Today is my 35th birthday. When I woke up, I was greeted by the gorgeous pink sky outside as the sun was starting to rise (yeah, I woke up late because today was my free day LOL!!!).
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Today I just want to be thankful for these things:
- For this breath that I still have. The gift of life.
- My husband. When I was preparing to marry him, I thought that I was sure that he was the one for me. What I knew then deep down in my heart versus what I know now shows me that my choice was right - my faith in us back then was blind, but now I've seen the proofs and what I see is far more beautiful than what I could have known then. The longer I live with him, the surer I am that he is definitely the one for me and the more thankful I am to have him by my side. Just by being himself, he makes me feel like I'm the best version of myself. He helps me be the best version of myself. And it helps a lot to be accepted and loved just the way I am - even when I'm cranky, even when I make mistakes, even when I'm obsessed with some things, even when I'm having my PMS.
Honey, marrying you is one of the BEST decisions ever in my entire life. Each day spent with you is a day full of fun, laughter, love, and tenderness. I just hope and pray that God will keep us hand-in-hand and heart-to-heart until death do us part - and I hope that He will give us plenty of time together still on earth because I want to grow old and I want to grow together with you. I cherish you and I still want you even after all these years.
- My parents. For letting me make my own mistakes, for trusting me to make my own decisions, for never nagging me to come visit, for never making me feel guilty for anything (either deliberately or not), for loving me without choking the life out of me, for letting me be my own person and letting me choose my own path.
- My mother-in-law. Thank you for accepting me into the family with such warmth and love, for teaching me things tenderly and patiently, for never criticizing me, for supporting me and for your constant appreciation. I couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law.
- Friends - old ones, new ones, online friends. I'd especially like to thank my blogger friends and new online friends here. Even though most of us have never met, but you've supported me and showed me your love and compassion and I'm very thankful for that. And all the friends I've met either online or in real life have taught me so many things and inspired me in many different ways.
- My boss and coworkers. Thankful that I'm accepted in the team without being treated differently, that I still have a job despite the tough economy.
- My kind customers. I've talked to some people about this and they all confirmed that there are so many nice and kind customers here in this village and I'm thankful for that. When I first started work, I made so many mistakes, but none of them said anything harsh to me. They reminded me of my mistakes tenderly and over time they've forgiven my other mistakes and they have also shown appreciation towards me and I'm forever grateful for that.
- Infertility. Infertility has taught me so many things that I wouldn't have learned otherwise and it has also allowed me to meet so many lovely ladies that I wouldn't have met otherwise. I'm thankful for the many lessons and the gift of new friends that infertility brings.
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OK, now I've finished the list, so it's time to enjoy my mud cake topped with berries. :-D
I've promised a few friends that I'd try to take a video clip of the tail-swishing squirrel that I saw outside of MIL's place, so last Saturday I brought my digicam with me and voila!!! The squirrel came, though I think it was a different one compared to the one I saw a few weeks ago. Anyway, the squirrel came from across the street, then it climbed up to some trees and then came down to the yard and then jumped onto the bird feeder.
Here's the little fella climbing down some trees...
And some photos of him in action he he...my fave pose is the first one. :-D Click the photo to see a bigger view!
And here's the video clip. Enjoy!
I was so happy when we had a chance to go to the cabin and the weather report promised good weather. It was around -15'C when we arrived at the cabin yesterday evening, though the temperature dropped down a little this morning (about -18'C). The dusk was gorgeous as well, though I didn't manage to capture a good picture of it. There was a stripe of dark reddish colour above the horizon followed by dark blue. Ahhhh...just amazing!
Thankfully this time it didn't take too long for hubby to drill the frozen lake to get some water to warm up the sauna he he he he he...we went to bed rather early, actually, but we woke up pretty early as well as a result.
Anyway, here are some photos that I took...
A pic of me lying down on the frozen lake. The cabin is right behind me. If you wonder about the angle, I only brought my small tripod with me (very handy and light), thus the weird low angle ha ha...
Another pic of me, facing the frozen lake he he...In this era, it's so darn easy to be narcissistic. Dohhhhh!!! LOL!!!
My footsteps and maybe a reindeer's tracks hmmmm...Actually correction, a friend's son took a look at the pic and said that one of the tracks is definitely a hare's and the other one is possibly a fox's tracks, but most likely the tracks of two hares.
Just having fun on the frozen lake he he...
The moon...
Lots of ice crystal pics along with their zoomed-up versions. I cropped up different sections of the ice crystal photos to give better view.
I'm gonna be busy starting tomorrow, but at the end of net week I'll have some days off, so we'll see what I can do about blog-hopping.
1. I managed to deal with the additional shifts even while I was feeling under the weather. Crossing my fingers that I won't get sick!!!
2. The flower-giving grandpa came by the store to do some grocery shopping when I had just finished my shift, so I quickly went to the cashier, bought some flowers, wrapped them with some paper, taped the receipt there, told my coworker that I would give them to a grandpa (so that she wouldn't charge him for the flowers while showing the receipt that I had taped there), and then went to find the grandpa and told him that they were for his wife. Felt GREAT to be able to return his favors!!! He's been giving me flowers on many occasions already! :-D
3. Taking these pictures made me feel happy...
4. A grandma complimented my voice! Ha! It's never happened before in my entire life he he he he...so I'm gonna cherish the memory hi hi hi hi...:-D
5. Finally getting a few days off in a row. Phew!!! Now I can catch-up with blogging and blog-hopping. :-)
6. Finding a suitable gift for someone as well as another souvenir for Ken's little brother. And having the budget to buy both is something I'm THANKFUL for.
