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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, July 26, 2011

Thankful

I'm sitting up late as usual, letting my thoughts trail in whatever directions they decide to take off.  During the day my mind is so occupied with the busyness of running this show as smoothly as possible... so it's nice to have some alonetime to think and reflect.

I don't feel that I have had enough time to reflect for a while now... like for the last 15 years??  Being a mom of 1, 2 or more kids changes your life, and my mind is most of the time cought up in the care of our 7.  We plan, we prepare, we act.  In small ways and big ways.
This last year has been so increadilby full of happenings, that I truly feel I could write a book about it!  And as I take a second to look back, I realize how good it's been, and how much I have to be thankful for.  It's so easy to take for granted all the good in life, but every now and then something reminds you of how much you have to be thankful for.
The fact that me and my whole famliy is reasonable healthy, that we are safe and happy.  How easy to take it all for granted.

This past week many, many young people lost their lives at the hands of a sick man, in Oslo, Norway.  My niece was a very short distance away from where the bomb went off in down-town Oslo.  She is unharmed and made it back to her hometown safe and sound, but severly shocked.
I'm thankful that she's OK, and also that I live in a safe country where on a regular basis I should have nothing to fear.  It's scary though how these attacks are becoming more common, also in areas of the world where you normally don't have to worry.  I pray that I will always will be prepared, and never unprepared to face whatever might come, that way I don't have to be scared or live in fear.

We are all enjoying our new house so much, and tomorrow my brother with wife and little son are coming for a visit all the way from the US westcoast!  Also our 2nd oldest daughter's BFF and her great aunt will be arriving from Michigan!!  How wonderful to have family and friends come to visit us from way over there!  I'm excited to show our house to them all, but mostly I'm excited to let them see how well we are doing and how happy we are here!  Moving across the ocean and starting all over is a huge step, and to hop on the next flight back is not an option, so being happy and content here is something we are very thankful for.

I'm looking forward to spend another year here, and to see what excitement it will bring!  My personal goal is to strengthen my Finnish!  I feel like my brain has finally landed and that I have a bit more energy to focus on the language, compared to last year when everything was new and so much needed to be done in such a short amount of time!!  Wish me luck!  and yeah... I still need to get a camera so that I can take some pictures of our house, that I can post for you all to see!  Tudelu for now!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

We moved!!!

This is my 4th attempt at this post... I keep getting interrupted, so let's see how this goes!

We are finally out of the apartment and in our new house!!
Wednesday was a blur of crazyness... with 7 kids, as well as the kid's cousin from overseas, AND 2 kittens!!! added to the mix, we somehow manage to pack up and transfer our belongings from apartment to house.  Our oldest girls and their cousin were of great help, while our 2 youngest were not exactly useful.  The kittens added some stress too, we had to make sure they didn't get lost or stepped on in the commotion!
Thanks to my wonderful in-laws who also helped out a lot!!  (they are here from overseas, and sacrificed their time on a very hot and muggy day helping us out!)
What's up with the kittens??  Well...  we have sort of promised our kids that we would get a cat when we finally moved in to our house.  I happened to see an ad for kittens for sale a week and a half ago, and we went to see them.  Of course we ended up with 2 kittens...  and we couldn't wait to get them till after we moved (how do you argure with 7 kids wanting the same thing??), so there they were in the middle of the moving madness.

Now we've spent 3 nights here, and I have my appliances all working!  Big help to keep this place running smoothly.  I'm already enjoying our kitchen immensely!!  It feels like I'm visiting someone who has a super nice (although still rather messy) house, full of our stuff!  I don't have a working camera for the moment, but as soon as I do, I'm gonna post some pictures!!

The week coming up will be busy (nothing too unusual around here, it's a chronic condition!!).
My dear brother from USA is coming to pay us a visit along with his wife and little boy!  Our 2nd oldest daughter's BFF from USA is also coming, together with her great-aunt!!  So things are going on, and we don't have a dull moment!

Well, I'm gonna post this now, before something else interrupts me!

Monday, July 11, 2011

It's like being pregnant!!

Building a house that is.  I've been pregnant 7 times, and there are some parts of each pregnancy that seem to repeat itself each time.  At least for me.  Remember that I'm really patient... or maybe that was my sister??  Anyway.
When I 1st find out that I'm pregnant, I feel excited, a bit overwhelmed, and I ask myself if I have what it takes to deal with another pregnancy.... When we decided to start building our house here in Finland, we were still finishing up our house that we built in Canada!!, so I had to ask myself if I was ready to do this allover again! There were trim pieces missing and of course, when you own a house, there are things you want to change and improve along the way. 

