Take your blood.....

"Take your blood" this is something I say regularly to my niece when she comes to stay. You see she has diabetes. When she was younger and I wanted her to check her blood sugar levels I would always say "Annie, take your blood". She would always remind me that that was not the correct way to say it. Off course that made me say it all the more just to tease her :-) So this sentence has become a bit of joke between the two of us after all these years.


She has had diabetes for many years and is really good at looking after it all herself, working out how much insulin she needs, checking her sugar levels etc. 

Well Annie arrived today while I was a work. Leah has been looking forward to seeing her all week. When I arrived home the girls were having a great time organising the bedroom. (They are sleeping in our bed and Kristian and I are moving into the livingroom to sleep for the next few days.) They decided they wanted to have a nap and try out our bed. I told them that I would wake them after ½ hour as I wanted them to be able to sleep tonight. So ½ hour later I went into wake them. They both were fast asleep so I was my usual loud self!

They both woke a little and turned over. I went out to start dinner. After a few minutes I went in again and tried to wake them again. I tickled their feet, smacked their bottoms and shouted "Wakey, wakey lazy heads!!  They both were still a bit groggy. I then went out and continued with dinner. After 5 minutes I went in again. This time Leah was up sitting on the bed, wide awake and cuddling the cat,  but her cousin was still lying sleeping. It was at this point that I started to suspect something might be wrong.

I crawled unto the bed and shook my niece, she opened her eyes but didn´t seem to notice me. It was hard to get contact with her...her blood sugar was low. I gave her 2 pieces of sugar sweets that she takes, but these didn´t seem to have any effect. I was getting really worried and trying my hardest not to panic! I rang for an ambulance. Within 10 minutes the ambulance was here, but it was the longest 10 minutes of my life!!

They got the needed sugar into her. Luckily she came around pretty quickly so she was able to walk down to the ambulance. Good thing, I was wondering how on earth they would carry her out through the tiny opening in our room!  We both had a ride in the ambulance (with two really lovely ambulance men - right Annie?!) They wanted to check her over to make sure everything was ok. It was! Thank goodness for that. 

The one question I forgot to ask today when I came home was "Annie have you taken your blood!"  Well you can be sure she will be getting that question asked every hour now on the hour!!! 

The girls are now enjoying being together again. They are planning their day tomorrow - something to do with make overs and model shows. It´s my last day at work tomorrow and then I am of for 4½ weeks. I can hardly wait:-)

Silver and Gold.....

We have had a few busy days filled with lots of celebrations. 

First there was a golden wedding anniversary of a couple from our church. We gathered at their house early Friday morning and sang some songs outside their house until they came out and invited us in for coffee/tea and some fresh bread! 50 years of marriage - that really is something!

Then on Saturday we went to a graduation party for our niece Christine. In Denmark you get a white hat for graduation and this you wear for days after the graduation. We also celebrated her brother Christian who passed his exams as a truck mechanic. Christian hates being in the centre of attention, but he did get a little attention on Saturday even though the party was offically for Christine.

There were sooooo many cakes! I ate too much again!

 Kristian was just like me.......in fact he ate even more than me!! See, I even caught him in the act.......

This morning we have been up since 5am!! No it´s not a typing mistake! 5AM - FIVE AM!!!!! Why?? Well Kristian´s brother Anders and his wife Lis have been married 25 years today and so we were all off to a morning celebration. We had to be there by 6.45am (Kristian was playing in the brass band that would "wake" them up.)

The house was decorated so beautifully.

The happy couple came out in their PJs and bathrobe. Lis even had rollers in her hair!! haha This gave everyone a laugh!

 Breakfast was then served....

 One of their daughters held a wonderful speech for them on behalf of all the girls and then Kristian´s sister Signe sang a beautiful song for them. Anders also held a beautiful speech for Lis. (Must admit I shed a few tears - and I was not the only one!) It was a really lovely morning. We then had to go as Kristian had to be at work by 9.30am! Poor him. I am off work today and in a few minutes am heading back to bed for a few hours!

Share your faith...

