Happy 40!

My heart makes a skip and jump.
In a really good way.
It's getting close to 16 years since I first met this person, and our 15th wedding anniversary is only a few months away...
My heart still skips and jumps and grows bigger and almost brings pain in my chest when I think of HIM.
He's my husband.
That sounds so cold and formal thou.
He's so, so, so much more.
Just thinking of just HOW much more he really is, makes me dizzy and teary-eyed and happy.
My soulmate is turning 40 on Thursday.
You'd never believe it.
Really.
Not just through my rose coloured glasses does he look great, I really think he looks good in most peoples eyes.  And if they don't agree... they are just jealous!! :)

What can I do for him to celebrate him properly??
I know he'll think I'm super nerdy going on like this.
That's ok.
Nerdy comes easy to me.

Yesterday we had a houseful of friends and family.
I'm talking more than 45 people.
What a great great evening we had!
His parents are in town (from overseas), and I'm sure they find it hard to believe that their oldest kid is actually this "old". 
His only sister and one of his brothers, also from across the pond, were also here, so with the out of towners over, it made the day extra special.
Lots of laughs and memories and yummy food and cakes...
Just the way it should be!

In the evening my Hubby thanked me for arranging and holding the party.
He was really happy with his day.
A thought came to my mind
"Work done out of love is light work"
I enjoyed my day too.
I love having people over, and I truly love to do things for others, so for me it's almost like a "treat" to hold these kind of events!

So... I haven't got a real "gift" for him yet.
Don't know what to get either.
We are planning on going out for dinner together on his birthday, that'll be fun.
But I wish I could get him something that "shows" how much I love him.
We don't really have a whole lot of money to spend, so it surely won't be anything extravaganza...
Hmmmm.....
Looking back over our years together, and remembering all the good, great, fun, loving, sad, funny, crazy moments together, I don't recall any special things that were part of the fun.
It truly seems like the best time spent together, are times spent with each other.
And of course times spent with our kids.
But stuff??
Yeah, maybe doing Sudoku together...
Or reading something funny from a good book.
But it's all small things.
It's nice to realize that the best in life is free!

When it comes to stuff he or I need, we usually end up getting it anyway, so to go out and buy some new socks or a t-shirt for his birthday seem kind of pointless, he'd get that no matter what if he needed them!
To go and get something nice, just to get something, is kind of dumb too....
I need to be honest with myself and admit what I knew all along.
He doesn't want any gifts.
When he says he's happy with what he has, and that all he wants is to be with me and the kids, I believe him.
We are his gifts every day, and we sure keep on giving!
So much love, so much laughter.
Hugs, kisses, smiles...
When you have everything you need in the shape of love and people that truly love you, the need for stuff really goes away!
It's almost funny to think that getting an item somehow will represent what and how I feel for him.
I can show him that myself by keep doing what I've been doing for the last 15 years!
Loving him!

Happy Birthday my dear Hubby.
I will do my best to keep showing you how much you mean to me and how much I love you.
No batteries included?  No probelm.
I got what you need! :)
I hope and pray that God will keep us safe together for many many years to come.
Every day with you has been a blessing from above.
Thank you for being who you are.
And like I always say "You're a good man, and you are way cooler than Charlie Brown!"

Maybe I'm cheesy??? Or maybe it's just LOVE!!

We had some fun plans for this weekend.  We were FINALLY going to spend a nite in a hotel w the kids, just chillaxing, swimming in the pool, enjoying the big breakfast buffee, then on Sunday go to church and see friends in a different city.  Well.  This horrible mom decided to come down with a cold!!!  Hello???  Bad timing anyone?  I felt really bad telling the kids that "Mom is too tired to pack up all the stuff for 9 people!"  Hubby was gone helping his brother repairing his car, that decided to come down with something too...

Well.  In the end the 2 oldest took the train to the city we had planned on visiting, they are spending the nite with their friends.  The rest of us hung out all afternoon, Hubby and I zonked out on one couch each, and getting up some time later, I found a smidgen of energy.
We loaded up the 5 kids in the car, and went to Hop Lop (indoor playground), followed by a late dinner at McDonald's.  Coming home the 2nd youngest was already asleep, and now it's only the oldest of the 5 that's still awake.

We had a nice day after all, and again I feel thankful for our "basic" family life.
I got to be with 6 of my 8 favourite people, and again I fell a bit more in love with my Hubby.
Just because it's so hard not to.... :)
I might seem ultra cheesy who is always gushing over him... but why not???
It's been over 15 years now since we started dating, and I know just how lucky I am to have him.
I'm too lazy to climb a mountain to declare my love for him from high up there.  I don't have the money to fully show him how much I think of him,  so this is a good way to share my feelings.
I love him. 
Tons. 
And every day I pray to grow old with him. 
Surrounded by our kids and their families.
Cheesy??  Maybe for those that are looking for something else, for those who are not happy about where they are...
But I am.  And I wouldn't want it any different.

