Very.. tired..

..going to.. sleep.. now....

Yellow giraffe.

Leia has plenty of teething rings, but she prefers this yellow giraffe:

It is a bath toy. Leia enjoying this nice weather today while we were on our walk. :) She got very excited when I took out the camera to take a picture. :))



She still isn't fond of taking water out of a bottle. So she is getting it in a sippy-cup or a normal cup.




She hasn't pooped in days. :/ So Fredrik bought some more formula from the pharmacy, so we mixed it with her other formula. On a normal basis, we give her a special easy-to-digest formula. And it has been working very well for awhile now, but she is.. completely.. constipated.. And it is affecting her sleeping during the days (nothing could keep her awake at night).

And we think the teeth are bothering her, which is bothering her sleeping. (Haven't we been saying for awhile it is her teeth??) Her gums aren't white, but they are swollen, and while she doesn't have a fever, her temperature is slightly raised.

But it is difficult to put a 6 month old to bed that can raise herself up to almost a standing position in her bed by herself. Not something we should be having to deal with right now. :/ :))

Fredrik is having a little boring time at work. This week he has to convert some older files for a new program they are going to be using at work. So he is having to drive around to plenty of places to confirm some things on maps.

He complains that I don't do any movie reviews, and I tell him that he can do my homework instead, so that I can write some reviews...... :P :)

School is okay. I don't really have much left to do with the bookkeeping class.
And I've worked on Swedish all day. For a "small" part of my larger assignment, I have to summarize the Age of Enlightenment, give examples of prominent people, things they wrote, and summarize the things they wrote..... Extremely enthralling.

We got the cover up on the deck, for the iron stand. :) It looks nice. Much nicer to sit outside now. We are trying our hardest to get things fixed and looking nice. Fredrik took tons of branches to the dump on Monday. And we are trying to plan more what we want to do with the yard. We want the tree of course. And we are thinking of putting in some more bushes. And we want to fix up the garden area, with some of the leftover floor stones from when they renovated the kitchen. We still need to get some cushions for the outdoor furniture. The seats are very wide, so it is more difficult to find something that fits.

We think our neighbors separated, but we aren't sure. :/ We haven't seen her since we came back from the US! So we are guessing she moved out during then?? We've only seen him, and the youngest daughter. The older daughter was only there everynow and then (as she was her child from another relationship). So, we haven't heard any gossip yet, but I'm anxiously waiting to meet the "gossip" woman down the street in the red house some day so she can tell me what has happened. :/ :) We really don't know any of the neighbors well enough to ask around. But we feel bad for him. Not sure why.. :/ :) Just weird. Not sure if it is true, just what we are assuming, since we haven't seen her in about 4 months.. :/ :) And they had 3 cats, but we've only seen 2 of them, the littlest one is missing, too.

No Baby Café this Thursday, as it is a Red Day (holiday day), as it is May 1st... Labour Day. So Fredrik won't have work, so that is nice. :) Have him home another day. :) And the week after that, there is a nature/forest walk for the slightly older babies, so no meeting that time either. The last day is May 29th, which is sad because I was hoping Mormor and Morfar could go with Leia and I while they are here. And the last day, they have a special "fika" (brunch).

Almost May.. :/ The last 3 months have gone by so quickly.. :/ Scary even.

Warm.

It is 20ºC (70ºF)! :)
Very warm and sunny. :) Leia and I are getting ready to go on a walk.

6 months ?? 02

The second part of the video.

The memory card was full, so that was all that I could film.
But yes, she got back up and she took the towel with her. :) She was determined to continue holding onto it. She does the same with her toys. She gets very annoyed when she can't crawl and take her toys along with her.

6 months ?? 01

Here is our "6 month old" pulling herself up.
We had to cut the first 45 seconds of the video, because she stopped what she was doing to watch Teletubbies, and it was a boring video clip. She hung onto the basket for a long time before doing anything. :) So we took that part out. Enjoy.

Cherry blossom.

