Tagged: famdamily

22
Jul
2015

HAPPY TOGETHER: CROATIA (PART 3)

Vacations, for me, aren’t just about the places we go and the things we see. They are, in a big way, about the people I am with. Family vacations are the best kind of vacations, where we get to see loved ones that live too far away for frequent contact…and that is pretty much all of my family, except my husband and kids. So, it was a REAL bummer that John wasn’t able to be with us and participate in the week. We had a good time and it was fun, but it would have been so much MORE so...

20
Jul
2015

HEATING UP: CROATIA (PART 1)

We had plans to do a lot more while we were in Croatia, but the heat flattened us. Okay, okay, it flattened ME. I knew it was going to be warm down there…intellectually, but I wasn’t really prepared for just how hot and humid it actually was. The day we arrived it was 38 degrees Celsius (damn hot). Barky promptly curled up and died. The other thing that flattened us was my brother’s ambulance ride to the hospital during the night of our arrival. I don’t think our heart was in Croatia. I know mine wasn’t. Maybe someday I’ll go...

19
Jul
2015

PALACES, PARKS AND POMP: VIENNA

We didn’t give Vienna a chance, really. I don’t know if we just weren’t in the mood or what. We spent three nights there which equaled 2 full days and we barely scratched the surface. No one wanted to pay the money to go see a concert (and frankly, it was only me that was really interested), and the Spanish Riding School is closed for July (drrr) so no dancing Lippizaner horses for us. After Prague’s lovely candy-colored and Old Europe impression, Vienna struck us as too big, too modern, too OVERDONE, somehow. People there were rude to us for...

13
Jul
2015

NOT EXACTLY WHAT WE HAD IN MIND

We left on June 27th and got back yesterday. It was 2 weeks away but it feels like more. It feels like we were gone FOREVER. I love our bed. I love our shower. I love our laundry room. I love our towels. I love our TEMPERATURE (everyone else who complains about Sweden can suck it). I love our wifi. (hahahahaha) AND I love our medical system. I was a little skeptical about the whole road trip idea, to be quite frank. I went on a gazillion road trips, mostly with camping involved, when I was a kid, and UGH....

03
Apr
2015

REALITY BITES

Spring is here, it’s here, it’s here! Finally. It’s warming, it’s greening, it’s blooming and it’s blowing…pollen. Straight into my eyes. I can admire the new buds through my red, itching slits of vision. But the sky is blue, the clouds are huge and white and puffy, the sun is warm and there’s no going back. It’s Easter weekend, a long weekend, the first of the long weekends of the spring season. I am psyched, even though I worked longer than I should have yesterday on what was supposed to be a half-day and even worked about half an hour...

27
Dec
2014

ALL THAT’S LEFT

Guess what? Only 362 shopping days until Christmas! HAHAHA! Megsie, that was for you. (sad part: how fast that will go) We woke to a white Christmas, which made all of us very happy, especially since it was just a dusting. It was a very family-filled, present-filled, FOOD-filled week around these parts. We had Anders’ mom over on the 23rd for her birthday. Anders made raclette. She’d never had it before and really enjoyed it, and we had, surprise, leftovers. Märta spent the night as the next day was Julafton, the day that Swedes celebrate Christmas. Anders’s sister and her...

23
Dec
2014

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER

2014 is nearly over and the holidays are upon us! As all the years seem to do, we zoomed through this one as well and it was full of ups and downs, though thankfully, mostly ups! We didn’t have nearly as much traveling this year as last, at least for work, which was kind of nice. Anders went to Italy and Liz to the US, and we had two vacation trips, plus Anders had a ski week with friends in the Czech Republic in January and Karin went to Gothenburg in July for the Gothia Cup soccer tournament. Martin, who...

22
Nov
2014

READY TO PARTY

It’s 3 o’clock and we’re nearly ready. One turkey is done and the other two are being basted as I write this. The kids have done their share of picking up and cleaning. I need to go wipe down the bathrooms one more time, and when Karin’s boyfriend arrives in an hour, she will put him to work with her setting the tables. It’s been a sunny day, for the most part, but it’s going overcast now. We went to the store twice…once for more potatoes and tinfoil and once for candles, which I had thought I already had. We...

15
Nov
2014

WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND

I have nothing to write about right now. We spent a large part of the day cleaning house, because we have our Thanksgiving dinner party next weekend and Anders will be gone on all week and there’s no time on the day to do anything but prepare food and get the tables ready. So the big cleaning has to happen this weekend. I wrote a list of chores this morning and got everyone moving after lunch. I told the kids they had to pick at least 2 of the items on the list. Martin picked windexing and the toilets. Karin...

02
Nov
2014

JUST THE WAY UH HUH UH HUH I LIKE IT

Totally got my relax on today, and it was a perfect Sunday for it. After a busy week of work with the majority of my colleagues on vacation, it was nice to have the downtime I needed. Karin carved the pumpkin on Thursday night and did a bang-up job of it: Then she decided to decorate the foyer into a mini-haunted house. She hung black plastic garbage bags from the ceiling to enclose the space and make it dark, put a skeleton on it, and hung spiderweb both inside and out. Some black candles and a big black spider and...

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