Tuesday 29 April 2008

Sad day for Kristian

Well you can probably guess from the title that Kristian didn´t get the job. :-(

He´s disappointed but we believe something else will turn up. So he´s back at the computer searching for more possible jobs. Hopefully he will get one soon so he can get going again. (Although I will miss his cleaning!! - maybe he should start his own cleaning business....now there´s a thought - must share it with him later.)

The weather is beautiful here in Denmark. Warm and sunny. We even sat out and ate lunch at work. Although maybe that wasn´t such a good idea. It was really hard to get going again. Don´t know how I got through the last few hours - but managed it.

Now it´s great to be home relaxing.Tonight I am heading off to Ikea with my friend Audry. Every other month we have a night at Ikea. We just LOVE going there. We spend 2-3 hours there and then when they close we end the evening with McDonalds. When the kids were small and I needed a bit of peace and quiet I would drive off to Ikea for a couple of hours. (I know you probably think I´m crazy, but going there really relax´s me!)Then I met Audry and found out she also had a love for Ikea. So we started having girls nights out at Ikea. I am sooo looking forward to this evening. Haven´t seen Audry in a while so it will be nice to catch up with her.Ok nothing very exciting to report today, so I think I better just stop waffling....

Sunday 27 April 2008

Fantastic church weekend

We have just come home from a fantastic weekend away with our church. We left Friday afternoon and spent the weekend in a campsite about 20 minutes drive here. It was great to get away and have fellowship together. There was A LOT of fun and laughter and A LOT of delicious food. There was time to talk with each other, but also time for quietness, time for teaching, time for worship and time for prayer. Take a look at the pictures below and get a little idea of what went on at the weekend.


So good to see my crazy friend Anne at the church weekend!!

Arriving at the weekend on Friday evening. The teenagers made us all feel very welcome as we arrived.


Andrew and I on the way to find our rooms.

A beautiful Saturday afternoon and Leah is out enjoying the sunshine and her friends.

Time for Andrew to try some Sumo wrestling!


Kristian and Andrew enjoying their Saturday afternoon playing football. Andrew scored a goal!!


Saturday night fun. This is our group interperting a song through drama and dance.( I am the one to the left with the long ginger hair.) It was funny.
More Saturday night fun...there was a Sumo wrestling tournament. One of the rounds was called Saxo Sumo and the two saxophone players in the church had to compete against each other. This was Kristian and Susanne. (Kristian is in the blue.) Check out the film below and see how their fight went.(bit unfair I would say putting a boy against a girl!!)

Friday 25 April 2008

Still no news

....it´s Friday afternoon and we still haven´t heard anything from the company. So we can relax this weekend. We wont hear anything now until Monday, latest Tuesday.

Some other news...there was a write up about Sara in our local paper. They told about her race last Friday and how she had ended in 4th place. There was also a picture of her in her go-kart. We knew nothing about it so we were really surprised when we were flicking through the paper and saw the headlines "16 year old Sara is driving well". She was all pleased.

Thursday 24 April 2008

No news is good news

... well isn´t that what they say?!! I do hope they are right.

Kristian went for his second interview yesterday. He had 4 people interviewing him this time, so it was tough, but he gave it all he had. He thinks it went well. They said he was a difinite candidate for the job but they also had other good candidates to think about. So we just don´t know! We haven´t heard anyting today and we might not hear anything until Tuesday off next week. Really hope we get news tomorrow. This waiting is terrible!!! So keep praying!! Will keep you posted!

Tuesday 22 April 2008

Big day tomorrow

Well tomorrow is a big day for Kristian. He has his second interview with the company in Copenhagen. If he comes to mind tomorrow at 1.15pm please say a prayer for him. I am so nervous for him. I just want him to get this job soooo much because he would really like it. It is exactly want he wants to do and I know he`ll be so disappointed if he doesnt get it. But we´ll cross that bridge when we get to it. God knows what is best....I will keep you posted.


Today has been another lovely day here in Denmark. I have been at work - had a really good day there. I left work a little early (I have lots of overtime to be used up) and met Kristian. We went to town to the opticians. His eye sight is getting worse (but just a little) so he needs some new glasses. We couldn´t make up our mind which glasses we liked, so decided to leave it for today and look again some other day.