My favorite tree is a cherry blossom.

I was very influenced by them when I went to University. The streets and sidewalks are completely lined with them at my alumni at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

They acquired their tress in an interesting way. :)
The school has a strong Asian tie, especially with the Japanese. The school has an extremely large amount of Japanese students, and has a strong tie to the country. With the thanks from the Japanese government a long time ago, they sent to the school "plenty" of cherry blossoms. (And along with those some Japanese beetles (ladybugs), but we won't get into that story today.)

So it easily became my favorite tree, as when they bloom, they are gorgeous. :) And a breath-taking sight when seen so numerously as at my alumni.

I've been wanting to get one to put in the yard.
While at the greenhouse last week, Fredrik found some. :))
But they need deep soil, and we are afraid that it wouldn't grow well because our yard is just rock. So Fredrik is going to dig around today in the yard, to see how it would do. But I think that we will try one anyways, because I so much want to have one. :)

It will be Leia's tree. :)

No video..

..But a whole bunch of pictures. :P
Every time I try to get a video of her crawling, she just gets so upset and unhappy, that the video isn't worth so much. But she is getting better at it. It will take her a little while until she fully understands what she is doing, as she is doing it very early, so, she just needs some more time. :)

On Friday we received a box from Mormor and Morfar, with some goodies from the US.
Some Avent bottles for Leia, some of the larger (11oz) bottles, which are double the price in Sweden. Some more of the baby orajel. And this adorable tag blanket that I found.




A woman from New Zealand makes them by hand, she is a SAHM (stay at home mom). And of course I didn't want the girly one, :) We chose the construction one for Pappa.
Leia loves her toys, but most of all she loves the tags. So, the blanket is perfect for her to chew and munch on the tags. :))



Right now, Leia's big thing with bath time is to put her toys in the water, and then suck all the water off, and repeat the process. And she makes some very strange noises, too, while she is doing it. :/ :))




Also in the box from the US, were some videos that Mamma ordered for Leia. A Teletubbies DVD, 2 Scooby Doo DVDs (I swear that those are for Leia and not me :D), a DVD with 150 classic cartoons.. and I think that was it for Leia. But there was a DVD for Mamma and Pappa: Saw 4.

Something really creepy happened when I took my recent computer tests, though.

I walked into the building, and a woman was sitting and chatting with another woman, and she stopped me and said, "You are looking for Gunilla??" (My computer teacher.) And I said yes, and she said "You are Hillary. You also met with Göran." (My bookkeeping teacher.) And I confirmed. And she said "you just have those two classes?" And I said that I was taking Swedish A, and she said "You have Madde, too?" (My Swedish teacher.) And she said, "And you have a baby at home??"

So, obviously I am the talk of the school.
:/ :) I was proud, but a little creeped out. :/ :))

We've spent the weekend getting things done around the house. Some gardening, and we got a chance to secure the iron bars to the deck, so now it hopefully won't blow away. :))

I spent plenty of time yesterday and today studying my computer stuff.
And Fredrik is off from work tomorrow. So we hope to get some more things done.

I didn't sleep so well last night, so I am going to bed as soon as I get this finished.. :/





Leia's first taste of banana, in the present from Aunt Yamini. :) Leia loved it, but she wouldn't hold it herself...... So I had to hold it while she sucked the banana out through the mesh. :)




Leia enjoying a cracker made of air. :/ :)
It is really crunchy, and she likes to knaw on them. And then they are in her mouth so long, by the time any of it is in her mouth, it is so soggy, it just dissolves. :)



And she drinks from a sippy cup now!
She hates taking water from a bottle, so she gets that in a cup, and she doesn't spill at all. :)
Juice she still gets in a bottle.

Fredrik working outside. It sprinkled a little off and on during the day, but in the evening it started raining much more. Leia still hasn't heard her first thunderstorm, so that will be an interesting experience. :)



My plants that I have growing in the breakfast room. :)
They have been my recent project.




