Sun Kissed Balcony

I am loving the fact that when we arrived back in Denmark, the sun was already staying out long enough to reach our balcony! I become giddy at the thought that our balcony dinners and weekends of reading and basking in the sun are growing close. I think sometime this week, I'll drag our outdoor furniture out of the sun room and back outside. Yippee!

A little more... a little more....

Look at all that sun!!

Gamle Joe

Twenty seven years ago, I was 18 months old and cute as could be! I was happy, having fun, and enjoying my parents attention. On April 4th my super cool parents brought me home a new present. I don't recall that I ever asked for it, or even wanted it but there it was, a brand new baby brother. Oh joy. He turned out to be "not so bad" and we quickly became friends and partners in crime. We even made up our very own games. Have you heard of them, "Bunkin' Worm" , "Toybox Tumble", and "Ladder Sled"? I still can't believe they never made it to the toystore shelves. They all rocked, well I thought they all rocked, Joe may question "Toybox Tumble". So, here it is 27 years later, and I still love my little brother and am glad that my parents brought him home for me to play with so many years ago!

Happy Birthday Little Brother!
Hope your 27th year is full of lots of cool music, a couple really expensive bottles of wine, and massive amounts of snow!

Probably high on sugar from our Easter baskets
It might be a miracle my mom got us to sit long enough to take a picture.

Probably "high" on beer from the bowling alley
It's a miracle we didn't take a hundred more pictures just like this.

Danish Taxes, How I Loathe Thee

Apparently last month Denmark became the country with the highest taxes. Nice.

Read about it here:
Denmark surpassed Sweden for the worlds highest tax burden

We get the "privilege" to pay this lovely amount as well since Michael is paid in DKK and not USD. There is a tax break for some foreigners, but not one we could benefit from. At the time of moving here, to take advantage of this we had to be making about 250,000-300,00 + dollars a year. After three years, we would be required to pay ALL of the back tax or leave the country.

Sure, there are lots of benefits for paying this ridiculous amount for things such as:

-Free Heath Care (But we are paying extra for a private insurance policy)
-Unemployment Benefits (I'm not receiving this, and if Michael were to quit or get fired from TI, our residence permits become immediately VOID and we have to leave the country)
-Free University (Neither of us are students, nor do we have kids who are potentially going to to a Danish University)
-Stipend for Children (We don't have kids)
- One Year Maternity Leave (Still no kids)
- 3ish Months Paternity Leave (I can't remember the exact amount, but it doesn't matter because again, we don't have kids)
-Retirement (We won't be retiring to Denmark)

I'll miss a lot of things when it is time for us to leave Denmark, but I am confidant, the taxes, will not be one of them.

Nice Surprises!

When we left Lubbock we had no idea what would be waiting for us in Dallas. When we arrived and I got my computer turned on and checked my mail I was STOKED to see that Wayne and Tayna (AKA: Michaels mom and stepdad) purchased tickets to Copenhagen to come visit us in May!! YEA!!! This will be their first trip overseas and hope that they are as excited to come see Europe with their own eyes as we are to show a small piece of it to them. I'm already planning out our days so they can see as much as they can or want to in their time here! They arrive May 6th. That's just over 1 month!! yippee yippee yippee!

Remember this:
Seasonal Affective Disorder - Vitamin D
On Monday I went back to have more blood draw to retest my vitamin D. I got a message from my Doc about 5 minutes ago that said, my vitamin D levels are normal now. They are still on the lower end of the scale, but they are MUCH higher. The scale is 45-150. ( I had previously thought it was 45-90, but I was apparently wrong). When tested the first time I was at 16 and as of Monday I'm all the way up to a 47! YEA!!That means I don't need another shot. I finished my bottle of vitamin D tablets on Saturday, so my body is on its own in producing the Vit. D. I'll actually probably buy more and continue taking them. Once late fall/early winter starts to roll around again..... I'll be doing anything and everything I can to make sure that this doesn't happen this severely again. While I was told it was a mild case of SAD, it sure felt severe to me. I know this, I certainly don't want to know what the severe case feels like!!!

