State fair, sad goodbyes and back to school

The Minnesota State Fair was happening a few weeks ago and I was able to go twice.

It was fun. Lots of things to see and rides to ride (although I didn't go on any. :) ).

There were thousands of things to eat and drink and try out. I loved the deep fried Oreos! :) Watched a couple of animal shows and other shows.

One of the not so nice things that happened this last month, was what was going on with a friend of mine. She had been feeling sick for a while and was getting worse. I spend one night at the hospital (ER) with her, after she had to be picked up from an ambulance. They couldn't find anything, but after the same thing happened again some days later and she was in the hospital for a week, they decided, that it would be best to send her home to Sweden to get better there. So we had to say goodbye way to soon, which was sad.

The summer is over and my kids started school again.

Gracie is in 3rd grade now, which she seems to enjoy! :)

Ike is in kindergarden and already made a bunch of new friends!! He likes going on the bus with the other kids now.

Matty started preschool and is gone most mornings now. He likes getting a lot of playtime with new friends!

I had to say another good bye to another friend of mine. Klara left for Sweden last week after her year came to an end. We went for one last coffee (on this side of the world) and it was nice to be able to hang out one more time!

A happy thing that happened was a great surprise this week!

My friend Maja, who used to be our neighbors AuPair, came to visit her family and I didn't know she was coming. So it was a great surprise to see her!!!

I am down to my last 51 days, which seams so unreal...

new friends, adoption and a vacation

This last month has been full of meeting awesome people!

I am super blessed with all those new friendships that are forming!

I met my friend Sherry at Caribou Coffee about a month ago and got to hang out with her a couple of times! And just this week I got to meet a bunch of other great people, that I really enjoyed spending time with and hope I will get to hang out with them a lot more!

I also got to hang out with some more fun kids last week, doing VBS (vacation bible school) at my host family's church. I had my own group of 9-12 mostly 5 year olds from 8.45am - 11.40am. We had a fun week at Hero Headquarters! Learning about joining forces with God and some heros of the bible.

I go to spend some more time out and about with the kids this past month too. The weather was nice and warm, so we got to do all sorts of fun water stuff, like going to the pool or the splash pad, or hanging out at a wading pool with my friend Sarah and her kids. I love being outside with the boys, it's so nice for them to get their energy out! :)

The most amazing day this past month, was for sure the day we got to go to court to officially adopt Matty!!! We were a bunch of people that went to witness the legal part at the court and then even more people at the amazing dance party we had in the evening for Matty. :) He loved it, but was so overwhelmed by the attention he got and everything that was going on. :)

We had good fun with the hired DJ and a guy who showed dances and moves for everyone to repeat. :)

I have been on vacation for the last days and I'm really having a good time.

Friday I went to the outlet mall and bought a few new clothes and in the evening I got to take my friend Martina out to the Casino for a birthday dinner and some mystic bingo. :)

Saturday I relaxed a bit and then went for a coffee with my other new au pair friend Sarah, who just got here a few weeks ago. Then Martina and I met my nanny friend Sarah at her friends house, where we met some other friends of hers, one that is a missionary in Ethiopia and works with women there that have HIV and they make a living making jewelry with coffee beans. Very pretty!

Sunday I went to church in the morning and then to the Renaissance fair, where the had highland days with highland games and a scottish village. It was fun and I even ate some Haggis! :) I stayed all day even though it was super hot, but I just had a lot of fun walking around and especially watching the comedians there. :) Great shows!

Monday I spend most of the day at home and then was invited to a dinner at someones house from someone I met at VBS. That was where I met a lot of great people and also was invited to a birthday party the next day, where I met even more people and just had a great time!!

Today has been slow and relaxing. Had lunch with Sherry and just hung out here and there and finally went on a run after a very long time! It wasn't a long one, but felt really good. :) Hope I can get back into it more, once the weather starts to cool down a bit.

Take care everyone!!

Oh, and I am down to my last 82 days!! Isn't that just crazy!!!!!!! I can't even believe it! Exciting but at the same time so sad! ...

Cosmic Bingo, Duluth and Kaleena :)

Hi guys,

summer is here and I am loving it!

The kids are out of school and if they're not in camps we get to hang out and do fun stuff.

We go to the pool, the splash pad, museums etc. or just hang out around the house in the back yard or in our "small" pool.