That is all for now.. :P

She's got it. :)

She can crawl on her knees now.
She isn't very fast and she still gets very frustrated because she isn't very fast, but she's doing it. :)

Almost got it.

Leia is almost fully crawling on her knees. :)
She is going up on her knees to change direction, and if she doesn't try to stand up on her feet, then she crawls a bit.
But she can get very frustrated very easily.
But we are proud of her nonetheless. :)

The finer things in life.

So Leia has discovered my diamond ring.. she loves to sit and rub it with her finger.
She has quickly learned one of the finer things in life.. ;)

And she Loves the couch..




I'm tired.. *yawwwn*
Fredrik and I watched The Minus Man tonight. So now it is bed time.
Tomorrow it is school work, more yard work and more Spring cleaning.
And I'll blog a better post tomorrow!

Depressing.

Yeah.. so I had a depressing day here today. :/

Leia and I went to the Baby Café ... and the whole thing was fine. She behaved extremely well. And then we went to the car seat presentation, where we didn't learn anything new and we wasted an hour of our time... but anywho..

Two people from my parent group were there, and I kept trying to make eye contact with both of them, and they completely acted as if I wasn't alive. And that was a bit depressing. Because one of them especially knows that we'd like to talk to people, and get to know people, etc.. Not like I expect her to be my friend outside of that building, but she could at least acknowledge my presence while we are there.

So, I just shrugged it off, but when I was feeding Leia some lunch (sitting by myself), one of the worker woman came and sat with us and chit-chatted. And it was so.. superficial. An: I'm-not-really-interested-in-talking-to-you-but-I-have-to-because-you-are-sitting-by-yourself.

And that made me sad.
Pity-chat.

After Fredrik got home, I just broke down and started crying. I don't think I'm ever going to make friends here. I've always had a difficult time making friends with Swedish females. And in a small town like this, it is even more difficult.

I just don't have anything in common with them.
Personally, I think they are: annoyingly super-trendy, high maintenance, superficial, arrogant, and have surprisingly very insecure.
When I went to my medicine class in our other town, all they would sit and talk about was clothes, shopping, what color they were going to dye their hair next week...... My head almost exploded after listening to them for about 5 minutes.

I can't fill the role of English-speaking friend, because I speak Swedish. I think that if I didn't speak Swedish to people, I would have friends in an instant. (Which is really, really sad.)

I have such an easy time making friends with anyone else, but just not Swedish females. My foreign classmates love me, especially the Asians, they are somehow always magnetized to me from day one (especially the ones from Vietnam). But anywho...

And in the US, something like this would never, EVER happen. If someone new showed up to a group, or in a town, especially a small town, people would be all over them trying to make them feel welcome. So it is making me a bit homesick for being around friendly people. (And making me very homesick for all the friends I left behind in Nyköping.)

And it isn't like I want 100 friends. I just want 1 or 2. I don't need lots of friends to be happy. Just someone to chat with in person, or get together with every now and then.
But people here want lots of friends, someone different to chat with every day of the year... but only people that they've known since coming out of the womb.

Ehhh....

I'm not just going to go and sit down at a table with people.. because.. that is wrong. They should see me and pleasantly invite me to join them... Otherwise, I'm not going to think they want me to join.... I'm not going to force my way in, I'd rather sit by myself.

Swedes are SO difficult to talk to..

In a normal conversation, the dialog goes back and forth. You shouldn't have to ask a question for someone else to offer information.. And I get so turned off by always having to repeat a question that was just asked to me. People here (Swedes in general, actually) obviously can't give their own thoughts, ideas, or any kind of personal information without being asked a specific question.

So I have a bad headache from my crying.
Realizing and being sad that I probably will never be able to make any friends here.

Fredrik has done a good job of making me feel better. Telling me that there was an editorial in the regional newspaper, complaining about how it is impossible to make friends in Åmål, unless you are inbred and live within 5 feet of every family member.

So today was a bad living-in-Sweden day.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Christian Bale's love-child.

