Tuesday, May 31, 2011

New Bed

Our new bed arrived yesterday. Remember that in the second bedroom we only have a sofabed and sometimes we take a nap on that sofabed during the day. We'd been wanting to buy a new bed but it wasn't a top priority, so only now hubby found a great deal for the bed and the mattresses. Yesterday we were busy putting it together.


For me doing things like this with hubby is SO MUCH FUN. I suppose in a way it's because my dad was never much of a handyman plus in Indo, hiring a handyman to fix stuff in our place was still affordable (unlike here in Finland). I find it SO SEXY to see hubby in action like that (I'm being very serious here, not joking). On top of that, we get to spend quality time together, laughing and singing crazy songs he he he...

I went to a furniture store in the afternoon 'coz it was closing up, so they were selling everything at a discount. I bought 3 pillows and one sofa pillow 'coz my own pillow was starting to be unshapely he he he he he...and my new pillow was just great!!! :-D

Tonight MIL is going to spend a night here 'coz tomorrow we (she and I) have an early morning bus ride to catch and due to the fact that MIL has hearing problems, she takes off her hearing aid during the night, so it's kinda hard for her to get up so early when she can't even hear the alarm. So we're going to help wake her up he he he...and she gets to try our new bed.

Hubby also said yesterday that we should probably sleep in the second (much smaller) bedroom in winter 'coz it's easier to warm up the smaller room. I agree completely, so I suppose in winter we're going to switch to that bedroom. It's kinda fun to be able to "change scenery", you know? HE HE HE HE HE HE...


I've packed almost all the necessary stuff for tomorrow's trip. I only need to show MIL my dress to make sure that it's decent enough to wear to a party like this. I don't want to be overdressed but I don't want to be too casual either. Why? Because the first year I was here, we were invited to that kind of party and I HAD NO IDEA what to wear. At that time we were just coming back from the cabin (straight to the party). I remember it was such a hot day and I was wearing jeans and T-shirt and I felt so out of place 'coz everybody else was wearing formal clothes. Gee whiz...and R2 didn't even tell me about it he he he...I guess he hadn't been invited to many parties like that, either. Oh well...now I know better, but still I'd better ask MIL just to be sure he he he...:-D

Anyway, I'll be back only later next week I suppose...take care, everybody, and have a wonderful time!!!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Toot Toot...

Yep, you read it right. I'm going on my first bus and train trip to southern Finland on Wed next week. R2 stays home 'coz he's got work to do. MIL and I on the other hand are going down south to attend the graduation party of my nephew (MIL's 1st grandson) from High School. It's a big thing here in Finland, this kind of graduation party. Usually people put invitations on local papers that they're having this graduation party at home and this party is due on Saturday 6th (so everybody who wants to throw this party should do so on the same day). I'm gonna take some pics later on.

BIL will pick us up at the train station and take us to a cabin somewhere (never been there before), so it's gonna be fun. I've checked the weather report and it should be rather hot there starting from Wed. We'll see.

I'll only go back on Sunday night and it's gonna be a bit rough 'coz I have morning shift on Monday (but I can always sleep on the way back to Sodankylä). Good thing I only have an evening shift on Tuesday and nothing else that week, so even if I get tired, I can rest a lot the rest of the week ha ha ha ha ha...

Can't wait to goooooo!!!! I shall be scant during my trip, so I'll report about this trip only after Monday or even Tuesday two weeks from now.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

3BT: Random Days

1. Spring is definitely in the air (officially) 'coz I can see buds all around me. Buds, buds, buds...lovely buds!!!

2. Yesterday and the day before I didn't have work to do and those were sunny days, so I could sit outside and read a novel in the sun. Felt like I was on a vacation! :-D

3. Thankful that IF has taught me SO MANY facets of extreme human emotions that I couldn't have possibly learnt otherwise.


4. Thankful for having such a thoughtful mother-in-law.

5. Planning on a short trip to southern Finland next week (during my week off) with my MIL 'coz our nephew (or MIL's eldest grandson) is having a high school graduation party there.

