Happy Birthday Daddy

Last Sunday was Tom's birthday & the his family spent the day at our place. The day's program was as follows:

10.00 Morning meeting
11.00 Bible study
12.00 Lunch
13.00 Free Activity
14.00 Birthday Song
15.00 Coffee & cake
16.00 Walk (this was cancelled due to extreme cold)
17.00 Snowball Fight (was moved to 1600 due to sunsetting)
18.30 Dinner

For the cake I made a mango & passionfruit layer cake with a merang top, & a blackforrest cheesecake.

Joshua also enjoyed helping Daddy open his presents...

Snow photos

I have finally got round to putting the promised photos on Flickr.

These 2 photos are the same day as those in my "snow" post only in the evening.

Unfortunately I didn't get round to taking a photo when the snow was at it's deepest, but it was upto the top of the pots (ie. you couldn't see the pots) & the trees behind the pots were almost completely covered as well.

My first Christmas

Tree chopping was cold

I sat in a highchair for the first time.

I loved opening my presents

And playing with them afterwards

Dansing round the Christmas Tree was fun too

White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know....
Well actually I've never experienced a white Christmas before. But this year my dreams came true & I got to experience a white Christmas. Now apparently it's all very technical, & to be truely a white Christmas 95% of the land must be covered in snow (which it was). However just the fact that all was white outside was enough for me.

As for the activites of the day. They started with the usual gathering of the family for breakfast out at Tom's parent's & then of to cut a Christmas tree. Then because of it being the alternate year, most of the family left to spend Christmas with the in-laws. So that meant that the rest of Christmas was celebrated with just Tom's parents, Pia & ourselves.

The menu for Christmas dinner was Ris alamanda (in which Tom found the almond), followed by roast goose, brown potatos, red cabbage, boiled potatoes & gravy. Then it was time to work off all the Christmas eating by dansing round the Christmas tree, before opening a couple of presents & off to bed.

What Happened to Global Warming?

Since my last post we have had snow everyday & temperatures have not got above 0. In fact on Saturday, the coldest day we've had so far, max. -10 & min. -16. I will post photos on flickr when I get a chance, but in the mean time here is a video I found on Youtube.

I can sit!!

Joshua sat by himself for the first time yesterday. Like anything done the first time there is a bit more practice & improvement to be made. He has to lean forward a lot to hold his balance, but he can stay upright for 2-3min. I discovered it quite by accident. We were at exercise class & I had been holding him in the sitting position on the floor. I let go momentarily to change position & noctice that he didn't fall over. At first I thought it was because he was leaning on the ball he was playing with, but when I took that away he still remained sitting. So it looks like he's one of those few babies that skips the rolling stage & jumps straight to sitting.

Snow

Today we woke up to the first snow of the winter. Everything is beautiful & white. I love it when it snows!! Of course in order for that to happen it has to be COLD (-1 at the moment, was -7 last night), but as long as you're sitting in side with the fire going... :-)

Christmas Baking

Sunday was the annual Family Christmas Baking Day. As usual it was a great time of fellowship & fun. Due to having Joshua this year I limited the number of things I made to 3. These were fruit mince slice, rum balls & apricot balls.

Other goodies made were klejner, vanillekranse & churrios.

The dedicated & talented building team were also at work again. This year's project was the Taj Mahal. It still requires a few finishing touches to make it look a little more authentic.

Surprise Revealed

Sorry to those of you who have been waiting with baited breath to hear what the surprise was. It has been a busy weekend (been home 16hrs in total), so only now getting a chance to sit & write. Tom took me to see the Oslo Gospel Choir. They were on tour performing a Christmas Concert. It was totally unexpected, yet came at just the right time. I had been having a rough couple of weeks with Joshua & really need to just have a break. The amazing thing is that Tom wouldn't have known this 3 months ago when he had to book the tickets, but God knew. I remember Tom & I discussing it & I said I'd like to go, but Tom said that we couldn't cause he had his work Christmas party that night. So that was the last I thought about it.

It was a great night & I once I got over leaving Joshua & began to relax I really enjoyed it.

Cultural influence

It's amazing the way a culture of a country slowly influences you until you find yourself doing things you vowed & declared you would never do. There have been a few instances of that since I moved over here. The latest is that I put Joshua outside to sleep sometimes. I still don't feel completely comfortable about it, especially now that winter has arrived & tempertures are not so high. But he is well rugged up with a beanie & jacket on & then wrapped in this special 3 layer doona thing. I also have very strict conditions as to when I put him out. It must be sunny & not too windy & the temperature must be above 0 (which actually rules out most days). The main reason that I have given in to this cultural norm is that the couple of times Tom has convinced me to leave him outside he has slept 2hr or more. I must say though that it doesn't work everytime.

Surprise!

