Happy New Year 2008

New Years Eve 2007

The girls before we had dinner on New Years Eve - about 30 minutes after this picture was taken, I had to put both of their dresses in the washing machine!

We were going to go to the bonfire and firework display tonight but it's too windy so they've post phoned it until tomorrow night. Well, that's OK then, we'll just go tomorrow.

Cosy day at the Pells' household

Bob and the girls were having a cosy time in front of the TV the other day, and let's not forget Píla! Is that the way to spend Christmas or what!

Little painters

The girls were playing with their easel tonight after having their bath. They put on their night gowns and robes and went down to play for a bit. Here are some pictures.

Christmas Eve 2007

We had a great Christmas Eve here, just the four of us. The girls looking beautiful in their national dresses and behaving reasonably well. Here's a picture.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Merry Christmas

Icelandic

As of December 17th, Bob is an Icelandic citizen. He just got the letter confirming it.

New email address

We've got new email addresses, birgitta@pellshome.com and bob@pellshome.com

Sowing day

Yesterday was a sowing day here in Furulundur 2d. Hrefna, a seamstress, my mother's sister-in-law and the person who took care of me for three years when I was studying in Reykjavík, flew in from Reykjavík and spent the day here working on the girls' national dresses. They're not finished but the rest I can do myself - and I need to do so before Christmas because I want them to wear this then. They tried it on before she started and then before she left. My parents came by so they got to see them in their dresses. This picture isn't very good but it does show how it's going to look like.

Feeding time at the zoo

Little one feeding the big one!

Last day at work

Today was my last official day at Þekking. I've worked there since June 1st 1996 so it's been 11 and a half years. I've worked with many good people and I will miss them, but they are still around and I will meet them every now and then. Hopefully I'll still see the girls in our "sowing club nights", if they still continue.

They had a leaving presentation for me this afternoon, Heiða talked and handed me a little present. They got me earrings, small golden earrings with a little stone in it, not sure what it is. It's very nice actually. It'll be strange not going there to work but somewhere else. But the people in the new place just seem extremely nice and friendly. I went there this morning, they had an "Advent do", invited people over for some nice food and drinks, music and a guy read a few short chapters from a book he wrote (biography). I just had a very nice time there.

Christmas cookies

I've been baking today. Made my vanilla rings, which we all like a lot, and chockolate cookies, which are ok, but not as good as the others.

The new colleagues

I went to my new work for lunch today to meet everybody. It was very nice, everybody was nice an relaxed and I instantly felt at home there. They are six there, plus one that is sometimes there but in Reykjavík most of the time (he wasn't there yesterday), two women and 4 men, and they all seemed very nice and I felt welcome there. It'll be cool to move over there in a few weeks.

Today we've been to Hagkaup and Nettó. In Hagkaup we got nice black shoes for the girls and in Nettó the groceries. Not too much since we went shopping on Thursday. Next on my list is to do some revision, put the light-arch at the front door and make the hats for the girls. And just relax - if I can.

Changes

October wasn't a very good month at work, I've been getting more and more unhappy with things there. I tried talking to my department manager, the staff manager and the manager of the company but it didn't bring anything. We don't have enough work for all of us, I am unhappy with the fact that last year they hired another programmer, someone who has the same education I do (or less since I've been adding credits) and gave her higher salary than I have. I had also been asking to go to courses or have more training but couldn't. And adding to that, I don't see that they are doing much in getting us more work or different things to do. So I started looking for another job, called a former colleague and he talked to his team leader. I went to a job interview and they made me an offer - which I didn't like and I told them that so they then withdrew the offer. Then I talked to an old friend of mine, who works for a software house and she told me that I should just talk to Gulla, who is her department manager and also someone I know since we both worked for the same company years ago. That was on a Friday. On Monday she called me and sounded very positive and a few days later I had a new job. I resigned just before the end of month and will leave here on Friday before Christmas.

My new job will be similar to the one I have now. But the change is that I will be able to get training in a new business application - which I haven't been able to get here. The salary is better as well and that is good. But most of all I think the change will do me good. I've been with Þekking for 11 and a half years and it's time to do something else now. Learn new things, be with new people. Although I will miss people from here.

