Another week gone.....

I can´t believe another week has gone by. It has been a lovely week with a good mixture of having things to do, but also having some time to relax too. 

 On Tuesday this was the view we had while eating dinner. 

Kristian and I went out to eat. We had a gift card for a local restaurant and decided to use it on Tuesday evening. The food was totally delicious! We had steak and they literally just melted in our mouths. The best part was that it didn´t cost us anything! Our kinda night out!

On Wednesday Sara arrived home again, so Wednesday and Thursday evening found us out walking again - or should I say, I went walking, Kristian and Sara were running. 

On Friday I was going out with work. We went to a restaurant that we had never tried before and we were not disappointed. The food  was delicious and once again it didn´t cost me a penny - work was paying!

 We had such a lovely evening out together. After dinner we headed back home to my colleagues house and ended the evening there with coffee, tea and chocolate!

My colleague is very creative and below is a dining room table that he made! I just love it! We also got to see the rest of his woodwork - very talented.

On Saturday it was our annual picnic trip with all of Kristian´s family. This time our picnic was taking us to Copenhagen, to one of the gardens that you can find in there.

We had such a great day together. The day started out cloudly but before long the sun was shining.

 My lovely mother-in-law sitting relaxing in the picture above. 

The picnic is a day when we all get together to relax and enjoy each others company. There is always good food and also lots of fun with different games. 

 This year we all went out on a row boat and heard a lot of interesting stories about the history of the garden.

 I loved the trees!

 Loads of  relaxing and chatting......

 We ate far too much.....

We ended the day with a game of rounders. We all really got into the game, and gave it our all. However we did forget one thing......that we are not as young as we think we are!!! 

You should have seen Kristian and me on Saturday evening, we both could hardly walk!! Next time we have family day we need to play chess, checkers and cards! haha

It was a really great day out. I love Kristian´s family and feel so blessed to be a part of them. They are all so easy going and we all just seem to enjoy hanging out together. 

The scary thing is this - before you know it, it will be time for our annual picnic again!!!

Rather uneventful....

Last week was rather uneventful. After a few busy weekends with weddings and confirmations, life settled down to it´s normal pace. 

The weather turned fanastic here. The week before I went to London I was wearing winter clothes and we had sleet and snow. The week after London the weather started to get warmer and warmer and last week we had temperatures of 20 -22 degrees. We were all in shorts and t-shirts. 

So I made the most of the good weather by going a lot of walks in the evening. 

On Monday evening I decided to find myself a special place to hold my quiet times with God, during the summer months. A place I can walk to, sit down, read, pray and worship.  I found this wonderful spot on Monday evening and throughout this last week have enjoyed my special times there. 

The words from Isaiah really ring true " Even youths my grow tired and weary, but those that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength."  At times last week I was feeling weary, but those special moments of waiting on God renewed my strength and gave me what I needed to keep going on. 

So I have done a lot of walking this week, in the evenings.  Walking alone but also with hubby. We went exploring and discovered a few more beautiful walking paths. 

On Tuesday I went with my neighbour to the cinema. It was my birthday present from her. We went to see Mother´s Day and really enjoyed it. 

We had talked about going to McDonalds before the film, but we decided we would be good and eat at home. So we were good. I only ate a chicken salad and was feeling so proud of myself for being good. But you know what they say "Pride comes before a fall!!" So when the film was over, I was straving and so was Laura as she too had only eaten a light salad. We got in the car and looked at each other, then Laura said "Lets...." and before she said anymore I said "YES!!!! lets go there!!!" hahaha I knew exactly what she was going to ask!! 

So we went to McDonalds!!! Now on the way we said to each other that we would only get 1 cheeseburger each! However when we got to the drive in window Laura ordered 2 for each of us!! After we devoured them we went and got one more each!! How disgusting are we???!!!! We felt sooo bad afterwards. No more McD´s for the next 6 weeks!!!

On Saturday I was helping at a confirmation. My friend´s son was getting confirmed and she had asked me to help in the kitchen. I thought it could be fun and I wanted to help them out. 

I was there all day Saturday and really enjoyed serving the food and clearing up all the dirty dishes after each course. I also had to entertain by turning up all dressed up to teach them the Thriller dance. It was hilarious and everyone really got into it. The day went by soooo quickly! I got home at 10.00pm totally exhausted but feeling really good about helping to make someones day special.

