Hopefully today....

It has been a while again since I have written anything here...been so busy planning the trip to Kenya...Finally yesterday the day came but also the stupid snowstorm...it surely was a chaos here in Stockholm No buses were moving, neither were the taxis able to come and pick people up from their home places coz the roads were not ploughed...my husband went to work at 3 am yesterday morning and he worked until 8 pm in the evening and still the snow was just falling falling. We started panicking in the morning with my mum...just by looking outside....

Our backyard looked like that in the morning and it was not yet enough....so...I started calling the airport because the news were saying that it is completely closed and no flights are going...KLM told that their flights are going so ours should be in time but maybe with some small delays...well...hours went...our taxi never showed up...so many traffic jams and accidents, roads uncleaned...and I am telling you...there was like half a meter of snow on the roads...there was no way that we were even able to walk outside with our luggage..we were completely trapped. Taxis were calling my mum that ok, now we have gotten you another taxi and it is coming...but no taxis showed up. Finally our friend was willing to help us that he takes us with our car...well, our car was also stuck and there it was...I tried to check if we can change the ticket for today and at first that  was like impossible...KLM could not help coz we have booked the tickets from Flygpoolen..they told us to contact there...well...I tried but they don't have a number, only contact form in their webpage and there it was like I have to pay 100SEK per person to ask them the question and get an answer....like whaaaaaaaat? So, I should've paid 500SEK just to get an answer if we can change the ticket or not....no way...so..we called to KLM several times with my mum...to my mum they told also that they can't help unfortunately...so we were really panicking now....what to do...ok, but we saw then that the flights are delayed for like 2 hrs so it gave us hope that we might get there in time. :) We cancelled the taxis...I really prayed God for help now with our matter and I told that this is now up to Him to fix for us...we can't do more than we have done.

And surely HE the Almighty came to our rescue...AGAIN! :) I called once more to KLM and asked what we should do with the connection flight because we cant make it to that if we leave in the evening..like 2 hrs late...the woman was so nice and helpful and she just said...it's better we book u seats for tomorrow (that is today) and everything worked out so smoothly!!! I was like what, are you for real? YOu can change the tickets? :) She said yes, but that I have to contact Flygpoolen then to get the e-tickets again....I tried to contact them but they have calling hrs only from 10-14....so I left it for today...and now I just did call there but they just referred to their webpage...as usual! :P....Luckily I was able to send a FREE question and they answered fast enough...but now they said that I have to contact KLM again...like whaat? :P I think it is better for us to just leave now and go to the airport! :)

Shiko and her kids are now on their way :)....So we see them again in Nairobi :)
Keep your thumbs up now for us please! :) Thanks!

Here some pics from yesterday....

20 days to go....

Ooooh boy...I am abit stressy now, I can just feel it...time flies and soon we will be in Kenya, but why is it that everytime there is a trip ahead, you start doing all kind of things in the "last minute"?? :D Well, we have been doing now things in good time too but it feels that time will not be enough for everything to be ready before the trip...and fixing all this...oh boy...the money that you need there, it's just tooo much...:O You could think that as long as you have the tickets, we're good to go...but it's not that simple...need to check travel insurances, vaccinations, medication, passports, visa etc. etc. and I am telling you...they surely cost like another ticket :D

Having many kids is a surely a blessing, but when it comes to costs...ooh la laa!...I mean, why can't they just give vaccinations for kids cheaply or for free? ;)...all they recommended today, it would totally cost me like 5000 SEK for Simon, Isabella and Mumbi....are you freaking kidding me? :P that is way too much! Paid Simons and Isabellas Hepatitus A+B vaccination today...1000SEK PUM just like that...Isabellas and Mumbis finnish passports...2000SEK PUM just like that....the passport thingy is even so annoying that all the Finns that live here have to apply for the new passport from the Finnish embassy and there it costs 1000 SEK each when in Finland you can get it for 55 Eur each...it's a rip off here for sure!

