The New Blog.

http://hillarymolin.wordpress.com

Uncertainty.

Well, since I haven't posted in awhile, I suppose it is obvious about the uncertainty of the future of this blog. :( There are just not enough hours in the day. At least not right now.

There are just so many options when it comes to blogging right now. Since I redid the layout of this blog, I never had a chance to finish and put back everything that belonged (all the links, etc..).. Then the decision on what to blog about.. Life in Sweden, life with a baby, life with a baby in Sweden.. Just a photo blog..? Too many options right now. And keeping up with everything can be very time consuming and stressful.

I really, really want to keep one going, I just don't know if I can right now.
I have thought about laying this one down and starting over. Also because I have completely run out of storage space for photos and videos. So I have considered starting again, with a different domain and seeing if that would be easier for me. Only use the collages, etc.. And just write about highlights in our lives.

I hate not having pictures of birthdays and things about Leia here and there. But I hate, yet once again, to change blogs.

So I am still thinking about it. :/
If I start a new blog, I'll start where I left off, and try to post birthday pictures and more pictures from our trip to the US, etc..


What we've been up to the last month:

Leia: Had her first school pictures, and they are gorgeous! Talking like crazy and she has now learned American sign language! (Just from her Baby Einstein DVDs.)

Fredrik: Still working 50% until December. Starting December he'll work 80% until the start of the new year. His company, Metria, is probably going to go private, rather than government run and operated. Meaning a lot of (good) changes within the company. His new regional office is going to be in Jämtland, which is far North of us. Which is just silly, but anywho..... :P

Hillary: Still studying. Almost fully completed her English class. Will be done with it in a couple of weeks. Teachers have quickly and easily found out that I have a degree in English Lit, and they think it is cool. They see me as a great asset to the class. I really like the people in my class and my teachers (2 of them). Getting all MVGs (highest grade) on my Swedish work. I have a huge test this week, but I don't think I am taking it now. National Test will last all of December. Working on my second Swedish novel for class, reading a Beck novel and I like it!


We've reconstructed an area in the backyard with pretty cement blocks for our compost area. We've painted the living room and bought some new furniture. All we need now are new couches.

That is all for now I think.
I'll give a head's up if I start something new. :)

Beautiful Leia.

After our return from Kentucky this summer, Leia decided to have a little posing session and I was able to take lots of pictures of our beautiful baby girl.





We had a nice day to Karlstad yesterday! We bought a few things, especially presents for Leia's birthday. The days are going by quickly and lots needs to be done! I have lots of baking to do and I'm still trying to catch up with my work.

Grattis, Pappa!

Leia can't say much, but she did say "happy" today. :)) The "birthday" didn't sound so good. :)) But I think Fredrik liked it anyways. :) He turned 31 today. :) I don't think he really minds being in the 30's. :) We had yummy food today, his favorites, and he received some nice presents. :) I hope he enjoyed his day!

Today I bought us a new TV stand that we needed.

Tomorrow, we are heading to Karlstad to look around, especially to the toy store and to IKEA. It's always fun to look around in IKEA (not sure Fredrik agrees, though). :))

But now Law & Order is over and it is bed time!

I am.. ugh.. not doing so well with my school work. Very difficult to keep up with it. :( I have 2 literature courses, which means lots of reading and lots and lots of writing. I'm not too behind with the English, but the Swedish I'm no where caught up with the work. I think it is also that I am sooooo tired of studying Swedish. I've studied so much repetitive stuff that I can't take it anymore. I have only taken 2 classes here in Åmål, and I've had 3 different Swedish teachers. Total, I've taken 4 Swedish classes and I've had 8 different teachers. :/ And each teacher teaches the same stuff. I don't know how many of the same papers that I've written over and over again. Especially moving from town to town. Luckily, that also enables me to reuse papers that I've already written.. :D

ha..

Now it is bed!

Better than we ever could have thought!

So we were able to do our painting today in the dining room! And it turned out so well. :) We are very pleased with how it looks. We did such a good job that we only had to put on one coat of paint. We anxious to now paint the living room, which will be the same color.

It seems like a completely different room, so much bigger and more depth. It will be a much warmer room. We LOVE the color!









Tomorrow we hope to make a trip to the summer house. It has been awhile since my parents have been there, and they love looking around there. :) And we are gonna fill the car up with firewood to bring back to the house. After that, we don't really have any set plans.