Today I have been off work. It´s Pentecost and so everywhere is closed. I have had a really lazy day. Leah is spending the day studying for her exams. Kristian is all in the mood to be active, so he is out clearing up the garage and as for me, I am catching up on here, on facebook and this morning I also started reading a new book by Christine Caine called Unashamed. It is really good, so as soon as I started reading my book my active mood (which I did have this morning when I woke) got up and left!!! I just want to sit and read - no fun out of me today! haha

The years roll on.....

It´s been an eventful week.

On Monday I celebrated having been 10 years at my workplace. I had actually forgotten about it but when I arrived on Monday there were flags everywhere and presents for me. I was totally taken by surprise.

 (I got a medal specially made for me by my colleage! It says "Congratulations with 10 years!")

I got a lovely bunch of flowers and a gift card to one of the local restaurants, so Kristian and I can go out to dinner. That was just so sweet of them to do something like that.

I can´t believe 10 years have gone by. When I took the job all those years ago my plan was to be there for about 3 or 4 years. I had been working as a carer for the elderly in our town but was tired of always having to work Easter, Christmas, and bank holidays. I felt like I wasn´t there for my kids, especially Leah, so that was when I started my search for a job in a school.

Leah was almost 9 years old when I got the job.  I thought if I stayed 4 years there Leah would be almost a teenager and so working holidays would not be such a problem. My plan was to go back to being a carer,  however that didn´t happen. I loved working at the school so much. What I thought was just a job to make ends meet and give me school holidays turned into a job that I have loved.

However maybe now is the time for me to try my hand at something else?!!! Who knows what the future will bring!! :-)

We had a confirmation in the family. Our niece (Kristian´s younger brother´s daughter) got confirmed on Thursday. It was a holiday here, but there was no long sleep in for us, we had to be at church for 10.30am.

The whole family were gathered and it was such a lovely service. After the service there was dinner for family and friends with loads of speeches, silly songs and fun entertainment.

It was such a lovely day in every way. We first arrived home at 10pm that evening.

Friday we were also of work. Kristian told me he had to go to work and I believed him. A little after 8am my alarm rang and Kristian was still in bed beside me. I paniced and said "Kristian you have slept in". His reply was "oh dear isn´t that awful, I don´t think I will bother going in then!" That´s when I knew he was of work, like me. Poor Leah though, had to get up and go to school. Unfortunately her school was not closed.

Kristian and I spent the day cleaning up. He cut the grass and cleaned up around the garden while I got stuck into the inside of the house which badly needed a clean.

Friday evening we relaxed and enjoyed our lovely clean, organised home. We watched some old home videos which was just lovely to see.

Saturday was my birthday. I turned 47!!! HELP!!!! I still feel about 20 - until I look in the mirror!

It was a race weekend and Kristian needed to be there to help his drivers, Leah and Andrew were both working and Sara was miles away in Århus. We would first celebrate together on Saturday evening.

My neighbour Laura invited me for breakfast at McDonalds. A few weeks back we went to McDonalds to get an egg mcmuffin but arrived at 10.20am but couldn´t buy one, they stopped making them at 10am. We both were soooo disappointed so to make up for our disppointment that day, we went back to celebrate my birthday.

Laura had decorated her car for the occassion.

We ate our muffins and then got a tour of the kitchen. I knew some of the people working there, they had been kids at my school so they were in on the fun of giving me a tour for my birthday.

After McDonalds we went furniture shopping. Laura is looking for a new sofa and we were going to check out what the different shops in the area had. We ended at the huge gardening shop with a wonderful coffee shop, though we had hot chocolate.

It was then home to relax. The weather was fanastic, it was about 22 degrees. I came home, changed into my shorts and went out into the garden to relax with my books. I spent the afternoon reading, although I did fall asleep at one stage.  It was a perfect afternoon. Just what I needed after a few busy weekends filled with activities.

At 6pm Kristian arrived home with Leah and Andrew not far behind. Lasse (Leah´s boyfriend) was at a confirmation and Camilla was in London with her mum and sister, so it was just us 4 out to dinner. We had such a lovely evening. We went to my favourite cafe and spent a few hours there catching up with each other.

It was then home to relax together on the sofa before Andrew headed back home to himself.

It was a lovely birthday. I got some great gifts. The kids gave me a basket filled with all sorts of stuff to use in the shower...brush, sponge, cream, massage thing, etc and a gift card for the body shop so now I can´t wait to go shopping there!

Kristian surprised me by getting me a new Kindle!!! That I was not expecting!! I was over the moon!! I love my books!!!

London....

.....was amazing!!

