Fall Cleaning...

This weekend flew by! We had some friends over for "Brinner" (Breakfast for Dinner) on Friday night. And then the majority of the day Saturday was spent deep cleaning the upstairs in preparation for our Danish visitors next month - Martin and Lynsey, and Mor og Far.

Saturday evening we attempted to go Christmas shopping. What was originally supposed to be a quick trip, ended up being a 4 hour shopping trip with very few gifts to show for! Johan was definiately the main receiver of gifts. He may have talked me into a pair of mittens (now his 4th pair since in the past 4 years - the boy seems to always lose one mitten.) Johan also "talked" me into getting a new camera...He may have not needed to push very hard - since it was a great deal and we have been really needing a new camera. It's great because it can be charged which means we are no longer dependent on batteries - that always seemed to be dead with our old camera. (Hopefully the new camera means that we will be updating the blog more.)

Today we spent the day helping out a Kid's Church this morning, making phone calls to family in Denmark, taking a nap - while Johan made 110 tacos for the HUB worship night, raking leaves for our neighbor, eating dinner at Aunt Dede's and going to the worship night at the HUB!

All in all, it felt like a relaxing yet productive weekend that went by way too fast. I am not sure if I am ready for Monday morning....but ready or not here it comes!  

Johan, Dad and our neighbor Joe - raking leaves.

Worship @ The Hub ROCKED!

After Dinner Games

I tried to post the video of my Dad and Johan last week competing in the "After Dinner Games" - but it didn't come up...so here it is on YouTube...

First Free Weekend!

This past weekend was the first free weekend in a very looong time. (Possibly since we got back from Denmark in August!) It was a great feeling that we could both be home, sleeping in with no set schedule. We got some home projects finished this weekend too!

Since we have left you waiting for the last three months for an update on our kitchen on our lives, we figured we would start there.

I have been coaching swimming for the past three months along with starting a new job as a middle school 8th grade special education teacher. It has been a busy, crazy challenging time. But I feel so blessed for the experiences and relationships I have made - especially with my swimmers.

Johan has been busy on house projects. Since we have Martin and Lynsey, and Mor og Far coming to visit this December, he has been trying to finish up the last details on the house. He is currently working on re-finishing all of our upstairs doors. Johan is hoping to coach soccer in the Spring at East High School. He should have an interview this coming week.

A few highlights from the last three months...

Kitchen in July

2nd Wedding Anniversary in Chicago - on our way to DK 

Cousin David married the his beautiful bride Sara!

UPGRADE! Our flight back was over-booked so we graciously
offered to stay a night in Finland. We may have gotten
a night at the Hilton, food, first class the next day and
$800 each in travel vouchers with American Airlines!
It was great to explore Finland for a day and even greater to
think that we get a free trip next summer!
All I can say is: GOD IS SOOO GOOD!

Enjoying the first class lounge in Finland's Airport.

You can't see the HUGE bowl of chocolate behind me,
but I may have shoved about a serveral handfuls of
Finish chocolate into my pockets and filled by candy
dish with them when I got home! (Lasting for several months!)
What can I say, I like free stuff! :)

Our kitchen as for this morning...

Thanks Dad for all your hard work and
help on our house...

Our kitchen this evening. We decided that we needed a
little more color (too much blue) So we went ORANGE!
We painted just one wall and I made curtains today.
We love the warm, "hyggelig" feeling we get when we walk
into the kitchen (We will hang cutrains above the sink but we
need to get hooks.)



We thought we would share a video from Friday night of my

Dad and Johan in fierce competition to see who can blow

out the candle from the farthest distance.