An old favourite...

...I decided to go back and use one of my "old" backgrounds - the one with the books. Since I couldn´t find an autumn background that I liked, I thought that this "book background" summed up Autumn perfectly for me!! It´s the season for early nights with a good book!! Ahhhh contentment!!

So since it´s getting near that season I decided to practise for it. At 9.00pm I crawled into bed. At first I thought about watching a DVD but then decided against that. I opted for reading. So I got down my Bible and started reading the story about King Jehoshaphat. (2 Chronicles 20) What an amazing story. I got sooo much out of it. Here was Jehoshaphat in the middle of a crisis. Three armies had come to fight against Israel. When he heard this the first thing Jehoshaphat did was fear. But he didn´t let fear stay and rule his life. He decided to seek God.

I love verse 12 - Here Jehoshaphat prays "we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you" He had no idea what to do about the situation but he got his eyes on God. When I have a problem in my life I need to learn to pray like this and get my eyes on God. How many times do I have my eyes on other things but not on God? How many times do I put my trust in other people, in things, but forget to trust God?

Ok I better stop....there is soooo much I could share, but just one last thing. I love the fact that Jehoshaphat appointed singers to worship and praise God. These singers were sent out at the front of the army! And God gave them the victory. He confused the enemy so that they killed each other and so when Jehoshaphat and his soliders arrived the battle was over. They didn´t even have to fight!!!

So no matter what "battle" we are going through in life right now, remember to praise God, to thank God. You don´t have to wait until you feel like it, it´s a choice. The effects of praise is amazing!!

Ok I really am signing off now. I´ll keep the rest for another time! Goodnight all:-)

new look

....yes, there is a new look on my blog but I am not sure it will stay for long. I think it´s just a bit too much!! But my favourite season is approaching so I wanted something to match the season. I think I will have to keep looking!! This just doesn´t do it for me!

Life has settled down to a busy buzz!! (can you say that???!!!)

Jeff has now gone home - our recliner really misses him!! (and so do we Jeff!) He left yesterday after church.

It was a busy Sunday, yet a good one. We had a KICK-OFF day at church. All the different organisations were there to tell about what was happening. We each had a table with home baked treats (I cheated and bought mine - ssshhhhh, no-one noticed!) and information about what we were involved in. For me it was junior club. I had made prayer cards and a poster with information about the club. There were 13 different tables set up and people went around and heard about the different areas of work within the church (while drinking coffee and munching on the different cakes.) They could also sign up to get involved. It was a really successful day. I was exhausted when I came home and slept for 1 hour before making dinner!

A day away....

...from everything!

Jeff, Kristian and I went away for the day to the beach. It was a gorgeous day!


We posed for a few pictures.

Bought some unhealthy but delicious, things to eat!

The town we were in helped many jews during the war. A while ago I had had a guided tour around the town and heard about the different places where they had hidden the jews. The jews were smuggled over to Sweden in small fishing boats. We saw one of these small boats and how the jews would have been hidden in the bottom of them. What those poor people had to go through!

We ended off at one of Kristian´s favourite places - the harbour, before heading home for pizza and a good film. It has been a really lovely day.

Still alive and kicking.....

yes, we are all still alive and kicking, even though you haven´t heard too much from us.

Jeffrey arrived on Friday evening and since then it has been all go. We were out shopping on Saturday. We went to church on Sunday. Kristian went off to a race. He was racing in a go-kart race and came home with a trophy! He ended in 4th place which he was very pleased about!.

Kristian was off work on Monday, so Jeffrey and he went into Copenhagen and went around Christiania (a special area in Copenhagen). I was hard at work while they had their "boys day out".

Today has been a bit crazy to say the least!! After work I went over to church to set things up for our junior club starting this evening. The idea was that we would have ice cream as a snack for the kids. I thought I would just check the freezer in the church to make sure there was room before going to buy the ice cream. Good job I did!! It was packed with stuff - absolutely no room for ice cream. So I had to come up with plan B - wee buns and rice crispy buns.

Suddenly my afternoon got really busy!! Between baking, making dinner and getting the last of my talk put together the couple of hours I had before Junior club started just flew by.

We had a great club!! Twelve children turned up. They were a pleasure to be with. We had fun playing games, and they listened soooo well to the Bible teaching. I am so looking forward to more Tuesday nights together with them.

Welcome to the real world....

...the real world of teaching!!