I dreamt that I had Christian Bale's love-child.

I started out like 5 months pregnant. And I was working with the police to help one of the CSI agents from CSI-Las Vegas get out of a maze, one made by Jigsaw. (The older, blonde-haired one with the daughter, Kathryn??).

At first they thought that Christian Bale had put her in there. But I proved that he didn't, and all of a sudden we had the baby. And it had lots and lots of dark hair.

Very, very strange dream.

More back blogging.

Monday I met with my book keeping teacher to go over chapter 9. He explained things much better than the book did and he gave me some extra questions to go over. He then continued and asked me if I wanted to take the final test next week....... Not sure how awesome he thinks I am, but I can't possibly go through the last 4 chapters within a week..... :/ :)

On Tuesday, I took 2 computer tests and passed both. So now I only have 1 more test left. I hope to take that next week, but it is a lot of information, so we'll see if I get to it next week or the week after. But I'm almost done so I'm excited about that. :)

I'm still slowly plugging along with the Swedish class. :)

Leia and Fredrik are both doing well, too. :) She is still fighting to sleep during the days, but she usually gives in at least once, so she gets some kind of nap. I prefer if she sleeps in the morning, it gives for a less-moody baby. :)

Fredrik is doing well with work, I think. He got some new office furniture a while ago. But besides that, I know of nothing exciting.. :P

I grilled Fredrik's favorite meal yesterday. :)
Just waiting for the fresh corn on the cob to show up. :)

I've been trying like mad to finish a box I started awhile ago to send to Carie. I've had most everything for awhile, but one part is taking forever, but Fredrik helped me with a big part of it, so now maybe I can finally get it out in the mail.. :/ :))

We've been trying to Spring clean and fix up the yard. We went on Tuesday and bought some flowers for the yard. I try to work on it here and there during the day when Leia is being pleasant. :) I try to put her in her stroller, back to the sun and all that, so she's facing me, but she just does NOT want to sit still in her stroller. So, I usually let her play in the living room, while I sit outside the front door (with a clear view into the house), and do things there.

I worked on some book keeping questions this evening, and it took me 1 hour to go through 4 questions.. :/ :) But at least with doing the questions, I am understanding it better.

But now it is passed 10, and I wanna sleep.. :P
No pictures today, sorry.. :P :) Just a boring school post. :))

Trying to stand 02.

Trying to stand 01.

9 years old.

Fredrik says that with Leia's development so far, he predicts her graduating from college when she's 9 years old.. :D





Leia loves to be outside. :)
She loves to stand and hold onto the iron bars. She will reach for ones far away and walk inbetween them (only a few steps, but still). If her balance and footing were just a little better, she could stand perfectly by herself.
If she is holding onto something, she can stand almost by herself (needing no support from mom or dad, but getting it anyways, just incase).
I think she'll be walking by 8 months.
:/ :)))

She easily reaches for the next highest level around her and pushes herself up (on her own).

LOVES South Park.

Where do you think you're going?!

Moody.

We had a very, very moody baby this weekend. :/
No idea why. We are guessing her teeth, but we can't know for sure.

A picture of our moody baby:



The wiggle-worm that she is, wouldn't sit still for the picture. :)

She fought me to sleep on Friday. She wouldn't sleep at all Saturday during the day. She fought to sleep Saturday night, going to bed 1½ hours later than normal, and then she finally slept better on Sunday, and napped during the day, although fighting us. And then she slept fine last night.
She is still sleeping the whole night through. That is never a question. She will sleep normally from 19.00 until 06-06.30.

So we'll see how our day goes today. :/ She is always clingy to me, but this weekend was extremely excessive. :/ If Fredrik was holding her and she would happen to see me, she would start screaming.
Flattered, but no. :/ :) Not fun.

And our new grill:





The food was delicious.. ;)
Fredrik wasn't pleased about the bread he had picked out.... But I thought it was good anyways... :P :)


While Leia napped yesterday, Fredrik managed to oil the deck, and I sat outside in the sun and read my computer stuff.




