We´ve been there....

Where? To the bank!!!


Remember the house we were looking at, well we made an appointment to go and talk with the bank to see what we could afford. The bids have to be in next Wednesday and the starting bid for the house was 1.200.000 kr. When I talked to the estate agent, they were hoping for bids around 1.500.00kr. 


I was hoping we could afford 1.700.000kr so we could bid 1.400.000kr and then use 300.000kr to fix the house up. 


So today the bank told us that we could loan 1.500.000kr. Uummmm, that means we can only bid the starting price because we need 300.000kr to fix the house up so it will not be expensive in heating etc.


They did say that we could borrow more if we did away with one of our cars. Uuummmm.....Do we really want to do away with one of our cars??? NOOOOOOO!!!! 


I have biked around this country for years, in the rain, snow,and hail and at temperatures way down in the minus. If we went for this house with just one car we would be really isolated. (correction: I would be really isolated!) It is further out in the country, fine if you have a car to nip into town but not so fine if Kristian is away with the car and I need a carton of milk and have to bike 4km to town and 4km back again in the rain or snow!! And it would be me on the bike, as my work is closer than Kritians and everything I do is local. However biking, taking the trains or buses just take a lot more time and time is precious - VERY PRECIOUS!


So we have made our decision. We are NOT going for the house. We are not willing to give up one car so we can afford a house that will probably just give us more expenses in the long run with all the things that need done. But I am glad we went to the bank and got an idea about what we could afford. The lady who dealt with us was lovely, she gave us such good service.


Kristian was all worried for me when I came out of the bank. He thought I would be sooo disappointed but I wasn´t. I´ll tell you why.......


I had left the whole thing in God´s hands. I told God we would push some door and He would either have to open or close them. He had to show me if this was His best for me. So we pushed a door by making an appointment with the bank. I asked God to lead us and show us what we should do. One night in bed I was asking him if this was really a good idea to buy this house. Was this His will for us? Then a few days after asking him this I read Jeremiah 23,16...."They spake a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord."  Uummmmhhhh - interesting I thought, was this house a vision of my own heart and not what God wanted for us. So I asked God for a sign......


I asked Him to show me my special verse from Psalm 37,4 in some way, without me actually going looking for it, either through someone speaking about it at church, or a friend feeling the need to send the verse to me, or me reading the verse somewhere, I just had to have read this verse before we went to the bank on 30th November. I made this "deal" with God last week and told him if I got the verse I would know that he was saying to go ahead with the house. That is was His desire for us and not just a vision of my own heart. Well guess what - the verse never came!!! So I am at peace. I don´t believe God wants us to buy the house. It was a vision of my own heart and I will probably get this vision again in the distant future but you know what I love? Having God there to guide me and help me make decisions! God is soooooo good! I just love Him.


So now I am off to plan Christmas!!! 

Fantastic weekend....

Leah and I were away this weekend. Our church was holding a musical weekend for our Maxi group (9 year old - 12 year old) There were 11 children signed up for the musical.  We had also 13 teens helping us. We were three leaders. 

We arrived at the church Friday evening at 5pm and not long after the kids were in their groups practicing their songs, dances and lines. Then it was time for dinner. The rest of the evening was spent practicing. I was together with some of the teenage girls who were going to help me paint backgrounds. We had sooo much fun!! Although by Saturday evening we were pretty fed up painting backgrounds. Below is one of the first backgrounds we got finished......

We ended Friday evening with a film and some treats.


Saturday arrived and everyone was busy all day! We got to run through the whole musical twice. At 6pm Saturday evening everything to do with the musical was forgotten, we got on our coats and walked down to the pizzeria. A lovely ½ hours walk, and even though it was raining, no one complained. We had a really cosy time together, ate far too much and then wandered back to the church. 


We had time to run through the musical one more time before a load of very tired children were put to bed - sorry we couldn´t say the same about the teenagers!! They were full of life!! 


Sunday we preformed for our church. The kids were all excited, the church was packed with mums, dads, grannies and granddads. The kids did a fantastic job - it was a real success.


After church we all had a quick bite to eat together before setting up for our second performance. This time we would have an audience that was full of strangers. We had hired a bus to go and pick up a group of asylum seekers at one of the local accomodation centres. 


We wondered how many would turn up. We weren´t disappointed. About 40 children and their parents arrived. The kids were sooo wonderful. They really enjoyed watching the musical and I got so much joy out of watching them laugh. 


