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Stensland News & Views June 2004 June 2004
think I can finally say summer has arrived in the mountains of Colorado. We had several false starts with deceptively hot weather lulling us into a false sense of warmth and security, only to wake up to snow the following day! I’ve never known such wild fluctuations in temperature as we see here. However it really is a beautiful time of year to be living in the mountains and every time we step outside and smell the wildflowers and see the lush greens, we are filled with awe at the beautiful creation around us and immensely grateful to be here. Erik is enjoying the change in seasons and the
opportunity to It was with great relief that Erik successfully completed in May his first semester of Masters Degree studies. He did very well indeed in all his classes, even in the much disliked required Maths course where he shocked us both by getting an A. He still has to continue with Maths one more semester, but he has been allowed to switch to Statistics, which is (so far) not as much of a struggle as it has been more relevant and interesting to him. His Organizational Development course studies this term are focused on organizational consulting, in particular troubleshooting organizational structural problems, learning how to set up effective non-profit organizations and methods of organizational consulting. This is right up his alley, although the level of involvement and standard of input required is still fairly demanding. As for me, my “little” vacation rental service is turning out not to be so little after all. Only a few weeks ago, my colleague and I were afraid we wouldn’t have any cabins to manage nor enough renters to make this work. Both those fears are turning out to be unfounded and some days are just a whirlwind of activity as we answer the phone, take reservations, write literally hundreds of emails a week, meet with homeowners and renters, etc. We have had a few different groups now stay in the cabins and for the most part it has all gone off without a hitch. July will be our busiest month so hopefully little Stensland will wait until his due date around 20 August to make his appearance into the world when the main part of the season will be over. Talking about the baby, due to popular demand, below is a photo of me in profile last week (at 30 weeks). Hard to imagine my belly will ever be the same again (maybe it won’t!), but it has been fun these last weeks feeling the baby doing somersaults and playing football in there. Last week I found out that my TSH levels were extremely high, which means I am deficient in thyroid hormone. My doctor immediately doubled my dosage of thyroxin, but I’m not sure how long it will take to kick in. Hypothyroidism generally is not good during pregnancy so I would appreciate your prayers that the baby will not be harmed by this. Apart from that, the pregnancy has been going well
and I’ve felt well. I was overwh That’s all from the Stenslands for now. By the next time we write there may be 3 names at the bottom of our letter! (And no, we still have NO idea what that third name will be!) Jo & Erik *************************************************************************************************************** A Few of Our Websites: Keep up with Erik & Jo at: http://stensland.balkanhope.com Erik’s Photos: http://morninglight.us Pinebrook Vacation Rentals: http://www.pinebrookvacationrentals.com |
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out and take more photos. The photo he put in our last newsletter
recently won a prize in a local photo competition. He takes an active
part in the Colorado Photographer’s Forum and benefits from hobnobbing
with the talented and famous in the photographers’ world! Seriously, he
is learning a lot and enjoying his new friendships with like-minded,
photography-focused people.
elmed
to receive a wonderful baby shower a couple of weeks ago, attended by
friends from all over the world! How is that possible, you may ask?
Well, our good friend and former team mate, Renee Horsman, organized
gifts and gathered personal greetings from people I knew from as far
away as Australia, Albania, UK, Costa Rica, USA and China and sent them
all to Erik so he and our landlady/friend Sandy could organize a shower
for me. We invited a few people over and had a wonderful time opening
boxes and boxes of gifts and reading comments, advice and funny stories
from everyone who participated. I loved it and was overawed at
everyone’s generosity. This baby is already spoiled! If you want to see
pictures of the shower, you can find them on our website