here are a few sweater vest pictures that i spoke of and a nice glass one. that's all
A.J.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
i wasn't going to post
so this is not my thing but i figure i needed to post because Ang and I focus on different details. this won't be long or in-depth, just a little snapshot of some moments for me. When we stayed in Kopavogur (suburb basically of Reykjavik), we discovered that our friend Unnar has an incredibly talented Mother. We had lots of fun staying at their place. lots of laughs. But...she makes these amazing icelandic sweaters...you know the kind you see in magaznines. she makes those. she can practically make one in a day or 2 if she wanted to. she is very fast. she asked Ang if she knits, and Ang started talking about a few dish clothes she made.....quite a difference. it was very cute and funny to see Ang's face. I have included some pictures of them. She makes vests and sweaters. She also does custom glass work. also very amazing. i hope the pictures do it justice. enjoy. lastly i just wanted to mention the storm we drove through as we left the capital area to go to the east countryside 8 hours away. for part of the trip we were in quite a variety of storms. crazy winds, rain, fog. we couldn't see 10 metres in any direction, and the wind was 60+kms an hour, which does something funny....usually smaller waterfalls dropping 30 meters or more falls down when it leaves the rock face, but when it is sooooooo windy the water actually falls of the rock and blows horizontal. ever seen a waterblow?? very different. the scenery besides that on the way out was stunning, as i knew it would be. an enjoyable ride besides the storm, the dangerous cliffs, and the two very cranky boys at times. we are here now though. yeah.thats all for now.
A.J.
p.s. i didn't want to go back and chnage this post, so i'll say it down here. ihaven't downloaded the sweater pictures so i can't show you yet, and i've also included some other pics...like of Elliot in a bin at the Ikea and a cool art piece.
Friday, August 29, 2008
We are in Iceland!
We have arrived! Our drive down to Minneapolis went good, and we had a brief but good visit with our friends Michael and Leslie and their two children. We’ve been in Reykjavík for 2 days now. We flew in early Wednesday to the international airport in Keflavik. Unnar picked us up and we drove to Reykjavík, which is about a 40 minute drive. The boys were wide eyed and hungry! Isaac reminded us how hungry he was every few minutes or so. We were prepared for some hungry boys since we didn’t have our meal on the plane until about 9 pm and they only ate the bun and the chocolate. At least Elliot was entertained by all the cups. For those of you who don’t know this already, Elliot is fascinated with mugs, glasses, cans, really anything you can drink from. At the beginning of the flight a very kind woman moved to another empty seat so we had an extra seat which was fabulous. Isaac was able to stretch right out and slept solid for 4 hours! Elliot woke up every hour or so but really he did well considering he was sleeping in my arms. A.J. watched Simpsons for most of the flight.
We’ve been staying at Unnar’s parents (Hlin and Eriling) house in Reykjavík. They have been wonderful to us, and have the boys calling them Ama and Avi which means grandpa and grandma in Icelandic. Ours boys have been absolutely spoiled with attention and treat after treat since the moment we’ve arrived. Isaac has a set of molars coming in so his mouth has been sore. Yesterday Unnar’s dad Erling made an amazing traditional Icelandic meal of barbequed leg of lamb, roasted back of the lamb, potatoes, red cabbage, peas, and salad, and topped with fresh blueberries and cream for dessert. Since Isaac’s mouth was so sore he didn’t eat much and ended up being offered ice cream for supper instead. Of course he ate that right away and then was able to eat the berries and whipped cream too. For breakfast Elliot will only eat the skinka (ham), and refuses to eat anything else. The first day we were here he ate the entire plate full.
As of today we are all adjusted to the time change (we’re 5 hours ahead), and spent the day touring around Rekjavik, and having supper at our good friends Agust and Bogga and their two children. We had a great visit, so fun to be with them again. So far it’s rained ever
y day. The weather is known to change often and very fast. So one minute it’s pouring rain and then all of a sudden it’s calm and sunny. Isaac really likes trains and knew Iceland had none, but we didn’t know that they actually had 1 train around World War 2 that carried supplies to and from this building called the Pearl (which is kind of like The Forks in Winnipeg). So we drove by the 1 small steam engine several times for Isaac and eventually stopped to take some pictures. He loved it. Since it was raining and Elliot was napping in the car we drove all around the harbor looking at all the huge fishing boats and cruise ships. It’s amazing to be so close to the ocean. There were many construction machines which Isaac is constantly pointing out and talking about. We spent some time at the Pearl, watching a geyser, and a water fountain inside. These were 
Elliot’s favorites. He made sound effects and danced around every time the water came spraying up. The Pearl is in the shape of a dome and you can walk around the outside and see all of Reykjavík, the ocean and surrounding mountains. Very beautiful. Unnar had a quick return to make at Ikea so we looked around for awhile. The layout for the Ikea here is for a city of 1.5 million but there are only 300,000 in Iceland. So why don’t we have one in Winnipeg??? Ikea is known for good prices but being in Iceland with everything so expensive even the prices in Ikea are
steep.