After the musical we served tea, coffee and cake for the parents and the children all got a bag of sweets. I got to "talk" with so many different people from many different countries. "Talk" is not really the right word as many of them could not speak Danish and they knew only a few words of English so we used sign language. I had some great conversations with them, amazing what you can understand using body language.


At 4pm in the afternoon the bus came and picked them all up again. We got hugs and kisses and loads of thank yous. It was a really special afternoon.


We cleared up and by 5pm I was on my way home. It was blowing a gale! Leah and I got home just in time as an hour later the wind really picked up and the police were warning people not to go out and drive.


Kristian didn´t get to see the musical as his dad was in hospital. He spent the time with him.  His dad has heart trouble and needs a pacemaker. He was rushed to hospital at the end of last week and his heart actually stopped on two separate occasions. Glad they got it going again.  He has been waiting on a pacemaker for the last few days. Today they were able to operate. It looks like everything has gone well. Hopefully he will be home soon and we can all hold a wonderful Christmas together. 

Klippe Klister dag.....

Klippe/Klister dag???? What am I on about? Well for those of you that don´t understand Danish, you could check out Google translate, or you could just read on.....

Klippe/Klister dag means....Cut/Paste day! It´s the day that the whole school goes a bit mad and decorates for Christmas. There are normal classes until 10am and then the fun starts. We cleaning staff also get in on the fun. Today we made this wonderful decoration! haha - I don´t think I should give up the day job!!

Christmas music was coming from all the classrooms, there was fun and laughter all around and the last thing on my mind was work! I dragged myself through my different tasks. Boy it was hard to work when my brain was just totally in a Christmas, lets have fun, mood!


It´s soon the weekend but I have anything but a relaxing weekend ahead of me! We are having a musical weekend at the church for the kids. Three leaders, 13 teenagers and 11 kids will be together all weekend putting together a Christmas musical that we will show in church on Sunday morning. This is my third time to be involved with this, so I am actually really looking forward to it! 

Let the Christmas season begin......

Ok, I know, I know it´s still only November but I just LOVE Christmas so I am itching to get the Christmas season going. Today one of our radio stations started playing Christmas music 24/7,  so throughout the day I have been enjoying all the songs that I love at this time of year! It really is starting to feel a lot like Christmas...

Sunday afternoon Sara, Leah and I decided that we would kick the Christmas season off  by having a cosy afternoon with Danish "æbleskiver", a type of round doughnut always served the weeks up to Christmas - eating "æbleskiver" is a great way to start the season! 

Our weekend has been great. Kristian and I had no plans at all! Friday evening Leah was going home to stay at a friends so the rest of us just lazed about on the sofa watching TV.  

Saturday morning Kristian went to collect Leah from her friends while I cleaned the house. When Kristian and Leah arrived home the house was all clean and tidy. We decided that we would use the rest of the day to go out and have some fun. We decided to head into Copenhagen. Sara was working at the go-kart track and Kristian wanted to go in and collect some tools that he had lying in there. Since the go-kart track is in Copenhagen we could combine going in there and then going out to have fun. 

So that´s what we did. We arrived at the go-kart track around lunchtime. I had to laugh at my hubbys face, it literally lit up when he arrived out there!! The same with my daughter, they just LOVE that place! It was fun to see Sara out there working. 

She made me a hot-dog and it tasted delicious!

We hung out at the track for about an hour and then headed into Copenhagen. We decided to head to one of the big shopping centers and spent a wonderful few hours walking around getting ideas for Christmas.


It was then home to a cosy Saturday evening with the kids. We rented a dvd and sat on the sofa eating our dinner and watching our film. Sooo cosy. It has actually been a real family weekend, lots of hanging out together in the living room, talking and watching TV. 


Sunday morning we went to church and on the way home we went by the house that we like that´s for sale.  There was "open house" again. We went in and had another look around. There were so many people looking around the place again, I really don´t think we have a chance. Hhhmmm, we are still wondering what to do.

Dream, dream, dream....

...I love to dream! I love to dream about all sorts of things. I dream about holidays I want to take and things I´d like to accomplish,  but one of my favorite dreams is about us owning our own wee house.