Happy Autism Awareness Day

I'll admit, for most of my life I didn't know much about autism besides what I had seen in "Rainman" and other various movies or tv. Then I met AnnMarie. We became buddies in 2002 while we were both planning our weddings. She has a precious son named Mikey who is on the Autism Spectrum. In my 6 (WOW) years of having her in my life, I have learned SO many interesting facts, stories, personal experiences, and opinions of autism and its varying degrees. She has a passion for this subject like no other I have ever seen. I am continually amazed at what an amazing mother she is for not only Mickey but her daughter as well.

She has a ROCKIN' blog (you can always find it over on my side bar also, It's called, "Blog of a Mother"). I highly encourage you, even if only once, to click over there and read just a little bit of her writings. She is spending the month of April blogging mostly about Autism as April is Autism Awerness Month. If you don't visit AnnMarie check out this site: http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer
And if you don't go there, check out CNN today, they are showing all sorts of stuff on tv (even here in Denmark). After all, what better thing can you do on "Autism Awareness Day" than to become a little more aware of autism? I can't think of a thing!

AnnMarie thanks for helping those who know you (and even those who don't) understand autism better and for being such a fantastic teacher to me personally!

Cheers to Mikey today!
Isn't he the cutest thing?

Back in the DK

After 6 weeks we are finally home! We hadn't anticipated being gone quite that long, but while in Dallas, Michael was asked to stay a couple more weeks for work, so we did. I hadn't realized so many people didn't know that this was actually a business trip with a little play time added in.

Our time in Texas was so much fun. We saw a ton of our friends and families and so many of them stayed up WAY past their bedtimes with work or school the next day. We got to see all of our parents, Michaels entire mom's side of the family, a large amount of Michaels dad side of the family and about half of my family in El Paso. We got to visit with an array of friends including friends from TI Dallas, college, band camp and high school, friends from Denmark, friends moving to Denmark, and even Texas friends that have lived in Denmark!!

Everyone made us feel like rock stars as many changed, and worked around their schedules to be able to see us. I've even had a handful of people (including two of my blogging buddies) tell me that their moms called to tell them we were back in Texas! We got our own personal planners in some cities! When we were in Austin, Michael's aunt Kathy arranged our entire Saturday for us, which included one of my best friends from high school. While we were in El Paso, my brother Joe arranged several little get together for us including the bowling night, a big dinner at "Carlos and Mickey's" and a couple other little things. This took a ton of extra baggage off my back where I didn't have to worry about planning anything. So thanks Kathy and Joe!

I had forgotten how drastic Texas weather is. We saw snow, hail, floods, thunderstorms, tornado watches, sleet, dust storms, strong Lubbock winds and lay out in the sun 80 degree beautiful weather. I often miss the windy Lubbock weather but being in it again, I quickly changed my mind.

We unfortunately have spent enough money on gyms in the various cities to probably hold several memberships. The gym we used in El Paso, knew us by the end and stopped making us pay for a guest pass. The gym we used in Lubbock helped us in saving a little money by giving us a clip card for the gym. The gym we used in Dallas was one of our former gyms which was cool in that we actually got to see several old gym acquaintances!

As for money, OMG! Being paid in Danish Kroner and spending it in the US is incredible right now! Due to the current exchange rate, everything was SOOOO SOOOO cheap! There were a few times we were out to dinner looking at expensive items like steaks that cost 22 dollars thinking wow, that is a little more than we want to spend, but when we realized it was only 109 Danish Kroner we were AMAZED how feakin' cheap it was. 109 Danish Kroner for a big juicy Texas steak!?!?! That's insanity!! Waiter, bring us 2! We not only stocked up on toiletries and other odds and ends, but were able to bring back a decent amount new clothes(thank you sales at the outlet mall), shoes, books, and our two favorite purchases, which were a new camera and new MP3 player. Thank you weak American economy!!!

The last stop out of Dallas naturally was to Mary's Starbucks store in Euless next to the airport. We ate lunch and drank some coffee and said our goodbyes.