Anyway, what more is there to come now...I have gotten the travel insurance, the flight meals for kids and the babycot for Mumbi is fixed in Kenya Airways (very nice service there btw), passports are fixed, visa is fixed, luggage fixed...those are the biggest things I think..now it's just small small fixing but time is flyyyyiiiing.

I keep on thinking already how things are in Kenya when we get there...how it will be hot there, how we will see the stars and the moon so brightly at night, how we will here the rooster waking us up in the mornings...take the tea and some simple breakfast, how we will just listen to their language everywhere and then we will also here..."mzungu" again in many places :D Oooh....I can't wait! I want to pray that our trip will be blessed and God and his angels will be with us all through the way! :)

20 days to go....counting down the days :)....

9 years ago when I still looked hot :D

Some pictures and videos....

Yep, I don't have so much more now to say so I just post some pictures and videos here :)

Halloween-face made by me :)

Princess Isabella :)

Rasta-Mumbi :D

Mumbis lovely foot ;)

Isabella and Sarah :)

Isabella with her dear Sara today (6.11.12) here in Stockholm. :)

Mumbi playing with her face expressions ;)

Sisters ;)

Yeeeee! :)

Obama vs. Romney...that is the game today....

Well, I am not so interested in politics but this US Presidential elections are taking place in basically all the tv-channels in the world at the moment I think....that is another thing that shows how "powerful" U.S. is in this world...it's like everyone in the world should follow what happens there...but do they follow our presidential elections ever? :) I don't think so. I just don't understand why this is sooo huge thing or is it because the world is ran by the United States somehow? Economy comes from there..if they have it bad, it affects all of us? We can't live with them but we can't live without them? :D

I'm not being racist in anyway here but I am just astonished about the impact that this election has on Swedish channels even...live show showing who will win and the same happened 4 years ago...live follow up on the elections...it would be funny to see if the Finnish presidential or the Kenyan presidential election or any other countries election is followed with the same kind of enthusiasm by everyone in the world? :D or specially America? ;)

Well, any hows...I hope Obama will continue still...even though I haven't followed their campaigns at all...but I suppose he is good and he should get a chance to continue for another 4 years :) period. heh

As a country, U.S. would be really interesting and amazing to visit...and God willing I will do so one of these fine days :) Thank you.

Good night :)

My prayers are being answered in so many ways...

I really have to thank the Lord above, because He has answered my prayers lately in so many ways...small things that I have asked for have happened even right at that moment...I can give one example..I prayed that we will have a blessed weekend and we will have food and money even if we didn't have at that moment (this was last weekend) and what happens...Phares gets some small note that the insurance company has paid back some of the insurance money (like 700kr) so all I had to do is to go and get it from a kiosk and go and buy us some food....and our weekend was blessed...:) Another time I was praying that Phares would not  stay in a pub for a long time and that God would purify his blood from all toxic if he had at that moment...I go to the shop with kids and I see him and he is ok at that moment...and he goes home while I am in the shop...well, when I came home..I find him so sick...stomach issues and he goes to sleep saying that he can't even eat or anything that he just fell sick suddenly, even vomiting ..silently I thought that oops, I asked God to purify his blood at that moment and this is the way he did it? ;) God has humor ;)

