January 16, 2007

My original plan was to keep a daily diary of our experiences here in Sweden. And while we were still living in the apartment I did just that. I wrote it down on actual paper with an actual pen. Then we moved into our house and had internet access. No more writing down. I started entering my dialy logs into the blog. With every intent to keep up to date and make a new (current) entry for every day. But just got too busy. What with the unpacking and the re-packing/preparing for our trip back to the US for the holidays... It was just kind of crazy. And then when we got back from our trip, there was more unpacking...

But now we are settling into a routine. However, I am not going to go back and enter in all of my handwritten logs. So here is a quick summary:

In November: My mood got worse and worse. I felt completely cut off from all of my friends and family - could not contact them by internet or phone. Had no one to do things with. Just me and the kids all day, every day. I was so lonely it still makes me cry to think about it. I hit rock bottom one day... I just could not stop crying. I cried on the way to take Tipton to school. I cried in the library while trying to check my email (Lilli screamed the entire time so I wasn't able to check it.) I cried while strolling around the duck pond with Lilli. I cried while washing the dishes. I cried all day long - I just couldn't stop. I was still crying when Dave came home from work. It totally freaked him out. That night he booked our flight home for Christmas. And we started 'borrowing' an unsecure internet connection. After that I felt a little better. Still random bouts of crying, but didn't have another all-day crying fest.

In December: Our stuff arrived and we moved into our house. Oh joy! Oh happy day! I don't know who was more excited - me or the kids. Tipton was at school when our stuff was unloaded. Lilli was with me. She got very excited when her little rocking chair was brought off the truck. She spent 20 minutes just sitting in it, rocking, climbing out, climbing back in and rocking some more. When Tipton got home he spent an hour playing with his Geo Trax. I've never seen Lilli so happy as when I unpacked the beanbag. She dove for it before it even hit the floor. (No doubt about it, she is definitely Dave's child.) It was a busy 10 days of unpacking and doing laundry and repacking to go on our trip to VA for Christmas.

Our trip to VA: We took a car, two trains and an airplane to get to VA. The kids did remarkably well, considering how much time they had to spend confined to a seat. We were all very, very happy to get off the airplane. It was great to see everyone at Christmas. We all had a very happy Christmas. Tipton got lots of hot wheels stuff. Lilli got lots of baby doll stuff. Dave and I got to relax and eat all the junk food we can't get over here in Sweden. The plane ride back was okay. It could have been better, but then it could have been a whole lot worse. Lilli did not have a seat and the plane was full. So she sat on my lap the entire time. But of course I don't mean sat. I mean she wiggled, she stood, she slept. And she is a very restless sleeper. Needless to say I did not get much sleep on the plane. It was nice to be 'home' again, though.

New Years Eve: From our experience, it seems that every single store has a giant sale on New Year's Eve. And nothing stays open late (you can forget about going out to dinner on New Year's Eve.) We drove downtown and walked around the pedestrian mall, looking at all the Christmas decorations. We had been told to expect a lot of fireworks on New Year's Eve. But we were not prepared for what happened. Starting around 4:00 we could hear and sometimes see random fireworks going off. They started to pick up in intensity and frequency around 7:00/8:00. By 10:30 they REALLY started to pick up. By 11:30 it was pretty much non-stop fireworks, in every direction. And we're not talking the little piddly ones you can buy in the grocery store in the US, we're talking bottle rockets and professional quality stuff. They were still going strong at midnight, at 12:30. Around 12:45 they started to slow down. When I got up around 3:30 I could still hear fireworks going off (even though it was raining.) It was wild, insane. We stood in the backyard with the video camera pointed at the sky and turned in a circle, trying to capture it all - everywhere you turned there were fireworks. For over an hour. Amazing.

2007: I have almost all of the boxes unpacked. I have started making curtains for all the windows in the house. So far I've made one for Lilli's room and one for Tipton's room. I still have many, many curtains to go...

Tipton is learning how to read. Grama Kay and Papa gave him Hooked On Kindergarten for Christmas. Last week we started doing the phonics part. We do phonics for about 15-20 minutes after lunch, after I put Lilli down for a nap. Yesterday he read his first book!

Lilli is starting to say more words. I have been making an effort to read to her more often. She really does love books. I have signed her up for the Veggie Tales book club. She LOVES Veggie Tales.

Dave is still looking for a used car. As soon as he does, I think our lives will settle down a little more. He won't have to be so rushed in the mornings (won't have to catch the bus.) And he will get home earlier (won't have to wait for the bus.) And hopefully we can spend our weekends doing fun things and exploring (instead of looking at cars.)

We are flying my Mom out to visit in February (merry christmas, Mom!) The kids and I are very excited about her visit, but probably not as excited as she is. This will be her first trip out of the US. And Dave, being the world's greatest son-in-law, burned some of his frequent flier miles to fly her first class/business class!

Now that I've caught you all up on the past month, I promise to make more frequent/regular entries into the blog. And now, I must go update photos on the flickr page...