It's been a little over a month since my last post, so let me look up real quick what some of my main fun things were I did. :)

Some friends and I discovered our new favorite weekend activity:

Cosmic Bingo

It's at a Casino about 30 minutes away from here.

We usually have dinner at the buffet, which has a lot of different foods from different countries and isn't expensive at all.

The first Cosmic Bingo session starts at 11pm (fridays and saturdays) . There are two sections (smoking+ non-smoking) and I guess there are about 350 people there at one night (one night they had a ladies night and it was packed! :) )

There is a DJ and the lights are off and they have lasers going through the room and loud music.

It is a lot of fun and there are different Bingos you need to get, so it's doesn't get boring. One session lasts about one hour and there are two a night. I like to stay for both sessions and get home around 2 am in the morning. :) I love it!

Oh right, I haven't told you about our trip to Duluth yet!

So we left on a wednesday morning and drove for about...um. 4 hours I think.

We stayed at a house where all the kids shared a room and I got my own. :) We were close to the beach and I even went for a run at it one day.

Every time we went into town, we had to cross over a big bridge, which went up to let boats through. It was neat to see it operate.

We did a lot of fun things and sightseeing which was awesome.

One day we went to a big Lighthouse and spent some time there. Walking around the property and hearing stories about the people who used to live there. It was great.

After that we went to see some cliffs and also the Gooseberry Falls. Waterfalls which were gorgeous and a great walk through the woods.

We also went to a train museum, where they had all sorts of..umm, well trains (hehe).

You were able to climb up on them and learn about them.

The same day we went to rent a bike for 4 people. Four people get to sit behind each other in twos and peddle and the boys got to sit up front and just enjoy being taken everywhere.

On our way back on saturday we stopped at a fur trading post and had an awesome tour there. It was like walking into the past and our tour guide was awesome!

I have spent some nice days at the pool, just by myself. Reading and hanging out all day. It's nice to just do that every once in a while.

Last week I got to see my dear friend Kaleena from Canada after a long time again.

She and a part of her family were on a roadtrip and had time to stop and see me. It was soo good to catch up with her and spend time with her, her mom and sisters!!

We went to Under Water World at the MOA which was nice. Then got to have dinner together and just talk for a while! I loved it!

I also just got my papers to request my return flight.

I have about 4 months left in my year, and it is strange to think about the flight home yet.

Well, that's it for now. Leave me a comment! :)

Love ya!

A race, a baby and fun with the kids

Hey everyone,

hope you are doing good! :)

I had some different, but also nice weeks and did a bunch of things with the kids or my friends.

Let's see, where should I begin?

Oh ya, my first "race".

So I did my first 5K race at the beginning of this month and I loved it!

It was fun to run with all these other people and that really helped me to push through.

My only goal really was to make the race without having to stop or walk, I wanted to run ALL THE WAY! and..I DID! It felt so good coming around the last corner and seeing the finish line, all of a sudan I had a lot more energy left than I thought I had and sprinted over the finish line. :)

I did pretty well and came in after 32,40 minutes, which put me right in the middle field. :)

Courtney, my hostmom's sister and her baby came along to cheer me on, which was so nice and helpful to see them waiting for me there at the finish line! :) Thank you!

The day before the race I drove 4,5 hours one way to meet up with a friend of ours to pick up Matty, who had spend some time there. It was a nice drive through Wisconsin and great to be be driving in Wisconsin, seeing another state. We met half way and had lunch at a neat restaurant that has all sorts of old tin toys inside and a carousel outside, that we got to ride. :) The drive back with him was pretty relaxed (he did great) and so even the rain that started half way back, didn't matter to much. :) It was good to be back home after a long day though.

Meredith's sister (as mentioned above ;) ) and her baby William came to visit us for a couple of weeks to be with Mer. It was so nice to have them here and to get to have a baby around for a while. :)

I got to spend a lot of time with W. and had a lot of fun! He is a happy baby and so funny! :) It was great to get to know Court better and also spend some time with her.

