What are little boys made of?

We decided to head down to Helsinki for independence day weekend. the 6th was our annual family independence day meal with worshmack and good company. We flew on Friday and came back on Sunday. Visiting all my siblings and checking out the newcomer. Albert, who was born the Sunday before. So by the time we saw his wrinkled red face he was already 6 days old.. I suppose at this time one should say, 6 days young... you cant get much younger..
Antti and Victoria were both happy and doing really well, we had amazing meal and some coffee, played a game of Oregon while little Albert did what he does best these days.. sleep.. and sleep and eat.. His life in numbers.. 3,5kg and 55cm. and 9/10 score.

And loved so very much!! and who could resist this little boy??

Tiina and Touko had moved in to their new appartment near mom and dad. We visited them for a short while and had a look around their home. Tiina had painted Vilhos room with birch tree scene like this:

It really looked very nice, the kitchen and living room were still little bit of a mystery as the move was in process as there were little last minute details to be done, but open plan style was visible none the less..

Some boxes still to put away.. But everything already looked really nice, the way to backyard went through a door from the living room and view was to the green yard from both kitchen and living room. We will be very keen to make an other visit at little less busy time..but this weekend was tightly packed with visiting time and places to go.
On Sunday we had our feast of meat marinaded with meat and cream, with pickles and more cream.. So I suppose cream with cream sauce.. with some meat and pickled greens..

(Jaakko,Touko,Vilho,Antti and Victoria)

After the feast it was time for a church to remind ourselves who we got our independence from... not from the russian leaders or any other man, but from God.
Finally we paid a visit to Pinja Tuomo and Elisa and had a very relaxing evening complete with Glögi, carelian pies and lovely company. Pinja has grown so much and learned so many new things..It is just so fun to talk to her.. And she is smart too.. Tuomo asked her "Pinja what is 5 plus 5?" She looked him for a while then whispered barely audibly "Ten"... Tuomo later told us that you can teach her anything.. and she will learn it, even if she does not really know what it means.. makes you think what our parents have thought us... and how much we comprehended.. ??
Last week of school is on the way till Christmas vocation, everything is in shape except our train tickets seem to be stuck in postal delivery station somewhere between USA and our front door.. Lets pray they make it so we can travel by train in France...
Happy holidays to all if we dont update our blog before our trip..

H&P

Thanks giving 09

Wow!
The turkey was named (Frank), guests invited and Halle had cooked her amazing array of casseroles. It was all set for a party.
It all kicked in gear with toast of Glögi (spiced juice drink) and a short intro speech. in which every guest was encouraged to remember the good things that have happened to them this year and be thankful for them.
Everything tasted great, turkey had cooked just right, and desserts were amazing. Thanks to Kyösti and Tamasen.
Here are some pictures, from Our party.

All ready for feasting!

Turkey on the way! Yes Please.

Oh and yes, Tamasen came for a visit. She is the oldest of my American sisters. And has grown so much. It was amazing to have her a guest here for a weekend. It brought back so many memories from the time I was staying at her parents.. We arranged to skype with her parents in the evening after the party. Quick clean to make everything look clean for the online video call, or hmm... why dont we just load all of our stuff behind the camera..


and thats what we did...
everything looked nice and tidy to USA..
We visited the dental school and oulu city for a little sightseeing and skippy the peanutbutter hunting..

X marks the spot.. Stockmann delivered the brown goodness and some lovely cheese..

The Toripoliisi market police, oulu city library, theatre, shops sights.. oh and most importantly medical school!! but as I asked her if she would like application papers to take with...she said perhaps not this time.. Well anyone else in her family interested in Dental school at the north pole??

Thanks to God for friends and family, good food, safe travels and amazing year!
Greetings to everybody reading on their thanksgiving day!

H&P

P.S. Hopefully we see Tamasen still before she heads back home.

