Dream on..

For years I have been dreaming about beautiful chunky furniture. At first for our dining area in our house 4years ago, then my dreams have spread to include bedroom furniture. We have some old furniture, which O's parents bought at auction before we met and these are still my all time favorite. But we always end up not having enough money or time and go to IKEA.

So after 4months of having all our clothes in vinyl bags lined against the wall, I threw in the towel once again and we set off for IKEA on Monday evening. For less than one really nice piece of furniture, we will now be kitting out our bedroom with wardrobes and 2 chest of drawers and bedside tables. In the new Hemnes collection:

I felt a bit defeated at first, but now I am more excited about it, mostly the part where we will get organized, once and for all!

However, shopping at IKEA is not exactly as straight forward as one would hope (although being a Swedish fan, I realize it has it's flaws.. :) ). The wardrobe doors were out of stock, so we are only getting the frames this week, the wider hemnes chest of drawers were out as well, or actually. While O and the children tried out the carousels outside I did some shopping indoors and when I came to isle 8 location 18 and realized there was only one box left, that's when I, out of pure desperation, went Hulk. I managed somehow to get this monstrously heavy box onto the shopping trolley only to realize at checkout that it was only 1 out of 2 boxes that was left.. *grrr*

Bedside tables were sold out as well, so we have to go back next week. But, we did get the wardrobes and the chest of drawers above. It is now standing flat packed in our hallway waiting to get unpacked as soon as O comes home (I am trying to strain myself from doing it on my own!)

Comment of the day: C was amazed by the City Christmas Lights while we drove past them. He said: "Now it's Christmas, all the lights in the world is shining. They are saying: Trust me".

Vad e väl en bal på slottet...

Obviously someone else's picture..

After a completely crap day, I am sitting here listening to the sounds of the City's Light Night. I had planned all autumn to go there tonight, to see the ice rink Winter Wonderland and to see the Christmas Lights being switched on. To see the anticipation in Cs eyes.

Instead I have had a terrible day, screaming at the children, spending 2hours to please a customer who decided to change her mind after all that work (lesson learned: Anyone calling 5times and sending 7 emails before even placing order probably won't place an order with you, they just want attention!). Cs temperature is down, but he can hardly speak and I had just about 2h sleep last night from trying to help him with his coughing.

Oh, well "vad e väl en bal på slottet"..

(for any non-Swedish speaker, this is what Cinderella says when she realizes she has missed the big ball dance at the castle and thinking to herself that it probably wasn't that fun after all..)

Food Box Delivery

We have started a new trend in our family. Whenever someone is about to get a seriously high temperature, we always wait until O has left for the Big City. Only to give my own life a little extra twist..

2w ago it was J with her MMR jab, last week I had the honor of driving back and forth to school with a high temperature myself, not to mention getting dinner on table and children in bed.

This week it was Cs turn. O was to leave at 5am yesterday and a couple of hours before that a very sad little boy came to our bed. He had really high temperature yesterday, only easing a little bit with Calpol, so now, day 2 I am completely drained. *anyone heard that before?*

The only hope for a bit of excitement was the luxurious food box O bought at the School Christmas Fair this weekend.

When O received the phone call regarding the delivery yesterday, he phoned them back and asked if they could come another day. On their answering machine. They had given us a slot between 5 and 6pm and at 7 I realized that no one would probably come, so I jumped in my PJ and put my hair in a very non-flattering ponytail *not that I am bragging about my hairstyle to begin with..*

At 8 the "delivery man" arrived. And off course it wasn't the delivery man, but the owner of the company, which O had bought the box from in the first place at the School Christmas Fair. He was very friendly and I realized, standing there in my PJ, trying to keep the door from flinging up *J was pulling it* and expose our collection of boxes still present in our hallway *which also are serving the purpose of coat hanger, mail collection and things we don't want J to reach in a hurry..*

I seriously think that the sight of me with our hallway mess as a backdrop would have been more than this guy could bare!

Anyway, then and there I realized that this was actually one of the parents of the kids at Cs school. *gaaah* He looked as if he wanted some ooohs and aaaahs of the content of the box, but I quickly wrote him a cheque and closed the door on him.

Afterwards I've been in agony. I just want to send him a note saying:

"Thank you for the lovely food box, we are very happy with all the products and will definitely use your service again."

PS. We apologize for our ugly old mannerless aunt, who was present at time of delivery.

Yes!!! Camera found!

O found the camera today. It was in the pile of unopened mail on the kitchen counter... *eherm*

I have been working like a maniac today, to get some work done before my "solo days" with the children. I am completely drained and guess it will be the usual "just try to keep it together until they fall asleep" until he is back again. I really hope he can get a good job around here.

