So the decade ended and what a amazing time it has been, both in good and less good.

The year was 2010, at that time I were 28:ish year old.

I was driving my only own Volvo to date, a S40. I worked as a IT consultant and team coach for a company called Elan Technologies. Although I switched company to Appelsiini Finland Oy. My life revolved around work and handball. Although I’ve stepped down from the Finnish premier league, to train and play in the 1st division, and I started as a member for the Finnish national ladies team management. I was still in rehabilitation from my second knee surgery which was performed in December 2009.  At that time I hadn’t even started dating my current wife, and  during this year I switched from my Volvo to a Citroen C4 Coupé.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Viimsi, Estonia (Women’s national team)
    • Madeira, Portugal (Women’s national team)

The year 2011 brought with itself changes, which turned out to be bigger then I’ve ever could guessed.

I started dating this women named Annika. Although she was very different from me, she brought some sort of calm, peace and serenity to my life. I felt like the piece that I didn’t know was missing, was found. ❤
During 2011 my brother joined in to the women’s national team, and we experienced some good times with the team and the rest of the team management during the 4 years we were together.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Almaty, Kazakhstan (Womens national team)
    • Kokkola, Finland (Road trip around Finland with Annika)

2012 then turned everything upside down.

As I by then new that this Annika was, and would be the one for me, I proposed to her February 6th, and she answered yes. ❤
We had wanted to have this “mini us”, and to our surprise, we were lucky and fortunate to conceive pretty fast.

My vehicle at this moment was a Citroen C4 Coupe, with only three doors. The information on us growing as a family, forced us to upgrade from a “bachelor’s” car to a family car. We bought a Honda Accord Tourer ST.  We welcomed the third member to our family, and to my surprise, a little girl. I always thought I would get a boy, and even managed to somehow convince my wife it would be a boy when she was expecting. Our daughter was born 18.10. 2012. The start was not the most easy, one could imagine, or hope for, as she suffered the first three months of colic. Slow but steady she got out of that phase and we were happy it only lasted for 3 months, although these months were painful and long for us new parents.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Kokkola, Finland (Road trip with Annika)
    • Partizanske, Slovakia (Women’s national team)

2013 was a year of enjoying life with one kid.

Learning to be parent’s, and adapting to a new way of life. Our daughter learned us as much, if not more then we managed to teach her. During the summer I got a positive lyme disease diagnose, and was taken into hospital for 3 days. Later that year our girl learned to walk as almost one year old, which brought of new experiences to our life. My parent’s, and especially my mother who always wished for a girl for herself, was “baby crazy” when her grand daughter was born.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Stockholm, Sweden (Family trip)

2014 turned into a more event filled year that I had been expecting.

At the beginning of the year, we started to discuss maybe getting a sibling to our daughter. She was getting older, and the life we lived was getting slowly easier, and more manageable. We knew by then that the secondary work I had with the Women’s national team was going to end, which would make it possible for an addition to our family, if we were lucky enough to get additional child.

Little did we know, that my wife got pregnant immediate upon us starting to try. And even further, the information we got at the first ultrasound, that there was twins coming our way, made a very significant impact on us.

At first we adjusted to the idea of two baby’s coming, then we started making things ready, and one noticeable was us having to switch car again. The trusted and much liked Honda Accord was switched for an Ford S-Max, which finally set us in the “soccer mom” category of cars.

27.11.2014 our identical twin girls were born, 2 month’s earlier then expected. When we thought our first born was small at birth, the twins were combined barely heavier, then Amelie at birth. They were treated with the best the Finnish health care had to provide, and although they arrived earlier then hoped for, everything wen’t fine, and everybody was in good health.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Michalovce, Slovakia (Women’s national team)
    • Åland Island’s, Finland (Family trip)

2015 ended up being one of the heaviest years of my life so far.

 Most of the year was spent in some sort of mental fog. We had been prepared about this, but nothing could have clearly made us ready for it. We are happy that one of the advice’s we got in advance, we actually remembered, which was; “remember to take a lot of photos!”.

During the year we decided to mainly just survive the everyday life, and keep everybody alive, healthy, and sane. We managed to do it, and even make it possible for my wife to participate in her hobby of acting as a goaltender for a trip abroad with HIFK from Helsinki.

We were so fortunate that both my, and Annika’s parent’s lived pretty nearby, so they helped us a lot during the first year with the twins, which was overshadowed, by their allergies. Thank you so much for the help. ❤

• • Trips of the year:
    • Boden, Sweden (HIFK ladies handball team)

2016 was very similar to 2015.

