Christmas greeting to all

Here is our Christmas card design 2011.
Year was fun and many good things happened, but also sad things came along. I guess I am happy it is over soon and we can expect to have each day in the year 2012 as a gift.
I played with my little boy today on the floor and made him laugh and was so very happy I had the time to do so today. So often there is no time to play and make fun with the little one. I should try to remember to take time to spend with little P while he is still excited about little things and I don't have to go down to car dealership to make him giggle.. :)
Blessed Christmas to all,

P,H&P

Snow and Christmas

Well, the long awaited snow fell and covered the land here in Oulu. I have been very thankful for having a warm and cozy beginning of winter temperatures hovering around zero degrees C. Peregrine is finally getting over jet-lag! This is the last week of school and then we are off to Christmas holiday!
This years Christmas card photo shoot was funny as the baby is now 1 year older than last year when we arranged him into a rather steep sledding hill.. This year he woke up from all the bright lights and we had to re-think and simplify the setting a little.. :) Here is an other picture we took during our photo shoot..

The idea was not getting wrapped up in the gift and material oriented Christmas craziness going on out there with stores keeping their doors open on Sundays and till late in the evening.. Hope everyone is having a lovely and peaceful approach to Christmas (Jesus' Birth Day).. :)

P

Peregrine 1 year

Peregrine, Latin Peregrinus, is a name originally meaning "one from abroad", that is, a foreigner, traveller, or pilgrim.

And my very loved baby boy, who is keen to eat by himself and want's to read car books, loves the dishwasher, is amazed by the vacuum cleaner, splashes water all over the bathroom..so much! He tries to walk with the walker trolly, likes swinging and riding down slides. He eats porridge in the evening, but really loves the store bought flavored stuff. He enjoys spaghetti and macaroni, has only teeth at the front, but still manages to eat surprising variety of things. Eats paper off the floor, plays with the computer and phone if we allow. Has little hair and blue eyes and is the most wonderful awesome gift from God and is celebrating his first birthday some 2000 miles away from home.. :( Happy Birthday my son!
I miss you and love you my boy and wife

P

Home alone what now..?

First few days I cleaned like a mad man, then I lounged for a while, then walked around the house, threw away stuff and scrubbed the kitchen floor.. Then what, I surfed the net for entertainment, but like the TV it is full of nonsense and luckily school started and I got there around 8 am. and left around 8:30 pm. Phew!
Ok my love, please come home now, long enough for this alone thing, it was cool and I have seen it. Well I know I still have 2 weeks ahead of me, I don't know what I am going to do with myself.
I am all lost for things to say too, my life is so boring alone here.. Tomorrow I am going to town with my good friend to write my stuff and hopefully have a good time reminiscing about the "old days" when we were starting our career in medicine and we sat in that cafe and thought how we are going to take over the world with our excellency..

Oh I have found Jonathan Ross now that I have moved away from UK, little like Marmite.. I have grown a little to appreciate that finer things of UK.

OK, trip to the trash with few new items to the great downside arrow of the recycling logo and then to bed. Good night my love and little Boy!
P

The funeral of my brothers daugther

It was all too much to think that a little baby girl would have died. No parent should have to bury their child. I had the pleasure of meeting Isabella only for a short while while she was in the clinic.
We flew to Helsinki on Friday and on Saturday morning the ceremony was held in remembrance of the little one. I cried all through the service. The small casket in front of the church was too much for me to see. I could not even go up to it to lay the flowers next to it. After the short service we were treated to a nice serving of cakes and coffee. We then proceeded to Malmi cemetery where her little casket was lowered into the ground.
I don't think I had one clear thought through the day. I pray that God will heal the wounds in everybody's hearts left by the death of Isabella.
I will never forget her. She lived her whole life and was prayed for throughout. She was carefully cared for the whole time. We can only rely upon the hope that she is in a better place, where her lungs are not failing her.