We came home and Leah and Kristian went out roller skating while I went for a run. It was just beautiful outside. Have a look at the picture below - it is only 5 minutes walk away from our home. Nice area to go for walks.

Sunday 20 April 2008

A Relaxing Sunday

Today I had to speak in church. I am always so nervous when I have to speak, big responsibility, but I think it went well. I got so much out of it, I was really challenged through my preparations. I was talking about having a passion for God, to have Him first in our lives and I was speaking from the life of Moses and the children of Israel.


After church we came home and had lunch. It was such a beautiful day here so Kristian and I decided to go for a drive. (The great thing about having big kids is that Kristian and I are getting some free time together again.) The kids just wanted to relax at home. So we headed out to explore Denmark.


We decided to find a place on the map that we had never been before. We found this lovely area with a beautiful forest and lake, and it actually wasn´t too far from where we live. We went a walk around the lake and enjoyed the sun, the nature and each other. It has been such a nice afternoon! We really must do this a bit more!! (Photos are from our afternoon out - just in case you hadn´t worked that out:-)




Friday 18 April 2008

A day at the races

It´s been a bank holiday over here so we have all had free from school and work. Sara and Kristian have been away go-kart racing and have had a great day!! It was a race arranged by “Danish Race League”. Kristian usually races with these fella´s on the computer over the internet, but today they all exchanged their computer racing cars for real go-karts.The race was a 2 hour Le Man and there were 19 teams racing. There were 2 drivers in each team. Sara and Kristian were a team and they were both nervous and excited to be racing. Some of the fellas they would race against drive professionally in different Danish race klasses (e.g. Kasper Jensen and Martin Jensen both DTC racers – for anyone that knows anything about Danish racing.)They did really well, they ended the day in 4th place. Not bad when there were 19 teams racing. (Sara was the only girl in the race.) Well done Sara!! She is so pleased with herself – this is the first time she has been out driving this season and to end in 4th position was just brilliant. We can certainly tell that she has been out racing. Her legs, especially around her knees are covered in bruises from banging against the petrol tank on the go-kart frame. Welcome back to the racing world - Sara!!




While Kristian and Sara were off racing, Leah went to visit her cousin on the farm. Andrew was visiting a friend. So I suddenly had a day all to myself - WONDERFUL!! It´s not so often that happens. So I enjoyed the peace and quiet. I played some piano, sang some praise songs (dared sing, no-one around to hear me!!) had a great quiet time with God, went a run, watched a movie and then made dinner for them all coming home.

Leah brought her cousin home with her, so Annie is staying the night. They are having a great time playing. Nice to still have one child who plays.

After dinner there was a beautiful red sky so Kristian and I decided to go for a walk and enjoy the beautiful evening. When we opened the front door guess who was sitting on the balcony - yes our friend the cat. We had some happy children!! So once again it got a bite to eat before we sent it on its merry way.




Thursday 17 April 2008

Praise His name



This is one of my favourite songs. The words are so true. We just need to be reminded from time to time about how important it is to keep praising the Lord no matter what we are going through in our life. Enjoy - I hope the words are an encouragement to you.

Wednesday 16 April 2008

An Unexpected Vistor

We had an unexpected visitor today.

Leah was saying goodbye to her friend who was visiting from school and when she opened the front door there sitting on our balcony was a beautiful, cute cat. It ran into the house and in under our bed. We coaxed it out and all took turns in having a cuddle with it.

The kids off course were wild about it.(must admit so was I) It was really friendly. The kids were trying to convince us that God had sent it to us - and I quote: "out of all the apartments it was just sitting outside our front door, on our balcony, God wants us to have it" - (yeah right, we weren´t buying that!!)

But the poor wee thing was hungry. I know you should never feed a cat or you will never get rid of it, but we (the kids and me) managed to convince Kristian that this was one of Gods creatures that needed a little bit of looking after. So he caved in, (what a weak man!!) and let us serve milk and salmon. We had a happy cat.


