Lucky me!

I just thought I would sneak in here a couple of minutes while H is asleep in her bed and E is playing on my phone in her bed. I wanted to write down a couple of things my husband does that I tend to take for granted. You know, all the things that he always does or are mostly his chores.

He sets his alarm early each morning to get up before anyone else is awake so he can be at work on time. Without him doing that I wouldn't be able to stay home with our children. I used to work with kids and really enjoyed it, but I love staying home with E and H. I'm so blessed to be able to do that.

We also own an apartment building and although I say we're not always enjoying the burden it sometimes can be to be landlords my husband definitely pulls the heavy load there. He's fixing things when they break, upgrading things that are old, taking care of things when our tenants have a problem etc.
He also does all these things and more in our place.

He takes out the garbage. Let's face it. It's smelly (think diapers) and heavy. Gross. And I don't have to do it. =)

He mows the lawn. Both front and back. We have a pretty big backyard and we live in a place with plenty of sun and rain so it grows fast.

He makes sure the pool stays clean and warm so I can take the kids out there during these hot summer days. He does the work and I get to enjoy it. Not really fair, and I'm thankful.

He fills up my car with gas so I don't have to do that with the kids in the car.

He takes care of our finances. We talk about them and make decisions together but he's got the ultimate responsibility here and I know that sometimes that burden can get heavy.

He puts E to bed, doing the whole night time routine. It's a nice break for me at the end of each day.

There are so many things my husband does that I'm thankful for and these are only a few. Some of these I could do, and sometimes I do, but most of the time he takes care of them and that's just wonderful. Thanks C! I love you! You're a wonderful husband to me and father to our children!

A little update

I haven't blogged in awhile, just in case you haven't noticed. I haven't had much time to blog, and to be honest I haven't really felt like it either. But right now C is shaving and taking a shower and I'm waiting to take a shower too, so I have a few minutes to spare.

My mom and A came to visit. It was great to have them here. C and E picked them up at the airport and when E saw my mom she let go of daddy's hand, ran up to her, gave her a big hug and said: "Mormor, I'm so happy to see you!" How sweet is that?! My mom still talks about it and it makes me tear up every time she does. What a great memory for her.
I wish we could visit more often, but it's expensive and the time difference is very hard to deal with when you have little kids. Hopefully it will get easier as they get older.

Last night E woke up crying for me. I went into her room and asked what was wrong. She said she got scared. (I think she had a nightmare.) And then she asked: "Mamma, you pray for me?" So I crawled into bed with her, prayed and she went back to sleep.

Oh, I hear the shower curtain. My turn! =)

Today

Today was cleaning day here, even though it's Tuesday. But C had the day off yesterday so it's almost like it's Monday. I can't clean when he's home.

My M-I-L went home today. She was here for 2 weeks. 5 more days than what she planned for. Her original plane home was canceled due to snow. We had a good time together. E loved playing games with her. I loved handing over H to her when she needed to be burped. =)
I wish our families weren't spread out all over the place. =(

I started working out today. I did two 10 minute work outs from exercise on demand. "Thighs and buns" and "abs and back". My legs felt like jello for half an hour afterward. E tried to do some of it with me. She looked so cute!

When C came home he took E out in the snow for a while. She is back inside now and he is snow blowing the driveway and parking lot.

E got to play on the computer today while I vacuumed. At first she vacuumed with her little toy vacuum, but then she got bored of it and I didn't want her to bring out toys while I was cleaning. She played a lot of Dora games. She's getting pretty good with the mouse.

Sweden got another gold medal today in men's biathlon. =)

February 14th, 2010

I'm waiting for my cup of decaf chai to steep. I really enjoy a good cup of chai tea, yum!

I finally figured out what classroom E should be in during church. =) She was shy, but had a pretty good first time in the class. Her teachers are so sweet! This class is a lot more structured than the nursery she used to be in. She loved that nursery, but she got really wound up in there. I think she misses her friends and I can't wait for them to turn three so they all can be together again. When I picked her up after service she immediately showed me her craft and told me what they had done. She's so sweet! Then it was time for Sunday school. They made another craft there. And the teachers gave them all little Valentine's cards. She loved it!

C and I got to go out to eat tonight. We brought H with us (she slept the entire time) while Nanny stayed home with E. Thank you so much mom! It was so nice to be able to talk with my husband without being interrupted by a three year old. We went to a cute little place that serves every meal in crepes. The food wasn't great, but ok. That didn't matter though. The company was great! I really enjoyed the experience of a non-chain restaurant. This one reminded me a bit of a casual, European style café . We need more nights like this, C and I. J, if you read this, we need to start this babysitting exchange we've been talking about.

