The Post that should have never happened

so Ang thought that this would be a story that she wouldn't want to share for a very long time, but i thought it was perfect to put on the blog so i decided to write it. 2 questions:

have you ever been sooooo sure of something before, and everyone knows it, and then you are wrong?

AND

have you almost missed a flight?

so i thought i knew what i was talking about. i had looked at our tickets numerous times, and had been asked many times when our flight left Iceland. I said 6:05. I was sure of it. our friends told us that we should be at the airport 2 hours before, so we were getting ready to leave Reykjavik to the airport (45 minutes away......more when it is snowing, slushy, and rush hour traffic :)

then i decided to look online to make sure that our flight was on time. NOTE Ang had asked me to check to make sure of our flight times online, but i forgot as we spent our last day a lot with people and packing, so i never did it. Besides I WAS SURE.

Anyhow, i found out our flight was at 5:05 not 6:05 so we all said quick goodbyes and ran out the door. thankfully we were ready. so we hurry down to the airport, check in with the very cold lady, say goodbye to our friend Unnar, and go through customs. we now have 50 minutes before our flight leaves.  Elliot needs to change, Isaac has to pee, boys need food, Ang considers more food, and I have to change some money over, so that all took time. We both had a feeling that we should go straight to the gate but didn't. I tried hurrying us along. I went to the signs and saw that it said "GO TO GATE" so i try making all these arm gestures to Ang and Isaac to hurry up. Finally we are all together walking to our gate....no cart for our 3 carry-ons, 2 backpacks and 2 boys. so as we make our way towards our gate (almost the last gate in the building) we hear them say "last call" and  "final call" before we reach the passport control.

Elliot starts running through the security door, while i am panting from Running carrying 2 bags and Elliot, trying to explain to this guy why we were in his country for 2 1/2 months without jobs. it didn't take too long, but he is a slow stamper. we get through security to the stairs, and we hear "Gate 32 to NY is now closing. i run as fast as i can, and literally get my foot in the door as it is closing, I give them our passports and explain that my wife and other son our a minute behind us. we all get through, and the guy tells us to take the staff elevator up to be quicker. when we get out there is a glass wall in front with a sharp left turn where we are suppose to go that isn't super obvious at first....so we had another 2nd of panic. then we see where we are supposed to go. last people getting on in front of us, but we pass them.. NICE. so here we are on the plane eyes wide, sweaty, 2 kids, Elliot crying, tonnes of luggage, everyone staring....LAST ROW. :) so we got to pass by everyone in our disheveled state. after about 15 minutes we had relaxed, and I could laugh about it. Never again will we do that. it was crazy.

Lesson learned: when you are sure that you are right about something...double check it, then check it again, then get someone else to.

Also, Trust Your instincts.

A.J.

p.s. Isaac wanted to type something so i told him he could. here he is:

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;)

In Reykjavík

We left Eyjólfsstaðir last Monday and drove to Akueyri (about a 3 hour drive) and stayed with Reiní and Héþinn who are friends with Alda & Unnar. We met them when they came to Eyjólfsstaðir for a night to visit while we were there. It was fun to see them again and we joined in on a weekly mentoring time they have with a couple youth in their church community. The next morning we got back on the road and after a few snack stops we arrived in Reykjavík. Now we are staying with our good friends Guðbjörg and Agúst, (but we call them Bogga and Gústi) They have two really cute kids Páll (2) and Anna Brýndis (6 months).

Here´s a few things we did in Reykjavik this past week:
Visited Iceland´s National Museum
Ate some fish
An afternoon at the zoo (the seals were the best part)
Met up with our friend Benni (from Egilsstaðir) for coffee.
Did some shopping
Bogga cooked a traditional Icelandic meal, mashed fish, and potatoes mixed together with a white sauce.
A.J. and I got lost trying to find a certain store.
Ate some more fish
Spent the last weekend at their church family weekend retreat...good times.
Looking at big boats for Isaac

For our last week here, Alda & Unnar, and Davið are staying in Reykjavik. We´ve made plans for a girls night out at Gústi restaurant (The Fish Market), poker game (guys only), a lobster feast, and share a meal together at Bogga and Gústi´s with Alda & Unnar.

I (Ang) have learned to knit! But not the way I was taught by my Grandma, or Great Aunt, it´s the Icelandic way and I find it much faster...although I can´t really say I have any real speed yet. Bogga taught me last week. It´s taken me awhile but think I´m finally getting it. Isaac wants me to make a scarf. Think it´s a good first project.

We have no pictures to post since we´re using our friends computer.