Anttis visit

Brother Antti popped by to check out the cool air at Oulu city. It was party all weekend, and our newly bought air mattress got it's first use. the second night it worked like a charm as we plugged the valve that had leaked the night before.


We have been going to Ellis steadily, last time there was some snow but before that we have been raking leaves and doing little chores for her. The days are getting shorter and shorter.. Last weekend at Ellis we noticed how at 4pm the sky was turning dark and by 5pm it was getting dark..

Halle had been eying the bright red branches of one bush at Ellis yard.. now that it had dropped all its leaves it was time to do the deed.. we asked Elli if we could take few branches.
Halle plucked the best looking branches and she selected a glass vase to put them in.. and voila, our hallways is yet again that little bit nicer, thanks to Halle and her decorative eye!

We are hoping some snowflakes to float our way soon! Helsinki is getting their share this week and us up here (Who deserve the snow) are not getting any!
Well I am sure we will have plenty and for long enough when it finally comes to stay. Blessed week for everybody from +5C Oulu.

H/P

Autum activities

Hi everybody, today snowflakes floated down gently covering most of Oulu in a fluffy white coat. On the roads it turned to brown gray goo "slush" and I drove home very carefully, not wanting to biff with my summer tires..
Last weekend we went moose hunting, the elusive beast of the north.. and the hunters we were with seemed to think it was for real this one... Well we headed out at the crack of dawn, with as red clothes as possible and looking as human like as possible.. I borrowed a red west from Marjos dad on the way.
For those not familiar with moose hunting tradition, in the morning there is sausage roasting by the fire, which might happen later on also at seemingly random locations.

Here we are all huddling for warmth and enjoying our morning coffee and roasted hot dogs..oh and see the fall fashion?? RED! and slice of pink.


The morning was sunny, but also cold as we headed out to chase the moose out of the woods towards the anticipating hunters with rifles! We made noise to stir up the beasts and to make sure the gunmen knew it was us not the moose!! We moved in a line through a patch of land, but no moose, not even marks of any.. this happened 3 times and no moose.. we were little tired and totally ready to head home.
Marjos family offered some delicious lasagna and moose meat from last year. Thank you very much for Lasse and Marjos family for the experience, it was truly different Saturday, even if we didn't get any moose..



Here Halle is following how potatoes are being dug up from the field near Ellis, we got a bag of delicious potatoes to go from the Taari folk, thank you!

It has been slow fall, but gentle, which is now turning into our second winter in Oulu! it seems that only a moment has gone by, but in fact 365days and more has passed since we moved to this northern city..

Tomorrow for pancakes at the neibours!

Pekka

The old beast of the north has awoken!

Here is some rare footage captured early this year of the snake hunter.. at the far north reaches of Scandinavian tundra... Arcticsnake

Ok, Summer is totally over..

The view this afternoon..


This morning, on my way to school I had to admit that the summer has passed on and the fall/winter is here.. it had snowed and the white/grey slush covered the biking roads and everything.. Halle called me to ask hot to get her bike breaks off as she had used them and they had gotten stuck because of the cold.. Oh and this is how it really looked like in the morning when Halle looked out the window..

They are digging around our building to make drainage pipes.. with huge digger.


But no worries, just in time for the darkest time of year we painted our kitchen yellow and got new curtains.. Halle is becoming quite the interior designer!!
Now we are off to Ellis for the weekend and I am going to take total break from studying as I just had my mid term exam...

SteamJuicer

Hola, friends and family,
Weekend is behind us again, we made our bi-monthly visit to Elli and got into juicing her currants, the red ones and some black ones thrown in for taste. We picked a bucket full..1,5Gallons of fruit and then proceeded to juice them in a steam juicer.. (We/I forgot to put a memory card into our camera... no photos, but here is one photo for steam juicer that looks like the one we used..)

