I'm pretty sure it will look pretty good, once it's lit up. I will take a picture to prove it! :)
Now it's time for bed! Until next time....
Thursday, November 4, 2010
More Crafts
Wow, who thought I would turn into a crafty person. I didn't. But here I am, alone on a Thursday night, being all crafty. I made the second lantern in my life (The first I created was in Kindergarten almost 20 years ago). On Thursday next week the Germans celebrate St. Martin's Day (a Catholic saint) where children walk through town carrying a lantern. Thinking Johanna would be so proud walking in big group of kids with a lighted lantern, I made one. A friend of mine got the material and we planned on being crafty on our play date. Well, the kids did not feel like letting us be crafty so we ended up not doing anything, leaving the work for tonight. Spending an hour with construction paper, transparent paper, scissors and glue, I managed to finish this beautiful piece of art:
I'm pretty sure it will look pretty good, once it's lit up. I will take a picture to prove it! :)
Now it's time for bed! Until next time....
I'm pretty sure it will look pretty good, once it's lit up. I will take a picture to prove it! :)
Now it's time for bed! Until next time....
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Welcome back!
Hi friends and family!
Long time no see! :) Yes, we have away for too long, but we got too busy, first with Johanna (born in May 2009) and now with Michael (born in September 2010).
Here they are with their great-grandmother
I also got my quilt (which I started my freshman year of college) back. Thanks to Lola Crawford (my sister-in-law's mother) it is now finished. Hooray! The front was completely done, all that was left to do was to add the padding and combine it with the fabric for the back! Somehow I couldn't manage to finish this in my following three years of university. But now it's done and receiving it felt like Christmas and my birthday together!!
Have a look! Don't you just love the colors?
Well, this is it for now, as I have to fix lunch for Johanna. She is really hungry!
Long time no see! :) Yes, we have away for too long, but we got too busy, first with Johanna (born in May 2009) and now with Michael (born in September 2010).
Here they are with their great-grandmother
I also got my quilt (which I started my freshman year of college) back. Thanks to Lola Crawford (my sister-in-law's mother) it is now finished. Hooray! The front was completely done, all that was left to do was to add the padding and combine it with the fabric for the back! Somehow I couldn't manage to finish this in my following three years of university. But now it's done and receiving it felt like Christmas and my birthday together!!Have a look! Don't you just love the colors?
Well, this is it for now, as I have to fix lunch for Johanna. She is really hungry!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Recap - Engagement
So, it was on April 1st last year, that Jules proposed to me! :) What a day......
When I arrived at the Portland Airport after a tough weekend of racing, I had no clue what would happen later that evening. I was really exhausted, tired, sun-burned, and just wanted to go to bed. I also did not feel like changing into a nice skirt....but Jules begged me, so I changed quickly in the airport toilet....
I was waiting anxiously for my luggage, and finally I stepped outside where Jules was waiting with this sweet ride:
When I arrived at the Portland Airport after a tough weekend of racing, I had no clue what would happen later that evening. I was really exhausted, tired, sun-burned, and just wanted to go to bed. I also did not feel like changing into a nice skirt....but Jules begged me, so I changed quickly in the airport toilet....
I was waiting anxiously for my luggage, and finally I stepped outside where Jules was waiting with this sweet ride:
We drove to Jase and Jennie, Jules' oldest brother's house and there we had a nice family dinner. We had bread, cheese and meat, the German way and I felt very much at home. Still, I had no clue, about Jules's plan and neither did most of the family. Jennie was making jokes about being pregnant because it was April 1st.... :)! Judge, Jules' nephew (5 years old at the time) was still up and said that he wanted to give me flowers as well, so Jules went outside and pretended to help him! A few mintues later they came back, with a wonderful Swan vase with roses and the ring was hanging on the swan's tail....
However, I hadn't seen the ring, and I was really suprised that Jules got on his knee.....now I was totally overwhelmed. He proposed in German at the dinner table with all his family around, it was really special and personal, because nobody could understand what he was saying...I guess they got the idea of it though! :)
Then Jase took this last picture of the whole family and we had carrot cake with ice cream for dessert!!! It was a special day!!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
2008 - so much has happenend!
Hlello Friends and Family!!
Sorry, for not updating this blog in quite some time. I apologize for that! :)
We have been so busy in the past few weeks, well I should say months, with moving back to Germany, vacation in the US, finding a new apartment in Saarbrücken, moving from Ulm to Saarbrücken and for me finding a job! But to fill you in with the details:
1. We moved back to Germany in the middle of December. After cleaning our apartment for more than 6 hours, we were finally told, that we had a done a good enough job. To be honest, Jules did most of the cleaning, and I don't understand why the landlord wasn't satisfied, Jules is such a good cleaner!!! Anyway, we had had a good christmas in Ulm with all of my family.