Isaac´s counting down our sleeps...3 more until we fly to New York where will stay for 4 days, and then fly to Minneapolis. And then the final drive home.

Fun with Boxes

One night after tucking the boys in bed for the night, I felt quite tired and realized I needed to think of some creative ideas of what I could do with the boys the next day. The weather had been rainy and windy and looked like tomorrow was going to be the same. I had a challenging day with them and knew some of the "challenges" with my boys could be prevented with a fun new activity for us to do together. Then it hit me, there was a pile of cardboard boxes in the kitchen storage room. We could play and build with boxes. So the next day mid afternoon the fun with boxes began. We spent the first while building a castle, but Elliot could not be deterred from continually knocking it down. Then Isaac decided he wanted to build the city of Jericho (bible story). Once Jericho was built, He decided to be Joshua leading the Israelites (Elliot and I) to march around Jericho. On the seventh time around Joshua gave the signal and we gave a shout and the wall came crashing down.

After Jericho was demolished, we built towers, then lined the boys up against the wall, counted down as they ran into the towers and the boxes went flying into the air. Fantastic! This lasted for quite some time. Really it was only because the boxes were completely flat that we stopped.



Now we had a bunch of flat card board boxes. Isaac decided he wanted to do some "crafting". He wanted to build Jericho again, but build it by cutting out small bricks out of cardboard. So we began cutting. He spent the rest of the afternoon creating this amazing piece of art called, The Wall of Jericho.

Elliot had fun dancing to music and running around while Isaac did his "crafting".

This is Isaac pretending to be Joshua giving the "mighty shout" as the wall came down. Isn't he great!
Later as I prepared supper, Isaac and Elliot were busy ripping and tearing all the boxes into tiny little pieces. They carefully lined them up on ALL the dining room tables. At first Isaac was pretending to be super man as he tore the boxes. Then He began saying now I'm Isaac the boy but I'm using my might from God to tear up all these boxes. I'm even stronger then super man. They were entertained up until 5 minutes before our guests arrived for dinner. Boxes are great.

Cabin Weekend in the Mountains

Two weekends ago we packed up and headed to a place called Vopnafjordur (not spelt correctly cuz we don't have the accents on our computer) Unnar's family built a cabin just outside this small town. There are two ways to get there. The way that is a bit shorter requires driving over a mountain. The weather had been good up until we left, although it had snowed on and off for about 2 days the week before, and the mountain peaks were still covered with snow. We took the mountain road and it was beautiful and an adventure too. The first 8 pictures are just as we began to drive up the mountain. There was a place to pull over, to get out and look. At this point we had kind of lost our friends who we were following, so another good reason to pull over...heh heh. Isaac had to go to the bathroom shortly into the trip, but there was no where to go except the side of the road. We pulled over briefly. Alda & Unnar kept driving on ahead, but said they would go at a slow pace. Keep in mind we did have Unnar's cell, but didn't know Alda's number and had no idea how to get the key pad lock off to call...so really couldn't call out, but at least we could answer the phone. So we kept driving and driving and driving and could not see Alda & Unnar anywhere. Finally once we reached the bottom of the mountain we were to drive over we figured we must have passed them some how. They called just as we pulled over. They had pulled off the road for a few minutes to see some old cars, so we must have passed them then. As we waited for them to catch up, I was anxious to get out of the car and take some pictures. A.J. laughed at me because I had no idea how windy it was outside. After a few short minutes of convincing he got out and took some pictures. I was grateful cuz when he opened the door I was instantly cold. Once he was back in he told me I would have blown off the mountain side. I think I would have. No guard rails to hang on to and I was still adjusting to just being on the passenger side of looking down the side of the mountain. I'm so from Manitoba!

We tried waking Isaac up mainly because we didn't want him sleeping too long and then wake up at 5:30 am which he does. So we all got really excited and told him he had to wake up because we were on a mountain looking out at the ocean. Didn't really work. So then we started telling him there are sharks and whales and fish...and then he opened his eyes. But only long enough to take a quick peak and then to say "I just want to sleep not look at the ocean".Once we were all back together, we started the climb up the mountain. Within a short time we realized it was quite slick on the roads, and were having difficulties with traction. Soon we stopped because we were going going backwards and could get no traction at all. Alda & Unnar turned around, and came to help. As we watched them turn we realized how slippery it really was. A.J. and Unnar switched cars since Unnar's Rav 4 was doing better then our car. Took a few tries but soon we were off and at the top of the mountain. A.J. and Unnar switched back and we began the drive down the mountain going very slow because the road was covered with snow and ice. The next few pictures are of the drive down, and a few looking back on the road we took. We were all grateful to be on the other side and almost at the cabin.
We stopped briefly to see a waterfall. I can't remember the name of it right now...but it was beautiful, and powerful to see. It also was super windy and cold so we ran down the hill to see it and turned around right away to run back...well Alda, David, Isaac, and I did.

