Entries in celebration (5)

Saturday
Jul102010

summer has arrived

My friends and family love us so much they sent us their east-coast heat wave.  :P Only problem is that we don’t have those fancy, new-fangled things called air conditioners here! Or outdoor public pools.  Plenty of beach, though!  Danish summer is here!

Christian and I went to the beach last week and it was awesome.  There weren’t waves but the water was not atrociously cold and I could see through it (and we know this is important) so I had a blast just slashing around so to speak. 

Before it gets too far gone I should talk about last weekend.  There was a lot going on!

Friday we helped Christian’s uncle with some floral arrangement delivery and decorations for a horse show in Sweden.  The customer was a bit off her rocker and we moved everything like 400x for her but I think it turned out well!

(yes, that is in a horse stable)

Saturday we went back to Sweden for Christian’s grandma’s sister’s 75th birthday.  Did you follow that?  Christian’s grandma (Farmor – the little one who lives across the terrace) is Swedish and is one of something like 7 or 8 children, no one can really answer that question for me.   So there is a lot of Swedish family.

Lots of Swedish family that no one really knows through whom they’re related.  I thought I was struggling to understand Danish… you should hear Swedish – it makes me laugh mostly.  It’s definitely a whole different intonation than Danish, yauh.

Apparently birthdays aren’t a big gift giving ordeal but everyone comes and brings maybe a small gift and sits down for coffee and 3 courses of cakes, cookies and other delicious desserts (see picture of dessert table below).   I see where Christian developed his sweet tooth!

Sunday we had the brunch for Emilie’s graduation and it was also the 4th of July and so obviously we had to celebrate!  We hosted a barbeque at our house in the garden (ok backyard ugh where is this proper English coming from already?!) and invited friends and family.

Apparently evite is not commonly used in Denmark and hit half of our friends spam folders instead of inboxes. Whoops! So our brave and handicapped friend, Sillas, made the trip out to grannytown from Copenhagen to spend the 4th with us and Christian’s family.

We made so much food.  I made Kayte’s guacamole recipe and some fresh pico de gallo and served with tortilla chips as an appetizer. Ok so not American but hello, every American loves Mexican food.  Or it’s just me. Either way YUM. 

We grilled all kinds of meats and corn on the cob. I made potatoes and a salad to serve as side dishes.  I was particularly proud of my salad – mixed leafy greens, cucumbers, red onion, strawberries, blueberries, walnuts and feta cheese with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.  Delicious! I also made the cake shown above. Cake mix from a box does exist here but it's just not the same! ;)

We drank a few cocktails and played a Danish yard game.  It’s called I forget… Købclub or something.  Haha I totally forget what it’s called but it was super fun.  I played on the winning team the whole day until the very last round. 

It would take me forever to explain the game so maybe you should just come over and play it with us sometime instead!

It’s been sunny and warm, if not hot, every day for a long time, I almost don’t want to jinx it!  I am loving it! Hope all is well with my loyal readers!

})i({

Wednesday
May192010

hey there, remember me?

I actually have gone a little crazy.  My life is a whirlwind trying to get ready to move.  

The race. First of all THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES OVER for all of your generous donations to The BCRF - it was such an inspiration and truly touching.  In the end I raised a whopping $1600 in one month for the cause.  Awesome awesome awesome.

The race was difficult for me this year, more so than last year mostly due to the heat and humidity.  I had to take it a little slower but I only finished 3.5 mins slower than last year - not awful.  Of course you know this is a disappointment to me and I'm still not over it, haha.  I'm in better physical condition this year but for a multitude of reasons I couldn't quite pick up the pace. Grrrrr.

Anyway it's done.  Next big race on the agenda is the Copenhagen Half Marathon on Sept 12th with the hubby.  Yep, that is our 1 year anniversary date.  We'll be running 13.1 miles and then going home to eat frozen wedding cake!  (He hates me)

Moving. Well it's all coming along, and SWIFTLY at that.  I am realizing that even what I consider not to be a lot of "stuff" - it's A LOT OF STUFF. Holy Cow!  Let's all join my campaign to Christian that he needs to buy me all new clothes over there instead.  :P

Job. It's a WIP.  I have some contract work with my current company/role to keep me busy for a month or so and a couple things in motion for a full time placement with Experian EMEA so fingers crossed these "approvals" happen and I'll be fully and gainfully employed by end of June.

Celebrating. I LOVE MY LIFE.  I have the best friends and family a girl could ever ask for.  Not a dull moment around here these days.  I need to work out extra hard just to minify damage to my body from alcohol and dinners out.  Wouldn't swap it for the world, though.

