Sunday, January 11, 2009

Traveling Home

Our travels back home went pretty good. We left a pile of toys and gifts to be mailed back to us and also a bag of clothes that are too small for Linnea and Davin. I can't believe how much she has grown in the short time we were there. Fredrik said it has something to do with the Swedish formula but I think it was just time for a growth spurt. She is now wearing 12-18 month size clothes or size 74 cm in the European sizing. I am not really looking forward to buying more clothes but maybe I can get my mom friends to donate their old kids clothes. ;)

We left Hudiksvall at 9am on the train to Arlanda which the airport near Stockholm, Sweden. Both Olle and Irene accompanied us to Arlanda to help us with all the luggage. This time we had 5 bags to check since we had the booster seat that we bought. We actually had to check the stroller as well so that was disappointing. I think I will skip a big stroller the next time we go and just bring a small umbrella one. Hopefully, in two years Davin will no longer need one! We just didn't use the stroller very much at all while we were in Sweden. It was a good thing that the luggage carts were free at Arlanda and you are allowed to put children in them too. It made it much easier to carry our 5 carry on bags too! Diaper bag, computer bag, my purse/computer bag, Davin's carry on bag and our carry on bag. Somehow I am going to have to figure out how to travel with less STUFF!

Our plane was running 1/2 hour late but that worked out just fine since it took us a while to check in since the reservation I made was a bit screwed up. I don't know what happened but it thought we were 5 people. Somehow, it thought that I had an extra infant! Unfortunately, it meant that we had to get our boarding passes for Copenhagen when we arrived. Security was a lot easier than when we left. They didn't swab my wrist brace this time nor did they search the diaper bag as thoroughly. Davin also understood more what we were doing so it was easy to get him to cooperate. Anyway, even with the delay we still had enough time to get through the passport check, make our potty breaks, change diapers and eat lunch. It's a good thing we decided to eat at the gate since no sooner had Fredrik taken his last bite of sandwich did they call for us to board the plane.

The flight to Copenhagen was very short (about an hour?) but we had a lot of room to spread out. Of course, Davin and Linnea fell asleep but then we had to wake them up when we landed. It was a short 45 minute nap for them. We arrived and found some luggage carts again and they were free too! I love that you don't have to pay for them and it makes having the stroller even less important. We got our boarding passes after waiting in line and we had just a few minutes before boarding began. Again, this was enough time to get food, go potty and buy some candy for Davin. He wanted to buy candy every time he saw a shop. It didn't matter that I already had candy since he always wanted new candy! Well, I managed to find some tiny container of candy which was a big improvement from the other ones that he wanted. They were almost as big as he was!

The flight from Copenhagen was pretty good too. Again, I wished for more sleep but at least Fredrik and Linnea got some. I sat next to Davin again and he didn't sleep at all during this flight. We also forgot to pack a sandwich for him so the only thing he could eat on the flight was bread and drink juice. That meant going potty every 20 or 30 mintues! I did get him to play on his "new" Nintendo DS (it was Irene's that she gave to him) and I might have been able to sleep except for the darn potty breaks. After Linnea took a nap she just wanted Mommy the whole time. We took some walks down the aisles and she had fun visiting people. I saw only one other baby on the plane and they got the row with the bassinet. I am not sure how you reserve that spot but not like it would have helped us much anyway. Linnea only likes sleeping in her car seat so our seats worked out just fine.

Our plane landed in Seattle with no problems. We made our way through the passport check where we needed to wait for our luggage to arrive. It was nice that we didn't have to pay for the carts again and that Davin was able to sit in them while we waited. Everyone was very tired and Davin practically fell asleep on our decent. I forgot to mention that I was starting to feel much better after the flight from Arlanda so I was able to eat most everything. Unfortunately, when we landed in Seattle I started to feel nauseous again. I told Fredrik that I just needed to stay 10,000 ft in the air to feel better. Finally, all our luggage arrived and of course the stroller was the last piece. Then we hauled everything over to customs and dropped off our bags. We needed to have our carry ons searched again and then we went to wait for the luggage again out in the main terminal.