You put some water in the bottom pan, then stack the juice holding one and on the top you put the berry holding one with holes on the bottom.. then the whole tower on a cooker and turn on the heat... it takes some 2h to juice 1,5Gallens of berries. Apparently you can juice almost anything like this... perhaps we give it a try some other time with less traditional berries of fruits..
Elli helped us with her extensive experience, we had hard time keeping her from doing the juicing herself.. I know how hard it is not to do it your self, when the others are just not doing it "right".. We managed and bottled an assortment of bottles full of currant juice, which we are planning on giving to our friends when we can...as no one can drink that much juice in a year.. even though we got little over a gallon of juice concentrate out of our harvest one gets bored of the taste after a while..

On a different note, we were supposed to meet up with Ellis brother Frans, who lives in Rovaniemi, he was supposed to arrive the very next morning after we had arrived.. so on Saturday morning... Then plan was that he would drive to Ellis from Rovaniemi.. he is 90 Years old.. But at the very last minute he went to sauna and took a little too much steam and got a heart attack.. he then proceeded to take couple of "Nitros" and a sip of Cognac to clear his heart..but called off the trip for this time.. Well we would have not had the camera with.. I am thinking it would have been a great chance to see him still.. I hope he can visit Elli some other time when we are there..

And one more piece of news from Finland, My father went to sveden and bought a boat, which he then proceeded to sail from Sveden to Finland over this very weekend.. so now he is a owner of a working sail boat..!! Here is a photo of one like the one he has..

So far the news have been good, he has made it with his two friends to Finnish coast, mostly motoring and being seasick.. but Monday morning he is supposed to be at Helsinki harbor where mom is supposed to pick him up from..

Halle is starting her classes again, so pray that she has good teacher and enjoys the time in class, and meets nice people!

Good week for everybody!!!

P&H

pimp my hallway..

For some time Halle has had a vision for our hallway, first the mirrors and then later on the photos... now the photos are in and this is what it looks like!

Dont you guys think it looks great! I am happy she has some engineering genes... mine are heavily artistic..

Pekka

Dear everybody..

We have been here in Oulu now for almost a month, it has been good and normal. I have started going to my classes and Halle is about to start working once a week for "oulun kielipalvelut" Oulu language services, to whom she worked last year also. Our home has gotten some new photos, which Halle picked from our massive collection of photos. They look really great in 20 times 25 cm, frmaed in silver.
I will post a photo when we have hung them on our hallway wall.

We have been going to frisbegolf track near our home and once actually played through the 18 holes, it is very nice. We also got one new disc, fancy soft putter.. Works like a dream, even though I still prefer the one Gordie gave us, thanks!

My research is trying to take off...slowly, it is like trying to make train fly... just need to give parts away untill there is only the core left, which you can make fly with enourmous effort.. I am trying to find the bits that make the core, from the huge pile of junk obstructing the vision....

Our good friend Niilo has moved next door, it is really convenient to visit now, and hopefully we can do so more often. Also our boardgame playing friends from Kajaani have moved to Oulu, but I think they are busy fixing their home. And one more move is going to take place when Tiina and Touko and Vilho, move to Pakila.. Hopefully we can come for a long weekend visit then and help out with the stuff... I really dont like moving, but will ease the pain of it from others with gladness.

Ok, will try to take some illustrative photos of our life here in Oulu this month. Thank you all for caring for us and praying for us!

H&P

It's berry picking..

There is a saying in finnish, "picking berries", it means something is easy.. well we decided to go for a little try, blue berries are all done and for everybody to take almost everywhere you go. We decided to stray from the bike path this evening to go for some blueberries.. despite the mosquitoes and cooling evening we managed to pick about 1,5litres of berries.. they are very staining, and our hands looked like we had been picking the black berries from the thorniest of bushes and our hands had been badly cut.. Now I am waiting for Halle to whip up some delicious blue berry gobbler for evening feasting.. perhaps we go for some more berries this weekend..

The berry pickers hands.. and the berries, yummy!