Now lately I have been praying for our trip to Kenya..that it would really happen for all of us and that for some way we would manage to get the tickets as soon as possible or that the ticket prices for 6th of December would go down so that we would be able to buy tickets somehow...I have even written "Tickets to Kenya" in my wall calendar in today's box....and I have prayed and then I have let it go...well, today (Friday 3rd) I woke up somehow smiling, thinking of the calendar and the marking there....I had checked the ticket prices the night before and was surprised to find that they have actually gone down for those days that we have been planning to go...(6.12.12-16.1.13)...I even told Phares about it and he was surprised too (I thought that, hmmm...I have prayed for this...maybe this is an answer that we will get the tickets as planned)...so I trusted that ok, whatever happens, it is God's will. ....Phare came home early from work and said that ok, we book the tickets for you guys (meaning me, my mum and the kids) and that he will book his own later if he can travel...he had gotten some money and was willing to pay the tickets with it...but there was some money missing...so we planned with mum...she will put her part from all her savings now and amazingly it came to almost exactly the amount of money that we needed...even a little bit more :)...
And now we have the tickets booked...I have to tell though that the devil also has his hands on everything, because when I was booking the planned dates, the prices were shown as we had seen earlier and I continued booking, but when I had put all our names and filled other info, suddenly there was a problem saying that the flights are fully booked with that price or something...I tried several times, coz the price was in the list still...or the cheapest flight but it just didn't go through...so I had to start checking for the 5th of December and there I found the cheaper ones again...so...I have it booked now and ready to be paid :D The payment will happen today (Saturday, since now the time is 00:43)...:D Praise the Lord for all the help that you have given me and my family! :)

Am I gonna be famous today? ;)

Hahaa...ok...I'm gonna tell you this story short...sometime in March or before this year my mum had sent some application to this TV-producer that shows the "famous" Trinny and Susannah show here in Sweden...well..they were looking for people to be in their show for this season so she thought that we could both be....we got to the first round of interview with the Mastiff production and we accepted. We went there I think it was the beginning of April..I remember I was even having Mumbi with me and the weather was bad..it was snowing/raining and so windy. We got there..they took some pictures from us and then they interviewed us..we had to fill in some forms and tell the motivation why we want to be in this show...that we also did..Mumbi was behaving nicely and there was this girl, Aida, who was also for the interview...she was holding Mumbi and saying how cute she is and all...:) so anyways...a week or two went and we got a call that they would want us to be in the show...we were so surprised with mum coz they had like a thousand applicants (or more) who wanted to be in this show...but well, we decided that ok, we're in. :)

So, early May we had the first tv-shooting in Södertälje since we were put to the Södertälje-group...;)..so I took Isabella to the daycare and then we started driving to Södertälje..again Mumbi was with us...we met at the local hotel there...and this was the day now we would see Trinny and Susannah first time...the scene was in the street...it's like they saw us walking and stopped us :) and I can't even remember everything that they told but I think I was called as a black widow or sumthing...lolz...:D and my mum was told that she is colourful but she doesn't have any style :D heh...well..it was fun and our co-"victims" were told many things too...so there we were..it took us the whole day :) and now it was just to wait for the actual fitting session in Stockholm Filmhuset. That took place two/three weeks after the first shooting. :)

So, the day came that we had to be ready and steady at the moviehouse in Stockholm at 8am in the morning. This time I was not able to take Mumbi with me because it was going to take the whole day..my aunt came luckily to watch her so it was ok. :) So we went and waited and waited and waited...and finally we now got the chance to go the the scene where all the clothes were ready and the makeup people and the hairdresser, etc. So...we had a small room where we had to wait for our turn...and when it came...that's where the stressy day started...it was fun yes, but stressful also...many people giving clothes and trying them on and then asking from Trinny or Susannah if this is ok and so on...and we could not see anything from any mirror the whole day...I was the last one to be ready coz the makeup-ppl messed up the makeup like 3 times...Trinny was not happy at all with their work and was getting angry at them :)...finally when I was ready, it was time for the Catwalk :D ooh la laa...the shoes that I got...oh boy, it was so hard to stand with them..they were too big for me and too high :D...I think I look like a penguin when I am walking with those..lol...:D Oh boy, it was the most nervous moment in my life...to start walking and to see the "new" me in the catwalk....I managed to walk with the shoes yes, but the first glimpse that I saw of me was like..that ain't me :D and I just saw myself still so big...I had nice clothes and it was all nice but it still wasn't me somehow :)...I had hoped that I would get some good advice on how I would be able to look beautiful when I dress up nicely but the time was too short I think...:) and as I said..too stressful so I couldn't get any really good advice about what would suit me best :D