And our silly, chubby baby, trying to steal the camera from Mommy.



And guess what, Leia has stopped crawling.
When she wants to get something, she goes up on all four's, and tries to continue to her feet. She is very, very confused about what she is supposed to be doing. Beyond the fact that she shouldn't be doing it yet. When she realizes that she can't get to her feet on her own, she gets very, very angry.

But I'm just glad now that she is excellent at sitting on her own, because that is what occupies her now. She will sit on her butt and play with her toys. We keep covers piled up around her just incase, but she usually doesn't tip over unless it is her choice. She will go to her tummy to change direction or to get another toy she can't reach.

Right now she is talking to her telephone. :)

She is acting strange about her mouth. We are guessing it is her gums, but until a tooth soon pops out, we have no idea. :/

Although.. she did crawl to the DVD yesterday and reached up to press all the buttons......

Bad parenting.

Leia holding her "milk belly" while laying and watching South Park (Make Love not WarCraft episode, of course).

Singing?? and clapping. :)

Annoyed.

I've been trying to put a video on since this morning, and Blogger is.. being difficult. I'll keep trying. :)

Right now Pappa is finishing putting together our new grill. ;)
Leia got some Baby Orajel (numbing stuff for the gums - the pink stuff they put on your gums at the dentist before you get your numbing shot) and she is much, much happier. (That stuff is heaven.) You can see on the bottom gums, that it is separating more, and you can see more tooth. Her bottom left should come in first.

Her favorite thing to do is clap, she does it ALL the time. :)

We also got some other stuff today. Some oil for the deck
Some groceries. Going to inaugurate our grill with hamburgers and hot dogs. :)

VERY crowded out today, there was a market in town. I wanted to go look, but I didn't dare mention it to Fredrik because I knew he would say no. :/ :( Hopefully there will be more during the Summer, and Mormor and Morfar will gladly go with Leia and I.

I am procrastinating like a pro with studying for my tests.. :/ :D

Boob-mobile.

I saw my first "boob-mobile" yesterday. Not a book-mobile. But a boob-mobile. A transportable trailer for giving mammograms..... Leia and I saw it while we were on our way to the greenhouse yesterday.

And this is a picture of Leia, trying to stand up in her crib. So we are definitely lowering her crib tomorrow. :)

Fredrik conceded. :) He gave in. :) And said that we need a new grill. :)
I don't see why it really matters to him in the first place.. He isn't paying for it and he doesn't grill.. :T
So we will go hunting in the morning. One of our neighbors already grilled today.....

Not that much else going on ... Leia is trying to stand. She will go up on her feet, in the shape of a pyramid, and either stay there, or try to continue into a standing position. She doesn't realize that she can't. But it won't take long before she will. :)

I've finished the two Excel modules, and I'll try for 2 more tests on Tuesday.
So Fredrik will take Tuesday off instead of Monday. The guy wants to switch days again. Apparently he and his wife are still trying to move up all their stuff from Halmstad (they have a pig that lives in their house.......)

Clapping!!!

Leia clapped her hands together for the first time!!! :D She kept doing it over and over again. :)

And then she waved to herself. :) (She does that all the time, though.) :)

More laughing.

Grilling season.

The weather was beautiful yesterday. It is also supposed to be nice the rest of the week.

We are wanting to get some oil to oil the deck. To prevent the wood from getting worse than it is. We doubt if it has ever been oiled before, whenever it was built.

We also need to do something to secure the iron stand to the deck. It wasn't very well manufactured, and if it is even slightly windy, it looks as if it is going to blow away.. :/ :) So we need to secure it to the deck a little better. Then we can put the sun covering on top, and get out our outdoor furniture. :)

And I really wanna get a new grill. Thinking about doing that this weeked, too. The one we have isn't so much fun. It is too small for our grilling needs. :)

Yesterday evening, Pappa finally got a good chance to trim our tree in the front yard. You cut off all the branches, to help keep the tree from getting enourmous.