Hanging out at Starbucks with our Favorite Black Apron Barista

This trip was exactly what we were needing. A healthy dose of old familiar faces, places and more Mexican food than we can handle. I think we are set to make what is left of our time in Denmark even better now that we got the fuel to push us through to the end. As everyone knows, we love it here and love being here, but not having been to the states in almost 1 year was starting to wear on us. Our next trip home is being planned for early November. Thanks a hundred times to everyone that made time to see us, got a drink with us, went out to eat with us, cooked dinner for us, threw parties for us, played guitar hero with us, gave us a place to sleep and let us do laundry. :)

DL reaction

I RARELY get carded anymore. I'm fine with that as I'm happy to finally look older than 21. We took our Danish friend, Martin to the cheesecake factory Saturday night. Upon leaving I told Michael I looked like I was back in I was in college, mostly due to the way I was dressed. He wholeheartedly agreed and said, he enjoyed having a hot young looking wife on his arm. ;)

I did get carded after ordering a glass of wine. When I handed the little 20 year old waitress my drivers license she looked at it, her eyes got big and said, "WOW!" Then said it a second time along with, "I was not expecting that". I thought maybe she new the last name "Pate" or something and then I realized she was talking about my age. I said, "My age?" she said, "Yes, I SERIOUSLY was NOT expecting that! That is so cool". I've had people tell me I look younger than I am my whole life, but this was a whole new reaction on a completely new scale. As she walked away I couldn't figure out if I should be happy I can shock someone when they see 1979 or if she was saying, "My God your old...." I decided to stick with being happy.

Just a few more days in Dallas. We are SO tired and ready for our own bed again.

Texas Tour - Lubbock

Strangely, the 6 hour car ride to Lubbock felt incredibly LONG after the 10 hour drive from Dallas to El Paso. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because no matter which way you go, there is NOTHING between these two towns. We drove to Odessa and then North to Lubbock instead of taking the shortcut through New Mexico, because, well we just despise driving that way, so we haven't in a long long time.

We got stuck behind this truck at the Border Patrol Station coming out of El Paso.
It was time for "fun with camera"

Michael making sure he knows where we are going while I goof off.
YAY TEXAS
We felt home as the land turned into flat farmland.
Seriously people, Denmark is NOT flat...Lubobck IS flat.

Lubbock was fun and even busier than El Paso. One evening we drove out to the Lockny area to spend the night seriously in the middle of nowhere with Michaels cousin Derrick and his wife and baby. (Derrick was the best man in our wedding) . Michaeløs other cousin Kasey and her friend David came out too. We sat around, talked, drank good beer, watch the A&M/Kansas State game, and played some games. We hadn't seen any of them in about a year and a half and it was really great to have some time with them. Derrick has NEVER fed us a bad meal and that streak continues. He boiled a HUGE pot over a fire outside of crawdads, shrimp, corn and potatoes. YUM!!! Then in the morning, he went out and got a ton of stuff for fajitas.

Hagen, the baby is seriously one of the sweetest children I've ever met! But I might be a little biased as his last name is, "Pate". He has the giant Pate forehead and is ADORABLE. We had so much fun playing with him.

Cousins

Michaels mom and step dad came down from Amarillo and we got to have a lot of time with them along with Michaels aunt Karen, cousin Kailey and his uncle David. One of our favorite things about Lubbock is sitting around Nana's kitchen table with all the chairs filled up just talking and we did lots of that. We of course stopped by Tech and only had about 45 minutes there which was WAY too short!!

Carrye and me in my old second home -The Texas Tech Library.

We left Lubbock on Monday and started our 5 hour trek back to Dallas. This drive was fast and we returned in no time. Along the way we spotted this at a rest stop

Our Trusty Car

Once again, we are back in Dallas. I was suppose to leave Dallas on Tuesday. It's a long story, but in short we are still in Dallas until March 29th! We get back to Denmark on the 30th. When we FINALLY get back to Denmark we will have been gone 2 days short of 6 weeks!?!?!?!? DANG!