So this morning I went into Amazon to order a few books for my holidays. I looked at fiction books, teaching books, and biographies. Amazon also had a load of recommendations and there was one book called 23 minutes in Hell. I had a look at it but wanted to check it to out, find out more about the author.


I went into google and checked things out and also went to youtube to see if there was anything on there. This in turn lead me to something else. I found this video called "Atheist died, went to hell and back".  I thought I would check it out. I´m glad I did.  


I got really blessed and challenged by what the man said. His story was amazing!! It`s really the man´s testimony.What a messed up life he had yet God turned it all around. It´s soooo amazing how God can change a life! Check it out.


It´s not that long - part 1 is about 10 minutes and part 2 is the same.  I can´t seem to embed the video but the links are below. Just highlight them, copy and paste. (or else go to youtube and put in the title Atheist dies, went to hell and back."


Part 1.
http://youtu.be/jvIbqf7MuE0


Part 2.
http://youtu.be/cF_gJgILBiE


Now I better get up and get going:-) Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

So many bargins and so little money.....

Kristian is still away on his course and today was my last offical free Wednesday. After the summer holidays I will be working every day of the week! (but that´s ok!)


So since Kristian´s course was being held a 15 minute drive from here, and since he had an hour free after lunch, we decided to meet up. It was soooo good to see him. He has been away from Sunday.

 We had a lovely hour sitting at the harbour, like two old people watching the world go by. 

After I left him I decided to take a drive to our nearby town. I had a lovely few hours there. I walked through the castle grounds taking pictures and walked up into the town. (I had actually parked the car at the castle grounds as there´s free parking so I had a bit of a walk up to the shopping centre! haha) But the weather was beautiful and I really enjoyed it. There were soooo many bargins in town! Nearly every shop had a sale with 70% off. I could have gone mad. So many bargins and so little money. I could have got the girls loads of things for Christmas!! 

I had planned to spend the afternoon with the kids, but they had other things planned. Sara had to work at the go-kart track, Leah was going to a friends from school and Andrew was also with a friend. So I enjoyed hanging out with myself. 


Then this evening Leah, Andrew and I had a lovely evening hanging out together at home. We ordered pizzas for dinner to celebrate some good news that we got. Andrew got a letter today to say he had been accepted into the school he wants to attend after summer. It´s for his further education. He was over the moon, so we had to celebrate:-) We ate pizzas in the living room while watching TV. 


Sara finished her exams yesterday and did really well. She has only one year to go till graduation!! But for now she is working like mad trying to get as much money together for her trip to Barcelona in a few weeks time. She is heading off with 4 friends from school and they have rented a really lovely apartment in Barcelona, and the most important detail - PRIMARK is just around the corner!!! haha 


So poor Sara missed out on the pizza, although there are a few slices left in the fridge:-)


It´s been a really good day:-)

I am with you ALWAYS

I just love this photo that Leah recently put on her blog.  When I saw it, I wanted to post it too.


Leah and her friend Cecille were out taking pictures on one of the hot sunny days that we had recently. They had a blast and took some really great pictures. This one is my favourite. Leah all alone blowing a dandelion, yet when you look closely you see that she isn´t really alone. In the shadow you can see someone is there with her. 

Made me think of God. Even though at times it can look like we are alone and it can feel like we are all alone, we never are.  God is always there! 


Matthew 28,18 "....and lo I am with you ALWAYS, even unto the ends of the earth!"

It´s been a long, but good day.....

Yes it has been a long day but a good day! My day started with me leaving the house at 6.30am and then arriving back home at 7pm!  


After work I went to visit my old lady friend. She hasn´t been well the last few months. Every Tuesday when we talked about going out shopping together she just wasn´t up to it but today she was feeling good. So after work I collected her and we went to town. We had a great afternoon going around the shops. It has been 2½ months since she last has been to town! It was wonderful to see her enjoying the trip. She even got herself some new clothes. After 2½ hours of shopping she was ready for home. Once I dropped her off she insisted I have a glass of coke and then we talked for another hour and a bit!! I finally arrived home at 7pm. 


