April 2010

April has been a great and full packed month for us so far. It started out pretty lazily with having almost a week off from school/work for Easter. I only had to work about 4 hours from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday, and Søren had the whole week off from school, so we took advantage and spent a lot of quality and relaxing time together.

One of the biggest highlights from our Easter vacation was taking a mini vacation to the east coast of Jutland. We got a fancy hotel room for a night and just enjoyed being together and away from the distractions of everyday life! The hotel we chose was a spa hotel, so it had an amazing spa area for all the guests to use! There were 3 different types of saunas, many different hot tubs, a cold tub and of course a normal swimming pool. Each time we went down there we spent about 2 hours just switching between the different hot tubs, pools and saunas and really relaxing. We both agreed that it was a much needed “vacation!”

Above: In our spa robes!

The castle-like hotel!

Later on in the Easter week, we went to Esbjerg to spend time with Søren’s Mom and his Sister and her family! It was a lot of fun! We had a small Easter egg hunt, lots of great food and more relaxing time! On Good Friday Søren and I played in the

band at church and Søren’s family came as well. It was a great service and we enjoyed reflecting on the important time of year Easter is!

Easter Sunday was a celebration day. Not only did we want to celebrate the incredible miracle of Jesus rising from the dead, but also that our good friends had their daughter baptized! So just before leaving for the baptism service I, Mary, decided that we should raise the flag outside! I had done it once before so I figured I could figure it out. Well to make a long story short, I COULD NOT FIGURE IT OUT! I ended up tying the flag to just one end of the rope and then after rising the flag almost to the top I thought to myself, “Hmm, how do we get it down again?!” Well it turns out we couldn’t get it down again, so we had to take the entire, super long, pole down. It was a big hassle but luckily we were able to clean the pole while we were at it and well, I don’t think I will ever make that same mistake again! Søren’s Mom came for lunch and stayed the rest of the day. We took a nice walk and just enjoyed each other’s company. A great Easter indeed!

During Easter and since, we have been out playing a lot of golf! At least once a week! Some days are better than others but I can really tell that we are improving. And I can tell that I am enjoying the sport more than I ever thought I could. For example, a few weeks ago we went out golfing one morning. The weather was okay to start out, but by the time we got to the 5th hole it was really windy and starting to rain. However, I had been playing very well and said to Søren “Can’t we just finish the first nine?” I never thought I would see the day where I would wish to play golf in the cold rain! But it turns out I was very glad for continuing because I played the best round of my life and actually, without counting handicaps or anything, beat Søren!!! Mostly it was just a wonderful feeling to beat my personal record!! Now I am taking golf lessons so that I can get a golfing drivers license and play on the bigger courses in Denmark. I have to learn how to make all the main 4 shots and have a good accuracy, as well as take classes about golf theory. It’s a lot of stuff but it has been fun and I can see the improvements so that keeps me going!

Another fun experience we’ve had recently was taking all of our music students to the theater to see “Jesus Christ Superstar.” We really wanted to give them an exciting experience to say thank you for all the work they do for the school but also to give them a musical experience of a different caliber. They all really enjoyed it, and well Søren and I didn’t think it was such a tough night at work either even if the songs sounded a little funny in Danish!!

Now getting to the more recent. We just had a very special week at the school. It is called “Mini-society week” and the students are involved in transforming the school into their own little society. It is a very detailed project where the students have to create and run their own businesses. They have to hire some of the other students, make a budget, give them a salary, etc. During the whole week the students are only allowed to buy food from these student businesses and have to work a 7 hour day. There was also a government made up of 4 teachers and 5 students. They had to write a constitution and discuss laws, etc. It was so amazing to see how the students really got into the project and how much they learned about the real world in the process.

Also in this past week we had our first meeting with the small group we created from our church. Søren and I, together with 4 other couples around our age, have decided to meet about every other week to have some fun, get to know each other, and talk about different subjects from the bible, married life, or whatever it might be. The first time was great and we are looking forward to getting to know more people who live in our area and from our church.

Finally the present! Just yesterday Søren and I attended the last weekend of the “Good Start” marriage course. We have really learned a lot and have received a lot of tools to help us out of conflicts and how to prevent them. In the four weekends we covered a lot of different topics and had time to spend together talking and working on our marriage. It was such an amazing journey and we are thankful for the opportunity we’ve had to be a part of these weekends.

So yeah, I better get back to practicing the horn! I am playing in an orchestra concert in a few weeks and I am a bit rusty! However, I am looking forward to playing the horn again and to being part of a talented orchestra again, even if it is only as a fill in for a few weeks!