Sample.

So here is the color we chose for the rooms:







And my horrible attempt at trying to get an idea of what it will look like on the walls:







We're a little afraid it is too dark, but we really like it. :)

Mormor and Morfar should be over the Atlantic now. :) They have a very, very long flight ahead of them, with two layovers, their trip will come to about 24 hours.. :/ So hopefully they can nap in the car on the drive to our house.

*yawn* A bit tired. :P
Should probably get to bed!

Getting ready.

We're getting ready for lots of things.

Tomorrow I go early in the morning to the hospital in Säffle to give blood. Something that I encourage everyone to do, no matter where you live.
If you would like more information on donating blood in Sweden, HERE is a link to get you started.

And while I'm at it, I want to encourage everyone to become an organ donor.
The Swedish link is HERE.

I registered myself as an organ donor my 2nd day in Sweden. :P Fredrik refused to let me register him... *sigh* But as soon as we received Leia's social identity number, I registered her AND Fredrik. :P So.. go do it! :))
I am very proud to have all 3 of us registered.

Even though we dust and vacuum the dining room (where the fireplace is located) at least twice a day and each morning when we come into the room, there is a new layer everywhere.... The stuff just won't go away.. :(( So today we did lots more cleaning, like we have all weekend. Leia of course did her part, too. She loves to use the duster, so she gets that job.

We also need to find someone to make a... ehhh.. thing to go infront of the fireplace, on the floor.. :P So we made the shape of that on the floor, of how we hope to have it look, and then we will go talk to someone about it tomorrow.

Tomorrow a bit more cleaning up for Mormor and Morfar to arrive. Empty up their room some more, etc..

And tomorrow we are going to go try to pick out a color of paint for the living room and dining room. Going to be the same color for both rooms. Well, I think it should be the same color, Fredrik wants different colors. But I think it would look strange to have different colors, seeing how the rooms are connected with such a large doorframe and it seems more like one larger room than two separate rooms. But we will try to pick something out and get a sample of it, and then bring it home and try it on the wall before we actually make the purchase.

So we've been trying to clean up the room to make it ready for painting. I oiled the oak dining furniture today (took about an hour to do the long cabinet, dining table and 6 chairs). < sarcasm > Lots of fun! < /sarcasm > And I started putting around the blue tape for painting purposes. Leia loved helping with that today, too. :))

I haven't done much school work this weekend, and I am a bit behind again. But I don't care. :P It isn't worth getting stressed out with it when it is just silly high-school level classes. Especially when I am over-qualified to even teach the English class that I'm taking.

We're planning a trip to Nordens Ark soon after my parents arrive. We want to make sure we get a trip there before it gets too cold and we won't get to see any of the animals! :) We've been to the gates of the zoo, but we haven't been in. We go past it on our way to Smögen. But we decided that last summer Leia was a little too young to make the cost worth it. But the zoo is open every day of the year! How cool is that? So maybe we can make a couple of trips there while they are here.

We are planning a little "birthday party" for Leia the weekend before her birthday, on the 10th. We'll have Mormor and Morfar here, and hopefully Farmor and Farfar, and then we invited our neighbors and their grandchildren, if they happen to be here. Otherwise, it will just be all of us old folks and Leia. :)

Leia has her birthday day off from daycare, but that day is when the photographer will be there, so we'll end up there that day anyways. And I'm guessing on Wednesday will be the day they celebrate Leia's birthday. Since there are so few children there, they celebrate each birthday individually, unlike larger daycares that have one party a month for the children that have that month as a birthday. The parents are expected to bring a treat for the children. And then they sing "Happy Birthday" in Swedish, of course, and then they give the child a little gift. They decorate with balloons and all of that, so it is really nice!

Most parents take ice cream, it is cheapest and easiest, and possibly easiest for the daycare workers too. But I wanna do something different and give a little American influence, so I am making some American cupcakes. :) With very little frosting, so to not make the children hyperactive for the rest of the day. :D And I might take some homemade cookies, too.. for those children that of course won't like their first taste of American deliciousness. ;)

But now I should maybe try to read a little before bed. I need to read a novel in Swedish and write a paper about it. I am almost done with the novel.

More soon!

Kentucky.

