(ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl)

The airports in Finland opened yesterday for a few hours.

This morning, I heard they were opened again, then I learned that they were closed this afternoon.

This is all thanks to the volcano Eyjafjallajokull (a lovely name, if I do say so myself). We're now waiting to see what happens with the volcano Katla (much easier to pronounce). Hopefully, the airports will be open the 29th, so that we can still go to Spain, but if not, that they will be open in the summer so we can go home. I'm positive they will be, but I've heard some others say otherwise... and, of course, that keeps me calm. :/ oh dear.

Ah, completely stressed. :/

Happy Wednesday!

Centerpieces

Exciting news!!! My dearest cousin Jen is getting married!! <3 Everyone is ecstatic, probably Jen the most. And she has asked me to be apart of her bridal party, and to help out. So, my first task was to find a centerpiece. Me, as overeager as I was, got right to it, after receiving the "mission" this morning, and this is what I've found.
Okay, we'll start with this one. I think it's a simple centerpiece, but maybe too tall?But, by putting something around it would make it look smaller, and more "apart" of the table. And, my mother thought that if the lower part were hollow, that it could be filled with glass rocks, or petals, or something else just as lovely. :)
This is the first picture I found, and I thought it was gorgeous, but with only this, the table would look bare. So, sprinkle some lovely petals. Downside to this: it only has pink, but the colors could easily be exchanged for others.
Depending on what kind of tables are going to be at the reception, this setup has the brown, matching the tuxes, the pink, and the cream. (Also, the long wooden block doesn't have to be there...? or! a round wooden block. How lovely, just the thought of it. ;) )
This one has a bit more of a pop! to it color-wise... and the tree bark around the glass, I think it has some sort of purpose to it... but I would exchange it for a brown ribbon to be more "elegant."
Ignoring the other two, the pink and white roses are stunning in the glass vase and stones. :) Love it!
This is just a pretty picture I found!

This, I am not particularly a fan of, considering the flowers, but I wanted to show you how they used the mirror for a base, and the candles stationed at the corners, then the glass marble/stone/rock thingies spread out to cover a greater portion of the table... (but, not too far. We don't want little kids nibbling on those good-looking rocks.)

Point to Finland

When I last posted, the score stood at: America-176 , Finland-0

I am, of course happy--thrilled, in fact-- to report that since then, I have experienced the outside ice skating rink down the street. Point to Finland.

Over the past--has it been four months I've gone without posting?--well, in that time, we've celebrated several holidays, namely: New Year's, Valentine's Day, Kimmi's Birthday, Matilda's Birthday, April Fool's Day, General Conference Weekend, and Easter. :)

New Year's was spent at a Youth Conference, and that was an experience.

Valentine's Day, or "ystävänpäivä" (friend's day) was on a Sunday. Lovely!

Kimmi's Birthday-- happy birthday dearest kimmi!! You 16-year-old you!!

Matilda's Birthday:

This pic. is my favorite from my birthday!! The card is from my mummi (finnish grandmother), and I absolutely love it!! <3

April Fool's Day--...well, nothing really happened, except-haha! I did get merinda!!

-Merinda was staring at me with really wide eyes, and I told her, "Merinda, if you keep staring like that, the blood vessels in your eyes will explode, and your eyes will turn red." Then I proceeded to walk out of the kitchen. Merinda was terrified, and followed me. "REALLY?! But what about the people who do staring contests?!!!!?" hahaha.. oh, dear. That was good.

General Conference was wonderful! Just inspiring, and incredible! Loved it!

Easter--well, the second day of General Conference was on Easter, so we didn't have anything until 3. In the morning, we had an easter egg scavenger hunt. The kids (or, Jonathan, and Jusa) found the candy in the attic, in our suitcases.

One of the "easter foods" in finland is Mämmi. :) AH! How I love mämmi! It's hilarious since you ask other people, even Finns, and they'll tell you that they don't like it.

:) This picture was taken after I had been playing floorball, so I was all sweaty, and I decided to eat some mämmi, and my mom informed me that we didn't have any pictures of anyone eating the stuff, so I was the lucky guinea pig. :)

That pretty much brings you up to date on ...some things. :D

Next week is test week, and that will be a blast. ;)

Christmas Cometh Caroling

:) Well, hello everybody! :)

Haha, I don't know if people still read this, since I haven't updated in... well, a really long time. But, just so that I'm satisfied with myself at the end of the year, I'll write a new post. :)

It's the end of another term: this week is finals. Lucky me, I only have a math final tomorrow, and that's it, then Christmas Break! Yay!

I'm thinking of taking a swedish class next term, just so that I might be able to understand a little of what everyone is saying when they switch languages on me. :P blah. I'll also be taking two spanish classes (it was my mom's idea.. thanks, mom). I'll continue with math, yipee. Let's see. I'm going to see if I can take another art class. Love art. A+++++. :D

Other than school, I'm just really excited for Christmas. We'll be spending a few days in Helsinki with the rest of the fam. My grandmother rented a photo studio, therefore.. we will have a professional family photo. The colors are red, and a creamy white, and we all have to wear jeans. It'll be adorable.

Last Saturday, Merinda and I walked to a nearby park, and took some fabulous winter pictures.

We had a Christmas concert at church last Sunday, where I played in a trio of "Carol of the Bells". It was fantastic. Merinda played the recorder to Silent Night, and Jonathan sang "Holy Night" and "Homeless", as a solo, then "Homeless" with an a cappella group.

