The happiness in reaching your goal

For a while now I've been thinking about my job. As much as I love working with the people on the 7th floor, and all of my colleagues around the country after the year changed I started to feel un-challenged with the actual work I was doing. So finally before summer vacation I decided that I'm too young to give up on my dreams and applied for a better position within If.

They took me through a phone interview, interview with the "future boss" and his superior, as well as an in-depth personality analysis. And today I finally got the news that I had been hoping for. Starting on November 1 I will be a sales manager at the small enterprices business unit!!! I couldn't believe it when I got the call - I barely had the patience to stay focused while I was talking to the boss, and even with my lowered energy level (due to the flu) I found myself jumping up and down as soon as I hung up the phone.

He told me that I had truly impressed him during the interview, and then he revealed that there had been 46 other applicants!!! I am so glad I did not know that before today, it just would have put so much more pressure on me, and I might not have been so relaxed and ME during the process.

So, now I have two months to get ready for the change - I can't wait to take on this challenge!!!!

Sick and tired of being sick and tired

Growing up it didn't seem so back - you feel sick, you get some relaxing days with your parents and sisters taking care of you, you get to eat what ever you like and watch what ever you want on tv.

Now, if it wasn't for Tonny, I don't know how would I have survived these last couple of days. On friday I woke up feeling so sick that when I went to the doctor's office, I didn't even have the patience to listen. And at the laboratory, where everything usually works so nice and fast I felt like crying when it took 20 minutes for my number to come up. Twenty minutes - just shows how exhausted I was feeling. Luckily I have a good husband who on top of working all days and nights still had energy to cook for me, bring me extra blankets and water, and tea or what ever else I needed at that moment. I can't say how much it made me really appreciate the fact that I have found someone who loves me in sickness and in health. I guess I really put that in sickness to the test this weekend. Today things are starting to look better, the fever has finally burned out and I'm sure that with one more day of rest I'll be as good as new.


A little over a year ago I started my exercise program. I've been doing ok, but just before wedding I felt so stressed out that even thinking of exercise felt like a additional stress. But just before falling ill I was truly getting back to my system. I am so determined not to gain my weight back on now that the wedding is over (like everyone says I will) and in fact I still have not reached my ultimate goal and feel super motivated to finally reach it. I still have a bit of a way to go but when I started I decided not to rush it this time and really try to do it the healthy way and not by denying all the things that I like from my self. My next mini-goal is to drop another 4,5 kilos by 01 January 2010. Doesn't sound like so much, but it's not as easy as it was in the beginning. If I can make it, I will be so happy to see the new year coming.

But for now, I just need to get back to full strength so I can take my sneaker's for a run :D

Thanks Aki and Katja

Just came back from a super relaxing weekend. It is strange how a mere 48 hours can make you feel so relaxed and peaceful.

Katja and Aki invited us to a get-away-weekend to Aki's parents cottage by the sea. It took us three hours to get there, but it surely was worth the wait. For the first time ever, Tonny and I were able to really experience what is a summer vacation like for most of the finns. We swam straigth from the sauna, had a MÖLKKY competition and ate lost and lots of nice grilled food. And the night ended with a desparately tired group trying to play Trivial pursuit. In the end we had to change some rules around, to actually find a winner, but it was all good fun.

Today (Sunday) after driving home, I even had energy to go for a run! That's how relaxed the weekend left me..

JUST AMAZING!

I am so in love with you

I don't know how it happened, that I found you my love. It is strange - we grew up so far from each other - and now, there isn't such a thing as being too close.

It has been a very emotional time after wedding. Naturally different feelings are surfacing and it's been very interesting to deal with it. One of course is people sending their greetings and putting me through the big questions - how did it go? was it amazing? how does it feel now??? But I also feel that I have grown up a bit in the last two weeks. I know that I will always have my parents and Tonny will always have his - but I truly feel that it is us now against all the bad things that might come and also us enjoying everything good that it will bring. We are our own family now - small, but strong.

Here's some more pics from the Finnish wedding.

Minna my make-up artist making me pretty and finally... taking the steps towards the altar with my dad!

I was so glad that Daniel and Julianna were there. I know it raised up the noise level, but I didn't care. So sweet, huh?

One of the nice things of getting married has been that we have been receiving so many nice poems, thoughts etc. from family and friends. Very nice words, very inspiring. One of my favourites was a poem from a friend, Laura.

"Onnellinen on se, joka rakastaa. Onnellisempi on se, joka rakkautta saa. Onnellisin on se, joka rakkautta saa siltä jota rakastaa."

To the non-finnish speaking people loose translation: lucky is the person who loves. more lucky is the one who is loved. the luckiest is the on who is loved by the one he loves. How perfect is that? How, in a very simple way, it explains the basic human need - to love, and be loved.

We finally received some photos of the ceremony and celebratin from Tanzania in a digital form (thanks Katja). These are the ones that I want to share with you. Juddy, Tonny's big sis, was complaining that she's not on any of the pics - but you know what, for once I am so glad that these pictures are what they are - pictures of US. It will be so nice to look at them later on and go back to that moment in my mind. To me, our love is showing so clearly in there as well..

Leaving the church...

At the church steps...

And then we went to the beach near Malaika hotel to take some photos and enjoy a moment of peace before the big party. Our families were there as well to share it (and a glass of something cold) with us.

Baby Elisa was one of the flower girls.. :D She was a bit nervous, and did not want to pose for the pictures at all!

My maid of honor and THE best friend Jaana and her now-fiancé Pekka!!! (They got engaged in Zanzibar.. love is in the air!)