So today at work I was flicking through the paper. I NEVER look through the paper but today I did and something caught my eye. Five houses were for sale just 2km from where we live. They are houses that belong to the army but have been empty for a while. Kristian and I have driven by them often and everytime we have  commented on them just lying there empty when someone like us could be living there! haha.

 The houses are situated in a beautiful nature area and yet only 4km out from the center of town. We LOVE the area, right beside the forest. So when I saw this advert I got really excited. The price was not mentioned so I decided to text Kristian and see what he thought and to see if he could ring the estate agent and find out the price. 

(I alway call Kristian my dream breaker as he is always the practical one in this relationhip. He always shows me the flaws in my dreams and boy am I glad he has done that in the past, otherwise we would be in some right messes!! haha) 

 So I texted my dream breaker to see if he was ready to break another one of my crazy dreams!  But to my surprise he wanted to dream this dream with me! Before long he had found out that there was an open house today. We could go and check out all 5 houses after work. He then rang his brother-in-law to see if he could come along and check them out with us as he is a carpenter. I was speechless!! My husband was arranging all this - the content happy man who loves his wee apartment and his practical world was joining me in my dreamworld! 

So after work we went to see the house.......(so did a whole load of other people!!)

All 5 houses were similar just different in sizes. The one we like is 159 m2, that´s 59m2 more than we have in our apartment! 


Now they are not the most beautiful houses. Not something I would stop and say WOW about, but I did like them and the starting price is sooo cheap for this area.

The ground around the place is huge!! I can see a dog running around that big garden! haha 

 A new front door is definitely need!!! 

 A lot of work is needed done in the garden.

This is taken from the gate looking up to the house. We will have to make a garden path

The view from the garden gate.

 Above and below we have the livingroom...

 It´s big and bright. I could see us living here.

The kitchen, again not something to make you say WOW, but I can live with it....

The bathroom is ok.... 

We could see ourselves in this house and the best thing is that it is still in the area where we live! 

Now here comes the catch. The bidding price starts at 1.200.000kr ( houses around here usually have a starting price of about 2.300.000kr  so this is very cheap!) but the catch is this...you have to put your bid for the house in an envelope and close it, all the bids have to be delivered to the estate agent by 7th Dec at noon. The one who bids the highest wins the right to buy the house.

Yikes!! What can we afford? We now have to go to the bank and see what we can borrow. The house needs some work done on it too. 

The thing I am amazed at is my husband. He is sooo into this!! Normally I am the one planning and pushing to get things going but he seems very keen this time! He has talked non stop all evening about it!

So my day turned out very differently than I had expected. I wasn´t expecting to be sitting here this evening wondering what we should bid on a house! But I am a peace. I have given it all over to God. If this house is for us it will take a miracle for us to get it.

 I know that we can´t afford to bid much higher than the asking price  and by the look of some of the people that were there looking at the houses today,(going by their clothes and cars)  money seemed to be no problem for them so I am sure they can bid way higher than us. But God can work a miracle, so I have left it in his hands to work out. 

I love having God in my life! It´s great not to have to stress or fret about this sort of thing! 

Now I am off to bed to read my book:-)

I´ll keep you posted.

A date with a mate.....

Today I had two dates. The first was with my old lady friend. We both went shopping. Thankfully she was feeling up to going out today. We had a lovely afternoon. 


I got home at 6pm and a few minutes later Kristian and the rest of the gang arrived. It was straight into the kitchen to make dinner. I had a quick dinner planned so by 6.30pm everything was ready. After dinner I left the kitchen mess for Kristian and the kids to clear up and went and got ready for my date with my mate - Laura H.  


We had planned to go to our local cinema to see "The Help". Laura was coming to pick me up at 7pm - the film started at 7.30pm. Now there is something you need to know about our local cinema. There  is usually, on a good night, 15 people there, so when Kristian asked us if we had reserved tickets we looked at him like he was a crazy man, shook our heads and laughed saying "Kristian it´s the local cinema, on a Tuesday night in November!!!"  and off we went.


Well, what a shock we got!! Driving past the cinema there was a queue right outside the door. We both started to scream! Where did all those people come from? There is NEVER that many people in our local cinema!!! We were in a panic - WE HAD, AFTER ALL, NO RESERVATIONS!!!!