This is what is written on my calender today. All I know is that I have to have Joshua ready to be taken care of for the evening by 4pm & I need to be dressed in smart casual. I'm guessing it involves dinner of some sort, but who knows what else!!??

Immunisations

Yes, we had our first immunisation experience on Friday. All in all it went quite well. He only cried as the needles were going in & then stopped as soon as Mummy picked him up. I had dosed him up with Panadol before hand as advised & he was generally content & happy most of the day. That night was a bit of a different story though. He still wasn't cranky, just very restless & not really sleeping all that well. That was probably due to the fact that although I had given him Panadol he was still running a fever. But now he's back to normal & none the worse for wear.

Bedtime Update

Well it's nearly 2 weeks since we intigated the bedtime routine & in general it's been progressing well. The first week he was usually settled for the night by 8:30 with only 1 or 2 resettlings. This week though he has decided to test the boundaries a bit & hasn't been settling until 9pm. But I guess even this is better than 11 or 12, so we'll just continue as is.

Bathtime

Joshua LOVES his bathtimes, especially since we got give the loan of a bath seat. He kicks & splashes & has the time of his life. He'd stay in there all day if he could I think. When it's time to come out he screams & lets everyone know that he's NOT HAPPY!!

Fathers comments

It's been a while since I've given my perspective on things so here is a brief comment
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ohhh sorry slipped off again

I'm home alone with Joshua tonight, so far we are doing well.
He had his bath at 7, perscribed by his mother, had a bottle and then off to sleep. I got 15 minutes as well while he was settling, so it worked out fine. Now we'll just have to see how long he goes tonight.

Anyway, it been a hard couple of month. Things has been really busy at work almost driving every one crazy which doesn't make it a nice atmosphere. With Joshua giving limited sleep time hasn't made it alot easier and on top of that having your in-laws living with you. (no offense, it's been great having them, but it's just not the same as being just you in your own house).
Anyway with Gods help it's all worked out. Work is getting less busy, the in-laws are in NZ and Joshua is sleeping :-) God is great.

The different bible study groups have started up again and its been good. This is one thing the last couple of month has lacked. I havn't had much time to do any bible study.
Hopefully this will be better soon. I know alot of it is discipline and taking the time instead of turning on the TV.

Okay I think that's all I have to say for now.
Looking forward to 2½ month in Australia and I think Joshua is awake again.

Tom

The better of 2 evils?

We have decided to start setting Joshua into a routine of going to bed for the night around 8pm. There are 2 reasons for this decision.

1. We were getting so tired & worn out not going to bed til midnight or after. (especially Tom who had to get up at 6am & go to work)

2. We were getting absolutely no time together as a couple. Tom would leave for work while I was still sleeping & then the evening was spent taking turns walking around with Josh, before falling into bed exhausted.

The method we have chosen is a modified version of the controlled crying method & setting a before bed routine. So it starts at 7pm with a bath, then a feed, settling & into bed. If he wakes we go in, settle again without any talking or eye contact & into bed again. The difference between the normal controlled crying method & our is that there is no period of letting him cry, we go in as soon as he starts crying. We believe that this is better than letting him cry as it develops a sense of trust, rather than him feeling his needs are not met (based on the understanding that a baby cries to communicate a need). I won't go into all the theory here, but if you want to discuss/comment feel free to write to me.

So it's Day 2 of our routine (early day yet I know). The first night he didn't settle until 10pm with 4 or 5 resettlings. Then slept til 8am with feeds at 2 & 5, settling straight away after. Last night he settled by 8:45pm with only 1 resettling, but awoke at his 5am feed bright & cherpy & ready to start his day. He did finally fall asleep again after an hour or so & awoke again at 8am.

So so far I guess it seems to be going ok, Just hope he doesn't continue thinking 5am is time to start the day!! Will keep you posted on the progress.

Night Owl

My sister just posted an update on her newest addition & I realised it's a while since I did an update on Josh (a proper one anyway). Well he's still definately a night owl. He's over the change to wintertime & back to not going to bed til 11pm. Once a week he likes to pull a real latey & not hit the sack until 1! Now most times he's not upset (unless you put him in bed), he just sits in your arm & "talks", though he often likes you to walk around with him also. The good thing is that once he does go to bed, he's out for the night, not waking until 5/6am. He's also better at sleeping in the mornings too with generally a 4hr & 2hr sleep.

He's also still a real gut guzzler, eating every 2hrs. Thankfully though my supply seems to have picked up & he's only requiring top ups after his 2 evening feeds.

Developmentally he now weights 4.8kg & is 62cm long. He smiles, focuses on objects/faces & follows them with his eyes, bats at toys on his playmat & can roll from his back to side (hasn't managed to get o his tummy yet.

Winter time

On the weekend we changed from summertime to wintertime. One postive to come of this is that Joshua goes to sleep at 10pm instead of 11pm! The funny thing is that he still wakes between 3 & 4am for his middle of the night feed & then 5 & 6 for his morning feed, just like he used to before. I'm hoping this continues & he doesn't adjust back to his old routine.