Luckily I had planned an easy dinner so within 15 minutes dinner was on the table:-) Then I was off out again to visit my friend Jette. We had arranged a girlie night in at her place. We were in the mood to see one of our favourite films..."Under the Tuscan Sun". That film is our dream:-) An old house that needs to be done up, situated right in the middle of the most wonderful countryside!! We were in dreamland all evening. We had a lovely evening!

I finally arrived home at 10.45pm. just in time to say good night to Leah and have a quick chat with Sara and Andrew. Kristian is away on a course with his work and he will first be home on Saturday. 


Like I said it has been a long day but a good day. I am now ready for bed. Tomorrow I have nothing planned so I think I will give my kids a bit of attention and have a cosy afternoon and evening with them:-)

Happy Father´s Day - DAD!!!

Having just been on facebook I discovered that today is Father´s Day in Ireland. (oops I am not very organised!)


So Dad, Happy Father´s Day....the video below is for you:-) I love you! You are a really great DAD!! 

Family day!!

Every year we hold a family day with Kristian´s family. A time when the whole family gets together and has some fun. It is always held the weekend after Pentecost and this year it was Kristian´s younger brother - Peter that was to arrange it. 


Usually we go away on a picnic and explore some new park, gardens, or lake. Today the weather forecast was dreadful. Peter had arranged a picnic at an old castle with beautiful grounds around it. A treasure hunt was included in the fun and a guided tour of the castle was also on the programme. However it all had to be cancelled due to rain. So what should we do? What can you do with 29 people and 2 dogs?!!!


Well we decided to go down to our church and hold the day there. At least there we had room for all those people. 


So the day started with everyone turning up at our apartment. Never has there been sooo many people in our apartment at the one time. Then we all left and went down to the church. We enjoyed just being together, chatting, playing games,  eating delicious food and off course singing! When we are with Krisitian´s family we always end up singing!! I love it:-) 


(So for the family, here is a video clip of the day:-)

I wonder, have you heard of the Gaithers? You know the folks that make the "home coming DVDs" where they are sitting around singing old hymns and country songs. Well the Gaithers can now go home!! We have a new group in town! The Rasmussen Family are now all the rave!! Below is a clip from their new Danish Home Coming DVD haha.....Enjoy:-)

My heart was touched....

...when my 4th graders came to me today with a letter. A good bye letter. 

I told them yesterday that I would not have them next year for English. I decided a month or so ago that I didn´t want to teach English next year. Why?  Well first there is the time I use in preparation. Even though I have a whole load of ideas now ready,  I would still need to prepare a little. Every class is different and what works with one class doesn´t always work with another. Did I want to spend time preparing? 

The second reason for stopping was because of the discipline.  Alot of my time and energy has been spent just getting the children to behave. Again, every class is different, some are better than others but even so, time and energy is used each day disciplining and sorting out conflicts. Did I want to use my energy in this way?

Time is precious and over the last few months I have thought about how I want to spend my time in the near future.  I decided that I didn´t want to teach anymore. I wanted to use that preparation time in another way. I wanted to use the energy that I had, in some other way. 

So what I want to do is use my time and energy visiting and helping the old people in my town. I have done this for a few years now but over the past year I have not been able to do as much, mainly because of the teaching.  I love visiting the old people and helping them out. It´s there that my heart is and we should do those things that our heart burns for!! Right?!! :-) 

So this morning 10 minutes before I should go and teach my 4b class, the girls came and found me. They had a letter for me. A letter that melted my heart. They told me how much they loved having me as their teacher and that they were soooo sad that I would not be teaching them next year. They said that they had learnt so much English in the past year. It was all too much - I was ready to cry!! I gave them all a hug and said a big thanks.

 Then as if the letter wasn´t enough, one of the girls pulled out a bunch of flowers for me. It was from them all!! I was so over the moon with the letter - the flowers just blew me away!!

When I got to class, one of the boys in the class came up and gave me a box of chocolates!! Now I was nearly crying! He had stuck my name on the box so it read "I love Laura!" How sweet is that?


