Yesterday was my birthday and on Friday hubby took a day off so that we could go to the cabin before it got dark. He was afraid that if he worked that day, he may have had to stay longer at work. After all, we only get about 3 hours of daylight now as we move rapidly towards Winter Solstice where the sun doesn't even rise at all. Since there isn't that much snow yet, we could still make it to the cabin by car. It was more convenient this way because then he could bring a lot of firewood.
It has been a cloudy weekend, so we didn't really see any gorgeous sky or starry sky, though I saw some flashes of pink sky during sunset. Usually hubby is the one who ends up doing most of the stuff, but this time I wanted to try making a hole in the ice by myself (we need the water from the lake for sauna, you see). When I stepped on the frozen lake, I was a bit afraid if it would break, but when I started using the ice pick to make the hole, I realized just how thick it was. I stopped lots of time in between picking the ice with the ice pick to take photos of the sky. It was rather fascinating to see just how fast the sky changed in just 10 minutes or so.
The ice was at least 13 cm thick, so it took a lot of time before I could finally get some water. YYYEEEEEEEEESSS!!!! It felt good to be able to do the task HE HE HE HE HE...Hubby had to get more firewood and chop them off into smaller pieces (that also took a while). After that the party began ha ha ha ha...my kind of party. Just listening to music on the radio, going to sauna together, cooking the food in the fireplace, chilling out just the two of us. Bliss! What do I feel about turning 36? Thankful that I'm still given time to be alive. :-)
The temperature was about -1'C, though it probably dropped down a bit to -5'C during the night. It was a bit foggy when we arrived there, but for some reason it made me feel even more secluded from the rest of the world, because I could barely see the row of trees across the lake.
Anyway, here are some pics that I took:
The cabin from the back side:
Lots and lots of candles!
The sky when we first arrived:
The ice pick photo with the same background (about 43 minutes later, when the sky started to open up a little):
More photos of pinkish sky:
Okay, I need to go to bed earlier now (or at least try to). I have an early shift tomorrow. Hope you're all doing fine, people!
Before I continue sharing some stories of our Indo/Singapore trip, let me share some autumn photos instead. Catching the flu has thrown me off the blogging saddle, especially because I had to work right after I got better. And as you probably know, once you stop writing for a while, it takes time to get back to the rhythm again. Just like exercise. I managed to exercise once last week and today I decided to go for a walk (also to take some photos).
Went to the cemetery to visit FIL's grave and light some candles as well as to see the gravestone that had just been delivered. Saw two squirrels there in the cemetery area and managed to see some birds on the way back.
Enjoy the photos!
Someone was just buried recently...
And this is a really beautifully-kept grave, don't you think?
One of the candles I lit in front of FIL's grave.
The last photo is the one I tinkered using mirror effect, so it's not an original photo at all, but for some reason I feel the result is amusing ha ha...
I worked on Christmas eve and after that we went to get MIL and then we went to the graveyard. The temperature was still below zero that day (but not too cold), so Winter Wonderland was still intact. We lit some candles in front of FIL's graves and MIL brought some leaves to decorate it. Here are some pictures taken in the new cemetery and the old cemetery. There were lots of people and there were already so many candles everywhere.
Christmas Day was really wet. Until today the temperature has been above 0'C, so it's been really slippery and wet out there. What a weird end of the year! So much of the snow has melted away and it gets SO dark outside. If the weather prediction is right, the temperature will be below zero again only after New Year. We shall see about that. This is my first time experiencing December like this (including some watery rain). Usually at this time of the year there's at least as much snow as in the photos above.
Anyway, I had a funny story from work. I had an evening shift on 23rd and before work started, I had told myself to remember saying "Hyvää Joulua" (Merry Christmas) at the end of each transaction. OK, so everything went well for a few hours until one time I was serving a guy and after that I said, "Kiitos (thank you)" but instead of saying Merry Christmas, I said "Hyvää viikonloppua" (Have a good weekend) instead. Yep, I managed to wish someone a good weekend on a MONDAY!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...Well, at least my mistake managed to make the guy and the customer behind him smile. LOL LOL!!!