What happened, summer is over?

The plane landed and we arrived happily from UK to Finland, our holiday had taken us to USA, UK and now to Helsinki.
With God's blessings and lovely company we had made it through and I felt the need for school.
But before entering back to the amazing world of school, we spent some great time in Helsinki with mom dad and my siblings and their families. Our annual crayfish party, (4th) wish in our family starts to feel like it has been going on for ages.. Spearfishing trip with Tuomo, (and dad)..and construction of this summers woodworking project. Oh and a trip to cheer for Finnish volleyball team playing against Russia.. (0-3..)

Party table is all set, everybody dig in!

Halle, Me, Mom and Dad, Go Finland!

The woodworking project, night table and filing cabinet combined, made of Mahogany and pine.

Halle in the train, just waiting to get home..at 11pm, we were so tired, I think we slept 12h both the coming night and the one after.. It was amazing to be back home!!!
Then on Wednesday, I was back at school, feeling all excited, during the past summer my studies had leaped ahead.. I had progressed from first year to the second!! Full steam ahead, perhaps 21% dentist by now...:-.?
Thank you everybody who took such good care of us during this long and eventful holiday. I had such great time both in USA and UK!! and of course in Finland too. thanks guys!

H&P

Across the pond

Soon we make our long migration back north for the winter. Highlights from our summer stomping grounds have been: visits with good friends and family; perfecting our molkky skills; eating way too much delicious food; perfecting our disc golf skills; a visit to a favorite childhood seaside town; eating; hot, sunny weather and actually getting a tan (!); eating; eating; and um...eating.

Things to look forward to: graduation; a new school year; reconnecting with family and friends; and of course, eating.

I'll leave you with an image of Pekka devouring what they call the Italian Big Mac. Ciao!

Pop Pops 80th Birthday!

In NY state, near Perth, there is a house, where Marshalls family reunion has taken part in years before. This year we had an opportunity to take part in the great tradition. As we arrived after some 5h of travelling to Uncle Franks backyard, it all looked so strange and new. By the time we were leaving some 4 days later, it looked like familiar camp ground and place of fellowship, where we had spent time playing games, getting to know the people.
Everybody was so very kind and generous, I would like to thank everybody that took part in making it possible to have so many, nearly 80 people together.
Fellowship and sharing our life experiences together was priceless. God has blessed the Marshall/Buchanan family muchly. Thank you for allowing us to take part in your great tradition of gathering people together for some sharing and caring!

NY state was bit colder than PA, Philadelphia, but even with the rain, we played volleyball and many other games. Molkky was suprisingly popular game. I made many good friends and am even more glad that I have married to such a good family.
Here are few photos from the camp..

Here we are all, wearing the fine t-shirts organized and planned by GK.

Nate and Alyssa and the original Wigwam, it was built to dry the wood and to amuse us..

The camp grounds, Barn, Fire pit and the canopies, which sheltered us from the rain and provided cover for evening fellowship and slide shows.

Good Summer to all!

H&P

PA, Philly, USA

Hello to all, Philadelphia has shown it's rainer side this spring/summer. It has been raining and clowdy for almost the whole time we have been here and weather has been rather chilly. We were very warmly welcomed by "Terve" sign at the airport. Hoagies and Taco Bell has provided the needed delicasies we have been deprived of in Oulu.. It has been very relaxing and refreshing holiday already. All and all we have been doing really well, and will be going on to visit Ohio and New York still. Weather is expected to improve also.. in some days time.. looking forward to that very much!!

H&P

One foot in Oulu the other on holiday..