This weekend. GET READY FOR THE GAGA BAR CRAWL aka THE JMAs (Jill's Moving Awards).  Gail has done a fantastic job planning and gathering all my loved ones for this fantastic event.  I have super amazing friends flying in from all over the country.  This is going to be epic.  How are you going to get your JMA? 

Christian.  Firstly, I love him.  He gets in TOMORROW.  He has to help me with all my "stuff" as mentioned previously.  But can't wait to plant some big kisses on his face, I've missed him so much!

That is the update - as you can tell I have a bit of excitement running through my veins.

Countdown:

1 Day til Chr gets here
3 Days til the best going away party ever
7 Days left of work at QAS Boston
7 Days til we go home to see the fam
11 Days til we SHIP OUT!

})i({

Tuesday
Jan262010

birthday week in review

Yes it’s me. Me and my $14/mo neglected website. Whoops!

I think most of you know that since I got back from Denmark over the holidays everything has been absolutely manic.  Not even joking.  January turned into Tornaduary.

All things aside, life has been pretty great.   It’s a good thing to be busy… I’m pretty sure, anyway.  I was just in London last week for a few days, more on that some other time. This is my dedicated princess birthday blog post!

I turned 25 last Monday.  Richard (my boss) and I found ourselves to be the only ones willing to get a drink after dinner on monday night in the spirit of our birthday.  the birthday that we share… yes it’s weird… really weird. 

But my princess expectations of my birthday week were not forgone.  I celebrated on the Thursday night before I left for London with some friends at Cactus Club – my second home.  Went out a bit in London while I was there and then ultimately my hubby finished up my birthday week with a bang!

I got to Denmark on Wednesday night, completely shattered from sitting in a meeting room for three days straight.  In I walked to the bedroom to collapse and suddenly what did I see?!

My very own princess mirror!  I don’t think I complained a lot but Christian never had a full length mirror at his house.  This is obviously an issue.  Which was gracefully resolved by this beauty!  So shabby chic, I can’t believe he’s going to let me have my big girly mirror in his room!  Woop!

Better yet… Check out this hot Gaga inspired card he wrote me:

How friggggggen adorable is he?  He is my second half, my better half and more.  I love you, Christian!

Moving onwards with my birthday week… we went out Friday night to a tapas dinner in København and then out to the bars in Nørrebro with friends afterwards.  I finally found a bar in København that serves up proper margaritas.  Fresh ingredients (I nearly collapsed) and she knew what I meant when I said …. On the rocks no salt.  Rock on. 

I literally ran home at 5am… it was cold, I thought I was going to die.  Seriously… felt like I was in Antarctica wearing a cocktail dress and tights.  Whoops!  However, Christian told me that my “running” wasn’t much faster than he could walk behind me, pfft!

Saturday I didn’t emerge from my dyne until 1pm at which point operation cook dinner for 13 people commenced.  Slicing and dicing and baking and pan frying… We used every bowl, pot, pan and piece of silverware in our tiny kitchen!

Dinner was held across the terrace at Farmor’s house.  Lots of girly decorations (Thanks to Christian’s Uncle Bjarne for the gorgeous flowers).  Jilly style for sure.  Food was great, but we were so exhausted (and smelling pretty badly of onion and meatballs haha).  

In the end my birthday week celebrations culminated with drum roll please…LAGE KAGE…  whoa.  This the end all, be all for cakes.  I’ve been talking about my lage kage from Farmor for about a month now. 

It was obviously just as good as I dream about it (sick, I know).  The butterfly decoration was actually some teamwork between Christian and I and was made out of Marzipan. 

I suppose you want to know what “Pillefinger” means… basically it’s like poke/tickle finger.  It was a word I made up when I was trying to remember the different names of all the fingers in Danish.  It was kind of suiting, though.  I tend to poke and tickle Numsemund a lot.  I’ll let Christian explain his Numsemund nickname…

Or not.  I will.  It literally translates into “Buttmouth” hahaha.  I also made this up.  I think it sounds cute in Danish – and the fact that it’s absurd makes it all the better!  I am so clever!

And that was my princess birthday week in a big coconut shell.  I hope you had fun reading… or looking at the pictures.  I probably would have stopped reading by now.  :)

Love you monsters! Xx

})i({

Saturday
Jan022010

God Nytår! Happy New Year!

Hope you’re all in a good spirit with the prospect of a new year and new possibilities.  I certainly think that 2010 is going to be a big year for me and the hubs.  No babies, I know what you’re thinking and that’s not what I mean!