Papa (my dad) was picking us up and he was just circling outside waiting for us to arrive outside of the baggage claim. We did a quick transfer of the kids into the car while Fredrik and Papa collected the luggage. The carts are not free in this area so it took a few trips to get all our bags. Then we headed to Papa's house to drop him off and get something to drink before we headed home. Linnea fell asleep almost immediately while Davin kept himself awake by watching a movie on the way home.

It felt weird but good at the same time to be coming home. It took a bit to adjust to driving my car again and my foot kept wanting to push the clutch in. Irene's car was a stick shift. There are also a LOT more cars here than there are in Sweden. Even at 5pm on a Sunday night there were so many more cars. I also didn't miss stupid drivers either. Someone swerved into my lane at one point and another person almost didn't stop when they were pulling into the road. I forgot how aggressive you have to drive in the USA! It was nice to see the city lights of Seattle but both Fredrik and I commented on how many lights there were! All the hills surrounding the city are lit up when in Sweden, it was just small pockets of where the city was and then it was farms and such between the cities. It was funny because once you leave Seattle, there are less lights and houses that you can see from the freeway but we both know there is more behind the trees. In Sweden, there would just be more forest.

It was good to be home at last. Linnea transferred to her room without much troubles and Davin fell asleep on the stairs while we unloaded the car. We didn't last much longer. Fredrik made tea and we watched a few TV shows and then fell asleep too.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Time to go home

Well, the day is finally here where we are packing and getting ready to head home. It came faster than I thought it would and now I wish I had more time for shopping or something. The reason I stopped blogging for a few days was because we went to visit Fredrik's brother Erik and his fiance? Anna and that pretty much took all day. We got home very late and I usually blog in the evenings. Then on Friday I came down with a nasty headache so I ended up sleeping most of the day. Now it looks like I have some sort of stomach issue where everytime I eat I feel sick and have diareha. I think we all have the same sort of thing except for Davin. It's been making the packing oh so much more fun! I am really not looking forward to traveling if we are all sick. It is very annoying because I do get hungry but I feel terrible when I am eating or just after. I am pretty sure my headache was part of being sick too because I just slept and didn't eat anything until 6 or 7pm that evening. That is when I felt a bit nauseous and it hasn't gone away since. 

To top everything off, I tried turning on my computer today and found that it refused to boot up. Great. Fredrik thinks the harddrive has been fried. My computer was very hot when I picked it up so I think after 2 days of sitting there with the vent blocked and sitting under Fredrik's monster laptop ... it was just too much. I hope we can get Dell to fix it when we get back and that I can recover the info on my harddrive. Ugh. 

Tonight was Farfar's birthday ... he turned 59 today! We had a big dinner with all the family here but unfortunately it was too rich of a meal for me to enjoy it. I am sure it was very good! It was beef tenderloin cooked over thinly sliced potatoes in a creamy sauce. I only ate a few bites and ate the steamed brocolli instead. It's funny because we had to teach Irene how to steam brocolli! She usually just buys it frozen and boils the heck out of it. ;) It is typical of how vegetables are done in Sweden so we were happy to show her how we like to prepare it. Anyway, I was still hungry after dinner so I tried some milk and Cherrios but even that upset my tummy. 

Well, I better catch up on my blogging for the past few days and then finish packing. We leave on the train at 9am tomorrow, get to Arlanda at around 11:30am and get on the airplane to Copenhagen at 1:15pm. There is a quick transfer to another plane in Denmark which I hope will go smoothly. We are schecduled to arrive in Seattle at 4:45pm which will be 1:45am in Swedish time. I hope we can transition back to Seattle time quicker than when we came to Sweden!

Friday, January 9, 2009

A Sick Day

I guess there isn't much to blog about today. I had a headache when we got home from Erik's last night and took some Naproxen for it which helped but it came back in the morning when I woke up. I just ended up staying in bed all day and napping. It seemed to help my headache but then my stomach started acting up so I haven't been feeling well all day. I sure hope I feel better before we start traveling home!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

A trip to Gävle, Sweden

We debated about going to visit Erik and Anna today because the weather predicted some freezing rain. Basically, the ground is so cold that even though the temperature was above freezing, any rain that fell would freeze and make the roads very slippery. We could also go on Friday but the weather was not predicted any better and Irene needed the car for a few hours too. We just decided to chance it and go. We were anxious to get out of the house and have some time alone for a bit. It takes about 1 hr 20 min to drive to Gävle where they live and it is about 130 km south of Irene and Olle's house. 