Anyway, I had fun again tricking hubby with the Christmas gift. This time I wrapped one of the gifts three times with some wrapping paper (it wasn't a big gift, so I didn't have to use too much paper) and then I wrapped it with some bubble wrap and then I put it inside a bigger box along with the other gift and then I wrapped it with some wrapping paper again. Watching him struggle to be able to see what was inside the gift was WORTH IT! WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :-D :-D :-D
In this post I'd also like to say that I've finally written down the letter for my mom. It was bittersweet to write. I ended up writing a 4-page MS Word document (plus one paragraph on the 5th page with font size 12 Times New Roman). I know it's going to be overwhelming for her to read, but I want her to know what we've been through because I hope that she'll take comfort in the knowledge that God has healed our bleeding wounds and dried them up and He has used our pains to comfort others in a similar situation. So PRAISE THE LORD for our infertility!!!
I haven't heard anything from my mom yet, but I know she needs time to digest everything and calm herself down (bro said that she was crying after reading the letter). Bro helped me explain to her what kind of support I needed from her - bless him! I've sent her a text to let her know that she's appreciated and loved. I hated the fact that I had to send the letter (I thought about it for weeks before finally writing it down), but I feel that it's important for us both that she knows how far we've come. I want her to be released from the burden of thinking and praying for our miracle pregnancy, because that's not what we want anymore. We've buried that dream and I want her to do the same. I want her to be happy for our little family.
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.
Yellow, everybody! I'm bacccckkkk...how was your Christmas? Mine was FABULOUS except for one little fact: RASHES attacked me, but I'm getting too far ahead of the story he he he...let me start from the beginning.
Sunday, Dec 23rd, 2007
We went to Elvi's house. Elvi is my mother-in-law's eldest sister. She had her 76th b-day on Saturday, but hubby was too tired to visit her then. We bought a pot of flowers for her and we also brought her Christmas gift. I gave her a nice brooch and two identical mugs with the pic of Santa on them (cartoonish pic). She greeted as as usual, very cheerfully and gave us hugs. She gave more hugs and a kiss on my cheek after she opened her gifts. Yeah, she opened her Christmas gift right then and there as well. I noticed so many different pots of flowers in her house already. There must've been other people giving her flowers, as well ha ha ha ha...Gladly we didn't give the exact kind of flower like the rest we found there.
As usual she served us coffee and some buns. Before we went home, I asked hubby to take a pic of me and her and here it is:
Yep, she grabbed me like that right away. She's very sanguine and not a typical Finn, I guess. She talks a lot animatedly and she's always so bubbly. She also gives LOTS of hugs to everybody he he he he he he...
After that we stopped by at her son's house (Pirita's Dad, Arttu's closest friend who sometimes has game nights with him) to fix something in his computer. There he showed us his Christmas tree. He just got the tree the other day since his brother told him to come over to get it from his land.
Monday: Dec 24th, 2007
In the morning Arttu and I went to two different cemeteries. Lots of people go to these cemeteries to light candles in front of their loved ones' graves. Let me show you some pics.
The first cemetery we went to was the place where my mother-in-law's parents' graves were located.
This is another view of the cemetery: as you can see they even put and decorate a Christmas tree there! Nice! ;-D
Then we went to a second cemetery (the one I've been to last summer, though I couldn't find their graves). These are the graves of my father-in-law's parents. Somebody's put some roses there, though I don't know who did it.
I couldn't resist taking this pic since there were SO MANY candles there!!!!!!!!!
After we visited the cemeteries, we went straight to my in-laws and right away we started working he he he he he...Arttu had to take out all the carpets and dust them whereas I cleaned up the floors with a vacuum cleaner and then I mopped them. Then we put the carpets back inside and then my mother-in-law asked Arttu to change the curtains and I helped her change the table cloth to make it more "festive", I guess. Then we had lunch afterward since we were sweating already and we got hungry after doing the work he he he he...We had boiled potatoes and moose and salad. ;-D
Not long after that, Arttu's second brother and girlfriend dropped by and had some lunch, too. They didn't stay until evening, though, since I guess they were celebrating Christmas Eve with the girlfriend's family. He gave us a bag of presents (from him and girlfriend and the other one was from Arttu's eldest brother and family). Gee...we didn't even get Arttu's eldest brother and family anything but a postcard. Oops!!! Better do it next year, then. I suppose it's too late this year anyway he he he...We gave Arttu's second brother his gift then, but he didn't open it right away.