My sweet 4th grade children have turned into wee monsters over night!! haha Well not all of them - just a majority of the boys. My last two teaching classes were terrible!! but I am not about to give up - not yet!! haha All I can say is thank goodness it´s Friday, time to relax, revive and get ready for next weeks challenges!!

Tonight our friend Jeffrey arrived from Ireland. It was his son´s wedding that we attended in London a few weeks ago. Jeff will be staying with us for a week. It´s great to see him again!

Just before Jeff came this evening we had a visit from 3 people. One from Ghana, one from India, and one from The Philippines. Kristian had gone outside to throw away some rubbish. He then met these three people who seemed to be lost. It turned out that they were.

They were looking for some sort of concert hall/culture house, that was on a road that had the same name as the road where we live. They had plotted the name of the road into the computer and it had told them to go north to our town. We live about a 30 minute drive outside Copenhagen. They had taken buses and trains out to our town, then walked from the train station out to where we live. The big problem was that the road they were looking for was in Copenhagen. They had come all this way for nothing.

So Kristian went out with a couple of bags of rubbish and came back with 3 people following him. They were so lovely. It was sooo great to meet them. They were friendly and open and so appreciated Kristian inviting them in. They were thirsty and just wanted some water to drink. Kristian was heading to the airport to pick up Jeffrey so he said he would take them back into Copenhagen. That´s what he did.

Now hopefully they will get in touch again. They would love to come and visit and have dinner with us some time. They have our telephone number and they know where we live, so I hope they do contact us again. Kristian so enjoyed their company while driving into Copenhagen. As Kristian put it "They were a breath of fresh air!"
I have to agree with him. In the short time I talked to them they cheered me up big time!

Xtreme Belfast weather....

...that´s what we are having over here!! and I am loving it! :-)



Another thing that I am loving is my teaching job. I had my 3rd graders for the first time on Monday. I only had them 35 minutes as I had to go to Assembly with them,that ate into some of my teaching time. Unfortunately that´s how it will be - I wish I had them longer. They are so full of enthusiasm! They were great to teach.



I am also loving that I have a life again!! The last few weeks have been hectic with school starting. My every waking hour seemed to be spent preparing teaching material. Now I think I am getting into the routine of things and the preparation time doesn´t fill my every waking hour!

I am also loving my new Guy Penrod CD. It has been playing non stop since Saturday, especially track 13 which gets played pretty much on repeat. Kristian is cracking up!! haha

Speaking of Kristian. He came home this evening having won his 3rd medal. He was out racing and came home with a silver one this time. So he now has 2 bronze and 1 silver - he´s only missing the gold, maybe next time!!

Andrew started his new school on Monday and so far he likes it.

So that´s all the news from me. Not very exciting...but that´s life!! Having said that, today might not have been exciting but I so enjoyed it. Mainly because of the rain. While Leah was at choir I went and parked the car by the castle, just overlooking a stretch of water. It was so peaceful and I enjoyed a couple of hours sitting there thinking, praying, reading and listening to music, all the while the rain was pouring down. Like I said - XTREME BELFAST WEATHER - the kind of day I love!!

What a wonderful day....

....this afternoon I met up with my colleague Dorthe. We were going to a concert in Tivoli, Copenhagen.

It was just the sort of day I love - rain, rain and more rain!!

Guy Penrod used to sing with the Gaither Vocal Band, but recently launched a solo career. I grew up listening to the Gaither music, so I love the type of music he sings. Dorthe does too. So when we heard he was in Copenhagen we just had to go to his concert. We were not disappointed.

Not only did he do a great job singing but he also did a great job encouraging us all with stories, testimonies and Bible truths. It was a really special afternoon. He is a really wonderful, godly man. The real deal! (Did you know he has 8 children!! 7 boys and 1 girl from ages 18 - 4!!!)

The highlight was that I got my picture taken with him and he signed my new CD!!

Afterwards we headed out for a bite to eat before heading home on the train. It normally takes 35 minutes on the train from Copehagen home, but they are working on the train lines, so some of the trains are not running. Buses are being used instead. This usually means that it takes an hour to get back out of the city. However this evening with the heavy rain fall, the trains were totally messed up.