But since my job is feeding from his earnings, he cannot just do with anything, so in the meantime we have to do things this way.

C went happily to school today, so I guess the starting school shock is subsiding.

At least for him.

Time for sofa and telly, I am sooo tired.

Have a good evening!

New Technology

After a year of lyrically telling me of how wonderful our life would be if we only bought...blah blah and there O looses me every time. He is talking about some kits for the computer, a TV card etc etc, so we can connect the television to our network *yes, we do have a network, my husband is a real gadget geek*.

Svensson, Svensson, Sveriges Television

But I have to say, I am SO glad that he is, because since Saturday evening, we can now watch loads of "computer broadcast" on our TV, in the comfort of our sofa! Last night we watched 5 episodes of Svensson, Svensson, an old favorite Swedish sit-com of mine, coming to life again on SVT after 10y of silence. It's about a pretty average family living in a terraced house somewhere in the middle of Sweden. The most funny thing that I find about the show is that Gustav, the dad of the family resembles my dad in many ways *it's the guy lying on the coach in the picture..*.

And..if I watch this series with my dad, I laugh and my dad *totally oblivious of him being the same*, frowns and says "what was funny about that?"

*because to him, such a situation is life..*

Where is my camera??

It has mysteriously vanished. Well, if you knew the state of our home at the moment, the mystery is not really that mind blowing, but still. I always know where it is.

I had it the other day.. every time I get the feeling of knowing where I was standing when I last held it in my hand, it slips away. It must be the cotton woll, still present.

This is what I need!

The cold has subsided a bit and I am at least out of the "better stay in bed" zone, which annoys me a little since O is now home again. Regarding my school gate angst, I have now been approached by 3 mums and I no longer consider myself the newcomer.

Ok, so the first one was selling Red Poppies, maybe not the most genuine of friendly approaches, but still *I am not too picky!*. Second was a really nice French mum with a son in Cs class. *make note to talk more with as really nice and potentially someone really friendly to hang out with by the gate*.

With Poppy Lady breaking the ice, a 3rd mum approached me yesterday. Her son had come home from school and told her, they had a new boy from ..

Russia!! in his class. I am now curiously wondering if the parents smiling at me yesterday when we were a bit of a hurry in the morning *again, J has the habit of making use of her nappy just as we take our coats on to leave in the morning..*. Anyway, I am just wondering what they were thinking, as I was jogging around the school *we have to park on the opposite side of Cs classroom* on high heels (there is a hole in my very comfy mules and the only other pair I have are a pale pink pair of Crocs..) with J shouting in the buggy "nej mamma (no mummy) too bumby!!" and C panting heavily at my side *not to mention the look of me, jogging with my "hockey frilla", which I, due to this cold, still has not sorted out.

I guess I will have to be extra representative tomorrow at the school's Christmas Fair and I am going for a hunt of not only my little compact camera, but also my hair straightener before then.

All you need

I have been thinking for days now: I'll give it one more day and then my head will clear. It all started with a cold 6weeks ago and it never quite went away and now I have this second wave, which seems to have put cotton wool in my head.

I am spending most of the hours of the day just to get through to the evening without too many mishaps. Get children up (Well, that particular part is not exactly hard, they both jump out of bed before my alarm clock goes off), but you know, back and forth to school, dinner on the table, clean clothes... This is more than my head will take at the moment, but as most workathomemums I am not allowed to just drop everything in favor for the bed, so I am dating Mr Lemsip.

Big times.

Speaking of alarm clocks, the weirdest thing happened to me this morning. It was actually the first time we set the alarm clock since moving up here..what's it called in English?.., in Swedish it's "Clock Radio". An alarm clock which is also a radio.

Anyway, I managed to hit the "buzz me again in 5" without any problems, but after a couple of rounds with doing that I realized that I had to get up, so I managed to half sit up and I tilted the "Clock Radio" a bit to be able to reach the little fiddly buttons at the back, which off course, one of which is the one to turn off the whole thing. I accidentally managed to turn on the radio and what instantly hit me was that, it was the Swedish Radio! Loud and clear, crisply tuned in when I had the radio tilted. If it stood up straight, it was something local, but tilted, I could listen to a very bored dietrician informing all the Swedish radio listeners trying to build up some stamina to get out of bed, of the danger of eating the wrong thing (I cannot remember what it was), but it was very bad for you!

It was a weird feeling stumbling on a Swedish Radio station like that, by mistake, but it reminds me of our northern latitude. Not to far away.