I think Leia got to see the sun for the first time.. :D Since October, I doubt the sun has been out. :D




Leia is incredibly clingy. :/

She wants me to hold her, and when I hold her she wants to get on the floor to play with her toys. I put her on the floor, and she crawls to me, and hugs my leg. The compromise: She lays on the floor and plays with something with one hand, while the other hand is touching my foot or leg. *sigh* :)

She slept almost 4 hours yesterday. :) Which was super nice for me. :) I got some much needed quiet time, and I was able to get some school work done.

She is desperately trying to sit on her butt. She will lay on her side, and try to throw her leg in the air, and push off the floor with one arm. She is trying -- just a matter of time before she gets it.

I decided to not go to the Baby Café today. I am tired. And if she naps then I refuse to wake her up to go to that. And if she doesn't sleep, then she will be cranky, and it won't be fun then, anyways.

I'll try to get there next Thursday, because then they will have people there going over car seats.

Knees.

Leia took almost a 2 hour nap this morning. :) She hasn't taken a morning nap in weeks. :) The only difference today than other days..? I gave her some Baby Orajel a little while before I gave her her milk. Did that make the difference? I don't know. But that was the only non-constant factor.

Knees. :)
Leia is pushing up onto her knees. :) While on her tummy, she will push up onto her knees -or- her toes. It looks like she is trying to do a push-up. :) If she happens to be near something that isn't too high, she will put one hand up on it, and pull herself up to her knees. :) And she doesn't stop there. Once on her knees she will put one foot up under her and try to push herself onto her feet.

We have one crazy baby. :)

Screaming and laughing.

Leia's appointment today was very, very strange. :/ :)

She was fine when we got there. And she sat and played for a few minutes before the appointment. We took her clothes off and she was fine. And we layed her down for the doctor to listen to her chest, and when I layed her down, she started screaming bloody murder. I mean: red face, streaming tears, non-stop screaming.

She never stopped either.. :/ :) For the entire appointment. No idea what caused it and she finally stopped when I started blowing bubbles with my gum.. :D

She was slightly cranky when we got home but she got over it fairly quickly, though.

So, the appointment was very pointless. He got to listen to her lungs and heart. And he looked in her ears. Measured her at 68,5 cm (27in), which we knew she hadn't gotten any longer. And the weighing was impossible, because she kept moving so much, so the scale was jumping everywhere. So they guessed that she gained about 200 grams (½ pound). But it could have been much more.

I baked some bread today. Smells delicious. :)
Fredrik will be in Nössemark tomorrow (where the summer house is). He will be measuring some things for the sawmill that is there. The things are built, but haven't been measured yet.

Appointment.

We have a doctor's appointment for Leia today. It is at 14.30. Much, much earlier than we thought. :/ Which isn't good because that is really early for Fredrik to leave work. Not like they will say anything, but we usually try to have them later in the afternoon/early evening. We didn't remember what time it was and so he had to call and ask. It is her 6 month appointment, so she has a routine check-up with the pediatrician (barnläkare).

Yesterday the 3 of us ran some errands and then we went bulk shopping (storhandla). I always read things in Sweden saying such bad things about bulk buying. And I didn't understand why, until I came across an article of an economist in Umeå, saying "people end up throwing away bananas because they go bad and then they waste a lot of money" etc.. etc...
I'm sorry, but who buys fruits and vegetables when they do large grocery shopping?! The point isn't to buy fresh things like fruit, bread, and milk. The point is to buy freezer food, dry foods, things that will keep for a long time. Every day use items. Things that don't expire for the next 5-6 years, etc.. Especially stuff like toilette paper and paper towels.
And then it is much easier to run to the store just to pick up some milk and bananas, and you are much less likely to pick up things you don't need if you go through more aisles of the store..

Sometimes I get a headache.

