WELCOME!!

Blogger Boss needs to decide what this is going to say about how crazy her life is & how she loves coffee & walks with her hubby.


Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Spring!!!

We have just celebrated a beautiful Easter here.  Our first in Finland!  It's neat to reach all the Holidays and milestones in a new country.  For the record I can also mention, that today is our 10 months "Anniversary" here as well!!  Crazy how fast that went!
The spring weather here has been amazing, I can't get over how much SUN there is!  This weekend the temperature rised as well, and wearing a t-shirt (outside) was an option!  The kids faces are becoming pleasently freckled, and if I let them, they'd stay outside till midnite...  The days are getting really long, the sun is up between 4 and 5 am sometime, and it's still somewhat light at 10 pm!  And it's only gonna get lighter!  I like. 

For me it's very sentimental to see how the nature is showing all the signs of spring.  These are the flowers and plants and trees I grew up with!!  I didn't think this would matter so much to me, but it does!  Our house is located close to the woods, and we've been taking some walks on the trail with the kids.  I LOVE it.  I don't know how anybody would not like to walk in these green forests (it's mostly pines and other evergreens providing the "greenness"), that smell so amazing!  I played a lot in the woods as a kid, and it makes me all giddy when I see the same love for the nature in our kids faces.  We found these little eatable plants, and the kids quickly became busy finding as many as they could.  Even Little Guy liked them! 
The kids remember picking blueberries and wild strawberries last summer, and are now looking forward to doing that again this year.  I tought them to thread them on straws, to create their own little "berry kebab"!! 

Only one more month of school here, and then we are hoping to enjoy our 1st real summer in Finland!  Last year was kind of chopped up and stressful, but this year we should be able to relax a bit more.  We are also looking forward to some overseas visitors! (our 2nd oldest daughter's best friend is coming w. her great aunt!)  It will be fun to show them around here and let them see how well we are doing.  I'm saying so with a happy, thankful heart.  Yesterday my husband's great uncle asked me how I liked it here, and before I had time to answer, another man said: "Good, she smiles all the time!" I guess he's right!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Happy Birthday Big Guy!!

Well, I have a little tradition going here.  I've written about my 5 year old as well as Miss 13 on their birthdays, and today is my Dear Hubby's big day, so I guess the turn is his.
This is his last year in his 30ies.  The kids think he's, well, OLD!  I think it's wierd to be married to a guy twice my age!!!  Or did time just fly???  I bet his parents feel like he just became their age... He's the oldest of 7. 

Well.  This summer it's 15 years since our eyes first locked, and the bystanders heard an audiable "click"!
Or whatever the sound is when 2 people just fall in love with no warning.
I was the least romantic girl I knew, I thought all those romantic stories about "Love at 1st site" was a bunch of "Hooey".  Stuff like that doesn't happen in real life.  And I was very much real and alive.  So of course it happened to me!  I was almost mad when I realized that my mind was totally toast.  I had a hard time focusing on anything else than Mr.  And I talked about him.  All the time.  My poor friends.... (I thought LUCKY THEM that get to hear about this amazing person!!!) 
The biggest hurdle for us was that I lived in Sweden and he in Canada.
No fun.
So, 11 months after our first meeting, we tied the knot in Sweden, and then I was officially imported into The land of  Moose, Maples and Hockey players. 

9 months later our 1st daughter was born.  Our souvenier from our Greek Honeymoon.... 
When she was 6 months old, Big Guy graduated from University with  a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
Around this time I became a Landed Immigrant in this great nation, and I was allowed to work.
I held a job at Pizza Hut while Big Guy was looking for his 1st job suiting his degree.  Until then he'd worked construction, part time at Chrysler as well as a personal financial advisor.  He landed his 1st "real" job with an apartment management firm in Detroit, doing accounting for them.  This meant crossing the border every day.  He patiently stayed with this company for almost 10 years, during which time we dealt with the aftermath of 9-11 in 2001 (I was 8 month pregnant w. child #3).  For several months he had to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to beat the traffic on the way in to the States.  The customs was extra cautious after the terrible terrorist attacks, so all the cars were searched on a daily basis.  You have your 6000 something daily commuters, many crossing around the same time each morning... so you can imagine the lineups!!!
This is also the busies international bordercrossing for commercial traffic in the world, so the trucks would line up for hours on end .

