The things people say...

So I had to post this, because I know someone out there will appreciate it. First of all, what is it with people around really pregnant women that makes them think it's okay to say whatever they want about them?! So, I was getting gas at Costco yesterday and the guy behind me moved a little closer and said, "I know I don't need to point this out, put it looks like you've got some junk in your trunk." Then he chuckled and went back to his car. So, for my own self confidence, I'm going to assume he doesn't understand the meaning of the phrase, but if he did, why in the world would you tell an extremely pregnant woman she has a big booty on top of the enormous belly hanging out. I'm well aware my bum gets bigger when I'm pregnant. (I like to think of it as nature's way of keeping me from tipping forward). Anywho, I'm sort of laughing about the whole thing, but still, come on people, have a little courtesy.

Playing Catch-up...again

Here's some pictures from Kaija's birthday party (from about 3 weeks ago) and also Teem and the kids' trip to California. I figured, when baby comes, I'll have enough other stuff to blog about that I needed to get caught up quickly. Also, Kaija started pre-school last week and is loving it.

A week by myself

Only three weeks until D-day and I am all alone in my own house. My niece is getting baptized tomorrow, so Teem took Kaija and Luukas to LA to visit his sister. Since I cannot travel this far into my pregnancy, I had to stay home, which really hasn't been a bad thing. I've been nesting and taking care of all of my unfinished projects. It's a little weird and definitely quiet around here, but how often does an opportunity like this come along. I've been pampering myself with a massage, a haircut, a pedicure (tomorrow) and LOTS of shopping. Not that I am buying much, but I forgot how much fun it is to browse. Browsing is not a usual activity when you have kids. Tomorrow I've organized a girls night out to dinner and a movie. Overall it's been a good week, but I'll be glad to have my kids and hubby back. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday I'll post pictures from the last couple of weeks. Kaija even had her birthday party that I haven't posted yet, but it's on my to-do list.

Another month flies by

I'm not proud of it, but I've come to the conclusion that I am not a summer blogger. Since my last post, we've done quite a bit, so I'll try to recap it briefly. We spend about 5 weeks with my parents in Texas and had a great time. I'm amazed how quickly the time went. At the end of our trip there, my dad planned a surprise party for my mom's 6oth bday so all the kids/grandkids came down and we stayed in a nice home on Lake Travis (in Austin) for a weekend. For various reasons, it ended up not being a surprise (except my mom didn't know my grandma was coming) but we still enjoyed our time together on the lake and the weather was nice and hot. Luukas even went tubing with Teem (if you could call coasting at 5 mph tubing). And the kids had a blast with their cousins. Unfortunately my mom and dad weren't out on the boats because my mom had carpal tunnel surgery and my dad had some skin cancer removed from his face. There's a classic picture to illustrate the pair of invalids (as they called themselves). On a more serious note, after my mom's heart attack (back in march) and my dad's recent skin cancer, I am just thankful to have them around and that both of them seem to be on the upswing of things. It really puts things in perspective when you think you might loose somebody, especially family. So we have counted and recounted our MANY blessings and took advantage of our time together, even if it wasn't as originally planned.
A couple days after returning from Texas, we had Teem's sister, Tarja and her family come stay with us. Then, the rest of his family joined us the next weekend back at Loon lake (again at his office manager's house). I'll post pictures of that when I get around to uploading the pics. We had a blast and Teem even learned to wakeboard. Go TEEM! We still have a few plans for these last couple weeks of summer, but I'm sad it's almost over. Where did the time go? At least that means this pregnancy is coming to an end soon...by the way, still no name there.

Pool Time...or something like that

So we are still in Texas at my parents house, and I'm pretty much melting in the heat. We've pretty much either find indoor activities or do something outside involving water. I was too lazy the other day to take my kids to the neighborhood pool, so we were just going to do sprinklers and squirt guns, but then my mom had a fabulous idea. She got out buckets for them to play with and Kaija decided it was her own private 'swimming pool'. Then we found some storage bins so they could at least sit down if they wanted to. I know, totally white trash, but they had fun and I couldn't miss the photo-op with that one. As a side note, Teem comes down in less than a week and we are soooo excited to see him. Yipppeee!