We had our last English lesson for this year. It went really well. Over the last couple of weeks the children have been practising fairy tales in English and they have been acting them out. They said all their lines in English and did a really good job too.


The last two groups got to perform their fairy tales today. They too did a great job. Then it was up to the library to hand in our English books. I had made rice crispy buns for them all, so on returning from the library we sat and ate them together before finishing the hour with 10 minutes of Shaun the Sheep!  A nice way to end the year. 

What a story....

I am not going to say too much. I watched these videos tonight and they really blessed me. I hope they really bless you too. Take time to listen to them, it´s a fantastic story.......

Part 1...


Part 2...



Part 3...

So heavenly minded....

You´ve heard the saying "so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good!" Well I hope that isn´t true for me. For over the last few weeks, I  have been so heavenly minded!


I have been reading a few books on Heaven and it has been so encouraging and exciting. I sooo can´t wait to die!! Don´t worry I am not suicidal, I love my life!! But just the way I get excited about our family holiday trips, that´s the way I get excited about Heaven. 


I remember when we planned our first trip to France! I researched every detail of the area, what natural beauty spots we could visit, what other things we could see and the more I read the more excited I got. That´s how it has been for me over the last few weeks. My final destination is Heaven so now and then I like to do a little research about the place and that always leads to excitement!:-)


The first book I read was simplly called "Heaven"  by Randy Alcorn. (To be honest I haven´t finished it yet! It´s a thick book and it´s written from a Biblical point of view so there are many Bible verses to look up and think about....but one day I will finish it!) It got me started on this "Heavenly journey" and what I have read so far I have really enjoyed. It is well written and easy to follow. 



So while in the middle of reading "Heaven" I was talking to dad about it. (He was also reading it at the same time and we were talking about what we had read.) Then dad went on to tell me about a little boy he had seen on The God Channel that had written a book about his near death experience and how he claimed to have gone to heaven. Now that sounded interesting! I love books like that, so on I went to Amazon and ordered the book. It´s called "Heaven is for real" by Todd Burpo. While at the summerhouse I started to read it.  I started it Thursday lunchtime and by that evening I had it read! I couldn´t put it down. It was fantastic:-) An amazing story!!



While I was on ordering the previous book I saw one called "The boy who came back from heaven" by Kevin Malarkey . That sounded interesting too so I ordered it. (I read it also in one day!) This book didn´t focus as much on the boy´s experience in heaven but more on what the family went through and how God met their needs and performed miracles along the way. It was such a blessing to read and it helped me see, once again, how much God loves us, how much He is interested in every part of our lives and how there is a spiritual world around us that the physical eye can´t see, however that 
doesn´t make it any less real. I was really blessed by the book. 


So the holidays are coming up and if you are looking for some good books to read I recommend these three books. The last two are not so exspensive something like £6 each. (I can´t remember how much "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn costs - I´ve had it for a few years!) Happy reading!!

A little reminder.....

The video below is a little video to remind us girls of our weekend away. Hope you enjoy it girls. (You others are also welcome to view it but you might find it a bit boring!) 

So to Hanne, Lis and Christine, thanks for a great weekend....for all the chats, for all the food, for all the laughs and even thanks for the near death experience that we had!! haha It sure gave us a laugh!! (God sure had his angels watching over us!) I really enjoyed myself  and it´s a weekend that I will remember for a very long time:-)

What a weekend....

We have had a fantastic weekend away - just us girls.

My sister-in-law Hanne (Kristian´s sister) my sister-in-law Lis (Kristian brother´s wife) and my niece Christine went to Hamburg for the weekend. Our ulitmate goal was to hear Joyce Meyer speak on Sunday, but while waiting for Sunday to come we had fun exploring the city. We went shopping (this was mostly done by Christine!) we chatted, laughed and ate far too much food. 

Hamburg is a really lovely city with loads of things to see. I would like to come back some time and explore a bit more. (bring Kristian along the next time!)


