My Father, a Tribute to a Kind Man

This blog post is going to be longer than usual, and even so, how can one summarize one's feelings and memories of a person within the pages of any medium. It's an impossible task as there are so many fond memories, so many things to say and so many little details about a person that makes them unique. Nevertheless, I am going to make an attempt to jot down some things about the wonderful man that was my father. Thus, I will focus on my most precious memories of him, and in doing so, try to give justice to the amazing person that he was. I also want to mention that this blog post is quite late in the making. My father passed away over two years ago, but until now I have not had the heart to finish it. As some of you know, I haven't blogged about anything else either, though maybe I should have - but it just didn't seem right to do so, before finishing this.

Who was my father? An American and yet not an American. He was born and raised in USA but in some ways he little resembled what some consider to be the American archetype. Of course, there is a lot to be said of archetypes - naturally, one cannot judge a person by their nationality alone, and nevertheless there are archetypes of just about every nationality there is. I guess archetypes say more about culture in general than it does about people. Nevertheless, many associate Americans with chattiness, that wasn't my dad - his personality was more laid back and less out there. He, like I, enjoyed listening and only chimed into a conversation when he had something thoughtful to say. He was the type who let his actions speak for him, but he wasn't shy or unsocial in any way. Instead, I would describe him as calm, mild mannered and empathetic. He had many characteristics of an introvert and yet he always seemed comfortable in crowds. He was in fact very easy going, and had a wonderful sense of humor. A person can be many things, I guess, and he had a complex personality - a rare combination of traits that made him unique and very loved. 

Other parts of the American soul, he had in spades. He was an alpha male in all the best meanings of the word - hard working, family oriented, a man of many talents and a great role model in many ways. He believed in self reliance and what he didn't know how to do, he soon found out, and made sure he did right. Anything from carpentry to cooking, he mastered, and since he picked up new things quickly, he did so quite speedily as he went along. Anything you asked him to help you with, he did, without a moment's doubt. Happily even. In that way he was the very embodiment of the American dream in its original form - he realized his dreams through hard work, and nothing seemed impossible to achieve with him around.

One of my first memories of my father is of waiting for him to come home from work. I looked forward to that every weekday. My mother would be in the kitchen cooking and I'd look out the window as soon as I heard the sound of a car outside, hoping to see the red Opel that he was driving. I'd ask, "is daddy coming home soon?" many times and my heart would swell every time that red Opel entered our driveway. I was always so happy to see him, and of course I'd run to welcome him home. Strangely though, what I remember most vividly today about him coming home is seeing the headlights bouncing off the garage wall and running to the window to see that red car. It's weird how memories work sometimes. 

Other early memories I have are of him reading bedtime stories for me, sitting on the floor beside my bed. I had a thick book filled with stories for each day of the year. "365 Bedtime Stories" it was called, but we didn't follow its almanack, and he would read several stories for me every night since they were really quite short - they were like a quarter of a page with a picture to go with them. I remember there was one about a princess called Aurora. That was my favorite (mainly because it had such a pretty picture) and he'd read it to me on many occasions without complaint. That was the man he was. Kind and gentle. He'd read to me every night even though sometimes he was so tired he'd almost fall asleep himself right there on the floor beside my bed, with my book in his hands. I still have the book somewhere, I'ts one of those things I'll always keep.

Of course I have memories that any daughter of a loving father has. Like the ones of him giving me a push so that I could ride my first bike (I couldn't start without him), of him taking me to ice skating practice and bringing hot chocolate that was always a little too sweet (he loved it that way) or of trying to coax him into taking a swim with me in the lake that we lived by (one of the coolest lakes in the country, brrr, I know now why he wasn't always so keen). Many little moments, that seem to have gone by so fast, where did time go?

I remember being fascinated with dad's camera. He had a DSLR and its many dials and buttons had me hooked. It was magical to me how he took so many nice pictures. Though sometimes I wished he'd shoot faster - as a kid I was always on the move and standing still for a photo wan't always what I had in mind. His interest in photography stuck with me though, I'll always associate photography with him, and all the many wonderful memories he captured in his view finder. I'm so glad to have them all, and I'm glad that he was not always behind the camera himself.