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We got to their apartment around 4:30pm and had dinner about an hour later. They served Flying Jakob vegetarian style. I actually forgot how much I liked this strange dish! It is a pinkish-orange sauce and served over rice. It is actually a kid's dish but obviously more than just kids eat it. It has chicken, bananas, peanuts, cream and ketchup/chilli. It was quite yummy! 

We actually stayed a bit later than we had planned but we wanted Davin to finish watching the movie Aladin. We left about 10:30pm and got home around midnight. I drove very slow because it was very dark and they don't have a lot of street lights. It was hard to see the painted lines where the lanes were ... when there were two lanes that is! Plus, we were cautious about the freezing rain since it was misting a bit and we couldn't tell if the road was wet or icy. We made it back safely but were very tired and we all fell alseep (or rather the kids were already alseep) right away. 

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Things I Miss ~ Part 2

Besides the new tooth that Linnea got ... there wasn't much to blog about today. I played computer games with Davin most of the afternoon. We ate take out quiche of brie, sausage and sun-dried tomatoes? Whatever it was, it was good. The weather turned chilly again today and it has been at -7 C or +19 F most of the day. Now it is almost -9 C or +16 F. I have been thinking a lot about what I am missing the most about home and there are a few things I really am looking forward to doing:
  • Getting my nails and toes done. I haven't had my acrylics filled in almost 5 weeks now. Gah, they look horrible!
  • Getting my hair colored. I didn't have time to get it done before I left and I was already overdue. I did manage to get a hair cut but that means most of my color is now gone and it is surprising how much gray hair I have now! I guess it is final. I am coloring my hair for the rest of my life now!
  • Having a latte or some fancy schmancy coffee drink. The coffee here is black, black, black with a little more black thrown in for good measure. I don't mind it for a while but after 4 weeks of it ... I would like something different!
  • My Swiffer vacuum and my dog Sadie. I am so tired of sweeping every freaking meal and of course the kids don't eat together so it is pretty much all day that I am cleaning up after them. I do miss my pets for more than their clean up skills but it really makes me wish someone had a dog in Fredrik's family!
  • My own bed to sleep in. Irene and Farfar's bed is by far the nicest one we have slept in here but it is still just two twin beds pushed together and the line in the middle is really starting to bug me. I just want my own bed for cripes sake!
  • Money. It really is a good thing that Irene won't let us pay for ANYTHING while we are here. Part of the reason why we can stay 4 weeks here is because 2 of them are left from his family paternity leave because we had Linnea. Part of Fredrik's paycheck is paid through a different company and they send us CHECKS that we have to deposit. Yuck. So, we have money but it is sitting at the post office. Actually, we have other money we can access in a pinch but it still feels weird to have our checking account so poor right now.
  • Friends. I miss my playgroup friends and others. Fredrik's family is very nice but gosh I would kill for a girls night out about now.
  • TiVo. We are going to have so much stuff to catch up on but I do miss seeing our regular shows and being able to turn on whatever we want to watch instead of channel surfing.
I guess that is all for now. Time to watch another movie if the kids will allow it. Last night we got to watch Mama Mia which was a lot of fun. I have had ABBA songs in my head all day. I think the last movie we wanted to watch is The Dark Knight.

Tooth #3!

Linnea got her third tooth in today! No wonder she has been so cranky and been sleeping a lot lately. I knew they were coming as I could see the bumps and white spots but who knows how long they actually take to come in you know. It is the top right tooth that came in today! More about our day later...

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Visited the Mischief Palace!

Well, it has been a few days since I blogged so it will be hard to remember back now but I will try. Our network was out on Sunday and part of Monday as well!

