She is all grown up...

...yes, its offical. This little girl is all grown up. Yesterday (Monday) Sara offically turned 18!!

Can you believe it??? I can´t - it seems like only yesterday that she was born.

So what did we do for the big day? Well nothing much! She had her big party at the start of August, and on Monday she was at school and then work. So she wasnt up to much either! (Getting old!!)

She had also got all her presents from us at her party but we couldnt let her get up to nothing so I made a wee present for her - it was a "girls night in" basket. There were cosy slippers, feet/bath salts to relax her tired feet, a film and some sweets. She was sooo happy with this as she didnt expect anything. There were a few cards from home with some money - another thing that made her happy!!

She had ordered her favourite food for dinner and Leah baked muffins and I made two different types of Danish birthday cake for her. We invited our neighbour and his 3 kids up to hot chocolate and cake. The kids love Sara as she has always been their babysitter. We had such a cosy evening with them.

Then the best ending to the birthday was that she got to book a flight to Belgium!! She had just enough money saved for the ticket!! So in a few weeks she is off to see Alessio - it is so weird seeing my daughter in love!! haha

A weekend with butterflies...

....butterflies in my stomach!!

Saturday evening there was a man called Tony Anthony coming to speak at our school. He is the author of the book "Taming the Tiger" which is a story about his life, - and what a life he has had!! If you havent read the book I really recommend it. Without giving too much away I will tell you that he had a horrific life and ended up in prison. He was scum, as he himself says, yet God reached down and touched his life.


So why were there butterflies in my stomach? Well it was because I had to lead the meeting along with one my colleagues. I was soooo nervous. I was really wishing I could just go and sit at the back with Kristian and enjoy Tonys testimony.

The meeting went really well and Tony had such a stronge testimony. There was something for everyone to take home and think about. For me, I was struck by Gods love - how much God really loves us. (yet again I am reminded of this!) How much He loved Tony when we "normal"and "nice" people would have gone out of our way to avoid Tony and his type, yet Gods arms were long enough to reach him and his life was totally turned around.

Above is the crowd waiting for the meeting to start. There were 400 chairs set out and a few more had to be set out before the meeting began.

Tony was such a lovely man. He seemed really humble. One "funny" thing was, the man that told him about Jesus in prison was a man from Northern Ireland, from Carrickfergus. Tony was in prison in Cyprus and this man was there living with his wife. It really was a great evening. (Get his book - Taming the Tiger!)

Then came the butterflies again. Why? Cause Leah had to sing in church, but it was not so much that that gave me butterflies, it was more the fact that I had to play the piano while she sang. Normally she sings with backing music or her Aunty Signe playing. But this morning, well the standard of playing dropped to an all time low, cause she was stuck with me!

But she did a good job and I somehow managed to hit the right notes and hold the right rhythm:-)

A new addition to the family

Yes we have a new addition to the family - meet Toby my "new" old car!! haha

Kristians colleague was selling her Hyundai Accent from 1997 for a good price. She had just had a lot of stuff done to it and it passed the M.O.T. with flying colours. When Kristian heard she was selling it he was very interested in getting it for me. So today after work he took me over to look at it. I think I have got myself a good wee car! (although time will tell!)

Its going to make such a difference in my everyday life - It will save me a lot of time and it will be soooo much easier doing the food shopping. No more balancing on a bike with a couple of plastic bags on each handle bar.

I am a very happy girl tonight!!

I thought he was sick....

...yes, I was sure my husband was sick - why?? Cause he arranged a date night for me. Now that is a rare happening! Usually its me who comes up with the ideas and arrangements for nights out but last night Kristian planned it all by himself!

I had to be ready when he got home from work. Then we drove to a town called Roskilde. It is such a beautiful drive as part of the drive is right passed Roskilde fjord. The weather was fantastic. September always has a special kind of light in the late afternoon - it was just so beautiful driving there with the sun shinning on the water. Anyway, back to the date!!

We arrived in Roskilde and took a walk around the town. I love the town centre there. Its really cosy. Then we decided to go and get something to eat. What a job that was. All the restaurants we went into had lots of people waiting to be served and we had only one hour to eat in. (The other restaurants that had little customers were way above our price range!) So we ended up driving to Mcdonalds!! hahaha which Kristian was feeling terrible about. He thought it was awful taking me on a date to McDonalds, but I was loving it! I was in the mood for a burger! We actually had a cosy dinner, tried one of their new burgers (Chicken tasty - which was really good and filling!)