I am having a great time with Isaac right now! We discovered his love of fairytales and so whenever we have some alone time together he wants me to tell him a new story. It kinda showed me, how many different fairytales I actually know the beginning of, but can't remember the ending to...but at the end they just all end the same, right.. and they lived happily forever after.. *haha*

Matty is growing up way to fast. Some days I look at him and thing.."what?! who are you?" :)

He wants to go to the restroom by himself now, and always makes me close the door (from the outside :) ) *haha* wants to do everything by himself, and thinks he can do anything! *haha* amazing! he is a lot of fun to be with, and he still loves to cuddle, so that's good! :)

Gracie is off school for the summer, which gives us some more time together which has been great!

Just the other day she told her mom, that she wanted a day where I take her and a friend out without the boys, because she never gets to go out with me when she has school. :) we had a great time!

Today we played with her Polly Pockets, which was a lot of fun! :D I loved putting new outfits on them, so we made them go for a swim and change their clothes after that.. :D

Another fun thing is skyping with my parents. We started doing that a few weeks ago. Now that I have my own laptop, it just is the smarter thing to do than being on the phone the whole time. And that way they get to see me, and the best part: I get to see them!!!!! That's so amazing! I love it!

Last friday we went to the pool for the first time! I am glad we have a membership, it costs 10$ to get in otherwise! :o

But it is a great pool with lots of fun things to do even for the little kids (and big kids like me) :)

I realized that I needed a new swimsuit (badly) and so went to buy one, no two, the next day. :) I got a one piece and a two piece with skirt and I love them! :) And the best part was, it didn't even take me that long to find them! :)

The next day I took the boys to a splash park. They have a soft floor there with lots of things that spray out water and you can run around and get wet. It was soooo much fun! But sadly we had to leave after a short bit, because it was just not warm enough that day to stay. But I will for sure go back there with them soon!

Well, besides that I spent time with my friend Steffi and we hung out at the mall, an art fair, the movies, and had german food again, this time at a different place with another friend of ours and it was soo good! :)

Wednesday we are driving up to Duluth, about 4 hours away from here to go camping in a cabin. Should be a lot of fun! :) I'll tell you about it next tim!

Take care and leave me a comment! :) Love ya!

new friend, german food and a long walk

hey there,

it's been a while again.

There are a lot of things going on right now and those close to me know about them so I won't go into detail here on the blog. It would be great if you could pray for my family here and me as well.

I personally am doing pretty good. I love being here at this time of year and have been spending a lot of time with my new friend Steffanie, who just moved here after a rematch about 3 weeks ago. She is from Germany also and we were actually at the same orientation at the beginning of our year.

We've been having some fun days together.

Friday we went to Albertville, an outlet mall about 35 minutes away from us. I bought a pair of converse shoes in purple which I love! :)

Today we get to go to my friend Sarah's birthday bbq, which will be great too.

Sarah is a nanny from friends of the family and we get to have playdates with the kids and hang out every once in a while.

Some weekends ago, she asked me to join her and her friends in a 5 K walk around the MOA for breast cancer. All the money made that day goes toward b c research! It was a fun event and there were soo many people walking, it was a lot of fun!

A couple of weeks ago, Steffi and I went to a german restaurant called "Black Forrest Inn", we hadn't had "german" food in 6 months (yes, that's ho long I've been here now, isn't it crazy!)

I got a "Sauer Braten" with "Spaetzle" and "Sauerkraut" and a "Semmelknoedel" . The "Sauerbraten" was amazing! I loved it and kinda want to go back right now and have some more. :D I also got to have a "radler" which wasn't as good as at home, but fine. :)

my first 5K run is coming up and I haven't been as good n training myself, so I really need to get of my backside and do some more running soon!

Well, that's it for now. Let me know how your week has been!!

running, screening and a birthday

Hey guys,

hope everyone is doing as good as I am.
For some strange reason I woke up with a big smile on my face this morning. For about the last two weeks I have felt happy a lot of times with no "reason". I know there are a lot of reasons for me to be happy right now, what I mean is that nothing really stood out that I could put my finger on and say:" hey, that's why I'm so happy"! :)
I am just gonna take it and be thankful for it I guess! :)

One reason is the weather for sure. I has been great to be able to take the kids to parks and play in our front or back yard! There is so much more to explore for them outside and we love to enjoy the sunshine!

One thing the weather has done to me, is turn me into a runner...well..ok I have only been 4 times so far, but everyone has to start somewhere right. :)
One nice day I was just out to go for a walk, when somehow walking wasn't enough anymore, so I started running. :) And let me tell you, I love it! It feels so good when you realize, that you are getting better at it, even if it's slowly ;) .