Today was a fun day as we went to the Buspalatset or Mischief Palace here in Hudiksvall. It is a similar type of indoor playground like we went to in Linköping. It wasn't nearly as big but it was a good thing because we could sit in one spot and we were able to see most everything. Irene and Olle (Farfar) went with us and we met up with Staffan, Eddie, Maj and Ingvar as well. There was a big area for kids 0-3 years old and Linnea really enjoyed it. She loved climbing up the stairs to the small climbing area with tunnels and the stairs to the small slide too. Davin enjoyed in there as well but of course he liked the other side where the bigger tunnel maze structure was and also a bouncy house with some big yoga balls that he could throw around. I didn't go with him in the maze since my wrist still hurts if I use it too much and all the climbing and pulling yourself through things hurts. So, Davin got Farfar and Daddy to accompany him and sometimes he even got Maj to go with him too. I am not sure he played with Eddie too much but then I wasn't with them either. I enjoyed my time sitting at the table and drinking coffee and eating carrot cake.

We spent a good 3 hours there and decided it was time to head home. Everyone was tired.

The weather today was quite warm ... over freezing and the thermometer said it was +3.5 C or 38 F. It was a bit more cloudy today than some other days but there was still blue sky to be seen. I think it is strange that all the time we have been here in Hudiksvall that we haven't seen it snow but there is plenty of snow and ice on the ground day after day after day.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Did Nothing

What did we do today? I honestly can't really remember. I slept in. I read my book. I finally have gotten hooked on the book that I brought with me. I have tried reading it before but never got more than a few chapters in. It is a very strange book about many different things and it is by a Japanese writer and they tend to have a peculiar way of writing. Now that I am into it ... I am hooked. I am not sure if it is a GOOD book but it is interesting and mostly weird. I want to read it now just to find out what the heck is going to happen next.

Davin played on the Wii for most of the day. It is hard to get him to stop and come down and eat or drink or do SOMETHING else. At home we can turn off the TV automatically after 3 hours or we can push a button on the remote. Then he has no choice but to play with something else. It's a lot harder to do that here. I can't really recall what else happened. The kids were on a weird nap schedule so they were both up late and we didn't get to watch tv or a movie which is what we wanted.

Strangest Pizza

Tonight we had the most strangest pizza I have ever had. It was actually pretty good ... except for the bananas. I have decided that I simply don't like any kind of fruit on my pizza. I don't like pineapple on pizza and now I know that I don't like banana either. My pizza that I tried had everything that I have never had on a pizza before. I was really breaking out! It had beef fillet, banana, curry and Bearnaise sauce. It would have been a great pizza without the banana! Next time I will know!

Here are some other weird pizzas you can order here in Sweden:
  • CHANTI: Chicken, shrimp, pineapple, curry
  • HOUSE SPECIAL: Beef fillet, tomato, onion, green pepper, cayenne pepper, Bearnaise (actually Fredrik ordered this and it was pretty good!)
  • ACAPULCO: Beef fillet, onion, mushroom, jalapeno, taco sauce, taco spices, garlic, Bearnaise
  • DU-CHEF: Meat sauce, ham, mushroom, Pepperoncini, blue cheese
  • NAPOLI: Ham, mushroom, onion, bacon, egg

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Sunday Visitors

Sunday was a fun day! Fredrik's brother Erik came to visit since he was in town visiting his father's father who lives here in Hudiksvall. He arrived around 2pm and we had some coffee and fika while we visited. It was nice to see him again! Anna wasn't with him since she was visiting her family up north this week. Then a few hours later Fredrik's old friend Stefan came with his daughter Lovisa who is almost 2. Her birthday is just three days after Linnea's ... plus one year. Stefan's mom Britta also came with him to visit. Britta and Irene are good friends and she helps with their accounting or taxes I think. Britta still lives here in Hudik but Stefan lives a bit farther north, about an hour drive, in a town called Sundsvall. Stefan and Fredrik are old childhood friends from when Fredrik would spend the summers here with his dad. The parents were friends so that is how Fredrik and Stefan became friends too. It had been a long time since they saw each other last ... about 15 years ago they thought. Britta and Stefan didn't stay very long and then they headed home.