At school, I have now managed to let C wear trousers on breaks *yeayh*!! All of you out there who are told "you can't change that, don't make a stir!"

DO!!

Now my son don't have to freeze his knees off, I don't care if they think I am strange. He is warm. I'll bet that other mums will follow.

After 3days experience as a School Boy Mum

my feelings are a little bit mixed up. Mostly sheer relief..

First day at school, C was very proud and woke me up at 5.30. "We have to check the bag, so we haven't forgotten the pear..

1st day at Cs school, J decided she should also have a tie to school (she did wear this both at drop off and pick up the first day..)

Managed to make the tie (mind you it looked a bit better than the one J is wearing above) and C was so proud when we stepped out, then I heard a "eeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh!!* *in Swedish it's iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiih* :)

"MUM! It's winter and I only have SHORTS on!!!". He was in shock. Unfortunately the shock is still there day 3, so now I have started talks with several people at school to let him wear something else on top of the shorts when outside. I think I have a found a good suggestion which I am proposing this afternoon, even though it seems as if even the school nurse *which I spoke with this morning* didn't understand that it could actually be cold to wear only shorts in winter time.

Otherwise the school experience this far has been mainly good or actually very good. He still is a bit confused about all the routines and he tells me all about it in the evening (I had my pear at the morning break, but it seems as if the other children have 2 snacks with them.., maybe I shall have a banana as well tomorrow. I wonder what's for lunch tomorrow?.. etc).

On the bad side, I feel like a lousy mother. We have managed to arrive late for school 3 days out of 3.. Well, firstly I was informed that they started at 8.50. Arriving 8.50 the first day, the door was already shut and lesson had started. Apologized and made note to self to arrive earlier.
Yesterday we arrived just after 8.40 and it was the same scenario. In the afternoon I actually asked the teacher when they start and I was told 8.35..

So today we set off from home really early and I felt very confident that we would arrive in time, until we opened the main door downstairs and realized it was pouring rain outside *it wasn't when we started our descend down the stairs from the flat*. So up again and put rain gear on J, who was in a terrible mood to start with. J then decided she should not sit in the car and when at school, she decided that lying on the parking lot screaming was much better than walking nicely to Cs classroom. *gaah* So we were late today as well..

Anyway, J and I have had lovely mornings with visits to the playground *ah, the bliss of only going with 1!* and we have also had really great afternoons with C, not to forget bedtime, which has been a breeze. J starting talks about it being middle of the night at 6pm, C hardly keeping it together at 7 and the rest of the household asleep by 8pm.. ;)
Comment of the day: Driving from a 2year olds perspective: Today, when driving from school, I put J in Cs booster car seat, so she was facing forward. When we came to a crossroad and I was about to turn onto a busier street, it took me a while before I could go. J started to giggle and when I had finally turned right into the street, she said: "Mamma e jättelolig, mamma inte hittade den", which translates "Mummy is funny, mummy didn't find it". (She thought I was looking for something in the car when I was looking left, right, left, right.)

School Gate Angst

I am in training...

Click on the picture to see the training video..

I think I have the hang of it now, my biggest problem being: the tie is too short to take off without ruining the knot, so I have to master this technique at 7am tomorrow morning.

Who on earth decided 5y olds should wear tie to school?..

I have also given myself problem no 2. Today, I bought scissors to cut Cs hair. 4 different kinds and it was great fun cutting C's hair. It went quite smoothly, maybe a bit too smoothly.

"Hey, I really got the hang of this!", I thought and started having a go at my own hair.

Not after serious consideration, washing hair, making sure I had time for this adventure, noooo that wouldn't be no sport at all, I started at the same time as C and O was leaving for the shopping mall. J *being 2y old* being equally interested in my scissors and falling hair as she was afraid of all the fireworks going on outside, so watching telly on her own while I did my hair wasn't on her agenda.

Now I have serious, School Gate Angst! Anyone knowing any Swedish knows what I am talking about when I mention "hockey frilla"! I took a good 3 inches off!

Comment of the day: Os comment upon seing my new hair do: "It must be nice with shorter hair" Not "You look smashing!" or smiling lovingly admiring his wife's new looks, but rather his thoughts went to convenience..

Not much happening really

I have been sitting with my nose pressed to my computer screen all weekend, so nothing has really happened here. O and C went to the Zoo on Saturday where C took the picture above.

He also took a picture of a black leopard (it is actually a black leopard and not a panther)
He found it very exciting to photograph the animals.

