This week's schedule

So, once again the blog has been less than updated... I've been so busy, as usual, that I haven't had the extra energy to blog. You might ask what I've been doing, so I though I'd give you the lowdown:

Monday - group work, preparing for a teaching lesson on Tuesday + went to Gothenburg to see Rigmor Gustafsson (Jazz) with S. Left home at 0700 to drop off H at MIL's house, and got home at 23.30...

Tuesday - All day in school, teaching eachother stuff. Tried Ashtanga Yoga and got VERY light-headed! Went to MIL to pick up H, had dinner there, went home and as soon as S got home from work, I had choir practice.

Wednesday - Left home with S at 0900 to go to Skövde and meet a contractor to see if they were interesting. Had lunch at a Thai restaurant - great food - and went home. Made a stop in Lidköping at "the porcelain city" (they used to manufacture porcelain there, now they have moved the manufacturing but kept the fabric sales) to buy some glasses and other bits and pieces. Got home, picked up H, cooked dinner, fell asleep on the couch.

Thursday - Left home at 07.15, S took his own car, to go see another contractor (Modulenthus) and hear what their offer was. Looks good, great building time and I really like the salesman - he seems honest somehow... Went to school, did a bit of studying, did the grocery shopping and went home to do some more studying. Picked up H, made dinner, fell asleep on the couch. S was at a concert in Gothenburg, so we went to bed at 22.30 - it was an early show.

Friday - Home studies, at least that is what I call it. Lots of surfing and fondling all kinds of stash to see what I HAVE to take with me so I can craft a little while we're NOT in our own house. Went to rehearse this sunday's repertoar with the pianist, got home, had something to eat (a sandwich), picked up H early so we could do some gaming before making dinner and watching Peter Pan with her. S was at a concert in Gothenburg (3rd time this week!), so I went to be alone - S wasn't home until 01.00...

Saturday - is today! So far, the only plan is to try to get some studying done, and get the bathroom cleaned, so today looks relaxing enough.
Sunday (Tomorrow) - I will be in church from 10 till 12 singing, my inlaws are coming over with lots of boxes, so we'll start packing the things we won't need until we've moved to our own house again. (We're hoping to be moving in before Christmas, so the XMas decorations will definitely be stored.)
And then it's monday and school again...

So, that was my week - there's a certain pattern in the afternoons, don't you think? ;) How was your week?

It's a done deal!

The papers are signed! We say byebye to this house July 15th... It was a lovely couple with a 1-year old boy who bought it - it will be perfect for them here!

So where are WE going then? No idea still - but S is making some calls today, most likely we'll be moving to a rented flat or house for a few months, so H can get settled in school and we don't have to rush into building the new house. I've been trying to get in touch with one of the sellers (Modulenthus) but he doesn't answer his phone, so we'll have to wait and see when/if he calls back. We need to know how much that house costs, so we have something to compare and choose from!

I hope you'll have a nice weekend - the sun's shining here, so we'll be going to Liseberg (Gothenburg) on Sunday and see if we can do some carouselling! :)

Happy easter!

It's easter, and I'll take little H with me to see my parents - it's been a while, and H has been haunting me ever since christmas that she wanted to go... At least I can take 4 days (almost) off without feeling guilty about school! (I'll only be taking one book with me, and I only mean to study about 30 pages - almost a vacation.)

other news: we've received offers on our house, there are two families bidding against eachother (which is good news for us) and we'll be getting a little more than we expected! Zippitydoodah!
We have NOT decided on what house to build yet, but we are studying plans like mad to decide soon - the sooner the better, as we really don't want to move around that much...

When I went to school on tuesday, one of my classmates LOVED my bag so much she wanted me to make her one just like it - and is willing to pay for it! So of course I had to stop by the fabric shop to get a little more lining material - I don't have enough of the one I used, plus I don't think she really noticed what it looked like inside. I will be sewing that the coming tuesday, I think - why bother with studying when there is crafting to be done? ;)

Lots of loving thoughts for Catherine - she's having her baby Jonah today!!!

the lot has been chosen...

Yesterday we went to see our lot! And yes, it is in S' home town, in a newly planned area, so all the houses and gardens will be new ones; probably lots of kids for H to play with! They've even planned a playground next door down from our lot, and a hill for sledding down in winter...