Hrefna called me last night and she's coming here to finish the national dresses for the girls on the sixteenth. They will be so pretty :)

Lazy blogger, busy times

I've been lazy lately in regards to blogging. Well, it's not the right way to put it though really, because I've been trying to prepare for an exam that I was supposed to have last Saturday. I took Thursday and Friday off work and was going to do some quality revision but Thursday morning I suddenly felt sick and I felt so bad for these two days that I couldn't do anything at all. Just lay on the sofa, dozing or watching TV. Friday afternoon I called school to ask what to do if I was sick and she told me that so I decided not to take the test. That decision made me feel a lot better and on Saturday morning I felt pretty good. But I still didn't go to take the test since I had told the people that I wasn't coming so they didn't have to come. And now I've got a bit of a cold - like the rest of the family.

We dressed the girls up on Sunday and took some pictures of them. Got a few good ones and I've had the Christmas cards made and last night we wrote most of them and I'll post them later on today. Early for a change. I still have to buy at least one gift to send to England, for Gwen. I made an album for Mum and sent it off to Bonusprint to have it printed off and they'll send it directly to them.

We've got some of the Christmas gifts already, but we still have to get a few. But it's still November so there is still time. I need to put up some lights and do some baking - and of course some studying and then I intend to make a few gifts this time. And I'm going to try to do better here......

Rough night!

I'm tired.

I had a bit of a rough night last night. First I woke up around 2:30. No big deal. Went back to sleep. Then, around 3:50, offspring #2 came in, half crying and said she needed to go for a pee. Actually, she'd already wet herself. I took her to the toilet, took off her wet diaper, she sat on the toilet for a bit and then she said she was finished, I put a dry diaper on and she crawled back into bed. Twenty minutes later she came back and said she needed to have a pee. This time she was dry so she after the same routine, I put the same diaper back on. Again twenty minutes later. I was getting a bit tired of this - but thinking I should encourage her to go for a pee during the night if she had to, I took her to the bathroom again. It was 4:30 and I just though, "why bother, why not just go down stairs and do some studying or something". But I didn't. Snuggled down again and finally fell asleep. Half asleep, I heard the clock chime 6 o'clock but didn't really wake up. Woke up an hour later when it chimed 7 o'clock. And then we needed to rush a bit but we were in school in time.

They are having a slumber party in school today so Sólveig Lilja went there in her pyjamas. Hope she has fun.

Saphira

Saturday just over a week ago I took the girls to the farm. My parents, and Gúmbi and Sigrún, were selecting the ewes to be kept this year. Sólveig Lilja's two ewes had to be slaughtered this autumn so she was going to pick new ewes. She got three to choose from, two that I borrowed from Gúmbi and one that I borrowed from my parents. This is the one she picked, and she didn't even hesitate. The funny thing is that this little ewe that she picked, is very calm and let her pet her, just stood there calmly in the corner. She's called Saphira (Safíra) after Eragon's dragon and the other one that she got, a white one with a little spot on her nose, is called Nebba.

Kristín Lára also has two ewes. They are the same age she is, one is called Grágás (she got that one from her grandparents) and the other one Copper (Kopra).

When we got home she said to her father: "Saphira loves me very much" and "Nebba was scared" - which is true, she didn't like to be petted!

Sheepish roundup

I helped at roundup last week. It's a two day process, Wednesday and Thursday, and shedding is on Friday. I didn't go on Wednesday, which was a very bad roundup day. Cold, rain and fog so they didn't get many sheep home at all. Thursday was better, I went there then, but only for a short while. Because of the snow that had come, they didn't go all the way up the valleys so we were back home pretty quickly.

I then took the girls to the shedding on Friday. I think they enjoyed it, they got to play with their cousins and seemed to have fun. My cousin Örn, came from Reykjavík on Tuesday evening and his wife and two kids drove here on Thursday night to take part in the shedding.

I went to the farm on Saturday again to help them weigh the lambs. Left the girls at home, I thought they'd just be in the way. The lambs seem pretty good this year but there's still a lot of them missing, no wonder after this bad roundup. Next roundup will be this weekend and I just hope the weather will be better then.

