Nichole the Sloth

Michael is just a few short hours form landing back in Denmark. I think he is going to be quite the sleepy bear when he stumbles out from getting his luggage. This is the first time I will actually go to the airport to "pick him up". It sounds sweet, but I have a hidden agenda. STARBUCKS! The only Starbucks in Denmark is located in the airport right in the entrance hall and just opened right before our trip to Istanbul. We haven't taken advantage of it yet, because we would rather just go through security and get our free drinks in the lounge. Can you blame us? But today, I'm going to go get my steamy cup of coffee and sit and wait for "Hubsters" to come on out. He had asked me to get him something too so when he gets to me, he will have some coffee to waken his sleepy eyes.

The 3 days he was gone went fast. I honestly didn't do much, but it was great. I hit the gym in the morning rather then the evenings which was a nice change, then spent the rest of the days doing a little important stuff, but for the most part turned into a sloth.

Wednesday my friend Sarah came over for dinner. We ate, chatted, drank tea and had a nice time.

Yesterday, I marched myself over to IKEA to get some "Halloween Supplies". We are hosting a Halloween party for some TI'ers and their families, but I needed a few more things. Now, unfortunately, I have to wait a month-ish till its Halloween time. *sigh*

I think our weekend will consist of Michael recuperating from his whirlwind trip to Japan. Then Sunday we are having the two new students (Daniel and Jason) over for a pancake/waffle breakfast. I don't I have had a pancake OR waffle in over a year, so I think my waffle iron will be happy to get to cook again.

All Alone

Mary and Jason sadly left yesterday afternoon and before that Michael left here on Sunday for Boston and Dallas. Now, I am back here, by myself, once again. In all honestly, I'd rather be left here alone then in Dallas while he was hopping over to Europe. So, I don't feel bad for being abandoned!

We had a really fun rest of the time with Mary and Jason. We took them to see a ton more stuff. I'm working on a little something to talk about their trip, but it'll be a few days till I can get it up. For now, I'll just wet your pallet with a few more pictures.

At Carlsberg Brewery - thats beer in my hand, not wine.

Tivoli

On our balcony eating Taco's Jason made for us. YUM. We ate out here often. It was nice.
Jason conquering a hill
Mary at Kronborg Slot (Hamlets Castle)

Enjoying the sun in a park in Roskilde

Replica of a Viking Ship at the Viking ship museum in Roskilde. Thats Mary and I in the picture

With an actual old viking shipOn the Train on the way home

We really really really had a great time with them here. It was fun to get to show them stuff that we love and to finally get to show someone our lives here.
They also say to all our friends and family in the states:
"EVERYONE COME VISIT NICHOLE AND MICHAEL IN DENMARK!"

So there it is, come see us!! Mary and Jason said so. As the first guests they also got the sun room named after them. From now on, it will be referred to as "The Partney Suite" If you come, you'll get something too. :)

Our Visitors

I had hoped to update this thing daily while Mary and Jason were here but well, you can see how that went. Not so good. :) But we have been having fun. They got here Monday and our days since have been pretty packed.

Monday we got some food and wondered around Lyngby. They were both pretty jet lagged, but we were able to keep them awake till 9pm, but it was a challenge.

Tuesday we gave them the grand tour of Copenhagen. Which of course wasn't even scratching the surface but we hit the big stuff.

Ice Cream at Nyhavn

Amalienborg

Jason being silly

Wednesday we went to the great town of Hillerod. I have always loved this town so I had fun being back up there. We wondered around the streets and toured he castle that is located up there.


Today (Thursday) we went to Dyrehaven, Bakken and the Beach. It was raining and kinda cold too, but we went anyways. Bakken is an old old old amusement park that is nestled in a forest. It is claimed to be the oldest in the world. It opened in 1583!!! That IS old! And its free to get in Its rare to see that! From here we wondered to the beach for a look and then back to dyrehaven where we saw a lot of deer and just enjoyed walking through the forest.