2. On December 28th we flew to Portland, Oregon and visited friends and family. Unfortunately I was sick for about a week, so we could't do too much. But we visited most family members and quite some friends, and we were happy being back in Oregon! :)
3. On January 18th we flew back to Germany and started immediately looking for an apartment in Saarbrücken. The phone bill was high for about 3 weeks, and after looking at about 20 apartments we found one over our church. It's pretty small, but we stacked it with some IKEA furniture and we like it now! :)
4. The last task was to find a job! Jules will be finishing his thesis, found a doctor he can work with. I applied for several job and took a job at a consulting firm, called IDS Scheer AG. The company is a company, and does IT consulting services and I work as a translator in their sales service consulting center and in their global solutions department. It's too early to say, whether I like or not, but we'll see!
Well, that's what happened in our lives and hopefully I have more time to update this blog from time to time! :)
We miss you all!
Sorry, for not updating this blog in quite some time. I apologize for that! :)
We have been so busy in the past few weeks, well I should say months, with moving back to Germany, vacation in the US, finding a new apartment in Saarbrücken, moving from Ulm to Saarbrücken and for me finding a job! But to fill you in with the details:
1. We moved back to Germany in the middle of December. After cleaning our apartment for more than 6 hours, we were finally told, that we had a done a good enough job. To be honest, Jules did most of the cleaning, and I don't understand why the landlord wasn't satisfied, Jules is such a good cleaner!!! Anyway, we had had a good christmas in Ulm with all of my family.
2. On December 28th we flew to Portland, Oregon and visited friends and family. Unfortunately I was sick for about a week, so we could't do too much. But we visited most family members and quite some friends, and we were happy being back in Oregon! :)
3. On January 18th we flew back to Germany and started immediately looking for an apartment in Saarbrücken. The phone bill was high for about 3 weeks, and after looking at about 20 apartments we found one over our church. It's pretty small, but we stacked it with some IKEA furniture and we like it now! :)4. The last task was to find a job! Jules will be finishing his thesis, found a doctor he can work with. I applied for several job and took a job at a consulting firm, called IDS Scheer AG. The company is a company, and does IT consulting services and I work as a translator in their sales service consulting center and in their global solutions department. It's too early to say, whether I like or not, but we'll see!
Well, that's what happened in our lives and hopefully I have more time to update this blog from time to time! :)
We miss you all!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Lame Bloggers
Sorry friends and family.....we have been or I should better say I have been a lame blogger in the past weeks. However, I'm always waiting for Jules to bring home his USB stick so I can upload some new cool pictures. But Jules is very busy, so busy that he sometimes doesn't go to bed until 6am or later (and yes it happened more than once). Poor boy! I admire him because he works so hard and I think that he will turn in a very nice research report with excellent results!!
Anyhow, that is my excuse for not blogging.... I know lame, because I should have enough time on my hands.....since grad school over here in Sweden is not really challenging.
Well hopefully I can post some pics this weekend!
News: We are going back to Germany in less than 2 weeks! YAY!
Anyhow, that is my excuse for not blogging.... I know lame, because I should have enough time on my hands.....since grad school over here in Sweden is not really challenging.
Well hopefully I can post some pics this weekend!
News: We are going back to Germany in less than 2 weeks! YAY!
Friday, November 23, 2007
The Magic Flute
It's story time......
Once upon a time there was a little girl who desperately wanted to play the violin. So after some months of persuasion her parents finally agreed and allowed her to have violin lessons. Yes, I started playing the violin around 12 years ago. At the beginning I loved it, and with the years I lost the interest, mostly because I started rowing and didn't have time to do both well. I never brought my violin to Oregon, but I thought, since I stopped rowing, I could start again.
Shortly after arriving in Lulea, I had the idea of joining an orchestra to play with others. After some research and some friendly emails with the city information center, I was contacted by a guy with a really funny email telling me he had a little "Strak orkester" (String orchestra) and would love me to join. The next week Jules and I walked over almost 2miles to this little church where the orchestra was meeting. We were surprised with coffee/tea and cake. The Sweds call it "fika". It was a really small orchestra and the members were way older than me, but it was fun playing with them. After the rehearsal a woman told me about the town's orchestra that would be performing the opera "The magic flute" from Mozart in the middle of November. She told me that I was really good and that i should join them. So the next week we checked it out (Jules accompanied me, since I'm so shy). Long story short, they put me right in the 1st violin and I had to start practising on a daily basis. Most of the time, Jules would do the dishes and I would entertain him with (sometimes) nice or horrible violin play. After 6 weeks of practice the orchestra was (I wasn't) ready to perform in the big "Kulturens hus" (Culture house with a big auditorium) with the opera singers.