When I was a teen, I went through one of those awkward phases - who doesn't? I remember dad smiling at me often, and me being confused as to why. Like many teens I was confused about a lot of things back then. But now I know why he smiled, and I regret not smiling back very often then. What I wouldn't give for one of his smiles now. He smiled because he loved me of course, but as a self centered teen I was too stuck in my own little world to see it. Dad smiled a lot. Reflecting back, I think he was simply a very happy person, with a big soft heart. What a wonderful thing for a father to be.

When I married, dad walked me down the aisle to my future husband. Mom told me later how proud he was at that moment, thinking of that brings tears to my eyes. It was wonderful to have his large hand to hold on to, walking down to the beach where I got married, all jittery, emotional and with my heart pounding. I also love the symbolism of it - the most important male figure in my life handing over the role of protector to my husband. It is a beautiful tradition, feminism be damned - it's not about that to me. To me it is a show of trust, acceptance and welcoming my husband into the family. That he did, without a moment's doubt. He never questioned my choice of life partner, he loved my husband like a son and was happy to see us happy. That was who he was; a welcoming person.

When we moved to our house, dad, handy that he was, never said "no" when we needed help. I remember tearing out the old kitchen and building a new one with him, mom and my hubby. Dad was easy to get along with and he cooperated with such ease. Everything seemed to go smoothly with him around. Mom and I would assemble kitchen cabinets and drawers, and dad and my hubby would fit them together and attach them to the walls. My hubby would cut the floor tiles, dad would mix the adhesive cement paste, mom would scrape it on the flor and I would put out the pattern I wanted. We were a small, well oiled renovation team, and dad was my go to guy if I needed advice - he always had such wise things to say.

Dad was never one to pretend he was something he was not. I remember being on a trip with him, mom and my hubby, sitting in a restaurant just about to order some wine to go with the food. When the waiter asked what wine he'd like to order he simply said "nothing too expensive, they all taste the same to me". We all had a good laugh with him, it wasn't the most tactful thing he could have said, but it was so typical of him. He was not a fancy man, he was honest and down to earth, and he never minded laughing at himself. I loved that about him.

My father was a wonderful painter. He painted with oil and almost all the paintings at his and moms house were of his own make, beautiful and colorful. Sadly, he hardly painted anything after I was born - he only painted a handful of paintings that he made for me. I treasure them all. One of them was of a motif that is very close to my heart - a place from a book that I love. I always dreamed of having an interpretation of it on my wall. Having him paint it for me took the motif to a whole extra level of meaningful. He gave it to me on one of my birthdays, it was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes and I told him so. He replied that my reaction put tears into his eyes as well. We hugged and I stupidly tried to put a lid on my emotions, thus ending that wonderful moment. I love that painting, I love that memory, and I love that the giving of the gift affected him as much as it affected me receiving it. I will never forget how beautiful that moment was. 

Lastly, I would say that dad was stoic. He never burdened anybody, even though we would't have minded him doing so. Five years ago dad found out he was dying. Yet he never let on how it must have affected him. He simply kept on smiling, being his usual loving self, sometimes perhaps even more so. I remember visiting him and mom, walking into the front door asking "now, who should I hug first?", "ME!" he exclaimed in a happy voice as he jumped towards me and gave me a big hug. I will always treasure that moment. It was so unexpected and wonderful in every way. Dad knew he didn't have much time left with us, yet he didn't show any signs of self pity, mourning or bitterness. He treasured every moment and made the most of life, right up until the end. I hope to take that aspect of him with me, treasuring every moment life has to give, smiling my way through hard times, showing love towards my friends and family and aspiring to follow the wonderful role model my father was to me.

/MrsHjort

13 Hours of Christmas

So, as I was crazy enough to sign up for a 12 hour challenge on Daggerbay, here goes! Here's 12 hour of Christmas with our jolly, loud and exuberant family :)

8:24 
I wake up with my usual sleeping buddies, meaning Mr and this little lady, who continues to watch over my morning routines hehe. It's the morning of Christmas eve, which is when Swedes celebrate Christmas, and the family will come over in the afternoon - meaning, lots to prepare!

