So, I am really bad at blogging, so I am not sure if anyone reads it anymore since I never update it, but I thought I would write anyways. 

We have been doing pretty good. Magnus has started his job and although not enjoying it, it is a job. I keep telling him it has only been a couple months and to give it a few more months before you determine to really not like it. He is talking about starting a leaf raking business, so if that gives you any indication on how much he doesn't like it - he is really not liking it. 

It is hard to see him depressed these days, but I am just praying it will get better. And if anything, once he finishes his internship we can always do something else. 2.5 more years and then we will be done with his whole schooling gig. 

I am doing pretty good, although last week was a hard week for me. We are TTC (trying to Conceive) and it hasn't been happening. Last week I thought for sure I was pregnant, but I wasn't and it really hit me hard -  I am not sure why, but it did. I thought It would be easy to get pregnant since it was very fast with Mika, but it isn't and so I am so hoping that it is in God's timing.  I really felt alone in this whole thing and wished for my family to be closer. I struggle with finding friends here that I can call "family".  I am realizing that family is very important and sometimes wonder if we made a mistake is staying here, but I really can't think that way and so I need to move on and put those thoughts behind me. So, all that to say, we are not pregnant yet, but hope to be soon. 

On a positive note we are looking forward to Christmas and having all of my family here, including my sister from Pak. Yippeee... that is very exciting and I can hardly wait. 

Mika is talking a lot these days and everyday something different comes out - it is very fun. But, he is also at the stage of really trying us, and that is hard. Discipline is hard! I am so lost as to how to really discipline, but I am praying that we can figure it out. Be consistent is all I hear, but where do you draw the line in what to be consistent with and what to just let go. We are to choose our battles too, so where is that line of being strict and being too strict? I pray we can figure this out, but man is it hard. 

So that is our little life right now, nothing too exciting. We are happy and doing good and healthy and that is a huge blessing....

so, my blogging has not been very good lately, but my wonderful Grandparents let me know that they really missed it, so I decided I better get with it.  

We have been very busy and our crazy life just seems to get crazier. We got back from Norway a month ago and we have been house sitting ever since. Every week we have had to move houses, which is a pain, but I am very grateful for a place to stay, so I will not complain. 

We are now staying at Green Bay Bible camp and working for our rent, which has been a huge blessing. Ever since we got back from Norway I have been working full time and Magnus has been daddy day care full time, which is fun to watch although I think Magnus is now very ready to get to work. He starts his new job at the end of the month and I will continue working pretty much full time until then.   We get our house that we have had for the past four years again this year, but not until the beginning of October.  So until then we will put our roots down at the camp. 

Mika turned two last week and he has just been so much fun. He is so in love with Hockey and cars that pretty much every other word is one of those. He is talking more and more every day and I am just so loving this stage.  Today he got on his car underwear and his Hockey Jersey and he headed out the door ready for town... I wish I would have taken a picture of that. It was the cutest thing ever. 

The crazy summer life of the M's...

   in Oregon playing with his cars (daily activity)
Magnus's Graduation in Canada 

  Mika in oregon helping Pappa with the firewood

I guess I should really update our blog, since it has been like two months... yeah, I am not that great at doing this whole thing, but I will try and do better. 

We are now in Norway, which was an awful, awful trip, but we are here and although it has been almost 10 days of sickness - I think we are on the right track to wellness. I am just so thankful that we have 5 weeks here to make up for the last couple weeks of "He.. double hockey sticks". The trip would have been great, but Mika was really sick, and I mean really sick. He could have been on a "World Vision" commercial I am sure of it. He had the flu, and it hit him hard. His eyes were so swollen and full of goo that most of the time you couldn't even see his eyes. His fever was very high, and I could not get it down and we were flying across the world. It was bad. His ears hurt him so bad, and his face was so sad and miserable. I felt like an awful parent and cried a lot during the flights. The worst part was that we had a layover in Zurich for 15 hours... All Mika wanted to do was sleep and so thank God, the airport there had a baby room with cribs and toys and everything you need to take care of your baby. So note to those traveling lots... Go through Zurich if you can. 