All I can say is that it was really fun and a real success!!!
Once upon a time there was a little girl who desperately wanted to play the violin. So after some months of persuasion her parents finally agreed and allowed her to have violin lessons. Yes, I started playing the violin around 12 years ago. At the beginning I loved it, and with the years I lost the interest, mostly because I started rowing and didn't have time to do both well. I never brought my violin to Oregon, but I thought, since I stopped rowing, I could start again.
Shortly after arriving in Lulea, I had the idea of joining an orchestra to play with others. After some research and some friendly emails with the city information center, I was contacted by a guy with a really funny email telling me he had a little "Strak orkester" (String orchestra) and would love me to join. The next week Jules and I walked over almost 2miles to this little church where the orchestra was meeting. We were surprised with coffee/tea and cake. The Sweds call it "fika". It was a really small orchestra and the members were way older than me, but it was fun playing with them. After the rehearsal a woman told me about the town's orchestra that would be performing the opera "The magic flute" from Mozart in the middle of November. She told me that I was really good and that i should join them. So the next week we checked it out (Jules accompanied me, since I'm so shy). Long story short, they put me right in the 1st violin and I had to start practising on a daily basis. Most of the time, Jules would do the dishes and I would entertain him with (sometimes) nice or horrible violin play. After 6 weeks of practice the orchestra was (I wasn't) ready to perform in the big "Kulturens hus" (Culture house with a big auditorium) with the opera singers.
All I can say is that it was really fun and a real success!!!
Norway
So a few weekends ago, Jules and I traveled to Norway with some french guys. Stephan, a really nice French guy, who shares the office with Jules, invited us along to travel the "Lofoten" in Norway. The Lofoten are made up of small islands in the North of Norway. The Lofoten are famous for beautiful sceneries with all the fjords and mountains. The Lofoten are 240km long and there is only around 60km from one coast to the next. Approximately 56,000 people are living on the islands working as fishermen or in the tourist branch. It is very peaceful and reminded us a lot of Oregon. This is a map of the Lofoten:
We took a ferry from Melbu to Fiskebel in the hope to see some killer whales who swim to the Lofoten each year in the fall. Unfortunately we were not lucky.Before entering Norway we crossed the Arctic Circle. It was really cold up there and not much later we saw a big herd of reindeers who were standing next to and on the road.
We also did some hiking, stayed in a original red little cabin, played lots of cards, and tried to learn French. :) All in all the trip was a lot of fun, see for yourself.
On our way back we stopped in Narvik, had an amazing burger and found this really cool road sign!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Blogging....so much fun
Thank you for all your comments on our blog. We love reading them and we love to hear from all of you! It also encourages me to keep up with the posting and telling you what is up with us in the far North of Sweden.
This past weekend, we had a lot of fun. We did some cooking with a few friends, Jules went to the Sauna for the first time in his life, and I think he enjoyed it! :) We tried a first try cake from Andreas, our friend. He baked for the first time a cake from scratch and it was so delicious.
Other than eating and hanging out with friends, we just relaxed and spend time with each other, reading books, talking and studying (but only a little bit)!
So Satin, this one is for you. No we are not living in the tiny red house. Unfortunately, I think it would be pretty cool. This was just a typical red house that we saw when we went to Gammelstad, the "old town" of Lulea. :)
So, I'm about to have lunch with Jules. It's a daily routine for us! Here is a schedule on what we do every day:
7:00 Alarm goes off
7:10 We finally get up
7:30 Jules exercises
7:45 Breakfast: fruit salad, bred, jam, tea, sometimes a breakfast egg (Jules loves them)
8:00 Jules leaves and I clean up
12:00 We eat lunch and drink free coffee in Jules' department
1:00 I go to class, either Swedish, CRM or foundation of e-commerce
6:00 We go home
7:00 After an hour of cooking (it still takes me a while), we have dinner
8:00 I practice the violin
9:00 We hang out, read, watch a movie, talk....etc.
10:00 We try to go to bed, read the bible, pray and have a good time
11:00 Time for sleep to be able to get up the next day again...... :)
Greetings to you all!!!! Miss you tons!