But all in all...it was great experience and today is the day the show comes out with us in the picture....ooh la laa...only 2 hrs left and it will be on the channel 7....let's see if I can walk here in Tyresö from now on without people looking at me and my mum ;)

Check the episode from here...(episode 8):

http://www.tv4.se/trinny-och-susannah-stylar-om-sverige/avsnitt/avsnitt-8-151346

You can see a clip where I was in and my mum....atleast until 7.11.2012...but try even after...that is if you are interested ;)

Trinny and Susannah styling up Sweden - Leena my mum

Trinny and Susannah styling up Sweden - Me :)

Daylight saving time (DST)....why?

Ok, I was wondering yesterday the whole day (well, almost ;) ) why is it that we really have to change the time to winter time and summer time?...I mean...nobody changes the time in Kenya for example? They all live  with the same time all throughout the year...so why is it that we have to either take one hour back or add one hour ahead in a certain period of time? Yesterday felt so long even...it was somehow effecting the kids...they just stayed up and didn't want to go and sleep although they woke up the same time in the morning (I mean now the same time according to the ol' summertime :D ..the new time it was one hr earlier ;) )...

Anyhow...I just now checked from the good ol' google who created this DST and why?...and it is saying that Benjamin Franklin mentioned the idea in 1784 but that the modern idea of daylight saving time was proposed in 1895 by George Vernon Hudson and it was first implemented during the First World War. Many countries have used it at various times since then.

So, this was actually just proposed and implemented even not so long time ago..and here we are just following what the entomologist came up with...is it then really the right way?

According to Wikipedia the practice has been both praised and criticized. Adding daylight to evenings benefits retailing, sports and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but can cause problems for evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun.

If I think of it in the above way, I hardly can see any use from the time change...I mean...ok...in summertime, the nights of daylight get longer but it would still do that even if we didn't change the time, right? :) We are just changing the time in our clocks...the creation of a man and following it that way....let's see in Kenya for example...many people don't have even clocks there..they follow the sunlight and they know what time it is from the sun and therefore they don't even use the 24hr system as we do...they have practically 12 hrs of sun and 12 hrs of moon....I mean...isn't that the way God created this world? :)

Anyways, I thought of this yesterday and found it pretty interesting...

Daylight saving time (DST)—also summer time in several countries^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} in British English, and European official terminology (see Terminology)—is the practice of advancing clocks so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn.^[7]

Although not used by most of the world's countries, daylight saving time is common in the Northern Hemisphere's northern latitudes.

  DST observed

  DST formerly observed

  DST never observed

Mumbi likes to play in the evenings...

Just posting few pics and a video of Mumbi ;)

Isabella 4 years answering some questions...26.10.2012

This was very funny, had to do it...it is in Finnish first but I will translate it into english also:


Kysy lapseltasi vastaukset ja kirjoita ne muistiin IHAN niinkuin ne sanottiin.

1. Mitä äitisi aina sanoo sinulle?
- että älä varasta Simonilta tavaroita.

2.Mikä tekee äidin onnelliseksi?
- jos tottelee

3. Mikä tekee surulliseksi?
- jos ei tottele, jos ei kuuntele mitä äitit sanoo.

4. Miten äiti saa sinut nauramaan?
- mmmm....en mä tiedä, en muista...jos vaikka....aa, silloin mä nauran kun sä kutitat.

5. Millainen äitisi oli lapsena?
- ai silloin kun mummu oli sun äiti? Sä olit iloinen.

6. Kuinka vanha äiti on?
- Sä et oo vanha. Joskus sä oot vanha.

7.Kuinka pitkä äitisi on?
- sä oot tosi pitkä...kuin katolle asti.

8. Mikä on äitisi lempipuuhaa?
- tehä ruokaa ja sitte lapset tykkää syyä ruokaa, spahettia. Tykkäät leipoa pullaa ja kakkuakin.