Sex bomb

One more fantastic video.

Another great video

Thanks to YouTube, here's another fantastic video.

Sweat!

I went to the gym yesterday and sweat like a pig again! This time I had better control since I got myself new shoes yesterday and they seem to be pretty good. I might go there again today to learn how to use the weights and stuff there, there will be someone there to help us with that. That someone is Magga, who used to work with me actually, so that's cool. I'm hoping to be able to go there before work maybe once a week or something.

It's raining today. Yesterday it was nice and warm but now it's wet again. "Typical English weather" Bob says :)

Argh!

I went to the weighing yesterday and I've put on half a kilo again. It seems to be very difficult to get back on track, I loose a few hundred grams and I put them on again. Not good.

On Monday I started going to the gym! I've never done that before but now I saw a six week program that I thought could fit me. It's supposed to strengthen us up and included is free access to the gym at all times, plus weighing and measuring. What we need to do in the beginning and end is to walk 3 km on a tread mill and see the difference and I did that yesterday. I thought I'd have to crawl back!

Because I've never exercised before I had to buy trousers and shoes. Got myself cheap enough trousers on Monday and today I got shoes. I was going to try to use my old ones but yesterday I found out that they are no good so I decided to get new ones. Found good shoes on sale down in the pharmacy and got them. Just hope they are as good as they are supposed to be.

Sólveig Lilja and Bob had their first lesson for the autumn today. Kristín Lára went to Ella and I think she enjoyed it and Bob thought the lesson was good.

Little birthday girl

Sólveig Lilja is four years old today. She had her birthday party yesterday and it was pretty good. On Wednesday and Thursday she called people to invite them and thought it was great fun. Of course she mentioned what she wanted to get, that was the main thing she though! Then she also went over to her friend Heiðdís to invite her.

Heiðdís was actually the first one to show up. She is a few months younger than Sólveig Lilja and they were in play school together before Sólveig Lilja moved to the new one and then Heiðdís and her family moved into the house next to ours about a month ago and they've been playing together quite a bit since. Kristín Lára loves playing with her as well and really enjoys going over to her house to play :) Heiðdís came over about an hour early and that was great, they got some time to play before anyone else showed up.

Then Sólveig Lilja's grandparents came, her aunties, cousins and some more relatives. Seventeen people all in all, plus the family. She got a lot of nice presents and I think she had a good time.

Here are more pictures.

In the tumbledrier

The other day when I was doing the laundry, the girls decided to have some fun! Here are more pictures.

Cool video

This is one of my favourites.

Visited countries

I have been to the following countries:


create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

On the farm

We went shopping on Saturday and among other things that we got, were these Dora shirts. See here for more pictures.

I took the girls to the farm yesterday. We went berry picking with my mother and then I put a saddle on one of the horses and the girls got go ride a little bit. I think they loved it, seeing their grandparents, picking berries and riding.

See here for more pictures.

I was painting the ceiling (kitchen, living room, dining room and landing) this weekend and except for a couple of minor holidays, it's finished. Then we've got the walls to paint and some preparation work for that as well. It's going to be quite some work but it'll look good when it's finished.

It's been a while...

...since I last wrote here. We went to Reykjavík the first weekend in August and on the way we dropped off Muggles. He's no longer with us, he now lives with his father on a farm near Borgarnes. It was the right decision to let him go, I'm sure he is much happier where he is now and even if it felt strange the first few days without him, it's like we have now got our home back. The laundry room is no longer full of dirt every day and my plants are getting back to normal now.

We stayed with my uncle Þór and his wife Hrefna. They have taken care of me before and it is always so good to see them. Þór is someone I value a lot for his knowledge of things and other qualities and Hrefna is one of these people who does things without making a big deal of them. We went there on Friday and back on Monday and we had a great time there. I met a couple of my cousins there and also my friend Ásta, who I haven't seen for probably 5 years now!

On Thursday Sólveig Lilja started her new play school. It remains to be seen if it is better or worse than the old one but the walk there is better, that's for sure. She seems to like it there. I took these pictures of the girls on Friday morning before Sólveig Lilja went to school and that picture of her is on her shelf there.

