Saturday, July 25, 2009

Some MORE Great News

We had a really busy day today.

This morning we got up around 6:35am and got ready to go help Birgit's Sister move. It was 45 minutes or so to get there but it was a fast ride. We arrived and found that there were 4 or so men there not including Ole and Simon. Sweet Deal! The other thing we found out was that she was moving less than 50 yards away in one of the next buildings over. There were even 4 Sister Missionaries that showed up as well to help do the cleaning. It was so nice!

After cleaning we went straight over to Valdemar's birthday party. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a lot of Lizette's family. I had a great time. We ate outside on her really pretty back-front yard until it started to sprinkle. Luckily, we were mostly done when it came. The kids enjoyed jumping in the rain as well. We said our goodbyes and headed home.

We did some laundry and went to Christian's house to find some sheets and rags for our new apartment.

Now to the good news. Not only were we truly blessed already, later we went online to search for a nearby church and we found out that it was on the same exact street!! It was so cool! We are living in number 144 and the church is 101. We are so excited!!

Love and miss yall bunches,
The Bendtsens

Friday, July 24, 2009

Only a Week and a Half

We got home from Texas a week and a half ago and we already have a place to live and Simon has a job. We are truly blessed!!

While we were in the US, Birgit had the impression to visit this store right on the other side of the Danish border. They said that Simon could come by later that week, except that we were still going to be in the US. Birgit told them that we were coming back soon and would come then.

During our trip to Germany, that was our first place to visit. This was the place that Simon got his job.



This morning we woke up to Simon's phone ringing. We were expecting a call from either Oliver (nephew) or Dennis (best friend) but it turned out to be neither of them. It was Morten from Fleggaard offering him a job!! Now that he has a job we just needed a place to stay...

Simon found the German translation for apartment and found one in less than 5 min for 350 euro a month and only 5 kilometers away. He called them but it was an ID-Concept place. So we decided that later we would maybe look in the yellow pages to try and find him.

While shopping, Simon got an unknown call and it ended up that this was the apartment guy. They talked for a few minutes and agreed to see the apartment Sunday at 7pm and to sign papers.



In less than 2 weeks back to Denmark we not only had a job but we had an apartment not too far away! We are truly blessed by our Heavenly Father. We know that he truly is watching over us.

The apartment is about 30 square meters. It is a one room place with bath-shower. It is also fully furnished with TV. It looks really good for what we were looking for.

http://www.immowelt.de/Immobilien/ImmoDetail.aspx?ID=14757860

So now it's time to pack up and move (again) but this time to our own place. We are so excited to be on the next step to our final goal.
Love and miss yall bunches,
The Bendtsens

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Job Search via Road Trip

A few days ago Simon and I had heard of an oppurtunity. Pia's Family were going to go down to Germany and go shopping for some cheap goods. Birgit offered to give us a ride down there and while down there we could search for jobs for Simon. So, yesterday Simon called ahead to several locations of Fleggaard. So today we woke up around 7 and started getting reading for the trip. Simon typed up a semi-formal resume for the companies to keep and printed up several copies. We started on our way.

The trip down was relatively fast since all I did most of the way was sleep and read my book Hero of Ages. Simon got through a good chunk of his book The Awakened Mage. Right after the border was the first stop for Simon. While we went shopping Simon had an interview. They said that they might have a postiion for him and would let him know by the end of the week. We tried 2 more stores each with about the same response. Then it was shopping time.

We headed over to a big shopping store-mall thing and took a look around. After a short bit of walking we decided we were hungry enough to stop for food. Birgit and Ole went to a fresh fruit stand and bought 2 bowls of mixed fruit. Simon and I went straight for the bread-pizza place. After seeing what they had we decided to get 2 salad type wraps. They were really good. Ole, after a few minutes of eyeing our wraps, went over and bought himself one. We then got a hold of Pia and family and found a meeting spot.

After we met up we spent most of our time slowly making our way through each department. Simon and I had 100 kr to spend on what we wanted from doing work around the apartment. We found some toffifee and licorice to fill our appetites. After a while of shopping we found out that Simon's brother Peter and his family were also there. They were on vacation and we just happened to be in the same store at the same time. Small world. It was fun to have everyone together to shop.