Here is some prime footage of our typical NYE in Copenhagen… enjoy my commentating.

Did I mention that I hate my own voice? ;)  I posted all of our NYE pictures on FB but I’ll add some here for fun. 

I am really digging the whole halo headband look.  The sparkle halo headband is from Danish designer Friis & Co.  I gave it some extra sass by adding the feathery flower hair piece I had from H&M a few months back.

We spent New Years Eve with family for dinner and dessert and then drove in to Copenhagen to meet up with friends and get crazy.  We got a hotel room for the night because trying to find our way home at some absurd hour in the morning was likely to be just as expensive.  

 

We met up with friends Sebastian and Lykke and some of their friends at a party.  Very fun! Christian & Sebastian lit fireworks in the street, well maybe you saw this in the video.  I think our heads hit the pillow a little after 5am. Whoa. Anyway here's a good pic of the men:

 

The hotel gave us a 2pm check out time, thank god.  And god bless Denmark for having McDonalds open on New Years day across the street from the hotel.  I never felt so American, haha.  Perfect hangover cure!

And with that... I haven’t officially decided on my 2010 resolutions.  Obviously they only start once I’m stateside again, which, sadly, will be tomorrow.  I am going to miss Christian a lot.  We’ve had some great QT together over the holidays this year.  Meget hyggeligt :)

However, I did dig up my 9 things in 2009 blog post to determine how much of last year’s resolutions I accomplished…

1. blog more – 21 entries in 2008 and 78 entries in 2009, check.
2. have better posture – yeah, hasn’t happened. 
3. stop cursing like a sailor – somehow it’s gotten worse, ugh.
4. run more – a handful of 5ks, 10 mi race and a half marathon in ’09, check!
5. stay on top of my health – yep, even though I wished I kept my wisdom teeth in afterall! Check.
6. do something incredible at my job – I got promoted in ’09, can’t be all bad! Check.
7. keep my nails strong and healthy – I’m a little better with this… so… check.
8. manage finances better – top of the list 2010, for sure.
9. stay in better touch with friends and relatives – not sure how to measure this but I’m going to say check.

So I guess I achieved more than half of what I was after.  Not terrible.  There is some serious room for improvement, though.  I will have to have a serious think of my 2010 resolutions and keep you posted.

To 2010 o-m-g-ers!  Skål!

})i({

Wednesday
Feb112009

i heart aquariuses

I feel like I may have been off the radar for a bit, sorry about that!  I did indeed have a CRAZY weekend but it was so much fun.  Our friend Sarah "Seb" flew in for the weekend free thanks to her new job as a flight attendant for USAir... I'm kind of jealous.  


Anyhoot, on Friday we all went out to Ned Divines for Steph's birthday celebration.  Band was good but playing old music.  Saturday we went to Suite and perhaps some of my friends learned my closet love for the clubs - haha.  Dancing burns good calories, though!  Sunday was SUNDAY FUNDAY, haha.  I went to brunch, ran 5 mi, then went to Gail's house and laughed a lot with her and Kayte!  Overall - a hugely fun weekend but quite busy!

Soooo guess what?  I LEAVE FOR L.A. ON FRIDAY MORNING!!  O-M-G I simply cannot wait!!!  I miss Libby more than words can say and I can't wait to do all the fun, corny touristy stuff!  So it's supposed to rain a lot while I'm there but I won't let it get me down and I will pretend that weather.com has it wrong, anyway (highly likely)!

I ran outside tonight - first outdoor run in a long time but it was soooo "nice" out today - 50 degrees!  Let's just say that my legs are used to a flat treadmill surface.  Tonight I did a little cross training on my run dodging ice patches and puddles all the while going up and up hills (I really don't remember going down these hills).  Anyway - it felt good and I'm glad I got some fresh Brookline air in my lungs.

Okay so this post wasn't much fun just a little bit of a diary entry/catch up on my calendar - sorry! Oh - it's Chrisitan's 25th birthday today!  My handsome husband-to-be is skiing in Sweden off the map but we'll give him a shout out on my blog anyway! :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!  | TILLYKKE MED DAGEN SKAT!

So actually I have a lot of birthdays to mention right now - it's been a birthday extravaganza lately! Safe to say that I really get along well with Aquariuses...

Happy 24th to my love Stephanie on 4-Feb-09
Happy 25th to the handsome Mike Prible on 7-Feb-09
Happy 24th to muchos Sarah/Seb on 8-Feb-09
Happy 25th to my perfect Christian today 11-Feb-09
Happy 24th to beautiful Carissa on 15-Feb-09

})i({