Pictures

Pri has requested that I put up some Christmas pictures :) I didn't really take as many as I had planned with the food and everything, but here are some of them, starting with a cute decoration of a type that is popular here:













Noah and all the presents













Playing with the niece and nephew













Right as I opened the Phantom of the Opera tickets out of the dvd case













Also we went to Tivoli last Saturday - I got free tickets from work! Did I mention I like my job? So yeah, I took some pictures of the cute doll display and Morten trying on hats.

Danish Christmas

For the Danes, the 24th is "Christmas" (called "Juleaften") and then the 25th and 26th are "First Christmas Day" and "Second Christmas Day," respectively. So in Denmark, there are technically 3 Christmas days. And actually, the whole month of December is pretty much considered as Christmas. All month long people keep advent calendars and burn advent candles, and the kids get advent presents which means a very small present every day until the 24th (hair ribbons, pens, etc), or a slightly larger present every Sunday. When we get kids we're going to have to figure out if we will do that or stockings or somehow combine the two, so they don't get spoiled rotten out of the two traditions.

On the 24th, the family gathers for a big Christmas dinner with certain foods. We went to Morten's sister's house. The traditional Christmas feast consists of roast duck, pork roast, both regular potatoes and smaller potatoes with a brown sugar coating, brown gravy, and red cabbage. Then comes the ris'a'la'mande (rice pudding) with cherries on top, and somebody has to find the almond in it. Alex found it, and for a prize he got a gift certificate to the movies.

After dinner we dance around the three. I felt pretty foolish, especially because while dancing around the tree, we had to sing a lot of Danish Christmas songs that I don't know. They sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in English in my honor though, which I was grateful for. It is fun to see all the big grown up men do something like dancing around a Christmas tree and singing cute little songs, but they took it quite seriously and didn't seem to think it was strange at all. That's one of the things I appreciate about Danish men, the whole macho attitude is just nonexistent. Anyway...

After dancing around the tree we all got settled for a REALLY long display of present opening. The tradition, at least in Morten's family, is that we open only one present at a time so everyone can see what it is, then the person who opened last picks a new present for someone else. We were 11 people and there were lots of presents for all, so it took about 2 hours to open them all. My favorites were from Morten: he gave me 2 dvds, Mamma Mia and Sense and Sensibility, and then best of all, he took my Phantom of the Opera dvd case and wrapped it with tickets to see the show next month inside. Yay!!! I have never been to the show so I am really excited to go. I also thought it was very nice that in addition to some other stuff, Morten's mom made a skirt for me :) Very personal and cute. Morten was also very happy with his presents.

Usually danish families will have a Christmas lunch on the 25th, with a several course meal of different dishes, all to be eaten with the traditional rye bread (rugbrød). In Morten's family they also do a game with white elephant gifts on that day. We didn't do it yesterday though because tomorrow there will be a really big birthday party for the Grandpa, and they didn't want to overwhelm everyone with too many parties. So on the 25th we just had a quiet day, ate pizza, and went to see Australia.

It was a very good Christmas, though very different. I think it's probably good that Christmas here is different than at home, because it doesn't make me homesick that way, it's just fun to see how they do it and enjoy the "coziness."

Funny Christmas Video

This is pretty funny...

Æbleskiver og Ris á l'amande

Now it is time to tell you about two danish Christmas desserts.

Æbleskiver is a cross between pancakes and doughnuts. So of course it goes without saying, that I like them very much :) They are fried in a special pan that you can see in the picture, with little round dents that you pour dough into. Apparently you flip each one with knitting needles when it's ready, but the one time Morten and I tried, we failed miserably.

To eat the æbleskiver, traditionally you would dip each one in powdered sugar and/or rasberry jam before taking a bite. MMMMMM!!

I should also tell you about ris á l'amande. It's a french name but is actually a traditional Christmas dessert in Scandanavia. It is rice pudding with whipped cream and chopped almonds, and usually you cover it with cherries and sauce.

Almost every family in Denmark will have ris á l'amande on December 24th. There is a special game associated with ris á l'amande. There are chopped almonds throughout it, and some of the pieces can get quite large, but there will be only one whole (peeled) almond somewhere in the bowl of pudding. So on Christmas eve the family will have to finish the entire bowl of ris á l'amande until someone has "found" the whole almond. Some people will conceal the fact that they have found it (i.e. hiding it in their mouth as they continue to eat), just to make everyone get really stuffed, before they reveal that they have found the almond. Then the one who has found the almond gets a special gift.