9:22
Rather than showing you a bunch of shots of me cleaning our house, I though I'd share this little Christmas favorite of mine - this knitted Santa my grandmother made me back when I was a child. She was a wonderful lady, who always knitted us beautiful things. I still get tear in my eyes thinking of how much love she pored into it all. I remember how she apologized for running out of the red yarn half way up the red coat of this wonderful creation. That was my Grannie haha,  I've always loved it... How I miss her!

10:06
Mr is the boss in the kitchen, he's so much better at it than I am and I'm very happy to let him run the show. He's a wonderful cook! I have to watch my weight with him around. It's way to easy to eat too much when everything he makes is so delicious. Here he is preparing one of the upcoming Christmas dinner dishes, and enjoying a Swedish Christmas drink - glögg (a sort of mulled wine, that we drink with almond flakes and rasens).

11:42
I've long since given up on trying to convince the rest of the family to restrict the Christmas prezzies to the children alone. Most Swedish families don't buy Christmas presents for everybody, you see, but do "secret Santa" or some kind of raffle instead, and some even do Christmas games where you have to win your presents. Not our family though, nope! We go above an beyond haha! This isn't even all of the presents, it's not even half of them! It's a big hassle to buy one for everybody - and I hate shopping - but I have to admit, nothing beats the atmosphere of antecipation and joy that they bring. The children can hardly keep their fingers away waiting, and we have to keep them from examinering the presents a little too closely.

12:01
Getting snow for Christmas in Sweden is more unusual than you'd think, or well at least it is where I live. I'd say the chance is about 50/50. You see, we live by the second largest lake in Sweden, and it helps keep the area warm in the winter. So, if you go up to the "highland" from where I live, you can go from this, to a whole lot of snow in a short distance. It's kind of nice in the autumn, because it delays the cold and keeps our streets free from ice a bit longer than everywhere else, but it decreases our chansers of a white Christmas, and it delays spring. Sometimes it even freezes over, and that's when you know spring will be unusually late. It's a very cold and deep lake... It's very rarely freezes though. Also, being so deep, it seldom gets warm enough for one to want to go for a swim in it - it takes a lot of time to heat all that water. It's beautiful though, and very clean. As you can tell, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship to it haha.

This is the view from our attic. The lake is in the distance, and, as you can see, we didn't get any snow this Christmas. There was ice-rain though, a lot of good it did us, ha!

13:02
The first guests arrive! My parents, always early and just as happy as you see them here. Sweden is like that. If you're expected to come at a certain time, people will show up right then, and not a moment later. Being more than 10 minutes late is rude, and it's better to show up 10 minutes early. Many of my friends from abroad shake their heads at that haha! But anyway, these are my parents. Swedish mother, American father. They met on a stroke of luck when on a holiday in yet on other country, and now here they are :)

14:10
I don't know how common these are outside of Sweden, but we eat these "prince sausages" every Christmas, along with loads of other traditional food, like meat balls, Jansons frestelse, herring, turkey and much, much more. It's where the word smorgasbord comes from - smörgåsbord. Since our family is kind of large, we do potluck. It would simply not work otherwise, and so each of the guests bring their assigned dishes, and, as hosts, we try to coordinate the best we can. That's where Mr comes in, and I'm very happy to leave all that stuff to him :)

15:58
This is Mr carving the Christmas ham. That's the super star of the Swedish Christmas foods and it's preparation is a science of its own. Mr has been experimenting for years to get it better and better. First you have to pick the right one, be it a pig or wild boar, then it has to be boiled and baked in so or so many degrees for this or that long. Mr has gotten really good at it - even I who don't particularly enjoy ham, like the way he makes it.

16:15
Tada! All the dishes are finally heated and ready! They're so many they don't even fit into the picture, that's not even mentioning the desserts. We actually forgot one of the dishes in the refrigerator this year - my mother's orange and walnut sallad. It's one of my personal favorites, yum! I cannot believe we forgot it.... eeeer well, okay then, yes I guess I can really, there are just so many dishes (and I've got a cold, so my head isn't quite screwed on right), so, it's a wonder it doesn't happen more often really haha. Oh well, it tasted just as good this morning as we ate some of the leftovers. That's a wonderful thing to have every Christmas day - lots of yummy leftovers when you're too lazy to make breakfast. We'll have leftovers for days, even though we sent all our guests home with food too!