9. Mitä äitisi tekee, kun et ole itse paikalla?
- istut koneella ja katot teeveetä ja syötät Mumbia ja joskus käyt asioilla.

10. Jos äidistäsi tulisi kuuluisa, niin miksiköhän?
- jos joku laulaa....eiku jos laulat niin tuut tähdeksi. (aawww ;) )

11. Missä äitisi on tosi hyvä?
- jos sä pyöräilet niin sä et kaadu....ja sitte sä oot hyvä koulussa tai hyvä kattoon teeveetä.

12. Missä äitisi ei ole kovin hyvä lainkaan?
- sä et osaa syöttää Mumbia (ja tämän perään räkäset naurut)....:D...minä: no ai miten niin en osaa syöttää Mumbia? Isabella: no osaat sää, mää huijasin. hmmm...sä et osaa mennä toiseen taloon (mä huijasin vaan taas..;) )..sä et osaa ajaa isolla traktorilla.

13. Mitä äitisi tekee työkseen?
- istut tietokoneella ja puhut koko ajan puhelimessa.

14. Mikä on äitis lempiruokaa?
- spaghetti, makaroni, riisi ja puuro (öööö....puhukohan Isabella tässä itestään enemmän ;) )

15. Miksi olet ylpeä äidistäsi?
- koska sä teet hyvää ruokaa, koska mä rakastan sinua. <3

16. Jos äitisi olisi joku sarjakuvahahmo, kuka hän olisi?
- sä olisit prinsessa...minä: Mikä prinsessa? Isabella: No vaikka prinsessa Ruusunen tai ei, ku prinsessa Tuhkimo.

17. Mitä sinä ja äitisi teette yhdessä?
- katotaan teeveetä, ostetaan karkkia, käydään reissussa ja ostetaan dädille kaljaa kaupasta ja sitte se menee yksin ostaan kaljaa. (muhahahah :) ups)

18. Mitä samaa on sinussa ja äidissäsi?
- Meillä on samanväriset hiukset ja kun sulla oli vihree mekko ja mulla niin meillä oli samanlaiset.

19. Mitä eroa teissä on?
- mä oon erilainen tyttö ja sä oot erilainen aikuinen. ;D

20. Mistä tiedät, että äitisi rakastaa sinua?
- no kun minä rakastan sinua ja kun kirjoitat mulle kirjaimia....osaan jo tehä a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l...ja melkein kaikki. :D

21. Mikä on äitisi lempipaikka minne mennä?
- sä tykkäät mennä niinku dädin töihin ja olla ulkona ja tykkäät mennä lääkäriin (whaat? ;D) ja sä tykkäät syödä Mumbia.....kirjoita se nyt heti tai mä oon vihainen...:D (muhahahah....hassu Isabella)

Now I write this in english...Did a small questionnaire for my lil' princess today...and here are the answers:

1. What does your mother always tell you?

- don't steal Simons' stuff

2. What makes mummy happy?
- if you obey

3. What makes her sad?
- if you don't obey, if you don't listen what mothers say

4. What makes mummy laugh?
- mmmm...I don't know, I can't remember...oh...well...when you tickle me, then I laugh...

5. How was your mother when she was a child?
- When grandma was your mother? You were happy.

6. How old is mummy?
- You are not old. Sometimes you are old.

7. How tall is your mummy?
- you are very tall...almost to the ceiling/roof.

8. What is the favorite thing that mummy likes to do?
- cook and then children like to eat food, spaghetti. you like baking buns and cake also.

9. What does your mummy do when you are not around?
- you sit at the computer and watch tv and feed mumbi and sometimes you go for some things..

10. If your mummy became a famous person, who/what would that be?
- if someone sings...or no, if you sing you become a star

11. What is your mummy good at?
- if you cycle and you don't fall..and you are good in school or good at watching tv.

12. What is your mummy bad at?
- you don't know how to feed Mumbi! hahahahahaa...Me: now why is that? Isabella: you know how to..I was just joking. hmm....you don't know how to go to another house (haha...I joked again)...you are not good in driving a tractor.

