When girlfriends get together....

The other day I had a much longed for After Work with a girlfriend, one of the two women I count as friends, here in the south where we live since three years.
I found the girlfriend thing intriguing since we moved, when I got the opportunity to make brand new friends and start over like I was in pre school or something like that..! I didn't "have to" just continue booking dates with the ones I always see but I had to approach the ones I found interesting and kind and actively start building.

Having grown different ways from other friends, back where we used to live, the time really had come for new friends, friends who share my values and who are interested in getting to know ME, the me that I am now. Not the ME I was as a single mom or a student or a librarian - or what have you - but the me I am right now.
So I made two friends (some are bubbling out there in the outer parts of my mind: may become, may not) who I really care for and like. I like to inhale them and exhale to them, if you catch my drift?
I love being able to be myself and speak my mind.

Working as a leader keeps you on your toes all day long concering what to say, when to say it and what not to say. Not to mention how to say it...!

I thought about this during our After Work - how we would swing between the topics, my friend and I. She'd start talking about her upcoming trip to Florida (yeah, envy that!!) and all their plans and bookings. We'd then laugh at the fact that we are very different in that perspective: she plans and books, I go al fresco or something - simply can't stand planning and booking... And we already know each other that well!
Then I might swing to mentioning my two Florida trips that I made in my life and at the same time touch some harder topics maybe, like how it was back then with my parents and my father calling me fat and private stuff like that.
With her I feel I can and more to the point: I feel she cares.

Then we'll talk of my app that I put my exercise into and of my exercise and she'll tell me about her diet and her exercise.

We swing like that!

I remember when my husband was out of a job and just at home, feeling a bit blue, I found that this woman was the only person around me that I could open up to about this. To everyone else I said that "he'll come around, he'll start engaging in politics now" (which he did) or "it'll work out, he can always go back to school" (which he did).
When she and I went to After Work I could also add: "I don't know how to be with him, I don't quite know how to answer him when he fears he's too old for the work market any longer" or "it's hard being the breadwinner of the family, I don't know how to light his spark and he seems ashamed of it all". I mean, my husband is my best friend and there's truly nothing we can't talk about but these particular topics I needed to vent and I needed to get someone else's point of view.
I was so thankful for this friend at this time, because she listened and she gave sincere advice.
And then we could talk fashion, interior decorating and have another glass of wine!

That's what friends are for, right?!


******


Well, now our visiting friends have gone back home and we had a very fun week together!
I didn't fetch my camera once and I think that's because I talked, laughed, ate and drank or went to the car or taxi - or what have you - all the time and never even thought about it?!!

Here are some pics from the one day we had in Copenhagen and then the other activities' pics will come right up in another post.

Disorderly and all, here goes:

Marcus and I enjoying and celebrating, since celebrations were in order...! :-)

Mandatory: The Lego Store! Especially since there's an eighth birthday coming up...

Nyhavn. Like really being abroad!

My dinner. Salmon is my new pet love...!!

Straight out of a text message to a handbag-loving

girlfriend... (one of the bubblers!). Yes, the celebrations were 

regarding a new period in life finally showing, that 

means our budget will be less tight soon again! 

(= I bought a handbag and wallet!!)

Like walking New York-streets almost.

Copenhagen in July is every bit as busy as NY, I'd say!

Resting by the canal. The Boy enjoys his lemonade

just before Marcus waved it right into the canal...!

Vaca!!!!

Marcus and I found the "Profiteroles" a funny name

and decided they were "Profit Roles" and therefore

a necessity :-) We ordered one each....

Yeah, still celebrating...

Cherished friends <3

Profit roles.

Yes, very rich but good!

He felt so stylish walking around in my firstborn's old school bag 

and the school bag The Boy has also used :-)

What a magical evening! The same mode as in Venice almost.

He was happy and tired, getting home from the dog hotel.

Now you're up to date!

Let me whisper this: I'm excited, pleased and happy that this fall means new times. That's all I can say today.

Be good, take care of yourself and your loved ones!

See you soon <3

The meaning of experience

Some time ago I had a conversation with a friend who also work as a leader in another organization. We usually have interesting conversations but this time it was even more so.
We got to talking about how we were as children, how adults responded to that back then and what we became. We also talked of how experiences as a child forms you and affects you.