Ok, tea is done and hubby is showered. Time for some more "we time".

Our family

Here's a picture of our family... according to E. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

9

• So my last post was a little... hmmm... harsh... Sorry about that. I guess it's just the motherly rage that sets in when someone's not being nice to your baby.
• Hubby is watching District 9 right now. I started watching it with him, but it sucks! So here I am.
• Both E's birthday and Christmas were wonderful days. I just truly enjoyed watching E experience it all. I feel like I should be writing so much about it, but I don't really know what to write, it's more of just this really nice feeling about how well things went and how much I love my little family that's still bubbling inside of me. No words for that I guess.
• I started packing my bag for the hospital today. I never got to do that the last time. I realized that I can't pack it all b/c I still need some of the stuff. Hopefully I'll have time to just throw it in there when the time comes. Otherwise C can bring it later.
• My belly feels like it's about to explode! It's so tight.
• Oh, my word did I make a lot of Christmas candy this year. I am definitely sending a bunch of it to C's work Monday. We have to get it out of the house!
• I can't wait to start taking down the Christmas decorations. Normally I want to wait until 20 days after Christmas (Jan. 13th). It's a Swedish tradition to "dance out" Christmas that day. But this year, even though it looks so beautiful, I just want to get everything ready for the baby.
• E has been doing a little better at bedtime with her big girl bed. She still gets up once or twice, but then she falls asleep. It doesn't take an hour anymore. But maybe that's b/c she no longer gets real naps. I let her sleep if she falls asleep in the car, but for the past few days I haven't tried to put her down for naptime. Now I just got to figure out what to do with her in the middle of the day, b/c we both still need that time of peace and quiet even if she doesn't sleep.
• It's getting late so I'm going to get something to drink, get ready for bed and snuggle a little with my hubby on the couch, even if it means watching the end of a very weird movie.

35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm 35 weeks pregnant today. That's exactly how far along I was when I had E. Which means tomorrow I'll be more pregnant than I'd ever been before. We are working hard to get the nursery done. Well, right now C is working hard to get it done. I can't do my part until he is done with his. Here are the things we need to get done...

• Finish fixing the ceiling in E's room so that we can put her big girl bed in. We had to remove a pipe (that did nothing) because it was placed in the only corner where a bed would fit. That left us with a hole in the ceiling and the floor.
  
• Finish patching up the holes in the nursery. C put in a ceiling fan and ran into some problems.
• Move the futon out of the nursery and finding a spot for it.
  
• Move the crib and changing table from E's room to the nursery.
• Assemble E's big girl bed, buy a safety railing and put that on, wash her bedding (in progress right now, I guess I'm doing something too).
• Wash the crib bedding.
  
• Buy and assemble a wardrobe for H.
• Go through and wash E's baby clothes and put them away.

I think that is pretty much it as far as getting the girls rooms done. We also have to find all of the baby gear, clean that off and set it up and pack my hospital bag and E's bag for wherever she'll be going. What do you put in those bags?
You'd think we'd be done with this already considering E was early so we'd want to be prepared. We do want to be prepared, but being landlords you can't always take care of your own stuff first (it often has to be put aside) plus there are birthdays and Christmas to plan for too. After all it is a pretty busy season. But I'm not stressing out about it. God is in control. He was last time and made us realize all you need for a baby in the beginning are diapers, some clothes and a pack n play. And we got that covered! =)

food and family

Isn't it great when dinner is cheap, healthy and yummy all at the same time? Today's dinner was. We had butternut squash soup and pesto grilled cheese.
Soup: Sauté onions and garlic (I used half of a big onion and 2 small cloves of garlic) in EVOO. Add a chopped up butternut squash (3 cups according to the recipe), 3 cups of water and 2 cups of apple cider, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for about 30 min. Use an immersion blender to make the soup smooth. Serve with some croutons (be careful of how many if you want to keep it healthy).
Sandwich: Well, it's like a regular grilled cheese, but you put pesto on the inside of the slices and tomato slices in between the cheese. I made my own pesto with parsley and almonds (b/c of tree nut allergies), parmesan cheese and EVOO. I skipped the garlic. And I used Arnold's whole wheat bread (no enriched flour). Again, the amount of cheese and butter can make or break the health factor.

