Here we go again.

I went to bed last night with a fever, congestion and a sore throat.  Clyde relapsed today - I was afraid he would.  He will not stay still when he starts to feel better.  He called the DR several times.  The DR won't work again until Monday.  I see no reason to call emergency services.  We will just stay hunkered down until Monday and go sit on the steps of the office until we are seen.  I am going to quit say, 'hopefully tomorrow things will get better.'  I don't see how they will be now without modern medicine.

Since we stayed home once again and have both been in bed all day - there is nothing of  note to report. 

The Big Scare

We went this morning to take our test and I feel really good about it.  The mediator said that our Church always passes.  I hope she is right.  We will find out in 4-6 weeks.

When we got home, President Sederholm was standing outside of our door in a panic.  Because of a scare (a family in Idaho died of carbon monoxide poisoning) he came by to check on us.  No one had heard from us since Sunday and so they were thinking we were dead (we are the only apartment with a gas stove).  Apparently if you don't use your phone for a couple of days, it shuts off.  We were not aware.  When we came up, he had such a shocked look on his face, I thought for sure that someone in our family had called the mission office from stateside and the President had come to tell us.  Fortunately he was just surprised to see us.  We visited for over an hour and he went off on his way.  He said that he had to get his heart from palpitating.

Clyde did really well this morning but is a mess again this evening.  It is time to call the doctor or even an ambulance tomorrow.  This can go on no longer.  I have calls in to our local Senior couple to find out when to call the doctor and how to make an appointment.  I can do this.  To make matters worse, I am getting a sore throat.  That is the last thing we need.

Happy Biirthday to Me!

Today has been a very quiet birthday.  No cake, and not much going on.  Clyde is feeling a bit better.  At least he is hungry today.  That is a huge step forward in my book.

One year ago today, I was having my surgery on my eye lids.  Wow - where did the time go?  I am so glad I had that procedure done.  I would be walking around here blind if I hadn't done that because after dark, I couldn't see anything.  Now I can.

Tomorrow is our Immigration Test.  I sure hope Clyde is feeling better or at least a bit stronger tomorrow.  We cannot reschedule!  I am not looking forward to it - but then I just freeze when I take a test.  I have been studying but it is still scary to me.

One of the other sister's here in Copenhagen is my birthday sister.  Sister Swena was born on February 26, 1953 - but I am older because I was born just after midnight.

Let the Sunshine!

The sun is rising at 7:10 and setting at 5:45.  It has been shining for 4 days straight.  I don't think we have had sun for this many days in a row since we moved here.  The funny thing about the moon here is you see it when it is up during the day.  I see more daytime than nighttime moons. 

Uniforms of professions are color coded.  The people that keep the streets clean wear a bright green and yellow combination.  The janitors at the train station wear bright orange.  If someone is dressed all in white, they are painters or masons.  Fire fighters wear a brown color.  Once you learn the code, you can tell what someone's profession is.  Postal Workers wear red.  I took a picture a picture of the postal carts.  They are basically electrified bicycles with bins on the front.

I laugh at the channels on the TV.  You can watch darts, badminton and even BINGO.  There is a channel in the evening showing people sleeping.  That is about the weirdest channel of all.

We take the test on Thursday.  I hope we do okay but mostly I pray that Clyde is well.  It is so frustrating for him to be sick non-stop.  I don't know what to do.  I am tired of feeling helpless.

Clyde is down again

Clyde was up coughing again all night.  He is running fever and has slept all day - but how restful, I don't know.  He wakes up and coughs and coughs.  His chest hurts and he wheezes when he breathes.  So tired of this.  I on the other hand woke up excited and feeling better than I have in weeks.

I am finally getting the hang of the Celsius oven.  I am also getting pretty good at telling the temperature outside in Celsius.  I wonder if Fahrenheit will ever seem unusual?

Our beautiful granddaughter, Carlye Anne Pfiester is home from the hospital finally.  She was diagnosed with Shigella.  Since I have told people that - 3 have told me how awful it was and theirs wasn't even as severe as Carlye's.  All three happened in 3rd world countries

With all of this staying home, there isn't much to report.  Have a wonderful Monday and Family Home Evening with your families.