I'm actually starting to feel homesick.... *sigh*

Texas Tour - El Paso Take 2

Michael and I are not "road trip" people in the slightest way. Put me on a 14 hour plane flight to Tokyo and I have no problems. Put me in a car for 2 hours to get from Lubbock to Amarillo, and by the end of it, I'm about ready to start clawing my way out of the car. When we decided to drive ourselves around Texas rather than fly, I was a bit scared. Seriously, we both hate car trips. And if you know how gigantic Texas is, and know the locations we had to visit, you might be scared too. Michael kinda ditched me emotionally. He was for once, very excited about our "road trip" across Mighty Texas. I don't know why. Maybe because its been about 10 months since he last drove a car?

After our Austin venture our next step was to tackle the "BIG" Drive. Thats right Ladies and Gentleman, we were going to be CRAZY and drive from Dallas to El Paso. Dallas to El Paso? Yes, Dallas to El Paso. That's 10 long hours, squeezed in a car across Texas. In case you have ever wondered, yes, Dallas to El Paso is indeed a LONG drive! But, the insane thing was, this drive was actually GREAT and passed soooo fast. We got out of Dallas about 7:45am and arrived on my moms doorstep at about 5:30pm! The last hour and a half was a little long, but I think it was more the anticipation of being almost there than we wanted it to be over.

Long Haul Across Texas Scenery

My Texas Mountains starting to get bigger and bigger as we get closer to El Paso.

To be honest, I'm a bit blogged out right now from all the "travelogue-ing" I've been doing from Rome, Florence, Uzzano, Dallas and Austin. So my El Paso and Lubbock sections are going to be FAR from as detailed. Actually, by the time we got to Lubbock I barely took any pictures!

El Paso was spent catching up with family and a few friends. The few friends I got to see were kind enough to not even meet up with us till about 10pm and they all had work in the mornings. Those are good friends. I got some time with 3 of my 5 siblings, but sadly missed the other 2. I missed ALL of my nieces and nephews except for two of them.

Mi Familia

Me and my buddy Ian.

Back in 8th-11th grade he was one of my best friends in the whole world. I could count on this guy for ANYTHING and vise versa. He even took me to homecoming our Junior Year. In the past 11 years, my brother stole him from me and now, he is one of Joe's best friends in the whole world. I'm cool with that though. As long as he stays in Joe's life, he will stay in mine too.

There is a new bowling ally in El Paso close to Sunland Park Mall. On Tuesday there is a really cool special. You go, pay 10 dollars for bowling and they give you a 10 dollar gift card back to use at the bar!! SWEET! Free bowling and lots of pitchers of beer. So we went with some friends and Joe LATE at night, but they are so cool that they stayed up.

Joe checking how shiny Michaels head is.

Michael ready to bowl and showing off his big arm

Joe, Michael, Jeremy and Dlane
My OLD OLD friend Chris bowled with us too. Him, Joe and I have known each other since our "Western Hills" days!! (elementary school)

I requested lobster one night. So my sweet mom, made us lobster one night, and it was delicious.

Michael, Sharon and my mom ready to dig in

Our last night, we played Guitar Hero. It is just as cool as everyone says.

The weather in El Paso was a very welcome change from the snow we had in Dallas. It was HOT (70 something degrees) and SUNNY and BEAUTIFUL. It was exactly what I was hoping for from Texas. While most El Pasoeans would say it wasn't hot, just a little warm, to my Danish adjusted body, it was HOT. I wore tank tops, shorts, and skirts and loved every moment of it.

I've also updated the post below with captions to the few pictures on there. :)

Texas Tour - El Paso.... kind of

Oh my gosh. We've been having fun and in turn we have been SO busy!
I started to write this blog post, and uploaded a couple pictures. And now, I just learned that I'm about to leave. So, this is my blog post!
Enjoy these 5 pictures!

The weather in El Paso was BEAUTIFUL!
I was torn, I wanted to climb a tree but I had on a skirt....the tree won and I climbed it skirt and all!

Goofing around

This is Camille. She use to live "down the hill" from us while we were growing up. I hadn't seen her since we were somewhere between probably 4 and 8 years old.

Michael and Jeremy.
Jeremy is one of mine and Joe's dearest friends ever from high school.
Him and Michael are good buds too.

My sweet not so little nieces