What are the odds of that EVER happening?

Have you ever had one of those days were everything seems to go wrong? When something happens and you think "What are the odds of that EVER happening to me?" Only, the entire day is like that? Well, that is how my entire WEEK has gone. The highlights:

Monday - I had an appointment for a massage. Only, Leslie (whom I absolutely ADORE!) forgets our appointment. In her defense, the stomach flu was going through her house and her husband had fallen victim that morning (and we all know what babies men can be...) Then my phone died.

Tuesday - I couldn't find the phone number for Tipton's asthma doctor, and his CVA has gotten much worse (the medicine isn't working at all anymore) so I went down to the office to get an appointment for him. It took over an hour to get an appt (that they would then mail me a notice to let me know when it was) and I missed my yoga class (which started at 10:45, I got to the dr office at 10:00 - just to get an appointment time.)

Wednesday - Thought Lilli broke her toe. Fortunately it's not broken, but at the time I thought it was. She dropped a hippo on her toe. Well, a Little Tykes hippo flashlight. She screamed, Tipton freaked out, and in the three seconds it took me to get to her her toe had turned red and swelled and the toenail was dark purple. The big toe on her right foot. If it had been any other toe I wouldn't have been overly concerned, but since it was her big toe, and since it got so swollen and red and purple... I freaked. I called and got her an appointment at the Vårdcentral. And I gave her motrin/tylenol and put ice on it. Of course, by the time of her appointment it was much better. Still red and purple and swollen, but she could bend it and walk on it. The doctor examined her toe and assured me that it was not broken. Then she said that she could make a hole in the toenail to relieve the pressure (and get rid of the 'purple', which was Lilli's chief complaint at that time.) She straightened out a paperclip and held it over a flame to sterilize it and get it 'red hot.' The plan was to quickly and firmly make a hole in the toenail. Only, she didn't want to hurt Lilli so she was not as quick or firm as she should have been and the paperclip slipped and made a hole in Lilli's TOE instead. However, Lilli recovered quickly and begged to go to Little Gym that afternoon. So we went. Now, Jenni Eidelbach was in town. She'd gotten in on Tuesday, but spent the day sleeping so that we could 'play' on Wednesday. Only, she slept until almost 4:00 in the afternoon. She said she'd run down and get on the train to come to Malmö. But she couldn't find her train card, so an hour later she calls me and tells me she's on her way to the train station. Then she calls and says that she'll be on the 5:23 train. This had her arriving right in the middle of dinnertime. So I postponed dinner. Around 5:30 Jenni calls to tell me that she has missed the train. She was standing on the platform and watched it come in, watched people getting off and on, and yet she thought "Oh, that's not the right train." So she didn't get on it. It was the right train. She was standing right next to it, and yet she missed it. So she got the NEXT train. By the time she got in and the kids and I picked her up and got back home it was almost 7:00. Which is when my kids bedtime routine usually starts - and yet we were just sitting down to dinner.

Thursday - I took my car to be serviced. It has needed service since October, but I didn't have time to get it done before we left for the US in November. Then didn't have time to get it done in December. So I called in January and took the first available appointment, which was at 9:00 on Thursday. Sadly, my yoga class was also at 9:00 on Thursday. So I missed yoga, again. And managed to make three wrong turns on the way to the service place. Fortunately, both Sam (who was following me to give me a ride home) and I had just filled our cars with gas. And I finally found the place.

Friday - Sam took me to pick up my car. I managed to make three wrong turns on the way there. I should note that they were three DIFFERENT wrong turns from the day before. We got there around 10:45. My massage had been rescheduled for 11:00. So I had 15 minutes to get back across town. On the way there I was pulled over for a random alcohol check. Not that I was worried, but I passed the breathalizer check - woo-hoo!

I was a few minutes late for my massage, but Leslie understood. And Leslie is magical. Leslie is wonderful.

Since my massage everything seems to be much slower. Much better.

Nothing catastrophic happened this week. (Well, Lilli might not agree.) It was just one of those weeks, when you think (and keep thinking) 'What are the odds of that EVER happening?'

Mark the Date and Time

My children actually ate broccoli chicken braid. With broccoli. They cleaned their plates.

December - Part 2

Lilli being silly. We received a package in the mail, and inside the items were wrapped with bubble wrap. Lilli ran off with the bubble wrap. A little while later I found her like this, watching a video.