Then it was off to my surprise. Kristian had got given tickets for a concert for a guy named Jacob Sveistrup. He sang the Danish song in the Eurovision song contest in 2005. I really like his voice. So I was very happy to be going to a concert with him.

Before him was a warm up band called White Lies. They played Danish 80´s and 90´s music. They were really good. Alot of the songs I knew, even though they were Danish hits as Kristian always played them when we first got married. So it took me back to the early days of our marriage before all the kids came along.

The concert was set up so that we all sat at small tables around the room, candles were burning, and it was just really cosy. We had a really great evening. So well done Kristian!! (and dont wait too long to arrange another night out!!)

You can hear Jacob below singing the song from Denmark in 2005

Leah is 12!!

The baby of the family turned 12 today!! (I have asked this before, and I´ll ask it again - Where have the years gone?!!!)

We woke with the traditional Rasmussen wakening - the whole family going into the birthday girl singing Happy Birthday. Then it was up to open presents.

Leah had really wished for a new bike. Her other bike was getting too small and she has never had a new bike, only second hand ones, so a brand new bike was her greatest wish. We managed to make her wish come true.

Over the last few months I had picked up some small gifts at bargin prices. So I packed some of them in for her. She loves notebooks, so she got a few off those. She got a film (got it for £1.50!) and a soap bag with some shampoo, conditioner, nailbrush, nail cutters (she just loves things like that).

Then she really likes to bake. I had a hand mixer that one of my old people had given me when I was in the home care. It had been hidden at the back of the cupboard, so I got it out, bought a receipe book with 80 different muffin/bun receipes and then bought some different things for decorating cakes and buns with. I put it all in a basket and wrapped it up. Leah was soooo happy with these gifts!

When she saw all the presents on the table she didnt think she was getting her bike.

Then in among all the wee packages was a tiny box with a photo of her on it. She was so taken by the photo. She thought it was so cute.....

Then when she opened the box she found a set of keys. She knew then that these must be the keys to a bike. We went outside to see if it fitted any of the bikes out there!


Yes - it fitted one particular bike that she had fallen in love with a few weeks ago! We had a very happy Leah!

When I came home from work today Leah was busy baking muffins in the kitchen. The house smelt wonderful and the muffins tasted wonderful too. Thank goodness someone in the family likes to bake! (or maybe that is not such a good thing, especially for my weight!!)

This evening Leah got to decide where we would eat and she picked our local chinese restaurant. We had a delicious meal there before we headed home to homeworks and Desperate Housewives!! haha

Proof above that Andrew and me were at the restaurant too!!

Not a perfect man....

I am sure all of us women will agree that our men are FAR from perfect!!!

For our anniversary Kristian made me a CD. The first song on the CD was the one I have put on a video below. The title is "I´m not a perfect man!" (I dont just love the words but also the melody in the song.) I thought I would share it with all you girls to encourage you not to give up on your men!! haha They are not perfect but they still need our love and patiences...LOTS of it!!

Today in church one of the younger women shared about a book she had been reading about the power of a praying wife. She encouraged all us women to pray for our husbands. I didnt hear all the details, I was in Sunday school, but the idea is that the married woman in the church will take the month of October as a special month to pray for our husbands. She has made a handout with all the details about it, so next Sunday I must get one. Maybe some of you ladies out in cyber space will be interested in joining in!! (I will post the details later)

(The picture below stays the same. I didnt know how else to get the song on the blog, other than to put it on as music to a picture...hope you enjoy!)

Stillness in the midst of the noise....

Its been a wonderful day! But I will let the video below explain what we have been up to....

So I spent 6 hours sitting on the one bench. But what precious hours they were!

I got to prepare my Sunday School lesson, I read a little about living a healthy lifestyle. I also started reading a book on prayer. I prayed a while. I listened to some teaching on my mp3, then I listened to some praise music! I read a bit more - prayed a bit more.