6. Reading old emails from hubby, reminding me of how hard it was to have a long-distance relationship and thus I'm THANKFUL to have been able to be by his side for 4+ years and hoping we'll grow old together just the two of us as a complete family.

7. Fresh tap water to quench my thirst.

8. Having close friends to whom I can confide about my deepest, darkest thoughts without fear of being judged. They've been my dearest friends for over HALF of my age. Friends for life, that's who they are.

9. Finding very cheap jeans at €10/pair (original price was €49.95/pair that turned out to be even cheaper when I paid at the cashier 'coz I bought 2 pairs and I just found out that they were having "buy-1-get-1-free" sale) . WHOOOPPEEEE!!!!

P.S. My trusted pair of jeans got ripped off due to having been worn too much so I had to buy a new pair for work.


10. Mosquito nets for the windows.

11. Feeling so much J.O.Y inside for no other specific reasons than just being joyful to be alive and to have been loved and to have been given a chance to love back.

12. The smell and taste of fresh strawberries. In fact, yesterday I ate 250 gr of fresh strawberries all by myself HA HA HA HA HA...


Monday, May 23, 2011

Kelujärvi Grill Time! (Part 2)

OK, let's now continue sharing more pictures with you...

Here's another pic of the lake when I went out to take pics around the area...


Some birds were busily eating in the field while we were chit-chatting around the fire...it got cooler and cooler as time went by.


Mist started rolling in at around11 pm...



In the pic below, you can see the mist more clearly...I think the temperature was only about 7'C at that time.


The pic below was taken at around midnight...lovely sky, isn't it? It started getting foggy for a while and the temperature went down to 3'C.


We played cards and then the sky got fiery like this at around 3 am as the sun started to rise up again...


Here's the zoomed-in version of the above pic...right where the fiery part is most vivid.


Saturday, May 21, 2011

Kelujärvi Grill Time! (Part 1)

On Friday I was SO excited 'coz we had this little family grill plan. Although the weather report looked so disheartening (rainy), but I was just SO happy ('coz I miss the place and I always see lovely views/cute animals/birds there)!!! It did rain a lot that day - not really raining cats and dogs, but still it was enough to make me wonder if we would be forced to cook the food indoors.

Anyhow, R2 managed to get back home earlier from work 'coz he had done plenty of overtime, so we went there right away. It was around 10'C at that time and it was raining still. Nobody else was there yet, so we stayed in the car 'coz the house was colder than outside and the car was warm HA HA HA HA HA...

After a while MIL came, so I helped her make the fire in the fireplace. Boy it was REALLY hard to do it. It took us a long time to get it going - and making sure that the smoke went out from the chimney - not into the house. The thing is, we couldn't close the fireplace door yet before making sure that the fire stayed burning so we had to use magazines to blow the smoke away to the chimney.

After we managed to make the fire, BIL and SIL came by. At that time the sun was shining so brightly and the temperature rose up to 13-14'C, so they started making fire in the outside grill, but then just when it was about to be ready in a little while, it started raining again. Luckily after a while it stopped raining and we could finally grill the food. After eating and chit-chatting around the fire until about 11 pm (or was it close to midnight?), the sauna was ready so we took turns to go there. After that we played cards until about 3 am he he he he...We saw very lovely scenes there, so without further ado, here are the pics of lovely Kelujärvi area...

1st pic: It was SO hard to take a pic of the hare. I tried sneaking close to it very very slowly, but it kept on running away from me he he...


2nd pic: When I walked to the lake nearby, I saw this...there was also another one and some other birds there, but they all flew away not long after I got there. Maybe they could sniff my presence ha ha ha ha...


While the sun was still shining...


As you can see from this pic, it got cloudier again by the time I got to the lake...


Rarely does the lake water stay calm like this, so I felt SO lucky to be able to enjoy its mirror-like quality this time. :-D


Especially seeing this below view with my own eyes...breathtaking...


