My man came home........

.....last Monday afternoon my man came back home to me from Italy.

It had been a successful trip for him. He had gotten the go-karts that he needed for his customers and he had also had time to see some go-kart racing. So he was a happy man!!  He had driven through the night, so by the time he got home he was a wee bit exhausted. It was an early night for him - already at 8pm he was in the land of Nod. It was great to have him home again.

Wednesday I was up early even though I was starting work a little later that day. I decided to make the most of my morning and went for a short walk in the forest. It was a beautiful morning and I enjoyed the nature that surrounded me.  

Thursday afternoon we had a snow storm. I was loving it, it was just sooo cosy. After dinner Kristian and I headed out into the storm. (I know we were crazy!)  We were going to our local Library as they had a special evening planned - "Bedtime stories for Adults." I had been soooo looking forward to this, and I couldn´t believe that Kristian wanted to come along with me to hear a bedtime story read aloud! So no snow storm was going to keep me away from this! haha

We were 10 adults all seated on comfy chairs, with our pillows and blankets. The Library served coffee, tea and chocolate. At 7.30pm the reading began. There was time for 5 short stories, each about 15 - 20 minutes long. In between each story we could go get a little more tea, coffee or chocolate. There were different types of stories, some thought provoking, some funny, some a little scary and there was also a Fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson. It was a brilliant experience. Even Kristian loved it! We totally relaxed and by the end of the evening we were soooo ready for bed. 

My friend and I turned up in our PJs. 

The two women that took turns to read had fantastic voices. They had a real talent for reading and making the story come alive. 

We met some of our friends there so it was good to experience this with them. This will not be the last time we go to one of these evenings! 

When we came home we went straight to bed. 

Friday was a beautiful day. I enjoyed seeing the snow against a clear blue sky.

It wasn´t only beautiful outside, inside our school the children had painted mosaic windows and the colours were just fantastic, reflecting on the floor and walls. 

On Friday there was an incident at school that just made my day. 
It was Fastelavn - a bit like Halloween and all the kids were dressed up. I decided to put on a blonde wig and join in the fun. I looked awful, but that was the whole idea.

One of the little girls started talking to me about my real hair. She asked if my real hair had always been dark. I said "Yes - but now because I am so old my hair is all grey."  Well to this a little boy behind her said " Laura you are not old, I think you look 27!!"  That little boy made my day!! haha 


Friday evening we went to the local get-together in our village.Those from the village that are interested, gather together at the Farm and eat Gullasch. On Friday we were about 50 people. The food was delicious.

 We always have a sing along. Those that can play instruments make a band and the rest of us sing along. It was another cosy evening there.

The weekend also passed quickly. It was spent cleaning, reading, relaxing, and going on a date with hubby. He had invited me out to dinner on Saturday evening. Even though we had hung out during the week, we were never alone so we hadn´t had a chance to really talk, we got that chance on Saturday evening when we went to a cosy cafe and had a 3 course meal. Loads of time to talk. 

Another good week gone!

A lovely break......

I had a lovely break from work and every day life. 

On the Tuesday of my holiday week, Kristian had off too, so we decided to spend the day today. We had gotten a gift card for Brunch at one of our local cafes, so we decided to start the day by going to the cafe to use it.  We were not disappointed in what was served up for us!! It was delicious!

After getting our bellys filled, we went on a mini roadtrip and explored different areas. It was a beautiful day.

Late afternoon we headed home again. We picked up some food from one of the local restaurants and took it home. We sat on the sofa, ate our dinner and watched TV. The perfect ending to a great day!

On the Wednesday, Kristian was back at work again and I was home. I had to look after our neighbour´s cats while they were away on holiday. Well what a morning I had!! They have a door that is not the easiest to lock! You have to lift the handle up and turn the key - well I just could not get that door to lock. I opened and closed that door about 5 times and could just not get the key to turn. Finally on the 6th attempt the key turned and when I took it out of the lock I only had half a key!!!! HELP!!! What a disaster!!! The door was still unlocked! I couldn´t leave it - I was stressed!! haha After a few phone calls and a bit of waiting around, the whole thing got sorted. Our neighbour now had a new lock and a door that I could easily get in and out of  to feed the cats!! 

I had planned to go to Copenhagen that day but by the time I got everything sorted out it was after 11am and I was exhausted!!! hahaha SERIOUSLY!!!

I decided I was not in the mood for a trip to the big city and so just spent the rest of the day relaxing at home watching TV. I read too, started a drawing (which was a mess - still working on it) and got a few things sorted out in my painting room. 