Church has been amazing too. I just love the teachings at the upper room community, there is something that touches me every time and the worship times are awesome and really uplifting!
It refreshes me for the week and I got something to think about all week!

Last week Martina and I went to our first movie screening. We got free tickets to see "the backup plan". You need to get to the theatre early, since they give out more tickets than they have seats, so when we got there there was a long line already and we were amongst the last 10 people or so that got in.
We had to sit pretty close to the front and off to the side, but hey, it was free right. AND the movie was soooo funny. I laughed soo hard, one of the best comedies I have seen in a long time..and I have seen a lot good ones lately, so that makes it even better! :)

It was Matty's birthday yesterday. He's 3 now, ohh my... :)

Leave me a comment! :)

love ya!

Colorado, Friends and Spring

Hi there,


it's been more than a month (oh no!) , but I have a good excuse. :)


We were gone for some days and then I've been sick or not really to a PC for longer than a few minutes, so here is my last month in a nutshell!





Colorado

We went to Colorado for a little over a week at the end of march.

It was a long ride in the car, but the kids did great and the time actually went by pretty fast. :)
We had a great week with lots of swimming, ice-skating, hanging out and skiing and snowboarding! :)
On some days me and the boys went on little adventures up the hill. The gondolas were a lot of fun for them to go in and the little village was fun to walk arround at. :)
One day we went to the Hot Springs and had a great tiome floating arround in the water!
Snowboarding was ok, but I decided that it isn't my most favourite sport

Sick

I was sick last week. My first time here where I had to stay in bed all day. I won't make you read the details, but I felt super sick! No fun! Took me some days to get better all the way.

Friends

I've been doing a lot of fun things with my friends here.
One weekend m y friend Inga came to visit me from Connecticut. We had a great time and it was fun seeing her again. We hung out with my good friends Klara and Martina that I've been doing a lot of stuff with lately.

AND the most wonderful thing!

SPRING is here!
the weather is great right now. It is warm enough to run arround without a jacket a lot of times and the lakes are great to walk around and and and...it's just great!
It's great to be able to go outside with the kids and so good for them to be able to run around outside too!

Well, here it is, as I said, "in a nutshell". There has been so much that's been happening, that it is hard to write it all down, but I will write again soon, so it won't overwelm me again!

Love ya!

friends, snow tubing and snowboarding

Wow, it's MARCH!!
Well, let's see what I have been up to those last weeks. I was going to write every two weeks, but it's sometimes just not possible for me to be on a computer for long and not doing anything else that needs to be done, so the blogg kinda has to wait the longest most of the time. But I know you understand! :)

I had to deal with a little bit of homesickness a couple of weeks ago. It's just that time I guess.
It wasn't to bad, just not nice to be emotional all the time. (not that I"m not way to emotional all the time anyways... ;) )
What has helped me a lot was meeting new friends here. I'm kinda jumping ahead here, but I just last week met some new girls that I am having a great time with.
One girl is MArtina from Sweden and she just arrived here 2 weeks ago. We went to the MOA a couple of times and I introduced her to my favourite hobby here "Scrapbooking" So we go out and buy stuff for that together and she just came over on saturday so we could work on a few pages together. :) It was a lot of fun, although I had to sort through my stuff first and get some order into it, cause I have so much stuff, that I started loosing track. :)
That night we met up with another swedish girl, Klara, and we went out to dinner downtown and had fun. Sunday we also met and went to Ikea and had dinner there and bought some boxes. :)
Nathalie, another swedish girl also came with us! :)

OK, back to the beginning of February

I met two other very sweet girls some weeks ago. Rachel and Arielle. We went out for lunch and dinner and a movie on some saturdays and just had a good time talking and getting to know each other! I am really thankful for all those amazing people here!!

Another highlight was watching the movie "Avatar" with my friend Emma. The movie was fun and well made, but the best was probably that we watched it at the IMAX in 3D. super fun!

We had a cluster meeting on the 21st and went to Buckhill to go Snow tubing. That was a fun experience! The tubes get really fast and it's so much fun. The wait at the top of the hill was pretty long, but worth it.

