It´s all go........

I can´t believe another couple of weeks have passed since my last update!! So here we go - a mega update!!

Tuesday 8th November I had a chat evening with some friends from back home in Ireland. After years of not being in touch we have all re-connected again through Facebook and so we decided to have a chat night with video. It was fun (when we finally got it all up and running!) to actually talk to each other face to face. The world really is a small place with all this technology. Wish they had of had all this when Kristian and I were dating!!

That evening the weather turned cold here in Denmark and we had our first fall of snow. I was over the moon!! It was all just sooo cosy! 

Wednesday 9th November I went on my first bike ride with an old person from the home. I was rather nervous - not about meeting the man I would be taking out,  but about biking on such a huge bike and not really knowing the area.  

Before I left work I studied a map of the area and found a bike path that would lead us out to a lake. It all looked good! 

I got of to a good start with the man, but unfortunately I didn´t get of to a good start with the bike. Getting the bike to co-operate with what I wanted it to do was nearly impossible. I could not get it down from 8th gear!! The battery didn´t seem to kick in when I used the battery control and so I struggled to try and bike in 8th gear with a big man in the front. It was such hard work!! haha

At one stage we came to a hill, I made it half way up the hill with help from the battery, but then the battery decided to stop co-operating again and we ended up rolling back down the hill. What a disaster!! haha But we had a good laugh about it all. I ended up getting of the bike and pushing it up the hill. 

Even though I thought it was a bit of a disaster, the man really enjoyed himself and when we got back to the home he told the personal how much fun it was!

Friday 11th November Leah, Lasse and I had a date! They came and met me from work as they wanted to go to the local garden centre to see the huge Christmas exhibition.

 Leah and  I loved walking around the place. Poor Lasse had to stick two of us getting all excited about Christmas. We bought a few new Christmas decorations.

We ended the date with hot chocolate and cookies. We then dropped Lasse of home and Leah and I came home and sorted out all our Christmas decorations. We were in such a Christmasy mood.

Saturday 12th December we had Andrew and Camilla for dinner, along with Lasse and Leah. We had such a decilious meal and then we all headed out to the cinema together to see the new film -Hacksaw Ridge. 

It was based on a true story. It was about a man who made God a promise that he would never pick up a gun. A few years later he enrolled in the army as a Medic, but was expected to learn how to use a gun. He refused and kept his promise to God even against all the pressure from those around him. 

At the end of the film you got to see an interview with the actual man that the film was about. It was such a good film.

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We had such a lovely Saturday with the kids. 

 In between all the different activities there was also time for relaxing and eating our favourite cake!

 Sometimes there was just time for relaxing without the cake. (Photo taken by Leah who thought we were both sooo cute, lying on the sofa, dead to the world :-)

Leah also got into the relaxng mode, together with the cats. 

Monday 14th November I had a date with my friend Audry. She was in need of a chat and since I love to chat we headed out to the local cafe for dinner.  We had a good evening together. 

Thursday 17th November my friend Pernille started a Sewing/Creative club in her home. She has decided to open her home once a month for us girls to come and be creative. We can sew, knit, mend clothes, or just sit and chat. I was sooooo looking forward to it. I decided that I would try and make a curtain that evening. 

I am not the best at sewing but I bought some material and just jumped in at the deep end! I had no idea what I was doing but it sure was fun!

I had a curtain made by the end of the evening. It´s a little on the crooked side but not bad for my first attempt (even if I say so myself). I hung the curtain up when I got home on Thursday evening. On Saturday Kristian said to me "Hey Laura what did you make at Pernille´s house the other night?" He hadn´t even noticed that the curtain in the kitchen had been changed!!! MEN!

Saturday 19th November we celebrated Thanksgiving with our American neighbour. She had invited us and a couple of other friends over for dinner. 

We had such a cosy evening together chatting, laughing, playing games and just sharing life. 

 The turkey was delicious!

 So was the pumkin pie!

We all ate far too much!!

On Tuesday 22nd November I was finally got to meet up with my friend Rhona. We hadn´t seen each other in ages and I could hardly wait to get out of work and get to the cafe to catch up with her. 

We ordered our food and spent the afternoon together enjoying good food and good company!! 

When I got home from my afternoon with Rhona I found a sick hubby waiting. He was loaded with the cold. We had talked about going to the cinema that evening but now he didn´t feel up to it. 

He just wanted to spend the night on the sofa. 