Wasted Weekend

I didn't blog yesterday.  I forgot because I am feeling awful again.  I have been running a fever of 100-102 since Friday.  I had to stay home from Church today and had to miss Clyde's talk.  I am so tired of this.  I will go to work tomorrow if I can at all function.

I did go with Clyde to get the grocery shopping done for the week, yesterday morning.  I fell apart again after that and didn't get out of bed for much.  Today I have been under my duvet and studying for our Immigration Test on Thursday.

I learned something fun today.  As everyone knows who follows this blog, I have a grandson named Caspian Luke.  I found out today that Caspian in Danish is Kaspiske (cass-pees-kuh).  There was a show on about the Caspian Sea and this is how it was always referred too.  I told one our co-workers Caspian Luke's name and they also corrected it to Kaspiske. 

I watched "The Incredibles" in Danish last night and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (in English with Danish subtitles) this morning.  It was interesting.  This afternoon, I watched "Inkheart " but the subtitles were in Swedish - so I quit watching them.

Another think I learned on Monday was that skinke (ham) and ryg (roo) Hamburger (smoked pork) are not the same thing.  Skinke is always from the thigh (where hams come from) and hamburger - smoked or not - is the rest of the pork but usually hamburger is smoked.  That makes more sense to me than saying an all beef patty is a hamburger.  Where is the pork in that?  As my family knows, I know all sorts of trivia and seem to remember that better than what I am supposed to dwell on.

Forlorn Friday

This morning I woke up with aches and pains and a low grade fever.  Clyde was feeling better and we watched the latest version of "The Lone Ranger" on TV.  (We are now watching Monster's University in Danish).  By 2:00 pm we were both washed out and slept for a couple of hours.  I could go to bed right now and probably sleep until tomorrow.

When I was growing up, my parents read about every Zane Grey book on the market.  I found out today that his book 'The Lone Star Ranger' was the inspiration for the 1930's radio show.  I could download it free on my kindle and did just that.

Clyde has a talk to give in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and he hasn't felt well enough to polish it.  I am seriously wondering if we will make it church on Sunday if we don't start feeling better soon.

A Better Day

I posted a blog with the Piano Guys playing music from Frozen and Vivaldi's 'Winter'.  I did this for my grandchildren.  I have several that are learning to play the piano and Nathanael, who is learning to play the cello.  Maybe we could have a cousins group some time in the future.

Clyde is feeling better but still very weak.  I don't think we will be going in to work tomorrow.  I left food in the refrigerator there and feel a bit bad to be taking the space but it will be there for us on Monday.  I just hope that Clyde is feeling stronger by tomorrow.  I don't want to have to do the shopping alone on Saturday.  This thing he has is causing people to die here.  I spoke with Elder Andersen, our Danish Senior missionary in charge of housing, etc. for the mission.  He said his wife has been taken to the hospital by ambulance twice in the last few weeks.  She is finally strong enough to be home again. 

The reason that Elder Andersen called was to tell us we had to pay the Danish Radio fee of $33 month in order to have our computer.  We have to have the computer.  It is invaluable in helping us get from place to place and connected within the mission.  Plus we need it to stay connected with the family.  We will pay it as soon as we pass the test and know we are staying.  Elder Andersen said not to think of it as a fee to a TV station but a license to have computers, etc.

Haven't heard much about Carlye. I hope she is finally on the antibiotic regime she needs to be on.  Annemarie Dittmar spent the better part of the day with Carianne and Carlye.  Aunt Norma Allen and Maggie went by to see them too.  I am grateful to my family for rallying around Carianne right now.

ThePianoGuys - Let It Go (Disney's "Frozen") Vivaldi's Winter

Oh what a Day!

Clyde went to PEC last night.  He started coughing when he got home after 10 pm.  He didn't stop coughing until this morning.  I finally called the mission office and asked for 2 Melchizedek priesthood holders to come by.  The other Senior married couples are the Hansen's and the Madsen's.  Elder Hansen anointed Clyde and Elder Madsen commanded him to be well.  He is finally resting quietly and has been for a couple of hours.  His temperature was 102 at 6 pm.  I can tell it is broken because he is so peaceful.  We will not be going to work tomorrow.  He needs to let his body heal.

