Prejudice and bias

There are many different races and cultures on this planet. Our country has become a complete mixture of cultures. I have always liked foreigners. It is exciting to talk to them and the interaction between cultures is interesting to say the least. Some cultures and races are more appealing to me than others. I have never been a racist and I hope I'll never become one. I have more problems with religion than with culture, although some religions are so connected with a culture, it's hard to unravel the ball of yarn.

In school, our kids have people in their classes or on the playground that were born in different countries and cultures. They don't mind. They think it's rather interesting. They don't see the race, they see the person. I like that about my girls. They're not prejudiced.

I have dated foreign people in the past. Some relations were better than others, but I can tell you: not one of them was boring. There are so many differences to get to know, languages to learn, customs to discover, food to taste. My heart saw no color, just love at first sight. I especially liked the curly eyelashes, the broad smile with the perfect white teeth and the skintone of my African-American boyfriend, the sparkling eyes and energetic dance moves of my Egyptian boyfriend. The heartiness and enthusiasm of my American fiancé. I have a Polish friend and there was a Turkish man in my school I liked to hang out with. I love the Arabic sounds in the language, the up tempo of Indian music, the zing of Japanese food. Yes, I'm a fan of different cultures.

Make an educated guess

Don't you just love George Clooney? He's adorable.. love his voice too. It's calm and serene and yes, sexy too. It's not because of George Clooney that I own a Delonghi Nespresso maker. Not at all.
I just like Nespresso coffee and most of all: Latte Macchiato! But I'm sure his commercial awakened me somehow. Maybe I wouldn't have looked into it any further hadn't I seen the commercial over and over again? Make an educated guess...
Have to go! My Macchiato is steaming and ready!

It takes a long time to grow an old friend

People come and people go. Over the years, you get to know different people. Sometimes the people you meet become friends. Others disappear out of your life. Nothing wrong with that. Not all the people you meet become friends. But every now and then, that friendship becomes real intense. The friendship becomes more important and you feel your friend brings joy into your life. It takes a long time to grow an old friend, is a perfect saying. Friends don't last if you're not prepared to invest in the friendship. It doesn't mean you have to see or hear each other on a daily basis. Good friends don't have to hang out together all the time. They can read one another without words. Distance is no object.

I have a number of friends that have become more and more important to me over the years. They know me. I know them. We can mess up without killing the friendship. That's what real friendship is about. You can be you without being afraid the other will judge you for the person you are. People make mistakes, people go way out of line. But if your friend is a true friend, they won't hold a grudge against you..

Puuuuuuuhleeeeeeeze mom!

Girls... The oldest asked us when we thought she would be ready to start going out on a regular basis. She's 15 (and a half, she claims) and she's a good girl. She's responsible and punctual and she hasn't let us down. We have given her the chance to go out every now and then, but I don't think we're ready to let her go out on a weekly basis. Not yet. It's just too soon. In our opinion of course. She says she wouldn't go out on a weekly basis, that would be too much. Just every now and then.

Then what's the difference???

Feel free to ask

I'm attending another diabetes meeting tonight. The presentation is called: Feel free to ask. An endocrinologist and his team will be there to answer any question we might have. It's always an advantage to broaden your knowledge on the subjects that relate to you. I like to be informed and I like to discuss diabetes with others. I'm looking forward to this evening. Let's hope there will be a crowd and people won't be too shy to ask their questions.

I'll be meeting another diabetesforum member as well tonight. It's always nice to get to know the people behind the nicknames! And he's a pumper too! So much to talk about!

I've seen that face before

One day, I was in adult school, freshening up my knowledge of the French language. The face of my teacher looked real familiar, but I couldn't tell where I had seen that face before. The way she talked, the gentle way of interfering with people, it all felt real familiar to me. Then she told me where she came from. I remembered then.. She was a trainee when I was in highschool. She was studying to become a French teacher. She came to our class for a couple of weeks, to teach us French. Even then I liked her. So many years later, different location, but we met again. In the meantime, she's become a very good friend of mine. She's no longer a French teacher and I'm no longer her student, but we meet up every once in a while and then we talk about life. It's natural. It's good. I like our friendship.

Looking for a new family

On Facebook, I came across this organization that immediately drew my attention. Whippet Rescue Ireland is on a mission. They help abused, abandoned and neglected whippets throughout Ireland. We all heard about organizations helping Spanish Galgos and Greyhounds, but this particular organization is on the lookout for whippets in trouble. They aim to place all of the needy whippets in a warm and loving foster home, where they are loved and being cared for until a permanent home is found.

The whippets come into the care for various reasons. Sometimes their owner is moving or is no longer capable of taking care of his whippet. Other whippets are strays and some are severely neglected. But please help these people find good homes for these unique and special dogs. They receive no funding and they solely depend on donations from people out there, who have a heart for whippets.