Trip to Finland

So it's taken me quite a while to get our trip posted with pictures and all. In case you didn't know the story, we were supposed to go to Finland last summer, but unfortunately, our passports arrived the day after we were supposed to leave, so we postponed until this summer. Teem was a missionary in Finland and has relatives there and he hasn't been back for 10 years. We really had a great time, despite the cool weather (for part of the trip). Here are some of the things we did (the map above shows where we went):

• Visited sights in Helsinki (churches and such, and some shopping)
• Silja cruise to Stockholm, Sweden (we'd like to go back again, since we only had 1/2 a day there)
• In Stockholm we saw the palace and spent most of our time in Old Town (pretty neat)
• We spent a day at the Helsinki Temple doing Teem's grandpa's work
• Took a short detour to Turku, kind of a tourist town on a river...probably my favorite city
• got to meet friends (Sinnika & Taru, Teem's companion - Jori Vuori, and Loretta)
• In Kajaani, saw some cool Castle ruins, an old church (see picture) and a historical home
  
• Spent a few days in Lappennranta with his Grandma (Isoaitti) and aunt, Marjatta (I hadn't met them before). We rode bikes, saw the annual sandcastle display, played at the lake, where they had the coolest wooden and metal slide that you rode into the water on a sled, and I even went to Sauna since they had one in their basement.
  
• Teem's cousin, Simo took us fishing, or I should say took Teem fishing while I sat and read my book, and I think Teem was using the world's longest fishing pole (see picture in slide show)
  
• We ate ice cream in almost every city we stopped in. It's delicious and super creamy and they have little ice cream stands all over in every city.
  

It was a whirlwind of a trip because we were constantly going to different places. It wasn't as hard as I thought getting used to the light. The sun is down for about 4 hours. I think in Kajaani (way up north) we were outside around 2am and it wasn't totally dark yet. Very bizarre but pretty cool. The food was really tasty, especially the yogurt, icecream, chocolate, strawberries, bread and pastries. Teem's aunt, Marjatta cooked some delicious food while we stayed with them and kept us well-fed all day long. I managed to learn about 5 finnish words while I was there. It's such a difficult language, but luckily a lot of people can speak English. I think Teem's highlight of the trip was the grocery cart when we went to the store in Lappennranta. Most of the carts in Finland have rotating wheels on all four wheels so you can spin them around. Then at the exit there was a declining 'moving sidewalk' (one of those escalator type things that's just a ramp) and the cart stayed in place without rolling down. I don't think I described that right, but Teem was so impressed he had to take a picture...it's in the slide show. Oh and we sat by an interesting fellow at church in Helsinki (I think he was a bum that just wanted something to do...there are lots of bums in Finland, but they all have apartments and everything, but they don't work because their government takes pretty good care of them). Anyway, after sacrament, he pulls out his alcoholic beverage and fills his sacrament cup to have 'seconds' then he pulls out some pictures to show Teem. It kept me entertained anyway, since I didn't know what was being said in the talk.
After the long flight home (I wouldn't recommend flying 6 months pregnant to anyone), it was so good to see the kids. I missed them a lot while we were gone, but my Mom (bless her heart...thank you) took good care of them. Good to be home, but it was a wonderful trip.

Let the summer vacations begin

We are leaving town tomorrow, first to Portland for my brother-in-law, Paul's graduation from Chiropractic School. Then Monday we fly out to Dallas to stay with my parents for a few weeks. While I'm there, Teem and I are flying to Finland for 10 days while my mom watches the kiddos. I'm pretty excited. So I might be missing in action from my blog, but somehow I know you will all get along just fine without me. Happy summer.