Turkey Day.

Happy Turkey Day!

It isn't quite the same as celebrating in the US. We aren't doing anything special today for Thanksgiving but we had our early meal with friends last weekend. Since of course Swedes don't get time off for Thanksgiving.. :)) Us Americans have to celebrate Thanksgiving on the weekends, because it is impossible to make such a large meal during the week like that with working, etc..

Happy Thanksgiving!

Icky.

Fredrik felt icky yesterday so he ended up staying home from work, as well as today. He doesn't have a cold, but he doesn't feel very well and he has lots of mucus and all that yummy stuff. Leia and I have been coughing a bit, mostly at night. I have a sore, very dry, scratchy throat, and I am assuming that she has the same.

Since he has been home, Fredrik has been taking Leia to daycare. :) Which is good. It is fun for him to take her, and good for her to have someone else "abandon" her, not just mommy. :))

We were wondering why Fredrik didn't get any calls from work yesterday, as he always does when he stays home.. And then at 14.30 we realized his phone had been turned off all day.. :/ :) Since then he has only had 2 calls, though.

After the New Year, he will be the only worker for Metria in Dalsland.
With Lantmäteriet, there are 4 people in the office. And Metria has 3. Well 1 of those has already left, and the other will be gone after December. Which just leaves Fredrik. :P At least he has job security.

Here is the "county" of Dalsland:



And now Fredrik is going to be the only Metria worker for the region. They aren't going to try to replace both workers, so they have an ad out for 1 person to do both jobs, which just isn't going to happen.

Here is an interesting link I found, might be a fun read for some of you!
Dalsland

Come to find out yesterday, that his last job, the construction company SKANSKA, is letting go of 2000 people in Sweden! Wow. With the economy being so bad, new homes aren't being built, so the construction industry has been hit pretty hard. So it was probably a good job change for him when we decided to move. Although I don't think his job would have personally been affected, since he wasn't a labor worker.


But here is another cool link:
Västra Gotaland

This would be.. our "district" I suppose. Swedish land isn't divided, obviously, the same as it is in the US. In the US you have cities and towns, and townships, counties, and States. The Swedish division of land doesn't have the same meaning as in the US.



After Fredrik gets his pay raise soon (his 2nd in 18 months), he might very well be the highest paid Metria and Lantmäteriet "Mätningsingenjör" (measuring engineer) in all of Västra Götaland.

Fredrik's work perimeter includes Åmål, Bengtsfors and Dals-Ed. But he's been working as far South as Lilla-Edet.




Hopefully all that information is interesting to someone. :/ :)


School is okay. I am getting pretty far into my accounting stuff. It isn't very confusing, but there is just so much little stuff to do. So many papers that have to be printed, preliminary papers and final papers. What a waste of paper!!

Today is Leia's Farfar's 60th birthday!

Hmm...

Leia's pooping is still a problem. So Fredrik called today and she will see the pediatrician next Tuesday (he is only in Åmål on Tuesdays).

And my driver's license. I have never given an update on that, have I?
Well.. I received my papers back that I sent about our wedding, and my name change. And now I have to pay someone to translate about 4 lines worth of text (which includes names and a date)on our marriage certificate, and then it has to be notorized by a public official, a lawyer. THEN I can send it back to the DMV. Needless to say this is a horrible hassle, and very, very annoying. I e-mailed about 50 different official, Government accepted translators. For the 4-5 lines of text, I got quotes of 900-160 sek for the fee (150-30$)..... I went with someone that said it would be around 200sek. There were many that were super busy, and they all recommended the same guy, which was the one I was planning to go with anyways.

A marriage certificate in Sweden is just a keepsake. It has no legal meaning whatsoever. In the US, a marriage certificate is very important and has legal meaning. But they don't want to accept that it isn't that way in other countries..... (something done differently than how the US does it?? No! Not possible!). So, I have to pay to have this meaningless piece of paper translated and pay to have it notorized so that I can have my last name changed on my DL.

In Sweden, if you need an official document for you to prove who you are or who you are married to or when your name was changed, or who your children are, etc.. etc.. You just get a print out from the local Tax Office. I sent this paper, in English, in an unopened envelop, and it was returned to me. I find it interesting that the US State Department accepts this paper as a legal document, to change my passport, renew my passport, to apply or change my social security card (personnummer), to apply a child as a citizen, etc.. etc.. My my local Department of Motor Vehiles in my State of Ohio won't accept the paper........

Just plain stupid.

Okay... :P Enough ranting. I have plenty of other stuff to do.. :P

Photo mishap 01.

Fun! Fun!! Fun!!!