And then to top it all off...here comes the rainbow! It's a small one, but still lovely to see. :-D


Another view of the rainbow...


Let the grilling begin (at around 11 pm)!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!! (I was STARVING already by then ha ha...) :-D


I still have more pics to show you, but I'm gonna put them in another post so that this post doesn't become too long. Anyway, here's a pic of me in front of the house. Sorry not really a great pic 'coz I put the camera on a low bench. Behind me is my MIL. :-D Busy picking up dead stalks/leaves.

To be continued...stay tuned!!!


Monday, May 16, 2011

Singing Birds

On Sat I took a boring video clip just 'coz I wanted to share singing birds with you. So turn up the volume and enjoy the singing birds. I was in front of my MIL's apartment at that time and I just got out of sauna. It was such a treat to enjoy fresh air outside after being in a very hot sauna ha ha ha ha ha ha...



If you can't open it or if you want to view a bigger sized clip, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwkW0ki5zh4

We've been busy raking the leaves in the yard last weekend. I thought that 'coz I had done the raking last autumn, we wouldn't have needed to do it anymore, but boy was I wrong!!! We collected 20 sacks of dead leaves (10 of them are smaller sacks), but still quite an amount of dead leaves, eh?

Yesterday was especially a warm day at 17'C under the sun, so we spent hours outside. I only began planting some flower seeds yesterday hi hi...we'll see how they are like this year then. Today's been cloudy, so it was really GREAT that we spent so much time outside while it was sunny and warm. :-D

Here's a pic of the Mother's Day bouquet that I bought for my MIL. I was thinking that buying this type of flowers would last longer than buying cut flowers.


Hope you've had a lovely weekend, people!!! I can't wait for this upcoming weekend 'coz we're planning some barbecue party with MIL, BIL, and SIL. We shall see...:-D

Thursday, May 12, 2011

First Impression + Personality

My closest friends and I have lately been talking about first impressions in our emails. Some of them were "wary" of me when they first met me 'coz I came across as a very serious, silent person. Little did they know that behind this "serious, silent" mask lies a very different girl he he he...

During my university days, I had another group of friends and after we got to know one another better, I started asking them what they think of me when they first met me. One described me as a "rock" (as in silent as a rock), another said I looked like a "bookworm" (I got this a lot), another said I was like a "fridge" (as in cool) HA HA HA HA HA...And then they started protesting that all those first impressions had fooled them 'coz when they got to know me, they realized I had more to me than just those words that they associated with me.




I couldn't help laughing when people mistake me like that. Hey, it's NOT my fault that the first impression fooled them!!! I didn't do it on purpose. This is just who I am. If you take time to get to know me, then you'll see more sides of me that you can't see in the beginning. But I guess this applies to many people as well (esp. the more silent types).

I must say that personality-wise, I think Finland is more my style than Indo. In Indo, I've never been what they expect me to be: good at chit-chatting and friendly. That's more my brother's style. He's always been the charmer, the artist in the family, whereas I'm more of the "brainy", the bookworm, the silent one.

We've both accepted our roles in the family without any bad feelings, 'coz our parents always treat us the same way (while still acknowledging our strengths and weaknesses and they act accordingly in terms of trying to help us reach our potentials). They never favor one more than the other and they never put one of us on a pedestal and I'm FOREVER GRATEFUL for that. :-D


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

3BT: Random Days

1. Yesterday I finally got confirmation from HQ that I could take an extended summer holiday to go back to Indo. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!! Now I can really jump up and down and tell my family that I'm DEFINITELY coming home. :-D

2. Two friends and the mother of one of them are DEFINITELY coming to visit us in June. They've booked the flights to come here, so it's gonna be SO MUCH FUN 'coz I haven't met them in years!!! YIIIHHHAAA!!!!