P 

Halloween

Well it is the last of Oct. I guess I have to change the subfolder name where we put our photos into a Nov.2011 and the second to last magical date 11.11.11 is upon us soon. But before that our little premature niece is going to either make it or go ahead of us to God and meet us later as the doctors and parents meet up in the morning to decide what to do. Lungs have not developed enough to support the growing little girl and she is needing more and more supplemental oxygen. Please pray for her tonight she needs Gods miraculous hands.
We went to the cemetery to light a candle for the people buried elsewhere and also lit a one for Isabella.
It is still warm and no snow in sights.. I like the warm, but the lack of snow makes everything seem so very dark.. as we moved to "winter time" it is still light little bit in the morning, but getting off school/work, it is pitch black..

Here we are walking to town, beside is the ice skating rink, outside.. so it is not cold, but it is definately not warm either.
Picture from out "buggy cam"

Halle at our local store, where they have the American shelf, all things american like peanut butter and marshmallow fluff and new this time "Taco Bell" kit.. prices are as one might expect rather high.

The two candles we lit, we were there day early, so there was still space.. tomorrow is the Finnish proper holiday.

It was misty and gloomy evening, Peregrine took a nap as we strolled in..

The baby Tiger and his Tamer on their way to the party.. grrr..

P

Baby on a fall holiday

Here are some photos of our little inchworm (so named because of his style of crawling) on the train. The tickets were all sold out.. At least the ones with seats, so we rushed into the train and bought tickets. The sad thing is that train tickets are more expensive than plane tickets. The amazing thing is that in the train we had no coffee or tea complements of the transportation we had chosen, but we had to pay the regular price for a ticket with no seats assigned for us.. We took residence at the wheelchair spot where we spread our gear and ate our take away Indian curry.

Baby on the center aisle

The train was really full but our little baby got the attention of everybody as he crawled along the center aisle all the way to the end of the car, where a nice gentleman turned him around and he made his way back. His clothes testified to the dirtyness of train floors.. :(

Spot the baby

sometimes it would be easier to travel in a higher class thought our little one.. sure enough there was room enough for him to lounge..

Kid is carrying a heavy load..

During our visit we managed to meet "everybody" and said hi to the newcomer at the children's hospital. Isabella is now breathing on her own and growing along. She still needs much prayer support to grow and develop.
Our flight back was nice an uneventful, the coffee was served and we all had seats!

It still has not snowed here at the arctic north, it has been record warm Oct. and I am loving it!! On Monday it is all saints day and usually we have had snow when we have gone to the cemetery to light a candle. This Monday I think we will be lighting a candle without snow reflecting all the little candle lights..

Our tame tiger baby who went to the international Halloween bonanza with his lion/tiger tamer.

Now our fall holiday is coming to an end and school is back in session, I hope we can survive here without snow all the way to near Christmas.. for Christmas I would like snow, just a pretty dusting please.. :)

P

Las Vegas whirlwind tour 2011

Well, as I prepared for my trip few days before i thought to myself.. I better enjoy this.. as 20h of travel one way and 48h time on the ground at Las Vegas NV.. Here is my hopeful face prior spending any time on a plane or anywhere else other than 20 minutes on bus..

Oulu "international" airport got a whole new wing, suction tubes to the airplanes and loads more seating space. And a few more gates, now it just take you 1 minute to make it to the right gate (1-14).

After a

cup of coffee and a sandwich

 and a

1h

and a

7h

and a

4,5h

plus some ready packed meals and feeling like I have made the around the world trip in 80 days.. with all layovers I calculated my trip being somewhere around 17h.
At the airport I met up with the chinese winner and we hunted down a ride paid by DentsPly, to whom I have to thank for this trip in the first place.
At the reception desk I found that I had been put together with a total stranger.. well needless to say I protested and changed my room to the 32nd floor with a great view!

The view from my room

I ate a quick meal at the hotel restaurant and took a bath in the hotel bath tub.. lovely as ever..
the two days I had to spend in Las Vegas was great!
One picture tells more than 1000 words.. so here we go...

wave pool at our hotel

Little decoration by the pool

Took a walk along the Strip

And walked we did for hours, until blisters appeared and even then we walked.