I'm really looking forward to a "real" Danish Christmas this year, with Morten's family. I know a lot more of the traditions but I will wait to tell about them until I have experienced them first hand.

I really like my job!!

I also get to watch funny people on the train in the mornings.

1) The young father with a baby carriage, cooing and smiling at his baby every morning.

2) The little tiny girl reading the chronicles of narnia. She looks about 7 but she must be older.

3) Last but not least the reeeeally tall lady with a huge fur coat, extra large hat with strange gold embroidery and a fur band that covers all her hair, and pointy wide rimmed glasses.

Gotta love public transportation.

Rotten Turkey and So Forth

Thanksgiving was lovely. JM was in town and we had a big get together. We did have a problem with the turkey though. Somebody (won't mention any names, you know who you are...) left the turkey in a sink full of water to defrost...for 3 days. So when we unwrapped it, the smell was not too pleasant. After determining that the turkey really was quite dead, we opted for chicken and a small turkey breast (NOT frozen).

Here's some Thanksgiving pics:

Me and my lover boy


That's just cute


Rotten Turkey


The Cooks


This is why we don't let Stephan cook.


In the absence of a rolling pin, use a cucumber!



Moving on from Thanksgiving...

...here is a picture of the very first advent candle nature decoration thingy I have ever made. With help from Morten's mom and sister.


Yesterday was my first day of work. I shall summarize the experience thus: after attending an orientation meeting that consisted almost entirely of listing all of the astounding (and unexpected) perks involved in working there, I was then escorted to my department where everyone was very sweet, and waiting for me on my desk were a bouquet of flowers and a box of cookies. So yeah, I like my job. A lot.



And finally, Morten and the hair dryer.

Quiz thingummyjig

It appears that I have been "tagged" by Amanda in this here quiz thingy. It's good timing since I was trying to think of something to blog about. Here goes.

1. how long did you date before you got married? We dated 5 months and were engaged 5 months, leading to a total of...(drumroll)...10 months!

2. how long have you been married? 3 Months, 6 days, and 7 hours.

3. what does he do that surprises you? I could say reading aloud to me from Wikipedia about the history and origin of Gandalf the Grey, like he was doing just a minute ago...but that doesn't really surprise me. Something that does: He often watches my girl movies with me (Pride & Prejudice, Phantom of the Opera, etc) by choice and enjoys them.

4. what is his best feature? Hard to pick just one...he has very nice lips. And the shape of his face looks like it was chiseled by a very talented artist. His eyes are also nice...ok but as for the very best, I would have to say his smile. It's very contagious, which makes it hard to keep frowning when he smiles at me.

5. what is his best quality? One of my very favorites is his loyalty, commitment, and devotion to the people he loves and the things he believes in. I also really admire his leadership and people skills. And he has a wonderful quirky sense of humor; we can sit and giggle for hours about basically nothing at all.

6. does he have a nickname for you? It's pretty cliche but we always call each other honey. The Danish version of honey (sweetie baby etc) is "skat," and I think that one will gain popularity as my Danish improves.

7. what is his favorite color? Red and Green.

8. what is his favorite animal? He likes ALL animals a lot, but especially: Gorillas, Pandas, Polar bears...there are more favorites but I don't remember them right now. His favorite dog is a rottweiler. When we get a house we will probably get a Huskie though, I like them better.

9. what is his favorite food? He also likes ALL food for the most part...but his favorite of everything is steak.

10. what is his favorite sport? To watch/cheer for: Soccer (called Football in europe). To play/do: Swimming (on the closet shelf there is a box full of trophies he won for swimming).

11. when and where did you first kiss? October 25th 2007, in his apartment (now ours), chillin' after institute.

12. favorite thing to do as a couple? Hummmm...it depends on what mood we are in. Sometimes we really like going out to eat and/or to the movies, but that is pretty expensive in Denmark so we don't do it a lot. In the wintertime we enjoy having a "cozy night" inside (coziness is very Danish), watching a movie, oftentimes Harry Potter or LOTR, and eating something yummy. Playing the question game is always fun too.

13. do you have any children? Um....no. Haha.

14. does he have a hidden talent? He's a whiz kid with a rubics cube.

15. how old is he? 26

16. who said 'i love you' first? He did, also on October 25th 2007, after a few less committed variations in the days beforehand.

17. what is his favorite music? It varies. He likes Disney soundtracks, 70's - 80's music, church music, cheesy love songs, and pretty much anything upbeat. His current favorite band is queen.