Okay, so Leia has been so much more fun lately. :) The days just keep getting better and she has been so content and happy, which we haven't seen from her in awhile. If Leia is happy, then we are all happy. :)

Thursday was a great daycare-day. She slept 2 hours for them.
She fell asleep at 10 in the stroller for their forest outing and slept for an hour. Then she fell asleep at 2 and slept until I got her at 3. She is eating better for them, and is much happier and playing well. So she is settling in and getting used to things there. And that is great. :)

On Friday, Leia and I took a walk into town so that she could swing. :)
It was VERY cold and there were lots of pretty ducks to look at:








Leia got to swing:








And our beautiful town of Åmål:











(Not as beautiful as Nyköping, but you have to take what you can get..)


Saturday we had an early Thanksgiving. Sunday morning, Leia slept in until 7! And then we had a "lazy" day and we watched movies and had a nice day. This morning Leia slept until 7.40! And she didn't sleep so well today, but we had a fun day anyways! Leia's Farmor and Farfar came for a visit today:










A big thank-you to Farmor and Farfar for spending the afternoon and having dinner with us!

We got a bit of snow today and it has been pretty cold. It is supposed to be rainy/snowy for the rest of the week, but next week it is supposed to get a bit warmer.

Tomorrow Leia has daycare and I hope to get more school work done. I don't really think I have too much more to do. Soon there is CSI. Yay!

Early Thanksgiving dinner.

Today we had some American friends over for an early Thanksgiving dinner. You know how many pictures I take, right? I've taken about 10,000 pictures in the last 3 years.... But of course today, I barely took any. So no pictures of my delicious, gorgeous turkey breasts, or the many other delicious dishes our guests brought with them.

But here are the few pictures that I did take:




My homemade rolls.

Bonnie with her Swedish hubby, Roger and Lori with her Norwegian hubby, Kent.




The food was delicious and the company was a blast. I'm so thankful that I have some nice American women to share such a wonderful holiday with. Since I can't share this holiday with family, these beautiful people are defintely an okay substitute. :)

Another favorite.

Beautiful.

Good and bad day.

Leia had a great day at daycare! I got there and walked up behind her while they were sitting at the dining table having some blueberry yoghurt and she finally turned around and looked at me, then she turned and looked back at everyone and started waving to them.. :D

They said she slept 1½ hours, but kept coughing plenty. She ate a few bites during lunch, of some meat and potatoes. And then she had some yoghurt and a bite of sandwich or something like that. Tomorrow she'll have another brunch out in the forest.

But after we got home, she got cranky around 16.00 and stayed cranky the rest of the evening.. :/ But it might be good that she is cranky every now and then in the evenings, so that I remember why I am sending her to daycare - so that I can have a little break. :D

I do feel a bit guilty about sending her, like I am abandoning her or whatnot, which I'm sure is normal. I think I feel this way because I am just at home, not like I am working or something... even though I am going to school. I keep telling myself that we both need this. I need time to myself and to get things done, and she needs to learn to be with other people and interact with children, etc..

The unemployment meeting yesterday was uneventful, but the guy was nice and gave me some good tips.

Tomorrow I'm going to be baking lots of homemade rolls and sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins. We are having an early Thanksgiving dinner with some American friends on Saturday. We invited them to our house. So I want to get things done on Thursday, needing to spend lots of time in the kitchen - things that I can't do when I have my overactive Leia.

This evening was uneventful. I sat on the couch drinking tea, while Fredrik flipped back and forth between Room Service and a very, very, very boring soccer game (Swe vs. Holland).

But now the battery is almost out on the laptop, so I need to go plug it up, and I am going to bed.. :P

Snowing.

It is snowing! Our first snow of the year. :) I'm anxious for us to have a yard full of snow, so that Leia can enjoy playing in it. :)

Christmas get-togethers, part 1.

Just looking at this picture, you wouldn't think that we had a little girl.. :D

Leia ended up having a pretty good day today. :) No one called me and they were positive when I went to get her. She slept about 45 minutes today, and in the afternoon she finally took a couple of bites of food for them (but she still threw her sandwich). :))

When we got home, she played very well and she was pretty happy. :)

So it was nice having her back to normal again today.

Leia ended up getting a scratch today though. :/ :)
Her first daycare scratch:





And we went to Säffle and had dinner at McDonald's. I always get the Caesar salad they have, and it is so super-yummy. Do they have it in the US? I know some of the food stuff between fast food places here and in the US is so completely different.

But we went to the hospital and she took 6 tubes of blood, and I filled out a paper. She took my bloodpressure with a machine, and it was very, very high. And so she took it manually and it was perfect. She said sometimes they just don't work.

They will use the blood to test for lots of different things, and after 5 weeks they will call and make a schedule for me to come and start giving blood. If any of the tests come back positive for something then of course they will contact me before that. :/ :) But that shouldn't be a problem.

Leia was pretty good while we were there and she ran around wanting to look in all the lab rooms.. :/ :))

Leia will have a little Lucia fika at daycare on December 11th. :) So Fredrik and I will get to go for that.

Fredrik will have his Julbord ("Christmas table") with work on December 9th, in Gothenburg.

And I don't have anything special for Christmas to do.. :P :T