Now we are all curled up in our beds in our 1 star hotel right in the centre of  Hamburg. Yes we booked a 1star hotel not knowing what standard to expect, but I must say it has been great. It is clean, the breakfast this morning was delicious, there was loads of food. The only thing that is a bit different is that we have a shower right smack bang in the middle of the room! Good job we know each other pretty well!! and I`m thankful that it was only the shower that was in the middle of the room and not the toilet! Anyway it´s a good hotel for the price that we paid.

Today we finally got to hear Joyce Meyers live. It was a brilliant day and she was fantastic. She spoke from Ephesians 1, 17 about Pauls prayer for us....that we should know God, not just know about Him but know Him intimately. The second thing Paul prayed for was that we would know who we are in Christ and then finally to know the power of God in our lives. 

The absolute best thing was that the angels were singing in heaven tonight. A couple of hundred people came to know the Lord as their Saviour. That was so touching to see!! 

Tomorrow morning we head home again but not before doing a spot of shopping at the boarder shop. It will be great to see Kristian and the kids again. It´s been a really wonderful trip. Thanks girls!!

Front page news....

 When our local newspaper arrived today who was on the front page? None other than Sara!!

The headline reads "Sara and the fast cars."  Sara is trying to help her friend Nicolaj get sponsors so he can race Formula Ford.  She made a presentation about Nicolaj and presented this to a load of companies. She actually got a good response from many of the companies and Nicolaj started to see sponsorships come rolling in. The local newspaper got word of this and wanted to interview Sara about how she got involved. It´s not only good publicity for Sara but also for Nicolaj!

Sara would love to manage a race team when she is finally finished with her education, so this is good practise for her. Now if things really take off she will have to offically set up a wee company. The name has already been decided....SR Management.


I can´t believe I have a daughter that is sooooo interested in kart-racing. I blame it all on her dad!!! The apple doesn´t fall far from the tree:-)

Here we are again.....

....sitting in our favourite café stuffing our faces with really yummie things!!

It´s been six weeks since I last saw Jette. I can´t believe where the time has gone. Once again we met up for our usually chit chat and catching up. Last time we were together we were healthy and bought smoothies to drink. Six weeks ago we were so motivated to start eating healthy and to also start exercising. Tonight we were so unmotivated so we went a bit crazy and ordered the Belgium Waffles with all the trimmings!! They were delicious. (Next time though we are going for a healthy option again - or so we say!!) 

We´re going home...

Todays the day that we go home. I am up early enjoying the view of the ocean for one last time (at least for this holiday.) The ocean is calm, there are a few boats sailing on it...I wonder where they are heading? Are they on their way home or just starting out on their journey?


I am feeling blessed to have been able to spend some days away from everything just relaxing. I have really enjoyed the nature around these parts...it is soooo beautiful! I have enjoyed being with God, I have enjoyed being with my family. Yes just BEING and not DOING has been the secret to this holiday! It has been a wonderful break away.

Last night (Saturday) Kristian´s sister Hanne, husband Flemming and their daughter Christine came up for a BBQ. We had a good evening! 

We enjoyed our coffee/tea and hot chocolate while watching a beautiful sunset.

And when we finally came inside this is what we could see from the window...

Now there is a load of packing to do, a house to clean and then a wee cat to get home to cuddle.  It will be nice to get home again and at home I still have the ocean view, even if it is only a pretend one!!


A video clip of memories from the summer house.....

We are relaxing....

...in the sun at a gorgeous location!! We are all away on a mini ferie to our church summerhouse. This is our family holiday this year since we don´t have a week in the summer that suits everyone to be together. We decided that since none of us had plans this weekend and we all had 2 days off work and school (Thursday and Friday) that we would go away and relax together. 

Andrew, Leah and I left on Wednesday at lunchtime. Sara had an exam and Kristian had to work but after work he picked up Sara and they both stopped by the airport to pick up Sara´s friend from Sweden - Måns. He was coming along too. They all arrived at the summer house in time for dinner and since then we have been relaxing. 
The sun has been out, books have been read, games have been played and even the "kids" have been in swimming (which I call crazy!!! the water is not at all warm!)  Anyway we are enjoying being away from reality for a while!