This is what it looked like when H got to one corner of the lot, and I stayed at the other end. It's almost exactly the same square metres as the one we have today, but of course there's no house in the new lot yet, so it feels HUGE! (You probably want to go clicketyclick on the pic, or you stand no chance seeing H in it ;))


It was a beautiful sunny day, almost summery - H got to take off her jacket for just a few minutes when she was running... And of course, today she's got a cold and a fever - that's to be expected, isn't it? (It was NOT I who let her run without the jacket, it was her dad, who usually is SO protective of her...)

365 things to do...

There's a swedish blog, where they post a new thing to do every day - and the other day they had this clip on the blog; what he says in the beginning is that it is part of their "invent your own warm-up routine" and that it's supposed to be done in a group :)

Gör som Beyonce och put a ring on it


It certainly put a smile on my busy lips! Good idea for the next happy dance, perhaps?

Oh and another news headline today: We've decided on where to build! We've chosen our lot, and now we just need to decide what house to build ;) The lot is called something like Butterflower 3 if I translate...

Happy birthday...

to me! Yep, I'm turning 34 today - and I've got the powertools to prove it! Big S and little H came singing the birthday song to me, H had made me a plastic canvas bookmark with thread and needle and all, and there was this big square box, quite heavy too. I open it up, and what did I find? A Bosch cordless screw driver! It's so small and cute, now I too can screw together stuff in a jiffy :)

My parents are coming this afternoon to celebrate, and little H is all over the place with excitement - we're turning on the disco lights this evening!

I've got a ton of birthday cards this year; mainly because I've joined a birthday card and floss exchange over at Brooke's Books Interactive (yahoo group) - and the cards have been coming all month long. A month long celebration, who can resist? Here's a pic of the cards I have gotten, with the floss next to "mount cards".

Thank you SO MUCH all of you - there are some truly crafty people out there, some of the cards are handmade... It's my living room table, in case you were wondering - and yes, we have put up our easter decorations.

Other news: Our house is now up for sale, even though we're not buying any of the houses we went to see. We're thinking of building a new one instead - less hassle, great fun and perfectly customized for US. If so, we will be building in big S' home town so little H can have the family near by. Exciting times, folks!
I'm now on the next course, which is "Human learning and development in a changeable society" - in plain speak, we learn how to teach people about stuff (ie. their illness) and how to customize our information to the individual. It's all about the individuality of people, all the time, folks! Remember: You are unique in your own setting, with your own values and your own set of hopes, dreams, abilities and shortcomings. I'm supposed to understand all of them. ;)

Study, study, study...

That's all I do right now - now that the "internship" has ended for this time, I have to write a paper on it as well. I'll be writing about my little lady, who got to eat again; I'm happy to report that she now has ALL her meals orally, and says it's "delightful" to eat again... :)

That part of the paperwork isn't the problem - I have to write a background and a discussion as well as explain how and why I did the actual "test meal". And of course there are certain stuff that's supposed to be included, like laws and regulations on the subject, recent scientific reports on the same subject and so on. And I only have today and wednesday to do it - tomorrow's school ("action learning" on the meal situation) and on wednesday we'll all be off from work/school/daycare because we're going to see a man about a house!

For those of you who remember last spring, we almost bought a house - a new one, with a fab bathroom, still it didn't FEEL right, so we let that one slip. Now we're off to see a magnificent house built in 1909, with fireplaces, old country kitchen, 6 huge oak trees in the garden... A lot more like ME, plus it's in hubby's hometown, so it would be great for H to be near her grandparents, cousins and aunt. My folks still have to travel, so another 40 minutes more or less really shouldn't matter. And this house has plenty of rooms, so they get to sleep in the house in stead of going night-night in the "guest house" in the garden and pee in the bushes in the dark...

The price is right too - a couple of hundred thousand kroner less than the new one last spring ;)

Bad blogger, need sp*nking...

I know I know - I've neglected my blog. But I have updated the look, see? I've been so completely swallowed by the big hairy monster called school, I almost haven't seen my own blog either... I have tried to go visiting other blogs I like to read, to be updated, but I cannot guarantee that I have commented...