Not long after our trip to Pennsylvania, we took a short trip to Kentucky to visit with friends and family. This trip was mainly for Fredrik, so he could see the area where my parents are from.





We were able to see some family members and we had a fantastic dinner with my parent's best friends.

The weather.. ugh.. was hot and humid and miserable! Horribly hot weather in the mountains, but Fredrik finally got to see the beautiful scenery. :)

Another beautiful day!

Cousins.

The last pictures that I put on we were on our way from Ohio to Pennsylvania. There Leia got to meet her aunt and cousins for the first time! Leia got to meet her Aunt Beverly, and her boyfriend Ryan, and her cousins, Heather, Kayla and Kyle.





We drove and met them in Hershey, PA, where they have the chocolate factory. So we took a tour of the place (even though all of us have been there dozens of times, Fredrik included). :)

Leia took up with her cousins SO well! Especially Kayla. :)

Leia won't remember the event, but her cousins will! And we have pictures to show her of course. She won't be able to meet with her cousins very much in her life, so this was an important event. :)

Fall is upon us.

Even though Fall has been here for awhile, we had a pleasantly warm day today! Not hot or anything.. :) ..but it was sunny and very nice out!





Leia is saying a lot more now. But it is all in Swedish. :( We think that she is getting frustrated with me sometimes because I speak a different language than everyone else. So I think Mormor and Morfar being here for the next 5 weeks will help a lot in Leia's language development. It will be good for her to hear more English speakers.

Right now, her favorite words to say are:

- akta! (be careful / watch out)
- titta (look)
- bye bye
- Elvis (yes, Elvis)

And of course numbers in general and the alphabet. She tries to say most everything she hears in English and Swedish, but she remembers the Swedish more of course because she hears it more often.

Leia didn't even try to sleep at all today, but she stayed pretty happy and not too cranky. Fredrik took her on a long 2 hour walk then, so that I could get through some school stuff and so he could get some exercise.

Leia loves being outside. Whenever they leave the grounds at daycare, either for their weekly Thursday forest trips, or when they take out their recycling, etc.. Leia refuses to go in the stroller! She wants to walk with the older children. :) So they let her and she does very well! :) ("Very well" meaning that she doesn't run away.) :)) She listens and stays with them, so they let her walk. :)

And on Leia's birthday, they are finally getting a photographer to come and take a group picture! :) They have all 15 spots filled now at the daycare, 14 girls and 1 boy... :D And then I think you can have individual pictures done, too - so we are going to see if she will sit still for that. :)

Now it is close to 19.00 and välling time!

And the total comes to..

31 000sek
4500$

EHh.. :/ :D A lot of money, but worth it! (For the fireplace.) We're hoping that it will cut down the cost of heating during the Winter so that we don't have to buy so many pellets (our heating source).

During the summer months, from May - September, we use 1 pallet of pellets. But during Sept - April, we use about 1 pallet a month.. :/ Each pallet is 2500sek (350-400 $). So we hope we won't have to buy as many pallets, and then it will be a good investment in the long run. Also when we want to sell the house in the future, it might not add any value onto the house, but it should help it making it easier to sell.

Day 9.

So he finished up the fireplace yesterday, there wasn't very much left for him to do. Then he cleaned up the floor very well. Last night, I cleaned off the walls, and Fredrik did some more vacuuming. But the walls are now a nice brown shade. (Since there isn't a finished coat of paint on the walls, nothing wipes off at all.) So we HAVE to paint now. Which is probably for the better. So we're going to leave the room like it is, with all the plastic covering. And get to painting soon after Mormor and Morfar get here!













The guy will be back in a few weeks to put the outer sand/clay on the fireplace. It will go on over the tiles and inbetween. He said it will give it a much nicer shine and make it a white color inbetween the tiles. He said we should be able to use it around Christmas, or right after. :)

A weekend away.

We had a fantastic weekend last weekend. :) Since the house was very messy and Fredrik had so many days off, we decided to go to the summer house. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time!

I've decided that since I have sooooo many pictures to share, that I might just start making collages instead! Very fun and simple to do, and that way I can share even more pictures, and save storage space on my Blogger account. That way I might actually finally get around to putting on pictures from our trip to the US! :/ :(





But last weekend I got plenty of school work done, including writing my own fairy tale for my Swedish class! Fredrik loves it and thinks I should write a longer version.. we'll see if that happens.. :/ :)

Fredrik is definitely enjoying his time off from work, and Leia is doing well with her extended hours at daycare. She is there now until 17.00. And I absolutely hate it! :( I miss her so much. :( But I know I won't be able to get anything done otherwise.