I don't know how Big Guy dealt with this all those years.  He's a very patiend man, let me tell ya!!
He switched jobs in Sept. 2008, still working in Detroit, but this was better in several ways, and he sure needed a change.  That following spring, he went to Finland to help one of his brothers build his house, and he so enjoyed himself, he felt that THIS is what he really wanted to do!
He was sick of the commute, and the office ho-hum.  I sure don't blame him.
He wanted to bulid a house too, and I said, "Sure, but only if we also move there, it has to be an experience for the whole family!"
This is 2 years ago, and now we've lived here for almost a year!
Big Guy is truly enjoying the change of work.  No more sitting on your butt all day.
At times the weather has been pretty brutal (just before Christmas they had a deadline to meet, and they were out in -25 C, not being able to use the powertools, they were too cold.  I joked and said that using the hammers will keep you warmer at least!), but then he has thought about the option of sitting stuck in traffic, or dealing with various people that know how to NOT make your day... and the cold all of a sudden seemed perfectly fine!!!

What else????  I could ramble on and on about this guy, and mostly it would be really good stuff.  I don't know a person who does not like my hubby!!  He's an easygoing dude, who gets along well with everybody.  He smiles quickly and is a great listener.  He's a  fun dad, who sometimes talks in extremes...  He likes to explain how things work, and is a great math teacher.  I love his humor, and in any situation he'd be the person I'd take with me.  He's truly my best friend, and I thank God he's mine!!!  And I'm praying for many, many years together.  Happy Birthday my dear Hubby, I Love you forever and always!!!!


Thursday, April 14, 2011

Tomorrow will be better, it will...

Ok.  Now I've been thinking again.  I think a lot and analize many things.  One of the things that occupy my mind many times, is human behaviour.  I live in a country where I am free to think, believe and say what I want.  I think all my friends and family do too, as far as I know.  Most of us are probably pretty good att saying many things we shouldn't say, but also, I think many of us have things they would like to say, but won't.  Well.  I do.  I say how I feel about many things quite straight forward and honestly.  This helps me a lot in my parenting, as well as in my marriage.  If the kids have a question on their mind, I usually say exactly how I think or believe.  Sometimes it takes way more time, is quite draining, and sometimes even difficult, than the alternative of just sort of brush it off and say "Whatever, I don't care!"
Same goes for my hubby.  We talk a lot.  About everything.  We've been married for almost 14 years, and I have never said anything bad about him behind his back.  Nothing that I couldn't have said to his face.  Same goes for him about me.  We don't complain about each other to anybody.  Period.
I look at it as a longterm investment.  I want good relationships with our kids and my hubby for the rest of our lives. 
And I hope and pray it will work... Of course I've done many wrong steps as a parent, and as a wife, but again, honesty prevails!  I don't have a problem admitting to the kids that "Yes, I was wrong!"  As soon as you say that, it makes it way harder for the other person to keep throwing stuff at you.

"Yes, I was wrong, I'm sorry I did that."
If you hear that, and the other person says it from the heart... Well???  What more is there to say?
Of course, if there's an ongoing pattern, and someone uses the phrase as a way of getting out of trouble, but as soon as you turn your back, they do the same thing over, something else need to happen.
And that something is CHANGE!!!

This is another one of my strong believes.  (not like Obama's "change". Very different. He's asking the country to change for the people, not the people to change themselves for the country)
Change yourself.
I have never seen a positive change take place if the person themself didn't want it.
You can only change yourself.
You can keep nagging, crying, yelling, threatning etc, but if the person in front of you is not interested in changing, then either 2 things will happen.
1. They'll do what you ask them to do, grudgingly, and they will resent you
or
2. Nothing will happen, and you will resent the person.
Did you ask yourself "How can I change???"
Why did I react the way I did?
When I said "Fine!", but meant "NO!!!"... who's fault is it???
You might say "he or she didn't give me a choice, I didn't want to upset her or him!"
Well, then you CHOSE to act that way, and then you have to be acting as if "Fine" is indeed "Fine!"
Because if you get grumpy, and blame your bad mood on the other person.... HOW does that make sense???