Our granddaughter, Carlye Anne Pfiester is in the children's hospital in San Antonio.  She has a severe colon infection and can't keep anything down.  She is on an IV/morphine drip to help.  This family has been through it the last few weeks, with Tamara being killed and now this (plus another family member has only weeks to live because of cancer).  They desperately need our prayers and love.  My niece, Annemarie Dittmar is going by to see Carlye and I think my cousin's daughter Maggie is going to try to take my Aunt Norma and go and be with her.  I am grateful I have family to call on there to surround Carianne and Carlye with love.  I have to say that the 24 hours have not been my favorite.

German Soldier and Refugee Protocols

Yesterday, I wrote about finding German Soldier and refugee records in our protocols.  I had told Jeppe about them and he followed up with Helge at the city archives. She had never heard of them.  She found them and there are many and they go from 1944-1949.  She is contacting Keith to see if we can do those.  It is funny because I never bother Jeppe with day to day things.  And yet, yesterday I felt compelled to go and discuss this with him.  I know this work is valuable to people.  Maybe now people that had no idea where family members had died, can find them.

It was a good day and a productive day.  We did 5 protocols and the Fire records from the end of the 1700's.  We have now digitized all of the burn records.  They are a bit more time consuming but a wonderful break.  Jeppe said that before we did those records, they had thought we were confined to bound books.  They now realize we can record anything.

Clyde has PEC tonight, so he is gone until the bus brings him home.  I must admit that to have some alone time on occasion is wonderful.

Super Monday

We had a great day today and finished 5 protocols.  The sad thing was we did 1944-46 years and there were literally thousands of German deaths included.  It finally got so bad they listed them in groups in one entry and then said, 'Go look in the German Death Protocol for the names'.  The entry would say 5 German soldiers or 150 German children or 80 German refugees.  I asked Jeppe about it and he said the Germans were blamed for the atrocities that had happened in German installations all over Europe.  He was quite ashamed of how it was.  I explained that there was a lot of hurt and that took time to get over.  War is awful no matter how you shake it.

I did notice that there we people from Berlin and Salzburg that were given status as residents of Copenhagen.  Their names had a Jewish flair to them, so I think they came to Denmark early in the war to get away from the Nazi's.  It was quite a fascinating day.

The sun was up by 7:25 this morning and didn't set until after 5 this afternoon.  Love it!

Not Another Headache!

Clyde and I both fought migraines today.  They started on the way to church and got progressively worse.  During Sacrament Meeting, I prayed we could make it through the meetings.  We had SOS today which is 'Slaegsthistory og Sandwiches' in Danish.  In Englsh it is Family History and Sandwiches.  It is a time to work with Branch members on family history and genealogy.  It is wonderful when you can help people take names to the temple.  President Williams, the Copenhagen Temple President, said that we have one of the highest rates of members bringing their own family names to the temple, in the Church.  He had a meeting on Friday with members of the Seventy and the Temple Department. That is where President Williams learned this.

A sister, trying to be kind and help Clyde and me, rubbed "Thieves" - an essential oil on our wrists.  I think that is what made Clyde and I worse today.  You are so sensitive to smells anyway with a migraine.  I could not get that washed away quick enough.  I came home and made some cocoa with a drop of peppermint oil in it.  Helped so much.

The Knudsen family fixes a meal for all of the Senior Missionaries in the Copenhagen area, on the 3rd Tuesday of each month.  I have had his meals twice and ended up with gastric upset after both.  I am glad that Clyde has PEC that night and we have a good out for not attending.  Now with our luck, they will change the night.

Dav after Valentine's day

This is kind of blurry.  I will try and get a better picture in the future when I am not playing with early morning and cloudy conditions.  I will also try and find out what this building is.  It is across from the Copenhagen train station and Tivoli.  I love the copper around the windows and on the 'steeple' (it is the green color you see).  When I was younger and would see these types of building with the copper roof or trim, I wanted to polish it until it was back to copper color.  Now I see the beauty of the aged and tarnished color.  It was built about 1734.

Today was a quiet day.  We went shopping and have been preparing for the Sabbath.  I was able to wear just a light jacket when we went to the bakery to get our bread.  The sun didn't come out until just before it set though.  I basked in it like a lazy cat.  Love the sun.

