Congratulations!!!

A lot of you that read this blog know our friend Blake Hlavaty, so I thought it was appropriate to post this one here. Him and Michael have been friends since they were itty bitty and went through high school together. The same way I met Michael, I met Blake: at band camp. He was also in marching band with me at Texas Tech. Blake is in the Navy and lives in Hawaii. (I would be super jealous if I wasn't living in a cool destination myself) Right now he is picking up his girlfriend in Texas to move her back with him. They have been together for quite sometime now and we found out yesterday that they got engaged!!! We are so excited for them and wanted to share the news with all of you :) So congratulations to you Blake and Ashely!

Our "houseguests" or should I say the students that we are hosting for a few days had a lot of delays and such in Dallas yesterday. They made it as far as Baltimore before they couldn't make a connecting flight. Tonight they will be boarding a plane to Iceland and then over to Denmark. To make a long story short, they won't arrive till tomorrow. Last night we decided to test out the Partney Suite so we slept in there. It was really cool waking up with a glass roof and walls! We couldn't see anything while we were laying down besides sky and clouds. Very very cool!

Now, Video Number 3!
If you didn't see the first 2 videos, refer to the previous 2 posts to find out what these are all about and to watch the others, before you watch today's video. :)

"The Partney's in Denmark: Day 3 - Hillerød

More Houseguests!!

A small handful of you (perhaps just our parents) may remember that when we moved to Denmark in 2002 we had NO IDEA where we would be living until about 1 week before we arrived. The housing office magically bumped us to the top of a waiting list for housing. The housing for students in Denmark is sparse. It is not a country you can just come to and find an apartment like you could in the states. While there are many many apartments, they are not overseen by one central office in each complex. Some people own their apartments and some rent them. Back to my story, we didn't know where we were going to live until the week before we got here. Fast forward to today. Tomorrow 2 new Texas Tech students are arriving in Copenhagen for the DTU/TTU program, and guess what? They don't have a place to live yet! We had offered to let them stay with us if they didn't get assigned anywhere before they got here, and sure enough, they arrive tomorrow and will be homeless. Well not completely, Their temporary residents is in The Partney Suite. They will stay with us for a few days at first because of our very close proximity to the university. Then they will start getting passed around from house to house. Tomorrow Michael and Jens (One of the Danes that went to TTU) are going to pick them up and take them to DTU and go with them to the housing office to get a place to live all set up. This isn't said much but one of both of our big motivators of really wanting to move back to Denmark was to help out a little more with this DTU/TTU program, so while getting news 24 hours before they came that they needed a place to stay might really stress out most people, we are glad we are here to help out. I've only meet them both once and Michael a few times. But we share that Red Raider Bond, so we aren't going to leave them wondering a new country on their own :) Now I'm off to set back up the Partney Suite, do some grocery shopping and making sure they have everything they might need! :)

And now, Today's video!
If you didn't see the 1st video, refer to the previous post to find out what these are all about and to watch the first video, before you watch todays video. :)

"The Partney's in Denmark: Day 2 - Central Copenhagen"

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. :)