Swing back into things

Not much has been going on since last time.  We have just been getting back into the swing of things. Søren started school again and now has officially less than 1 year left! He is studying Music this year so he is having a lot of fun playing music in class and having to practice piano as "homework".  What a nice way to end this 4 year journey!

We held a bachelor/bachelorette party for our friends Janni and Thorkild a few weekends back. Søren was in charge of planning Thorkild's party and it all went so well.  It was a whole day event where the men and women were split up.  Us girls, started out waking Janni up and putting her on a motorcycle ride, then we had brunch and got ready for a dance class - Zumba!  Afterwards we went to a practice area for drivers-ed.  Janni then drove us all around in a big bus through slippery water and had to practice breaking.  It was pretty scary, the whole bus spun around one time and at that point I had had enough and watched the rest of the time! Finally we ended up back with the boys and had a lesson in performing stunts.  The whole room was filled with couples yelling and pretending to hit each other, it was a riot! In the end we shot a video of a litttle story where Thorkild got shot by Janni in the end! The boys also had a fun day BMX bike racing and playing Soccer Golf where Søren was the overall winner!!!  A great day!

Sliding out into the ditch..agh!Søren kicking me to the floor











Søren kicking me to the ground!





We also had a very fun day at work 2 weeks ago.  We had an entire day where all the students learned and sang Gospel songs! We had hired a man from Copenhagen to come and direct them for the day.  We would say it was a success, even if there were some boys who looked BORED + BORED.  In the end they learned 5 songs which they performed for their parents and Family Day the following weekend!

I have also gotten into the full swing of things again with Show Choir.  Singing or dancing twice a week keeps me preoccupied from stressing out at school and that is wonderful!  We are working towards a big show in January and I can't wait.  I already know I have quite a few lines and at least 1 solo!  Also I started taking voice lessons this year, for myself.  Personally I've always wanted to continue developing my voice, and now that I am directing choir and teaching voice lessons myself, I decided it was the perfect time. The school is paying for the lessons so I just have to use my time and a little gas money, not a bad deal!

This past weekend Thorkild and Janni got married and we had a wonderful day with them. We were able to sit at their table so we really felt like we were a part of their big day! Congratulations!

Thorkild driving away in an "American" mustang





Sorry not many pictures this time...for some reason we didn't take many!

Back to business

We have now been back from the US for 3 weeks and I can't believe it! Time is really going by fast. 

We had about 4 days when we got back before we really got back into the swing of things.  We used to time to relax, prepare a little bit and to see friends.  We went to a 25th Wedding Anniversary party with one of our colleagues and that was a lot of fun, folk dancing and eating a lot of food.

Then school started up! We had 3 days of meetings before the students arrived. By thursday there were 121 students filling the school and it was awesome.  Thursday-Saturday were quite fun and tiring as we were working around the clock.  I have a really sweet family group this year with 6 quite different but very nice girls.  Saturday we had auditions for the choirs and bands and had even a larger turnout than last year.  We are totally pumped with the interest for music this year!! 

Last week was the first official week of school and things went very well! I have been very happy with all my classes so far. (especially English!!) It's going to be a good year.

Søren and I also got back out on the golf course again this past week.  We both played okay but definitely felt a bit rusty after all the golfing in the States!

The most recent news is that I just celebrated my 27th birthday! Søren suprised me with a special weekend birthday trip to Gothenburg, Sweden!  We woke up on the 20th, opened presents, had a nice breakfast and hit the road! We drove a few hours to the ferry where we rode for another 3 hours before arriving in Sweden.  We found our hotel and headed off to find some dinner.  We ended up going to the Hard Rock Café and had some great food.  We walked around the city for awhile, but it was raining so we went home and just hung out.  The next morning we woke up, had an incredible continental breakfast and hit the town.  We saw the harbor, a huge Viking ship, lots of beautiful shops and buildings, the "famous" Ullevi Stadium (where the Danish Soccer team won the European championship), and took a boat ride through the canals of Gothenburg.  It was a great 24 hours in the city and then it was time to head back to Denmark again!  It was such a fun birthday present and we both had a wonderful weekend!!