17:27
After dinner things calm down a bit, and we all sit down, too tired from eating all the food to do anything sensible. Just like it should be. Food is half the spirit of Christmas in Sweden. At this point, we just sit down and enjoy each other's company, catching up about whatever and talking about nothing in particular. I really enjoy when the whole family gets together like this, both my side and Mr's. All the people I love under one roof, what could possibly be better? If the food makes up one half of Christmas, family makes up the other.

18:02
The Children's wait is over and Santa has finally arrived! It's all a bit weird though, as all the presents have been under the Christmas tree all day, haha, but luckily the children don't think of that. Mr was worried he wouldn't be able to fool them this year - the girl in this picture was a bit suspicious last year and suspected it was him under that white beard. So, he bought a better costume and though up a better cover story to explain why he had to leave all of a sudden. He was so happy when it worked! The magic of Christmas got to endure a year longer, yey!

19:19
It's desert time! After everybody has opened their presents, it's the perfect time for sweeties. In this picture you'll see two of the Swedish classics. First, there's the orange rice, which is not to be mistaken by rice a la Malta... seriously, don't! Or my father in law, who made it, will explain it to you, in full detail haha. That's actually also one of the traditions. Not a Christmas goes by without that particular lecture. He has also made the other sweet in this picture - the controversially named ball... Don't ask, I'll just leave it at that ;)

20:51 (bonus)
Our evening ends with Christmas quizzes. They're not usually about Christmas, or the same questions would pop up every second year or so, but about trivia in general. I'm the worst at that sort of thing! Mr though, won both of them, the brainiac that he is. Just don't tell him I said so ;)

So there you go! 12 hours of Christmas, plus one extra bonus hour. I've never made this challenge before, it was a lot of fun!

Merry Christmas everybody!

/MrsHjort

CCC - August: Calm Afternoon

I was very happy to win the August competition. It's the first contest of the calendar series that I've won this year. That's always a great feeling, but this was even more special...

You see, I got a new camera for my birthday this year. I turned 30, and my family had all pitched in and bought me a brand new Nikon D7100 together. They're just the best (thank you, thank you, thank you!)! This win, is extra special because this is one of the very first photos I shot using my new toy, it's the first time I tried the HDR function that I had been longing for, and it's the first one taken with my new camera that I entered into a competition. That made the win all the more special to me. It was so great to be able to tell my family about the win when they asked me how I liked my new camera :)

/MrsHjort

Day 20 - White Door

An other Saturday and we're hosting yet another birthday party. It's quite fun do get to celebrate my birthday almost the entire month haha. This time it's with my family. We had planned to invite them all earlier, but both Mr and I were sick back when we had planned to host the family dinner, so we had to cancel. We're still not 100% well, this dang cough just never ends, but we're definitely well enough to celebrate, eat cake and enjoy ourselves.

As usual Mr prepared my cake, and as usual he has outdone himself! He tries to make the cakes larger and more yummy each year haha. So, this year it's a 8 layered cake, with 30 written in blueberries on top, and a lot of fruit and berries inside. Yum yum yum! I'll try to take a picture and show you the masterpiece.

See you tomorrow

/MrsHjort

Day 7 - Portrait of a Hearty Mother

I've always loved this shot. It spot on shows just how this person is. I've never known quite what to do with it in post-ed though. It never occurred to me to try B&W, yet it proved the best choice - the building behind the subject is a bit too dominant, and this way it does not steal the attention away from her. It's much better this way.

So this concludes my week of square cropped black and white portraits. I was worried I wouldn't make it - not all pictures do well as square crops - but I managed to find seven of them. It's been an interesting challenge.

I don't know it the challenge will continue one more week yet, we'll see. But I'll keep the possibility in mind and have a think on what theme to go for.

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 2 - Portrait of a Sweet Girl

This is shaping up to be much more fun than I initially thought. I've never really enjoyed processing B&W before, but now I do! For this shot I started out from the Full Dynamic Smooth setting in the Nic Collection and tweaked it from there. I love how flexible things are with all those sliders, it's simply wonderful and it makes processing so much easier!