In the midst of all the noise of an amusement park I had a wonderful stillness and time together with God. It was just great!

It was a bit cold though. So I had my lovely thick picnic blanket wrapped around me. My picnic basket on the ground, my books beside me and the book I was reading on my lap. I got some funny looks and comments from people. Many people smiled at me as they passed, others sighed and said "Oh you just look sooo cosy!" One woman asked if there was room for another one under the blanket!! haha

Finally at 5pm we left and headed home. Leah and her friends had had a fantastic afternoon. We came home to a lovely clean house that Kristian had worked on all afternoon. We ordered pizzas for us and the girls. Then Leah and her friends spent a few hours hanging out in her room. At 8.30pm we took them home.

Happy Birthday Kristian

Today was Kristians 43rd birthday!!

We both took the day off work to celebrate and we had a wonderful, relaxing day together. (Kristian didnt want a lot of things planned, he really just wanted some time to relax.)

We started the day opening the presents - he got a new shaver which he really needed, a few dvd´s and a book about a Danish racing driver (my attempt in getting him to love books!)

We had a relaxing few hours at home before heading out for lunch. We went to the next town to have a look around and had lunch in one of our favourite restaurants, a lovely italian place. We havent been there for about 2 years so it was lovely to taste their food again! A bit more window shopping before heading home to the kids.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and being with the kids. I made Kristians favourite food for dinner and we had nice dinner together as a family. I even made a cake for dessert, so this evening we had cake and hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream. Its been a lovely day!

And he´s gone...

Our wee friend from Belgium has gone home again. It seems that he and Sara had a good week. Sara had school but after school Alessio would meet her and they would go out and visit different towns and do a bit of window shopping. (Sara is broke, hence just window shopping!) Off course there was always racing on the computer, which they both just love to do!

Then on Thursday evening I got my wee husband home again from his course. He had a good few days away but it was very concentrated. He had teaching all day and in the evenings too. So he was well used up when he came home. He did have some great news though...he passed his first exam!! What a relief! The exam had been really hard, so he and his colleague were worried that they maybe would not pass it, but both of them passed with flying colours! It was great to have him home again!

Saturday was my sister-in-laws birthday, so I was invited to brunch along with the other girls in the family and some of her friends. (I forgot my camera so I have, unfortunately, no pictures) But we had a lovely brunch that Kristians brother served to us girls and we spent a few hours chatting away together.

It was then home to get ready for a full house. Kristians mum and dad were coming up to visit, along with his brother Peter, wife Trine and twins, Emma and Emil.

We had such a nice afternoon and evening with them. There sure was life again in this house with two small kids running around. Before they came Kristian found some of Andrews old toys from our shed. It was great having toys lying around the living room floor again!

So now another weekend is gone and we are ready for a new busy week to start!

Its only 8.15pm and already dark outside!! I can feel autumn approaching and I`m loving it!!

6940 days....

Yes, for 6940 days I have been waking up with this man....





I know, I deserve a medal!!! hahaha



Happy Anniversary Kristian! The amount of years we have been married I will let you folks try and work out...but remember there are a few leap years counted in among those 6940 days!!


So what did we do for this special day - absolutely NOTHING!! (I am getting worse at this romance thing the older I get!!!) Well to be honest, we did nothng because Kristian was not home - he is on a course with work and comes home on Thursday evening. Now what rotten planning that is!! but he couldnt get out of it, and believe me, he tried! So today after work I went and treated myself to a badly needed hair cut and this evening was spent relaxing in front of the TV! (just what I needed!)

I am actually feeling sorry for my poor hubby. I talked to him earlier , he had been in class all day listening to some heavy duty teaching. He was then free for dinner before starting his group work which would take all evening - to about 9.30pm!

We talked about me driving over to the course centre (its only about 20 minutes from here). The centre is situated at the coast, so we thought we could go for a walk around the harbour and buy an ice cream - but 9.30pm!! just a bit late and a bit too dark!!



Then guess who is back again??!! Yes - Saras one and only Alessio. He came yesterday (Monday) afternoon, so I have a very happy daughter...and a mum who is bugging the life out of the two of them to try and get a new picture for my blog - as you can see, I havent managed it yet!! He will stay until Sunday before heading home again to Belgium.