Fabulous Friday

 When we lived in Germany before - all of the marquees were done in a round. I have only found 2 of those here but haven't taken a picture yet.  We see the same 'billboard' at the train and bus stations for one week and then they change.  I meant to take a picture of the one advertising a trip to Zion's Canyon and other Canyon land parks in the US as a dream vacation.  I kept thinking I would be there when there was light but there never was any and it was not back lit like the 'Little Mermaid' poster.  This is how they advertised the Lego movie that just came.  It is filled with real leg - all red. 

This is the Disney's Little Mermaid that will be performed here live this summer.  This is at the second stop on our way to church.

This morning, while we waited for the bus there were some young children at the bus stop with their parents.  A police car drove by.  The children ran to the curb to wave.  The Policemen smiled and waved back.  The children giggled like they had seen the Queen.  I loved it. 

We had a good day.  It was our temple day and it was wonderful.  I did the whole thing in Danish except for the very end.  I still have to do that in English.

Happy Valentine's day.  We didn't realize it was Valentine's day until just a little while ago.  It is celebrated here but I guess not like we do.

Happy Birthday Bradon Nordell!

Today is our daughter, Heather's husbands birthday.  Brandon we love you and are so proud of all of the good things you have done.  The top of that list is that you make our daughter very happy.  Have a great day and a wonderful year.

We had our 3rd best week this week.  We probably would have done better but tomorrow is our temple day and yesterday we visited with Keith for over an hour plus the other archive workers, trying to decipher our future projects.

 

We received a bill in the mail yesterday that said we owe $33 a month because we have a computer/TV/or smartphone.  We were totally baffled by it but Vanessa explained that many people just ignore it because it is the Danish Radio (kind of like our PBS) and they are able to charge this.  She didn't even realize what it was until she read the whole letter.  She pays hers once a year.  It doesn't matter if you have 1 or 20 of these  - you have to pay.  However if you have roommate then you both have to pay.  We are going to discuss it with the Mission President tomorrow.  This is one more expense we were not expecting and were not warned about.

 

 

Today was a beautiful day.  I love going to work in the light and coming home in the light.  

Weird Wednesday

From early this morning until we left work, it has been a weird day.
Clyde was up coughing and passed out again with convulsions.  I hate it when he does that (I am sure he loves it!) and think of worse case scenarios.  Finally after over an hour of coughing, he calmed down and we went back to sleep.  When the alarm sounded at 6, we could not budge.  We decided to give ourselves one more hour of sleep and go in a bit late.  We did just that and it made for a better day.  We saw things that we had never seen before on our walk to the train and even on the train itself.  It was interesting.  There are some pretty incredible buildings around here.

When we first went to Family Search for our training in Salt Lake City, they told us that we would be spending our whole time at the archives we are now working in.  Today, Keith, the European coordinator for Family Search, informed us that we will be going to the National Archives in downtown Copenhagen at some point in out mission.  He told us that there is just not enough records that Family Search is interested in within the city archives.  He needs us to expand and start on the national archives.  However Christian, the City archive director, and Jeppe are both trying hard to keep us there with them.  That would make me happy but it is nice to be prepared in case we are moved.

Jeppe gave us a loaf of whole grain sourdough bread.  We had some for dinner with soup this evening and it is like a meal in  a few inches.  The texture is more like nut breads but with more chew and satisfaction after a slice.

We are praying for a better night tonight.  We don't want to lose any workdays because Friday is our temple day.  We did get 4 books done and a partial.  We will have an excellent day tomorrow.  We are doing the early 1940's and on almost every page it says that at least one person died in Germany or France of war wounds.  I imagine the deaths from the war will go up as Denmark is invaded towards the end of WWII. 

One of the things that makes me laugh is the names on our records.  We have Hansine Hansen or the male counterpart, Hans Hansen.  My favorite is Rasmine Rasmussen and Rasmus Rasmussen.  They sound like dastardly twin villains.  I have a whole bunch of names I need to send to Pam.  Jensine and Hansine are the most popular of those types of names but there is also Hansi Hansen (female name).  I am so glad I have my nice feminine name.

