Friends and family came to help us "do stuff" in the new home. Little did they know this involved carrying heavy boxes and scraping off annoying wallpaper pieces. But they did, and I am grateful they helped. In the morning, Wouter, his dad and I went to our apartment to collect boxes to load the rented van. After that, we drove to our new home. There, I met friends Rens and (the other) Wouter. And some time after that Lisanne joined us as well. Oh and Seth pitched in as well. Four out of five -including myself of course- tried really hard removing the wallpaper, which was hell lol. Pretty much everyone agreed they would NEVER use wallpaper in their future homes. Seth just played with the large pieces that came off haha. We're nowhere done, but I have faith we'll get things done in time. We need to get rid of everything before Wednesday, as the new stucco will be plastered after Wednesday and they need time to prepare the walls. Fingers crossed!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

I've got great news for my readers/watchers! I recently blogged about the camera trouble I was having, remember? I blogged about this a couple of times. I don't want to quit my 365 project. And I need to make pictures on certain events like Seth's birthday (next Saturday) and the Sims events.

In the past we've had problems with the Canon camera. We also sent it back at one point for repair. After the camera was back, it seemed all okay again. But now it has a completely different problem. No warranty for this particular problem (even though it's not our fault, Canon doesn't want to fix it), so we're stuck. Paying for repair is probably expensive, if even possible. The Canon camera is also already 5 years old. As is my own Olympus btw.

So it's just time for a new one.

Yeah, bit of a problem there. We don't exactly have the money for a new one. Because I don't want a cheapo point-and-shoot camera anymore. I want a DSLR. And those are usually expensive.

In the beginning of this year, around March/April, I borrowed my mom-in-law's camera. She has an Olympus E-620 and it's one hell of a camera. Unfortunately this one is just too expensive. It's not just the body you have to buy. You need a couple of lenses as well.

For London, Lisanne let me have her camera for the week, so I could still make nice pictures. I'm very grateful for that! Lisanne has a Canon Powershot SX10 IS. It's a really nice camera, but it lacks certain functionality for me personally. I need to be able to use different lenses. Her camera has a fixed lens, can't take it off. Not without breaking the camera anyway.

Yesterday I was looking on a couple of camera stores online and I saw some really nice ones. I even found a couple of cameras I could afford. That is, if I would use all my PayPal (read: MacDesperate) money and some extra from our savings account. But I don't have a choice really.

See, I don't need a laptop right now. And to be honest, I don't see myself getting a MBP in the next 5 years. I was aiming for a MBP priced €1700. Recently though Apple changed their MBP line-up and they are a lot more expensive now. I've checked, I'll have to pay more than €2000 for the same kind of MBP I was planning on buying.

The camera was also something I've wanted for a long time. Whether or not I bought buy a new camera right now, I won't be able to buy a MBP for a long time. I just did what I thought was right. And many people agreed with me a while ago when I discussed this problem.

So, did you buy a camera?
I did!

Meet my new Olympus E-450!

Hey! That's not a camera...
No, I know, this is my new camera bag. A brown/pink Golla Story camera bag. It's just wicked!

Still don't see a camera...
I know. But this is part of the process!

A box in a box...
*Sigh*

Ahhh nice!
I know right! I think I'm in love... <3
Won't ChEeTaH mind?
Nah, he knows it's a different kind of love.

What's this then?
All the other accessories. Two lenses (14-42mm & 40-150mm), lens hoods, neck strap, batteries, memory cards, cables, software, booklet et cetera.

Since today is such a grey and rainy day, I decided to make a couple of pictures inside the house. Don't get too excited. It's a mess here and you'll just see rather depressing piles of laundry and junk. Don't expect anything fancy yet, I'm still getting used to this camera.