So, what's happened in my life these past 4 weeks? Well, I've started actively thinking about what I eat, how much and when. When I was at my first WIL-week (see previous post) I weighed in, and not owning anything resembling scales for people myself, I had to wait until last week when I got back at WIL again before I could see if it actually had made a difference. Yes, I can slightly feel it in my pants (them being more roomy and all) but it's still fun to see the numbers on the scales! I lost a grand total of 1.5 kilos... Yay! At least it's something, I was afraid nothing would've happened - that would really have discouraged me I fear... Physicians say the best rate of losing weight is about 0.5 kilos a week, and as I average just below that, I am happy. *small happy dance* Now I take that as a positive lesson, and move forward - it's six weeks until the next time I'm on WIL, so I'm hoping this weight loss will keep on in the same rate. If so, I'll reach my goal weight before next summer. Long term goals are good for you, right?

Other than that, I have been reading and thinking and am slowly turning into an academic thinker. Finally, I'm starting to understand the special language spoken in higher education... I've also been thinking about christmas presents, so they will eventually turn up here - noone in my family knows about my blog (at least I think they don't???) so it's safe to spill the beans here ;)

We haven't completely stopped looking at new houses, we just had a very long break... Now a few interesting ones are popping up - some people desperately want to move before christmas, and most people don't want to move around christmas because they want it to be nice and settled and organized, so that means houses from the end of october are cheaper to buy here. Plus it might have something to do with the current financial situation (yep, we feel it here as well when the US are in a bad shape)... Judging by the way we've done things so far, we could be done in a week's time when/if we decide to move anyway, so christmas isn't the big issue here. Daycare, school and work are! I have no idea what the daycare situation is like in that area (other side of town), and that is a serious main priority. Driving for half an hour in the WRONG direction isn't what I plan to do for months...

Talking about christmas - I had a phone call today from our cantor, asking me if I would like to sing with a big band at a concert 2nd sunday of advent... Yes of course!!! I'd love to, even if it is right in the middle of probably some of the toughest courses in school - anatomy and physiology is next... This is a chance I just cannot turn down, I hope they go for it... I haven't had the confirmation yet (duh) that it will actually happen, but it would be so much fun - I've written it on my calendar already :)

Gotta go, it's getting late and I want to have a little quality time (read: snuggle on the couch) with hubby before bedtime!
Until next time, may the winds be always favourable and the stash plenty!

Need for money...

So, the dream home fell through - someone else bid a lot more than we can afford, so that's that. And because we saw that other house, we no longer want the first one either... Looks like we'll be staying here for a while longer! Oh well, there will be other houses - just not that one.

I tell myself it was probably not meant for us then - but I'm still very disappointed. I would've loved having the lake so close, not to mention the equestrian centre - but as my smart little girl tells me; we can still go there to swim in summer! <3

When you think you have it figured out...

Then life throws in a little surprise for you.
Here I was, almost completely done deciding on the new house, and wham! DH gets a tip from a guy at work on a house... We went to see it today - and it's gorgeous. The spaces are exactly what we need, it's well kept both inside and out, the daycare is across the street (we're talking sitting in the kitchen window seeing what the kids at daycare do - the "street" is 6 metres wide...) and if we put on our shoes and walk about 700 metres away from the house - there's the beach! Sweden's largest lake 700 metres from the house, walking distance to schools and my personal high: the equestrian centre...
The price is fairly reasonable, there's nothing to do with the house except for wallpaper in two rooms - everything is perfect. There's even a little waterfall (handmade of course) with a fountain in the garden! I think we have a winner!

Thank goodness we haven't signed the papers on the other house - we still have the option to buy something else :)

The strange thing? It's the same real estate agent on both houses - howcome he didn't even mention this house when we saw the other? Same price range, about the same size except for the garage on this last one (on the other, they'd turned the garage into a spare room and a new bathroom). I have to say it, if I haven't said it before: that REA really needs some extra schooling - he's terrible! He has no idea what he's doing, he's just following some routine someone once gave him in "real estate school". I would never ever in a million years recommend him to anyone.

We got it!

They took our offer on the house! So now we have to get the official OK-stamp on it, and then we sign the papers. Sooooo many thoughts running through my head right now, cleaning out our current home to make the move easier, and not to mention make the sales pictures look better! Home styling, anyone?