But while in the store, Leia got a little cranky. We went late morning, so the store was almost completely empty (which was awesome!). She got cranky, and I found a pacifier in my purse. Plopped it in her mouth, and she was asleep within 60 seconds. (She was in one of the seats on the shopping cart.) Fredrik and I were in utter surprise that the pacifier worked. That she actually took it.

I'll meet with my bookkeeping teacher next Monday evening, to go over this new chapter. It is very confusing, so we will go over everything, just to make sure there are no troubles. And during this week, then, I'll have time to do my review of the book.

I am doing my second go-through of the Excel chapter. I really, REALLY wanna take 2 tests next Tuesday. :/ Or maybe Thursday, depending on when she has best times with her classes. So, I'm going to try to work on these two modules lots, and see if I can get that done. If I could get rid of one of my classes, that would be a big lift off my shoulders. And I figured that since two tests are on Excel, then it wouldn't hurt to try to take both the same time. Then I will only have the PowerPoint test, and PowerPoint is easy.

And I am moving along in my Swedish class, too.. :P :)

I'll post again about her appointment.

Jättebebis.

Giant Baby.

In Romania, a baby was born weighing 14 pounds (6,4kg), by C-Section of course (kejsarsnitt). Everyone was completely surprised, as ultrasounds showed nothing unusual.

Jättebebis född

Sleep crawling.

We think Leia sleep-crawls.. :D

She ends up in the strangest positions during the night.



Why you should never throw anything away:

Fun facts.

In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb"
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The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
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Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S . Treasury.
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Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
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Coca-Cola was originally green.
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It is impossible to lick your elbow.
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The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
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The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...)
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The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
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The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $ 16,400
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The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000
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Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
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The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
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The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
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111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
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Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
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Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace
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Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession
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Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"?
A. One thousand
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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All were invented by women.
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Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey
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Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day
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In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight, sleep tight."
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It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
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In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."
It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"
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Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

Congrats to Rachel and Jason!

A big CONGRATULATIONS to Rachel and Jason on their adorable little girl, Micah Kathleen. :)



Even though I am a bit late with the post.

I think she is now about 3 weeks old, with dark hair and eyes like her mom and dad.
Rachel and her mom threw Leia's Baby Shower while we were in the US. And now Rachel has her own little girl and Vicki has her first grandchild. :)




And a picture of Micah sporting some baby-wear from Sweden. :)

Hair.

6 months.

Happy Birthday,
Leia!

Today you are 6 months old.
Half-way to One. :)

Crazy.

In Finnish, "periodical" is: aikakauslehti
:/

My favorite Swedish word is:
flaggstångsknoppsförgyllare

It is the person that shines the ball at the top of a flag pole. :)

Back-blogging.

I took this picture of Leia on Thursday while we were at the Baby Café. Took it with my cell phone, sent it to Fredrik, and then he has the cords to upload it.

It was a little boring in the beginning, there weren't many to show up for my group. Obviously they usually had a guitar, but they didn't last week. They had it on Thursday and Leia was not very fond of it. :/ It made her cry but it was easy to calm her down. I gave her a book to hold.

If she isn't eating, then she doesn't want to sit still, especially in a high chair. So, I took her and let her play and crawl around in a little play area in one of the rooms. (The Baby Café is run by the Swedish church in town, and the "play-dates" are in a building next to the church.)

So, the babies that are Leia's age are sitting quietly on their mommy's laps. But my 5 month old (soon to be 6!) is wanting to crawl all over the place. A few of the mom's with older babies (12 months+) brought their babies in to the room, and Leia "played" with them. :)

I got to talk to a few new people. I've learned that it is impossible to make friends if there is more than 1 person together. But if you manage to get around someone that is by themselves, then it is easy to talk and get to know someone, but as soon as a friend comes around, then it is impossible to be taken seriously. I guess that is just the way it is here. Not sure if it is limited to Åmål, or small towns in general, or to Sweden. I know that that would absolutely never happen in the US.