We quickly parked the car and ran over to the cinema and stood for about 20 minutes in the queue before we finally got in. We asked for two tickets. "Do you have a reservation?" the lady asked. You know our answer!! "Oh I don´t think we have any seats available!" You should have seen Laura and I - talk about disappointed, it must have been written all over our faces so the lady decided to check to see what she could find. She found us two seats but they were in the very front row! We didn´t care, we were desperate so we took them.



What a brilliant film!! Totally loved it! Totally me! Totally recommend going to see it! Can you tell that I totally liked it?


While we were out at the cinema Laura´s daughter was here visiting Leah. We thought the film would finish at about 9.30pm but when we got out of the cinema the time was 10.15pm!!! We couldn´t believe where the time had gone.  Once again we were screaming and running, this time it was to get home to get the kids off to bed! Once at our house there were no long goodbyes. Laura and Mia were quickly out the door and Leah quickly got ready for bed. 


It has been a really great evening! (Thanks Laura!) 


Oh yeah something very important to report...When we got out of the cinema this evening we discovered that there was ice on the windscreen - I think that´s the first night frost. Winter is coming:-)

One week in one post....

Last week went by sooo quickly. 

Monday I worked a few hours extra getting caught up with all the accounts for our fund raising. We are raising money for a new playground. I needed to have all the results for Tuesday morning. 

My friend Freddy frog had been helping me keep account of all the money that was raised. Each time the kids raised £500 he got a "flødeboller" (a Danish biscuit that is like a teacake) The aim was to fill the party table with "flødeboller" so we could hold a party! The kids loved it and they nearly filled all the plates!! Amazing!

On Tuesday at assembly, the two children that raised the most money were given gift tokens. The class that raised the most money was given a gift token for a trip to McDonalds followed by a trip to the cinema to see a film of their choice with popcorn provided. Not a bad prize!! 

The competition was fierce and it was neck and neck between two 6th grade classes. It was all rather exciting. In the end 6A won with 6B coming a close second. Since it was so close we decided to give 6B class a consolation prize of a trip to the cinema -  no McDonalds  and no popcorn but they were happy enough with that!

Tuesday afternoon I went to visit my old lady friend. She didn´t feel like going out so I did the shopping alone this time.

Wedneday I had a lovely afternoon with my friend Rhona. We met up after work for our traditional strawberry cake and a chat! It was just so great to be with her again. 

We spent a lovely few hours talking, mostly about God. Now if you don´t know God like we know God you might think that would be rather boring - but NO it wasn´t, not in the least! It was fab!!  

We have such a great God and Rhona and I were just bumming about that on Wednesday! I was feeling so happy and blessed by the time I was going home. It´s good to remember how good God is, and having someone to talk spiritual things over with is a blessing . God is soooo good! He has blessed me with so many great friends and Rhona is one of them!

Thursday I was busy again at work. This time it was getting ready for the Christmas market. 

Friday busy yet again. I worked from 7am till 5.30pm then I went food shopping, our cupboards were bare!!  I was finally getting into the house at 7.30pm and we were eating dinner at 8pm!! After that I tumbled into bed totally exhausted but feeling good. I had accomplished a lot and I was looking forward to our Christmas market at school.

Saturday was the Christmas market and it was fantastic. So many people turned up and there was a wonderful atmosphere all over the school. The school looked great too, totally transformed into a big market place selling all sorts of goodies!  I have the best workplace in the world! I LOVE it there!  

I was on the cake stand (off coure!! I love my cakes!) Thank goodness I didn´t have to bake any of them, I just had to sell them, along with a few others,  and sell them we did!! We made about £1400!! isn´t that amazing?!  The day went by so quickly. I worked from 9am till 5pm and then it was time to head home. Going home was something that I was looking forward too, not because it had been a busy day but because my hubby would be back home again.

Kristian arrived home Saturday afternoon after a week away. He had been on a course with work and ended it with an exam on Saturday morning. I was sooo happy to see him again. Shortly after I arrived home we decided to head out on a date so we ordered a couple of pizzas for the kids and we headed out to our wee cafe in town. We ate a light dinner and caught up with each other and what had been happening during the week when we hadn´t seen each other or really spoken to each other. 

Now it´s Sunday and another week is about to begin. This week is more normal, all the extra things at work are finished so I can concentrate on being a cleaning woman again - something I am really looking forward too! 

The weekend....

The weekend went by too fast! All day Saturday I spent in my PJs. I did get my house cleaned up and the washing done, although once again the washing basket is full and it´s only Tuesday. Saturday evening was spent watching some Raymond(Everybody loves Raymond series) which gave us a great laugh. 

