Celebrating in the City

Friday morning we got ourselves up and headed up to DTU to listen one of the DTU/TTU guys defend his thesis. Well, Michael went to listen and I went to visit our friend Dorte. :)
Roland did great and got a good mark on his defense. There was no doubt that he would, he is a wonderfully smart guy.

Friday evening it was time to celebrate with Roland along with Jason, Bryant and David who are all in the DTU/TTU program. David is your "stereotypical" Texan. He goes everywhere with his cowboy hat and boots and it was a lot of fun being in the city with him to see all the attention he got. It was all good attention too. He said it is easy to meet girls! I don't doubt it. I'd be interested in a cowboy too if I hadn't ever seen one before!

We met in the city and ate dinner at Riz Raz. It is a great Mediterranean food restaurant. We had been once before with Kelli and Mads. The food was just as good as it was the first time and we had just as much fun.

One of Jasons favorite spots in the city is a quaint little microbrewery called, Brew Pub . It was packed and hoppin'. I've had their beer before from a bottle from the store, but never from the actual place. It was delicious. There is even one beer called "Amarillo". We stood around a tiny table, talked and enjoyed ourselves. There was a cute little courtyard in the back that was all dug up for renovations, but I believe we will be making the trip back here in the summer to enjoy it.

As it was Roland's last night in Copenhagen he had to visit his favorite spot, Copenhagen Jazz House. None of us in the group had been there before besides Roland. There was an entry fee which was a little pricey, 90dkk (19 USD), but as far as entrance fees to places, it was actually pretty reasonable. So, I'm not sure why I'm complaining! Hmmm??? The atmosphere was amazing and the music was incredible. The only down side was that we couldn't talk during the performance. I mean I guess we could have, it was a bar, but no one else was so I think we probably would be been hushed. I guess thats the difference between me, just enjoying jazz music and those who LOVE jazz music. :)

Here is a little clip of some of the music.

Saturday was an exciting day! If you're a long time reader you know that one of our favorite ways to spend our weekends is going to the forest. Saturday, we got to start that up again! The weather was nice enough, the sun was out so we put on our hiking boots and went on our merry way. We took different route than we had before and along the way we came to "Garderhøj Fortet". (A Fort) It reminded us so much of the "Lyngby Fortet" we visited in the fall, but less grown over with bush.

Garderhøj Fortet

Around the back of the fort

Caution!
Break Dancing in Progress

(It means roughly there is a steep cliff)

Lovely Lyngby

The past couple days have been absolutely freezing. The air reminds both of us of fall and we keep joking that winter is just days away. The past couple of mornings it has been so foggy and our slanted windows have been covered in ice. When I open the windows to see what it looks like outside, I see people on the street scrapping the ice off of their windshields. The only thing that is keeping my faith that spring is indeed coming are the early sunrises, late sunsets, budding trees and all the pretty flowers popping up!

The Magic Hotel
Now you see it

Now you don't

Sunrise at 6:30am

Grassy area with lots of flowers at the Lyngby Mølle (Lyngby Mill) on Lyngby Hovedgade
Michael walks past here twice a day on his way to/from work.
I pass it only about 2-4 times a week
Looking Towards TI

Why? Seriousy, WHY?

I am so not happy to read about this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7334372.stm

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.