1. Cutting nails right after shower, when the nails are still moist and soft. :-D
2. Good nail cutters.
3. A customer says she misses me whenever I'm not around. That's SO sweet of her to say that! :-D
4. Hubby gave me an early wedding anniversary gift: Wii Zumba complete with the belt. I tried it twice already hi hi hi...FUN! :-D
5. Bought these cheap, warm boots (15 Euros) for myself ---> self-pampering very early birthday gift (if I had waited until my bday, they'd have all been gone) ha ha ha ha ha...
6. This Thursday we'll be having our 5th wedding anniversary. Can't believe it's been 5 years already since we said our vows!!! THANKFUL for all the years we've been together and hoping for many more years to come he he...
7. This weekend we'll celebrate our wedding anniversary by going to the cabin again. WOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :-D Can't wait!!!
8. Mimicking hubby's silly expressions and words and poses and making him laugh. :-D
9. A friend asked for my opinion and I feel happy that she trusted me enough to ask for my opinion.
I've just booked a place for an entrepreneur seminar in this village. Funny thing is that the other day there was a rather slow day at work and during a break I managed to browse through a local newspaper and found the advertisement for this seminar. It's for free and it'll be held for two days on October 23rd and 24th. It's for anyone who's interested in opening their own businesses or who is thinking of opening one.
They will tell us what kind of businesses there are in Finland and all the basic info about opening your own business, funding, pricing, etc. Sounds good, right? :-))) We'll see how it goes then. :-)))) I feel like I'm about to step into another dimension or something, you know? In a way it's good to be able to find out these things before I go to Indo so that I can think of what to bring to Finland to try to sell here (or if they're worth selling here).
And now let me share my 3BT post here too:
1. Finding a generous sum of tips in one bedroom at the hotel HO HO HO HO HO...Remember that guests here don't normally give any tips, so if they give some, it's already more than good. But today I found one who gave a generous sum. WOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!! :-D
2. Used the money to buy salad, tomatoes, cucumber, and a bag of chips (new flavour).
3. Tasted the new-flavoured chips (sour cream and pepper) and LOVED it! ;-D
4. Almost forgot this one: The government has reduced the taxes for food by 5% (it was 17% and now it's 12%) until July 2010. It really helps me A LOT in cutting down my grocery budget. YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!
5. SUPER delicious chocolate pudding at the hotel. I'm drooling while thinking of the taste...simply superb...wish I could ask for the recipe hi hi...
6. Why, tomorrow is Friday and it's a cause for celebration 'coz then weekend is coming SOON and then I have only one day of work left (Monday) HO HO HO HO HO...
7. Found some CHEAP CHEAP reddish mangoes from Brazil in Lidl (at only €0.99 per kg - usually it's over €2/kg). OH YEAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!
8. The winter boots I bought on a discount last spring (that I only start wearing now) are REALLY REALLY soft and comfy. LOVE 'em!!! ;-D
Our Wii package came on Wednesday, so during the night we tried it and I got addicted right away hi hi...It was SO MUCH FUN! We have two CDs: Wii Fit and Wii Sports. So far I've tried doing these:
1. A few Yoga exercises.
2. A few aerobics exercises.
3. A few balance games/exercises, including hula hoop.
And I've played these with R2:
1. Tennis.
2. Golf.
3. Bowling.
4. Baseball.
5. Boxing.
We also tested our BMI indexes and our Wii Fit Age. My BMI index is 22.02, so it's still in the ideal range. However, my Wii Fit Age is 45 (the youngest Wii Fit Age is 20). ARRRGGHHH!!! I want to get a younger Wii Fit Age he he he...
Yesterday I played Wii for 1,5 hours and after that we had sauna. I felt EXHAUSTED by the time we sat on our sofa to watch "Lost" series. DEAD tired! I slept right away after the episode was over and it was such a nice sleep he he he...
Funny thing happened when we went on a virtual "jogging" together. Of course my stamina is better than his since I've been doing Taebo for 2 years. At first until the middle part of the jogging track, we were almost equal (I was a little bit ahead of him), but after that his pace started becoming slower and slower hi hi hi hi hi...so I left him waaaayyy behind. :-D
I think Wii games would be much more motivating if you're doing it with somebody else and you can compare your results he he he...It did feel a bit crazy, though, that you were "hitting" a virtual opponent or ball or whatever he he he...
Anyway, I plan on playing Wii again later tonight after I do my homework and other stuff. I've bought two discounted Finnish books from the bookstore, too. I'm ON A ROLL!!! I'm highly charged to READ more Finnish!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to add not only my vocabulary, but also sentence structures. GOOOOOOOOOO GO GO!!! :-D
Oh yeah...I pampered myself the other day by buying a pair of boots which were on sale. It was actually the first pair of boots I've EVER bought in my entire life. The first pair was given to me by my friend's mother (bless her!!!) and the second pair was given to me by a friend. So I've been wearing gifts and now that the first pair is getting old, I decided to buy myself a new pair, but I'm only going to wear them next winter HA HA HA HA HA HA...