18. what do you admire the most? I think the quality of his which I would most like to emulate is his ability to be positive all the time; to push negative thoughts out of the way in order to be happy and helpful to others.

19. do you think he will read this? Probably, he reads my blog periodically.

Done! I don't really know lot of married people with blogs...trying to think of who to tag...how about...Pri, Cat, Maren, and Joanna. Joanna, I know you're not married yet but you almost are so I'm tagging you anyway.

Fiddler on the Roof

"It is torturing to be homesick all the time, and yet not want to come home."
- Maud Hart Lovelace

I was just watching Fiddler on the Roof for the umpteenth time, and one particular song seemed very pertinent to how I have been feeling lately: homesick, but at the same time not wanting to come home. This particular song was one that I sang in a voice recital when I was sixteen, without knowing how it foreshadowed a decision I would make 9 years later.

Here is the song - "Far From the Home I Love." Just replace "there" with "here."

How can I hope to make you understand
Why I do what I do,
Why I must travel to a distant land,
Far from the home I love.
Once I was happily content to be
As I was, where I was,
Close to the people who are close to me,
Here in the home I love.
Who could see that a man would come
Who would change the shape of my dreams.
Helpless now I stand with him,
Watching older dreams grow dim.
Oh, what a melancholy choice this is,
Wanting home, wanting him,
Closing my heart to ev'ry hope but his,
Leaving the home I love,
There where my heart has settled long ago
I must go, I must go.
Who could imagine I'd be wand'ring so
Far from the home I love
Yet, there with my love, I'm home.

Forgotten keys and a fuzzy pink bathrobe

One afternoon last week, I was chatting with my mom in my apartment, when I remembered that I had to go down to the laundry room to switch a load over. I told mom that I would be back in just a minute, and got ready to go down.

*Side note: when going down to the laundry room, I rarely bother to make myself presentable. I usually have messy morning hair, and often wear my pajamas.

This day I was luckily wearing jeans and an old tee shirt, not pajamas. I did, however, have extremely morningish hair (and you don't know the meaning of morningish hair until you have seen my hair in the morning). My choice of footwear for the occasion were Morten's big ugly house slippers.

Perhaps because my mind was on the conversation with my mother, or perhaps because it was on my plans for the afternoon, I was feeling particularly absent minded that day. In any case, I realized just as the automatically locking apartment door clicked sickeningly behind me, that I had forgotten my keys.

I had no phone. No money except a bit of laundry money. No coat (it was a cold day and my old tee shirt was very thin). I had never spoken with any of the neighbors. I sat on the step for about 15 minutes, completely at a loss as to what to do. That was when the lady next door got home.

In perfect keeping with the danish attitude of giving people their "space," she glanced at me (sitting on the step looking forlorn with my face in my hands, and a laundry basket in front of me), and after an absent minded "Hej," started unlocking her door. I figured I couldn't get out of this scrape without asking someone for help and this was the best opportunity I would get, so in a torrent I explained my situation to her and asked to use her computer to contact Morten (he was at work). She was very nice and I got ahold of Morten, who said he could be home in about an hour to let me in. I was very anxious to leave the embarrassing situation of being in this lady's apartment dressed in such a way, so I hurriedly declined the offer of a borrowed coat, and forgot to ask if I could use her bathroom. When I got back out on the step to my laundry basket, I realized my foolishness, realized that I would need a bathroom before an hour was over, and that I couldn't just sit on the step for that time.

I didn't want to bother the lady again though, so I rummaged through the contents of the laundry basket. There was nothing resembling a jacket except for my fuzzy pink bathrobe. But...desperate times call for desperate measures. I put on the bathrobe and headed outside to the nearby shopping center to find a restroom.

Messy hair, old clothes, my husband's big slippers, and a fuzzy, bright pink bathrobe flapping in the breeze, all won me plenty of stares. Luckily I had just recently read Elder Wirthlin's talk about laughing in a situation that makes you want to cry. So I amused myself for an hour by laughing inwardly until Morten got home with the (blessed!) keys, and we both had a good laugh.

Christmas

It's coming. And I'm really glad.

Last night when I rode my bike to the grocery store, it was already dark at 5:00 and cold too. But I somehow didn't mind and it struck me how very christmassy the air (already) feels. It was delicious! Inside the store they had Christmas decorations/cards/wrapping paper for sale everywhere, and blocks of chocolate and marzipan for the traditional Christmas baking.

That night we put on Christmas music while Morten made "burning love" for dinner (mashed potatoes with crispy hunks of bacon). I was bustling around, cleaning and organizing, feeling very Christmassy. Then "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Judy Garland came on, and we started to dance.