So, still missing some party pics but I think you can get the idea from these. The country is so beautiful that so many of the pics turned out nice - and I usually HATE taking photos. Of course it was very easy to keep the smile on my face on that day as well :D

P.S. The best advise came from my grand-mother. In the case of an argument listen to your husband, agree with him and then, just do it your way anyways. This is a woman who was married to her husband, my grand-father, for sixty years, so she should know... :D

I DO, part 1

Okay so it's been a total chaos for the last three weeks. No time for blogging, but now I'm back and finally able to take a moment and sit down.

On July 22 2009, Tonny and I promised to love each other forever infornt of God and our families. That day was the most amazing day of my life - until now of course - and after that I felt so secure and at peace that the stress that awaited us in Tanzania couldn't even touch me.

After hitting the hairdresser's in the morning I went to my mother's place to get ready, and wait for Minna to do my make up. How lucky am I to have a sister with abilities that would scare the world famous make-up artists! She made me look more beautiful than I've ever felt like. Sooo much better than having a stranger who doesn't know me and my style doing it. The best thing at MOM's that day was that both Daniel (Minna's son) and Julianna (Aki's daughter) were there to keep my mind off of the ceremony. Julianna is usually so shy, but it was like she knew it's my special day and kept coming to see me and make me smile.

Aki's and his fancy car took me to the church and while I was hiding in there (and spying on people who were arriving :D ) my amazingly strong and long tempered maid of honor was getting everything settled inside.

Here's me arriving at the church... So nervous, but excited. The last moment being Maiju Kemppi.

I couldn't find a dress that I liked from the shop, so I bought one that was almost and had my mom glam it up a bit with pink decorations.

With all these preparations I felt so beautiful and Sooo ready to shock my groom...

Here we go..

During the ceremony Jaana, my maid of honor, and my best friend since we were kids, read a chapter from the bible that Tonny and I chose together with the priest.

Here's Tonny's boys - Adam as the best man, and John. They both were busy trying to compete on who looks the most handsome. In my opinion - they both rocked their suits.

The ceremony itself took a while, since our Priest, Father Matti Nikkanen, had enjoyed our talk few days before and felt like he wanted to share our thoughts and feelings with everyone. We spoke alot about what love is - what is means to us, and how it takes part in our everyday lives. He told us that there is two kinds of love - love of God and love of man. In the end he concluded on speaking that love is a virtue.

It was so nice of him to use our conversation during the ceremony. We were a little bit nervous about him, because he was the summer replacement of the usual priest who holds the Sunday mass, but the way he had listened to us and was able to bring it up in the wedding was perfect.

I loved every minute of it, but of course the moment of announcing us husband and wife was the most memorable.

Finalizing the vows with the rings.

I designed both of our rings. Tonny's has a little diamond on it, and mine was custom made so that it fits perfectly next to my beautiful engagement ring.

Just as perfectly as Tonny and I fit together.

We also had a sand ceremony to symbolize our union our union and the union of our families. Here is the poem that I wrote about it and what we were planning to say before it, if my wonderful but a little forgetful husband had remembered to bring it to the chruch.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.
Today we are bound by love.

Love is strength, Love is hope, Love is pain, and Love is joy.
Love is family, love is God and love is LOVE.

With this ceremony we join together, with this ceremony,
we become one.

Our families represent the foundation that
life has given us for this marriage, they represent us as
individuals.

They also give their support, love and faith to our life
together - with pouring of the sand, they bless us.

My sand represents my love for you. Your sand represents your love for me.
Today we are us. As the sand blends together we become one, and like the
mixture of the sand our love can not be parted.

Katja and Minna (with the kids of course) represented my family and Blandina and Patricia Tonny's. And then Tonny and I mixed our colors to symbolize our live's becoming one - and our love being one. As you can not separate two pieces of sand, we can not be separated either. It was something completely new in Finland, and we were lucky that the Priest loved the idea, but I am so glad we did it. Because now and everyday from now I look at the vase filled with all different colors I feel that every singe particle of sand is a representing the love we, and our families share.

After the unity sand Daniel totally made the day by shouting Kiitos paljon! (Thank you very much) just as we finished. Got to love that kid!!!

After the ceremony we decided not to rush away, but because we did not organize any party after the church in Finland, we wanted to share a moment with the people who came to witness our marriage.

We also went to my mom's for a while to share a glass of champagne with the best man and maid of honor and few other important people. After which we drove to Minna's where we had a joined celebration on our and Daniel's birthday.

The day ended with us running around the apartment quickly packing everything and jumping to the bus at 01:15 am. I don't think that I really hit us until we reached the Amsterdam airport that we are husband and wife now. (Truthfully I still sometimes say that I'm his girlfriend, so definitely it will take a while to get used to it.)

So here's the first set of pictures, and the first chapter on this story. I will get back to this as soon as I get the pictures from Tanzania in a digital form. We went to the beach in Tanzania after our church blessing and the pictures turned out so nice...

Britney and a Baby

During the last weeks of wedding stress there were some fantastic moments of joy. Baby girl arrived to family Kauzeni and we were lucky enough to get the chance to visit the sweet thing just 12 hours after her birth.



I also was able to go with my soon-to-be-hubby to Britney Spear's concert. I know, not the normal fans of hers, but the truth is that growing up she was my number one idol, and I always have wanted to see her show.



It was an amazing spectacle, and a true Circus. Unfortunately so many of the new songs don't give her the chance to use her voice, since today's style is too much about computerized songs. But there was a moment when she sat down and sang Everytime, I felt that I truly was able to experience something that I always dreamt about. I wish God will bless her and keep her stable now that she has been able to get focused on her children and work again.



And now.. it's time for summer vacation, and more especially THE WEDDING is HERE!! (LOL)