Howdy do ya'll,

It is summer!! officially all schools have ended in Finland, newspapers have stories of young people drinking and graduating from high school.. Temperatures rise to +20C.. we got together with our friends and had a BBQ Oulu style..
Halle still has few days of work, I only lounge around and feel like a lazy bum.. but I am fixing to read some articles about dental adhesives and perhaps about odontoblasts.. but perhaps little later.
Elli turned 85..or 86 I think yesterday and had unhooked her telephone and only answered me as I called to ask how she is doing.. There are million and one things to do before we embark on our holiday trip to USA and UK...dont know what to do next.. perhaps a nap and a cup of coffee.. then something and then some more.. I don't know.. perhaps good idea to update our blog... hmm.. coffee is starting to smell nice.. oh..

Elli, chilling and watching her new TV, with USB stick spot for digital photo viewing!
The first pancake breakfast of the year on our balcony, notice the nice wooden flooring we got from Kallen Kaluste. Thanks mom for sponsoring, it is amazing compared to the cold concrete! (Halle, Pekka and Nora)

Markku took over the BBQ:s and did a jolly good job! Weather, food and friends were all very good.

Wishing everybody amazing summer and God's Blessings!

H&P

in the brink

Halle just might be a prof. in a oulu polytechnic and I might be done with first year of medSchool.. things are just about to happen. On the other hand they have happened and will happen when it is time. It just seems like here in Oulu now, it is almost spring/Summer (sometimes difficult to tell apart), I am almost done with school and Halle is almost PhD graduated and all.
Should concentrate on things that we have and what we can enjoy right now, beatiful sunshine, good friends here in Oulu and lovely apartment and our "new" balcony furniture..
It is mostly +10C little more on sunny days and little less when clowdy, but mostly it has been beatiful, sun comming up at eye blistering 4am and going down... well does it ever these days.. I guess after midnight it gets just a little darker.. which reminds me.. we really should get some heavier curtains... Waking up in the morning thinking you had slept past the midday, only to find out it is 6am makes you question your ability to judge time...
All is good and we are both in good health. Happy and good and all summer/spring to you all!

H&P

Valborgs day

Vappu day, is the merged holiday of the working class and Valborgs day. Finnish students have taken it as their own day, or more accurately a week to celebrate the fact that they are free to party for a week. But for some it is the opening of the summer BBQ season and good day to all gather outside and have a BBQ with friends in the afternoon.
So did we, Me, Halle, Kyösti, Nastaran, Markku, Alexander, Niilo and Nora, we gathered round 11am at Hupisaari, where there is childrens playing area and bunch of people slowly getting their annual Vappu picnic going.
We had gotten ourselves portable BBQ and start doing sausages and bacon and what not.
Got to get the thing up and running, here Markku is helping me installing the legs..
Niilo, Nora and Kyösti and the BBQ in full swing..


Niilo and Nora arrived some hour later with mushrooms, cream cheese, pork and gourmet doodads and ringdings. It turned out to be quite the cookout! Thank you all for coming and spending a wonderful afternoon. Mild +10C weather and slight breeze made it just bit too cold for sun bathing, but sunny enough to get the first sunburn of the year...



Only little bit to go this year and I am 20% dentist.. scary thought..

H&P

ChurchBoat race!

The ice has started to clear out of the river Oulu, birds are singing and Tooth morphology classes are in full swing. This means few things for us students, last exams, Wappu party, churchboat races, first patch made and little hindsight for first year in medical school.
The ChurchBoat race involves student unions from Oulu uni, rowing up and down the river, the two best teams then go head to head for the glory.. I joined the Dental union team and went for it, the races were held on the 26th on a sunny lovely day. We set off in 6th pair and got a good start, made the loop in 5,45min, which was good enough for 3-4place.. so no need to rerace.. as it was really hard work.. who knew rowing was such a taxing sport.. Here is a picture of the boat and us in full swing.

Now only few more weeks of school and 2 exams and few months of holiday and it is time to move on to the 2nd year of medical school. The first year has proven to be good, interesting sometimes little less interesting, but all and all really educational experience. Will be really nice to get more into the dental side of things. I got a chance to patch a plastic tooth, with plastic patch, light initiation, twice 20sec exposure.. and apparently it would have passed as a 4/5 in grading.. not too bad.
Happy wappu to everybody and upcoming summer, which we are really looking forward to!