I think Christmas is going to be really good this year!

Two stories having to do with husbands and glasses of water

First story:

Last night as I was brushing my teeth, Morten was already in bed. He asked me very sweetly, "Honey, could you get me a glass of water from the toilet?"

This request might sound normal to someone in the UK, where, as in Denmark and throughout the rest of Europe, "toilet" is synonymous with "bathroom." Clearly he wanted a glass of water from the sink in the bathroom, not actually from the toilet.

Knowing this, however, did not keep me from giggling uncontrollably for some time afterwards.

Second story:

A while back, I got thirsty in the middle of the night. There is a "headboard" across the back of the bed where we put our books, lamps, glasses of water, things like that. This night when I got thirsty, it was quite dark (understandably) and all I could see as far as water on the headboard was a bottle, presumably filled with water. So I reached for it. What I hadn't seen was a full glass of water directly in front of the bottle. What I did see, though too late, was that the glass of water was positioned perfectly above Morten's (sleeping) head.

The water spilled all over him, and woke him up. Due to his unfailingly good tempered disposition, he forgave me.

Scrapbooking

It's one of my current obsessions. Those who know me, know that I am never casually interested in something...I become preoccupied with it, and think about it day and night. It seems to be a family trait. Anyway, due to the burning interest in scrapbooking possessed by most of the females in Morten's family, I have recently taken it up again. First I was working on my mission scrapbook, which still wasn't done (it's not finished now either, not even halfway...). Last week though, I got the prints in the mail that I had ordered of the wedding pictures. Saturday was "scrapbooking day" for Anja and I, so we were at it for about 12 hours while the menfolk played wii and tended to the children. It was most glorious and I actually got a lot done. I realized late last night, to what extent my interest has been rekindled, when I woke up with a start because of an idea (that I must have dreamed about?) to use in my wedding album. I couldn't rest until I had gotten up and written it down.

I have a job!

Maersk has offered me a position as an HR Assistant. I will most likely start on December 1st, depending on the work permit situation. However, with a job contract and a danish husband, there shouldn't be a problem. I am very excited/relieved to have the "job thing" taken care of, so I don't have to worry about "what will become of me" or "when can we ever get out of this tiny apartment" or "will I ever have something productive to do again." It's a nice load off my mind and I didn't realize how stressed I had been about it until now when the stress is gone. Unexpectedly having a good job offer is yet another proof to me that, even if I don't know or understand all the reasons, even though it is hard sometimes, we are definitely meant to be here in Denmark right now.

Recently we went to Ikea and got some of our "wedding presents": new pillows and blankets (a blue one and a green one of course!), frames for some pictures we got at the distribution center like 6 months ago, coat hooks (necessary when the closet won't fit them all), 2 much needed lamps (it's getting to be darkish wintertime again), and the most fun of all - some pretty twinkle lights for our "living room" area, and the effect is very cosy and nice.

Maersk and Mamma Mia

I went for my second interview at Maersk yesterday and it seems like a really great opportunity, and I could really use all of your prayers for that! All the people I met were so very nice and it seems like something I would definitely enjoy. I'm supposed to hear back from them next week, so I will keep you posted!

Also last night, my amazingly wonderfully awesome husband gave me a belated birthday present. He ordered it (which is why it was late) to come specially to his workplace and not here so I wouldn't suspect. How clever he is.

It was...



The guitar book for all the songs in Mamma Mia! Now I can annoy him by not only singing Abba songs every day, but playing them too.

My Scathingly Brilliant Idea

A few months ago (or maybe like half a year?) I wrote an entry about a place called "Valbyparken." I was very excited to find such a nice park so close to home. Two days ago I went there again, and found that in my first entry I did not give near enough attention to its interestingness, plus I had no pictures. So I decided to go again with my camera and write a nice juicy blog entry all about what I find there.

Then I thought how cool would it be if I keep doing that for different places or things about Copenhagen that I find, with a different subject every week? That gives me a reason to get out of the house, see some interesting things, and do something I really like: write. It also will give my little brothers and other interested persons back home a closer look at the place where I live.

Something of dire importance that you all need to know

Here is my very important piece of information: since moving to Denmark I have found something out about myself. Two things actually.

1) I actually like meat cooked medium well (a little pink), not well done.


2) I actually like eggs boiled medium (still pretty soft in the middle) and not hard boiled.


I just thought y'all would greatly benefit from that information. You can thank me later.