 Above is the drawing I started of myself at about 15 years old. Hahaha hilarious - still needs a lot of work!! 

Then in the evening I had dinner with my friend Audry in one of our local cafes. It was good to see her again.

On the Thursday of my holiday week, I drove Leah to work and then went to visit Kristian´s mum. She still has trouble with her back and so I said I would come visit and clean for her. I told her to give me whatever job she wanted. She gave me the bathroom. She really wanted to start some Spring cleaning and so I cleaned that bathroom from top to toe!! I love doing things like that. A couple of hours later and I was finished. We ate lunch together and then I headed home again. 

Meanwhile Kristian was off work and getting ready for a long journey. He was driving to Italy to collect go-karts for his go-kart shop. He would be gone until Monday. 

Friday was spent getting my own house cleaned and then my friend Laura and I went to the movies. We saw the film LION. Oh my, what a film!! I cried my eyes out. By the time I got home from the movies I had such a sore head. Laura stayed the night here in our spare room. It´s fun with a spontaneous sleepover.

Saturday, early afternoon,  Leah, Lasse and I went out shopping in one of the towns close by. Leah and Lasse then headed for the cinema and I headed home to make some food for myself and enjoy some alone time. It was good!

Sunday was church then an afternoon spent reading. Sunday evening Laura came over and we watched a service sent LIVE from Whitewell Church in Ireland. It was their 60th anniversary and I enjoyed having church in my own wee norn iron accent. Laura had trouble understanding half of what they said. haha My friend from school - Alex was singing at the meeting so it was great to hear his powerful voice. Unfortunately we only saw half of it as our interenet started to play up - it kept freezing. We ended the evening by putting on a DVD with Bible teaching. It was good stuff! :-)

Monday it was back to porridge again! All in all though, it was a really good, relaxing holiday! 

I got to play Granny.....

So last weekend I got to play Granny. We had asked our friends Jette and Filip if we could borrow their kids for a few hours to take them a trip to Copenhagen for some fun. They were more than happy for us to look after them for a while.

So we left early Saturday morning and headed into Build a Bear in Copenhagen. What a blast we had in there! (Or maybe I should say I had a blast! haha) Well the kids enjoyed it too, Kristian was the only one who kept rolling his eyes at me! haha 

Josefine had been saving her pocket money for a Bear and so she was able to buy an Elsa Bear! She was over the moon. 

After that we headed to Toys R Us so Jonathan could look at some boy things.

Kristian and Jonathan headed to the boy`s section while Josefine and I went exploring in the girl`s section. I had promised to buy them each something from Toys R Us. However they couldn´t find anything they liked so I suggested (to Kristian´s disgust) that we head over to Ikea. 

Well it was sooo hilarious to see how the kids reacted - they got soooo excited. (Kristian on the other hand didn´t!) 

Kristian said he would go to the electronic store as he was not putting a foot in Ikea. (All the stores are situated in the same complex.) So away he went to his shop and I went with the two kids to mine.

As we walked over to Ikea Jonathan turned to me and said "Laura, why does Krisitan want to go to such a boring shop! Ikea is much more fun." He is my kinda kid!! haha

It was sooo much fun being in Ikea with those two, they literally got sooo excited to be there, and Jonathan was showing me loads of things that he thought was great. He kept saying "I love Ikea, don´t you Laura! " haha 

The highlight for them was going down into the plant section. So I ended up buying them not a toy each, but two plants and pot holders for them. They were soooo happy with their presents. 

Kristian was finished long before us so he came and joined us in Ikea and couldn´t believe how excited the kids were to be there! haha 

We had a blast! We ended the outing with a trip to McDonalds for lunch. It was then home to their mum and dad for dessert - apple crumble and cream. A perfect way to end the day.

It was such a fun day out and I enjoyed playing Granny sooo much. The kids were a pleasure to have and it was wonderful to have two chatterboxes in the car again!

On Wedensday we went to a concert - a Bryan Adam`s concert. We had bought tickets together with a couple of our friends Mette and Klaus. Mette works right in the centre of Copenhagen so we met up at her work before the concert and ordered pizzas for dinner. 

The concert was brilliant. Bryan never fails to deliver a fantastic concert!! 

There was a lot of snow that evening so we had to drive rather slowly the whole way home - but Copenhagen was sooo beautiful covered in a blanket of snow.

I got another drawing done during the week. My first attempt at drawing from a photo and not from a lesson on Youtube. It is mean´t to be me as a baby but the mouth isn´t totally right and the eyes too. Wish I knew what I was doing! haha

On Saturday Kristian and I had a date day planned. We got up early and headed out. It was such a beautiful day and so we went on a Roadtrip around places we hadn´t really explored before. We had such a lovely day out. 

