Updates and Video

Here's something crazy. It was 5 years ago yesterday (June 4th) that Michael and I stepped foot in Denmark for the very first time. I would never have guess what an important part of our lives this little country tucked up in Scandinavia would become. That also means that today is the 5 year anniversary of my dads death. It is kinda bitter sweet that those two things will always be looked at together.

We have been great. We had the Tech students here for a couple nights and they are now in their own place. It was fun to show them around and be able to help them out their first days here. Someone did it for us and we were grateful. I hope they will look back and feel the same way about us. Saturday we went out to Jen's farm for a little bbq and to watch the Denmark-Sweden Soccer Game. It was, interesting to say the least. It was a great and exciting game until it got canceled in the last minutes of the game because an angry fan stormed the field and tried to attack one of the refs. Game was halted and then called off. We were in the midsts of some very confused and not so happy Danes. None the less, we had a fun time.

Today is Constitution Day in Denmark and tonight we went over to one of Michaels co-workers and his wifes house with Klaus for a bbq. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside and ate and had a nice time.

So, thats what we have been up to.

Now, Video Number 4!!
If you didn't see the first 3 videos, refer to the previous 3 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 4 - Bakken and Dyrehaven"

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"

Mary and Jason's Trip to Denmark Day 1

It was two weeks ago today that Mary and Jason landed in Copenhagen and we had to do everything in our power to keep them awake until 9pm to help them conquer their jet lag. It was touch and go for a while, but they made it! I didn't really say much about their trip here or show many pictures because I have been working on what you are about to see. This is Mary and Jason talking about their time in Copenhagen along with telling YOU, why you should start making your plans to come and see us!!! This is one of 8 videos. Stayed tuned as I hope to get a new one up everyday...or at least every other day :)

So, without further adieu, I present to you, Mary and Jason in:
"The Partney's in Denmark: Day 1- Arrival"

Graduation Anniversary!

Today I was in my normal online routine. Check my AOL mail, check my Gmail, check out other blogs, and check out myspace. While I was on myspace I saw something posted by one of my high school friends with the title, "Graduation Anniversary!" I thought, ok, this is just something about when she graduated from college or she just graduated and is having an anniversary. So, I opened the post and low and behold this is what it said: "Congrats and Happy 9th Anniversary of our high school Graduation to all my Class of '98 CHS friends! I hope I see all of you next year at the reunion."

What a lovely thing to see. I can't believe it has been 9 years to the day that I graduated from high school!!!! 9 YEARS!! I knew this, but seeing that it was 9 years today just kinda stirred up a bunch of "whoa" emotions in me. I know most of the people that keep up this this blog have been out of high school longer then I have been but it is just kinda hitting me now that this next year will be 10 years that I was living my senior year.

Anyways all this made me think about all my wonderful high school friends and how I am soooo lucky that I still keep in touch with so many of them. There are very very very few people out there that I wonder what happened to them simply because, the most important people in my life at the time, somehow are still in my life. Will I go to my 10 year? I think if I don't, my husband will kill me. He is looking forward to mine more then his own because he knows so many of the people I graduated with so well. He actually may show up without me if I don't go.

So, here I am. Exactly 9 years ago after graduation with my two sweet nieces.
Cheers to the Class of '98!!!

I Think I'm Dead

I couldn't stop laughing at this. So I thought I would share.

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.