When I had gotten the contrasts the way I wanted them I added a slight burn effect along the edges and a discrete lens fallout. That gave me the B&W effect I wanted, but I ended up with some unwanted grain. After a bit of blurring and noise fixing I was back on track. Finally, I enhanced the eyes a bit. Not terribly much though, this sweet girl has amazing eyes, but a little dodging and burning brought them out even more (dodge the whites and reflections and burn around the outer edges of the iris using a soft brush). Done!

I may be bias, because I love this girl, but I think it ended up just beautiful, don't you?

/MrsHjort

Love, Fun and Color

True love is when your hubby calls you to say "Go get your camera! There's a Rainbow outside!" Mr does by no means share my interest for photography, so it was very sweet of him. He didn't even try to mess with me! You see, in our marriage, whenever the one of us is in a hurry or wants to end the call for some reason, the other will try to prolong the conversation in stupid ways, like faking sadness and asking "don't you want to talk to me?" or starting to ramble on about various stupid stuff. Weird I know, but that's us, we're constantly messing with each other like that haha. It's all in good fun.

Anyway, I was so glad to finally get to shoot some color today, and what could be more colorful than a rainbow? I have been longing to do colorful nature shots for a very long time now, and I just realized the reason for why I haven't done much processing lately. Winter colors are just too boring! Thankfully spring is just around the corner, but for now, I'll have to settle for this rainbow. Not half bad :)

/MrsHjort

17:57 - Right where I Left You

There just had to be a shot of Freya in the bunch. She's too much a part of the daily routine to skip. She's right beside my pillow as I wake up in the morning, she follows me around the house wherever I go, and she's always sitting in the window when I get home from work to welcome me home. Talk about loyalty.

Aren't pets wonderful?

/MrsHjort

Day 29 - Morning

This was one of those nights when I didn't sleep well. When that happens, I always result to that old trick of turning around 180 degrees, not from left to right, but from head to toe. And thus, this was the sight I woke up to this morning; Mr's toes, in all their glory!

Mr and I have our own little inside jokes about each other's feet. Mr is a football referee, so his feet are very rough. I playfully nag him about it and he repays by making fun of my, in his words, "nonexistent" little toes. I do have little toes though, it's just that they're kind of crooked and they fold in behind the toe next to them. Consequently, when I wear sandals, it looks like I have only four toes. I guess neither of us have very pretty feet haha.

/MrsHjort

Day 28 - Padlock

I love those bridges filled with padlocks symbolizing the love two people share. We don't have one in my home town though, instead I had to come up with something of my own. So, why not Mr's and my own padlock locked together :)

It's been eleven years now, since I met Mr. It's strange to think - time flies by so fast! Though at the same time, I cannot even remember what it was like before I met him. It's been eleven very happy years, and I just know, we're going to stay locked together forever :)

/MrsHjort

Day 25 - Shadow

I had been thinking of doing this shot all day, but when I got home Mr wasn't in the mood at all. "Oh come on, whyyyyyy?", was his response as I told him of my idea, and I soon gave up om coaxing him into being my model - he just hates when people take his picture and he avoids it at all costs.

Instead, I shot various small things lit from the side with a torchlight. I even tried doing this sort of thing with myself as a model, but I soon gave up because I just couldn't get the focus right by myself. It was just too frustrating this late in the evening, with my stomach roaring for food.

As I looked at the fruits of my work on my monitor, I felt very discouraged. None of the shots were up to my standard... What was I to do? "Alright then!" The sound or Mr's voice was music to my ears and thus I got my shot in the end. Leave it to him to save the day!

Thank you Mr, you are simply the best :D

/MrsHjort

Day 21 - Souvenir

As some of you know, Mr and I got married in Thailand, and for that reason everything Thai has always had a special place in out hearts. Our favorite restaurant is Thai, we make a lot of Thai food, there are many Thai knickknacks in our house and we have been known to listen to Thai music now and again.