Now you might say
"Well, that's easy for you to say, because that's your personality!"
Wrong.
This is something I am getting better at, but I used to be the biggest "YES" sayer out there.
Nothing wrong with that.  As long as you say Yes and mean it.
When I was little, and my friend asked me "Do you like this shirt?", and I said, "Yes", and they said
"I don't", I'd quickly change my mind to agree that "Yeah, you are right, I don't like it either!"
Back to honesty, right??
You need to have a strong backbone to be honest.
And not care too much what others think of you.
And you can't get offended.
All those things are products of how you react to others behaviour.
Getting offended is an action that we CHOOSE to feel.
You chose to take offense that he or she didn't like your food.
Or your car, or whatever.
How does that help you???
Do you rather have the person lie? 
"Oh yeah, Lovely dinner"  And you keep making it.... and the other person can't stand carrot soup!
And then the other person tells their friends
"Man, I wish I didn't have to eat that carrot soup, but I don't have the heart to say I don't like it, I don't want to offend her or him!"
Result???  Neither is happy.

It's important to tell people how you feel about different situations.  Or you won't give them the option to change in order to make you happier.  But.  If you tell someone  "I hate when you....you need to change!"  Then you are not giving them your point of view, you are just making them feel bad.
If you say "When this or that happens, I always end up feeling bad, sad, mad..., I just want you to know that."  Then it's up to the other one to choose to respond to your feelings.  If they don't clue in?  Well, then maybe you have to learn to tackle the situations that upset you differently.  Again, it's how YOU choose to react.  You can't get upset that someone doesn't want to change.  Typically thou, when you are married and you really love each other, both parties will want to try whatever it takes to make the other person as happy as possible.  But remember that nobody is a mind reader, and that guessing games are out of question.  And as soon as you hang out your dirty laundry for everyone to see... well.  That's just not cool.  A good rule of thumb?  Don't say things about anybody, that you couldn't say if they were present.

Do I always live like this???  Unfortunately not.  But I do think about it.  And I try.  And I am very fortunate to be married to a very patient, forgiving guy.  Who listens to my yakking.  And I try to listen to him.  Last nite we had a disagreement, nothing major, but just me being my impatient self, when one of our daughters came carrying a sign reading "Stop fighting" on one side and "say sorry" on the other....
Like I always say, kids are the best teachers!!
Yes.  We did say sorry... or we can't sleep. 
And that same daughter said when she told me goodnite
"Tomorrow will be better.  It will."  She was right...

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Gold Nuggets

Well.  After rain comes sun.  Also this time.

3 things that make me happy right now is:

1.Suburban is on the road again!  Yes.  Makes our life so much easier.

2.The spring here is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! Where we had a foot of snow just 10 days ago, are now blooming crocuses in it's place!!!  WOW!  The sun is so warm, and the evenings are long and sunny.  YUM!

3. Today I picked up our 4 oldest after school, and because the weather is so juicy, we decided to bring an icy treat for Big Guy, (he's doing some dusty, dingy work right now, insulating between the 2 floors... yukk, yukk and tripel yukk!, getting covered in that yellow insulation stuff....)  So we got some Mars Icecream bars and some Juicy ones as well, then we all sat in the sun slurping them as fast as we could!

Life is great.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

The Ups and Downs of Life

Lately we've got a lot done at our house, mainly thanks to us having 2 vehicles on the road again.  Feels good.  For the last 5 months we've only used our family vehicle, our 1997 Suburban, since my hubby's ride is not that great in the winter on these roads.  (he could have gotten winter tires for it, but we already had to get some for the Suburban, and they sure weren't free, so a 2nd round wasn't an option this winter).  So anyway.  With only one vehicle, Big Guy would have to drop off and pick up the girls at school evey day.  (normally he'd drop them off and I'd pick them up)  Their school is about 10 km. drive away, they have the option of taking the city bus, the school would cover the cost, but then they'd have to 1st go downtown, switch buses and then continue to school (they'd have to leave from home at 6.45). So we settled for us driving them.