13. What does your mummy do as her job?
- you sit by the computer and talk on the phone all the time.

14. What is your mums favorite food?
- spaghetti, macaroni, rice and porridge (haha..I wonder if Isabella was talking about herself here ;) )

15. Why are you proud of your mum?
- Because you make good food, because I love you.

16. If your mum was a cartoon character, what would she be?
- you would be a princess...Me: what princess? Isabella: well, Sleeping beauty...oh no, princess Cinderella.

17. What do you and mummy do together?
- we watch tv, buy candies, travel and buy beer for daddy and then he goes and buys beer himself. (hahahaa..ups)

18. What similarities do you and mom have?
- We have same color hair and when you had a green dress and I also then we were the same kind.

19. What is the difference between you and mummy?
- I am a different girl and you are a different adult.

20. How do you know that mummy loves you?
- Because I love you and when you write me letters...I know already a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m...soon I know everything.

21. What is mums favorite place to go?
- you like to go like to daddy's job and be outside and you like to go to doctor (whaaat? :D) and you like to eat Mumbi....you write it down there immediately or I'll get mad!...muhahah..funny Isabella :)

The first snow has landed for this autumn in Stockholm..

Yep, the ground was completely white last night (25.10.2012)...it snowed so so much..was even like a snowstorm outside..I had no idea of what is going on outside :D Only after checking the weather from my Samsung galaxy I went to check from the window and saw what is going on :D heh....has it really come to this that we don't even check out from the windows..instead we check our phones and see that oh, ok...it is raining now or it is sunny now :D...lolz...anyways...this is how it looked like last night from our place...

These pics were taken maybe an hour or two after it had stopped snowing. :)

Happy birthday to our dear Simon! :)

Yep, it has been Simons day today...he turned 12 years...time surely flies...I can still remember the first time I saw him in Kenya..he was then like 4 years only..didn't talk much, just said "Hi, how are you"...like almost all the kids in Kenya say when they see a mzungu (white person ;) )...hihi..and it is now like 6 years that he has been with us here in Europe...and he knows Finnish fluently and swedish too now..and english and swahili...amazing, eeh? He is really a helpful and nice boy all in all...despite the times when he might lie about where he has been when he comes home late or if he has taken something without asking etc. just those small small lies that I guess all the kids say at some point in their life? Or what do you thing? Have you done that when you were small? Lying to your parents? ;)...Admit it, you have! :D

Unfortunately we could not do so much celebration for him now because of our financial situation but I promised that he will have his part of celebration next month when we will combine all our kids bdays into one big one...hopefully it will happen! God willing! :) But I know he understands and he even told that there is no need of doing anything special because we need to get ourselves to Kenya somehow in December! :D

Speaking of that...the tickets are just getting higher and higher and some days just seem to be so hard when it comes to getting the tickets..I mean..the dream of going to Kenya in December fades away when you see the ticket prices raising higher and still no money gathered for those...now today even Phares told that he will not even go anymore and that maybe we should postpone....NO...I DON'T WANT TO POSTPONE...I want to go nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow! :) I miss all my family members in Kenya! and those friends even that use to live in Finland but are back in Kenya..I miss them and I surely want to see them!! :) And I want to take our kids there to see their Kenyan family...it is important...even Isabella keeps on talking about that soon we will fly to Kenya and she will see her baby Peter and big Peter and uncle David and Nimo and cucu and guga and so on....oooh....God will help us to get the tickets, Amen!

My sis-in-law got the chance today to get the tickets...and my bro-in-law with his family has already the tickets also...so it is only us remaining now...please! We have to go there!! :)

Anyway...now I have to go and sleep and pray that tomorrow is a better day! And hope that Simon enjoyed today even though we didn't do much! :) Oh, but at least he got to bake some muffins....and they surely are yammy...mmmmmm! :)

Good night you all! :) <3

Blessings!