The train station announced the arrival of our train, but when we got on, the train was going somewhere totally different. This happened 4 times!!! Finally at the last station, we were told to go down the steps, across to the next track and our train would be there. That was a joke! The station was flooded, water up to the knees!! haha Then all the lights went out! I was sure we would be spending the night at the station, with a whole bunch of strangers (and I was in desperate need of a toilet!! PANIC!!) Finally, just when we were about to give up, a train arrived and took us to the right train station. There the bus was waiting to get us home, 2 hours and 15 minutes later I was home!!

But it sure was worth it all!!

I survived...

...my first 3 classes of teaching!! I actually REALLY enjoyed it and the children seemed to enjoy it too.

I had my first class yesterday, it was 4B , a class of 15 boys and 7 girls. They were wonderful. They were into everything I did. We started with the basic " Hello my name is.........what is your name" (but in a fun way that they really got into,) Our theme over the next couple of weeks is "My Family" - so we spent some time learning about that.

Today I met my other 4th grade class. I had heard from other teachers that they were really noisy, they just loved to talk, but otherwise they were very sweet, so I was prepared to be the strict teacher. At the start of the class I laid down my rules, they listened and I had not one bit of bother from them! English is the last period on a Friday afternoon for them. After such a long day they did really well.

Good job my nerves had settled down. When I arrived at the classroom one of the boys had his mum there. He asked "Laura, is it ok that my mum sits in on our English class, she forgot we first finished school at 2.30pm?" Well what could I say??? (NOOOOOO she can´t!! haha) I didn´t say that even though I thought it! haha

I actually didn´t mind. It gave me a chance to meet one of the parents up front, she sat through the whole lesson!

So now I have only my 3rd grade class to meet on Monday. I am so looking forward to that. I know some of the kids already from chatting to them as I clean. Today I met a few girls from the class and they came skipping over to me and said " We can´t wait to have English on Monday!" so sweet!!

But I do realise what a big responsibility I have. I want to give these kids a good start. I want English to be fun for them and not a chore. I want them to love coming to class and to have a desire to continue learning it over the next 5 years! I want to make it as simple for them as I can. I want what I teach them to stick.


I must admit my emotions can change from hour to hour. I do LOVE teaching!! (but sometimes I get overwhelmed with the job at hand!! Can I do it? Am I good enough for it? I have talked this over with my leaders and I have told them if they are not happy with what I am doing I am more than willing to step down and let someone else take over. But for the moment, I am finding my feet, finding out what the children do understand, and I am enjoying every moment. It will be interesting to see how I am feeling about it all by Christmas...that´s why I am writing all this now, so I can look back and remember how I was feeling at the start...so how am I feeling?... happy, scared, overwhelmed, happy, excited, overwhelmed, stressed, loving it, overwhelmed, loving it, scared, stressed, happy!!! and the list could go on! hahaha)

The crazy season has begun....

Yes, it´s all go here in the Rasmussen household.

Sara and Leah started school on Monday, Andrew starts next Monday and Kristian has been back at work a few weeks now.

I started back at school last Thursday and now the school is looking great - all bright and clean, ready for the children to start back.

I must admit that this evening, I have a few butterflies in my stomach. Tomorrow I have my first day of teaching English to the 4th graders (p5). Everything is prepared and packed. I think I have a fun and interesting teaching period put together, but let´s see how it goes tomorrow. I am looking forward to meeting the children. They started having English last year in P4, but it was only 45 minutes a week. So I am interested to see how much they know.

I´ll let you know how it goes! (I hope I can report back that it went well - I need the encouragement! I am just sitting here thinking "WHAT HAVE I GOT MYSELF INTO!" Good job I have Kristian, he has been encouraging me all evening through all my panic attacks!! Du er en skat!!)

One thing that got cleared up on Monday was my working hours. When I was asked to teach I was told it would have to be as extra hours. (Long story which I won´t bore you with.) I already work 30 hours cleaning in the school, and 7 hours with the church on a Wednesday. So I would need to work another 5 hours at the school teaching, plus a couple of hours preparation. (37 hours over 4 days!! )

So my boss and I sat down to work out my hours, and here I just have to say that I have got the best boss in the world! He told me that he was concerned that I was taking on too much. He knows I love being busy and creative, but he thought that these hours were just a bit too much and that I might just "break". Apparently they want me around the place for a few years yet!! haha So he said that he would cut back my cleaning hours so I still only work 30 hours total at the school. This means I meet at the same time and go home at the same time!