On a less happy note they have now officially warned us that there will be layoffs at work this summer. 10 people will be forced to leave, from an already slim staff. They've gone through this for several years in a row now, mainly because the managers are unwilling to get more customers - they rely solely on our biggest customer, and when the big customer lose sales big time in the US that affects our sales directly... I'm on a short term contract, so I'm not affected more than that my contract won't be prolonged - which is according to plan, as I intend to start studying this fall. But the really scary thing is that they will probably cut where the cuts are really noticeable - sales/marketing and customer support + production. How do they plan on selling more to other customers if they don't have customer support and a sales department who can answer calls????? I give up, I go home in stead.

(And yes, when we planned for buying a new house, we made our budget based on me studying, so losing my job doesn't change any of that. At least there is some light in the tunnel for me personally!)

Houses, houses...

People have hinted that they want to know the status on the house-thing... Well, so would I.
The houseowners wanted to think about our offer over the weekend, and we wanted to have a ventilation-guy look at the heating system (it's some kind of heated air-system which I've never seen before) - which he did today with my hubby, so now we know that part of it is good to go. Back to waiting... The REA said that everything should be decided this week, so hopefully we'll know if we need to start packing this weekend!

On another note, I've been on the road for two days now, visiting our biggest customers and our distributor. It's four-hour drives everywhere, so these two days together got me through an entire audio book (11 cd's). With driving the wrong way and seeing parts of roads I really didn't need to know about, I've spent 17 hours on the road - thank goodness the company car is an automatic, so I just have to think about steering and keeping up the speed... I eat lots of cashew nuts when I drive to keep myself occupied, so I seriously need to go to the gym tomorrow! I actually look forward to the sweating and aching - I think my friend the gym coach has corrupted my previously so lazy and laid-back me! :) (She's actually going to class this summer to be a certified Personal Trainer - so I'm her guinea pig and first customer.)

I'm anxiously waiting for H to come home now - she's been with her grandparents these two days, so I REALLY want a 4 1/2 year old girlie hug now!

Butterflies swirling!

OOOOOOH, I have the swirls in my stomach now - we placed an offer on the house we went to see yesterday. 1 525 000 SEK (app. 255 000 USD) is a lot of money, methinks... But it's an excellent house, great neighbourhood, well looked after, although a bit untidy and dirty here and there. Nothing a good cleaning and some rolls of wallpaper can't fix!

These are certainly exciting times! I think I may have to start stitching something like this:

House-hunting

No, we haven't taken out the big guns and started pointing at anyone yet. But the first house we looked at (last post) wasn't for us. Too close to a rather large road, rooms were too small and it needed lots of work on the roof and new drainage (sp?)... A co-worker also were there, and they have bid on it - time will tell... Just goes to show that what works for one person, doesn't work for another.

We went to see another house today at lunch - and that was WAY better for us. First of all, it had all the space we could possibly want - 160 sq. metres is plenty for a family of 3... The "head and feet" of the house was excellent, and the ones owning it have been painting one wall each summer, so the outside was perfect. We're talking hubby's parents with us tomorrow afternoon to look at it again, and then we might be talking about REALLY spending some green! Of course there will be some painting and fixing anyway, but there's nothing stopping anyone from moving in right away. Everything can be fixed afterwards.

Now we just have to remember that we love eachother and that we want to stay together for always, and we'll be hanky-dory for the next 25 years... :P

Exciting times!

To begin with, hubby will be starting a new job at the end of April - he'll be selling cars to companies! He's really looking forward to it, and so am I - he hasn't been happy the last year at his present job; too much to do and he's the only one working, his boss is an expert at taking long lunches and going out for coffee when something needs doing...

And next, we're house-hunting again... We've lived in our little house for almost 6 years, and now it's time to find a new home with more space, closer to town where hubby will be working. Typical, we've spent these 6 years redecorating, painting and fixing stuff so that it now suits us perfectly - except for the space. Hopefully, all those manhours will pay off when the real estate agent comes to price the house on thursday.
Today we're going to see a house - it looks perfect for us, close to the school and daycare center, bicycle distance to the town center and the bus stops right outside the door if/when I start studying in the neighbouring city. The only question is how many others want this house - we can't afford to pay very much above the asking price...

Wish us luck!