Jason shooting a bow and arrow at Bakken

Walking from Bakken to the Beach

Dyrehaven

I hope to do better the rest of their trip. :)

Two Women,Two Knees, Two Surgeries, Two Cities

My mom in El Paso and Michael's Aunt Kathy in Austin are both having knee surgery today. My mom's is and has been planned for some time now. She is having her knee replaced. It has gotten to the point that is is hard for her to walk at times so I know she is very much looking forward to finally being able to get this done and start walking again as are we all happy that she gets to finally have this done! As for Kathy she isn't so lucky as her surgery wasn't planned. Last week she was in a really bad accident and broke her knee (leg) in several places. She has to go under to get it all fixed up and will be in a cast for 6-8 weeks.

I hope all my loyal readers will keep both these wonderful women in your thoughts today and the next few days as they get all fixed up and start their road to recovery. We will be sending many many get well and good luck vibes from this side of the ocean. We love you both :)

As a side note. I'm still sick. Felt better on Saturday, but yesterday and today haven't been all that great. I keep morphing into different symptoms. It's not so much fun. Mary and Jason get here in about 5 hours. We are SOOO excited for that. I just hope they don't get whatever it is I have.

Ugg.

Michael brought back some bug with him from the states. Itchy throat, runny nose. He was sick Wednesday and Thursday and seems to be completely better today. Yesterday at about 4 I swallowed and it hurt and I thought, oh no, not me too. As much as I tried to convince myself I wasn't sick my body had a different idea and as the day moved on, I felt worse. I crashed early last night. My body feels fine, it's just my throat is killing me and I have a bit of a stuffy nose! Drinking OJ this morning felt like I was swallowing nails. At least I am not achy or feverish. It's quite rare that Michael and I are both sick with completely different tings. Hopefully he will not catch this and I won't also catch whatever he had. I will say one of the only really bad things about living abroad is being sick. That is because we can't get the same kinds of medicines here and when we can, we just aren't familiar with them. We stocked up on things like Thera Flu, Clariton, Nitequil, Vicks, etc. but there is always something we could use and don't have. A bottle of chloraseptic would have been nice to be able to run out and get, but we just can't. We generally don't get sick that often. The first time we lived here though we both got what I think was the flu twice along with several other little colds here and there. This time, Michael has already been sick twice and this is my first. I think it has something to do with being exposed to a bunch of "Euro-germs" that are bodies aren't immune to yet.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that we are back to 100% by Monday when Mary and Jason get here!!! That's only a few days away and we are SOOOO excited to have our first visitors.

Dallas Smallas

So...apparently I don't really like Dallas as previously thought.
I suppose I just enjoyed a few things here. The gym and Tai Chi and the few acquaintances we had, just made it bearable. Since I have been here I have felt my energy (I know, that sounds all hippy and wierd) just sink south and it feels familiar. Simply sitting in the car my energy seems to become tainted. It's the same feeling I had been having here in Dallas around the time we moved and I was becoming happy about Dallas and sad to be moving. It has made me wonder how horrible I must have been feeling before I got to that "good"place if the "good" place now seems bad. It made me realize how being gone for the past 5 months my spirits have lifted incredibly and that life became life again and I am not just dealing with the cards dealt. So, needless to say, I'm glad we moved and I LOVE LOVE LOVE living in Denmark.

While I was in El Paso Michael had told me he really was missing home and he was really anxious to get back to his small office, morning rolls,walking to work, and spending weekends enjoying the sun on our balcony. El Paso was a blast for me. I loved being with and catching up with family and friends. but now that I'm in Dallas, I'm about ready to head back across the pond too. Dallas is humid, my hair isn't a fan and makeup just melts off my face. The traffic is ridiculous and the city is soooooo huge! Finally we found how important friends are. In Dallas, with the exception of Mary and Jason, and Chris and Fayne, we just had lots of acquaintances. In Denmark we actually have a really great handful of friends who actually enjoy the same stuff we do and who, for the most part, really "get us". It's settling to have the confirmation that yes, we were, without a doubt, meant to be in Copenhagen at this time in our lives and the things we had to give up, were worth it to have the Danish experience again. We have only been there about 5 months, but already it's so much more then our first time and we still have months and months and months to go. How did we ever get so lucky?