I really appreciate him looking out for me like this. I was wondering how I would cope, but I decided not to worry about it and just take one day at a time. I knew my days were going to be long for the next few months and I had talked about it with Kristian and the kids. They were backing me up. Now I am working the same hours so it´s all worked out great.

Now I just need to give it a go and see if this teaching lark is for me. I will try until Christmas and then if it´s not really me - I still have my toilet brush and mop!! (which I love!! - I really do!)

Welcome to Holland....

I was watching a programme on TV this evening. It was about children with special needs. The children had been born with Primordial Dwarfism. (It is the rarest type of dwarfism. It results in smaller body size in all stages of life, beginning from before birth. Rarely do the people grow more than 3 feet. It is estimated that there are only 100 individuals in the world with the disorder, 40 of them are in the US.)


One of the mothers talked about a poem that really had helped her deal with the situation, it was called Welcome to Holland. I found the piece on a website for people with children with disabilities. It really touched me and I just want to share it:

WELCOME TO HOLLAND By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......


When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go.


Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay." The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.


So now you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.


But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And for some, the pain of that will never go away... because the loss of that dream is a significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

I thought this was a beautiful way to describe and explain what it must feel like for a mother who has a disabled child.

I suppose it doesn´t only have to apply to having a disabled child though. I suppose you could apply it to other areas of your life too, to other dreams that were dreamed but never did come to pass. Well, we have a choice. We can live life mourning over those lost dreams, we can live life always asking the question - "what if" OR we can choose to enjoy the lovely things about Holland even though we didn´t plan to go there.

Andrew 17 today!!

Yes, Andrew turned 17 today! I can´t believe that 17 years ago he was a wee tiny baby.

Andrew wanted a quiet birthday. This suited me fine since I started back to school today. Last week we gave him his present, the new screen for his PS3, so we didn´t have the usual "up in the morning to open presents" routine!

Andrew wanted me to make him one of his favourite dishes for dinner- Nachos. So when everyone finally arrived home from work, we decorated the living room , made the nachos and then gave Andrew a few small gifts.

He was not expecting anything and was so surprised and happy!

Sara and Leah had bought him some sweets, aftershave and a film.

We also had bought him an extra wee surprise, a few pre-owned games for his PS3 - a bargin that we picked up in London.

We sat in the living and ate our nachos and watched a Danish film. I thought it was a stupid film, but my family were laughing their heads off. They thought it was really funny - I didn´t!. But the main thing was that Andrew really enjoyed himself.

I made him a birthday cake and so just a few minutes ago we lit the candles and then devoured the cake!! (We´ll we blew the candles out first!!)

It´s been a lovely quiet day and Andrew has really enjoyed it. He is such an easy fella to please. He never asks for much and it´s the little things that please him. I think I have enjoyed the day just as much as he has! Happy Birthday Andrew!!

Back down to earth....

.....after a weekend on cloud 9!!

As you can gather, we had a fantastic time at the wedding in London.

Saturday afternoon the gang started arriving at our hotel. It was great to see all our friends again and catch up on what has been happening in their lives!! We all stayed at the Hilton and what a treat that was!! (We got the rooms cheap in the January sales! Yes, the Hilton do have January sales!! I have never stayed in such a fancy hotel! I could get used to that standard of living!)

Saturday evening we headed out with Ivan and Anne for dinner. Delicious food and great company. They had collected us from the airport and were basically our taxi drivers for the weekend (Thanks you guys for doing that!)

Sunday morning and the place was buzzing. Everyone was getting ready for the big day! Hannah and Jonathan`s wedding day had finally arrived!

And below we have the happy couple - Mr and Mrs Wilson!



The wedding service was beautiful. The hymns were lovely, the sermon was so practical, the whole atmosphere was one of thankfulness to God. It was really special.

Then it was off to the reception. What a place that was!! WOW!! It was soooo cosy. An old barn from Henry VIII´s time. Apparently buildt by Henry VIII´s carpenter! If that old building could talk, what stories it could tell!

We had a great time at our table!! It can only go wrong when you put a bunch of crazy irish people together at the one table and it did at ours! The craic was just great! We laughed soooo much! I literally laughed till I cried! (Thanks for the laugh everyone, especially Ivan! Keep practising the chinese!! hahaha)

After the meal there was a bit of a dance and as soon as Mamma Mia´s Dancing Queen came on there was just no stopping me!

It was a really great wedding.

Last night we arrived home again. It`s certainly a weekend that we will remember for a very long time!!