Sunday, 10 January 2010

2009

Well at least I got to update the blog within a year of the last post (just!) that's one less thing to feel guilty about not having done.
So since I last wrote as I'm sure you're all aware, we have found out that we are expecting another baby boy. There's been quite a bit of a baby boom in our family as with this one and Nadja and Ben expecting all of the married children of my parents and Quentin's mum will have had a baby within one year!
The children are so excited about their new brother and can barely wait the last six weeks untill he's due (mind you if he's as impatient to see the light of the world as the others were, they might not have to wait that long).

Of course last year Quentin's dad also passed away and this of course made 2009 a difficult year for the family in many ways and makes us feel like we're further away from Quentin's mum than we really like. But we are really grateful for the way the family has supported each other and the help of lots of dear friends also.

We are still happy to be living here in Denmark though and continue to try to get the work on the house done. We've just had a window reduced in size ready to put up a wall in order to make an extra bedroom for the baby. And I am extremely good at starting projects and am still working on our willow fence and reupholstering an old sofa we bought second-hand.

I've had a much easier pregnancy this time, which means I've put on lots of weight and have been able to carry on my studies. I am hoping for an easy baby so that I can finish this Summer. I feel so blessed and lucky to be pregnant and also able to study something which I really enjoy and I know it's only possible because I am married to someone as supportive as Quentin, who lets me be lazy in the evening when I feel exhausted.

Quentin is still working at the same clinic and continues to enjoy it. He rarely takes a lunch break and I think he is doing really well. He was recently invited to give a talk to the Parkinsons Society and did so in Danish. They've also asked him to write an article for their magazine, but he's a bit more hesitant about that. But it really shows how well his Danish is coming on!
He doesn't usually get home until 6:15 in the evenings, but on Fridays he has an early day and usually picks up the children, so I can stay in college an extra hour and we love starting our weekends early Friday afternoon.

Erin and Joshua are both doing well. Erin loves the new world that being able to read opens up and nearly all the games that she and her friends come up with involve reading or writing something. She loves spending time with her friends and still goes horseriding, plays football (though I think she'll choose something else next season) and does gymnastics.
Joshua is getting really excited about starting school this Summer and has finally started showing an interest in writing. He loves doing gymnastics with Quentin and makes paper aeroplanes out of every scrap of paper he can find. He constantly thinks up questions we have to look up the answers to in books or online about how certain engines work, what metals are used for different things etc.

We are looking forward to lots of good things in 2010 such as of course the arrival of the baby, seeing some of you at his blessing, Erin's baptism, hopefully getting some projects finished:-), me finishing school etc and all the surprises that the year will bring with it too.
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2 comments:

Campbell said...

Hvor er jeg glad for at du opdatede jeres blog. :D
Og meget glad for at du puttede den 'pregnancy ticker' paa. Jeg gaar tit og taenker paa hvor mange uger du nu er.

10 January 2010 at 22:03
Wendy and Quentin said...

Det glemmer jeg også altid:-) Ikke helt som første gang, vel. der vidste man nærmest hvor mange dage man var henne:-)

11 January 2010 at 05:24

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Crabs and Star fish

Crabs and Star fish
One of our most favourite things to do is to go to the beach at the end of our road and catch crabs and star fish. Erin and Joshua are little pros at it now. They both crack open their own mussels, attach them to the line and drop the crabs in the bucket. The girl in the blue dress is Erin's friend from church. They love playing together and are so similar, both in looks and temperaments.


Views from around our house

Views from around our house
We love the area we live in and Quentin can't stop taking pictures of the harbour whenever he walks across the bridge, we must have a million and in fifty years time, Sønderborg city council will propably contact us about copies for their records of the city... This was taken with our mobile.

The beach at the end of our road -we feel very lucky!

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.

The historic hills behind our road by Dybbøl mølle (mill) are the perfect place to fly kites before bedtime... Afterwards we like to roll down the hills -All except Quentin who usually ends up feeling queezy.

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.