Just a few tidbits

It has been raining off and on all week. Yesterday I looked out the window, down at the ground where I had shaken off all the rice that I collected off the bed from the wedding reception vandalism. The rice is still out there all over the ground, very swollen now from the rain. I hope there aren't any birds getting sick because of my angry shaking of sheets out the window rampage.

Remember how I said I turned my phone's language into danish? This morning Morten took an unflattering picture of me with my phone, as he often does, and when I smirked at him and casually went to delete it, I couldn't figure it out. Got to learn this language!

Danish is going ok. Except yesterday at the all day birthday festivities with the family, I was extra frustrated with the language barrier. I think that is because I am actually trying now, working a billion hard on it all week, and still don't understand everything, and draw a blank when people speak to me. Of course I wouldn't understand everything after just a week of diligent study, it's just more frustrating that way because I can't just tell myself it's fine because I will understand when I get around to studying. Maybe that's why I waited so long to try harder at it? Well, to quote Anne of Green Gables, iron has entered my soul. There is no turning back. Muahahahaha!!!! I'm gonna learn this ************ language or go crazy in the process.

My birthday was enjoyable. Morten didn't have to work a 14 hour day as he has been doing pretty much the rest of the week (flu shot season started this week, so the poor kid has been working his tail off). I actually got to see him for a little bit on a weekday which made it a very nice birthday. Also we had a family party yesterday and it was fun, and altogether I got some cool scrapbooking stuff and clothes, and West Side Story on dvd.

I'll have to say that I am really appreciating general conference this time around. We only saw the first saturday session yesterday, we meant to stay up for the second one but it was just too late. However, yesterday proved once again that Dieter F. Uchtdorf is THE MAN (among others who are also THE MAN, but he is THE MAN whose talk stood out especially to me yesterday).

I'd better stop writing before I go into babble mode. My husband tells me it's cute but I have an inkling he says that to be nice to me. So I will end here with a TOODLE-LOO! to all.

I'm taking the plunge

Yes, that is what I am doing. It started last night. I had spent the whole day with the sister missionaries, helping them out doing their thing. There are three of them, and I have been here in Denmark at least twice as long as all of them. And they can speak danish. I can't.

That's what made me realize I am a lazy moron for not learning the language by now. I mean...I would have a right to complain if I had actually been studying all this time, but I haven't. Not even a little. I don't try to speak it with my husband and other people unless I have to. My computer, my phone, etc, had all been programmed to english. I watch and read the news in english. I read the scriptures in english. I do my very best to ignore the danish language completely, or otherwise convince myself of my inability to learn it. What the heck??

No more, I decided last night. Whatever disease of the mind that has been keeping me from trying to learn, is now cured! I changed my phone to danish last night. Now when I send text messages, I try to write them in danish. I studied in my book. I listened to my cd. I started a diary ("dagbog") in danish. I read the book of mormon in danish. I prayed in danish (sort of). I'm going to take every opportunity I can to learn this language, for the fun of it if nothing else, because it is fun. I don't know why it took me so long.

What we found (comparable to something nasty in the woodshed)

As promised, I must continue the story of the post wedding reception discoveries.

Picking up where I left off, and as already shown, there were flags on the door. My thought: how cute, our brother in law must have put decorations in our apartment when they came back to get the food we forgot.

Once we opened the door though, "cute" was no longer the word I would have chosen. The door out of the hall and into the main part of the apartment was jammed, and the light switches mysteriously did not work. Maren, Kirsten and I still didn't know what was going on. Morten did though - his voice was calm but betrayed a touch of anxiety as he struggled with the door and said "they must have taken the light bulbs."

What?? What would be the purpose of doing such a thing? He didn't elaborate as we finally burst through the door into a pitch black apartment, and commenced a search for the lamps and light bulbs. Unable to find them anywhere, at last Morten called his brother in law to ask what he had done with the light bulbs. He was informed that the lamp was inside the freezer, and the bulbs were inside socks and things in our dresser drawers.

Ok, so, haha funny, now we can relax and go to bed...NO! Because the bed, much to my dismay, was not itself.



It was covered in candy and balloons, but not only that, it was also covered in lots and lots of rice!! Well, no problem I thought, I would just carefully take off the sheet and shake it out the window. But when I began moving the sheet I discovered...rice was underneath the sheet as well! Ok, don't panic...just take off the mattress pad. WHAT?!?!?! Rice was also under the mattress pad. At that point there was nothing else to carefully remove, nothing else to do but scoop up handfuls of rice. It took a while...and I admit I did not see the humor in this tradition until about 24 hours after the fact. Now I can laugh about it :)

So that is the story of my adventures with Danish marriage customs.