A week ago the roads were finally bare enough for my hubby to start driving his car again!  Great for me to have my vehicle back!  This also means Big Guy putting in longer hours on the house, since his days used to be chopped up from him bringing the kids.  But.... of course, our reliable "Superbunny" had to catch something.... So for the moment, we are down to one ride again.  In which only half the famliy fits.  SO, back to square one.  This means hubby's workdays are cut short again.... He'll have to go back in the evenings to work on the house, and I know where I'll be!  Here.  Where I've been for the past 5 months. 
Small problems to deal with.  I know.  But just sort of ironic too....
We are hoping to get the family vehicle fixed soon.... So wish us luck on that one!!

The saying is "Easy come easy go".  Well.  We usually have more than one stumbling block on our road, but I try to focus on the things that went well in the past, although I'm fully aware of many, many things that didn't always go our way.  And that's OK.  In the end we'll appreaciate the goal even more because of the little struggles along the way.  And maybe even gain a bit of patience...  You never know!!!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

along came a boy....

For those that don't know, or forgot, I am a mother of 6 girls and 1 boy.  In that order.  Our Little Guy is 17 months old now, and rules the household with a chubby fist.  I thought I should "dedicate" this post to the smaller man in my life.  (The Big Guy deserves his day in the limelight too, but not today!)  I bet some of you are curious to hear some about our Little Guy, and my feelings about mothering a boy!  Well 1st of all.  Yes.  Boys are different.  Before Little Guy made his debut into this world, I often heard "Wait till you have a boy!!" As if having 6 girls was somehow a quiet walk on some far off beach... Sun setting in the west, and beautiful birds soaring the night sky.  Well.  It's not.  I also heard stuff like  "I rather have girls when they are small, and boys when they are teens" (small girls = easy, big boys = easy)  I have dissed this too.  My oldest sister has 7 boys, no girls, and 5 of them are in their teens now, and she went gray over nite... 

I don't think one answer fits all.  I have heard moms that have large families, with lots of boys and girls, saying opposite things of each other.  "Oh, you are in for it with all those girls!", or "Oh, be glad you had 6 girls and not 6 boys!"
Well.  Now we have 1 boy. 
And he's just about the cutest, sweetets thing alive.
He's the Prince allrite, with his 6 maids attending his every need, and then some.
His mom and dad are still in awe that he actually came about!
When he was born the whole delivery room erupted in "IT'S A BOOOY!" (we had kept the gender a secret)
I said, "Are you SURE???"
Judging by the expression on my hubby's face, I was sure....
Awww..... He had a little buddy!
(My hubby is very, very weak for his daughters, and I have to be the main diciplinarian most of the times, he
takes them fishing and all sorts of stuff, but having a male sidekick, well.... do I need to say more??)
Big Guy actually sent out a birthannouncement the night of Little Guy's birth!  Via email.  Stating that Little Guy was born into this world, smelling like motoroil. looking for his fishing rod....
I was stunned that he had taken the time to figure out how to download pictures from the camera, and get this email out!  The boy factor had something to do with it.....

Pretty soon our pink house, started to take on a blueish hue.  I jokingly said that nothing pink could touch Little Guy!  One day when he was laying in the living room, looking around, his 3 ½ year old sister figured he was looking for his fishingrod!  (she had heard about her dad's comment in his email...)
Guess if the girls were excited spreading the latest family news to their friends?  Soon the whole school had heard about the amazing happening!  We got gifts from people we barely knew!  Funny!

Well.  Little Guys 1st year went by fast.  From the get go he ate like a bear, and soon enough he started to resemble one!  At 4 months old he was as heavy as one of his sisters had been at a year!  And he kept the trend going, up to about 8-9 months of age, after that he is more "average" on the scale.  He would ONLY nurse.  No bottles.  No baby foods.  Only mom.  It was pretty convenient when we moved that he was fine with me only.  Now at 17 months thou....  He's doing better in the food department, and he's trying quite a few food options, but mom is still the best...