Rescuing and rehoming whippets is what this organization does. Feel free to donate via their website. The money will be used to feed the dogs, make sure they are healthy and taken care off, before they go stay with their new families. As you all know, we have two whippets in our household. They are like children to us. We love them deeply and I can assure you: these two have brought so much love in our house!

So if you know someone who is willing to adopt a whippet or you have a whippet yourself you can no longer take care off due to circumstances, don't hesitate to contact Whippet Rescue Ireland. Those people have their hearts in the right place. They deserve all the help they can get..

We hope you enjoyed your stay

The oldest daughter came home with a note from school. Whether we were interested in hosting an exchange student for 1 week. The guests could be coming from Poland, Finland, Portugal or Spain. Male or female. Age between 15-17. I though that was a great idea! It's good to meet with different cultures and having an exchange student in the house is a great opportunity for all of us. So yes, we signed up. I told Hubby about the project and he was excited as well. Until I explained to him we were going to have a 17 year old Spanish boy and that he would spend his week in the same room as our daughter. All of a sudden, he changed his mind. LOL. Of course that was a joke. He should know me by now..

We told school we had no preference whatsoever. Anyone is welcome. Race, age, religion or culture is not of any issue. The student that will be staying here, gets to go to school with Lana. They have some special activities as well, and they'll visit several places. The purpose for them is to speak English and get to know different cultures.

I hope we'll get chosen as a host family. Many people have applied. If a student is to come here, it'll be the last week of October. So I'd better not make too many appointments during that week.

A shadow or two by your side

Our whippets are very fond of structure and habits. They wait for you to get up in the morning and put your clothes on. Because they know you'll take them for a walk. They follow you around the house, side by side, like two shadows. They are so afraid to miss out on something, that they do not want to loose track of you. As soon as you enter the hallway to go get their leashes, both dogs become so excited, that one might think we forgot to feed them their Retaline. They are all anxious and excited and wound up. But sometimes, you're not ready to take them along. Either you need to do something else or go to work and then little Inthe is inconsolable. She cries and whines and has no idea why you won't take her.

Last week we took them to the woods to let them have a good run. For the first time, we let Inthe run all by herself, without a leash. She loved it!!! And so did Rebba. But this time, you were their shadow. The idea of releasing them was a little too much for you. You were afraid they would run off and never come back. Maybe they would spot a pheasant or a bunny rabbit and go chase it. There's always a chance they might do that, but they listen real well to me whistling them back.

It was great to see those two muppets communicate. They were just walking next to each other, their bodies touching. And then they looked at the other like they were explaining the rules. In a tic both of them would start running their lungs out. At a certain point of their imaginary racing track, they would make a U-turn and race all the way back. It's wonderful to watch them have a great time! I love my two shadows. They make me a better me!

Cat in a hat

Little Lad Billy

From the sight of the picture, the title should be "dog in a hat". Since whippets have lots of characteristics of a cat (they do what they want, not what you want), the title is not going to be any different.

On Facebook, this picture struck me. I thought it was hilarious! Have never seen a dog wear a hat, but this fellow - Little Lad Billy - just loves his hat. It keeps his head and ears warm in the cold and rainy place of Ireland. I love him! He's so handsome!

www.whippetrescueireland.com

Our whippets have pyjamas. One is orange, the other is black. Inthe doesn't mind putting on pj's when she's not feeling well. Rebba is not too fond of it. She refuses to walk in it. I guess it feels more like a straitjacket to her. But Inthe is open to anything.

No, I'm not going to buy a hat for the girls. Our daughters have warned me not to. Hahaha! well, they know their crazy mom. But no, I'll skip on the hat. For now at least..

It's gonna bite you!

His hand is all swollen. A huge mosquito stung him. Mosquitos this year are bigger and fatter than other years. It's like a completely different breed. They manage to sting you right through your clothes. We were out in the woods walking the dogs, when this cloud of mosquitos followed us around. I saw them on Rebba first, since her skin tone is pretty pale. Poor dog, I thought, trying to wave the bugs away.
And then Hubby got this terrible mosquito bite on his right hand. It started itching and swelling right away. It worried me, because these are not just regular mosquitos. Maybe they are swamp-like bugs??

I talked him into taking some antihistamines. He did, every 4 hours. But the swelling is still there and it itches like crazy. He finally managed to take his engagement ring of, but that was a real pain. I'm glad he took it off, because I'm sure some doctor would have clipped it off anyway, if the swelling wouldn't come down. It reminds me of the vacation we spent in Corfu, Greece. The place was just packed with this type of bugs. There was a swamp nearby. Normally authorities would spray the area with pesticides, but the budget had already been spent. That's why all tourists had huge bumps all over their bodies. The mosquitos came out around 5 PM. So we were not to come out at night any more, unless we were all covered up in mosquito nets. I remember counting 40 bites on my legs. And those were not the regular little red bumps, trust me. They were like little saucers: hard and big. If the swelling of the bite on Hubby's hand hasn't decreased, he'll have to go see our GP. Without hesitation. I know he's afraid the doctor will give him some sort of cortisone injection to stop the allergy, and he's terrified of needles. So yes, I'll keep an eye on it.