This past weekend, we had a lot of fun. We did some cooking with a few friends, Jules went to the Sauna for the first time in his life, and I think he enjoyed it! :) We tried a first try cake from Andreas, our friend. He baked for the first time a cake from scratch and it was so delicious.
Other than eating and hanging out with friends, we just relaxed and spend time with each other, reading books, talking and studying (but only a little bit)!
So Satin, this one is for you. No we are not living in the tiny red house. Unfortunately, I think it would be pretty cool. This was just a typical red house that we saw when we went to Gammelstad, the "old town" of Lulea. :)
So, I'm about to have lunch with Jules. It's a daily routine for us! Here is a schedule on what we do every day:
7:00 Alarm goes off
7:10 We finally get up
7:30 Jules exercises
7:45 Breakfast: fruit salad, bred, jam, tea, sometimes a breakfast egg (Jules loves them)
8:00 Jules leaves and I clean up
12:00 We eat lunch and drink free coffee in Jules' department
1:00 I go to class, either Swedish, CRM or foundation of e-commerce
6:00 We go home
7:00 After an hour of cooking (it still takes me a while), we have dinner
8:00 I practice the violin
9:00 We hang out, read, watch a movie, talk....etc.
10:00 We try to go to bed, read the bible, pray and have a good time
11:00 Time for sleep to be able to get up the next day again...... :)
Greetings to you all!!!! Miss you tons!
Monday, October 1, 2007
Our picture website
For more pictures, visit our picture website. We are trying to update it regularly.
http://picasaweb.google.com/julesdake
http://picasaweb.google.com
Our honeymoon in Switzerland
We had the time of our life, see yourself! It's not possible to explain in words, how awesome it was!
Me on our balcony
In Lucerne
Gorgeous view point somewhere in the Berner Oberland
The happy couple
Kissing on the mountain
Yeah we really hiked up there!
Me on our balcony
In Lucerne
Gorgeous view point somewhere in the Berner Oberland
The happy couple
Kissing on the mountain
Yeah we really hiked up there!
Jules and his blueberries..........
Jules found blueberries, they grow all over the forest here....I wasn't sure if they were blueberries, but I didn't marry an Oregonian for no reason....! Jules was SURE!
But now let the pictures speak for themselves.....
But now let the pictures speak for themselves.....
Life in Sweden
So, we have been in here in Sweden for now over a month and are adapting to our new home and country. We both have taken Swedish courses, but Jules stopped unfortunately, because he didn't like having the same class as me.....jk, he had too much work with his term project.
He has a very busy schedule that requires him to work 8 hours every day. So most of the days we try to get up fairly early, so he can start at 8am and can go home at 5pm. But you all know how it is, with the concept of getting up early, nobody likes it, and neither do we. So often he gets there late, and therefore has to stay longer.
I, on the other hand, don't have to work 8 hours a day, so I joined the gym. But don't get me wrong, I don't spend 8 hours in there. I thought a little exercise would be good, since I haven't worked out since May 13th, my last college race ever!!!
On September 24th, we celebrated Jules' birthday with some of his friends. I baked two cakes, and one of his friends, who is from Korea, brought some home-made sushi....mmh it was soo delicious! :)
So that's what's going on in the life of the Dakes at the moment! :)
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Greetings to everyone!
Hi everyone!
Here were are blogging.... :)! We thought it would be a good idea to start this blog thing, because it will be easier to keep in touch with everyone, although Facebook does a great job, too. :)
Anyways he we are, ready to blog about our life.
After our wonderful wedding on August 18, 2007, we had a great honeymoon in Switzerland with lots of hiking, swimming, enjoying the sunshine and 3 crazy guys. Yeah, that's right, we brought friends on our honeymoon. Chris, Conway and Monny came all the way from Oregon to celebrate our wedding with us, so we decided to take them along on our honeymoon. But guess what, now we get to come on three more honeymoons! :) Anyways we had a great time with them and we all had the best vacations of our lives.
A few days later we got ready to move ourselves to Lulea, North Sweden. Jules' master program takes him up here for one term. So now we are living in the very North of Europe, trying to learn Swedish and to adapt to another country & culture. The Sweds are friendly people who all speak very good English. However, the town is rather small and the university consists just of 6 buildings. We are approximately 300km away from the arctic circle so soon enough it will be dark for most of the day!
Anyways, we are hoping to stay in contact with everyone, and we'll be writing soon again with more details about our life in Sweden.
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