He's starting to speak, and he hums the tunes to a few songs (he's starting to add made up words to the tunes too).  At about 11 months he said "Tractor".  Not Barbie or doll or stroller. Tractor.  Loud and clear.  This made me realize that no matter what you do, (remember this guy had almost only girl stuff surrounding him from birth on!!), kids act their gender.  Some people claim that if you serve them traditional girl and boy toys to both gender, all kids will play with all toys.  True.  To a certain extend.  My girls have all played with dinky cars, build train tracks and they all love Legos.  Their attention span with these things pale in comparison to the amount of time they can spend on their dolls and Polly Pockets.  Little Guy on the other hand loves stuffed animals, and really hugs his favourite teddies and such, but the 1st thing he gets each morning is his hockey stick!  (Big Guy bought it for him, it's a mini wooden one)  The level of interest he instinctivly has in all my hubby's stuff is almost comical!!!  His fishingrods that are 3 times the length of Little Guy, has been going through a lot of abuse lately.  He wakes up making car noises, and holds an imaginary car in his hand that zooms through the air.  This started when he was 10 months old.  He goes and gets forks in the kitchen, that he fixes his ride-on cars with.  The list goes on.  He has a ton of sound effects for everything. 

I was at Finn class one evening, and coming home I found him wearing my night tanktop around his neck, while playing hockey...

"Plaid shirts aginst plaid shirts!!" Little Guy at 15 months,(he had just started walking a few weeks before!) joining some cousins for a game of hockey.

Brrrrmmm brrrmmmm.....

Chillaxing like a guy!

Today we went to K-Rauta (think: Home Depot), to order our fire place.  Little Guy LOVES that store.  He went and opened all the doors to all the sauna ovens, then shut them. "Shut", he'd say as he walked down the row of ovens.  The forklift was a major deal.  He's just pumped walking around in there.
Home Depot to our girls used to be as exciting as a dead cat on the road.

So.  What's the conclusion???  Well.  Our girls have done many similar things to him. Several of them have been WAY more active and "wild".  We had one that LOVED "motorbikels".  She'd stop dead in her tracks when she heard one, and look at them in awe.  Another loved semitrucks, and used various pointy objects to "fix" stuff around the house.  Litte Guy can be found pushing dolls in strollers.  But somehow... it's different!!  He's a little man.  He loves his mom in a different way.  And he looks up to his dad in a different way.  I love the fact that we have a little guy doing his little guy things.  He has not been harder or easier than the girls.  Yes, he throws everything.  Especially when he gets mad.  At times he seems a bit harsher on his toys, but he's also stronger than the girls, so that explains it.  He throws fits like his sisters, he hugs like his sisters...  We are still at the learning stages of having a boy, but no matter what the future brings, he's worth every bit of it!!!

Like my mother-in-law says "They are just different!"
(she has 6 boys and one girl btw!!)
And I agree!

Friday, April 1, 2011

I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

Ok.  I know my sister will feel a bit embarressed about this, but Hey! All is fair in war and love right?  And because I love her, and I want her to succeed, I'm using any means to help her out winning this competition!

We only have a few days, so get going people! (to April 6th)
All you have to do is to go to this website: http://www.spoonflower.com/ and click on the link to Project Selvage and then vote on High in the sky by mrshervi

That's it.
Ok, a bit of an explanation....
My very talented sister has made it as one of 75 finalists (almost 1000 entries) in this fabric designing competition!  The top 10 will make it to the final round, and the fortunate winner will be given the prize of designing a whole line of baby boy fabric!  My sister should be that person in my very unbiased point of view.
She has already won a previous competition, and got her winning gig published in a book, so she is GOOD!
Check out her blog at http://www.craftandcackle.blogspot.com/ and see for yourself....

So, why wait??  You don't need to sign up for anything, just follow my simple instructions above!
GOOD LUCK "FNILL"!!!!!!!!!
PS: feel free to pass this info along, only 5 more days to go!!!!!