The very expensive ceiling at the foyer of the Bellagio

And the worlds largest chocolate fountain..

Caesars palace shopping till we were almost ready to drop for a Mc burger.. at least they had the prices visible for everybody..

The cellar of the Venetian.. just in case you lost it all you have not hit the bottom at this casino..

What happens in vegas can give you cancer...

I saw the lion king.. and thought that the theater was little too big.. some energy was lost.. or perhaps the jet lag was just eating me up...

I found the finn working at the ADA fair.. and gave him my salt liquorice, he gave me a soft toy..

The winning poster..

I subjected myself to some obvious commercialism..

Even the airport had slot machines.. 

Few things not visible in the pictures.. yes I gambled and lost 6$.. could have been worse.. bought a light for my loupes. At the opening ceremony of the ADA Condoleezza Rice gave a speech and was much better than I had thought..based on my experience with the secretary...like this
All and all I was happy to return to my family who I met at the airport and went to work right from the airport...
All the riches of Vegas don't even come close to this.. our little beauty..

baby in cupboard..

Baby in a swing..

H&P

Opening of the University 2011

School year started at Oulu University with a "bang" at the opening ceremony the 5th and we were invited.. Well all curious and little excited (perhaps they have a special reason for the invitation) we made our way to the Saalastin Sali (Saalasti Hall) to hear our Rector say how great the new reform that has come is. Hear the Student body president call the Uni and the Town complete failures and hear from the staff rep. how the reform sucks. In conclusion Rector was boring, student body president was offensive and staff rep whiny. The music was confusing to me as at every point it seemed the same.. The Mozart 100something something.. and allegro/pianissimo/presto... sounded like cheese to me.. Although it was nice, the baby woke up before it was all over. He was a good sport that day and was fairly quiet through the festivities. Here he is all dressed to impress..

Later in the evening we took part in the evening Gala, thanks to Niilo and Nora for taking care of the baby, we had little time to celebrate together with 400 other members of the Oulu importants..

It was a day of celebration, which always has seemed so strange, as the medical school has been open already for a month before opening of the University and because our campus is 5 miles south. Now that we have experienced it we can graduate knowing how the rest of the students kick off the year "up north".

P

Train-Train-bus-boat-SummerSchool..

How can it take so long for a train to make a short distance... It seems forever.. I have taken the Pendolino Train here in Finland many times.. once it broke both on the way out and on the way in.. Now it has not broken and is running just fine.. But I can't help but wonder how slow these trains are.. They were introduced some years ago to Finland as "fast" going at speeds slightly over 200km/h.. that is about 120 mph.. At the current stretch of track however these trains are no faster than the old fashioned trains.. I think these trains have only been able to travel at high speed at the southern most part of the train track network..
The introduction of wireless internet is very nice, but hardly compensates for the fact that one has to sit for 7 hours for a trip made by a plane for less than an hour.. Why am I on it then.. well student discount on trains is 50%, so the whole travel costs very little compared to air travel, unfortunately..
USA was struck by a earth quake, Gaddafi's terrorist rule over libya is over and tropical storm is gathering force before coming over the east coast.. Meanwhile in Finland a thrombi destroyed some persons lawn furniture... Things happen so far from here..
At the Summer school I met a man who had gone to the same high school and been thought by some of the same teachers.. it was really strange.. I think we would have found some other people we knew in common if we had talked for a longer time.. I met many lovely people there, but as my camera is still charging on the living room floor waiting for me to take it with I got no photos from this lovely trip..
The island used to be a mental hospital and a leper colony.. the lepers were allowed to distill alcohol for their pain.. but it got to be too much in the end and they were denied such privileges.. the only reminder of their merriment is that when one is drunk he can be said to be in Seili (Seilissa), which is the name of the island where to summer school took place.
Now I am mostly tired and wanting to get back to my lovely wife and little boy, who are at home, hopefully sleeping peacefully!

