What Have I Been Up To?

Hello!

Sorry for no post lately. I have been busy with my normal every day life I guess. In Finnish we call it "arki". I hate to call it the daily grind because I think it sounds so horrible! Like there are no good things in your normal life between work and sleep. There are many things to enjoy in every moment. Here's a bunch of pictures from my day during the week as well as the weekends. It gives you a peak into my daily grind (*wink*). They are in no particular order, I just uploaded bunch of pics from my phone.

Home made salad for dinner. Delish cauliflower, radishes and other yummy ingredients. I love summer and fresh veggies!

Sipping on a margarita.

To pamper myself I bought a new Moomin mug and a silk shirt.

New chairs for the balcony. And Jinx of course!

A daily walk with Jinx in the woods.

Nasty pollen.

And spiders.

I'm not afraid of spiders but I'm really allergic to pollen. Yikes!

Lunch break at the park. I usually bring my own lunch/snacks.

Feeling really happy (*and sweaty*) after a terrific workout session at Puijo.

Sunrise near my place.

Morning tea at a local coffee shop. Sometimes when I have a later shift for work I go to the gym early in the morning and after that chill at a coffee shop till it's time to go to work.

Or I go sit at a park and just enjoy the fresh air before spending 8 hrs at the office.

I'm trying to keep my cola consumption under control but every now and then I might have a bit. This time I forgot my coke bottle in the freezer because I was trying to chill it quickly. 

At work with my friend Aarne. My coke starting to slowly thaw out.

Nasty wet kisses from Jinx.

More walks.

Kuopio has been getting a lot of rain this spring/summer.

Lot of days have been grey like this. I have been getting a tad bit upset about it...

Our local store got some yummy products from Tesco chain from Great Britain. Yummy!

 I eat healthy about 75% of the time. Other times it is like this. Pizza, candy, pastry and candy. Oh and some broccolini (*that's healthy*).

 I like to go to the movies a lot. And I do eat candy when ever I'm there. This time I had proper American treats with me.

 Since it has been a record cold spring I got really excited when nature finally started to show some signs of life. Here's a bunch of valley of a lily looking really pretty even without flowers.

Making burgers with friends.

Medium rare burger patties with crispy bacon, mayo, tomato and lettuce. Oh yum!

Going out to dance!

Kuopio harbor at 3AM Sunday morning. Really cold but beautiful.

One of my favorite things in the summer is to buy fresh veggies and fruit from the local market place. And to enjoy the sun of course!

Sunny but cold so I needed a hoodie. 

Getting ready to go to the gym. Some shit is about to go down when a girl braids her hair (*giggles*).

 Jinx and I enjoyed a warm evening and sat in a swing set for a bit. After a while I was ready to go inside but Jinx insisted of staying a little bit longer.

Spring is the time for graduations and this one was no exception. Here's my graduation presents to my nephew (*I got him cordless headphones plus baked chocolate chip cookies*). 

Graduation party. What a good reason to get prettied up.

Curl your hair, find your blingiest jewelry and wear heels!

 My nephew wasn't quite as excited (*haha*). Oh, and if you wonder why he is wearing a funny hat it is because that is the traditional high school graduate's hat. It kinda looks like a captain's hat.

I don't drink coffee daily but once in a while I need a pick-me-up and then my choice is Starbucks and its' sugary drinks.

Sunny warm weather makes me so happy! This pretty place is really close to us, so Jinx and I go there often to just breath and enjoy the nature.

 If I could choose it would be summer dresses all year around...

...and lunches at the park.

Happy June everyone!

Sporty Vacation At Peurunka Spa Hotel Part 2

Good evening!

Yet another couple days have gone by here at Peurunka. The weather is total crap but we are too busy to notice it. Our days have been full of exercise, eating and hanging out. We have also had few wellness lectures. Today we learned about ergonomics and yesterday we discussed about mindfulness. I like that our lectures are short and sweet because nobody can't sit still for too long. No matter if you are three or thirty years old (*wink*).