With no more salmon to give it, Leah carried it down the steps from our balcony and put it on the pavement, then we all gathered around the kitchen window to see what it would do. The cat sat beside our bikes and looked up at us 4 (me and the 3 kids) looking down at it. It´s little head went from side to side...it just looked so lost.....yeah, I nearly caved in myself, was ready to go down and bring it into the house....then 2 boys on skateboards came along and the noise of them made it run away. Thats when I came to my senses. Ah, well it was fun having a wee animal in the house while it lasted. Roll on the day we get our farm.










Sunday 13 April 2008

Good News Today

As many of you know, Sara is wild about go-kart. However this year she needed a new cart and motor because of the new rules. She would also be driving in a new class. A used go-cart and motor was going to cost about £3000, which was way out of our league.

Sara made a DVD presentation about herself and her sport, she had been out many afternoons visiting firms trying to raise sponsor support. Unfortunately nothing came from it, many of the firms just sponsored team sports and not individual sports.'

We were about to give up hope. We didn’t think Sara would get out to race this season, then we got an offer that we just could not refuse.Sara has been offered use of a cart (from last year) with a motor that she can use for the whole season 2008. We don’t have to pay anything. It is a Zanardi kart with a Rotax motor, (for you technical ones that understand motorsport.) This means that Sara now can come out and race this season.

Sara is totally in cloud nine – not to mention Kristian!! Now they are planning training days, marking in the calendar what weekends they will be away racing, applying for licenses etc, etc.We are truly grateful to Thomas and Rasmus Wendelboe who made this offer to Sara. They had the kart just lying in their garage from last year and they wouldn’t be using it this year as Rasmus is driving in KF3 class, which is the elite class. (I sound like I really know what I´m talking about – need to confess that I don´t. I am only translating what Kristian wrote on Sara´s webpage!! )

That´s another answer to prayer!!

Saturday 12 April 2008

Is this us in 10 years

Kristian sent me this picture today. For those of you who dont know.....Kristian and I have a dream. It´s to buy a farm, together with our good friends Jette and Filip. (This is their dream too - that is, to buy a farm together with us.) So when I got this picture today from my hubby it had this capture underneath."Honey, this is us in 10 years time on our farm!!"

Well I hope only one thing in that sentence is true....that we have our farm in 10 years time but I certainly hope that we don´t look like that!!!

By the way, a little update on my diet...I have now lost 14kg!!! I just feel so good, so full of energy. I am now 1kg under my set goal and I was first meant to have reached my goal on my birthday, so I am ahead of myself. How much more can I lose before my birthday?

Kristian really didnt believe that I would lose the weight so way back on the 3rd January he said that if I did it this time (as I have tried soooo many times to lose weight) he would take me on a long weekend trip to a city in Europe of my choice. He didnt think he would need to do it! Ha - proved you wrong my dear!! You better start saving your pennies. Paris here we come!!!

Friday 11 April 2008

Sara home from Portugal

All last week Sara was in Portugal with her school. The aim of the trip was to find out peoples view on different themes and subjects and see how the Portuguise mentality differed from the Danish mentality. So she didnt have much free time.

She was hoping for warm sunny weather, as it had been sunny and warm (23 degrees ) there the week before she went. However the week she was there it rained and rained. She still had a good trip but was also glad to be home again.Here are some photos from Portugal....






Thursday 10 April 2008

Wonderful, Wonderful, Copenhagen

Today Kristian and I went to Copenhagen. I left work early, collected Kristian and we headed into the Big Smoke!! Funny how I have changed since coming to Denmark. Eighteen years ago I just LOVED going into Copenhagen. I used to roll down the car window, breath in the air and literally enjoy all the toxic. I wished that we could live in there. How crazy was I back then???!!!! Now I wouldnt live in there even if you paid me.

Dont get me wrong - Copenhagen is a lovely city!! Clean, great buildings,cafes, nice shops - but I now prefer the peace and quiet of the country. Must be getting old.

Well our purpose for going to Copenhagen was two fold. I needed to get to the British Embassy to renew my passport and Kristian had an interview. So Kristian dropped me off in the middle of Copenhagen with a map and I walked around trying to find the British Embassy. I walked and walked, and walked and it was not because I was lost. The Embassy was easy to find, just FAR away from where Kristian left me off!! Came home and checked the route that I walked and found out that I had walked 5½ km!!! Thanks Kristian I love you too!!