But everyone there is really, really nice. :) And I hope to keep going back. :) And once I am there more often.. Hopefully I will be in the "in-crowd."

Leia has... changed her sleeping schedule completely. Not sure what is going on with her. She has been sleeping straight through the night for a long time now. Wakes up at a decent time, even though Fredrik and I think it is too early.. ;)

She is sleeping in the mornings when she gets her milk, but she usually almost always wakes up soon after being put in bed. And then she is wide awake and DOES NOT want to sleep. So, we are trying to figure out what she is wanting with naps. She did nap today, but in the middle of the day, and a long nap, too. So we'll just have to see what is working for her best right now.

And she looooooooooves South Park..... This child is addicted to it.. :/ Which really isn't that good.. but she loves it so much.

And she is saying "da da dahh da dahhhh dahh" like crazy. :) I'm trying to get her to replace at least one of those with a "m" .. ;)

I've been trying to get school work done. Half way through another module for my computer class. I'm reading about Excel now. And the other two left are Excel Database, and Power Point. I am still bad about not working on the Swedish stuff.. :/ Most of the work is silly and pointless. Trying to tell me to pronounce "svårt" as "svåt" ....... No.

And I got to chapter 9 (of 12) with my book keeping class. It is about revenue (intäkt) and expense (kostnad) ... periodiserad inkomst och utgift.. whatever that is in English..... :P It is a little confusing. So, before I continue, I decided to go back over all the other chapters, just to make sure that I remember all the little things that I might have forgotten. Since the chapters aren't continual. They are each separate, and don't really just add something new. Each is its own "entity."

Hmm...

That didn't make any sense at all did it?

The review questions at the end of the chapter are only about that chapter, it doesn't include anything you might have needed to know from previous chapters, besides the "base" learning chapters.
Hopefully that made more sense. :)

So, I thought it best to go over all the chapter questions. Just to make sure I haven't forgotten how to do something. Or which sums do or don't go in a result/balance report.. :P Etc... etc......

Today I cleaned silver. Yupp.. that is what I did to take a relaxing, enjoying break from school work. :) No joke.. :P We "stole" a few serving platters from the summer house last summer by accident (didn't intend to bring them home), and I sat in the living room floor and polished them. And Leia sat and watched. :) And I did a couple of candle holders, too.

We also cleaned up our extra food room. Finally got the other two curtains up.

Fredrik made a very yummy dinner today. And I got to rest and watch someone else run after Leia. :)

She has discovered the hallway. :) She crawls into there now. Mostly I think because the ficus is sitting in there.... We had to completely remove it from the living room. And she attempted to crawl out of her bedroom before her father caught her. :)

Work is going well for Fredrik i think. :) He isn't complaining at least. :) Most days are the same. Not like when he worked with Skanska. Lots more happens within a day in construction.

The snow this morning stuck for awhile, but left pretty quickly. Really annoying with the weather. It is almost the middle of April.. and we are still having snow. The kind of snow that we should have had in November. It is cold and nasty, and rains most every day. I want the sun. I want Spring. I want to GRILL.

For me, grilling season has arrived. And I am annoyed that the Swedish weather isn't cooperating. I found a new grill I want. Charcoal of course. I would never, ever buy a gas grill.
So I want this new grill. Ours is a few years old. This new one is huge. And it has two separate sides where you can adjust the height. I want it.
:P

Hmm.. maybe that is enough for tonight.. :P
Maybe I can get a little work done. Some Swedish. I promise.

You know you're in Sweden...

...When you can buy baby food consisting of potato and salmon puré.. :/

Leia was not fond of it. :/
She ended up throwing it up.



But her greenbean face is even worse. :D


After the green beans she stuffed her bib in her mouth. :D
NOW see if you can get any of that nasty stuff in my mouth!!

Snow.

Yupp. It is snowing right now. Snowing and raining at the same time.

I hate this country.


Cat napping in the sun (yesterday, obviously):




And Leia trying to eat a spoon:



I'll post again later, with a little more substance.