Soon my parents will be here! :)

The fireplace is now finished! And the room is a horrible, nasty, awful mess. :( So we have lots of cleaning to do. So we hope to get all that done, and then maybe try to paint in there before moving all the furniture back! :) I hope we can do that, but it depends on how much the paint will cost.. :/ Since Fredrik's paychecks have been cut back a bit we might not be able to, but it is a good opportunity to do it since we have 2 more helpers and all the furniture is out of the room. So we'll see.

We really hate having the rooms be white.. :/ Feels institutional.

We might be having some buyers for Leia's crib and changing table, so we might be getting rid of some of her baby stuff. :) It makes me very, very sad to get rid of her things. :( Ugh.. don't wanna get into that now..! :))

Fredrik has started cleaning and I wanna go help!
I'll try to write more later!

Day 8.

Day 7.

What a mess!!!

Day 6.

It is getting a bit difficult to take pictures now, because of the height.

The Good Doctor.

Today Leia had an appointment with a "good doctor." As opposed to a "bad doctor" that has needles and gives icky medicine. :) Leia had her appointment today with the child psychologist. And we think that it went really well!

We sat in a room and Leia behaved well while we talked to the doctor. Leia was very timid but opened up better near the end. :) The doctor assessed her mentally and physically. Most importantly for us, we had answered one of the questions that we had about Leia. Which was about autism.

The doctor said that while she has autistic characteristics and tendencies, she is too active to be fully autistic. She said that since she is not autistic, her determination, stubbornness and desire to do everything herself will be very healthy for her in the end.

It has been Leia's lack of affection and the way she holds herself away from others that has been bothering us. The doctor wasn't a bit surprised when we confirmed how alert she has been her entire life, even the same day she was born - eyes wide open, and I said, "She hasn't closed them since." :D

She said that however she reacts to our affection, to not stop what we are doing and hopefully she'll get a bit better. :)

Finally, for the last 2 weeks, Leia's sleep has been better. And it goes back to the autism question of Leia having to decide for herself what and when things happen. So from June until September, we've fought with her sleeping, and now we are hoping that we've figured out what to do. We say goodnight and leave her alone upstairs. And she goes and gets in bed herself and falls asleep alone and by herself. Sounds a bit morbid, I think. :P But she has to have that reassurance that she is making the decision to go to bed. It has worked very, very well for the last 2 weeks and she is even sleeping in longer in the mornings.

So it was nice to have someone else, especially a professional, not tell us that we were silly to think autism might be an issue. Unlike other children, Leia doesn't come and sit in our laps, she doesn't come and sit beside us, she doesn't offer us hugs or put her arms around us when we actually get a hug. Her hugs, the few times we get them, are her laying her head on our shoulder for a few seconds.

The doctor said that Leia is sorta living vicariously through her cat. :) That if we want a hug, to hug the cat first, if we want to cut her nails, cut the cat's nails first, etc.. Which makes sense. Leia doesn't hug us, but she comes up to me often and places the cat against my neck and has me hug the cat like she, herself, hugs the cat.

She gave us some good tips and it was really nice to talk to someone. :)
And since we have no one in the area, friends or family, to give us a helping hand or a break, even a meal out by ourselves some time - the doctor suggested we put an ad in the paper for an adopted grandma. :) She said that it is common, and easy to find very willing, older women that are lonely and would love to help out with a child. For me, that was a very tempting offer. So we'll see if we do that.

But soon Leia's real grandparents will be here! We're anxious, that's for sure! It will be interesting to see how Leia reacts to new people living in her home. :) She's been great with the fireplace-guy. She is very friendly with him.

So yay! for a good day! :)
Now back to school work! :P

Day 5.

Blueberry muffins.

Last Saturday.

Yeah.. I'm putting pictures on from last Saturday.. :/ I'm so behind with pictures it is crazy.. :P I did drop my Samhällskunskap class - there was no way I could catch up or have time for it. Oh well. :P

But last Saturday we went to the summer house to have a nice day, and we did have a nice day! Here are some pictures:




15 bikers, aged 35-70, super-sweet and so nice to Leia!

blackberries