E is playing in the background with her Little People. It's fun to listen to her make conversation between the dolls.
C is down in the basement prepping cabinet doors to paint.
H is sleeping I think, b/c she's not moving right now. That's right, H. I am pretty sure I'm letting C name the baby. Now we just need a middle name.

Well, I got to go. E didn't take a nap today so we're starting the night time routine a bit early tonight. But first I'm going to let her share something too. She is climbing all over me saying "letters, letters".

je7aabcdefghijklmnopqrstuuuuvwxyzabqrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
b++++++++++++++++++++++++1111111111111111111111111111§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§
§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§bbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

hey, did you see that she squeezed in the alphabet there all by herself!

ramblings...

We're almost back on schedule now. It's still hard to stay up past 10 at night (or even 9) but 10 is a pretty good time to go to bed so maybe we should just land here.

We went to Target yesterday. I spent a little more than I thought I would, but they had so much cheap stuff so I got a bunch of fall clothes for E. I think we might be all set for this season now. They had pants and shirts for $3-5! So I guess in the end I saved b/c now I don't have to spend twice as much or more at other stores.

We went to Walmart today to pick up some art supplies for the curriculum we're starting, probably next week. I also bought a birthday or Christmas gift for E. I have been doing that all year long. Last year was so hard coming up with everything all at once, and I'm not talking money wise really, more like ideas. I also have a list where I write down any gift ideas that pop into my head.

We have a wedding to go to tomorrow. I bought a dress yesterday. It makes me look huge! But then again I'm not one of those people who get a tiny little bump when they're pregnant. Nope! I get big!!! Just ask the doctor. I gained 8 lbs in 4 weeks. She was a little concerned. I blamed it on my Sweden trip, that I was eating all my good food. But my mom told me she didn't think I ate that much. And the same thing actually happened with my last pregnancy too. All of a sudden I just started to gain a ton of weight. So I guess that's me... I get fat when pregnant. Oh, well. Nursing will take that off again I hope. It worked the last time.

We still don't have a name for the next kid. I wonder if we ever will..... Is #2 a name? I suggested several Swedish names, but C didn't like any of them. I don't think he will agree with anything that doesn't sound American. In fact he keeps clinging to this unisex name I really liked for a boy...

Naptime is almost over. I cleaned out the misc. toy drawer. Only half of those toys made it back. I hope E won't miss the rest.

Well, #2 is resting comfortably on my bladder so I have to go...

yesterday

I just put E down for an early nap and my mom is resting too so I have a few minutes to write about yesterday. We went to IKEA and E loved playing in the children's department. She tried all the toddler beds and then she found a bunch of stuffed animals to tuck in. She put out little plates and silverware on all the tables and we sat down to "eat". There was a slide too where she met a 4 year oldgirl. The girl informed us that she could speak English. We told her that E could too. She replied that she could speak better English than E. =) She didn't want to prove it though and looked quite shocked when E started speaking since most of her words are actually English. Qiute a funny moment.
Btw, does anybody know how we can get an IKEA to the capital region? I think they would do great there. The only bad thing is that I would probably spend way too much money there. But seriously, I think we should get one!

We spent yesterday afternoon in the forest. We went for a walk and E led us on this tiny little trail. She had so much fun climbing and jumping off rocks. Just being able to go for a walk anywhere is something I miss. We can't just go outside and 2 minutes later we are surrounded by trees at home (US home that is). Sure, there are parks, but it's not the same thing.
As we were walking we met some people walking the other way. My polite little daughter said "excuse me", which lead to smiles from the others. People here always smile when she opens her mouth. I guess they're not used to a 2½ year old speaking English.

I have to tell you about my latest find. It's a black broom with purple polka dots. Cleaning should be fun, right? (I also bought a matching dish brush.) Now I just have to fit it into the suitcase...

We're going swimming today. I'm excited for E since it'll be her first time on a waterslide. (Not so excited about fitting this constantly growing belly inte my regular bikini, but I refuse to buy a new swimsuit now that the swim season is pretty much over. I'll just put a tank top over it.)

A few things from our trip

It's hard to take time to blog. I'd rather just hang out with my family and friends than sit here by the laptop, but I have a few minutes to myself right now before my brother shows up so I thought I'd update you all.

The flight wet well. E was a bit cranky around bedtime b/c she couldn't get comfortable, but eventually she crashed. I was just about to fall asleep when the lghts went on and it was time for breakfast. Oh, well.