I also had a great time going to "the upper room community" a fun church group that I really enjoy going to!

Last thursday it was time for me to bundle up for my first snowboarding lesson!!
LEt me tell you, it was a lot of fun once you get the hang of it, but super painfull for my legs. I didn't fall as much as I thought I would, but my calfs (is that how you spell them?) really hurt. :)
I can't wait to go back this week and see how it goes. We were only women and all beginners, so that was nice to not be the only one there. :)

I got a new pair of glasses last week and I really like them. :)

I am having a good time here with my family and love them very much.
Spending time with the kids and doing all kinds of things with them is fun and I love to see them grow and our connection grow stronger.

Well, that's my last month in a nutshell. Leave me comments! :)

I miss you all!

build a bear, scrapbooking and California

Hey, so I'm not doing too bad with updating so far. :)

The last weeks have been fun and actually went by really fast.

One of the fun things I got to do these last weeks was taking Gracie to the MOA one daz. She was off of school and so asked me if I could maybe do something fun with her, since the bozs always get to go to different places with me when she is at school.
So we went to the Mall and to the "build a bear" workshop, where she made her own little stuffed animal (dog).
Afterwards we got some icecream and went into the small arcade that they have there.

On wednesday evenings we have "family fun night" and I finally had time to be a part of that on one wednesday. We went to a restaurant called "chatterbox", which was fun. We got to sit on couches in a corner, where they had a TV set up with the old Nintendo NS set up. It was great playing some levels of Super Mario after so many years. :) We also played some bord games with the whole family, which was awesome!

One friday Gracie got to go to a fun birthday party. One of her friends invited some of her friends to a sleepover at a hotel! :) I dropped her off there and she had a great time, swimming and hanging out with her friends. I was home with the boys where we watched a movie and had Mc Donalds.

I got to go take Gracie to Skiing the next morning too, which was fun to watch. I might take some snowboarding lessons starting next week, but I have to wait and see if there are any open spots.

I still love scrapbooking a lot, and been able to do some pages over the last weeks too. Saturdays I get to spend a few hours with that while chatting with home. :)

Monday the 25. I left to spend a week with my dear friend Jill in San Diego, California. We had a great week together and I got to meet some awesome people. :)

One day we went to a cute place called "Julien". A small town with cute stores along main street and AWESOME applepie! :)

Another day we went to "Knott's Berry Farm" which was fun until one ride made me feel like my brain had stopped half way and gotten out during the ride. I was suuuper dizzy and did not feel so good for about 2 hours. So I didn't do any big rides anymore, but some smaller ones and we had some awesome food, which we ate with our fingers! :D fun!

On friday night Jill invited some of her friends over to meet me, so we had a small party going on. :) It was great to meet new people and to get to know some of Jills friends. :)

Saturday we went to the beach at Carlsbad, just so I could see the ocean,w hcih I haven't in a while. We had some jummy mexican food there too. :)
In the evening we went to a friends house, where they had a meeting with friends. Hanging out and talking about different toppics. Everyone got to write down a question and they were put in a pot, then we picked some out and talked about them with the whole group. Everyone got to say what they thought. It was super interesting and I hope I can do something like that again some time.

On my last day (sunday) we went to church and then out for lunch with some new friends afterwards. It was great and I really enjoyed spending some quality time with them. After that we went to see Jills nephews which was fun, they are some sweet boys!

In the evening we met with our friends again to watch the movie "the book of Eli" and let me tell you:
YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT!
It is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time!

We had dinner at TGI Fridays afterwards and it was sad having to say good bye.

Monday it was time for me to go back home. I met Keith and two of my kids at the airport and Mer picked us up there later.

I had a great week with Jill, but also realized how much I missed my family here. :)

My first workday is over now and I am still pretty tired from traveling and the (small) time change. So I will go and enjoy my bed now. :)

Take care friends!

it's COLD when there is SNOW in the SUNSHINE :)

Hey there,

so I brought my journal down to look up what kind of stuff I wanted to tell you about. :)

It's been about 14 days since I last updated, that's not to bad. :)

We had some pretty cold days here the last weeks. (-28* C on some days)
I am starting to get used to it though. From a certain cold on it doesn't really matter how cold it is, you just out on as many layers as possible and you"ll be fine. :) I have been pretty good with bundeling up, so I haven't been freezing lately. At least not much. ;)
And even if it is cold, the sun is out a lot and I just love that. The snow is crisp and nice to walk on.