When I'm pregnant I always try to think of new ways to make the pregnancy go faster, make it more fun, trying to look and feel my best...  And each time I like to follow the baby's growth inside me.  It's always fascinating!  It's a miracle actually.

With our house, I keep making lists, writing things down, I kept changing things on the plans till I couldn't change it anymore...  I talk to people about the progress, and then I get a bit stressed about feeling that people are on my back (even thou they are only curious)   House or Pregnancy = same thing. 
(when are you due?  when are you moving in?  Are you done yet? - Am I done yet???? Oh YES!!! I'm usually "done" waaaay before I'm supposed to be done... doesn't really matter what it is)
I guess one difference is that the baby I want OUT and with our house I want IN!!  he, he...

Well.  I have gone overdue 4 out of 7 times, and I can safely say that I feel "overdue" with our house!  I get to a point when I really start to think that "It will NEVER happen!!!" "This baby will neeever come out!" Then I have a reasonable Hubby at my side, that reminds me that "I never heard of a baby that didn't come out!"  And I sense that he really feels that "I never knew a family that moved over the ocean and built a house and never moved in to it!"  (although that is far more likely to occur than the baby not coming out...)

All in all, I'm excited, stresses, tired... ready!!!  I keep tossing and turning at night (as if I'm waiting for labour to start), and I feel like I can't settle down before we move!!  Nesting instinct alright!!  I'm so excited to start making our house our HOME! 
Our kitchen is ..... NICE!!!  Gotta get some pix and show it off. :)

well.... sooon I will announce "WE MOVED" and rest assured that there will be a happy dance following that announcement!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Greetings from Tallin!

So... totally randomly I went for a mini-vacation with 3 really fun single friends of mine.
These 3 gals had planned this trip a while back, and before they went to Estonia, they visited us for a few days.  Hearing about their upcoming SPA/Hotel vacation, made me drool a bit... and then I popped the question and asked if there would be room for me!  They were gracious enough to let me join them, so on Friday morning we got up at 3.30 am, and hit the road just past 4 am.  We drove to Helsinki to catch the early ferry to Tallin at 7.30.  The boatride is 2 hrs, so by 10 o'clock we were already checking in to the hotel!

The hotel is a conference and SPA hotel, so even if the visitors weren't hanging out wearing white robes and slippers 24/7, there were many neat SPA like features.  You could lounge in the SPA area and sip teas or different waters whenever you wanted.  There were many neat treatments to choose from, and I tried the chocolate wrap (AWESOME!!!), a foot/pedicure treatment and a facial.  The estheticians were very professional and did a great job.  All products were amazing and all natural!
The 1st day the 4 of us were ultra giggly from lack of sleep and excitement, so we took a great long walk touring this old Hansa town.  There are so many old buildings, and we climbed up some seriously tall and steep rock stairs to reach a "balcony walkway" that was running along the old city wall.  From up there we had a beautiful view of the city.  The wall was built almost 800 years ago!  We enjoyed some great food and had a fun, fun time together.  It was neat hanging out with single girls, since the topics of our conversations varied a lot more than they usually do when a bunch of moms hang out!  Neat.

In the afternoon we split up to attend various treatments, and then we had a light supper before chillaxing in the pool area.  There were several pools, hot tubs, an aroma sauna,(the lights keep changing colour as different aromas are released into the sauna) a salt sauna (you rub seasalt on your body as you sit in there, and the skin gets really really clean!), heated mosaic recliners!!  (they were actually concrete recliners covered with small white tile) SO cool!, jetshowers... etc.  It was nice.

On Saturday we enjoyed a large buffee breakfast, before again splitting up for more treatments.  After some lunch, we took a taxi to Pirina beach, a 10 min ride from the Hotel.  We had amazing weather, and I think everybody in Tallin had the same idea that day.  The beach was packed!  But we still enjoyed the sun, sand and saltwater.  Sipping a cool strawberry smoothie is never boring either...
Back at the hotel we showered and had dinner, and after that me and one of the girls had to head back to the ferry...  the fun had to end.  The other 2 girls stayed another night and flew home to Norway the next day. 

This getaway was so sudden, but I truly enjoyed it!  Thanks girls for taking me along, you are a great gang!  Besides some trips with my hubby in the past, I can't remember having this much fun in a long time!  My stomach feels "toned" from all that laughing!  (can you tone a marshmallow??)  And it was truly relaxing.  I feel very thankful and fortunate, and  I hope this break will give me the energy I need to "hang in there" as we are adding the last few touches before moving in to our house...  More on that later!

http://www.meritonhotels.com/Kuvagalleria/id/434/# Here's a link to the SPA photo gallery if you want to "check it out"!!