Made it to work

Today I finally was able to get up and go and do something.  Of course it was raining and cold but it is getting lighter.

Jeppe came in so excited to work today to tell me he made sourdough pancakes for his extended family.  He multiplied the recipe by 8 and they had a feast.  He sent the recipe home with his mother and mother-in-law.  Jeppe also told me that they are still his sons favorite food.

We have lunch with everyone in the office on Tuesdays.  Today the buzz was the Copenhagen zoo feeding the giraffe to the lion and curling at the Olympics.  Apparently 2 years ago, the giraffes bred on their own.  The zoo had planned on 1 and ended up with 3 giraffes.  They were able to place 2 of them but the one that was left had some health issues.  They would have kept it but the enclosure is not big enough to accommodate another giraffe.  Internationally there are very specific regulations on this kind of thing.  They prepared the giraffe (killing it humanely) and fed it to the lions.  If you think about it, this giraffe would have been lion food in the wild anyway.  I thought it was quite practical but I think I am in the minority.

The office  has a Curling team and so they have been avidly watching the Olympics.  I personally think Curling is a ridiculous sport but it is fun to listen to it in Danish.  The commentators repeat things over and over so I have plenty of time to process what they are saying.

We did 5 books today but had to quit because our memory is full.  We are transferring files from one drive to another and that will literally take all night.  Tomorrow we should have our memory freed up a bit so we can digitize again.  Family Search needs to get us more memory.

Stayed Home Again!

I was still running a fever last night so I stayed home again today and slept the day away.  I will probably sleep really well tonight.  I could go to bed right now and sleep until morning.  I am going to work tomorrow, no matter what.

Not much to report since I have done nothing but read my Kindle and sleep.  It was a beautiful day outside today.  I wish I felt up to going downstairs and standing in the sun.  I will settle for sitting in the sun like a lazy cat.

Lazy Sunday

I was running a fever last night and early this morning.  I ended up staying home from Church and  have slept most of the day away.  Don't know if I will go to work tomorrow or not.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day.  We stopped by the 'Blomster' on our way home from the bus stop after the baptism.  The flower shop had daffodil and iris bulbs blossoming - so we bought one of each.  The owner saw us bring the plants in to buy and said, "Ah Spring".  He said it exactly right.

I was thinking that this week I will be celebrating 12 years of being cancer free.  On Valentine's Day of 2002, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer.  I was scared I would not make it.  It was stage 3 with elements of stage 4.  In other words, without a successful surgery, I would die.  I ended up with a huge scar that runs up my stomach to my heart (it carefully goes around the belly button).  I am grateful to be alive and able to serve this mission.

A Great Day

Me at the Zone Conference Christmas Party the first part of December.  I am arranging little Santa's on the table.

Some of the other Senior Missionaries.  Elder Anderson that found this apartment and took us to IKEA and to be registered as Danish residents - is on the far left.  Elder and Sister Madsen from Arizona are talking to him.  Sister Hamblin is from Moab and I don't remember the Sister or Elders name on the far right.  Sister Hamblin knew them when she served here in the early 1960's.

Today was Rebekka Pedersen's baptism.  With the one member of the Branch Presidency, Brother Olsen, we were the only others invited outside of her immediate family.  It is because both of us share Rebekka/Rebcca as a first name.  K is used here instead of C unless there is an H after the C (Ch). I will post a picture of this sweet young lady soon.  She has put off her baptism until she is almost 9 because she has such a fear of water.  However once the baptism was over - we couldn't get her out of the font!

When someone asked Rebekka if she knew what the 'Gift of the Holy Ghost' was - she said it was a helping gift from our Heavenly Father.  How beautifully and simply put.

The Presentation Went Well

We gave our presentation at the archives today and did it in Danish.  They loved it and were impressed with how well we did.  After that at everyone started speaking Danish to us.  I picked up most of what they said but would have them say it in English for clarification.  It was a wonderful day.

Annika, a coworker, is scanning photos taken in the 30's and 40's for online use.  One of the things she did in her presentation was to go and stand on the street corners where pictures were taken.  3 pictures could have been taken in 1948 but 2 had been completely changed.  It was fascinating to see the difference.

