The Cullingfords: March 2008

Sunday, 23 March 2008

Flooding

Because of where we live, there are often flooding after a big storm is over. We took some pictures as this was some of the worst floods we'd seen so far...

I liked this in particular... the thought of someone camping here...

This is the harbour. Luckily our side never gets flooded as it's that bit higher.

The harbour again. Joshua was dying to go jump in the "puddle".

The road that now ends under water...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008

Joshua loves making things at the moment and comes up with all these projects himself like making a big aeroplane with papers and about a million stickers or sealing up kitchen roll insides with things hidden inside... This was his latest idea... He's made a collage at preschool with a picture of a car on it, but when he came home re ripped it off and told Quentin to cut out the windows and put a string on either side...

More views...

This evening at around six, I had to go out to the shops, but before I could get in the car, I had to take these pictures because the light just made everything look so pretty.

Fencing(!)

For christmas my parents and Quentin got me a one-day fencing course, not as in the sport (though that sounds quite fun too,hmm, maybe anidea for next year...) but as in actually building willow fences. It was fantastic! It was obviously outdoors and the weather was beautiful. There was only three people on the course, so the teacher had lots of time for each of us. I can't wait to build one (or seven...) in our new garden.

Among others, we learned to build these types of fences:

While I was doing that, Quentin and the children went to Odense Zoo (my course was in Odense) and had a great time too. I'll get Quentin to post some pictures, He took 150, so I'll let him pick the best ones!!!! (As you may have guessed he just bought a new camera phone...)

Sunday, 9 March 2008

Saturday out

Yesterday there was an easter market across the road on the harbour. There were two sheep with three little cute lambs that you could feed with bananas and stale bread. Erin thought it was the most hillarious thing because the big white sheep kept passing wind as she stroked it...

After lunch, we decided to go for a drive out to a school where they have the most amazing play ground. It's open to the public whenever the school is closed and the children could have spent a good few hours there. The only thing holding them back was the fact that their parents got cold and wanted to go home... someone should teach them to dress according to the weather...

Why didn't we have one of these when I went to school?! ...(-maybe because they would have never persuaded me to go to class...) Joshua: "it won't go too fast, will it?" Wendy: "No no, hold on tight!"

I love this picture, -where are Quentin's legs?!

-Oh, there they are...

I'm glad Quentin had put the camera away by the time I had to make my way out of that thing...!

Quentin and I kept getting the feeling the playground was built for children... it was just too tempting though, you can't see from the pictures but the playground was HUGE. They even have guinnea pigs that the children take turns looking after.

Dates

Working night shifts means I work seven nights then have a week off. On my week off last, I made "dates" with the children one at a time where I took them out of preschoolfor the day and they decided what we did. Joshua and I went ice skating and Erin wanted to do girly things at home. Here she is, waiting for the nail varnish on her toes to dry...

Sunday, 2 March 2008

Stake conference weekend in the Århus stake

This weekend is stake conference in our stake. Unfortunately I am on nightshifts and so was unable to go. Quentin took the kids to the meeting today though and has been looking forward to spending the day with them for a while. I prepared them a packed lunch and he took their duvets and is making a real day out of it with them (they have to travel for a couple of hours).

After waking up, I spent my afternoon reading the Liahona, which I think is really excellent this month. For those of you who haven't yet read it or have forgotten to renew your subscription to the Liahona / Ensign, the links where you can read them online are: for Danish: http://www.mormon.dk/data/tidsskrift/liahona/2008/liahona_2008_03.pdf

and for English: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ccb1d48fa58db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=33acd9ab50758110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&locale=0

Welcome to our blog

Well, we've been in Sønderborg for a year now and time has really flown by!

We've bought a house in Augustenborg, which is a village 8 km from Sønderborg. It is also right near the water and is on the island of Als. We can't wait to move in on May the 15th.

Joshua will be starting preschool in Augustenborg when we move and for the first time he'll be going without his big sister to look out for him. He clings to her quite a bit, so we're happy that there's a little boy he knows from church starting at the same time. Hopefully he'll settle in well and make friends of his own quickly.

Erin will be starting school after the summer holidays and all the children starting this year, will be spending the summer at the school (in what's usually the after schoolclub -SFO) so that they have a bit of time to get used to each other and the school. It's very good timing for us as they start there in May, -right when we move anyway. It saves Erin a move or us driving her from Augustenborg to Dybbøl every morning.

The kids are growing so fast it seems at them moment and they are really looking forward to spending some time with nana and grandad this spring (we're looking forward to them brushing up on their English too...) and to going on holiday to mormor and morfar's on their own this summer.

Quentin is still enjoying working as a physio and still travels to Aabenraa every morning. He is also the branch mission leader and the nursery leader. The primary president loves him and thinks he is brilliant in that calling... He is incredibly creative in the way he teaches the children and they all love him and their lessons. He says he loves teaching a class where the students' vocabulary doesn't exceed his own:-)

I am the primary president and am still enjoying that very much. I have an amazing councillor who makes my calling a breeze and the children are (mostly) just lovely.
I am working night shifts at the old people's home, which I do enjoy, but I keep looking for other, more creative work and would love to do something else.

Apart from that, there's not much going on in our lives and we quite think it's plenty, really...

We are looking forward to you all coming to visit us in our new house when we've settled in.

2007

As you may know we moved to Sønderborg, Denmark earlier this year. February to be exact.
Quentin had just finished his MSC in physiotherapy in Southampton and with it being so hard to get jobs in England because of all the NHS cutbaks, he also applied to one here in Denmark. We'd always thought it would be fun to move here for a while and thought there'd be no better time than now while the children are still small. It was still a hard decision though and one which involved lots of praying.
We are so happy to be here though. We had originally said we'd "give it at least two years", but Quentin keeps extending that lol. I think that must mean he's happy here:-)
He's working hard at a private clinic and is doing really well there. I am so happy that he is able to do the job he has always wanted to do.

He also takes Danish classes twice a week in the evening and we are all impressed with how quickly he is learning. I'm sure it has a lot to do with his perseverance in speaking Danish even to people he knows speak English very well.
Apart from that he is the branch mission leader (okay, the meetings with the elders are in English for the moment being...)

The branch here is tiny (when we first walked into the sacrament meeting Erin thought it was Primary) and we were a bit worried about that, having always belonged to big wards. It is a very different experience and we have to give lots of talks etc, but we actually really love it. The branch is made up mainly of young families and a few elderly people. The children have made some great friends at church and so have we.

I have been working part-time as a home help, but stopped a couple of weeks ago. I would really like to do something creative and somehow utilise my education, but for the moment I am just enjoying being at home with the children and having the time to do the things I want to. I do start working as a substitute next week, but that means I can choose my own shifts and with the shift hours I still pick the children up between one and two. I am also the Primary president at church. We have about 12 children who come regularly and they are so good to each other. The older ones always play with and look out for the little ones, so being the Primary president is a pleasure.

Erin and Joshua go to the same preschool (børnehave) and love it. Joshua likes having his big sister with him and mainly play with all the "big girls". They also go to gymnastics, which seems to be something everyone does around this area, so we see all the children from preschool there every Monday night as well. They really enjoy that too. Erin chose an all pink and shiny gym outfit, which happened to be the same one half the girls had chosen too, so they all run around as chubby flashes of pink and think they're ballerinas. Joshua keeps telling me how fast he runs at gymnastics and loves going so much. They both think Mondays are the best because there's preschool, gymnastics and then Family Home Evening.

The Cullingfords