We’ve been staying at Unnar’s parents (Hlin and Eriling) house in Reykjavík. They have been wonderful to us, and have the boys calling them Ama and Avi which means grandpa and grandma in Icelandic. Ours boys have been absolutely spoiled with attention and treat after treat since the moment we’ve arrived. Isaac has a set of molars coming in so his mouth has been sore. Yesterday Unnar’s dad Erling made an amazing traditional Icelandic meal of barbequed leg of lamb, roasted back of the lamb, potatoes, red cabbage, peas, and salad, and topped with fresh blueberries and cream for dessert. Since Isaac’s mouth was so sore he didn’t eat much and ended up being offered ice cream for supper instead. Of course he ate that right away and then was able to eat the berries and whipped cream too. For breakfast Elliot will only eat the skinka (ham), and refuses to eat anything else. The first day we were here he ate the entire plate full.As of today we are all adjusted to the time change (we’re 5 hours ahead), and spent the day touring around Rekjavik, and having supper at our good friends Agust and Bogga and their two children. We had a great visit, so fun to be with them again. So far it’s rained ever
y day. The weather is known to change often and very fast. So one minute it’s pouring rain and then all of a sudden it’s calm and sunny. Isaac really likes trains and knew Iceland had none, but we didn’t know that they actually had 1 train around World War 2 that carried supplies to and from this building called the Pearl (which is kind of like The Forks in Winnipeg). So we drove by the 1 small steam engine several times for Isaac and eventually stopped to take some pictures. He loved it. Since it was raining and Elliot was napping in the car we drove all around the harbor looking at all the huge fishing boats and cruise ships. It’s amazing to be so close to the ocean. There were many construction machines which Isaac is constantly pointing out and talking about. We spent some time at the Pearl, watching a geyser, and a water fountain inside. These were 
Elliot’s favorites. He made sound effects and danced around every time the water came spraying up. The Pearl is in the shape of a dome and you can walk around the outside and see all of Reykjavík, the ocean and surrounding mountains. Very beautiful. Unnar had a quick return to make at Ikea so we looked around for awhile. The layout for the Ikea here is for a city of 1.5 million but there are only 300,000 in Iceland. So why don’t we have one in Winnipeg??? Ikea is known for good prices but being in Iceland with everything so expensive even the prices in Ikea are
steep. Wednesday, August 20, 2008
On our Way
We leave for Iceland next week! Isaac’s counting down the sleeps before we board the plane.
Most of you know Immigration did not approve a working permit. Their reason was there wasn't equal employment opportunity for Icelanders or other people of European descent to apply for the position. We know it will take time and creative thinking to come up with other options if we are going to re-apply for a working permit again.
So for now we’ve decided to go for 3 months, since you can stay this long as visitors. We are driving down to Minneapolis this Monday, and then fly to Iceland on Tuesday, August 26th. We are looking forward to being with our friends in Reykjavík and Eyjólfsstaðir. The plan is to return in November just in time for Elliot’s 2nd birthday.
Most of you know Immigration did not approve a working permit. Their reason was there wasn't equal employment opportunity for Icelanders or other people of European descent to apply for the position. We know it will take time and creative thinking to come up with other options if we are going to re-apply for a working permit again.
So for now we’ve decided to go for 3 months, since you can stay this long as visitors. We are driving down to Minneapolis this Monday, and then fly to Iceland on Tuesday, August 26th. We are looking forward to being with our friends in Reykjavík and Eyjólfsstaðir. The plan is to return in November just in time for Elliot’s 2nd birthday.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Eyjólfsstaðir
So here are some pictures of Eyjólfsstaðir where we will be spending a whole lot of the time. The story is this….the property used to be a farm, then bought in the 70’s and turned into a YWAM base. Now the church that we will be a part of owns the property including the buildings. There are 2 houses on the property as well as the old original farmhouse. In one house is a family with 3 children, and in the other are our friends Unnar and Alda, and their son Davið living upstairs (that is where we were going to be staying), and in the downstairs suite is another family. The family downstairs are there to start a Leadership school called “King’s Garden” (Konungsgarður) run out of the 3rd building on the property. Here’s a link with more info. on Konungsgarður http://www.agust.org/konungsgardur. The 3rd building is a large guesthouse with 40 beds, a large common eating area, offices, and a gathering area upstairs. The school and the guesthouse will be running in the same building at the same times. The guesthouse is there for travellers passing through as well as church conferences and things like that. We will be living 1km up the road from this property but all our friends, church, and work will be at the farmstead with the guesthouse. Exciting times.
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