Tagged: obiterphotos

07
Jul
2012

SHOT

Not surprisingly there are few to no images of the men behind the cameras during our family reunion in northern Germany…I ended up with none of Tom, Sarah’s husband, and only got some of my brother because my mom shared her photos with me. John, Sammy & Mom (photo by Simone Slaughter) John & Sarah (photo by Linda Slaughter) Sammy & Simone (photo by Linda Slaughter) Rachel (photo by Tom Fletcher) Sarah (photo by Tom Fletcher) Simone, Sammy & Bryce (photo by Tom Fletcher) Anders (photo by Karin Ek) Bryce (photo by Karin Ek) Typical pastime (photo by Anders Ek)...

27
May
2012

PLASTIC RAINBOW

Phase 1: Sorting by Color is done, though I’m already beginning to wonder if should we have sorted by FORM/SIZE instead as it’s nearly impossible to find the small pieces in a giant bowl full of one color. We’ve started to build things according to the instruction booklets & sheets we have…it takes forever when you have to find the pieces first. Martin has complete a small car, and I’m halfway through a little turkey. Both the kids, who haven’t touched the stuff in over a year, are sitting at the table playing with Lego and building. 🙂

22
Apr
2012

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE

What happens to a place like Venice when there is no one left but the tourists? Anders read an article about Venice recently that said people were moving out of the city in droves; that they couldn’t afford the price of groceries and that there is no business left there except tourism. I wonder how many of the buildings along the canals are empty; abandoned. There are only 60,000 people residing in the city, though the total population including all 118 islands that make up Venice is 272,000. That’s not very many considering the amount of tourists averages 50,000 A...

09
Apr
2012

RELAXING, WITH EGGS

I had a half-day on Thursday, Friday off, and today as well. A 4.5-day weekend: JUST what I needed. The only bummer is that I am tired and in bed by 10:30 p.m. and awake around 8 a.m. What gives? I used to be the queen of sleeping in. I can’t even get BACK to sleep. *suck* Easter was sort of perfunctory around here, I’m sorry to say. We did color eggs, which I’m happy about. Karin had a 2-day soccer camp overnight yesterday and today, so the kids got their Easter baskets and lame-o egg hunt a day early....

06
Feb
2012

THE STORY OF THE FROG LAMP

Once upon a time, during the years I lived in Chicago, my parents became completely obsessed with antiquing. They went to auctions and collected things and bought some really beautiful stuff. And because there are approximately a million antique dealers and architectural salvage companies, and flea markets and 2nd hand stores in and around Chicago, when they came to visit me, I went with them, too. And caught the bug. However, since I had champagne tastes on a beer budget (like how I throw around those alcohol references as if I know what I’m talking about?) I never bought much....

11
Jan
2012

15 YEARS IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

15 years ago I landed in Sweden, on January 11th, the day after Anders’ sister’s second child was born. We went straight from the airport to the patient hotel to see her and the baby. Last night, after we toasted Henrik’s birthday, talk turned, as it does every year, to the fact that it was an anniversary for me, too. I wonder if Henrik gets sick of hearing about my moving to Sweden every year on HIS birthday. Anders and I had been married 6 months. I had been to Sweden 3 times: a visit during Christmastime while we were...

26
Dec
2011

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

One thing that I love to do when giving gifts is to shock the recipient into speechlessness. It’s not very easy to do, and it takes a lot of hard work and observation and sometimes sheer audacity and unexpectedness. Anders and I have done a pretty good job of it the past few years when it’s come to the kids’ Christmas gifts. But with a gift they NEVER expected, from parents who have always said, “No way, save your money, those are too expensive,” we managed to shock the both of them into complete speechlessness this year. Everything else they...

28
Nov
2011

STARRY STARRY NIGHT

I realized a little while ago that I had never posted about the amazing job Anders did on renovating the playroom. I don’t have photos of the whole entire room, because we still have to hang paintings, but that’s not the important thing. The playroom was the first room, after the kids’ bedrooms that really needed an overhaul. It was very much a playroom from the beginning, when we built the house and the wallpaper was very much child-focused with blue skies full of fluffy clouds and green meadows full of fluffy sheep. We had shelves filled with games, lego,...

27
Nov
2011

AFTERMATH

Yesterday was great…everything went well, despite a last-minute cancellation from one family which brought our total down by 3 but ensured more turkey leftovers all around. The food was fantastic, from the main courses all the way through to 2 perfect pumpkin pies and an out-of-this world chocolate cake with candied cranberries on top. This year, people left at a fairly early-ish reasonable hour, which just meant that we were able to get the majority of the clean-up done before we went to bed last night. Karin took photos of the tables: we had 2 set up, one for the...

23
Nov
2011

THOSE MOMENTS WHEN OUR HEARTS ARE CONSCIOUS OF OUR TREASURES*

As long as I’ve lived in Sweden, I’ve tried to keep my American heritage alive for my children, and for myself. I would say we celebrate certain traditions religiously throughout the year, but truth is, we’re not religious about it at all. We just think it’s fun. I’ve had to learn to compromise my expectations for some dearly-held family favorites and we’ve learned to create our own meld of Swedish & American celebrations. Christmas, for instance, is a 2-day festival here. Halloween is organized down to the minute. There is no real outside motivator for my kids when it comes...

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