They're Gone

Yesterday my parents left after being here for 9wks. While I'm of course sad they are gone, I'm also looking forward to getting back to a normal (well as normal as you can with a baby) routine. I'm hoping also that with a regular routine Joshua might settle a little more.

One day, One task

This is my motto from now on. One day last week it took me a whole day to make a pot of cream of corn soup. Yesterday the only constructive thing a managed to do was attend my exercise class, & today all I managed to do was the shopping.

It's official

Yesterday I booked our tickets to Australia!! We'll be there for 11 weeks & dividing our time between visiting family & friends in Brisbane, Bundaberg & New Zealand. We also hope to take a road trip up to Townsville, visiting friends & doing a bit of sight seeing along the way.

Sleeping baby

Yesterday morning I got the pleasant surprise of waking up at 6am to realise that Joshua had been asleep since 11pm! Then last night he slept from midnight until 5;30am. Now if only I could get him to go to bed a little earlier!!

Newly discovered taste

I am a great lover of cheese, but have never really taken a liking to blue cheese. It's too strong a flavour for my liking. However this past week I have used it twice in dishes I've cooked for dinner & have really liked the flavour. I think it is because I'm not just eating it on it's own & the other ingredients tone down the strong flavour. So from now on I think I'll be using more blue cheese in my cooking.

Mouse Hunt

Had a mouse... in the house.

Ate the food... and did a poo.

In the kitchen... hear not see.

We'll set a trap... and that'll be that.

Mother came... had a look.

Got a fright... the mouse in sight.

Chased the mouse... round the house.

Kitty came... got it out!

Parent free

Mum & Dad left yesterday on a 2 week trip to London. While it has been great having them here & they have been a great help, it's nice also for Tom, Joshua & I to have some time to ourselves. This has also meant that I have been home alone with Joshua during the day for the first time. This has gone well, though I do miss sometimes not having an extra pair of hands around. Like yesterday when I didn't get to have lunch until 3pm, cause Joshua wouldn't sleep or stop crying unless I was holding him & walking around (even in the sling). In the end I just had to put him down & let him cry while I got some lunch.

I'm Hungry Mum

That seems to be what Joshua has been trying to tell me with all his screaming. Last week the health nurse came for her regular visit & I mentioned how unsettled Joshua had been... screaming for hours on end & feeding almost constantly (when not screaming of course!!). She suggested that this along with the fact he hadn't gained very much weight could suggest perhap I wasn't producing enough milk & to try supplementing with formula. Well it seems to have worked. He has been much more settled this week & no screaming, just the normal unsettledness periods of a 1mth old, & he has gained 350g. Of course it does mean I now have the hassle of washing & sterilising bottles, & carrying bottles, formula & all that when we go out. But it's worth it for a more contented, healthy baby.

Focus on the positives

Well this week has been the total opposite of last week. Joshua has been very unsettled, especially in the evenings. He cries almost uncontrolably from around 6pm til 10, 11 or 12pm. Fortunately then he seems to sleep quite well the rest of the night, only waking every 3hrs to feed. But during the day he takes a while to fall to sleep & wakes frequently. He also doesn't sleep on his own very much, so most of the time someone has to be holding him. But despite this hardship there is one positive...I get lots of exercise with all the walking up & down the hallway, & am already back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I also get to give Joushua lots & lots of cuddles!!!

Motherhood...one week on

Well it's a week today since Joshua was born. We are slowly getting to know & adjust to each other. He's quite a good baby really...just eats & sleeps (though he does have his moments every now & then!) Nighttimes aren't too bad either. Sometimes he has a little trouble falling asleep at the start, which makes for some late nights. But after that he normally only wakes every 4hrs & falls straight back asleep. Feeding has been a little bit of a problem as he has trouble latching on properly & I am very sore, but it is getting a little better.

Bulls eye!

I was bending over putting Joshua into the car at the shopping centre this morning when, PLOP! something landed on my neck...a bird had flown over & pooped on me!!!

Little One has arrived!!

Little One (now called Joshua) made his arrival into the world at 6:39am on Thurday 27th August 2009. He didn't waste his time either, taking only 9hrs from start to finish. He was a little distressed with a low heatbeat towards the end so spent the first 6hrs in the neonatal special care nursery. He weighed 3026g and was 52cm.

They've Arrived

My parents have finally made it to Denmark. I think at some stages we started to wonder if they would ever make it, especially Dad. But God has been good and Dad has been in good health. They arrived on Tuesday morning in Copenhagn & we spent the day doing some sightseeing, before heading home. The rest of the week has been spent so far getting over jetlag.

