Thursday, January 10, 2013

AWCA

There was a general meeting today with the AWCA (American Women's Club of Amsterdam). There were almost 50 women at the meeting!  The meeting is held in Amsterdam at the Arti de Amicitiae building. There was a speaker there named Bianca. She spoke about personal health and wellbeing. It was altogether a nice meeting. After each meeting there is a raffle for prizes. It's a way for the club to raise funds. There was a trip to Zambia being organized for Habitat for Humanity. It is being delayed till next year due to lack of response. They need at least 12 people to sign up, and the cost is 2,800Euro to go.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Going to the doctor...

Yesterday, Andrew had an appointment with his General Practitioner, Dr. Thoolen. He was getting blood test results back, and he wanted her to check a few moles. I decided to go with him...she will be my doctor when I need one.  His appointment was at 0810hrs. We took the bus over there, which only took a few minutes. We arrived very early (the office wasn't even open yet!).

Dr. Thoolen seems very nice, and very professional (and young....my how my perspective has changed over the years!!!).  She said Andrew's blood sugar level is high....soooo we need to work on getting that lower. He also hasn't been taking his cholesterol medication regularly, which showed in the blood test results. Hopefully with a few changes in diet and exercise, we can change those numbers!

Tomorrow Andrew has an appointment in the morning with a Dermatologist in Alkmaar. He will take a look at the moles. There is one on his face he is particularly nervous about. I will be going with him...it's about a 30min. drive away.

Yesterday after having coffee with the AWCA women, I stopped at the fabric shop and bought a few things. I plan to make a bed for Socrates (he doesn't like the one we bought him.....it's too small), and an apron. I got some cute "Dutch" material for the apron. I also got more material for the neck coolers I'm making for the troops. I plan to make at least 100 of them and ship them to the Blue Star Moms in the spring, so they can be shipped in boxes to the troops in the summer.


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Today is Wednesday, January 9th. We just returned from the Dermatologist in Alkmaar. The doctor(s) were very thorough, checking Andrew's entire body. In the past he had a precancerous mole removed (a few years ago), and his Dad had had melanoma, so we wanted to make sure to be vigilant about having everything checked. The doctor said there were no areas to worry about and he just removed a couple of what they called "senile" spots (age spots). He has a return appointment for six months from now. This art was on the wall in the Dermatologists office, I think it's so beautiful!  It's looks 3D, but I had to touch it to find out it's not.





This morning I also made an appointment for Socrates (our cat). He has an enlarged heart and has been on medication for about 4 years now. Unfortunately, that medication is not available here. Our Vet in the States emailed me all of the records, but the diagnosis was so long ago, our new Vet here wants to have another ultrasound done. They do not have the machine in their office, so we have to take him elsewhere for that. Because I'm not driving I had to wait to get Andrew's schedule to make the appointment. The facility is in a town called Noordwijkerhout. Thank goodness for "Google Maps"! We will be taking him for the ultrasound on Friday, January 18th.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Sunnnnn came out today!!! A day at the beach...


We decided to take the train to Zandvoort today.....to the beach....The sun is out!! Yippppeeee! So, first we got on the bus at Tempeliersstraat:

 We got to Haarlem Station and upgraded out OV Chipcards so that we can now use them for the trains also! It cost 2.10 Euro one way to go to Zandvoort.




 Here's our train!
 We got off at the Zandvoort Station:
 and started walking towards the beach (Strand):


 During the summer there are at least 20 restaurants along the beach. This time of year there are only a few permanent buildings there. This is one of the platforms for a restaurant that will be back in the spring:

 We found a couple of sand sculptures:



We kept walking along the beach and saw a surf contest taking place:

The hot tubs:
 The Judges:

 and the surfers:



Not many waves for them to catch......

We walked along the beach and stopped for a bite to eat and a beer:

While we sat there we watched all the families there playing on the beach...what a beautiful day! The high temperature was 50 degrees...with the sun shining it made it feel so warm!



All in all...a great day!

Tonight our landlords are coming over to pick up their mail. We have a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge so we can ring in the New Year together with them!


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Today is Monday, January 7th....went to Zandvoort again today to meet some AWCA women for coffee at De Haven. I took a few more pictures today.........no sun today though!







There were four of us at the restaurant for coffee this morning. We met at 1000hrs. Afterwards, three of us walked along the beach...and I went off to catch the train back to Haarlem!