I am going to have to rethink my outer wear.  My new coat is so warm that I became overheated today.  I will now have to know the high for the day and dress accordingly.

Not the Best Day

We came home early today because Clyde was just not feeling well.  He was supposed to go to Stake Priesthood but he is running a low grade fever.  We are giving our presentation to the whole archive tomorrow, so we need to be in top form.  Fortunately, Clyde is staying home and hopefully will be up for everything tomorrow. 

Snow Pictures

This is the inside of the tunnel we walk through every day on the way to the train.  This is facing our going home direction.

This is the entrance to the first tunnel.  This is the direction  going to the train.

Picture taken of the view outside our office window.  Usually that playground is a very busy place.

We had a great day today.  We did 7 books.  Some of them were not very big but we are both sore from lifting the lid to the cradle and holding it up.  I hope one day soon I won't come home so exhausted I can't move.

I had a funny memory today.  When we lived in Germany the first time, people would ask me where my father was from.  I would say, 'Venice'.  I never added the Utah part.  One day one of  my friends asked if my father was still Italian.  I had no ide what she was talking about!

We just got our letters saying that we have until April 26th to take the test and get an extension on our visa, or we will be deported.  Glad the mission office is watching out for us.

Some pictures of Ducks

 When I was much younger and we lived in Germany, we would go and feed the ducks in the winter.  The place we went would have a frozen solid surface everywhere but for the small space the ducks swam in.  This is a canal on the way to the train station and our mall.  I thought it would be fun for my dad and my sister to see that ducks are alive and doing well in Denmark.

 Some ducks and seagulls sharing the bounty.

We stayed home today because Clyde was up a great deal of last night with a sore throat and a cough.  I think a day of rest was good for him.  It also gave him time to work on our presentation for Friday.  We will get back to work tomorrow.

Our immigration test is set up for the 27th of February.  Last Year was my eye surgery on my birthday.  This year the test the day after.  Hopefully we pass so we can stay.  My nightmare right now is that I fail and Clyde passes.  Don't know what would happen then.

Wonderful Day

Today we made our train and bus connections perfectly.  The day was relatively warm but foggy.  If we could make our connections all of the time like this - life would be good.

Susie Nilsson once told me that being in Denmark in the winter is like living inside of a ping pong ball.  It is always milky white outside.  Today it certainly did look like that.  It was foggy and gray all day long but it felt like it was in the 40's.  I will take it.  It is also light when we get on the bus in the morning.  It will soon be light enough to take pictures at Tivoli.  That will be fun.

We did 6 books today and actually set a record in books and images.  It was a good days work.

Just before Christmas, Jeppe gave me a sour dough start.  I found a wonderful sourdough pancake recipe and shared it with him. Jeppe made them for his family yesterday and his son announced that Amerikanske Pandkakke are his new favorite food.  I am glad we shared something so American with them and it was a hit.

Clyde is out with the missionaries tonight.  A woman called and wanted a Book of Mormon.  Because she is single, they needed another man with them.  Clyde was happy to go but will not be home until after 10 pm.  I will probably go to be early.

Sweet Sabbath

Today was a good Sabbath Day.  The testimonies were uplifting.  Our Mission President bore a powerful testimony today.  We are so blessed to have President and Sister Sederholm to guide us here.

It was warm and light today.  I guess warm is relative.  It was 37 for a high and felt wonderful.  We also were in full daylight by 8 a.m. and the sun didn't set until 5 p.m.  If the ground hog had been here today - he would have seen his shadow for sure.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  We haven't had one of those for more than 10 days.

Quiet Saturday

Today was a quiet day.  We did our grocery shopping and had dinner at 1 today because of Fast Sunday tomorrow.  I am now doing my favorite past time which is just watching the world go by out side of our front window.  We have a beautiful black and white bird here and found out it is a Magpie.  It is much bigger and prettier than the ones in the US.  We also have seagulls here but they are squatter and chunkier than the seagulls in RI or Utah.  I was looking at one today and noticed it was very round and covered in pinfeathers.  I think that is the insulation it needs to survive here.

Life is moving along.  Our prayers are with the family right now as they struggle through some life changing events in their lives.