We spent a week and a half hanging out with my dad and his family. We went to playgrounds, to the zoo, to a playland, we went out on a boat trip, E went horseback riding, we went to a fair, we went to an old castle to have "fika". America needs fika! I got to see my grandmother. She got old!

E and I went to my old church where she decided in the middle of service to get up and play the piano. Fun stuff! It was nice to see my old churchpeeps again though. Even if I think the church has gone backwards in a few areas. Or maybe I have taken a few steps forward. I don't know.

We are at my mom's now. We are going on a moose safari tomorrow and to an indoor swimplace Wednesday. Believe me I'm glad it's indoors. Fall is definitely here! We're also planning a train trip, a children's museum and more playgrounds.

We are having a great time, but here are a few not so great things... E's legs are covered in bruises and she has a scrape on her forehead from running down a steep ramp (ramps should be longer than the stairs, my opinion) and her legs couldn't keep up so she fell hands and face forward into the concrete. She had calmed down before I got the neo to go out of my purse and wanted to go back to playing again. She's a tough kid. (She went down the reallllllllllllllly long slide at the play land all by herself over and over again.) Another thing that happened was after we were done boating was that she summersaulted of the dock. I don't know who was more scared, me or her. But she came up right next to the dock and I was able to just reach in and pull her out. We were able to tell the fire department that we borrowed the lifevest from that it worked really well.

Well, my brother just showed up so I'm gonna chat with him now. Just one more thing to say... dinner for tonight is kebabpizza! YUM!!!

splish splash

This morning was a nice one. The sun was shining (and will continue to shine for days, yay!). C is doing yardwork today with the help of his dad and our friend F. Thank you both! I took E out in the backyard and filled up her water table with water and then I set the hose up so it turned into a sprinkler. We both got pretty wet. C and F were away unloading brush and dad came to join us. I had to use the bathroom so I asked him to watch E for a sec. When I came back out he had put E (who was wearing regular clothes and a regular diaper) in the water table. She was sitting in there pretending she was a fountain. So I went back inside again and got her swim stuff. Before I took her inside for naptime I dipped her in the big pool. C is fixing the pump now so we can all go swimming tomorrow. I should probably invest in a preggo swimsuit soon, b/c I probably gross people out in my regular bikini, but for just in the backyard it works fine.

it goes together like...

How would you finish that sentence? If you're an American my guess is "... peas and carrots". Although I found a few more when I googled it online. One of them being "... chalk and cheese", I'm a little curious as to how that one came about. Anyways, I have a new one. Actually, E has a new one. She gets milk everyday before naptime and bedtime. But before we give her milk she gets a dose of Zantac b/c she has a reflux problem. A couple of weeks ago we were down in TX visiting family and E was getting tired. So as usual when that happens she asked for Zantac and milk. We've never thought anything of it, but my SIL reacted and laughed at it. I guess most kids don't ask for Zantac and if you're not used to it, it sound funny coming from the mouth of a 2½ year old. So I told C that when E grows up she won't say that things go together like peas and carrots. She will say they go together like Zantac and milk.

Good Morning!

It's a little after 7 and a truck has been backing up in the neighborhood a couple of times, waking us up with its beeping. I hope E goes back to sleep for a little while. She probably won't since I can hear her talking in her crib.
Yesterday we stopped by Family Day. E wanted to go down a big slide. C went with her. They charged $3 per person. And yes, We had to pay for C too even though he was just there to keep E safe. That's $6 for going down a slide once! And of course she wanted to go again. We did not want to pay for that so we had to deal with a temper tantrum, which led to us leaving. We felt a little bad b/c we kind of dangled all this fun in front of her and then we didn't do much. So we took her to C park after her nap where she got to ride the carousel 4 times (which only cost us a total of $2). And she enjoyed that a lot more than the slide. And no temper tantrum when we left b/c there were plenty of ducks to look at.
Well, I guess I should go get her out of her crib now. She keeps calling me.