Two weekends ago my Hostparents went out of town and we had another friend stay over to watch the kids with me. I really liked Rachel and we had fun taking the kids out to Chuckie Cheese's.

I also met my friends for a dinner at the Rainforest Cafe a week or so ago. We were 6 girls and I had a great time, especially because I was able to meet up with my friend Sam again that I don't get to see that much.

2 Tuesdays ago me and my boys went to meet Anna and her kids at the Minnesota Zoo which was very cool! They have most of their animals inside at the moment and a big gardenlike area where you can walk around and see all kinds of animals. They also have an under water area, where you get to touch starfish. They also have Dolphins that are fun to look at. One came to say hi to us on the side of the pool and then splashed us with the water to say hi. :D

the following thursday we went out again. This time to the indoor playground which is soo much fun! :)
It has this big climping structure with lots of different slides and things to climb on or go through. I had just as much fun as my boys did. :) We met Anna and her kids there too. Our kids get along very well and we had a good time again.

On Friday I had to be fingerprinted. My family is a foster family at the moment and so every caregiver has to be finger printed and have a background check done. It was strange to be in the building that I had to go in, kinda felt like I was on my way to prison or something like that. Small rooms and hallwayz and I had to go through a savety check before I was alowed to go in. The person fingerprinting me was pretty nice though, so that was ok.

That evening I finally got to go to the Cheese Cake Factory with Emma.
The food was great and the Cheesecake... soooo good, I've been craving it all week! :)
Spending time with Emma was very nice too!!

Sunday I got to scrapbook again, which I started when I got here (not sure if I told you about that yet. :) ) 3 hours to get 3 pages done... :) I love it so much though!

In the evening I went to a church service at "Upper Room" and loved it!
The atmosphere was great, the teaching deep and touching and funny, and worship and the people were really nice! I am for sure going there again.
There is another church I went to some sundays ago, that I might go to again aswell, we'll see. :)

Monday was a short working day for me. I got off at 2, went to Ikea to get some boxes and then to the Mall to return something and get an Ice Cream from my favourite place: ColdStone :)

Tuesday the boya and I met Anna and her kids and Emma at the indoor playground again. *fun*

Well, I am having a good time here with the normal ups and downs. :)
The kids are great and I love them already very much. :) I've been getting to know them better which has been a nice experience.

I also just booked my first plane ticket here. I will be heading out to California to spend a week with my friend Jill there. My family will be gone too, so I got to take one of my weeks that I have for vacation. I can't wait to see Jill again after about 3 years!

Take care everyone!

Updates, Christmas and a Happy New Year

Hey everyone,
first of all I have one thing that I really need to do this year: get better in updating this blog!!
Seriously, I was so good about it at the beginning of last year and then just stopped...sorry!

Well, this update will be without pictures once again, but once I have my own Laptop where I can arrange my pictures, I will upload some for yo to see!

Weeks have passed since I last updated and to bring everyone up to date will take a while and I need my calender for that. But I can tell you already that I"ve had a great time here so for, with ups and downs that make this life worth living.

Christmas was nice!
For some reason I couldn't really get into the "christmas mood", but I had a good time anyway.
My friend Anna (you will here about here pretty often in my posts) came to be with us, because her fanily was out of town.
On christmas eve we went to my hostdad's brothers house, where the whole family met for dinner and some time together. It was a fun night with really nice people!
Anna spent the night at my place.
The next morning we exchanged gifts under the christmas tree and I got some nice things from my family here! (Thank you again!! )
We then went to have dinner with some friends at their house and played some fun games there. :)

The end of 2009 I spent on my phone and in my bed. :)
I didn't feel like going anywhere and was pretty tired from my day. So I got to talk with Germany for 2,5 hours ( ;) ) and then just went to bed at 10.30 pm. :)

Ok, I know this post is not really that interesting, but I do need my calender to figgure out what would be interesting for you to know. I promise I will get better at updating and maybe even set a specific day of the week when I will update. A lot of things happen here and some of them are just routine for me now, so I don't think of them as interesting for other people anymore maybe. :)

Have a Happy New Year!
May it be a blessed one!