My problem started right after sauna. During HOT HOT HOT sauna, I got thirsty and I drank cider. This time the cider had 4.7% alcohol in it and I gulped it until more than half of the can, but I felt fine. I wasn't drunk at all. No headache whatsoever. BUTTTTT I started having rashes along the underside of my arms and they started being itchy. I tried not to scratch them, but I only rubbed them to get rid of the itch. Anyway, my mother-in-law played cards with us for a while. In the first game, Arttu won by 1 point from me. ARRRGGHHH!!!! In the second game, I lost since I got pretty lousy cards again and again he he he...
After that, we started serving dinner. The traditional X-mas dinner here is joulukinkku (pork ham leg). Here's a pic I took when Arttu was slicing it and taking away the fat:
It was such a HUGE pork ham leg!!!! ;-D
Then we ate it with boiled potatoes, salad, beet, and everything else. Mother-in-law took out a bottle of red wine so that we could toast using it. I only took two sips of it, but I guess it made my condition worse during the night. My rashes started spreading to the back of my legs and butt and eventually even spread to my back and the front of my legs. YARGH!!! Anyway, here're pics of the festive dinner table he he he...
After dinner, we cleared up the table and then took out our presents to open in front of one another. Arttu gave me a new mobile phone and a very warm and soft blanket (I LOVE the colours of the blanket!). My in-laws gave us a big candle, a cooking pan, and some chocolate. We got them a pair of warm long johns (top and bottom), a smoke detector, a kitchen tool, and the photo album I made for them. At first my mother-in-law thought that the photo album was just a blank photo album, but when she looked at the first page, she realized it wasn't a blank photo album HA HA HA HA...
Funny thing was that she didn't recognize the first flower I put there. I took a close-up pic of the flower, so to her it looked different. Finally after a while she did remember it, though. She had fun looking at the pics and trying to remember the occasion hi hi hi hi hi hi hi...Then she showed the album to my father-in-law. ;-D
We got some nice glasses and also some candles from Arttu's brothers. Arttu opened his gift from me and realized that it wasn't what he thought it was. YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!! I gave him a pair of new jeans and he thought that the gift was a shirt HUA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...I WIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN!!!! I asked him to try them on since I was apprehensive that they wouldn't fit, but they did fit perfectly. YEEEESSS!!!! ;-D
After that we finally went to sleep, but I couldn't really sleep since my rashes started getting SO itchy. I brought some salve there, but it didn't really help. I went back and forth to the toilet to rub more salve, but the itch was there. Finally I was at my wit's end, so I decided to try rubbing some olive oil to the rashes and it worked...if only for 15 minutes at a time. The olive oil soothed my rashes for 15 minutes, then I had to go rub it all over again. But after rubbing it for three or four times, I could finally drift off to sleep. Arttu had a restless sleep, as well, since I kept on waking up. It was a VERY rough night for me and we finally woke up at around 10.30 am or 11 am. Yet still I was SO tired then due to my rashes.
I NEVER had any allergy toward anything before in my life and that was HORRIBLE! I can't imagine how people who suffer from allergy to many things live. I almost wanted to rip my skin off due to the itch. Plus the red patches also felt SO HOT that during the night, I had to move my blanket away from me. Only then I realized the suffering of those people who've experienced the same thing. Nothing beats experience indeed!!!!
OK, let me just post this and I'll continue the story later. I have to write down all the important details in my old mobile before I put the SIM card to my new mobile he he he...
Additional note: Don't worry. My rashes are getting MUCH better now and I hope they're gone tomorrow. But if they don't, then I'll go to the doctor tomorrow. Here in Finland the official Christmas holiday is until today, so nothing is open out there until tomorrow he he he he he...