Sisterly visitations and Danish marriage traditions (both nice and not so very nice)

Maren got here friday afternoon and from that point forth until this morning at about 10:00, my life has been a bit chaotic (in very good ways for the most part).

We had great fun showing Maren and Kirsten the town. Kirsten is German but she has also never been to Denmark. We showed them the little mermaid, Amalienborg Palace (complete with blue guard guys with their bear fur hats), the round tower, and real Danish hot dogs! Kirsten especially liked those.

Here are some pictures from friday:







It was fun fitting everyone in our small apartment. Kind of like a slumber party. Saturday morning we decided that before heading for the belated wedding reception at Morten's parents' house, Maren and Kirsten and I would go on a canal tour. It was a great idea, except for the fact that it rained the entire time and A) we didn't have unbrellas and B) I wasn't even wearing a rain jacket. It fun to see some of the sights of Copenhagen from the water and ride under some REALLY low bridges, but we were also very glad to get off the boat again and head for the dry and warm house.





We arrived looking like drowned rats and immediately commenced a frenzied effort to become better looking. I don't know if my effort was as noble as it should have been, seeing it was the third day recently that I have been the "bride" so I guess some of the novelty had worn off by then.

The reception was wonderful! Morten's mom and the rest of the family did a great job of making the house and yard beautiful, complete with a tent in the backyard in case of rain. As luck would have it, the sun came out and we spent a very enjoyable three hours with friends and family.



There are a few Danish marriage traditions that I was not previously aware of. The one with which I was most familiar, was that we do a waltz to the sound of the Danish "bridal waltz." So when they ushered us into the middle of a circle, started the music and began clapping to the rhythm, I wasn't very surprised. I was a little more surprised when they began pelting us with rice, even stuffing it into our clothes...well, the pictures can speak for themselves:




After this I was even more surprised when, after the music stopped, everyone seized upon my husband, lifted him up in the air, violently removed his shoes, and cut off the tips of his socks with scissors, amidst his cries of "not my toes, not my toes!"




Later after the reception we had a smaller family dinner. It was very cozy and fun. I was excited to finally understand more danish than someone else at a family party, and we enjoyed teaching some danish phrases to Kirsten (which she promptly learned to say much better than I can).

At one point during the meal, Morten's uncle started banging on his glass with his fork. Everyone else joined in and at my confused look, Morten explained that we had to stand on our chairs and kiss. We had to keep doing it until they stopped, but then they started stomping their feet. This meant we had to go under the table and kiss. Everyone thought it was exceptionally funny.

It was a really good day. We got home really tired and ready for some nice rest. But then, strangely we saw decorations posted on our door:



and became wary of more foul play. We opened the door to find...

DOT DOT DOT

I will continue the story of what we found in our apartment at another time, partially because I am tired of blogging now and partially because we haven't uploaded the pictures yet. Stay tuned...

I <3 my sisters!

My wonderful sister Maren is coming to visit me today!



I'm counting the hours!

Absentee Voting....AHAHAHHH!

I thought I had registered to vote absentee, like...months ago. I still haven't received my ballot and now I am getting worried...so I checked up on some things and I think maybe they didn't actually register me because I chose "indefinitely" instead of "temporary" when referring to my residence abroad. I chose that because I got called to jury duty last year and had to cancel my registration in order to prove that I don't live in Texas anymore and can't go to jury duty there. SO what's a girl to do? How am I supposed to vote? I suppose I will make some international calls to sort this thing out. Because I AM going to vote. Period. If anybody has any tips for me...please let me know!

I've been inspired!

Today I read Edition 2 of Calcio nos Ossos Online - maintained by my beloved companion Pri (Sister Rebicki) and read by all the dear sisters of my mission who I miss so very much. It was wonderful to read it, and wonderful to feel that connection with them.

So, I became inspired to finally write a bit in my own blog, after a month or so of silence (basically). I have had a right to be silent - I have been pretty busy! Getting married and moving to another country and everything, it's pretty time consuming (not the mention the mental faculties involved).

So to sum up the last month or so, life has been GOOD. The wedding and honeymoon was a wonderful whirlwind, and now we are back in Denmark. Morten works all day (he is taking a semester off while we get the mess of my residency paperwork all sorted out) and I spend my days doing housework and finding other ways to amuse myself/make myself useful to the world. I am currently waiting for paperwork in order to be able to look for a job, take classes, things like that. It is possible for this paperwork to take a VERY long time, like up to 7 months, which has been a bit depressing. But lately we have received a wonderful blessing - a possible job for me sooner than that! A job at Maersk which is an important company in Denmark, and they could probably speed up the paperwork considerably if they decide to hire me. My interview is next monday! I hope it all works out.