Last 4 weeks in USA

After visiting my Grandparents in Florida, Søren and I headed to eastwards towards Cocoa Beach.  We stopped along the way in Orlando and visited Mickey and the gang in Magic Kingdom.  It was a very hot day, but we had a great time being kids for a day.  We were able to go onto rides often enough to cool down and there were a few water rides.  That evening for dinner we went to the Hoop-de-doo dinner show.  It was great fun where we got to eat real Southern American food and listen to some fun songs! The highlight for me was watching the fireworks over Cinderellas castle.  There were amazing combinations and it was all timed just right to Disney music!  Really beautiful!

Disney show in front of the Castle

Hoop-dee-doo Dinner show

Søren playing along at the dinner show

Fireworks!

After Disney World we spent 2½ days on the beach.  The condo where we stayed was right down to the ocean so we could just go down whenever we felt like it.  One day we spent a few hours at Kennedy Space Center.  Here we saw different rockets and satellites and even got to touch a piece of the moon! It was pretty cool to see that type of history.  We also visited Ron Jons Surf shop, had horrible service at a restaurant and watched the World Cup Soccer Final.   All in all very relaxing!

Launch pad (probably the one where the rocket that first landed on the moon took off)

Minigolfing in Cocoa Beach

We arrived back in Minneapolis and started off this part of our trip with a bang!! A day at Valleyfair (a local amusement park) with my Aunt Ellen and her two wonderful kids.  The day started off a bit wet...well actually very wet, but the sun came out not long after arriving and we had a wonderful day with no lines.  I guess the rain scared away the other guests cause we didn't have to wait at all, we could just go on ride after ride!!

X-treme Swing!

The next day we headed off to Sonshine Music Festival.  A lot of bands that we really like were playing.  The top of the list was New World Son, 10th Avenue North, Sanctus Real, Casting Crowns and Newboys.  Just like last year there were over 20,000 people and lots of great music!

The rest of our time was spent visiting family and friends.  We ate a lot of ice cream and had some wonderful meals.  It was good to see so many of our family members and friends again.

2nd year anniversary--Back at Millenum Park where we got married!

Having huge drinks with Ladder and Schader

Following tradition and wearing hats at Anna and Jason's house!

Mary, Emily and Ella

Playing Rock Band with Josh and Julie!

On the lake with Schader, Ladder and Holly

Getting tractor rides at Schader and Ladder's party

First week in the USA!

Well we have made it to the USA!  We have already been here a week and are having a lot of fun!  We have definitely experienced a lot already! 

Here is a little bit of what we have been up to.

We arrived last Wednesday the 30th and got settled in our apartment! The next day we just had a relaxing day grocery shopping and hanging out with my Mom and Johnny.  (We had her famous lasagne..yumm) On Friday we had our "Fun day with Mom"!  Since Mom is letting us use her car the whole time we are in MN we decided that as a thank you to her we would plan a fun day just for her.  We took care of all the expenses and arrangements so she just had to ride along and enjoy the suprises.  The activities included.  Morning: Hitting a bucket of balls, picnic at the lake. Afternoon: Boat ride on the Mississippi and nap time (we had an interesting time getting to the boat because of all the blocked off roads due to the Taste of Minnesota...but we were guided through by security guards and just made it!) Evening: Dinner at"Big Bowl", a little shopping at the mall and a movie in the park at Lake Harriet Bandshell.  The movie showing was Grease-The sing-a-long version".  It was basically the regular movie with karoake like subtitles so everyone could sing along.  And boy did the whole park sing along...it was so fun!!  We didn't get home until almost midnight after driving around the whole lake...oops, but it was an amazing day!

Lake Harriet Bandshell

Saturday was another shopping day and we splurged at the mall! Then Sunday (The 4th of July) we headed up north to McGregor, MN to be with some of our friends.  Anna and Jason's family has a cabin on little lake up there so we joined them and their family/friends for a beautiful July 4th celebration.  Here Soren tried Water Skiing for the first time and did really well.  In the evening we went to see the fireworks at a bigger lake in the area.  It was a lot of fun decked out in our patriotic sweaters!  The only negative part of the whole night was that as I was sitting on a long bench, all by myself, I felt myself sliding and BAM! The bench collapsed right under me and I went flying backwards towards the fire! Luckily my self esteem was high enough to not make me think that I was a total loser so we all just laughed and laughed!