I made Erik stay for dinner since I was planning on cooking something for him. I decided to make my Pan Seared Tillapia with Chili Lime Butter. It is another quick and easy recipe which everyone seemed to enjoy. After dinner, Erik played a bit of Wii with Davin and then we sent him home with a bunch of clothes that are now too small for Linnea. We aren't sure if they will have a girl but if not ... maybe Cattis and Patrik will have a girl next. Otherwise, he can give it away to someone else who might need girl's clothes. We definitely don't need to be taking them home!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Playing in the Snow in Ljusdal

We had a lot of fun today! We headed over to Staffan and Lena's house today which is in Ljusdal, Sweden. It is about an hour drive from Hudiksvall. When we left the house it was a bright sunny day and the temp was about -7 C or +19 F but when we arrived in Ljusdal it was already -11 C or +12 F. It was fun to walk from the car to the house ... the snow was all squeaky and creaky! We had a tour of their home and it was very nice. They were really happy with their redecorating efforts and they are rightfully proud of everything they had done. They have lived in this house for a little less than a year but they have done a lot of work on it. Their house is about 1550 sqft and it also had a nice yard with a small swing set too. There family consists of a dog Leo (a super cute Chihuahua), a cat (an orange tabby that is bigger than the dog), their 2 year old boy Eddie and a new baby boy about to arrive. I had the due date wrong and she is due on Jan 25th so there is a bit more waiting.

Anyway, we enjoyed some coffee and fika (usually a bit of food like cookies and pastries ... anything that goes with tea or coffee between meals) after the Grand Tour. The boys enjoyed playing a lot ... probably Davin more than Eddie since I think it is hard for Eddie to share his toys. After our fika I sent the boys out to play in the snow. There was a snow hill that I assume came from the snow plow and Fredrik, Davin, Staffan and Eddie all enjoyed sledding. It was about -13 C or +9 F when they were playing so the snow wasn't too good for making snowballs with which is what Davin enjoys most about the snow. I ran outside for a bit to take some photos but couldn't take it for very long. It was pretty darn cold out so most everyone headed back inside soon after ... plus it got dark pretty fast too and it was only 3pm! However, Davin was stubborn as ever and refused to come inside. We put him in their backyard so we could keep an eye on him and he had fun for a little while longer. That is until one of his mittens fell off and he got really cold. He came inside, we peeled off all his layers and he went back to Eddie's room again to play.

We decided to have some pizza while we waited for Linnea to take a nap but of course she woke up as soon as the pizza arrived. I think I forgot to mention that Maj was there too so she helped babysit while we all ate. It's always a bit hard since Linnea always wants me when she is tired or just wakes up. Since she didn't sleep very much while we were there, we decided to head out where she hopefully will sleep in the car. Of course, she fell asleep about 10 minutes away from Farfar's. Why can't kids do what you want them to? We left Ljusdal when the temp was -15 C or +5 F. Yeah, definitely nostril hair freezing weather. Back in Hudiksvall it was warmer but still a chilly -10 C or +14 F.


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Friday, January 2, 2009

Shopping & Dinner

Irene and I went out today to do her Christmas shopping. She decided to do that instead of getting us gifts to open since we weren't going to be here on Christmas anyway. Plus, we can get what we want instead too. Well, it turned out very well since lots of shops are having big sales right now. All of the clothes that were for me were 50% off ... two tops and two pants for about $100. I have less idea of how much we spent on the kids clothes but probably a little more for each of them. I came home with 3 bags stuffed full of clothes! I desperately needed more clothes for Linnea since she has outgrown all the ones I brought for her already. I am leaving it all here with Fredrik's brother Erik and hopefully either Anna or Cattis will have a girl and one of them can use them. Otherwise, they can give it away to friends or something. I even have some of Davin's clothes that are too small that I will leave with them too. I already gave some to Ebbe but we had more that were in the laundry so maybe Erik can get them to Cattis easier than I can. I want to make as much room as possible for all the stuff we need to haul home. Davin was really pleased with his new clothes which makes me happy since he is getting to an age where it is harder to buy clothes for him. He doesn't wear much but he still has an opinion about them. He only wears soft pants and long sleeve shirts but the sleeves can't be too long. His favorite color is yellow which is hard to find and he doesn't like to wear sweaters. Maybe I should leave the sweaters here that I brought too ....

