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!