After 2 days up north we came back to the Twin Cities, packed and headed off on Tuesday for Florida to visit my Grandparents. We had a delayed but safe flight, got our rental car and made it to my Grandparents house around 4:30.  We had an amazing dinner and caught up! The next day we went golfing.  Our tee time was ay 9:10am but even so it was very warm already! But we didn't let it bother us! We didn't have our best games ever but we sure did have a lot of laughs! In the afternoon we went to the beach (On the Gulf of Mexico) to cool down.  For dinner we went to "Outback Steakhouse" and had great food....(I had the meat-iest meal you could imagine and Grandpa has some cheesy soup that kept us entertained)  Then today (Thursday) we took a boat tour at one of the State Parks here in Florida and saw lots of wildlife.  The most exciting was seeing all the alligators!! We spent the rest of the day at the pool!  Now I am writing while we are just about getting ready to eat dinner, so I better go... But stay tuned for more information about our adventures in Florida and Minnesota.  Tomorrow we are headed to Disney World and then further to Cocoa beach for a little 2nd honeymoon!

June in Denmark

This past month has gone incredibly fast.  Probably because our daily routine has been so different.  June is the month of exams and that means that Søren has had"studying-vacation" for most of the month.  He had 2 exams where he had to write an assignment and then go to the exam and tell about it.  He did very well, recieving the 2nd highest grade you can get in both exams! (10 in the Danish grading scale!)  Exam month meant for me that I was a guest examinator at different schools around Denmark. Every day was different and it was fun to see how all the different schools run.

Otherwise we have had some very fun weekends here in June.  The first weekend we went to visit Søren's Dad on the Danish Fathers Day.  We had decided to play golf at the course where they are members.  It was an absolutely beautiful and HILLY course.  It was physically difficult to walk the 18 holes as the sun was blaring down on us...in fact it took 4½ hours! But it was very enjoyable and we had a lot of fun!

The next weekend I had to work a 37 hour shift! It was long but luckily the students were very happy and fun to be around.  The best part of the weekend was playing a kickball tournament. Although the Danes don't know the game of kickball, I was able to teach them the basic rules so we could all have fun.  That weekend Søren was kind of a bachelor.  He hung out with the neighbor boys next door playing golf and grilling with them.

The 3rd weekend in June we had the annual Madsen Family Weekend.  This year they had rented an old farm house on the island of Fyn.  It was restored but you could still tell that part of the house used to be the stalls for the cows etc. It was pretty neat!  The weekend was filled with various activities.  A walk out to a small island, Soccer-golf, watching the World Cup (Denmark won!) and lots of food!

Then finally just this past weekend we finally began our summer break.  There was a farewell party with the students and their parents on Friday, and after cleaning up we headed out of town with our friends Thorkild and Janni.  Our good friends Rasmus and Maja were getting married on the other side of Denmark, so we rented a cabin in the area and stayed for the weekend.  We didn't get to the cabin until midnight but then we could just relax and chat because we didn't have to drive so far in the morning!  The next day was the wedding day! It was a fantastic day! Great weather, great food and a beautiful couple!  At the party we entertained the guests with a small skit and quiz and said some sweet words to them at the end.  We didn't get back to the cabin from the wedding until almost 4 in the morning so we crashed pretty quickly and didn't wake up until 11.30 the next morning!!  Before packing up and leaving we made a fabulous American brunch that kept us full for the ride home!

Us at the wedding!

So yeah, now we are just doing the final preperations for our trip to the USA on Wednesday!!!!  It is great to be on vacation and we are looking forward to seeing family and friends and being able to relax!

Other notable updates:

1) The house that we were very interested in is now SOLD---and No, not to us!  We recieved a call, just 2 days after we looked at the house for the second time, telling us that the house was sold! The realator had not even informed us that there were others looking at the house...hmmm. at little fishy, but I guess that wasn't the right house.  We are still keeping our eyes open for other houses on the market, but for now we are happy with where we live!

2)...well I guess there was only one!!!

Galla evening at school

Søren thought it was strange and had to take a picture of the trail-mix I made!

Maj - May

Well once again a month has gone by and all our readers have not had an update in awhile...so here is what's been happening since last time!