So maybe I should back track a little... Magnus finished school and then we cleaned and moved out of our house on the lake once again. May 12th we went to Oregon for a couple of weeks and had a great time down there catching up with family. Mika really enjoyed his Grandma and Auntie Nora. Then we came back up to Canada for Magnu's Graduation, which went really well and Magnus once again came away with the highest awards the college offers. The Governor General Award and the Bachelor of Business Award. We then do a road trip to Calgary to visit friends, which was Great! and then on to Saskatoon to visit some other friends. We left from Saskatoon to Norway. A crazy trip, but we are here now and enjoying the summer here in Norway.  Although a little too hot for me at times ( I am a coastal girl at heart I think ), it is good to be here with the family. 

So that is our little update, and I will hopefully put up more soon. 

I see the light at the end of the tunnel

  So, we are nearing the end... I can see the light! Magnus has only a couple more days of exams and we are FINISHED! Yippee.. I am so exited, 

although I can't get too excited because he has another two years of intense apprenticeship with more schooling ahead, but this stage is over and onto stage number 202. 

We have a few more weeks in our 1.7 million dollar home and then we will wait and see if we get to housesit next year. I really pray we do, and I am almost 

convinced we will. It has been three years, so why not another eh? God has blessed us so much and the great thing about living this way is that we have had the privilege to see God's faithfulness in our lives and his provision.  Every year that goes by my Trust in God builds, and I think that makes it worth everything. Which is a good thing because we have a lot of work ahead of us... Immigration, visas, somewhere to stay in the Fall, job for me and the list goes on. 

But until all that stress starts to pile on - we are going to celebrate Magnus's graduation and his finishing with flying colors.  Not sure how we will celebrate, but we will! Magnus and I had originally, back when he started school, talked about doing a 

cruise or an all inclusive trip somewhere just him and I, but I think we will have to save that until our 50th anniversary, when magnus will actually be making more then $30,000 a year. =) we are going to Norway though and that is as good as any all-inclusive trip to Caribbean, just a little colder maybe and the people speak Norwegian instead of Spanish, but the bead and cheese is diffidently better there then down south.

Spring is Finally here!!

Spring is here, and man am I happy.. It has been a long winter and it feels so good to feel the warmth of the sun. That is one thing I do enjoy about living where there is all the seasons because you really appreciate the Spring time and especially the Summer. 

We are doing well and Mika has been so good these days. He is doing really well at playgroups, and at church, and around other kids.  Things have really changed in that area and I am so proud of him. He has been a lot easier as far as discipline goes and not testing me constantly. I was really on him a lot last month and I think it paid off. He is now obeying and listening most of the time. I think he was just at that ripe age of really figuring out what he could get away with. I am glad I didn't let things go and was on top of it because it is paying off. Of course things could change quickly so we shall see next month.  He is such a boy and it amazes me how he  just loves anything boy. He is fascinated these days with motorcycles and bikes, he loves bikes, but he doesn't even know what it is??? go figure. And any big machine we see, like a backhoe or a tractor, he gets so excited! I don't need to ever take him to a zoo, I just need to go and let him watch a construction site for a while and that makes him so happy. I am constantly amazed at the built in attraction for cars and machinery in boys.. I am convinced there will be these things in heaven because I don't think guys can exists with out them.  

A lot of people have been asking us .... are we staying or going? And we are staying. We have made a decision to stay here due to many things, but that main thing is that if we were to go to the States Magnus would have to do another year of schooling (they require 5 years of university) and we just did not want to go through that again. Magnus would have had to start school now online and go through the whole summer doing a ton of course and we were just not all that excited about that when he is graduating here in a month. Also, we have great friends here and I just felt that when I think of Mika growing up, I want him to grow up around boys his age and families that I respect, and we have that here. There are so many boys his age and Mika already loves them.  Another area is the economy in the States is a little shaky and we just weren't sure if the Firm down there would still give us a job in September.  Magnus has a job here with a big firm, which has it's good and bad things, but in all I think it will be a good experience and a good resume builder. So, yes, we are staying in Canada and I pray it is the right decision. 