Our everyday life fully filled with maintaining the household, our children, and life in general. Nonetheless we managed to get arranged something we had postponed during 2014 and 2015, which was our wedding. To my satisfaction, we got the “I do” date to be set to the same date I proposed 4 years earlier. We even managed to arrange a beautiful party for our relatives and best friends to celebrate with us.

Maybe there was some small boost in my professional side as well, as I took the step to switch employer, and start a new career at a company called Talokeskus Yhtiöt Oy.

During this year I made an EPIC road trip with my friend Miro to Saariselkä, which is located in Lappland, Finland. That was the only trip this year for me.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Saariselkä, Finland (with Miro)

2017 was a year of “nothing special”.

One experience was to get by accident my daughters finger under my eyelid, and having to go to the doctor, which diagnosed me with a light scrape injury on my cornea. Had to set some antibiotics and wear a eye patch, like a pirate which caused enjoyment for my children.

Our well liked Ford S-Max started to show symptoms of larger repairs on the horizon, so we decided to switch car, and ended up to a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso. As with the Honda, I felt sad to let the Ford go. It had been a reliable and good family car.

During August we made a purchase of our first robot, in a form of a automatic robot vacuum by Samsung. It was named Holo, and now we took the first step into what could be called “smart home”.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Tallinn, Estonia (with my wife)

2018, a year of joy, and tremendous sadness.

During the first three quarters of the years the life was pretty normal. We managed to make a trip to Stockholm, Sweden, and Junibacken in April, and another family holiday to Naantali, Finland in July. The other trip aimed for a visit the Moomin destination, which sparked huge joy to our 3 children.

In June there was some changes on my professional side, and I switched in a company acquire from Talokeskus to Visma Tampuuri Oy.

The year ended for me in great sadness as my much loved and admired grand father passed away. Although there was deterioration of his health for some time, and it’s a natural path of life, it still hit me hard. 22.10.2018 will be marked in my calendar for the rest of my life.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Stockholm, Sweden (Family trip to Junibacken)
    • Naantali, Finland (Family trip to Moominland)

2019 was the year of getting back to full life.

After several “let’s just survive”, and small children’s year. 2019 brought with it sign’s of making life more enjoyable as a adult. Although we love and care for our children very very much. There was still the need of getting both my professional and “private” life kick-started.

The year started with a small trip with my youngest daughter Isabelle. A overnight trip to a spa, and airplane museum was done, and it has left a noticeable mark on us both. In the beginning of the year I attended in an event in Helsinki called Salesforce Basecamp. It was maybe one of the greatest business forums I’ve attended ever. There was all so a business trip to Oslo, Norway with a colleague, to attend a IT summit at the headquarters of all the Visma companies.

We managed to make a trip to Rome, Italy with my wife, just the two of us. For me it was the first time there, and for my wife the second. the trip was a great success, and hopefully we will manage to perform a trip of this sort again soon.

As I’ve got a gift from my wife to new way of relaxation in a form of a gift card, I tried something called Floating. There is a place in Kallio, Helsinki where this can be done, and I liked it a lot. Will definitely do it again.

During the summer vacation, we headed with the whole family to a city called Pärnu, in Estonia. It was a good trip, just before my firstborn should start school…SHE started school already. Oh dear!

The highlighter of the year, professionally, was my first attendance of Dreamforce, in San Fransisco, USA. A week long trip with my colleague, where we dove into the world of Salesforce, and everything it brings with it. During our trip I got so much inspiration, so much ideas, and so much energy towards this part of my job, I couldn’t wait to get back to work, and start utilizing all the new ideas I received.

• • Trips of the year:
    • Flamingo, Vantaa, Finland (Overnight trip with Isabelle)
    • Oslo, Norway (Business trip)
    • Rome, Italy (Trip with my wife)
    • Pärnu, Estonia (Family trip)
    • San Fransisco, USA (Business trip)

As the year, and decade has changed. I can’t but wonder, be happy, be tired, feel accomplished, proud and satisfied over the last decade.
I’ve met, proposed and married the perfect women for me. We got three beautiful children, which all at this point are wonderful children, and who have their heads on their shoulders so to say. Feet on the ground and head in the clouds.

Sure there has been hard times. Times one wonders if everything is worth it. Times we’ve been so tired as parents, that it’s a miracle nothing devastating hasn’t happened to any of us. But we have gone thru thick and thin, managed to keep our self above the water line both economically, as well as mentally.

So in summary what has happened during the last 10 years?

• We found each others, with my wife.
• We got engaged.
• We got married.
• We received 3 beautiful girls.
• We moved once.
• We’ve changed cars 3 times.
• I’ve changed employer 3 times.
• I’ve done 19 trips.

So now I’m ready to start a new year, start a new decade and see what good things life has to offer me, and my loved family, relatives and friends.

Happy new year 2020!