The kids each had their own advent calendars this year. Tipton had a Castle Lego one and Lilli had a Fairies Playmobil one. Grandma Suzie had a great time playing with the 'treasures' from Lilli's calendar.

On the 23rd Grandma Suzie and the kids and I went downtown to look at the Christmas lights and browse the Christmas market. Tipton and I got some "glittens" (fingerless gloves with a mitten flap.) We walked all the way down the pedestrian mall. Towards the Triangeln end there was a Chritsmas tree made out of candles. It was really cool, but it was hard to get a good picture.

On the way back to the car we stopped and got fresh, hot mini donuts. While we were waiting in line I took a picture of the trees along the canal. I love it when trees are wrapped in lights like this.

In one of the big squares there were lots of really cool lights. Working from left to right in the picture below: there was a tree with giant packages, a giant tree wrapped in tiny white lights, a tree with giant green and blue balls, and covering the ground underneath/around them all were thousands of candles. Again, hard to get a good picture, but you get the idea.

Swedes celebrate Christmas on the 24th. They have several traditions, one of them being that the entire COUNTRY stops whatever they are doing at 3:00pm and sits in front of the tv to watch "Kale Anka" (Donald Duck.) They show the same cartoons every year, with the exception of the last one. Last year the last cartoon was a clip from Cars. This year it was a clip from Bolt. We invited the Trively's over to watch Donald Duck with us.

Christmas Morning. I wanted to get a picture of all the stockings on the couch before the kids got to them, but I wasn't quick enough.

Santa brought Dave a Homer Simpson mouse and mousepad for his new laptop.

Santa brought Grandma Suzie lots of chocolate and some spatulas.

The kids were so anxious to tear into all the presents. This is so telling of them. Lilli looking up to Tipton and Tipton has already picked out the first present he's going to open.

We gave Grandma Suzie a digital picture frame. And we'd already loaded some pictures on it. I think she liked it.

Grandma Suzie gave us each our own package of Oreos!

Tipton's loot.

Lilli's loot.

The kids got lots of new things for their dress up corner. Including some mask/hat combos. Here Lilli models the Flower mask and hat.

Here she models the ladybug mask and hat.

And here she models the dragon/dinosaur mask and hat.

December - part 1

When we got back from our trip to the US, the kids helped me put up and decorate the Christmas tree. Tipton was especially interested to know about each of the different ornaments that we put on the tree. Each ornament has a story - who gave it to us and why.

My Mom spent Christmas with us this year. It is the first time she has ever spent Christmas with us. She flew in on Dec 11th so that she could watch the kids perform Lucia at school on the 12. (St Lucia day is actually the 13th, but that was a Saturday so the kids celebrated Lucia at school the day before.) Lilli couldn't decide if she wanted to be a pepparkakor (gingerbread boy/girl) or a tomte (Christmas elf). Tipton was a pepparkakor. Lilli was a pepparkakor for pictures by the tree, but decided to be a tomte at school.

Dave came to watch Tipton's class performance. I had seen him perform it last year. It meant a lot to Tipton that Daddy came to see him.

Grandma Suzie and I watched Lilli's class perform Lucia.

That weekend we started baking Christmas cookies. We always bake lots and lots of cookies, several different kinds. We make up cookie tins and give them to friends.

Lilli helped Grandma Suzie mix up the Chocolate Chewies.

And of course she got to lick the whisk afterwards. That's the best part about baking...

Tipton in his new, 'manly' apron.

Tipton helped Grandma Suzie decorate the sugar cookies. Grandma Suzie applied the icing and Tipton decorated with sprinkles.

This was the coolest Christmas decoration I saw this year. It was outside H&M in the Triangeln mall. The tree was covered in crystals and white twinkly lights. Very impressive.

The last day the kids were in school Mom and I went downtown to meet my friend, Lina for lunch. We met her in the Hansa mall. Mom was very impressed with all the Christmas decorations. They are much more tastefull here than in the US (no giant plastic nativity scenes or inflatable Santas.)

Me and Lina.

The day the kids got their end of term reports a lot of us (parents/kids) went to Funhouse. It gave the kids one last chance to play together. It gave the parents a chance to run across the street to the Mobilia mall and finish up their Christmas shopping. We pretty much had Funhouse to ourselves. The kids had a blast. And there was face painting. Tipton, Keisuke and Nicolas got painted like monsters.