I now have a week off work. Today was my first holiday day and I  just loved being able to do whatever I felt like!

 I decided to spoil myself today. I went to our local Butcher and bought myself one of his delcious sandwiches. Then I headed to the Bakery for a cream bun and a tin of coke! I came home and got ready for some true Danish Hygge (cosiness)!!

 I spent the morning reading, then I enjoyed my lovely lunch and finally I spent the afternoon drawing. 

This was my first attempt at drawing with colour pencils. It was sooo hard but sooo much fun. 

This evening Laura and I headed to the movies. We went to see Hidden Figures. What a great movie, I can totally recommend going to see it! 

A new month - already?!!!

I can´t quite believe that it´s 1st February already! January seemed to go by so quickly, (although on the financial side, it went slow! From about the 10th January I was looking forward to pay day,  I thought it would NEVER come!!)

We had a busy January.

We got a little snow - but it didn´t stay long:-( 

I had a few nights out with a few different friends. The first night out was with an old neighbour. We had dinner together at an Italian restaurant and then went to see the new Will Smith film - it was rather special, but I liked it (we both had a wee cry in the cinema!) We had such a lovely evening together.

Another night out on the town was with my friend Audry. Guess where we went?  Yes, Ikea - our favourite place!

There was the Sewing Club one Thursday, there were bike rides with the old people.

I also had to work late one day and when I went to bed I looked at my step counter to see how much I had walked. I had managed to walk over 14km!!! That explained why I was sooo tired!! Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night! :-) 

Off course I had to have a few dates with hubby in January too - we have got to keep the romance alive in 2017!!

One date night was out at the movies. Another was out in the forest and back home to homemade chocolate fudge cake, hot out of the oven with ice cream!! It was delicious!

We also went to visit a town in the South of Denmark. We hadn´t been there for years, so we took a Saturday to go and explore the place. We had lunch in a lovely Italian restaurant (Hhhhmmmm I seem to have a thing for Italian restaurants! Should I be living in Italy instead of Denmark?!) 

We loved walking about the place seeing the old buildings and just hanging out together.

We ended the day by going to see Kristian´s brother Peter and his wife and kids. They had just moved into their new home that they had specially built! We wanted to check the place out - it was gorgeous! We brought cake along and they made coffee/tea and we had a lovely couple of hours with them before heading home. 

Last weekend I spent with Kristian´s sister Hanne. We went to a Bible Conference in one of the churches in Copenhagen. It started on Friday evening and ended Saturday evening. Since Hanne lives in Copenhagen I went down to her after work on Friday. We took the bus into the meeting and then I went home and stayed at her place. We had a lovely weekend not only together, but with alot of other Christians.

Kristian came and picked me up from Hannes on Saturday evening. 

 I also started drawing again - and not just in my Bible journalling. My friend at work is one of the Art teachers and she challenged me to start drawing again, she also inspired me with her own drawings - so I did it. It has been sooo much fun (and rather relaxing!) to sit and draw in these dark winter evening. 

Yesterday (31st March) I stopped work early. I was going to Copenhagen to meet my friend Genny. She had received a gift card for a facial in one of Copenhagen´s oldest massage clinics and she wanted to take me along to enjoy the gift with her. 

What an experience that was!!! WOW 1 hour of cleansing, scrubs, creams, head massage, neck massage, face massage, steam, hot towels - wow I felt like a million dollars after it all.

We then went out to dinner to chat and catch up with each other. 

Earlier in the day, just before I left work, Sara rang me to say hello. She told me she was on her way to Copenhagen with work. She was going to a Conference and was staying in one of the hotels close to where the Conference was. I told her I was on my way to Copenhagen too so we arranged to meet for tea/coffee later in the evening after her meetings and my dinner with Genny.

By 8pm her meetings were finished and we were able to meet. It was soooo lovely to see her walking along the train station towards me, and even though we only had 1½ together, it was sooo good. 

Even though January treated us pretty good, we did get some sad news near the end of the month. 

Some friends from Ireland had sad news, their father died. (It´s at times like these that being miles apart is hard.) 

Billy was a really lovely man. I knew him from our church. He was always such a gentleman, always had a smile on his face and he was so easy to talk to. He loved Jesus so I know where he is today, (I like to think that my mum and dad were there to greet him at the gates of Heaven.) I know he wouldn´t swap places, but for those left behind it is hard and I feel for his wife and our friends - his children. They have to learn to go on without him and that is not easy. One thing is for sure - they have many precious memories.