I never thought I would be happy the day my kid started hitting

                     

         

    

   

These last couple weeks have been so much 

better with Mika. Now I really think that he was still getting over being sick and that was why he was acting up so much. I think he was sicker with the measles then I thought. He is so good when he is sick that I have a hard time knowing how sick he really is. Also, I am understanding him more and accepting him how he is. Since he was such a easy baby I had it so easy, now I think I am actually having to be a mom and deal with emotions, and personality issues.  I sometimes still get overwhelmed and wonder how in the world I am going to deal with him, or train him to be a boy that sticks up for himself.  He doesn't know how to handle boys that pick on him or push him, he just cries.  I never thought I would be excited or ok with the fact when he starts to hit, but I am... He started hitting other boys at playgroup the other day when they got in his space. At first I was mad at him, but then I was like "yeah!"he is learning to stick up for himself. Of course, I still get on his case for hitting, but it is good to know that he can stick up for him self.  Yesterday we went to a playgroup and there were lots of kids there, and Mika was awesome!! I was so happy... he was actually a lot better then some of the others. He was running around and talking and playing and being so good. So I think things are looking better. He is still sensitive and unsure about other people, but at least Playgroups are looking better for us. Next week we start swimming lessons 2 days a week, so we are excited about that. Mika has a new word this week that he loves to say, and that is "Hockey". He was watching it with Magnus this weekend and then all of the sudden he blurts out "hockey", and now all he ever wants to do is watch hockey. It is so cute, he gets so excited when he is watching it. I guess he is a true Canadian, and he takes after his Pappa who loves hockey. 

Also, we have officially booked our tickets to Norway for this summer. It looks like we are going to be going there for most of the summer. We had originally booked them on airmiles for May when we were thinking of moving to Oregon, but now that we are seriously looking at staying here, we have changed them to July and August. We have now almost paid for the tickets with all of our ticket changes, but that is what you get for being indecisive.  We are really excited and looking forward to spending a lot of time with the Grandparents. 

"What goes around comes around"

So, it is true "what goes around comes around" ! It is a depressing day when you realize your wonderful, amazing, beautiful, bright, cute, adorable little toddler isn't really any of those. I finally accepted the truth that I have a tough toddler. He was the easiest baby ever to be on this earth I swear. Sleeping through the night at 5 weeks, and I mean sleeping through the night, always happy and content and never fussy. Then we reach the one year mark and that was ok, but now it is a year and a half and I have my hands full. My biggest issue is that he does not like other kids, and when I say does not like, I mean screaming and throwing fits when other kids come into his comfort zone. Other kids come and try to give him a hug and he freaks out! He is good at home, expect for his testing and stubbornness that I deal with a lot, but in public he is a nightmare, and that is hard for me. I love going to play groups and getting out seeing other mom's daily, but Mika can't stand it. He is very emotionally unstable for at least the first 45 min, and then after that he is somewhat ok. I am pretty sure Mika will never get invited to Birthday parties, and I am sure he is ok with that. I guess Magnus was the same way and so I blame it all on him. Magnus told me last night that he use to scratch kids if they came close, and I was like 'Oh boy I guess I have that to look forward to next - great' . At the same time Magnus turned out pretty good I have to say, and so that is what I hang on too. I was told that the super sensitive boys are the ones that turn out the best, and I have to agree. I keep telling MIka that I am going to spank the demons out of him, but I should probably not to so hard on him and try to figure out how to deal with it in a right way. Let’s just say I am planning on reading anything I can that deals with emotional disorders in toddlers, if there is such a thing. I still love him when we aren't in public though, and at home he is a cutie and I love him. I just fear that we aren't that popular and will never get invited anywhere, and it is probably true, but oh well.. what goes around comes around I guess.