Shoo fly, don't bother me

Summer means flies. Yes even in Denmark, & they drive me CRAZY!!!
Now you might be thinking, " but you should be used to flies from Australia". Yes, but I am also used to having fly screens that keep them out of the house. Here they don't have fly screens & it's just too hot to keep all the doors & windows shut, so the house is FULL of them. They are everywhere, & it seems that just as soon as you've killed 50 of them, there's another 50.

Little One Update

Not long now (I hope) until Little One will enter the real world & everything is progressing as it should. Only 3wks to go til my due date. I had my 3rd & final drs check last week (from now on it's just the midwife I see) & she was really happy with how everything was.
Little One continues to grow & is filling up most of the room in there now. Some of his/her latest tricks are to kick me quite hard in the side & to dig a foot or something up into my ribs where it hits a nerve (very painful!!)

How does your garden grow?

Well this year our fruit garden has done quite well. We have had a bumper crop of gooseberries, red currants, black currants, mirabella (small plums) & apples. We also had a decent crop of strawberries. So I have been kept busy picking, cleaning, packing & preserving. Usually I make a few batches of jams out of some of the fruit & then pack the rest to be frozen, which I did again this year. But I also started making my own saft (100% fruit juice cordial). This is something that is a staple drink over here. You boil the fruit in a special pot a bit like a steamer for a few hours & then add sweetner & preservative & bottle.

Our vege garden also hasn't done too bad, though got off to a little bit of a slow start due to a cold snap in the weather early in the season. But we have a decent crop of radish, potatoes, tomatoes, beetroot, letucce, carrots, zucchini, pumpkin & onions.

Is it really that long?

I decided that it had been a little while since I'd written so I'd write a post, but I didn't realise it had been nearly a month!!! Now it's not that I've had nothing to write about, though there really hasn't been anything big & exciting happening either. In fact I've often thought (at an inappropriate time) "I should write about this in my blog", but lately I have been suffering from a serious lack of energy, so have only been managing to do the necessary things. I have also been a little busy preparing for the arrival of my parents next week. But I really should do a little update for you so I don't get too far behind.

Pregnancy brain

Yes I certainly have a bad case of it. I can't seem to remember anythings at the moment for more than 30 sec unless I write it down, and Thursday I had the best display of it yet. My friend Claire was coming for a visit from London & I went to pick her up at the airport. Problem was that I got the times mixed up & turned up at the time she departed London, not the time she arrived in Denmark. Because it is a 1hr drive to the airport there was not much sense in driving all the way home (flight from London to Denmark = 2hr), I had to just wait around for 2hrs.

It's hot

It's been really hot here this week. Daytime temperatures have been around 30 degrees and at night it's only been getting down to 15.

Answer

Well I went to the midwife yesterday, so I asked her about the chocolate & citrus issue. Apparently it does have to do with the fact that in case you have to have a c-section. Chocolate & citrus cause your stomach contents to be too acidic. But due to the fact that here at least they do 99% of their c-sections with an epidural you don't have to starve completely.

Report on bub was good. Seems to have turned the right way round now & is progessing down into ejection position. All my vitals were also fine. I did have a little sugar in my pee, but midwife said that was probably due to the glass of soft drink I had at lunch.

I also had the danish equivalent of an antenatal class. This consisits of a 1hr session where you watch a video showing 4 different women giving birth & then the midwife hands you a handful of pamphlets covering pain control options, labour process, water birth & care instructions for after birth. She then shows a couple of pictures of how the cervix opens & demonstrates the birth process by pushing a baby doll through a model of the pelvis. Antenatal class completed!!

I have also managed to find a private "antenatal class" that teaches you relaxation techniques etc. It consists of 3 evening classes of 1hr. I have my first one next week.

Food during labor

Ok all you experienced & wise mothers or midwives out there. Can anyone tell me why you can't have chocolate & citrus fruit while you are in labor? I had a tour of the birthing suites yesterday & the midwife said that we are allowed to eat during labour, just not chocolate or citrus fruit. I have searched on the net & have been unable to find anything on this.

False Alarm

Yesterday I had a bit of a false alarm yesterday. I had a violent coughing attack (choaking on my sandwhich) & suddenly there was a rush of water. Well at first I just thought it was pee, but then I started to wonder if it was my waters breaking. So just to be on the safe side I tottled up to the hospital & got it checked out. Thankfully it was just pee (embarassing though!!) but at least I also got a thorough check out. Everything is fine.

I'm in here

Just in case I wasn't aware of the fact that I had another person inside me that was taking up more and more room, Little One has been letting me know with plenty of kicking & punching and all sorts of other movements. Or maybe it's those renovations Mel mentioned would take place!!

Hay fever

Well it's that time of the year again when my eyes & nose itch & I can't stop sneezing. Problem this year is that due to being pregnant I can't take the normal medications. So after a rotten weekend I headed straight to the chemist first thing Tuesday morning to see if there was anything I could safely take. This was her advice...
* Stay inside with all the doors & windows shut. (Temp. around 28)
* Don't hang your washing outside
* Keep the dog inside
* Take a shower after everytime you have been outside

She did thankfully also give me some anti-histimines.

