10th wedding anniversary

Our 10th wedding anniversary was way back in September, but  we did not have the chance to have our traditional wedding day picture taken until mid November. But after our trip to Japan, DH's to Scotland and a couple of colds, once again an innocent passer-by was stopped in front of our wedding church and asked to snap a picture of our happy family just as it is.

The end of November was a challenging one with all the boys having severe colds + ear infections, I was blessed with sinutitis.  We're all better now, waiting for Christmas (not a single preparation for the holiday made so far....) and still not knowing where we'll spend it.

Despite the depressing snowless, but wet and cold winter, we're all in good spirits.

Over and out.

Time, time, time

Unfortunately there is only 24 hours per day in my world, too. Wake up at 0620 (for some of you this might not sound too bad, but keep in mind that I used to wake up at 0730 the earliest and be at the office by 9 am), quick breakfast and out of the house by 0715, car+bus+metro+bus to work, work until it's time to pick up the small boys from day-care by 1700 (after 1h of commuting), cook dinner, spend time with the boys (play, if it's a good day; try to separate them from each other if it's a bad one), the boys in bed by 2100 (check Risto's homework before that), clean dinnertable, kitchen, laundry etc., talk to DH, sit brain dead in front of the telly, to bed by 2200 (hasn't happened too many times) in order to get enough of sleep. It you can find a time slot when I could blog (and edit some pictures), please tell me!!!

But what has happened... last weekend was interesting: one broken ceramic vase (wedding gift from Iceland), one broken ceramic mug (a really nice one from Norway) and one broken wine glass (Ikea, not a great loss) + one bleeding nose. Sounds bad, eh?!? Jaakko broke the vase when vacuum cleaning (hey, he'lll be 3 in a couple of weeks and should be able to do his share of housework), it way really my fault, I'd left it on a low window sill. The wine glass broke in the dishwasher and DH banged the mug accidentally on the kitchen counter. The only thing that wasn't accidental was Tuomas' nose bleed: Risto "rubbed" their noses against each other a bit too affectionatey ("no, I didn't mean to hurt him"... do you believe him?). Risto was misbehaving in so many ways that the TV remains shut for this week and he gets to walk to school and back every day. This gives him plenty of time to think about his behaviour. But the weekend wasn't a total disaster; MIL was over for dinner on Saturday (and when we sat down to eat I remembered that it was our 11th engagement anniversary) and we started getting the guest house ready for my sewing and knitting stuff!!!

Pictures... soon... I promise....

A new family member!!!

Ok, don't get excited. DH has just finally decided what our next car will be and told the boys Friday night:"Our new car arrives right after our trip to Japan.... or was it America.... oh, damn!" So, we're off to Osaka on Wednesday and then take the bullet train after one night to Tokyo. Unfortunately Lenny Kravitz turned ill and cancelled his concert. That was DH's plan for Friday! He did think about extending our stay until November (the concert will be held then), but then he remembered that he's going to Scotland beginning of October, so we must come back home.

Clara left yesterday, feels so strange.... I mean using the washing machine again!!! My friend told me to try to find some luxury in it, since I haven't done it in a looooooooooooooooong time. I'm afraid that the luxury will wear out pretty soon.

No pictures this time. Hopefully soon and a story about geo-caching!

Travelling

The boys are happy to play make believe travelling. They used to want to go to China all the time, mainly because I've told them that in China you're allowed to slurp your soup. But lately Tuomas and Jaakko want to go to Australia. Tuomas has actually several times whined about when are we finally going to Australia, as if he had been promised a trip next week.

Last week one morning just as I was ready to leave for work Jaakko woke up and crawled into our bed. DH and him hid under the covers (sorry, it was a space shuttle...), DH asked Jaakko where they should go to. "Australia" was his answer. But the his answer to DH's question about what would they do there was something that you'd never guess:"Eat sausage soup!" I forgot to tell him that slurping is not allowed there.

Wednesday will take me to Paris, again, for one night. Then Wednesday next week DH and I are off to XXX to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. My father will look after the boys for the 5 days we're away.

Pictured above are my sister's two boys and daughter with our boys.

A new life

Our life has really changed lately with Risto in school and me starting at a new job. Plus we (or I) cancelled our subscription to the main newspaper. Ever since I was a kid Helsingin Sanomat has been a major part of my morning routine. But now that I'm commuting to the other side of the greater Helsinki area, I have hardly the time to have breakfast let alone to read something. DH hasn't read the paper during the week for years. Weekends we've enjoyed our breakfast reading the paper, but then again our dear little angels make it difficult. So, I cancelled it. 

Commuting is a new thing for me. Getting up a lot earlier, catching the bus, sitting in the metro. People walk like ants, knowing their destination in a single line right after one another. Funny. The first week of commuting I was able to knit half a meter of a scarf.

Above you can see what my ex-colleagues gave me. I wear the jewellery  every day. The long one is actually a test specimen!

(Oh, our lives will change even more dramatically on Sunday when Clara, our au pair, goes back home to Germany!)