Getting Retired!

How sad!! Two of my favorite Vera Bradley colors are being retired!! I'm not even in the US to grab some of them up before there totally gone! I wouldn't kill, but I would totally maim to have the bermuda blue villager and the hope toile tote before they are gone. Maybe if I e-mail really nice to Dad he'll pick them up for me. It is worth a shot!!



Bermuda Blue Villager

Hope Toile Tote!!


They are just too adorable not to have!!!

Some more pictures

A swan on the Baltic Sea


The Sibelius Monument in Sibelius Park. For all those
musicians out there he was Finnish!


The used bookstore where I buy cheap books.


The grocery store that is right across from the apt. (see-va)


The post office, you can see our apt. building in the background.

Good ole Exercise

Kai and I took a 30 minute walk yesterday and I took some pictures while I was out because we walked around where we live. It just takes a few minutes to get to parks and the Baltic sea from where we are. It is quite a diverse area really.



Moomin Papa - advertising a kiddie amusement park




I thought this sign was great! Icky poo!


The Baltic Sea from some rocks


Kai standing on the rocks


Another view of the Baltic Sea.

Time Zones

First time for everything! I changed my time zone finally so my posted times are correct for the first time ever. For those of you on the East Coast back home I am 7 hours ahead of you. Yup, so glad I am here now and don't have to work around the time difference to talk to the hubby!

Today's Game plan

There actually isn't a whole lot planned for today. Yesterday Kai and Maaria and I went to see Live Free or Die Hard, so today I'll be going to renew my library card which expired in April. Maaria is going to come with me just in case I need someone an interpreter. Oh...I also bought myself a hair dryer yesterday. It is my first major purchase since getting here. That and a lollypop. I hope the weather clears up a little so I can walk about and take some pictures. If not then I will take you all on a guided tour sometime next week!! I hope the picture from my last post is working now. I can see it when I check my page without signing in, so hopefully that is a good sign. Anyway, it is too early to be up, so I'm going to hop back in bed for a bit! Good night!!

Can you see it now?

Helsinki from my window

Not the best picture in the world because it is a little fuzzy, but this is what 3:30 am looks like here. The downside is that we don't have blinders in the bedroom so every morning I've woken up at 3:00 am. I eventually fall back to sleep, but since I was up I thought I'd take a pic. This is the street that I currently live on, Linnankoskenkatu. The pic is of the apt. across the street and the Mec Shoe store. They are currently have a sale. I might have to stop by tomorrow!!

More Finnish!!!

OK...so I have figured out the blogger, now I just have to figure out my camera program again. Kai has an HP printer and my camera is HP so when I enstalled the program on the computer everything that I did was in English....well when I went to open the program up and edit some pictures I uploaded the program and everything came up in Finnish. Not good. Kai looked all through the program and cannot find where to switch the languages so now I am stuck trying to figure out how to upload my pictures and things onto blogger!!! I promise there will be pics in just a few days!!!

Problems!!

Oh dear! I'm in Finland and I'm all well and good, but it seems that because I am here everything on blogger is in Finnish! Therefore, you'll all have to bear with me as I figure things out and try to learn where everything is again!! Lol, wouldn't it be just my luck!

What have I done?

Absolutely not a thing! I'm leaving in 3 days but you wouldn't know that by the looks of my room, or by the boxes that have had nothing put into them to go into storage! I just feel so unmotivated even though I am chomping at the bit to leave and be in the lovely city of Helsinki. I'm going to have to fix this problem though, and soon at that. I have got to get my stuff from the house next door out here to my dad's house and somehow up in the attic. Talk about a big feat! Oh...I'm sure that it will get done...so no worries really, I'm just wondering why I'm procrastinating so?!? And to top things off my suitcase isn't big enough for me! Go figure!! Lol.

What a HOT day!

In about an hour I'll be out in the extreme heat grilling out for dad! He is off today and we're giving him a "surprise" cookout for Father's Day to go along with his two giftcards and whatnot. I just simply cannot get over the fact that it is currently 96 degrees outside right now at the first of June! I really am looking forward to Finnish weather!