Thought of the day

Christ could have come to earth, died on a cross to payfor our sins, and then immediately returned to glory. He didn't have to stay for a week, a month or a year, and yet He live on earth for a lifetime. Why? So that He too could endure grief, sorrow, hurt & disappointment. He wanted to live as we live because He wants us to know that He understands. Such understanding is additionally miraculous in that even though He kows us, He has not rejected us but welcomed us. He has not come to judge us based on His understanding, but rather to love us.

(One Year Book of Devotions for Couples)

Pure Delight

I have just eaten the first strawberries of the season, homegrown of course!! This is one of the high points of summer & I wait with anticipation every summer for them to come. So now there's strawberry waffles & pancakes, strawberries & ice-cream, & strawberries with chocolate on the menu :-)

Day of Relaxation

Tom had the day off work today, so no need to get up early. Well that we certainly didn't....we woke up around 7:30, but didn't get out of bed until 11:30!! We just spent the time talking & cuddling & dozing. When we did finally get up, Tom decided to make waffles for breakfast... well lunch. Then we decided we really should do something, so went & did a bit of shopping before coming home & just bludging.

New Wheels

No it's not another car. Yesterday we bought a pram & a stroller. The pram is the danish style & second-hand. This is where the baby usually sleeps during the day. They put it in there & then stick it outside. While I am in general against this idea due to the weather over here, Tom insisted we have one & I have conceded to allowing the baby to sleep outside when the weather is ok. But because it is so heavy & bulky I would be unable to use it for when I go out shopping etc, therefore the purchace of a stroller as well. 

It has taken us a while to find one that fitted our criteria. It had to be

 light, able to lie right back & fold to a manageable size. After a lot of looking we finally found one we were happy with that also happened to be on special. We just go the stroller, not the car capsule as well.

Running out of room

Well I'm in week 25 of my pregnancy now & Little One is growing. He/she loves to use my bladder as a trampoline & food no longer goes down as easily & often sits as a uncomfortable lump in my chest. There are also days when Little One positions so that he/she pushes just under my rib cage on the left & won't budge. This is very uncomfortable.

Visit to the zoo

For Tom's Dad's birthday this year the family went to Givskud Zoo . This is a safari zoo, which means that the animals are free roaming (within safety limits) & not in cages. Here are a few photos from the day.


Feeding the camels

Worn out

YWAM Team

We came back from Paris, not to a quiet weekend of recuperating, but to an evangelism weekend with a team of 8 young people from YWAM in Norway. During the course of the weekend they ran a street evangalism program in the town square, an outreach meeting, visited various churches & had an afternoon with the church youth. The street evangalism was run on the Saturday morning with singing & drama, testimonies, balloon modeling and handing out of tracts. There was also handed out invitations to the outreach program that night & a Christianity Explained course to be run over the next 6 weeks. Unfortunately there was no one from the street contacts that turned up to the night program. However while we were sitting having coffee afterwards a young man came in & Tom & a few other were able to have a good chat to him. He seemed to be searching & although he wouldn't take any of the tracts or Bible offered to him, he did take an invitation to the CE course. So please pray with us that he will come along.

Paris - Day 4

Time to go home, but our flight didn't leave until 3pm so we had a bit of time to fill in. We decided to pack our bags & head out to the train station to the Airport. Once we got there we stopped at a cafe & had a traditional French breakfast. Which consists of a croissant, cup of coffee & cup of orange juice.

Then the search was on. Tom had said I would be able to get crepes with strawberries & cream, something I've been craving ever since being pregnant. However no matter how many places we tried it wasn't to be found & with time running out I had to settle for banana, ice-cream & chocolate instead. I must say it was a pretty good second best!!

With tummys full it was time to head to the airport & catch the flight home. Even that has a funny story. As we were preparing to take off the stewardess came & handed me a pillow & said "for the baby". I wasn't sure what she meant, but apparently it is policy (even though they didn't do it on the way over) that pregnant women have a pillow under the seatbelt to protect the baby if the belt presses in due to turbulance or we crash. I'm really not sure how much good it would do or how glad Little One was for it (he/she did an awful lot of kicking), but I used it anyway.

So now we are home again & slowly settling into the day to day routine again, with many pleasant & funny memories. There are many more photos on our Flickr page.

Paris Trip - Day 3

Today was our 3rd wedding anniversary. The day started with us packing our backpack & then heading to the local baker, where we bought some croissants & pastries for breakfast. Then we headed to the Effiel Tower. Like all the main tourist attractions in Paris there was a long line, but this was one we were prepared to wait for, so Tom joined the line & I found a spot to sit & wait with our bags until the line reached closer to the ticket desk. 2hrs later we were boarding the elevator. The views were amazing, though it is VERY high up!!!