We have started preparations for painting the living room/kitchen area and up to the landing. Ceiling and walls. Ceiling is going to be white and walls grayish blue. Hopefully I'll be able to do the ceiling this weekend at the latest althougth I was toying with the idea of starting tonight. We'll see.

Girls just wanna have fun

The girls got to play around a little bit before they went to bed on Saturday night. Their father was "trying" to have a little nap in Sólveig Lilja's bed but they didn't let him.

Tired

Kristín Lára is still not quite ready to go through the day without a nap. But if she does have a nap, she stays up until ten o'clock in the evening and that's not good either. So one day she had a little nap over her lunch!

Wedding

Gúmbi and Sigrún got married yesterday. Picked that day because it was my grandmother's birthday. It was just a small ceremony in their living room, the only people there was their brothers and sisters with spouses and the priest and her husband.
Congratulations Gúmbi and Sigrún (if you ever read this).

Birthday party

Yesterday my grandmother would have been 92 years old - if she was alive. She usually invited us to coffee and a drive somewhere and in honour of that tradition, her family met for coffee at a guest house not far from here. It was on Saturday since some of the family were busy yesterday when the actual birthday was. I took the girls there and they seemed to have a good time.

I stole this picture from Gúmbi.

Pretty little sisters

Took this picture tonight before the girls had their bath.

The girls' new bedroom

The girls moved into their new bedroom tonight. They were both very excited an happy about it :) Here are some pictures of their new room.

Karl is gone

Karl, our exchange student from the States and family member for the last four weeks, left this morning. It's been a pleasure to have him with us, he's easy to get along with and the girls adore him. I even think he likes them and even us! He and his fellow students are now on the way to the West fjords (Vestfirðir), where they will be spending two weeks there before they go back to the States.

I took this picture this morning before he left.

My friend Katrín, came last night and is staying for the weekend.

A bit of fun

I was playing with the camera the other day and took this picture. I think it's pretty cool.

Pictures

We had a fantastic day today. The weather was very good and we all went to the farm. I took quite a lot of pictures and here are some of them.

Exhausted birthday girl

Kristín Lára fell asleep with her father's calculator on her face last night. She was exhausted after an eventful day!

Birthday girl with pabbi

I just think that picture of Kristín Lára and her father is so cute.

Kristín Lára's birthday

Kristín Lára is two years old today. This picture is taken of her first thing this morning when she got her birthday present. We had quite a few people over, her grandparents came, her aunties and cousins, her godmother Áska, her great auntie Þrúða and her greatuncle Gúmbi and Sigrún and my cousins Lilla and Bogga and Haukur. We had a very nice day, out on the deck most of the time in the sun.

A very good day - and I am tired!

Fat fighting

As usual, I went to my weekly weighing on Tuesday. After two bad weeks I had a very good week, got rid of two kilos! Not bad.

The new neighbours have been driving us crazy for the last few days. Sawing and banging until late at night. Last night they had stopped and Bob and I were both falling asleep when they started again and it was almost 11 o'clock! And when this happens, it takes us a while before we can go back to sleep again. We are just hoping that it will soon stop since they are moving in on Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, it's Kristín Lára's birthday on Saturday. I just hope the weather will be nice so that people can stay outside on the deck.

Busy days

We have had a busy few days lately. And very nice. On Saturday we finished up our exchange student's bedroom so that it would be ready for him when he arrived. Tommi brought us the wood for the bottom of it and the wood for the balcony rail that we are now replacing. I tried to take it in the car but it was too big so I asked him to pick it up. The weather was wonderful, almost 20°C and sunny so we spent most of the day outside.

On Sunday we picked up Karl. He seems to be a nice kid and the girls love him :) He came with me and the girls over to Ella's yesterday for the boys' birthday party and I heard the girls giggle when he was playing with them. They didn't want to come home when I wanted to but I'm bigger than they are - and got help. Borrowed Tommi's drill, ours are not wide enough for the drill bit that we need to put the rail. I took yesterday off, the weather was good again and we were just working around the house and getting some bits and pieces that we needed. Got window sills for the living room windows, hopefully we will be able to put them up soon. Balcony rail is next, then we're also planning to paint the woodwork around the front door - and the rail needs to be painted. It's been nice to fix things around the house to make it look nicer and more useful if you can say that.