After making our way out of the checkstand we said our goodbyes and headed on our way. This time Mathias rode with us. The first hour I don't remember because I was asleep most of it along with Simon. I woke up to Mathias and Birgit playing 'name that tune' out of the Hymn book. I quickly joined in when I knew the tune. We went from Hymns to Disney movies. I made a list of all the songs I knew and had fun going through them all. Mathias had us beat when he sang the song from the Credits off of Bolt. We had a fun time and made our way to drop off Mathias. We said our goodbyes and headed home. We had bought several cases of really cheap 7up and sprite zero so we had to take a trip to the basement for storage (for now). After unpacking the car we were free to relax and just not do anything. It was a great day and fun experience.
-The Bendtsens

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Traveling (back) to Denmark

Well, we’re safe in Denmark. Yay! The trip home wasn’t bad. I guess we should start at the packing.

I am definitely a last-minute packer. I guess it’s half to do with the fact that I wear the clothes I pack and I’m just not in a hurry to get the packing done. We started-finished packing the night-morning before we left. It took most of the day and night but we were ready, packed, and the room was cleaned. It was a miracle all in itself. Aside from actually getting it all done in time, we fit everything we needed (minus a few clothes and socks), and cleaned up the room Grandma quality. Woohoo!

We had 4 checked bags, one carry-on, and a guitar. Mel drove us to the airport when the time came and we sat and talked seeing as how we were 2 hours early with a 50 min delay. After finally saying all of our goodbyes we headed on through security. We bought some Mcducks because we were starving and waited until our flight boarded. We didn’t wait long. We boarded as soon as we could. We wanted to make sure there was room for his guitar in the overhead compartments. There was… luckily. The flight had movies and we both watched Monster vs. Aliens. A little after that we were at our next destination. We had a connecting flight so we didn’t have to get our bags and go through security. We didn’t wait too long for a next flight.

We boarded again and again raced to find room for his guitar. We had little trouble. Sweet deal. This flight was our longest flight. It was a 777 so we had individual entertainment systems. Simon watched several that he doesn’t remember the names of (must not have been that good). I watched 17 again, Hannah Montana (It wasn’t as bad as you would think), and this one about being bullied as a 4th grader or something. It was actually really good. We had chicken plate for our hotplate and had yogurt, a muffin, and orange juice for breakfast. We landed shortly after that. I slept the last hour and 30 minutes. We landed in London and retrieved all our bags on those really really difficult to steer carts. Security was easy. We then had the hardest part of our trip coming.

After taking a national express bus from Heathrow to Gatwick, we searched out a place to camp ourselves for the next 12 hours. Can someone say Boring! We found a set of 3 chairs (one double and a single). We decided that we weren’t both going to be asleep at the same time (so that nothing got stolen). I had the hardest time staying awake while Simon slept. We took one hour shifts. I was so tired.

Both of us had only had 5 hours sleep total for the two previous days so were both dead tired. I almost fell asleep standing at one point. We bought meal deals from Boots, a store close by. We had different types of sandwiches, such as BLT, tuna and corn, meat and cheese, and this other really good sandwich. The meals came with a choice of snack and a drink. We got 2 yogurt things, one water, and one fruit water thing (whatever they are called). Later we went back and bought at least 4 bags of Salt and Vinegar chips. They helped to keep us awake.

Finally the time had come for us to go check our bags. We had to arrange a few things for weight this time but only because they checked my carry-on… oops. Lol. We got on the flight (we actually had our marriage license out this time for proof of my name change and stuff. Before I simply had my driver’s license…which really probably shouldn’t have worked, but did.) I slept most of this flight while Simon tried to sleep unsuccessfully. We arrived in Denmark around 10:45 or something, an hour earlier or so than we thought.