After I got back home, I did some research on allergy and found out that Asians have a genetic disorder that makes their bodies unable to break down ingested alcohol completely. Ahhhh...no wonder...and some sites say that sometimes it's not because of allergy to alcohol itself, but to some ingredients in alcoholic drinks. I must say that from now on I dare not drink any more alcoholic drinks. Too scary! My body skin yesterday looked SO scary, you know??? But what really bothered me was the itch and the hot feeling all over the rashes. YIKES!!!
OK, I'd better stop now he he he he...
This is going to be another rambling post hi hi hi...1. Tell me how to explain to a man that buying candles and lighting it every now and then isn't a waste of money, please he he he he...2. I met someone online the other night and we talked via YM. She's an Indian girl living in Helsinki with her hubby. I don't even remember anymore where I met her. It must've been from some Finnish website online. Anyway, she had started her full-time Finnish course in Helsinki and I got some info from her about students' benefit (how much money I'll get from the government while doing the course). The most important piece of info was that she told me that the actual integration plan for immigrants should go like this:a. A full-time Finnish course (from 9 am to 3 pm Mon-Fri) for a whole year.b. 3.5 months work as an apprentice in a company.c. The immigrant's ready to work for real.Of course it's only an IDEAL plan. Everybody knows how hard it is to get a job here in Finland, especially in a small village like Sodankylä. I'm not being a pessimist (if God wills, nothing is impossible), but I just want to be realistic, too. Now the full-time course I'm going to go through next January is only for 5 months. I DO NOT know if there'll be a continuation course after that, but based on the Indian girl's description, there SHOULD be a continuation course. However, hoping too much from this village isn't good. My Brit friend has been waiting for a Finnish course for 3,5 years, whereas I was LUCKY enough to only have to wait for 6 months. So I don't want to complain (plus one of my resolutions this year is to catch myself before I start complaining and just stop that train of thought) 'coz for me, this current Finnish course and the upcoming one are A MIRACLE for this little village!!!! ;-DI talked to my hubby that it seemed I would have to take another certification course before I could get a steady job here. I don't know yet what 'coz I still don't know what kind of job I want to do. I'll have to find out later on what I wanna do and what kind of courses they offer here in this village, then I'll go for it provided that my Finnish is good enough after May since all other courses will be done in Finnish.If I still have trouble finding a job after that, then we're thinking of planning to have a baby. I don't know yet what God has in store for me, but I'm just walking through this step by step. I don't wanna think too hard, but I also want us to have the same rough map of possibilities in mind. When I asked him if he wanted me to have a full-time job still after we had a baby, he said it was up to me. GOOD answer he he he he...Deep in my heart, I want to be a SAHM until my kids are big enough provided that we have enough money to pay for our family's expenses. But we'll see about that. ;-DSo my journey's still long and winding he he he he he...but I'm determined to enjoy every step of it. ;-D3. Sometimes oblivion means peace of mind, even though it is a mere illusion.4. Last Saturday my mother-in-law asked Arttu and I if we wanted to eat at the nearby school, so we did. Apparently there was a group of people offering free moose and mashed potatoes since it was hunting season. Arttu said the free food was only for a certain group of people, but I don't really get it. Anyway, we went there and there were a lot of people already. I thought I could get my own food, but apparently two men were serving the food and I got a HUGE portion of moose and mashed potatoes. My stomach almost felt like exploding afterward and I didn't eat anything else that day ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
Then she bought us some kind of raffle tickets. We had to give the official our names and phone numbers and we had to keep the piece of ticket with us. I'm not sure what this is all about as Arttu apparently doesn't know anything much about it, either. Oh well...I guess if we win something, they'll let us know ha ha ha...
OK, here are some bird pics I took at my in-laws'. Too bad there weren't any squirrels then he he he he he...
And here's a pic of my mother-in-law (on the right) and her sister-in-law at school where we enjoyed moose and mashed potatoes. We drink milk from those metal cups he he he he he...