H&P

First signs of spring in Oulu...

Mölkky sets appear in Prisma...Mölkky is a Finnish lawn game that involves hitting small sticks...with a bigger stick. And then there's some math involved. Actually, it's much more fun than it sounds.

Last Legs

Sometimes things are at their hardest right before the end, they were at my race last weekend, and for Halle this week. The last bits of d in her PhD are dropping in place. It is hard to divide time between doing work, studying cooking and everything that comes with life. For me this spring has turned out to be little bit of a let down from interesting and challenging anatomy course to biochemistry with very strange course with only few really interesting things.
Talking about last legs, I got a new bike as the old one was on its last legs, this one is a real fast hybrid bike designed in Sweden and made somewhere cheap. But it really works great and I have been riding it around Oulu this Easter weekend just to feel the speed.
My school year is on its last legs, little more than a month to go and summer holiday is upon us, the work I was promised by a professor at the dental school might not happen and I have been thinking of alternative options.. it has been quiet on that front for a while now. Hopefully it happens anyhow as the prof. promised to try to find funding for me this summer.
We would appreciate your prayers for Halle, so she would not feel too stressed and that she could enjoy the last legs of her work on this paper.

H&P

The race..

Well, I guess it is appropriate to tell the result of our race against Niilos father.. who is about to retire..
We agreed to ski 50km cross country race.. Me and Niilo skiing 25km each.. after all said and done..last weekend we are one experience richer.. and now we know he can ski.. we lost with 1h worse time than he.. meaning, he almost lapped us in the 10km track.. but next year we will up our game and beat him.. perhaps..

Meanwhile I have done my measurements for the research project.. and would like to share one photo here.. it is of the calibrating ball, which I use to calibrate the surface tension meter. I use a ball bearing with exact 4mm d,.. the camera is regular digital camera.. if you have extra time and interest.. www.ksvltd.com

Weekend at Ellis

We have visited my relative Elli who lives 120km south from Oulu in Kalajoki. Us mehtälä kids used to spend our summers there untill.. well I can't remember, we didnt.
Ellis sister with whom she lived died some years ago and she is now on her own in a big house. We try to be of help and company to her few times a month. She is doing fairly well, little tired and her knees are sore, which makes shopping and outside chores little difficult.
Our visit follows this routine, arrive at night on Friday, our bus arrives at 10:30pm and we walk to her home and have a cup of tea, next day, breakfast, shopping, cooking, outside work, TV, food and more food and coffee and pulla.. next day breakfast, lunch, dinner TV and home by bus at 19:15pm.
She likes to talk a lot and this past weekend I got to know all kinds of interesting things about the house she bought with her sister in the past. and that it has a name. "kumpula"..

She is 85 years old and eager to do everything, this weekends task was to perfect text messageing, which she can already do, but only to reply to.. but now I helped her out to text to people without them texting her first. I admire her energy and will to learn new things, and her good memory. I pray she stays in good health and especially that her whitty and bubbly personality stays when age starts to creep up and take its toll.

We cleaned the living room carpet, by stretching it out on the snow and beating it, and to my not so big surprise it worked.. old people have tricks up their sleeve...














Sometimes things look the best at their end, like this evening the sky looked like God had put up a show, how wonderful the colors looked!! it was like I was walking in Kinkades painting to home.. Thanks!!

H&P

Brackets and Spring

How can the weekends be so busy?? we live in the wilderness in a city of hardly any people and yet every weekend is booked full..
Anyhow the days are getting longer and sun stronger and my cross country skiing track is ruined. But it is really lovely that it is light outside by the time we get going to school..
Oh and talk of sports I totally picked the future winners of college basketball.. I am hoping my bracket filling skills have advanced.. as apparently I have failed the past few times, even though the last one we filled I got the shared first place in guessing the winners.. and learned a lesson never trust a New York team to win... they only talk the talk..
Ice Hockey season is coming to an end here.. and I was hoping to make a bracket for that too.. but I could not find one ready made and was way too lazy to try to figure out who plays who and where... perhaps in the years to come..