P

Baby this baby that

Amazing, all through the night even in our sleep we tend to think of our little boy... he wakes us up to remind us in the middle of the night.. Then the day breaks and it is our turn.. here are some of my inventions.. no child or animals were harmed during the making of these photos..

I call this the Ghetto Geddes.. We had a paper waste basket empty just sitting there.. And I thought, perhaps little Peregrine could fit in it.. and look at the result he can fit into almost everywhere with that flexibility..

I have heard that in some countries when you play dominoes and you happen to lose, you have to put a clothes pin in your beard.. well this is called, "the attack of the loser dominoes"
The kid was playing on the floor and always wanting what I had in my hand.. I had many clothes pins in my hand at the time and decided to give them to him.. first just to see if he would pick them off, but then for sheer joy of having him look at the ones hanging too near his face to focus his eyes on.. Was hilarious and the Daddy did take them off before he got too frustrated and started to complain..
The last one is not so much a setup photo, but still pretty cute..

It's called fresh as a rubber duckie.. and few minutes later it was night time again.. and his turn to remind us that we love him and that he is just so very cute!!

P

The day of the dishwasher

Oh my, now we can sleep and the dishwasher will do one of the most avoided jobs in our household.. long gone are the time when I struggled to eat breakfast from the pot lid while buttering my bread with spatula.. Now all the dishes are dirty and in the dishwasher.. Hmm.. perhaps there will be new challenges.
So today our home became a home to a dishwasher and a vacuum cleaner.. the vacuum got much less attention upon arrival and perhaps in proportion usage time.. Need to brush up on vacuum cleaner use.
It is the last week of holiday and I have signed up for some work almost every day of the week, only from 8am to noon, but still I think it is a fair indication that the summer has gone for long enough and it is time for school to start.

Here is a picture of our new dishwasher.. The vacuum is just a  vacuum.. note the buttons on top... hopefully keeps it from being Peregrines favorite toy for a while.
Anyway few more days of holiday left this summer and then we are back to "normal"

P

Aeroplane etiquette and reality

Well, we did take our share of flights during this Summer holiday.. all in all 6 separate times the jet engines pushed us forward almost faster than time.. let me explain..

This is us after 12 hour jet propelled trip towards Finland.
The time had not yet come with us to Finland and we were soooooooo tired had to take a nap.. but before getting to the end of the journey..
at the gate we all have been waiting for the plane, listening for the announcement of our flight and then it comes.. "we welcome everybody to our flight service XX XXX to Frankfurt.." in peoples head it turns into "Rush the Gate, everybody Rush the GATE!!" and so we all conform to the Italian national sport (disorderly cuing.. ) once on board and everybody has found their seats, even though for a moment at the gate it seemed like the places were limited and people were playing musical chairs in a tin can shaped theme park.. You relax and wait for the plane to do it's thing.. Then the announcement that tries to in least panic inducing manner tell you that there is a piece missing from the landing gear and it needs to be found before we take off or we will all die.. what you actually hear is "this is your captain speaking, there is just one minor check before we are all clear to leave."
In the trans-atlantic flight the 1st class is in it's own compartment separated by a wall, in smaller planes there is just a curtain, which states "this curtain must be fully opened and secured in its place during takeoff and landing" one airliner thought this meant that the curtain is drawn to it's full length... I have seen it also pulled to the side..
If you are lucky enough to fly from a exotic location like Finland, you will hear announcements in various non english languages, and you can amuse yourself by trying to figure out what is going on.. It is fun, because once you hear the English version you know they have left out the majority of the information as the announcement is less than quarter the length of the piglatin one they just gave..