Then it was off to see Notre Dame & lunch, before heading to the Louve. We didn't actually go into the Louve, but there is a couple of amazing glass pyramid sculptures outside that are worth seeing. After that we headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest before heading out to dinner.

Tom had been to Paris before & really wanted to show me this amazing church on a hill-top, best seen at night. So we decided to find a restaurant in the area. What Tom failed to point out to me is the it is in the "Red Light District". Well it went all right & God kept us safe. Though I did feel a little on edge. After wandering around a bit trying to find a restaurant, we came across a French restaurant "La Poutre". It had the menu in English so we decided to try it. It was quite a good meal. Tom decided to be brave & try snails. I must admit they didn't look very appetising, but I plucked up the courage to try one & was pleasantly surprised that they tasted quite ok, like mussels. I had chosen "fish of the day" as my main. Well that's what I got...the whole fish, head & all!! Then for dessert was profitter rolls.

After all the good food, we needed to walk it off, so headed up to the church. Thankfully since Tom had last been there they had a trolley cart that went up the hill, so I didn't have to climb all the steps. The experience of seeing the church was ruined a bit by the fact that there seemed to be a Rave party going on on it's steps.

All in all it was a lovely day & a very memorable anniversary.

Paris Trip - Day 2

Due to the exhausting day we had had the day before we decided to have a more quiet relaxing day & take out of the city a bit & visit one of the chateaus. The idea was to spend the day out there looking round the chataeu and then relaxing in the gardens. However when we got out to the Chateau we had chosen, Versailles, there were extremely long queues, first to buy your tickets & then to get in. So we decided to try Chateau Fontainebleau. 3hrs later we finally arrived there only to discover that it is closed on Tuesdays!! Fortunately the gardens were still open & we were able to spend the afternoon just relaxing in them.

We decided to have an early dinner in the town where the Chateau was before heading back to our hotel. This was 5:30pm & after walking around a bit we discovered that restaurants don't open for dinner service until 7pm. So we decided on an Indian restaurant to eat at (mainly because we could understand the menu) & then just sat & waited for them to open. It was a really nice meal, worth waiting for, though ended up costing a little more than expected due to the fact you buy all the components of the meal seperately ie. have to buy rice seperate.

Then it was home to the long awaited bed.

Paris Trip - Day 1

Well we're back from our trip to Paris. Well actually we've been back since last Thursday, but I've been really busy on the weekend (see post YWAM) & then sick with a cold, so I'm only getting round to writing about it now.

The trip began with us getting up at 5am to drive to Hamburg. I had a really restless night and so had only slept 2hrs. Therefore I slept the first half of the drive & then we swapped & Tom slept the second half.

After arriving in Paris we had to line up for 1.5hrs to buy our train ticket, as our credit cards didn't work in the machines & they only had 2 "tellers" open. But finally we got our tickets & found our train, & after a 30min train ride were at our hotel, where we simply crashed on the bed & slept for an hour.

Refreshed a little we decided to go see the La Defense & Arc de Triomphe. What I thought was just a quiet short sight seeing trip turned into quite an exhausting expedition. Our Lonely Planet guide said that there was a Garden of Contemperary Art that sounded interesting extending 1km. Well there was maybe a couple of rather unusual sculptures, but nothing of great interest & we could have save our energy for the next stop, Arc de Triomphe. Here we discovered that the only way to the top was 284 steps!!! I was a bit reluctant to do it at first, but Tom insisted it was well worth it & that if I took it slowly & rested lots it should be ok. So up I went. In hindsight I think it was a big mistake, but the view was definately something to see.

By the time I made it back down & had recovered it was time for dinner. I really wanted to have traditional french food, so we headed for a bistro recommended by the Lonely Planet. Well I certainly got my french restaurant experience. The menu was only in french & the waiter only spoke french. So we did our best to guess what we were ordering, though it didn't exactly go to plan. The entree ended up being just half an avacardo with seafood sauce in the middle. I ended up with a huge bowl of stewed beef instead of chicken & Tom ended up with a piece of steak that was almost still running around the room. Despite not being what we expected though the food was really nice. The other interesting experience we had at this restaurant was that you don't get your own table. You are sat wherever you fit. So we ended up sitting with 2 lovely Scottish ladies.

After dinner we decided to take a relaxing, romantic boat ride on the Seine. Well it wasn't quite so romantic as we'd imagined as to hear the commentary in english you had to use these huge like telephone handsets. We had also decided to sit outside where it was quite chilly. But we did still get to see Paris at night.

The day ended with us falling into bed at just after midnight.

For such a time as this

This is a statement that has been coming across my path a bit lately. In the lives of Esther, Joseph, Moses, David, they all found themselves in situations & circumstances that to the normal way of thinking were not positive situations. But God had a purpose for placing them there.

