Tagged: famdamily

30
Mar
2024

ABOUT TO SPROING

Since I didn’t grow up in a church-going family, and only had a few years of semi-religious interest in high school, Easter has never been about Jesus much, for me. In my family, it was all about coloring eggs, hiding eggs, finding eggs, and Easter baskets full of candy. Interesting that both Easter in the spring and Halloween in the fall have such an emphasis on sweets. We have always decorated eggs the “old-fashioned” way, both when I was growing up, and with my own children when they were small. Vinegar, boiling water, and food coloring. We never used any...

27
Mar
2024

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

My best and oldest friend, Becky, just became a grandmother. My best friend here became a grandmother last June. One of my good high school friends also became a grandmother last year. It’s a little freaky, considering I still feel about 29 inside, to think that I’m well past grandmother age. We all apparently waited much longer than the previous generation, but that makes sense considering we all had our kids much later, too. My mom was 23 when she had me. I was just 33 when I had Martin. I’m in NO hurry to become a grandmother myself, though...

16
Jan
2024

BAD LUCK BUG

My sister has a bad luck bug on her somewhere, and I sure wish we knew how to get it off. All her life, if there was an accident waiting to happen, it was waiting to happen to her. Even when we were kids, she was always the one getting hurt somehow. Maybe because she was much more daring physically than I was, I don’t know. Two years ago she hurt herself badly in an electric scooter accident, ending up with a concussion and horrible bruises on her face. We weren’t sure she’d be able to fly to Europe for...

14
Jan
2024

BETTER AND BRIGHTER

When I say that tidying up my house and cleaning things makes me super happy, I sound like the most boring person in the world, but I don’t care. It does. I like nothing better* than looking around or walking through my home and admiring how nice it looks and all the things in it that make me happy. I LIKE having a neat and tidy place to live. I like a harmonious feeling to the colors and fabrics and patterns that surround me. And I like having things clean. It’s so OCD, but that’s just how it is. Having...

04
Jan
2024

SNOW DAY

Today has been such a productive day, though a kind of letdown day, too, because I took mom and Danely to the airport this morning. We have been having another windstorm, and on top of super-cold temperatures and snowstorms, southern Sweden has been socked with winter. It was -4C this morning and not great for driving as it had been snowing all night, though it was mostly blowing around into drifts. We left at 7 am in order to have extra time, and good thing we did. I ended up taking Anders’ car because the Tesla wasn’t charged up enough....

31
Dec
2023

THE STORY OF THE FROG LAMP, NEXT LEVEL

The saga continues. If you have never heard the story of the frog lamp, stop what you are doing and read this first: The story of the frog lamp HIlarious, no? Definitely yes! Cut to pre-holidays 2023. The frog lamp, technically Sammy’s, has not been seen in some years. John and Simone moved to a new house 7 years ago to accommodate their growing family and at some point the frog lamp was relegated to the attic. I do not understand how anyone could bear to hide away the awesomeness that is the frog lamp, but apparently not everyone has...

30
Dec
2023

FULL UP

We drove down to Germany on December 10, staying in a little unmanned hotel outside of Hamburg. It was a long drive and good to break it up, especially since we drove down in a rain and windstorm that lasted 4 days. We had a wonderful week in Hopferau, at my brother John’s house, warmly welcomed by the entire family. The week included Jakob’s 10th birthday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day (with Karin!), a walk into Füssen to see the town and the church and castle, a walk around Schwansee, and exploring the village on the sunny day before we left....

13
Dec
2023

VACAY!

I’m on vacation, woo hoo! Yesterday was my last week of work until nearly the new year. I started it off right by leaving work early and getting a fabulous massage from Emily, then I picked up sushi on the way home, and ended the evening by creating and publishing a crossword puzzle. Today, I have finished the last of the household chores and cleaning that was on my list, and I will leave in about 1.5 hours to pick up Martin and then head to the airport to get my mom and Danely. The holidays have begun! I thought...

16
Apr
2023

BORTA BRA MEN HEMMA BÄST

Back in Sweden after an entire 4 weeks in the US, which wasn’t going fast at first, but sped up amazingly by the fourth week, and now I can’t believe it’s already over and I’m home. Karin arrived home from Italy as well, on Friday, and I flew in early Saturday morning, so we are all home together again…aside from the fact that Martin moved out a week ago, to an apartment in Malmö, and Karin has already disappeared off with friends somewhere in Malmö or Lund, who knows. 😀 I had a GREAT time, and it was so worth...

07
Feb
2023

GOTCHA FOR KARIN

Last weekend, when I was on a Facetime call with my brother, he was talking about his job and the issues he was having with some of the places that he picks up skis from. He works for a small company that prepares skis for the customers of various dealers and ski shops. They pick up skis and service them (cleaning, sharpening, waxing) and then they take them back in time for people to get their skis before they go skiing. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that one of the places he goes to weekly is St....