So of course Lilli had to be painted like a monster, too.

My little monsters...

Aunt Jenni came to visit in December, too. She made a reindeer balloon animal for the kids. (Sadly, it did not last very long.) The kids always LOVE having Aunt Jenni visit.

I think she has a good time, too.

November - Part 3

Another weekend day, another trip to play with the cousins. Lilli and Jack played really well together. Here they both 'mug' for the camera in a rare instance when Jack actually wanted his picture taken.

Tipton showed Jack how to build a train tack.

We were able to meet up with our friends Tierney and Gus and their beautiful daughter Alessandra. We met for dinner at The Cactus Cantina.

Alessandra only had eyes for Tipton. He has that effect on girls.

Thanksgiving day: Grandma Suzie read Tipton the story of the first Thanksgiving.

We told the children to go sit on the couch for the annual Thanksgiving photo.

It was like herding cats.

Baily, Cameron, Lilli, Lydia, Truman, Tipton, Jack. This was the best picture I got.

However, this picture is much truer to their personalities... Baily and Lydia helping with the twins, Cam trying to get down, Tru just happy to be held, Lilli posing for the camera, Tipton being silly and Jack looking sad.

"Crazy Uncle John" as Tipton would say. Dave told him we would post this picture on the blog... I don't think he believed him.

Towards the end of the evening Jack and Lilli seized control of the computer room/office and wouldn't let anyone in. They had a big box of toys and were prepared to stay 'holed up' all night.

As we were getting ready to go to the airport it occurred to us that we hadn't gotten a picture of the kids with Papa and Grama Kay.

November - Part 2

Our second week in the US we drove down to NC to see our friends there. When we'd visited in August we didn't have time to see Tipton's friend CJ (due to an unscheduled broken arm...) So we made sure to see him on this trip. They picked up right where they left off, as if they'd never been apart. And it actually SNOWED a little while we were at the playground!

We also met up with my friend, Milli, who made good on her promise of having a brand new baby girl for me to hold! The kids were quite taken with Eleri. She is a beautiful baby!

And of course a visit to NC would not be complete without meeting our friend, Jo, at "our Mexican restaurant."

We were able to see our friends, the Killmeyers, several times on this visit. And of course we had to get the annual "kids on the steps" picture... (Mark, Tipton, Karen, Lilli, Leanne)

And then the long drive back to VA. The kids were actually very good in the car. Especially when you consider that a "long" car ride is driving from Malmö to Lund - about 25 minutes. It took us 5 1/2 hours to get from NC to VA. Tipton mostly read his comic books.

Lilli played with the little princess 'action' figures and their accompanying entourage (talking mice, crabs, fish, etc.) that our neighbors (Mike, Patty & Phil) had given to her when we visited with them.

The next day we picked Grandma Suzie up from the airport. Lilli showed her how she can draw pictures of faces.

And of course we went over to Uncle John's on the weekend. Lilli has become quite taken with Roxy, and decided that she wants to be a dog.

When Lilli wasn't tormenting Roxy she was practicing her hand at being a hair stylist. Her cousins Cam and Tru have lots of hair for her to practice on. But only Tru would sit still enough for her to brush his hair.

In school Tipton had been using Swedish money (kronor) to practice his math skills. Dave decided that in preparation for our trip to the US Tipton should learn about American money (dollars.) As an incentive to learn, Tipton would get a little bit of American money every time he did his "money homework." Tipton learned very quickly and was always asking if he could do MORE money homework. He liked getting the money. He liked counting his money. He walked around the house singing "I love money! I love money!" So he was very excited to actually get to BUY something with his money. He chose to spend part of his money on a Mars Mission lego set - "the one with the big bad guy alien ship!" He was very excited to get a receipt that showed his purchase. And he put the big spaceship together all buy himself!

While Tipton put together his legos, Lilli practiced her hair styling skills on cousin Donna.

For dinner that night we had dungeoness crabs. YUMMY! We had missed having crabs when we visted in August (again, I refer to the unscheduled broken arm.) Uncle Bob and cousin Donna came over to eat crabs with us. It was the first time that my Mom (aka Grandma Suzie) had ever eaten crabs. Very fitting to have such a new and delicious meal since it was her birthday. Of course, we had to celebrate with a luscious chocolate cake!

Tipton and Lilli helped Grandma Suzie blow out the candles.