Yesterday we hiked about 10km to a near by rapids called Kuusakoski. It was raining and our shoes were soaked but the feeling after the hike was great! Especially since we got to go enjoy a smoothing steam sauna at Peurunka Spa hotel.

Cool old birch trees by the river.

I made sure I didn't slip and fall in the water. That would have been sucky (*haha*).

We also stopped to make coffee and tea on an open fire. It was nice to sit down for a little while and let our wet gloves and hats to dry.

Dining hall at the Peurunka Spa Hotel is inviting for all the guests to come and enjoy the breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets.

Berry smoothie and gingerbread mousse with strawberries for dessert. Gotta love it!!

To maximize the benefits of this wellness vacation, we also have done facials in the evenings. Like this bee venom and gold mask.

Go to the gym, they said. It'll be fun, they said. Maybe we'll just rest a little bit first though.

Our first spinning class ever. The picture doesn't show the whole truth because we were pretty sweaty afterwards. Not sure if I love indoor biking but it is an option to tease my muscles every now and then.

Couple more days to go before our vacation comes to an end. Tomorrow we will finish off our fitness tests with body composition analyzer test and the on Friday we will get our test scores. I can't wait!

Good night to all my darlings!!

Spring Time In Kuopio

Hello!

And long time no hear from me. Sorry about that. Spring is in full swing in Finland and I have been enjoying my free time outdoors as much as I can. Unfortunately it has been fairly rainy lately. I have been also spending time with my nephews and nieces. They are all so adorable!

And last but not least, it is time for men's world championship hockey games. That means a lot of good games that last till wee hours and I'm tired at work the next day. I still love it! I hope team Finland wins of course.

Here's my best nature photos of last and this month. I hope you enjoy them. There's couple selfies as well and other stuff too (*giggle*).

Looking for geocaches with my nephew Emil.

We had couple rough winter storms that left behind a lot of fallen trees.

Scott and Emil hugging a tree stump.

Ruins of an old mill.

Jinx was with us too!

Little monkey in a tree.

Group picture.

Huge vertical rock formation that had cute moss and ferns growing on it.

Little nooks and caves. I love it! And all this is just minutes away from our place.

Morning walk and funky trees.

Jinx is so good at posing.

Colorful sporty day.

Hiking trip at nature preserve area called Pisa. We had to jump over this cute stream.

Yoda ears (*haha*).

Nature is starting to be green again after a long winter.

Almost at the top of the Pisa hill. Huge storm was coming towards and we had to cut our hike shorter than we had planned. We still ended up getting rained on.

You can see the rain just pouring in on the left. 

But where we were standing it was sunny for a brief moment. Jinx and his funny faces.

Pisa hill is an important landmark because it use to be part of the dividing border line for Russia and Sweden back in 1595. There is a sign that tells all the visitors about the border.

You can also see he old border markings. Sweden marked its side with three crowns which is their national symbol till this day.

One more selfie before the rain.

Next day the weather was better and we went to hike at another nature preserve area called Korkeakoski. 

This time we had my niece Jenna with us too.

Scott goofing off.

Lollygagging at top of a hill.

Jinx has been happy because he has been getting a lot of long walks lately.

Scott and Jinx admiring the view.

Korkeakoski has the tallest waterfall in Finland. The word "korkeakoski" mean literally "tall radips".

Such a gorgeous day!!

It is so much fun to hang out with my niece.

I call her my mini-me.

The noise coming from all the water gushing down was really loud.

Spring time is the best time to go see Korkeakoski because summer time there might not be as much water if it hasn't been raining a lot.

I tried the water and it was COLD!

Just make sure not to fall in the rapids while taking pictures.

We also saw these two moose this month too. They were just chilling on a field in the middle of the day.

Usually moose is on the move during dusk and dawn and not at noon. 

To make sure I get enough energy to compensate for all the hiking, I made homemade onion rings. They were really really delish!!

Oh, and I also fried traditional Finnish sweet bread called "munkki".

Who loves hockey? I do!

Pretty pennywort growing in the nearby woods.

You know it is almost summer when the first strawberries appear to the stores. These ones were from Spain. We still need to wait a month or two to get Finnish strawberries.

Happy May everyone!!