Sólveig Lilja wasn't too happy with Karl sleeping in their new room and wanted him to leave. But that was just the first night. The first night Kristín Lára also went out of bed and into his room and said when I caught her that she was just closing the closet! Little devil.

More favourites

Loved this song as well, here's their website, A-ha. Here's my favourite Duran Duran song. Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight was also one. Billy Idol and Rebell Yell. Prince and Purple Rain.

Thank you YouTube.

Red, red wine

I came across this video on YouTube just now. It's one of my favourite songs of all times. Here is their website.

Six down, four to go

I passed one of the tests I took in April but failed the other one :( Math. So I had to resit the test and I have just found out that I passed it :) So that's the end of the math studies for me, what a relief. I now have four more subjects to go to get my BSc.

How about some pictures

Yes, how about that?

Bob took the first picture one morning this weekend when us girls were snuggling in bed.

I took the first one of Kristín Lára on Monday night, she quite often sneaks up into our bed and falls asleep there.

The other two I took tonight. Aparently it's "teddy-cuddle-night" tonight. Kristín Lára loves that "Gilli" of hers and Sólveig Lilja is half underneath her big bear.

Back down again

I had my weekly weighing yesterday and I have got rid of 31.7 kilos. I have got rid of some weight now for two weeks in a row so I am hoping that I am back on track. I partially "blame" this slow progress on my biking, that I am building muscles - which are heavier than fat - and my clothes feel looser now. So now I just have to get going properly again.

I was painting the girls' new bedroom over the weekend. The wall around the window is dark purple and the rest of the walls bright yellow. Painted the ceiling as well, white. I also bought some shelves and a couple of frames, the shelves I painted pink as the shelves Sólveig Lilja has in her room right now, and the frames I painted one pink and one purple. Then I had them make their hand prints on a yellow background, one purple and one pink. It's quite nice actually. Then we also picked out new curtains, Pooh bear on yellow background. I think it's going to look pretty nice. I think I'm going to paint her bed as well, think it would look pretty if it was pink :)

Up and down - again

I went to the weekly weighing on Tuesday. The two weeks before I had put on weight, 1,6 kilos all together, but now I finally got rid of a little bit, 900 grams. About time!

I've been working away with my math problems, the test is tomorrow morning. This time, how about passing? Would be very nice, actually.

It's Bob's birthday today, happy birthday sweetheart. We got him a bottle of aftershave and a coffee mug to replace the one he broke the other day. I think the girls liked fuzzing over him a little bit and I sure do ;)

A few weeks ago we saw an ad in the local magazine about American students in RES (Reusable Energy School I think it stands for) here for 4 weeks. They were looking for people to take them into their homes while they are here and we applied - and are getting one. We still don't know anything about this student, we will get information next week, I think. I think it's very interesting, this is a new school and sounds interesting and it's always nice to meet new people. We are going to let him or her stay in the bedroom that we are going to decorate for the girls, they will have to wait moving in until he - or she - is gone in July. Sólveig Lilja and I have been talking about colours and things, she wants black but I have already said no to that idea! My ideas are yellow and purple and maybe keep the shelves pink as they are now. But they will get a lot more shelves than Sólveig Lilja has now. We got her a new bed last weekend, we haven't assembled it yet but will do after we've painted the walls. Or after I have, I'm the painter in the family. Although I have promised Sólveig Lilja that she can help, don't know how I'm going to talk myself out of that.

Lambs

I took the girls to the farm yesterday to see the lambs. They seemed to enjoy it! The weather was great and they loved being outside with the animals. As they do at home, they love to be out on the deck, in the swing or playing with Muggles.

New clothes, new pictures

Went to Hagkaup today, they were having a sale, and got these two items for myself. Thought it was time for new pictures as well.

Sound asleep

Sólveig Lilja looks very comfy there, doesn't she?

Sneaky

Kristín Lára had sneaked out of her cot and fallen asleep in our bed!