You should know, I'm not quite done yet. I've got two lenses for the camera, but I will need at least one more. Because obviously the camera isn't too great with macro pics. And I really want to make some kick-ass macro pictures. A decent macro lens costs €200 though, so I think I might buy that one next year. I'm also planning to buy a black leather/pink neck strap soon. It's not too expensive, but I didn't want to order a neck strap at another store and pay a lot on shipping. So I'll go to the store itself soon when visiting Lisanne, since she lives near the store that sells the pink neck strap. It'll fit me and my new Golla bag perfectly.

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

I won't be going to the Efteling tomorrow, as it will be too crowded. ChEeTaH and I both want to work as well, so Seth will still be at his grandparents. Lisanne and I will go to the Efteling next week. To be honest I'm way too tired to enjoy a visit to the Efteling anyway. So it's best to wait until next week.

We watched Doctor Who all day today. It was fun but I think I'm a bit of a workaholic. I felt so guilty and I couldn't stay seated the entire time. I feel depressed tonight. Probably because of the lack of activity, the greasy food and my son not being at home. I'll probably feel better tomorrow.

So that's it then! I've told you this before, but we're lucky in this country to have two Christmas days instead of just one. This always comes in handy because of in-laws and stuff. I want to celebrate Christmas with my mom but also with the in-laws. And our home is way too small to have all of them over at Christmas. I'd go crazy, especially since I want to have everything perfect! So I'm happy with a second Christmas day. That way I can celebrate one day at the in-laws and one day with my mom.

The first Christmas day was fun. We didn't have a lot of money but I did manage to buy Seth some small presents (and one bigger present). He absolutely loved it. We took the toy with us to the in-laws and he played with it all day long.

So the first Christmas day I went to the in-laws. Lisanne and my in-laws have recently returned from Ghana. Arnoud and Laura were also present, as was Seth's great grandfather. Busy, but fun! We had brunch, after that we played some games. After dinner, we also had chocolate mousse which I made the day before. Everyone loved it, including Seth:

After dinner we just sat in the living room, drinking some coffee and we got gifts from Lisanne and the in-laws. Gifts from Ghana. Will make pics of that soon! We got a Ghanaian game called "Endless", which literally means it will go on forever. I got a Ghanaian bag, drum, statues. Seth got slippers too but unfortunately those are already too small. Maybe our next baby will be able to enjoy them! Seth was tired after this day so he just played with his new toys and lounged on daddy's lap and mine, though not too often.

Today was a lot of fun as well. My mom visited us with her friend Connie. They got Seth lots of presents and brought groceries for us. I really appreciate that! Seth absolutely adores his new cars (he mostly got cars). I haven't made pictures of this yet, will do this later. We ate gourmet and had a tasty ice cream afterwards:

Tomorrow will be fun too. Lisanne will come and visit us. Seth will be going to his grandparents. We'll all watch Doctor Who together. I promised Lisanne to make the pastries I always make on special occasions, since she missed those when we celebrated Seth's birthday. And for dessert we have Ben & Jerry's ice cream! Woot!

I think we had a great Christmas this year, despite the lack of money to buy gifts for others. I love buying gifts for others but couldn't really do that this year. The festivities itself were awesome though.

Because of my work on Lisanne's blog and gallery, Lisanne has decided to go to the Efteling with me! Tomorrow is the first Christmas day. Some people don't realize it, but in our country we have most holidays doubled, probably because of the lack of national holidays. On the first Christmas day we'll be at my in-laws. We're all going to cook or bake some things. And the second Christmas day will be at home. My mom and a friend will be visiting, and we'll have gourmet with all kinds of small foods. Then after Christmas, we'll be having an entire Doctor Who day. Woot! On Monday, Lisanne and I will go to the Efteling. And of course I'll be taking pictures there! I've been to the Efteling before and have uploading normal Efteling pictures and winter Efteling pictures.

I've blogged about Lisanne before. She's my sis-in-law. She just got back from Ghana and after having a good night sleep, she visited us so we could go downtown together. She needed new clothes, so did I. And Seth needed new clothes as well. Oh and of course I needed a Christmas present for Seth.