Shower

I went to a bridal shower in S yesterday. I left 45 min. before it started, thinking that would be plenty of time. Well, it wasn't. The main road was closed off due to a parade, no detour signs, there was a festival going on so tons of cars. My plan was to find a parking spot near the restaurant since I had a pretty big load of presents for the bride-to-be and for her sister-in-law who just had a baby. Well, I realized that it wasn't about finding a parking spot close by. It was about finding a parking spot. I actually found one in the second parking lot I tried. A car was leaving as we pulled in. I had no idea where we were, but it turned out to be not to far away from the restaurant. God is good! I loaded the stroller full with gifts and bags, the diaper bag didn't fit so I had to carry that. I put a monkey harness on E and we started walking. On our way to the restaurant we passed the bride-to-be. Oh, no! It said on the invitation that the shower was a surprise. I looked away, hoping she wouldn't recognize me and then I called her mom saying I might have blown the surprise. Luckily she already knew about it. And when we got to the restaurant she said, I thought it was you.
Ella did really good. She cried twice. Once b/c she fell and once b/c I tried to put her in a high chair when she was perfectly happy in my lap. Other than that she did fine and was really cute in her new dress.
I left the party early, but later than I had planned, 10 minutes after E's naptime. And as we left the parade ended so we had to fight all the people walking and traffic leaving at the same time as us. It took a while to get home. E got her milk and then she fell asleep. I went out to the pool to walk aroud in it as it was filling up. There's a lot more to say about that pool. But that's a story for another time.

Shopping & eating

Today:
I went to the mall and bought three tops, one zippered hoodie and a pair of shorts. If you have or used to have a two year old you know it's not fun to stroll around in stores, looking for something you want to buy for yourself and then spend time in the fitting room trying to decide if you like it. But today I was alone. ALONE! Say it with me... alooooooone! C has every other Friday off so he took her to Home Depot while I went on my little shopping spree. Shopping hasn't been this fun in a long time. Later we met up at a cozy coffee shop where I had an apple danish and an Italian soda. Yum! (I realized when I got back home that that was my breakfast. I must have been so exited about my alone time this morning that I forgot to eat. And I NEVER miss my breakfast.) I remember thinking, while we were at the coffee shop, that it was so nice and relaxing to sit there with my little family that I wished someone would take a picture of us so I could put that moment in a scrapbook. When we got home E and I spent some time drawing with sidewalk chalk in the carport. I had a perfect morning!


Yesterday:
I just have to mention something about dinner last night. I wanted to make something quick and easy and decided to make hot dogs and mac & cheese from a box. C looked at the mac & cheese and asked me what it was. I told him, and had to add, "It's whole wheat". "What's wrong with processed food", he asked with a smile? I must admit I normally enjoy whole wheat pasta and so does he but this wasn't very good. Or as C said: "It's not Kraft". Then he took a bite of the hot dog and asked what kind it was. I told him it was organic. (I figured I could at least try to make this meal healthy.) He said it was chewy. At least he didn't mind the whole wheat rolls. They were pretty good. I told him that the broccoli was just regular broccoli, not organic or anything special. He could have some of that. His reply... "At my age you don't have to eat broccoli". Guess what we're having for dinner tonight... leftovers! =) Hey, there's plenty left and I'm not throwing it out. I'm Swedish - just add ketchup!

Lost in Translation

The other day C was about to give E a bath. He asked me if the water was too hot, I checked and wasn't sure, but I told him that E will let you know if it is. He put E in the tub and started pouring water over her. She put her hand up and said "Maam", which sounds almost like mom. "See", I said, "she thinks it's too warm". "Maam, means warm?", C asked. I thought he knew this since she's been saying it for a while. It used to be baam, but she changed it to maam, which is her way of saying varm, the Swedish word for warm. "Uh oh", he said. "Last time I gave her a bath", he continued, "she kept saying maam and I told her, no, mom isn't here, and kept pouring the water over her." He felt so bad, but I must admit I found it hilarious. I guess there are many more moments like this to come in a household where 2 out of 3 are bilingual...

Now I lay me down to sleep...

"If you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile..." =)

C and I usually pray before we go to sleep. Most of the time he leads us in prayer, but sometimes it is me. Lately I've felt that we've gotten caught in a patter that I don't feel very comfortable with. We usually start with asking for forgiveness and thank the Lord for things, which is good, but in our case it feels more like the obligatory beginning before we start to ask God for things. We're not really asking for "wants", more for "needs", but I still feel like we just ask and ask and ask. Like I said, not a pattern I feel very comfortable with.

