Ville H.S. Ranta
and Family
OUR YEAR 2003
The year 2003 has been good to us. The main events include Virve
beginning her school career, Viia reaching 10! , no drastic changes in
Virpis nor my Jobs. Our pet birds have survived and we added an animal
to the collection: now Virpi has the horse she has been missing for a
long time.
THE HOUSE
The finalization of the house has been one of the goals and - well we
are almost there. We did have an official completion exam done by the
city officials, which is good, but also we still are one garage short!
Currently we keep the cars outside and never seem to have enough space
for stuff that actually should be thrown away. During the Year
Ville worked on the balconies and built new fences for them.
THE GARDEN
We do know that taking care of the garden is maybe the most important
thing in one´s life. Despite this the garden has not this year
been a major concern of ours. Maybe next year!
YEAR 2003
(Note! The blue, underlined text means there is a link to pictures or
more information, just a click away.)
To make a year long story brief we have prepared some movies and
photos. A brief warning! Some of the material is "heavy". By this we
mean that the data size is large and it might take a while to
download... We are not keeping a log on who has looked at the materials
and who hase not ;-) So feel free to stop the downloads if they seem to
last too long. We do not recommend using a modem line for all the
movies made... In particular Viia is getting to be quita a wizard in
computers. She has 2
web sites of her own and has said
this year: "TV is not an issue, I could easily survive without it. But
the internet is another issue, I might not "survive" without it!". This
says it all. She spends several hours per week on the web, but watches
tv for a half hour, at the most / week!
XMAS PREPARATIONS AND WINTER FROM 2003
Last winter we had nice weather. We had plenty of snow and therefore
the activities outdoors were at their best. Most of the pictures are
from a year back.
SPRING
Viia won a bike riding and safety competition at school and made it to
the 4 member Finnish National team! The European finals were in fall at
Portugal. Naturally the proud father joined the team to Lissabon,
Portugal. Viia made a short (5 minute) movie
of the event. In can be downloaded, but it takes some time if Your
internet connection is slow. Pictures (Sorry, no explanations!) are
also available
. We also took some time off to visit Sweden.
SUMMER
Naturally time at the summer houses is a big thing for us during the
summer vacation, some feelings are best shown in pictures... The collection is made
by Viia.
FALL
The trip to Portugal was one of the major events, but also the arrival
of Viipe, the horse was a big thing. We split the day so that Virpi
took the kids to school and Ville came home early enough to make them
dinner and take them to their activities (piano lessons, soccer
practice and arts school).
RELATIVES
Ville`s parents are doing well. Liisa is getting better and better in
her painting, which seems not to be just a hobby any more! She has made
several trips abroad and surely enjoys her doings. Ville`s dad Karl
is active in the Rotary club and has had the strength to help in
tons of issues in all the three children`s families. So no major
changes in this area of life. :-) Janne (Ville`s big brother) is fine
with family and so is Sanna, Ville`s sister. From Virpi´s side
everybody is fine and we are eager to attend Virpi´s great
grandmothers 100th birthday on the 3rd of January!!! She is an
unbelievable package at 99, still living home and sharp as a knife in
her mind.
Hoping You all who have read this a pleasant and Happy Year 2004!
Ville, Virpi, Viia and Virve