Got my passport sorted. But I tell you it would be easier to get into Fort Knox than get into the British Embassy. The amount of gates and doors you have to go through is amazing. You are searched and you´re not allowed your hand bag with you inside the building. (Felt a bit like shopping in Belfast in the old days when you got searched before going through to Royal Avenue. - remember those days?)Well when I was finished I decided that I wasn´t walking all the way back to meet Kristian. So I found the nearest train station and jumped on a train into the centre of Copenhagen where Kristian was having his interview. He rang when the interview was over and we met up and had a late lunch and I heard about his interview.

He thinks it went well, but it´s hard to tell, he doesnt know if he has got the job yet. There were 100 people that applied for the job so for him to even get an interview was good. The job description is exactly what he wants to do and is something he is experienced in from his last job. The company have their offices right in the middle of Copenhagen, very close to our City Hall. So after lunch we went a walk (YET ANOTHER WALK!!) around the area so I could see the offices. I liked it very much - a really old, cosy building.Headed home after a long but really enjoyable afternoon.

After dinner I headed over to my friend Jette´s house. We were going out running. We ran for 1 minute, walked for 2 minutes and we repeated this 8 times. It was hard but it felt soooooo good. A big plus was the sunset. BEAUTIFUL!! We ran around the castle gardens in Fredensborg...this is the Queens summerhouse grounds and you can freely walk around the grounds and go down by the lake. It is beautiful. The sun was so big and round and a fantastic orange/red colour. Would love to have stopped and sat on a bench for ½ hour and enjoyed the view, but Jette was having none of that!!! We were out to run!! Thanks Jette for a great night. Always have so much fun with you!Now I am sooooo tired I am heading off to bed, don´t think it will be too long before I am fast asleep. Really hope Kristian gets this job. Pray for him. I know that if it´s the best thing for him God will open the door, just need to be patient. Goodnight all.

Friday 4 April 2008


Meet my crazy colleagues!! They really are crazy, fun people. When we are together we have such a great, hilarious time.
It´s been said that laughter is a good medicine and last night I got a dose of laughter that should last me to the end of the month!! Yes, I was out with my colleagues.
At work, lunchtimes and breaktimes always go by so fast. We never have enough time to talk and laugh, so last night we went out to do both!We started the evening going to an art gallery. Ok - I know this doesn´t sound like a place were you can have a lot of fun, but when you are with this group of people it really doesnt matter where you are, believe me - we had a blast!!
The boys enjoyed the paintings of the half naked women - typical!! There were so many different types of art work and I was actually really into it!! This was my first visit to an art gallery and I dont think it will be my last. I just have to get hubby hooked to the idea. He is not at all interested in going to an art gallery. Honestly he has no culture!
Dorthe, one of my colleagues, had her paintings hanging in the gallery this weekend, so we were going to see her work. (Great work Dorthe, loved the red painting!!)
When we´d had our fill of art we headed home to Dorthe. We ordered some Thai food - delicious!! The rest of the night was spent talking and laughing and laughing and laughing.Thanks guys (if you ever read this!!) for a great night out.
Anne, an ex-colleague was also there. She left work to become a full time foster parent. So good to see her again, she is the danish version of me and I am the irish version of her. We are so alike it´s unbelieveable.
Anne drove me home when the night was finished. We laughed so much in the car that we were literally crying. I will never know how Anne managed to see the road to drive. It´s a miracle we got home in one piece. Thanks Anne for the ride.
Maybe I should tell you what I do. I am a Hygiene Assistant in a Christian private school. (For those of you who dont know what that is, it´s the posh name for a cleaning woman!) I work full-time and it is a pleasure to go to work everyday. I love it. Great colleages and a great work place. The big bonus is that I also get all the school holidays - with pay!!
Before this I worked as a health carer for the elderly in our town. I also loved this, but had to work many bank holidays and weekend and was often away from the family when they had free. So when the job came along in the Christian school I jumped at the chance. (I had heard it was a good place to work!) I love to clean so having a cleaning job was just a plus. So after a visit to the school, which had a fantastic atmosphere, I really hoped I would get the job. I did!! I have been there for 2 years and am not thinking of leaving in the distant future!! Love it, love it, love it!