O also worked himself through a doorway in our flat, which has been sealed. Someone asked me the other day if our house was finished *meaning if we were all sorted after moving house in ...August (!!)*. Realizing that we hadn't really done a thing for a couple of weeks, but more or less gotten used to all the boxes, something had to be accomplished this weekend.

Now we can walk to the kitchen from the living room in the evening without waking little one! Will take a better picture tomorrow..
*That's all really, time for bed!*

Love is in the air..

So the future mother and father in laws are now up to date, so here are the official pictures.

The beautiful couple,
I am very impressed with this picture as it is taken with a self timer, balancing on a rock..
and my future sister-in-law is looking fit for a glossy magazine.

*obviously I think brother looks equally handsome..*

Eye Drops

Today, it was time to revisit the eye doctor. Not too much excitement this morning, though, because today was eye drops day.

The lovely man examining C last time was on holiday and the replacement wasn't exactly used to children, a 25y old woman, thinking "as long as you are loud and distract them, noone will know I actually don't know a thing about children..".

We entered the examination room and when C sat down in the chair, she startled us both with: "DO YOU LIKE GOING UP THE CHAAAAIIIR?? WHEEEEEEE!!"

C shot me a look as he was being lifted up slooooowly by the electric examining chair with a look saying "here we go again..."

When it was time for the drops, C quickly scooted over to my chair and got really blocked. I suggested, I would give him the eye drops and when he was lying in my lap a little more relaxed, she dashes over to us: "DO YOU LIKE TO BE TICKLED, DO YOU????"

*Thanks a lot!, that really helped my desperate aiming for the mini gap in Cs eye*

C freaked out and I asked if I could have 30sec to just calm him down. The response was: "LOOK IN THE CEILING, DO YOU THINK THERE'S A DINOSAUR THERE??!!!"

In the end we got the eye drops in, but I wouldn't say that C *nor I* would be to happy trying again in 6months time...

Now he has a lovely pair of glasses (no tint) and also 2 builders outfits *well, that was what was needed in the end, some good old incentives..*


Friday evening was spent watching Mr Bean on holiday *again* and C and J took every opportunity to have a go at the "dance floor" whenever there was any music in the movie.


After the optician thing, we *read I* was to exhausted to even contemplating buying school uniforms, so it has slipped into tomorrows list of things to do..

I also sat down today with the phone aiming to book an appointment with a hair dresser *for C*. After having had a look at the list of local hair salons, I realized that safe bets like Toni and Guy or Hair Associates were out of the picture and with choices like Fringe Effects, Hair Affair and Uppercuts, I realized we should probably at least walk past a hair salon before making an appointment..

The ball is rolling

Today we had the official confirmation about Cs school, he is starting on Tuesday! *iih*

We went there to speed up some paperwork and J and I hid in our car spying on all the children coming out of the building at the end of the school day, the reason being: The admission secretary did a super speedy description of the uniform we needed and I didn't really follow on the phone, so I sat in the car to take notes on what the little one's were wearing, but there was no need for note scribbling, because they all looked the same and we are now going to the school costume store tomorrow to buy the whole kit. *C is very excited about the prospect of wearing a tie, I am not so sure, but he is very proud*

I will have to do a crash course this weekend in tie-tying. Never ever done it before and O will be away 3days a week. Maybe I shall get 5 of them, having O making them before he leaves...?

After that we went shopping for my next try at being a cooking mum. Today I did *again Nigella..* Rapid Ragu, i skipped the crushed tomatoes *I just can't stand the taste of it, I don't know why, I just don't like hot tomatoes* and bought a gorgeous slow cook tomato sauce which I added instead. And I just used a tiny bit of lentils, we had pasta with the ragu. I must admit it tasted lovely, and was easy to cook.

*iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhh*

I suddenly feel as if I have had 3 glasses of red wine. A bit warm, happy and a little bit overwhelmed.

We just had a phone call via Skype. It was my brother and girlfriend, who called. They showed us this:


I am so happy for them!! *iiih, my little brother* They also sent some beautiful pictures, *I will wait with posting them until everyone is updated*

I am so happy for my wonderful brother and his beautiful and wonderful girlfriend.

*Ah, this is a good day, we are so happy for you guys, LOVE YOU!!!*

Comment of the day: When O and I had stopped creaming with joy, my brother explained to C what an engagement means. C, very sensitive to the whole wedding scenario since realizing I am not his future bride, fell into a heap, eyes rolling as if he was completely embarrassed. Now, just as I was posting this, he came asking me when the wedding was going to take place. I said, they hadn't decided. He said: "I hope it's not too soon, then I have to faint again!"