3. One grandmother told me that she was happy to see my joyful face whenever she visits the store. It was a nice surprise to hear something like that - makes me wanna do even better to improve my service quality. :-D

4. On the same day, another guy gave me such a nice compliment about my work performance. :-D

5. Finding cheap curtains in a local auction store.



6. Finding a cheap Finnish novel in a local bookstore. (As usual can't resist buying a cheap novel, though I don't know yet when to read it HA HA...)

7. Fresh strawberries cut into slices and eaten with nutella pudding. VERY VERY delicious!

8. Sunny days where I could sit on the swing and read a book. :-D

Monday, May 09, 2011

Bird Pictures

We visited MIL on Mother's Day eve right after work and spent a night there. I saw some birds in front of her apartment. Here are their pictures:




I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this bird below. It's called "Punatulkku" in Finnish. It's "Bullfinch" in English I suppose.




Anyway, I'm excited 'coz some friends are coming to visit me here so I'm gonna ask for some free days off in June. I haven't seen them in a long time 'coz they live abroad now (not in Indo anymore). :-D :-D :-D

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Spring Pictures

Yep, haven't taken too many pics lately 'coz the weather's been bad (it's been snowing lightly for the past two days though it melted right away), but finally it's sunny today so I went out to take some pics. Here's a pic of my fave tree in the whole village:

The bad thing was that the sun was against the camera, so I had to move to the other side...


However, I think that the tree looked better from the other side, but oh well...


Look...soon the leaves will start to sprout!!! :-D


Here are some pics of the river near the tree from different angles:




As you can see, over here the grass isn't green yet 'coz it's been around 0'C for the past few days, but I guess sooner or later it'll start to get greener and greener. :-D

In the pic below, the sun was hiding behind some clouds. That was why the river isn't as blue as in the other pics above.


Just playing around with the above pic HA HA HA HA...


Trying out inverted black and white style:


Hope you enjoyed the picssss...:-D

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

A Jumble of Thoughts

Been out of the radar for a while 'coz been busy with work and also other stuff. I have so many things to talk about but it's hard to separate them in specific posts, so I'm just gonna ramble on in this post ha ha ha ha...

1. We've booked the plane tickets to go back to Indo this autumn. The only problem is that I still don't know for sure yet if I'm gonna get the extra holiday weeks that I've asked at work or not, but I pray and hope that they'll give me the extra time off (there've been some complications at work concerning summer holiday so we get news about it really late). We didn't want to wait too long to book the tickets for fear that the ticket prices would go up, esp. 'coz we're leaving together. *cross my fingers*

Can't wait to meet my family and eat all the glorious food in Indo!!!!!! :-D :-D :-D (I can't jump up and down in joy fully yet until I get news about the headquarter's approval on my extra weeks off, but I'm EXCITED already!!!)



2. Yesterday got news that my FIL has got a place in the old people's home, so he can be transferred there soon from the hospital. His condition changes every day. Sometimes his memory and physical condition look better one day, but the next day they become worse.

The point is that MIL can't take care of him anymore at home 'coz now they need two people to help him walk. MIL says that it's really hard to let go 'coz she really wants to take care of him at home, so keep on praying for MIL for peace of mind and comfort, please...THANKS!!!


3. Humans are really interesting. After talking to some people, I realized that some people may not ever be angry at God no matter what happens to them - instead they feel guilty if something wrong happens 'coz they think that they've done something to deserve it.

Some others may not feel angry at God ever 'coz they feel that it's "inappropriate".

Some others may feel angry at God without any reservation. Though they may feel guilt, too, but the guilt vanishes more quickly than the anger.

I wonder how different personality types and upbringing affect these different emotional responses. :-)))



4. I'm still surprised that even yesterday one customer still asked me where I had been. I think it's probably 'coz we hadn't been in the same place at the same time after my Budapest holiday (maybe I was in the office when he came by the store or something like that). He said he was wondering if I had gone back home to Indo, but I said I'd only go back there in autumn.

It's REALLY heartwarming to know that my existence there was "missed" and I TRULY appreciate their saying it to me directly. :-D



5. Just wanna share some C.S. Lewis quotes:

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one."

"Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."