She had been loud and very visible as a child and I was very shy and low profiled. She got to hear that she "was too much" and I, of course, got to hear that I needed to talk more and louder and not be so quiet. We realized that we both got the message: we needed to change in order to be successful in life.

Needless to say, kids don't just change and adapt to what the adults around them tell them to become, it doesn't happen like that. So both of us stepped out into the world knowing that the way we were wasn't "it" and wouldn't be good.
Neither one of us had a perfect shiny childhood either (which may be why we had our different "not good" behaviors?) so we both took the baggage and entered the big, wide world.

Funnily enough we both longed for fatherly appreciation, due to lack of it at home, and I'm sure we searched for it in different places and many wrong places. I know I did.

I took an anything but amusing walk through the valley of the shadow of death and luckily made it out alive.
My friend did too.

During our talk we realized that that very experience changed us and made us realize we could live through anything and come out alive. That is being strong and allowing to be brave. You compare things that happento you later in life, to that "shadow of death-experience" and you know "this is nothing". We both lean on that. I wonder if we both have an edge somewhere in our personalities, due to it?

Both of us has also found out that the way we are, is OK!
We're successful in what we do, both of us. We work as leaders, we have totally different leader styles but we're good at our jobs.
I guess those adults were proven wrong?

We should be careful what messages we send to children around us.

My friend and I talked about how we'd be without those experiences. We can't even guess, it's impossible to know. The thought is challenging and intriguing.
It's close at hand thinking that if only I had had a carefree upbringing and youth, I would be even further ahead in different areas of my life but who knows? Maybe I'd be too scared or too weak instead?

Barack Obama said of his time as a brand new president that we all have to play the cards we're dealt in life. How true!
The exciting part is that we all have a story to tell, every single one of us. I love getting to hear the story of a stranger or a new friend, it's better than any novel.

The Magnolia bud will hopefully burst into a flower soon...

And some IG:s for you:

.... no! New computer, so this will have to transform into a teaser!! Next post will hold that selection of IG-pics ;-)

Today is Sweden's National Day and I had a great one with The Boy and The Dog. Hubs studied...

Weekend coming right up. Have a fab one y'all!
Nothing but love for you.

This & that!

Life wants to get my attention...
And so the blog post had to wait. Go figure!
It's still Monday however and better late than never...

This afternoon The Boy and I decided that as long as there are flowers blooming, it's still a little summer.

Even shadows of leaves will do...

A few more weeks, if they'll get that, then the grapes will be yummy!

 

Left out?

The Dog feels left out whenever I'm not in the immediate vicinity and that's cute enough!

Harder to cope with is when The Boy feels that his former best friend doesn't really want to play with him any longer. I guess it's not only girls preferring each other, leaving others out?

Well, my boy has a mother who will open the house for some new school friends this weekend.

Is mommy leaving again?

He built a gate!!

Nothing like the cosy corner.

The Hubster caught me with no make up. 

I guess I'm feeling good enough, about me, to publish it here ;-)

Thinking cap

I put my thinking cap on this evening, after the info on the "friend issue", after a vaccination of The Boy where he was brilliantly brave and tough and after a quite long walk to a certain store where The Boy spent his saved money in order to buy two movies.

My boy is happy and carefree and the ones he chooses to call friends should be so happy. 

Maybe I wasn't prepared here either? He's getting big and with years come experiences.

We'll deal with it.

Helping daddy out, building.

This house is filled with Cross Spiders....... yaiks!

The wonder of love

Then there's this thing called love. 

I see my husband, sitting on the couch working and I feel so much tenderness.

I see my boy standing on the school yard and the pride and love just oooouzes out of me and I'm certain that that's all we need. Really.

The afternoons and evenings in our home are magical.

All of a sudden I realize that I'm really blessed to have a private life like mine. 

All of a sudden: a fall sign...

My boy, my love.

This weekend came with plenty of time for.......... cleaning.

Wine and Will Smith in the iPhone = a good evening!

Wine and Will Smith AND hubs by the grill = unbeatable!!

(yes, they're still hot!)

So's the grill.

'

A little bit of this and that.

This...

This & That.

Those lovely wonderful days, evenings, weekends. This fabulous love. This grand life.

Monday's here. Have a good week!