I am mostly just feeling overwhelmed with blessings right now. I don't know how it's possible to be so blessed, I know I don't deserve it half as much as so many other people do. But it's not my place to judge things like that, I can only be grateful and use this time to develop good habits, rely on the Lord just as much/more than ever, even though the sun is shining at the moment, and build up my reserve of happy thoughts. That way when the hard times come again as they usually do, I will be ready for them.

Those are my deep thoughts for the day.

So this is what happily ever after means...

...the beginning of a whole lotta happiness that just keeps growing. I love being married to the greatest husband ever!



I'll write more later...

Almost...there...!

As my title suggests, it's almost time for the wedding! It's been a long and strange summer, and the strangest part is that it's actually been really good! Though the original idea of having the wedding in July didn't pan out as we had intended, it definitely worked out for the best the way it has worked out. It's been great to spend some quality time with my family and sort through all the details that would have been overlooked in the rush to get married a month after I got here.

So now almost everything is completely ready. I just need some pretty wedding shoes....among a few other things. I never knew there were so many details involved in getting married. Like any girl, I have been enjoying being immersed in the particulars of the particulars. But now I am ready to be married! Morten will be here in 18 days, and not a minute too soon. Can't wait!

Walking Oxy-Morons

I don't really have a good reason for blogging today except I felt like babbling a bit. There is a fly buzzing around in my room and starting to annoy me but I'm too lazy to do something about it. So why not do some blogging instead?

That picture is from last weekend when we went to see The Music Man. It was definitely amusing. Hehe....aMUSing...ok nevermind. Ok to make up for a bad joke I will reveal a deep and dark truth about myself: In most plays no matter how much I like them, I always get a little bored for about half an hour towards the end. I don't really know the explanation for this phenomenon, as I love plays and particularly musicals. I love them; I crave them; I enjoy them. Except for the part where I get really bored towards the end.

But I guess we are all walking oxy-morons at heart. Not that our hearts can walk. Ok maybe that didn't come out right. I just think that in the core of my being, and probably yours too, there are a lot of things that completely contradict each other. Walt Whitman did a pretty good job of explaining that.

Hmm that's a pretty profound thought. I should develop it sometime.

Tejas

I don't really understand how it is that I spent the whole miserable winter in Denmark, and now while it's really nice in Denmark, I'm spending the whole miserable hot summer in Texas. Well, I do understand...it's because the Danish government won't let me apply to live in their country again until I've been gone for 90 days. Why? Beats me. Luckily when we found out, we hadn't sent out the invitations yet, and nobody had bought their plane ticket yet (except us, and luckily we were able to change it easily). So now we're getting married August 15th. Beside the fact that it's flippin hot here and I miss my fiance like no other, it's actually a good development. Because: it means I have more time to plan the wedding, to make money, Morten can be an EFY counselor, I can spend more time with my family before I leave the country again, and we can actually have a honeymoon of sorts before we go back to DK because Morten's summer job will be over by then. So it was actually a good development if you look at it in a practical way. And it's not that much longer....I will be getting married 60 days, 5 hours, and 30 minutes from now actually. Which is not so bad.....

Yes I'm trying to convince myself. I don't know if it's working. But I'll keep trying.

Other than missing my fiance and Denmark, it's great to be back home.

Engagement Pictures!

We finally took the pictures yesterday! To see the rest of them click here. I've also added it in the picture links to your left.

Surprise! Valbyparken

The weather has still been excellent so yesterday we decided to ride out to the beach. We took a (beautiful) bike path down to what had looked like a beach on the map. Morten thought it would be fun to take a little detour road up a steep hill into the trees (I thought it was a driveway at first, I guess that's what comes of spending too much time in Arkansas). At the top we found a great little spot full of big steep hills with benches on top of each one, looking out over the sea on one side and cute houses on the other. No I didn't bring my camera...I will go another day and take pictures. It was a nice surprise.

However there still wasn't a sandy conventional beach, it was all rocks still, so we decided to ride down another path along the beach looking for one where we could dip our feet in the water. Taking a few random turns, we unexpectedly ended up in a huge park. Though it was only a 10-15 minute bike ride from the apartment, neither of us had known it was there. I have since looked it up and found that its name is "Valbyparken" and it's the largest public park in Copenhagen. Convenient huh? It's full of "circular gardens" with flowers and herbs, gazebos, huge trees, a cafe, flowers, very unique playgrounds and exhibits and walking paths. It reminded me of the Dallas Arboretum with one major difference: it's free! So I think I will spend plenty of time down there this summer when I am jobless.