This is one of my favorite souvenirs, though it's actually more of a piece of art. You'll fine this woodcarving in our living room, hanging next to the cabinet I shot back in day 4. It was one of those things I fell in love with at first sight. Mostly because it reminds me of that magical little resort where we got married. They had lots of pretty woodcarving there :)

/MrsHjort

Day 17 - Hand

Today, Mr and Morris are my models. I knew I wanted a hand holding something for today's word, and in order to crate a bit of symmetry to my poster I decided on cat hand, aka. paw ;). Neither of my models had much patience with me though - Mr sighed at my camera lens, which is kind of sluggish on automatic focus. "Just shoot already" he said whining as I tried to explain the process of shooting (it's not as simple as he thinks). Morris on the other hand wanted to bolt off to play. You see, all our cat's always freak out and run around like mad when we get home from work. Cranky Mr + crazy cat = good luck Mrs!

Fortunately, I was lucky! I got this shot quick, and I'm happy to say it turned out just the way I wanted too :)

I hope you like it.

/MrsHjort

Day 14 - Legs

Today's picture is of Morris, wearing white gloves and a black coat. He's a very stylish gentleman who always wears black and white - it's a very elegant and timeless type of fashion.

Needless to say, after yesterday our cats have gotten even more hugs and kisses than usual. And, today's word meant I just had to shoot kitty legs :).

So here's Morris - not rolling around on the chilies this time, but sitting in our window, keeping robbers and highwaymen away. He's really good at that! I've never seen either! He must scare them away with his stern glare ;)

/MrsHjort

Day 13 - Coat

Today's picture was really simple, both in shooting and editing. I simply hung Mr's coat on a hanger, used a garment roller to remove the cat hair and draped his scarf by the left breast pocket. Post-ed was real simple too - just some routine sharpening, contrast adjustments, color enhancements and I'm done.

Today has also been filled with ups and downs. The ups have been at work - things are going very well and I really like it in general. I just could not ask for a better boss or colleagues! The downs have been really heartbreaking though - my mother-in-law's cat had to be put to sleep today (from old age). So, needless to say, there has been a lot of laughter and smiles today, but tears and sadness too. My thoughts are with you today, Aila, if you're reading this. I send you all my love and hope you find the strength to move forward. Know that you're always welcome at our place!

/MrsHjort

Queen of Drama

I've always admired those who aren't afraid to show who they are, those who aren't scared to be different and who choose their own paths in life. They have always been my heroes.

It's never easy being different. Society has always been hard on those who are, which is sort of paradoxical when you think about it, because, we are all different. I find it hard to understand why some differences are harder to accept than others.

Very often people take things way too personally, whether it's about your religion, your diet, who you love, what you wear or what sports team you like. And when it boils down to it, what does our differences really matter as long as we are respectful to one and other? The way I see it, it's our differences that keep things interesting, that move the world forward and pave the way for change.

The free thinkers... may they always be there to challenge our convictions, to bring some drama into our lives and make things interesting! It would be so boring without them.

/MrsHjort

Devotion

I never get to shoot Mr, seriously, I don't, not for real. Oh, I'm not counting those times when he "lets" me. No matter what we try, he can't help but look totally awkward and tense. Have you've ever seen the episode of Friends where Chandler and Monica are taking an engagement picture? Well, that's exactly what it's like! So for me to actually get a good picture of Mr... it's a very rare thing indeed.

Shooting Mr, involves stealth and a lot of luck. Fortunately, I have a lens that lets me get in real close from quite a distance, which really helps in his case. That way I can catch him off guard, when he's relaxed and unaware. I shot this from 20 meters away, and I got really lucky! In my eyes it's one of those pictures that really defines him. It's a rare thing to succeed with that... just a picture of him, doing such an every day thing as watering our garden, but with the same care and devotion that he handles most things in life. Mr is a very caring man.

We've been together for 11 years now, and I'm still totally crazy about him. He told me recently that an acquaintance had asked him how long we had been a couple. When Mr told him, he said that he never would have guessed - we're still as addicted to each other as we was when we first met, and that is what I really love about us! It tells me, that no matter if 11 more years pass, or 22, or 33 for that matter, we'll still be the same, crazy about each other, just like a couple of teenagers.