On another note, I had the most unprofessional doctor appointment today. I went in to have a pap done and had to use a doctor I've never seen before because my regular doctor is booked through July. He was a young, black male doctor, he was nice, but he kept making awful faces throughout my entire visit. The visit went the same as they always do, but after it was over he didn't do a breast examine of any sort and he made faces at me while asking me questions about the girls. Then while I was putting my clothes on I heard him speaking to the nurse that was in the room with us through the door. Apparently I grossed him out, but how unprofessional to talk about a patient right outside their door. Now...I don't know what the deal was, there was nothing "gross" anywhere around where he was poking and prodding because I take care of everything nicely...grrr...then the prick wouldn't even give me samples of my prescription like my other doctor does, so I ended up paying $407 for that! Needless to say, I will not be using him again! I will wait for my doctor (next time I'm in the country)!

Sorry for all the personal talk, but wow what a day it has been!!

Happy Father's Day!

I went with my Grandmother yesterday to put some new flowers on my Grandpa's grave yesterday, and I was saddened by how many graves were there that had no flowers on them. It made me wonder if any children ever came around to see their parents' or grandparent's graves. Not that they are actually there anymore, but just the sentiment seems important to me. So we took and put some nice new blue and white flowers out there, and they looked very nice. Grandma was happy, therefore I was happy as well.

I also got my Dad (the one who has been trying to kill me with the bike) a card from my brother and I, and one from the cats as well. I got Dad a $25 giftcard from Lowe's so that he can buy himself another little gadget to go along with his baby (huge air compressor), and Adam got him a giftcard from Wal-mart. Needless to say, Dad is happy because he can buy himself stuff that he really wants. When Dad and Grandma are happy, everyone lets out a sigh of relief!

This morning I also told Kai Happy Father's Day. There are no little Lilja's in sight, but I thought I would practice!! I honestly think he is ready for kiddies at anytime. Me? Well, I'd like to wait awhile. I like the married life, so I want to try it for a while, then the mini-me's can come at a later date and time. He thought it was cute though that I told him HFD...I guess he wasn't expecting it! Anyway, today I just seem to be rambling...I am going to find something constructive to do.

What was I thinking?!?

Ever had one of those days where you absolutely thought that you would just die? Well that has been my day today. I raked wet leaves and pinestraw in the back yard for 2 1/2 hours this morning, then I took a break long enough to talk to the hubby. Well, it being Dad's day off he gets the bright idea of riding bikes. We took our usual 3.2 mile ride before dinner. Fine. Then he decided that we needed to get back on the bikes again and ride just a little more. From our house to the city limits sign and back is a mile. WEELLLL, Dad and I overshot the city limits sign by a mile and a half. So...instead of our nice little (not so leisurely) 3.2 mile trip, we ended up riding 7 1/2 miles, and I still have yard work to do tomorrow! :-) Again I say, What Was I Thinking?!? I guess what won't kill me will only make me stronger. Looks like I'm going to need a bike in Finland Kai (and less hills!).

A whole 6 months!

I'm not sure I quite believe it myself, but today I have been married for half a year! I've seen my hubby about 2 out of those six months, but after June 24th I'll get to see him everyday!! How exciting! Happy 6 months Kai!!

Look what the cat dragged in...

yup, that would be me! I just got back from riding my bike 3.2 miles with Dad! I only stopped once and that was at a stop sign. In the words of the great one, "You did well Pilgram". I've been doing a lot outdoors for the past week and then some. Last weekend I was at the beach, when I came home I raked the yard for 3 days (12 hrs) and I'm still only halfway finished with it. I'll be back at it again tomorrow. I've basically been keeping busy so that the time between now and when I fly to FI to be with the hubby flies by faster. I also have a TON of stuff that needs to find a home in a nice tightly sealed rubbermaid container. I believe I've been keeping those boys at rubbermaid in business with all that I've been buying lately (just 7 tubs)!! Oh well, time for supper. I think I'm going to have a nice salad and some squash. Then I'm going to bed. I'm one tired little white girlie!

A random pic of me and Chloe (Just for fun!)!
(How we feel after returning from the airport)

My room at the beach house.
I watched the Star Wars Marathon on that tv!

Part of my yard work

Another view of my yard work

View from the dock at the Beach house

Front view of the beach house