Good weather has finally come and Søren and I have been out on the golf course more and more.  We are both improving and it is a pleasure to see.  I am now finished with the golf lessons and theory classes and have gotten my Danish Golf certificate so that I can play on all the golf courses in Denmark.  Additionally I have also played in my first official golf match and I WON!!! I won 2 bottles of wine for shooting 10 under on 9 holes (with my handicap!)  This success has been a big help in keeping me motivated and my handicap just keeps getting lower and lower! Søren is also playing much better and the balls are flying a lot straighter!  I guess practice does make you better!  And maybe it is because I got a new golf set, it is just a cheap beginner set but I like it a lot!! Just yesterday we played 18 holes with Søren's dad and girlfriend at their home course.  It is an absolutely beautiful course, with lots of hills and a beautiful view of a large lake from nearly every hole.  It was a long and grueling round but we played pretty well and had a lot of fun! It was great to get out on a different golf course for a change! 

In the beginning of May we held our annualy SPRING CONCERT/PARTY at school.  During the day former students gather for a small reunion at the school and we get the chance to say hi to students we haven't seen for awhile.  Then in the evening there is a big concert where the students get a chance to show off all the things they have made and learned during the school year.  Art projects, furniture, prom dresses and motorcycles are displayed from the more creative students, and there is also a lot of music.  Our bands played, the choirs sang and Sørens drum students had a big STOMP number.  It was a lot of work but was also a huge success....we were very proud teachers!Link to pictures from the Concert

The day after the Spring Party I played in an orchestra concert with my "old" orchestra.  I had been asked to help out to make a more full horn section.  As it turns out I was given 2 solos as well... (cause the permanent members didn't want them)  They were quite difficult but it went well and it was fantastic to challenge myself again.

Another very exciting and crazy thing going on for us right now is that we have begun looking into buying a house!  It was already been a long process of trying to figure out exactly where we want to live, how big the house should be, what kind of things we are important with a house, how much we can afford, etc. We have made Pro and Con lists and spoken with some friends and family about the issue and we are coming further in the process.  Right now we have our eyes on a nice smaller house from 1980 in a very small town between our work and our church.  It has a decent sized back yard and it feels nice and open while still having the cozy feel of a neighborhood.  We have gone to look at the house 2 times already and we are still pretty excited about it.  So now our next step is to see if there are any major things wrong with it.  I guess we will see what happens when we get some questions answered form the report.

We have had a lot of time to think about the whole house issue because there are so many holidays in Denmark in the Spring.  We get multiple days off for Easter, for Pentecost...etc. During the Pentecostal break we had our annual family outing with Søren's sister, husband and kids as well as his Mom. This year we decided to go to DanFoss.  DanFoss is a Danish Laboratory/Science company but they have made a science musuem type place for families to come and try out experiements and see the world of science in a hands on way.  We had a great time being together and enjoying the nice weather.  One of the activities was riding on Segways.  The wait was very long but also a fun experience.

As the school year is coming to an end things are getting pretty quiet.  Last weekend we had our last big project of the year....making a Memory-CD.  Every year the music students get to pick which concert songs they would like to have on the CD and then we record them.  The rest of the students are also involved in requesting songs, making the CD cover and singing the School Song of the Year which they have sung many times throughout the year. The project was a little more exciting this year than normal becaue Søren and I had decided to record the CD ourselves.  The other years we have had a semi-professional recording tech come and do the recording and mixing, but this year we thought we would take on the project ourselves and save the school and students quite a bit of money!  There were a few glitches in the start but once we got going it went really well and it is now sent off to be copied! We are looking forward to seeing the final product in a week or so!!

Otherwise school things are pretty slow.  We had our last regular day of classes last tuesday and now it is just time for oral exams!  I don't have any of my own students I have to hold exams for, I just have to go out and be a co-examiner for some other teachers so it is pretty laid back for me right now. Søren is also in the middle of exams having to write some papers and then go to an exam and explain his ideas more thouroughly.  (That's the best way I can explain it because the exam system is nothing like it is in the States :) )

We have a count-down to USA going..only 24 days now!! We will be in the US for almost 5 weeks and we can't wait!!


Here are some pictures of our little garden again this year.  We have added some herb plants and look forwards to using them!

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!