Conversation Maps

Yesterday I had a meeting in the hospital where I go for my diabetes treatment. The intention was to meet up with other Type 1 diabetics and discuss D. Our diabetes nurse was the moderator. It was a small group, but it was interesting and instructive. There were two couples (both men had diabetes), two young women (one got diagnosed with D after her pancreas was removed surgically - she happens to be my sister-in-law) and a man, who got diagnosed a quarter of a decade ago.
Every one of us had a story to tell. How they were diagnosed, how they handled it, how their partner reacts to their diabetes. Every person is different and every one of us deals with diabetes in a different manner. There is no right or wrong. There are guide lines, but no rules. After all, it's our diabetes and we know how our body reacts to different types of food and situations. But in the end, we all have the same condition called Diabetes and we understand each other. We know why we have mood swings if our sugars are low or high. We know when to have goodies or not. We know about D and D is always with us. So you'd better come to terms with D, since he's going to be our longtime partner..

I hope there will be more Conversation Maps meetings in the future. It's good to join a support group of some kind. I'm very happy with our diabetesforum but this group might be very interesting as well, because there's our diabetes educator to fill us in where we miss out. So thanks nurse, for being there and teaching us whatever we need to know.

Did you know that just 1% of our pancreas is responsible for the production of insulin??? Considering that a pancreas is approximately 12-15 cm large, that 1% is just nothing! But yet, the consequences are huge..

Touched

I'm deeply moved by the photographs my oldest daughter makes. It has happened before that I have got emotional over one of her pictures.. Please enjoy.

ALL PHOTOS WERE MADE BY LANA JOOS

A thin line between love and hate

So many women are in a never ending battle with their scale. It's a constant struggle against the numbers they're facing. That is one of the rare occasions I'd rather be a man, because men don't care that much (at least not the majority of men). I have never heard of a man standing on the scale right after he comes out of bed. Going to the bathroom and getting on that scale again, dreading to see the same disappointing number. Thinking about whether he should have breakfast or not. Having to make a choice between Latte Macchiato (do men drink Latte Macchiato?) or Cafe Lungo. Finally preparing himself a bowl of cereal and pouring half of it back into the cardboard box. Changing clothes (again) because the bulging is not a sight to share with the colleagues at work.

The overall unhappy feeling the scale gives us, women, is sad. Whether women have the perfect figure - in the eyes of their jealous bigger friends - or not, they will never be totally happy about their weight. It's the stupid number that freaks us out. Nobody wants a size 16! We would all like a size 6, right? Why can't we just be happy with our female figure? We're not boys, so why do we aspire to look like one? Women have curves. In the right places. They have bums and boops and bellies. Nothing wrong with that! It's just up to us women, to start realizing that and to become content with the body shape we have. I'm going back to the kitchen now, to finish my half a bowl of cereal..

Banana Split

Every now and then, our oldest daughter and the dessert lover of the house, wants to enjoy a good portion of Banana Split. It's easy to make, you need few ingredients and it's yummy. At least, that's what she says. I'm not an ice cream lover (just don't talk about Ben & Jerry's, that's different), but if Lana wants banana split, banana split she will have.

To my surprise, I found so many different versions of banana split on the Internet. I was truly amazed! Those are not banana splits!!! Hello!! Who said you could put strawberry ice cream, pineapple topping, marshmallow, chocolate syrup or even maraschino cherries and chopped nuts on a banana split??? That's just not done! Never!

This is the only way to make a real Banana Split:

You cut a large banana lengthwise and lay it on a boat dish. In between the banana halves, you lay three royal scoops of vanilla ice cream. You make fresh chocolate sauce (who may possible have thought chocolate syrup is a decent alternative? Ugh!) to top your Banana Split with. There may be discussion about this, but you have the choice to finish it off with fresh whipped cream or not. But this is the one and only recipe.

Darts

My grandmother died at a relatively young age. I don't remember much of her. I do remember her black curly hair, with grey stripes in it and the yellow fingertips, from the nicotine she needed so desperately. And there's always this vision of my grandfather using grandmas bum as a darts board. She had type 2 diabetes and at a certain point, she needed insulin to treat her condition. In those days (I'm talking some 25 years ago), there were hardly any glucose meters around. She had to pee on a stick to check her glucose levels. Grandma wore those huge white panties, you know, the panties you could pull up all the way to your armpits? She would lower these and bend over, so grandpa could find the best spot on her bum to shoot up her insulin.