Back in Texas

Hey, remember me? I use to blog here.
So where have I (we) been lately? Outside enjoying the Danish weather. The springtime is such a lovely time in Denmark. The beautiful colorful tulips and lilies all started and the trees are starting to turn green. For a while the highs were in the lower to mid 60's and we were able to walk around in shorts/skirts and short sleeve shirts. As long as the sun didn't disappear behind a cloud the weather had been perfect. The last few days we were there it started to turn cold again, but it forced us to not waste away days sitting outside drinking beer. For some reason if there is sun, there is beer flowing everywhere you look, so now, when we have a perfect sunny day, we both start to crave a nice cold Danish brew.

We left Denmark on Sunday. Woke up at the horribly early hour of 4am. I hopped in a cab and headed to the airport. My flights were both good. I landed at DFW at 6:30pm where Mary and Jason were waiting for me. They babysat me while we waited for Michael to land 4 hours later. I finally got to see Mary's new starbucks store. When we got there Mary told one of her employees behind the counter that I just came in from Denmark and to speak slowly to be because I didn't speak much English. The girl took her seriously, but the three of us started laughing before she could talk to me. Then we headed to the Olive Garden for dinner and Subway to pick something up for Michael when he got in and back to the airport to wait for Mr. Pate. Sorry did I say Mr. I meant Dr. (don't tell him I messed up) They did a great job keeping me awake though I was fading at several points. After Michael landed we drove in circles to find the front of the rental car place and finally got to the hotel at about midnight. We got up at 6 Monday morning and Michael put me in a Limousine Service to get me to the airport and Michael headed to a meeting at TI. I got to El Paso about 11:30AM and was exhausted. I was fine in the morning, but the plane ride sucked all the energy and life out of me for the entire day. My good pal Jeremy picked me up and took me to see my bro, to the store and then home where I was going to take a nap, but thinking about Michael at work with the exact amount of sleep as me in the past few days made me feel a bit guilty so I managed to stay awake all day and finally put my very tired head on my pillow at 9pm. Thank goodness I got a good night sleep last night.

So, to make that long story short, we both made it safe, sound and sleep deprived. It is a strange feeling being back in the states and knowing we don't have our home here. My ears had to get adjusted to hearing English everywhere. The first day of travelling I was surprised when people would automatically start speaking English to me. A few people I actually had to say, "I'm sorry can you repeat that" because it caught me so off guard. Isn't that ridiculous? I think I am better now though.

Finally, Some Things Worth Mentioning!!

Yesterday everything was so boring and today is suddenly exciting!

As it turns out, we will be going somewhere new and cool before we head to Dallas, in 9 days AKA a week from Saturday.

These are the streets we will be wondering

In This City

Any guesses to where it is?

It seems like it is going to be a really cheap trip. The plane, and hotel were REALLY cheap and doesn't seem like anything in the whole country costs just a whole lot. We booked it all last night. I'll be really surprised if anyone notices the city by the pictures. So, where are we going????

*drum roll please*

Tallinn, Estonia!!!
check it out here: http://www.tallinn.info/flash/

I know a few of you are probably saying ... Estonia?? really??why?
Yes! Really! And because we want to and because we can! :)
I love that we can say, Hey, you wanna go to *insert cool European country here* next weekend? Sure! Ok, Lets go! and then a week later, go. Life is good. It makes us feel fancy.

Michael gets a lot of time off for Easter. He will take 2 days off and in total will get 10 days off from work. He gets Wed, Thurs, and Fri. off because they are holidays. We will only be in Estonia for 4 days then back here, but he will enjoy the long break.

Second, Mary and Jason are coming to visit us!! They will be here about exactly one week after we return from Dallas. Our first guests!!! We are SOOOOOO excited!! Jason has never been to Europe before and we are excited to get to be with him when he experiences his first tastes of the continent. Mary has been over here a couple times but has never ventured as far north as Denmark. I'm anxious to see their thoughts and reactions to the country we have come to love so much over the past almost 5 years!! Michael is going to take the week off from work that they are here. We always always always have a fun time with them, and we had such a BLAST in Costa Rica and are still talking about that trip. We are anxious for them to get here!

We have a pretty good feeling that April and May are going to fly by, at least they should be a blast and we are really looking forward to it all.