/MrsHjort

Unsuspected Twists

I have a lot of reasons to be happy right now. Spring is coming, next week is Easter Break, I've finally worked up the courage to join BotS on W1K, and about two weeks from now I'm starting a new job.

For those of you who have never heard of BotS, the acronym stands for the Battle of the Strippers - it's a comic challenge on W1K. I've lurked around there and read the strips for a while, just like I lurked around in the other arenas on W1K for quite some time before I joined in myself. I'm really glad I finally joined though. As always, the other members are very friendly and welcoming, and if any of you funny talented fellow "strippers" are reading this, thank you for making me feel so welcome!

So, the job thing. Well it's sort of bitter sweet. I really like my current job. My colleagues are wonderful, teaching is a lot of fun, and it's so nice to get to know so many intelligent and charming young people. However, sadly, the life of a teacher can also be immensely stressful at times. That's one of the reasons I'm leaving, and I will get a lot more free time working for my new employer. Furthermore, I got a really nice offer, a great salary, tasks that suit me very well, and on top of that, I'll be working side by side with Mr! If you've followed my blog you'll know that we've done this in the past, and it worked better than fine. I've really missed working with him, and our quirky inside jokes at the office.

Yes, life certainly takes its twists and turns sometimes, it's really funny that way. About seven years ago, I got employed on an hourly basis at the office, a year later I had moved on to working full time at a meat packaging facility, that made me go back to school to study to become a teacher, after that I've been working as one and now, six years later, the circle is complete. I'll be back at the office again, but this time I was offered full time, and a raise! But the best thing of all, is how the people at the firm make you feel so welcome. It's like coming home to your friends and family. So even though I'm sad to leave teaching, and all my wonderful colleagues at the school, I'm very happy to go back to my old job. It's going to be great!

Wish me good luck :)

/MrsHjort

Happy Brithday Mr

Yesterday was Mr's birthday, the 6th of mars. That day an unspecified bunch of years ago was a very good day. It brought me this wonderful kindhearted intelligent man who loves strawberries and never lets the child in him die.

We've been married for 7 years now, lived together for 10, and I have to say that we're still ridiculously happy together. A colleague of mine recently said that assembling furniture from Ikea really tells you something about the state of your marriage, and I have to agree in our case. We've always been good at cooperating. Though we might be "cheating" when it comes to the Ikea analogy since we've both worked with assembling in the past.

In fact, an even better analogy would be that working in the same company as your spouse gives you a good indication of the state of the relationship. We've worked together in two different companies, and at one time, we even shared the same office, and we loved it! We used to joke around a lot, and sometimes we would have "post-it note ball fights". I guess we're both pretty childish at heart haha. But really, nothing says "I love you" like when you suddenly get a little paper ball thrown at you, and find a heart drawn on it as you unfold it.

So here's to Mr, my husband and mischievous best friend in one. I love you with all my heart!

/MrsHjort

Lil' Ms Sunshine

This is Rosie, I thought it only fair that she also got a blog entry, since Freya got one recently, and it's not hard to ramble about cats when you're a crazy cat lady (try and stop me!), so, here goes.

Rosie is the queen of our house. She expects to be treated like royalty, and she'll tell you if there's something she wants - like when she wants some fine dining. None of our cat quite have the power of persuasion she has, I simply cannot resist her when she runs, round and round in small circles around my legs, purring and miaoing in her special way.

You see, she has a very unusual way of "speaking" - it's more like a nasal "meeee meeee meeee" and let me tell you, it's adorable! If you ever try to imitate it, she'll respond very strongly to you - whenever Mr or I do it, she comes running, all happy and purring.
She's very special that way.

Rosie is also a bit of a scaredy cat. She's afraid of a multitude of strange things, ranging from Mr's black coat to anything that makes rustling sounds. When we first moved to our house, she moved into one room at a time, gradually getting used to the new smells and sounds.

Her favorite toys are hair bands, and they are especially interesting when they can be found on her mistress' head. It has come to the point when I cannot have them anyplace where she's able to reach them, because, with her nose, which will put the even best bloodhound to shame, she'll go sniff sniff sniff, and find them faster than I can say mischief.

I love my little queen, long may she reign, and may her days be filled with treats and scrunchies!

/MrsHjort