Grandma and grandpa were great fun. They used to laugh a lot. I don't know how much these two knew about diabetes back then. It was different than it is now. There was less education back then. I don't know if they knew about carbohydrates and the effect it had on your glucose levels. I do remember big bags of marshmallows. Grandma craved marshmallows: the pink and white striped ones as well as the chocolate covered coconut marshmallows. Of course those treats were an overdose of sugar.. I guess grandma would've liked the idea, that now you can buy sugarfree marshmallows..

I don't remember what exactly killed her. I believe she died of diabetes related complications, but I'm not sure. She was not the only diabetic in our family. I wonder if - wherever she might be now - she knows I'm a diabetic too. A different type and a non-marshmallow eating diabetic, but in the end: we all face the same obstacles and challenges. I don't worry too much about my future. I do the best I can to take care of myself and D.

Undying love

My daughter told me about a movie she and her friends watched in boarding school. The girls were all in tears afterwards. It didn't take me that long to tear up. It started halfway the movie for me..

Professor Parker (Richard Gere) finds an Akita puppy in the railway station, on his way home from work. Hachi(ko) and Parker become extremely attached to one another. Every day, Hachi follows Parker to the railway station, where Parker heads of to work. By 5 PM Hachi sits in front of the station to wait for his friend's return. Parker and Hachi understand each other real well. Hachi is such a clever dog. Akita dogs are a very special Japanese breed. They are not the fetch-the-ball kind of dog. They cannot be bribed to doing things they are not designed for. Akita dogs are known for their loyalty towards their owners, their friendship and the prosperity they stand for. The first time Hachi plays fetch, is a very special but at the same time very sad moment in the movie.. See for yourself. The movie is based on a true story.

I need some more kleenex.. I guess I want to watch Hachiko, A Dog's Story one more time..

My will

When is the best time to start writing your will? I'm not planning on dying yet, not anywhere soon to say the least. In fact, I plan on living a long and healthy life. But you know what? I'm almost 40 now (okay, I turned 39 last month, but that's closer to 40 than you may think) and maybe that's when you start thinking of old age..?
I don't know?

A will huh? Don't you need property or at least some money to write on that will? It would be kinda silly to write a will stating nothing but cook books, novels and other thingamajigs, wouldn't it? We do own the house we live in. Our children tell us they don't want it. It's not their kind of house.. LOL. Kids.. They will appreciate the money once they sell our house after we're old and retired and playing cards at the nursery home nearby. I hope there will be more than books and a house to leave them. After all, we have welcomed our girls into this world and I wouldn't want to leave this world unprepared.

Normally I'm a pretty good planner. I love schedules and agendas. I'm just not very familiar with wills. Okay, I've never even seen a will before! It scares me I guess.. Reading someone else's will makes us realize we are not immortal. Maybe I'm not ready to face those facts? I always thought of wills as something romantic. Like some rich guy leaving you all of his belongings. But reality is different. People don't do crazy things anymore. They don't trust you with their money just like that. And are they right or what? Money is not a piece of paper you can print at home. It takes hard work to earn some money and it takes even more effort to make that money grow. So you really have to think about where you want that money to go to, in case of .. (I don't even want to say the D-word).

I'm sure the Internet has plenty of templates you can look into. No, I haven't checked yet. It's too soon I guess. It's too confronting. It's too scary. For now.

The Days of Our Lives

Our oldest daughter is hooked on this TV show: The days of our lives.. really. She records every episode and then she watches 5 in a row. In the meantime, she and her friend discuss whatever has happened and fantasize about what might happen in the future. Every now and then, I peek from my MacBook to see what thrilling story they have to tell. And I must say: their lives are so exciting, so extravagant, so... unreal. And most of all: so not me..

But hey.. in my teens, there were other but similar series to watch. Think Sons & Daughters, The Bold and the Beautiful (it's still on TV..), Dallas, Dynasty.. I do believe The Days of Our Lives beats them all. The characters all seem to live in the same block on the same street. They are just about everywhere at all times. They are very good eavesdroppers! There's always someone on the look-out, spying for Jack or Joe. It's so exciting it becomes ridiculous. It is so predictable too! On Monday, you know what's going to happen, but they won't reveal until Friday. If you're lucky, because sometimes they let you sit in agony for a little longer.

I wonder what story they would come up with, if they would film our Days of Our Lives..

Sweet but smelly

When our house was under construction, we moved in with our grandparents for several months in a row. It must have been winter time. We went to school in our hometown, not that far from where our grandparents lived. Winters were colder back then than they are now. Or is that the vivid memory of the child I was then?

I remember coming home from school with ice cold hands. Grandma would call me in to lead me to the living area. She would grab my numb hands and clasp them in her armpits. That was her way to warm my hands. I can tell you: they were warm real fast! But the idea of my hands in those smelly armpits was less appealing.. It was sweet of her though and it's still a good memory..