This year, we thought about going to Norway. In April I went to the travel agency to get some brochures, just to get an idea of all the possibilities. Time enough to find a nice place to stay, you'd say. But for some reason we just didn't find time to sit down together and decide where exactly we should go. Norway is a big country and to see all is not impossible, but we just don't want to be driving all the time.

In the end, I planned a tour from Oslo to Bergen, which we could travel in two weeks easily, with three different places to stay.
But, we found out that two of the three apartments (the ones close to the coast) were not available anymore. And unfortunately Norway does not have as many hotels/apartments as for instance the islands of Greece, so we couldn't just pick another place to stay. Moreover, we chose the apartments because of their unique and beautiful location, so we didn't want to stay somewhere else.

We were a bit dispirited then, frustrated about this bad luck and wondering why we didn't plan this all back in January. Days passed and we were thinking about what to do. Probably the coast of Norway is a favorite place for a lot of people, the fjords must be pretty breathtaking. After we had survived the busiest weekend of the year (a weekend full of music, a.o. Vocal Festival Amusing Hengelo AND the festival Den Bosch Goes A Cappella), our heads were empty and clear and within half an hour we decided we would drop the idea of traveling along the coast (but we'll go there another time for sure - and then we'll book the trip in January!) and we would just travel across the inland of Norway, from Oslo to Trondheim.

At the travel agency the places we wanted to stay were checked and we had to wait for several days, because they had to contact Norway to see if there was still an apartment available.
Today we got the phone call with the answer and it made me really happy, because the trip as we planned it can take place! WHeeee!!! So we are going to fly to Oslo, hire a car, stay some time in the first apartment, stay several days in a second apartment, drive to Trondheim and fly back home from there.

I'm already looking forward to the beautiful scenery, the quietness and just the two of us. And only now the fun part of planning a holiday can start!

Drienerlalala

Back in March I made some recordings for the vocal group Drienerlalala during the Dutch Festival for Vocal Ensembles in Almelo. Today I discovered the movies are online on YouTube, so if you like a cappella you should have a look. They don't sing every note in tune, but their subtle humor and the fun they have during the performance make them a group I always love to watch when I get the chance.

Pay attention to the persons in the back that are most left and most right at the end of the song. That's what I mean by "subtle humor"!


With the following song the group won the Harry Bannink Tribute Trophy.




Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Website VPS KeK online

One of the things that is keeping Martin busy these days is singing. Not only with his quintet Amusing, which has actually started to be more amusing in the past few months (which is a compliment really), but also with his still pretty new vocal group VPS KeK. Thanks to RJ the group now has its own website and I can recommend you to check it regularly, because they intend to upload new things all along: www.vpskek.nl!
(still Dutch only, but going to be translated into English later)

To be continued

And after that busiest week of the year came another busy week, with two nights filled with a cappella music in the theater and lots of other activities. Meanwhile, my "to do" list has grown and is not really shortening yet...
But, today, I've finally planted strawberry plants in our garden, I've been to the travel agency to get some travel brochures (wheee! :D) and I enjoyed the beautiful weather! It's just a pity my energy level is a little low, else I could already have written two concert reviews, finished my choirs website and finally cleaned the windows...
I think reviving the blog is being continued in May ;)

Busiest week of the year

concerning birthdays...
Next Sunday it's Martins birthday and I've just chosen the cakes I'm going to make tomorrow. So if you like cheesecake or "Fantaschnitten mit Pfirsichschmand", you should come over on Sunday to try some :)
Now all I have to do is think of something to eat for dinner for 6-10 (?) people on Sunday... And make a grocery list!

(A) Time to kill?

I'm in a James Bond mood, sorry. I was just practicing a medley for my choir with James Bond themes - that's all - and I thought it was about time to write something in my blog. I almost never have time to kill, but if you are bored I guarantee the following will fill at least the next hour, if not the next two hours. Let's say it's a small a cappella sub road I'm taking here. Maybe you've heard of the following artists, maybe not. Let's start with Corey Vidal, which I first only knew because of his interpretation of Moosebutters Star Wars Medley. If you like it, you should check his other videos on Youtube. If you like interactive videos and want to know about his disgusting but hilarious blender adventure, you should start here. Talking about Moosebutter, you might also like Mr. Tim. If you're into computers, you should check out his Hacker's Holiday! If you want to hear about a more serious subject you should listen to Professor Bernhard Steinerhoffs lecture about rhythms of life (and you might want to check Beardymans Youtube channel afterwards). Last but not least, if you're not bored, but actually really in a hurry, you could listen to the 30-Second Original A Cappella Festival. Oops, we're completely back to a cappella now... sorry. Well, considering that fact, I could also add the note that the weekly podcast Mouth Off is really worth listening, as long as you can handle two Americans with a slightly irritating way of talking (probably "typically" American, as we should say?) as hosts. Have fun :)