Summing it all up: a very pleasant surprise. I'll take pictures next time.

Middlemarch in May

Denmark has a lot of holidays in the spring. You get the "winter break" along with basically a whole nuther week for Easter, then there are tons of little 3 or 4 day weekends along the way into May. Like this last weekend. Have a billion fun with my sweetheart, yay!

I've also noticed that whereas it is a particularly vile country weatherwise in the wintertime, the spring (and presumably the summer) is a particularly nice time to be in Denmark. There has been a delightful amount of sun and it puts me in a perpetual good mood. And flowers! And green stuff. Everywhere.

Might I also comment on the felicity of bike riding? Though cruising on the freeway with good friends with the windows down and singing energetically to loud music most definitely has its joys, riding a bike also has its own particular joys. It's very satisfying to arrive at your destination knowing that barely more than your own leg power got you there. And then there's the endorphins. All in all, even though I can't have a car, this really is pretty nice. Just more work. But I guess things that are more work are generally better anyway.

If I'm writing a little funny today it's because I've been reading Middlemarch. It's taken me a while to get into it (especially because apparently one of the main characters hasn't even made his appearance yet), but I'm pretty into it now. So...I'm gonna read. MMM-K bye.

No More Excedrin!

I learned something interesting the other day. I've been having a lot of migraines since the tooth thing, mostly because I just got off balance I think. I was getting sick of taking pills every time my head started hurting, which was almost every day last week, so I decided to see if there was anything else I could do instead. I found this website: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/medicine/migraine/natural-cures/ with all sorts of useful information, some of which actually helped me almost painlessly through a 48 hour migraine without taking medicine. So I wanted to pass on the wisdom for anyone who might want to know.

I'm just sitting around listening to the beatles on a saturday morning. Trying to pluck up the courage to clean a bit. Man, you shoulda seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe. Nuff said.

ok, SO...

I started this blog a long time ago when I first came to Denmark and ended up forgetting about it a few months later. BUT as you may know, I am soon getting married and staying here in Denmark. After that it will be a while before I have a work permit, so I figure I will probably have a lot of time on my hands and will be glad for something to do again as soon as life slows down! It will also come in handy when we get kids. So I have done some revampage and now I'm going to try this again. Baby steps, bob.

So, basically, now I am almost done with the au pair job and going back to Texas in exactly 28 days to prepare for the wedding. Yay! Until then it feels like life is moving in slow motion. I long for the day when I will see my corpulent nephews again. July 5th (the wedding) also can't come fast enough. But I'm doing my best to keep myself occupied and enjoying life until then.

Meanwhile, here's how I've been doing:

That's enough for now. Hej hej!

Recent Dental Disasters

Here's a copy of what I wrote on facebook about my, well...the title speaks for itself.



My swollen face in this picture is the aftermath of a very traumatic dental emergency last week. I could give you all the gorily unpleasant details, but that wouldn't be conducive to my vow to forget them. So, in answer to various inquiries on the subject, you people get the short version.

Saturday during general conference I started getting severe pain under an old root canal. I didn't think much of it at first and figured it might "go away" in a few days. Ha. Instead, over the course of 3 more days, it got to the point of unbearable - and when I say unbearable it's because I didn't know it was possible to hurt so much without passing out or something.

Tuesday was the worst point. I hadn't slept at all monday night, also had barely eaten anything since saturday, and food made me sick even when I managed to get it past my teeth (because it was all yogurt) and none of the meds were working (there were a lot the dentist told me to take, for pain and infection). So, Morten was calling everywhere again on tuesday, even the hospital but they wouldn't take me (because it's dental), and then he got ahold of the dentist (a member of the church by the way) who said bring me in immediately. We showed up there and he could see how bad it was so he decided to just operate on me right then and there, even though it was in between other patients. Basically, he drilled a hole all the way to the infection, which then relieved my suffering (though I still have to go back every few days for a while now).

But like I said, I'm trying to forget a lot of that. What I'm not trying to forget though is how very blessed I feel that it was over so quickly, that I had such wonderful people around to take care of me and feel my pain, and for the priesthood. I'm also glad I don't live in the middle ages before modern dentistry!


I couldn't have done it without this handsome fellow.