I decided to cook dinner tonight since it was a recipe that wasn't too hard to make. It turns out that Irene had most of the ingredients so it was a quick stop at the grocery store too. I made my Cuban Spiced Pork with Soffrito Rice ... actually it is a Rachel Ray recipe but Fredrik and I really like it a lot. It seems like it was a big hit since Irene wanted the recipe. Henrik had dinner with us so it was nice to visit with him a bit more. Davin is quite fond of him too which is fun to watch.

Tomorrow we are going to Ljusdal to visit Staffan, his wife Lena and their son Eddie since Staffan is feeling better already. Let's see if I can explain how they are related ... Fredrik's mom is Monika but I call her Farmor now. She has a sister named Maj and she had two sons ... Bjorn and Staffan. I am really looking forward to seeing them all again. We might not stay too long since Lena is about ready to give birth. I don't know her due date but it was early January from what I remember!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

BBQ & Movie Night

I am trying to rack my brain about what else we did on New Year's Day but it really wasn't all that exciting or memorable. We were supposed to visit Fredrik's cousin Staffan in Ljustal but he came down with some stomach bug so we stayed home instead. Fredrik's dad decided to BBQ pork chops outside in the garage/workshop and it was only -7 C or 19 F! Those crazy Swedes! Irene even made Fredrik take photos too. It was another good meal and then we decided to watch a movie since Davin actually went to bed before Linnea which is very unusual. I suppose he didn't get enough sleep last night since he was up until midnight with us. We took advantage of the night and watched Hancock on DVD. It was an interesting movie but I am not sure I would call it "good". I did enjoy it and it was different.

Teriyaki Chicken Marinade Recipe

I meant to post this recipe with the previous blog post so here goes! You can use it for other meats too but we have only used it for chicken. I like how easy it is to make and the marinade is used for the sauce too. YUM!

1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 c. soy sauce
3 tbsp. lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 tbsp. ginger root (freshly grated)
2 tbsp. sherry (optional)

Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Using an oven safe pan, marinate 1 lb of meat for 2-8 hours in refrigerator.
Place it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
Baste with the marinate during cooking.
Serve with rice and steamed broccoli. Enjoy!!

Happy New Year!

We had a very nice New Year celebration here in Hudiksvall, Sweden. I helped prepare dinner since Irene requested our Teriyaki Chicken recipe. It was pretty easy but finding the ingredients was a bit harder. Normally, I just buy cooking sherry at the grocery store but I don't think they have that here so we had to go to the liquor store and tried to pick the smallest and most plain kind of sherry. Then there was the trouble of finding enough soy sauce as well. I would have bought the low-sodium kind but they only had that in a small jar so I bought the 1 liter Kikoman one instead. It was the biggest bottle they had. The rest was fairly easy but then I had Fredrik prepare most of it. I don't like grating/chopping the ginger root or pressing the garlic or trimming the chicken of the fat. It really was a team effort! Dinner came out perfect and we had about 3x as much as we needed for everyone. Irene even bought a rice cooker so we could cook the Japanese rice that I brought with me. We burned the last batch since I don't know how to cook it on the stove and they also have an induction stovetop which heats up rather quickly!

Before dinner we did take a short drive to Farfar's workshop which is by the docks and set off a big box of fireworks. They were the biggest fireworks I have ever seen up close like that! It was very big and loud but it was over very quickly. Davin told Farfar to "Do it again!" and "Do it everyday!" which everyone just laughed at. We went back after the quick show and had dinner. Then we had to wait and wait and wait for midnight. Linnea went to bed soon after dinner but Davin and Carolina who is 9 and Katrin's youngest daughter had fun playing together. Davin could never remember her name so he just called her "my girl". Oh boy. Well, at least they aren't related by blood! :)

We managed to stay up and watch the pitiful fireworks from the house. I am sure it would have been better if we went into town or something but everyone was too tired. Even Davin managed to stay awake but then he fell asleep in the "cave" in Farfar's room. It is a closet with a couch in it and we piled some pillows on to make a "cave" and that is what Davin slept in. Funny guy.

I guess I will have to blog more about today later. Fredrik wants to watch a movie!