Nothing shocking so far. ChEeTaH, Lisanne, Seth and I walked through the cold and dirty snow to the city. Once there, we bought some toys for Seth. Some were belated birthday presents from aunt Lisanne. And some were Christmas presents. After that we went to M&S, a store with women's clothing. Small and large, chic and casual, they have a little bit of everything there. ChEeTaH waited in the fitting room area, as Lisanne and I both went our own way to choose clothing to try out. We did. Later, when we were almost done, we discovered that we both had 2 exactly the same pairs of jeans. That wasn't all. We also had the exact same blouses and sweaters, only difference with these items was the color! It's just plain freaky. It's not the first time we bought the same clothes. We seem to have the same size clothing as well, for the top that is. Because of my lipedema my jeans are usually 5 sizes bigger than my tops and shirts.

I'd show pictures of the new clothing but I don't feel like taking pictures right now. And the M&S website didn't have a decent collection preview online so no help there either. Maybe I'll take some pics later But we definitely had fun downtown.

So my family members are finally back from Ghana. My sis-in-law Lisanne went there early September to volunteer in a school and some other cool things. She blogged about this in Dutch on her travel blog. And then my in-laws went to Ghana on vacation a few weeks ago, to accompany Lisanne. Because of the snow many flights and fares were canceled. But they all made it home in one piece eventually. They were dirty, hungry and tired though after a long flight, so we talked briefly and then decided it was best to see how things are tomorrow. I still have to go downtown to get some things. And Lisanne also needs some new clothes so we want to go together.

I really missed the family, especially Lisanne. My in-laws are Seth's weekly babysitters. When you're trying to work at home, with kids at home, you will soon find out it's not easy. Sometimes it's just impossible. So I'm more than happy that they are babysitting him. And then there's Lisanne. I can talk for hours with her, and we never seem to run out of things to talk about. We complain about our annoyances, we chat about fun things. We also go shopping together, if we have enough money of course. She regularly buys the same clothes as me. She often gets Seth presents (clothing, but also toys). We borrow each other's Wii games and so much more. We chatted a little through mail recently and she will be spending some time here also once she's rested and has time. We will probably attend a swimming group together in 2010. I really want to exercise more, but with lipedema it can be very painful. I'm sure everyone knows water makes your body feel lighter. So moving is less painful in the water. It'll cost some money but I personally think it'll be worth it.

Oh how I can't wait to see the family again! I'm sure they have loads to show and tell us too!

I was asked to create a travel blog for Lisanne. She's a great person and I loved making this website for her. She's in Ghana right now and she will stay there for more than 3 months. She has been assigned a project; helping and teaching children on a school. Click here to view a list of all the features. Click below to visit the website! Website offline.

I've also created a gallery where Lisanne will upload pictures taken in Ghana:

Yaaay, 25 minutes biked this morning. It seems I sweat more every time, but I assume this is a good thing. Another shower needed in a bit. And tomorrow I'll try for 30 minutes. Yesterday was my day "off". In the morning Seth was picked up by his grandpa and Lisanne came along. She would stay and we would go to the city to buy wellness products. We started out in the village and basically after 3 hours of shopping we decided to skip going to the city, otherwise we wouldn't have time left to have a girly day. We bought a lot of candy and snacks so I'm going to have to try hard the next few weeks to lose all those extra pounds. Oh and we also had Bon Bon Bloc. This was a really long time ago for me. No idea when I had my last Bon Bon Bloc but I kind of needed it. I also made some strawberry/kiwi smoothies. I loved these, definitely a keeper. We bought two foot baths! They were only €15. That's what I call a bargain! So during the movies and eating candy we were able to relax our legs at the same time. But enough talk about relaxing. Here are the statistics for today:

25:05 minutes biked
18 km/h average
210 calories burnt
8 km distance
110-150 pulse

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!