Okay, time to blog-hop before I do my homework he he...Have a blessed weekend, everybody!!!
In my last post, I forgot to say that I had ordered a new pair of boots. They were on a sale in one Finnish website. I also ordered a pair of sports shoes for Arttu's birthday. Even though his birthday is in March, but still I thought that it'd be cheaper for me to buy them in one package so that I'd only pay one shipping fee he he he he...
I decided to buy a new pair of boots since my two boots are a bit too tight if I need to wear two pairs of thicker socks. I found the boots online and they cost only €20 (compared to the ones in the stores in Sodankylä which are still WAY costlier than that even after they're on sale!!!).
I also asked Arttu to try on his shoes just in case they didn't fit. After all, we could return them if they didn't fit. I haven't paid for them yet since I can opt to pay it next month HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE...^_________________________^ Oh, and yeah, fortunately they DO fit.
OK, now let's talk about my second topic: The Little Mermaid.
When I was small, I remembered watching the original version of The Little Mermaid (not the Disney version with a happy ending). I still remember it clearly as if it was yesterday. I was hoping that the mermaid could end up with the prince, yet the prince didn't recognize her as she had lost her voice in order to be a human. I was crying profusely at the end of the movie as I thought it was SO unfair. She had lost her beautiful voice just to be with the prince, yet the prince didn't know that it was her and he ended up marrying someone else!!!
Come to think of it, I think it was the first time I started hating sad endings. I no longer hate sad endings that much now, except for some sad endings in which I think the hero or the heroine dies for nothing.
How about you? Do you dislike sad endings, too? Or do you think they're important as they reveal that real life isn't "they live happily ever after"?
I grew up watching Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and all those wonderful cartoons. I also grew up reading lots of fairy tales, including Hans Christian Andersen's stories. I remember having two THICK volumes of fairy tales with WONDERFUL illustrated works of art. I LOVED being immersed in a different world, a world where reality didn't reign. A world where imagination runs amok. What a free-spirited world!!!
How about you? What did you grow up with? ;-D
1. Residence Permit Extension
Yesterday as I was in my in-laws' house, I decided to check out the validity period of my residence permit. I had marked my mobile phone's calendar to remind me when I had to renew my residence permit. Turned out I had miscalculated the time. My residence permit is valid until March 6, 2008 and I remember that I read in Finland Forum for Expats that I had to apply for an extension of that residence permit about 6 weeks before the expiry date. I checked my calendar again in my mobile phone and realized that I'd have to do it NEXT WEEK!!!
So last night after we got back from my in-laws, I was busy filling in the forms again. Yeah, the price for marrying a foreigner. I have to fill in all the forms again just like last year and then I had to bring my marriage certificate again. Plus I also have to bring a new passport photo.
That means tomorrow I'm gonna be busy. Mondays is my exercise day with Billy Blanks and then I'll have to go to a photo studio to have my photo taken, then I'll go directly to the police station to submit all the forms, and then I probably have to buy more milk and grocery. Oh yeah...I also have to take some money from the ATM to pay for the residence permit extension in case they only take cash he he he...
Then I guess I'll browse some boots in the stores as they're having some big discounts. The winter shoes I have are good and reliable, but I can't wear double thick socks as they get too tight for me. So I'll search for a pair of boots with a bigger size, but I'll buy them ONLY if the price is reasonable.
2. Money, Money, Money.
You know one funny thing about money? Before Arttu got a job and before I started blogging for money...I was SO grateful just to know that we had enough money to buy fruit occasionally and that we had enough money to pay for our monthly expenses.
Now that Arttu has a steady job already and I've started blogging for money, it seems that my WANT WANT WANT has reared its ugly head. I really have to control this since I begin to want to buy many things that aren't really important or urgent.
Well, I'm not trying to say that we can't enjoy life or that we shouldn't pamper ourselves every once in a while, especially if we do have the money. That's not it. It's just that I've realized it's SO EASY to let unimportant and non-urgent things look or sound important and urgent simply because we WANT those things. It's easy to let yourself be unhappy or disappointed when you don't get EXACTLY what you WANT. And it's easy to forget that even when you only have the VERY basic necessities in life, you CAN be happy and that newer, bigger, more sophisticated, more fashionable stuff can't bring happiness.
Anyway, I came across this article and I'd love to share it with you:
Here's the excerpt:Theologian Henri Nouwen says in his book The Return of the Prodigal Son that gratitude is more than a mere "thank you." It is a discipline to be practiced each day in a conscious way. The apostle Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Thessalonians, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (5:16-18).