Sunday morning we went to church. I had Sunday School and it went well this time. The kids really listened. 

In the afternoon there was a youth meeting for Leah and her friends. This happens the first Sunday in the month when they meet up with another church, so Leah stayed on at church. However before I got to leave church she had roped me into being a taxi driver for them. They were a group of hungry kids and they needed lunch - McDonalds was the place they decided they wanted lunch from. So the car was loaded up with a group of girls, lists of who wanted what, piles of money and lots of laugher. Off we went to McDonalds to get burgers, chips, chicken nuggets and soda for all the other kids waiting back at the church. Then it was back to the church to drop of the crazy bunch of girls with their piles of goodies. Finally I could drive home.  I drove half way home with the windows down because the car stunk of McDonalds!!  

Sunday afternoon my in-laws came by. It was lovely to see them. Jette (my mother-in-law) brought me a beautiful bunch of flowers. We ate loads of cake, especially my mother-in-law!! but I wasn´t far behind! haha We just couldn´t get enough, it was so delicious. Obviously I didn´t make it, otherwise it wouldn´t have tasted sooo good. It was bought at the bakery.

Early Sunday evening and Kristian starting packing his case. He was leaving to go on a course with his work. This was the last thing he wanted to do, after all, it was Sunday evening and he just wanted to sit down and relax with the rest of us. Instead he had to get going to be at the conference center ready for the teaching to begin at 8pm!!  


He will be away all week. He first comes home Saturday afternoon after doing his exam that morning! Another thing he is not looking forward to. It´s strange not having him around in the evenings. I miss seeing his wee smile! :-) 

A different Denmark....

A week ago I came back from Ireland and I came back to a totally different Denmark. Denmark´s forests had changed from different shades of greens to wonderful shades of browns, yellows and reds. I just love this time of year!!

It has been a really busy week. At school we are getting ready for our Christmas market. Then I have been in charge of keeping an account of the money that we are raising for our new playground. While I was gone last week things just piled up, so there were loads of things for me to take care off. I have worked a few hours extra every day, just trying to get caught up. Finally yesterday afternoon at 4.15pm I felt like I had caught up with everything and I could finally hold weekend!!

On Wednesday evening our door bell rang and when I opened the door this is what I saw.......

It was my crazy friend Anne who came by to cheer me up! She certainly did that!! haha  

She had brought a basket full of little treats that reminded her of me. They made me laugh sooo much. 

There was a cola - my favourite drink.


A bag of exspensive coffee! I better explain...in the summer Anne came by and we had no coffee so we walked up to the summermarket to buy a bag. I picked the cheapest bag I could find at about £1.30. Anne was appalled!!! She wanted me to buy the bag at £4.70!! NO WAY - we stood discussing this for ages. She felt so sorry for Kristian having to drink my cheap coffee. I have never heard the end of it! haha

A piggy bank with a few coins in it. This is to help with my parking exspenses as every time I go to town with Anne I park miles away from the center as I refuse to pay the high parking prices. This drives Anne crazy and gives her sore feet as well!! haha


A roll of toilet paper with hearts on it. This is because I usually text Anne when I am sitting on the loo! haha


A laughing bag, you know the sort, you press a button and there comes hearty laughter from it. So if I ever need a laugh I know where to go.


A couple of candles as I love to be cosy.


A box of hot chocolate, another one of my favourite drinks


A friendship book filled with information about Anne that made me smile.


And last but not least, a pair of cleaning gloves with a "diamond" ring attached. After all, even though I am a cleaning woman I can still clean with style!! haha 

 It was such a lovely idea that Anne had. Thank you my dear friend, so glad that I have you in my life!! 

The rest of the evening was spent eating, chatting and laughing! 


(Kristian also gets a laugh when we are together. Anne and I always misunderstand each other. So many times she is talking about one thing and I am talking about something else and Kristian realises this long before we do, we often hear him laughing from his wee racing seat in the next room! haha)


It´s been a good week but a busy one and my house has suffered because of the busyness of life. There has been no washing done all week so I am seriously running out of underwear. The place looks like a bomb has hit it! Honestly! Hope no one rings the door bell for the next few hours!! Well I suppose I better get going and get this place organised and cleaned. 


Bye for now