Then there is the getting off the plane jungle.. People jump up from their seats like they are on fire when the plane touches the ground.. They rummage through the overhead lockers as if their stuff had moved during 7 hour non eventful flight.. and everybody tries to stand on the isle.. some can't quite fit and they hunch over reserving the right to leave the plane as the 187th passenger.. I have adopted the style of waiting it out.. I am not in a hurry to get out and stand around the plane, because the great leveler of the air travel is ahead of us all, no matter the class you fly in or seat in the cattle wagon.. we all end up standing around the carousel of other-peoples bags.
There they go and come again.. and always there is that one unlucky one, like the ugly duckling that nobody wanted and it is left there to circle around until security throws it into a "dangerous-unattended-unclaimed" pit and it can never to be recovered again..
Thanks to so many people we have had people waiting for us at the airport at many destinations as it is so very nice.. but if you don't have anybody.. why not play some games with people with signs.. spot the most desperate and head for them like you have found the end of the rainbow and see how their hopes come up... just to be crushed at the last minute before the awkward are you? question..
Thank God our flight arrived safely and everything went really well this Summer holiday.. See you next time at the flying tin-can..

H&P

Family reunion

I have had the privilege to take part in Marshall family reunion kind of a visiting member as my family-in-law is related to the re-unioning family through grandfather being a brother to the pop pop. Anyhow I am so very grateful for the chance to take part. The fellowship and activities are so amazing fun that the week just flies by and then it is all over and I am left thinking when can I feel this companionship again..
I also keep thinking that my family should have this kind of gathering, perhaps it is possible. Anyhow, the past week we decorated a teepee, swung into a spring fed pond with a rope swing, played softball, kick ball, volley ball and many other fun activities.

Here is  a perfectly executed swing-catch-a-football dive into the lake. The days were sunny, except for one day rainstorm, which gave us and the plants around us a welcome sprinkling of water. This year was a record for babies below 1 year old, including our little almost a crawler. Some people had grown so much that they were literally difficult to recognize.. Aaron, don't grow any taller or we will have to move you into a volleyball league of your own..

Here is our 8 monther at a dinner table, Halle holding one of the little guys. The communal feeling of caring and love is so great, expressed in so many kind and caring acts, like holding our baby at the breakfast table at 8am while I get my hands on the coffee and doughnuts..Thank you Nate.. :)

The special event this year was the 60th year of marriage of the head of the family.. I keep thinking about it and looking back and forward in my own life.. married now for 4 years.. only 56 years to go to reach this amazing diamond wedding day. It is so much everyday days and few high points and many hard times but as we were all there celebrating and enjoying the wholeness of the family, I have a feeling that they were little proud of their heritage, even though as always when I congratulated them they answered "It is all from God".

thank God for all his goodness and for all these wonderful people I got to meet and play with, hopefully I am able to better contribute to the organization of the event in the future. (This is partly for selfish reason for I wish and pray that my little boy gets to experience the warmth and fellowship as I have, and by helping with organization I may be able to make it more likely to continue..)

P

Roadtripping north

Our journey form South towards the "cooler" north began with about 300mile detour to visit my cousin in Greer SC. Then we visited the Outer Banks.

And by the time we arrived to OBX (hip way of saying Outer Banks), I took a dip in the atlantic ocean where the waves were perfect.
The wrights brothers took flight at the spot near by our hotel some years back.. And the entrepreneur Americans had set up a visiting center with kite flying spot and a monument to mark the spot.. Did you know that the guys took flight and then just left and decided that they had reached their goal.. I wonder where they would have ended up if they had not given up.. perhaps invented the rocket engine... now they "only" built the first motorized airplane.. Here is one of the beatiful kites they were flying at the visitor center.

Here is the squid which is pulled up by the kite above it.. We saw the dolphins and watched history channel "crock hunter" about the southern americans.. After the tour of outer banks we headed up towards Philadelphia, via maryland and delaware.
In the end of the trip I calculated that we had been driving this holiday some 3300 miles, (5300 km for us metrics).
I have to admit that I am little surprised and relieved that we managed to drive such a distance and not a scratch added to the beatiful Merc. Thank you Father-in-law for borrowing the car.

Grinny at OBX, check out the waves!

In short our northward trip was (packing like crazy, late afternoon lift off, 3 hotels, fast food, 120 bucks worth of gas, cousin, beach, bridge-tunnel-bridge, oh-my-gosh doe we ever make it. Thank you all for your support and may God help the families who have lost their loved ones in Norway.

P in Philly with new glasses and Loupes.