We also see in each case that they didn't fulfil that purpose straight away. With Esther she was in the palace 9yrs before Haman concocted his plan to eradicate the Jews. Joseph was in Egypt 13yrs before he interpreted Pharoah's dream & was appointed overseer. Moses spent 40yrs in Pharoah's palace & another 40yrs in the wilderness looking after sheep, before God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
However all that time they spent before their purpose was fulfilled was not wasted time. God was preparing them for the task ahead.

Now this was all leading to an application to our lives today, but I just can't seem to get the words together right. But it was something along the lines of that wherever you are today God has a plan & a purpose for you being there. Perhap He has a big purpose further in the future or it may be a simple thing for today. He may be using the situation you are in now to prepare you for something later.

TV reliance

As you would know from Tom's post, our TV is in for repair. This has made me realise just how much I use the TV. Now I know you are all thinking "this is good. You shouldn't be watching so much TV". And it is true that there are pleanty of other things that I can do other than watch TV. But when you are pregnant & not feeling very well & want to just bludge, then it is good to have a TV. Not so much for watching rubbish soapies & the like, but you also need a TV to be able to watch DVDs.
So here is me hoping that our TV is soon repaired.

The farther

Okay, I'm just sitting here waiting for Ally to get home from Bible study, our TV is in for a repair, it's too early to go to bed but too late to do anything...so why not write something here.

Well, last time I wrote I told you about three project which I was to do over the cold and dark winter months here in Denmark. So here is the status.

Writing a book: Well I managed to write 1½ page which was the introduction.

Making a movie: I never got started

Building a church: Well, we are all part of building the universal church :-) Actually something has happened in this area. In May I get the oppotunity to run a Christianity Explained course at a local church in Esbjerg. That is if anybody turns up for it. We will be handing out invitations in the area and in the central mall in the weekend the 24-25th of April and the course will start on the 6th of May. So please pray that people will be challenged and show up.

Now to something else. As my dear wife has been posting a significant amount of messages about. I am to be a father. As an opposite to my wife who only recently realised the scariness of this though, I've been terrified since the day we found out. Well, maybe that's an overstatment, there are the odd days where I look forward to it. Most of the time I have a hard time realising that it is really happening and that I'm going to be a father, so I try not to think about. However, now as the time is getting closer and all the questions about a pram, cot, baby seat, diapers, is the baby going to sleep inside or outside (to the horror of many people it quite normal to let our babies sleep in the pram outside during the day here in Denmark, yes also during winter), what name can we agree on and so on. These questions have to be answered and decisions have to be made. The cost of a first born isn't to be regarded as insignificant either. So it's getting hard to not think too much about it. Anyway I still think I won't really understand that it's real until the day I'm holding the newborn in my hands...and then I'll really panic :-)

Okay this is the end of my essay. I'm sure my wife will comment on all my spelling mistakes and funny sentences but I hope you'll get the main points.

Till next time may our magnificent God be with you

Why is it...

that you desire something in life & can't wait for it to happen, then when it finally does you get scared & just wish you could run the other way?

Little One...the gymnast

I felt little one move for the first time on Wednesday. I had been waiting for a while for this as my midwife had said I should have felt it by now & everyone kept asking. I had heard many different descriptions of how it should feel...bubbling, butterflies, fish. Well from my experience it could be described as violent bubbling, like a volcano erupting under water. Or as a trout swimming around in your belly, but definately not like butterflies!! To me it feels like Little One is doing great big somersaults.

New cousin

I just found out today that Little One has a new cousin on the way. Mel (my sister)  is pregnant...due in Nov.

Egg-splosion

Decided to have fried eggs for breakfast today & one exploded right in my face at I was flipping them. Now I have a small burn on the inner corner of my eye.

Thought of the day

This is more of a personal revelation, but I felt complelled to share it in case someone else was maybe in a similar situation. 

For a while now my spiritual life has been a struggle. Filled with doubts & a battle to trust God. Sometimes I'd seem to be making progress, only to fall back down again. Today while doing my bible study homework, the following thought/analogy came to me.

It's like I fell down the muddy, slippery side of a mountain into a muddy valley/pit, where I've been flailing & struggling around. Sometimes I'd make it to the side & start climbing out up the steep, slippery slope through determination & self-will, but Satan would give me a little nudge with a doubt or accusation & I'd slip back down into the pit. Then the thought came to me...I don't need to climb up out of that pit, all I need to do is reach my hand up & cry out to God & He'll LIFT me out of that pit!!!

Oh what hope & what a wonderful loving God we have!!