"If you like to waltz with potatoes up and down the produce aisle... (Do we have a show for you)"

E got 2 new DVD's from Nanny (grandma / farmor) for Christmas. Or was it for her birthday? I can't remember... anyways...
One of them was "Boz the bear" that I've never heard of. E loved it and is very sad right now b/c she snapped it in half the other day. As we were watching this movie it struck me that when the twins prayed before bedtime everything started with "thank you". They never asked for a thing. I told C and his reply was... "huh". He kind of gave it a thought and then he went on to whatever he was doing.
The other DVD was... (have you guessed it yet?)... "Veggietales". It was one about trusting God. The main story is about Gideon, but there is also a story about George Mueller. He started an orphanage, but they didn't have any breakfast for the next morning. So they prayed. This is were C and I would probably have asked for some food if we were in this situation. But not George. He thanked God for the food He was about to provide. I mentioned this to C and that night our prayer was a little different. There was still some asking, but I think we are allowed to ask God for things. It's just not supposed to be the main thing of every prayer. And our prayer that night was more about thanking God, not only for what we have, but for what we are about to recieve. After all, God is providing for us and we just have to trust in Him.

Isn't it amazing what we can learn from kids movies?
"Broccoli, celery, gotta be..."
(This song is the best. You should hear C and I sing along to it in the car...)

Happy New Year! Gott Nytt År!

Starting now going backwards...

12/19
I love my husband. I just put E to bed and I'm sitting here by the window and I can see him shoveling snow outside. He's working so hard. There's a lot of snow out there, and it just keeps falling... It's so pretty. I love the beginning of winter, before you get tired of the cold, dark days and the snow that just won't stop falling. That usually happens to me mid January. But right now it's just pretty and beautiful. I hope to take E out in the backyard tomorrow to play.

12/17
Can't get into it here to much, but I can say this: If you want to "borrow" things from us you better call us first and ask us. Not just take it. Especially since we're not buddies. Our relationship is more of a business type.

12/16
I woke up to the sound of flatware falling on the floor. I knew C was already on his way to work and so I was wondering how they could just fall all by themselves. They can't! I opened the bedroom door and saw a big, fat, gray squirrel under the kitchen table. I quickly closed the door and called C. He kept asking how it got in. Like I cared right then and there... I just wanted to know how to get it out. He told me to open the back door. As I walked to the door the squirrel jumped the other way right into the room with all the boxes we still haven't unpacked since we moved. It snuck all the way to the back corner and I could not get it out. I opened up a window and built a nice set of stairs for it with some of the boxes. I guess he got offended by that. Like he couldn't just jump that high if he really wanted to. So he stayed in his corner. I called the local police and they gave me the number to Animal Control Center and as they, 10 minutes later, moved the boxes around to get to him he jumped out the window. Not sure if he used my stairs or not. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and disinfecting, but still felt like I had squirrel germs everywhere. (I think the stuff I vacuumed up from the corner was squirrel droppings, but I'm not sure since I don't come across that very often.)

12/12
Woke up with no power after an ice storm. It was beautiful outside and quickly getting pretty cold inside. E and I spent the day with R and her boys while C and J installed a generator at our house. They worked so hard. I love my husband who does so much for us and I'm very thankful for our friends for taking us in and feeding us and keeping us warm and helping us out. C and the guys spent the next day chopping up some trees that fell in our and our neighbor's back yard. Thanks guys! Later that day the power came back. Nice! (Not that I can complain too much when we have a generator to give us heat and some light, and our stove and water runs on gas. But still... nice!)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

In Loving Memory of...

I haven't blogged in a few days. There is one thing I wanted to write about but I didn't know how to write about it. I still don't think I know. But I'll try.

My farfar (paternal grandfather) passed away this past week. He fell on a chair, broke a couple of ribs and punctured a lung. The air spread throughout his body and he suffocated. This happened on his anniversary, the day before his birthday.

It feels weird writing this down. To see it in print. Yes, this is the last thing that happened to my farfar, but that's all it is... the ending of his life here on earth.

Before the ending there was so much more. Here are a few random things I remember...

• His laughter.
• He called me "snäckan" sometimes. (I'm pretty sure he said that to all of his granddaughters and others too.)
• The summer cabin. We had some fun summers and Christmases there. (I could write a whole book about that. So many fun childhood memories.)
  
• His wavy hair.
• He cried at my wedding.
• He was always so happy to see me.
• He traveled a lot when I was younger.
• His voice.
  

I miss him! I loved him so much. I still do.

I was looking through my scrapbooks and found this picture of him. I think it's from 1991.
Farfar... Jag älskar dig och saknar dig!
Kram!
~L