7. Joululimppu (a kind of Christmas bread) with delicious smoked salmon made by Kiveliön factory, eaten with a slice of cheese and chili sauce! YUMMY!!!!
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8. Knowing that MIL's heart is working well (no blockage). She went for a check-up in Rovaniemi hospital last week and the result was OK. No need for surgery or anything. Phew!
9. Have to teach a coworker to do something and I've finally finished writing down my list so that I remember everything I have to teach her. :-D
10. Finally exercising again after not having done it due to my busy schedule and being slightly under the weather. Felt GREAT! :-D
11. Almost forgot: A coworker asked me if we had kids and I said no. Thankfully she didn't pry whether we wanted kids or not or anything else. She just accepted the answer. YEEEEEEESSSS!!! :-D
I've been busy at work again and I have been feeling a bit under the weather lately. A coworker got sick and another one is sick. It seems that it's spreading around - whatever virus that is. I'm trying my best to sleep a lot and take vitamins and stuff, so fingers crossed that I'll be able to avoid getting really sick. The temperature went up to 1'C on Sunday, so a lot of the snow that had piled up melted away, but it seems that we've got a little bit of snow last night or this morning, so it's all white again, although it was a bit slippery in some parts yesterday because of the melted snow that went frozen again during the night.
My head feels a bit weird, so I'm not going to write too long. I just wanna share some magnificent Finnish photos by a Finnish photographer. Here's the link:
I really love his photos because they make me feel like I'm in a nice dream. If you go down the page, you can find the photographer's website link as well as FB link. He's put a lot of other pictures in both links.
And let's have some laugh with some hilarious Chinese-English translations he he he he...here goes:
OK, I'm gonna dose myself with some berries now!
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A friend shared this article in Facebook and I think it's too good not to share here, as well.
Here goes:
After sharing it in Facebook, a friend commented, "Just be there and be a good listener. Indonesians tend to give too much advice, whereas in Japan they don't even dare to say hi when they don't know what to say to you."
Finding balance is hard and when you're in an awkward position of hearing something sad or a tragedy that someone has just experienced, it's easy to get tempted to say something "helpful" (giving advice or saying hopeful words) even though the other person simply just wants you to be there and listen to you.
I find that the theory also works for infertility. I find that more often than not, when I tell people that we have no kids, they either ask why we don't have kids or they ask if we want to have kids or not (as in whether we're trying or not). And then most of them don't just stop there because they either assume we don't like kids or that we still want kids. And then they move on to giving us hopeful phrases like "You're still young, you still have time" or advice (adoption, etc.). There are some rare people out there, though, that don't pry and just accept a "no, we have no kids" without probing any further. :-)
I'm well aware that it's hard to know what to say especially when you don't know the person very well and each situation is different, but I think in most cases saying "sorry to hear that, do you want to talk about it because I'm ready to listen?" is enough. Unless the person specifically asks for your advice, then that's a whole different matter.
Anyhow, I hope you find the article useful. :-D
This year again I had trouble thinking of a theme for Blog Blast For Peace again. Not for the lack of ideas, though, but I've been having too many random ideas and then I have to really find that one strong idea that I truly want to voice this year.
Anyway, here's my peace globe this year:
This year I've been having a lot of conversations with many different ladies around the world and there's one thing that keeps on echoing throughout those conversations. It's that when our inner world is chaotic and raging with so many different voices warring one another, it's so hard to go out there and create peace, because you're having all those wars within and all you want to do is protect yourself.
It gets even harder to want to create peace outside when you don't get any validation as to what is happening inside, when you feel alone and when people think you're overreacting. When you're confused and in denial especially...it gets harder to embrace yourself and love yourself as we are. When you can't love yourself even at your darkest moments (or perhaps especially on your darkest moments) and when you can't embrace whatever it is going on inside you, how can you extend that kind of love towards others? And it's especially made worse when other people who don't know or understand your pain keep on saying "the wrong thing" or "trying to fix you" or trying to tell you to "move on" even though all you need is that they just listen to you and empathize with your pain and validate your grief.
So this year I want to call for each of us to be more aware of what's going on inside us...to embrace each part of us, to become our own best friends, to dare to be naked within to reveal whatever it is that we need to face inside us, to accept the things we can't change and to believe that we are worth being loved even during those times when we feel least like it and to try to find our own support system. And I hope that by continually doing so, healing can begin from within and peace can be restored from within one step at a time. And then we can start spreading the peace again all around us, one ripple at a time.
P.S. The image of the two penguins in my Peace Globe is a portrayal of how I'd like us to treat ourselves - as our own best friend.
Tomorrow is our 7th wedding anniversary. I'm thankful for all the years that we've had together and I hope to God we still have many more years and memories to come. Marrying Arttu is one of the BEST decisions that I've ever done in my entire life. Moving here and starting life all over again has been worth it. :-)
Because all the stores are closed today due to it being All Saints' Day, I went to the supermarket yesterday already to buy our anniversary cake. We went to MIL's place today and BIL and SIL came, as well, so we shared our cake with them ha ha...there's one song that's been echoing in my mind ever since I started thinking of our wedding anniversary. This is the song:
OK, so Arttu doesn't take a shower that long (nor do I), but I do love the way he loves me he he he he he he he...One of the things that makes him different from many other guys is that he never gives me unsolicited advice and my life has been made easier because of that. Plus the fact that he's so easy to live with makes me adore him even more. And he's funny! :-D And he makes me feel that I'm funny. I love being able to be my wild, crazy, fun self in front of him and still feel that I'm loved.
In honour of our anniversary, I tinkered with one of our wedding pictures. Here goes:
Today we also went to visit FIL's grave to light a few candles...here's the picture...Some of the candles had been put there by MIL.