I will be going to Ellis to make sure she is doing alright this weekend and leaving my lovely wife to work on her PhD, prayers for her work would be much appreciated.

Blessed spring time for everyone!

Pekka

Weekend away

Last weekend, we got a chance to fly to Helsinki for a short mini break, I t really was great to see all the family, save for Tiina, Touko and Vilho, but hopefully we will see them soon too.
Weather was wonderful and everything went well, Pinja, our beatiful goddaughter has learned how to walk, and answers to question "What does Sauna say" wit a hissing sound.. that is so cute!
Antti and Victorias place looks great, after all the hard work they put into building and remodelling, they totally deserve the place! Great job guys!

Here are few photos from our trip..
Antti and Victorias new kitchen,















Grandpa and Pinja at Mom and Dads,














Victoria demonstrating the special cupboard:

March the 1st!!

29 years ago something wonderful happened.. later on many wonderful things have happened, but for me it was past midnight right few hours past leap year.. which would have been a real terror with the passports and all official papers and I would be only... well much younger than now..

I have been reading Einstein's dreams... it is a book about time and how differently time goes in every dream.. For example in one dream time branches to three at every possible decision one makes, creating infinite amounts of possible futures and possibilities which all take place in one time. Thus some believe that one can not be blamed for a bad decision, as he is just living the "worse" time.. and so on.

I feel like time goes like in one dream where it flows like water in a river, rushing at times forward and at times takes it good time.. Like when you are sitting in a red-eye flight hoping to make it in time where ever you are going on this 14h flight.....

Anyhow to celebrate my time of grace and blessings I have encountered on my journey, to which Halle joined to share in sorrows and bliss, we organized a little get-together of my cousins from moms side. The ones that live in Oulu at least, and like good Okkonens they all came, it was wonderful to meet them all. To hear about their life and to realize how wonderful it is to have such a nice extended family here in Oulu.

Our cake baking ended up being half baked flop, but the local market saved us from the shame of not delivering cake and coffee as promised in the text invitation. I got a local hockey team t-shirt as a gift as well as some good chocolates. Thank you all, it was not expected at all, but lovely anyhow.








Here is a pic of the cake, which Halle made for me and my cousin Hannu with his little girl Vilma, who is 5 months and just adorable little girl!

Free weekend!

It seems that the further north we have moved the busier our life gets.. this year the only "free" weekend is going on right now. It feels so great, sleep as long as we like take a lazy tour to city and to the library and back.

It seems that the snow has gathered rather deep and taken the swing... Halle pointing to the sunken swing and it's unfortunate occupier... perhaps.

Lately the sun has come up at 7 and it is light until around 7, soon we have to get thicker curtains to keep the light out. hmm.. and get the dog psychiatrist to deal with the crazy dog downstairs so we can sleep...























It seems to me that the chemical factory across the bay always creeps into the picture when you take a photo from the city.. this is near the city library, and there you can see the tracks of a person who has taken to the ice, which to my own thinking could take a car driving on it... though on the same breath I added.. I still would not walk on it.. the thought of crashing through the ice in this cold -5C weather would not be refreshing experience...















It really was a sunny day.. the only thing that didn't work out was our shopping to get the pizzas on sale at the local store.. we got a ad in the mail stating that they were on sale for 1€/pizza... and as we got to the store the pizzas were all gone... I am so fed up with those ads and the way they lure you into their store with a promise that they don't keep.. this is second time here in Oulu.. don't they realize that people are going to come for the product they advertise!! Oh well we got our stuff from the competing store anyhow..

H&P