The cabin...Here's Alda unloading the cars. This is the last picture of our weekend because our camera battery died!
We enjoyed every minute of our time spent with Alda & Unnar, and David. We shared many great meals and conversations together, as well as lot's of tackling, wrestling, kicking the ball, playing board games with the boys. Although the boys all time favorite was Unnar lifting them up to hang from the rafters (wood support beams of the roof) they (Elliot too) would dangle for a few seconds and then drop into the couch beneath them. Unnar definitely got an arm workout. Saturday we headed to an outdoor "pool cellar", no one is working their during the fall months so you swim at your own risk. We had a great time, Isaac even jumped into A.J.'s arms in the deep end. Elliot again reminded us of his no fear of the water, deciding to jump around in the hot tub without warning. By the end of our swim I was the only one who did no venture into the main pool...too cold! Those who know me well will not be the least bit surprised by this. We then drove through the town, picked up some food for Icelandic pancakes. Our first time trying them. They were fabulous, but mostly because Alda made them. She's a great cook. By the end we all felt relaxed and rested and ready for the journey back to Eyjolfsstaðir, but took the other way home.

The Icelandic Economy

Ang asked me to fill you all in on the recent developments of the economy in iceland.

people here have been glued to the tv for the last few days as the prime minister of iceland has told of the governments plan to help the economy which took a dramatic turn in the last 2 months. this turn has been foretold by many for a long time now. when we arrived in iceland on August 27th, we would get 78 Kronurs(their currency) for every Canadian dollar. that doesn´t mean that things were cheap for us. in fact most everything is more expensive. if a chocolate bar in Canada is 1 dollar than in icealnd it would be more like 150 kronurs...you get the idea. anyhow, since we got here it has gone up a lot...still not so things are cheap for us :) but closer to normal prices.
today the kronur was 104 to 1 canadian dollar, and i´ve seen it has high as 109. that is up 30 -40%

the economy of the world has really affected this small country. for a long time the bank has been giving out loans to anyone who wanted them with zero down. people in their ´new found´wealth bought multiple cars, borrowed to invest, and bought houses that they couldn´t really afford. CRASH

i don´t know how it all works, but the government took over the 3rd largest icelandic bank last week, and over the last days has basically insured all deposits and loans DOMESTICALLY of the banks. there are 3 major banks in iceland, and their combined economy is 10-12 TIMES that of the whole country. the state could not insure all the banks debts(and shouldn´t have to) but they are doing their best to protect the citizens. this is crazy news in a highly developed independent nation of only 300,000 people who have enjoyed wealth and growth beyond measure over the last 15 years.

the governement of iceland tried to get financial support for britain and other nations that are friends, but received little to none, except support from the other Scandanavian nations which are not the large either. Maybe 20 million people total. The Prime Minister just said in a speech, that when you ask friends for help and they don´t, then you have to get new friends. they secured a loan from RUSSIA for 4 Billion Euros...about 5.8 billion Canadian or more.
here is an article about it.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081007/eu_iceland_banks.html

the governement has taken over the 2nd largest bank now and has control of the 3rd. we´ll see what happens with the largest.

nobody is sure how this will affect everyone. less spending for sure for those who have loans. let extra vehicles. maybe houses will all go up for sale...but who is going to buy? so maybe most will just keep paying instead of being out of a house and have a loan...it´s better to just have a loan.
lots of immigrants have already left because they enjoyed the good economy and could send money home...now they don´t have any to send home. the sports teams that were paying players in other currencies have cancelled all the contracts and sent the players home.

i was told that they have tied the currency to the euro but i think that is only internally...so that if any icelander wants to BUY Euros, than they will always costs the same, although the currency will still fluctuate like any of them.

all this in the last month and a half that we have been here. that´s all for now. later

A.J.

Where We Live (continued)

The Boys enjoying the "Big" yard,

Isaac talking on Skype to his Grammy & Gramps,
Our nice cozy room,
One of the views from the guest house, the hosue is where our friends Alda & Unnar and David live (upstairs flat) and Kolbrun & Agust, and their 3 kids live (downstairs flat)
The entrance to the guest house, our front door.

Where we Live

This is the drive way of the property we're staying on.

This is the view from the kitchens windows,

This is the kitchen,