Yesterday, no school, so I spent a few hours at the shopping center, then I went to pick up Mikaela from school, in the -20*C (-4*F) Let's just say, that I was REALLY REALLY COLD!!

That's how I'm doing in this cold country. Hope all of you are having a wonderful winter!!

October Boos

Well... October.. new month. This blogging is harder than you might think. ;)

School continues, though this week, we enjoy Fall Break.

I've stayed mostly in Jyväskylä, except for last weekend, when I went with my dearest mother to Helsinki. We went to this noodle restaurant with my aunt, then we saw Julie and Julia. It was ... cute. I think it could've been better, or maybe it's just not completely my type of movie.

We came back on Sunday.

Yesterday, I went with my sister to Halonen, a store, and we tried on a bunch of clothes, then we found a gift for her friend. Today, I went to a friend's house to take pictures for the slideshow for New Year's Conference. We got quite a few pictures taken... but it took quite a while for the Young Women's leader to approve of positions, expressions, and so on. :)

Now, we're back home, and I'm on the computer... again.

I have to--no, no, I get to plan a Halloween Party for the Young women and men. yay me.

I just wish that I could get my hands on some really good books--in English. I was only able to bring 5 books with me, and now I'm really missing my collection I had to leave at home. :(

I've been listening to EFY songs on youtube, and I found this one that I really like. It's called "More." If you have time, you should youtube it. Ah. Love it.

... and that's about it. I don't have much to tell. I'd rather hear what you guys have been up to. Have a great day!

Finnish Fancies

Okey-dokey, since I haven't updated in...*ahem* a while, I thought I would show you the world that I've been living in. :D Ready?

<-- Merinda pretending to do her homework.

Our mailbox. :)Me getting the mail. :D

Me on one of our balconies, with the "berry" tree in the background. :D

The swing that belongs to the apartment building.

Me on the swing, looking thoughtful.

...and the SANDBOX!!!!!! :D

Other than that, I've just been going to school everyday, trying to understand what people are saying at me, and then I come home, occasionally do my homework, play floor hockey on Tuesdays, watch tv, and sleep.... Oh! and I eat....every now and then. ;)

Let me know how you guys are doing!! Miss you all! :D

Super Saturday

Friday:

On Friday I finished my first week of school. That same day, the young women had a picnic. It was so much fun!! Annu, Pihla, and I practiced batting a bit. Then Annu, Erika, Kerttu, and I went to play on the playground. It's kind of hilarious to go down slides when they are the same length as your legs. :) Anyways, we ate some yummies, talked, laughed, and had a great time. :)

Saturday:

Then yesterday was the stake activity. First we went to a school soccer field, and some guys played soccer, while my mom, Pihla, and I (and all the other girls) sat on a railing. hehe. When I sat next to my mom, she freaked because the railing sank a bit. When Pihla came next to us, she gasped again. Mom showed us how fragile it was by bouncing once on it. It didn't break, just bounce with her, so we continued watching the game. Then Mia came over next to us, and sat down, and ...*CRACK* I was in the middle, right where it split, and we all fell to the ground. .....well, that was fun. ...We didn't trust ourselves to sit on the rails again, so we sat on the steps. ..they were made of concrete. :)

Following the game, everyone went to a cottage by the sea (haha, that sounds poetic, and it really was: there were apple trees, and it was by the ocean.... beautiful!!) There was swimming, sauna, volleyball, darts, and places to chill. We ate soup, then had a seminary talk, sort of, then we listened to two more lessons.

After all of that greatness, we ended the day with a 2 and 1/2 hour dance. =) haha. what more is to be said?! :) Let's see, okay, no one asked my friends or me to dance the first couple of slow songs, so when the fast songs came up, I grabbed my friends, and a few other girls sitting on a bench, and made them dance. What were we missing? guys. Problem easily solved. I went back and grabbed a guy from our ward, and some guy that was standing next to him. Then I grabbed my cousin, Jusa.

Since the floor seemed to clear out soon after, the guys had to put their shoes in the middle, and girls took a shoe to find a partner. I was partnered with a quiet guy. I felt kind of bad. He was terrified. He wouldn't look at me other than a few quick glances when he was asking me questions.

After the first dance, he asked me to dance for the next song, so we ended up dancing for two songs, and then he escorted me off the floor.

My next dance was with a guy that my mom and aunt had been talking about all night, about how gorgeous he was. And, yeah, I guess he was pretty good-looking, so I told Mom and auntie that I was going to ask him to dance. Silly me. I actually did ask him. We danced for the rest of the first song that was playing, then the next one, and then he suggested we dance the next song too. ...yeah. I was tired. :) (he escorted me off the dance floor too...)

By then, the dance hall was really hot, so I went outside and played darts with Pihla. A couple of guys came over and threw darts with us too, and of course, I won. (well, sort of)

I heard a good song come on, so I ran back to dance with Jonathan.

That was when they announced that the final two songs were going to be played. I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to dance the last two, but relieved that I could sit with my friends. Annu then wanted to go sit on the benches by the dance floor, so we did. And then, this guy from our ward asked me to dance, and I did get to dance the last two dances!! :)

The activity was then over, and I had a three-hour drive to look forward to.

I tried to sleep on the way back, the result, terrible neck pain. We got back at 1:30 this morning, and went to church at 9:50 a.m.