The end of a career

Yesterday was my last day of work. Not because I'm starting maternity leave this early, but because I was only there for 6mths as intergration into the danish health system. This was a compulsory requirement for attaining my Danish nursing registration. However those that were to assess me decided that my danish was not quite good enough (though I think they were being a bit picky) so I actually don't have my registration. If I wasn't pregnant I could have done another 3-6mths in another ward & be reassessed again. However there is not enough time for that between now & when I would have to go on maternity leave. Seeing as I have made the decision to be a stay at home mum, this means I will most likely never get my registration. While I love nursing, I have always said it was only something until I became a mum. This has always been my ultimate "career goal". So I'm looking forward to having more time & hopefully energy to prepare things for the baby & get some rest.

There's life

Yesterday I had my second visit to the midwife. I got my growing belly measured, which is just over the average percentile. This was good to know as I haven't put any weight on yet (in fact I've lost 4kg). I also heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. This was also reassuring as I haven't felt it moving yet & the past 2 weeks haven't felt anything at all. So I was starting to wonder if it was alright. So now I'm just eagerly waiting for tomorrow when I have my second ultrasound.

Farewell Little Blue

Yesterday we said good-bye to Little Blue (Tom's car) after many faithful years of service. It had been struggling for a long time to keep up with it's work and on the weekend we decided it was time for it to retire.

At the same time we welcome Little Green, who is  Little Blue's replacement. 

You just look fat!

Well that was Tom's comment to the photos, I'll let you judge for yourself.

Meet Little One

There really is a baby

I went for my first ultrasound today, and now I have physical proof that there really is a baby in there. It may sound funny, but over the last 3 months I've found myself wondering sometimes if there really was a baby in there. I mean apart from the morning sickness, sore boobs & out of control emotions there's not really much else to see. But today was amazing!! There's a little person in there, with a head & arms & legs, and it's moving around even though I can't feel it. However as usual it had a mind of it's own & wasn't/wouldn't get into the right position for them to take the measurements they needed. Normally if this is the case they apparently would get you to jump up & down a few time to try & persuade it to move, but because of my back problems I was unable to do this. So I have to go back on Monday for another try.

Visit to the Earth Mother

Well that's literally translated what they call midwifes over here..."earth mothers". Yesterday was my first visit to mine. In Denmark it seem the midwife takes on more of the responsibility of doing the antenatal checks. You only see the Dr 3 times. at 1mth, 6mth & 9mth. Whereas you see the midwife nearly once a month. Anyway the visit went very well, it was more just a get to know you/information session. But it was good to find out the everything I'm feeling/experiencing at the moment is quite normal & to have some of the questions I had answered. Next time I go will be a group session, so I will get to meet other mums-to-be that are at roughly the same stage as me.

Paris Here We Come...

Eache year for our anniversary we take turns organising how we are going to celebrate it. This year it is my turn, but Tom had promised 3 years ago to take me to Paris one day. So the other week he said that if I organised it all we could go to Paris for 3-4days for our anniversary. It will also be our last chance to have a overseas trip together before the baby arrives. So I have been spending lots of time surfing the web trying to find the best deal of flight & hotels. The flights were pretty easy, but the hotel was a lot more difficult & stressful as most of the cheap ones didn't get very good reviews. It was also compounded by the fact that we have a budget of 5000kr all up for the trip. Anyway, finally I found a hotel last night at a reasonable price that had fairly good reviews. So now we are booked. Would gladly welcome any advice on attractions, food etc.

Winter Wonderland

We have had some decent snowfalls over the last week & it has transformed the landscape into a beautiful white.

Dartanian LOVES playing in the snow too.

There are more pics on Flickr

Half way over the hill

Well this weekend saw me celebrating my 30th birthday. I had a party on Saturday night with 25 of my friends from various areas of my life (school, Bible study, family). I was trying to have a bit of a BBQ theme as that is what I would have had if I'd been in Australia. So we ordered salads & BBQ flavoured chicken & pork´, & kebab sticks from a catering company. Then Tom & his mum made some cheesecakes for dessert. But with having to hold it inside as it was snowing & too cold outside, the atmosphere just wasn't the same. Though with 28 people crammed into our livingroom it certainly gave the warmth!!

Tom was full of surprises on the night. First he made a choc-peppermint cheesecake for dessert with 2 different layers. It turned out quite good & I think was quite a favourite as it disappeared quite quickly.

Then he had made a photo slideshow complete with speech bubbles/comments. It was quite funny & well put together. I will try to see if I can get it up on the net somehow so you can see it.

Finally he gave me a Nintendo Wii. Though I'm not sure exactly who that was most for...me or him!!!

Then on Sunday (my actual birthday) all Tom's family came for breakfast. Then we had church & after lunch the whole afternoon was spent playing with the Wii.

All in all it was a very memorable & great 30th birthday.

I will post more photos of Flickr

Big news

For those of you who haven't heard via Facebook, email, word of mouth....
I'm pregnant!! We found out 2 days before Christmas. A really nice Christmas present & really brought a new dimension to the Christmas story.

The baby is due the 29th August. So far I am doing ok. Just very tired & the past couple of week the morning sickness, which seems to last all day has set in.