On Thursday I left, together with 3 girlfriends - Laura, Pernille and Nina, for London. We were going to Hillsongs Women´s Colour Conference in Wembley Arena. 11000 women would be attending and we were soooo looking forward to it.

We left Thursday morning and arrived in Luton at 11am. The hotel had arranged for a taxi to pick us up. Allan was the driver and he was a Londoner, born and bread there. What a laugh we had with him. He really got us of to a good start. He told us where all the best places were to eat and what we should see if we had anytime free.

Thursday afternoon we got settled into our hotel and then wandered around the local area.

We picked one of the local restaurants to eat in and had a very interesting political discussion with the waitor who came from somewhere in the Middle East. It all started with me saying we were going to a Woman´s Conference (glad I didn´t say Christian Woman´s Conference.) That small comment got him started on about how women had too much freedom and rights and men were loosing their position. At first I thought he was joking around but then realised he was rather serious about it all. When he heard there was an American in our group, well that really got him started!! (I at times wondered if we would leave the restaurant alive!!)  Rather a weird experience, but this was part of the adventure of being in London!

After dinner we headed over to Wembley Arena for the Opening meeting. We were excited. What a great evening we had. The worship and teaching were amazing. A great start to the conference.

Friday morning saw us ladies up early. Our hotel had a swimming pool and fitness room so we decided to make the best of it. We met at 7.15am and headed down to train. I did 15 minutes in the Gym on the different machines and then 15 minutes of swimming. It was such a wonderful way to start the day.

Then once again we were back at Wembley. The morning was filled with great teaching, and wonderful praise.

Friday afternoon Laura, Pernille and I  decided to head to Oxford Street to shop. Nina was going to meet an old friend that was living in London so we would meet her back at the conference for the evening session.

Oh how I loved shopping in Oxford Street. We three girls spilt up so we could get the most out of our shopping. I spent most of the afternoon in WH Smiths and Waterstones and even though I had no room in my case I ended up buying 3 books!! It was sooo wonderful to spend a Friday afternoon in a bookshop!

We headed back for the evening session and again were not disappointed in the teaching. Christine Caine and Holly Wagner were the guest speakers and Bobbie Houston lead the conference and also spoke at a couple of sessions. There was also a video teaching from Lisa Bevere on marriage which was really good.

I am looking forward to going through all my notes and digesting everything again but one thing that really spoke to me was a story that Christine Caine told. She was teaching about being the daughter of the King. How we need to know who we are. How we need to renew our minds with God´s word, get what he says about us on the inside of us so we can attack the thoughts that Satan comes and attacks us with. She illustrated it so well with a story about her own daughter.

Her husband had always told their daughter that she was beautiful, smart, she was the head and not the tail, she was above and not beneath, she was special, that God had a plan for her life etc. Well one day when she left her daughter of at school the teacher called her over and told her a story about something that had happened the day before. Her daughter was about 5 or 6 years old at the time, when a boy in her class went up and grabbed her teddybear out of her hands and said to her daughter "You are stupid and ugly." Christine thought maybe her daughter had punched him in the face for this and this was what the teacher was going to talk to her about but it wasn´t. When the boy did this, Christine´s daughter turned to him and with shoulders back and head held high she said..."No I´m not!! MY DADDY SAYS I`M SMART AND BEAUTIFUL!" and with that she took back her teddy bear and walked away.

Christine used this illustration to teach us that we need to hear the voice of our daddy God and hear what he says about us in his word so that when the enemy attacks we can get our shoulders back, hold our head high and say to the enemy "You´re a liar cause MY DADDY SAYS...." and hit back with what God says about us.

Oh I could write so much on the teaching we got, but I better stop.

Saturday morning we were back again at the conference. We spent Saturday afternoon close to Wembley Arena and checked out the shops in that area. Saturday evening was the final session and it did not disappoint!!

The session started early on Saturday evening and finished at 7pm so we decided to head into the heart of London and eat dinner. Kristian´s sister Hanne was also at the conference so she came with us. We went and saw the sights of London, we even rode on a double decker bus.

We found this wonderful little cafe with live jazz and we had our evening meal there. It was such a special atmosphere and we enjoyed the food and each others company. Friendship truly is a wonderful thing!

On Sunday we had a long lie in. I was sooo exhausted after our days of a full programme. We checked out of our hotel at 11am and went exploring in the area. We had brunch in a wee cafe before our taxi came to pick us up and take us back to the airport.

We arrived back in Denmark late Sunday evening feeling refreshed both physically, mentally and spiritually.  What a blessing to be able to attend something that caters for every part of us!!