We walked off the plan and through the revolving doors into a crowded pile of people waiting for their passports to be checked. Simon got ahead of me and went through. I was close behind but they had to ask me questions since I was a non-citizen. He asked if I was travelling alone and I said no. I called Simon over and he rechecked his passport. He stamped mine and let me through. He didn’t even ask how long I was staying. Sweetness!! So we waited for our bags. One of ours was almost the last bag through…blah. Waiting for luggage isn’t the funnest thing. It turns out that our text saying we were early didn’t go through…bummer. We only had to wait like 30 minutes in gorgeous weather. I didn’t have a problem as long as we weren’t downwind from the group of smokers. The car was a little packed as our nephew Matthias came too. It probably wasn’t that bad, just that I was in the middle back. It felt cramped to me. Lol. The drive home was pleasant. Birgit and Ole had brought us cold homemade pizza. Mmmmmh. We were starving. After dropping off Matthias and saying hi to his family, we finally were home.

We couldn’t sleep until 8 in the morning. Stinkin jet-lag. Simon slept in until 13:00 and I was out until 16:00. We spent that day just relaxing. It was nice to be back home (and Simon to be with his PS3 again) :P The next day we almost fell asleep at midnight but couldn’t sleep until 4am. We were getting closer to being normal again. Lol. The next day Simon spent helping with Pia’s yard work but that’s a different blog update. Thanks for keeping up with us. We had a great trip and are happy to be done travelling (for now). Love all and Miss all.
-The Bendtsens

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Utah Trip Part 1

A few weeks back Simon and I went on a trip to Utah. We didn’t have the money to fly so it was going to be 24 hour drive. Woohoo. Lol. We started our trip Monday morning at like 2am. It was early. After filling up our gas tank, we were on our way. We drove for 5 hours and pulled into the back of the parking lot at Walmart. We slept for a few hours and continued to drive. We drove through Oklahoma City and headed up to North. We stopped for an oil change on the way. Mel’s car was way overdue. The drive at points went by really fast. We stopped to eat or sleep whenever we wanted to. We slept anywhere from Walmart parking lots to Rest Stops along the way. The hardest part of the drive would have to be Kansas. There is absolutely nothing in Kansas. We even took 4 pictures outside of each window to prove out point.

Entering Colorado almost looked like Kansas but we had high expectations for the mountains that were soon to come. We watched a lightning storm along our drive to. It never was over us but it stayed parallel most of the time. Then we hit the mountains. Mel’s car was having a hard time excellerating up the hills. We decided to let the car take a rest along with my eyelids. The next morning there was not as much traffic so I didn’t feel bad about going so slow. Going down the pass was very pretty and we got some really pretty photos.

After a ways we stopped at a Truck Stop for a little shut-eye. I slept in the car while Simon took our comforter and slept out on the picnic table. Simon didn’t think it was very funny when a truck came by blasting its horn. The nook where this stop was was very pretty.

Finally we hit Utah… and the desert. It was the same thing over and over. After a while we hit a prettier area and civilization. We were pretty psyched by this point.

Plato's Closet

I just got back from Plato’s Closet. I took in a box of clothes to sell. I sold 4 of the items and got 7 dollars from it. Not too bad. One shirt I got for free from Jordan, one from Mel (I think), a pair of flair pants, and a shirt that looked funny when I wore it. I also bought one while I was there. It is red and gray I think. It has cherries on it. It’s cute and long enough. It was like 2.50 I think. (Originally 5, but with a 50% discount.) I love discounted clothes.

See ya next time,
Rachel Anne

Hair Color

Well, I’m a brunette now. I got my hair colored a few days back. At first it was a shock because of the difference it was. I was strawberry blonde before now. I colored my hair in Denmark last and by last week it had grown out by 2-4 inches, not exactly sure. I also got a hair cut from Toni and Guy. I chickened out of having it cut short. I didn’t want it making my face look chubby or anything. So I got it cut just a few inches longer than my shoulder. It has grown out very nicely now. I love my hair.

Along with my hair, I have lost weight. I am 10 lbs lighter than when I came here. I think it was from working so much and not having the money to eat out too much (even though sometimes we still do…lol). It could also be from being so dehydrated (less water weight) lol. I hope that that is not the reason though. :D

Until next time,

Rachel Bendtsen