Gold Nuggets

After a busy summer, including house building, moving in to that house, continuing working on it, getting pregnant, having a bunch of visitors...  I feel like I finally have time to catch my breath.  Lately the Dr. appointments have been back to back, and there are many more to attend in the next month.  Several kids need checkups, 6 kids need to see dentist (for regular checkups and for more advanced stuff).  I'm looking forward to having one of my wisedom teeth pulled in the next few weeks.  Not.  But it needs to get done.  I need to have them all pulled, but they'll start with one for now.  Then I have to go to my checkups... well, you get the picture.

Besides all those "not so fun" appointments, life is good.
And I know we could be going to the Dr's for far worse reasons, so I'm thankful that we are only doing the regular "are we doing OK" stuff.
Soon (maybe today!) I need to pull out our boxes with hats and mitts.  Crazy.  Didn't we just put those away??  This morning it was only 5 degrees C (about 40F), but the sky is clear and the sun is shining, so it should warm up fairly fast.  The trees are changing outfits, and for each passing day, their gowns are getting more and more elaborate.  Fall is so pretty!

What else?  I just realized again how much I'm thankful and happy for. 
I dreamed that we had another boy, and he looked just like our 1st one!  It makes me want a "little brother" for the kids even more...  I'm getting more and more excited about the new baby coming, and soon I'll start going through all the old baby clothes, girls and boys, and then I'll really get in the "new baby mood"!
A little girl would be fun too, but for our only son I wish for a boy.  Don't you think he "needs" a brother?

I've been very thankful (again!) for my wonderful Hubby.  He really truly is an amazing man.  Sometimes the kids wish he wasn't so "dadish", but in a household full of women, I'm thankful that he's a "real guy".  Blunt and clueless at times, but also willing to go back and give hugs and say sorry when need be.  (I need to say sorry a lot more than him...)  He's not one to bicker or fight, and every day he's my friend in everything.  There are so many "little" things he does, for me and for many others, that add up, and I don't think he realizes it.  He doesn't complain, ever!!, and that to me is very manly!  Whiny guys is like nails on a chalkboard.  Not that you can't say "Wow, today was rough!".  But guys that whine, and try to sound like "See what I have to deal with?, but of course I can handle everything, I just have to suffer through this", makes me shiver, in a bad way.
So yeah.
Thank you again for being who you are, I couldn't imagine my life without you.

Pretty fall trees.  A new baby coming.  A new house to make our home.  A wonderful Hubby.  Lots of kids to love and laugh and learn with.  Those are all gold nuggets in my life.

Happy 14 on the 14th!!

June 14th is one of the most important days in our lives.  Mine and Big Guys lives that is.  And our kids.  That's the day we got married, 14 years ago, in southern Sweden on a beautiful summer day.
This is a day that brings back wonderful memories, and the days, months and years that have followed are like a wonderful necklace of most precious pearls threaded on it.
Days that include the births of our 6 girls and 1 boy.  Days that include, laughter, tears, hard times, good times, building houses, moving, job changes, challenges of parenting, traveling, day to day life... and it's been good.
I feel very fortunate to be able to write about us, and our love.
Maybe you find it "cheesy" (go ahead!), but I am so in love with my dear hubby, that I can be cheesy all day long.

He loves me.  I love him.  A lot.  We know that.  And we say that.  Often.  In words and in actions.
Last night I felt tired and draggy.  The weather did a drastic turn when a coldfront smashed into the heatwave we've been enjoying for the last 1½ weeks.  After the thunderstorm was over, the temperature had dropped drastically, there was just a light rain going on,  and I went out for a 45 min walk by myself.  It felt SOOO good.  I walked through a woodentrail, and the freshly soaked forest smelled incredibly good.  I stopped a few times and indulged.  Then I ran, skipped, jumped and flapped my arms really geekily along the trail...  On the last stretch home, I stopped and picked a bouquet of wildflowers for Big Guy.  Coming in to the apartment....  I found it all cleaned up!  I could have cried from happiness!  Before I left, it had looked like the storm had done a number in our home as well..  What a great man I have!

Tonight sitting in the livingroom, catching up on the latest (we talk a lot with each other), Big Guy suddenly stops and looks at me in that really loving way, and says "You know, I really love being married to you!, I love how we can talk about everything!"  I so agree... 
That kind of love is the love you feel.  It's just there.  I've had other married women telling me that they don't know any other couple who seem to be better friends with each other than me and my hubby are with each other.  It doesn't matter if that's true or not, I know I feel that way thou.
I guess we are both good at putting the other persons needs first, that way we know that we are both taken care of!

Our kids love to celebrate their parents love too!  For the last several years they have made cards for us, bought something if they get around to it, made a cake, or surprised us with breakfast in bed...  They love to see our love, and the worst times for them is if we ever fight.  They instantly ask us to be nice to each other and say sorry... Monkey see monkey do.  Do I need to say that our fights never last very long??

There have been many times when "the guys" have done their little get aways, traveling somewhere for a weekend, and I've told my hubby to go with them, feel free!  But he politely declines, and says that if he goes anywhere, he rather goes with me...  That's ok!! :)  (he HAS gone places sometimes, but it's usually for an overnight fishing trip! Wow....)

Well, I could go on and on about us, but you are probably getting the picture.
I'm thankful and happy to say that I'm happily married to the greatest guy I could ever imagine.
Happy Anniversary, my dear Man!  I love you so much.  Yours truly!

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!!!!