I decided I would go alone. The film we wanted to see was an Italian one and it was only showing that night. It was sooooo good. I was so glad I went. Kristian got a full report when I got back home :-)

Wednesday 23rd November and I was out biking again. This time it was a great success!!

When I went to collect the person I should take out I discovered it was the same man as last time. He was singing as he was walking down towards the bike,  he was sooo happy to be going out biking again . I told him he was a brave man after the last time! 

So this time the bike cooperated with me, the gears and battery worked and we had a fantastic bike ride. We made it out to the lake and sat and saw the swans on the water while we watched the sun go down. It was dark when we got back. He wanted to sing while we biked, so he and I sang Christmas songs and waved and shouted hello to everyone that we passed. It was such a great ride.

When I was finished with my bike ride I said goodbye and headed to my car because I was headed on another mission! I had to get McDonalds for dinner for my friend Jette, her two kids and me. I was going straight to their house. We would eat dinner together and then Jette was going to teach Art at the local night school. I was getting to play Granny and would look after her two kids. 

What fun that was! We drew pictures, played paino and we played games. When it was time for bed I got to read them a story. They think my accent is sooo funny, so they enjoy listening to me trying to read in Danish. It was then a goodnight song and prayer and before I left the room they both were asleep. 

I spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the livingroom just enjoying the peace and quiet. 

It was fun playing Granny! When I came home at 10pm Kristian was still loaded with the cold. He had not gone to work and had been sleeping all day. Glad to say he is feeling alot better this evening. He, once again, slept for most of today. I have been keeping my distance from him as I now have a few holiday days, and I don´t want to be sick!!

New challenges.....

I have been wanting to do some sort of volunteer work for a while now but just wasn´t sure what. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw that the old people´s home close to where I work, was looking for people to come and take the old people out for a bike ride. I knew this was it! This was what I wanted to do. 

I have missed working with old people so I filled out the form and sent it away. Within a few days I was contacted and told about what was involved. I would have a bike course to learn how to handle the huge bike that they used and once I was approved, then I could start to take the old people out biking.

So over the last 2 weeks, I have been up at the home a couple of times having lessons on how to maneuver the bike. It took a bit of getting used to, however, I was approved on my last visit and on Wednesday of this week I will go out with my first old person. I must admit, I am rather nervous!! It´s one thing biking around on your own, another thing when you have an old person sitting in the front!!! But I am looking forward to it. I now have to study a map of the area to find out where all the bike paths are! 

I will be volunteering there every other Wednesday. I think it´s going to be good!

So what else have we been up to over the last couple of week? 

Well, we have been in helping Kristian´s mum with some housework. She still has her bad back and finds doing hosuework difficult. So I have been down visiting helping her hoover and wash floors. 

We also attended my brother-in-laws birthday. We were invited down for tea/coffee and cake. We were a small group, only 7 of us, just some of the family that lived close by, but we sure had a cosy evening together. 

I was out one evening with my friend Audry. This time we gave Ikea a miss and went out for dinner instead. We had delicious food and a really good chat. We ended the evening with a hot chocolate - you can´t get better than a hot chocolate on a cold, winters evening!

                                                                  The red carpet was out for the ladies arriving. 

I had also arranged a Ladies night here at home. I had invited a few girls from the family and some of my girlfriends to a Clothes Party. Kirsten, one of the wives of Kristian´s go-kart friends, sells clothes and so she came with all that she had for us to see.

We started the evening with a few fun games where you could win a few prizes. Then Kirsten showed us the clothes and explained the different outfits, a few more short games and then it was time to try on clothes. We went mad! It was sooo much fun - 10 ladies trying on clothes in every room of the house. 

We ended the evening with coffee and cake. It was such a success! This is not the last time I will do this. All the ladies want an evening again in the Spring. 

On Friday evening Kristian texted me at work to tell me to be ready  by 6pm for a date. We were going out. Kristian and I literally had not seen or spoken (only via text messages) to each other since Sunday. He was out when I was home and vice versa, and I was always sleeping by the time he got home,  so I was sooo looking forward to our date night and having time to talk and catch up with each other.

So at 6pm I was waiting for Kristian to come home from work. He had booked a table at an Italian restaurant that we went to a couple of years ago. We really enjoyed their food, but just hadn´t managed to make it back since then. 

We had a delicious meal and we talked and talked and talked. It was wonderful!!!

At 9pm we were finished with our meal and so decided to head over to the cinema to see if there was a good film. The Accountant was about to start so we went in to see it. It was such a good film, really exciting. It was late when we got home, tired but happy.